ezgard: переводы

→The Danse Macabre

→The Danse Macabre

→The reasons for Embracing are many and varied, and every Kindred who exists in the world tonight probably has a host of her own for why she’d Embrace a childe. First and foremost is loneliness, as becoming Kindred imposes a state of isolation that many vampires seek to combat. Of course, the Embrace creates another Kindred — who is then himself alien and isolated, continuing the desperate, doomed cycle. Some Kindred Embrace to preserve a mortal’s talents, only to find that the Embrace renders that childe unable to reach the apex of her living abilities. Other Kindred Embrace out of a sense of duty or to prevent disaster, such as when accidentally killing a vessel and then “saving” her with the curse of undeath — whose existence will then possibly doom other mortals on down the road. The trend is inevitable but irreversible. Despite its intentions, the Embrace never causes anything but damnation, as it brings another vampire into the world.
Whatever the reason, no vampire is Embraced recklessly or without some degree of thought on the part of the vampire making a new childe. Creating a Kindred requires an act of immense will, and even a vampire who says she created a childe “just because” certainly hides her own reasons.

→But Why?

→It is curious, if not unfitting, that the most common name or unlife among the Kindred is a musical reference, the Requiem. The word itself means a mass or musical composition or the dead. In some cases, a requiem is a dirge. In other cases it is a chant intended for the dead’s repose. In still others, it is a gesture of respect.
No surprise, then, that the word has taken on its own meaning among the Kindred. The word has connotations of its own, suggesting that the Kindred must have adopted it in a more enlightened or sophisticated time. Tonight, however, all but the most cloistered Kindred knows that the word bears its own specialized meaning. The Requiem is the Kindred’s unlife, the grand, doomed waltz through which every one of their kind dances every night, urged on by metaphorical strains of music that represent the hidden powers that guide, manipulate and inspire them.

→The Requiem

→If anything is certain, it’s that the Embrace is not some kind of blessed immortality. Existence as a vampire is a curse, and quite possibly a curse handed down by God Himself. While being one of the undead certainly has its advantages — Disciplines (the mystical and eldritch powers of the Damned), deathlessness, the potential to transcend mortal boundaries — the drawbacks easily outweigh them. The price of undeath is steep, as foolish romantics infatuated by the myth of the vampire occasionally learn. One is forever apart from the world into which he was born, unconsciously shunned by it. Indeed, he can only pretend to be a part of it, and even that for only a short while, as the vampiric state forces him to prey on that world. It is his sustenance now, rather than his company. Never again shall a vampire see the light of the sun without feeling it burn him. Never again will he know the vital pleasures of life. The Requiem is a forced ostracism that may literally last forever. No wonder, then, that so many of the Kindred blind themselves to it with their petty schemes and rivalries. Their endless war, the Danse Macabre, might be the only way to escape their damnation, and even then, it is only a distraction and not true redemption.

→It begins with death — a torrid rush of blood spilling from the throat or wrist of the victim. At the right moment, the vampire tears her own skin and places a few drops of precious Vitae on the lips of the victim. The dark magic works its blasphemous miracle then. The vessel dies… and yet he doesn’t. While his natural processes cease, his sire’s Vitae infuses him with the force that sustains him beyond death. This is the Embrace, the first step from existence as a mortal into the gothic world of the Damned. What is the secret? What causes vampires to rise from beyond their natural life, to consume the blood of their erstwhile mortal fellows? Even the most erudite of the vampiric race do not know. Origin stories trace vampirism back to the Bible, to pagan ways and witchcraft, to the infamous Vlad Dracul, to the Devil himself and to any number of other sources. Every culture in the world has vampires in its mythology, and likely among its populace as well. “The Kindred condition” is an utter mystery, with an unknown number of members but no shortage of would-be prophets and philosophers with their own dogmas, theories and heresies as to the meaning or genesis of damnation.

→The Embrace

→The Kindred, however, are bound for the most part to the cities that the kine — the living — have created, and each of those cities is a distinct and separate domain. The Kindred have no nations, no overarching government; the local ruler is the only ruler. Although a vampire retains a sense of iden-
tity or memories from her mortal life, she does not belong. She is no longer a part of whatever greater body with which she identified. Rather, any loyalty or sense of belonging she has is limited to local circles: fealty to the Prince, membership in a covenant or clan. These are the only connections the Kindred can truly maintain, the only cultures of which they are truly a part, and it is upon them that the entirety of their society is built.

→Mortals create communities, almost despite themselves. They portion off nations, celebrating cultures that have evolved over centuries, if not millennia. They are all a part of something greater than themselves, even if they fail — or choose not — to acknowledge it.

→Chapter I: Society of the damned

Try though they might, the Kindred are not, and never can be, truly a part of mortal society. Regardless of their feelings, their wishes or their intentions, vampires are always separate from those around them. They are wolves amid the sheep, and their very nature prevents them from ever forgetting or ignoring that fact. No matter how much one of the Kindred might love a mortal and wish to stay with him, the Blood calls constantly. The Beast threatens a frenzy that all too often results in the violent death of those held dear. The Kindred inability to stand beneath the gaze of the sun separates them irrevocably from the greater portion of the culture, the society and the life that surrounds them. They are provincial creatures who think almost solely on a local level, because the greater portion of the world is well beyond their reach.