【旧版黑暗世界】【血族】原初之夜

雷鹰

该书全称为《第2版氏族书：诺斯费拉图族（WW2354）》

雷鹰

诺斯费拉图族的传舌人长牙开讲：
　我将先从最古老的传说开始，不过你也已经知道事情的开端了：首个吸血鬼便是该隐，他因杀害了其唯一的兄弟亚伯而被上帝所诅咒。为了让他反思自己那罪恶的行径，上帝给予了他永生的惩罚，并将其永远驱逐出了伊甸园。我听说该隐在那会儿要么是在咒骂上帝之名，要么就是在对上帝至敌发誓效忠。但无论如何，他最后都得到了鲜血的力量、超自然能力这类受诅者的专属之物。
　该隐创造了三个子嗣并和他们一同住在第一城——许多血族则称其为伊诺城。一些人说是该隐本人建造了这个安息所。而该隐这最年长的三个子嗣则将更多的凡人带进了伊诺城，以让自己尽享凡人之血并增强力量。他们之中最年幼的那位名叫希拉。因为她的年幼之最，她也成了该隐最不信任的子嗣。她那年长的兄弟，伊诺与艾拉德，都乐于待在第一城的高墙内，但希拉却对墙外的世界充满好奇。当墙外的凡人部落被吸引至此时，墙内的却选择了逃离。这些最初的人类间流传着城市的邪恶：罪孽深重并无视上帝所定下的峻法。
　我们氏族的传说便从一个并不信任伊诺城律法的男人开始。我们了解到他是一个强大的猎人，一个勇猛到敢于主动去狩猎世上最强大造物的原始人。那些行走在终末之夜的怪物都是他所击败的野兽的远亲，但世界却早已遗忘了这些原初时代的生物。当这个猎人搜寻着世界上最可怕的怪物时，他最终却发现了以伊诺城的凡人为食的，同时也是该隐本人最年幼的子嗣的希拉。
　这个真名早已迷失在历史长河中的男人，埋伏了上百天，等待希拉的到来。之后他诱使其深入荒野，走近深穴的洞口。据说，尽管他确实看不到她，但他还是在其跟踪自己时发现了她的脚印。一当他使其彻底远离第一城，深陷荒野的迷途时，他便将一根木质长矛深深地刺进了她的心脏中。但希拉可没这么容易被打败。依托鲜血的气力，她把长矛一分为二；依托鲜血的力量，她的爪划过他的脸庞，于其上留下了不可愈合的伤疤；依托鲜血中灼烧的狂怒，她仅用一击便将他打在山洞内的岩石上，让其粉身碎骨。猎人的身心与武器都被毁坏了，他濒临死亡。
　但猎人的勇猛给希拉留下的印象是如此之深，以至于她想用鲜血的力量来犒赏他。她开始厌恶自己那些年长的兄弟，并清楚如果想变得比他们强大，就需要有勇猛的子嗣来辅佐自己。当她醉心于聆听内心深处那心兽的低语时，她愈发相信自己的作为并没有错。她怜悯地看着自己的子嗣，给了他“诺斯费拉图”这个新名字。

堕落
　这位名为诺斯费拉图的猎人曾是一位人杰，一位击败了世界上绝大多数可怖野兽的战神。而当他拥有了鲜血的力量后便变得更加强壮了。他通过啜饮猎物的鲜血使自己变得强大无比。但他和生活在如今夜晚的我们一样，也开始学会畏惧三样东西：火，阳光和凡人的背叛。强大的他无法原谅自己居然败给了希拉。而在他脸上的伤疤就是那次失败的印记。就像希拉学会厌恶她的兄弟一样，诺斯费拉图也学会了厌恶他的尊长。
　当诺斯费拉图获得了鲜血之力时，他便成为了一个更加强大的猎人。希拉的两个兄弟都教会其子嗣如何使用鲜血的力量，而诺斯费拉图却像被遗忘在荒原上的野兽。他否认自己的堕落，并对那些横行的怪物产生了强烈的厌恶。他还否认自己已经沦为怪物的事实，还向那些更低一等的造物发泄怒气。他对自己脸上的那道伤疤是如此讨厌，以至于学会了在众人面前隐藏它及他自己。
　不久诺斯费拉图又学会了依自己的意图来创造子嗣。他教给他的首个子嗣以狩猎和无畏地直面行走于黑夜中的其它造物的技巧。当该隐最年长的子嗣们统治者第一城的凡人时，诺斯费拉图却在捕猎那些漫步在荒原中的人类。诺斯费拉图在初拥前通过摧毁自己所能找到的最强大的造物来使自己变强，但当希拉把他带入黑夜后，他就沦为了猎食人类的猎人。

血缚
　如今的传说告诉我们，该隐为了保持对他最年长子嗣的控制，也就是让其服从于他，便学会了血缚：一种最可靠的令其保持忠诚的办法。以前，最年长的子嗣通过被迫定期服下他的鲜血来做到绝对服从，而在那时，该隐却无法找齐他们的所有子嗣了。诺斯费拉图则以同样的方式来使子嗣效忠于他。通过血缚，他获得了有一个氏族那么多的忠诚追随者。想要报复尊长的他还吮拥了好几打子嗣。
　就像他当年为了引出并摧毁希拉而等了足足上百个日夜一样，诺斯费拉图创造了一族的子嗣来辅佐他，并让他得以吸食那些困扰自己一生的怪物。尽管鲜血的力量使他无比强大，但他的憎恨与自责也使他更加脆弱。他在黑夜中狩猎时学会了珍惜独处：因为这是世上唯一能令他那心兽的低语沉寂下来的办法。
　一天晚上，他看见了一位在小溪旁沐浴的美丽女子，内心燃起yu火。她的姓名和诺斯费拉图的一样，早已迷失在岁月长河中，如今她有上千个名字。他强暴了她，吸干了她的鲜血。yu火焚身的他还试图令其吞下自己的血。但他还没反应过来，这个女人就逃走了。没被血缚的她并不像诺斯费拉图的其他子嗣，她是自由的。诺斯费拉图对此是如此的愤怒以至于将所有子嗣召集到了自己麾下。起初，他命令他们抓住并摧毁这个女人。但当他们每晚都是空手而归时，他的怒火便更旺盛了。
　而他的憎恶也终于强烈到了自己再也无法忍受的程度，最终他召集子嗣进攻了第一城。那些被他称作“尼克图库”的最年长子嗣则始终一声不发地贴身保卫着他。他们游荡在街道上，终于遇见了希拉并攻击了她。随之而来的便是一场恶战。最后，希拉在诺斯费拉图被初拥的那个深穴的入口旁击倒了他，又一次令其满是鲜血与创伤。害怕尊长惩罚的子嗣们则仓皇而逃。

诅咒
　然后该隐来了，并知晓了发生的一切。他愤怒地看着舔舐伤口的诺斯费拉图，而这怒火只有上帝的方可匹敌。从前，上帝本人因该隐杀害兄长而诅咒了他；现在，该隐站在他的另一个亲戚，一个试图杀害他的尊长兼母亲——同时也是该隐女儿——的后代的面前。目睹了这未遂的杀亲的该隐满是怒火，而这给了他力量：他诅咒了诺斯费拉图及其所有的后代。诺斯费拉图本人，他的子嗣，他子嗣的子嗣，都被该隐的怒火所灼烧，承受着远比他那脸上的伤疤丑恶得多的诅咒——这甚至也包括那个逃进森林的女子。她堕落了，她的血肉萎缩，她的面容被毁，她的骨头被扭曲。她将永远承受该隐施加在诺斯费拉图身上的诅咒。
　该隐将诺斯费拉图永远逐出了第一城。他又一次露宿于森林中，并回到了那个深穴，深深地睡去，直到能想出赎罪的办法。许多年过去了，被血缚了的尼克图库们依旧俯首听命。而那个逃跑的女人，我们氏族的“女族长”，走出了丛林，深入世界，建立了她自己的家族并成为了我们所有人的始祖。
　时光飞逝，该隐最年长的子嗣们成为了其余十二位始祖的尊长，但这和我要讲的无关。随后大洪水来袭并摧毁了第一城，而上古者则在洪水之下休眠，直至其结束，但这也和我要讲的无关。我要讲的是这个故事的结局：诺斯费拉图呓语出了赎罪之道，他在休眠时召来了尼克图库们，并命令其继续追杀那个逃掉的女人：因为他可以把她交给该隐来赎罪。但那时这个女人已经初拥了一大堆子嗣，所以诺斯费拉图便发誓要把他们全部摧毁，并将其上交给该隐。他让尼克图库一个个地杀掉这些人，然后将他们的灰烬交给诺斯费拉图，以便最终上交给该隐来表诚意。
　有人说我们之所以潜藏是因为害怕人类，也有人说是因为羞愧于自己那受诅而又丑陋的面容，但，这些都不是真的：我们之所以潜藏在黑夜中，是因为我们知道，始祖本人已经送出了他最年长的子嗣，尼克图库，来把我们悉数摧毁，并将吾辈的灵魂交予该隐。该隐的其他子嗣只知道这天终究会到来——当他们的始祖意识到自己作为的可怕并醒来时。但对我们来说，这样的屠杀却是早就开始了。
　这也是为何我们要蜷缩在暗夜中，述说着我们的故事，等待着尼克图库的到来。
　这就是我们氏族的起源。而当我们所有人都被悉数摧毁时，这也会成为我们氏族的结局。

尼克图库之谜
　诺斯费拉图的传舌人们声称尼克图库并不是一支血系，而是始祖本人最年长的子嗣们。诺斯费拉图在反抗他的尊长和她的亲属时也得到了这些被他所血缚的子嗣的帮助。虽然血缚如众所周知的那样，会随着时间流逝而减弱，但传说也指出诺斯费拉图会召集子嗣来到他休眠的身体前，喂给他们自己的血来反复强化血缚，以使其始终保持忠诚。这种做法并不是没有风险：如果有尼克图库不是很精通隐身术，那么另一个吸血鬼就有可能尾随他，来到他们尊长所沉睡之处并吸榨上古者。但据说尼克图库都强大到能抹消自己存在的所有痕迹...... 如果他们真的存在。
　而有关这些第四代血族的传说的另一个方面则导致了氏族内部的诸多猜测。有一些说法称，受诅前的诺斯费拉图曾在焚心的**中初拥了一个美丽的女子，她也是现存氏族成员的“女族长”。如果这属实，那这个“诺斯费拉图族之母”就从没暴露过自己——她甚至连一个明确的名字都没有：“女族长”只不过是那些中最常用的。
　其它说法则认为有三个这样的上古耆宿逃脱了诺斯费拉图的血缚。这个理论是有一些证据支撑的：其中一个，俄罗斯传说里那位臭名昭著的女术士芭芭雅嘎（现已死亡）就被认为是始祖的子嗣之一。但如果女族长和鬼婆是最先的两个子嗣，那谁又是第三个呢？涉及到诺斯费拉图超能力的诸多轶闻则提供了一种可能的解释：众所周知，最高级的隐身术能够如此彻底地隐藏一个诺斯费拉图的所有踪迹，以至于会让旁人彻底忘掉他（她）。而它可能侧面点出了真相：这种造物的确存在过，但由于其高超的隐身能力，许多试图找到它的努力都被遗忘了。本边栏对氏族的过去，这个和“尼克图库是否存在”一样神秘的谜团，保持不置可否的态度。

雷鹰

原文：
Tusk, The Talebearer of Clan Nosferatu, begins:
　I'll begin with the oldest legend - you already know how it starts. First among the vampires was Caine, damnned by God for slaying his only brother, Abel. As punishment, Caine was cursed with immortality to reflect upon his foul deed and cast out of Eden for all eternity. I am told that, in that moment, Caine either called out the name of God or a pledge to God's Adversary; either way, Caine gained the power of the Blood, supernatural abilities that are solely the province of the Damned.
　Caine created three childer and dwelled with them in the First City, known to many now as Enoch. Some say Caine himself was responsible for this haven's creation. Caine's three eldest childer called more humans into Enoch, so that the vampires could harvest the humans' blood and be strengthened against the night. The youngest of these vampires was named Zillah - because she was the youngest, she was also the most distrustful of her sire. Her older brothers, Enosch and Irad, were content to stay within the walls of the First City, but Zillah was curious about the world outside it. While tribes of kine were drawn to it, others fled from Caine's creation. The earliest mortals spoke ill of the city - it was a place where sin was plentiful and the laws of God were often cast aside.
　Our chapter of the legend begins with a man who also did not trust the ways of Enoch. We are told he was a great hunter, a primitive who possessed such prowess that he sought to hunt the most powerful creatures in the world. The monsters that stalk the night in these, the Final Nights, are but distant descendants of the beasts he fought. The world has forgotten their names and their ways. As this hunter sought out the worst of the monsters of the world, he eventually found Zillah, the youngest of Caine's three childe, who preyed upon the humans of the city of Enoch.
　This man, whose true name has long since been lost to the past, lay in wait for Zillah for a hundred days and nights. He lured her into the wilderness, near the mouth of a deep cave. Although he could not see her, it is said that he noticed her footprints on the ground as she followed him. Once he had lured her far away from the First City, into the chaos of the wilderness, he drove a wooden spear deep into her heart. But Zillah was not so easily defeated. With the strength of the Blood, she broke his spear in two; with the power of the Blood, she slashed him across his face, marking him with a scar that would never heal; with the fury that burned in her Blood, she smashed him against the rocks of the cave with one powerful blow. His body, mind and weapon were broken, and he was close to death.
　Yet Zillah was so impressed by his bravery that she thought she would reward him with the power of the Blood and Embrace him. She had come to hate her older brothers, and she knew that if she was to become more powerful than they were, she would need brave childer to aid her. And as she listened to the whispering of the Beast within her, she believed more and more that what she did was right. She looked down upon her childe with pity, and she renamed him "Nosferatu."

The Downward Spiral
　This hunter, Nosferatu, had once been a pinnacle among men, a titan who had triumphed over the most horrible beasts of the earth. Once he received the power of the Blood, his strength grew even more. He became mighty through drinking the blood of his prey, but he also learned to fear the three dangers we fear to this night: fire, sunlight and the treachery of men. For all this strength, he could not forgive himself for failing to slay Zillah. The mark on his face served as a reminder of his failure. Just as Zillah learned to hate her two brothers, Nosferatu learned to hate his sire as well.
　Once Nosferatu gained the power of the Blood, he became a greater hunter than ever. Zillah's two brothers taught their own childer how to use the strength of their vitae, but Nosferatu was like a beast abandoned in the wilderness. In denial of his own descent from grace, he developed a terrible hatred of monsters. Nosferatu denied that he had become a monster himself, and exacted his rage on the lesser creatures of the Earth. And because he so hated the flaw ripped across his face, he learned to hide it, and himself, from any who would look.
　Nosferatu soon learned to create others in his image. He taught his first childer how to hunt and how to look without fear upon the other creatures that roamed the night. While Caine's eldest childer commanded the mortals of the First City, Nosferatu preyed upon those who wandered in the wilderness. Before his Embrace, Nosferatu had become strong by destroying the most powerful creatures he could find, but after Zillah had baptized him into darkness, Nosferatu learned to become a hunter of men.

Bound in Blood
　Now, legend tells us that Caine wanted to maintain control over his eldest childer, so to keep them obedient, he learned of the blood bond, the surest way to enforce loyalty. By forcing them to drink his blood regularly, his eldest sons became loyal to him, but by then, Caine could not find all the childer they had spawned. In the same way, Nosferatu learned to make his childer loyal to him; by forcing them into bonds of blood, he gained a clan of obedient followers. And as he nursed his hatred of his sire, Nosferatu spawned dozens of childer.
　Just as he had patiently waited a hundred days and nights to lure Zillah and destroy her, he created a brood of childer who would help him rise up and devour the monsters who had doomed him for all eternity. Just as the power of the Blood made Nosferatu strong, his hatred and remorse made him weak. When he roamed the night to hunt, he learned to treasure solitude because it was the only thing in the world that silenced the whispering of the Beast within him.
　One night, in a moment of passion, he saw a beautiful woman bathing beside a stream. Again, her name has been lost from all the old stories; she now has a thousand names. He ravished her and drained her of her blood and then, because passion seized him, let her feast upon his blood as well. Before he could kill her and before he could realize what he had done, she fled. Unlike Nosferatu's other childer, she was free because she was not bound by Nosferatu's blood. Nosferatu was so furious that he gathered all his childer to him. At first, he commanded them to hunt this woman down and destroy her, but each night that they did not find her, his anger grew.
　When his hatred was so fierce that he could no longer stand it, he finally gathered them to assault the First City. His eldest childer, whom he called the Nictuku, allied around him and, with the silence of the grave, stalked the streets until they found Zillah and attacked her. And there followed a terrible battle. At its end, by the mouth of the cave where Nosferatu was first Embraced, Zillah smote down Nosferatu, leaving him broken and bloodied once again. Nosferatu's childer fled, fearing the retribution that would follow.

The Curse
　Then Caine came to see what had happened. While Nosferatu nursed his wounds, Caine looked down upon him with the fury of a god. God himself had cursed Caine for slaying his brother, and now, Caine stood before another of his relatives, a childe who had tried to kill his sire, his mother, Caine's own daughter. At the sight of this attempted parricide, Caine was consumed with a vast and furious anger. And at that moment, Caine's hatred gave him strength: He cursed Nosferatu and all his descendants. Nosferatu and Nosferatu's childer and their childer's childer all fell down accursed by the fury of Caine, bearing a curse far more hideous than the flaw upon Nosferatu's face. And even the lone woman who had escaped into the woods, she too fell down, and her flesh withered, and her face cracked, and her bones warped, and for all eternity, she was to pass on the curse that Caine had placed upon Nosferatu.
　Caine banished Nosferatu from the First City forever. Nosferatu crept away to hide in the woods once again, to return to the cave where he had first died and to sleep until he could dream of a way to atone for his great crime. Many years passed, and the Nictuku waited faithfully, bound through blood to obey his desire. And the woman who had escaped, the Matriarch of our clan, went out into the world to create her own family and become the sire of us all.
　Time rolled on, and Caine's eldest childer begat 12 other childer, but that does not concern my story. A great flood came and destroyed the First City, and the Antediluvians slept beneath the waves until it passed, but neither does that concern my story. This is the end of the story: Nosferatu dreamt of a way to atone for his sin. As he slept, he summoned the Nictuku to him and commanded them to seek out the woman who had fled from him. To atone for what he had done, he would offer her up to Caine. But by that time, she had Embraced a multitude of childer, so Nosferatu pledged to destroy them all and offer them up to Caine. Nosferatu sent the Nictuku to slay them, one by one, and bring their ashes back to him so that he could make an offering to Caine and thus show his contrition.
　It is said that we hide in the night because we fear the world of men. It is said that we hide from the light because we are hideous and ashamed of our cursed appearance, but this is not true. We hide in the night because we know that Nosferatu has sent out his eldest childer, the Nictuku, to destroy us all and offer our souls up to Caine. Caine's other childer know that the time will come when the Antediluvians will all realize the horror of what they have done and rise up and destroy all their childer and offer their souls up to Caine, but for us, the killing has already begun.
　And that is why we crouch in the night, telling our stories, waiting and listening for the Nictuku to destroy us all. That is the story of how our clan began, and when the last of us has been found and destroyed, that will be the story of how our clan ends.

The Nictuku Enigma
　According to the Loremasters of Clan Nosferatu, the Nictuku are not a bloodline - they are eldest childer of the Nosferatu Antediluvian himself. When legendary Nosferatu rose up against his sire and her relations, he did so with the aid of his own blood bound childer. Although blood bonds have been known to wear off over time, legend also has it that Nosferatu has repeatedly renewed these bonds of blood, summoning his eldest childer to his torpid body, where they may feed and renew their loyalty. This is not without its dangers, of course: if the Nictuku did not have such a command of the Obfuscate Discipline, another vampire could attempt to follow them to their master and diablerize this Ancient. Thankfully, the Nictuku are allegedly powerful enough to erase all traces of their presence... if they exist at all.   
　One further aspect of the legend of the fourth-generation Nictuku has resulted in a great deal of speculation within Nosferatu society. Some legends state thar before Nosferatu's curse, he Embraced a beautiful woman out of sheer lust, one who is now the "Matriarch" for the rest of the clan. If this is true, this mysterious "Mother of All Nosferatu" has never revealed herself furthermore, she is not known by any one definitive name - Matriarch is simply the most common one employed.
　Other myths claim that three such Ancients escaped Nosferatu's blood bond. This theory has some evidence to support it, since the infamous (and now deceased) sorceress Baba Yaga of Russian legend has been reputed to be a childe of the Antediluvian. If the Matriarch and Baba Yaga were the first two childer, then who was the third? Lore concerning Nosferatu's supernatural abilities provides one possible explanation: The highest levels of the Obfuscate Discipline, it is well known, can obscure all traces of a Nosferatu so thoroughly that he or she may be effectively forgotten. While there may be hints of legends that this creature once existed, many efforts to find such a monster are often forgotten or abandoned. The Nictuku Enigma remains a tantalizing glimpse of the clan's illustrious past - one as cryptic as the existence of the Nictuku themselves.