For the most part, Vitae is life. There is a difference, however, for those that have mastered the Discipline of Continence. Learning this art allows vampires to store up reserves of Vitae in their flesh, and tap into those reserves when necessary. This allows them to fuel their other vampiric abilities when most other Kindred would be all out of juice.
Other vampires (as in Kindred) can also learn the Discipline.
Cost: 1 Willpower to activate; 1 Willpower to maintain each night
Continence is unlike many other Disciplines in that no one actively rolls it. Rather, it allows a vampire to hold more Vitae in his system than other vampires for a short time.
When the character activates the Discipline, the vampire can hold a number of points of Vitae in his body equal to his dots in this Discipline. The Vitae can be used in all the ways normal Vitae can be used. The vampire can access this extra, separate pool of Vitae at any time, although the player must say which pool of Vitae he is using.
If another vampire tries to feed upon a character using this Discipline, the player of the feeding vampire must make a reflexive Wits + Composure roll to “find” the extra pool of Vitae and drink from it, whether he knows about the Discipline or not. A vampire attempting diablerie upon a character with this Discipline must empty this pool as well as the main Vitae pool in order to succeed—if he really wants to.
For the Formosae, this Vitae has the added bonus of not creating that soapy fatty deposit that deforms their bodies (and so, when an elder Formosa forces her thralls to feed upon her, making her beautiful again, she retains some extra Vitae here, meaning that she neither becomes torpid nor necessarily enters Hunger Frenzy).