Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

Try though they might, the Kindred are not, and never can be, truly a part of mortal society.
Regardless of their feelings, their wishes or their intentions, vampires are always separate from
those around them. They are wolves amid the sheep, and their very nature prevents them from
ever forgetting or ignoring that fact. No matter how much one of the Kindred might love a
mortal and wish to stay with him, the Blood calls constantly. The Beast threatens a frenzy that
all too often results in the violent death of those held dear. The Kindred inability to withstand
the gaze of the sun separates them irrevocably from the greater portion of the culture, the
society and the life that surrounds them. They are provincial creatures who think almost solely
on a local level, because the greater portion of the world is well beyond their reach.
Mortals create communities, almost despite themselves. They portion off nations, celebrating
cultures that have evolved over centuries, if not millennia. They are all part of something
greater than themselves, even if they fail — or choose not — to acknowledge it.
The Kindred, however, are bound to the cities that the kine — the living — have created,
and each of those cities is a distinct domain. The Kindred have no nations, no overarching
government; the local ruler is the only ruler. Although a vampire retains a sense of identity
or memories from her mortal life, she does not belong. She is no longer a part of whatever
greater body with which she identifi ed. Rather, any loyalty or sense of belonging she has is
limited to local circles: fealty to the Prince, membership in a covenant or clan. These are the
only connections the Kindred can truly maintain, the only cultures of which they are truly
part, and it is upon them that the entirety of their society is built.
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chapter one: society of the damned
The Embrace
It begins with death — a torrid rush of blood spilling from the throat or wrist of the victim.
At the right moment, the vampire tears her own skin and places a few drops of precious Vitae
on the lips of the victim. The dark magic works its blasphemous miracle then. The vessel
dies… yet he doesn’t. While his natural processes cease, his sire’s Vitae infuses him with the
force that sustains him beyond death. This is the Embrace, the fi rst step from existence as a
mortal into the modern-gothic world of the Damned.
What is the secret? What causes vampires to rise from beyond their natural life, to consume
the blood of their erstwhile mortal fellows? Even the most erudite of the vampiric race do
not know. Origin stories trace vampirism back to the Bible, to pagan ways and witchcraft, to
the infamous Vlad Dracul, to the Devil himself and to any number of other sources. Every
culture in the world has vampires in its mythology, and likely among its populace as well.
“The Kindred condition” is an utter mystery, with an unknown number of members but no
shortage of would-be prophets and philosophers with their own dogmas, theories and heresies
as to the meaning or genesis of damnation.
If anything is certain, it’s that the Embrace is not some kind of blessed immortality. Existence
as a vampire is a curse, and quite possibly a curse handed down by God Himself. While
being one of the undead certainly has its advantages — Disciplines (the mystical and eldritch
powers of the Damned), deathlessness, the potential to transcend mortal boundaries — the
drawbacks easily outweigh them. The price of undeath is steep, as foolish romantics infatuated
by the myth of the vampire occasionally learn. One is forever apart from the world into
which he was born, unconsciously shunned by it. Indeed, he can only pretend to be a part of
it, and even that for only a short while, as the vampiric state forces him to prey on that world.
It is his sustenance now, rather than his company. Never again shall a vampire see the light of