Caine (World of Darkness)
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Caine is a character fictionalized as the father of all vampires in White Wolf Game Studio's role-playing games set in the World of Darkness. His story is based on the biblical story of Cain, and is recounted in the Book of Nod and The Erciyes Fragments.
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[edit] Genesis Retold
According to Caine's own recounting, his mother, Eve, was created to be a companion for Adam, and had brought the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to him in her effort to fulfill that duty. She and Adam ate of the fruit, believing that knowledge of good and evil was Adam's birthright as the first son of God, and were cast out by God for their disobedience. Exiled from Eden, they lived in its shadow, and Eve soon bore Caine and Abel. Adam gave each of his sons a birthright: to Caine, the knowledge of plants, herbs, and growing things; to Abel, the mastery over animals. When the time came to sacrifice to God, Abel chose the finest among his animals, and Caine his choicest crops. But Caine's crops were not a pure sacrifice, as Caine's ability to grow and harvest them was born of God's curse upon Adam: that he should toil in the dust of the Earth. Abel's mastery over the animals came from God's gift of the same skill to Adam, and this made his sacrifice pure. Caine demanded answers from his father, and from God, but it was Abel who provided the understanding: God would accept no impure sacrifice; only the best of what Caine loved, which was not born of a curse, would be accepted. For Caine, that meant only one thing: his beloved younger brother.
Being cast out by God for doing as he was told caused Caine great bitterness, and he spat upon the Earth, disdaining and forever relinquishing his mastery over plants and herbs. He wandered, alone, heartbroken and in pain, until he found himself in the lands of Nod, east of Eden. There he met Lilith, his father's first wife and created in the same manner as Adam, who was cast from Eden for daring to question God and attempt to claim her birthright, rather than be subservient to Him and Adam. She gave Caine succor and showed him the power she had found, and Caine, desiring that power, fed on Lilith's blood to gain it. He then fled her house rather than battle her rage and continued his journey alone. Among his newfound powers were invincibility against Adam's descendants, great speed and strength, ability to manipulate time, shadows, flesh and mind; these powers would later evolve into the Disciplines which his childer would wield, although with far less potency than Caine possessed.
At this point, Caine was visited by the archangels Michael, Uriel, and Gabriel, each in their turn and offering Caine salvation if he would but seek forgiveness from God for murdering his brother. Caine rejected each offer, feeling that God was a hypocrite and that he was the wronged party; enraged by his lack of humility and the bitter defiance he showed them and God, each angel cursed Caine:
- Michael cursed Caine to forever fear fire;
- Uriel cursed him to be unable to dwell in sunlight and to live forever in darkness;
- Gabriel cursed him to be neither living nor dead, neither human nor beast, unchanging, undying and ever without hope; to feed upon blood alone; that hunger shall devour mercy; and that his offspring shall war with one another, young and weak against old and strong, that he may be their judge and know what it is for a father to condemn his children.
When finally Raphael, archangel of healing came to him, he offered a path to redemption called Golconda, on which Caine could find peace if he chose. These curses altered Caine into the first vampire.
[edit] Caine's Children
Eventually, Caine's travels led him back to the lands occupied by men, and he found the descendants of his brother Seth. They were attempting to persuade Seth's eldest son, Enosh, to be their king; Enosh, after many refusals, finally agreed to undertake a pilgrimage into the surrounding countryside, where he would meditate on God's will. If it were God's will that he be king over his fellow men, God would reveal it to him and he would obey. During Enosh's meditations, Caine Embraced him and made him his first childe, changing his name to Enoch. Enoch then returned to his tribe and informed them that they would make Caine their ruler, and to pay him homage. Caine accepted their tributes and vowed to be a better ruler over them than God had been over his family.
Over time, Caine Embraced other childer, though only two are named specifically: Irad the Strong and Zillah the Beautiful, to accompany Enoch the Wise. Zillah, according to the Book of Nod, was Embraced by Caine to be his wife and companion. A great city was built, named Enoch after Caine's first childe, and there Caine and his childer ruled over the humans and were protected by them. Caine's childer Embraced childer of their own, creating the Third Generation, though how many of these were Embraced is also uncertain. These childer, as well as Caine's childer (the Second Generation), spread out beyond Enoch's territory. Sensing danger on the horizon, Caine forbade his childer and their childer from creating more of their kind, and from declaring themselves the rulers over men. If men wished to declare them rulers and worship them of their own will, that was acceptable; simply establishing rule using their powers was inviting the wrath of God. Caine's childer ignored his edicts, Embracing more childer and setting themselves as ruler-Gods over humans. It is this that Caine says brings the forty days and nights of rain which flooded the world, drowning the humans and forcing the vampires to live beneath the churning, unpredictable waters, feeding on each other in attempts to stay alive. During the flood, Caine's whereabouts are unknown; it is only established that he removed himself from his childer because he knew he could not save them, and he wished them to remember well the lesson he had learned: provoking God's wrath is a costly mistake.
After the floodwaters subsided, those of Caine's childer who survived (called the Antediluvians) began to re-establish themselves, eventually finding descendants of Noah on which to subsist. The Second Generation set themselves as rulers of the Second City (which is not named), but Gabriel's curse of strife began to manifest. The Third Generation turned upon the Second; it is generally believed that the Second Generation were destroyed completely, leaving no survivors.
[edit] The Curses
When Caine learned, through his own powers of Sight or through other sources, that his childer had been slaughtered by his grand-childer, he came to the Second City in a towering rage. Upon the twelve culprits (or ringleaders, depending on how many Cainites you believe were involved with these events), he cast curses to punish them for the murder of their sires, each fitting the defenses which the individual childer asserted for their behavior. These curses became the defining characteristics of the Toreador, Brujah, Ravnos, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Setite, Ventrue, Lasombra, Tzimisce, Malkavian, and Assamite clans. (The twelfth clan to be cursed is either the Cappadocian or Samedi; see below.)
Caine also cast a curse upon Saulot, who became the founder of the Salubri clan, though the curse was not intended as a punishment. Because Saulot had sought to end the slaughter rather than participate in it, he made Saulot the guardian of Raphael's promise of Golconda, and marked him with the Third Eye. He then cast a final curse upon all of his childer: that each generation they Embrace will be weaker than the one before. Caine did this in an attempt to prevent another uprising of childe against sire, and as a warning against the unchecked Embrace of mortals; otherwise, their generations would be so weak as to be barely more than mortals, and Caine would return to deal with his errant childer again.
Note: As each generation of vampires is weaker than the last, so too is the effect of the curses of Caine upon these newer generations. New bloodlines and clans have established themselves over the centuries which Caine did not directly curse; however, as they have evolved, there are Clan/bloodline weaknesses which are inherent, which could be construed as the intention of Caine to curse all descendants of the Antediluvians manifesting itself.
[edit] Death's Countenance Debate
It is thought by some that the curse to 'wear death's countenance for all to know and fear' does not refer to a particular clan, but rather to all of them. This is a logical misstep, however. The curses of the archangels upon Caine are what marked he and all his childer with the inability to withstand fire or sunlight, dwell only in night and shadow, and to be neither living nor dead (see above). Therefore, Caine's curse did not mark all his childer with "death's countenance".
Both the Samedi and Cappadocian clans are depicted in reference materials to be highly similar to corpses: the Cappadocians cannot infuse their tissues with lifelike color, as most other clans are able to do, and so take on an appearance over time similar to mummified cadavers; the Samedi are described as shambling desiccated corpses. While the Vampire Players Guide contends that the Samedis' existence has only been reported among Cainites since the 1700's (or two centuries before the publication of the guide, to paraphrase the text), the origins of both clans are admittedly shrouded in mystery. Cappadocian clan elders were closed-mouthed in the Dark Ages, and after the Giovanni rebellion which wiped out all but that bloodline, the knowledge may be forever lost. The Samedi, on the other hand, are avoided by most Cainites for their revolting stench and appearance, and while Inconnu and other elders are coming to believe that the Samedi are no offshoot of the Giovanni or Nosferatu, as previously assumed, they have no further insight on the clan's origins. The answer is left up to individual Storytellers to determine for their own campaigns; with the franchise reboot by White Wolf, there is little chance of an official answer from the game creators.
[edit] Speculation
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There is no mention in either the Book of Nod or The Erciyes Fragments of how Caine intended to survive the flood; however, there are several scenarios to explain Caine's whereabouts and survival:
- He could have hidden himself aboard Noah's ark, and thereby subsisting on the limited supply of blood from the animals and humans on board.
- He could have taken shelter with those he calls 'the Wild Ones', or Oberon's children, who exist in the Dreaming, had aided him in the earliest parts of his travels, and were safe from the flood in the fey realm.
- He could have used his powers to find a time or place to ride out the flood. The ancient Brujah discipline of Temporis allows the wielder control over time, and all disciplines have root in Caine's powers.
- He may have simply waited for the flood to subside, relying on his immortality to save him.
Because exact numbers of the Second Generation have never been confirmed, it is impossible to establish with any certainty that the Second Generation was truly annihilated. Cainite historians have tentatively traced the thirteen major clans back to thirteen members of the Third Generation, and those thirteen in turn to the three members of the Second Generation who were named: Irad, Zillah, and Enoch. It is speculated, however, that there were as many as 100 members of the Second Generation who survived the Great Flood, and therefore the accuracy of these findings is highly suspect. Those few of the Third Generation who have survived are said to be in torpor, and even those of the Fourth or Fifth Generation who are old enough to remember the Cursing of the Clans do not know for sure how many childer Caine directly Embraced. For their own peace of mind, they assert that the Second Generation was completely wiped out.
Since the cursing of the clans, there has been rampant speculation and great superstition regarding Caine's return to the World of Darkness. It is said that Caine will return during the vampiric Armageddon known as Gehenna, during which the surviving Antediluvians will rise from their long torpors and feed on the blood of their subsequent generations. It is during this time that Caine will battle with Lilith, visit final punishment upon those of his childer who remain, and destroy them utterly.
There is also great speculation that Caine has, over the centuries, Embraced other direct childer, unaffected by the curses he laid upon the Antediluvians.
Many among the Camarilla contend that Caine no longer exists, or has lapsed into torpor and is no longer a threat. Still others believe that Caine wanders endlessly, appearing occasionally among Cainite society; more often, he moves unseen and unknown, keeping watch over his childer for signs that he must once again curtail their activities.
Some believe that Abel, loving his brother despite what came to pass, foreswore his place in Heaven and that his spirit travels with Caine. Others have refined this theory to speculate that Abel is in fact a wraith, at times comforting Caine and at others tormenting him.
The idea that Caine may have found Golconda and that this is the reason for his long absence from Cainite society is largely considered a fairy tale; Caine's anger and guilt, compounded by eons, would make it nearly impossible for him to achieve the inner peace necessary to achieve Raphael's promised salvation.
In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, the vampiric cab driver may or may not be Caine himself. An insane Malkavian character can identify the Taxi Driver as "Caine" in dialog. Additionally, the sound files containing the Taxi Driver's dialog audio are all named with the prefix "Caine", implying that this character is intended to be the father of all vampires. The character also can be seen with a purple aura when the appropirate vampiric skill is used, indicating he is a supernatural being. One conclusion that could be derived from the taxi driver's name is that since he's the father, he must drive his children - the characters in the game - around the city. However, in an interview a developer simply stated that whether or not the taxi driver was Caine or not was a question which had no answer.[citation needed]
[edit] Other References in WoD
One of the Sabbat paths is known as the Path of Caine.
In Vampire: The Dark Ages, the followers of the Cainite Heresy believed that Caine would return as a vampiric messiah.
In Vampire: The Masquerade, the rules for fighting Caine are simple. All the book states is: "You lose". This is because Caine's powers are undiluted, he has had eons to master them, and God's mark upon him which prevents him from being harmed is still in effect. For these reasons, Storytellers and Game Masters who choose to use Caine actively in their campaigns elect to make Caine an NPC, or non-player character. This allows Caine to be used without the necessity of a dice-roll, as the odds are infinitesimal that the outcome would be anything but a total success on Caine's part.
Having the character Caine, his Antediluvian childer, or a Second Generation Embraced after the Cursing of the Clans personally appear during a storyline set in the Modern Nights is commonly considered a faux pas. Unless handled carefully by a Storyteller or Game Master, Caine and his Antediluvian childer can become Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters, handicapping the development of the campaign through the actions and thoughts of the players. On the other hand, the return of the ancients is considered to be one of the centre pieces of a Gehenna campaign.
