Nosferatu

"The Nosferatu are same good at what we do; no one even argues that. If you need to know, if you want it found, you come to us. We're indispensable; not a bad place to be in the afterlife."
The most visibly cursed of all Kindred, the Embrace warps each Nosferatu into a hideously deformed creature; the archetypal Nosferatu resembles Max Schrek's Count Orlok, though the curse thumb|left|200 pxhas any number of variations. The Nosferatu are the spymasters of the dead, collecting information and selling it for a dear price. They are also the masters of the underground, living in the sewers for protection.
In addition to their physical deformities, the Nosferatu sometimes in addition to, or in lieu of, gain supernatural quirks and a predatory nature that all creatures naturally pick up upon. From odd living tatoos, to a face that may age rapidly when stared at, no two Nosferatu share the same curse, although lineages may share similar traits.
==The Clan==
Nosferatu are generally organized into broods; communities centrally located around a sewer system and serving as underground cities which may house dozens of their kind. Nosferatu are stereotyped as ugly on the outside, humane on the inside - this is not entirely true. There are many Nosferatu who never leave the sewers, the Nosferatu make a habit of sending their friendliest to communicate with the rest of the Camarilla.
Nosferatu strongly stress clan loyalty over almost everything else. Given their hideous appearance, they depend heavily on clan support structures for everything from havens to food. Broods are generally gerontocratic, with the eldest Nosferatu setting policy and guiding the youngest. Most Nosferatu can acquire jobs within their clan, including assisting on construction or other survival projects. Most Nosferatu are inculcated with a survivalist mentality and increasing the strength of their havens is a constant preoccupation.
In both the Camarilla and Sabbat, the Nosferatu are famous information brokers and spymasters. While this is partly supported by their use of the Obfuscate and Animalism disciplines, the Nosferatu also emphasize information interchange as part of clan culture. Nosferatu invest an awful lot in teaching their childer with riddle games, memorization exercises and other activities which emphasize sharing and hiding information.
The Nosferatu have a deeply ingrained complex about physical beauty, especially with clans like the Toreador. Nosferatu will tend to charge Toreador higher prices, and make the higher clans crawl through humiliating or disgusting tunnels to actually negotiate with them. Similarly, Nosferatu will often accentuate their hideousness by cultivating an array of disgusting physical habits. On several cases where Nosferatu have embraced a Caitiff, the Childe has been exiled or killed. Nosferatu also tend to use Obfuscate for practical jokes involving their appearance, such as dropping a discipline's use for a brief instant and reveling in the effects.
The Nosferatu tend to embrace two classes of people: first are those for whom the Embrace is a step up, such as the homeless, vagrants or other people at the bottom of the totem pole. The second class are those for whom the Embrace is a long step down, such as beauty queens. Nosferatu are notorious for revenge embraces, and the resulting Cleopatras often lead miserable lives within the clan.
==Covenants and Sects==
The Nosferatu put their loyalty to the clan first and to the Camarilla second. As what good is a spy master who trades in secrets in a society of monsters who are all blood-bound into allegiance? or even worse, an egalitarian democracy?
This is not not say that you will never see a Carthian Nosferatu, or a Crone, or Lancea, or Inconnu. They're simply the exceptions.
This also should not imply that Nosferatu in Carthian domains are necessarily working for the Camarilla. No, no, no. It would seriously endanger their position in these domains and The Tower isn't willing to pay them enough to do that. If your good at something you never do it for free.
==Mechanical Systems==
The Nosferatu use stealth, fear, and brutal strength to maintain their position within undead society. The nosferatu also practice the discipline of Animalism frequently.
Clan Disciplines: Nightmare, Obfuscate, Potence
Favored Attributes: Composure or Strength
Weakness: Nosferatu are all monsterous looking. They are walking masqurade breaches. When first turned they go through a terribly painfull physical transformation and leaves them deformed and ugly to look upon. Nosferatu may never take striking looks, furthermore the nosferatu is simply unneerving to be around, the look, the smell, this feeling they exude. Presence rolls save for those involved with Nightmare or Intimidate, suffer from not benefitting from the 10-again rule, and any 1’s that come up on a roll are subtracted from successes.
==Bloodlines==
===Antitribu===
There is little real difference between the Sabbat Nosferatu and their Camarilla cousins: to the Nosferatu, clan loyalty usually trumps sect loyalty. But this always calls into question: which sabbat Nosferatu are true Cainites and which are just spies?
Interestingly, the Nosferatu antitribu are less brutal than many Sabbat Kindred. This may be because they know what it is to be a monster — it’s there, in their faces, from the first night of undeath. They don’t need to overcompensate, and so bloody excesses are unnecessary. This by no means makes the Creeps human, or even especially humane. It just means that if a Nosferatu antitribu does engage in wholesale slaughter or horrific violence, he’s doing it for a specific reason, rather than just for fun.
So why join the Sabbat at all? Why risk potentially alienating yourself from your clan mates? Simple. They know what hunts them. The nosferatu have a pure, distilled, real, almost tangible fear of their Antideluvian. For good reason.
==Nosferatu in Portland==
The Nosferatu are led by the cunning and fearsome Luthor Kent, having been their Primogen since their arrival in Portland. He leads them as information dealers, and go-to gadgeteers that excel at odd jobs, and espionage.
Generally kindred who come to the cage are running or hiding from something. Now this is all well and good for most kindred who must live amoung mortals and in kindred society. But the Nosferatu don't. They could hide in any domain they wanted to, never interact directly with any kindred. Conceal their true identidy for centuries.
So this begs the question: what could they have done thats so heinous, what are they hiding from thats so terrible, that they would feel the need to flee all the way here?
Known Nosferatu in the Portland/Vancouver area include: Luthor Kent, Terry, Garret, Spades, Mack, Matthew D. Levine, James, Jack
Category:Clans/Bloodlines