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While the expanses of the Queen's empire might include some of the most glorious sights ever to grace mortal eyes, they also harbour some of the most hideous things ever to skulk away from them. Beneath the streets, lurking below the docks, hidden in shadows and behind the soaring Gothic spires of churches scuttle the loathsome Nosferatu. This is an era of haves and have-nots, and the Sewer Rats certainly embody the plight of those latter. Resigned to their own filthy domains and looked down upon by practically every other Kindred, the fate of the Nosferatu is largely the same as it has been since time immemorial.
Nosferatu have never been Kindred to shy away from what destiny has dealt them, though, and the Victorian era finds them as hardy as every they have been. They remain the unparalleled masters of hiding from eyes they would prefer not to see them, and this ability allows them to harvest information as well, veiled as they are from less acute senses. When one wants information, one consults the Sewer Rats - and everyone knows it.
Less widely known, however, is the potential for unbordered humanity that some Nosferatu possess. It would seem that the Curse of Caine that disfigures them physically also has a tendency to foster a sympathy rarely found in others of the Kindred. Not that this is always the case - a trespasser pleading mercy in a territorial Sewer Rat's domain and hoping to scamper away unscathed may well find himself the worse for the wear, if not meeting Final Death itself.
Clan Weakness
All Nosferatu are inhumanly ugly. Nosferatu cannot have the Appearance attribute focus.
Nickname: Sewer Rats
Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
Overview
The Nosferatu have plied their information-brokering trade for as long as Kindred can remember, and the Victorian era certainly doesn't change this oeuvre. In fact, the technological progress of the times has given the Sewer Rats more and more opportunities to exchange their hoary tidbits of information. The telegraph makes communication between Nosferatu warrens extremely expedient, the railways allow Sewer Rat colleagues to visit each other with less worry during travels through the wilderness, and the rampant occultism of the time even allows those rare few Nosferatu sorcerers to exchange wisdom through more arcane means.
There's more to the Nosferatu than simply spies, however. Many of the icons of the era, such as sprawling slums and decrepit mansions, also play host to the attentions of the Nosferatu. What the Sewer Rats lack in beauty, they make up for in versatility, adapting to the challenges and changes of the times with an almost unKindred-like speed. While many of the undead remain locked in the stasis of their Damned states, the Nosferatu react swiftly to changes in the world around them. While it may suit the Ventrue and the Toreador to caper about, thrilling to the long-lost legacies of their ancestors in nights gone by, the Sewer Rats know that to be a part of a world that moves inexorably forward, one must not allow oneself to become an anachronism.
Masters of the animal world second only to the Gangrel, Nosferatu typically exhibit command over the cities' creatures. Nosferatu rarely style themselves as the lords of domains in the wild. Rather, their bestial minions number among the vermin and other repugnant species of the communities of mortals. While a Gangrel might fashion himself as a lord of the wolves, a Nosferatu may proclaim herself the queen of flies or the mistress of rats; the difference is often lost on Kindred of more dignified means, but the distinction means a great deal to those who immerse themselves in the squalor of the cities.
While the Brujah have passions and causes, the Nosferatu tend to have interests, and the only thing that distinguishes the two is the degree of emotional investment the Kindred places in it. Nosferatu favour hobbies, areas of study, schools of thought; their purposes tend toward the practical and even the temporal or secular. To some degree, this reflects their nature - they seek information, after all, or perhaps an outward vehicle that would allow them to avoid introspection. Still, Nosferatu number among the wisest of the Kindred (at least, those who don't buy into the Victorian world's revilement of them) in many cases and among the most knowledgeable in others.
Domain
Often left to fend for scraps, with metaphorical regard to the issue of domain, most Nosferatu take a twisted delight in choosing the most horrific settings for domains and havens they can find. Naturally, their sobriquet belies some of their tastes in this concern, with many resigning themselves to havens beneath the streets, but by no means does every Sewer Rat make the muck of the sanitation system his kingdom. Some choose far-flung locales such as abandoned churches or the forgotten homes of vanished families as their residences, the better to isolate themselves from the scorn of their Kindred peers. Others favour the filth and bustle of the cities, nesting in rookeries, amid red-light districts, beneath the docks of the shipping lanes and within those sections of town best left undisturbed by honest folk. Still others abstract the isolation of their twisted bodies by withdrawing from the world in other senses, joining the scholastic monks of active monasteries or playing leper-patron to rural nobles still attached to their titled lands.
More than any other clan, the Nosferatu adapt the nature of the solitary predator to the burgeoning world of cities. Whereas the Brujah may form broods descended from a single sire, entire warrens of Nosferatu have formed beneath the streets of cities, composed of whatever wretched Sewer Rats choose to abide there and don't rouse the ire of their fellows too much. Perhaps misery loves company, or perhaps Nosferatu mentality fosters an "us-verses-them" outlook. Whatever the case, the Sewer Rats are the Kindred most likely to be found cohabiting in a single domain or observing certain "overlaps" of territory that apply only to them.
Various lands seem to conjure connotations of Nosferatu prominence, but the relative dearth of Sewer Rat princes and other political luminaries implies that, even in seats of Nosferatu power. that power stems from something outside the traditional channels of Camarilla esteem. Rome, for example, is rumoured to host a huge number of Sewer Rats, perhaps enough to qualify as a "kingdom," to use the Nosferatu's parlance, but the strength of faith that conspires to keep vampires in their place at such a holy city certainly suggests that the Nosferatu make domains where they may lurk unchallenged as monsters in the night, while the mortals around them move quietly for fear of rousing the Beast that walks among them.
While domains such as this are most frequent in the barbarous lands, regions of the Empire somewhat removed from the larger intrigues of the Camarilla also host such rustic horrors. In civilised cities, one Nosferatu is almost always recognised as pre-eminent among his fellows. The disparity between Sewer Rats colours their relationships- the eldest among them typically commands the most respect and likely holds the title of primogen if the prince acknowledges Nosferatu in the position. Beneath her (to preserve the sense of loose hierarchy the Sewer Rats almost incongruously observe), a scattered few ancillae may vie for whatever cast-off influences remain, while the neonates settle for cackling and hissing at each other and other Kindred over the meagre scraps even the ancillae can't be bothered with. Indeed, this may be the cause of the nesting phenomenon among Nosferatu: Why bother claiming one particular sewer for one's own when the lot of the downtrodden can unite together (at least to the eyes of others) and make their mutual claim greater than the sum of its parts?
Interests
Nosferatu take their influences and their interests where they can, which is often, resentfully, where other Kindred allow them. While it is not unheard of for a Nosferatu to establish herself as a patron of the arts, a fellow at a school (through proxies, of course) or an adviser to an aristocrat, such are exceptions rather than the rule. More often, Nosferatu find themselves resigned to the ranks of the underworld or the masses of the destitute. Nosferatu pimps and madams ply the harlots' houses; Fagins send their scuttling urchins to rob from fellow poor. Low-level crime bosses fence stolen goods on the street or use their powers of obfuscation to sneak into homes and museums to thieve items themselves.
Rare is the Nosferatu who overcomes the blight inflicted on him by the embrace. The Victorian world is too caught up in the value of appearance to even consider that something so fiendish as a Nosferatu might not be the hellish horror it appears to be. In light of this, the Sewer Rats tend to make a choice early on in their unlives and colour their post-Embrace personalities with that choice thereafter.
Some Nosferatu take the Victorian mindset to heart, becoming embodiments of the blackest evil they so visibly represent. These Nosferatu are true horrors, inflicting pain and misery for the vicarious thrill it gives them and cackling whenever new fiendishness comes their way. Th4ese Sewer Rats are usually the bullies and terrors of their nests, victimising even other Nosferatu when a lack of other targets presents itself. Thankfully, these Nosferatu rarely accumulate influence of any standing value or length and are soon undone by the weight of their own wickedness. Ultimately, they destroy themselves or force others to bring them down. For if they haven't fallen to the Beast soon after deciding to become such malicious creatures, well, few of their fellow Nosferatu have any qualms about convincing other Kindred that it's only a matter of time until they do and that it's in everyone's best interests to get rid of them now.
Other Nosferatu slide toward the other end of the spectrum. Among these Sewer Rats are those gentle hermits who uphold night-impossible codes of morality to deny their bestial natures, the "noble savages" of barbaric lands or those who would simply prove the prevailing Victorian morality of smug self-satisfaction wrong. Some of these Nosferatu are described even by other Kindred as veritable saints. The truth of this remains debatable, of course (for what saint subsists on the blood of others?), but the wisdom and strength of will these Nosferatu demonstrate testifies to the frailty if Victorian judgement - at least with regard to character. These Sewer Rats likewise rarely forge any influence of great value, but this is more out of a lack of contact than an apostate's desire to ruin the world so that it mirrors his own ugly visage.
Most Nosferatu fall somewhere in between the extremes of the spectrum, occasionally succumbing to the wiles of the Beast, but generally recognising the value of the Man within himself as well. Still, the world conspires against them because of their ugliness, and their interests tend to lie where the Nosferatu may reasonably accumulate them - among the lower echelons of the police, the festering underbelly of society, those who place themselves above or beside temporal concerns (such as with those who join monastic orders or throw themselves into the study of sciences) or even outside the social model altogether, going autarkis with the desire to lead their own unlives as they see fit.
Nosferatu Clan Merits
Unseeing Eye (1 point merit)
You cannot be targeted by supernatural powers that track or identify you at range, unless you are already within the user of the power’s line of sight.
This includes tracking powers, such as the ritual Illuminate the Trail of Prey, and observation powers such as Clairvoyance and Scry. Note that this merit doesn’t block normal uses of Auspex, only those that allow a viewer to watch over you remotely. If a remote-viewing power (such as Clairvoyance or Scry) is used to spy on your location, rather than on you directly, the power functions normally for everything in that area except you. Although the user can see the location and anyone else within it, you are inaudible and invisible to the user of the remote-viewing power.
Hidden Advantage (2 point merit)
Your Nosferatu heritage grants exceptional talent with the powers of Obfuscate.
Individuals using Auspex (or similar powers) do not automatically realize there is an Obfuscated person nearby when they are near you. Additionally, your Unseen Presence remains active even if you are asleep or in torpor. For this aspect of Hidden Advantage to function, you must activate Unseen Presence before going to sleep (or before falling into torpor). Your Unseen Presence can be penetrated with Auspex (or similar powers) without awakening you.
Pliable Blood (3 point merit)
While other clans often reject members of their lineage whose blood mutates into strange or different native powers, the Nosferatu never cast away family.
The bond between Nosferatu is so close-knit that there is no distinction between bloodline and parent clan. You may choose one common or uncommon discipline to possess as a fourth in-clan discipline. You cannot create your character with a free dot (or dots) of this fourth in-clan discipline, but you can teach this discipline, and it is considered in-clan for all other powers or effects. You pay in-clan XP costs to purchase this discipline. You may choose from these common and uncommon disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Dementation, Dominate, Fortitude, Presence, Protean, Quietus, and Serpentis. This merit cannot be combined with other merits that give your character additional in-clan disciplines.
Unnatural Adaptation (4 point merit)
Your Embrace left you horribly mutated, more so than most of your clanmates. Because of this revolting mutation, you may choose two of the following special abilities:
- Patagia: A thick membrane stretches between your arms and your torso. If you fall from a damaging height, you can spread your arms and use these proto-wings to glide safely to the ground. If you have 2 or more dots of Potence, you can fly three steps per turn by spending both your simple and standard actions.
- Webbed Fingers: Your fingers and toes are over-long and have a thick membrane between them, allowing you to swim extremely fast. You may spend a simple action to swim at normal speeds (walking or running). You gain an additional step to this movement rate for each dot of the Athletics skill you possess.
- Gaping Maw: Your mouth is over-large and filled with large, pointy teeth (or tusks, or otherwise menacing features). You can bite to inflict damage without first grappling your opponent. When you drain Blood, you drain 2 points per standard action instead of the standard 1 point.
- Slimy: Your body is coated with a thick layer of slime. You can use a simple action to automatically escape from a Grapple even when pinned by a supernatural power (such as Thaumaturgy: Movement of the Mind).
- Grappling Appendages: Your arms are elongated, strangely jointed, or covered with horrific suckers. You do not need to spend Willpower to perform the Grapple combat manoeuvre, and you receive a +2 bonus when attempting to Grapple.