Menuven is a Lasombra Cardinal of the Sabbat that uses Mexico City as his haven.
Suspected of being an Abyssal entity, Menuven is also one of the judges of the Courts of Blood, and a supporter of Lucita's bid to become the Archbishop of Madrid.
Biography[]
An observer would have some trouble looking for a distinct identity to which the title “Cardinal Menuven” could properly be affixed. Instead, he would notice half a dozen designated templars and pack priests chosen from among the cardinal’s subjects to attend him, or her, or it. Each of them was trepanned at the start of their year of service, and thaumaturgically created carbon rods inserted into each exposed brain using the basic principles of Tzimisce flesh-crafting abilities. Shadow tendrils constantly flowed between the rods, forming something of a hive-mind.
All of his aides spoke with the same voice (a whispery tenor), for the duration of their service, and showed common mannerisms in addition to their own distinctive behavior. While serving Menuven, the hosts demonstrate mastery of the heights of shadow manipulation that they didn’t have before and wouldn’t have later. He (or she, or it) developed an unusual form of Abyss Mysticism that combined with elements of Dominate, Vicissitude and Obtenebration allowed him to spread his consciousness through the bodies of his vampiric servants.
Usually, he was a network of heavily modified vampires. But sometimes he composed himself to only a few individuals to travel relatively lightly, while the rest of the hosts waited at another location - on occasion, a few of such hosts of Menuven were killed in battle with an Abyssal creature but, to some extent, he survived through his other servants:
| “ | It even achieved a moment of independent self-awareness just before passing, recalling a life lived in an upper-class neighborhood in the southern end of Mexico City, Embrace after blackmail, rising through the Sabbat ranks, working on a comprehensive review of the Sabbat’s successes and failures against the ancients, attracting Menuven’s attention with disturbing conclusions, brought into the hive-mind to silence uncomfortable perceptions, thereafter lost to self... gone. | ” |
Some among the Lasombra suspect that the story about Menuven as a creature of pure Abyssal intellect is a cover for something else.
References[]
- Clan Lasombra Trilogy Book 1: Shards, p. 19, 260
- Clan Lasombra Trilogy Book 3: Sacrifices, p. 196