[Shudders] "...That's unsexy."

-Homer Simpson

Overview

One of the most populous clans in Chicago, the Nosferatu present a front of solidarity with the new Prince and the Camarilla, but exist on the brink of destroying the existing hierarchy of the city through their deceptions, allegiances, and ambitions. Though some have Anarch inclinations, Chicago’s Sewer Rats are driven by individual agendas rather than grand, sectarian aims. The idea of Nosferatu solidarity extends as far as Nosferatu defending each other, but goes little further than that. Even Nathaniel Bordruff, a homicidal vampire at the best of times, would see the rest of the city burn before turning on his clanmates. He would then turn on them, however.

Prince Jackson presents the Chicago Nosferatu as the perfect example of how a Camarilla city should treat its walking Masquerade breaches. Give them each a little territory in low-income parts of the city, ensure they each maintain a strong Mask, and punish the clan’s breaches severely. Steadily, the Sewer Rats bristle at Jackson’s persecution of their line, wondering if the Ventrue thinks them as low as Caitiff and thin-bloods.

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The Nosferatu have suffered in the wake of the Second Inquisition.  Viewed by many Princes as a threat to the Masquerade simply by dint of existing, the compromise of the ShreckNET dark web network by Second Inquisition-affiliated hackers led to the destruction of Warrens, the final death of numerous Kindred both Nosferatu and not, investigations by the Justiciary, executions, censure, and finally the Inner Circle's edict that ShreckNET-type digital platforms for the sharing of information related to the Kindred are explicitly forbidden as a violation of the First Tradition.  

As a result of the Ivory Tower's pogrom, many of the Nosferatu have withdrawn from the Camarilla completely - they either defected to the Anarchs or retreated into the dark, crawling into ratholes and Warrens and locking the doors behind them.  However despite setbacks like the loss of ShreckNET, the Nosferatu remain the savviest information-brokers in the Jyhad, and their powers make them valuable enforcers and spies during a time when the Camarilla is sorely in need of both.  

Nosferatu SPCs of Note:

• Khalid, Nosferatu Primogen

• Wauneka, Nosferatu Information Broker and Hound

• Martin, the Nosferatu everybody likes

• Edith Beaubien, AKA "The Painted Lady", famous Kindred tattooist

• Crook, Nosferatu Wild Card

• Adze, Owner, Red No. 5

Lexicon: 

Absimiliard: Also known as Abshalom or Absalom; the most common given names for the Nosferatu progenitor.

Al-Qadhira: "The Dirty Ones."  The Arabic name for the Nosferatu clan.

Bonsam: A lineage of African Nosferatu known for behaving as territorial hunters.  May have gone extinct, even the Laibon of the modern nights consider the Bonsam a sort of cryptid among vampires.

Cleopatras: Nosferatu who were known for their physical beauty and/or social savvy prior to their embrace.  

Guruhi: A lineage of African Nosferatu, who in fact rule the preponderance of the domains held by the Laibon courts.  See also Bonsam.

Freaks: A term for Sabbat vampires of Nosferatu lineage, who once mingled more-or-less freely with their clanmates, but who have become true ostracized monsters in every sense of the word.

Karai Pyrahe: The Nosferatu lineage of the Drowned.  Their progenitor may be the methuselah Gorgo.

Nictuku: Nosferatu methuselahs seemingly obsessed with destroying all Nosferatu of the modern lineage.  Some believe this to be at the behest of the clan's Antediluvian forebear, who seeks to eliminate his entire bloodline.  Others believe that at least some of the Nictuku are Nosferatu Methuselahs that went mad in the dark and degenerated into wights obsessed with hunting their clanmates.  Nosferatu who are descended from the Nictuku are often exceptionally hideous (even for Nosferatu) and acutely claustrophobic.

Nosophoros: Greek, "Disease-Bearers."  An old name for the clan that was gradually twisted together with soundalike words in Slavic languages such as the Romanian Nesuferit ("Offensive") to produce Nosferatu.  

ShreckNET: A Nosferatu-operated Dark Web digital information-sharing network that enabled them to assemble a massive database of sensitive information related to the Kindred.  Hacked by mortal hunters and now permanently offline by edict of the Inner Circle.