Shadows in the Dark: Mekhet

by Howard Ingham, Christopher Lee Simmons

The Mekhet Clan Book for Vampire: The Requiem
Unnoticed and silent, they watch. Their eyes have seen a thousand secrets, and yours are no exception. They are the Shadows that dwell among the Kindred, and everyone knows that the darkness has eyes in the Danse Macabre. Seek their wisdom under cover of night, and discover what awaits the wise and the patient.A Clan book for Vampire: The Requiem
Discover the origins of the Mekhet, in the deep nights of ancient Egypt, where they fled the sun into the necropolis and learned the secrets of the dead.
Explore the Shadow Cults of the Mekhet, secret societies and mystery traditions where the Mekhet are masters over mortals and other vampires alike.
Read the tales of the Shadows, as written by those within the clan and by those outside it. The shadows of the World of Darkness have never run this deep.
New Merits, bloodlines, Discipline powers and clan se-crets that every Vampire: the Requiem player will want to have.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Vampires

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2008

Reviews

[Broodingferret · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite clan book so far. Bailey went the extra mile in giving the Mekhet the surreality and creepiness that they deserve. The sections on Shadow Cults and the Hollow were particularly good.

[Andre · Rating 3 out of 5]

My actual rating for this book is 2.5 since I was torn between "ok" and "liked it", but I gave it 3 stars for the artwork and design.

This book has the Mekhet vampires quite different from the other clanbooks I read so far. While the Gangrel were free and savage, the Deava sexualized predators and the Nosferatu just downright creepy and ugly these Mekhet have a very occult feeling to them and the book shows that. There are several hints towards different forms of divination, some interesting, some plain weird (no idea whether many of them are real but they are unusual concepts), a lot of occult topics and some stuff that really goes towards crazy obsession (some Mekhet can see occult patterns everywhere). Which is explained towards the end of the book when they come to the derangements, merits and flaws, but sadly that is a negative of the book: this stuff doesn't make sense to you as a reader before you read this section.

It was interesting how their powers seem to look to humans and some of these new powers are quite creative I would say. Some other things I have seen before but the book manages go give them its unique flair and so they don't count as rip-offs.

Similar to the other clan books this one has sweet little passages of letters and conversations, my favorite was from an old New Orleans vampire waking up due to Katherina and stemming from the time before the Civil War when he was a mixed blood slave.

So storytelling wise there was a lot of good stuff but from time to time it got boring and some sections where a drag to me. And among these I often asked myself: Where is the sense in this?

The Merits and Derangements were ok and the rest as well, however that last example character was described as olive skinned but her picture looks rather... pale white with a hint of pink. Yeah I call that sloppy but apart from that the artwork is ok.

All in all a good book but I think some sections could have been done better by not having the occult topic in them that much.


Now there are a few more things, but they fall under spoiler:



This book states it as a fact that originally the Mekhet created new vampires by reanimating actual corpses and only later did they discover that there is an easier way and so they mostly abandoned it. Mostly, the main character in the book is one of these exceptions. And technically other clans can do that as well, it's simply that only Mekhet still remember this possibility. And yes one of the vampires who seems to be from Encient Egypt really seems to have gotten reanimated after being mummified, she literally says "In this lovely head of mine is nothing but salt and spices. And yet, I think. And yet, I walk. And yet, if you behead me, I will die."
Now this method of creating a new vampire is not only more complicated, under the "right" circumstances this not only creates a new vampire but a living shadow copy of the vampire which can act on its own, eats carrion and creates havoc.

Vampires in this book are explained by Egyptian symbolism which separates the human soul in several parts, so basically a vampire is an incomplete soul that cannot therefore go on into the Afterlife.
Here the vampire is a being that is at the balance, which is what Mekhet in this book means, since its soul was never judged against the Egyptian Ma'at feather. They seem to have put some thought into this.

The two letters "Testimony of the Plague Angel" and "On The Necessity of Atheism" I liked very much:
1) Testimony of the Plague Angel
That reads every bit as disturbing as the title suggests. A little jewl in this book. Nice horror, would ever someone make a comic out of it, it would surely be rated M.
2) On The Necessity of Atheism
That might be a first in a vampire book. The vampire actually suggest for vampires to be atheists in order to herd their cattle via religion without being in danger of "contamination" by religion. Usually vampires are used rather for religion and not against it.

The Mnemosyne are a vampire bloodline that can literally drink the memories of others. It does remind me of the concept shown in Underworld but unlike in those films, here they do it right. The Mnemosyne are valued and feared for it, they often fill crucial roles in vampire society and their powers can leave them often mad due to all the memories they absorb.

The Norvegi look like a pretty interesting bloodline with their lack of fangs and ability to grow sharp bone appendages. But I think they overdid it a bit with the whole outsider status of the Norvegi.

That shadow cult called "The Moulding Room" is downright weird and the Detournement power the Moulding Room vampires use, sounds as weird as they themselves are.
I guess I get the power of information but this is really odd.

That Bloodworking power of the Norvegi vampires sounds cool. On level one you grow tiny hollow bone needles that allow you to drink blood through your hands, but at level 5: The Norvega’s entire body explodes into an array of blades and spikes, some of which leave her body altogether, like a porcupine’s quills. The power shreds her clothes but impales anyone and everyone around her within a range of about five feet.

However the Meminisse power of the Mnemosyne was boring, but the Sethithe rituals and devotions (power combination) were ok.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this one apprehensive since I was never a fan of Lasombra or Settite in VtM, but this book felt very, I don't know, 'fresh.' The vampires felt unique, the main narrative had an excellent mystery and creep factor.