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Series: Vampire Dark Ages Clan Novel Series
Title: Nosferatu (Book 1)
Author(s): Gherbod Fleming
ISBN: 1-58846-817-8
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 264
Overall Concept 8
Execution 8

Round about 1991 I was living in St. Catharines, ON and going to Brock University. I would often frequent the local gaming and comic stores, and one day I found this pamphlet for this new Role Playing Game called Vampire: The Masquerade (which being the classic hoarder I still own). It was half short story and half advertising, depicting this game of modern horror where the main characters were Vampires. It mentioned how the game would be more about story telling and less about game mechanics. I was instantly hooked. Partially because I’d been a lover of all things vampiric since I had purchased a Scholatic book on vampires when I was 10 or so. And, partially because I was greatly intrigued by the concept of a game based around a storytelling concept. I bought the 1st edition rules as soon as they came out, and a few modules and source books. However, my attempts at playing the game were met with frustration on two avenues; 1) the few mechanics the game did have were not well balanced and allowed some players to take control of the entire party against their will and 2) I found that the majority of players in this game tended to be of the ‘Goth’ sub-culture, one I was not comfortable inserting myself into. Hence, years rolled by and though I’ve never played the game since I’ve been very interested in the concepts of the game.

Simply put, the game depicts that vampires are the children of Caine, using its own reworking of the Biblical story of Cain, and that vampirism is the curse that was laid upon him by God. All modern vampires are the direct ‘blood to blood’ descendants of the 13 members of the third ‘generation’ of vampires. From each of these vampires come the thirteen original clans of Vampire: Assamites, Brujah, Cappadocian, Followers of Set, Gangrel, Lasombra, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Salubri, Toreador, Tzimisce & Ventrue. Each clan has specific powers and weaknesses and typically culls humans with similar traits. As an example Nosferatu have great powers of obfuscation, are very adept at gathering information, are culled from the outcasts of society, and are cursed with being hideously ugly making them unable to intermingle with humans easily, whereas Ventrue are charismatic, able to influence the minds of others, are culled from royalty or aristocrats and can only drink blood from specific types of humans or under specific circumstances, which can often lead them to inappropriate times of weakness.

After the initial success of the modern era Vampire: The Masquerade, the publisher tried taking the game into a new direction with Vampire: The Dark Ages. This takes the same 13 Clans and places them in Europe during the Dark Ages. This enabled the players to take on the roles of vampires in an era where they didn’t have to hide their existence from humans, and actually had the ability to sway the people more openly and effectively. Also it allowed for players of more fantasy based games to readily adapt to the tropes of this new game system.

And now that I’ve given the entire ‘necessary’ back story, here’s my review……

This novel is the first of 13 (one for each clan) that tells of a specific series of events during the Dark Ages era of the Vampire role playing world. It is based upon real world events, yet intersperses vampires as key movers and shakers of those events. Each novel has, as the protagonist, a different vampire from each of the 13 clans.

This first novel has as its protagonist a Nosferatu vampire, hence the title, and revolves around the events of the sacking of Constantinople during the fourth crusade.

This first thing I noticed about this book is that the word count is significantly higher than the Left Behind series. Whereas Left Behind was an oversized paperback with 1” margins, 12 point font and 1.5 line spacing this is a regular paperback with small margins, 8 point font and single line spacing. So even though this book is only 264 pages, I’d say it easily stacks up in total word count with the 424 page Soul Harvest book from the Left Behind series.

The second thing I noticed was that, for a book that caters to a sub-culture that is typically associated with Wiccan or New Age philosophies, it was full of Catholic/Christian concepts and dogma. And surprisingly several of the vampire characters of this book were devout followers of this faith. Despite my initial surprise I found this quite refreshing to see as many other ‘fantasy’ books that are based on this period in history try to downplay the role of the church in daily life, yet here is a book that is doing quite the opposite. Few people realize just how powerful the Catholic Church and faith was during this era of European history, and that by removing it you are furthering yourself drastically from the era you are trying to represent. It would be like trying to tell a modern day piece of fiction and totally disregarding the existence of North America and all of its impact on modern cultures, politics and society.

As I read this novel I found myself frequently going to Google/Wikipedia to help with my understanding of the world of that era. From this I was greatly rewarded with knowledge of the fourth crusade, the schism of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, Cappadocia and the surrounding environs and the sacking of Constantinople. I find it quite interesting that a fiction book about vampires brought me to learn more about the history of the world and a clearer understanding about world religion.

As for the story itself, the main character, Malachite, is torn apart by the destruction of the ‘greatest city for Christendom that has ever existed’. We learn that Malachite’s mentor, Micheal, was a vampire who was one of three that were manipulating the rulers of Constantinople with the intent of making Constantinople a perfect city wherein vampires and humans could coexist in peace. This concept is constantly referred to as ‘the Dream’. With the sacking of Constantinople, Malachite is put on the path of saving what remnants of the Dream still exist. To this end he enlists the aid of his Nosferatu brothers, herein referred to as the leper Knights of St Ladre, a Gangrel (vampire able to assume the shape of a wolf) ‘scout’, and a Cappadocian (vampire necromantic mage) lady. They travel to several places both within Constantinople and without, and at the books end you get the general concept that will most likely trace its way through the 13 novels of the series.

I found that the author did an excellent job of keeping the mood of the book dark and disturbing without overstating it, of playing within the facts of history without creating anachronisms, and representing the concepts of the Vampire role playing game world and its clans with obvious understanding of what he was writing about.

This was an excellent beginning to the series and easily makes me want to continue reading to see how the authors will weave the main story concept while incorporating the other clans and their unique goals.

As for recommending this book, I would suggest that this would be a book that would be best offered to a reader of horror who is interested in history or to a player of Vampire who is interested in a fictional tale along the lines of the game. And if the series plays properly along the themes of the game, this will be a series enjoyed by lovers of Machiavellian politics. I would warn that with the main protagonists being vampires who often feed on people and treat them as chattel, I don’t think anyone looking for a positive hero will be rewarded and should thusly avoid this book and series.

All in all a very good read that helps to satiate my desire for the Vampire game world without my having to uncomfortably interact with a group of all black wearing malcontents.