Elizabeth -- please file this. -J Julian, I thought this, while rather juvenile, would amuse you. If nothing else its inaccuracies are entertaining. --Thomas. A Study of the Nature of the Kindred On the Nature of the Vampiric Soul The human person, by consensus of theologian, philosopher, and medical doctor, is made up of a body, a mind, a soul, and various intermediaries. Some would find it difficult to draw the line between the mind and the soul, so for simplicity's sake, I will hence refer to all of the immaterial part of an individual as the soul. The soul inhabits the body by virtue of the body's life, and when that is compromised, the soul vacates, leaving for parts unknown. The remaining body is completely inert. All of this is natural, and occurs every day, and to every person. The process of dying is interrupted in a mortal during the moment of embrace. The blood is drained from the mortal, causing said mortal's body to begin dying. As that state overtakes, the soul, having no further obligations, prepares to leave. The process is interrupted when the first drop of kindred blood is introduced to the body. Some element, added at the same moment as the blood (as the blood of the sire is nothing physically more than blood stolen from mortal prey) binds the soul in its body once more, and proceeds to effect further alterations. For our purposes, I will further distinguish the immaterial element of a human as the "mortal soul" and the element described in the above paragraph, that which binds the mortal soul to the dying body, as the "vampiric soul." It is the vampiric soul, introduced by way of the sire's blood at the moment of embrace, that provides the Kindred with all of her signature qualities. We must assume this much, as it is this presumed vampiric soul that distinguishes a newly embraced vampire from a newly dead mortal. The vampiric soul is considerable in its potency, as it essentially warps reality. It has the potential to dominate both metaphysical and physical matter, in that it binds the mortal soul to the body. This dual power over both the immaterial and the material appears in many other forms, but will be discussed later. The vampiric soul is weak at first, though its early tasks are daunting. In the first evening of its existence it must properly secure the mortal soul to the body, and immediately begin the task of both physically animating that body, and reconstructing the dental anatomy to support the Kindred's trademark fangs. The vampiric soul is unique in that it travels in the physical plane in the form of blood. They are not one and the same, but are rather bound up in one another. The vampiric soul feeds on the blood of its "host" (both the blood present in the body at embrace, and any blood the neonate consumes) much in the way a vampire feeds on mortals. The vampiric soul consumes this blood steadily, and uses it primarily to maintain the body in stasis, and secondarily so that the vampiric soul itself can become stronger. My usage of the word "host" earlier in this paragraph is not accidental. The vampiric soul exists with the former mortal in a state of symbiosis, each giving to each. The young vampire provides the symbiote with blood which it uses to develop itself, and the vampiric soul provides its host with power and sustained immortality. The seeming agelesness of the vampire is illusory, and is only labelled such by the mortal mind which does not realize the body's actual state. The physical form of the vampire is as lifeless as it would have been had the sire not provided the vampiric blood, but it is kept perfectly preserved by the power of the vampiric soul. If the body comes to any harm, it is within the power of the vampiric soul to restore the body to its former state, drawing on either its own intelligence or the subconscious memories of its host for a blueprint by which to work. In order for it to accomplish this, however, it needs additional energy, for which it looks to the body's supply of blood. Hence, the usage of blood for the purposes of "healing." On the Disciplines of The Kindred The powers of the vampiric soul are myriad, indeed they are nigh infinite, and are only limited by the strength of the symbiote in question, the will and intelligence of its host, and constrains of time. The reality bending power that is inherent in the vampiric soul can literally accomplish anything, the symbiote merely needs time to develop the raw power to accomplish such tasks, and the host needs to develop his understanding and control of the abilities at his command - hence the name "Discipline." During his first nights, a kindred finds himself privy to a few limited abilities that reflect those of his sire. This is simple enough to understand, as the fledgeling symbiote best remebers the abilities of its parent, and wil manifest those first, and more easily than others. When considering the powers of the Kindred, I will first expore those supernaturally physical abilities that nearly all vampires seem to posess in some respect or another. That power which some scholars have (oh so quaintly) labelled "Potence," which details the supernatural strength of the undead is perhaps at the same time the simplest and the most devastating of the Disciplines. To understand Potence, one must return to the concept of the vampiric soul's reanimation of the dead flesh. In a previous paragraph, I compared vampiric locomation to an individual wearing a suit. The vampiric soul moves the muscles directly, without need for the long-dead nervous system. As necessary, the strength, agility, and durability of the muscles, and indeed the entire body can be augmented by the vampiric soul (with the usage of its blood dupply), to better serve its purposes - but the important thing to remember is that the muscle is not the mover, but the moved. It need only b augmented by blood to more aptly withstand physical tasks. The Discipline of Potence takes this to the next level. When a vampire developes this power, his vampiric soul becomes able to move the body physically, ignoring the muscles altogether. This supernatural strength is more dependable than physical strength, and explains the sheer power of those of Brujah and Nosferatu blood - as well as explaining how such strong individuals can show so very little muscle mass, at times. Truly, among the undead, what one sees is very rarely what one gets. On mysterious property of Potence that I am at a loss to explain is its ability to conserve the body's structural ntegrity while performing these feats. Surely, a vampire punching his way through a concrete wall would be left with bloody stumps for hands upon the completeion of his endeavors, but this is not the case. Further research is certainly called for. Fortitude, the rarely seen but ever so useful ability to withstand damage can be a very intimidating one to observe. Surely an individual falling ten stories onto concrete, shrugging off a hail of bullets, and not flinching even when doused with fire is a hearty opponent. Just as those who posess potence are free of extraneous muscle mass, so too are those trained in Fortitude unencumbered by thick, armorlike skin, though they posess all the advantages of such. It would appear that the discipline of Fortitude is some kind of extension of the vampire's ability to withstand change. Just as the vampiric soul freezes the body in its post-mortem state to avoid decay, vampires posessing fortitude are held in that state all the more tenaciously, and it is particularly difficult to remove their bodies from the form to which they are accustomed. The very crown-jewel of the vampire's physical prowess is the discipline of Celerity. It is the most obviously supernatural, and the most taxing of the three. As the two previously discussed disciplines can be explained without dragging the body's mechanics into consideration, so to can celerity, and indeed this is necessary, for no living body is capable of the speeds that some vampires have exhibited. As near as I can tell, Celerity makes use of the same control that Fortitude does, albeit more actively. While Fortitude uses the vampire's separation from the forces of entropy and decay to preserve it further, Celerity takes in its hands the vampire's inertia to allow him to actually move through time more efficiently than are other physical bodies. Instead of staying inert and unaffected by time's forces, the usage of Celerity actually allows a kindred to transcend time's boundaries. The limits of the physical are pushed by Celerity more than any other discipline so far observed, and as such require the vampiric soul to absorb energy from the body's blood with each usage. The powers that command obediance from other sentient creatures are rather simple in their design. Those disciplines referred to as Dominate, Presence, and Animalism are all in some way a development of the vampiric soul such that it can exert the mind's will on another living creature. Based on the discipline in question, (and such, the development of an individual kindred's vampiric soul) species and degree of subtlety vary. Presence subtly slips into the back door of its victims' minds and influences their basic emotional state. Dominate forces its way into a subjects mind, exerting direct psychic force on the vampire's victim, allowing the kindred to then mold the individual's mind with his spoken commands. Animalism would perhaps be better served being discussed a little later, though the basic approach is the same. The disciplines of Auspex and Obfuscate, being also relegated to purely psychic phoenomena, are not dissimilar from the previously discussed disciplines of command. Auspex reflects the heightened awareness and connection to astral vibratory stimulations that the vampiric soul can provide, and as the vampiric soul is inherently a non-physical entity, this power is very common among the undead. Perhaps Obfuscate would be better served discussed above, as it directly decieves the minds of those it effects, skewing their sense perception to ignore the individual who employs this most useful power. Perhaps the most bizarre disciplines (and thusly, those most difficult to account for) are those powers that allow the kindred to transcend their mortal forms, changing their very flesh. In addition to being so vulgar in their warping of the laws of nature, they even conflict with the immutability of the vampiric form that I have gone to great pains to describe. This contrasiction is most notable in the Gangrel line, who are simultaneously the most difficult to alter, as posessors of Fortitude, and the most fluid in their shape, as well-known users of the Protean discipline (I do so love these names. One could study them for years trying to account for their various origins..). It would appear that in those posessors of the shape-shifting disciplines, the vampiric soul has within itself a sort of metaphysical blueprint of the various forms that the kindred can resort to. At basic levels of ability, the symbiote retains the understanding of only more subtle transformations, allowing them to shift one part of the body at a time. This can also be seen as a general lacking in the tremendous power required to change an entire body's shape, not to mention its mass and density. For simplicity's sake, I will ignore the Tzimisce arts of flesh alterations for the time being, as that discipline certainly warrants a study in itself. The mechanics of the Gangrel's Protean discipline can, frighteningly enough, be attributed to the symbiote's power over solid matter. It is no trick of the eye. These kindred can reform their very bodies as they choose. This ability is not without a certain drawback, however. The previously mentioned contradiction between a vampire's immutable form and the Protean discipline places a certain degree of stress on the kindred's body. With time, especially notable in those who excel in use of the shape-shifting powers, and those who exert the least amount of control over themselves, the body begins to reflect the vampiric soul's memory of bestial forms. The vampiric soul imprints on the Gangrel's body the very traits of the beasts which it can mimic. Quite a trade. It is understandable that these extreme (yet somehow so traditionally viewed) powers are exceptionally rare, and are generally the watermark of the clan who practices them. There are myriad powers beyond the ones I have described here, indeed, as I have hinted, an infinite number of possibilities. The Disciplines of a given vampire merely reflects the development of the tendencies and attitudes, if you will, of his individual vampiric soul, as well as that soul's raw power to carry out that which it understands. A kindred of considerable enough power could easily outline for himself an original discipline and set out to learn it himself, though this would indeed take a very long time…which is something most kindred are certainly in posession of. On the Weaknesses of the Kindred The weaknesses of the vampire are few, but certainly distinctive. The keys to these too, lie in the nature of the vampiric soul. The nocturnal tendencies of the vampire, in addition to his aversion to sunlight can be attributed to the vampiric soul's elemental juxtaposition to light and fire. Poetic license has long declared the vampire a "creature of darkness," and this, I believe is more literal than most realize it to be. The vampiric soul itself is actually composed of a dark material - a sort of ethereal shadow, if you will, and as such can be dissipated by forces of natural light. As it stands, any source of natural light can be a source of harm to a vampire. There are documented cases of vampires who find even moon and starlight to be uncomfortable - unlucky creatures indeed! Surely the vampiric soul in such individuals must be of unusally thin consistency. As it does not necessarily beat, it is often a topic of debate as to the reason for a kindred's heart to be such a source of weakness. Surely, the reality of this is understood by any kindred who has been staked by some lucky witch hunter. To explain this, it stands to elevate the heart to some import, mystical if not physical. As the physical vessel of the vampiric soul has proven to be the blood, it can only be assumed that the seat of the vampiric soul within the kindred's body is the heart. The significance of wood specifically is not well understood, though when the heart has been compromised by a sharp piece of wood, the vampiric soul is rendered entirely inactive. It is incapable of restoring the body's injuries, locomotion, and the usage of most (if not all) powers. This fascinating, though somewhat grizzly procedure definitely warrants further study. On the Consciousness of the Vampiric Soul For millennia, the kindred of the world have alluded to a secondary personality hidden deep in the vampiric psyche. More medically inclined kindred would explain this as an obtained set of survival instincts subconsciously developed to help young vampires protect themselves from harm, and find sustenance. My theories on the vampiric soul allow for this latter consideration to be discarded. Surely, a presence powerful enough to bend time and reality should not be assumed to be entirely dormant. My point, quite simply, is that the beast certainly exists. It is the consciousness of the vampiric soul. It posesses an animal intelligence, understanding its own desires and needs, thinking little if anything of consequences or morality. It fears fire and sunlight, as those things can destroy its very essence. It will tear flesh and bone without discrimination in order to get to the blood it needs both to strengthen itself and the structural integrity of its host. Surely, the beast (as I wil refer to it) and its host do not exist in an antagonistic relationship at all. Their relationship is indeed a symbiosis. The host provides a body, and the means to obtain sustenance, with the symbiote providing unimaginable power, and immortality. Conflict arises in the beast's desire to seek out its sustenance regardless of the lives of others, with the preexisting conscience of the host being somewhat morally opposed to wholesale slaughter (generally). Practicioners of the Animalism discipline are said to understand the Beast more acutely than other kindred. Indeed, it is theorized that the communicative device used when interacting with the lower creatures is indeed that of the beast. The vampire develops a bond with animals through his own iner bestial nature. Understand, as I described earlier, the seat of all disciplines is that of the vampiric soul. In practicioners of Animalism, the vampiric soul develops comnicative abilities with which it can actually reach out to other creatures. If this is the case, Animalism could indeed be the most powerful of disciplines, being nothing short of a way to housebreak the beast, if you will. A broken record though I may be, this certainly necessitates some further study. Hopefully, this wil only be the first installment in a series of essays by which I will try to unlock the nature of the kindred. The theory of the vampiric soul is a sound one, though there are many horizons yet to breach. Distinctions between clans, the limits of generation, and the (meta?)physical and psychological changes that undergo the oldest kindred are all to be considered. Hey, I've got the time.