A vampire clan in the popular role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade , the Malkavians are distinguished by their apparent madness, their constant threat of falling into a frenzied rage. The other clans raise questions concerning the clan's origin and whether there is any purpose to their existence. They originated with a third generation vampire named Malkav, a progeny of the original vampire Caine who lived in the First City prior to the flood that destroyed it.
The Malkavians point to primordial times when the universe was a dynamic changing flow full of potentialities. Among the star children there were some who wished to keep eternity to themselves, and they took possibilities from the infinite and nailed them down, so to speak, with words and sounds. In cutting off segments of the world from the other inhabitants, they also began to clog the flow for eternity. They created problems for all who lived from the flow. The creative magic began to diminish. What happened in the primordial past continues today as science and the claims of objective reality limit perception. The Malkavians attempt to penetrate beyond agreed-upon reality and undercut the reality constructs by which we live. It is their search for a new reality, and the glimpse for it they have perceived, that has driven them mad.
In Malkavian lore, Malkav was a brilliant man of vision who wished to break through the artificially created reality barriers. In his visionary quest, he saw the beyond the constructs to look upon eternity and its fragmented nature, a vision which drove him mad. He passed his vision on to his progeny and manipulated them to test all the ways of breaking through the reality barriers. He set the Malkavians are apart, but Malkav believed that the end he sought was worth the means he employed.
In the Second City, the Malkavians constantly sowed discord by challenging the very foundation upon which vampire society was built. The other vampires saw the Malkavians as constantly causing disharmony in the ordered life, and today of being particularly effective in generating the discord in the Middle East. At one extreme, Malkavians could be mystic leaders, but more often they were pranksters and loved to pull off humiliating tricks against the leaders of other clans. Largely disorganized, the Malkavians remain a wildcard in clan society.
Two Malkavians stand out in history. One named Unmada organized a sizable group of the Malkavians in the fifteenth-century and led them into the interclan organization known as the Camarilla . After the Camarilla defeated the Anarchs, another Malkavian, Princess Vasantasena, argued against revenge directed at the defeated Anarchs. When the Camarilla moved against their defeated foes, she freed a group of Anarch prisoners and led them into the ranks of the Sabbat the major group opposed to the Camarilla.
Greenberg, Daniel. Clanbook Malkavian. Stone Mountain, GA: White Wolf Game Studio, 1993. 72 pp.
