Antediluvian

This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it

An antediluvian is a vampire from the third generation of vampires in the World of Darkness game Vampire: The Masquerade. The term literally means, "before the flood", in reference to the biblical Great Flood (or the metaphorical flood of lesser generations of vampires). This term is not to be confused with methuselah (named after Methuselah, the longest-living character in the Bible), which refers to vampires of the fourth and fifth generations.

The antediluvians are some of the oldest vampires because the second generation has been destroyed, and the first 'generation' is Caine. Yes, as in "and Abel." The story goes that Caine was originally the first and only vampire, marked by God to be immortal and to keep repeating his act of murder. After founding the city/nation of Nod, he got lonely and converted three more people to be like him. These three did like dear ol' dad and converted vampires of their own. Caine had second thoughts, decided that making more vampires was a bad idea that could get out of hand, and killed the three he created. The 'third generation' heard what happened, ran for it, and spent most of the time since terrified of their immortal lives that grandpa will show up and finish them off. Millennia of paranoia with godlike powers makes these figures worse than Caine himself, since there's a good chance Caine might consider the PCs to be beneath his notice.

Everyone agrees that an antediluvian walking about openly is an Extremely Bad Sign (except for some vampires that want just their ancestor to return), and more than one active antediluvian is probably the sign of the Apocalypse... which is exactly what White Wolf did for the end-story of their Old World of Darkness (oWOD) fluff.

Antediluvians serve the same purpose as the "precursor" trope in sci-fi settings, with a healthy dose of "ancient evil" on the side.

Clan Founders

All of the clan founders are antediluvians, whether they were originally Embraced into the third generation or achieved it through diablerie:

• Assamite: Haqim
• Brujah: Troile
• Followers of Set: Set
• Gangrel: Ennoia
• Giovanni: Augustus Giovanni
• Malkavian: Malkav
• Nosferatu: Absimiliard
• Toreador: Arikel (Ishtar?)
• Tremere: Tremere
• Ventrue: Siddhartha

The following clan founders are presumed dead:

• Cappadocian: Cappadocius (diablerized by Augustus Giovanni in 1444)
• Lasombra: Lucien (believed slain by its childe Gratinao de Veronese in 1413; currently residing in/merged with the Abyss)
• Ravnos: Ravana, Zapathasura (Smacked down by the Technocracy in 1999, DEATH BY ORBITAL MIRROR BITCH! Oh, and don't forget the kuei-jin!)
• Salubri: Saulot (diablerized by Tremere but playing musical bodies with Tremere and some of his subordinates)
• True Brujah: Ilyes (diablerized by Troile)
• Tzimisce: (name unknown and probably unpronounceable, presumed diablerized in the late 15th century; currently a fuckhuge mass of slime underneath New York under the protection of the Zantosa revenant family)