History

[Evrae]

I just thought I'd start a thread on the history of Vampire the Masquerade, and anyone who wants to start off anything about World of Darkness feel free too, I can't admit to knowing anything about any of the involved races apart from vampires but I won't pass up the oppurtunity to learn. Okay first I think I'll talk about the dawn of vampirism, I've heard a variety of things but the version I prefer is the one that Caine was cursed by God yes but not in 'vampiristic' ways.
The vampirism came later when he met Lilith who, if you didn't know, was basically the queen of all demons, she was Adam's first wife who was expelled from the garden of eden because she wouldn't obey Adam like a dutiful wife. Anyway when Caine met Lilith they became lovers and one night Caine drank of Liliths blood which sent him into a kind of.. dream. In this dream he was visited by three angels, the first of which was Micheal, wielder of the holy flame who said to Caine - "Son of Adam, Son of Eve, thy crime is great, and yet the mercy of my Father is also great. Will you not repent the evil that you have done, and let his mercy wash you clean?”
Pride prevented Caine from accepting God’s mercy so Michael cursed [Caine], saying "Then, for as long as you walk this earth, you and your children will fear my living flame, and it will bite deep and savor your flesh."

The second angel was Raphael, driver of the sun. He once again offered Caine forgiveness but he again declined, in reaction Raphael said - "Then, for as long as you walk this earth, you and your children will fear the dawn, and the sun's rays will seek to burn you like fire where ever you hide always. Hide now for the Sun rises to take its wrath on you."

The third angel was Uriel, the angel of death, he gave Caine the same offer but once again he declined so Uriel replied - "Then, for as long as you walk this earth, you and your children will cling to Darkness. You will drink only blood. You will eat only ashes. You will be always as you were at death, never dying, living on. You will walk forever in Darkness, all you touch will crumble into nothing, until the last days.”

So therefore it was the Angels that created Vampirism with their curse, not God, and it also sets up a solid argument that Lilith was infact the first vampire as it was her blood that spurred the creation of vampires.

Anyway that's the beginning of vampires as I heard it, another legend which I've seen on this forum concerns Dracula, from what I've read he was a Tzimisce, but I thought I'd share what I heard. First off from what I know Dracula wasn't actually a very powerful vampire, although I know nothing of his clan, according to the legends I read he was originally Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of christ. But after he'd betrayed Jesus, Judas took himself to a field
he bought with his silver and hung himself from a single tree, but as he died God caused the rope to snap and cursed Judas with vampirism.

I also know a hell of alot of legends about all the races, antidiluvians, among other races. One interesting story is of the Nagaraja, who weren't born of the bloodlines but were apparently engineered by the Samedi (although they deny they were involved) who aswell as feeding on blood also need to feed on flesh. Ask away if you got any questions or post up any interesting history you'd like to share

[Raa]

[QUOTE=Evrae] First off from what I know Dracula wasn't actually a very powerful vampire, although I know nothing of his clan, according to the legends I read he was originally Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of christ. But after he'd betrayed Jesus, Judas took himself to a field
he bought with his silver and hung himself from a single tree, but as he died God caused the rope to snap and cursed Judas with vampirism.
[/QUOTE]

Ugh, that seems like the stuff from Dracula 2000 movie (-series), and I can't quite say I'm delighted with those films...

[fable]

As this deals with general background of a PnP nature rather than questions about the game, I'm moving it to the appropriate forum.