A vampire clan in the popular role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade , the Nosferatu most closely resemble the rodent-like vampire Count Orlock from the 1922 movie Nosferatu. Unlike the other vampires, who continue to appear much as they did prior to the embrace (transformation) that made them a vampire, the new Nosferatu undergoes a significant and painful physical transformation that occurs over the first week. The organs shrivel and harden, the skin coarsens and stretches, bruises appear on the flesh, hair falls out, and the ears and nose distends. Finally, the bones warp, and even the skull changes. The Nosferatu usually choose the new progeny from among those who are already alienated from mortal society, the physically and emotionally scarred. The Nosferatu live completely apart from mortal society.
While the origin of the Nosferatu is unknown, some have suggested that the original Nosferatu was cursed either for incest or bestiality. To this day, the Nosferatu will also choose to inflict the embrace on some people as a punishment, targeting mortals seen as callous, prideful, or vain.
The separatist nature of the Nosferatu gives them a unified life not shared by the other clans. The elders also seek to impose a unity, claiming that they have no time for internecine fights. Great respect is given to the elders who have endured the pain of existence the longest. They form themselves into broods tied together by geographical closeness and blood ties. Conformity is enforced by the threat of ostracism. Banished from the clan, in its most extreme the Nosferatu life is one of loneliness, although a few have found a place as a terrorist among the rebellious Anarchs or the Sabbat who form the main opposition to the Camarilla , the primary vampire interclan organization.
The Nosferatu fear the Nictuku, truly monstrous vampires who reportedly possess a strong tie to the ancient vampires and have a far greater share of the strong blood of the ancients. Although small in number, they are, apparently, part of the original curse placed on the Nosferatu, and their agenda is the Nosferatu's complete destruction.
The Nosferatu have one valued possession, information. They gather all the data they can in order to detect the presence of an Nictuku in their midst. However, the habit of gathering information makes them useful allies of the local prince. They are coming into their own in the information age, the average Nosferatu making a perfect computer geek.
Hatch, Robert. Clanbook Nosferatu. Stone Mountain, GA: White Wolf Game Studio, 1993. 72 pp.
