From July, 2009

Know Your Kindred – Enkidu, The Noah

Name:  Enkidu
Clan: Gangrel
Generation: 4th
Embraced: 2200 B.C.

Enkidu is on the Camarilla’s Red List for killing many Kindred over the years.  The Camarilla does not consider Enkidu anything more than a wild animal, otherwise he would rank higher on the list.  But the one the Gangrel call “the Noah” is not a wild beast, he is the caregiver to many strange and exotic animals living within him.

Enkidu was entrusted with this task by Gangrel herself, who had been storing inside her flesh the Typhonic Beast – a malicious creature created by the Egyptian god Set.  The Antediluvian had been storing it and other rare creatures in her body and now they would be given to Enkidu’s care.

After a century of training, the Antediluvian passed the creatures onto Enkidu. But the Typhonic Beast is evil and Enkidu had a difficult time keeping the animal tamed within his huge bulk.  The Typhonic Beast uses Auspex at all times to call out to Set’s followers.  It wasn’t long before the Setties came looking for their pet.  The Gangrel’s home city of Ur was destroyed and Enkidu has been wandering the Earth ever since.

Enkidu kills humans and vampires without remorse.  He uses their blood to feed the ghouled creatures inside him.  But he keeps the Typhonic Beast starved, in order to keep it weak and manageable.  Enkidu has learned that he must keep a hold on his humanity if he is to keep the Typhonic Beast contained.  As such, a part of Enkidu’s mind has splintered off into a female form called Sabrina.  He can transform himself into this form to maintain a mental grasp on human concepts.   While in his Sabrina form, he goes into the cities and searches for any Setties in the area.  Then he’ll come back later in his Enkidu form to hunt them down.

In life Enkidu hated his own race, who he saw as greedy and arrogant.  He found solace only with animals.   That has continued in his unlife.  He has compassion for uncivilized creatures and sees civilization as a monstrosity.  He detests the noise and pollution they create.  He avoids the Werewolves, except for the city-dwelling Glass Walkers.

Enkidu stays just outside of cities, so he has a supply of Kindred blood available to feed his creatures.  He often uses zoos as havens, staying near other large animals like elephants and rhinos.  Many of his creatures hunt with him during the night and act as guardians during the day.  But the Typhonic Beast is kept on a tight leash at all times.

In his bitterness for safeguarding the Typhonic Beast, Enkidu has thought about killing it, but he has compassion for the creature and instead transfers blame to the Setties, believing if they are all destroyed the beast will no longer be corrupt.  The Setties consider Enkidu one of their primary objectives.   He holds prisoner a creature they believe will lead them to their dark god.  Enkidu’s hatred for them has grown to new depths and hunting them became an obsession.

The Gangrel are Enkidu’s biggest political foe.  They urged the Camarilla to put Enkidu on the Red List and are now lobbying to move him further up the list.  There is a split with the Gangrel elders over Enkidu’s value.  Some only seek Enkidu for the vampires he’s killed while others seek the unique creatures locked inside his flesh.

Due to Enkidu’s enhanced Animalism, he is extremely attractive to animals.  He can communicate with all animals and can summon all animals near him.

Enkidu is a gigantic creature who takes on a new form every night.  His Sabrina form is a young woman with short black hair and disturbing green-blue eyes.  She dresses in whatever clothing she can find after emerging as the dominant personality.

– Source:  Kindred Most Wanted, pg. 33-38.

Know Your Kindred – Khalid

Name:  Khalid
Clan:  Nosferatu
Generation:  6th
Embrace:  1191

During the Crusades Khalid lived up to the reputation of the hideous Muslim warrior the Christian Knights so feared.  He freely performed cruel deeds in service of his god.   A Byzantine Nosferatu named Alexius arrived in the Holy Land and believed embracing the Islamic leaders was the best way to corrupt and weaken the enemy.  She was fascinated by Khalid’s extreme cruelty, so he was the first to be Embraced.

Khalid was horrified by his curse and in a rage killed his own men before fleeing into the desert.  Starving to death in the wilderness, Khalid was discovered by a reclusive Jewish hermit who pulled the neonate out of the sun’s deadly rays and nursed him back to health.  The hermit taught Khalid about the occult and other forms of mysticism.  When Khalid left the hermit, he was a new person on a path for peace.

For 600 years Khalid wandered the world and met others like him.  He learned about Golconda and the quest to achieve it became his purpose.   Over the centuries, Khalid saw the best and worst examples of the Camarilla’s meddling in human affairs.  By the end of the 19th century he arrived in Chicago, where rumors said an Inconnu slumbered beneath the city.  Allegedly this creature would whisper secrets of Golconda to visitors.  Khalid searched in vain for this ancient creature.

Chicago was still rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1871 and Khalid felt compelled to help rebuild the city.  He got involved in Kindred politics and became the city’s Primogen.   He has a lot of subtle influence among the city’s Kindred.  He knows almost everything that goes on in the city.  But now Khalid is ready to leave Chicago and continue searching for the deepest of Kindred mysteries.

Khalid has an expert mastery of Obfuscate.  He can conceal objects that are important to him (like his haven) even when he’s not present.   Unlike most Nosferatu, Khalid does not have their normal horrific appearance, but he still bears the scars from the sun he received his first day as a vampire.

Note:  Khalid embraced two Chicago children after seeing the painful lives they lived. Tammy and Peter Walenski

– Source: Clanbook Nosferatu (Revised), pg 98-99.  Chicago By Night, pg 95-96.