By J. Lance Alloway (lanja@cbn.net.id)
While what I told you all at Elysium was accurate, there are a few details about my run in with that Sabbat pack that I neglected to mention. Like I said, when I got there the bad guys were just getting better acquainted with someone I'm guessing was a Tremere. I didn't know the guy. Anyway, by the time I ran the Sabbat off, the poor slob they were working over was about 3/4 hamburger and about 12 pints low (If you know what I mean). So afterwards I notice something sort of sticking out of this guys guts. It was a chunk of clay tablet and some papers rolled up in plastic. No kidding, he was carrying it inside him. I guess the Sabbat guys missed it, or just didn't have time to grab it. I couldn't make heads of tails of the markings on the tablet, but I've included the contents of the paper below. Have you heard any of this before? It sounds like it's talking about Clan Gangrel in particular. What do you think of it?
Yours,
Gus
...there did Lilith rest and give birth to the first children of Adam. And the first of these was a daughter, who in the fullness of time took the name Ennoia. Lilith left this daughter in the care of wolves and went off to find midwives for the rest of her Get.
In time, Ennoia matured and mated with the strongest of her pack. She gave them each strong sons and daughters, some who were born wearing her form and others the form of their fathers. Yet within each was the seed of the other, and they walked as men or ran as wolves as was their will. It is from them that the Lupines trace their ancestry.
Eventually, Ennoia tired of these mates and grew dissatisfied with her life. Seeing that her children had grown strong and true, she left the pack to travel the world. Immortal like her parents, she wandered for may years alone, and came at last to a city raised by her half-siblings, the descendants of Adam and his second wife. This was the first great city of man -- Enoch the city of Caine. And in Enoch, her great beauty and somewhat earthy nature stood her well, and she was well received.
She dwelt there for many years. Again she had many mates and gave unto each of them strong sons and daughters. Some say the Rom sprang from one such union, but who can truly say. The power of the Rom comes not from the blood of Ennoia even if they are of her line -- and yet their paths and fates are intertwined.
In the end, she became a source of discord in this proto-city, and following a series of incidents reminiscent of the tale of Helen of Troy, Enoch, First of Caine took notice, and had Ennoia driven from the city. She cursed them all, turned her face from their walled city and wandered again.
Of what transpired in the following years, little is known, but in the end, a Childe of Caine sought her out and bade her return to Enoch with him. It was Irad, the general of Enoch's great armies (though later texts give him the name Dracian). Ennoia saw his strength, his honorable heart and she loved him for it. She returned with him, and though he could not satisfy her appetites, it mattered little, for he proved interesting in other ways. In their passion for each other, it was not long before she was made one of the Blood.
Some time later, another of Irad's Get, the proud and terrible hunter Absmiliard, returned from the wilds bearing grievous wounds. Both their Sire and Caine were greatly angered by Absmiliard's tale of cruel and remorseless wolf-beasts hunting him in great packs. By night they harried him. By day they hunted for his resting-place. And only with great luck and skill did he survive to tell the tale.
Ennoia heard his words and dread grew in her breast. She knew he spoke of her first children, and she knew both his nature and theirs. Ennoia doubted Absmiliard's words, assuming his great pride, arrogance and cruelty were more likely the cause of her wolven children's rage, if any such attack had truly occurred.
She pleaded with Irad to listen to her fears, but his anger was great and his duty clear. So she sought audience with Caine himself, begging him to look close and reconsider. But his line had been wronged, the war council formed and she was rebuffed. Plans were laid for the coming war and Ennoia feared for her children. Now Caine himself led the armies of Enoch off to war. Ennoia despaired and called out to Lilith her mother.
And Lilith came.
Ennoia told her mother of the growing war between her new Kindred and the first children of her mortal womb. She spoke of how her pleas to Irad and Caine went unheard, and she begged her mother's advice and help.
Lilith comforted her child and promised to aid her.
Many questions did Lilith put to Ennoia concerning her new family. And Ennoia told her of Caine, and his children and his grandchildren. She spoke their names. She told of their natures, their loves, their rivalries and their sins, anything that might help her mother find the answer she sought. And thus did Lilith learn of Caine's unrequited love for Zillah. Darkness passed briefly over Lilith's face, but then she smiled and told her daughter that the war would soon end.
Shortly thereafter, Caine encountered an Old Crone while fighting in the wilds. She knew his heart and offered to show him how to win Zillah's love, asking only that Caine seek an accord with her allies amongst the were-beasts. So Caine returned to his city and his children only to discover the treachery of Absmiliard. And the viper was cursed and banished.
Caine then sent Irad's daughter Ennoia to make his peace with the skin-changers, for she knew much of their ways. So was a tense peace with the tribes of the moon agreed to, and Ennoia sang songs of thanks and praise to her mother. Lilith heard these and smiled. But when Ennoia returned to Enoch, she found that the newly wed Caine looked upon her with great displeasure, despite the success of her mission.
Caine remembered Ennoia's earlier plea that he withhold his wrath from the were-beasts, and suspected that the Crone's price was no coincidence. He looked into Ennoia's heart and saw the part she had played in the Crone's trap. And anger smoldered in Caine's eyes.
"Get thee from my sight Childe. Enoch was right to drive you from us so long ago; and your return has brought me only hardship. I care not what road you take, but set your feet upon it this night, and know that you shall never again know home."
And with this curse, Ennoia turned and made to leave. But then something of her mother's proud nature rose up in her breast, and before leaving Caine's hall, she turned again to face his Ivory Throne. She cursed Caine for a fool.
Had he given her warning a moments thought, Absmiliard's plot would have been stillborn. The others of her generation would not have been coaxed into rebellion; the Lupines would not hold him as their blood-enemy; and Irad would not have been so grievously wounded. But he preferred the word of a beautiful man with a silver tongue.
Not since the night of Absmiliard's crime had the others seen such rage upon the face of Caine. Nor would they again until young Malkav called down Caine's wrath by defaming his image.
"You have betrayed me, and all those of the blood, for the love of beasts you faithless woman!" Caine shouted in rage. "So will the marks of your true allegiance grow upon you, whenever your anger takes you or you give in to temptation. Go now for I know you not, and soon none will be able to."
And with that, Ennoia left the city of Caine.