The Malkavian Society (Kindred)

What is a Malkavian you say?


"Malkavians are the reason you don't accept candy from strangers." - Rick Gentle

"Hee, hee! Watch it squirm! Now poke out its eyes!" - the last words heard by a victim of a Malkavian connoisseur

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Malkavians have traditionally fulfilled two roles in Vampire society: seers and jokers. In the former role, the Malkavians have relied on advanced Auspex and the Cobweb to provide information. Malkavians being Malkavians, this information is generally jaundiced, incomplete, filtered through cracked lenses or a total lie.

The joker role is somewhat more complex: Malkavians have a clan tradition of pranking. The exact purpose of these pranks is open to debate; they often appear intended to readjust the target's perceptions, but are also often sadistic.

In the Camarilla, Malkavians are tolerated; they are rarely princes but often are important primogen or otherwise figures of authority. Given their obvious insanity, princes traditionally give the Madmen a certain amount of latitude; in return, Malkavians are generally expected to demonstrate enough self-control to not break the Masquerade. This is not a benevolent arrangement but largely driven by fear on both sides: fundamentally, Malkavians are unknowable and the general attitude among princes is that its better to keep them quiet and happy, since unhappy Malkavians have a tendency towards introducing bizarre and inexplicable incidents to the equation. Conversely, Malkavians need the protection of the Camarilla, and have been modified as discussed above to make them more amenable to it.

Religion and Philosophy:

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Part of the Malkavian belief system is passed through stories like the Elephant and the Blind Vampire Bats story.

[The Elephant and the Blind Vampire Bat Story]

Once upon a time there were seven blind bats. Or thirteen... i forget. Anyway, they were a bit hungry for fresh blood, because they were Vampire blind bats, so they looked around for something to bite. Except they couldn't look around, as they were blind, which you should have realized already.

But their unerringly keen senses of smell led them to a plump, juicy, blood-filled elephant - which in this story stands for all reality. Got it?

The Gangrel bat bumbed into the tail and said, Aha! this elephant is really a twitching animal! That is what I shall become.

The Brujah broke his fangs trying to bite the hoof and said, Aha! The elephant is like a hard, stony, insensate pestle that crushes all beneath it with pitiless abandon! That is what I shall become.

The Nosferatu bat flew into the elephant's butt and said, Aha! The elephant is really a wrinkled, stinky, puckerede, desiccated mass that lives in a dank cave! That is what I shall become.

The Tremere bit the head and said, Aha! The elephant is really a puny little brain struggling to control a vast and powerful body! That is what I shall become.

The Ventrue felt the legs, and sai, Aha! The elephant is really a powerful, upstanding pillar that can bear all weight with strength, but with very little suppleness or resilience! That is what I shall become.

The Toreador felt the trunk and mouth and said, Aha! The elephant is really a great, firm shaft or a warm, moist hole! That is what I shall become.

And the Malkavian bat, blinder than all the rest, swooped down and managed to miss the entire elephant. Aha! said the benighted Malkavian, as it flapped past. The others are making a huge fuss over an elephant that is really a big lot of nothing! Well that is what I shal become.

And so, I say unto you, flap on!

The Malkavians claim that they're the only ones who know what's really going on. Most other Clans regard this as so much bullsh*t, and yet the Malkavians do seem to react suspiciously quickly to changes in the World of Darkness, almost as if they had warning ahead of time...

Organization:

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On the surface, clan Malkavian is barely a clan. The majority of Malkavians are only marginally aware they belong to a clan; Sabbat Malkavians generally claim to be Panders. What connections Malkavians generally have are informal and generally paternal - Sire Childe relationships being the most common, although Malkavian sires are prone to abandoning their childer.

Scratch the surface, however, and the Malkavian's become a smorgasbord of paranoid delights. Malkavians operate on their own timescale, and will gather spontaneously for incomprehensible events. Malkavians usually don't explain how they know these gatherings are occuring, and when they do the explanation isn't necessarily worth anything. Scratch deep enough and it appears that the Malkavians are highly organized, so highly organized they don't even know they are, and instead they continue to pursue incomprehensible and arcane goals that even they aren't aware are relevant.

This organization is generally termed the "cobweb", "Malkavian Time" or the "Malkavian Madness Network" and is a hive mind unifying all Malkavians. The strength of the voices varies from Malkavian to Malkavian, however all of them are at least aware of its call and capable of interacting with it. Dead Malkavians' memories live on in the cobweb, and it is implied heavily that Malkav himself is this network. The cobweb is only accessible by Malkavians, and they themselves only marginally understand it - most of them merely listen to the voices, but elders have demonstrated a powerful capacity to manipulate the rest of the clan through it.

History:

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It is Foreseen... - the Early History

As with all the major clans, the Malkavians originated in the pre-Flood city Enoch. Little is known about the clan's early composition, only that their Antediluvian Malkav was a seer Embraced by one of the Second Generation. Malkav was particularly close to two other Kindred: Saulot, the founder of the Salubri, and Set, god to his followers. Some accounts suggest the three shared the same sire, possibly Enoch himself.

Sometime after the Flood, Malkav was ambushed and murdered by his fellow Antediluvians. Most Malkavians believe that he is still alive, only now he exists entirely within the Malkavian Madness Network (or "Cobweb"), the group mind that all Malkavians share. Some Malkavians speculate that Malkav is Clan Malkavian, and that when Gehenna arises, he will devour the clan whole and reconstitute himself.
The Second Sight - Dark Ages

Malkavians often served in the role of advisor - political or spiritual - to princes of other Clans during the Dark Ages. Chances are, if the prince didn't consult with the Cappadocians, they instead turned to the Malkavians.

This noble pursuit of one half of the Clan merely masked - obfuscated, one might say - the disturbing and filthy underbelly of the Clan: those whose vision became so acute or so all-encompassing that they were driven completely mad. These broken vampires haunted the dark places of the cities, crying out for salvation or damnation as the mood took them.
The Mind is a Terrible Thing... - Victorian Age

The Victorian Era was the time of Freud and Jung, as the old theories of phrenology, demon-possession and divine punishment gave way to more learned theories of psychology and psychiatry. Asylums now started doing what Malkavians had been practicing for centuries - taking an interest in insanity. While the reforms of these hospitals no doubt crippled more than one Malkavian's supply of blood, the new system permitted the Lunatics to experiemnt with madness like they had never before. Some set themselves up as psychologists - others visited psychologists as patients.

The rise of the Bohemian lifestyle within society meant many more kine were willing to expand their own perceptions with new cultures, experiences and drugs. The Malkavians were only too happy to oblige. New forms of expression and ways of thinking both nourished the Malkavians and allowed them to be as florid as they pleased - after all, if a finely dressed gentleman is shouting about how people on the street are telling him to kill dogs, why it must simply be the newest performance piece going around the salons. In fact, a friend of yours heard it on the streets of Paris...
Shake Well Before Using - the Final Nights

The Malkavians always had a dangerous reputation due to their madness and their signature Dementation discipline, which can induce madness in others. With the Inquisition and the formation of the Camarilla, the clan faced possible extinction at the hands of other clans - the Malkavians were just too dangerous to continue existing. In order to prevent this, the elders of the clan changed the Clan in ways unknown and incomprehensible - the result was that the majority of Clan Malkavian discarded Dementation in favor of the Dominate discipline. More disturbingly, the majority of Malkavians, even those present at the time of the change are unaware that this happened. A small fragment of the clan preserved the Dementation discipline, defecting to the Sabbat and becoming antitribu.

This "Great Trick" means that almost all Malkavians are antitribu. While Sabbat Malkavians possessed the same mystical abilities as their ancestors, the violent environment of the Sabbat drove the antitribu even madder: they are often too undisciplined (or self-indulgent) to resist their own Frenzies.

This division was fixed in 1998, when for reasons unknown to anyone, the Dementation resurfaced within the Camarilla.