The
discipline practiced by the
vampires of
Clan Tzimisce in the
World of Darkness role-playing games by
White Wolf Games Studio. Vicissitude allows the skilled
practicioner to
shape and
mold the
flesh and
bone of one's self or others, and at higher levels stranger and more complete
metamorphosis is
possible -- one notable
power is the
ability to turn into a
sentient,
mobile slick of
blood,
immune to all forms of
damage but
fire and
sunlight, and able to seep through the smallest
cracks. It does, however, confer the unusual disadvantage of being able to be
drunk. What's so bad about being drunk? Just you ask a
glass of
water!
(apologies to Douglas Adams)
The Tzimisce see the use of Vicissitude as both a science as an art form, performing terrible experiments in their laboratories and turning themselves into beings of terrible beauty. White Wolf has published supplements which suggest that vicissitude isn't a true vampiric discipline, but rather an alien disease that the True Black Hand brought back from the Deep Umbra; however, in 3rd Edition, this idea seems to have been edited out of the continuity. As always, White Wolf leaves the use or ignorance of such ideas to the individual storyteller, in accordance with the Golden Rule of White Wolf.
The servitors and war ghouls known as szlachta and vohzd are created with Vicissitude, and the discipline formed the basis of the path of enlightenment known as the Path of Metamorphosis, which many Tzimisce follow.