I created a blamphire villain who used to be a Warden of the White Council a few hundred years ago before being taken. He still  has his Warden Sword. Mix that with his incredible strength for some very, very serious damage in a physical bout.

Nice, mines a two year old who got turned during the vamp war when the black court gave some limited assistance as a gesture of good will to the reds. She had her sword taken away, but shes got a genius IQ, serious talent for earth magic and dose not get along with others of her kind including especially Grama Mavra. If i ever get around to playing her she'll definatley be interesting.

Would you like to help design one?

Sounds like fun!..though admittedly i dont actually know how to design anything on the computer.

Certainly I can see the admirable qualities in Marcone, Lara, and Nicodemus. I don't see them so clearly in Mavra, the Eebs, Dutchess Arianna, or, say Tessa.

I have two Red Court vampires and a Black Court vampire that are major enough that they need work. Can we discuss some of the admirable qualities and motivations that we've seen in the series and can you nice folks help me build these guys to have some more depth to them?

Depending of what you consider admirable qualities, it sounds like your looking for qualities that make them a little bit more then mindless monsters so lets see...for the Eebs and Arianna as well as Mavra one somewhat redeeming qualities they share that a denarian like nicodemus lacks is that they keep their word and appear to be capable of a level of affection for their own kind. With the Eebs its apparent with each other even though this seems based more on complememtry insanities then love. Based on what lea says in Changes about Ariannas husband Don Paulo having his heart repeatedly broken by Arianna it seem  that the reds are capable of loving thier own kind to a degree. Arianna before her fight with dresden says she love her father the red king given the circumstances i find it unlikely she would lie about that. You could pherhaps agrue that she did have the best interests of her Court in mind, same with he late husband who if you read DM, know he was suicidely loyal.

For Mavra..well in GP so you could probably have you BCV character capable of a degree of affection for their own kind though unless insanly patriotic like Don Paulo (which is possible) its probably unrealistic for them to sacrifice themselves for one another unless one is a minion following orders. Woj its possible for blampires to feel something for those they cared about in life but the feelings wouldnt really motivate them towards a particular behavor, if their hungry they eat though if they have a self centered reason to keep mortals alive they will and its possible that a few have enough of an enlightend sense of self interest to perserve mortals that have proven useful until they dont. Maybe if you had a BCV character who had somehow lost to ability to enjoy the taste of blood you could get a more abmirable character. The full woj was that if a bcv is eating their own child from life they might think that they should feel bothered by it but the taste is just so /good/.

With Tessa she hasnt really shown any admirable qualities apart from being admirably intellegent  like nicodemus who is said by jim to be pure evil so maybe they dont actually  have any amirable qualities aside from master planning. Though pherhaps we need to see more of tessa before we say for sure.

Don't mistake Bram Stoker for the instigator, he got that book published and popularized because the White Council wanted it to. I think that Lovecraft was either an unwitting Outsider puppet, spreading knowledge to the populace, or he accidentally stumbled upon said knowledge and thought it might make a good story

One of jims last posts confirms it was actually the White Court that had Dracula published, though the poor blampires weren't aware of this until well after the fact.

Can anyone clarify if a supernatural needs to be reinvited in whenever they re-enter a threshold or do they get free access after one time? cant remember anything about it from the first RPGs section on thresholds.

hmm pherhaps a better thing to look at is what/who, if anyone can forcibly alter a beings nature? ex woj is joe the black court vamp may feel something for humans he cared about in life but if hes hungry hes not going to be motivated by said feeling to not eat them, a bc vamp may be eating his/her own child and think ah i reconize this one, interesting. This should probably be upsetting me but it tastes so /good/. Instead of free will can anything/one alter joes behaviour to the point where he might look elsewhere for a meal? maybe take away the good taste of blood, lower aggresion and give feelings more significance?

Thats what ive been leaning towards, alteast about the blacks seeing as mavra didnt have trouble living..er unliving with a high tech explosive in her last lair.

Not sure if this has been discussed elswhere but can anybody say if a character must be atleast part mortal to hold one of the swords or can a complete non human potentially do it as well? For ex if susan became full RC but continued to feel the kind of would it matter that she wasnt human anymore?