Eater

unknown
Alias	The Eater The Word-Eater
Gender	Male
Clan	Malkavian
Generation	4th
Sire	Malkav

The Eater, also known as the Word-Eater, was one of the first childer of Malkav.

Biography

“

Sometimes, in the silence of the mind that comes on you when you search for a precise word that you cannot quite remember, you could hear him. I did. Others did. We heard him, far away, chewing on things that become forgotten; heard the scrape of teeth like knives against the paper-skin of names... I haven’t heard him in years. Perhaps he caught me listening, and withdrew to continue his feeding more quietly. Perhaps he sleeps now, digesting the power of a name that we should all know but now cannot recall. Perhaps he tried to devour a name too great or wicked for him, and choked on it. There’s no telling, of course. No finding him until he chooses to find you.

”

According to Clan legend, the Word-Eater is said to be a great, enlightened sage who went mad from the curse of Malkav. In his insane/illuminated state, he realizes that he did not have to subsist on blood, but could consume anything, become more of what he ate. The Word-Eater ate rock, sky, colors and ideas before he decided he liked ideas most of all. He began to consume words, believing it would make him wise again, and restore his sanity. So, the Word-Eater sustains himself not with blood, but with True Names, feeding over the platonic existences in order to incorporate other beings into himself. When he learned this great secret of eating names, of biting chunks of reality itself free from the world and gulping them down — the first name he must surely have eaten was his own and he is forced to feast on other existences in a form of vampirism that is more severe than the curse levied by God on Caine.

Some malkavians say that the words he eats are gone forever - and so are the ideas. No one will never know what ideas are missing, because they are gone forever, and gone retroactively, so the Word-Eater is limiting the world to a smaller and more feeble reality all the time. But other malkavians defend him, saying that Word-Eater is protecting malkavians from their kindred enemies and helping free all living beings.

The Eater is a mere rumor in the Modern Nights, but his presence can still be felt deep within the Madness Network. Most who know of him prefer not to talk about the topic, believing that this will attract his attention.

Gallery

From Clanbook: Malkavian

References

• VTM: Clanbook: Malkavian, p. 26
• VTM: Clanbook: Malkavian Revised, p. 17