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.
Sobriquet:
Appearance:
Haven and Prey:
The Embrace:
Character Creation:
Clan Disciplines:
Weaknesses:
Organization:
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.
Lepers
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.
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.
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.
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.
Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
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).
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 similiar faith to encourage each other in their efforts.
