Most Cappadocians spend their nights
engaged in studies of death, so it is not surprising that many of them
affect the dress of scholars and monks. Long dark robes, simply cut and
unadorned, are most common, though some also wear carved and painted masks,
fashioned to look like skulls or death-throes.
Members of the Clan of Death often choose
tombs and ossuaries, or the catacombs beneath cathedrals or monasteries,
where one more robed figure is unlikely to attract attention. They surround
themselves with reminders of mortality, often in the form of macabre works
of art.
Cappadocians select neonates from scholars
and the priesthood, though occasionally an executioner, tombrobber, thief
or Crusader is chosen for the Becoming. A love of learning and insatiable
curiosity are of the utmost importance if the neonate is to be able to
carry out the clan's research.
Most Cappadocians are learned folk and
those who are of a philosophical bent, including many of Scholar and Visionary
concepts. Mental Attributes are always primary, and Knowledges tend to
predominate over Skills and Talents. Though the ability to contribute to
the clan's knowledge of death is paramount, this is not to say that every
Graverobber is a weakling. Many prefer the Road of Heaven.
Auspex, Fortitude, Mortis
Now matter how much blood a Cappadocian
drinks, her skin will always remain pale and cold as a bloodless corpse.
Because of this deathly pallor, the difficulty for any Social roll is increased
by one, and they are more easily marked as vampires.
Note: If
you are using the optional system of Merits and Flaws, Cappadocians may
not take the Merit Sanguine
Humor.
Cappadocians are largely solitary and
meet only infrequently with each other to exchange knowledge. Each winter
all members of the clan who are able travel to a disused monastery, where
they perform secret rituals on the winter solstice.
In the end, we shall all end up as dust
- yes, even you, my brother. But are you really foolish enough to think
that will be the end of existence?
ssamites:
Killers who have no appreciation for the sacred
act they carry out time and again.
rujah:
They claim to fight for what they believe
in, but there is rarely any spiritual depth to their crusades.
ollowers
of Set: To corrupt another's soul
is surely the greatest crime imaginable. Although they believe themselves
to be masters of spiritual decay, they know little of the consequences
of their actions.
angrel:
In their attempt to reconcile man and
beast, they have left their higher selves behind.
asombra:
With all their talk of darkness, they
forget that without light, there can be no shadow.
alkavians:
To see into the realms of the spirit
as they do requires true wisdom and self-knowledge. While others dismiss
them as fools and madmen, we know the wisdom behind their eyes.
osferatu:
Always hiding, always afraid to let
people see them for what they are. What kind of toll does this constant
deception take on their souls?
aavnos:
Vagabonds and beggars who debase the
name vampyr with their childish games.
oreador:
Their search to understand the eternal
through art is admirable, but until they learn to look beyond the temporal
world they are doomed to fail.
remere:
Upstarts who seek a power they cannot
hope to understand. A little knowledge of the occult arts can be a dangerous
thing indees, as they will doubtless learn in time.
zimisce:
Mastery of the flesh is admirable;
if they could but see beyond it...
entrue:
Their realm is the temporal, fleeting
world of mortal power. Admirable allies, they have achieved near mastery
of what they set their sights on.
aali:
Fools. If they truly understood the
meaning of the eternity beyond death, they would not talk of it so lightly.