[Curseborne] The Hungry #1

The Hungry are undead creatures cursed to feed on living beings for survival and to be able to control their powers and their own bodies. They are master manipulators, pulling on mortals’ strings to make them sway in their direction. They all drink blood, but each family also hungers for something else, something different and unnatural.

Many lean into the trappings of vampirism, embracing their need for blood to survive. Others reject the reductive title of “vampire,” feeling they are something more than black capes, pallid skin, and midnight seductions. But all of them have one thing in common.

They hunger.

Eve, our signature character for the Hungry, goes into more detail:

We must eat the living to survive. 

Blood, flesh, guts, you name it, we need it.

I mean, you can still go out for donuts and coffee, though they’ll taste like nothing. Carbs won’t fuel your body now unless they’re mixed with something living. We need blood in specific, but some families consume other things. Consumption is the root here.

Blood animates your body and mine, and fuels our powers. Animating your body is automatic, but using your power requires will, control, and a source.

Blood out.

Requires blood in.

On to the topic of drinking then. You’ll find a variety of terms for the mortals who provide us with blood. “Donors” is popular — nice and clinical; not too emotional. “Vessel” and “offering” are also in vogue. Some Hungry like to refer to their donors as “beloved.” You’d be surprised — or not — how many just call them what they are: prey.

With the lexicon out of the way, here’s how you drink. I don’t mean the physical part — that’s easy. Once the time is right, you will instinctively sink your fangs into their flesh to drink their blood. Either way, you won’t need me to run you through it.

Step one is for you to Want it. That’s capital w, Want. It’s not enough to be physically hungry. Or to realize you need blood to survive. When you sink your fangs into someone, it needs to be the whole center of your existence. You must crave it like a man in the desert craves water. 

There are a couple of ways to accomplish that. Fasting works, but it can get messy — easy to lose control when you’re famished, and now you have a dead donor on your hands. Or worse, a badly injured one, and you need to weigh the risk factor against your own morality before dropping them at the ER.

A better way is to form an attachment to your donor. Which, yes, conflicts with the nice clean term but people are complicated. Fall in love with them, or in lust if it’s just for the night. Hate them with an abiding passion. Toy with them like a cat with a mouse. But make yourself Want them — and then drink.

Step two, and here’s the tricky part: Make them want it, too.

What can the Hungry do?

Each type of Hungry has their prey of choice, decided by family, although some also have an additional, individual preference for blood. Perhaps they only feed off the one percent or people they perceive as sinners. However, a Hungry must feed upon the blood, flesh, or ghostly essence of others to sustain herself. Occasionally, she feels the hunger overcome her and must consume a meal of blood or their cursed sustenance as soon as possible. 

Further, the Hungry are immune to mortal diseases, ageless, and can regenerate their bodies given a long-enough timeline (and enough blood). Some of their strength, however, comes at a cost. For every little bit of this curse a Hungry draws on, they gain something that can hurt them in a very real way. 

If a Hungry uses a little of that vigor to move super fast in pursuit of their prey, they may not be able to cross the next highway bridge leading out of the city. If they want to punch through a door with an iron fist, they might suddenly find the sun’s rays burn like phosphorus. All of those weaknesses in popular culture — silver, certain herbs, white animals, wooden instruments, crosses, etc. — they’re all rooted in how this works for the Hungry. 

Every Hungry also has access to three Practices:

• Hungry can manipulate the vital essences that make life go. From blood to life essence, they can control it. This is the Practice of the Vital Force.
• When the Hungry call, others respond. The Iron Edict allows them to manipulate others’ actions, and even control them. This is the Practice of the Iron Edict.
• The Practice of Smoke and Shadow gives the Hungry control over darkness and the shadows that lurk inside. They can manipulate it, call it forth, and even become one with it.

I should play a Hungry if I want to…

… explore the ravages of eternal hunger.
… die young and leave a good-looking corpse (that still lives on).
… be the hidden predator in a sea of humanity.
… indulge in forbidden pleasures, for good or for ill.
… struggle with the moral implications of using humans as food.
… manipulate people to get what you need to survive.
… build emotional connections with others before you’re forced to betray them.
… occasionally lose your shit and destroy everyone around you.
… rule with an iron fist, or overthrow those that wear the crown.

Evelyn Crane

Evelyn (Eve to anyone who doesn’t want a fist in their mouth) is our Hungry signature character for Curseborne, and specifically, the Báthorite who narrates much of the Hungry chapter in the book. Eve started life as a quick-witted woman in a life of privilege. She went to the best private school in Rochester, NY, and graduated at the top of her class. She earned her Bachelors in Science from Rochester University, and started a Master’s shortly after. She specialized in bloodborne diseases, which is probably what attracted Mother Camilla Hadrid to her in the first place. Mother damned Eve to existence as a Hungry, and when she did, Eve lost all her will to continue her research. Here’s Eve’s take on the story.

We’re members of House Báthory, you and I. Mother is extremely proud of our heritage, but all the families are in some way. And yes, she might have traumatized you, and she will continue to do so, but I honestly think you’ve landed in a good place. 

Long story short, I got tangled up in some relationship drama and my roommate took me to this wellness retreat she had heard about to recoup and unwind. Pretty sure Mother was behind both the drama and Helen finding out about the retreat, but I haven’t found proof. Just a hunch.

The “I” that I was never came back from the retreat. I think I’m still listed as a missing person? I don’t check anymore. I didn’t have much family to begin with, so in that regard, things are different now, for better or worse.

Anyway, I died out there. I woke up on a table in a dingy, dilapidated hospital basement, sliced open breast to navel. My stomach contents were sitting in a bag next to me. I’m describing it clinically, but if you’re wondering if I felt that: yes. 

Mother was in the room, waiting, though I didn’t know it was her at the time.

“You’re one of the Hungry,” she told me as she rose from her chair in the shadowy corner like some sort of Nosferatu wannabe. “You’re undead, a vampire. I called hunters. They’ll be here in fifteen minutes. Get up if you want to survive.” Then, she left.

Mother was not good for Eve, though she has learned to thrive in the cutthroat environment she fosters. Instead of remaining on her research path, Eve took up politics within the Hungry. First, she managed damage control for Mother, but as the other family members saw her spitfire resolve and creative resolutions, they started asking her for the same. Soon she became the entire brand and PR management for House Báthory both within Accursed spaces, and without.

House Báthory

Eve’s family is known as House Báthory. They hunger for luxury. They have the skills, they have the graces, they have the skin like chiseled and polished stone, and eyes like glittering jewels. They see themselves as nobles, and they take what they want. 

Their history starts with Erzsébet Báthory: beautiful, forever young, bathed in virgin blood. Her family feel they owe it to her to enjoy immortality. They acquire and parlay noble titles all for fun, and wear gowns and makeup like a French court. The house applies a title to every Báthorite, from dukes and duchesses to barons and such, but don’t use them outside formal family events.

But the truth is, almost every Báthorite was someone on the wrong side of the tracks, someone blackballed or ignored. This curse is their chance to take what they were never given, and the titles and pageantry are just an affectation. But now that they have a taste of real power, they each plan to use it.

Play a Báthorite if you want to…

… experience forbidden pleasures and pains.
… pull yourself from nothing to be somebody.
… enjoy the pomp and pageantry within your own family.