Tzimisce
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The Tzimisce (pronounced /ʒɪmisi/) are a fictional clan of vampires in White Wolf Game Studio's books and role-playing games Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Dark Ages.
The Tzimisce consider themselves apart from and superior to other Kindred, by dint of their unique Disciplines, unnatural ethical views and the inner-structure of their Clan. Many Tzmisce are warriors or religious leaders within the Sabbat, though many lead existences devoid of other Vampiric contact, instead surrounding themselves with servants and slaves. They are obsessed with their birthplaces and graves, usually possessing some of the soil from the location of their Embrace, over which they are fiercely territorial.
The Tzimisce are known for their body altering technique, called Vicissitude or, less formally, "fleshcrafting". Tzimisce can supernaturally alter the bodies of living and undead organisms, even to the point of melting them. For this clan, body alteration is an art and a philosophy. In the modern ages, most Tzimisce are simultaneously radical transhumanists, posthumanists, and prescriptive social Darwinists. Sooner or later, many Tzimisce become totally lost in this detatched and inhuman way of thinking, often losing all contact with the concepts of mercy, compassion, or moral or ethical value as understood by the human mind.
The Tzimisce seek physical and spiritual purification and perfection, though their interpretations of these concepts are often alien or incomprehensible to humans and sometimes even to other vampires. They often "fleshcraft" themselves into forms they believe to be beautiful and/or terrifying. The most common "path of enlightenment" for a Tzimisce is called the "Path of Metamorphosis", and is a replacement for their lost humanity. Tzimisce with this path only have one goal with their whole existence: to become so powerful that the whole world becomes part of themselves — Azhi Dahaka, when the world becomes a part of yourself, a sort of inverted Nirvana.
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[edit] History
The Tzimisce were one of the High Clans. In medieval times, it was common for the Tzimisce to hold vast domains in Eastern Europe, and command armies of men, ghouls and monsters of their own making; in some places they were revered or worshipped almost as gods. The most (in)famous Tzimisce was Vlad Ţepeş, commonly known as Dracula.
The Tzimisce were among the preferred victims of the Tremere clan, who often employed Tzimisce as raw material to craft Gargoyles. The Tzimisce of old held the Tremere in utmost contempt.
During the Dark Ages, the younger members of the clan were subject to blood bonds with their elders, until they found a way to break them and slaughtered most of their masters. This ritual is called Vaulderie and consists of a blood bond with the pack members rather than a single elder, thus bonding to a community (or pack) of fellow Tzimisce and breaking their sire's control upon them. The Vaulderie is now one of the Auctoritas Ritae and practiced by all of the Sabbat, in theory at least.
It was also during the Dark Ages that the Koldun arose as a whole Tzimisce faction. In the modern World of Darkness, Koldun are so rare as to be considered extinct.
In Vampire: The Masquerade, the Tzimisce clan is associated with the Sabbat. Their symbol is the Ouroboros.
[edit] Old Clan Tzimisce
The Old Clan Tzimisce are a subgroup of Tzimisce denying Vicissitude, instead wielding the mental power of Dominate. They consider themselves the aristocracy of the Clan and dress themselves very anachronistically, often entirely in black and white. They are the last know true masters of Koldunic Sorcery, the Tzimisce's elemental sorcery drawn from union with the great entity Kupala, who is theorized to cause the decay of their homeland. Rumours have it they somehow inoculated their Childer to be immune to the effects of the Vaulderie and sent them into the Sabbat as spies. While this is mostly ignored, certain powerful Sabbat become nervous whilst thinking of it.
They are affiliated with the Tal'mahe'Ra, serving as not only great scholars but also as the soldiers of the sect.
[edit] Creatures of the Tzimisce
[edit] War Ghouls
A ghoul created by vampires of Clan Tzimisce, intended for combat against one supernatural threat or another (such as other vampires, werewolves, mages, and the like) is called a War Ghoul. Crafted from the body or sometimes several bodies of beasts and/or human beings, often overfilled with the Vitae of their masters (causing an insane subjection to the Blood Oath), these vicious things are intended to kill and keep killing. Though it is uncommon, some War Ghouls live for decades as dedicated killing machines or bodyguards to their creators or owners, however it is much more often that they are applied as crude but effective disposable warriors. In dire battles or when planning a siege, several Tzimisce may work together to create packs of war Ghouls, fleshcrafting in concert.
War ghouls are rarely used in modern nights as they tend to attract the kind of attention that the Tzimisce and their Sabbat allies don't want, and aren't intended to survive any longer than the battle for which they were made.
[edit] Szlachta
Szlachta are small, deformed little creatures that vampires of the Tzimisce clan use as servants and guard dogs. They are usually remnants of failed experiments in fleshcrafting and bonecrafting; "waste not, want not" being a catchphrase of the Fiends. They are sometimes ghouled.
Szlachta are featured in the Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption video game published by White Wolf. They are presented as short, pale little creatures in a mine, and which make gurgling, wailing noises that sound "like a lamb with blood in its lungs."
[edit] Vozhd
Vozhd are mammoth living siege weapons created by the Vampires of Clan Tzimisce. These nightmarish creatures are created by 'fleshcrafting' multiple (usually 15+) human or animal Ghouls together into one being.
Vozhd are created in a process that involves either a (6th level) Koldunic Sorcery Ritual or a combination of the Viccisitude and Animalism Disciplines. Many (on rare occasion more than twenty) animals, humans or a combination thereof are forced to consume the blood of their Tzimisce master, enslaving them to the Blood Oath. Then the ghouls are forced to drink each other's blood in a ritual similar to Vaulderie. A congregation of Tzimisce then meld the ghouls into one composite entity. Such a creature is enormous and, with its multiple limbs and organs, is capable of unleashing a maelstrom of destruction. Excess tissue can be molded to bestow carapaces, spines, claws, tusks, palps, mandibles, fanged maws or whatever the creators desire. Vozhd are mindless and unsalvageably mad, killing, eating or trampling anything in their path. Since the process of becoming a Vozhd invariably drives the component beings insane, some Tzimisce lobotomize their victims before the gestalten assembly occurs. A lobotomized Vozhd is immune to Animalism, Dominate and Presence; only rumors exist of sapient Vozhd.
The end result of creating a Vozhd is the equivalent of a flesh-and-bone tank: huge, slow, unintelligent and devastatingingly powerful (levels of Potence, Fortitude and Blood Pool generally equal to twice those of the highest level among the component ghouls). The creation process irrevocably bonds the Vozhd to a single creator; this Tzimisce alone can 'command' the Vozhd, though the war beast rarely comprehends commands of more than two or three words.
Vozhd are usually starved before a battle, so they may be pointed in the general direction of the opposing forces. Vozhd are nearly as dangerous to their creators as they are to their enemies, thus typically deployed into the enemy's soldiers. The very size and ferocity of the monster often work to the detriment of the Sabbat; few things can better convince Camarilla elders, Anarchs, Inconnu, and neutral clans to unite against a common foe, than a fifteen foot wall of destruction.
On the other hand, few things can convince Camarilla elders, Anarchs, Inconnu, and neutral clans to surrender to the Sabbat so quickly as seeing their city's Prince torn to pieces and greedily devoured by a rampaging Vozhd. Therefore, they rarely see use in any but the most frenzied conflicts in modern nights, as a Vohzd wreaking havoc in a major city would attract the kind of attention that even the Sabbat doesn't want. Their implementation in combat has only been historically recorded by the Kindred, and even then only a handful of accounts exist beyond rumor.
[edit] Revenant families
Revenants are families of ghouls created by the Tzimisce by inbreeding countless generations of ghouls of the same family. This practice was started as early as the 9th century A.D., and resulted in families of ghouls with hereditary powers. They were and are used by the Tzimisce as infiltrators, warriors, servants, seneschals, and in some cases as their contact with the mortal world or as breeding stock for new vampires. Besides some minor families that have been destroyed, several such families still survive into the modern nights, namely the Zantosa, Bratovitch, Grimaldi, and Obertus families.
[edit] The Cathedral of Flesh
The Cathedral of Flesh is a gigantic living being formed into a cathedral. Tzimisce legend and aesthetics hold it the most beautiful creation ever. It is said that the high priest was part of the cathedral and that he spoke with its walls instead of showing himself in person. The cathedral has moved several times since it was created and is now located under New York City.
The Cathedral of Flesh is actually Tzimisce itself, the clan's Antediluvian founder. It has transcended humanity and vampirism to become a gigantic blob of constantly mutating flesh. In one Gehenna scenario, Tzimisce erupts from the sewers of New York City and devours vampires and mortals alike.
In the last Chapter of the official PC-Game Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, the Player's Brujah Character has to go into the Cathedral of Flesh and fight one of Tzimisce's childer, Vukodlak, to rescue New York.
[edit] Tzimisce of note
- The Dracon, eldest child of The Eldest
- Vlad Tepes / Dracula, Son of the Dragon
- Myca (later known as Sascha) Vykos, Caine's Angel, Priscus of the Sabbat
- Velya the Vivisectionist (and Elaine Cassidy), Cardinal(s) of the Land Beyond the Forest
- Righteous Endeavor, Inquisitor of the Sabbat
- Radu Bistri, Cardinal
- Straven van Drake, Master Kuldon and Great, Great, Grandchilde of Vlad the Impaler
- Borivoj of Brasov, Traditionalist Koldun
- Yorak, High Priest of the Cathedral of Flesh (deceased)
- Vladimir Rustovic, Former Voivode of Voivodes
- Nero Pacino, descended of Yorak, King of Koldun
- Andrej Constantinescu, descended of the Dracon, Master of Vicissitude
- Androconis of the Dark, Master Alchemist
[edit] References
- Lucien Soulban & James Stewart et al., Clanbook: Tzimisce, (White Wolf Game Studio, 2001, ISBN 1-58846-202-1)
- Justin Achilli et al., Guide to the Sabbat (White Wolf Game Studio, 1999, ISBN 1-56504-263-8)
- Justin Achilli al., Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-249-2)
- Steven C. Brown & Ken Meyer, The Storytellers Handbook to the Sabbat(White Wolf Game Studio, 1995, ISBN 1-56504-042-2)
- Steven C. Brown & Jeff Starling, A Players Guide to the Sabbat (White Wolf Game Studio, 1995, ISBN 1-56504-042-2)
[edit] Links
- Vampire NPC gallery NPC (non-player character) gallery with examples of Tzimisce characters
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