Khaibit
From Cam-Wiki
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See Bloodlines: the Hidden, pages 48-57
Contents |
The Khaibit
- Perrin 'Spector' Cassidy
- Abu Boomah Abdul-Malik ibn al-Aqrab Nasr al-Khalid (Al-Nasr)
- Mistress Elizabeth Turnbull
Introduction
We stand in the shadows and wait; await the commands of our masters. To be Khaibit is to serve. To defend. Since time began it is we who have stood alone before the howling armies of the night and protected our kind from horrors beyond even our cursed existence -- ghosts and lupines of course; but there are horrors beyond imagination which originate outside the ken of this plane of existence. It is our duty to face them. And so we wait, until waiting is done. And then we strike.
Information
Parent Clan: Mekhet
Nickname: Asps (ancient role), Servants (modern role)
Covenant: In the last thousand years, the Khaibit have served the Circle of the Crone almost exclusively. More than half the bloodline sticks by this old bond. indeed, some Asps have become competant blood-sorcerors in their own right, instead of merely serving them. in the last two centuries, some Asps took service among the Invictus, the Ordo Dracul or to a much lesser extent the Lancea Sanctum and Carthians. Now, Khaibit who don't know or care about tradition join whichever Covenant suits their personalities or goals.
Appearance: As with the parent Clan, there's no such thing as a typical Khaibit. Line members can be male or female, young or old (in mortal appearance, anyway) and of any race. Asps dress to blend in with the Kine around them. Those who fulfill roles as Retainers often prefer their clothes either loose-fitting, or carefully tailored to hide protective armour or amulets.
Haven: Khaibit who serve as Retainers do not possess Havens of their own; instead, they dwell with their masters. Asps who serve as Creation's unseen defenders keep their Havens well-hidden, and often underground. These dwelling tend to be small and spartan, as the vampire may need to abandon it if it is compromised. The Khaibit who protect the Cult of Set's long-hidden shrines in Egypt dwell in Cabal temples. These magnificent subterranean complexes include shrines, dormitories for mortal servants and vessels, training areas, libraries of ancient lore and vaults of artifacts salvaged from the Cult of Set.
Background: The Khaibit look for potential childer who share their ethos of respect and support. They typically Embrace mortals who already serve a master or some allied Kindred. Tradtion holds that a prospective Asp should first honour his Sire and his Sire's master as a ghoul, learning the skills needed to serve and protect. Modern Khaibit often forego this requirement, along with the rest of the Bloodline's calling, Embracing whomever is useful. These rogues are in for a surprise if the Bloodline's enemies ever catch up with them: some of the Khaibit's ancient enemies remember the bloodline and still hold a grudge.
The few Asps who carry on the ancient duty of guarding the world from ghosts, demons and worse things were often mortals who fought the supernatural, or who were victimized by it. The Khaibit do not always ask such a prospective childe's permission before Embracing them. When a neonate is simply taken in this way, the Sire spends at least seven years training and indoctrinating the childe.
Character Creation: The majority of line members who serve as mercenaries or agents of other vampires typically offer a forte that's most useful to a master or employer. A Kindred who seeks a bodyguard and protector typically needs an Asp with primarily Physical traits. Someone who needs an assistant or proxy makes Mental or Social traits a criteria. A character's relative strengths and weaknesses can therefore suggest what kind of role he might play as an agent-for-hire. Appropriate Physical, Mental or Social Merits only further specialise a Khaibit's appointed role. Expertise in fighting styles, sense for the supernatural or relationships in mortal affairs makes a servant all the more useful in a particular regard.
A Khaibit Embraced to the world's defenders ultimately seeks as much balance as possible among Attributes and Skills. While Physical Attributes might be primary at character creation, Physical Skills might be tertiary, for example. Such well-rounded capabilities are called for since no supernatural enemy can be defeated in only one way. It takes all of a defender's faculties to prevail.
If the character is initiated into the Bloodline shortly after the Embrace, an extra dot of Blood Potency is required.
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obtenebration and Vigor
Weakness: The Khaibit retain the same weakness as their Mekhet forebears. Whenever Asps suffer damage from sunlight or fire, they take an additional level of Aggravated damage from that source.
Their attunement to darkness also renders the Khaibit less able to resist the instinctive fear of sunlight, anything that burns like sunlight, or anything that could be mistaken for sunlight. As a reult, the character suffers a -2 penalty on checks to resist Rotschreck in regard to light.
Organisation: Those Asps who still protect the relics of Set's cult and who hunt monsters form tiny, cult-like, militant coteries that protect torpid members, record their rule, and preserve their traditions through the centuries. Most Khaibit, however, never meet any other Asps apart from their own subserviant Sires and broodmates.
Concepts: Bodyguard, valet, detective, assassin, modern knight, Hound, business manager, vengeful ronin, Demon-hunter, hospice night manager, personal trainer, cryptozoologist.
History
For most Khaibit, the Bloodline lacks any history beyond the personal. A member may learn the background of his Sire and his Grandsire, but that's all. The problem is like writing a history of the English monarchy's butlers. For centuries, nobody thought the people or their experiences would be worth recording. When Khaibit appear in chronicles and legends of the Damned, they usually do so as the lackeys - loyal or treacherous - of more famous Circle of the Crone members.
Legendary Origins
The Khaibit emerged from the Mekhet so long ago that history has passed into legend, and few now remember even the legend. Asps who want to hear stories about their Bloodline's origins must seek the most erudite loremasters of the Undead, or find one of the tiny, long-isolated Khaibit coteries that still guards a site of mystic power. What's more, a dedicated investigator discovers multiple stories, not just one.Each legend may contain bits of history, but even those coteries that claim to presrve the ancient ways cannot tell which details are fact and which are fancy. Tales of ancient Khaibit and the Cult of Set drip with romance. Even vampires who know they are not the world's only supernatural denizens cannot believe the legends of gods, ghosts, wizards, were-creatures and otherworlds.
The Cult of Set Legends cannot assign a beginning to the Cult of Set. Crumbling scrolls and mouldering tomes say the Egyptian god Set founded the group himself before recorded history began, making it the first Kindred "Covenant". These purported histories do not mention any events earlier than Hellenistic times, though, and even those stories may be fabrications (no-one has ever scientifically dated these manuscripts, which may be copies made later) The most consistant myths say the cult existed to protect the world from perils far worse than vampires. The Damned had to dwell in the world and needed live humans to sustain them. Other creatures did not. The warriors of Set therefore fought evil and powerful ghosts that wanted to drag the world of the living into the world of death. They hunted malignant cults and crazed enchanters who served gods of madness, destruction and oblivion. They battled spirits and monsters fom beyond the stars and below the depths of Hell. Things so foul and alien that their very presence warped and eroded reality. The Cult's greatest strength lay in its homeland of Egypt. After Rome conquered Egypt, the cult spread throughout the Mediterranean world and the Middle East. The scrolls and inscriptions in the Cult's long-lost temples say that Set's nighttime warriors saved the world (or at least the Roman provinces) many times. Entertaining stories, if one can believe that any Kindred acted so selflessly.
Dark Power The lost myths of the Khaibit ascribe the Bloodline's genesis to contact with various spiritual or magical forces. The simplest story says that the god Set gave the lineage's first members their command over shadow. He supposedly gave the gift so that the Khaibit could penetrate the deepest darkness, even unto the deathly realms where light could not shine, and to fight creatures that were shadows themselves. Other tales attribute the change in the Khaibit's Vitae to drinking the blood of an evil and powerful sorceror, bathing in the waters of the River of Death that flowed through Duat, an enchantment cast by a mortal mage, stealing the power of Obtenebration from the gods themselves, or even devouring the essence of a demon or Nameless Thing from the Lower Realms. After over 3000 years, the truth probably doesn't matter any more.
The Cult of set was never officially destroyed; it simply withered away. Remaining members joined the Camarilla, and from there the Cult's esoteric secrets passed into the fledgling Circle of the Crone. Like the Cult, its enemies seemed to have declined as well. Perhaps the ghosts, demons and nameless horrors found it more difficult to invade the material world. Perhaps their depredations weren't recorded in the chaos and ignorance that followed the collapse of Rome. Whatever the matter, the fading sect ceased its battles against its otherworldly foes. The Khaibit followed other Cult of Set members into the Circle of the Crone, yet that group bestowed its greatest honour onto blood magicians, not warriors. The Khaibit continued to fight the enemies of the old Cult, such as Lupines and hostile vampires, but they fought at the blood-sorcerors' command. Gradually, the Bloodline shifted from a lineage of shadow warriors to a lineage of bodyguards and protectors. Khaibit seldom appear as the protagonists of Circle history or legend. As magic slipped from the world and the Covenants established their new balance of power, the Bloodline's martial prowess has become steadily less important. Now, even the warrior's tradition of service is a quaint anachronism. Nobody really needs the Khaibit any more. At least they won't, until the gates of the Other open once again, and the spectral enemies return. Then, the time of reckoning for the line of Set will come.
Obtenebration
Obtenebration; the strange and inexplicable power to control shadows and darkness. Elders of the Khaibit bloodline claim that this power was gifted to them by the Egyptian god Set/Sutekh as a weapon against the spectral denizens of the Shadow (aka, the spirit realm).
1. Night Sight - Allows the vampire to see in the dark. While the power is in effect, the vampire's pupils expand to fill their eyes from rim to rim. In extreme darkness (less than a candle's worth of light)the vampire can see any ghosts, spirits or other Twilight beings in the vicinity.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: No roll required
2. Shadow Play - The vampire can take control of nearby shadows. The shadows can be lightened or intensified, reshaped where they stand or even pulled from the walls and twisted into wholly unnatural shapes. The Khaibit can use this power to temporarily increase their stealth or intimidation, or to simply terrify mortals (or other supernaturals) who are not used to such otherworldly displays.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Wits + Intimidation + Obtenebration
3. Shroud of the Night - The vampire can now create darkness, either to conceal their own deeds, blind their enemies or to manipulate further through Shadow Play. The intensity of the darkness created depends on the amount of ambient light already in existence. Creating a cloud of inky blackness on an abandoned street would be comparitively easy, whereas it would be difficult to summon anything more than mood lighting in a well-lit parking garage.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Crafts + Obtenebration
4. Perambulum in Tenebris - The vampire can step into one shadow and emerge from another. Only line of site to both shadows is necessary for the Khaibit to travel between them, meaning that vast distances can be covered very quickly. Suffice to say, the potential of this power for both escape and ambush has doubtless been responsable for many Khaibit victories.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: No roll required
5. Shadow Form - The vampire can now transform into pure darkness. While in this form they are nigh-invulnerable, unable to be harmed by anything other than sunlight or certain magics. Even fire cannot touch them. The vampire can also slip through any gap more than a few molecules wide, though like a normal shadow they must 'stick' to a wall or surface. An exceptional success on the activation roll allows the Khaibit to overcome this, as they can transform into a 3-dimensional column of living, fluid darkness. If the vampire is in an area so brightly lit that shadows can not exist, then they are unable to take on the Shadow Form.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Wits + Subterfuge + Obtenebration
