Boons
The Boon System (Prestation)
In the immortal society of the @Kindred, physical currency is often meaningless. Power, information, and favor are the true currencies, and their exchange is governed by an ancient and intricate system of debt known as Prestation, or more commonly, the Boon System. To understand boons is to understand the very lifeblood of Camarilla politics. It is a web of favors given and owed, a currency of promises that binds the Damned more tightly than any physical chains.
A boon is a formal acknowledgement of a debt of favor owed by one vampire to another. It is a promise of future action, a marker that can be called in at any time. Refusing to honor a boon is one of the gravest social sins a Kindred can commit, often resulting in a complete loss of status, public shaming by the Harpies, and being declared an outcast.
The Unspoken Rules of Prestation
While the specifics are debated, the core tenets of the boon system are universally understood and brutally enforced by social pressure:
A Boon Must Be Acknowledged: For a debt to be official, the indebted party must formally acknowledge it, typically in the presence of witnesses. The phrase, "I acknowledge a boon to you for this service," or a similar statement, seals the contract.
A Boon Granted Cannot Be Refused: To refuse a favor from a superior is a grave insult. To refuse one from an equal or inferior is to imply they have nothing you could ever want, which is also an insult. One accepts the boon and the debt that comes with it.
The Holder Sets the Terms of Repayment: The one who is owed the boon (the holder) decides when and how it is to be repaid. The indebted party (the debtor) has very little say in the matter.
A Boon Must Be Repaid with a Commensurate Favor: When a boon is called in, the favor asked must be of roughly equal value to the boon owed. Asking for a Life Boon's repayment for a Trivial favor is a quick way to be ridiculed and lose standing.
Boons are Transferable: A boon is an asset. A vampire holding a Major Boon from the Primogen might trade it to another Kindred for domain, resources, or even another boon. The debtor is then obligated to the new holder.
The Tiers of Boons
Boons are categorized by their weight and the significance of the favor rendered. The Harpies, the unofficial arbiters of status in Elysium, are the final judges of a boon's value.
{1. Trivial Boon}
The smallest and most common form of debt. It is repaid with a simple, low-risk favor.
Examples of Earning: Providing a safe ride through the city, offering a minor piece of non-critical information, making a formal introduction at Elysium, lending a small amount of money or a mundane resource.
Examples of Repayment: Distracting a security guard, delivering a message, speaking a minor word of praise for the holder in court, looking the other way for a moment.
{2. Minor Boon}
A significant favor that requires some effort, risk, or expenditure of resources on the part of the giver. These are the primary currency of nightly political maneuvering.
Examples of Earning: Securing an invitation to a private gathering, providing sanctuary for a night, speaking on someone's behalf to avert the Prince's mild displeasure, providing a skilled mortal retainer for a single task, unearthing a rival's minor secret.
Examples of Repayment: Misleading an investigation, falsifying documents, lending a ghoul for a dangerous but non-lethal task, publicly supporting the holder's position on a domain dispute.
{3. Major Boon}
A heavy debt, granted only when a vampire puts their own standing, resources, or even unlife on the line for another. A Kindred can build a serious power base by holding just a few of these.
Examples of Earning: Saving a Kindred from a rival's political scheme, covering up a potential Masquerade breach, granting a retainer a permanent position as a ghoul, speaking against the majority in a Primogen council to defend another, offering a piece of personal domain.
Examples of Repayment: Testifying against one's own ally, accepting public humiliation to shield the holder, sabotaging a rival's long-term project, offering one of your own childer into the holder's service.
{4. Life Boon}
The ultimate debt. This boon is acknowledged only when one Kindred directly saves another from Final Death. Holding a Life Boon over another vampire makes them, for all intents and purposes, your property. The weight of this debt is absolute and erases any other boons owed between the two parties.
Examples of Earning: Intervening during a Blood Hunt, slaying a werewolf that was about to kill the debtor, shielding them from a Lupine attack, or pulling them from a burning building at sunrise.
Examples of Repayment: The holder can ask for nearly anything short of the debtor committing suicide or violating one of the Six Traditions. This could involve betraying one's sire, giving up all worldly possessions and domain, or undertaking a suicidal mission for the holder's benefit. Refusing to repay a Life Boon is unthinkable and would result in the debtor being hunted by the entire city as a pariah.
Sect & Social Considerations
@The Camarilla: The boon system is the pillar of the Ivory Tower. It is how the elders maintain control and how ambitious neonates climb the ladder of power.
The @Anarchs: While they publicly scorn the Camarilla's rigid traditions, a system of favors and debts ("street cred") exists among them. It is less formal but just as binding, with enforcement being far more direct and violent.
@The Sabbat: The Sabbat largely reject the concept of personal debt in favor of collective loyalty to the sect and pack. However, pragmatic leaders and ambitious individuals will still use favors and threats to manipulate one another, though they would never call it a "boon."
In the Jyhad, the chains of debt are often stronger and more enduring than those of steel. Never accept a boon lightly, and never forget who owes you.