Thread by @jachilli

Those thou create are thine own childer. Until thy progeny shall be released, thou shalt command them in all things. Their sins are thine to endure.

That’s the Fourth Tradition: Accounting, and determines who’s allowed to stay undead in #VampireTheMasquerade #vamily

Like all Traditions, many Kindred consider the Tradition of Accounting to be a great idea that lends itself to abuse in practice. Accounting is intended to mandate responsibility, to curtail the havoc of the past, when Kindred Embraced whole broods and God help the world for it.

It’s the Damned’s version of checks and balances. If I’m responsible for my childer’s actions then so are you — so let’s be selective in who we bring under the veil of night. And if you can’t be trusted to do this responsibly, well, hello, Sixth Tradition. Anyway….

One thing this means, and you’ve heard me say this before. There are no “generic” vampires. Nobody sires a childe and is accountable for it just so that there are random vampire hooligans wandering the warehouse district.

No sire was held accountable for a childe and put up with their fledgling difficulties for the sake of making “wandering monsters” in the World of Darkness. Creating and mentoring progeny is extremely difficult and carries a lot of risk.

What are those risks? That’s what the Tradition drives home. “Their sins are thine to endure.” Much as the childe inherits the Curse of Caine from the sire, the sire bears ultimate responsibility for the childe. And when a childe transgresses, it falls to the sire to make amends.

This can, of course, be a tremendous emotional peril. Having to destroy one’s beloved and painstakingly chosen childe (see the thread on the Third Tradition) because they caused an unintended slight to a tyrannical Prince, well, no one wants to do that. (Art by Fabio Timpanaro.)

As with any of the Traditions, the Fourth Tradition becomes a weapon in the hands of zealous and politically savvy Kindred. Almost any action can become a transgression if deftly argued, which can be used as leverage against not just childe but sire in this regard.

You’ll see it at play in domains where clan ascendancies occur. “We can’t trust the Gangrel to govern their whelps, so they shall have no right to progeny.” Use one Tradition to deny the rights guaranteed by another Tradition. This, as they say, is Some Bullshit™.

But of course, that doesn’t stop it from happening. As any clever Kindred knows, though, turnabout is fair play. Princes themselves have been brought down by indiscrete childer of their lineage. Who would trust a Prince to enforce Traditions if they can’t control their own brood?

The Fourth Tradition is often used in conjunction with the Third in times of Kindred trouble. It’s an argument for (vampire) population control. It’s an appeal to undead authority that certain Kindred be allowed to survive and others should not.

That’s fearsome. The idea that one’s own right to exist hinges on arbitrarily determined standards of behavior and the political climate that can generate consequences from not being well-behaved enough… and not knowing what the guidelines for “good behavior” even are.

Consider the deathless vendettas engendered by Accounting. The Tzimisce lord of the castle on the crag seven centuries ago resigned a Nosferatu’s childe to banishment, and tonight, that Nosferatu is a Justicar and that Tzimisce is a voivode. Domains tremble at their grudge.