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Volume One :Curses Writ in Blood

Book One : Curses of the Clans

The Endless Death

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Credits and Contents2

S&B

What is The Endless Death?The Endless Death is a series which seeks to

refine and expand upon many aspects of the V20 rules, including incorporating concepts and systems from Dark Ages: Vampire in a way consistent with the modern setting. There are four volumes planned, as detailed below.

Volume One - Curses Writ in Blood expands on the weaknesses (re-termed ‘Curses’) of the Clans, refining existing ones and creating new ones, as well as providing new Traits to represent the physical and spiritual degradations certain vaampires are cursed with.

Volume Two - The Blood of Caine covers in greater detail the Clans, Bloodlines, and Lineages of Kindred; the Embrace and the Becoming which follows it; feeding and the uses of blood; the creation and quasi-mystical nature of havens; and the creation of non-human ghouls and revenants.

Volume Three - Damnation and Salvation goes into the drives, powers, and origins of the Beast; how vampires may resist and overcome it, including the Paths and the Roads; the Yearning which compels Kindred to sire; and those vampires who fall and become wights.

Volume Four - The Gifts of Lilith revises Disciplines and blood sorcery; details the Inception of new Disciplines by Caitiff and the limits faced by thinbloods; and introduces artefacts imbued with vampiric power, both ancient and new.

Each volume is also split into a number of books, the first containing the core concepts and mechanics of that volume, with supplemental ones released later providing further but non-essential information. These additional books will not be sold separately, but available to everyone who owns the corresponding volume as a separate product downloadable at no extra cost. The price of volumes updated in this way will not increase, nor will volumes be priced according to how many additional books are planned or eventually released.

Authors: Sam Myatt and Ben Allsop.

Cover artist: Bill Sienkiewicz.

The text on page 13 is taken from The Erciyes Fragments by C.S. Friedman.

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Curses of the Clans

Introduction 12

Chapter One: The First Cursed 14

Lasombra 14

No Reflection 14

Aura of Shadow 16

Pull of the Abyss 17

Toreador 18

Transfixion 18

Amidst the Canaille 19

The Great Game 21

Suffer for My Art (Toreador antitribu) 22

Tremere 23

Humilitas 23

Industria 24

Temperantia 25

Stigma of Betrayal (Tremere antitribu) 26

Tzimisce 27

Native Land 27

Crossing Boundaries 28

Laws of Hospitality 29

Ventrue 30

Rarefied Tastes 31

Above All Others 32

Maintaining Decorum 33

Chapter Two: Base and Broken 34

Brujah 34

Passionate Beast 34

Anything for the Cause 35

Never Hold Back 37

Gangrel 38

Marks of the Beast 38

Primal Urges 39

Call of the Wild 41

Lure of the City (City Gangrel) 41

Song of the Deep (Gangrel Aquarii) 42

Malkavian 43

Malkav’s Gift 43

Strange Things Happen When You’re Around 44

Away with the Fairies 50

Nosferatu 51

The Face of Horror 51

Gracious Hosts 52

With Your Own Kind (Bestials) 53

Lost Beauty (Cleopatras) 55

Dirty Habits (Fagins) 56

Lashing Out (Leatherfaces) 57

Hoarding Secrets (Loremasters) 58

The Endless Death: Curses Writ in Blood 3

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Credits and Contents4

Part of the Herd (Martyrs) 59

Any Face But Mine (Skins) 60

Chapter Three: Stains of Iniquity 62

Assamite 62

The Darkening 62

Sin of the Father 63

Blood Curse (Warriors) 64

Curse of Tyre (Warriors) 64

Blatancy (Sorcerers) 66

Obsession (Viziers) 67

Baali 68

Repelled by Faith 68

Infernal Signs 69

Touch of the Divine 70

Followers of Set 71

Photophobia 71

Shaking the Aeons’ Cage 72

Sutekh’s Will 73

Lure of Power (Warrior Setites) 74

Offering the Hand of Salvation (Warrior Setites) 75

Giovanni 77

Curse of the Lamia 77

Morbid Curiosity 79

Family Matters (Giovanni) 80

Draw of the Exotic (Della Passaglia) 80

Sawney’s Delicacy (Dunsirn) 81

Spectre of Guilt (Ghiberti) 82

Keeping Up Appearances (Milliner) 83

Vendetta (Puttanesca) 84

Stygian Sight (Rossellini) 85

Ravnos 86

Virtue and Vice 86

Call of Naraka 88

Wanderlust 90

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The Endless Death: Curses Writ in Blood 5

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But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD

thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I

command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake

thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body,

and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou

goest out. The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all

that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until

thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast

forsaken me.

Deuteronomy 28:15-20

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Journal of the Gentlemen’s Society for theRational Investigation of Super-Natural Matters

Vol. 165 (2018)The Endless Death: An Examination of the Vampiric Condition

DR. NANCY O. REAGEChilde of Dr. Douglas NetchurchGrandchilde of Trimeggian

DR. FLORENTINA LENGAUERChilde of Dr. Reiner StoschkaGrandchilde of Trimeggian

AbstractThis collaborative thesis is the first in a series which seeks to cast aside the velvet curtain obfuscating our

true natures, revealing the facts behind what we truly are. It shows the depths to which the Curse of Caine manages to take root, the apparent process of evolution taking shape amongst our kind, the many Roads through which many of us combat the ‘Beast Within’ (and along which some even seek a cure for vampirism), and an in-depth study into the powers of the Blood and those objects which have been infused with it. By expanding upon previous research conducted by Drs. Douglas Netchurch, Reiner Stoschka, Aristotle deLaurent, and Alistair Grout, we not only aim to broaden modern perspectives and increase the depth of knowledge regarding our condition, but to elevate the standing of the Mnemosyne, our mutual lineage. We are indebted also to the work of Drs. Manfred Machner, Harold Schere, and Maxius of Clan Tremere, and Dr. Beckett of Clan Gangrel (himself an honorary one of us).

This first paper makes a study of the ‘Curses’ suffered by each and every member of our race. According to Noddist lore, Caine cursed his descendants for their treachery against his childer of the Second Generation. Whether he intended these curses to mutate as the vampires themselves did is unclear, but what is evident is that each and every variant of Kindred kind have also experienced changes in their Curses. The Dark Father’s descendants have only continued this tendency, cursing each other on more than one occasion. The wide array of Curses make unlife difficult in more subtle ways than just the effects they provide. Just like the long-reaching effects of the fall of Babel, each additional Curse inflicted upon the Kindred race serves to segregate them and drive each Clan, Bloodline, and Lineage from each other. Ventrue struggle to live amongst Gangrel, Nosferatu to brush shoulders with Toreador, and Ravnos to coexist with Brujah. These and other divisions all serve to drive wedges between Kindred.

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Journal of the Gentlemen’s Society for theRational Investigation of Super-Natural Matters

Vol. 165 (2018)MethodologyIn order to discern the various Curses presented by each Clan, differentiating one from the other, we have

performed study and testing simultaneously upon members of specific Clans and a member of the Clanless breed, also known as Caitiff in addition to various derogatory epithets. For the purpose of this study we have chosen to eschew such loaded terminology, instead using ‘Clanless’ in all cases. The sociological and eschatological factors surrounding the Clanless were deemed irrelevant to the focus of our research, and our terminology has been chosen to reflect this.

One Clanless vampire, referred to from hereon as the CCS (Clanless Control Subject), has undergone every examination to account for all known Clan Curses, so as to generate a baseline Kindred model. We provide below a detailed explanation of each identifiable Curse in this model, the legends surrounding them, and an explanation based in reason rather than the mysticism with which these phenomena are usually described and discussed. Our working hypothesis is that the Curses suffered by Clanless (and thus all known Kindred) result form the nature of vitae as a unique bacterial infection which animates deceased flesh by way of the by-products produced by bacterial cells.

The Mark of CaineIssuer: Adam or God.Myth: As Caine was cast out by his ‘father’ - not specifically by God, according to the Book of Nod - we

presume here that Adam originally cursed Caine. Caine was sentenced to wander the world alone and that any harm dealt to him would return to the attacker sevenfold. It is believed that this secondary aspect of this Curse was specific to Caine (though rumours persist of masters of Fortitude and Potence being able to mimic it), but the isolation is still experienced by Kindred today in a lessened form.

The children of Seth relied heavily on animals - livestock for food, beasts of burden for work and travel, birds for messaging and scouting, dogs and cats for protection. These were alongside the abundance of animal life which parasitically thrived alongside human tribes - rats, coyotes, insect life, and opportunistic birds - and the beasts dwelling in the shadows of the forest waiting to prey on man - bears, big cats, wolves. In any role, animals were an integral part of human life. Caine was rendered incapable of settling in a human tribe due to the severe reaction to him demonstrated by animals.

It is possible that the animals tended to by Abel were in fact the ones who carried this Curse as an ability to see Caine’s supernature - to act as his judge, jury, and executioners on earth. This ability will have then been passed down to all the beasts on Earth, if somewhat diluted in the modern nights - as the Curse of Caine has through the generations. Whatever the true cause may be, animals of any variety - including primates - are disturbed by the presence of vampires, becoming unruly and agitated. If the vampire acts in any way provocative the beast will succumb to either a fight or flight frenzy, which ever comes naturally, possibly feeling threatened by the vampire’s overpowering Beast Within.

Rationale: The current hypothesis is that animals are provoked by an unknown emission generated by the vitae infection present in the Kindred blood - possibly a vitae-induced mutation of the electromagnetic field emitted by the brain. This signal may also be how the psychic connection is formed during blood bonds, with bacterial cells somehow communicating with one another through a discreet form of signaling. It is also worth noting that it is well known that many animals can detect the presence of illness in other creatures and strive to avoid it; this may well be the same process through which animals sense that Kindred are ‘other’.

System: A vampire may only come within ten feet (minus his Animal Ken rating) of any animal before the creature succumbs to a full-blown frenzy, which may be fight or flight depending on the animal’s prey or predator role, the vampire’s attitude, and the Storyteller’s discretion. Any vampire outside this range, but still within ten times of it, causes animals to become agitated and restless, and if he is visible they fixate on him as

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Journal of the Gentlemen’s Society for theRational Investigation of Super-Natural Matters

Vol. 165 (2018)a potential threat or rival predator. This Curse is offset entirely by a vampire having the Animalism Discipline at any level, possibly due to its apparent dilution from the reproduction of the animals of Abel in the first nights.

The Curse of FireIssuer: Archangel Michael.Myth: The Archangel Michael, God’s sword and the general of his hosts, descended first upon Caine

with an offer of redemption, which Caine proudly refused. He unleashed his wrath as Caine’s father had before him, inflicting upon Caine a mortal susceptibility to fire, and a deep fear of flame to go with it. This susceptibility causes fire to consume the flesh of Kindred unlike any damage it would naturally do to humans’ bodies, and the Beast is sensitive to the presence of fire in what is called Rötschreck, ‘the Red Fear’.

Rationale: The rationale behind this and the following Curse are one and the same. The bacterial cells within vitae are believed to react to the radiation emissions of plasma - a recently discovered state of matter alongside solid, liquid, and gas - which defines both fire and the sun.

The reaction to such emissions is the denaturing and possible combustion of the Kindred’s blood. If the blood comes in contact with fire, its emissions are then strong enough to cause the rest of the body to ignite, though not from a distance as with sunlight.

System: This Curse is the source of the damage caused to Kindred by fire, and the fear frenzies they may suffer when in its presence, as described in V20 (pages 297 and 299, respectively).

The Curse of DawnThe damage caused by the sun is the most commonly held cliché surrounding the Kindred race, even being

common knowledge amongst the majority of mortals in the modern nights. So strong is the force of this Curse that even when the sun is encroaching, moments before dawn rises, all Kindred know the feeling of fatigue heralding the sun’s approach.

Issuer: Archangel Uriel or Raphael.Myth: The Archangel Uriel, or sometimes Raphael, is said to have approached Caine with a second message

from God offering redemption, which he again refused. Enraged by this, the angel cursed Caine further by promising that if he or his legions were ever to see Caine by the divine light of the sun, he would be destroyed.

From that point on, Caine was not only forced to walk alone, far from the tribes of man, but forced to walk in the darkness of the night. Long before the advent of widespread lighting mankind had no reason or desire to work or travel by the night; instead they almost exclusively worked by day and slept by night. Being cast aside from the comings and goings of man by day further isolated Caine from humanity.

Rationale: The sun, being the largest concentration of plasma, produces emissions strong enough to penetrate the flesh and ignite the blood lying just beneath during direct skin contact. When the sun’s radiation makes only superficial contact with the vampire’s blood during the day - after passing through his haven or similar shelter - it denatures the vitae, thus reducing its capacity for animation; this is how Vitae Efficacy Units are gradually lost over time.

Modern lights that generate plasma are far too small and too contained to produce such an effect. Theoretically, remaining near a large enough fire would produce this reaction, while living far enough below the Earth’s surface (or behind many layers of radiation protection) would mitigate it.

System: As with the Curse of Fire, the Curse of Dawn causes fear and damage from sunlight (see V20 pages 299 and 302, respectively), as well as the struggle vampires must undergo to awaken and remain awake

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Journal of the Gentlemen’s Society for theRational Investigation of Super-Natural Matters

Vol. 165 (2018)during the day (see the Awakening Mental Feat on V20 pages 262-263).

A vampire may choose to remain awake during the day, however, and does not fall unconscious at the moment of dawn. He will instead feel groggy and lacking in energy, suffering a -1 dice pool penalty during dawn and twilight, a -2 penalty during late morning and afternoon, and a -3 penalty around noon.

The Curse of AshesIssuer: Archangel Gabriel or Uriel.Myth: Gabriel followed Uriel - or Uriel followed Raphael - offering Cain a chance at redemption and to win

back God’s love, which he still rejected (though in some sources it is Uriel himself who came third). Saddened by Caine’s betrayal of God and the Host, Gabriel cursed him to hunger for that which Lilith had used to empower him outside of God’s light: blood. Gabriel filled the hole within Caine’s soul, caused inherently by his murder, with vitae, created from the life essence of humanity. This vitae would keep Caine satisfied for as long as he possessed it, though as each night passed he would lose his grip on this borrowed life and have to steal more. Due to his soul being in part the essence of innumerable others, he would be incapable of ever passing over - neither the passing of years nor the ills of humanity would draw out his soul, making him immortal but unliving. As the terms of the most severe of all the Archangels’ Curses, these afflictions then passed down through his cursed blood virtually unchanged.

Rationale: The vitae infection incubates in human blood and restarts the processes of human cells as a by-product of its own existence, which results in the ‘living death’ of Kindred. Because the body is animated by this proliferated infection, ageing is nullified and bodily destruction is much more difficult to achieve than in humans, except for the vulnerabilities of the previous Curses. Each night, as one Efficacy Vitae Efficacy Units denatured by the sun’s radiation, the bacteria must replenish their lost reserves through consumption, as the reanimated body no longer creates its own.

System: This single Curse accounts for many aspects of vampirism, making it the one most frequently felt: carnal immortality, the need for blood to remain animated, the undeniable Hunger for that blood, the difficulty in destroying vampires, and torpor. See Chapter Six of V20 for various systems regarding vampiric health, damage, and Final Death, hunger frenzies, the use of blood, and torpor.

The Curse of HumanityIssuer: Archangel Raphael or GabrielMyth: A fourth and final archangel, variously identified as Raphael or Gabriel, approached Caine as his

came to terms with the new unliving state, He declared that in spite of everything, God had not yet abandoned him and yet was no longer willing to offer forgiveness freely. Instead, Caine was told he had to overcome the sinful urges - some his own, and some caused by his new Curses - to once again become pure. Raphael placed a wall in Caine’s mind between his conscious and subconscious mind - the former was able to make enlightened human decisions, while the latter was only able to act instinctively and for its own sake. By not only maintaining this wall but reinforcing it through conscientious acts and diligent self-control, Caine would be given salvation by his demonstration of penance. However, if Caine were to ignore this mental barrier, it would crumble and the more powerful lower self would irreparably exert its primitive urges upon Caine, making him only capable of base degeneracy. The Beast had been born as a result of the Curses of God’s angels, and Caine was left to live with it clawing for freedom for all time.

Rationale: The vitae bacteria seem to be affected by endorphins and adrenaline in positive and adverse ways, respectively, but the limited function of the human system means the chance of any generation of these chemicals is remote. When the vampire achieves tasks which respond positively with his deepest held-beliefs, the neurological reaction is profound enough to generate endorphins, which in turn allows the bacteria to perform more efficient functions - making the vampire seem more ‘alive’ or ‘ human’. By contrast,

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Journal of the Gentlemen’s Society for theRational Investigation of Super-Natural Matters

Vol. 165 (2018)the adrenaline produced by performing actions opposing his basic moral ideals retards the bacteria, making him appear less vital. Unfortunately, unlife leads us towards more heinous acts, resulting in more frequent degeneration than regeneration, as well as the heightened propensity for anger our species possesses due to the effects of a permanently infected brain.

System: The rules for the degeneration caused by this Curse are found on pages 309-311 of V20. A full study of the Beast and the Wights that result in a vampire losing her battle with the Beast will be presented in The Endless Death, Volume Three: Damnation and Salvation.

The Curse of Blood-WisdomIssuer: The Crone.Myth: Long after being cursed by his Father and an array of archangels, all on behalf of God, Cain sought

out both the company and wisdom of an equally forsaken being named simply the Crone. Cain had helped to develop the First City, a domain wherein humanity served as slaves. He Embraced and created childer, controlling his city like an emperor, but his childer became unruly and independent. She agreed to provide him with a method of controlling his childer, but in so doing she tricked him into becoming bonded to her. She fed him her blood on three consecutive nights, using her mastery of the magical arts to dominate his very soul. Once he was bound to her he gave her the Embrace, completely contradicting his initial trepidation about his childer becoming unruly, the blood bond making her request impossible to resist.

Rationale: Vitae, being an infection, splits into separate strains for each vampire. When an alien strain of vitae infects a vampire it creates a link between the two Kindred, as the infected is gradually becoming the infector. With three exposures to another vampire’s vitae, the infection is complete and the infected vampire’s mind is overpowered by the infector’s vitae. The connection may well come from the same symptom as the Mark of Caine, a thus-far undetectable signal transmitted between vitae cells, capable of traveling from the infector’s vitae to the ‘colony’ of his vitae living within the infected vampire, thus creating an apparent psychic bond between the two Kindred.

System: The rules for blood bonds are found on page 287 of V20.The Curse of WoodIssuer: The Crone.Myth: After a period of bondage under the Crone, Caine felt the bond wearing off, for she had neglected to

maintain it. He tricked her in turn, complaining of dreams of betrayal and asking her for means to deal with a treacherous childe. She created a stake from gopher wood, explaining that if driven into the heart of a vampire it would paralyze him and leave him at the wielder’s mercy. Caine immediately did so to her, leaving her for the sun’s rays - just as Princes do as punishment tonight.

Rationale: Presuming that the above rationales are true, it is easy to conclude that vitae reacts to chemicals and compounds present in wood. When the wood enters a vampire’s heart - the focal point of his vitae infection - the vitae enters a form of toxic shock, shutting down all non essential functions - including large-scale cellular animation - until the toxin is removed. The reason full decay does not occur when a vampire enters torpor must be that not all of its vitae is rendered inert, only a significant percentage. Those vitae cells still active elsewhere in the body perform their animation processes as normal, holding back the full atrophy of the human body.

Further study will lead us to the injection of an array of concentrates and essential oils found in wood to determine which specific chemical compound is so effective against the vitae bacteria. This compound may prove effective in the treatment of blood bonds in both Kindred and mortals.

System: The rules for staking vampires are found on page 280 of V20.

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Introduction12

The Damned are no strangers to curses, to say the least. Indeed, their unliving condition bears the moniker of ‘the Curse of Caine’, bringing with it multiple, smaller Curses which impose flaws, restrictions, and vulnerabilities that even taken alone would irreparably ruin any mortal’s life. Brought together, they bring about a state of true wretchedness which only worsens with age as the ennui of carnal immortality sets in. Were this not already insufferable enough, each vampire knows further banes derived from his Clan or bloodline.

These are presented in V20 as weaknesses, which mechanically speaking define a character’s Clan alongside the Disciplines. What Curses Writ in Blood seeks to do is expand greatly on this element of the game, not only making weaknesses (re-termed as Curses) progressive and deeper in nature, but providing two new and equally detailed ones for each Clan and bloodline.

Curses of the Clans, the first book of this volume, focuses on the core thirteen Clans and those antitribu and other offshoots who demonstrate significantly different Curses, as well as the Baali (who shall be treated as a Clan throughout this book and all future installments of The Endless Death).

How to Use this Book

Chapter One: The First Cursed details the Curses of Clans Lasombra, Toreador, Tremere, Tzimisce, and Ventrue - those afflictions which, in their conceited minds, elevate them above lower Kindred and one another.

Chapter Two: Base and Broken contains the Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, and Nosferatu Curses, exploring many of the most extreme permutations of the vampiric body and mind.

Chapter Three: Stains of Iniquity describes the strange, scarcely-understood Curses of the Assamites (including all three Castes), Baali, Followers of Set, Giovanni (and most of their major Families), and Ravnos.

How Curses Work

Each Clan is given three Curses, the first of which usually matches the weakness given for that Clan in V20, though in a few cases (such as the Baali and Gangrel) it has been split into two Curses. The other two are normally optional. It should also be noted that almost every Curse splits into levels, which are passed through in various ways. Some are labelled as supplementary, meaning they add on to the effects of previous levels; others are labelled as replacements, meaning they override previous levels.

Introduction

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13 The Endless Death: Curses Writ in Blood

Caine Curses the Clans(from the Erciyes Fragments Part IV: Transgressions)

Behold, she who thought of nothing but her own fleeting pleasure,Shall by her own pleasure be enslaved.

He who claimed innocence because the Beast ruled him,Shall be slave to the Beast forever.

He who took no action, but abandoned others to their fate,Shall be himself outcast, and trusted by no one.

She who used the wild beasts for allies in her killingShall become a beast herself, so that all men revile her.

He who sought to hide his monstrous deedsShall become monstrous in visage, and doomed to dwell in offal and darkness.

He who revelled in the darkness of his own foul hungerShall be bound to that darkness forever, kin to the most vile, accursed by God.

He who loved death for death’s own sakeShall wear death’s countenance for all to see and fear.

Behold my proudest childe, whose own pride betrayed him.Let the blood of the humble sicken him, and give him no sustenance.

Behold my darkest childe, who killed with shadows.Let the shadows veil his soul, so that all may know his crime.

Behold my most loveless childe, who fed upon his brother’s pain.Let him know equal torment in any domain but his own.

Behold my most deadly childe, who loved murder for its own sake.Let him be addicted to the taste of killing, so that all may fear and loathe him.

Behold my most foolish childe, who claims madness for his pleasure.Let him become mad in truth, so that all may fear his company.

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Chapter One: The First Cursed14

In past nights, the ‘High Clans’ - a category no longer entirely appropriate, but which still has merit in the minds of many elders - claimed for themselves the title of the First Cursed, basing their greater status on the grounds that Caine marked them before all others. Whoever came first, and despite the shift in one of the member Clans - from Brujah to Tremere - the High Clan’s Curses are no doubt ancient.

The consequences for individual Kindred’s nightly existence have contributed to the culture of each High Clan over the centuries; the Curses have not quite been made into strengths, but they certainly serve as tools for control - and not just within the Clans. For instance, the most well-known Curse of the Lasombra, and all those of the Tzimisce, tie into the fabled weaknesses of the living dead, which many claim are owed to the Camarilla weaponising its influence in culture to expose its Sabbat enemies.

LasombraIn every Lasombra, from the Antediluvian

himself to the youngest bloodcrazed shovelhead fresh from the soil, lies a seed of utter darkness and negation. It is through this small but potent fragment of the infinite Abyss that they draw forth the living shadow of Obtenebration, but it comes

with its prices. These are largely seen in the eyes of others, as a shroud which surrounds the spiritual aura of a Keeper and the fading of his reflection, but the Abyss weighs also on his mind, calling him to the closest thing to it known on Earth - the depths of the sea.

No ReflectionThe lack of a reflection, it is said, points to the

absence of a soul, and since Bram Stoker’s Dracula it has been widely known among the kine as a trait of the living dead. If it is the Clan of Shadows who are almost alone in truly bearing this mark, questions arise as to the status of the vampiric soul - and especially that of a Lasombra.

The Curse in fact extends beyond the scientific definition of a reflection, causing Lasombra to appear in no reflective surface or any other means of directly capturing their image, including digital film and photography (though artistic depictions are unaffected).

A Keeper’s clothing and any held, carried, or worn possessions also disappear in reflections. A sword separated from a disarmed Lasombra appears out of nowhere in a mirror or in recorded footage, as does a luxurious black fur coat as it is taken from her shoulders by a broken-minded ghoul (or other, less tangible attendant).

Chapter One: The First Cursed

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15 The Endless Death: Curses Writ in Blood

Level 1

Beginning with a slight faintness following the Embrace, the Lasombra’s reflection grows more and more indistinct over the course of the Becoming until it disappears entirely, leaving no trace.

System: This level has no mechanical effects as such, but the consequences for the Masquerade may be dire. The vampire effectively has the Cast No Reflection Flaw (see V20 page 494) at no recompense, meaning she not visible in any reflection in mirrors, still pools of water, polished metal, photographs, or closed circuit television. Once the Lasombra reaches 100 years of age as a vampire, the Curse advances to level 2.

Level 2 (replacement)

After a century of unlife, the Lasombra occasionally notices an indistinct, shadowy figure standing in her place in a full-body mirror or seated in the same pose in the rear-view mirror of her limousine. It appears infrequently and only for a few moments - at least at first. Though only the Keeper is likely to notice it with any regularity, it is visible to other Cainites, and more crucially to mortals. More than one vampire has met her end

because the wrong human caught a glimpse of a wispy black silhouette imitating her movements, only to realise she had no true reflection.

System: For each century of age, the Lasombra has a cumulative 10% chance of causing a shade to manifest in a mirror she would otherwise appear in, which remains for one turn per century when it does appear. This may occur no more than once per scene. When the Lasombra reaches 1000 years of the blood, the Curse advances to level 3.

Level 3 (replacement)

Once the Lasombra becomes a methuselah, her mirror-shade has not only taken on greater solidity but has come to replace her own shadow; it is as though light itself is absorbed by her, casting nothing. The shade no longer mimics its ‘owner’, at least not all the time, and may demonstrate disconcerting behaviours such as waiting in a mirror for the Lasombra to arrive, or miming sneaking up on her or others. That the mirror-shade serves as no less a viable source for Obtenebration than a natural shadow is cold comfort. Many a Keeper of such great age becomes struck with the feeling that something unnamable has been irrevocably lost to the Abyss.

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16 Chapter One: The First Cursed

System: While the Lasombra no longer casts a shadow, her mirror-shade is now permanent and much more solid. It is no longer constrained to mirrors the Lasombra would appear in were it not for the Curse, though it never strays far. The shade can be used as a source for Obtenebration powers.

Aura of ShadowThe Abyss leaves another, outer mark on all

Lasombra in the form of a blackness in their auras, indicative of a malaise that hangs about the vampire’s spirit. This darkness is distinct from the presence of black in an aura attached to feelings of hatred, as well as from the jagged black veins that identify a diablerist, and cannot be mistaken for them. Delving into the Abyss’s forbidden secrets spurs on the Curse as the Void takes up a greater and greater place in the Lasombra’s soul.

Level 1

The Curse begins as a barely noticeable darkening in shade from the normally pallid aura of a vampire. This proceeds as the Lasombra’s mastery of Obtenebration advances, until the difference becomes detectable by all aura-readers.

System: A character using Aura Perception (Auspex ••) or similar power requires three successes to discern the characteristic darkness of the Lasombra. Once the Lasombra has acquired a number of levels of Obtenebration equal to half her permanent Willpower, the Curse advances to level 2.

Level 2 (replacement)

The Abyss’s corruption is now easily recognised in the Keeper’s aura, and begins to manifest in even more sinister ways. When she calls directly upon this connection to summon or manipulate shadows, this darkness spreads beyond the usual ‘space’ auras occupy, even beginning to bleed a small way into the auras of others. Those who suffer this spiritual invasion find themselves lingering on thoughts of darkness and emptiness, and for a moment feel in some way less substantial.

System: The difference in the Lasombra’s aura is obvious to all successful aura-readers, requiring only a single success to detect. Every time the

Lasombra uses an Obtenebration power or Abyss Mysticism ritual (see Rites of the Blood pages 37-39), she must roll Self-Control (difficulty equal to 4 + the level of the power or ritual, to a maximum of 9).

If she succeeds, nothing happens, but if she fails, a number of individuals in her vicinity have their auras invaded by her own and effectively gain the first level of this Curse for the rest of the scene. Should the vampire ever physically enter the Abyss - whether through the use of a power such as Shadow Lair (Lore of the Clans page 124), having Oubliette used on him (V20 page 191), or through some other means - the Curse advances to level 3.

Level 3 (replacement)

Upon entering and (if she is fortunate) leaving the Abyss for the first time, the Lasombra brings back some element of it with her. This otherworldly power blackens the vampire’s aura such that it becomes a window into Oblivion itself. The haze surrounding the vampire’s body begins consuming even inanimate features of the world around it, including aspects of the Lasombra’s own person. In time, light and even hope are pulled into the Lasombra’s presence, to be extinguished by the grasping nothingness of the Abyss.

System: The Lasombra’s aura deadens sources of energy, creating a zone of nullification. This is visible to all those in any way capable of perceiving the supernatural, even if they do not actively use any powers to do so, and envelops a large area of the astral plane around the vampire. Even light in the physical world struggles to pass through the Lasombra’s immediate vicinity, immediately indicating that something is deeply wrong. Even non-sensitive beings may see a perpetual dark haze surrounding the Kindred after passing a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 9).

In addition, any beings who come into physical contact with this haze suffer a similar fate as provided by the second level of this Curse. If the vampire uses an Obtenebration power or Abyss Mysticism ritual, those affected by it suffer from level 2 of this Curse for the remainder of the scene (and may then go on to infect others with level 1).

Sample

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