The Mother
What does “motherhood” mean to a vampire? To mortals, mother stands for comfort, for unconditional love: she’s the one who always puts the best face on your actions and decisions. She gives birth from great toil, is one with you when you’re weakest, gives nourishment when hungry and sympathy in sickness.
For Kindred, it is the same but different. A vampire’s sire creates progeny with great toil and sacrifice, but seldom offers the kind of adoration typical to the living. She nurtures and protects, but typically by instructing the neonate in skills that mock human social order. Some of the darkest Acolyte Mothers even feed their progeny from their own bodies in a travesty of infant nursing. Not only does it nourish but, as with a suckling newborn, it creates a tight emotional bond.
Mothering is an exquisitely social role, the core of a society of influence. The word of the Mother is transitory and may lack the power of a written law, but a Mother’s word is powerful because it is narrow, temporary and specific. Mother addresses you and your problem, not general principles and abstracts ideals. It’s entirely practical and if you ignore her advice, there’s no punishment. Unless she was right, of course, and you’ve ignored the counsel that would serve you best.
Mothers don’t command, they suggest, they connect people of complementary interests. This is a role that does things unofficially, and therefore directly, with less fuss. In this, Mothers are similar to Harpies at a court, and overlap is common. Similar to their mortal counterparts, Mothers are at the center of their “family” — meaning, their Circle. They see themselves as the day-to-day maintainersof their religion, and they perform (or more often, parcel out) “chores” in order to keep things running smoothly. Of course, for vampires, a chore may be far more involved and distasteful than running down to the grocery store for a quart of milk. A chore could mean putting rivals outside the covenant in political check, or giving them so much other trouble that they can’t rally against the Circle or killing them. A chore could mean finding a victim for a struggling Fool, or several for a festival or an entirely new source of them. A chore could mean patching some holes in a Chorus member’s roof, or finding her a whole new Haven or making sure there are no complications from mortals when a new ritual garden is getting planted.
For Kindred, it is the same but different. A vampire’s sire creates progeny with great toil and sacrifice, but seldom offers the kind of adoration typical to the living. She nurtures and protects, but typically by instructing the neonate in skills that mock human social order. Some of the darkest Acolyte Mothers even feed their progeny from their own bodies in a travesty of infant nursing. Not only does it nourish but, as with a suckling newborn, it creates a tight emotional bond.
Mothering is an exquisitely social role, the core of a society of influence. The word of the Mother is transitory and may lack the power of a written law, but a Mother’s word is powerful because it is narrow, temporary and specific. Mother addresses you and your problem, not general principles and abstracts ideals. It’s entirely practical and if you ignore her advice, there’s no punishment. Unless she was right, of course, and you’ve ignored the counsel that would serve you best.
Mothers don’t command, they suggest, they connect people of complementary interests. This is a role that does things unofficially, and therefore directly, with less fuss. In this, Mothers are similar to Harpies at a court, and overlap is common. Similar to their mortal counterparts, Mothers are at the center of their “family” — meaning, their Circle. They see themselves as the day-to-day maintainersof their religion, and they perform (or more often, parcel out) “chores” in order to keep things running smoothly. Of course, for vampires, a chore may be far more involved and distasteful than running down to the grocery store for a quart of milk. A chore could mean putting rivals outside the covenant in political check, or giving them so much other trouble that they can’t rally against the Circle or killing them. A chore could mean finding a victim for a struggling Fool, or several for a festival or an entirely new source of them. A chore could mean patching some holes in a Chorus member’s roof, or finding her a whole new Haven or making sure there are no complications from mortals when a new ritual garden is getting planted.
Perception
Purpose
Expectations
Mothers arrange without dictating. There is almost an inverse relationship between how much actual power or authority a Mother has, and how much indirect influence she wields. Mothers can be comforting, even as they manipulate those who seek advice from them. Often Mothers do this with good advice, since that’s the kind that keeps people coming back for more.Mothers operate by consensus, giving in to it often but, through their contribution, having input. When everyone but one Mother agrees that negotiating with The Lancea Sanctum is a waste of time, that Mother most likely withdraws her objections and goes along. But if The Lancea Sanctum situation changes, everyone remembers that it was Mother Neldon who had a different view, and if change is thrust upon them, Mother Neldon is the midwife of that change.
Mothers often have close relationships to Maidens and Fools, who are the Kindred most likely to benefit from maternal advice and who are, in turn, the ones most likely to restore the Mother’s balance between wanting what’s best for the Circle and wanting to maintain at least some level of human-like moral function. Mothers remind the young that they are monsters. The young remind the Mothers of their human side. It’s a good exchange.
Scarlet Women and Outsiders, on the other hand, are expected by role to resist being shaped and molded by maternity. Often the act of murder that brings the Whore or Hero title is seen as a defiance of motherly nurture (even if the motherly nurture in the Circle is murderous). The Mother may manipulate free-spirited Acolytes, but often by using this expectation of resistance.
On the other hand, just because Mavra is a Mother and Jean is a Scarlet Woman, there’s no rule that they can’t get along, work together and share a coterie. For most Acolytes, personal interaction as individuals trumps the Expectations of archetypal roles. Nevertheless, the Expectations are always exerting their constant pressure in the background, even if Jean and Mavra say and even believe that they’re friends and equals.
Social Status
All the above is mainly true for Mothers of mid-to-high Covenant Status — say the •• to ••••• range. Low Status Mothers may, just as unwed or unfit mothers in the mortal world, be regarded with Suspicion, pity or contempt. A vampire who sires outside the Circle and then joins it late in her Requiem had better exhibit humility about her previous behavior, because the Circle believes it has a monopoly on the right reasons and ways to Embrace. A neonate or Chorus member who passes on the curse is seen as acting above her station or putting on airs: she’s trying to artificially force a social relationship into existence instead of organically growing the Circle when the time is right. Rushing into Motherhood is as despised among vampires as among mortals.
History
Mythological Examples
The Greek Hera is a mother close to the Circle mold, in many ways. Rarely does Hera act directly. Instead, she meddles. While Circle Mothers might take exception to the word ‘meddle,’ it’s a pretty fair term for applying unofficial power and purely emotional pressure. The patroness of only one great quest, Hera certainly did a great deal to push the Argonauts to success. More often, she appears as an antagonist to Hercules the Outsider, and antagonism between the Mother who tends the collective and The Hero who makes his own way in the wilderness is a drama that plays nightly in Circle domains worldwide.In Eastern myth, Kalikamata is the Dark Earth Mother of the Hindus. A bloody goddess of both birth and death, her worshippers in the Circle pursue creation and tribulation with such terrifying intensity that they often see no difference at all between the two sides.
Type
Consulting
Used By