Look at me and know what it truly means to be cursed! What is it you feel? Revulsion? Horror? Pity? No matter, for you cannot turn away, can you?
One bloodline so embodies the twisted curse that all vampires suffer that their very presence is a vile reminder of just how inhuman the Kindred really are. These Freaks are renowned for their grotesquery, each singularly deformed to the extreme, putting to shame their mortal sideshow counterparts. So accursed is their Vitae that it literally twists and reshapes the corporeal shell of every new member, forever warping them into forms that mimic the most egregious congenital defects suffered by the kine.
For all the additional pain and inconvenience they must endure, the Freaks possess an uncanny strength. Though largely shunned by the greater Kindred community, the Freaks share a tremendous bond with others of their ilk. Few coteries are as tight-knit as theirs, and with that intimacy comes power. The Carnival might not partake in the highly visible movements of the Danse Macabre, but wherever one is found, it is always more than a mere sideshow. The Freaks’ ability to turn their seeming physical limitations into an unexpected advantage provides these monsters a unique edge, allowing them to enter places no other Kindred or kine could penetrate and just as effectively escape from places and situations that would be impossible for others. Those unfortunate enough to witness a Freak putting on the Show—the bloodline’s signature Discipline—are in for an unpleasant surprise. Wise Kindred avoid the Carnival if they hear that it has come to town.
Parent Clan: Daeva
Bloodline Disciplines: Celerity, Majesty, The Show, Vigor.
Appearance: Physical deformities are the defining characteristic of the Carnival. What a Freak looked like prior to joining the bloodline is irrelevant after her Vitae has been transformed into that of her new family, though exactly how the individual’s body will change is anyone’s guess. Each change is unique and no factor seems to play a determinate role in the hideous transformation. The only certainty is that the Freak is severely deformed, with some being so altered that they are virtual invalids. It is easy to see just how hellish the Requiem of a Freak can be.
Background: Contrary to popular belief, most of the Carnival is made up of individuals who were not deformed horrors in life, or at least not outwardly. Freaks understand full well what it means to be an outcast, and few have a wish to visit the curse of undeath upon those already bearing that difficult hardship. Rather, they tend to select childer from among those mortals whose inner nature is already far more warped than their outward appearance would suggest.
Some feel that the Embrace is a just punishment for such cretins, and they enjoy watching their newfound progeny struggle with the harsh vicissitudes that the Requiem brings. Others recognize in their marks just how uniquely suited they are for unlife among the Damned. Unlike many celebrated mortal freaks, those who join the Carnival are rarely models of morality and compassion. The painful and often crippling changes wrought by the Vitae of the bloodline upon the new Freak’s body works its way into the psyche with similar force. Very few have the fortitude to hang on to their humanity when they are savaged by the curse of the Carnival in addition to the breadth of difficulties they already face as vampires.
Organization: The Carnival is not just a bloodline, but a full-fledged society akin to the Invictus or the Carthians.
True, it is admittedly too small in both number and reach to claim to be a covenant, but for all other intents and purposes, it functions as one. Its members share a number of customs and practices along with a body of lore unknown to outsiders. They have their own pecking order and their own brand of justice tailor-made for the Carnival. Most important, they stick together. Few if any other Kindred suffer as these misshapen creatures do, and that suffering binds them together in a way that even Blood cannot. Each Carnival—the term refers to the bloodline as a whole as well as to an individual coterie—is led by a single Freak, whose responsibility it is to ensure the entire group’s safety from sunlight, mortal discovery, and Kindred harassment. In return for this leadership, this Freak receives a payment from each member of the Carnival who wishes to put on her own show. This Privilege, as it is called, usually consists of a Vitae tithe, which allows the Carnival’s leader to spend his time guaranteeing the safety of the Carnival, rather than spending it looking for sustenance. Freaks who have spent at least a year with the Carnival usually enter into this agreement, while those who’ve spent less time have to wait until they have a little more experience under their belt first. The Carnival also attracts a few benighted Kindred unrelated to the bloodline proper who wish to join its twisted ranks as well as a number of kine who handle all the sundry tasks necessary to the safety of the Carnival as well as the success of the Show.
The bloodline’s roots are in Eastern Europe, but its greatest numbers are in North America. It was here that the circus and carnival found their greatest popularity, and it’s here that the Carnival continues to exploit this historical fact. Although few ordinary carnivals and sideshows remain in business tonight, the Carnival continues to serve the very powerful unspoken need of the kine to witness oddities, blasphemies, and outright horrors of humanity in a (seemingly) safe environment. Whether as a traveling show that quietly advertises ahead of its arrival in order to drum up the crowd, or as a semi-permanent spectacle that holds regular shows for a steady stream of the curious, the Carnival finds no lack of an audience.
Concepts: The Alligator Lady, The Astonishing Merman, The Frog Man of Borneo, The Girl With No Face, The Human Skeleton, The Irish Leprechaun, The Missing Link, The Rubber Skinned Woman, The Two-Headed Man, The Vampire Worm of Old Spain.
The Show The Freaks know their bodies, frightening though they might be to others. In fact, these Kindred have become so familiar with their deformities that they have literally become addicted to that which makes them different. Like a woman who gets her first piercing on a lark and a year later has two dozen all over her flesh, the Freaks are obsessed with making themselves even more grotesque, exploring the limits of their forms and delighting in the extremes they discover. While this certainly proves personally satisfying to the Freaks, it also enables them to put on an ever more spectacular Show. By displaying themselves in the most shocking fashion, they are able to captivate an audience—be it a small crowd or a single onlooker. The more fascinating their performance is, the less viewers find themselves able to tear themselves away from the Show. Once captivated, they are easy targets for the Freak, no matter what she might have in mind.
• Geek TrickThe classic sideshow geek’s spectacle involves doing something painful, disgusting, or otherwise personally discomfiting—driving a nail into one’s face, swallowing billiard balls and vomiting them back up, chewing glass. Freaks who master this basic level of the Show have no problem subjectingthemselves to the indignities or pain such geek tricks can involve.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Stamina + Intimidation + The Show
Action: Instant
For each success on the invocation roll, the character can spend a single turn ignoring any pain that affects him (effectively negating wound penalties or penalties associated with damage, such as those that might affect Crúac or Theban Sorcery rituals). This doesn’t affect the actual occurrence of the injury at all, though. Wounds still open or the nail remains embedded in the Freak’s face. Naturally, Geek Trick doesn’t actually heal wounds or affect dice-pool penalties after its duration, though the Freak may choose to invoke the power again.
