The Ravnos Situation

Okay, so. I have decided to not include the Ravnos in BtWoD, and this is something that I know a lot of people will contest me over. Hear me out a sec.

Initially, I wanted to see whether there was some way to include them in a manner that wouldn't be like. Blatantly racist? Like, I read up as much as I could bear about them, and a lot of their lore just kinda is based on racial stereotypes about the Romani. Talking about wandering from place to place, having a vice they love to indulge in, putting the evil eye on someone/thing that has wronged one of them, and attracting MORE vagrants to harass people are LITERALLY ALL TAKEN FROM THE ANTI-ROMANI PLAYBOOK, LOL.

I couldn't find anything in the text that would pull them away from those stereotypes. So, I did some reflection on the themes of VtM in general. Each Clan/Bloodline is supposed to represent a way that Vampires are represented in media globally, right? Ventrue are capitalist bloodsuckers, Brujah are the violent subversives who'll eat you alive, and the Gangrel are the Vampire as the cross between a wild animal and a man. What are the Ravnos supposed to be, then? The only conclusion that I came to was this; Clan Ravnos represents the Vampire as the "Dangerous Outsider," the mysterious travelers who bring misfortune wherever they go. I shouldn't have to explain why that's racist, and how that kind of rhetoric has been used to deny refugees, immigrants, nomadic peoples, and most famously in the western world, JEWISH PEOPLE, entry into places that should otherwise accept them. I cannot see a way that this concept is not rotten to the core.

Okay, one last try. Would there be a place in BtWoD for a non Romani-linked Clan Ravnos? Well, what identity do they have otherwise if you pull away from their Romani origins? I chatted with friends for HOURS about what the hell to do about Clan Ravnos, especially since I needed a Clan that knew Chimerstry. But even CHIMERSTRY in its original writing is depicted in terms reminiscent of racist descriptions of "Romani mystics".

So, that was that. Clan Ravnos would be retconned, as I would need to rewrite them entirely from the ground up to make them not racist, and I'm a fuckin whitey from the USA. If Clan Ravnos is ever going to be reintroduced, it's going to be because someone who has Romani origins who can speak on the matter has done so, and has allowed me to include their work in this project.

If you have any interest in all in learning how I came to this decision, literally just wikipedia the Romani peoples. Or, if you prefer your learning audio-visual, check out Florian's Youtube Channel.

That's all, folks! Go back to browsing!