RAFANUTI

By Brian Connors (connorbd@bc.edu)

Description

Rafanuti, Ravennu, whatever. It is all the same to the little-understood Aryan vampires that scourge northern India. They have little trust for each other, but they do possess a strong sense of unity despite that, and that is why they are so able to keep a secret.

Some suspect an ancient connection with the Gangrilli, but there is little there to prove it as the Gangrilli are currently so distant from the Rafanuti that the legend is discounted. Others suspect that the Rafanuti are related to the vampires of the unknowns beyond India; this is also somewhat discounted, but only due to lack of knowledge. Taureatores traveled with Alexander the Great, but Alexander never passed the Indus and no Taureator ever knowingly encountered a Rafanu. The Simistis long ago extended their influence to lands contested with the Ventrutae in Thule, but never far enough south to encounter the Rafanuti. The Ventrutae trace their founder Vedartas to India, but there are no records of the Rafanuti back that far and no Indian Ventrutae have appeared for over a thousand years. It's just as well; the Rafanuti long ago swore an oath unto one another that any other Cainite that set foot on their soil would wind up so demoralized that they'd leave quickly.

The Rafanuti have a completely different world view from most other vampires. They have a series of legends of an apocalyptic nature that relate to the power of the Seneces, a legend which has resulted in an attitude towards others that make the Rafanuti every bit as dangerous as the ibn-Haqimi. The theory revolves around what the Rafanuti call weig, which seems to relate to the Quinta Essentia that European magi theorize about. The belief is that the Seneces are beings that simply have hoarded too much weig, and it is the duty of their progeny to liberate that weig. This attitude extends to their beliefs about property (doesn't matter), ownership (doesn't count), and life in general (don't get attached to it).

The Rafanuti are a scattershot group. They are compulsive petty criminals (something that will give the descendants of the people they live among, the Gypsies, a bad name), and few can trust each other. However, there is a strong sense of clan identity, and though they may fight amongst themselves, they will defend each other fiercely to each other outside the clan.