Vis Sierra ~~~ Traumatized Colonial - "Savages everywhere. Blood everywhere. The women and children, their skins...Oh God." The sun never sets on her Majesty's empire, but her holdings now include lands no Christian soul is ready to see by the light of day. A survivor of a massacre, the Colonial has retreated to the safe harbor of England, but finds the memories to be inescapable. Derangement: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Much of the time, the character gets by, but a squeal of laughter on the street or the sight of the wares strung up in a butchershop window can trigger terrible flashbacks or momentary hallucinations leaving the character unsteady, perhaps unsure of what's real. ~~~ Obsessed Miser - "Don't cross me, lad. Lift your foot and show me the shilling you're standing on - I saw it first!" Business had been bad, and the partnership had been growing steadily more sour as times became tight. The Miser's sire happened upon him trying to dispose of the body of his late business partner after they quarreled over a minor discrepancy in the books. The sire, a mendicant amazed by such behavior, sought to cure the Miser of his obsession through the divine blessing of the holy blood. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way. Derangement: Obsession (money). Whoever said that money wasn't everything was a wastrel or a charlatan. Money is time, and it cannot be recovered once lost - you can make more, but that is money you would have had in addition to what you lost, not what you lost. Lost money is a regret that can't be resolved, a wound that never closes. Money is your bloodsweat and soul, and anyone who would take it from you, a Diablerist of the worst order. ~~~ Contrary Alienist - "For all their superstitious claptrap, you might as well seek a witch doctor's advice. There are precious few physicians who take the science of psychoanalysis seriously." An unsuccessful therapist, the character blamed himself and was ready to attempt suicide. Rescued, and damned to a worse fate, with the embrace came the realization that all common practices of psychoanalysis are deeply flawed. With a newfound talent for mesmerism, you are ready to bring treatment of disturbed minds into the modern era. Derangement: Obsessive Personality Disorder. There's a right way to do things and a wrong way. You know the right way and there's no excuse for anyone to act in ignorance or defiance of it. When it comes to second opinions, better to place a patient in a protective coma than to let even one fall into the hands of those charlatans. ~~~ Suffragist Vandal - "I am his equal or superior in every way but my vote. If I have no voice, I must seek equality in action. I would have warned him that I had set his house afire, but I, poor woman, am not entitled to a voice." Fire, gunpowder and poison acknowledge the equality of women and, in doing so, hasten man's recognition of the same. The Vandal's given up on attempts to elevate women's rights and now seeks the level ground of the ruins of mysogynists' holdings. Disorder: Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The character's no longer concerned with rights or wrongs. Those who cross the Vandal (knowingly or not) have set themselves up for revenge. A punishment mustn't fit the crime - it must exceed it harshly, to declare the Vandal the winner of the conflict, even if the Vandal kills the perceived instigator. Somewhere there's a scorecard of who has gotten ahead of whom, and the Vandal won't be left behind. ~~~ Prostitute Plaguebride - "No need to be crude, your lordship, when it comes to one's sacred duty." The Blood of Malkav gave the Plaguebride immortality, but it's syphilis that first gave her madness. Convinced that this is a blessing, she seems to have captured the idea of the heathen priestess-prostitutes of India from somewhere and seeks to bless clientele with incurable, divine enlightenment. Derangement: Paresis (neurosyphillis). Easiest to follow the links: http://alik.freeshell.org/malkavian/story/toplay/syphil.txt http://www.cdc.gov/epo/dphsi/print/syphilis_current.htm#neuro (By the way, like most templates, it's just as possible for the character to be male as female, in spite of the default pronoun.) ~~~ Acolyte of the Mill - "It takes more than oil and coal to keep the mill appeased. It feeds on more than flax, and gives us more than cloth." The Acolyte was a textile mill worker shaken by witnessing the gruesome death of a colleague. Set upon by the character's sire, the thought of the mill being monstrous will never leave, but along with it is the idea that this is the way things must be. Sacrifices must be made, as the foreman said. Strange he should have screamed the loudest. Derangement: Power Object Fixation. The mill is god. It's not the Christian God but it's your god, and no man, woman or child can stand against it - certainly not once you've gotten them into arm's reach of it. ------------------- Judy V. Cassandra Guardian - "You think I'm an idiot because I defend your sorry ass against the Ultimate Doom. The world as we know it is still here, right? Wait. Maybe I am an idiot." Derangement: Delusion. Maybe your existence is the key to protecting the seventh seal for which you sacrifice your nights and reputation to holding back the ultimate doom. Nobody believes or appreciates you. Granted, your sire neglected to inform you on this doom's exact nature, other than to say that as long as your Malkavian bloodline doesn't stop with you, the world will keep existing. Whether or not you've heard from your sire lately, you might want to hedge your bets by Embracing more Malkavians. The world as we know it depends on it. For kicks, swirl in meglomania, bipolarity, obsession, or whatever floats your bucket. --------------------- Michael Williams Tele-Physicist Tinkerer: "That certain psychical or etheric channels of transmission and conversation exist are well known to a number of our kind. That certain other physical channels of transmission, via energy and cable, also exist in the greater world is known to the general populace. That these might be joined together will one day join these as indisputable, provable fact." The age of mass communication is looming on the horizon, and everyone is eager to discover, perfect, patent and exploit these new possibilities. Alexander Graham Bell has told Watson to come here, a variety of recording telegraphs are in existence (though they will not be used in conjunction with telephone lines and referred to as "facsimile machines" for many decades), and the excitement of having messages exchanged almost instantly looks nowhere near losing its luster. The Tele-Physicist Tinkerer believes that one or more of these technologies, if used in conjunction with Malkavian Time, can one day open up the secrets to mass, psychic influence and understanding. Madness and metal are the keys. Derangement: Obsession (communications technologies and medical experimentation). An unlucky inventor, you were always behind the rest of the pack. Thomas Fowler beat you with his calculating machine, Babbage prosletyzed the difference engine before you'd even considered the idea, and Ada Lovelace used pseudonyms to publish programs and predict uses for the device before you'd even gotten a grasp of its workings. You grew bitter in your mid-life and it was this pent-up vitriol surrounding the possibilities of communications over distances and computational capabilities which drew your cruel sire to you. Seeing this as an opportunity to play with an obsessive freak, they were quick to train you in the subtle vibrations of Malkavian Time and the collective near-conscious which drives some clan members to work or move in something resembling unison on occasion. In the end, though, you surprised even your sire. Rather than lolling amusingly in the occasional embrace of the blood of Malkav and its unpredictable mandates, you took to the idea like geese to flight. Now, in the dark of some secret basement, you routinely attach whatever devices seem likely to whatever fellow Malkavians you can lure, kidnap or otherwise secure. One day you'll find a way to connect the Malkavian Madness Network to wire and dynamo, and when you do then the whole world will leap forward in its capacity for understanding and cooperation. Until then, you'll keep sweeping up the failed attempts and drawing new plans.