Tzimisce Clanbook (Revised) Merits and Flaws

Whether Tzimisce like it or not, they carry a gene of the gestating Antediluvian inside them. Between it, Vicissitude and their often-strange habits, there are unique Merits and Flaws to personalize each Fiend. As always, this section is entirely optional and pending Storyteller approval. This information is not gospel or dogma.

· Pain Tolerance: 2 pt Physical Merit
Maybe you've deadened your nerves through Vicissitude. Maybe you're a tough bastard. Maybe it turns you on. Regardless, you ignore one-dice wound penalties. That is, at Hurt or Injured, you suffer no wound penalties. You still suffer full wound penalties at Wounded and below. You must have a Conviction or Courage rating 0œ3 or more to take this Merit. If you possess the advanced Vicissitude power Ecstatic Agony, you gain no additional dice until you are at least Wounded; your indifference to pain deprives you of its power.

· Dracon's Temperament: 3 pt Mental Merit
Taking the notion of Azhi Dahaka to new levels, you've emulated the permutable nature of change and evolution into your very psyche. Like the protean Dracon, you are a whirlwind of temperaments. Unlike multiple personalities, which gives you more than one identity, you are the same person but with different and changing Natures. Essentially, you either have no anchored sense of self, or you're so mutable that you can be anybody. At the beginning of each Story, until its conclusion, you may choose one Personality Archetype to function as your Nature. This doesn't change your identity; it simply alters the way you perceive situations and how you deal with others. You also regain Willpower according to your new Nature and may be affected by other effects or Discipline powers as per your new Nature as well.

· Haven Affinity: 3 pt Supernatural Merit
Caine's curse resonates strongly in your bones, but it possesses a proven advantage. You are connected to the soil of your prime haven, granting you an extra die to all dice pools when you operate there. It also acts as a mystic beacon to you, allowing you to home in on its location with a standard Perception + Survival roll (difficulty 6), + 1 difficulty when a state or country separates you; + 2 if you're halfway across the globe. This applies only to your prime haven and to none of your auxiliary shelters.

· Revenant Disciplines: 3 pt Supernatural Merit
The ties to your revenant family stayed with you well past the Embrace. As such, the Disciplines that were innate to you as a ghoul have remained so as Cainite. At character creation, select the ghoul family from which you hail. Instead of the T zimisce's standard complement of Animalism, Auspex and Vicissitude, you instead draw from your three family Disciplines for your starting allocation ( though you may buy other Disciplines with freebies, as normal). Also, you learn your family Disciplines at the cost of a clan Discipline. It's either or, however, meaning you cannot buy both the Tzimisce and family powers at clan cost unless they both share a particular ability like Vicissitude.

· Ancestral Soil Dependence: 2 pt Supernatual Flaw
Dependence on their native soil hampered the Tzimisce's flight from Eastern Europe. Even a few childer sired elsewhere required the soil of a homeland they had never visited, making them particularly vulnerable to enemies who knew of this weakness. In the modem nights, rapid transportation makes such a threat much less severe, but even childer sired generations after their ancestors relocated occasionally manifest this Flaw.

The will of the spirits from the ancestral T zimisce homeland weighs heavy on your blood - soil from a place important to you as a mortal won't do. You actually need two handfuls of the tainted Eastern European soil of the Tzimisce homeland Ancestral Soil Dependence most commonly manifests in the childer of koldun and the branch of the clan thought to be descended from Yorak. Characters Embraced in Eastern Europe can't take this Flaw ( they're already dependant on the local soil).

· Scarface: 2 to 4 pt Physical Flaw
You're a walking mess of scars. Although you heal damage with Cainite efficiency, the manner in which you do so is all too human. For some reason, the regenerating flesh returns as scar tissue. Vicissitude doesn't help; in fact, it aggravates your condition with stretch marks and cicatrices anywhere your skin breaks. While this doesn't hamper you physically, it does affect your interactions with other people. For 2 points, all Social roll difficulties increase by one.

If you purchase Scarface as a 3-point Flaw, your face and body are so horribly blemished that your Appearance rating can never exceed 2. This is in addition to the limitations mentioned previously. As a 4-point Flaw, the swath of scars is thick enough to hinder your actions through skin-resistance.

All Dexterity roll difficulties also increase by one, in addition to the other penalties this Flaw imposes at lesser levels. Youcan ignore this penalty for one specific action by taking one level of (unsoakable) bashing damage; essentially, you're tearing the scar tissue for greater range of motion. Once you heal that damage, however, the penalty returns.

· Revenant Weakness: 3 pt Physical Flaw
You were once part of a revenant family. Following the Embrace, you suffered the double-whammy of your clan's weakness and your revenant family's limitation; whether it's the Bratovitch's propensity to fly into a rage, the Grimaldi's blood bond to the Sabbat, the Obertus' instability or the Zantosa's weak will. The Storyteller might also let you manifest a weakness from a lost or destroyed revenant line. This could add mystery to your background and allow for a bit of genealogical detective work.

· Consumption: 5 pt Physical Flaw
Portions of the Antediluvian are not only within you, they're active and act like a cancer that devours you from the inside out. Your very blood is wrought with a corrosive, flesheating bacteria. At the beginning of each evening, you suffer one health level of bashing damage that cannot be soaked nor healed with blood. The only way to counteract the effect is by ingesting one-tenth of your body-weight in flesh to supplement your depleted carcass. Whether you kill and devour the skin frorn humans or raid the biohazard containers of liposuction clinics for siphoned fat, you need your ration of human flesh in order to survive. If you try and ingest this macabre meal before damage is done, you'll simply vomit it out like any other food- this does not impart the benefits of the Eat Food Merit.