Morbus



''' “No, I'll never cure her, but my attention eases her suffering. Why would you deny her that if you love her?.” '''

Parent Clan: Mekhet

Nickname: Carriers

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Cachexy, Obfuscate

Covenant: Many Carriers find it difficult to make a respected name or to carve out a fruitful place among the unded of the Invictus or the Lancea Sanctum once their affliction becomes known. Kindred consider them threats to the Traditions and claim that hundred-fold damnation awaits any Morbus who breaks the Third Tradition. Princes of the Invictus simply don't want Carriers polluting their domains and weakening the mortal pillars of their power structure with careless feeding. Some Morbus take perverse pleasure in testing the limits of Carthian egalitarian tolerance, but most would just as soon cultivate as much power and influence as they can and tell the Carthians to go to hell. Repentant or remorseful Carriers turn to members of the Circle of the Crone in hopes of finding some way to undo to curse they've wrought upon themselves, but no member of the bloodline or the covenant in general has yet uncovered any hope that such is possible. Others join the Ordo Dracul in an attempt to progress beyond the weakness that their blood inflicts, but no Morbus has yet achieved the true transcendence that the Order espouses. The rest of the bloodline hide out among the Kindred of the Invictus or the Lancea Sanctum-guarding the secret of their heritage for all their unlives are worth-or go it alone among the unaligned.

Background: It is more frequent for a Mekhet to Embrace a childe who then realizes he is a Morbus than it is for a confirmed Morbus to Embrace a childe. Most Morbus childer therefore have the same backgrounds as non-afflicted Mekhet. When the Morbus do Embrace deliberately, they tend to choose doctors (whom they vainly hope can help cure them), dying vessels to whom they've formed obsessive attachments, or people with influence over policymakers.

Weakness: The Morbus are slaves to a highly rarefied palate. Only the blood of diseased and dying mortals sustains them, while healthy blood turns to ash in their mouths (though they may take Kindred Vitae and be nourished by it as normal).They can feed from other vessels only when frenzying, but doing so does not replenish their Vitae to any degree whatsoever. Some Morbus feel compelled to drink blood infected with only one specific disease, but this restriction is only a matter of taste or a psychological limitation. Should such a member be brave or desperate enough to drink from a victim with a different affliction than his preferred one, he suffers no penalty. While these diseases don't adversely affect the Morbus themselves (usually), they can occasionally be transmitted when the Kindred feed, share blood with their ghouls or have sex. The Morbus bloodline is a shameful aberration in the eyes of most Mekhet, which makes it all but impossible for a confirmed Morbus to gain any Clan Status Merit or Clan office among the non-afflicted. What's more a surviving descendant of a confirmed Morbus who is not a member of the bloodline stands to lose standing by association, both from Mekhet who expect him to follow in his ancestor's footsteps and from other Morbus who wonder why he's afraid to do so.

Character Generation: Angel of Mercy, Cult Leader, Demon of Retribution, Doctor, Hospice Manager, Medical Researcher, New Age Holistic Healer, Plague Dog, Retirement Home Orderly, Seemingly Philanthropic Political Activist.

Reference

 * Vampire the Requiem, pages 244-245