Notes on possibilities for material.
Togetherness – Wings
Mysterious phone calls in the night, strange dreams of monsters running through the fields, and remaining strangely forgetful of pivotal life events, the life of the infected is often strange and garbled, filled with periods of hallucinogenic fever and bubbling flesh, patchy growths, and bizarre mutation. An internet forum full of crazies may be a haven for infected, or it may just be a bunch of concerned mothers whose kids have had the flu. Some infected form social networks branching over the cities in their state or havens buried beneath ghost towns or deep in caves and caverns under the earth.
Annunaki – old, ritualistic, related to Mesopotamian empires? Mess o' potamia
Cambion
"This is going to hurt me. Then it's going to hurt you a lot more."
Bodily transformation is not something to be feared, but embraced. The new shapes of the figure, from tentacles and tendrils to claws, thickened bone and hide, and multiple rows of teeth are gifts from the body. The monster within is the monster without, they say. If human beings are to become slaves to the body, may as well fall in with gusto.
More than any other Wing, save perhaps Neonates, Cambions stick together. They arrange themselves into packs, stalking the streets at night, ever hungry. Wealthy Cambions may pick up the homeless and slowly "fatten them" up for a later orgiastic feast while other, less income-conscious Cambions roam the street and junkyards, searching for a quick fix. In each case, however, the bonds of the pack are tighter than family.
Food is one of the top priorities of the Cambion mindset; using their Subversions as often as possible is commonly an addiction for them. Frequently considered mad among the other wings, the Cambions do little to make themselves seem a more legitimate philosophy. They are, however, the oldest known group aside from the Evolutionaries, despite their philosophies being considered the most childish.
Cambions, however, do not welcome blackout. Their philosophy is anything but childish. After a hunt and feast, most Cambions sit and meditate on the hunt's outcome, the meaning behind it, and what they may have learned about the nature of the monster inside. They believe that in indulging the monster, one can understand and eventually control it.
Welcoming the New
When a Cambion chooses a suitable candidate to spread the infection, the host often stalks the target for several days. A Cambion's choice is typically a socially maladjusted individual that only becomes more insane as the Cambion moves through his life. The infected likes to play with the potential candidate, showing up in mutated form, using subversions, and otherwise testing the mental strength of the individual before moving ahead with infection. Once complete, the Cambion trains the new infected not by saying what he or she has become, but chasing him with chimeras, forcing instinctive use of subversions, and taunting him repeatedly. Eventually, the only way to live with the madness is to become it. Those that do not weather this strain the way the Cambions would like instead often become Jagda or Protectors.
Children of Echidna
Echidna is the mother of all monsters, and these Cambions call themselves her children.
Lilith's Brood
It has been said that Lilith is the mother of demons; that the only children she could produce were evil, twisted creatures that lived in the night.
Primary Subversion: Flesh
Favored Attribute: Strength or Presence
Jagda
"Become one with me."
The Infection is not what it seems. It is not a parasite, but a mutation of something that has already been living with us, inside us, for generations. What that thing is or could be is up to debate; some wards and camps claim the liver, the mitochondria, the stomach, or even the brain is the controlling factor in mutation, growing new organs and structures in the body as the Infection spreads. It matters not. All that matters is that the human body is evolving, and the Infected must evolve with it.
Primary Subversion: Evolution
Favored Attribute: Composure or Wits
Neonate
Protector
Infected tend to arrange themselves into like-minded groups, and initiate new human members as soon as possible. These groups are known as Wings, collections of those for whom "biology" is something more than a field of study. None know how or where the first groups of the Infected got started; as they are a more recent occurrence, however, it is highly likely the first of the Wings was fairly recent in its inception. Most groups agree that the Evolutionaries, however, are among the oldest of the groups, with the Jagda branching off from them some time in the early nineties, if any time at all.
Wings don't typically have de facto leaders, and instead are simply thought clubs and organized groups that keep track of other members out of respect for similar ideas; there just often aren't enough infected around to form heavily stratified organizations. Most communication between members and leaders when they do exist is through internet forums, phone calls, and letters in the mail. Sometimes large groups may get together for social events, but these groups are rarely larger than four or five and a cadre of mortal friends.
Cambion
"This is going to hurt me. Then it's going to hurt you a lot more."
Bodily transformation is not something to be feared, but embraced. The new shapes of the figure, from tentacles and tendrils to claws, thickened bone and hide, and multiple rows of teeth are gifts from the body. The monster within is the monster without, they say. If human beings are to become slaves to the body, may as well fall in with gusto.
More than any other Wing, save perhaps Neonates, Cambions stick together. They arrange themselves into packs, stalking the streets at night, ever hungry. Wealthy Cambions may pick up the homeless and slowly "fatten them" up for a later orgiastic feast while other, less income-conscious Cambions roam the street and junkyards, searching for a quick fix. In each case, however, the bonds of the pack are tighter than family.
Food is one of the top priorities of the Cambion mindset; using their Subversions as often as possible is commonly an addiction for them. Frequently considered mad among the other wings, the Cambions do little to make themselves seem a more legitimate philosophy. They are, however, the oldest known group aside from the Evolutionaries, despite their philosophies being considered the most childish.
Cambions, however, do not welcome blackout. Their philosophy is anything but childish. After a hunt and feast, most Cambions sit and meditate on the hunt's outcome, the meaning behind it, and what they may have learned about the nature of the monster inside. They believe that in indulging the monster, one can understand and eventually control it.
Welcoming the New
When a Cambion chooses a suitable candidate to spread the infection, the host often stalks the target for several days. A Cambion's choice is typically a socially maladjusted individual that only becomes more insane as the Cambion moves through his life. The infected likes to play with the potential candidate, showing up in mutated form, using subversions, and otherwise testing the mental strength of the individual before moving ahead with infection. Once complete, the Cambion trains the new infected not by saying what he or she has become, but chasing him with chimeras, forcing instinctive use of subversions, and taunting him repeatedly. Eventually, the only way to live with the madness is to become it. Those that do not weather this strain the way the Cambions would like instead often become Jagda or Protectors.
Children of Echidna
Echidna is the mother of all monsters, and these Cambions call themselves her children.
Lilith's Brood
It has been said that Lilith is the mother of demons; that the only children she could produce were evil, twisted creatures that lived in the night.
Primary Subversion: Flesh
Favored Attribute: Strength or Presence
Evolutionary: "Trying too hard gets you nowhere."
Jagda: "Neat! Hold still, let me try this out…"
Neonate: (sound of slobbering) "…..hello, little girl…"
Protector: "Whatever lets you sleep at night."
Stemmer: "Pfft. Loser. OW!"
Mages: "What is that, a wizard or something?"
Vampires: "That's not a monster. It's a corpse pretending to be a spider."
Werewolves: "What savage brothers has our mother wrought?"
Mortals: "So…. Hungry…."
Evolutionary
"Become one with me."
The Infection is not what it seems. It is not a parasite, but a mutation of something that has already been living with us, inside us, for generations. What that thing is or could be is up to debate; some wards and camps claim the liver, the mitochondria, the stomach, or even the brain is the controlling factor in mutation, growing new organs and structures in the body as the Infection spreads. It matters not. All that matters is that the human body is evolving, and the Infected must evolve with it.
Primary Subversion: Evolution
Favored Attribute: Composure or Wits
Cambion: "If you stop trying, you never improve."
Jagda: "They, too, will weed themselves out."
Neonate: "They have great knowledge, if only you would seek it."
Protector: "Closest to the thing we once were; we owe them a great deal."
Stemmer: "In time, as all do, they will change their minds."
Mages: "Ahead of their time, or a throwback?"
Vampires: "They just stopped. What the hell?"
Werewolves: "They went backwards, didn't they? Whatever works."
Mortals: "On their way out. Be gentle towards them."
Jagda
"I smell somethin' that's goin' extinct!"
Evolution occurs only through natural selection. In the case of humanity, the selection process has been sublimated. The weak and infirm are allowed to live among the strong. This situation must be rectified for humanity to survive.
Primary Subversion: Predation
Favored Attribute: Strength or Resolve
Cambion: "A good idea, but the implementation is lacking."
Evolutionary: "Our weaker, pitiable brother."
Neonate: "I'm sorry, was that your mommy?"
Protector: "Evolve or die. I see what you picked."
Stemmer: "Sort of like life's little dropouts, aren't they?"
Mages: "Steer clear. Maybe they're the next step, too."
Vampires: "What, is it amateur hour or something?"
Werewolves: "Weak, weak, weak."
Mortals: "Huntin' time!"
Neonate
"We are one whole."
The Infection is not the Infection, and the Infected are not so; Neonates prefer the term Host. The Host is merely keeper of the home that the guest inhabits, and the Host must endeavor to understand the guest.
The child is the perfection of the body. So it is, then, that symbiosis occurs early in life. You must come to terms with the new relationship you have with your body; the Evolutionaries are correct in that this is the evolution of the human form, but the form is not under the control of the human mind. The human body has awakened as the mind once was, and only by listening to it and its urges can you come to understand it and be one with it.
As a child's form is the perfection of the body, technology is the perfection of evolution. Seek to become one with the technology, for as the flesh can be warped, so can the metals of the Earth, shaped to become the new claws and teeth of the people. Grow machines within and without the flesh, wrap the flesh in and through the machine, and become it. This is the path of the Neonate.
Welcoming the New
Neonates may seem like children, but they are far from immature. A Neonate often cyber-stalks a potential candidate for infection and the organization for weeks, months, or even years. Others work within specific social circles, pretending to be adults or the hangers-on of older infected, often displaying genius-level intellect and searching for like minds when attending such events. Once chosen, the candidate is slowly introduced to the idea of the infected through a series of mock dangers and stalking behavior perpetrated by the Neonate's fellows (a decidedly disturbing undertaking for the mortal, who is treated to several weeks of being stalked by a group of strange children). Neonates prefer to infect using needles and careful cleaning of wounds and arms, or, in the case of some infections, administering their 'treatments' orally, from hacking up bizarre worms to open bleeding into the mouth. They then back off and wait for the infection to take hold.
Primary Subversion: Incorporation
Favored Attribute: Intelligence or Stamina
Cambion: "They can't even see their best ideas."
Evolutionary: "Barking up the wrong tree of life. It's more a web."
Jagda: "Yes, uncle. I'll stay out of your basement. You stay out of mine."
Protector: "Can I come over?"
Stemmer: "Oh, get over it and grow up."
Mages: "Isn't the witch the one that ends up in the oven at the end?"
Vampires: "Scary creatures, especially to children."
Werewolves: "Throw a biscuit between them and watch them fight!"
Mortals: "My mommy is still one. Be respectful."
Protector
"Stay back. Let me handle this."
A man once said "with great power comes great responsibility," and despite the triteness of the phrase, it is correct and the operating creed of the Protector. Humanity, as the Evolutionaries say, is on its way out. Only the fool and the sadist would make those waning years violent and filled with torment. Instead, the proper response to a fading breed is to wait by the bed, holding the hand of that which is dying, and making the transition as peaceful as possible. Either that, or play hero because that seems like the thing to do with strange and mysterious powers.
The Infected are not the only monsters the world has to offer. Drug dealers, rapists, blackmailers, and other sundry crimes against both the law and humanity reign in the shadows. The goal of the Protector is to defend humanity with what little humanity the Infected has left.
Primary Subversion: Adrenal Control
Favored Attribute: Composure or Resolve
Cambion: "Be careful, lest you become the kind of monster I hunt."
Evolutionary: "Who cares where it's from? Where is it going?"
Jagda: "A sad spectacle."
Neonate: "Sure. I have a bedtime story I can read you."
Stemmer: "It's time to learn some responsibility for your existence."
Mages: "Do they think they're above all laws or something?"
Vampires: "Predators with no moral compass. Frightening."
Werewolves: "Didn't Batman fight a werewolf?"
Mortals: "Remember you used to be there before you judge anyone."
Stemmer
"What the hell is happening?"
To be a Stemmer is to not belong to a Wing. It means no letters in the mail, no yearly barbecue, and no mysterious phone calls in the night. It also means no backup, no aid, nobody to go to when you're out of cash and need to gorge yourself, and no easy answers when Chimeras, mysterious scientists, or corporate headhunters come pounding at the door. In all correctness, a Stemmer is also any infected that has not yet joined a Wing, Ward, or Room.
Primary Subversion: None
Favored Attribute: None
Cambion: "They want to be monsters. That's all I needed to know."
Evolutionary: "Sounds like a religious dogma wrapped in pseudoscience."
Jagda: "Like a religious dogma used to excuse murder."
Neonate: "A group of creepy kids? I saw that movie, too. I didn't like that movie."
Protector: "Scary. It feels like they're pretending to be superheroes."
Mages: "Huh. Neat."
Vampires: "Anything after my blood is getting shot."
Werewolves: "Okay, imagine one of those monster fuckers, but fuzzier. No thanks."
Mortals: "Ignorance is bliss. I miss those days."
Rooms, Camps, Packs, and Wards
There's safety in numbers.
Normal humans and even supernatural creatures know something's "not right" with Infected. This isn't really a calculable sensation until Resonance gets too high (say, about 3). This sensation makes it hard to relate to people, and so social die pools (excepting Intimidation) suffer as a result. Note that using certain Subversions in the plain sight of mortals could potentially cause adverse reactions, as well, even if used to protect or aid (the sight of someone's arm becoming a writhing mass of tentacles tends to churn the stomach).
Symptoms
After the infection has run its course and the human has stepped into the new world of the infected, he or she then begins to display a marked set of symptoms. This is the primary way the pathogen makes its presence known to the human, subtly urging him to perform certain actions, behaving in some ways like a derangement, and in other ways like an illness.
An infected character need not contact other infected to manifest a symptom. Symptoms mark a character, making her truly one of the infected. Each symptom has both good news and bad news. Bad news is listed first.
Each of the symptoms lists its primary Subversion; use of this Subversion works much the way it does for Vectors, as well. It's instinctive, like flexing a muscle or even blinking. Such use of power is often confusing or unsettling, since while its use is instinctive, the sensations it causes seem new every time.
Dermis
The itching's started again. It's stronger this time, and the rash is over the left side of the face. Yes, I've been using the analgesic.
Soaking in water seems to help. The itching goes away, but only if I'm in the pool or something. There's not enough water in the shower. I spent all day yesterday in the lake out back. I actually got some sleep there.
The body changes; this is nothing new. Mortals awaken from sleep with mystery lumps, cuts, bruises, and other oddities. Sometimes one discovers a bruise with no apparent cause. The strange welt does not hurt, but seems to be filled with pus nonetheless. Other such signs may include wriggling and meandering lines under the skin, not unlike larval migrans.
Those with dermis feel a burning sensation on the skin, and it often covers itself with hives, warts, patches, pus-leaking wounds, and in some cases, even puffs up to absurd proportions. Such beings are often led to spend vast amounts of time in or near water, in humid surroundings, or wrapped in warm and wet clothing. At the same time, skin and joints thicken, providing a measure of strange and unearthly strength.
A Resonance-stuffed dermis infected may seem to have leprosy or some other epidermal disease, the body almost completely covered by shedding skin or spots. Keratosis, acne, dermatitis, and a wide variety of skin disorders that cause bleeding, lumps, or horrid, bark-like warts that can be removed painlessly through the use of a drill or weak acid.
The dermis infected often finds himself drawn to violent conflict, driven to outbursts both external and physical. The itching, the pain, and the frustration build until the infected is a coil ready to spring.
The Buildup
As the infected with dermis symptoms progresses, he desires to stay near water. Her skin itches, bumps and boils cry out in pain, rashes feel as though they are crawling or moving just under the surface of the skin, a feeling that only vanishes if the infected immerses herself in water. The feelings vanish, but they eventually return, and if the infected has no quick path to water, her mind begins to suffer. The character suffers his or her Dice Pool Penalty to social rolls when more than a mile away from a source of water (ponds, streams, and bathtubs don't count, but lakes and rivers are just fine).
The Bad News
The infected tends to have strange bruises, patches of thick skin, and scar tissue that seem to change day to day. These rashes are quite painful and do not go away readily, sometimes randomly changing shape or position while the character sleeps. Any wound penalties the character suffers from increase in severity by 1.
The Good News
The character is tougher than most. He can spend a point of ATP to add his Resonance to his armor for one scene. This thickened skin doesn't come without cost, however. The character suffers his Dice Pool Penalty from Resonance as a penalty on all Dexterity-based dice pools while using this power.
Primary Subversion: Vigor
Fever
He had to catch himself panting again, wheezing, trying to catch his breath. The bus was so cold. The fire in his belly just couldn't stand up to the outside. He caught a woman looking at him over her newspaper, and he just retreated further into his jacket in response. No one had to know he had his lighter on under his hands.
The body knows heat. Heat defines the life of the body. Heat is in the summer sun and the hot tub out back. It's ubiquitous to human existence. The fire in the heart and the blood burns ever hotter in the infected, boiling and rising to the skin. The face becomes flush and gleams with sweat, hair becomes matted and thick, and joints ache, crying out for healthier days.
A character with such a fever may turn red and puff up, or she may become sickly pale and thin. As Resonance climbs ever higher, a palpable heat wells up within the infected body and even begins to radiate to those nearby, making them feel uncomfortably warm in her presence. The infected feels weak in the joints, light headed, and wheezes with every breath, but not so much that she cannot function.
The Buildup
As the infected continues to progress, the body's temperature rises. The brain addles from the strain, and has trouble focusing. The infected sweats profusely, sheds weight, and takes to shivering even in the heat of the day. Sunlight, however, is good for the character. It reduces the amount of shivering and seems to alleviate the pain in the joints. The cool darkness of the night, however, is another story. The night air seems to sap strength, weaken the joints, and prickle the skin. Air escapes from the character's mouth like steam, and he grows sickly and pale. The host suffers his Dice Pool Penalty to mental rolls during the night.
The Bad News
The fevered can't stand the cold due to his newly increased body temperature; even room temperatures feel frigid. The character spends nights wrapped in blankets, sweating up a storm. When resisting the effects of cold conditions, he suffers a -3 penalty to his resistance rolls.
The Good News
The good news is that the fevered has a lot of excess body heat. The character can spend a point of ATP to gain his Resonance trait as a penalty to fire effects attempting to damage him. This can not reduce damage from a fire to below zero.
Primary Subversion: ATP Control
Insomnia
Can't sleep.
It's been four nights. I can't sleep. Was it four nights? I think it was Monday then. I had the dream about the car accident. I didn't go bowling, and that was good, Larry didn't come home that night, his wife called, checked to make sure I was alright. I said I didn't go because I had a dream about it.
She keeps calling me now, asking about my dreams. I keep telling her I can't sleep most of the time.
The walls are trying to touch me again.
The human brain is a complex mechanism. The right amount and variation of chemicals can shut it down or supercharge it. In some infected, the brain works overtime, clocking so hard that its periods of rest are few and far between, but when they arrive, they bring friends. By the same token, if the brain doesn't get the right amount of rest, it addles. Hallucinations become the order of the day.
The Buildup
As an insomniac gains Resonance, he starts to lose touch with reality. Auditory and visual hallucinations hound him, and he's no longer certain what's a Subversion and what's really happening. She can see flesh climbing walls, body and blood pumping and churning through throbbing pipes, bile leaking through wallpaper, and Chimeras at every turn. Insomniacs suffer their Dice Pool Penalty to social rolls if they haven't slept in more than two days.
The Bad News
The infected has trouble sleeping. He doesn't have a choice, really. Every time he lays down to go to sleep, his eyes fly open, strange sounds fill his ears, and his heart churns. He must spend ATP to resist fatigue if he still can in any way, shape, or form. He must then make resistance rolls to stay awake as long as possible, even spending Willpower if necessary, as well as indulging Virtues and Vices.
The Good News
On the plus side, when the infected character does finally get some sleep, he has some rather telling dreams. This works like the Common Sense merit, except the roll occurs anytime the character goes to sleep.
Primary Subversion: Adrenal Control
Paedomorphosis
They were like kids, man. Little kids. A bunch of them, walking through the back alley, carrying balls or something. I think one of them ballooned, like an egg from some kinda sci-fi movie.
There was this chick back there, where they were all going. She was dressed up like a teacher or a tour guide or some shit. Cute girl, too. Baby blue eyes, little puffy face. I told the kiddies to move out of the way, me and my boys got to talk to the teacher girl, and she smiled at them. They all turned around with them balls, and they opened, like flowers. There were guts or something inside. Guts that jumped at me and my boys. They didn't rip the boys apart, no, they stabbed Jag in the head, and he turned his gun on himself. The whole place started screaming.
Then you was waking me up. No, man, I wasn't on drugs or nothin'. You gotta believe me, man. It was them kids! Them goddamn kids!
The children will are our future, that's how the old saying goes. In the case of the infected displaying the characteristics of neoteny, the body never grows beyond puberty. In the case of adults, age seems to subtly reverse itself: wrinkles vanish, the cheeks grow rounder, lost strength seems to return, and vellus hair reasserts itself in many cases.
Many Unborn suffer from this symptom, approaching the end of the age of innocence and then freezing there, never aging any further. They often attach themselves to other adults, check themselves in to orphanages, feign kidney ailments, or otherwise lose themselves in the system.
The Buildup
The character doesn't appear to suffer any ill problems other than a few smoother features; to other infected, the Neonates got off easy. To those with this symptom, the truth is far less visible. Neonates have trouble relating to others, they suffer from rapid shifts in their attention span, being able to concentrate one day while their minds give in to distractions with ease on other days. In addition, they have trouble with action-based decision making, having to turn over in their minds a notion to ensure it's a good idea. A Neonate might know it's a bad idea to run out into a crowded firefight with no cover, but actually has to stop and think to make sure it's not a good idea. Those infected afflicted with Paedomorphosis suffer their Dice Pool Penalties on Wits rolls and instant mental rolls when forced to make decisions during periods of stress, such as combat and life-or-death situations.
The Bad News
Thanks to his or her newer, cuter face (or childlike body), the character has trouble getting others to take her seriously. He does not benefit from the 10-again rule on Presence, Intimidation, or Expression tests, and any 1s rolled count against successes.
The Good News
It's really hard to turn down those puppy-dog eyes. Neonates gain the 9-again rule on Persuasion and Manipulation tests.
Primary Subversion: Bioelectricity
Rooms, Camps, Packs, and Wards
There's safety in numbers.
Togetherness – Wings
Mysterious phone calls in the night, strange dreams of monsters running through the fields, and remaining strangely forgetful of pivotal life events, the life of the infected is often strange and garbled, filled with periods of hallucinogenic fever and bubbling flesh, patchy growths, and bizarre mutation. An internet forum full of crazies may be a haven for infected, or it may just be a bunch of concerned mothers whose kids have had the flu. Some infected form social networks branching over the cities in their state or havens buried beneath ghost towns or deep in caves and caverns under the earth.
Annunaki
"We are more ancient than you can imagine."
The Annunaki claim descent from sky gods, beings beneath the earth, aliens, and other, more esoteric things. They say that they are the oldest of the wings, and all others should pay or owe fealty. While other wings meet in secret in the back room of the coffee shop, on internet chat rooms, cryptic notes, or even relay mysterious calls to one another, the Annunaki meet in pomp and ceremony. Their meetings are rife in costume and rooted in careful and strict ritual. Whether the ritual du jour is made up or truly an ancient Sumerian rite is left to the other infected to debate amongst themselves.
Rituals often include sacrifices, feasting on raw meat (often goat), and orgies in which the participants fuse or mutate into horrible shapes.
Primary Subversion: Flesh
Favored Attribute: Strength or Resolve
Cambion
"This is going to hurt me. Then it's going to hurt you a lot more."
Bodily transformation is not something to be feared, but embraced. The new shapes of the figure, from tentacles and tendrils to claws, thickened bone and hide, and multiple rows of teeth are gifts from the body. The monster within is the monster without, they say. If human beings are to become slaves to the body, may as well fall in with gusto.
More than any other Wing, save perhaps Neonates, Cambions stick together. They arrange themselves into packs, stalking the streets at night, ever hungry. Wealthy Cambions may pick up the homeless and slowly "fatten them" up for a later orgiastic feast while other, less income-conscious Cambions roam the street and junkyards, searching for a quick fix. In each case, however, the bonds of the pack are tighter than family.
Food is one of the top priorities of the Cambion mindset; using their Subversions as often as possible is commonly an addiction for them. Frequently considered mad among the other wings, the Cambions do little to make themselves seem a more legitimate philosophy. They are, however, the oldest known group aside from the Evolutionaries, despite their philosophies being considered the most childish.
Cambions, however, do not welcome blackout. Their philosophy is anything but childish. After a hunt and feast, most Cambions sit and meditate on the hunt's outcome, the meaning behind it, and what they may have learned about the nature of the monster inside. They believe that in indulging the monster, one can understand and eventually control it.
Welcoming the New
When a Cambion chooses a suitable candidate to spread the infection, the host often stalks the target for several days. A Cambion's choice is typically a socially maladjusted individual that only becomes more insane as the Cambion moves through his life. The infected likes to play with the potential candidate, showing up in mutated form, using subversions, and otherwise testing the mental strength of the individual before moving ahead with infection. Once complete, the Cambion trains the new infected not by saying what he or she has become, but chasing him with chimeras, forcing instinctive use of subversions, and taunting him repeatedly. Eventually, the only way to live with the madness is to become it. Those that do not weather this strain the way the Cambions would like instead often become Jagda or Protectors.
Children of Echidna
Echidna is the mother of all monsters, and these Cambions call themselves her children. Her body was said to be half-nymph and half snake or slug, with horrid mottling and feasting on raw flesh. The Children participate in such feasts, hunting in small packs and
Lilith's Brood
It has been said that Lilith is the mother of demons; that the only children she could produce were evil, twisted creatures that lived in the night.
Primary Subversion: Predation
Favored Attribute: Strength or Presence
Jagda
"Become one with me."
The Infection is not what it seems. It is not a parasite, but a mutation of something that has already been living with us, inside us, for generations. What that thing is or could be is up to debate; some wards and camps claim the liver, the mitochondria, the stomach, or even the brain is the controlling factor in mutation, growing new organs and structures in the body as the Infection spreads. It matters not. All that matters is that the human body is evolving, and the Infected must evolve with it.
Primary Subversion: Evolution
Favored Attribute: Composure or Wits
Neonate
"We are one whole."
The Infection is not the Infection, and the Infected are not so; Neonates prefer the term Host. The Host is merely keeper of the home that the guest inhabits, and the Host must endeavor to understand the guest.
The child is the perfection of the body. So it is, then, that symbiosis occurs early in life. You must come to terms with the new relationship you have with your body; the Evolutionaries are correct in that this is the evolution of the human form, but the form is not under the control of the human mind. The human body has awakened as the mind once was, and only by listening to it and its urges can you come to understand it and be one with it.
As a child's form is the perfection of the body, technology is the perfection of evolution. Seek to become one with the technology, for as the flesh can be warped, so can the metals of the Earth, shaped to become the new claws and teeth of the people. Grow machines within and without the flesh, wrap the flesh in and through the machine, and become it. This is the path of the Neonate.
Welcoming the New
Neonates may seem like children, but they are far from immature. A Neonate often cyber-stalks a potential candidate for infection and the organization for weeks, months, or even years. Others work within specific social circles, pretending to be adults or the hangers-on of older infected, often displaying genius-level intellect and searching for like minds when attending such events. Once chosen, the candidate is slowly introduced to the idea of the infected through a series of mock dangers and stalking behavior perpetrated by the Neonate's fellows (a decidedly disturbing undertaking for the mortal, who is treated to several weeks of being stalked by a group of strange children). Neonates prefer to infect using needles and careful cleaning of wounds and arms, or, in the case of some infections, administering their 'treatments' orally, from hacking up bizarre worms to open bleeding into the mouth. They then back off and wait for the infection to take hold. If a chimera comes of it, they dispose of the beast quickly, mutating and then tearing it limb from limb.
Primary Subversion: Incorporation
Favored Attribute: Intelligence or Stamina
Protector
"Stay back. Let me handle this."
A man once said "with great power comes great responsibility," and despite the triteness of the phrase, it is correct and the operating creed of the Protector. Humanity, as the Evolutionaries say, is on its way out. Only the fool and the sadist would make those waning years violent and filled with torment. Instead, the proper response to a fading breed is to wait by the bed, holding the hand of that which is dying, and making the transition as peaceful as possible. Either that, or play hero because that seems like the thing to do with strange and mysterious powers.
The Infected are not the only monsters the world has to offer. Drug dealers, rapists, blackmailers, and other sundry crimes against both the law and humanity reign in the shadows. The goal of the Protector is to defend humanity with what little humanity the Infected has left.
Primary Subversion: Adrenal Control
Favored Attribute: Composure or Resolve
Stemmer
"What the hell is happening?"
To be a Stemmer is to not belong to a Wing. It means no letters in the mail, no yearly barbecue, and no mysterious phone calls in the night. It also means no backup, no aid, nobody to go to when you're out of cash and need to gorge yourself, and no easy answers when Chimeras, mysterious scientists, or corporate headhunters come pounding at the door. In all correctness, a Stemmer is also any infected that has not yet joined a Wing, Ward, or Room.
Primary Subversion: None
Favored Attribute: None
Crossover Considerations
Crossing over chronicles is far easier to do nowadays. It used to be that conflicting worldviews would clash and create confused players and storytellers alike.
Mages
MY brain life mages have o read Awakening again
Vampires
Kindred who feed on an infected are in for a special treat: for every bit of blood drained, the super-charged blood of the infected yields two Vitae. There's only one downside. While in bliss and thoroughly enjoying the experience, the infected is fully capable of snapping out of it at a moment's notice with no roll; hunting unwilling infected is a dangerous game. Infected also can't be made into ghouls due to the nature of conflicting templates, and they're immune to the effects of the Vinculum (their bodies just rip through the vampire blood like it's a competing disease), though they can still become addicted to the rush.
Werewolves
An Uratha might think that an infected is being ridden or otherwise consumed by a spirit.