Even in our immortality, insanity thrives within our ranks. A bloodline that runs as old as some of the Antedeluvians is a frustration for many of our kind. The Children of Malkav, the Malkavian insanity can be a blight for our kind, as they seem to have special insights. But they’re never clear in their intentions, just chattering balls of energetic insanity. But despite their deep mental scars and lack of any discernable mental stability, they’ve had their uses.
I’ve come to call it the Janus Effect, after the old two-faced Roman god. They see past and present at once, and their insanity makes it so they can understand it all. One such time there was a Kindred who was killing people, violating the masquerade. But he kept his head down just far enough that, after a blood bath, he was hidden from even the best of my trackers. For months he’d spring up, kill, and hide away again. My Prince pressured me to see our resident Malkavian oracle, but I refused. We didn’t get along, and I hadn’t exhausted all of my resources yet in tracking this killer.
But night after night, the pressure grew until I had no other choice. I visited him, my Malkavian brethren. And to my eternal frustration, he gave me the answers I needed. Hated admitting he was useful.
He revealed to me that this fellow kindred was another Malkavian, turned with little answers to his new existence. His insanity produced dueling personalities. A dominant beast that enjoyed the slaughtered, and a frightened child that was terrified of the violence the beast relished.
When a bloodbath was complete, the child took over and ran and hid. The child was the insightful one, knew they would be hunted down and killed for crimes they didn’t understand.
So, I hunted. I watched closely the hunting grounds, and finally found the scared child of Malkav. And he was right, for his crimes I had to end his existence. Bring him to his Final Death. To free the city of the horrors that were being produced.
Now, I seem to be hunting a new Janus. A new prey that resembles the Malkavians. While you’re not kindred, you share the same struggles. You are split in two. You are two-in-one, and it’s time to end this existence. Time for you to disappear into the dark, be brought to a death that will bring us all peace.
I can not risk another Malkavian in our streets, sharing our blood. So, Tureos, it’s time for you to see the grave you are destined for. For me to end this new Janus Effect before it can reach any deeper. To bring you a peace you must be longing for more than anything else.
Let me end your suffering, Childe. Become what you were meant to be, a child at rest for eternity in darkness.
Rest like the young Malkavian I had to end.
Carpe Noctem, Tureos.
Welcome to the world of darkness.