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Enter the Shadows
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Home Vampire and Fiction The Sabbat The Independent Clans Caine Cainite Resources The Gehenna
The Independent Clans
serve none but their own ends. While not part of a common agenda, each of the independents have unique and devastating abilities that make them respected -- or feared -- by the other clans.
Antitribues are "bloodlines" that have turned their backs upon the parent clan. Most clans have an antitribu. The exceptions are the Tzimisce, Giovanni, and the Tremere. The Tzimisce never claimed to have one while the Tremere antitribu was almost destroyed a few years ago - only a few of the Tremere antitribu left. The Giovanni just would not allow such a thing to pass, though they already have strong family bonds to begin with. The only bloodline with a antitribu are the Salubri. With the death of Saulot many centuries ago and death of many Salubries forced them to split. What was left of the main bloodline try to survive as much as they can due to their bad reputation. The other half joined the Sabbat as the antitribu. The only antitribu of the Camarilla is the Lasombra antitribu who feel the Camarilla is a better tool to help win over the Jyhad than the Sabbat, but the main clan wants nothing but their death.
Many in the Camarilla point at the Caitiff as a prime cause of the approach of Gehenna. Many cast out the disenfranchised 'Trash', citing the Caitiff's lack of known lineage as an excuse to treat them as second-class citizens. Some see the Caitiff as a threat to social order. With the predominance of Caitiff occurring within the last forty to fifty years following the second World War, this is easy enough, since the Clanless are not powerful or old enough to truly defend themselves against this treatment. But not all Caitiff arise from this period, and not all are of the tenth to fourteenth generation.
Given the propensities and lack of restrictions on Caitiff, even if they do have a harder lot in life, one begins to realize that the concept of an elder among their ranks is a thing to be feared.
Unlike any other breed of Kindred, the Caitiff are not limited by the strengths, weaknesses, and proclivities of their parent clan - because they have none. A Caitiff may have any discipline they wish, and their weaknesses are far less pronounced.
It has been theorized that the powers of a vampire arise from what they believe those powers should be. In the average Kindred, this potentiality is taken care of by the presence of the sire. The elder teaches the new vampire about what it is and what it will become - both through active education and passive example.
Then what of the Caitiff, who have no such guidance? How do they develop Disciplines, Weaknesses, Merits or Flaws? What is there to guide them as they take their first flights in the midnight skies? Belief. The Caitiff fledgling's own belief in what a vampire should be, should be capable of, and is limited by, are the formative standards by which this new Kindred will mature. If they believes vampires have the strength of many mortals and are able to absorb bullets with a laugh, they will develop Potence and Fortitude as a matter of course. If they believe they should be able to assume a bat-like form, Protean will be added to their list of abilities, and if they believesin the romantic and alluring depiction of the eternally damned, then you can expect displays of Presence before long. The same is true of weaknesses obviously. Your average Caitiff will no doubt be repelled by crosses and even by garlic if they have predilection for European beliefs. Caitiff define themselves through the ingrained social and cultural myths that surround their new condition.
How then does a Caitiff advance their abilities as they age? Other kindred tend to learn more diverse applications of their basic clan abilities as they grow older, either through direct instruction from an elder or through trial and error following witnessed displays of these diverse abilities. If a Caitiff is fortunate, they might find themself existing on the edge of Kindred society, and from time to time might make these same observations, and through said same trial and error they might learn to display more advanced applications of her own abilities. Even more fortunately they might find theirself adopted by a clanned elder, their development taken in hand and directed along the path of their benefactor's clan. But what if they are not on the fringe of the mainstream Kindred culture or so fortunate as to become an adopted member of an existing clan? What if they are left to develop at their own pace, free of any more influence than their own belief? This is where the greatest weakness and greatest potential of the Caitiff are both felt. There are two possibilities that arise from this circumstance - either the Caitiff will never advance their abilities, never knowing they can be anything more than they was at the moment of creation, or they will advance in wholly new and unsuspected ways. It should be noted that in the instance of Disciplines such as Celerity, Fortitude, and Potence, the advancement is most likely to be similar to the mainstream, there are very few ways to go with these powers save down the path that virtually all clans that possess them have trod.
It is possible for a Caitiff to display abilities never before seen among Kindred, arising from their own belief in the abilities of vampires. They are capable of advancing in wholly new directions, even outstripping others of their generation or age, because they have no knowledge of the expected limitations of their blood. Few other members of Kindred society display as diverse abilities as the Caitiff, and fewer still are as capable of originating completely new and original Disciplines. Given that the process of the embrace has become a popular part of mainstream fiction, depicted accurately enough over the past century in works from Stoker to Rice, it is entirely likely that a Caitiff will be capable of creating progeny, even if they cannot remember the circumstances of their own embrace. Like any other vampire, the abilities of this new childe will most likely be formed through instruction from their sire, instantly forming a new bloodline with its own strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies.
While many tend to think that all pathways of Kindred power have been explored, the Caitiff stand in direct defiance of this belief. They are what they believe they are, and for this reason it would be wise for the elders of the Camarilla to beware the elder among the Caitiff ranks. They are and should be treated as a complete unknown quantity, to be feared by the insecure and learned from by the wise.
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