Mortifiers of the Flesh

Mortifier of the Flesh
Plural	Mortifiers of the Flesh
Nicknames	Flagellants
Parent clan	Daeva
Disciplines	Scourge, Celerity, Vigor and Majesty

The Mortifiers of the Flesh are a bloodline among the Daeva Clan of vampires. Taking inspiration from mortal flagellants, the Mortifiers use the enormous endurance of their vampiric form to do penance for the sins of the flesh. They are aligned with the Lancea Sanctum.

Overview

The Flagellants trace themselves back to the destruction of the Black Abbey, where an enlightened member of the Daeva punished himself for the loss of the Monachus. It seems clear that the Mortifiers were inspired by heretically extreme flagellant movements of the mortal church; the eldest Mortifiers claim to have practiced flagellation prior to accepting the Curse. Though members of the line may have had power over the Blood before being subsumed by the covenant, Mortifiers have been included in the membership of the Lancea Sanctum by default since the late fourteenth century. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Mortifiers were more influential within the covenant - seen as admirably deranged devotees on the extreme border of selfless penitence - but their single-minded dedication to spiritual matters slowly withered their political relevance as the Lancea Sanctum's union with the Invictus grew more solid.

Mortifiers believe that the Curse is a divine punishment in addition to a conscription into holy service, and that vampirism a sin for which the Damned must eternally repent. Taking the Sanctified dogma to the extreme, Mortifiers show penitence through scarification and painful rites that inflict horrible wounds upon themselves. To Flagellants, the flesh is sinful. The flesh is the domain of the Devil and the Curse's fuel. By filling the body with pain, they can drive the Devil out, for a time. But the soul is pure. The soul can never be touched by the pain inflicted upon the body. The more pain a Flagellant experiences, the more he knows about the limits of the body. In time, he may learn where the body truly ends and the soul begins. One night, he may find that his body finally gives up his soul to Heaven, even while it continues to toil for Vitae on earth.

Weakness

Flagellants feel the weakness of their bodies and of the sins they have to committ. After feeding, the Flagellant has to punish himself, otherwise he will not be able to spend Willpower.

In addition, a Flagellant who fails a degeneration roll suffers a -1 penalty to all actions until he endures penance through pain. To overcome this nagging guilt, the Flagellant must cause damage (of any type) to himself, equal to his Health and delivered by a weapon in his own hand.

References

• VTR: Lancea Sanctum, p. 170-172