(HAPCER ONE: ON HUNGER AND ICS SACISRACTION Socrates] said that: theré was one oly good, namely knowledge and one dally ev gr Diogenes Laértius ectingall ofthe finerTevakes toonesel thar «. There ring Ged, than clinging to the pest, than funni sts, To be walk many p perverse and sublime, more to existence than ruling or being ruled, than sxperiences, to indulge dese: wpeofone'sonnsouland Despite the myriad possibilities that unif offe only nite 9 pursesich a gal, and ha ist stepped fully upon it Tam Myca Vyke alled the Dracon, childe of the Ekest chile of he who ind a ly and completely, a child of Sin. As | write these work, che soundsof the revel takingplace in che arden outside reach me,aceleb my acceptance, my second rebicth. Thisnight, I havetaken thease of m {feel che freedom of that drop of blood, in every inch of fle ide, Tow that he doesnot eleep, for z daylight hours, but he is content to lie still against me, his, jolden-red-haired bead resting on my belly, one elegant hhand still cupping me, listening 2s [ write. He knows ism scont my thoug sensation, th still ration in his passion as well as his hr of all nights — my first celebration caistom to while the wonderment, che admica hot. He knows | wisdom. On this —I muse record my in: pulses within me lik fullyappreciate for thefi why so many othets before me have come ‘We Cainites anchanging, understanding still Tknow now, for Teame och while the ‘cond heart. E re creatures of stasis. We remain the n Beneath ou predatory ex and self-loathing, a ots, we cower in fear of outselves i ‘cannot bear to admit belong i ways, our darkest hungers, our deepest wants. The Beas Wedread and hate it, we bind ie with chains of self-denial, and we reject it with all our wills, w ourselves, and in theendall our densa the Beast ¢ © parts of ourselve us in the most primal of all an never be cast away, never be truly refused entry. Ihisus, and we are it. By denying it, we strengthen i, wwe give it the power to control and consume us. It is the ultimate self-defeating vicious circle. We bring upon our selves the thing that we most fear, the absolute de of self, because of the parts of ourselves we cannot face, to claim, Only a few among our kind reject this folly, a few children of Caine who look unflinching upon the darkness within themselves and embrace it where others quail and flee. We have never been many, we children of then, those whe truth and self-knowledg freedom have always been the lonely voices row, Fam one of them, Twillnormakethemistaes thar my progenitors have made will nor choose fear or ignorance willnot cower in terror of myself, of whoand what lan will nor hate myself, nor reject myself. Lam Myca Vyko ne for what Truly a The History of theMWad of Gin Where did icall There are as many a there are Cainites in this world, [ have {shall know and one night, the studied our history, have delved as deeply as can into th shared past of our kind, and yet, I cannot answer that question, not comple In principle, the Road of Sin has existed since the fis four kind, the Dark Father himself, shook his fist ith ho had of the: Heaven and rejected the righ cast him out te judge him. At chat moment, when Cain spoke the words — “Of what should I repe what hey jveress?" — was the first spark of the toad lit, The Datk Father spoke those words, but it seems that he himself di rot yet fully comprehend all chat they could mean. It was nly after he vanished from among our kind, after the destruction of Enoch, that the first glimmerings of wh could be came into shape. ‘Very little of genuine historical worch has been banded down to us from the time of the Second City. Indeed, the writings of many elders who could personally cecall that tin or whos Ic recall it, are notably terse with regard hecity xed veithin — and, ultimately, t ently underthe protection of the Keeper ofthe Faith, the guardian of the great Library of the Forgotten in Constantinople, who, along with her apprentices, scribed th memoit leit behind by her sire, the Dracor THe SECOND CITY LAY UPON A RIVER PLAIN, A PLACE OF LUSI GREENERY, OF COOP SOIL AND FRESH WATER, OF FORESTS IN WHICH TO HUNT AND FIELDS IN WHICH TO PLANT CRAIN. THE CHILDREN OF SETH BUILT SETTLEMENTS THERE OF MUD BRICK AND. MILLED STONE, AND THOSE SETTLEMENTS ATTRACTEP THE ATTENTION OF THE LOST AND SCATTERED CHILDREN OF CAINE, WHO CAME TOCETHER IN THOSE PLACES TO RE BUILD WHAT. THEIR: FOOLISHNESS HAD Cost THEAVOACE. THE CREATEST OF THOSE SETTLE MENTS WAS CHOSEN TO BECOME THE SECOND CRADLE OF CAINITE CIVILIZATION, A CITY WIOSE NAME HAS LONG BEEN FORCOTTEN AND THAT I WILL NOT SPEAK, EVEN TO YOU MY WISEST CHILDE. 10 NOT KNOW WHICH OF THE ANCIENTS, THE, BROODMATES OF MY SIRE, FIRST CHOSE THAT PLACE, BUT BY THE TIME | CAME TOIT IVENTRUE] HELD THE REINS OF RULERSIIP AND HAGIM THE STAFF OF THE LAWCIVER, Tit. CIHY MAD ALKEADY SEEN MUCH IS TH WAY OF STRIFE: COMPETITION WAS RIAMONG THE CHILDER OF ALL THE CLANS, FOR WEALTH, FOR STATUS, FOR PRIDE, FOR VEA- CEANCE, FOR AMUSEMENT. AND THERE WERE BTLER INFLUENCES AT WORK, AS WELL. JT THE CHILDREN OF CAINE THE SAY WAS BEEN SAID THAT CANNOT INNOVATE, BUT ONLY STEAL NSPIRATIONS OF OTHERS. THOSE WHO THIS NEVER WITNESSED IME FEVERISH OF INVENTION WITHIN THE SECOND Cry AMONG OUR KIND. IN ENOCH, IT HAS BEEN SAID, CAINE RULED HIS KIND AS A CHIEPTAIN RULED HS TRIBE - SIRAICHTLY, NARROWLY AND WITH AN IRON WAND, HE LISUTED BOTH THE NUMBERS OF HIS CHILDREN AND THEIR INDULCENCES. HE SET LIMITS, ANDTHE PUNISHMENT FOR TRANS CRESSING THOSE LIMITS WAS THE PINAL Deatit. No SUCH LIMITS EXISTED IN THE SECOND CITY, AND IT WAS AS THOUGH A TWOUSAND THOUSAND YEARS OF PENT UP, SPILLED FORTH LIKE A SECOND DELUCE. BETWEEN THE WALLS OF EVERY PAL: ACE, NEW EXPERIEACES WERE BEING SOUCHT, BEING CONCOCTED, BEING REFINED. SOME oF THESE WERE SUBLIME (I CAN STILL RECALL THE SWEET ACHE IN MY THROAT AND THE BURN OF TEARS THAT STUNG. MY EYES WHEN FIRST | MEARD THE SONGS SUNG IN REETING TO THE NICHT IN THE CREAT TEMPLE OF THE DARIC MOTHER), ANDOTHERS STILL WERE PERVERSE (I SHALS NEVER FEEL SENSATIONS AS DENSELY TANCLED AS THOSE TEXPERIEACED IN THE FLEASURENOUSES OF THAT CITY AND REGRET THAT KNOWLEDCE AST RECRED LITTLE ELSE IN THIS WORLD), THE REFINED AND THE EARTHY, THE MATE: RIAL AND THE SPIRITUAL, BLENDED THEMSELVES TOCETHER IN UNPREDICTABLE FASINION IN NEARLY EVERY CORNER OF THE CITY, AND IT WAS A BANQUET FoR THE SATIATION OF EVERY IMMORTAL DESIRE: TRYING TO STEM THE CHAOS THAT FLOWED THROUGH THE STREETS, TO EXERT THE CONTROL OF LAW AND MORALITY AND CONSCIENCE UPON IP, WAS OFTEN AS FUTILE RIVER WITH A SINCLE STONE. et writings have confirmed this stare of affairs within the Second City — the rebellion, as it were, of the ‘hind and fourth generations against the lingering memory Caine’ rigidly authoritarian rulership. Fear of the Dack Father's vengeance scemed quite absent in no small number ofsurvivingdocuments, in which the enumeration of vices, crimes considered badges tine, theseeds that would becon planted, bur it would rake some tin fertile enough ground in which they could grow success: fully. The 100 stable in begin with, fell brough¢ down by enemies from without and from within, One the Ancients and Thonor. Somewhere in the Second City during this the Road of Sin were firs ‘fore they would find their eldest childer abandoned its of the Earth. ‘The Cainite diaspora sent refugees washing up upo every shore in creation, and for millennia thereafter, Cain ained pockets, hattened to the cities of the children of Seth for survival. Human civil tions rose and fell, aided or hindered by the hidden hands rid agendas of elder Catnites, who preyed upon them for sustenance andl amusement. Sometime before the birth Christ, a mortal was Embraced from among the peoples o old Phoenicia, in an ancient and powerful city by the sea His name was Tanithaal-Sahar, and two things drove hhim— the hunger toleamand the desire tounderstand. To Jearn everything that could possibly be worth learning, to dig into unlife with both hands, to crack the bones of nd suck the marrow from them. To understand tunderstand his people and, most importantly of his birth and tered glories scatter: ing to the four comer society existed in self-c existence the world erstand himself. He left the ci Embrace with his sir's blessing and traveled of the known world co the other, endle endlessly seeking the answers ro question since before he had become a Cainite What isthe true nature of humanity? Wha nature of evil? How can we be true to our when denial of what we are isso much a parcof both huma and Cainite nature? Who and what are we in the end? A Brujah, he was by no means easy to satisfy in his quest for answers, and he sought congress with learned mortals and vampires alike, searching fora deeper understanding of the Cainite condition everywhere he went After nearly 300 years of wandering, both alone and with companions he had met along the way, he settled in the great city of Carthage, where his clan claimed to rule a latopia in which Caine and morsel dwelt snd worked side by-side as brothers. Tanithaal-Sahar’s writings, those few shat survive, are notably silent on his opinion of “ucopian” Carthage. It issaid that he withdrew into seclusion forsome time after arriving in Carthage, and even his closest con‘ dants believed that he was sleeping the sleep of the ages, ‘They were wrong. He was .washe wearied. He was feverishly writin sending those writings forth, to his friends, o his teachers, coother learned scholars, forhe was deep in che throes of the creation of the foundation of h most ambitious undertaking and his greatest work, Tanithaal-Sabar dis cation of a thousand scattered philosophies into 2 fententity,therack ro which countlessspirivally {disenfranchised Cainites could ash theirsouls 1: both self-knowledge and inner peace. His efforts attention of other scholars of Cainite nature, of ind rulers and of the priests of other roads, eventually, one of them invited Sahar to visit his court as an honored guest. This individual was Titus Venturas Camilly Prince of Rome, whom che Warlords emeraber by the name Camilla. It was in Rome that Tanithaal-Sabar found thelast piecesof the intellectual puzzle he wasasembling, the Jastof his questions, and he wrote inafrenzy of sreatea of his works. A treatize. A polemic. The nical soul of aroad. The treatise \wearied after his long journ notsleeping, n and soon, he bega locked in his haven i. single, cot dissatisfied: artracted thi philosopher hilosophical heart and the et Py tee a Wer Caiesto ee