Ahrimanes

The strange tale of the Ahrimanes begins with a Sabbat Gangrel antitribu named Muricia. Caught between two warring factions of Sabbat Gangrel, she watched as her packmates were pulled into the conflict and ultimately killed. She renounced the Sabbat and the Gangrel Clan entirely, now calling herself “an Ahrimane,” and called upon shamanic magic to alter herself. How exactly this was accomplished is still a mystery. One theory is that Muricia was an anomaly even before she attempted her magical working, and had access to powers that other vampires didn’t. Another (possibly more plausible) theory is that Muricia had help from mortal sorcerers who were hoping the effect would spread throughout the Kindred of the world, sterilizing them and preventing any new vampires from being created.

Regardless of the origin, Muricia found that she was not able to create childer or blood bonds. She did, however, retain the ability to turn other Kindred (at least other Gangrel) into whatever she had become. She kept the animalistic features that she can gained during her previous unlife, however, and it may have been her cat-like eyes that lent her bloodline its nickname.

Muricia extended the offered of “becoming Ahrimane” to any female Gangrel who wished it. She made it quite clear she was not interested in performing the process on male Kindred, though the specific reasons for this remain unclear. A few Gangrel joined her, taking havens in the southern United States and avoid contacting with other Sabbat.

The Ahrimanes were never numerous, and although they remained nominally allied with the Sabbat, Muricia made it quite clear that they were to be left alone. This isolation may have doomed them, however. In the late 1990s, all contact with the Cats ceased.

Investigators found, sometime later, that their havens were empty, and no one has heard from them since. Most Sabbat believe that the Ahrimanes were destroyed, but concede that it is possible that Muricia might have led her line on a spiritual pilgrimage somewhere out of the Kindred’s reach.

**Nickname:** Cats

**Sect:** The Ahrimanes were an independent Sect, or more accurately, a group of independent individuals. They identified more with the Sabbat than the Camarilla, if only because they did not wish to answer to any elder (expect perhaps Muricia).

**Appearance:** All Ahrimanes were female, and most were either of African American or Native American descent (Muricia, apparently, was not partial to Caucasian vampires). Most Ahrimanes never went anywhere unarmed, and dressed to fight. Many Ahrimanes had animal features left over from their time as Gangrel.

**Haven:** Muricia was a vampire of some means, and she purchased houses on the outskirts of several cities in the American South (in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia especially). New Ahrimanes could make their own arrangements or stay in one of these homes.

**Background:** All Ahrimanes were Gangrel before their magical transformation. As such, their Backgrounds varied just as much as the Beasts’. The sort of Gangrel who became an Ahrimane was female, usually non-white, and frustrated by the situation in her Sect or city.

**Character Creation:** All Ahrimanes had at least three dots in Mentor, to represent Muricia’s guidance. Combat Abilities and Physical Attributes were common, but this was as much from the Ahrimanes’ Gangrel background as anything else. Likewise, a dot or two of Protean or Fortitude was common, since Ahrimanes began unlife as Gangrel.

**Clan Disciplines:** Animalism, Potence, Spiritus

**Weakness:** An Ahrimanes’ blood was inert. They were unable to create childer or blood bonds, and a person consuming Ahrimane blood did not become a ghoul.

**Organization:** Since all Ahrimanes effectively had the same “sire,” they were all beholden to Muricia. She did not attempt to control or rule her creations, but did keep tabs on them and help them develop their powers of Spiritus. The bloodline was fairly tight-knit, as vampire “families” go, and threatening one Ahrimane generally meant battling several.

**Stereotypes**

***Camarilla:** I would suffocate under their rule.*

***Sabbat:** Let them think they run us. They fear us, and they are not wrong to do so.*

***Gangrel:** The only vampires that understand true freedom.*

**The View From Without**

***Camarilla:** I do wonder, sometimes, if I was wrong in rejecting her offer. Would I see the things she claims to have seen? Would others think I was as crazy as I thought her?*

***Sabbat:** You know you can’t train a fucking cat.*

***Assamites:** Changing the blood is possible. I don’t like the change they made, but still, their ambition is admirable.*