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Vampire The Masquerade Clanbook Tzimisce 2nd
Edition Lucien Soulban Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Lucien Soulban, James Stewart, Jess Heinig, Alan I. Kravit
ISBN(s): 9781588462022, 1588462021
Edition: 2
File Details: PDF, 10.31 MB
Year: 2001
Language: english
CLANBOOk:
CLANBOOk:
TM
TM
A History of Evil
From the anarchs who forged the Sabbat to dreaded Dracula himself,
the Tzimisce have carved an indelible place for themselves among
the society of the Damned. The modern nights have caught up with
these monsters, however, who have fallen from their place as masters
of hoary estates to degenerates bound by the callous whims of the
Sabbat. Theirs is a nightly struggle, not only to survive, but also to
escape their grim destiny and once again rise to prominence.
CLANBOOk:
Clanbook: Tzimisce Includes:
TM
WW2361
• Material on those tainted by contact with the Tzimisce, including
the revenant families and the Old Clan
• Unsettling new applications of Vicissitude, schemes and the clan
lore of the Fiends
WWW.WHITE-WOLF.COM
ISBN 1-58846-202-1
WW2361
WW2361 $14.95 U.S.
WW2361
PRINTED IN USA
C L A N B O O K :
™
ByLucienSoulbanandJamesStewart
Contents
1
Credits Special Thanks, Rave
Written by: Lucien Soulban and James Stewart Edition
Additional Material by: Jess Heinig Oh, never mind. Like I remember.
Developed by: Justin Achilli
Editor: John Chambers Yarblockos!
Art Director: Richard Thomas That nasty, villainous puke seat.
Layout & Typesetting: Becky Jollensten
Interior Art: Guy Davis, Leif Jones, Vince Locke, Matt
Mitchell and Christopher Shy
Front Cover Art: John Van Fleet
Front & Back Cover Design:Becky Jollensten
Intern: Matthew O’Connor
Clanbook: Tzimisce
2
C L A N B O O K :
™
Contents
Introduction: Winter Fiend 4
Chapter One: A Rabble of Fiends 8
Chapter Two: Ego and Evolution 38
Chapter Three: Among Fiends 74
Contents
3
Clanbook: Tzimisce
4
Winter Fiend
November 22nd, 1942 – Sunday “Well,” Holden continued nervously, “I finished cataloguing the
The landscape was a white vastness, a world without a horizon condition of the tanks around us, but I don’t have paper to write on.”
to separate the earth from the choking mist of the flat Russian Dietrich ignored his subordinate. It was likelier the Kanonier
steppe. Obergefreiter Dietrich Walling, officer in Hitler’s vaunted stuffed whatever paper he had into his pants to keep himself warm.
Wehrmacht, surveyed the once-proud siege engine of the 22nd Panzer “…five tanks scattered throughout the area…”
Division. His whitewashed Panzerkampfwagen IV lay alone and This was a war of unspoken truths.
half-buried by snowdrifts. The OKW recruitment posters never “…no petrol in any of them…”
showed the soldiers standing around tanks, watching them burn
Dietrich said nothing about the Balkan sheepskin cap
for the brief moments they pushed away the cold.
Holden had lifted from a dead Romanian officer, and Holden
The remnants of the panzer division ran out of petrol about said nothing about Dietrich’s black field jacket decorated with
150 kilometers west of Volgograde, near the indentation of the River an Unteroffizier’s chevrons.
Chir. The Russian counteroffensive in the Stalingrad campaign
“…one Panzer III is carrying dead soldiers…”
began three days ago when a thick mist strangled visibility from
the air and biting cold scattered warmth to the four corners. This was a far cry from the proud German phalanx that
Artillery flashed and thundered in muffled fury, and engaging swept through the Ukraine, freeing places like Izyum and Svatovo
tanks collided with one another in a clumsy ballet of the blind. from Communism. The villagers, winnowed by famine, heralded
The air was thicker than milk, but the Russian 8th Cavalry still the Wehrmacht’s arrival as the new Crusade come to sweep the
surrounded the beleaguered 22nd Division and picked away with Antichrist Stalin from his throne of bones. They took the German
their snipers, the T-34 tanks. Dietrich’s group finally smashed black crosses to mean hope, and Dietrich took their hope to mean
through the blockade yesterday and vanished into the steppes. Now, victory. That belief died at the altar of Stalingrad.
broken and dying, they waited for the Russians. The artillery “…face torn off.”
and tank thunder, however, drifted away with morning, leaving “What? Repeat that!” Dietrich ordered when he realized he’d
the landscape unerringly silent beneath a pissy soup of white. missed something important.
Kanonier Holden — Dietrich’s gunner and the only other “I found a Panzer III covered with dead Romanian soldiers.
survivor from his Panzer IV — stumbled out from the snow- They blocked the hatches. I tried removing the soldiers to get into
burdened curtain of air. He looked fresh out of Hitlerjugend, the tank, but they were frozen to the metal. I pulled too hard on
with only a tuft of unshaved fuzz on his chin and an oil-smeared one. I… I think I tore his face off.”
face soiling his youthful Aryan looks. A thigh-length overcoat of “You think?”
brown sheepskin hung loosely from his bony shoulders. He was “Well, yes. I mean, he couldn’t have looked that way before, sir.”
unraveling a towline from a large spool. “Who was in the tank?”
“What are you doing?” Dietrich asked. Grizzled with facial “I don’t know. Frozen corpses covered the hatches and stor-
growth and dirt that highlighted premature wrinkles, he wore a age bins.”
black field jacket and sheepskin cap. Otherwise, he could have cut
“So? Pull the corpses off.”
a handsome figure, civilization permitting.
“I… but…. Won’t I tear off their faces, sir?”
“I found this on a Tiger about 20 meters northeast of here.
I hooked the other tanks together, in case we needed to find each “Have you ever skinned a rabbit?”
other in this squall. Leutnant Habsmann ordered me—” “Uh, yes… yes, sir.”
“Habsmann? Is that rat-faced bastard still alive?” Dietrich “This is no different. At least rabbits serve a purpose. Go back,
spat. “I’m surprised they didn’t ship him out to Poland with the pull off the corpses, and scavenge what you can. Don’t forget to
rest of the Jews.” check the fuel tanks under the floor. We can’t serve our Führer
“Sir, he’s not—” by dying here.”
“I know what he says, you idiot!” Dietrich raged. “But he’s Holden was shocked a moment, then nodded blindly before
not Aryan either. He may have fooled the Reich Agency for setting off into the curtain of white.
Genealogy, but you can see the Semite blood in him. It’s in his “And Holden,” Dietrich added, “say nothing to Habsmann.
sloped brow, his frizzy black hair and his hooked nose. Didn’t they If you find anything, we’ll barely have enough for ourselves.
teach you that in Hitlerjugend?” Understood?”
“Yes, sir, they did, but I can’t… I can’t disobey Habsmann. ***
He outranks us both. Also, he wants us to gather at his Tiger. He Two hours had passed since Holden had left, and now,
says if we share the warmth, we’ll less likely freeze.” Obergefreiter Walling suspected his subordinate had abandoned
“You go if you want, but I won’t make it easier for the Rus- him in favor of Habsmann. Dietrich rested in the commander’s
sians to find us. I’m staying here.” chair and stretched his legs against the main gun’s recoil guard.
Holden’s expression betrayed all his concerns. Still, he said He sat in dried blood, but the thought never bothered him. Ober-
nothing and tethered the towline to the panzer’s forward cable hooks. leutnant Westermayer deserved that sniper bullet when he stood
on his chair and stuck his head out from the turret hatch. He was
“Continue with your report. What else did you see out there
already dead when he tumbled back through and spattered the
aside from that mongrel Habsmann?”
Winter Fiend
5
interior with thick clots of blood. At the time, Dietrich ignored the etrich pulled himself out of the snow and onto the Tiger’s skirt.
crimson gore on his overalls and continued steering. That was a He peered inside the empty tank. The crew must be dead, thought
lifetime ago, last week. Dietrich found he grew more inured against Dietrich, but he had little concern for them now, wherever they
the violence with each minute. Not even the bits of flesh or blood were. Dietrich exited and unhooked one of the four towlines that
encrusted on his clothing bothered him anymore. led him furthest from his own panzer. He took the loose towline
A bitter night chill had settled over the region, forcing Dietrich and pulled himself through the snow while winding the excess
back into the black interior of his tank for shelter. Although the cable around his shoulder.
hatches, pistol ports and cupola’s vision slots were all closed, the Whatever stalked him would probably go after the other
heat still escaped like water through a sieve. Dietrich marveled at vehicles still tethered to the Tiger, leaving Dietrich safe and alone
how this blade of the Wehrmacht could resist Russian bullets and in his isolated tank. He knew his actions would cost the lives of
shells but couldn’t keep out the Soviet Empire’s greatest soldier, his allies, but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make on their
“General Frost.” Dietrich didn’t want to freeze, but he’d long run behalf. Besides, not a one was loyal to Germany anymore. Since
out of canned heat and had nothing to burn with his lighter. If he Stalingrad, the soldiers privately scoffed at the weekly propaganda
wanted to survive, he’d have to leave the sanctuary of his panzer and reports from the Ministry for Public Enlightenment. If the war
search the nearby vehicles. Holden mentioned something about five faltered, it was because Hitler allowed lesser species to fight alongside
other tanks; one of them probably had something worth scavenging, the German Volk and because weak men with weak blood fought on
but he’d have to take care not to approach Habsmann’s Tiger. the frontlines. Indignant and angry, Dietrich struggled through
Dietrich checked the clip on the Sturmgewehr .44 machine the snow, cursing the Reich for betraying its own dreams.
pistol and was about to open the hatch when something darkened ***
the turret’s glass vision blocks. Instinctively, Dietrich backed away The Panzer III was six tons smaller than Dietrich’s Kampf-
into the low-ceiling forward compartment, where he bumped into wagen, but it had been refitted with a 50mm gun. Still, snowdrifts
the driver’s seat. It couldn’t be Holden or any other soldier in the washed up on its skirt, miring it until next spring. Painted white,
division, Dietrich thought. They all knew to rap their wrenches or it was nearly lost against the blizzard. The only feature that stood
gun butts on the hatch before entering lest they find their heads out against its surface were 10 Romanians covering the tank like
blown off by edgy panzer crews. Someone peered inside, but it was maggots on a corpse. They were all facedown, dead and stuck to the
too dark to see anything. exposed metal, blocking the four major hatches, Dietrich realized,
A hiss of cold air slipped into the tank, along with a faint along with the air intake and exhaust ports. Somebody positioned
wash of winter white — the intruder opened the cupola hatch. them deliberately, and for a moment, Dietrich found himself ap-
Dietrich felt the pit of his stomach drop away and his blood preciating the cold and barren logic that required such action.
plummet along with it like a waterfall. Some primordial instinct “I’ve walked into the lion’s den,” Dietrich muttered. Whatever
in the back of his skull screamed for Dietrich to run. This wasn’t was stalking his division had made his home here, but with the
the enemy; this was a hunter. storm already covering his trail, Dietrich had no hope of find-
Carefully, Dietrich reached behind him and ran his fingers ing his way back. This panzer was his only salvation. “Besides,”
along the recess in the ceiling. The cupola’s hatch was completely Dietrich continued to himself, “whatever barred the hatches did
pulled back. Small eddies of fine frost drifted through the opening so for a reason.” If it was protecting something, then it was worth
and settled over the reddish-brown interior. Dietrich’s questing Dietrich’s attention.
fingers snagged a latch. He pushed it gently, painfully aware of Dietrich dropped the cable and scrambled up to the soldier
the low groan it made, but the driver’s escape hatch finally opened hunched over the commander’s hatch. With a firm grip on his
with a satisfying pop. More cold air slipped through and filled the shoulders, Dietrich tried prying him off the tank. The corpse’s
forward compartment. Quietly, Dietrich positioned himself beneath face came off in stiff strips, leaving behind patches of flesh on the
his exit. He could see a pair of milky-white… hands… that tapered metal, but the body remained stuck; something had mauled his face
off into serrated claws slip past the cupola’s hatch. A bear? A clever beyond recognition, ripping open his jacket and winter clothing as
wolf? Whatever was coming in was doing so head first. Dietrich well. The soldier’s exposed stomach and chest were likewise frozen to
didn’t wait around to see the creature’s face; he pushed off the metal, but not in the way Dietrich expected. The soldier appeared
driver’s chair, through the hatch and into the bristling, cold air. anchored to the metal, with his exposed flesh hooked or melted into
With visibility nearly gone, the howling wind swept away the hatch lining. Dietrich didn’t care. They were only Romanian.
all noise and claimed it as its own. Dietrich looked back at the Dietrich took out his knife and cut away at the flesh, separat-
white-washed turret just in time to see black jackboots slip through ing the corpse from the hatch. Just like skinning rabbits. After a
the hatch. Dietrich leapt off the tank and grabbed the towline few moments of cutting and sawing, he used the knifepoint to dig
linking him to the Tiger. Holding on, he pushed his way through out the flesh in the lining before finally opening the cupola’s hatch.
the knee-deep drifts, into the worsening storm. A wave of warm air and the smell of butcher-shop viscera washed
*** over him. The interior was humid. Half-frozen and minutes away
The drifts grew deeper, slowing Dietrich down, but he pushed from frostbite, Dietrich dropped into the tank, slamming the hatch
through the cold. After what seemed forever, Dietrich arrived shut with a loud clang on his way down. Warmth enveloped him.
at the Tiger. It was a petrol guzzler and ungraceful. It wasn’t A noxious mix of offal and innards filled the pitch-black
called a “Furniture Van” for its elegance. Even now, half hidden interior, but that didn’t bother Dietrich terribly. He’d spent his
in a growing snowdrift, it looked unwieldy and ugly. Patches of summers on a Kümmritz sheep farm south of Berlin and was
zimmerit, anti-magnetic mine paste, had fallen away, revealing inured to the smell of death. It was the low mewling and sobbing
a mottling of gray. The turret’s side-hatch stood wide open. Di- all around him that grated on his nerves. Dietrich fumbled for his
Clanbook: Tzimisce
6
lighter and lit it up. The shadows danced into flickers, darkening that gaze. Suddenly, Dietrich realized that there was nothing this
the nooks, crannies and corners of the panzer’s guts. That’s when creature couldn’t do.
he found the other survivors. “The new man is among us!” Dietrich mumbled, quoting
The interior of the tank was the Devil’s abattoir. Holden, Hermann Rauschning’s Hitler Speaks. “…I will tell you a secret.
Habsmann and at least four other soldiers lay stretched out over I have seen the vision of the new man — fearless and formidable…”
the equipment, chairs, ammunition bins, walls, ceiling and floor. “…I shrank from him,” the Generalmajor concluded.
Their bodies had the consistency of warm tallow — drooping and “You read Hitler Speaks?”
limp. It was as though Satan had smeared them across Creation’s “It was… entertaining,” the Generalmajor allowed.
face with his thumb. Five different intestines braided around each
“I remember a time,” Dietrich ventured, “when I would have
other and snaked through the interior like Christmas tinsel, while
followed the Führer into Hell.”
flayed flesh stretched over the walls. More shocking, perhaps, was
that the soldiers had all been turned inside out, yet they still “And now?”
seemed to live. Organs pulsed and pumped their precious fluids “I’ve seen what it looks like…. Russia has been one defeat
while they hung from the recoil guard and lay draped over and after another because of Hitler. He’s betrayed his promises to us.”
around the chairs. The mewling came from the flattened faces “You speak treason.”
of Holden and the others. With deflated mouths and vocal cords “Then we are both on the firing line,” Dietrich grinned with
stretched like washed linen, they could do no more than cry and a look to Holden and the others. “What are you?” he finally asked.
gurgle. Annunciation was a lost gift. “Can you not see it in my face?” the Generalmajor exclaimed
Dietrich shook his head in amazement and muttered, “Mag- with a feral smile. “I am the spirit of your ancestors given blood.
nificent.” Despite the carnage, it possessed a functional aesthetic I am Nordic heritage brought to the fore.”
often lost on the battlefield. Dietrich had seen his share of severed “There’s more to it than that,” Dietrich ventured.
limbs and shrapnel-eviscerated comrades, but that was fate alone. “Yes there is, but that will come in due time. I’ve decided to
This was pure function and cold-hearted brilliance. Dietrich’s spare you. I appreciate your cunning. It might just help us both
father told him stories about how ancient hunters split open deer survive.”
and slept in their innards for warmth when trapped by blizzards.
“What do you mean?”
This was practicality taken to the extreme. The tank’s interior
had been covered with gutted but living soldiers whose exposed “Hitler’s war isn’t our war. Ours is more ancient in the re-
innards and blood vessels provided warmth. The soldiers outside membering. This advance into Russia was an attempt to regain
sealed in any escaping heat. This was calculated and perfect soil lost to us since the red storm swept Russia. Unfortunately, we
pragmatism. This was what the German army lacked to carry relied on your kind to fight for us, and that misplaced trust has
out the Thousand-Year Reich. cost us. Now I must return empty-handed. You’re right; Hitler,
Himmler and the rest of them have betrayed you, but they are of
“Aren’t you going to salute a superior officer?” a voice asked.
no consequence. They served their purpose.”
It was languid, almost slippery.
“But why are you here, in this desolate place?”
Dietrich spun around, nearly killing the lighter’s meager
tongue. Sitting in the radio operator’s chair and shadowed by a “I was fighting my enemies when the Russian counteroffensive
low ceiling, sat an SS-Brigadefuhrer und Generalmajor. Darkness began,” the Generalmajor proclaimed. “I protected this place for
covered the man’s face, but Dietrich could see the white undershirt the while it took me to rest, stay warm and regain my… strength.
beneath the black uniform, the wet field-gray greatcoat with black I’m ready to leave. You were going to be my last meal, but you
collar, double-lightning bolt lapels, the flared breeches and wet, make a worthier Unteroffizier.”
black jackboots. On his lap rested a field-gray cap with a silver “Willingly, though I don’t know who I serve or why.”
skull and crossbones pin. “That too will come in time, but I’m offering you the chance
“I would,” Dietrich ventured, “if I didn’t think you were for a purity you’ve never known. You can be like me, without
going to try and kill me. Or should I say tried?” impediment or soiled body. I offer perfection of thought. That is
“You’re an eel, I’ll give you that. Sneaking out of your panzer all you need know for now.”
was wise, but I was impressed with the way you took the line to “If I abandon the army, I will be shot as a deserter.”
this tank. You were hoping I’d go after the others, weren’t you?” “No,” the Generalmajor offered. “As far as they know, you died
“You saw me?” Dietrich asked doubtfully. “How? I left you here, tonight. As far as you’re concerned,” he added with a fanged
behind.” grin, “they are right.” The Generalmajor moved with a speed that
“Well, you didn’t summon this storm, did you?” killed Dietrich’s flame, dousing the tank in darkness. He slammed
the Obergefreiter down on his back hard. Hot needles ripped into
“And you did?” Dietrich sneered.
Dietrich’s neck, and he felt his blood explode through the wound in
The Generalmajor leaned forward, allowing the light to touch a burning — but horrifically thrilling — torrent. Holden mewled
his face. He was stunning, nearly painful in Aryan perfection. in his ear, but Dietrich could hear only the waterfall rush of blood
His hair was gold silk against alabaster skin, his nose and lips thunder in his head. The thunder drifted away like Russian tanks
thin and imperial, his cheeks were cut of marble, and his Rhine- in the mist, however, and Dietrich realized he was shivering from
blue eyes carried the wolf’s glare. His face was perfect and without the impossible cold that gripped his bones — he was dying. That’s
deficiency; he embodied the idealized Nordic warrior Himmler when the Generalmajor pressed his lips against Dietrich’s and spit
so proudly espoused in his elite Schutzstaffel. His stare whittled
in his mouth. Dietrich’s world exploded in a scream.
Dietrich to the bone; it was an intrepid and cruel heart that cast
Winter Fiend
7
Clanbook: Tzimisce
8
Chapter One:
A Rabble of Fiends
It is a grave tragedy to die young so we pray, “May we be sufficiently ripe before we are eaten up by death…”
— Baba Ifa Karade, Odu Ethics of Edi: The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts
Clanbook: Tzimisce
10
and flying through shapes of mortal and legend alike, ARant
seeking out a form free of the accursed thirst. It studied
the scrolls that once gifted it with spellcraft, hoping to This is bullshit. Are you telling me we’re actually
find answers within its fading mortal gifts. It mattered jealous of mortals? Fine, we’re still looking for that
little, however, for the thirst came of the Beast, and pure seed of creativity that allows for true growth, but
it drowned all considerations. The Eldest could not this defeatist attitude is totally Camarilla. Do we even
escape, for while it changed forms, it could not change know if this “seed” actually exists, or is this another
its essence. Cruel fate deprived it of that one saving Antediluvian ploy to keep our wheels spinning? We’re
grace mortals possessed: adaptation as a tool of survival. Damned Brothers and Sisters… why the hell are we
wasting time with “evolution?” We don’t grow! We
LeavingEnoch decay! We’re fucking dead!
Unlike its growing flock of cousins, the Eldest had — The Spine, abbot of the Seven Hands pack
no interest in guiding the mortal masses or glorifying
Caine’s name. More so, it did not aspire to protect the essence, which granted the powers of flesh-shaping and
kine, not when they were both food and canvas to it. bestowed the Antediluvian’s childer with the ability to
The others frowned when the Eldest demonstrated how make what they would of their physical forms. In turn,
easily it played, wove and laced their flesh and sinew like this bond allowed the Eldest expression through each of
yarn on a loom. They bemoaned its gifts after it twisted its most-gifted childer. The Eldest secretly became legion-
[Nosferatu’s] flesh into the hideous mockery of beauty now fold, allowing it to take host in chosen descendents and
shared by the entire clan. They secretly consorted with reap the knowledge of their exploration.
it as [Toreador] had done to earn her uncanny elegance. On the Eldest’s return journey through the Fertile Cres-
The Eldest existed among the unimaginative, while its cent, it took a second progeny in Gallod, a tribal chieftain,
siblings [Brujah] and Mekhet played shadow games with to monitor the events in the Enoch. During its subsequent
mortals, delighting in their own cunning and agendas. journeys, however, the Eldest discovered the tribes of hu-
The Eldest knew of the kine’s potential and grew manity thinned in the western forests, thus depriving it of
angry that the others stubbornly defined themselves in sustenance. It a fit of hungered frenzy, the Eldest revealed
mortal terms without understanding humanity’s greatest the last of its malignant curses when, from leagues afar, it
strength, mutability. Only it appreciated kine as both meal consumed Gallod inside out. The sacrament that bestowed
and inspiration, and thus, only it deserved humanity for unlife and allowed the Eldest to take root in its progeny also
itself. The Eldest wished to delimit itself according to its allowed it to devour its childer, scouring them out like an
destiny, as opposed to what it might be now, and mortals undead consumption. This is the clan’s greatest curse, for
were key to that expression. The Eldest shifted through should the Eldest fall to the Beast’s thirst, then it will devour
physical forms easily, but it lacked that final adaptation its childer from afar like an unseen demon.
to save it from its thirst, its Beast. To that end, the Eldest
abandoned Enoch, knowing its answers lay in the pri- Kupala
mordial world, where Caine possessed no influence and Having learned its lesson from Gallod, the Eldest
where mortals were not protected like lovers or herded gathered tribes of mortals during its travels, so that it
like sheep. It needed to witness humanity’s struggle for would never want for vitae again. Along its journeys, it
survival and even be responsible for humanity’s hardships. Embraced those who best fit its own questing spirit. It
Only then, the Eldest believed, would it understand what made a childe of Yorak in the forested foothills of the
it lacked to escape its fate. Carpathians and Byelobog in the northern wastes of
The Eldest journeyed the lands before humanity Europe. Along Africa’s coast, it took a warrior named
named them, following where its atrophying gifts as seer Demdemeh, who subsequently vanished into the pri-
nudged it. It first ventured east, to the birthplace of the mordial African heartland to pursue his fate; whilst in
sun, where it cursed Kartarirya with unlife. It Embraced Cypriot isle, the Eldest welcomed the creature known
not from loneliness (in itself, it had all the company it only as the Dracon into the fold.
wished), but because it needed vessels through which to The world may have been open to the Eldest, but it
explore the infinite possibilities and forms of adaptation. eventually favored the lands of Yorak, deep within the
With Kartarirya, the Eldest discovered its ability to share Carpathians’ bosom. It did not know why the mountain
its progeny’s senses. Thus, in each of its offspring, the Eldest chain proved so alluring, but this domain entranced the
bestowed a multitude of curses beyond damning them with Eldest with its siren call. It even returned to studying
unlife. It divested in them a portion of its mutable spirit mortal magics again after a century of disuse, even though
in the form of a sacrament, its own flesh. Its vitae hid its its gifts remained a pale shadow of Cainite potential.
Clanbook: Tzimisce
12
Flood,CurseandExodus cousins passage through to the western lands thick with
tribes so long as nobody broached their territory. Other
While the Tzimisce prospered and continued to
Cainites recognized the Tzimisce claims to domain,
watch the mortals mill about beneath their mountain
but only for the while it took the warring clans of the
peaks, all was not well in Enoch. Caine’s childer rebelled
Second City to call Caine’s anger upon them.
against him, just as he had done against the Almighty,
and reddened the streets with their blood and that of Caine’s curse took the Tzimisce by surprise. Their
others. Then, in the Almighty’s divine act of retribution dealings with the soil-bound Kupala, as well their ter-
against mortals, the Great Flood engulfed the world. ritorial nature, became the clan’s anathema when the
In Europe, it was no different; the mighty rivers that curse forced them to sleep upon their native soil for true
fractured the land invited the Deluge across such low- rest. Even the Eldest nearly perished in the journey back
lying plains as the Danube Basin, the Po Valley and home to claim indigenous “dead water” from its birth-
the Rhineland. Those who survived the swift rise in place. Its return to the Carpathians, however, heralded
waters fled to the highlands. Mortal and Cainites alike a greater flood of mortal herds and Cainites who had left
sought refuge on higher and higher grounds, turning the Fertile Crescent in shame following Caine’s edict.
the Carpathians in particular into an island ark ruled Knowing they faced a threat to their territories, the
by the sovereign Tzimisce lords. The Fiends extended Tzimisce fortified their domains and fell into isolation-
hospitality to their new arrivals, taking in payment a ism. As a unified front, they might have survived both
sacrifice of one child from each family. To show their mortal and Cainite claimants to their territory. Divided,
compassion, they rarely took the first-born son. In- however, they allowed their brothers and sisters to fall
stead, they claimed the youngest for feast, experiment while protecting their own havens through harsher
or servitude. In some cases, Tzimisce voivodes claimed measures. The Eldest was the sole tie the clan’s members
entire families from the larger tribes. Thus came the had to any others of their bloodline. Self-evolution, like
indentured servitude that would eventually give rise the quest for truth, proved a solitary path for many. The
to the revenant families. Tzimisce ruled from their isolated manses like tyrants
over the mortal communities blossoming at their feet.
Following the flood, the Fiends noted the passage
The Antediluvian, however, knew a time would come
of mortal tribes under the influence of solitary Gangrel
when its clan would drift apart like flotsam. Already, its
and Nosferatu from Enoch. The new tribes refused to pay
childe Byelobog had retreated into the Pripet Marshes
fealty to the Fiends and drifted through the Tzimisce’s
while Yorak meditated deep within the Carpathians,
mountain passes without offering amends. The Tzimisce
taking counsel directly from Kupala itself.
claimed preeminence over the region — not unreason-
able considering that they ruled the land in the centuries TheEldestVanishes
before the fall of Enoch. They alone freed Kupala from An addendum by the Prince of Paupers, priest of the
its prison and kept the Lupines at bay. The intruding Bloodfoot pack
Cainites, in their arrogance, held that the world and all I completed my interrogation of Silas, a Salubri
mortals came of Enoch and were, thus, by right, theirs. antitribu believed fallen with the remainder of the Sac-
They could go where they wished, and that included the rifice Covenant pack of New York. As we’ve suspected,
domains of the Tzimisce, whom they’d rarely encountered. the Salubri antitribu are privy to information that we’ve
When the floodwaters receded, the Tzimisce lost only suspected until now. Our eldest Cainites always
vast domains to new mortal tribes who rushed into the
void and took territory once held by Fiend-indentured
families. The Gangrel were of little consequence, since KoldunicSorcery
they wandered and rarely stayed in one location long
We speak of Kupala and claim our koldunic
enough to threaten the local blood-stock. It was the
rites stave off its infestation. We say it quiets our
Nosferatu and the occasional Malkavian patrons who
sleep when we rest in its soil. Ha! Our sorcery is
proved difficult. The Fiends dealt with these interlop-
of Kupala, surely, for that spirit is sovereign over
ers and their servants harshly, whether through mortal
tribal skirmishes or torture. They littered their borders all others in our cursed homeland. It hounds those
with still-living forests of bodies impaled on bone trees who know not its craft, hoping to drive us to it.
or fleshcrafted messengers to the backs of their horses And driven we are. We learn its spells and its way
before sending them riding back to their masters. with spirits to earn tranquility. Our knowledge of
koldunic rituals is not a bulwark against Kupala; our
The Tzimisce eventually realized they couldn’t
slaughter everyone journeying through their domains rest is not a victory achieved. It is the demon’s gift
lest the mortals unite against them. They allowed their to us for being good and blind little sheep.
Driftwood
Tzimisce
by Bashtani Koudye of Tripoli
Lambach Ruthven is fairly righteous, but part of me
thinks he’s been smoking crack out of babies’ asses. I got
Clanbook: Tzimisce
14
eastward Volga Basin remained Fiend territory, but the
TheEldest’sFateand clan still pursued isolationist agendas and private ven-
the Children of Dracon dettas. The Antediluvian’s fear that its progeny would
Rise, Child of Dracon, for I speak of our Progeni- surrender to wholly esoteric pursuits proved correct.
tor. The Eldest did indeed “perish” during Samiel’s Even Yorak and Byelobog retreated into their respective
attack, but what is destruction to a creature of its realms and had little to do with one another. With safer
power? The Progenitor survived through each seed passage available around the Carpathians by way of the
that it implanted within its progeny upon the Embrace Mediterranean Sea, Greece and Rome flourished into
and within the progeny of its progeny. It no longer expansive empires influenced by the other clans. Rome
needed its own form, for it could take shape within witnessed some Tzimisce patronage under the Dracon,
each of us, if it so wished. On Cyprus, the Dracon while other Fiends trickled out from the black deeps of
felt the Eldest awaken and grow within his belly. the Eastern forests. The fact remained, however, that
The Dracon took care to nurture the newly risen the Carpathian Cainites isolated themselves from the
Progenitor. After birthing it, the Dracon smuggled world. This is why they lost territory to their rivals.
the fetal Antediluvian back to the Carpathians and First Mycenaean, then Hellenistic Greece ruled over
placed it under the Methuselah Yorak’s care, deep portions of Europe, but they never advanced toward
within the bowels of the mountains. the Carpathians. The Romans, in turn, expanded their
While the torpid embryo slept and grew in the empire further, prostrating themselves at the feet of the
befouled soil like a seed, the demon Kupala whispered mountain chain. Even they stopped from ascending
into the Eldest’s ears, as it had done with Yorak. To her slopes, however. From the Celts to the Slavs and
what avail, I know not, but few can withstand centuries Goths, the Carpathians remained untenable. This isn’t
of discourse with demons and come away untouched. to say the Tzimisce stayed dormant or idle during this
Suffice it to say that our understanding of koldunic period. In truth, they ruled the land as near gods and
ways became far greater. As the soil and flora rotted came to influence the surrounding tribes with growing
further, our familiarity with the demon’s paths grew proficiency. As individuals, the Tzimisce accomplished
effortless. That is why the Children of Dracon do not much, thanks to the Dracon, Shaagra and Radu, but as a
tap the fetid magics of Kupala. That was not a gift of clan, they rarely worked together to any real conclusion.
Yorak’s disinterest in leading the Fiends as the regional
[Tzimisce] itself and came only through a malignant
Voivode among Voivodes didn’t help either.
demon whose touch never left the Romanian soil.
The eldest of the region’s Tzimisce, Yorak assumed
the Voivodate following the Progenitor’s fall into torpor.
a look at his precious journal when he wasn’t around, and He stayed in the caves where Kupala whispered loudest
there’s some wild shit in there. He claims he saw Lugoj and concentrated on other matters, such as enslaving
Blood-breaker commit Amaranth on the Eldest itself before tribes of Slavs, Celts and the occasional Thracian clan
the Antediluvian went ahead and pulled a fast one on him. for his experiments. He fully believed in Azhi Dahaka,
That means that Lugoj, who’s in torpor somewhere in the the ecstatic state that the Eldest itself sought to uncover.
Carpathians, is actually Tzimisce now. All right, cool, He spent his lifetimes within the labyrinthine Carpath-
whatever. Later, Lambach tells me the Eldest’s a mutated ians, exploring the world through his mental Disciplines,
fucking patch of out-of-control cannabis living beneath even though he’d long ago abandoned interest in the
New York and spreading through the sewers like a weed. I outside realms.
know, to you this sounds like moist and runny shit, but you
Over the centuries, Yorak constructed his Cathedral
got to respect the fact that we can do some scary-ass stuff.
of Flesh. Rivaling the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and
Lambach’s tale means one of two things. One, he took a
the Christian monuments to come later, this magnum
big hit off that baby butt, or two, the legends our sire told
opus to pain and suffering became the center of Meta-
us were true…. What!? You know which one. I’m talking
morphosist thought and worship. Yorak built it over the
about where Tzimisce can manifest in any of us and turn
course of centuries, through dozens of caverns and with
us into it. If that’s true, then there’s at least two Tzimisce
thousands of victims. For a while, the Tzimisce pursued
Antediluvians running around right now, and we’re doubly
their agendas and paid little heed to the world grow-
screwed. What? What d’ya mean “Be a good lad”? What
ing on the horizon’s edge. When Yorak and the others
the fuck are you talking…. Holy sh—
learned that Rome owed its glory in part to Cainites,
— Kaleel Bratovitch, Tzimisce kennel master, deceased however, they realized they could no longer lurk in
With the Eldest under the sleep of ages, its childer the shadows like the Lasombra. Certainly, the Roman
withdrew from the world. The Carpathians and the Empire did not expand beyond the Danube Basin, but
Clanbook: Tzimisce
16
Meanwhile, any hope that the Roman Empire could — and Lambach Ruthven wanted Shaagra for themselves.
rise from its ashes died with Constantine’s ill-chosen Yorak, however, chose Triglav as second in line among
heirs. Rome was on the decline, and its resident Ventrue, the local Fiends and allowed him the Embrace. Lambach
Toreador and Malkavians had lost control to a squabbling would never forget that slight, and its repercussions would
host of Cainite detractors and to the unlikely strength of certainly echo down history’s corridor.
a Hebraic cult. The city’s eldest fled in droves, sending Shaagra never knew her sire. Once educated in the
Europe into a decaying spiral. The periphery of the Ro- craft of the Tzimisce and forced into the blood oath, she
man Empire crumbled and regional Damned panicked. and her tribe followed her granddaughter and favored
They knew the Germanic tribes prepared for massacre and ghoul, Libussa, into the Danube Plain. Traveling in the
pillage, and many sought diplomacy with the previously century-long wake of marauding tribes and bands, the
isolated Tzimisce. For once, the other clans treated the Vroi eventually settled upon land that would become
Fiends as potential allies and not an Eastern frontier threat. Prague, the westernmost point of Carpathian Tzimisce
The Tzimisce, in turn, noticed the flood of human- influence. It would serve as a border against Western
ity streaming through their northernmost borders. The interests and become one of many flash points in the
tribes and federations of Hun-displaced nomads fought Tremere-Tzimisce conflict. Shaagra herself slept in fitful
and intermingled, as was expected, but the Gangrel of torpor, growing steadily insane in the blackened soil of
the steppes and disenfranchised Brujah accompanied Kupala’s violation. Her Embrace, however, precipitated
them. Yorak met with several Gangrel chieftains and the Tzimisce practice of claiming stock from noble
promised them unmolested passage through the Car- families and tribal leaders to better influence the region’s
pathians’ Tihuta Pass; in return, they promised to incite mortals. This brought a new breed of Fiends into the
warfare against the Roman settlements along their routes. clan’s hierarchy. Tzimisce like Radu, Wladymir Rusto-
Yorak sought to regain the territory the clan lost with vitch and Dracula provide but a sample of the dozen
the arrival of the Ventrue and Malkavians. The spread who played the parts of nobility and engaged in games
of the tribes turned into a wave that tainted everything of political intrigue against the regional Ventrue and
ahead of it. In the wake of that chaos, Yorak sent in Brujah at the time better than their sires had. The clan
Tzimisce to reclaim their former estates. broke its mold of cackling fiends and incomprehensible
Shaagra’s Embrace heralded the Tzimisce’s golden Metamorphosists and emerged from its isolationism,
age and centuries of the Fiends’ dominion over Eastern albeit fractured and of opposing agendas.
Europe. Yorak understood that the wandering Hun,
Slavic and Goth tribes would eventually become the TheZadruga
new landholders of whatever territory they settled. It Eli Dragsky, Priscus of Moscow
had happened before with the Scythians and Hallstatt Sorry if I’m not poetic, but I’m a scholar, not a writer.
in the centuries preceding the White Christ’s birth, You’ll also note that I’m against the concept of revenant
and it would happen again, given Europe’s virgin ex- families for a variety of reasons. We all know that, for
panses. Theoretically, by influencing the tribes now, the centuries, Tzimisce such as Yorak and the Dracon bound
Tzimisce could establish themselves as the preeminent entire families into tortured slavery under the euphe-
clan of the region. mism zadruga, or “joint family.” Convenience first forged
The Slav Shaagra came from the Vroi tribe and this practice because it proved easier to raise servants
ruled as their goddess, leader and mystic. Her people in an environment of horror than to train continually
fled westward after her tribe had suffered under the relative newcomers to accept what they saw. Eventu-
harsh ministrations of a larger tribe. When they reached ally, these ghouls, whether through the haunted soil of
the Carpathians, Yorak took notice of Shaagra. She the Carpathians or from centuries of weathering the
held concourse with potent spirits and possessed a blood bond, managed to pass their half-Damned state
beacon soul. Yorak sensed Shaagra’s potent magic and on to their children, thus forming revenants. Yorak’s
the supernatural creatures she entertained as counsel. childer spoke of ancient ghoul families predating the
Shaagra commanded strong respect from her people, Great Flood, though their fates before Christ’s birth
and possessed the vision as shaman to appeal to the are a little nebulous. Given the deformities that we’re
Tzimisce’s sense of Azhi Dahaka. Yorak accepted her seeing emerge from our own families, however, I think
for the Embrace, but he did not take her. they simply became too genetically polluted to breed
Although he was the voivode of the region, other anymore. Sorry, but if the Bratovitches are an indication
Tzimisce Methuselahs shared Yorak’s age. While Byelobog of what we can expect, then they pose a danger to our
remained aloof, both Triglav the Three-Headed — who existence. They’re becoming wild and unpredictable;
earned mythological reverence among the regional tribes the suicide/murder rate among the Bratovitches alone
is staggering, and more than a few revenants have acci- legionnaires. The Basarab retained their nobility and land
dentally attracted hunters and, sometimes, the media to holdings during their existence as revenants. Unlike the
our doorsteps. They’re walking time bombs, and frankly, other families, they later married into Szekler stock and
that’s the least of our worries from them. forestalled the onset of deformity. As warriors and strate-
The modern revenant lines trace their history to gists par excellence, they could have served the Sabbat as
the tribes of Slavs and Celts once living in the Danube near equals, had “great” Dracula himself not been born
and Volga basins. The eldest known family, the Basarab, Basarab and Embraced. The mortal Dracula murdered
claimed joint lineage from Dacian royalty and Roman a number of us in his quest for immortality and greater
Clanbook: Tzimisce
18
influence over regional politics. He even forced his way
into the clan by threatening Lambach with destruction. MilkandBlood
Because of Dracula’s actions, we hunted down the entire I once witnessed how the revenants blood-tied
revenant line and destroyed them to the last ghoul, just their own children in service to their lords. The
to make a lesson of them. If you think this was an iso- mother, her breasts heavy with milk, partook of
lated incident, think again. This isn’t the first time we’ve her lord’s vitae, then fed her child. As the infant
Embraced revenants, and it isn’t the first time they’ve suckled at her teat, she withdrew a knife and made
threatened to betray the clan or sect. We often fail to a tiny incision just above her nipple (amid a sea of
realize that these creatures possess a dangerous degree of scars). Her blood flowed freely over her breast and
knowledge and many even hate us. We’ve made slaves of into the child’s mouth, while it lapped the muddy
these families for centuries, and then, we Embrace them mixture of the two.
and offer them stakes? Just how foolish are we?
The Basarab aren’t the only fallen lines — what about dissidents, detractors and anyone he considered an enemy
the Danislav? These former kin to the Lupines betrayed of the state. Called the Oprichniki, these mortal agents
and destroyed Count Florescu before we annihilated them. sowed fear and discord throughout the countryside in a
The Krevcheski were our greatest traitors. As clockwork campaign of legitimized murder. Eventually, the insane
masons and siege engineers, they broke their oaths and al- Ivan even turned his men against each other. We were
lied themselves with the loathsome Tremere. We thought wise not to Embrace this syphilis-induced madman (leave
we destroyed them during the Renaissance, but now, I’m him for the Ventrue!), but we did bring the surviving
hearing conflicting rumors that some still serve the Coun- Oprichniki under our sway. After all, the horrors of Ivan’s
cil of Seven or that they’ve betrayed the Tremere as well torture chambers had already inured them to violence.
and formed a minor bloodline of sorcerers skilled in both My problem is this; the Oprichniki served us well
Thaumaturgy and koldunic ways. What about the albino until Communism usurped White Russia. Afterward,
Khazi who served the “White God” Byelobog? We’ve they stayed behind the Iron Curtain, hidden from the
heard continued allegations that one of them betrayed Sabbat until the collapse of the USSR. Since then,
their master to the Teutonic Knights, which weakened they’ve stayed in Russia and Romania, serving our
him enough for Lugoj to diablerize him later. Unfortu- “comrades” within the Oradea League (essentially,
nately, we can’t confirm this because the Khazi died at the non-Sabbat Tzimisce). That means we don’t have
the hands of the Teutonic Knights during the fighting or the full loyalty of these ghouls, and that makes them
in subsequent Crusades by the Christian Church. How potentially dangerous. Additionally, we might suffer
many more families must betray us before we smarten up? swift reprisal from the Sabbat should it learn we kept
Look at the revenants that survive into the new this line hidden from the sect. They pose a danger to
millennium; they are a fucking pitiful lot, numbering the us, one we should eliminate immediately.
Bratovitch, Grimaldi, Obertus, Zantosa and Oprichniki.
The hedonistic Szantovitch (Zantosa, if you prefer their
modern incarnation) may have been great spies once, but
TheRebellion
the nights of noble Poland and Bohemia are gone. Even by Devin and Alison Markbury of London
then, they were too independent; now, they’re close to Before the Sabbat came, the elder Tzimisce always
extinction and useless in the modern nights. That makes abused their authority over their progeny. Being a Fiend
them desperate and dangerous. The Bratovitches have meant surviving 100 hells and 1,000 degradations, just to
always been our dogs of war, and unfortunately, they’re claim some measure of autonomy. Unfortunately, from
acting like it too. Only the Italian-born Grimaldi and the the time the Ventrue under Nova Arpad came to influence
scholarly Obertus have managed to serve us loyally, while the Carpathian nights, the elder Tzimisce thought of their
still staying hidden. Still, you don’t think the Giovanni progeny as nothing more than nocked arrows ready for the
haven’t been trying to woo the Grimaldi from us or that flight. The inter-clan conflicts alone claimed their score of
the Obertus don’t still spy for the Dracon from their neonates, to say nothing of the Tzimisce-Tremere enmity.
nights in Constantinople? It won’t take much for either — Velya the Vivisectionist, Cardinal of the Land
family to betray us, you know. Beyond the Forest
Of final note are the Oprichniki; this lot troubles me. Cainite scholars say Patricia Bollingbroke started
The Oprichniki are the youngest of the revenants, with a the Anarch Revolt under the name Tyler and led her
history dating back only to the 16th century, during the band of berserks against Hardestadt of Clan Ventrue in
reign of Ivan the Terrible. This Russian dictator ruled 1395. Actually, the Anarch Movement began earlier
over Oprichnina and used his secret police to ferret out by a few centuries. The appearance of the Usurper
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