Nicknamed
fiends Tzimisce are among the greatest
Cainite scientists,
alchemists, historians and metaphysicians. They are also some of the sickest bastages in the entire
World of Darkness. However, Tzimisce are not content to sit and think. They are experimenters more than philosophers, and pretty much anything on two legs or four is their
laboratory...and snakes...and bugs...and... well, you get the picture. If it's organic and animal matter, then they play with it.
The
discipline of
Viscissitude (their signature discipline) is the shaping of bone, flesh, and blood... it can be used for blessing or
bane. However it is important to note that the Tzimisce consider it all to be a blessing upon their target; an improvement if you will. They are no more remorseful about using their fleshcrafting on an innocent than a potter is about spinning a pot out of clay. To them, it is
Art, and is never taught outside the Clan. In point of fact, it is rarely taught in-clan anymore because one must prove their worth in Clan Tzimisce as a warrior before they are taught the Art of Fleshcrafting.
To purify their thought and detach themselves from human subjectivity, Tzimisce either founded or developed the various
Sabbat Paths of Enlightenement. The clan was also instrumental in creating the
Sabbat's various
Auctoritas Ritae and
Ignoblis Ritae. They are quite poetic in their endeavors and of all the
Vampires in the
White Wolf game, are probably the only ones more insane than
Clan Malkavian. They are like the quiet little man next door who never bothered anyone, always kept his yard, and was generally a good neighbor;
until they found those ten bodies cut up in freezer bags... Their mentality is so completely
alien and
inhuman that most
Storytellers will refuse to allow a player to play this clan.
Lastly, the Tzimisce are very territorial. This comes from their ancient roots where they were the
nobility and the
peasants were their
vassals to use as they wished. Even then, however, their sense of
noblesse oblige was foreign. They would terrorize the
serfs and keep them in line, walking in the dreaded
Zulo form, a giant half-man, half-beast, and demand their utter and complete loyalty, making a horrifying example for show of their power. Yet woe to anyone else who tried this in their
domain. In
Vampire: The Dark Ages they were known as isolationists, and if you found yourself on their territory you had best not harm one living thing without their permission, which was usually very hard to get since their territorial nature is such that they will
diablerize first, and contemplate
the meaning of life and death later. Their possessive nature is so obsessive that they must sleep with two handfuls of their native soil each day. Without their native soil around them in rest, they will be at half their dice pool the next day, then half that the next, and so forth, until they are so weak they can only enter torpor. Most Tzimisce have solved this problem by simply inserting the dirt into their bodies.
The Tzimisce
Disciplines in modern day are
Animalism,
Auspex, and
Viscissitude.
The Old Clan Tzimisce, the ones that refused to join
the Sabbat use Fortitude instead of Viscissitude.