Meryt-Neith
- Paris -P- Clan Cappadocian -PLBE- France -P- Paris - 1933 -P- Paris - La Belle Époque
Background
The history of Meryt-Neith is the subject of passionate discussion among the Kindred scholars: Indeed, the first interrogation that comes to the mind is her Clan, and true Generation.
Meryt-Neith is known to be born around -3000 and, some speculate, after having discovered her luxious but empty mastaba, that she could have been the first recorded female Egyptian Pharao, of the First Dynasty.
The truth is somewhat different, as some Kindred discovered: Meryt-Neith is the daughter of the Pharao Oudimou, son of Djer and Grand son of Aha. Destined to marry her father to replace her own mother Neferou as the feminine principle necessary to the Pharao's balance, she, and her father were victims of an intrigue by the pharao's adviser, Hemaka.
She was entombed alive with the corpse of her father.
When she came back, she was changed, forever, and became the first Kindred Queen of the Two-Lands.
While this part of this story is well documented (because of the discoveries of Alexis in her subterranean pyramidal tomb, but the Toreador was unable to discover the name of her Sire, or her Generation).
Some believe Japheth was her Sire, and that she is the Grand Childe of Cappadocius. Her paleness is a proof of that, as well as her well-documented mastery over Necromancy and Auspex.
Others believe she was of the original Brood of Osiris, undead sister, or Childe of Kenthamon. She was not known, through, to shave her hair completely, as do now the other Children of Osiris. As one theory says that Osiris was the Childe of Cappadocius, it would make her a Cappadocian, too.
Another possibility would be that her Sire was one of Set's Childer, or even the Antediluvian himself. Little is known about the mysterious Childer of Set, that existed before his corruption and before the birth of the Clan known as the Followers of Set, so there is no way to verify her real Clan by possible Clan weakness. Her presence was somewhat unconfortable to others around her, and it could be well the Weakness of the first Childer of Set, but no one know for sure. The writtings about Set's vitae are not precisely deciferable enough to understand if she was Blood Bound to the Antediluvian, or if her Vitae was born from His.
One even believe she was the result of a pact between Osiris, (or Kenthamon and Set, and that from their mixed Vitae they created a Kindred that could be considered as one of the first (or simply the first) Caitiff. She was of weak endurance even when alive, and she could not have survived her 30th anniversary, so her undead paleness could be explained from her living weak condition.
But one thing is known, through: She was a Mage when alive, wielding Ra-Hekau (True Magick) with ease, even with her frail body. And somehow, she retained or recreated a form of Thaumaturgy that was of course, pale in front of the Ra-Hekau, but anyway unique and powerful enough to surprise her Antediluvian Mentor.
With other supernatural creatures, she, then known as Sechat, the Chronicler god, formed what would be known as the Enneade, the assembly of Egyptian gods. Few believe some peace existed between the Kindred and the Shapeshifters, but the extermination of the Mokole, as well as the Bubastis could be well the price paid for their allegiance to the red-haired Set.
Anyway, around -1500, the Kindred from all the Clans were united behind the Salubri of Saulot, against the Baali whose Minoean civilization was growing too much powerful. Set's nature, as fiery as his hair, was proved once more, as he and his followers (among them Sechat) used High Thaumaturgical Rituals to provoke the Santorini's eruption that entombed the Baali for centuries, and so, was the beginning of the end of the Minoean civilization that had threatened Egypt by invading the delta for more than two centuries.
The Setite, taught about the Kindred Enneade, led by Sechat (as was known Meryt-Neith), Amon, Childe of Montou (also known as Montano of the Clan Lasombra), and Ankh-Meres-Bast, of an obscure Gangrel-like Bloodline, know that Set, saddened by such treason within his own ranks decided their destruction. Nefertiti, former Ghoul and then, Childe of Set, was given the task to destroy her in her subterranean pyramid. Of course, Nefertiti diablerized the Methuselah. Thus, from the corrupted ashes of the Childer of Set, a new Bloodline, the Followers of Set, were created, around the mysterious Discipline of Serpentis.
The apparition of a Kindred supposed to be of Clan Lasombra, named Hecate, in Greece around -500 is known to most Ancient Kindred. She was a loner, believed to dabble in Magic, and believed too, to have power over Hell (at this time, Hell was the realm of Hades, and is, in truth, the decaying world of the Wraith). The Tal'mahe'Ra's archives talks about the introduction of the Lasombra into their numbers, and how she participated in the Vicissitude's analysis, and how, corrupted by the Souleaters, she fled before the Tal'mahe'Ra succeeded in destroying her. The Tzimisce Andeleon, discoverer of Vicisitude, and one of her ally, did not have her luck. The Shadow-Crusaders since researched for Hecate's presence in all the world.
When Cahete, of the Clan Malkavian, appeared in Rome, her mind was changed in so strange way that even her Clanmates believed she was too much spooky: Her face didn't show any emotion, and the few succeeding to read her mind discovered her cold, fast and deadly thought, full of logic too alien to understand. Cahete was destroyed in the burning of Rome...
Around 300, a Kindred named Eve, of unknown Clan and Generation, battled a specter of undead and corrupted appearance near the city that would become Paris. One Kindred, Varro Dominus, of the Clan Nosferatu, discovered the link between Eve, and Hecate, and identified the other, monstrous specter as Nebneferptah, a Kindred of Egypt, possibly of the Followers of Set.
The destruction of Saulot by the Clan Tremere was unopposed as a whole: In the middle of the Inquisition era, battling the Kindred-Magi and the mysterious Thaumaturgy they mastered as never a Clan did before, was unthinkable. But some individuals knowing about Saulot and the Salubri since the fall of Minoea, didn't liked it at all.
Laureen, a sickly young woman of England, was discovered to have True Magick powers. The Tremere, hopelessly needing any supernatural help for their war against the Tzimisce and the Gangrel, asked Sara to bring her to Ceoris to have her apprenticed, and then Embraced by Celestyn, a 6th Generation Tremere.
The new Clan was soon followed in example by a coven of Italian necromancers, the Giovanni family. Introduced in the Clan Cappadocian, they destroyed the Clan and took the Antediluvian's Vitae. At the same time, the Anarch Uprising was gaining in momentum, and Sara was destroyed by a Lasombra fleeing the fledgling Camarilla.
Laureen is then supposed to have hunted the killers of her Sire around Europe, and when she came back to the Tremere Chantry, the Blood of the Lasombra, the Tzimisce and the Tremere Antitribu was said to flow in her body, giving her new insight on Thaumaturgy, as well as knowledge of their Disciplines. And her cold ambition was visible in her blue eyes...
Since then, Varro Dominus discovered, Laureen is working to uncover secret occult mysteries in Paris. If Varro Dominus and Alexis know about some truth of her past, the Nosferatu does not understand what is her aim in Paris, and the Toreador has still to discover why she hates Nebneferpath so much to search for him to destroy it, once for all.
Meryt-Neith will search for the surviving Founders of the Childer of Set. The Antediluvian is the youngest of the 3rd Generation, but Meryt-Neith believes the legends saying Set was a God could have some kernel of truth. Whatever his divine powers before his Embrace, he could have kept it through it and as such, be one of the most powerful 3rd Generation. Meryt-Neith will use her Knights to destroy the God Set.
Appearance
Age: 5085 Hair: Dark Red Height: 1m58 Apparent Age: 17 Eyes: Black Weight: 45Kg Date of Birth: -3105 Race: Mixed Blood Sex: Female RIP: -3088 Nationality: None Esprit:
Meryt-Neith's true appearance is that of a young girl seventeen years-old, with a mix of subtle womanly appearance and still girlish traits. Her skin is white as chalk, and her long dark red hair flows in graceful waves down to her right. She has flat black eyes which appear as almost red in strong lighting, and bloodless, never truly smiling lips. Her silhouette is slender, fragile, and she died too soon to develop real feminine characteristics.
Yet, she is incredibly beautiful, in her own way, having inherited her mysterious mother's beauty, and she kept as well the appearance of her mortal failing health.
Role Playing
No real expression appears in her face, unless she wants to simulate it. She is cold beyond the coldness of the grave, and this is true, too, for her mind. She is logical, thinking so fast and on so many different things in the same time that the lucky Kindred who would read her mind would be lost in the middle of different and loosely related thoughts crossing her mind at light's speed!
She is like a machine, like a computer, seeming to understand emotion in a logical viewpoint, but now unable to really feel it. She is a monster, in a curiosity-like viewpoint, as most Kindred reaching similar states decide to Torpor, or even to commit suicide. The True Hand saw this as a proof of her total corruption by the Souleater.
Notes
She saw the rise and death of religions, and has a never ending contempt for those with True Faith. Having dabbled with True Magick, she understands Faith as a kind of Tenth Sphere of Magick. she likes nothing more than use her superior intellect to destroy her faith by using its own internal contradictions.
Since before her introduction in the Tal'mahe'Ra, she had united around her a group of Kindred she helped to reach powers beyond their Generation in exchange of their promise of protection, should the need arise one night. They are called the Knights of Meryt-Neith, and she used her Necromancy Hekau Rituals to take their heart as a proof of their loyalty. Their numbers must reach 30, half of them older than a thousand years! By using them all in a city, she could well take momentarily almost any city from any sect, Sabbat, or Camarilla. but this would destroy any power and influence they have either in the Sabbat, Inconnu, True Hand or Camarilla. She find this influence too useful to use her Knights in so blatant manner.
She is herself an accomplished sorceress, and while at first the Senef Hekau could be seen as weaker than the common Thaumaturgy, its range is wider (emcompassing both the Thaumaturgy and Necromancy Disciplines). Her magickal power easily rivals almost any Kindred magician, including the Seven Tremere Councillor, thanks to the thousand years of practice...
She met recently a young DST agent, Thierry Rethers, that had a strange power indeed: He received mental impressions from contact with living or non-living objects. Impressed by the yound man's courage and still, unwillingness to sacrifice other to his personnal ambition, she used her Auspex on him to read his mind. But in the same time, the injured man touched the hand of Laureen, and a feedback occured between the two. Sudden and painful, the empressions she received from her own mind, of her own still barely living human soul in the middle of the monstrous wheel machine that had become her mind, unbalanced her.
She felt once more, an emotion she had forgotten long ago: Love.
Thierry Rether's impressions were no less shocking, and the Five Thousand years of history mingling with his own few decades of life threatened his sanity. Recovering, he felt, too, an emotion similar to pity and compassion to the soul he had seen trapped within the mind of the Methuselah.
Unlike what it is believed by the Sect known as the Children of Osiris, the Discipline of Bardo has different origins. See Bloodlinebook: Childer of Set for more information.
The Hekau Avatars Background is the number of Avatars that are still living through the use of high-powered rituals of the Hekau Path of Necromancy.
A black cat. A hawk. A Kindred called Laureen. A Kindred called Myriam. Note that only two bodies (including her original one) can be active in the same time.
Actual Aim
Hiding behind the facade-intrigues of Laureen, Meryt-Neith is working hard to find anything about Nebneferptah whereabouts. She uses the Veilleurs to reach her ends, feeding them with informations and powers that could help them, thus helping herself.
Knowing the Seven Elders of the Clan Tremere are now wondering at her history, and wondering about her true aims, she decided to kill her Laureen incarnation, and remove herself from Paris' social world. while it will cut a lot of information sources from her, she will have more time to use to Nebneferptah's discovery.
She is still searching for new Knights. Ron Stewart, Chad, Juan and Jonathan Nostram were chosen in Paris to serve her, and all but Nostram were raised, after intrigues, up to the 7th Generation. Strangely, Chad and Juan proved to be poor allies, but possible new Gangrel Ducs should their Lady disappear...
Rumours
Meryt-Neith was the lover of Set (False: The fact she had hair as red as Set's own, could well explain why he choose her as his Childer. There was, too, a confusion with Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs meaning Sister, Lover, Loved and Childe...). Meryt-Neith is Inconnu (False) Meryt-Neith is member of the Camarilla's Inner Circle (False). Meryt-Neith is in Torpor, somewhere in Egypt (False: She is one of the Kindred who spent the less time in Torpor... You can see the results...) Somewhere in Egypt lies the secret of the Hekau Thaumaturgy created by Meryt-Neith, with High Rituals that could dwarf the commons Thaumaturgical Paths of the Tremere (Partially True...). The Tremere are researching any proof of Meryt-Neith's whereabouts, but the Setite prevents any study in Egypt. (True). Hecate was a Tremere (False!!!). Hecate was a Mage with Kindred followers (False). Hecate was among the first Infernalists (False).
Credit to the Author: https://augias.org/pbn/merytnet.htm