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--- lb:cod:daeva.clanbook [2025-10-20 07:13:26] – [The World Before Us] ninjasr
+++ lb:cod:daeva.clanbook [2025-10-20 14:42:29] (current) – [Trivilinks] ninjasr
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 This conclusion section is, so far, mostly focused on the hedonism present in the book. Specifically to address a possible counter-argument that will be leveled towards me: that the large focus on sex is fine because the Daeva are hedonists and, thus, it's only natural that sex will appear so often. This is also definitely what the authors think (because they even say that Daeva and sex kinda go hand-in-hand in the appendix). But I wouldn't say that's the case. And I'll explain why. In detail.
-Vampires in //Requiem// are walking corpses. As walking corpses...they are cold to the touch and their feelings are numbed. In order to warm up, they have to use the Blush of Life – spend some blood to feel alive again for a brief moment. Further, because they're vampires, their new ‘sex’ is the Kiss: drinking blood brings them more ecstasy than sex ever did in life and it pleasures the Kine they drink from as well.\\
+Vampires in //Requiem// are walking corpses. As walking corpses...they are cold to the touch and their feelings are numbed. In order to warm up, they have to use the Blush of Life – spend some blood to feel alive again for a brief moment. Further, because they're vampires, their ‘new sex’ is the Kiss: drinking blood brings them more ecstasy than sex ever did in life, plus it pleasures the Kine they drink from as well.\\
 These two key facts are the main issue with “sex and Daeva”.\\
 Because there is an assumption that Daeva would go all-in on sex, but the consequences are not thought out. I go over a few above, but I'll summarize them here. Because it costs blood to even have sex, the process isn't exactly trivial. It isn't like a human, who can go at it essentially whenever and wherever: there is an explicit cost attached to it which additionally has some risks. Spending blood means you have to regain it later. So having sex for the purpose of getting that blood is counter-intuitive and entirely unnecessary when orgasm can be achieved by the human //and// vampire by drinking //without sex//. All the sex means is that the vampire has to drink //more// to make up for the loss, which comes with the risk of harming (or killing) the human they're drinking from in the first place.\\
 This is especially bad in the case of Mad and Kevin, where Kevin will have died within a week of meeting her based on how often they have sex. That would immediately bring attention towards Mad and result in her exposure or death.\\
-So some reason has to be given for //why// they keep having sex and the book makes no attempt at doing just that. So there's a massive hole in the logic behind the assumptions driving much of the book.
+So some reason has to be given for //why// they keep having sex. But the book makes no attempt at doing that. So there's a massive hole in the logic behind the assumptions driving much of the book.
-The other major issue is on a more thematic meta-sense and once I lay it out, I think it'll become obvious that //Kiss of the Succubus// failed to deliver.\\
+The other major issue is more thematic or meta and once I lay it out, I think it'll become obvious that //Kiss of the Succubus// failed to deliver.\\
 The five clans of vampires in Requiem each represent a broad archetype of the vampire from fiction. And each of those also has a major theme attached. For the Daeva, the archetype is the ‘seducer’ and their theme is ‘passion’. For the Nosferatu, the archetype is the ‘inhuman monster’ and their theme ‘inhumanity’.((:fn:>Yeah I know, bear with me.))\\
-The Nosferatu, despite having that archetype, don't all just appear like ugly diseased monstrosities. Some of them actually appear fairly normal and only act monstrous. Some, in fact, appear so beautiful that it enters the Uncanny Valley and freaks others out in that way. Here you can clearly see that their theme was explored to the fullest. And I'm just mentioning a few examples.\\
+The Nosferatu, despite having that archetype, don't all just appear like ugly diseased monstrosities. Some of them actually appear fairly normal and only act monstrous. Some, in fact, appear so beautiful that it enters the Uncanny Valley and freaks others out. Here you can clearly see that their theme was explored to the fullest. And I'm just mentioning a few examples.\\
 This book, meanwhile, assumes that //all Daeva are in some way sex-obsessed// and it barely acknowledges ‘passion’ manifesting in any way besides sex. The main examples of non-sex Daeva-like passion are within Kevin's 10 observed vampires – specifically the NARCANON organizer and art teacher – and Ayesha //possibly// embodying passion for rebellion. However, even those examples are implied to have some connection to sex.
 Wouldn't it have been significantly more interesting to see stuff like the game center nerd vampire? Someone who is passionate about games and playing games with others, so she positions herself as the Queen bee.\\
-Or, alternatively, that passion manifesting as religious Zeal? That topic is not touched on at all, despite the numerous references to the Lancae et Sanctum.
+Or, alternatively, that passion manifesting as religious zeal? That topic is not touched on at all, despite the numerous references to the Lancae et Sanctum.
-Even putting aside the them of passion, the Daeva are the vampire clan closest to humanity. This is inherited from the [[lb:wod:Toreador]] from the old World of Darkness. Like the Toreador, they care the most about humans and are the overall nicest clan. The rest of the clans barely care about humanity as a whole – in fact, it's like the Daeva are the only clan who even have the capacity to care. This sets the Daeva apart big time.\\
+Even putting aside the theme of passion, the Daeva are the vampire clan closest to humanity. This is inherited from the [[lb:wod:Toreador]] from the old World of Darkness. Like the Toreador, they care the most about humans, being the overall nicest clan. The rest of the clans barely care about humanity as a whole – in fact, it's like the Daeva are the only clan who even have the //capacity// to care. This sets the Daeva apart big time.\\
-Wouldn't it have been interesting to see //how// the Daeva deal with this? Perhaps their friendliness with humans puts them in jeopardy. Or it's what allow the Kindred to actually interact with the world as a whole.
+Wouldn't it have been interesting to see //how// the Daeva deal with this? Perhaps their friendliness with humans puts them in jeopardy? Or it's what allow the Kindred to actually interact with the world as a whole? Maybe we see Daeva just...chilling and living like a normal person, with normal human friends?
 Instead of constantly reading uncomfortable sex prose, we could have been reading about how the Daeva reconcile their existence as they predate on those they love.
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   * I know there are a few problems in the writing on this article, which I'll fix later.
   * When I say that the cover is great, I do mean it: I really like the cover art, even if everything else is kinda meh. That alone I would like to own.
-  * There was something else I wanted to write here, but I don't remember what it is.
+  * <del>There was something else I wanted to write here, but I don't remember what it is.</del> I remembered, it was really //weird// speculation surrounding female vampires and why they might prefer sex with mortals.
+  * I actually went out of my way to count the number of artworks in the book and you'll find out why soon enough.
+    * There are **34** pieces of artwork depicting people.
+    * **27** of those depict women.
+    * Of those...**9** of them depict a woman wearing a skirt or dress and, of those, **3** are **borderline**. One of them is in the background, one is out-of-frame and one is from a children's drawing.
+    * There are **5** pictures depicting nudity, though technically **6** or **8** if you count the one naked guy (top-half only) and pictures where the nudity is off-screen but it's obvious they're nude.
+    * Only **2** depict women wearing underwear.
+  * The skirt counting was me checking whether the book exemplifies the [[lb:Alyx effect]].