Nosferatu (Low Clan)

[Tami]

Nosferatu



Caine’s childer are called “the Damned”, and none embody this more than the wretched Nosferatu. Nosferatu bear an ancient and terrible curse, for they are no longer made in God’s image; the vampiric transformation warps their forms, rendering them abominations in the eyes of men and angels. Outcasts from mortal and vampire society alike, these misshapen horrors haunt the catacombs, wastes and other hidden places of the dark medieval world.

In the nights of antiquity, Nosferatu rarely fraternized with mortals, but stalked the fringes of human society as monsters. Other vampires, dismayed by the Nosferatu’s depredations on their herd, drove the creatures into the barrens. This exile, combined with the intrinsic revulsion their appearance inspired, made the Nosferatu convenient scapegoats for all manner of dark deeds, real and imagined. This evil (and largely undeserved) reputation forced Nosferatu to remain ever moving, always hidden, never daring to rest for fear of extermination.

Nosferatu often avoid destruction by trafficking in information. Their dependency on stealth, rapport with beasts and constant need to travel from fiefdom to fiefdom provide them with access to data unavailable to their less venturesome brethren. Even city bound Nosferatu find that their choices of abodes and victims make them privy to all manner of information and gossip inaccessible to the loftier clans. Nosferatu have learned that the most refined Ventrue Prince will often hold his gorge, cover his nose and give up a beggar or two in exchange for the information about his Lasombra rival in the next Duchy. (And should bargaining prove futile, Nosferatu are not above a little black mail…)

Since the coming of Christianity, many Nosferatu have modified their behavior. Seeing themselves as cursed by God, but capable of redemption through Christ (or whomever), Nosferatu stoically endure their penance on Earth in an attempt to avoid Hell. Because Nosferatu must lurk among the lowest strata of mortal society, they find much opportunity to do good works from the shadows. Nosferatu are particularly attracted to the penitent movement; superhuman toughness and vampiric healing enable a Nosferatu to endure weeks of self-flagellation.

Sobriquet: Lepers

Appearance: Each Nosferatu is unique, and each is more loathsome than the last. Nosferatu deformities are as innumerable as they are grotesque. Some wear the visage of rotting corpses, including missing noses and earlobes; others appear as tusked demons or feral rodents; still others sport bloated and distended features, like drowned sailors. Many lose their hair and sprout lumps and warts like a toad, or grow clumps of bristly spines in the manner of a hedgehog. Some are covered in postulant sores and bursting boils; others wear a greasy, wrinkled hide; and some true horrors lack skin entirely, resembling flayed swine at market. A miasmal stench surrounds most Nosferatu, and plagues of flies and locust often follow these vampires. On all Nosferatu the taint of uncleanliness hangs heavily. In an effort to hide their shame (and avoid witch-hunters), most Nosferatu shroud themselves in sackcloth swathings.

Havens: Nosferatu haunt abandoned, pestilent sites, preferring ruins, fens, darksome forest or, ideally, plague-infested zones. In cities, they tend to inhabit ancient catacombs, leprosaries, dungeons, ethnic ghettos and tenements outside the city walls. The huge cesspits common to medieval towns provide ample, if foul, shelter from the daytime sun (and even the most zealous witch-hunter is unlikely to go digging through a mountain of dung in search of a sleeping vampire.)

Background: Nosferatu take their victims from society’s pariahs: Idiots and freaks, lepers, hermits, vagabonds, criminals, defrocked priests and the like. Nosferatu on the Road of Heaven often punish the prideful, hypocrites and other sinners by including them into the clan. Jews are favored because they are intelligent and practical, but lack societal protection against vampiric abductors. Occasionally an outraged Nosferatu chooses a beautiful victim to make monstrous, but this practice is currently uncommon.

Character Creation: Nosferatu often have beggar or outsider concepts. Physical attributes and talents are usually the primary, as Nosferatu must be quick, clever, and hardy to survive their innumerable privations. Nosferatu rarely have any allies, contacts or retainers or other backgrounds linking them to the mortal world – though the rare mortal who befriends a Leper has a friend for life (and her children’s lives and their children’s…). The Road of Heaven is most common among Nosferatu, followed closely by the Road of the Beast. Many Nosferatu spurn the Road of Humanity, considering either themselves unworthy of humanity or humanity unworthy of them. Only a few Nosferatu follow the Devil’s Road, but those who do are terrors indeed, reveling in their hideousness and playing to the hilt their role of frightful monsters.

Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence

Weaknesses: All Nosferatu are monstrously deformed. Their Appearance trait is automatically rated zero and cannot be improved. All social rolls involving appearance (including most first impressions) automatically fail.

Organization: Nosferatu society is informally but nonetheless tightly organized. . They are perhaps the most internally cohesive clan; millennia of shared deformity, abuse and privation have forged strong bonds among Nosferatu. Elders are revered but expected to treat the young fairly. Nosferatu treat each other with careful respect and elaborate courtesy, and freely trade information among themselves. This makes the clan extremely well informed; important Nosferatu can accurately forecast events from Hibernia to Kiev.

Quote: Oh woe, my prince, that one so lowly as I hath offended thee! Flog me into torpor! Stake me and leave me to the sun! Lop off my head! Just…don’t send me back to the fief of the Lasombra Contessa Isabel…What? Why yes, I did escape her impregnable fortress…through the secret tunnel, of course. What secret tunnel you say? Well, milord, perhaps we should discourse in your private chamber….”

[Tami]

(Revised book)

Of all the clans, the Nosferatu feel the Curse of Caine most acutely. Their Embrace is an agonizing experience as the clan's tainted blood burns through their dying veins, twisting their bodies into monstrous aspects. Each and every member of Clan Nosferatu is remade into a hideous, deformed horror. Once the change is complete--which can take up to a week--not even the blind mistake them for human, for many of them also have a dire stench that offends God-fearing nostrils. A mere glance at their terrible mien confirms that they are evil, creatures of sin incarnate, forevermore set apart from humanity.

Some go mad once they realize what has happened and have to be destroyed by their sires. The rest find different ways to cope, but all are changed by their traumatic experience. Many newly sired Nosferatu blame the vampire that created them for their condition, and with good reason, for he chose them for this terrible fate. Although most neonates have to spend a while under the wings of their sire, they seek escape from the monster that made them a monster as soon as they can. These bonds of hatred stretch back to the very first of their line, if the legends are to be believed.

Absimilliard, the founder of the clan, was obsessed with beauty--both his own and that of others. Some say that he led the rebellion against the Second Generation, Caine's own childer. Others say that he won the affection of a mortal with whom Caine was fascinated. Whatever the cause of the Dark Father's anger, Absimilliard was cursed with the removal of that which he held most dear. His ugliness was a torment to him. Even worse was the constant rejection from beautiful people, including his lover, whenever he approached them. The first Nosferatu turned his anger on his childer, and he is rumored, even now, to hunt them through his pawns.

Vampires of this clan haved learned the ways of concealment to mask their curse. The are masters of hiding, deception and subterfuge, both supernatural and mundane. While some of their abilities allow them to appear normal for a while, the pain that surges through them when they Embraced never entirely leaves them. It remains a constant reminder of what they have become. Many other Cainites take these afflictions as a visible sign of the evil within every vampire, and they shun them to avoid being reminded of their own damnation.

The members of the clan deal with their affliction in many ways. Some seek solace or penitence in religion, hoping that the Lord will forgive them and grant them entry into heaven. They quest as Cainite knights, seeking to do good deeds, or they mortify their undead flesh in the hope of winning their Lord's favor. MOst seek sanctuary in the Church, whose offer of universal forgiveness through Christ seems to offer the best path to redemption. Other finds the heresies of the age to offer a lifestyle and a set of strictures that suits them better.

Others seek to hide from society, living among the leprous and the diseased and making themselves of some use to Cainite society by bartering and trading the information that they obtain as they watch, listen and learn from the shadows. The High Clans look down on these wretches, yet few of the first cursed ever admit quite how much they have come to depend on them for advantage in the War of the Princes. These Nosferatu often gather in small groups, whose actual numbers they do their best to conceal from their vampiric neighbors.

The last group sees their visages as an irrefutable sign of damnation. Their souls are corrupted beyond redemption, and they make no effort to win the favor of a God who has so callously abandoned them. Instead, they become monsters seeking revenge on living and Cainite society in whatever ways they can.

Sobriquet:

Lepers

Appearance:

The defining characteristic of the Nosferatu is their utter ugliness. It can take many forms: anything from a twisted, deformed body with hunches, misshapen or displaced limbs and distended head through to leathery skin, pustulant boils and perpetual gaping wounds. A few of the more religiously inclined members of the clan take the later to be a sign of suffering that God wishes them to undergo, mirroring the stigmata of Christ. Some deformities are passed from sire to childe, creating distinct families of Nosferatu. Most seek to conceal their bodies as best they can beneath all-encompassing robes, often made of rough cloth, like those worn by mortal lepers.

Haven and Prey:

Each member of the clan finds herself a lair as far from the mainstream of society as she can. Abandoned, run-down or plague-ridden settlements are a favorite, as are the Roman-era sewers and underground passages of the few cities that possess such luxuries. Many lurk in the farthest and least-used parts of monasteries or castles. A few choose leper colonies, so that their deformities don't stand out from the crowd. The down-trodden, infirm or mad are the clan's usual prey, although some religious members of the clan choose to feed from those who they feel don't live up to their particular creed.

The Embrace:

Some Nosferatu choose those already deformed, outcast or diseased in the hope that their mindset will be suited to the rigors of the Embrace. Others have people who are bitter about their lot in life adapt more quickly. Still others--particularly those who give themselves over to their monstrous natures--choose the beautiful, successful, or high-placed for the Embrace, delighting in their horror and madness as they try to come to terms with their new condition.

Character Creation:

Mental Attributes are dominant in most of the clan, although Nosferatu warriors and thugs whose primary Attributes are physical do exist. Most of the clan values Knowledges over Talents or Skills. Contacts are quite common in the clan, but Allies and Retainers are exceptionally rare. The clan is split between those who walk the Roads of Heaven, of Sin and of the Beast. The Road of Humanity is rare to a point of non-existence among the lepers.

Clan Disciplines:

Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence

Weaknesses:

All the Nosferatu are left deformed and hideous for the rest of their unlives. Their Appearance is automatically rated a 0, and it can never be improved through any means whatsoever (they even lose the automatic dot that characters get in Attributes).

Organization:

Despite their appearance and uneasy relationships with their sires, most Nosferatu are surprisingly social creatures, at least with each other. This may well be because only other members of the clan don't judge them by their appearance. Many gather in small groups and freely exchange information with each other. Religious Nosferatu usually maintain contact with others of a similar faith to encourage each other in their efforts.