Category:Nosferatu

The Nosferatu are not an active opponent of the Tremere. Instead they act as spies and rumour-mongers for the Tzimisce.

Clan Nosferatu is hunted, make no mistake. When they are skittish, cravenly, or quick to run, it is because there is something out to get them. If they bluster with bravado and aggression, it’s because they are cornered. They possess knowledge none were meant to know. It drives them to dig deeper in hopes that somehow they will find a secret so precious it will keep them safe. They delve further into shadows that should stay untouched, and so their danger grows. The clan as a whole spirals toward the sulfurous pits or deeper places that even the Devil fears.

There are secrets in the blood. These terrible truths manifest in Nosferatu flesh, corrupting skin, bending bones, and leaving them as nightmares that even revile the blind. The story goes that the clan founder, Absimiliard, was a covetous and vainglorious beauty whose obsession with comeliness drove Caine to curse him with a countenance so horrific that the angels wept. Endless rejection by the beautiful people he once counted himself among caused him to seek out and destroy his own get. Stories also tell of terrible blood witches in the eastern woods that devour whole villages in the hopes of killing one single Nosferatu. But those are just stories, and the only truth is what the Nosferatu understand in their blood: they are hunted for what they know, and their only hope is to know more.

Nosferatu deal in secrets. The mundane secrets of their cousins are to little more than distractions. No shadow in the Prince's larder can rock a Nosferatu like the truths of their existence, and that is why they can laugh when a city falls apart from the rumors they let loose. The truths behind murder, blackmail, and power corrupted come all too easily.

Appearance: Whatever truth is in the blood of the clan corrupts the flesh. To any god-fearing man or woman, the Nosferatu bear a terrible curse at best, or are evil incarnate at worst. This corruption is unique from one Prior to another, though occasionally family lines will share monstrous features. The horrific condition of the Nosferatu is highly personal, and as some scholars of Cainite physiology have noted, is occasionally darkly poetic in its expression.

Haven: Nosferatu seek havens in lost, forgotten corners. Solitude is second only to obsession with security and a need for quick escape. More, it is a place to hide hidden lore, secret documents, and lost artifacts – or perhaps a place to dig deeper. Old Roman sewers and necropolises, the forgotten wings of crumbling castles, and the locked and secret basements of abbeys all serve as excellent places to haven. Rumours persist of breeding pits of giant rats and pools of blood in secret Nosferatu group havens. Despite the ease with which the abandoned and forgotten members of society might be picked off, most Nosferatu tend to shy away from attacking the disenfranchised. Instead, they let their feedings offer moral object lessons, even if the morals are twisted and the lessons leave no survivors.

Background: Of all the Damned, no Cainite goes through so terrible a death and resurrection as the Nosferatu. The first taste of their sire’s foul blood imparts on them not just immortality, but the blood’s terrible secret. The change is not instant, but rather, over a period of days or even weeks. Their body is wracked with the blood’s burden: muscle, skin, and gristle grind, break and reform in a horrific mockery of humanity.

Character Creation: Nosferatu favor Mental Attributes first and Physical Attributes second, so that they might be smart enough to survive and strong enough to defend themselves in their endless harrowing. While many Nosferatu may be brawlers and liars, there is nothing more precious than Knowledges. On some level, Nosferatu respect all fields of study. Since the clan at large does not know what it seeks, it is impossible to tell what expertise may be important. Whether from paranoia, cunning, or an endless search for compassion, Nosferatu tend to reach far and wide, building up Backgrounds like Allies and Contacts into intricate spy networks or information repositories. Besides the clan disciplines, the Nosferatu Share few secondary disciplines. Some of the more martial Nosferatus have skipped practising Animalism and Obfuscate, instead opting for Auspex and Celerity.

Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence

Weakness: All Nosferatu wear the blood’s corruption on their face. As a result, all Nosferatu start with zero dots in Appearance, and this cannot be raised. Because of this, they automatically fail any first impression roll (except to intimidate) and have difficulty with many social interactions.

Organization: Few families among the Damned claim such tight connections as the Priors. Who else can understand the pain, the fear and the knowledge of their shared burden? Nosferatu in cities will often share one large warren, or keep passages connecting independent havens for quick egress and to help disseminate secrets. Broods often group together, but the clan respects what you know and who you know above who you are. A Prince may mean a thousand times less than a wandering nobody who happens to have been to the chambers under the Vatican.