As the progenitor of all vampires, Caine is worshipped and feared as creator and destroyer. If anything remotely unites Cainites in these tumultuous times, it is their belief in and reverence for their progenitor. Worship of Caine varies from Cainite to Cainite, but the so-called "Trinity of Caine" as Dark Father, Wanderer, and Dark Tyrant is the most widely accepted form in the 13th century. Pagan, Muslim and Jewish Cainites color the Trinity of Caine with their own symbols and icons.
The Dark Father
Many Cainites worship Caine as their progenitor, the Dark Father whose sin reaches down through the endless ages to curse them, but who is also their link to God. Unlike mortals who have only their faith to sustain their beliefs, Cainites can look to Caine as proof that God does exist. This proof vindicates vampires as divine creatures, cursed but nonetheless blessed and touched by God. If they have been cast into darkness, it is because of the will of God, and many Cainite theologians insist that this means there is light, and that God exists in that light.
The Wanderer
The figure of Caine as mystic is both strong and contentious. Many Christian Cainites consider this protrayal too pagan for their tastes. Nonetheless, all vampires feel the inherent isolation and loneliness of being Cainites and hence look to the Wanderer as a guide to help them cope with their curse. Melancholic, the Wanderer waits, knowing that a reckoning will one night be at hand. He hopes that a new path may be found in the wilderness away from his children--one that leads to redemption.
The Dark Tyrant
This last incarnation strikes fear into even the most ancient vampires. The Book of Nod speaks of a final judgment when Caine will return and stand above his race as tyrant. He will condemn many to ashes while others will fall, destroyed in the endless hunger of their own sires. Once the ashes settle, the legend continues, Caine will rule for 1,000 years, and a great darkness will descend over the land. Some Cainite mystics claim that the time for the Dark Tyrant is at hand, and that Caine will soon return to reclaim his kingdom.
Many Cainites adorn their lairs with shrines to Caine, trying to understand their curse through the trails and tribulations of the Third Mortal. The Book of Nod, Caine's chronicles penned by his own hand, is both widely sought and widely forged. It recounts Caine's first nights and offers dire predictions of Gehenna, an apocalyptic time of bloodshed and darkness when Caine will return and pass judgment on all vampires. Some sources claim that The Book of Nod offers insight into God's curse and how to find redemption, while others believe the text to be filled with demonic knowledge and blacker magic. Like the Holy Grail, The Book of Nod promises understanding and salvation, answering many of the questions that plague all vampires. No complete copies of the Book exist in the 13th century, but fragments and forgeries can be found if one knows where to look.
In the last several decades, copies of a series of extracts from the Book have become highly influential. Spread by the Cappadocians from their hidden temples in Anatolia, the so-called Erciyes Fragments are a group of nine different texts from the Book. The first four, titled Genesis, Lilith, Temptations and Enoch, are said to have been penned by the Third Mortal himself, and they tell of his banishment to Nod and the First City. The next two, Lamentations and Transgressions, were apparently authored by one of the Antediluvians, and they speak of the flood and the Second City. The final three fragments, Commandments, Prophecies and Proverbs, are the most terrible, consisting of Laws for the Damned and a dark oracular vision of Gehenna.
Although there are those who dispute the Fragments' origins, they have come to be accepted as the closest things to definitive scripture among the unliving. Vampiric priests endlessly quote from and refer to the Fragments, and their monastic brothers have produced a flow of copies. Among the princes and lords of the night, possessing a fine copy is seen as a great honor. Owning a truly ancient fragment from the lost portions of the Book not in the Erciyes Fragments, is akin to owning a relic of Christ.
