Taken from the Clan Information Board in the OOC Area of Twilight Muck.
Mariachi (Who is no longer on the muck) -- Alright, now I'm pissed. -- 02:44:11 04/27/97 EDT
So who's idea was it to declude the most awesome of the WW kindred clans, the Nosferatu? Well, since nobody else is up to it, I guess I have to do the deed. Most of this is from the Clanbook Nosferatu, so I hope no one slaps me with a big assed lawsuit... here goes.
The Nosferatu embrace is a brutal thing. In many way, more alienating than the Malkavian embrace. The body is one's most prized possession, and disfigurement of the flesh usually results in disfigurement of the mind.
The transformation usually takes a week. It begins with minor pain, as if a person were to light all your nerve endings with a candle. By the end of the week the candle was become a blowtorch. At the end is when the childerealizes the extent of his transformation. He has become a monster. Many neonates lose their sanity, and it is their sire's responsibility to hunt down these beasts and destroy them.
The Nosferatu choose their progeny quite meticulously. The most common trait for most Nosferatu is alienation from mortal society. The Nosferatu choose from the deformed, autistic, hopelessly antisocial and criminally insane. This is the reason for the clan unity that is unparalled in the Camarilla. Whom else can a monster turn to but another monster for comfort? When you spend your life alone, any company, even that of monsters, is palpable. The elders of the clan have long known this. This way, they have found that a few words of genuine praise so much more effective than the Domination and Blood Bondage that the Ventrue and Tremere clans are so fond of using.
Even though the Nosferatu are hardly the sterotypical, crusty louts the other clans see them as, they tend to look at the world with a degree of pessimism. Rightly so. By becoming Nosferatu, one has been wrenched from mortal society, turned into a beast, and become the object of contempt from most of the other vampire clans.
Despite this, the Nosferatu are no more cruel and callous than any other of the kindred. Some are even less so. If a Nosferatu kills another kindred in anger, well, that's what he did. Didnt do it to preserve the Masquerade, or eliminate a Sabbat spy and he doesnt claim to. The Nosferatu clearly see the ugliness of both their interior and their exterior. Such self awareness saves many of them from the bestiality reached by fairer kindred.
The Nosferatu take great pleasure in disgusting and shocking other kindred on the rare occasions they interact with them. This behavior, besides being fun, has psychological impacts too. A kindred is more likely to let information slip after being subject to this.
Nosferatu hate hypocrisy. They are honest with themselves and other Nossies in the clan, but they despise pretentious sorts like the Toreador. On the other hand, the Nosferatu love to spread all kinds of lies thought vampiric society. Every now and then, they love to throw a fly into the ointment to liven things up a bit. If that results in setting vampires at each other's throats and sends cities into chaos, well, it serves the bastards right for making fun of us.
Of all the clans, the Nosferatu are the most unified. The Ventrue and Tremere might put on facades of comraderie, their structures are brittle shells glued together by fear of backbiting and reprisal. Not so the Nosferatu. After all, whom else can one turn to for true understanding and sympathy than one who sees the same thing when they look in the mirror?
The elders have a practical side to this. They know that only by being unified will the clan survive when the Niktuku rise. Thus, the elders do all they can to ensure clan harmony.
That is also why punishment is rare among the Nosferatu. Those that cause a lot of trouble are simply ostracised. This is very effective. Without clan backing, a Nosferatu caitiff is truly a sad soul. Normal caitiff are fun to pick on, but a Nosferatu 'reject' offers plenty of possibilities.
The Nosferatu are infamous among the Kindred for their information (espionage?) network. If a kindred needs to know something, all he needs to do is find one of the Nosferatu. Not that the info comes cheap.
There are a few reasons why the Nosferatu are so well informed. Interclan unity plays a major part. Broods and warrens of Nosferatu routinly trade information that would make a Ventrue cry red tears about. Also, boredom contributes. Most of the time, the Nosferatu have more time on their hands than other kindred. A Nosferatu doesnt go to parties or involve himself in politics, nor does he go half the night chasing a mortal for a meal when a simple stray dog will suffice. So there isnt much else to do to occupy their time.
Most of the time, animals are used to gather info, using the Animalism power level four. The Nosferatu also place ghouls in low places of power. They leave the more powerful mortals to their Ventrue cousins. They have discovered that 10 well chosen petty bureaucrats can garner results equal to that of a mayor.
Nosferatu live underground in the overwhelming majority. Abandoned catacombs, sewers, subway and maintenance tunnals, all provide housing for the Nosferatu. By using their well-placed ghouls, Nosferatu usually take control of the major sanitation, transportation, and maintenance services in a city. They have also become more careful in their selection of childer, choosing the most brilliant Architects and Engineers from the human world to carve their tunnels and over- look underground operations.
The Nosferatu are also some of the greatest combatants in the kindred society, contrary to what Lost boy wannabe Brujah or Gangrel may think, and they dont owe this to their mastery of the Potence discipline. If a Nosferatu can take a fight anywhere near the clan's held territory, he is almost sure to win. They love subways. The trains provide vessels, but, sometimes more importantly, the track provide electricity. This is used in the normal, sense, lighting, heat, but skillful (or paranoid) Nosferatu can run this electricity onto a steel girder or other piece of debris at the entrance to their warren or some other area. When and intruder touches this harmless piece of metal- ZAP!
Usually, The Nosferatu know the general locations of all a city's kindred- and the location of water or gas mains at that haven. Many a kindred that annoy- ed the Nosferatu have woken up at noon to find their haven exploding or burning down. These techniques can be used in pitched battles too. All over the city, Nosferatu set up traps ranging from simple pitfalls to booby trapped, plastic explosive wired gas mains.
Well, thats all my bone worn fingers can type. Do me and you a favor and just buy the goddamn clanbook, it'll probably explain all this better than I did. And if you're a cheap ass and you wont come up with the cash, well, at least you know more than you did.
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