There you have it. The black book. The book of Nod. So what's in it? One should wonder. Well... it's supposed to be a secret. But let me ask you something, and after that you may deceide wether or not you wish to learn more about this book.
Did you ever read a bible? Or attended sunday school? church? Well, it doesn't really matter, because every child knows that there's a story about god creating the world. And on this world, he created paradise. And in this paradise, he created man- Adam being the first, and as the story does tell, Eve was the second. And both were booted out of paradise for committing 'a great sin'- They ate an apple they weren't supposed to. And they were cursed to have children. And so the incestous ritual began. Firstborn of Adam and Eve was Caine; secondborn was Abel. And Caine tended the fields, and Abel tended the animals. Drawing their sustenance from the land, as the lord above had ordered them to.
This is about where the book of Nod kicks off. Your first question? What is Nod? Well, Nod is the land of darkness outside Eden, the so-called paradise. And it is to this place Caine was banished, when he sacrificed his brother to God. OOps, gave away too much too soon. You see, Adam commanded Caine and Abel to make sacrifices to God. For what reason, I can't say, and remember that nowadays making sacrifices to any god is considered heresy, blasphemy or whatever you wish to call it. So, Caine gathered the finest fruits and plants from his field; And Abel slaughtered his best lamb. And both sacrificed it to the 'one above.' God was pleased with Abel's sacrifice and blessed him. And Caine was cursed. His sacrifice was unworthy.
And some time later, wouldn't you know it- Adam demands the brothers make a sacrifice AGAIN. And while Abel again slaughters one of the best of his animals, Caine knew what he really had to sacrifice to be blessed. The sacrifice demanded he'd offer 'the first part of his joy' to the One above. And so, on the sacrificial altar, Caine sacrificed Abel- And was cursed. He was sent to wander in Darkness- The land of Nod. And this is about where the bible leaves off.
But the book of Nod doesn't end here... In darkness, the land of Nod, Caine has a surprise encounter- He is not alone here. Mistress of the land of Nod is Lillith, Supposed to be Adam's first wife. And she, too, was banished from paradise for the simple crime of disobeyeing Adam. Yes God really DOES work in mysterious ways. Lillith has mastered the magics of the world and takes care of Caine. She even shares her power with Caine, when he begs her to. But Lillith's magic has a strange side effect on Caine. From now on, and forever more, will he be a vampire. The first Vampire. And in time, he creates others like him. And they grow so many, that rules, laws and myths are needed. The book of Nod contains most of them.
The creation of the first vampires, and the prophecy about the end of the world- Armageddon to most of the world, Gehenna for vampires- You can find all you would like to know about these facts in the book of Nod. Want to read moer about it? Then look for the book at this site. But hurry... according to the prophecies, Gehenna is near...VERY near.
Blackstone’s words on Noddism
Fuck Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Walking at daytime, acting like some lovestruck fool, while having all these super powers and still being repelled by crosses, mirrors and garlic. And fuck interview with the Vampire while you’re at it. Fuck the wussy Lestat. Though Ann Rice gets it very close. Too close for comfort almost.
Yeah…Vampires are out there. Hiding themselves. Who can blame them? They –we- lived almost openly once. Until man rose up against anything they believed to be something other than human. Spurred on by the church, they dragged thousands of people to their funeral pyres. They didn’t stop there. Witches, Warlocks, Werewolves. And Vampires. Tortured and sentenced to burn. Young ones and Elders. We would rule no more. Not in public anyway. That’s why we hide. The people fear us too much to be predictable when they hear the truth.
Back to the stories. It’s safer we stay that way – Bogeymen from dreams. Imagined things. You can watch a movie about us, have a good time, and then forget about it. But a few movies begin to touch just what we are about. I can tell you though. I know why the church tried to wipe us out during the middle ages and is quietly going at us still. We are its worst nightmare. We are a curse from God that’s lasted through the ages. We are the symbol of man’s ability to ignore, event resent God himself. We are the missing pages of the bible, the church doesn’t want anyone to know about. They’re afraid of us. We might give the people the wrong ideas. Impressionable fools that they are.
Didn’t see that coming did you? You could have. They say God created all things. He had a hand in creating us as well. I’ll try to give you a summary on what has been going on since the beginning. And I’ll fill you in on certain gaps in the bible. The pieces that were torn out for the sake of their ‘negative impact on man’. God’s little fuckups.
The first days. Six to create the world and one to rest up from it. And God oversaw the empty earth, and paradise – Eden. He gave it life. All sorts of creatures came into being. Always one male, one female. That’s something Noah remembered when he built his Arc. But that’s stuff to come. So, while God is creating all of these creatures, he gets an idea. In his own image, He creates man. And while doing so, He creates woman. And there we have His first little fuckup.
Let me clear this up before I piss people off- The creation of woman was a fine thing indeed- but He created woman in his own image. So what do you get? A powerful, strong willed woman who will not be ruled. And Adam, the first man, isn’t too happy about that. So, either as punishment from God or Adam –And I would presume the latter- The first woman is cast out of paradise. Or maybe she left by herself. It’s entirely possible. You think you never heard such a story about Eve? Well you wouldn’t have. The name of the first woman was Lillith.
Back in Eden. This part the bible does mention. Not a word on Lillith, but after Adam’s consistent begging, God takes a rib from Adam and creates Eve. Being a part of him, she must obey him. So they live happily in paradise. But not, as we know, happily ever after.
Exiled into the ‘lands of darkness’, wherever these came from, Lillith is thinking. Plotting. She learns the secrets of the land of darkness, the land of Nod. She’s not only the first woman; she is also the first witch. And she comes up with a way to disgrace both Adam and Eve forever. A fitting punishment.
You know about the serpent that seduces Eve into eating that apple? The bible blames the Devil for it. Bit I’m pretty damn sure Lillith ha a hand in it. Goodbye Eden. Now, Adam and Eve are cursed to work the land and tend the animals, and above all else: Eve is cursed to bear children. Looking at the bigger picture: It’s God’s fuckup number two. But Lillith is pleased. Now Adam and Eve are forced to make their living the same way she had to. Call it an eye for an eye.
The story goes on. I’m afraid it won’t be a short summary after all. Sorry about that but some points have to be absolutely clear. I’m just giving my version of what I think happened. Maybe some of you are snickering that one of the family Malkavian can think at all. Well I’m going to make it goddamn clear to all of you.
Most people know Caine was the first born of Eve. That makes him the oldest one, the strongest. Caine laboured in the fields. His younger brother Abel tended the animals and ‘aided their bloody births,’ or so it was written in the book of Nod. OUR bible. To this point, both books are consistent. Until, this time, Adam fucks up. He asks his sons to make sacrifices to the One above. To all you rational thinkers out there, keep in mind that nowadays making any sacrifice whatsoever to any deity is either considered barbaric or blasphemic. Maybe losing paradise drove Adam insane; IN any case, something must’ve whacked him off his nut. But his sons, in effect still being a part of him, obeyed. And Caine gathered the finest products from his lands –fruits and grasses- and Abel led his finest young lamb to the sacrificial altar.
A sacrifice of the first part of their joy, it had to be. So they had to burn the best they had to please the Lord. All for God and none for all. Sounds appropriate.
And so, on the altar, Abel slaughtered his finest lamb and burned it. And Abel was blessed. But when Caine made his sacrifice, he received no such thing. His sacrifice was deemed unworthy. And Caine didn’t understand.
What happened? It could have been one of two things. Either Caine hadn’t truly sacrificed the first part of his joy, or as some heretic vampires believe, it was the blood of the lamb that did the trick. Caine must have had one of these ideas –possibly both- in his mind when Adam called them to make another sacrifice. This time, Caine knew what he had to do- sacrifice the one thing he loved most in life. And so, he sacrificed his own brother.
The first murder. But did God punish Caine? Big surprise- He didn’t. Instead, Caine’s father Adam banished him into the land of Nod. Another of Adam’s fuckups: He sent Caine right into the waiting arms of Lillith.
Her time in Nod had made Lillith quite powerful. She took Caine in- as a guest at first, but I’m pretty sure that over time they became lovers. They had a lot in common after all. And how else can you explain that when Caine begged to learn of Lillith’s power, she allowed him to? She brewed him a special elixir of herbs and blood, and Caine eagerly drank it down. He fell unconscious, and received strange visions.
God had sent Caine three angels, who forgave him his crime. But Caine had learned from Lillith. He had learned free will. He told the angels who would only be forgiven by his own forgiveness. The Angels then spoke three curses on Caine and all his childer. They would fear fire. They would fear sunlight, as both would destroy them. The third curse demanded that Caine and his childer would drink only blood, eat only ashes, and they would forever crave to destroy their masters. But after these harsh curses, Caine found a fourth Angel waiting for him. This Angel told him, He and his childer could walk the road to humanity, called Golconda. If they were able to reach this, they would be forgiven.
Caine awoke, and found the curses to be true. He was the first vampire.
Caine stayed with Lillith, learning her power, until she would teach him no more. Now strong, Caine didn’t want to live as Lillith’s playmate anymore. He fled, returning to the world of the living, populated by the children of his youngest brother, Seth. It all has a ring of incest to me. Still, the people recognized Caine’s power. He created the first new Vampires- The second generation. Their names were Zillah, the beautiful, first love of Caine; Irad, the strong, keeper of Caine’s law; And Enoch, the wise, the first ruler. And Caine created the first city, named Enoch. In time, the vampiric curse spread to 13 others. That’s why vampires often refer to themselves as ‘Kindred’, for they are all of the same blood. But seeing the curse spread, Caine ordered to halt it. But it was already too late.
God had become jealous and angered of the decadence of man and the arrogance of the Kindred. He warned Noah to build his arc, and then sent a great flood, known as the Deluge to vampires, across the world. The first city was destroyed. Caine, wracked with guilt, withdrew from the world, leaving his law behind. But without his guidance, all was lost.
There were 13 vampires –kindred- of the third generation. And they hadn’t been very good. Most of them had been cursed by Caine himself. One of the 13, Nosferat, was a cruel being who was cursed to wear a horrible visage to reflect his nature. Gangrel, a Wildman, grew more and more into a wild beast with each atrocity he committed. The short tempered Brujah flew into a blind rage when provoked. The vain toreador would become entranced by any beauty. Ravnos gained an incurable wanderlust. Tzimisce would resent his own flesh. Lasombra was stripped of his very soul- that’s why Lasombra’s breed doesn’t cast reflections. Ventrue, who gladly fed off anyone crossing his path, was cursed to feeding on only one sort of prey. And Malkav –my forebear- well… Some say he was cursed, others say he was blessed. But Malkav gained so much knowledge –He was of an inquisitive sort- that his mind and sanity could not contain it all. Henceforth all Malkavians would go mad.
But there were others still. Assam, and unnamed kindred, who would found the followers of Set. I can’t think of his name, it keeps slipping away like…a snake. Appropriate. Anyway, I don’t know what happened to them. One more remains to be discussed. The wise and gentle Saulot. I believe he was the only one who managed to stay on the good side of Caine. Maybe that’s why other clans hate the Salubri; for being Caine’s favourite. But there are other reasons to hate these triple eyed fuckers that are more urgent.
Some insight in this clan for you, I’ll try to keep it brief. Saulot strove for humanity and wisdom. This sets him apart from Malkav, who sought knowledge and understanding. When Saulot left on a journey of enlightenment, Malkav drew a third eye in blood on Saulot’s forehead, as a parting gift, to grant him sight beyond sight. When Saulot returned, he seemed to have reached his goal. He claimed to have reached Golconda, the state of humanity. He boasted strange new powers and a real functional third eye. He sired at least seven childer before disappearing. But the new Salubri created a ritual, based on their creators teachings: Each of them sought, and reached Golconda, then sired a single, well selected child, and forced the new cainite –Another word for Vampire- to destroy the creator by Diablerie: Consuming all of his or her blood. Then the cycle would begin anew. That’s why there are supposed to be only seven Salubri at any time in the world. Supposed to be, yes. Makes you wonder: What if…? I don’t have an answer to that one. As for Saulot himself, he remained missing until a mortal wizard named Tremere found him, drank his blood and destroyed him in the process of becoming immortal himself. To drive the point home- Salubri are created with a taste for kindred blood, which makes them very dangerous. They may have the power to heal but in this case the cure seems worse than the disease.
Back to the ruins of Enoch. With Caine now gone, the 13 rose up against their creators Zillah, Irad and Enoch. The three perished and the 13 were free. Free to create their childer and found their own cities. After the flood, the descendants of Noah populated the world. And the kindred sought to rule them. This escalated into war, as each of the 13 clans struggled for supremacy. And they used the mortals as pawns in their hidden war, called the jihad. Mortals thought they were fighting their own wars, but instead were furthering the agenda’s of their kindred puppeteers, their hidden, true masters. And the jihad lasts until this very day.
Amidst all the infighting, a number of things happened which are worth noting here. Like the creation of the second city. Founded by Brujah, called Carthage. It was a place where mortals and cainites would coexist in peace. Now, Brujah himself was the perfect warrior-scholar, wise and just, who sired few childer. One of them though, named Troile, proved to be a mistake. Troile led a rebellion against Brujah, destroying him and drinking all of his juice. I’m sorry, all of his blood. Sometimes popular kindred slang gets the better of me. When Brujah was destroyed, the Ventrue clan rose up against Carthage and levelled the city. Since the Ventrue saw themselves as justified rulers, they had become jealous of Brujah’s achievements.
Troile sired more childer to fight the Ventrue, but they no longer had the wisdom of their grand-sire. Troile did continue the clan is his name, but there is a clear distinction between Brujah’s original childer and Troile’s breed. The latter represent the Brujah as they are encountered today- Rebels clad in leather, dealing and doing in weapons and drugs. The former, calling themselves the True Brujah, hide themselves, learning new powers, for they are still scholars. They try to gather enough power to someday wipe ‘Troile’s bastard childer’ off the face of the planet.
Early in the Dark ages, a clan emerged led by a vampire called Cappadocius. This was a clan of death. They were dangerous enough- commanding the spirits and bodies of the dead- but they were none too bright. I don’t know if this was for better or for worse. Somewhere during the dark ages, they embraced someone called Giovanni into their midst. Now Giovanni was a bright individual, who gathered enough power to destroy the entire Cappadocian clan. To ensure his own safety, Giovanni spread vampirism exclusively among his own family, giving rise to the Giovanni clan of mobster vampires. I believe some Cappadocians survived however, to form the secretive and dangerous clan Harbingers of skulls. I reckon they’ve got some scores to settle.
I’ve told you about Saulot and Tremere. After Tremere robbed Saulot of immortality, Tremere granted this gift to his fellow wizards. Thus we gained the clan Tremere. Not everyone considered them real kindred, but they sure as hell made a mark on undead society. They even used their magic to create a whole new breed of vampires, horrid winged creatures called Gargoyles. They created these from other kindred, mostly the Gangrel and Nosferatu. So it’s clear as to why this clan of wizards is hated. Until the burning times.
When humanity attempted to destroy all the supernatural, the kindred came together. They knew their time as rulers of the world was over, and tried to form an alliance to preserve themselves. They wrote down laws to hide themselves from man. Seven clans agreed to form the Camarilla, the organization that would ensure the survival of vampires: The Ventrue, Brujah, Tremere, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Toreador and Malkavians. Desperate times make desperate allies. Other clans refused to join, loath to hide from the mortals they thought were destined to serve them. Enter the Sabbat: An alliance of clan Lasombra and Tzimisce. They dragged individuals from other clans with them, who called themselves antitribu, or anti-clan. The stage was set for new and intensified rounds of the jihad.
Vampires still exist, fighting each other at almost every turn while creating backstabbing deals at all other turns. Mortals just don’t notice. Or maybe they do, but they don’t know the truth. The Kennedy assassination is a fine example of a jihad cover-up. And who else besides President Nixon do you think benefited from the Watergate scandal? Although since then, the CIA and NSA have gotten some clues as to what’s going on. But they leave the public uninformed, bless their governmental hearts.
But we know we can’t last. A number of prophecies foretell our doom and the end of the world. The scary thing is, some of these prophecies have already come to pass and some are true beyond a doubt if properly interpreted.
The blood of Caine is thinning. Each new lick –vampire, I’m sorry- has less of it in his or her system than his or her Sire. New kindred are less powerful and less burdened by the vampiric curses. What will happen when the blood is too thin to have any effect? Blood will hold no power anymore- only the blood of other kindred will suffice. We will cannibalize ourselves and die out. It will take time, but there’s no way to stop it when it’s begun. Maybe it already has.
I’ll elaborate and the prophecies some other time. I think for now, this is all the information you need. Our pasts have been shrouded in mystery, but I think I’ve made it pretty clear now. I hope I didn’t scare you too much. For the worst is yet to come.
With this warning I leave you,
Yorick Blackstone
Noddist scholar of clan Malkavian
