Book of Nod

The Book of Nod is the primary religious text of Noddist Kindred, in some ways akin to the Bible, as it relates the creation story of vampires and sets down some laws by which they are to live. There is no one copy of the Book, instead consisting of multiple recensions and fragments that have been reassembled by various Kindred scholars, such as Aristotle de Laurent, Beckett, and Sascha Vykos. Relatively recent compilations have been created by a variety of sources (notably a chapbook produced by an obscure Georgia publishing house), but in many cases the primary transmission of the story is oral, through Sabbat ritae or storytelling among the dead. The Camarilla has a policy of denouncing Noddist lore and persecuting those who spread it. Any found pieces of the Book of Nod or similar texts are either destroyed or quietly stashed away to be studied by the sect's leaders. Nevertheless, the Book of Nod continues to be sought by many Kindred in the belief that it holds truths of vampiric nature and prophecies of the future.

There are numerous questions concerning the history of the Book of Nod. It's author is unknown, though Malkav, Saulot, and even Caine are often cited to have written parts of it, if not the whole thing. However, it may have had many authors and editors over the thousands of years since the time of the events which it describes, placing great doubts on its veracity. Some consider the entire book to be myths or lies, a story vampires invented to explain their existence or a tool used to mislead others into thinking and acting a certain way. Adding to these doubts is the fact that many writings attributed to the Book of Nod are incredibly vague or contradictory, creating some very large (and often violent) schisms of interpretation between Noddist groups.

The Chronicle of Caine

The core story of the Book of Nod is the Chronicle of Caine. This is the story of Caine, who murdered his brother Abel as a sacrifice to God. Cursed for his deed, Caine is banished to live in Nod, east of Eden. Caine wanders in Nod for an unspecified period of time, until he meets Lilith, former lover and coeval of his father, Adam. Lilith provides some solace to Caine and, though the details vary greatly as to how or why, he gains from her potent magic, the Disciplines of the modern nights.

Immediately thereafter, Caine abandons Lilith and is approached four angels sent by God. These angels offer Caine the opportunity to repent, though he rejects each in turn, and is then cursed by the angel with a specific vulnerability: sunlight, fire, and treachery. The last angel prophesies the path of Golconda by which redemption can later be found, then leaves Caine in his cursed state. Some believe it is this point that Caine has been made into the First Vampire and the Beast emerges, though that may have been a result of Lilith's magics.

Caine continues to wander the world until he reaches the city of Enoch, where he Embrace the king and rules the city openly. During this time, Caine encounters an apocryphal figure, the Crone, who forces Caine into a blood bond. During this time, he learns other lore about vampiric weakness, which he uses to stake and kill the Crone before returning to Enoch. There he finds his descendants have grown massively in numbers and foresees God's growing anger with the state of the world. He abandons the city and his children to the Great Flood, and then disappears.

After the flood, the Antediluvians rebel against the Second Generation, slaying their sires and then building a Second City where they rule over the kine openly. Caine returns to the Second City, where he curses each of the clans with a distinctive weakness. The chronicle ends at this point.

Other Books

Other common elements of the Book of Nod include the Chronicle of Shadows, which is a collection of commandments and proscriptions from Caine and the other Clan Founders. Other fragments, notably the contents of the Erciyes Fragments are sometimes considered part of the book as well.

The most problematic part of the book is the Chronicle of Secrets which details prophecies of Gehenna and a broad outline of Gehenna's events. These events include the majority of figures which regularly appear in Cainite Eschatology: The Black Throne, the Last Daughter of Eve, the Dark Father and Dark Mother, and the Time of Thin Blood.

See Also

• Book of Nod discussion
• The Book of Nod game book