CHAPTER TWO:
BACK STORY

If one is continually surviving the worst that life can bring,
one eventually ceases to be controlled by a fear of what life can
bring; whatever it brings must be borne. And at this level of
experience one’s bitterness begins to be palatable, and hatred
becomes too heavy a sack to carry.
    – James win, The Fire Next Time

A TREATISE ON THE PROBABLE ORIGINS
AND PHYSICAL ANOMALIES OF SUBSPECIES
HOMO SAPIENS NOSFERATUS

By Claudius Maximus, Clan Tremere

There are a great many mysteries concerning the origin of our breed, and certainly none moreso than the circumstances behind the genesis of the unfortunate and peculiar race known as the Nosferatu. The blasphemous acts that led to the affliction of these pathetic wretches are unknown; perhaps it is best they remain so. The Brujah, whose elder members are historians of no small repute despite their instability, have long held that the Antediluvian founder of the Nosferatu line was cursed by our Primal Father Himself. The precise nature of the crime committed remains in question, though it was no doubt monstrous. Based on my ecclesiastical research and extensive study of Nosferatu progeny, I have formulated certain theories.

Do not the Nosferatu share the ability of the Gangrel (another tragic line, but of them I shall speak later) to establish a rapport with the lower denizens of the planet!

Verily, I have seen a Nosferatu crouched low amid her sewer haven, staring into a great rat’s eyes for fully an hour. The Nosferatu communicate often and at length with their bestial comrades, and I believe that they have more in common with such creatures than with the humans from whom they have so tragically devolved. My own experiments have shown that Nosferatu skull and bone structures bear no small degree of resemblance to those of reptiles. As all of learning know, the reptile loathes the mammal as much as the latter detests the former. Is this, then, why the Nosferatu look upon other Kindred, and our clan in particular, with such venom and rancor?

Is it not indisputable that mortals who practice carnal relations with their own immediate kin beget progeny with deformities similar to, though not as pronounced as, those found among the Nosferatu! Certes, the creatures spend overmuch time huddled together in their dens and holes,

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