saber de clanes 344257123-V20-Lore-of-the-Bloodlines-11056187-pdf | Page 54

Oh, the caprice of magi. No amount of experimentation
kept their constructs alive.
In an irony that even now embitters Marconius, he was
brought into Clan Lasombra due to his mortal status as
an influential noble. His sire wasn’t even aware of the
alchemical brilliance Marconius possessed. Still, our
founder put his new powers as a Cainite to use. He gave
the Embrace to his sister, and then attempted to Embrace
their latest experiment.
Still no joy. The heady concoction Marconius created
affronted God and science. After being given doses of several
distilled wondrous creatures, the subject was drained of his
blood, before receiving Marconius’ vitae.
The subject emitted a hundred voices of the Abyss before
melting into a pool of oily substances.
It was Hrotsuitha who unraveled Marconius’ Gordian Knot.
Unlike her brother, she focused on learning the true arts of
the Lasombra. She claimed the components of the experiment
were correct, but the environment and sponsors were not. The
creation must be made within the Abyss itself, out of God’s
sight and with the blessing of a group known as the Thallain.
Alas, by this time Marconius had lost all wealth and title
to his Clan, and was unable to locate a perfect subject. The
Lasombra ever have been Cainites unafraid to kick their
childer into the dirt and keep them there.
Don’t write that.
In an act of faith and sacrifice, Hrotsuitha volunteered
herself as the final test subject. With heavy hearts, the
siblings entered the Abyss.
Marconius’ account tells us he fed Hrotsuitha some
ungodly brew of vitae, Unseelie, Abyss, and the Lord
knows what else, while creatures of living nightmare bred
and destroyed around them. He then drained her dry. He
never told anyone what became of his sibling, but her fate
was likely unpleasant. He returned, still a vampire, yet
possessed of unusual endowments marking him as other
to his fellow Cainites.
But, was his experiment a success? Was Hrotsuitha’s
sacrifice in vain?
The jury’s still out.
The Family’s Shame
When the Amici Noctis discovered Marconius’ acts they
were displeased, to put it mildly. He’d Embraced without
consent, performed experiments within the Abyss without
permission, and had returned visibly changed.
Marconius’ reward for his experimentation would have
been destruction, were it not for the intervention of
Boukephos. The Lasombra Methuselah saw some merit
in our founder, and instead instructed he be held in an
oubliette, segregated from the Clan but allowed to continue
his experimentation with the Abyss and beasts of all types.
It’s worth noting it took up to 80 years for his confinement
to take effect. During this time, Marconius’ actions are
mysterious. It’s said he visited Castel d’Ombro as a guest,
Embraced a score of childer, attempted to reverse his
condition, and even opened a permanent gate to the Abyss
beneath the Alps. Unraveling fact from fiction when it
comes to Marconius is a Sisyphean task, so don’t bother.
The Lasombra attempted to suppress knowledge of
Marconius’ existence, but somehow the Toreador of the
Courts of Love — it’s from the Dark Ages; look it up —
discovered his actions. The Keepers were overwhelmed
with shame. Kiasyd were not fit for the noble Clan of the
Night; therefore we were removed from the Clan’s annals,
and from polite society.
A New Dawn
Lasombra’s murder changed all that.
The Kiasyd’s role in the Anarch Revolt is minor.
Supposedly, the Toreador offered us protection around the
same time Gratiano sought advice from one of Marconius’
errant, free childer on how best to vex his sire, the Lasombra
Antediluvian. It could be propaganda, to give our line
undue credit, but the childe — known these nights as the
Arcadian — swears it to be true.
Recall what Blake said of truths and question why the Arcadian
assisted a Clan that shunned us like mongrels for centuries, when
a better offer from the Toreador apparently existed.
Nevertheless, the prisoner in the oubliette was released
once the Anarch Revolt was stymied, and the Sabbat was
picking up pace. We eagerly awaited Marconius’ emergence
from the black, to discover what he’d worked on during his
long imprisonment beneath Castel d’Ombro.
Sadly, Marconius had become an imbecile. Unrivaled
alchemist he may have once been, but the Marconius who
tentatively peered from his cell was an institutionalized
moron. He was afraid to leave, and when forced, babbled
incessantly about the things with which he’d been forced
to share the dark.
When I encountered the Arcadian recently, I raised the
question of why Marconius never sent himself to torpor.
The Arcadian answered he had indeed done so, but it wasn’t
enough to drown out the unending screams of the Abyss.
LORE OF THE BLOODLINES
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