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The nights of the Victorian era represent a halcyon period for the mad Kindred of Clan Malkavian. Although too fractious as a clan to present a unified face of strength against other Kindred, individual Malkavians have certainly come into their own across the Empire and even somewhat in the untamed wilds beyond. The Malkavians themselves rarely acknowledge the phenomenon, either thrilling to their own new-found influence or carrying on as inscrutably as they ever have with no seeming understanding of their prominence.

Keen observers for the era attribute the rise in Malkavian influence to the fact that their metier corresponds to the Zeitgeist of the Empire. The Malkavians are the nexus point of rationality (though not sanity) and mysticism. For every Lunatic Embraced under the enlightening glare of Freud's new science, so, too, does a marauding prophet lurk in the darkness with an occult mien of more superstitious times. In the Victorian era, Malkavians are as iconic as the imperious Ventrue or the anachronistic Tzimisce - they populate the cross roads of mysticism and scientific thought.

Such bold statements, though, give the Malkavians far more credit than they deserve as a clan. The entirety of the bloodline rarely acts in congress, and the heightened prestige the Malkavians enjoy comes as a result of the ideals of the time only when compared with the achievements of the Malkavian in question. Indeed, Malkavian esteem comes as an external commodity, the product of an era that has just begun to see insanity as a codifiable illness rather than a curse of divine powers. At the same time, such madness is "in vogue" among the popular entertainments of the time, what with Gothic fiction exploring insanity and lurid tales of the street suggesting less-than-healthy criminals.

Clan Weakness
All members of Clan Malkavian suffer from a permanent, incurable derangement. They may acquire and recover from other derangements, but they can never recover from their primary derangement. Malkavians do not receive flaw XP for their primary derangement; however, they do receive flaw XP for additional derangements, as normal. Resetting a Malkavian’s Derangement traits places her at 1, rather than 0.

Nickname: Lunatics
Disciplines: Auspex, Dementation, Obfuscate

Powers of the Mind Made Manifest

The Victorian era precedes the "Great Prank" of the Malkavians that occurred in the late 20th century. For this chronicle, Camarilla Malkavians possess the Disciplines of Auspex, Dominate and Obfuscate, while Malkavian members of the Sabbat practice Auspex, Dementation and Obfuscate.

Overview

As ever, the Malkavians of the Victorian era remain fractious and motivated by their own unknowable stimuli. In spite of this however, the Malkavians have risen to a position of heretofore unattainable prominence. Little of this comes as a result of the Malkavians themselves - most members of the clan don't subscribe to the same sects of cultural or social mores that other clans hold in regard and act largely in accordance to what their own fractured minds deem appropriate.

Kindred society watches the Malkavians with a new-found fascination during the Victorian period. Just as mortal society has culturally subscribed to the idea that insanity is more than mere aberration, so, too have the Kindred, and it is with a morbid curiosity that many vampires now watch the Lunatics. Perhaps Kindred society simply misunderstood the Malkavians all along; perhaps the Lunatics represent a - what was Mr. Darwin's word? Evolutionary? - step in the direction of how the Race of Caine interacts with the world.

Then again, perhaps the Malkavians are simply twisted products of these turbulent times, and the modern "understanding" of them is little more than sympathy for the Devil's own. The Victorian period has given rise to more than a few horrific abominations. Phenomenon such as Jack the Ripper lead the Kindred to believe that any change can have significant consequences. Not all change is for the best, for example, and the Malkavians are just as likely to present problems as they are to yield insight.

The individual is the true measure of this mark - an uncommon opinion to bear during the Victorian era, but the Kindred have never been common.

Regardless of the truth of the matter (if such exists), other Kindred give the Malkavians a wide berth during the period, interested in seeing what effect the afflicted vampires might have upon the world. Whispers of more than a few nascent Malkavian politics have circulated through the Empire, citing influential elders of the clan, capable archons and even princes. Indeed, Malkavians seem to have a greater stake in the world than they have at any point previously. They are luminaries of the Camarilla, leaders of the Sabbat, patrons of the arts, scholars of the arcane, finders of mysteries and keepers of lore perhaps best left unknown. Malkavians lead coteries with the blessings of the Ivory Tower, earning great status by supporting the sect. They revel wildly in the barbarous lands, jumping fires and enacting blasphemous rights. During the Victorian era, it would seem, the only limits to the Lunatics' potential are the depths of their own depravities.

Domain

A wide and varied lot, Malkavians remain typically difficult to classify when it comes to the matter of domain. While they tend to be less feral than the Gangrel and less wander-prone than the Ravnos, some Malkavians prefer keeping domains relatively distant from other Kindred. In certain cases, this comes as a result of simple competition, as the Lunatic is less likely to have to defend a domain far from the city's prestigious territories. In other cases, the Malkavian becomes enamoured of or intrigued by some feature within the domain. The French Malkavian Hentri d'Invilliers, for example, has claimed only the Phoenix Rookery as his domain, and he feeds exclusively on the impoverished folk who dwell there.

Given the epochal rise of Malkavian status during the Victorian era, progressive princes have granted many Lunatics their own territories by way of concessions, appeasement or even enticement to alliance, as with many of the rising political stars of the clan. Often, these are lacklustre domains given a veneer of polish or inflated artificially in esteem by a prince's entourage, but the mere fact that recognised domain has come into Malkavian possession is a significant step in its own right.

Malkavian power waxes and waves almost as randomly as the Lunatics' sanity. On any given night a Malkavian may have vast influence in a region, or she may be pathetically impotent. Even when a Malkavian may claim right to significant domain, whether or not she remembers it is another story. Indeed, tales of Malkavians who were once prominent in a given area and have simply been lost to the mists of time run rampant during the period and may have been the sources of inspiration for many a Gothic tale of madness.

Certain lands have traditionally been the domains of Malkavians for as long as any kindred can remember. Malkavians always seem to come up when discussion turns to Rome, even though the Nosferatu lay a more reliable claim to that city, at least in so far as any Kindred can be said to have influence there. perhaps this is a lingering effect of the Malkavians' considerable power during the era of the Roman Empire. Malkavians also enjoy significant power in the Benelux area, as well as in occasional isolated pockets of Italy.

Even in these areas of reputed strength, Malkavian prominence varies by the efforts of the individuals themselves. Much as they often forget the areas of their granted domains, they occasionally forget their influence as well. Malkavians, while numerous in London for example, wield a disproportionately small amount of actual political clout, given that they are too fractious and too concerned with their own agendas - whatever those may be - to truly present an organised front.

Some Malkavians possess ties to fallen aristocratic families, eking out squalid unlives in dilapidated mansions or crumbling ancestral estates. Others steal away, hiding themselves in religious communities, filthy districts of town, sequestered suburban areas and other territories largely undesirable to most Kindred. As is the case with most of the Lunatics' decisions, the choice of their domains is as intensely personal as their madness.

Interests

As mentioned above, more than ever, Malkavians have plunged themselves into Kindred politics and, where they find an in, even mortal politics. Kindred thrilling to the fin de siècle at the close of the 19th century look to Malkavians as oracles of the end of the world, giving the Lunatics an odd degree of status and influence where before others considered them oddities and suffering wretches. The Malkavians themselves - at least those finding themselves embroiled in politics - have jumped into it wholeheartedly. Fortunately (in the opinions of their detractors), the clan remains too splintered to have any universal "Malkavian effect" that has swayed Camarilla policy one way or the other. While common, Malkavian influence remains a localised, isolated phenomenon. Individual Malkavians may wield unprecedented power among councils of primogen, speak with the prince's authority as seneschal, turn their keen insights to the purpose of sheriff or even claim domains as princes themselves.

Not every Malkavian partakes in the political pageantry of their fellows, however. The slow growth of organised "health care" has its fair share of Malkavian patrons as well, from alienists and patients of the various asylums to night staff at sanatoriums to private doctors on retainer to wealthy families. Flash houses and strongholds of the underworld equally appeal to Malkavians, and more than a few prominent criminal figures have the cursed blood of the insane in their veins.

Although Malkavians are often relegated to less distinguished social strata, the strange egalitarian inclinations exhibited by some Kindred of the era have allowed for the Lunatics to truly earn the esteem of their undead peers. Even if they eschew the high politics of princes and their entourages, some Malkavians cultivate power amid the halls of mortal politics. Whispers of mad generals, debased monks, fractured aristocrats and sadistic doctors may all have Malkavians behind them or at their core, assuming that they're not the products ofthe laudanum-addled minds of the era's poets. Still, Malkavian depravities can hardly be blamed for every aspect - or even most aspects - of the Victorian era. Although they are mad, most Malkavians understand the value of discretion. Their ranks include the most avid supporters of the Camarilla, from neonates to elders, and even their diseased minds knows the importance of remaining hidden from the eyes of living men. For this reason, many of the Lunatics choose to uphold the Ivory Tower even if they don't believe in the sects' larger politics. These Malkavians may not possess any title in the Camarilla, though they will vociferously espouse the virtues of the sect, perhaps avoiding the mention of the Ivory Tower by name is their personal tastes diverge from it.

The Victorian era constitutes a period of significant change, and some Malkavians tie themselves to the breakthroughs that occur almost nightly. The change from gaslight to electricity might have been a Malkavian's rant only a score of years ago, while the advances in science and medicine that take place with alarming (to the staid Kindred, at least) speed tonight might have been sheerest delusion in last quarter's collegiate journals. While they are rarely at the forefront of such developments, the Lunatics thrill to them, for they represent the ultimate realisation of the mind's potential. To wit, they are manifestations of the mind made real, and what Malkavian wouldn't want to bring forth the stuff of her fevered imagination to visit upon the world, just to see what happens? From the most chaotic maniac to the overly intellectual scholar, the triumph of reason that characterises the Victorian era, coupled with the boundless mysticism that colours it, is the ultimate in self-actualisation for the Malkavians.

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