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End of times ( Cautionary tales ) Category: Uncategorized
Cain is considered to be the first and most powerful vampire in the mythos of the world of darkness. Like his Biblical namesake, he is the firstborn son of Adam and Eve and the older brother of Abel and Seth. He was cursed with vampirism by God and His angels as punishment for murdering Abel. Before the formation of the camarilla, most vampires referred to themselves as "cenotes" in recognition of their patriarch. The bulk of Caine's history is covered in the book of nod, the recipes fragment the Lilithian and the Luciferian. These books conflict with Caine's motives, but all agree he killed his brother's label. The Luciferian describes how Cain gave himself a "gift," and the gift was a delusion. Using this gift, he thought he killed Abel in an act of love when it was an act of hate. He used this gift to take pride out of shame, which resulted in being an outcast. The gangrel scholar Beckett is also known for interpreting the Cain mythology as a conflict between farmer and hunter tribes.
Land Of Nod A farmer named Cain prepared a sacrificial offering to God, of his finest fruits and vegetables. His brother Abel also prepared a sacrificial offering, it being of the finest animals that he had raised. Either there was a dispute over whose offering was better, or God favored Abel's over Cain's. The final result ended in Cain "sacrificing" Abel on an altar, his brother being the "finest" offering he could give. As punishment, Cain's "Father" cursed him with a mark, and cast him out to wander in darkness in the land of nod Roaming the Land of Nod, Cain encounters Lilith. She notices a swirling stain in the air around him, a mark of some dark unfathomed power: murder. He possessed the power to kill higher beings — not to hunt as Adam had, but to kill as had Jehovah. She was amazed, for he bore no signs of godhood but wandered in the dust like a lesser beast. Seeing that he is cold and hungry, she welcomes Cain into her warmth. Lilith identifies herself as Adam's first wife, the original wife of Cain's father. After staying with her for some time, the two become lovers. He realizes that she has powers and magic that he too would like to possess, so he pleads her for these gifts. The hesitant Lilith then prepares an awakening ceremony by cutting herself with a knife, bleeding into a bowl, and giving it to him so that he may drink.
After Cain partakes of Lilith's blood, he is visited by three angels who are agents of God. Each angel offers Cain a chance to repent for the murder of Abel. However, Cain rejects each of them. And for each angel he rejects, a curse is added on to him. He and his children are cursed with a weakness to fire, vulnerability to sunlight and the Beast Within that fits of hunger for blood. A fourth angel then appeared to offer the way of Golconda, the only way to "light", by the mercy of God. After the experience, Cain becomes officially "Awakened", possessing the following Disciplines: quality, potency, fortitude, obfuscate, dominate, presence, protean, animalism, and auspex. Cain then became aware of the path of blood, the Final Path from which all paths stem. And with all these powers, he breaks his bond with Lilith and leaves her. Cain continues to wander the Land of Nod in loneliness. The memory of his sin drowned him in sorrow. It was not for many ages until he decides to be among mortal men again. His powers and his mark were well known to mortal men and some even worshiped him. Finally, Cain settled in a small agricultural community, named Ubar. It was here, in this first city that he became the Dark Father.
The Dark Father
Cain finally settled in a city, once known as Ubar. It was inhabited by the "Children of Seth" and ruled by king Enoh The people of Ubar were aware of Cain's mark and both marveled and feared his power and thus came to worship him. Upon arrival to the city, Enoch relinquished his kingship, so that Caine may rule instead. According to a toreador legend, being among the mortals, Cain noticed a couple who were very much in love. Seeing their love amplified his loneliness and sin. After having dwelt on his sin for an eon, Cain thought that maybe he could reconcile something in his nature by Embracing them with the gift of immortality so that their love would live for all eternity. However, after having been Embraced, the lovers discovered that they could not have children together. In an act of despair, they both walked into the sunlight to their final death. Cain was so heartbroken over the event that he forbade anyone to speak their names. Thus, their names were lost to history. The former king, Enoch, desired Cain's power once more and requested it as such. However, Cain showed some reluctance because of the loss of the lovers he had Embraced decades ago and Uriel's warning. Yet the raging of the Beast within, the yearning to be with others like him, and Enoch ultimately begging for the Embrace, Cain turned the young man. In honor of his newfound vampiric children, Cain declared that Ubar now is known as the City of Enoch. After some time, Enoch desired kindred brethren. With Enoch's insistence, Cain Embraced his second child, Irad, imparting to him a strength unlike any other. Irad thus became Cain's arm, a commander of armies. Soon to follow was zillah. Zillah was so beautiful, Cain could not resist the Embrace. Interestingly, even after the Embrace, Zillah did not desire him. It frustrated Cain to the point that he was ripping his hair out of his head. He did anything and everything to make her desire him. Yet, she would not have him. Finally, Cain sought the crone's magic, who ultimately tricked him into a blood bond, she forced the First Vampire to embrace her. The Crone sent her new thrall away, telling him that his blood would have the power to bond others as Cain himself was bonded to the Crone. The discovery of the blood bond was what finally made Zillah agree to marry her sire, Cain. For a year and a day Cain labored in the service of the Crone. However, Cain never again drank from the Crone's blood during that period. One night, he tricked her by saying he had terrible dreams in his sleep and was fearful that his children lusted after his blood. He asked the Crone for secret knowledge to protect himself against his progeny, and in response to his pleas the Crone went to a tree made of gopher wood and broke off a limb, sharpening it into a stake. She told Cain to pierce the heart of his wayward children with it to render him still. Cain thanked the Crone and using quick movement Cain seized the stake and drove it into her heart, breaking the blood bond in the process. He kissed her cold withered lips and left her to meet the sunrise. Now three second-generation children co-existed in the City of Enoch: Enoch, Irad, and Zillah. They, in turn, learned the ways of making progeny and had Embraced the third generation. Under Cain's order, he declared it law that no more children be made. Supposedly they obeyed and the city prospered for ages, becoming the first city of vampires. The city's economy thrived on the technology and the agricultural "know-how" that Cain brought to the First City. One, having wandered throughout the Cradle of Civilization, he was able to bring Sumerian technology, namely "the wheel". Two, being a farmer most of his life, Cain had cultivated wondrous and perfect groves. So for generations, under Cain's rule, the economy prospered, and the city became a mighty Empire. The Third Generation antediluvian even built statues, shrines, temples, a grand library, and pools all surrounding a large five-level palace, that Caine ruled from, upon his lofty ivory throne. The Deluge changed everything. It destroyed the City of Enoch and all of the "Children of Seth". Caine was so despondent, that he disappeared. His surviving children and grandchildren sought him out, and when they found him, Cain told them to go away. Left to fend for themselves, the Antediluvians ended up "killing" Cain's second-generation children. When Cain discovered what happened, he sought out the Antediluvians who had rebuilt a new city, known as the second city. Unbeknownst to them, the Dark Father cursed his descendants with the characteristic weaknesses of each clan.[
Caine Reuters
According to Noddist mythology, there are claims that Cain will return at the end of time to judge his descendants: the Antediluvians and all vampires descended from them. This event is known as Gehenna, the end of all vampiric races. The sabbat's epithet, The Sword Of Cain, refers to their belief that they will aid Cain in striking down the Antediluvians when Gehenna comes. The Camarilla, however, denies any existence of Cain, even going as far as concealing or destroying books that even refer to Cain's return, thus promoting skepticism amongst modern Kindred.
Abilities Cain's capacities are usually described as being outside the ability of the Storyteller system to model. Given that he is two generations beyond the power of the Antediluvian, it is reasonable to assume that he has completely mastered all Disciplines potentially to a greater degree than 3rd generation. Cain was able to see when one of his children's disciplines had worked on a human. He was also able to cancel the effects of any Discipline used in his vicinity. It was this total mastery of all Disciplines that kept Cain in power, truly, for although he was a decent king and an honest law-giver, his Disciplines ensured that the rest of the powerful kindred stayed in line. Cain could create new Disciplines on the spot if he wished. It is thought that his power to do this was the forerunner of the Blood magic and its several path's Almost anything else about Cain's attributes follows the Biblical description: if Cain is harmed, the damage is returned seven-fold. Besides, Caine is marked with a sign of God's displeasure.
Cain also appears in Gehenna the final Night, in a general positive interpretation under an assumed name. This Cain travels with Beckett while witnessing the end of the vampiric civilization. Cain figures in one scenario in Gehenna, where he is explicitly targeted and drawn out by Lilith for vengeance. In that scenario, the Biblical curse does apply, and Lilith prepares a victim to strike the killing blow on Cain and then get squashed by the ineffable thumb of God. Cain is mentioned in passing in two other scenarios and presumed dead in the remaining one.
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