What are we? The Damned childer of caine? The grotesque lords of humanity? The pitiful wretches of eternal hell? We are vampires, and that is enough. I am a vampire, and that is far more than enough. I am that which must be feared, worshipped and adored. The world is mine -- now and forever. No one holds command over me. No man. No god. No prince. What is a claim of age for ones who are immortal? What is a claim of power for ones who defy death? Call your damnable hunt. We shall see whom I drag screaming to hell with me. New insight into vampire origins and the undead curse itself, in the Book of Nod tradition.

"The first vampires remember their first nights, but do not speak of them. Others have heard tales, but know better than to believe them. The wise speak of The Book of Nod, but none have seen this fabled book of ancient lore. These are their tales... Their stories begin with the Chronicle of Caine and the earliest nights of the vampire. The Chronicle of Shadow reveals Caine's hidden teachings. Finally, the Chronicle of Secrets unveils the deepest mysteries of the Damned, including the coming dread of Gehenna. The Book of Nod is a collection of mythic texts for use in the Vampire : T he Masquerade Roleplaying Game. Presented as an epic poem, the Book of Nod is an in - game resource, viewed as sacred by Noddist scholars and most vampire elders, especially of the Sabbat. Rather than a book of game mechanics, this book can be used as a prop and for lore, as it outlines the genesis of vampires with the mythology of Caine."--Amazon.com

I always knew I was different. From a young age, my mind has been plagued with things only I could see. Some hauntingly beautiful, others completely terrifying. Never knowing if these visions were real or just hallucinations, I learned how to lock them down and ignore them. I learned to take solace in the relative anonymity of city life and find peace in the rainy days my city of Seattle is known for. But just when I think my life is getting on track and my dreams are achievable, a moment of weakness causes me to learn a hard and fast lesson. My entire existence has been a lie. Now I’m faced with a new reality that’s as implausible as it is fantastical. Filled with realms and veils, light and dark, fae and daemons, gods and angels—things I don’t understand but am forced to acknowledge. It doesn’t help that the man teaching me about my unique gifts is the gorgeously handsome Carrick Byrne, one of Seattle’s richest and most powerful men. He intimidates, annoys, and intrigues me all at the same time. I don’t trust him and yet there’s no one else to help me. No longer certain who to put my faith in, what to believe, or how I fit into it all, one revelation is clear… The world as I know it will never be the same again. The Revelation of Light and Dark is book one of the Chronicles of the Stone Veil series and is best enjoyed if read in series order.

Bringing a feminist perspective to contemporary findings of geneticists and archeologists, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, cultural historian, points out that the oldest veneration we know is of a dark mother of central and south Africa, whose signs-ochre red and the pubic V-were taken by african migrants after 50,000 BCE to caves and cliffs of all continents. The oldest sanctuary in the world was created in 40,000 BCE by african migrants in Har Karkom, later called Mt. Sinai, foundation place of judaism, christianity, and islam.Lucia documents the continuing memory of the dark mother and her values in prehistoric images of the dark mother, in historic black madonnas and in other dark women divinities whose sanctuaries are on african paths. She tracks the memory in rituals and stories of her sicilian grandmothers, in persecution of dark others in patriarchal Europe and the United States, in the rise of nonviolent dark others since the 1960s,in the banners of the 1995 world conference of women at Beijing, and in art. She finds the dark mother's values-justice with compassion, equality, and transformation-in everyday and celebratory rituals of the world's subaltern cultures-and suggests that the image and values are in the submerged memories of everyone.

The fourteenth-century anchorite known as Julian of Norwich offered fervent prayers for a deeper understanding of Christ's passion. The holy woman's petitions were answered with a series of divine revelations that she called "shewings." Her mystic visions revealed Christ's sufferings with extreme intensity, but they also confirmed God's constant love for humanity and infinite capacity for forgiveness. Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love have had a lasting influence on Christian thought. Written in immediate, compelling terms, her experiences remain among the most original and accessible expressions of medieval mysticism. This edition contains both the short text, which is mainly an account of the shewings and Julian's initial analysis of their meaning, and the long text, completed some 20 years later and offering daringly speculative interpretations.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

* Instant New York Times Bestseller * Indie Bestseller * In this stunning new fantasy novel from international bestselling author C. S. Pacat, heroes and villains of a long-forgotten war are reborn and begin to draw new battle lines. This epic fantasy with high-stakes romance will sit perfectly on shelves next to beloved fantasy novels like the Infernal Devices series, the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and the Red Queen series. Sixteen-year-old dock boy Will is on the run, pursued by the men who killed his mother. Then an old servant tells him of his destiny to fight beside the Stewards, who have sworn to protect humanity if the Dark King ever returns. Will is thrust into a world of magic, where he starts training for a vital role in the oncoming battle against the Dark. As London is threatened and old enmities are awakened, Will must stand with the last heroes of the Light to prevent the fate that destroyed their world from returning to destroy his own. Like V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic and Shelby Mahurin’s Serpent & Dove, Dark Rise is more than just high intrigue fantasy—it’s fast-paced, action-packed, and completely surprising. Readers will love exploring the rich setting of nineteenth-century London. This thrilling story of friendship, deception, loyalty, and betrayal is sure to find a passionate audience of readers.

A character sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade