Nhang
This clan is lost to history, though similar beings in mythology are widely known. The term ‘Nhang’ comes from Armenian mythology and is an umbrella term for different malignant creatures that live in water. However, one being in particular has earned this name, a shapeshifting monster that drowns and drains humans of their blood. Similar to the Neck and Kelpie, the Nhang mimic the human form to lure unsuspecting people into the water.
This clan was never fated to last for long, but it has survived surprisingly well despite the fact that it seems to have passed from Kindred memory. These Nhang, also called Water Serpents, are unique in how they are active during both night and day in the water.
What makes them a threat, despite their almost extinct status, is their hatred toward Kindred, and the possible connection they have to Strix.
Behavior
The Ordo Dracul has heavily studied the Nhang’s ability to shapeshift. According to them, the Water Serpents empty their victims of blood to take their shape. Unless the victim dies from blood loss, the Nhang don’t seem capable of changing their form. Transforming into a person is of crucial importance for the Nhang, as it allows them to forage on land, blend in, and bring even more unsuspecting victims to the water.
The Nhang have had a difficult time adapting to modern society, but their tenacity allows them to lie in wait and gorge during the summer. Their victims commonly consist of lone tourists bathing in the still water of a pond or surfers who thought they could catch some beautiful waves in the early morning. The older Nhang are trained to survive for an extended period without blood. They can enter a torpor-like hibernation during tough periods, such as the low tourist season.
The Nhang’s appearance baffles many, as it’s different from humans. After the Embrace, their looks slowly change over time: Their skin hardens and changes color to resemble scales and their bodies grow long. While still humanoids, they have reptilian features, hence their nickname: Water Serpents. The Nhang can change the color of their skin to better resemble the color of the water in which they currently lurk. Pollution makes it harder for the Nhang to hide, as their skin color tends toward blues and browns, which doesn’t help in areas of industrial waste, which tend to have a green or red hue. Additionally, the Water Serpents also have a nictitating membrane (a translucent eyelid) over their eyes, which allows them to hunt in water.
Though the Nhang are famous for killing their victims, they don’t necessarily have to do so. Prey is sometimes hard to find, and some Nhang get overzealous. Most times, they drink from an unwitting victim. This person experiences the bite as a small nip on her leg, which causes a strong feeling of excitement. Many of those victims foolishly come back to find out why they got aroused over being bitten, and it’s even better if they bring a friend.
There’s an agreement among the Nhang that one should not target those who are the relatives of other Water Serpents. They often wear jewelry made of shells or the bones of different sea creatures to mark themselves. One important factor that distinguishes the jewelry as a Nhang protection amulet is that the charm consists of local species where the Water Serpent resides. These pieces of jewelry are also commonly given to lovers. The Nhang also oppose the act of blood bonding between members of their coterie as it puts the entire group in jeopardy if they decide to put one member above everyone else and ignore their duty.
The Nhang has a strict hierarchical system, similar to the Kindred’s own. There’s one Water Serpent at the top, much like a prince but only ruling a few. It’s the leader of the coterie who decides who should be the day guard and if a Nhang can Embrace a new member into the group. When a group becomes too large to hide efficiently, it splits in two, and those who leave most likely never see the other group again. Just because they are few in number doesn’t mean that all the Nhang get along, and territorial disputes often turn violent.
When Nhang change their form to blend in with humans, they use that look to lure more humans to the water. Common tactics are to claim that someone is drowning in the lake or to go to the group with which their victim traveled and suggest going bathing in the moonlight. Like a crocodile lying beneath the surface, the Nhang stare at the world outside of their haven, waiting for an opportune moment to strike.
From the Watery Depths
The eldest Water Serpents speak of the Nhang ancestors living in lakes and rivers, having to consume meat to obtain a form. These stories predate those of their being vampires and indicate that the Nhang believe they were something wholly other before ever being blood drinkers. They drank the life of the sea creatures around them and could not exit the water to live on land.
The story goes that a Ventrue, the First Thief, heard their plea for a life in flesh outside of the water. She gained their trust by claiming a kinship as her life in the light had become forfeit. She gave a promise of aid, and to bring flesh they could inhabit. The First Thief brought human meat for the Nhang to consume, which allowed them to take human form. Then she betrayed them by draining them of blood, committing diablerie on their new weakened forms. She took their mimicry skill, a gift they never intended to give, and fled. Shortly after, she returned and filled in the brackish lake in which she had found the Water Serpents, forcing them to sea.
The First Thief may have destroyed their home and betrayed their ancestors, but she could not destroy the Nhang. Shortly after the attack, the Strix found the survivors and offered them a new deal. They helped the Nhang find a permanent physical form and granted them vampiric power. The Birds of Dis take the unruly Nhang as hosts, a harsh reminder of their ancestors’ deal. And so, they find other vampires to give to the hungry Strix instead, and those that aren’t marked for the shadowy birds, they murder themselves. The vampires must pay for what the First Thief did to them.
Most land dwellers have long forgotten the Nhang and the stories they invoked. Even many of the Kindred believe that such legends are just lore or tales the Ordo Dracul tell to scare the All Night Society. Nhang bodies are longer than the average Kindred, and have webbed fingers and toes for moving quickly in water. Pollution distorts the colors of the water and makes it hard for them to remain camouflaged in their natural habitat. This has forced more and more of them into inland lakes or manmade places that are kept clean for recreational use, but these spaces are small and confining. So the Water Serpents must forage on land to survive. They hunt in packs, where one hunter must remain active during the day as people mostly approach the water during sunlight.
The Strix taught the Nhang how to Embrace and create more, but their fledglings often die before reaching maturity as they cannot fully survive in the water, and outside the water they are cursed just like the rest. It takes great care for a new Water Serpent to reach maturity and learn the Disciplines she needs to survive, meaning that the clan’s numbers remain low.
When they Embrace, the Water Serpents must live in water teeming with fish so that the young can feed and look after themselves while the elders sleep. As the childer age, the young Nhang wean off animal blood. If they have still not learned how to hibernate, they will starve in winter.
Nickname: Water Serpents
Clan Bane: The Curse of the Depths
The Nhang’s haven is also their watery prison. Nhang cannot stand being on dry land for too long, and exposure to air when low on Vitae can be as lethal as standing in full sunlight. A Nhang’s skin becomes brittle and fragile if she has less Vitae in her system than 10 – her Humanity. Any damage she suffers while in this state is upgraded, from bashing to lethal and from lethal to aggravated.
Favored Attributes: Stamina or Wits
Disciplines: Celerity, Protean, Resilience
Nhang physiology
Nhang have slightly different physiology from other Kindred. Water shields them from direct sunlight, but only the parts submerged in water. Their inner eyelid allows them to see underwater if the water is clear. The default size of a Nhang in their natural form is 6, and they have webbing between their fingers and toes that enables them to swim faster. Nhang hide in water, and their skin can adjust its color to mask them further, as long as the water is uncontaminated with toxins that change the color of the water.
Nhang may also learn the unique Devotions Water Hibernation and Flesh Form.
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