The Clans

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The Clans

Foreword         I believe that Ellanna was a vampire, and the recollections which follow should give you some clues as to why. Here, I will tell you what I remember of what Vampires were like, and just a little but about their hierarchy of power. So far as I can tell, the whole of vampire-kind is divided into no less than three "clans". First, there is a clan which is divided into orders, which Alyra refers to in her recollections and dreams as "The Clan", or more frequently, "The Order". This Clan that Alyra belongs to is a clan of vampiric magickians and occult enthusiasts. They prize knowledge above all else. It is divided into several Orders, some patriarchal, and some matriarchal.
        There is also a "clan" of deranged vampires. I put that into quotation marks, because I am not sure whether it is a trait inherited through bloodline, or whether the intensity of the change from mortal to vampire is just so intense that it drives some individuals completely over the edge. Certainly, they have no real political structure, and are regarded simply as "those other vampires" by Alyra's clan. Alyra's clan, I think, believes itself to be the only real clan, because it is the only one that actually has its bloodlines mapped out and written down on paper. At any rate, the insane clan of vampires believes that it has tapped into a higher truth, and that madness is the key. Magick seeks to prove that this reality is mutable, but madness allows one to see it in all of its possible permutations. I find the concepts behind this very difficult to express, because in Ellanna's mind, they swirl around like intangible dancing ribbons. They are outside of the way I think, and I can't seem to grab onto them for long enough to put words to them.
        The last clan type, is "the feral". They may well be part of the above clan, but it would be hard to tell; they are skittish, violent, and usually don't talk much. They are a lot like the Morlocks of vampiric society. Some of them, I think, may have been physically deformed or mentally retarded to begin with. Others may have just gone feral after being turned, and stopped bathing. The mark of their breed slowly increases over time, so that the "elders" among the feral no longer resemble anything anywhere near human. I don't know how they could possibly survive without being discovered by humans, and I am not skeptical to the idea that I, as Ellanna, might have imagined them. Ellanna was, after all, prone to strange fits of paranoia, hallucination, and even delusions. Luckily, she was lucid enough that what memories I have make sense to me, and are not completely clouded out by colors and discordant concepts.

My Clan
(Meeting Ana Maria)

        I am not entirely sure of what country I was in, but I know that I was sampling some of the cuisine in a local Japanese restaurant. I sat in a booth, by myself, eating Unagi Maki and Toro with a glass of Sake, contemplating what I would do about a recent offer that had been made to me by one of the orders. The name of the order is lost, because even in Ellanna's internal dialogue, they were "The Order of Lunar Pillow Stuffing," but I gather that it was similar to "The Order of Luna"; "The Order of Lunar Alignment," or some such name. I also cannot remember the exact details of the proposition, only that it was presented to me with as much absurd ritual as possible.
        As I was gazing into this strange rice-wine I was drinking, the table was abruptly disturbed, and I nearly spilled the liquid onto my lap. As I looked up, I saw a short, busty little hispanic woman sitting down--or rather leaping down-- on the seat across from me, in my booth.
       "Hi! My name is Ana, can I touch your boobies?" She said/asked, and then stuffed a piece of Toro into her mouth. Three heads popped over the back of the seat behind her, all male. For a moment, I was too utterly stunned to speak. She continued to talk with a mouth full of sushi, but said nothing intelligible. I looked to the men, and two of them started speaking at the same time. They said the exact same thing, only one was saying it in Spanish, and the other in English. Finally, Ana's palate was clear, and I could discern the syllables that she was uttering,
        "Mumph umfer rumph rumph," she said, with perfect diction. "And I knew that you were a musician, so I was wondering if you liked jazz, and see Miguel suggested that we get a soprano, and since only sopranos drink sake we figured you'd be interested."
        "Actually, I very well might," I replied, "You see, normally, I am a scholar, but I do my music on the side. It pays the rent. And you divined it correctly; I am, in fact, a soprano." She nodded sympathetically, and turned to the men behind her who all nodded at me sympathetically, pouting as though they understood the sad plight of my life.
        Ana shook her head. "You need sooooooo much help."
        "I do beg your pardon," I returned. She nodded,
        "I can see into your eye," she told me, "and there is lots of stuff within you... it'll be gone forever if you don't dig into it. It's you. And you won't ever taste it unless you give it a name." Here, as if to emphasize her point, she ate another piece of sushi from my plate. However odd this statement might sound, I understand what she meant. Here, in rough translation: "I can see the pain in your eyes. It stems from the fact that you have elements of yourself that you deny, and will never accept. There are things inside of you that you could learn to like, if you only gave them half a chance. If you shut parts of yourself away, you will forget who you are, and that will eat away at your soul until there is nothing left. There is no greater act of self destruction."
        Yes, what she said meant all that. It was like her gibberish was actually another language that I spoke, only I didn't know until just then that I spoke it. It is only through experience in this lifetime, that I have come to understand that most people do not understand this way of speaking, and it strikes them as gibberish.
        I think my only reaction to her saying this was, "I see."
        She wasn't fooled. I couldn't deny my extraction. Just as I had been gifted with the psychic abilities that were common to us, so was I cursed with being recognized by every vampiric lunatic that walked the streets. It was unfair, I thought. I wasn't insane like the rest of them. Why should I have to be embarrassed by the mere fact that my sire was one of them? My sire was undoubtedly insane.
        After allowing me to mumble to myself for a moment or two, Ana invited me back to her place to jam.
        The introductions were interesting. The men in her company were named "Eggplant" and "Miguel". Eggplant was blond, with green eyes, and Miguel was two men, twins with dark hair. When I introduced myself as "Ellanna" they said that they were pleased to meet me, at the same time, one in Spanish, the other in English, and each of them kissed one of my hands (This naturally nearly made me jump out of my skin).
As it turned out, Ana was a very talented composer and had an equal amount of talent for arrangement. That was rare to find in one person, and so I decided that I was going to stay in touch with her. Eggplant played saxophone, and that was about all he was good for. He was too stupid to even walk straight, and didn't even know where he was half of the time. Miguel proved to be an excellent conversationalist -- once you got past the distraction of hearing everything he said simulcast in Spanish -- and was knowledgeable about lofty things like poetry and history. He played piano as well as base guitar, and both of his voices were very lovely.