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Lilith (World of Darkness)
Lilith | |
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World of Darkness character | |
Lilith Symbol used in the World of Darkness RPG |
For other uses of the name Lilith, see Lilith (disambiguation).
Lilith, in the World of Darkness role playing game created by White Wolf Game Studio, is the first wife of Adam and mother of all demons.
Character History
Lilith is an obscure heretical figure in Noddist mythology, although her followers the Bahari see her as the aggrieved party in the whole homicidal farmer thing.
According to a midrash, Lilith, who was the first wife of Adam and his co-equal, split from Adam Kadmon and his counterpart in power and wisdom. For this, God (also known as Jehova) banished her from Eden, tried a second time and made Eve. Furthermore, according to White Wolf lore Jehova cursed Lilith to never know the love of another. In turn each being that Lilith truly loved and cared for, could never really love her in return.
According to the Bahari, however, Lilith enjoyed an extensive sequence of affairs with both Yahweh and Lucifer, who were Gods with their own Gardens. Lucifer was said to have given Lilith the 'cloak of night' as a gift after she had wandered the lands outside of Eden, scorched and tortured. Eventually abandoned by both, she met the wandering banished descendant of her ex-husband, the First Murderer (as named in the Bible) Caine. She took Caine in, tended to his injuries, fed and healed him, and taught him secret wisdom — the seeds of which blossomed into the vampiric Disciplines.
This apocryphal story is detailed in the Book of Nod as the Cycle of Lilith and in the Revelations of the Dark Mother, a Bahari text which tells the Book of Nod from Lilith's perspective. Some say the story lends evidence to support the theory that Lilith was one of the first mages, perhaps one of the predecessors of the Verbena.
And how does he repay her? By abandoning her as well, to wander forever apart, mother of monsters and thief of infant breaths. Caine goes on to found Enoch and Lilith leaves the scene.
In modern nights, the cult of Lilith is a Path of Enlightenment in the Sabbat. Bahari believe that pain is the road that leads to wisdom, and that true love involves more than a little screaming and more than a lot of blood. The Lilins are not exclusively a vampiric cult, however; their predecessors worshipped Lilith as mortals, until the Lamia were embraced by Lazarus.
Book of Nod
In Aristotle deLaurent's English translation of the Book of Nod, Lilith features prominently in The Chronicle of Caine. However, in his commentary deLaurent mentions that his preferred translation for the character's introduction actually featured Ishtar instead of Lilith (based mainly on the description), but that he retained the more traditional interpretation.
References
- Justin Achilli et al., Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised Edition) (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-249-2)
- Phil Brucato, Rachelle Udell, Revelations of the Dark Mother (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-237-9)
- Celia S. Friedman,The Erciyes Fragments (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-297-2)
- Andrew Greenberg, The Book of Nod (White Wolf Game Studio, 1994, ISBN 1-56504-078-3)
- Justin Achilli et al., Guide to the Sabbat (White Wolf Game Studio, 1999, ISBN 1565040422)