The Solitary Path
Many vampires wander through the nights of their Requiem, unable to reconcile themselves with the facile pragmatism of the political covenants and equally illequipped to accept the dogma of The Lancea Sanctum. These Kindred seek meaning in a profound sense, delving into their own thoughts and instincts and studying the ways of the sensual world, hoping to come to a satisfactory understanding. Inevitably, they dwell on a number of important questions: Why do Kindred exist? What is a vampire’s purpose? How must she carry herself in the grim nights of the modern world, and what, if anything, can she learn from the others around her?
These curious Kindred rise from their comfortable places in the covenants of their sires, invariably drifting into the fringes of The Unaligned while searching for answers. Those lucky enough to exist in proximity to The Circle of the Crone are recognized almost immediately as “maiden seekers” and protected, whether they ask for it or not.
Experienced Acolytes will not directly interfere with a solitary quest, knowing that the vampire in question will never be satisfied with answers provided by others. Instead, the Acolytes encourage the search, offering aid or relief if required. With or without the protection of the Circle, leaving one’s covenant to begin a solitary search for meaning is difficult, at best, and may actually involve a risk of Final Death in extreme cases.
To outsider Kindred, the questing vampire is flirting with insanity: rejecting the trappings of normal society and choosing to doubt established truths rather than uphold them. A maiden seeker must often sever ties with her close blood relations before she can expect to freely embark on her journey of discovery. A painful period of loneliness and despair is natural, and some Kindred are unable to endure it — either returning quickly to the family they so recently rejected or ending their Requiem in a suicidal blaze of frustration.
But those who survive may begin to see an inkling of the answers they so desperately hunger for. In feeding the curiosity of the spirit, they gravitate towards an existence unparalleled in the world of Kindred: satisfaction, harmony, and confidence await them in the devout explorations of the solitary pilgrim.
And, in the overwhelming majority of cases, that seeker eventually finds her way to The Circle of the Crone, coming to understand that the covenant represents her best opportunity to find support and tolerance in her ongoing quest to find herself and fulfill her purpose as part of the natural world.
Some Kindred choose to leave the domain of their Embrace, becoming literal pilgrims as well as spiritual ones. For these dedicated vampires, the dangers and isolation of the journey encourage intense self-scrutinywhile every step brings them closer to severing all ties with their Requiems up to this point. Many do not survive the journey, succumbing to the scorching raysof the sun or a roving pack of hostile mortals. Other Kindred find themselves perpetually without a home, turned away from domain after domain by paranoid or prejudiced Kindred therein.
But there on the road, the blistered and famished seeker may find true strength and enlightened understanding. There, she may experience a vision of The Crone in all her splendor, or she might find herself uplifted by an unexpected moment of absolute harmony with the living world, proving her natural place and eliminating all doubts.
Others choose to remain in their homes, enduring the enmity of their contemporaries and finding their truths in their new outlook. The scales fall from their eyes, and suddenly the familiar features of the landscape are redrawn, shining forth with the full glory of the undimmed Majesty of the natural world. There, under the baleful gaze of the outsiders, hounded and beaten, excluded and ridiculed, they find a satisfaction and simple sense of accomplishment that can never be taken from them,no matter what happens to their material being.
Then, once that calm takes hold in the spirit, the pilgrim truly becomes an Acolyte of The Circle of the Crone, whether or not there are fellow members of the covenant to welcome him. If there are none, he continues his meditations on his own, learning from his explorations and forming his mystic bonds with the world around him. Crúac sometimes comes naturally to these vampires, allowing them to practice the magicks of the covenant on their own.
If there are observant Acolytes in the vicinity, they will welcome a true pilgrim seeker to their ranks, providing safe company for her to express her liberated vision and allowing her to continue her explorations under their political umbrella. Her truth will mingle with those of her fellow Acolytes, and strength will come from the sharing. She may take on students, passing her understanding of the workings of the natural world to younger Kindred, or she may become a student herself, choosing to benefit from the accumulated wisdom of her eldersand contemporaries.
There are three distinct paths that most maiden seekers follow. While some are known to find more independent, occasionally bizarre approaches to the hunger of the spirit, the majority will settle into one of the long-trodden roads. To many in the covenant, these paths are referred to by some variation on these terms: the Dharma of the Predator, the Nun in Shadows or the Inward Hunter. These terms may or may not be colloquial to Acolytes of the Circle; in some domains, the paths are referred to almost the way one might ask where a graduate student took his undergrad degree. In others, they are intensely private information, and in some, they simply remain unnamed.
Most vampires respond to this manifestation by imposing crippling feelings of guilt upon themselves. If not assisted, many fall further and further into a cycle of repression and explosion, eventually becoming a clear menace to both Kindred and mortals in their domain.
A rare few, however, come to understand that the violence within themselves is caused by fundamental dissonant urges: the urge to remain an upstanding member of an artificial, aberrant society and the natural predatory leanings of the vampire. Instead of taking on the guilt of their contemporaries, they choose to acknowledge their so-called monstrous urges and explore them in earnest.
A vampire who follows the Dharma of the Predator will ordinarily abandon the material trappings of modern Kindred society, embarking on a pilgrimage (whether literal or internal) as a true creature of the night and stalking the Herd with full and frank dedication. She accepts the shedding of her Humanity as part of the natural progress of a healthy vampire, reveling in the satisfaction that the hunt brings her. She claims victim after victim, indulging her most basic instincts and developing more and more sophisticated natural hunting techniques. She learns how to conceal her activity from both Kindred and mortal observers, operating with a natural stealth that is denied to those who impose human limits on their activities.
But the journey does not end there. Eventually, assuming she survives the inevitable disapproval of her “more civilized” peers, she must face the prospect of her dwindling Humanity and again become dissatisfied. If she fails to acknowledge her descent, she loses herself to the Beast, never to achieve the understanding she so deeply craves.
But if she can find a way to allow the pendulum of spirit to swing within her, to bring herself to appreciate the preciousness of the last vestiges of her Humanity, she is granted clarity of vision unparalleled in the Kindred world. Her fear of her own monstrous predatory urges mingles with her disgust at the temptation to mimic Humanity, and together, the two make it obvious that there is more to vampire existence than either alone. Having survived the spiritual ravages of both, she perches on the edge of a new understanding, balanced between both warring halves of her self.
There, in that moment, a vision of the inner workings of her world is fixed in her consciousness. She experiences the glorious calm and peace of The Maiden seeker, finally stepping onto the path of The Crone. Observing Acolytes never approach a vampire who selects the Dharma of the Predator (and those who do rarely do so consciously) until they are ready to experience this second epiphany. Up to that point, the maiden seeker must be allowed to descend to the absolute depths of Beast-driven madness, from which she must claw her way back to sanity.
Otherwise, she will never develop an understanding of her own inner strength, believing instead that she was “saved” by the Circle. She will be crippled in her development from then on, placing too much emphasis on the participation of her new friends and her involvementwith their paths, not her own.
A maiden seeker who survives this tribulation is often difficult to integrate into the established mythology of an existing Circle unless she encounters a teacher who shares her experience. Without such a shared spirit, the maiden seeker is likely to develop a style of worship tailored to her personal understanding.
Characters who become maiden seekers on this path are guaranteed to lose some humanity before they arrive at the realization that readies them for the Circle of the Crone. That makes it a long and dangerous road, and Storytellers may worry that the characters will go too far before they begin play as Acolytes, hampering their ability to deal with the story as caring, feeling Kindred.
It’s a good rule of thumb to make sure that the so-called second epiphany happens by the time the character falls to 4 or 5 Humanity. At that stage, the characters are still capable of humane behavior (without too much difficulty), and yet will likely to be flirting with madness. Any fears of descending further would be justified, but total collapse isn’t inevitable yet.
Note that a good number of characters who follow this seeking are sure to develop derangements along the way. While the achievement of the epiphany at the end of the path is likely to involve the reclamation of one’s sanity, it isn’t a full requirement. The plain truth is that some of the Acolytes of the Circle are thoroughly mad by human standards.
Of course, the real drama of this path is the partial redemption (or at least diversion from disaster) that the character undergoes. As a Storyteller, if you believe that the character involved is hardy enough to come back from the very edge of catastrophe, then you may allow the character to slip further down the scale before granting her the vision of the “middle path” she’s searching for.
It becomes clear that the personality he presents is a conscious option, carefully assembled from pieces of his mortal being and the instruction of his sire, and that option begins to seem incomplete or unnecessarily convoluted. Every word the vampire speaks begins to feel like a lie. Every emotion he feels seems stifled, wrapped within the strictures of Kindred social interaction and the bonds of the Danse Macabre.
Over time, these small doubts grow in intensity, eventually threatening to paralyze the vampire where he stands. He frets, analyzing his every word and deed, becoming caught up in the mechanics of interaction instead of just letting himself feel and speak without too much thought. He is overwhelmed by strange urges to act inappropriately, suppressing a bark of laughter ata solemn Elysium rite or welling up with blood tears at a slapstick display.
In most cases, the vampire will first attempt to respond to these pressures by actively socializing, proving to himself that the construct of his personality is useful and appreciated. He will be garrulous and outgoing in public, retiring to a whirl of confusion and doubt in his private moments. The emotions he experiences become extremely, uncontrollably intense, at times to the point of actual physical pain, and he often finds himself flipping between active pursuit of sensation and urges to complete isolation and silence.
In the terminology of the Circle of the Crone, he becomes a “nun in shadows,” minimizing sensory input when alone to balance the awesome power of sensation in the outside world.
In these silent meditations, the vampire inevitably begins to deconstruct his personality, coming to terms with his mannerisms and choices. He arrives at an understanding of his true motives and the layers of deception he places over them. Inevitably, he also begins to understand that every thinking creature he encounters must also shroud itself in these layers, and he begins to sympathize with them. Over time, he broadens his definition of “thinking creatures” and may become positively animistic in his outlook. When this occurs to him, he suddenly relaxes, slipping into a natural persona stripped of artifice.
Until these truths are realized, though, the vampire’s outward facade will begin to show cracks. His responses will seem mechanical and insincere, no matter how hard he tries. He will inevitably offend or alienate most of his friends. Most believe that he is betraying them or otherwise playing false — and there lies the greatest danger of this path.
Many a maiden seeker who searches for the truth as a nun in shadows becomes the target of paranoid attacks, and some are drawn into frustrating attempts to reconcile without the capacity for natural, sincere expression. Some maiden seekers suffer Final Death at the hands of their incensed Allies or lovers, never getting the chance to “break through” to the harmonious realization that awaits them.
Acolytes of The Circle of the Crone are well advised to keep an eye out for maiden seekers on this path at all times. They are exceedingly difficult to spot (especially since they may be mistaken for mundane liars), but the promise of a favorable outcome when they are located and properly protected is high. The seeker is bound to appreciate the attentions of the Circle as he works through his tribulation and will often readily accept the established mythology of teachers within the covenant, easily mapping the mythology onto his own epiphany.
To reflect the development of a maiden seeker on this path, Storytellers should make use of powerful descriptive terms in emotional situations, helping the player to understand and illustrate the character’s outsize response. The way the moonlight reflects off a puddle in the sidewalk may provoke a profound sadness, causing a steady flow of tears for the next few minutes. An advertising billboard displaying a sunny tropical scene could inspire a near-paralyzing happiness. Everything becomes an emotional trigger, and every emotion that follows is powerfully amplified. Spending the time to illustrate just a couple of these triggers can go a long way toward setting the tone for the character’s journey.
Attaching a negative social modifier to the character’s public interactions while the tribulation progresses, reflecting the apparent inability of the vampire to appear sincere until he comes to his epiphany, might also help. The modifier can grow over time, from an initial –1 to an eventual –4 or –5 just before the character’s breakthrough, whenthe penalty vanishes completely.
Each and every Inward Hunt is unique to the vampire experiencing it. Some embark on a strange voyage of discovery and trial, culminating in an encounter with the gods of old. Others relive a pivotal period in the Requiem of their ancestors, facing the same challenges and accomplishments in a bizarre recapitulation of blood memory. Some vampires seem to dream a mundane Requiem as a fictional “other,” sometimes even experiencing the tribulation as a vampire of another clan or gender. The journey is deeply personal and, most disturbing to the Kindred who endures it, absolutely true to life.
Inward Hunters who interrupt their tribulation with bouts of consciousness sometimes confuse their waking and sleeping moments, losing the capacity to separate the two. But the experience is genuine. It is a mystic journey, honestly no less “real” than the waking Requiem. Maiden seekers on an Inward Hunt often bear the physical scars of injuries sustained during their “dreams,” and some exhibit skills and disciplines that they claim to have learned from instructors in the visions.
Every vampire who dwells in the second Requiem of the Inward Hunt approaches some kind of climactic truth at the end of the tribulation, in which they learn a great secret about themselves, the spirits of their ancestry or the hidden workings of the gods. Most emerge from the Inward Hunt utterly changed, integrating the lessons learned into their waking ways. Many who begin as membersof outsider covenants abandon their organizations, finding that their revelations mesh more comfortably with the ways of The Circle of the Crone.
Only telepathic Acolytes of the Circle can say for sure if a vampire is truly undergoing the tribulation of the Inward Hunt. There may be some hints in the waking behavior of some Kindred, but most Inward Hunters will take pains to conceal the initial effects of their dreams, fearing persecution.
Nobody really knows. As the Storyteller, it’s up to you — the features of an Inward Hunt are unlimited in scope. You can get as cosmic or as personal as you like. The only real limit on the Hunt is that it’s usually a solitary experience. Only the interference of telepathy can allow others to witness or participate in a dream tribulation.
The Inward Hunt provides the chance for a Storyteller to layer a character’s story with a second narrative. If you do, be sure that the “dream thread” has a definite end planned, so that it can be folded back into the waking Requiem of the character involved.
Maiden seekers on the path of the Inward Hunter are prized by The Circle of the Crone, and are eagerly accepted by most Acolytes. The truths maiden seekers espouse are often merged with the teachings of a local Circle, making integration less a question of how ready the seeker is to accept the words of a Hierophant and more one of how well the two will join together.
These curious Kindred rise from their comfortable places in the covenants of their sires, invariably drifting into the fringes of The Unaligned while searching for answers. Those lucky enough to exist in proximity to The Circle of the Crone are recognized almost immediately as “maiden seekers” and protected, whether they ask for it or not.
Experienced Acolytes will not directly interfere with a solitary quest, knowing that the vampire in question will never be satisfied with answers provided by others. Instead, the Acolytes encourage the search, offering aid or relief if required. With or without the protection of the Circle, leaving one’s covenant to begin a solitary search for meaning is difficult, at best, and may actually involve a risk of Final Death in extreme cases.
To outsider Kindred, the questing vampire is flirting with insanity: rejecting the trappings of normal society and choosing to doubt established truths rather than uphold them. A maiden seeker must often sever ties with her close blood relations before she can expect to freely embark on her journey of discovery. A painful period of loneliness and despair is natural, and some Kindred are unable to endure it — either returning quickly to the family they so recently rejected or ending their Requiem in a suicidal blaze of frustration.
But those who survive may begin to see an inkling of the answers they so desperately hunger for. In feeding the curiosity of the spirit, they gravitate towards an existence unparalleled in the world of Kindred: satisfaction, harmony, and confidence await them in the devout explorations of the solitary pilgrim.
And, in the overwhelming majority of cases, that seeker eventually finds her way to The Circle of the Crone, coming to understand that the covenant represents her best opportunity to find support and tolerance in her ongoing quest to find herself and fulfill her purpose as part of the natural world.
Modern Pilgramage as Tribulation
Can there be a tribulation more worthy to an Acolyte of the Circle than a solitary quest in defiance of social convention? Every night, a true pilgrim must endure the disapproval of his fellow Kindred (more often than not, devoted members of outsider covenants) and the constant turmoil of his own guilt and doubt. From the moment a maiden seeker rejects his docile Requiem, choosing instead to establish a new way for himself, he enters into a world of confusion and hostility. His Allies withdraw, his sire first attempts to negotiate for his return and eventually declares him a bitter enemy and even his Haven no longer seems a welcome retreat.Some Kindred choose to leave the domain of their Embrace, becoming literal pilgrims as well as spiritual ones. For these dedicated vampires, the dangers and isolation of the journey encourage intense self-scrutinywhile every step brings them closer to severing all ties with their Requiems up to this point. Many do not survive the journey, succumbing to the scorching raysof the sun or a roving pack of hostile mortals. Other Kindred find themselves perpetually without a home, turned away from domain after domain by paranoid or prejudiced Kindred therein.
But there on the road, the blistered and famished seeker may find true strength and enlightened understanding. There, she may experience a vision of The Crone in all her splendor, or she might find herself uplifted by an unexpected moment of absolute harmony with the living world, proving her natural place and eliminating all doubts.
Others choose to remain in their homes, enduring the enmity of their contemporaries and finding their truths in their new outlook. The scales fall from their eyes, and suddenly the familiar features of the landscape are redrawn, shining forth with the full glory of the undimmed Majesty of the natural world. There, under the baleful gaze of the outsiders, hounded and beaten, excluded and ridiculed, they find a satisfaction and simple sense of accomplishment that can never be taken from them,no matter what happens to their material being.
Then, once that calm takes hold in the spirit, the pilgrim truly becomes an Acolyte of The Circle of the Crone, whether or not there are fellow members of the covenant to welcome him. If there are none, he continues his meditations on his own, learning from his explorations and forming his mystic bonds with the world around him. Crúac sometimes comes naturally to these vampires, allowing them to practice the magicks of the covenant on their own.
If there are observant Acolytes in the vicinity, they will welcome a true pilgrim seeker to their ranks, providing safe company for her to express her liberated vision and allowing her to continue her explorations under their political umbrella. Her truth will mingle with those of her fellow Acolytes, and strength will come from the sharing. She may take on students, passing her understanding of the workings of the natural world to younger Kindred, or she may become a student herself, choosing to benefit from the accumulated wisdom of her eldersand contemporaries.
There are three distinct paths that most maiden seekers follow. While some are known to find more independent, occasionally bizarre approaches to the hunger of the spirit, the majority will settle into one of the long-trodden roads. To many in the covenant, these paths are referred to by some variation on these terms: the Dharma of the Predator, the Nun in Shadows or the Inward Hunter. These terms may or may not be colloquial to Acolytes of the Circle; in some domains, the paths are referred to almost the way one might ask where a graduate student took his undergrad degree. In others, they are intensely private information, and in some, they simply remain unnamed.
The Dharma of the Predator
This is a violent and hard-walked path, often beginning with an explosive frenzy of frustration precipitated by the unreasonable demands of the modern Requiem and its pressures to remain “human.” Vampires who completely deny their urge to violence occasionally stumble onto this path, giving themselves over to an intense and all-consuming frustration as their attempts at self-control collapse. The Beast erupts within the hapless Kindred, unleashing a sudden and brutal force within her that reflects the depth of her suffering. The Beast’s voice grows louder and stronger than in most, shaking the vampire’s carefully constructed structures of self-control and making continued denial impossible.Most vampires respond to this manifestation by imposing crippling feelings of guilt upon themselves. If not assisted, many fall further and further into a cycle of repression and explosion, eventually becoming a clear menace to both Kindred and mortals in their domain.
A rare few, however, come to understand that the violence within themselves is caused by fundamental dissonant urges: the urge to remain an upstanding member of an artificial, aberrant society and the natural predatory leanings of the vampire. Instead of taking on the guilt of their contemporaries, they choose to acknowledge their so-called monstrous urges and explore them in earnest.
A vampire who follows the Dharma of the Predator will ordinarily abandon the material trappings of modern Kindred society, embarking on a pilgrimage (whether literal or internal) as a true creature of the night and stalking the Herd with full and frank dedication. She accepts the shedding of her Humanity as part of the natural progress of a healthy vampire, reveling in the satisfaction that the hunt brings her. She claims victim after victim, indulging her most basic instincts and developing more and more sophisticated natural hunting techniques. She learns how to conceal her activity from both Kindred and mortal observers, operating with a natural stealth that is denied to those who impose human limits on their activities.
But the journey does not end there. Eventually, assuming she survives the inevitable disapproval of her “more civilized” peers, she must face the prospect of her dwindling Humanity and again become dissatisfied. If she fails to acknowledge her descent, she loses herself to the Beast, never to achieve the understanding she so deeply craves.
But if she can find a way to allow the pendulum of spirit to swing within her, to bring herself to appreciate the preciousness of the last vestiges of her Humanity, she is granted clarity of vision unparalleled in the Kindred world. Her fear of her own monstrous predatory urges mingles with her disgust at the temptation to mimic Humanity, and together, the two make it obvious that there is more to vampire existence than either alone. Having survived the spiritual ravages of both, she perches on the edge of a new understanding, balanced between both warring halves of her self.
There, in that moment, a vision of the inner workings of her world is fixed in her consciousness. She experiences the glorious calm and peace of The Maiden seeker, finally stepping onto the path of The Crone. Observing Acolytes never approach a vampire who selects the Dharma of the Predator (and those who do rarely do so consciously) until they are ready to experience this second epiphany. Up to that point, the maiden seeker must be allowed to descend to the absolute depths of Beast-driven madness, from which she must claw her way back to sanity.
Otherwise, she will never develop an understanding of her own inner strength, believing instead that she was “saved” by the Circle. She will be crippled in her development from then on, placing too much emphasis on the participation of her new friends and her involvementwith their paths, not her own.
A maiden seeker who survives this tribulation is often difficult to integrate into the established mythology of an existing Circle unless she encounters a teacher who shares her experience. Without such a shared spirit, the maiden seeker is likely to develop a style of worship tailored to her personal understanding.
How Far Is Too Far?
Characters who become maiden seekers on this path are guaranteed to lose some humanity before they arrive at the realization that readies them for the Circle of the Crone. That makes it a long and dangerous road, and Storytellers may worry that the characters will go too far before they begin play as Acolytes, hampering their ability to deal with the story as caring, feeling Kindred.It’s a good rule of thumb to make sure that the so-called second epiphany happens by the time the character falls to 4 or 5 Humanity. At that stage, the characters are still capable of humane behavior (without too much difficulty), and yet will likely to be flirting with madness. Any fears of descending further would be justified, but total collapse isn’t inevitable yet.
Note that a good number of characters who follow this seeking are sure to develop derangements along the way. While the achievement of the epiphany at the end of the path is likely to involve the reclamation of one’s sanity, it isn’t a full requirement. The plain truth is that some of the Acolytes of the Circle are thoroughly mad by human standards.
Of course, the real drama of this path is the partial redemption (or at least diversion from disaster) that the character undergoes. As a Storyteller, if you believe that the character involved is hardy enough to come back from the very edge of catastrophe, then you may allow the character to slip further down the scale before granting her the vision of the “middle path” she’s searching for.
The Nun in Shadows
This path is a contradiction. While outward signs are initially subtle, the maiden seeker plunges rapidly towards a terrible internal confrontation resulting in a complete redefinition of the self. This path begins more slowly than the Dharma of the Predator, and there is no obvious outburst to trigger it. Instead, the vampire in question simply begins to doubt his own identity, wondering at the choices he has made.It becomes clear that the personality he presents is a conscious option, carefully assembled from pieces of his mortal being and the instruction of his sire, and that option begins to seem incomplete or unnecessarily convoluted. Every word the vampire speaks begins to feel like a lie. Every emotion he feels seems stifled, wrapped within the strictures of Kindred social interaction and the bonds of the Danse Macabre.
Over time, these small doubts grow in intensity, eventually threatening to paralyze the vampire where he stands. He frets, analyzing his every word and deed, becoming caught up in the mechanics of interaction instead of just letting himself feel and speak without too much thought. He is overwhelmed by strange urges to act inappropriately, suppressing a bark of laughter ata solemn Elysium rite or welling up with blood tears at a slapstick display.
In most cases, the vampire will first attempt to respond to these pressures by actively socializing, proving to himself that the construct of his personality is useful and appreciated. He will be garrulous and outgoing in public, retiring to a whirl of confusion and doubt in his private moments. The emotions he experiences become extremely, uncontrollably intense, at times to the point of actual physical pain, and he often finds himself flipping between active pursuit of sensation and urges to complete isolation and silence.
In the terminology of the Circle of the Crone, he becomes a “nun in shadows,” minimizing sensory input when alone to balance the awesome power of sensation in the outside world.
In these silent meditations, the vampire inevitably begins to deconstruct his personality, coming to terms with his mannerisms and choices. He arrives at an understanding of his true motives and the layers of deception he places over them. Inevitably, he also begins to understand that every thinking creature he encounters must also shroud itself in these layers, and he begins to sympathize with them. Over time, he broadens his definition of “thinking creatures” and may become positively animistic in his outlook. When this occurs to him, he suddenly relaxes, slipping into a natural persona stripped of artifice.
Until these truths are realized, though, the vampire’s outward facade will begin to show cracks. His responses will seem mechanical and insincere, no matter how hard he tries. He will inevitably offend or alienate most of his friends. Most believe that he is betraying them or otherwise playing false — and there lies the greatest danger of this path.
Many a maiden seeker who searches for the truth as a nun in shadows becomes the target of paranoid attacks, and some are drawn into frustrating attempts to reconcile without the capacity for natural, sincere expression. Some maiden seekers suffer Final Death at the hands of their incensed Allies or lovers, never getting the chance to “break through” to the harmonious realization that awaits them.
Acolytes of The Circle of the Crone are well advised to keep an eye out for maiden seekers on this path at all times. They are exceedingly difficult to spot (especially since they may be mistaken for mundane liars), but the promise of a favorable outcome when they are located and properly protected is high. The seeker is bound to appreciate the attentions of the Circle as he works through his tribulation and will often readily accept the established mythology of teachers within the covenant, easily mapping the mythology onto his own epiphany.
The Broken Face
To reflect the development of a maiden seeker on this path, Storytellers should make use of powerful descriptive terms in emotional situations, helping the player to understand and illustrate the character’s outsize response. The way the moonlight reflects off a puddle in the sidewalk may provoke a profound sadness, causing a steady flow of tears for the next few minutes. An advertising billboard displaying a sunny tropical scene could inspire a near-paralyzing happiness. Everything becomes an emotional trigger, and every emotion that follows is powerfully amplified. Spending the time to illustrate just a couple of these triggers can go a long way toward setting the tone for the character’s journey.Attaching a negative social modifier to the character’s public interactions while the tribulation progresses, reflecting the apparent inability of the vampire to appear sincere until he comes to his epiphany, might also help. The modifier can grow over time, from an initial –1 to an eventual –4 or –5 just before the character’s breakthrough, whenthe penalty vanishes completely.
The Inward Hunter
Tribulation can arise in the most unexpected ways. Some Kindred actually dream their way to epiphany, finding themselves in a world of intense inner exploration that is neither sought nor anticipated. Some simply begin to dream in their sleeping days, residing in a surreal second Requiem during the hours of repose. Others come to the Inward Hunt in the long years of Torpor, wandering through the surreal labyrinth of their own minds without awareness of the world beyond.Each and every Inward Hunt is unique to the vampire experiencing it. Some embark on a strange voyage of discovery and trial, culminating in an encounter with the gods of old. Others relive a pivotal period in the Requiem of their ancestors, facing the same challenges and accomplishments in a bizarre recapitulation of blood memory. Some vampires seem to dream a mundane Requiem as a fictional “other,” sometimes even experiencing the tribulation as a vampire of another clan or gender. The journey is deeply personal and, most disturbing to the Kindred who endures it, absolutely true to life.
Inward Hunters who interrupt their tribulation with bouts of consciousness sometimes confuse their waking and sleeping moments, losing the capacity to separate the two. But the experience is genuine. It is a mystic journey, honestly no less “real” than the waking Requiem. Maiden seekers on an Inward Hunt often bear the physical scars of injuries sustained during their “dreams,” and some exhibit skills and disciplines that they claim to have learned from instructors in the visions.
Every vampire who dwells in the second Requiem of the Inward Hunt approaches some kind of climactic truth at the end of the tribulation, in which they learn a great secret about themselves, the spirits of their ancestry or the hidden workings of the gods. Most emerge from the Inward Hunt utterly changed, integrating the lessons learned into their waking ways. Many who begin as membersof outsider covenants abandon their organizations, finding that their revelations mesh more comfortably with the ways of The Circle of the Crone.
Only telepathic Acolytes of the Circle can say for sure if a vampire is truly undergoing the tribulation of the Inward Hunt. There may be some hints in the waking behavior of some Kindred, but most Inward Hunters will take pains to conceal the initial effects of their dreams, fearing persecution.
What Is the Hunt?
Nobody really knows. As the Storyteller, it’s up to you — the features of an Inward Hunt are unlimited in scope. You can get as cosmic or as personal as you like. The only real limit on the Hunt is that it’s usually a solitary experience. Only the interference of telepathy can allow others to witness or participate in a dream tribulation.The Inward Hunt provides the chance for a Storyteller to layer a character’s story with a second narrative. If you do, be sure that the “dream thread” has a definite end planned, so that it can be folded back into the waking Requiem of the character involved.
Maiden seekers on the path of the Inward Hunter are prized by The Circle of the Crone, and are eagerly accepted by most Acolytes. The truths maiden seekers espouse are often merged with the teachings of a local Circle, making integration less a question of how ready the seeker is to accept the words of a Hierophant and more one of how well the two will join together.
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