By Keith Kaczmarek (pheonix@cats.ucsc.edu)
I am writing this paper to you in response to your request about information of those that partake of our Vitae, and still use True Magick: the Ghouls, and of the Ghoul families. My studies of the Magi and of the state of vampirism should be of use to you. I hope this information helps in your pursuit of the traitor that has stolen our secrets and defied our authority and laws. For a Clan-mate, I could do no less. I trust you will keep this information secret, but you must be sure to burn these papers after you have read them, and tell no one of their existence or contents. Anyone who knows these secrets would have to be destroyed immediately for the safety of us all.
Throughout the Ages, humanity has attempted to stave off the ravages of time and aging with many mystical and mundane techniques. From modern wrinkle creams to the blood of virgins, mortals have attempted to gain the secrets of immortality. Mages are no exception. In foolish attempts to prolong life and slow aging, Mages have tried such desperate acts as making Pacts with Infernal powers, switching their souls into newer and younger bodies, and dabbling with the forces of undeath.
Mages who attempted to become undead in order to gain immortality found that they made a bargain with a very high cost indeed: the loss of the ability to work True Magick. The first Mummies found this to be true, as did the Mages who became full Vampires. Experiments were made in attempts to combine the life prolonging aspects of undeath with True Magick. The Mummies were never experimented on in this way, for they were a rare and secretive breed indeed, and few True Mages ever made their acquaintance. But Vampires have stalked the earth for as long as civilization has thrived, and those who would tamper with Vampire blood did indeed find that it would sustain them agelessly. Again, there was a cost. Age would be halted only as long as they continued to feed upon the Vitae, and the dreaded Blood Bond enslaved many of the unwary and unwise. Vampires had to be hunted down and captured, and their Vitae drained away. As the world's ultimate predators, Vampires were a difficult prey indeed, and there was no security to immortality under those terms.
For those that did not mind the servitude of the Blood Bond in exchange for regular Vampire Vitae, they found that Vampires made poor masters, more than willing to sacrifice them as they would any other pawn. Mages who drank Vampire Vitae found that it acted poorly upon the mind of Mages. But, those that stayed with these masters found that their descendants could, eventually, gain the ability to produce self-generated Vampire Vitae. They used the secrets of the Ghoul Families, and eventually they found that self-produced Vampire powers and True Magick could exist within a Reverant without ill effects. But, since the Reverant traits had to be inborn, it was of no use to those Magi who wished independence from their undead masters. Experiments with Vampire Vitae continued.
The House of Tremere was one Cabal of Mages that attempted to replicate the slow processes of nature in an attempt to gain the ability to produce life-sustaining vampire blood within their bodies. Goratrix of House Tremere was the forerunner of this research, and to accomplish his ends he captured and tortured one of our Clan to steal the secrets of vampire life. Perhaps it was the knowledge of our Clan's experiments with the Ghoul Families that led him to the creation of the potions made from the Heart's Blood of our Clan-mate. I am not sure if it was his intent to transform the leaders of Clan Tremere into vampires, or if his unfamiliarity with the nature of the Vampiric soul found with the Heart's Blood that caused his magick to have the results it did.
I believe that the renegade you seek succeeded where Goratrix failed because Goratrix did not truly understood the nature of the Vampiric soul. It is a semi-sentient, viral essence composed of soul energy and Quintessence. It transfers some of that Vampiric soul with the Vitae to the flesh during the Embrace. It exists within and corrupts only the flesh that houses it, as proven by the fleshless ghosts of dead Vampires that no longer the retain their vampiric gifts. The Vampiric soul exists beyond the flesh and traps and contains the soul of the victim, holding it to the flesh after death. Since the flesh is dead, and the soul has been trapped within, they have become undead, and forever lose their living inheritances. This theory is supported by the side effect of Vampirism that makes possession by foreign entities difficult. This Vampiric soul in the tainted Tass of the Vitae cocoons the victim's soul, and is the source of Vampiric powers.
Ghouls and Revenants have had their bodies infiltrated and corrupted by the Vampiric soul contained within the Tass of the Vitae, and yet they retain their living Quintessence. It is in this way that they are able to draw upon Vampiric powers while maintaining their own powers (such as True Magick). Their souls still have that innate, living Quintessence shared by all living things. That is why Ghouls must be given regular infusions of Vampire Vitae, for the Quintessence found within the living fights the foreign Quintessence, unpurified by the Avatar, that is the Vitae. It is the Quintessence of the vampire, tainted with the Vampiric soul within, that grants the powers associated of the Vitae.
A Vampire is a sink of Quintessence derived from the living. Minute amounts of Quintessence are constantly being pulled from the living environment to fuel a body that is dead and imbue it with lifelike animation and sensation. But this is not enough. Vampires must consume additional amounts of Quintessence directly from living beings. That is why we feed. Ghouls do not consume the Vampiric Vitae because their bodies are alive and Vampiric Vitae is not needed to fuel this effect. Revenants do not lose Vampiric Vitae for the same reasons as Ghouls, and they pull life-Quintessence out of the environment like a Vampire. That is how they produce self-generated Vampire Vitae. And yet they cannot feed directly from the Vitae of the living because they are not true vampires.
The Vampiric soul also has an unusual effect on those who work True Magick. The forces of Paradox that resist True Magick and collect within the body of a Mage and cannot be released from the prison of flesh within the ghoul or revenant. This leads to an accumulation of dangerous amounts of Paradox within the Mage, leading to a potentially permanent Quiet. In a Ghoul or Revenant, this problem can be circumvented entirely by completely removing all traces of Vampiric Vitae from the Mage. Then the Paradox energies can be dealt with normally. This is no problem for Revenants, as they do not have true ageless Vampire Vitae, but Ghouls who have surpassed their mortal life spans will begin to age at an accelerated pace without Vitae within them. For those mages, their only choice is to let the Paradox accumulate and hope that Quiet will not strike. They are living on borrowed time, granted by the Vampiric Vitae.
Now that you know all of the background, I will tell you what I believe the traitor performed upon the unknown Methuselah he encountered. Although his own powers were weak, he had mystical help of some kind. Somehow he had powers that pulled out the Heart's Blood of the Vampiric victim, much like a Vampire does when they commit Diablerie. He then consumed the Heart's Blood. This accelerated the same processes that created the Revenants, and took the process to the final conclusion. That is how he gained the powers he demonstrated. I believe this kind of transformation could eventually happen to our Ghoul Families if they are given hundreds of generations of breeding with Vampire blood.
I believe that this transformation is exactly what Goratrix of the Tremere was attempting to perform, but his inexpert shattering of a single Vampiric soul into many broken parts made the souls hungry for living energy to become whole and individual. The Tremere who ingested his potions made from the Heart's Blood died as their life energies were consumed to feed that need. Therefore, the Vampiric soul had began its transformation upon dead flesh to transfer into after its need was sated, and so they became undead. By using a single unflawed Vampiric soul, the traitor was able to transfer that soul into his living body without killing himself in the process.
The traitor has succeeded where Goratrix failed. He has become a new kind of Vampire. He has all the most favorable traits of a Vampire and Ghoul, while retaining his talents as a Mage. I call this new type of Vampire the Lich, dubbed the exalted ex-Mages serving the Del'Roh. In the early years of the Hand, our Mages attempted to create Liches. They succeeded, but found a fatal flaw in the breed. Madness seems to run in the breed over time, and they cannot remove Paradox energies from their body in the normal fashion. Only costly and painful Blood usage will remove Paradox. Otherwise it will continue to accumulate within the body of the Lich until he falls into an eternal Quiet. Those that are not Mages and have the complicated and expensive rituals performed upon them, requiring the sacrifice of the soul of a Vampire, become living Vampires, more powerful than Revenants, and yet not as powerful as true Vampires. They have Vampiric Disciplines, the unique Vitae of the Vampire, the ability to Feed and Lick wounds, the ability to move about in daylight, and freedom from age. They take damage no better than a Revenant, and die as easily as a mortal. Only their powers gained while living make them a match for a true Vampire. For these few who could draw from both pools of power and avoid madness, there are opportunities for matchless power. These few were the reason we stopped and destroyed all the research on the rituals needed to create Liches. These Liches had the potential to surpass and destroy their masters. They were a threat, and so they were destroyed, and their existence blotted out of history.
One way that they could be picked out from mortals is the great, strange heat that radiates from their bodies. It is a dry, burning fever, like heat returning to chilled flesh. Some who contact the Lich find the sensation pleasant, while others find it unnerving, but it is always noticed. It is theorized that this is caused by the Beast pulling on reserves of energy. This accounts for an intensifying of the energy level and sensations in the body of the Lich. This makes the Lich unable to gain or keep excess fat, as all available ingested organic energy is pulled into the flesh. As the Beast supercharges the flesh, it makes the Lich more than living. They are positively superhuman. The heat is from a soul on fire.
Now that you know the nature of the traitor, I hope you will be able to destroy him that much more quickly. Unless Paradox lays him low, he will be a force to be reckoned with. Who knows what kind of powers he will demonstrate beyond these if given half the chance? Who knows how many of our secrets he will divulge before the end. Kill him quickly, my friend. After reading this text, I hope to understand the kind of danger he represents to us all. A man clever enough to cheat nature and destiny while making fools out of the most powerful organization in the world should never be trusted with the kind of power he has now. He must be destroyed. He is a danger to us all.
Mages who lose all Humanity fall into a permanent, comatose Quiet that there is no return from. Blood Points can be used as points of Tass on a one for one basis. It is the same as if they had the Tass in their hand. Conversely though, Quintessence cannot be converted into Blood Points. Paradox points cannot be converted into Paradox flaws or drawn away during a Backlash as long as at least one Blood Point is in the Mage's system.
Basic Lich Abilities: