Ghouls
This is mostly drawn off of Ghouls: Fatal Addiction and the two Giovanni clan books.
Hopefully this will clear up some misconceptions on ghouls and clan Giovanni with the World of Darkness game. So without further ado, let us begin.
Ghouls in the Giovanni, unlike most other clans, are almost always brought up from the family proper. They also tend to have a bit more leeway compared to a ghoul from another clan as they are family first. This however does not mean they aren’t beneith other kindred. This just means that some of the neonates might not care too much if he’s a ghoul or not, so long as he holds his own. With elders, they are little more than mortals who know an inkling of what the family is all about. If they show enough to give them the proxy kiss, so be it. If not screw em.
But because Giovanni ghouls walk a sort of grey area within the family, they can sometimes get away with acting independently when acting in the family’s best interest. Two solid examples of this are Victor Giovanni and Genevieve Pendleton-Milliner from the clan novel Giovanni. Both had a certain skill or knack for what it was that they did, which made them more valuable to the clan and family. Their demise isn’t whats important when compared to how they were used. Certain liberties were given and they did not pass them up.
This is because the Giovanni often employ them for menial jobs they themselves might not want to do. This isn’t to say that Giovanni ghouls have free reign and independance. Quite the contrary, as the Giovanni work on a merit system and if a ghoul doesn’t show enough merit to warrant an embrace he or she could be a ghoul forever. However when a mortal is labeled for ghouling it’s often because he’s shown a certain amount of potential and skill.
Much like the outside kindred society, the Giovanni have their favorites and those who are considered “higher” on the ladder of status just because of who they know or who they are related to. This especially holds true to ghouls looking to become full members of the family. If a ghoul has the right connections, he might not need the necessary skills. Whereas some ghouls have to work their fingers to the bone with shit work just to get noticed. No clan is perfect.
However, ghouls who do spend a lot of time as a ghoul servant to some kindred tend to develop a merit called “proxy kiss”. It’s from the latest Giovanni clanbook and is not to be confused with the term proxy kiss, which is used to describe the embrace of someone into the Clan Giovanni. The proxy kiss merit afford the former ghoul-now-kindred some extra punch to their now formidable supernatural powers. The first step of the merit gives them an added point of potence and the second step gives the former ghoul the added point in potence but an additional point of fortitude. This doesn’t affect the normal discipline points a beginning Giovanni gets. However, with the first step the former ghoul is that much closer to a blood bond. Which can be a grueling experience should the ghoul’s dormator be a slave driver. And the second step takes the bond over the edge. The former ghoul is not only blood bonded to his former dormator but partial bonded to someone else as well.
No one said the cost of (un)living was cheap.