I have a greater tolerance for a lot of Masquerade elements than ES, and one of the setting elements I really liked were the Revenants; families of ghouls that have been ghouled so often that they've started to produce their own Vitae, being ghouls from birth.
They were primarily a Tzimisce thing, though the Tremere, Baali, and Giovanni and some other clans and bloodlines I can't remember all had their own Revenant families. One Clan that didn't seem to have any Revenant families at all were the Ventrue, which is strange - one would think that a bunch of self-aggrandizing lording jerks would have created enough ghoul servants for themselves to make a Revenant family or two.
But then again, many elements of oVampire are best in moderation; if every Clan runs around with half a dozen ghouls, they become overused and lose their mysterious appeal.
A character concept in the back of the Ventrue clanbook gave me an idea. There are Ventrue Revenant families, but they are not created to be servants - they're created to be food.
The Ventrue Vineyards
Over the centuries, certain Ventrue blood-connesseurs have become obsessed with finding the most delectable sources of blood to drink. To overcome the problems of individual vessels being hard to find and short-lived, these Ventrue started to experiment with breeding, pharmaceutics, and beginning in the 19th Century, eugenics. Especially tasty humans were ghouled to keep them vigorous and breeding for longer, which eventually resulted in these "human vineyards" becoming Revenants.
The self-produced Vitae only increased their value, but the Ventrue in charge were secretive about their methods, obsessed with the success of their methods, and certainly not on speaking terms with the Tzimisce, leaving them unaware that their Vineyards are Revenants. The Vineyards were not created to be servants, and have never been taught to use their Disciplines, which helped conceal the fact. The Vineyards' increased hardiness, charm, and strong personalities has been seen as boons to the "brewers", as has the picky, delicate tastes that reflect the Ventrue clan weakness.
The Vineyards (sometimes "Orchards") are extended families and groups of families that live together in secluded or enclosed communities. Their Ventrue masters have encourage and ensured that the Vineyards are kept separated from the common cattle, to prevent their precious sources of exquisite Vitae from being watered out or corrupted by the outside. This is accomplished through various means. One Vineyard family live upper-middle-class lives in a gated community in the rich suburbs of Bureos Aires. Another family lives in a small town in the American Midwest, kept separate by the distance. Other families again are ethnic, national, or religious minorities kept separated by prejudice and scrutiny. The Ventrue have encouraged and instilled the tribal, clannish, and often elitist attitudes in their Vineyards to ensure they voluntarily keep their blood to themselves.
The dark side to this is that while others may not enter, once you're part of a Vineyard family, you may never leave. Like a bottle of fine wine, a Vineyard child is an investment, and like a prize-winning breeding horse, their offspring must be controlled. A Vineyard teenager having children with unapproved outsiders would risk putting Vineyard blood in the hands of anyone, which the Ventrue brewers cannot risk. That these restricted attitudes towards sexuality, especially female sexuality, promotes conservative values serve the Ventrue just fine - it is an obvious sign of the superiority of their vessels, that they are resistant to modernism and the rebellious attitudes of the rabble. The horrible attitudes, destructive pressures, depression, and suicides this leads to does not concern the Ventrue; some losses must be expected. In the Vineyards that are run strongly on eugenic lines, the control of sexuality is even more ridgid.
The one benefit all Vineyards can reap, even the most secluded and ostracized, is good health. In addition to their natural ghoul fortitude, and the Fortitude of clan Ventrue, they always have access to professional physicians. In addition to their regular duties, these also take the blood necessary to keep the Vineyard business flowing. On the darker side of things, these physicians administer the pharmaceutical concoctions and forced abortions necessary to keep the blood pure and tasty. To ghouls sold off to rich buyers who want a lifetime supply of delectable Vitae, these physicians administer the forced, permanent, and, irreversible sterilization. Among the more modern Vineyard owners, birth control is more liberally encouraged and trained psychologists are used to mitigate the symptoms of the abusive lives.
Most inhabitants of Vineyards are kept safe from outside threats and even the wanton snacking of vampires, but they are also exposed to greater dangers. Kidnappings to put a Vineyard on the black market happen, and a breeding pair would fetch an exorbitant price from entrepreneurial Vampires. Competition puts the most important Vineyard individuals -or even whole families - at risk of assassination as a form of industrial sabotage. And sometimes, an outside vampire will go on a scrump in an Orchard, drinking vessels dry of their delectable Vitae.
