Dakini

by Stacey Lawless (25 Oct 94)

     "O Mother mine, Daughter of the Mountain!

     Why are you clad like this?
     You have put your feet on the body of a god,
     and you have no trace of shame,
     you have placed your feet on Shiva,
     you are naked and wear no covering,
     your tongue is lolling out and flicking,
     your long hair is flowing loose.

     But, O terrible wife of Shiva, you are chewing the flesh
     in your hand for the sake of saving this world..."
     (Hindu devotional)

The Indian subcontinent is the borderland between the West and the East in
many ways. It is a many-layered mixture of cultures, traditions, races, and
religions, and it is the home of many strange and exotic
creatures--including a group of Kindred who might be a clan, or might be one
of the oldest bloodlines in the world.

The Dakini are perhaps an offshoot of the Assamites, or of the Toreador.
Then again, there are many Kindred who believe them to be one of the Eastern
Clans. It cannot be denied that the Dakini have an ancient lineage, nor that
the elders of the bloodline are incredibly powerful. Whatever the origins of
these Kindred, they are honorable, passionate and proud, fierce warriors and
skilled artists who love and hate with equal intensity. However, other
vampires regard them with fear and disgust.

The reason for this is that the Dakini are all murderers. They spend much of
their time stalking and slaying both Kindred and kine. Murder is their
religion, their preferred method of gaining vitae, and often, it seems,
their main form of recreation. Though they aren't active diabolists in the
manner of the Sabbat, many Dakini have the black traces of diablerie in
their auras, and their predation upon the kine strains the Masquerade badly.
To most Western Kindred the Dakini appear to be decadent monsters, who
wantonly slay to satisfy their twisted desires, heedless of the danger they
pose to the rest of vampire-kind.

Yet there is more to the Dakini than meets the eye, and beneath their wicked
facade lie some very good reasons for what they do. The Dakini kill to feed,
because they must. It is the weakness of this bloodline that only the blood
of the dead can sustain them. All living vitae, be it animal or human, is no
more good to them than water is. Some of them will scavenge for their
nightly meals, but too often the only way for a Dakini to feed is to stalk
and kill someone.

This weakness is also the reason for the almost religious emphasis the
Dakini place upon murder. Forced as they are to kill for their very
survival, many of them have embraced a philosophy which sanctifies their
existences and justifies their bloody work. This philosophy is in fact a
Path of Enlightenment, and is called the Path of Nataraja. The majority of
the Dakini practice it.

The Dakini claim that they were the first Kindred in India, and the
Assamites have a few legends that seem to support this. It is definite that
the Dakini, along with the early Ravnos, were intimately involved with the
ancient Indus Valley Harappan culture, and that when other Kindred arrived
along with the Aryan invaders they found the Dakini arrayed against them.
The invaders won that struggle but the Dakini remained active and strong in
the new order of things, sharing power with Gangrel, Toreador, Malkavians,
and Nosferatu; and later Assamites (who entered India along with the first
Muslims.). The Kindred of India evolved a vampiric culture that was distinct
in many ways from that of Europe, and the Dakini played a major role in it.

Sometime during the early years of the Moghul Empire, a Ravnos committed the
Unforgivable Act against Sarasvati, Maharani of Benares. Nobody knows the
true nature of the Act, as Sarasvati refused to speak of it ever after and
the Ravnos are all liars, but it was said to be a heinous trick of truly
legendary proportions, and many fanciful tales circulate still which purport
to describe it. Whatever the Unforgivable Act was, the fury--and clout--of
Sarasvati was so great that she rallied her bloodline to drive the Ravnos
from India, along with their proto-Gypsy retainers. As a result, relations
between the Ravnos and the Dakini are cool to this day. However, the
bloodline had no real vampiric enemies until the British East India Company,
with its Ventrue overlords and Tremere backers, came to India.

India at that point was reeling from the collapse of the Moghul Empire, and
various factions, mortal, mage, and vampiric, were battling each other for
supremacy. The British and the Ventrue were able to exploit the disarray and
seize economic control of the country with relative ease. The other Kindred
of India were from clans that were familiar to the West, and thus the
Ventrue were able to coexist with them fairly easily, but the Dakini were
another story entirely. Virtually unknown to the West before then, to the
Masquerade-conscious Ventrue they seemed exotic and cruel, callous brutes
who were little better than the Sabbat. It didn't help that the proud Dakini
fought tooth and nail to retain their ancestral power.

The Ventrue began rooting out and destroying the Dakinis' sources of power
and support. One of these was the Thuggee cult, a secret society of
assassins which the Dakini had controlled for centuries. In addition to
providing a fertile recruiting ground for Euthanatos mages (whom the Dakini
had a loose alliance with, based on similar interests) and Assamite Kindred,
the Thugs had long provided the Dakini with retainers, spies, soldiers, and
a supply of easy blood (the Thugs strangled their victims). Working through
a young British officer, and with the assistance of the Tremere, the Ventrue
broke the back of the Thugs in a few short years. The Dakini retaliated by
Embracing several hundred Thuggee prisoners, thus touching off a vicious
shadow war that culminated with the Sepoy Rebellion. The British crushed the
Dakini-backed uprising and the embattled bloodline reluctantly sued for
peace, becoming grudging members of the Camarilla. Still, hatred for the
Ventrue runs deep among the Dakini, while the Ventrue themselves regard the
"savages" with cold disdain.

Today, though mortal India has won independence from the British, English
Kindred still control many areas. Things are tense between the Dakini, the
other Indian Kindred, and these foreigners, which contributes to the
nation's political unrest. Recently, the Dakini have made several bold moves
to consolidate their power. At the same time, younger members of the
bloodline have begun migrating to Western nations, particularly Great
Britain and the United States. The elders of the Camarilla are worried about
this, as they consider the fierce, independent Dakini to be one of the
greatest internal threats to the Masquerade. Repeated requests to the elders
of the bloodline that they bring their errant childer to heel have been met
with polite indifference. The Camarilla suspects the Dakini of being up to
something, and has appraised several Justicars and Princes of its concerns.

Nickname: Doomstalkers or Thugs

Appearance: Because most Dakini are of Indian heritage, they share the
characteristics of people from that area: dusky or dark skin, dark eyes, and
black hair. Like most vampires, their skin grows paler over time; however,
their blood gradually darkens in color until it is black.

Haven: Like most vampires, the Dakini generally dwell in the cities, both
for ease of hunting and protection from shapeshifters. Many keep elegant
homes and apartment suites, furnishing them with an almost Toreador-like
taste for beautiful furniture and excellent art. Others, however, dwell
among the urban poor. It is easier to hunt undetected in the slums, and
these Dakini are well-positioned to take immediate advantage of urban
unrest. Both styles of Dakini haven are generally well-fortified, and most
Dakini keep at least one hideaway in the sewers or burial grounds.

Background: The Dakini tend to Sire prolifically, as many of their childer
go mad shortly after the Embrace and have to be extinguished. However, the
bloodline is not casual about how it picks its Neonates. Generally a
Sire-to-be will secretly observe a prospective childe for some time, to
determine the human's suitability. Dakini frequently look for these
qualities: strong will, a strong personality, a passion for life, and
interests or aptitudes outside of killing that would benefit both the
Neonate and the bloodline. Once the decision to Embrace has been made, the
Sire spends a good deal of time training the childe in the arts of murder
(if necessary) and in Dakini philosophy. This training period traditionally
lasts for three years, after which the Neonate is presented, first to their
grandsire and great-grandsire (wherever possible), then to the Prince or
Maharaja of the city. After that the new Dakini is on her own.

Character Creation: Almost all Dakini are of Indian descent, though
Europeans and Americans have been Embraced in recent years. Many of them
have soldier concepts, though artists, dilettantes, criminals, and
politicians are fairly common among them. Their Natures and Demeanors are
usually similar, but occasionally wildly different. Any Attributes may be
primary, but Talents are the primary Abilities. Popular Backgrounds are
Mentor (the sire, grandsire, or great-grandsire) and Generation. Note:
Dakini may NOT take the Herd background, as their clan weakness makes it
irrelevant.

Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Rumali

Weaknesses: Dakini cannot digest the blood of the living. The blood they
imbibe must come from a deceased human or animal--or vampire!--for it to
provide them with any sustenance. Each point of living blood that a Dakini
drinks becomes inert in her body, taking up space in her Blood Pool but
providing no benefits and doing nothing to ease the Hunger. This useless
blood will remain in the Dakini's system until purged somehow.

Note: Dakini can drink from other vampires without having to extinguish them
first, as Kindred are by definition already dead. Some Dakini cultivate
vampiric allies whom they are willing to risk being Blood-Bonded to, in case
they need to feed in a hurry and the situation prevents them from hunting.

Organization: In India the bloodline controls Benares, many smaller cities
and towns, and Delhi, which has become the seat of its power. These cities
are divided into several traditional fiefdoms composed of both physical
territory and political interests, each ruled over by a Raja or Rani. These
nobles answer to the Maharaja of the city, who is the final arbiter of all
disputes and who makes executive decisions concerning the entire city. This
structure is very much akin to the feudal system practiced in medieval
Europe. While all vampires are expected to know their place in the political
structure, they have a fair amount of leeway in how they go about their
business provided they stay within the proper bounds. Outside these cities,
the Dakini keep in loose contact with one another. Members will aid one
another freely, but all debts are expected to be paid in full.

Dakini in the West tend to be loners, ranging far from others of their kind.
However, some of them have been Siring as they go, so this situation may
change before long.

Gaining Clan Prestige: Perhaps surprisingly, the Dakini award little to no
prestige for skill in murder. In a bloodline where all are killers, they
feel, such talents are far too commonplace to be worthy of extra attention.
Instead they prize knowledge, especially of metaphysics, and art. Thus
important discoveries and works of art that are beautiful and insightful can
earn one recognition within the bloodline. The clan also respects power, and
gaining political advantages is another way to win prestige. The Dakini also
respect those who struggle toward Golconda, as they know the way is
particularly difficult for their bloodline.

Quote: "You say that we are evil, you call us 'monstrous' because we take
pride in our work. Is it monstrous to be true to one's nature? We must kill;
why not do it well? The tiger, too, must kill to survive, yet you do not
call tigers evil... You think us depraved because we meddle with your
well-laid plans, but we simply understand that the old must fall to make way
for the new. And, like tigers, we test our prey, searching for
weaknesses..."

Stereotypes:

The Camarilla:
        o "The sect of our allegiance is nothing but the puppet of the
          enslaving Ventrue and Tremere. One day we will break the chains
          that bind us to this cloying relic and show our fellow-slaves that
          the Dead have nothing to fear from the living."
        o The Inquisition never touched India, and so these brazen fools
          think that all humans are like the superstitious sheep they
          butcher at home. They don't realize the danger their bloody antics
          pose to all of us. Should any come to my city I will lead the
          hunters to their very doors--perhaps then these animals will begin
          to understand.
          Friederich, Ventrue Prince of Bamberg
The Sabbat:
        o "These Kindred have come close to understanding the truth of our
          existence, but terror keeps them blind. The Gehenna they fear is a
          necessary phase in the world's evolution, nothing more. Even
          worlds must take a chance on dying."
        o These vampires waste too much time in philosophical pursuits, but
          their talents are highly desirable. Fortunately their ties to the
          Camarilla seem weak. We should do what we can to sever these ties,
          whenever possible. If they do not join us then, we can simply let
          the Camarilla pick them off.
          Illona, Tzimisce priscus
The Inconnu:
        o "We have a lot of respect for these ancient ones. They have
          attained true enlightenment, and their wisdom and power are very
          great. They seem to have some understanding of the work we do, and
          for this we honor them as much as possible when we hunt them."
        o 'Tis said that these black-blooded beasts gave Saulot the crucial
          insight he needed to achieve Golconda. If so, I cannot imagine
          what it was. Were it not for the fact that some of my comrades are
          originally from this dark lineage, I would not believe the Dakini
          to be vampires at all, but something worse! We must watch them
          most carefully, and do what we can to curb their excesses.
          Weyland, fifth-generation Gangrel

Glossary

Amrita: The Dakini equivalent of "vitae", they use it to refer to dead
blood, which to them is the only kind worth drinking.

Asura: The Dakini make ghouls for use as retainers, but they call them
asuras instead. The word "ghoul" has a very different meaning for them.

Ghul: Pronounced like "ghoul", this world refers to a cursed, devolved
sub-bloodline of the Dakini.

Maharaja: Basically, the "Prince" of a Dakini-controlled city. The feminine
title is Maharani.

Raja: Basically, a "Primogen" member in a Dakini-controlled city. The
feminine title is Rani.

Rakshasa: Ferocious man-eating, shapeshifting demons. The Dakini use this
word as a catchall term for the Changing Breeds. The rakshasas they are most
familiar with are the Cat (Khan and Bagheera Bastet) and Caiman (Mokole)
varieties, though there are also Wolf rakshasas in the forests.

Shambhala: An alternate name for Golconda. There is an old fortress in India
called Golkonda, and many Dakini feel it is an affront to this exalted state
of being to make it share a name with a mere place.

Ustad: "Tutor", a title often given to those who Sire.

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THE GHULS

There is a sort of decayed branch of the Dakini, wretches who most Indian
Kindred feel would be better off extinguished. The Dakini call them "Ghuls"
after the fashion of the Moslem invaders of India. They also refer to the
Ghuls as "untouchables".

When the Dakini can be persuaded to discuss the Ghuls at all, they say that
seven hundred years ago, a bandit chieftain made his lair somewhere near
Benares. He was a vile, cunning and depraved man, ravishingly handsome and
splendidly rich. He was clever, too: though a particular Dakini who called
herself Sindha had long been trying to control him and his bandit army, he
had been able to resist her wiles and worm out of her traps at every turn.
Sindha could not help but admire the cunning and evil of her quarry, and
finally she came to him in person and asked what she could offer him to
entice him into her service. The Kiss, he named as his price, for he found
the power it offered to be too much to pass up. And Sindha, more fool she,
agreed to it.

Hardly had the bandit king died and been reborn, when he twisted in his
Sire's arms and, grabbing the sabre he had carefully hidden for just such an
occasion, struck off her head. He only had drunk a little from her corpse
before it withered into dust, so he stormed into the night to rouse his men.
The hunger and blood had made him drunk, and he fully intended to drink and
slay any and all his army came across that night.

But he had killed his Sire before she could tell him anything of the race he
had joined, and no matter how he ripped out the throats of the hapless
travellers he found and slurped down their hot, still-living blood, his
hunger was not satiated. In fury, he beat his own men 'til scarlet ran from
them, but this living blood did not ease his thirst either; it was like
water to a dope fiend. He frenzied then, ripping into his men and their
horses, til the sun rose. The bandit king fled its burning rays, and still
in frenzy ran to shelter. The many of his army who had not been lucky enough
to escape lay as mangled wrecks on the earth, interspersed with raw chunks
of horseflesh, and became a feast for the flies and kites.

At dark, the bandit king returned, ravenous. Though he was no longer in
frenzy, the Beast, always close to his heart, had dug its claws in deep and
its feral light glimmered behind his dark eyes. He was unable to find
anything alive to rend and kill, and hunger beat at him until, desperately,
he fell upon the bodies of his former servants. The little blood left in
their veins was thick and clotted, stinking and laden with the eggs of
flies, but it was laced with the cool dark wine of death, and he was, at
last, able to ease his hunger. But the horror he felt at drinking from the
spoiling bodies eroded the last of his sanity, and the Beast claimed him.

Thereafter he scavenged from cold funeral pyres, from slaughterhouses and
battlefields and the vulture-towers of the Parsees, and murdered anyone he
could for their fresh amrita. He was no more than a brute, but a vile and
cunning one, and he eluded the Rakshasas and Sindha's avengers for nearly a
century. During that time he now and again grew anxious for company, perhaps
from a last glint of cultured sensibility, and would dishonor the Blood in
his veins further by feeding it to a beggar or brigand after slaying them.
Sometimes he would later devour these companions; more often he drove them
away after a few nights. These wretches went on to scavenge and murder as
their Sire had taught them, and some of them Sired, and the more clever ones
learned how to be cunning and hide, so that when the disgraced Dakini came
hunting, they could never be certain they had eradicated the bloodline.

These Ghuls, as the Dakini came to call them, learned to hide among beggars
and lepers and feed from the dead wherever they could. Many took to
following merchant caravans, killing and robbing any stragglers, and
sleeping in the cargo by day whenever they could. Along with these caravans,
the Ghuls spread across India, into Persia, and beyond.

Ghuls still exist, and can be found in India, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan;
rumors also place them in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Iran, and every now and then,
Iraq. They are not many in number, but they are very good at hiding and at
not drawing attention to themselves. They are craven and nearly as
opportunistic as cockroaches. All of them are lost to the Beast, and most of
them would barely qualify as sentient. A handful, however, have managed to
hang onto their minds. These are usually the ones who Sire, are almost
always the oldest Ghuls around, and can be truly dangerous.

Habits: Ghuls usually scavenge their amrita from any dead they come across,
but they will kill for it and do so fairly often. Occasionally they will eat
the flesh of the victim as well, but no-one is sure why, as they cannot
possibly derive any nourishment from it. Some lurk in the countryside,
feeding from and terrorizing villagers, but most Ghuls keep to the cities,
where they can avoid the Cat Rakshasas and have more plentiful food.

The more intelligent Ghuls hide in slums, where they blend in with the urban
poor and diseased. Some of them have organized gangs of human wretches as
Retainers. Bestial Ghuls make their dens wherever they can; in New Delhi,
one popular place is beneath the stone ghats (huge stone steps) that descend
the Ganges' banks and into the water, and the ghat-Ghuls will swim the river
at night and climb into boats (though they must be wary of the Caiman
Rakshasas, who kill every Ghul they catch).

Organization: Generally speaking, none. In fact, they seem to have little
regard for their brethren and regard other Ghuls as not much more than
competition or potential amrita.

Rumors persist, however, of large gatherings of Ghuls deep in the jungles or
high in the mountains, of the remains of bonfires replete with charred bones
(human, animal, and otherwise) near where the Ghuls are supposed to gather,
of weird and unpleasant carvings on earth and trees, and sometimes flesh, of
chants carried on the wind that sound almost like Latin learned by rote, or
like less pleasant things, of a corpse found in a shack in Lahore, killed in
a darkly ritualistic fashion, the blood used to paint strange symbols on the
walls.

It is unknown if these rumors point to the existence of a Ghul cult, or are
falsehoods spread for some mysterious purpose. Little evidence has actually
been put forward to prove the rumors. Many of India's Kindred, however, fear
that something evil has come to make its home in their country.

Appearance: The Ghuls share the dark skin of their Dakini forbears, though
they frequently seem pale due to the dust and dirt that often coats their
skins. Their hair is matted and filthy, their eyes and cheeks hollow from
mortal disease or malnutrition. They are universally skinny, and between
this and the dirt it is hard to say what age any given Ghul looks like. The
ghat-Ghuls of the river cities are usually a bit cleaner by virtue of
spending time in the water. They wear rags, or nothing.

In the last hundred years, a few Ghuls have been caught who displayed
stranger appearances than their fellows: leathery, withered skin stretched
tight over the bones, caved-in noses, and receded gumlines. Their blood was
found to contain traces of embalming fluids and spices, leading their
Ventrue captors to speculate that the strange appearances resulted from the
Ghuls (or perhaps their Sires) feeding on embalmed corpses. With the spread
of the Samedi bloodline, some Kindred have noted similarities between these
Ghuls and the "mummified" type of Samedi, and wonder if there is a
connection.

Disciplines: Usually the only one these debased Vampires ever develop is
Celerity, although a few seem to have picked up the rudiments of Auspex.
Rumali is completely unknown among them, despite their Dakini origin.

Every so often a tale drifts around of this Ghul who displayed Potence, or
that one who Earth Melded, or the one who vanished in plain sight. These
tales are given little credence; after all, where could these degenerate
beasts find anyone to teach them Disciplines?