So, I said I was going to make Kiasyd next. This was my intention. Except I first hit a bit of a thematic brick wall with them (the fae motif is cool, but what are they about). The idea that my would-be Kiasyd were all Hollow led me to mirrors and truth, and then I started integrating material from one of my all-time favorite Vampire books, Mythologies (seriously, that is a genius book), and by the time it was done Isabella and I looked at it and went 'this is cool but it isn't a Kiasyd. So we renamed it. Scathain is a Gaelic word for 'Mirror', which also seems to be linked to the word Scathach, or Shadow (and who are the Mekhet...?) Shout out to Jeffjerwin for telling me about that.
I wrote most of this, but Isabella wrote the lovely Theme section.
Scathain
The Scathain have their own word for the Requiem – they call it the Grandest Lie. A vampire is a dead thing that is pretending to be a living thing. That’s a lie. A vampire is a predator pretending to be the prey. That’s another lie. A vampire is a half-souled horror pretending to be the person it once was. That’s the greatest lie, the one that the Kindred tell themselves. The Scathain smile, and nod, and sympathize, for they know the Truth even when they’d rather not. They see their inhuman nature in every mirror, and they see through the little lies that make up reality. The curse of the Scathain is to see the Truth, and it gives them a very firm appreciation for the value of Lies.
Motif
As old as the Celtic practice of placing mirrors in graves, the Scathain (singular: Scathan) or bloodlines like them have existed for so long as they have been Hollow among the Mekhet. For the Scathain are Hollow, all of them. Every last vampire among them is missing a shadow, a reflection, an echo, a very piece of their soul split away. Other Kindred can delude themselves, but the Scathain see the shattering of their soul with every glance in the mirror.
Unlike other Hollow, the Scathain work with their reflections. A vampire is initiated into the bloodline by her own reflection, stepping into the world of the mirror and coming out just a little bit different (and how does the reflection learn how to do this? It learns from other reflections or mirror-spirits. Or it learns it from the biggest mirror spirit of them all, Red Jack). Ever after, the vampire and the ghost in the mirror work together. They may hate each other, but they cooperate, and in so doing they see more of reality than most.
The Scathain tend to be melancholy, introspective individuals. They see Truths about themselves and those around them that they’d be happier not knowing but which they cannot deny. Deprived of the comforting illusions which most, alive or dead, surround themselves with, few Scathain are pleasant or cheering companions. Some do draw a strange sense of liberation from the knowledge of their own shattered soul, however, and they make for strange and fae creatures (and indeed, the similarity between the broken-souled Scathan and the faerie and his fetch is not lost on either party).
Their knowledge of Truth gives the Scathain a keen appreciation for the value of lies, though it is the rare Scathan that resorts to outright falsehood. Most are painfully polite and scrupulously honest. But then the Scathain know that the best lies are those woven of facts.
Theme
The Ghost in the Mirror
You're not really the person you used to be. That person is dead. Most Kindred ignore it and go on with their Requiems, but you have the ghost in the mirror to show you just how much you've changed. She's not the person you used to be either, but between the two of you, you can see just enough of the differences to make out that big, gaping hole where your soul used to be.
Mirror mirror, on the wall... You call upon your reflection, sometimes. She tells you exactly what she thinks of you. And the thing about reflections is they don't lie. If you don't like what you see, you have nothing to blame but yourself. The mirror reflects other people, too, though. You see them from one side, she sees them from the other. Between the two you know them inside and out.
In London
The Scathain have slipped through the mirrors of mystical, magical London since time immemorial, finding plentiful lies and truths in the Baghdad upon the Thames. Their numbers have never been great, but their presence has never been broken, and London has fair claim to being the spiritual home of the Scathain since before the days of the Caesars. Here they are comfortable as they can be nowhere else, blending in with their less truth-racked cousins, under the protective shadows of their elders -- and a Scathan's shadow may protect in ways that few others' could.
The eldest and greatest of the Scathain in London, perhaps in all the world, is Abonde. A relic of Romano-British London, this queer and occulted horror is an island around which the waves of Kindred politics of London break and vanish into sea-foam. She has seen all of their secrets, pierced all of their lies, and finds no surprises in anything that the Kindred can offer. She is mad, of course, though one might wonder if perhaps she is the only sane vampire in London. Perhaps everyone else is mad, clinging to a humanity they have shed.
Her childe and fellow Scathan is the young Frances Black, a Dragon of sweet aspect and worrisome insight. She works on her history of the Kindred, peeling away one layer of lies after another, and doors open for her that they do for no one else. People do not fear her as they do her sire, but as she unravels one forgotten mystery after another, that may change.
Clan: Mekhet
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate, Ars Speculorum
Bloodline Weakness: The Mirror’s Curse
Every Scathain must be a Hollow Mekhet, first and foremost -- if a non-Hollow Mekhet wishes to join the Bloodline, they become Hollow over the course of their initiation. They must also keep their Reflection, if not friendly, then at least compliant. The Scathan must feed their Reflection (10-Humanity/3, rounded up) Vitae per week with the Ritual of Nourishment (taking a like penalty to starting Vitae), or come to some alternative arrangement. Failure to do so results in the Scathan losing access to Ars Speculorum and any Devotions based upon it.
The Name's Curse
'The Truth hurts' is a cliche, but as far as the Scathain are concerned, it is a cliche with fangs. The True Name of a Scathan can be used against them -- if the Scathan's True Name is invoked at the same time that a supernatural power is targeted at them (or against their Reflection), that spell or curse gains a dice bonus equal to (10-Scathan's Humanity). This only applies to specifically mystical powers, however, and only to those that target the Scathan exclusively.
By default, a Scathan's True Name is their birth name, but a Scathan may change their True Name with the expenditure of a Willpower Dot and a suitable ceremony (writing their name in blood a hundred times upon the walls of their Haven, say). The new Name must have been a valid name for the Scathan for at least a part of their existence, and must be a name to which the Scathan would legitimately respond (in other words, a childhood nickname, a married name, or a long-term alias are valid, but a made-up word is not).
I wrote most of this, but Isabella wrote the lovely Theme section.
Scathain
The Scathain have their own word for the Requiem – they call it the Grandest Lie. A vampire is a dead thing that is pretending to be a living thing. That’s a lie. A vampire is a predator pretending to be the prey. That’s another lie. A vampire is a half-souled horror pretending to be the person it once was. That’s the greatest lie, the one that the Kindred tell themselves. The Scathain smile, and nod, and sympathize, for they know the Truth even when they’d rather not. They see their inhuman nature in every mirror, and they see through the little lies that make up reality. The curse of the Scathain is to see the Truth, and it gives them a very firm appreciation for the value of Lies.
Motif
As old as the Celtic practice of placing mirrors in graves, the Scathain (singular: Scathan) or bloodlines like them have existed for so long as they have been Hollow among the Mekhet. For the Scathain are Hollow, all of them. Every last vampire among them is missing a shadow, a reflection, an echo, a very piece of their soul split away. Other Kindred can delude themselves, but the Scathain see the shattering of their soul with every glance in the mirror.
Unlike other Hollow, the Scathain work with their reflections. A vampire is initiated into the bloodline by her own reflection, stepping into the world of the mirror and coming out just a little bit different (and how does the reflection learn how to do this? It learns from other reflections or mirror-spirits. Or it learns it from the biggest mirror spirit of them all, Red Jack). Ever after, the vampire and the ghost in the mirror work together. They may hate each other, but they cooperate, and in so doing they see more of reality than most.
The Scathain tend to be melancholy, introspective individuals. They see Truths about themselves and those around them that they’d be happier not knowing but which they cannot deny. Deprived of the comforting illusions which most, alive or dead, surround themselves with, few Scathain are pleasant or cheering companions. Some do draw a strange sense of liberation from the knowledge of their own shattered soul, however, and they make for strange and fae creatures (and indeed, the similarity between the broken-souled Scathan and the faerie and his fetch is not lost on either party).
Their knowledge of Truth gives the Scathain a keen appreciation for the value of lies, though it is the rare Scathan that resorts to outright falsehood. Most are painfully polite and scrupulously honest. But then the Scathain know that the best lies are those woven of facts.
Theme
The Ghost in the Mirror
You're not really the person you used to be. That person is dead. Most Kindred ignore it and go on with their Requiems, but you have the ghost in the mirror to show you just how much you've changed. She's not the person you used to be either, but between the two of you, you can see just enough of the differences to make out that big, gaping hole where your soul used to be.
Mirror mirror, on the wall... You call upon your reflection, sometimes. She tells you exactly what she thinks of you. And the thing about reflections is they don't lie. If you don't like what you see, you have nothing to blame but yourself. The mirror reflects other people, too, though. You see them from one side, she sees them from the other. Between the two you know them inside and out.
In London
The Scathain have slipped through the mirrors of mystical, magical London since time immemorial, finding plentiful lies and truths in the Baghdad upon the Thames. Their numbers have never been great, but their presence has never been broken, and London has fair claim to being the spiritual home of the Scathain since before the days of the Caesars. Here they are comfortable as they can be nowhere else, blending in with their less truth-racked cousins, under the protective shadows of their elders -- and a Scathan's shadow may protect in ways that few others' could.
The eldest and greatest of the Scathain in London, perhaps in all the world, is Abonde. A relic of Romano-British London, this queer and occulted horror is an island around which the waves of Kindred politics of London break and vanish into sea-foam. She has seen all of their secrets, pierced all of their lies, and finds no surprises in anything that the Kindred can offer. She is mad, of course, though one might wonder if perhaps she is the only sane vampire in London. Perhaps everyone else is mad, clinging to a humanity they have shed.
Her childe and fellow Scathan is the young Frances Black, a Dragon of sweet aspect and worrisome insight. She works on her history of the Kindred, peeling away one layer of lies after another, and doors open for her that they do for no one else. People do not fear her as they do her sire, but as she unravels one forgotten mystery after another, that may change.
Clan: Mekhet
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate, Ars Speculorum
Bloodline Weakness: The Mirror’s Curse
Every Scathain must be a Hollow Mekhet, first and foremost -- if a non-Hollow Mekhet wishes to join the Bloodline, they become Hollow over the course of their initiation. They must also keep their Reflection, if not friendly, then at least compliant. The Scathan must feed their Reflection (10-Humanity/3, rounded up) Vitae per week with the Ritual of Nourishment (taking a like penalty to starting Vitae), or come to some alternative arrangement. Failure to do so results in the Scathan losing access to Ars Speculorum and any Devotions based upon it.
The Name's Curse
'The Truth hurts' is a cliche, but as far as the Scathain are concerned, it is a cliche with fangs. The True Name of a Scathan can be used against them -- if the Scathan's True Name is invoked at the same time that a supernatural power is targeted at them (or against their Reflection), that spell or curse gains a dice bonus equal to (10-Scathan's Humanity). This only applies to specifically mystical powers, however, and only to those that target the Scathan exclusively.
By default, a Scathan's True Name is their birth name, but a Scathan may change their True Name with the expenditure of a Willpower Dot and a suitable ceremony (writing their name in blood a hundred times upon the walls of their Haven, say). The new Name must have been a valid name for the Scathan for at least a part of their existence, and must be a name to which the Scathan would legitimately respond (in other words, a childhood nickname, a married name, or a long-term alias are valid, but a made-up word is not).
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