Edward Bloom - On Blood
After making sure his pen was full and he was alone, Edward opened his journal and began to write.
The blood. We are told that the blood is life and for us that is undeniably true. We can all feel the power within us, and feel our blood quicken in ways literal and metaphoric. To each of us power is granted, a host of powers as well as some commonalities; through all of this, we each of us seek a degree of personal control.
What then is personal control? Is it merely control of the temper, the Beast, or more than that? There are sage and knowledgeable men amongst mortals who have learnt incredible control over their bodily functions; they can walk over hot coals without a wound, sit underwater for half an hour without surfacing or even slow down their bodies to seem indistinguishable from the dead. This is true personal control, able to alter internal circumstances to meet and overcome external needs through force of will.
As Kindred we function on different levels, but all of our basic aspects are in a sense heightened by the blood. Before we can control anything else, learn anything else, we must control our blood. It is our dependance, our animator and our curse if we can be said to have one; the blood is almost as another living thing calling to us. We must identify its wants, its needs, and overcome them.
It would seem clear enough that the first thing we need to control or at least to lessen is the hunger that drives us. To wake and need to feed every night is a truism of our existence and a stumbling block for any other development. To be free to devote ourselves to mastery of the self we must first find the will to force our internal changes, the resolve and presence of mind that will at least lessen this millstone around our collective necks.
How though; how do we achieve this? Through meditation of all forms, through reminders of the functions of blood and attempting to test them. Already through the Vita Mortis I have begun to gain control over my blood; but this first change is one of functional control rather than base elements. Notably this deveopment was achieved through meditation and personal focus.
To wit, I will learn to push myself further through the blood until I can control its very flow. I will test my strengths and focus on just how it feels to call upon a change of shape or greater endurance. Through these will I begin to walk a road so many others have before me in my own particular way.
I am Edward Bloom, Gangrel of the Ordo Dracul. And I will triumph. I will be slave to no one.
Edward paused at the last line, and at his use of "to wit." One seemed presumptuous, one archaic to modern ears...but he decided to leave it there. It was honest, and it satisfied something deep inside of him.