By Stacey Lawless
Why are you clad like this?
You have put your feet on the body of a god,
and you have no trace of shame,
you have placed your feet on Shiva,
you are naked and wear no covering,
your tongue is lolling out and flicking,
your long hair is flowing loose.
But, O terrible wife of Shiva, you are chewing the flesh in your hand for the sake of saving this world..."
Or read Dakini Teachings, by Padmasambava.
The Dakini are perhaps an offshoot of the Assamites, or of the Toreador. Then again, there are many Kindred who believe them to be one of the Eastern Clans. It cannot be denied that the Dakini have an ancient lineage, nor that the elders of the bloodline are incredibly powerful. Whatever the origins of these Kindred, they are honorable, passionate and proud, fierce warriors and skilled artists who love and hate with equal intensity. However, other vampires regard them with fear and disgust.
The reason for this is that the Dakini are all murderers. They spend much of their time stalking and slaying both Kindred and kine. Murder is their religion, their preferred method of gaining vitae, and often, it seems, their main form of recreation. Though they aren't active diabolists in the manner of the Sabbat, many Dakini have the black traces of diablerie in their auras, and their predation upon the kine strains the Masquerade badly. To most Western Kindred the Dakini appear to be decadent monsters, who wantonly slay to satisfy their twisted desires, heedless of the danger they pose to the rest of vampire-kind.
Yet there is more to the Dakini than meets the eye, and beneath their wicked facade lie some very good reasons for what they do. The Dakini kill to feed, because they must. It is the weakness of this bloodline that only the blood of the dead can sustain them. All living vitae, be it animal or human, is no more good to them than water is. Some of them will scavenge for their nightly meals, but too often the only way for a Dakini to feed is to stalk and kill someone.
This weakness is also the reason for the almost religious emphasis the Dakini place upon murder. Forced as they are to kill for their very survival, many of them have embraced a philosophy which sanctifies their existences and justifies their bloody work. This philosophy is in fact a Path of Enlightenment, and is called the Path of Nataraja. The majority of the Dakini practice it.
The Dakini claim that they were the first Kindred in India, and the Assamites have a few legends that seem to support this. It is definite that the Dakini, along with the early Ravnos, were intimately involved with the ancient Indus Valley Harappan culture, and that when other Kindred arrived along with the Aryan invaders they found the Dakini arrayed against them. The invaders won that struggle but the Dakini remained active and strong in the new order of things, sharing power with Gangrel, Toreador, Malkavians, and Nosferatu; and later Assamites (who entered India along with the first Muslims.). The Kindred of India evolved a vampiric culture that was distinct in many ways from that of Europe, and the Dakini played a major role in it.
Sometime during the early years of the Moghul Empire, a Ravnos committed the Unforgivable Act against Sarasvati, Maharani of Benares. Nobody knows the true nature of the Act, as Sarasvati refused to speak of it ever after and the Ravnos are all liars, but it was said to be a heinous trick of truly legendary proportions, and many fanciful tales circulate still which purport to describe it. Whatever the Unforgivable Act was, the fury -- and clout -- of Sarasvati was so great that she rallied her bloodline to drive the Ravnos from India, along with their proto-Gypsy retainers. As a result, relations between the Ravnos and the Dakini are cool to this day. However, the bloodline had no real vampiric enemies until the British East India Company, with its Ventrue overlords and Tremere backers, came to India.
India at that point was reeling from the collapse of the Moghul Empire, and various factions, mortal, mage, and vampiric, were battling each other for supremacy. The British and the Ventrue were able to exploit the disarray and seize economic control of the country with relative ease. The other Kindred of India were from clans that were familiar to the West, and thus the Ventrue were able to coexist with them fairly easily, but the Dakini were another story entirely. Virtually unknown to the West before then, to the Masquerade-conscious Ventrue they seemed exotic and cruel, callous brutes who were little better than the Sabbat. It didn't help that the proud Dakini fought tooth and nail to retain their ancestral power.
The Ventrue began rooting out and destroying the Dakinis' sources of power and support. One of these was the Thuggee cult, a secret society of assassins which the Dakini had controlled for centuries. In addition to providing a fertile recruiting ground for Euthanatos mages (whom the Dakini had a loose alliance with, based on similar interests) and Assamite Kindred, the Thugs had long provided the Dakini with retainers, spies, soldiers, and a supply of easy blood (the Thugs strangled their victims). Working through a young British officer, and with the assistance of the Tremere, the Ventrue broke the back of the Thugs in a few short years. The Dakini retaliated by Embracing several hundred Thuggee prisoners, thus touching off a vicious shadow war that culminated with the Sepoy Rebellion. The British crushed the Dakini-backed uprising and the embattled bloodline reluctantly sued for peace, becoming grudging members of the Camarilla. Still, hatred for the Ventrue runs deep among the Dakini, while the Ventrue themselves regard the "savages" with cold disdain.
Today, though mortal India has won independence from the British, English Kindred still control many areas. Things are tense between the Dakini, the other Indian Kindred, and these foreigners, which contributes to the nation's political unrest. Recently, the Dakini have made several bold moves to consolidate their power. At the same time, younger members of the bloodline have begun migrating to Western nations, particularly Great Britain and the United States. The elders of the Camarilla are worried about this, as they consider the fierce, independent Dakini to be one of the greatest internal threats to the Masquerade. Repeated requests to the elders of the bloodline that they bring their errant childer to heel have been met with polite indifference. The Camarilla suspects the Dakini of being up to something, and has appraised several Justicars and Princes of its concerns.
Note: Dakini can drink from other vampires without having to extinguish them first, as Kindred are by definition already dead. Some Dakini cultivate vampiric allies whom they are willing to risk being Blood-Bonded to, in case they need to feed in a hurry and the situation prevents them from hunting.
Dakini in the West tend to be loners, ranging far from others of their kind. However, some of them have been Siring as they go, so this situation may change before long.
"The Inquisition never touched India, and so these brazen fools think that all humans are like the superstitious sheep they butcher at home. They don't realize the danger their bloody antics pose to all of us. Should any come to my city I will lead the hunters to their very doors -- perhaps then these animals will begin to understand."
The Sabbat: "These Kindred have come close to understanding the truth of our existence, but terror keeps them blind. The Gehenna they fear is a necessary phase in the world's evolution, nothing more. Even worlds must take a chance on dying."
"These vampires waste too much time in philosophical pursuits, but their talents are highly desirable. Fortunately their ties to the Camarilla seem weak. We should do what we can to sever these ties, whenever possible. If they do not join us then, we can simply let the Camarilla pick them off."
The Inconnu: "We have a lot of respect for these ancient ones. They have attained true enlightenment, and their wisdom and power are very great. They seem to have some understanding of the work we do, and for this we honor them as much as possible when we hunt them."
"'Tis said that these black-blooded beasts gave Saulot the crucial insight he needed to achieve Golconda. If so, I cannot imagine what it was. Were it not for the fact that some of my comrades are originally from this dark lineage, I would not believe the Dakini to be vampires at all, but something worse! We must watch them most carefully, and do what we can to curb their excesses."
Asura: The Dakini make ghouls for use as retainers, but they call them asuras instead. The word "ghoul" has a very different meaning for them.
Ghul: Pronounced like "ghoul," this world refers to a cursed, devolved sub-bloodline of the Dakini.
Maharaja: Basically, the "Prince" of a Dakini-controlled city. The feminine title is Maharani.
Raja: Basically, a "Primogen" member in a Dakini-controlled city. The feminine title is Rani.
Rakshasa: Ferocious man-eating, shapeshifting demons. The Dakini use this word as a catchall term for the Changing Breeds. The rakshasas they are most familiar with are the Cat (Khan and Bagheera Bastet) and Caiman (Mokole) varieties, though there are also Wolf rakshasas in the forests.
Shambhala: An alternate name for Golconda. There is an old fortress in India called Golkonda, and many Dakini feel it is an affront to this exalted state of being to make it share a name with a mere place.
Ustad: "Tutor," a title often given to those who Sire.
View The Path of Nataraja.
View Rumali discipline.
View the Blood Scarf, a weapon of the Dakini (By "Sir William Amber Robert Chamberlaine III")
View the Ghuls.