Jiang-Shi
Nobody really knows where the Jiang Shi come from. In the Mediterranean, they’re believed to be descended from a victim of the Sons of Phobos, who stole a pure heart to replace the one taken from him. In Iceland, where they appear in disproportionate numbers, they’re associated with the folkloric draugr. Kindred from Eastern China and the Korean Peninsula associate them with forms of blood sorcery that have otherwise died out. Scholars of Mekhet lore think they might be another kind of Hollow being. And to those who know the Strix, their spirit-like attributes look very suspicious.
There are relatively few Jiang Shi — the particulars of their Embrace ensure that. For a Jiang Shi is created by replacing the blood of an ordinary person with the blood of one extraordinarily pure. By tasting a person’s blood, a Jiang Shi can tell whether it’s suitable. A Jiang Shi Embrace thus usually involves two murders, one of which sticks. The blood doesn’t have to be fresh, but you try looting a blood bank looking for the essence of somebody who could cast the first stone. By also taking the heart of the “donor,” the newly born vampire can begin with Blood Potency 2 instead of 1.
Jiang Shi must feed on the living just as others do, and they can master Disciplines. Their feeding produces not pseudo-sexual euphoria but numbing cold. As their Vitae dwindles, their appearance becomes monstrous, with clawlike fingers and a strange green mold that begins to grow upon their skin. Touching this mold produces a milder version of the same chilling effect as the Phantom’s bite. A Phantom can spend a Willpower point to return to his “grave” (the site of his death). Unless the Phantom sleeps the day in his grave, he requires two Vitae instead of one to wake in the evening. He can change his grave by enacting a heart transplant ritual at the new site. (This carries the usual purity requirement.)
Since there are so few Jiang Shi, they don’t usually encounter the Kindred. Most frequently, they make contact with other vampires socially or through the shady businesses so common among the Damned. These Phantoms are aware of their differences from the more numerous sort of vampires. They use these to their advantage, but also take pains to keep a low profile lest they run afoul of the larger population’s Masquerade. The fact that they have a name at all points to some kind of catastrophic breach in East Asia in the past.
In both Raleigh and Chicago, though, something’s gone very wrong, or very right. There’s a population of Jiang Shi there to rival the local Mekhet, and practical concerns have led to them being accepted into the local vampire state.
Clan Bane: The Ephemeral Curse
Because their presence in this world is strangely light, they cannot cause either the Swooning or Scarred Conditions by feeding.
Nickname: Phantoms
Favored Attributes: Intelligence or Dexterity
Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Celerity
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