The Maiden

Vampire the Requiem - Covenant - Circle fo the Crone

The Maiden (or Virgin) is a figure of purity and innocence, which leads many to expect goodness and charity. That expectation is sentimental Christian baggage. Real innocence means ignorance, particularly ignorance of good and evil. All animals are innocent of malice, lacking the will to develop a grudge or enjoy cruelty for its own sake. That’s little consolation when a grizzly bear bites your face off.
To the Kindred of the Circle, a female vampire is a Virgin before she has killed. This doesn’t mean disposing of animals, of course — they’re animals, their place is to die for their betters. Humans are there for that reason as well (though there are many additional places for mortals in the cosmos), but Virgin Kindred may not have yet realized that. The most successful Maidens, of course, are vampires who do accept that it would be right and proper for them to kill humans, as their every instinct cries for them to do, but who restrain themselves to hone their inner strength and grow by self-imposed tribulation.
Maidens deny themselves some experiences to intensify other experiences. For example, they deny themselves murder to improve their willpower. This is the essential act of the Virgin: setting boundaries to purify issues. This power of denial gives Virgins the power of purity. Because they are staunchly on one side of an issue, and refuse to even learn about the other, their opinions, beliefs and emotions on that issue remain completely unchanged, untouched and uncorrupted. They have clarity. Though it is, as any undead killer could tell you, a fragile clarity.

Perception

Purpose

Expectations

The role of the Maiden is to advise and represent the Circle, when Maidenly advice and representation are appropriate. She symbolically possesses an unsullied perspective, and this is often true in fact as well. Since she has not experienced the kill, talking to her can remind more experienced Kindred what that time before killing was like. Because she is closer to Humanity, her words may renew those whose spirits are wearied from contending with the Beast.
Proximity to her human origins cuts both ways for the covenant. The Virgin is unlikely to be thrown into the depths of intra-covenant realpolitik. Indeed, the Circle typically protects her from that sort of depraved selfinterest. But when the Circle needs a fair face to speak with humans, one who can remember what it was like to breathe and laugh under the sun, a Maiden is often called upon.

Social Status

Many neonates qualify as Virgins, though (as with mortals) it’s usually just a matter of time. At Status 0 to •, a Maiden is much like any other neonate in the Circle, someone to be taught and tested, though perhaps the newcomer may find (to her puzzlement) that older Kindred occasionally stop by for conversations that seem aimless and embarrassingly personal by turns. Only later, after she’s left the Maiden stage, does she understand their interest in her opinions.
At Status •• to •••, a Virgin probably has some insight into her position, and the Circle’s point of view on it. This is the range at which one stops being a Maiden by default and starts being one intentionally. There are some Acolytes who emphasize politics and clout above mystic insight and who gain this degree of Status without paying much attention the discussions of what purity means to vampires. Indeed, many Maidens who pursue mortal Contacts as an avenue of power strive to retain their Maiden Status, not out of any religious imperative, but because it’s easier to cope with mortals when they aren’t disposable. But far more often, a Status 3 Maiden has accepted the role and is struggling to maintain it.
No one gets to Status •••• or ••••• as a Virgin without labor. The temptation to kill, the opportunities to get away with it and the times when it would just be so much simpler — there have just been far too many to resist without conscious effort, and lots of it. These Virgins are regarded not only with respect, but nearly awe for their accomplishment, and there are few whose condemnation for careless, Masquerade-threatening callousness sticks as much as someone who has walked the walk for 50 or 100 years.

History

Mythological Examples

Diana the huntress is a good Maiden from Greek mythology. Being a goddess for humans, Diana’s primary concern was to defend herself against sexual knowledge, to the extent of killing those men who would despoil her — often quite cruelly and often through the agency of innocent beasts. In her guise of Hecate, the moon goddess, she also held the keys that unlocked the secrets of the occult. This connection to the forbidden is common to another Greek goddess, Persephone. An innocent daughter of spring, she was seized by Hades and taken to the Underworld as his queen. Persephone becomes a despoiled Maiden when she eats the food of the dead, dooming her to cross between the realms of life and death forever.
This is a common theme to many Virgin stories. The Maori Hine-titama was another despoiled Maiden who went to the Underworld, though in her case she fled there, not because of something she consumed, but because she learned that her husband was also her father. Appalled by this incest, she chose to flee into death, and to eventually call all her soiled children (meaning, all of humanity) there as well.

Type

Consulting

Used By

• The Circle of the Crone