The horror of the mind...
is a terrifying thing, and none display that better than those of clan Malkavian. Malkavianesque characters can be found throughout modern media, in Donnie Darko, The Jacket and Jacobs Ladder, 12 Monkeys, Fight Club, and A Beautiful Mind. The archetypes of this clan are as limitless as one’s imagination.
Dismissed as madmen and kooks, the clan of seers is alternately derided and feared. Every last member of the Malkavian clan is twisted in some fashion, rendered incurably insane by the power of the clan's blood. For some, this madness takes the form of hideous homicidal displays or outrageous chaotic behavior; in others, a quiet, insidious bent makes its way through the vampire's thoughts. In all cases, the blood makes Malkavians unpredictable, potentially dangerous and absolutely free from the confines and expectations of normalcy.
No unifying purpose or goal binds the Malkavian clan, only a bond of shared madness. Some revel in their insanity, others deny it, but they are all inevitably drawn together by their insight into a world altered by twisted perceptions. None can guess what Malkavians really see or think. Indeed, to do so is to invite the Lunatics to share their madness. Unbidden, the Malkavians seek to open the perceptions of others, using pranks', misdirection and chaos to force others into new viewpoints and to shatter accepted norms. Some vampires whisper that the Malkavians control the Jyhad subtly, that the war of ages is simply a great joke of their founder... and a few fear that the Malkavians are already laughing at the coming end.
The Lunatics Embrace seemingly at whim. Many members of the clan are insightful, some even brilliant. Any other categorizations, aside from their common insanity, fail. A Malkavian usually Embraces someone on the edge of insanity or one already driven mad, but none can really say what might motivate a Lunatic to bring another into the fold. Some newchilder are not insane when they are Embraced, but their sires seek to rectify this "shortcoming" as quickly as possible. A few are physically brutal, and some can be quite socially charming when not visibly afflicted, but these outliers serve only to point up the commonality of the clan: Madness — and enlightenment — can infect anyone.
This clan is commonly found in both the Anarch Movement and the Courts of the Camarilla, and also breeds many Independents.
Their in-clans are Obfuscate, Auspex and Dementation.