Osites
There it was! did you see it? that was it... her last moment. Amazing.
This small, enigmatic and almost extinct bloodline claims, like many faithful bloodlines, to be descended from one of the first Sanctified — a former mortuary priest and scholar of the dead. The name of this progenitor is lost, but the bloodline’s name comes from the lineage’s ancient nickname: Bone Monks. Osites (from os, meaning “Bone”) seek to derive spiritual understanding of the Requiem by studying that which God has withheld from the Damned: death. Osites traditionally regard funerary rites as fascinating cultural and occult events; they examine corpses, cemeteries, morgues and churchyards for some evidence of what lies beyond the mortal coil. By understanding both life (which the Osites have already experienced) and death, the Bone Monks believe they can better master the state of undeath and celebrate the Curse.
Some say the Osites used to be the keepers of catacombs beneath Rome; that they are the remnants of a Roman ancestor cult. Others claim they were a secret society of necromancers prior to the Embrace of their leader by the Monachus. Most often believed, however, is the tale told by elder Osites: that they were simple scriveners and morticians for the Sanctified in the early nights of the Black Abbey. It fell to the forbears of the Bone Monks to dispose of human corpses following Sanctified rites and ceremonies. Eventually, it fell to them to deal with the bodies of humans accidentally slain by sloppy predators. Within a few decades, the so-called Bone Monks were surrounded by death perpetrated by The Lancea Sanctum. Then, one night, the forgotten founder of the Osite bloodline saw that he was not alone in the crypts beneath the Black Abbey — he was surrounded by ghosts.
Since that night, the descendants of the first Osite have been pursuing the study of death. What, exactly, they seek varies with each Bone Monk — the sensation of dying, insight into the spiritual architecture of the world, the ability to return a soul to its body — but most agree that they’ll recognize the secret when they find it.
Osites occultism speculates that the living and the dead each have their own spiritual energies, and that those energies are intermingled in the bodies of the Damned. According to Osites, when a creature dies, its living, physical essence (perhaps the mystic energy that separates blood from Vitae) is transmuted into a spiritual essence, and the moment of that transmutation (that is, the moment of death) is an instant of sublime and miraculous power. In that moment, everything about a person may be revealed. It is the only instant of true, naked honesty in the existence of any creature.
When something dies, a residue of its living essence might remain in the body, like a fragment of the self left behind when the soul broke free of the form. The Osite Discipline of Memento Mori is an attempt to make use of that residue. With it, and centuries of occult study, Osites hope to one day see the mechanisms of the universe and understand the mystical system God created.
Some say the Osites used to be the keepers of catacombs beneath Rome; that they are the remnants of a Roman ancestor cult. Others claim they were a secret society of necromancers prior to the Embrace of their leader by the Monachus. Most often believed, however, is the tale told by elder Osites: that they were simple scriveners and morticians for the Sanctified in the early nights of the Black Abbey. It fell to the forbears of the Bone Monks to dispose of human corpses following Sanctified rites and ceremonies. Eventually, it fell to them to deal with the bodies of humans accidentally slain by sloppy predators. Within a few decades, the so-called Bone Monks were surrounded by death perpetrated by The Lancea Sanctum. Then, one night, the forgotten founder of the Osite bloodline saw that he was not alone in the crypts beneath the Black Abbey — he was surrounded by ghosts.
Since that night, the descendants of the first Osite have been pursuing the study of death. What, exactly, they seek varies with each Bone Monk — the sensation of dying, insight into the spiritual architecture of the world, the ability to return a soul to its body — but most agree that they’ll recognize the secret when they find it.
Osites occultism speculates that the living and the dead each have their own spiritual energies, and that those energies are intermingled in the bodies of the Damned. According to Osites, when a creature dies, its living, physical essence (perhaps the mystic energy that separates blood from Vitae) is transmuted into a spiritual essence, and the moment of that transmutation (that is, the moment of death) is an instant of sublime and miraculous power. In that moment, everything about a person may be revealed. It is the only instant of true, naked honesty in the existence of any creature.
When something dies, a residue of its living essence might remain in the body, like a fragment of the self left behind when the soul broke free of the form. The Osite Discipline of Memento Mori is an attempt to make use of that residue. With it, and centuries of occult study, Osites hope to one day see the mechanisms of the universe and understand the mystical system God created.
Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
Background: It is a rare night when an Osite sires a vampire. Few mortals with a passion for death are willing to avoid it for eternity. Rather, most new Osites are drawn from the ranks of Mekhet Kindred who develop a fascination with death over the course of their own Requiems. Still, not many Osites have an interest in becoming the Avus for another vampire. The Bone Monks have little interest in, and less need to, expand their membership or increase the number of Kindred who can practice the bloodline’s unique supernatural arts. The secrets an Osite uncovers are meant to satisfy his own spiritual pursuits and intellectual curiosities, not to grant The Lancea Sanctum some power over the dead.
Common Dress code
Appearance: Most Osites care little for their appearance, appearing dirty and unkempt, whether in monks’ robes or modern dress. Some dress like gravediggers or sewer workers, others wear plastic aprons like a coroner or the tweed jacket of a college professor. Most Osites have given up on matters of fashion and style, though many are sociable and even pleasant. They appear as they are: fastidious scholars distracted from the Requiem by their obsession.
All Osites are pale and discolored like a corpse, with dark stains in the fingers and feet, where their blood pools and settles. Many develop bluish lips and red, stiff eyes. They are clearly no longer living creatures. They do not rot, however, but remain forever in a state like that of the recently deceased.
All Osites are pale and discolored like a corpse, with dark stains in the fingers and feet, where their blood pools and settles. Many develop bluish lips and red, stiff eyes. They are clearly no longer living creatures. They do not rot, however, but remain forever in a state like that of the recently deceased.
Art & Architecture
Haven: Most Osites make their havens near cemeteries, mortuaries, or historic catacombs and ossuaries. Osites don’t concern themselves with creature comforts, but do collect texts, bones, Memento Mori images and all manner of funerary artworks, from Mexican sugar skulls to Egyptian scarab pendants. An Osite’s Haven is likely to be cluttered with photographs seemingly snapped at an autopsy, books on anthropology and medicine, morticians’ trade publications, medical examiner’s tools and other trappings of the macabre hobbyist. Wealthy or well-connected Bone Monks may have basement rooms with plenty of drainage for storing, examining and interviewing the dead. The poorest Osites sleep in secret nooks and crawlspaces beneath funeral parlors or mausoleums.
Major organizations
Covenant: The Osites claim their lineage began in the catacombs beneath the Black Abbey, and most Bone Monks have been Sanctified since the Embrace. Many Osites can hardly be called devout members of the covenant, however, as they tend to visit the minimum observances necessary to maintain good standing in the parish and provide little of value to Anointed who have nothing to gain from their macabre studies. Individual Osites are often privately pious — most are deeply spiritual — but few Osites have an interest in the quality of faith held by other Sanctified. The parish, and The Invictus or Carthian authorities, may demand that a local Osite earn his keep by using his supernatural insight to investigate even mildly suspicious deaths in the domain. Perhaps a Priest’s Herd has been thinned or a Primogen’s Retainer has been found dead and it is the Osite’s responsibility to label the death a crime or an accident — or prove it to be what the Prince has already labeled it.
Osites tend to have fewer qualms than other Sanctified about dealing with pagan Kindred. They follow investigations and Research wherever it leads, and are as fascinated by pagan perceptions of death as they are by Sanctified scripture. Over the centuries, a few Osites have chosen their occult studies over their dedication to Longinus and left the Sanctified for the ranks of the Acolytes or, more often, the Dragons. It’s more common for Osites to maintain secret ties with other covenants, however, rather than risk losing the protection of The Lancea Sanctum.
Organization: Modern Osites don’t often organize outside whatever social structure is imposed on them by the covenant. The Bone Monks are so few and far between that little or no communication takes place between them anymore. Domains with more than one Osite are very rare. Those with more than two Osites have, in almost every case, been the home of a “chapter” (some say “cult”) of Bone Monks for hundreds of years; such domains are thought to exist only in Europe. The Bone Monks of such a relatively crowded parish have probably been organized by the resident Bishop to serve some purpose for the covenant, perhaps searching catacombs for relics or researching some deathly rite of Theban Sorcery.
Outside of the covenant hierarchy, Osites sometimes work together as mentor-and-student or researcher-and-assistant pairs. Historically, such relationships are intended to repay an Osite Avus for admitting a new Bone Monk into the line. In practice that’s certainly the case sometimes, but other Bone Monks work together for a short while (say, 10 or 15 years) to master the supernatural powers of Osite blood or investigate some larger mystery, such as a mass grave, a rash of hauntings or the motives of a serial killer.
Osites tend to have fewer qualms than other Sanctified about dealing with pagan Kindred. They follow investigations and Research wherever it leads, and are as fascinated by pagan perceptions of death as they are by Sanctified scripture. Over the centuries, a few Osites have chosen their occult studies over their dedication to Longinus and left the Sanctified for the ranks of the Acolytes or, more often, the Dragons. It’s more common for Osites to maintain secret ties with other covenants, however, rather than risk losing the protection of The Lancea Sanctum.
Organization: Modern Osites don’t often organize outside whatever social structure is imposed on them by the covenant. The Bone Monks are so few and far between that little or no communication takes place between them anymore. Domains with more than one Osite are very rare. Those with more than two Osites have, in almost every case, been the home of a “chapter” (some say “cult”) of Bone Monks for hundreds of years; such domains are thought to exist only in Europe. The Bone Monks of such a relatively crowded parish have probably been organized by the resident Bishop to serve some purpose for the covenant, perhaps searching catacombs for relics or researching some deathly rite of Theban Sorcery.
Outside of the covenant hierarchy, Osites sometimes work together as mentor-and-student or researcher-and-assistant pairs. Historically, such relationships are intended to repay an Osite Avus for admitting a new Bone Monk into the line. In practice that’s certainly the case sometimes, but other Bone Monks work together for a short while (say, 10 or 15 years) to master the supernatural powers of Osite blood or investigate some larger mystery, such as a mass grave, a rash of hauntings or the motives of a serial killer.
Nickname: Bone Monks
Character Creation: Osites favor Mental Attributes, almost without exception. Wits is paramount, for an Osite must be perceptive, but Intelligence is also vital if he is to understand what he sees. Mental Skills such as Investigation, Medicine and Occult are essential to an Osite’s studies. Physical Skills get overlooked by most Osites, though some dots in Larceny and Stealth can aid a Bone Monk that plans on trespassing in morgues and graveyards. Osites may seek Contacts in funeral homes, cemeteries and hospitals throughout the city, or keep a Retainer to run errands for him among mortals. Remember that a character must have at least a second dot of Blood Potency to even be eligible for the bloodline.
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Memento Mori, Obfuscate
Weakness: Osites are touched by death, and it shows in their flesh and Vitae. Beyond the clan weakness of the Mekhet, which the Bone Monks have inherited, the corpses of these Kindred are slow to heal and quick to stagnate. The livid body of an Osite bruises like a corpse, even in undeath, darkening from even minor bumps and scrapes. Blood pools in an Osite’s fingertips and feet when he stands upright and in his back when he lays sleeping, turning the flesh a sickly purpleblack and making it difficult for the character to stir his languid Vitae.
An Osite who wishes to spend Vitae in the current scene must first use one Vitae to excite and circulate his blood. This first Vitae cannot power any Disciplines or other powers of the blood — it only makes it possible for the character to spend Vitae as usual for the rest of the scene. An Osite also requires two Vitae to wake each night.
An Osite character finds his body is sluggish to respond to the Healing powers of Vitae. Unlike normal Kindred, an Osite heals only one point of bashing damage per Vitae spent; two Vitae are needed to heal a single point of lethal damage. Osites heal aggravated damage as other vampires do.
Concepts: Cynical EMT, deranged ER doctor, eager mortician, gravedigger, hospice nurse, medical examiner, obituary writer, occult archaeologist.
Parent ethnicities
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Memento Mori, Obfuscate
Weakness: Osites are touched by death, and it shows in their flesh and Vitae. Beyond the clan weakness of the Mekhet, which the Bone Monks have inherited, the corpses of these Kindred are slow to heal and quick to stagnate. The livid body of an Osite bruises like a corpse, even in undeath, darkening from even minor bumps and scrapes. Blood pools in an Osite’s fingertips and feet when he stands upright and in his back when he lays sleeping, turning the flesh a sickly purpleblack and making it difficult for the character to stir his languid Vitae.
An Osite who wishes to spend Vitae in the current scene must first use one Vitae to excite and circulate his blood. This first Vitae cannot power any Disciplines or other powers of the blood — it only makes it possible for the character to spend Vitae as usual for the rest of the scene. An Osite also requires two Vitae to wake each night.
An Osite character finds his body is sluggish to respond to the Healing powers of Vitae. Unlike normal Kindred, an Osite heals only one point of bashing damage per Vitae spent; two Vitae are needed to heal a single point of lethal damage. Osites heal aggravated damage as other vampires do.
Concepts: Cynical EMT, deranged ER doctor, eager mortician, gravedigger, hospice nurse, medical examiner, obituary writer, occult archaeologist.
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