Known mostly to elders from the Old World, the Tzimisce are a bloodline infamous for their unbound cruelty. With their frightening discipline of Vicissitude, Tzimisce are known for their ability to reshape the flesh as a sculptor shapes clay. Using this foul art, Tzimisce make servants into hideous monsters, and use them to control their domains. Though there are a few rumors to the contrary, Dracula apparently has nothing in common with the Tzimisce except ethnic background. Still, some Tzimisce have joined the Order since its inception, though they are usually held at arms length by more experienced teachers of the covenant, who find them unpleasant and disturbing. This fearsome reputation often seems unwarranted at first. Many Tzimisce are reserved and perspicacious beings, a far cry from the howling monsters many would believe them to be. Most Tzimisce appear as rational creatures, formidably intelligent, possessed of an inquisitive and scientific bent, and unstintingly gracious of guests. A Tzimisce childe could show more compassion and humanity than a Toreador a rtist could. An offshoot of the Ventrue clan, the first Tzimisce lords appeared in the hoary mountains of Eastern Europe near 1000 A.D., and quickly became renowned for their insular nature as well as for their cruelty. When Teutonic Ventrue tried to make inroads into the east during the Crusades, they found their clan-mates to be hospitable to a fault, but also distastefully strange or corrupt. It is unknown as to whether this was the cause, but soon after the last of the Crusades, power struggles erupted in that area between native Tzimisce and western Ventrue, who came to gentrify the region. A rift has existed between the bloodline and the clan ever since. Records on the founding of the clan are few and mostly anecdotal, leaving their truths vulnerable to normal vampiric proclivity for exaggeration or subterfuge. What can be certain is the first Tzimisce, usually called just “Tzimisce” Tzimisce” by his get, probably hailed from the Byzantine Empire, either a prince or a captain in the legions. Most stories have that the founder was embraced but fell into dementia and fled to the wilds. The stories then diverge, but most contain trials of various kinds which end with Tzimisce surmounting his obstacles and learning to master his new home, usually through extreme viciousness, persistence, and guile. It is these qualities which most Tzimisce take to heart. Clinging to their ancestral homeland, many Tzimisce say that
mortal feelings of compassion, love, and guilt are chains to be cast off in one’ one ’s unlife, for they shackle what it really takes to succeed as a creature of the night, ambition and wisdom and control of the Beast. Tzimisce consider the Beast an ally rather than an enemy, as it provides the vampire the will to survive and surpass. Tzimisce indulge their Beasts in all sorts of games and diversions. They do not consider this degeneration, but rather exercising their superiority over creatures of a lower order, whether they be humans or vampire trespassers in their domains. The Beast is less likely to rage if it ’s taken out for a walk now and then, they say. The Tzimisce have an intricate relation to their lands. Their bloodline weakness means they don ’t travel often. Overpopulation eventually resulted in a few Fiends seeking greener pastures. This trickle turned into a flood after the communists came to power in Eastern Europe. Few Tzimisce could challenge the established power of Western Europeans elders though, so many came to the New World. The fugitives settled on the East Coast, unwilling to travel further. Here they created childer to seek out new abodes for them if they ever need to leave again. This means Tzimisce can be found in quite a few American and Canadian cities. Parent Clan: Ventrue Nickname: Fiends Covenant: Though some early Tzimisce saw the light of the Lancea Sanctum while others walked the Circle of the Crone, the Tzimisce of the Dark Ages traditionally belonged to Invictus, as they were understood to be a prestigious Ventrue bloodline, even if Kindred of other lands did not know much else about them. After the rift from the parent clan, many Tzimisce ignored the inner circle of Invictus and parodied their organization while remaining separate, forming the small, little known Oradea League Covenant, made up of a council of Tzimisce princes, or “voivodes” voivodes”. Little truly changed, as the Oradea league was simply an organization of oligarchs bent on holding their domains and keeping the neonates in check. Some Tzimisce claim that the founder was initiated as an acolyte of the Circle of the Crone and that pagan rites are where the bloodline gained its discipline of Vicissitude. Since many of these elders never wrote much down or left any proof of these claims, they are given little credence. But some Tzimisce learn the ways of the Circle to better understand understand their blood’ blood ’s mysteries.
A few of the eldest Tzimisce are still members of the Circle of the Crone. They can shape and change their bodies and create life, or at least twisted mockeries of it. Since the inceptions of the bloodline, the Tzimisce have been involved in pagan cults and their fight against oppression. They will take the place of the blood gods the Acolytes worship and they will show their worshipper the true meaning of tribulation. The inhumanity and cruelty of a Tzimisce Acolyte is almost unsurpassed in the Danse Macabre. Those who don’t hold themselves to the veneer of nobility masking the beast of the Fiends can most often be found in the Circle of the Crone. The Ordo Dracul is an interesting case, there are some rumors of its founder having been Tzimisce. The Tzimisce vehemently deny this, as does the Order. Still, in recent nights, some Tzimisce have been accepted by the Order because their signature discipline is considered worth exploring as a method of understanding change. But many in the Ordo Dracul hold their Tzimisce brothers at arms length. Most Fiends are members of the Ordo Dracul. Their scholarly bent and emphasis on transcending the vampiric condition appealed instantly to those Tzimisce preaching the path of Metamorphosis. Many Fiends flocked to the Dragon ’s banner, even when it was dangerous to do so. Tzimisce can mostly be found among the Sworn of the Dying Light and the Sworn of Mysteries. The Sworn of the Axe hold little attraction to the very cerebral Tzimisce. Like all members of the Ordo Dracul, Tzimisce seek to better themselves. They search for the perfect form, altering themselves in strange and disturbing ways. Many study the traditional Coils as well as Vicissitude, hoping that a merger of the two studies will yield something truly revolutionary. The undead nobility of the Invictus appeals to most Fiends, and so the second largest faction of the Tzimisce can be found among their ranks. The Voivodate styles itself a feudal hierarchy and thus the medieval society of the Invictus is a natural fit for those looking for temporal power. Those rare Tzimisce who join the Lancea Sanctum embody the very worst of a church of predators. Sanctified Fiends often serve as priests or spiritual leaders of some kind. These positions are an outlet for their eerie fanaticism. No Tzimisce has joined the Carthian Movement. The Fiends have shed their mortal lives and they no longer see the need to keep its trappings. Unbound are rare among modern Tzimisce, but can still be found in Eastern Europe. There they dwell in their ancestral keeps with no company but their experimental subjects. While the traditional imagery of a Fiend terrorizing his subjects from a gothic castle is mostly outdated, a few Tzimisce still cling to the old ways, masquerade be damned. Appearance: With their Discipline, Tzimisce can vary wildly in appearance, often not even looking human. Usually, however, they represent some extreme of beauty or horror. Elders who have become insular or deranged may have quite eccentric appearances depending on their origins, wearing strange or archaic clothing, or in some cases nothing at all. Modern Tzimisce tend to blend in better, but even they can sometimes be twisted and strange.
Haven: Tzimisce havens are very personal things. Tzimisce share the proclivity with their Ventrue clan-mates for large, ostentatious havens, and even share the tradition of providing sanctuary to other Ventrue. They delight in playing gracious host (though few would choose this option unless absolutely necessary, as often what might be comfortable and pleasing to a Tzimisce is not anyone else’s idea of those concepts). One thing that does set Tzimisce apart from other Ventrue is their zeal in defending their havens. Bound by their bloodline weakness (see below), Tzimisce consider trespassing on their domain a capital offense, and respond accordingly. As a result of this, most Tzimisce pay a lot of attention to the security of their havens. If an enemy manage to destroy a Fiend ’s haven, his Final Death is only a matter of time after all. Most Tzimisce make their havens away from places where lots of mortals gather. This is partly because of an urge to make a land for oneself, not bothered by the Kine masses, and partly because someone might hear the screams. Background: Tzimisce choose childer who are distinctive and not necessarily traditionally professional or noble. They look for traits that make a mortal “worthy” of the Embrace, scoffing at the notion of it as a curse. They are attracted by exceptional genius or cunning, or acts of great willpower. Tzimisce are as likely to embrace a psychopath as a scientist if they think the mortal has a trait of interest. Whatever their mortal form, the elders hope, the chaff will fall away and they will become a more refined, deadly, formidable vampire. Some Tzimisce only embrace from ghouls whom they have trained for years in preparation. Rumor says that, in the Dark Ages, Tzimisce had whole ghoul families under careful tutelage. Most Tzimisce are still Eastern European in origin. Several families have been manipulated by the Tzimisce through history. These lineages were made to be the best breeding stock for childer. The madness of the Tzimisce took its toll on these families. Subjected to torture and cruel experiments during their lives, over half the family members turn into fleshcrafted madmen. Stories of inbred monstrosities in Eastern Europe still surface from time to time. These failed experiments are sometimes set free by particularly callous Fiends and roam the countryside of the Baltic nations. Character Creation: Tzimisce favor either Mental or Social attributes over brute strength, but often learn to back up whatever weakness they may possess. Ultimately the fiends learn how to make others fear them, as it is their best defense. Crafts, Medicine, Science, Intimidation, Persuasion, and Brawl are common. Social merits are often of great use to a Tzimisce, and the Haven merit is particularly useful. Bloodline Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience, Vicissitude. Weakness: Like Ventrue, the Tzimisce are prone to derangements as they degenerate (which is quite common): they often are haunted by agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or megalomania. In addition, the Tzimisce ’s player loses one die from all pools for every day that the character fails to sleep in her special earth (“special,” because the earth must be from an area important to the character — birthplace, grave site, etc. The specifics vary from Tzimisce to Tzimisce, but any
given character has only one such site). This modifier cannot grow larger than –5, but once it reaches this point it persists until the character has spent a full night in at least two handfuls of appropriate soil.
strous and horrifying creature drinking [the] blood of the pagans in Transdanubia” [modern-day Hungary]. This report goes on to the describe a cult based around this creature, a vampire that could mold its own body and the bodies of its servants.
Organization: Tzimisce are not known for working well together unless there is a common enemy. In that case, they can be quite effective, but without some kind of overarching need to combine forces they quickly fall back into petty bickering and war for power. On the other hand, sire/childer relationships are quite strong, as the pecking order is usually quite established and not prone to changing. Many sires force their childer into Vinculum early on to secure their loyalty for all time.
The Tzimisce don’t appear in the scant documentation from the following period, and only gained their infamy far later, when Teutonic Ventrue from Die Unbesiegt tried to wrestle the Baltic region from the Fiends’ grasp. This campaign was a land grab by the Ventrue Hardestadt, who tried to install his own bloodline in Lithuania. Where the crusaders conquered and converted the last pagan kingdom of Europe, the Tzimisce stood fast against the Christian Kindred. Die Unbesiegt didn ’t manage to establish a permanent foothold in Lithuania and the so-called Omen War ended when the Invictus emperor refused to give any more resources to Hardestadt.
Theoretically, every Tzimisce has his place in the Voivodate. Practically, the need for privacy means the Voivodes don ’t have much say in the night-to-night business of the Fiends. Nevertheless, the old ways are respected. The Voivodes act as spiritual leaders for the Fiends, whether they be Invictus, Acolytes, Dragons or Sanctified. Under the Voivodes, the other Tzimisce are considered vassals. The leadership of the entire bloodline lies in the hand of the Voivode of Voivodes. Regional leaders are Knézi and the warlocks of the Voivodate are referred to as Koldunic sorcerers. Powerful Tzimisce have an advisory role in Voivodate politics. Every Fiend over 150 years old becomes one of the Szlachta, a noble council advising the Voivodes and Knézi. Concepts: Crime lord, sociopath, antiquated nobility, corporate profiteer, driven professor, obsessive occultist, modern warlock, yuppie psycho, cenobite wannabe, butcher, mad scientist.
The myth of their origin is told thusly: When the Eldest came to Eastern Europe, the land spit him out. The beasts hunted him and the forest rose up against him. The Eldest was a powerful Fiend, but not equipped to fight the land itself. In his despair he cried out a name he knew from his mortal life: Kupala. “
This was the name of a god, a devil, or a powerful spirit. The nature of Kupala is lost now, because the Eldest was the last one who knew the secrets of his people, a tribe he slaughtered after his embrace. How this tribe knew of Kupala and where they lived is as mysterious as the name of the Eldest and the nature of Kupala himself. Kupala answered the call and stepped over the mountains that separated this world from the next. Where he entered this realm, he left a crater. This crater is still a holy site to the Koldún. He spoke to the Eldest in a long lost language and taught him the magic of the elements. And with this magic the Eldest conquered the land, and we inherited it from him. So it became our land, till the day Kupala arises and the stars go out. ”
The origin of the bloodline is clouded in myth. The only thing that is sure about the birth of the Tzimisce is that it occurred around the Baltic region sometime earlier than 653 A.D. Most elders point to a document from this year as proof of their ancient claim to their lands. The document in question is addressed to the Camarilla of Byzantium and describes a “mon-
At least, this is the way the Fiends tell the story. Invictus scholars point to the total amnesia surrounding the emperor and doubt that the Tzimisce would remember this so clearly. Whatever the cause was, the war was over and the Voivodate reigned supreme in the Baltic States and big parts of Transdanubia. Their Koldunic sorcerers used rituals to create many monstrous servants, an army of horrors defending the last pagan strongholds of Europe.
(Animalism
, Vicissitude Blood Potency
•••••
, )
•••••
••••• ••
Cost: at least 15 ghouls The vozhd is a war machine not seen since the war between the Teutonic Ventrue and the Baltic Tzimisce in the Dark Ages. The Tzimisce fleshcrafts the ghouls together, forging the bodies in a single entity. The Fiend then feeds the mess of bodies a mixture of the ghouls’ blood, creating a kind of protovinculum among them. This bond in place, the Fiend uses Animalism to coalesce the minds of the ghouls into one insane and imperfect Beast that drives the vozhd to crush or devour everything in sight. System: Roll Intelligence + Crafts + Vicissitude. The standard time is one year to create the vozhd. Subtract one month for each success. Subtract one die for every 5 ghouls below 30 used in the creation of the vozhd. Add one die for every 10 ghouls over 30 used in the creation of the vozhd. If human ghouls are used in the creation of the vozhd, the creator automatically loses a dot of humanity and has to roll for degeneration. This power costs 40 experience points to learn.
This wouldn’t last though. The Tzimisce could not exist in the newly Christened world and slowly the Voivodate ceded ground to the Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum. From the North, the Circle of the Crone also appeared. They used the same practices that the cults of the Voivodate used, but they weren’t exclusive to one lineage. The numerical superiority and inclusiveness managed to draw far more members to the covenants and the Voivodate could no longer control the Baltic
Region around 1300 A.D. Transdanubia was lost way before that time, at the end of the Omen War. Today, the Voivodate isn’t big enough to be covenant and membership in it does no longer exclude membership in the Invictus or any other covenant. The decline of the Voivodate also has another cause. During the 1700 ’s, it still existed as a covenant in the Baltic Region and it was powerful enough to compete with the other covenants in most cities. This fell apart when the Ordo Dracul appeared. They were persecuted in a lot of Kindred domains, but the Fiends welcomed them with open arms. They were hungry for their secrets and their coils. When they couldn ’t get to those by force, most joined the Ordo Dracul. Its methods and ideology appealed to many Tzimisce, who had their own ideas about transcending the Curse. Most Fiends who joined the Ordo Dracul still retained their vassalage to the Voivodate. Since the Ordo Dracul wasn ’t a fully formed covenant yet, this wasn ’t an exceptional occurrence. Only when the Dragons became more powerful did membership in the Ordo become more important than the Voivodate. The final nail in the coffin for the Voivodes was the power wielded by the Ordo Dracul in Transylvania and the other ancestral lands of the Tzimisce. Many Fiends traveled back to the domains they were chased out of centuries earlier. Of course the fog of ages obscured many claims to land, but the Ordo Dracul welcomed every new ally they could get in those first decades of its existence.
•
•••••
Status in the Voivodate acts as social bonus dice against Tzimisce in some situations. Additionally, anyone with dots in Voivodate Status can buy the Domain and Retainer merits for half price. This bonus only applies after character creation and can only be used in a situation where the Voivodate is distinct as a covenant. Kindred with dots in Voivodate status have access to Koldunic Sorcery, the magic created or stolen by the Tzimisce in time past.
Vozhd are gigantic lobotomized amalgamations of many lesser ghouls, at least two stories tall and weighing almost six tons. Their very bodies are implements of destruction, covered as they are with mouths full of razor-sharp teeth, six-foot bone spikes jutting out at every possible angle and tentacles to draw prey into their reach. These creatures have little intelligence, are notoriously too enraged to control reliably and have but one use: to destroy everything in sight. The creation of such a monstrosity requires at least 15 creatures, though some include well over 30. The Ordo Dracul chapterhouse in Vienna houses an account of a vozhd created from 100 ghouls contributed by six different Fiends. The process of becoming a vozhd invariably drives the component beings insane; to circumvent this, the victims are usually lobotomized via Vicissitude before the gestalten assembly occurs.
Animals, as well as humans, can be used to create these beasts. In the Old World, most Tzimisce who knew the proper rituals used wolves, goats and falcons, even the horses and livestock of their subjects when other animals were scarce. Few Tzimisce know how to create vozhdi in the modern nights, but in Riga, rumors persist of a titanic monstrosity composed of human bodies mingled with household pets, sea creatures and thousands of smaller animals such as rats or snakes. To create a vozhd, the Fiend fleshcrafts the ghouls together into something like a cohesive entity. Perhaps she forms all th e ghoul’s skeletons into one structure then wraps it with the ghouls’ flesh and organs. Though the process can take months, the Fiend must hurry because these broken creatures, not yet one entity, require constant infusions of vitae to prevent death from shock. Still, a certain amount of prolonged suffering is necessary to give the resulting vozhd the proper rage. Once the construction is complete, the Tzimisce feeds the ghouls a concoction of blood drawn from each of them, in effect creating a blood bond among all the minds that will eventually become the vozhd. Building upon this bond, the Fiend must coalesce the minds within into a single, albeit broad and imperfect, Beast. Even at the height of the clan ’s dominance in the Baltic nations, few Tzimisce knew the proper ritual and fewer still resorted to the creation of such uncontrollable wrecking machines. In the modern nights, most Tzimisce think the vozhdi extinct and too big of a Masquerade violation to recreate. Sample Vozhd Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 2, Resolve 3, Strength 8, Dexterity 2, Stamina 6, Presence 0, Manipulation 0, Composure 3 Skills: Brawl 2, Intimidation 5, Survival 4 Willpower: 6 Initiative: 5 Defense: 2 (highest of Wits or Dexterity) Speed: 15 (species factor 5) Size: 8 Disciplines: Resilience 4, Vigor 5 Vitae/per Turn: 20/2 Weapons/Attacks: Type Damage Dice Pool Bite or Claw 0 (L) 10 Slam 0 (B)* 10 * Special: Knockdown (See the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 168.) Health: 14 Attempts to influence a vozhd with Animalism carry a −3 penalty. This penalty is raised to −5 if the character attempting the Animalism isn’t one of the vozhd s creators. A vozhd cannot use any weapons, but might deal lethal damage, depending on its parts. A vozhd follows the rules for ghouls laid out in the Vampire: The Requiem rulebook. Keep in mind that a being as single mindedly aggressive as a vozhd will get violent if denied his vitae. ’
Vicissitude can be found on pp. 35-36 of Vampire Translation Guide. Another version of Vicissitude can be found on pp. 3-6 of Mike McConnell’s Tzimisce, which includes suggested success thresholds for extended actions and penalties for instant actions. Transviscera can be found on pp. 9-11 of Paul O ’Connell’s The Strigoi, which rebalances the discipline and changes the fourth and fifth dots into devotions.
(Dominate
•••••
, Vicissitude
•••••
)
This power allows a vampire to become insubstantial and physically enter a host, controlling them from within like an obscene marionette. Cost: 1 Vitae, 1 Willpower. Dice Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Dominate versus Resolve Action: Contested. The vampire must be in blood form, and must surround a target. There is no “discreet” way of doing this other than doing it in a secluded area, as victims will panic and scream as they fight back. This facilitates the physical union of the vampire in the body, as it enters any available orifice. The Conquering Blood is different from Possession, in that the possession is rapid and unstable, and leaves the victim some willpower. The physical presence of the vampire in all parts of the victim’s bloodstream allows him to overwhelm what’s left. Roll Results Dramatic Failure: The vampire becomes a prisoner inside the target’s body, vaguely able to perceive what he does but unable to leave. The vampire may attempt to escape with a Resolve + Stamina roll, maximum of one per hour. Tales tell of foolish vampires who were trapped only to free themselves too close to dawn to find safety. Failure: If the victim acquires more successes, it resists the vampire’s attempts. Success: If the vampire acquires more successes, it takes possession of the victim for a number of hours equal to its successes. Subtract its successes from the victim ’s willpower. The result is the number of times per hour that a victim can attempt to reestablish control. Exceptional Success: As per Success, but the vampire may re-enter the same target at a later night without spending a Willpower point. This power costs 30 experience points to learn. Note: If using the rules for Transviscera, this devotion requires Body of the Sanguine Humor as a prerequisite.
(Auspex
, Obfuscate
••
, Vicissitude
••
)
•••
The Aura is a byproduct of the body. Change the body, change the soul. The body’s experiences can be summed up in the aura, but this phenomenon is the product of physical forces. By crafting certain locations on the body a Tzimisce can “paint” whatever aura he chooses. Auras summarize the individual, revealing the emotions, the Curse and even the stain of diablerie… This power lasts for a scene, after that time, the aura goes back to its original colors. Cost: 1 Willpower Dice Pool: Wits + Subterfuge + Vicissitude Action: Instant Suggested Modifiers Modifier Situation —
Change the shade of the Aura (bright or weak)
-1
Change the primary color of the Aura
-2
Change the other colors in the Aura
-3
Conceal the Curse or the stain of diablerie
-4
Conceal the Curse and the stain of diablerie
This power costs 21 experience points to learn.
(Animalism
•••••
, Vicissitude
•••••
)
A Fiend with this power may release and temporarily enhance the beast inside of another Kindred, whereupon it immediately sets about warping flesh and bone to better accommodate its monstrousness. The hapless host writhes in agony, skin sloughing off and muscles boiling into new and terrible forms. Once the change settles, the host frenzies as a terrible living weapon, wreaking a swath of carnage until the vampire bids the beast to calm. Cost: 2 Vitae, 1 Willpower Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Animalism versus subject’s Composure + Blood Potency Action: Instant The subject is forced to spend two Vitae as an instant action to painfully transform into the Horrid Form (this takes two turns if the subject can only spend 1 Vitae/turn) and then attacks all those nearby in frenzy. The physical changes return to normal after the frenzy calms down. Leashing the Beast can end the frenzy (and the effects of this power) prematurely, as normal. This power costs 30 experience points to learn. Note: If using the rules for Transviscera, this devotion requires Form of the Zulo Beast as a prerequisite.
