| “ | You have treated this land as if it is your own for far, far too long. | ” |
| — Nerissa Blackwater | ||
Nerissa Blackwater is a Caitiff residing in the Chicago area.
Biography[]
Mortal Days[]
In a time so distant even her long memory fails, the creature now known as Nerissa Blackwater came alone to the edge of the great waters that later inhabitants of this land would call Michigami just as the last angry, orange bars of sunlight were swallowed by the black earth to the west. With trepidation and a sliver of excitement, she waited for the Ancestor to emerge out of the murk, to speak the sacred truths of her people and this land. Rise, the Ancestor did, a massive, powerful creature, taller than any mortal being, vaguely human, its muscled limbs, sculpted body, and long, wild hair oozing with mud, fierce eyes glittering like flint in the semi-darkness. Thus, the ritual began.
For a full turning of the seasons, the Ancestor came by night and whispered stories into the secret places of her mind of a world lush with gardens full of flourishing plants and creatures, cared for by the Mother of Seeds and protected from the heat of an angry sun by Her shawl of midnight — a gift from the Father of Stars. Just before the break of each day, the Ancestor sank back into the lake and, as she had been told she must, Nerissa lay naked and still upon the shore, scorched by the sun, pelted by needles of rain, scourged by relentless winds, and nearly buried by freezing sleet or soft falling snow. She knew only discomfort, pain, hunger, and profound loneliness, for none among her people dared approach the lake while she suffered her ordeal. Every harrowing moment filled her with a desperate longing for the night to swallow the sun at last, for the Ancestor to rise again, its great hands gentle as it soothed her raw, exposed skin with cool mud, as it slaked her thirst with fresh water, and as it sated her hunger with a thick, glorious liquid that burned her throat but warmed her belly.
The Ancestor imparted unto her the Mother’s mysteries: the coming of the cannibal monster, Eemamoowia, the fall of the Garden, and the terrible affliction passed on to all the victims of that vicious attack. Nerissa would become an interlocutor between the mortal descendants of the Father of Stars and the Mother of Seeds and the Ancestors, their half-dead children, so horrified by the cursed abominations they had become that they dared never show their faces in the light of the sun. She would experience the pain of Eemamoowia’s attack, die, and be reborn into living death by the blood of the Mother — the same blood that had been her sustenance for a full turning of seasons.
Nerissa recoiled at the thought. Why had her elders not told her? How could they have convinced her to make such an abysmal sacrifice? But in exchange, all her people would honor her, for she served as an admonition to never forget the crimes of Eemamoowia. For her sake, they would willingly give of their own blood, their own pain and suffering, lest she succumb to the cannibal curse and become a Beast. Standing with one foot in the lands of death and the other in the lands of the living, a nectar unknown to any on Earth passed her lips, and she was reborn, wise and full of conviction.
Kindred Nights[]
Time is meaningless to one who understands that it does not truly exist. Nerissa supposes that at least six millennia have passed since last she looked upon the sun. Before the white men came, she spent centuries at a time in slumber with the Ancestor beneath the waters of the lake, arising when her mortal descendants had need of her or were threatened in any way. Things have become more interesting over the past five centuries. In these modern nights, the descendants of Eemamoowia — wretched creatures who call themselves Kindred of Caine — presume to claim ownership over the Mother’s land and her people. Unbeknownst to them, Nerissa and her people work in silence like twining roots and vines to choke out these Cannibal weeds, all in anticipation of the Mother’s imminent return.
Nerissa believes that Helena must be dealt with. The Ancestor has long plucked at the strings binding that one to her monstrous, sleeping sire. If such subtle methods fail to oust her from her lair, more direct pressure from Nerissa and her powerful mortal family must be brought to bear. Then again, it might be amusing to see what happens when the Mother Herself returns.
Appearance[]
Those who glimpse Nerissa from a distance assume she is a mortal, indigenous woman of about 25, lithe and small in stature with copper-brown skin, dark eyes, and a handsomely beautiful face. Her heavy black hair is worn in elaborately woven braids sprinkled with glittering hairpins shaped to look like tiny flowers. Nerissa wears impeccably tailored bespoke clothing in fashion-forward, flowing lines cut from soft, sheer fabrics in shades of green, brown, and blue. Always present somewhere on her person is a brooch resembling a flowering vine, or maybe it is a fruit-bearing tree. Whatever it is, nothing like it exists on Earth in modern times. Any Kindred who come into close proximity with her experience a profound uneasiness, even dread. None but Edith and Khalid have met her face to face, and Khalid has since vanished while the ordinarily loquacious tattooist refuses to speak of her meetings with the Interlocutor. Nerissa’s Mask is her persona as Nerissa, which is far from her original identity. She cannot even recall her birth name.
Possible Origins[]
Nerissa considers herself distinct from Kindred society, and certainly not of Caine’s lineage. While she has entertained the notion that her ancestry might trace back to Lilith, it’s a fleeting thought; Nerissa’s people predate stories written into the Book of Nod. Are Nerissa and her sire therefore not vampires as we know them? It’s one possibility, but unlikely. She shares the same flaws and powers as other Kindred, even if she expresses them in different ways. Here are a few options for what Nerissa and the Ancestor could be:
- Nerissa is insane. The victim of Blood-Bond conditioning and repeated indoctrination to believe she’s ancient, her sire is something non-Cainite, and she serves some grand purpose, the tragic truth is she’s a Caitiff neonate who’s gorged on methuselah vitae and serves the will of the absent Menele. How are her powers so immense? Perhaps she diablerized the Brujah methuselah by his consent.
- Nerissa is correct and she isn’t a Cainite. Knowing the legends of the so-called “Drowned” in other parts of the world, she believes her line is more akin to predatory chameleons who adopt the strengths and curses of the dominant monster in the area. She is immortal rather than undead.
- Nerissa is one of the oldest Caitiff in the world. This explains her confused origins, but begs the question: who is the Ancestor? It’s possible one of the clan founders or their eldest descendants Embraced and abandoned childer such as Nerissa for ritual purposes, or even through fear of their actions. When they were neonates, even the Antediluvians possessed mortal mores. In this case, the Ancestor could be a vampire of great age and close proximity in Generation to Caine.
- The similarities between the Cultivars and the Bahari are no coincidence: They are both Lilith cults, and Nerissa is a descendant of Lilith’s line. Defying easy categorization and not suffering a bane as the known clans do, Nerissa is unknowingly one of the few vampires who can trace her line back to the Dark Mother. Does this make the Ancestor Lilith, or one of her rumored childer? When Caine cast Lilith aside, she is said to have traveled far, and the Americas were untouched by Caine’s line at the time.
- Nerissa has fallen prey to the same mental manipulations as many vampires, being fed a story of great portents and mandated destiny. She is an ancient Ventrue or Toreador, possibly the childe of one of those clan’s founders, but so drunk on their vitae and subject to their thrall that she unquestioningly believes otherwise. The Ancestor may well be the torpid Antediluvian of one of those clans, now stirring to wakefulness due to the Gehenna Crusade’s mass spilling of rich blood and the Beckoning’s clarion call. Of course, if the Beckoning affects Antediluvians, too, there’s still the question of who’s emitting the call…
Notes[]
- ↑ In her Chicago by Night 5th Edition page, her clan is listed as unknown, despite being in the Caitiff section. See the possible origins section above for the speculation presented in the book.
Character Sheet[]
Nerissa Blackwater
Sire: Unknown
Embraced: Circa 4000 BCE or far more recent
Generation: Effectively 4th
Blood Potency: 6
Ambition: Erode Helena’s influence over the city
Convictions: Always aim to restore the Mother’s Garden
Touchstones: Mavis Blackwater — descendant and keeper of her people
Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5; Charisma 3, Manipulation 5, Composure 5; Intelligence 5; Wits 4; Resolve 4
Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Melee 2, Stealth (Plain Sight) 4, Survival (Underwater) 5; Animal Ken (Birds) 5, Etiquette 3, Insight 3, Intimidation (Age) 5, Leadership (Cultivars) 5, Persuasion 4, Subterfuge 5; Awareness 4, Medicine (Fertility) 4, Occult (Lilith) 5, Politics 3
Disciplines: Auspex 5, Celerity 4, Dominate 3, Fortitude 5, Presence 4, Blood Sorcery 5
Health: 8
Humanity: 8
Willpower: 9
Gallery[]
References[]
- VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition, p. 115-117
