Tzimisce

Tzimisce Clan Symbol

The Tzimisce consider themselves apart from and superior to other Vampires, or Kindred, by dint of their unique Disciplines, unnatural ethical views and the inner-structure of their Clan. Many Tzimisce characters are warriors or religious leaders within the Sabbat, though many lead existences devoid of other Vampiric contact, instead surrounding themselves with servants and slaves.They are obsessed with their birthplaces and graves, usually possessing some of the soil from the location of their Embrace, over which they are fiercely territorial.

The Tzimisce are known for their body altering technique, called Vicissitude or, less formally, "fleshcrafting". Tzimisce characters can supernaturally alter the bodies of living and undead organisms, even to the point of melting them.For this clan, body alteration is an art and a philosophy. In the modern ages, most Tzimisce are prescriptive social Darwinists. Sooner or later, many Tzimisce characters become totally lost in this detached and inhuman way of thinking, often losing all contact with the concepts of mercy, compassion, or moral or ethical value as understood by the human mind.

Tzimisce Clan Symbol
prior to Revised Edition

The Tzimisce seek physical and spiritual purification and perfection, though their interpretations of these concepts are often alien or incomprehensible to humans and sometimes even to other vampires. They often "fleshcraft" themselves into forms they believe to be beautiful and/or terrifying. The most common "path of enlightenment" for a Tzimisce is called the "Path of Metamorphosis", and is a replacement for their lost humanity. Tzimisce with this path only have one goal with their whole existence: to become so powerful that the whole world becomes part of themselves—Azhi Dahaka, when the world becomes a part of yourself, a sort of inverted Nirvana.

Clan	Progenitor	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Tzimisce	[Tzimisce] (Possibly named: Mekhet or Ynosh)	Sabbat	Vicissitude, Animalism, Auspex	Fiends	Whenever a Tzimisce sleeps, they must surround themselves with at least two handfuls of Earth from a place important to them as a mortal. Failure to meet this requirement halves the Tzimisce's dice pools every 24 hours, until all their actions use only one dice. This penalty remains until they rests for a full day amid their earth once more.

History

The Tzimisce were one of the High Clans in the original settings. In medieval times, it was common for the Tzimisce to hold vast domains in their fictional version of Eastern Europe, and command armies of men, ghouls and monsters of their own making; in some places they were revered or worshipped almost as gods. The most (in)famous Tzimisce NPC was Vlad Ţepeş, commonly known as Dracula.

Gangrel characters were among the preferred victims of the Tremere clan, who often employed Gangrel as raw material to craft Gargoyles. The Gangrel of old held Tremere characters in utmost contempt.

During the Dark Ages cycle of books, the younger characters of the clan were subject to blood bonds with their elders, until they found a way to break them and slaughtered most of their masters. This in-game ritual is called Vaulderie and consists of a blood bond with the pack members rather than a single elder, thus bonding to a community (or pack) of fellow Tzimisce characters and breaking their sire's control upon them. The Vaulderie is now one of the Auctoritas Ritae and practiced by all of the Sabbat, in theory at least.

It was also during the Dark Ages cycle of books that the Koldun arose as a playable Tzimisce faction. In the modern World of Darkness setting, Koldun are so rare as to be considered extinct. The Koldun were ret-conned in later revisions into Old Clan Tzimisce.

In Vampire: The Masquerade, the Tzimisce clan is associated with the Sabbat who wage an eternal struggle against their vampiric rivals in the Camarilla. Their symbol is the Ouroboros.

Vicissitude

Vicissitude is the trademark Discipline of Clan Tzimisce, and one of the most horrifying powers available to Cainite players. With it an experienced crafter can sculpt the flesh and bone of a subject, making them a creature of alien beauty or gnarling them into a deformed monstrosity. Tzimisce use Vicissitude on themselves extensively, altering their appearances with their mood or changing their bodies to be as vile as their souls.

Outside of Thaumaturgy, Vicissitude is the most versatile of the Disciplines, and is often used in tandem with extensive ghouling. Tzimisce tend to deform their servants into war-forms szlachta, which are optimized for combat through extensive bone plating, spiked forearms and other modifications. True masters of fleshcrafting are capable of fusing multiple victims together into mammoth killing machines known as vozhd, but such creations are incredibly rare. Vicissitude was also used to create the playable Blood Brothers bloodline, and their Discipline Sanguinus is a derivation of the Tzimisce character skillset. While its effects are normally permanent, vampire characters of lower generation can heal fleshcrafting transformations over time. Likewise, the clan curse of the Nosferatu cannot be removed through use of Vicissitude.

The nature of Vicissitude ability set is shrouded in in-character mystery, with even the most elder Fiends only speculating as to its origins and true potential. More than just a Discipline, it seems to act as a virus that "infects" other characters through transmission of blood. It is assumed to be invented by the Tzimisce Antediluvian, with some speculating that Vicissitude itself is an extension of the Elder Tzimisce and that it continues to learn and experiment through those that fleshcraft. Tzimisce characters themselves view the control over physical forms granted by the Discipline as proof of their superiority over mortals who are slaves to their bodies. Practitioners of the Path of Metamorphosis go a step further and consider Vicissitude the path to achieve individual evolution and transcendence through a somewhat scientific approach of research and experimentation.

In the Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand sourcebook, Vicissitude was said to be a parasite that originated in the Deep Umbra and was brought back by a Tzimisce named Andeleon. As a disease, it eats away at the body, mind, and soul of an infected individual until they are consumed and taken over by it, becoming a Souleater. Supposedly the Old Clan Tzimisce were the few Fiends able to isolate themselves and avoid becoming infected. The True Black Hand was devoted to wiping out the alien invasion, while at the same time keeping it a secret from the world.

The idea of Souleaters and Vicissitude as an alien plague received a great deal of criticism and was a divisive element of canon. The Vampire Storytellers Handbook Revised stated the idea was merely the result of a "lunatic fringe" within the Old Clan Tzimisce, and to be disregarded. However, the Guide to the Sabbat reintroduced an optional rule with Vicissitude as a disease that can infect anyone that comes into contact with tainted blood. Infection is necessary for learning Vicissitude, and the degree to which one is afflicted influences the difficulty of learning levels of the Discipline. Instead of taking over a practitioner's mind, however, the disease makes it more likely those infected gain a derangement.