Credits Special Thanks Written by: Vampire Monster Manual (VMM) Mark Rein-Hagen, the creator of Vampire: the Developed by: VMM Masquerade; Editor: Hopefully some nice Anons White Wolf Publishing, the original publishers Art Director: None, you think I have time for that? of Masquerade and of Vampire: the Requiem; Layout & Typesetting: VMM Onyx Path Publishing, the current publishers of Interior Art: Nice joke there, buddy. both; Front Cover Art: That guy what did a bunch of art Paradox Interactive, for doing a better job managing for that cancelled World of Darkness MMO. things than CCP ever did; Front & Back Cover Design: VMM after spending /WoDG/, for being a place where I can post my OVER 9000 HOURS in MSPaint. autistic writings and actually get some recognition; Anonymous, or some of them anyway, for being encouraging and liking my stuff; Magefags, for being such insufferable assholes that I’m writing entire sourcebooks in the hopes of steering /WoDG/’s conversations away from their ceaseless faggotry; Coca-Cola, for being objectively the best soda.

C L A N B O O K : C A I T I F F

Contents

Introduction: Bullshit 1 Chapter One: Orphans 6 Chapter Two: The Lonely Night 0 Chapter Three: Luckless Bastards 0

Bullshit

Adrienne awoke only slowly, a coppery taste on her tongue and her lips closed around something soft and warm, the thick, liquid contents of which she was swallowing in great gulps – which was little surprise, given how thirsty she realized she was. The young woman opened her eyes, and found she had her mouth clamped around a clear plastic packet, drinking down the dark red liquid inside –

Blood, she suddenly realized. In horror, she recoiled from the package, which had been held by a man in a suit, and began gagging and spitting out what remained in her mouth. She tried to lean forward, but whatever chair she was in, she was tied to it quite securely.

“Gah!” the man who had been feeding her blood exclaimed, stepping back from her spit. He tossed aside the package of blood and looked down at his outfit, upon which a few droplets of crimson had appeared. “This was a brand-new suit! Tailored in Italy! It cost more than that entire bookstore you worked at!”

Adrienne was breathing heavily, looking around. She was in, from the looks of things, an airplane cabin, and a small one at that, with only a few large, comfortable beige seats, but the rear of which had a table with drawers. It looked, she guessed, like the interior of a private jet, not that she could really be sure of that, having never been in a private jet before. The sound all around her, of airplane engines, lent credence to that idea.

“What’s going on?” the young woman demanded, trying to keep the fear from her voice and failing miserably. “Where am I? Who are you? What am I doing here?”

The man glanced up at her. He had gone over to the table and was looking through the drawers. “Just a moment,” he said, taking a sheet of paper from the drawer and looking it over. “Hand-wash only…blah blah blah…cold water…blah blah blah…ah, here we go…” he nodded a little as he read, then looked to Adrienne. “You are very lucky. Blood will wash out of this.”

Adrienne sputtered a little. “What is going on?” she screamed. “What do you want?”

The man – he had dark, long hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and brown eyes, coupled with very pale skin – put the paper on the table. “Yes, I suppose we should begin,” he said, walking forward a few steps and rubbing his hands together as he did. “First thing’s first. I am not going to rape you.”

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Adrienne didn’t believe him. She kept struggling against the bonds that held her in place, but they were quite secure.

“I’m not going to kill you again, either,” the man said. “In fact, in just a few minutes this plane will have landed, and you will be free to go.”

Adrienne looked up at the man. “Again?” she demanded.

The man nodded morosely. “Yes, kill you again. Tell me, what’s the last thing you remember?”

“Going to sleep! In my home!” Adrienne shouted. “You broke into my apartment?”

“Dear me, no.” the man said as he sat down in a seat opposite Adrienne, leaning on one hand and gesturing absently with another. “I had one of my people do it for me. I was busy at the time, you see.” He leaned forward, holding both hands out as though to catch Adrienne. “Now then, my dear. Brace yourself for this one. You were drugged, to keep you asleep. My people brought you to this plane. And about half an hour ago, I bit open your throat, drained every last drop of blood from your body, and then fed you some of my own.” He leaned back. “You’re a vampire now, Adrienne.”

The girl shook her head. “Bullshit! Tell me what’s going on!”

The man sighed. “I’m afraid it’s quite true. Here, watch.” He stood up and came over to her, placing a finger on the woman’s arm. She recoiled at his touch, or tried to, but her bonds were secure. As she watched, horrified, the man’s fingernail seemed to become sharp, and long – and he pushed down into Adrienne’s skin and began drawing a line of cut flesh across her arm.

Adrienne screamed in pain. She screamed even louder when she realized that no blood was flowing out from her wound. The man nodded in a conciliatory fashion, putting his finger to his mouth, licking it, and then tracing the cut he had made in Adrienne’s arm. As he did, the wound closed itself behind him, the saliva on his finger disappearing into her flesh. He flashed her a grin – and she saw his fangs, inch-long teeth that grew visibly from his canines. Adrienne screamed louder still.

The man sat back down, hands pressed together before his face as he waited for Adrienne to stop screaming. Eventually – somehow – she did, her throat having been run ragged from the effort.

“Now pay attention,” he said at last, “because I’m only going to go through all of this once. When slew – ”

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“What?” Adrienne demanded.

The man – the vampire – paused. “Cain. And Abel.” At Adrienne’s confused stare, he sighed. “From the Hebrew Bible.” Nothing. “ and ’s sons. You do know who they were?”

Adrienne nodded, slowly. The vampire let out another long sigh, covering his eyes with one hand. “Education these days…” he mumbled in a low voice. “Alright. . Booted from the Garden of Eden for disobeying God’s command. Eve then had two sons – Cain, a farmer, and Abel, a shepherd. Both of the brothers offered up the fruits of their labors to God. God rejected Cain’s offerings of produce because, I dunno, he’s a prick, but he accepted Abel’s offering of blood and meat. Out of jealousy of Abel, and love for God, Cain killed Abel, becoming the first murderer. Following so far?”

Adrienne nodded, slowly. “What – ”

“Please try and keep interruptions to a minimum, my dear, I’m storytelling here.” the vampire insisted. “Now, then. God was not very pleased with Cain’s actions, for the obvious reasons. So God cursed Cain with a hatred for light, a fear of fire, and a thirst for blood, as well as immortal life. Sound a little familiar?”

The young woman nodded again, as the plane began to incline – they were coming in for a landing, apparently. “Y…you’re saying Cain was the first vampire.”

“Very good. Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Oh, by the way, for whatever reason our society – that is, the vampire culture – spells his name with an E on the end. C-A-I- N-E. Anyway, God exiled Caine into the . Eventually, after various contrived circumstances, Caine returned to mortal lands. While in the Land of Nod, he had learned how to use his blood to perform great magical feats, which we call disciplines, and also how to do some other neat things, most particularly, how to create more vampires like himself. We call this the Embrace, and the resultant vampires are the childer – singular childe, with an E again – of their sires.” The vampire held up three fingers. “Caine Embraced three childer: , Irad, and Zillah. They, in turn, became sires to thirteen more vampires, who Embraced childer of their own, and so on.” He leaned back in his chair. “Still following?”

Adrienne didn’t believe a word the man said, was convinced that this was all some kind of trick. It had to be. It had to be! There was no such thing as vampires! “What do you want?!”

The man made a clicking sound with his tongue, wagging a finger. “In a moment,” he insisted, standing and walking back to the table. From underneath it, he produced a

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duffle bag, which he brought back over to Adrienne and tossed into her lap, then unzipped and pulled out two identical, expensive-looking watches, even as the plane finally touched down on the tarmac. The vampire managed to stand steady despite the turbulence, as he – despite Adrienne trying to stop him – put one watch around her left wrist, then stood straight and put the other one on his.

“Alright,” he said. “It is now…nine PM, local time. October twelfth. Now, these two watches? Custom-made. They have a small alarm in them, nothing loud, nothing fancy. Precisely one year from now, that alarm will go off in your watch,” he pointed to his own, “and it will go off in mine. And when that happens, I will wrap up anything I am doing, and I will hunt you. I will find you. And I will kill you.” The vampire sat back down, just as the plane finally began to meaningfully slow down on the tarmac. He leaned over to one of the windows, and pulled open its screen, revealing the night lights of a city outside.

“You said you weren’t going to kill me!” Adrienne shouted.

“Yes, well, I lied, didn’t I?” the vampire asked. “Get used to people doing that. And be happy! I’m giving you a whole year to get ready for me coming! Use the time well! Get stronger. My blood is potent, and my blood now flows through your veins, so your blood is potent as well. With practice, you could develop all sorts of interesting tricks.” He spread his hands. “Find allies. Or hide! Disappear where you think I will never find you! I once spent three years – 1912 to 1915 – combing Boston for my childe’s lair before realizing that he was sleeping offshore, underwater.” He waved off the notion. “Realized he didn’t need to breathe anymore and got creative. Took forever to get all the seawater out of me. Everything tasted like brine for weeks.”

“Why?!” Adrienne shouted.

The vampire paused. “Well…because I was swallowing it, dear, while I was down there.”

“No!” Adrienne cried. “Why are you doing this?!”

“Frankly?” the vampire asked as he looked over the watch he’d put on his wrist. “Boredom. I’ve been alive for, oh, a thousand years now, give or take. And just the sheer ennui of it all. Especially all the political games…so, every twenty years or so, when it just becomes too much, I do this.” He waved a hand at Adrienne. “Much easier, too, since I bought this jet.”

The vampire stood as the plane finally came to a stop. “Now then. That duffle bag is a little…care package, let’s say. A few blood packets for your first few nights as you get

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used to your new situation. A gun – nothing special, just something I had lying around. Three or four hundred American dollars…” the vampire looked up, and seemed to be weighing something in his hands. “Three…four…three…tell you what.” He reached into his jacket, pulled out a wallet, and stuffed a couple green notes into the duffle bag, then zipped it back up. “Here’s two hundred more. Don’t spend it all in one place.”

Adrienne stared, felt as though she was going into shock. “This isn’t real.” she mumbled. “This isn’t real. You’re not real.”

“Oh, you’re not so lucky,” the vampire said as he pinched her cheek, an almost friendly gesture. Then he moved he duffle bag aside and untied Adrienne. Some part of her mind wanted to, as soon as her hands were free, reach out and start strangling the vampire – but would that even work? No, this situation wasn’t…it couldn’t be…

…the next thing she knew, she hit tarmac. She cried out in pain, and looked behind her. Standing above her, at the plane’s door, was the vampire, with the duffle bag in hand.

“Now, a few final things!” he shouted down – the plane’s engines were still going strong. “Stake in the heart will paralyze you, but not kill you! Fire and sunlight are deadly, and so is decapitation! All that other pop-culture drivel, though? Not true! Also, watch out for werewolves, mages, , faeries, mummies – probably won’t see any of those, though – Cathayans, hunters, demons, and most importantly, other vampires!”

“What?!” Adrienne demanded, as the vampire threw the duffle bag. It landed at her feet, as the plane began turning around and the vampire ducked back in. Within moments, it had started up again, going down the runway and quickly picking up speed and leaving the ground behind.

“Bullshit!” Adrienne exclaimed, as the plane flew off into the night.

5

Chapter One: Orphans

“The truth is you can be orphaned again and again and again. The truth is, you will be. And the secret is, this will hurt less and less each time until you can't feel a thing.” – Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

and then pull the grate off of a storm drain and scramble Unlife’s a Bitch inside. You slept there, away from the sun. And that’s been your life for the past month. You You didn’t mean to do it. But you did it, and now’s when moved from truck stop to truck stop. You fed on truckers the panic sets in. and hookers without getting caught, taking only enough You’ve been dead a month, you think. It’s funny how blood to survive. You were careful…but careful meant quickly you can lose track of time. You never kept much hungry. Careful meant some nights you didn’t drink… track before. But then came the night with the howling And now here you are. You made it to a new city. You and screaming. The night when someone hit you over the thought you could drink up here. You lurked in the city back of the head with a shovel. The night of so much pain park, you followed someone through it…you only wanted and a sensation of falling forever…the night where you a little blood. But you were so thirsty. died. The monster inside took over, and you drained her dry. The night where you woke up, buried underground. You didn’t mean to do it. But you did. And now you’re Blind. Scared. Confused. panicking. You’ve got a dead body at your feet in the Thirsty. grass, and now you’re panicking. Your hands are You crawled you way out of the ground. You saw scraping at the ground near a bush, you’re digging into monsters. They screamed and shouted. They had fire and the earth, trying to make a hole, to hide her, to hide they used it to herd you, to herd other poor sobs, at yourself, to… something. They wanted you to attack a building. The And then there’s laughter. building had other monsters in it, other creatures that Someone’s laughing. wore a human face, but weren’t human anymore. You look, and you see someone standing only a dozen Thirsty. But scared. So scared. feet away. He’s looking right at you, and at the girl’s You saw a chance. A moment when the monsters in body. He’s laughing…and you see he has fangs, fangs not front of you were distracted, when the monsters behind unlike yours. you were looking the other way, when the monsters all “You’re going to bury her?” He asks. “Here? In the around you were too busy drinking and fighting and park? Like a fucking dog? Holy shit, man. That’s dying to care what happened to you. hilarious. That’s the best thing I’ve seen all week.” You ran, you ran as far as you could. You ended up in “It’s not what it looks like – ” you try someone’s backyard. They had a couple dogs. They don’t “Really? ‘Cause it looks like a dumbass vampire got anymore. carried away, killed a hooker, and is trying to bury her When you had blood in your stomach, when your fangs corpse all of five feet from where she died. Sound about were wet, you saw what you had done. You panicked and right?” ran more. You wanted to go home, but you couldn’t. You You stare. The other vampire rubs the back of his head. stole a car, you drove out of town. You thought about “Okay, Lick. Let’s get this squared away. My car’s over ending it, waiting for the sun to rise. You almost did, but there. Then, you and me are going to need to have a nice, then it took over. The other guy. The monster inside of long talk.” you. It made you scared again. It made you panic at the thought of sunlight. It made you drive the car offroad,

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Lucky Break Christ you’re green. And I’m pretty sure you’re a Caitiff, like me. Holy shit, man. Holy shit. And I thought my start Words, words, words. Yeah, I know, none of this was rough. But you don’t even know a thing? Some makes any sense, you don’t know what the Hell is damn shovelhead runaway? Christ, you’re lucky it going on. Look, here’s my place up here. Pretty nice, took you so long to kill someone. Lucky that you huh? Don’t get used to it. I’ll set you up for the day ran into me, too. and fill you in on what’s going on, but after that Hey, stop that. Yeah, you killed someone. Don’t you’re on your own. I’ve got my own hide to look make a habit out of it, but it’s gonna happen. You’re after. It’s taken me a long time to set up shop and gonna need to get over it if you want to make it get the respect I have in this city, I’m not going to another night. Given that you’ve made it this long, blow it by taking in a luckless bastard like you I’m going to guess that going sunbathing isn’t in the without the Prince’s permission. You last a few cards for you. That’s not a judgment, by the way. A weeks in the city, don’t cause any more trouble, lot of Kindred go on and on about how we’re all maybe then I’ll see what I can do. Damned and Cursed and so on, but me? No sir. I Right, here we are. Grab a shower, but don’t take love this. too long. We’ve got a lot to go over. Well, not the driving through the night away from sewer we just stuffed a corpse into. That I could do without. I meant the vampire thing as a Origin Story whole. You got lucky. You were Embraced after a nice Calm down yet? Okay, good. Now I’m gathering clean shave. Me, I’m stuck with this stubble for the that you’ve picked up the bare-bones basics. You’re rest of eternity. Stubbles are ‘in’ right now, but that a vampire, you drink blood, you need to stay out of won’t last, and then any time I go out for a night on sunlight, you’re basically immortal. Oh, you didn’t the town looking for a blood doll, the humans will know that part? Yeah, you’re going to live forever, think I’m a lazy slob. Yeah, don’t give me that look, as long as something doesn’t kill you, or you don’t I know what the bathroom looks like. You just killed get yourself killed. Fire and decapitation, mostly. a hooker, remember? You don’t get to judge people. Avoid those and you can use blood to heal anything Right, sitting down? Comfortable? Okay. Like I else. said, this is going to take a while, so keep the The name’s Enrico, by the way. Esterlino interruptions to a minimum. Now, then, where to Arquero. I was born in 1849 in Havana, Cuba – back start…well, I guess we better start at the beginning. when it was Spanish Cuba. I “died” in 1876. Didn’t You know the story of from the stick. Funnily enough my start was kind of like Bible? Right, good. That makes things faster. Well, yours, in the Sabbat, though I switched sides pretty according to Kindred myth – quick, let me tell you. I wasn’t a shovelhead, I said keep interruptions to a minimum. though. A Lasombra by the name of…right, yeah, “Kindred” is what we vampires call ourselves. It’s you don’t know any of this. Just as well, really – “our” word, and it’s usually more polite to use that Man, you have got to get over it, you’re gonna get instead of “vampire”. Now shut up and let me talk. blood tears all over the inside of my car. You killed According to Kindred myth, Caine was the first a hooker. Hookers get killed. It’s what they do. vampire. When he wandered the Land of Nod, he Human life is cheap. Your only real mistake was learned how to do some pretty sweet stuff with his getting caught, but like I said, you got lucky with blood, from a woman named Lilith. Yeah, that’s me, in more ways than you know. right, Lilith, Adam’s first wife according to the Jews. Just keep talking. You figured out any Disciplines Some of the Jews, anyway. Well, after he learned all yet? Bench any trucks? Found any cults? Turn that stuff from Lilith, he came back to the mortal invisible? Oh, hey, you did do the last one? Neat. lands and decided that he didn’t want to be alone That’s called Obfuscate. Usually done by the anymore. So he made himself ruler of a city, the Malkavians or Nosfeatu. Heard any voices in your First City, and turned some mortals into vampires head? No? Probably not a Malkav, then. And you’re like him, using the knowledge he had gained from definitely no Sewer Rat… Lilith. I think there were a total of six of those

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second-generation vampires, but the only names I Caine cursed each of the Antediluvians for what can remember are Jabal and Tubal. they did. They all got different curses based on the Well, after that, those three had thirteen more nature of their crimes and the kind of people they humans turned into vampires, by them. Most of were. The Brujah Antediluvian, for example, their names are lost, and I’m not no scholar, but I always had a temper, so he was cursed to fall into can tell you this: those thirteen then founded the rage easier. The Nosferatu Antediluvian had thirteen clans of vampires, what we today call the always prided himself on his looks, so Caine cursed Lasombra, Tzimisce, Ravnos, Brujah, Nosferatu, him to be fuck ugly. And so on. After Caine was Assamite, Giovanni, Toreador, Tremere, Gangrel, done, he left again. The Antediluvians split apart, Malkavian, Ventrue, and Followers of Set. Though each blaming the rest for being the reason Caine technically two of those Clans came later. We’ll get cursed them. They sired more childer, but found to that. that their curses passed on to them, though so did Caine forbade those third generation vampires the special powers, the Disciplines, that they had from siring any childer of their own – developed. And from that we get the Clans, and Childer. It’s an old way of saying “children”. It’s from there, history. how we pluralize “childe”, with an E, which is what What Clan are you? Well, that’s an interesting you call the spawn of a vampire. Again, it’s “our story. See, sometimes, a Kindred childe is Embraced thing”. Stop interrupting with stupid questions. and turned into a vampire, but no clan curse Caine didn’t want any of the Third Generation to manifests. It gets more common the further you get sire their own childer. See, Caine had a pretty sweet from Caine, especially in the latest generation, the deal set up for himself in the First City. He’d made 14th and 15th. Actually I hear tell that all 15th himself king, with the Second Generation beneath generation Licks are clanless. But, theoretically it him, and the Third beneath them. Too many more could happen even to the Antediluvians’ childer, generations of Kindred, though, and the mortals the 4th Generation. I hear that’s what the Stoneman would have started to suffer and dwindle. Don’t get is. me wrong – Caine was motivated by hunger, not We’ll get to him. compassion. Man killed his own brother, you think So that’s what you are, man. A clanless vampire. he cared about random humans in his city? A Caitiff. Comes from an old French word meaning Well, this all lasted awhile, until the Flood. You “a contemptible or cowardly person”. Kinda’ lets know – Noah and such. The First City was you know what the rest out “Kindred” think about destroyed. Caine and his progeny survived, us, doesn’t it? Personally I think it’s jealousy. We though, but Caine was depressed by the destruction don’t have any of their oh-so-special traits, their of his city by God, so he left. A little bit later, and weaknesses, remember. It means that just ‘cause I get something happened that caused the Third angry, I’m not going to break someone in half. If I Generation to rise up against the Second, killing see the Mona Lisa I’ll just see a pretty painting, I them all. We call the Third Generation the won’t stare at it ‘till the sun rises. And of course I’m Antediluvians, by the way, on account of them not fuck ugly like a Nosferatu. having been around before the Great Flood. So we’re not cursed by Caine, assuming he ever Technically the Second and Caine himself were existed at all and the whole thing isn’t just a big around, too, but the Third are what we call “the” myth. We are cursed by circumstance, though. The Antediluvians. clans think that we’re trash, scum. They don’t give So the Antediluvians all tried to get the various us an inch. And we’re disorganized. The Ventrue descendants of Noah into what they called the and Toreador and everyone kind of thinks of Second City, but the whole thing didn’t really work themselves as being one big family. They hate each out without Caine and the Second Generation to other but they’ve still got a common origin story guide the process. Then Caine himself returned. and history together. Us Caitiff? We don’t have that. He’d heard about what had happened to the Second It’s up to each individual Caitiff to find his own way Generation, and he was pissed. And remember that in the night, grab what he can and kick any son of a this was a guy who’d killed his own brother. bitch who tries and take it from him. And then probably end up having to run, ‘cause it turns out

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that the son of a bitch you just kicked has friends, The first vampire we can point to and say “that’s and his bitch mother has teeth. See, the clans don’t a Caitiff” is – like the idea of the Caitiff having power. From here Jesus Christ, no. It’s not Caine, it’s not any of the on out, you’re gonna have to learn how far you can Second Generation, either. I mean, yeah, they had push your luck, what you can and can’t get away no Clan, but that does not make them Caitiff. I with. Your default response to any vampire should mean, between you, me, and the wall, yeah, it be “yes, sir.” technically really should. But you say that in front Yeah, “cowardly and contemptible”. It’s what of a Kindred believer and it’s liable to be fighting we’re stuck with. But you know what? The cowards words. Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. And survive. definitely don’t do it when I’m nearby and could get sucked into the shitstorm you cause. The First Caitiff No, the first Kindred that we can point to as being Caitiff lived in ancient Greece, going by the name Now, I believe I’ve said a few times that you are one Empusa. At the time, Greece was a backwater of the lucky Lick. Lick. That’s another one of “our” words world, a bunch of hill-folk barbarians that the real for vampire. It’s considered crass and low-class, but civilizations in Egypt and Sumer couldn’t be hey, so are Caitiff. bothered with. The Clans were pretty isolationist Like I was saying, you got lucky with me. Firstly back then, there just weren’t as many cities or because I’m a Caitiff too. 11th Generation, if you’re people. Vampires set up shop in or near a city and curious, but don’t go around asking Kindred their then only let in members of their Clan, not wanting generation. It’s rude. But, and it gets better, I’m not competition from other Clans – in some cases entire just any random Caitiff. I said I wasn’t a scholar, but Clans were kicked out of the area. One of those was back in the early 70s there was a movement amongst the Clan that now call themselves “Toreador” and the Kindred of the Camarilla – which I call “bitches in bitch clothing.” Toreador Shut up, we’ll get to that. There was a movement aren’t really good for much, but one thing they are to get the Caitiff of the Camarilla to try and good for is record keeping, though it’s usually established the Caitiff as a real Clan, or at least get couched in poetry and verse. They’re the Clan of some kind of organization and recognition the same “artists”, see. It’s what they do. But it works out, way the Sabbat did with their own Caitiff. And shut because that’s how we know about Empusa. up, we’ll get to that. According to the Toreador, Empusa haunted the It didn’t go over well, but the movement’s leader, edges of what passed for cities in Greece at the time, Alexi Darba, did a ton of research on the history of feeding on mortals, manipulating the Greek tribes the Caitiff, trying to show that we weren’t a modern into fighting one another. To hear the Toreador tell thing, that we’d existed throughout history and it, Empusa is single-handedly responsible for the deserved recognition, that there had even been Greek city-states never really uniting the way Egypt important Caitiff in the history of Kindred politics and Israel and everywhere else did over time. I’m and evolution. He printed up a bunch of pamphlets sure that’s exaggeration – that’s the other thing the and books and distributed them to anyone who’d Toreador do. take ‘em. Any vampire, anyway. And, well, I was a Empusa had a lot of traits in common with the Caitiff, and I was part of the Camarilla, and what Gangrel, another one of the Clans. You know those Darba and his crew were saying stood a real chance stories of vampires running through the forests, of improving things for us. Plus the Sabbat had just changing into bats and wolves and stuff? That’s the recognized the Panders, so I figured that the Gangrel. They tend to be nomads and wanderers. Camarilla would be all in favor of recognizing But the Toreador verses say that Empusa could do Caitiff within the organization to, if for no other things that Gangrel generally can’t. She could reason than to prevent the Sabbat from getting a big manipulate animal minds, sure, but also human PR coup. Didn’t work out that way, though. minds, and she’s said to have been pretty good at So Darba’s dead, for real this time, but all his blood magic, as well as being able to enhance her research and work survives, and it paints a pretty speed, and disappear if there was the slightest neat picture. shadow around. And, she never showed that she

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was any good at melding into earth or turning into an animal the way the Gangrel can, nor to the Toreador verses say that she was particularly tough. Now, most modern Kindred scholars say that Empusa must have been a Gangrel anyway. But let’s count her Disciplines, her vampiric powers: Manipulating animals? Animalism. Okay, that’s a pretty Gangrel thing. Super-speed? Some Sabbat Gangrel can pull that trick, and any vampire could learn it given patience. Invisibility? Obfuscate. Again, there are Gangrel that do that. But mind- controlling people? That’s either Dominate or Presence, and I’ve never heard of a Gangrel who could do either. And blood magic? Thaumaturgy. That’s really rare. Only the Tremere can do it – because they kill anyone else who learns it. And this is thousands of years ago, in the boonies of the ancient world. Who was going to teach her blood magic? She could teach herself, but that’s nearly impossible… …unless you’re a Caitiff. Sometimes, ability with blood magic just pops up amongst us. They hate it. Now, on top of all that stuff, the Toreador verses do say that they managed to corner Empusa and talk with her eventually, as they started arriving and embracing in greater number. I haven’t read the verses myself, but Alexi Darba had, and he says that the Toreador asked Empusa to name her lineage, and each time Empusa responded with “I have none, I need none.” So there you go. Right from the bitch’s mouth herself: She was Caitiff. The first Caitiff? Maybe. But definitely not the last. What happened to her? She was killed. Toreador staked her and drank her dry. There’s a lesson in there – don’t be one vampire going up against an entire Clan. If a Clan starts muscling in on your territory, you don’t fight, you don’t grumble, you don’t complain. You just move aside, and if they look at you funny, you run.

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