The Knife

The Knife (屠刀, Túdāo) or Butcher Knife is the Sacred Weapon of the Giovanni Clan.

About

The Knife

The knife is a sacrificial item which is used to open up the power of the Giovanni magic arrays. The arrays grab flesh and blood to sacrifice to the array. The Giovanni leader used it to restore his grandfather to life and control him.

During the commotion of the auction house, Yi Sai grabbed the knife and sacrificed the Giovanni magicians.

The ritual allowed for the great uncle of Lucius Brad to return, creating a sealed bond between them. Upon investigation on the insistence of Fan Le Lao, it was worked out it had no self awareness. This disappointed Osiris as he planned to use him to deal with Fan Le Lao. The seal that bound the Great uncle to existence was powered by a taboo and the greater the taboo the more powerful the tie between the entities was. When the great uncle's tie was severed, damage from how powerful their taboo was caused large amounts of damage to Luicus' body.

Osiris stated that Lucius had not the power to give his great uncle self awareness, but had been fully aware of the leader's own undoing in the matter as he himself had purposely delivered the book Lucius had used for the array. Without the power to give self-awareness, Osiris lost interest in the Giovanni clan leader and left him for dead, his attention turned onto others present.

The knife itself works like the surgical tools of the Tzimisce Clan. These tools are used to keep the clans victims alive while their bodies are manipulated into monsters like Titan. These scalpels also have a high chance of imperfect creations like the Giovanni sacred weapon, implying the process itself regardless of the tools used is far from perfect. It requires experimentation to make them perfect, something the Giovanni did not do as unlike the Tzimisce they weren't scientists. Though like the scalpels of the Tzimisce, perfection is regarded as possible, its just Luicus lacked the means to bring his great uncle back to life fully - thus full resurrection is possible with the Knife.

Trivia

• The "Taboo" mentioned by the knife is likely a nod to one of the two major principles of necromancy as set out by VtM; Principle of Taboo and Principle of Authority. They are considered just as justified in value and it is up to the individual on which one they wish to follow. Both go hand in hand and are two sides of the same coin.
  • "Principle of Authority" is necromancy with strict rules and guidelines that acknowledges the rankings of all creatures and simply controls the lesser beings, restricting itself on purpose from gaining power over higher beings. In this sense, the lesser beings they do control are regarded as invaluable. They are often morally bound and are considered pure for their goals never aim to over step their boundaries. For example, they only bring back a dead person for use in self defence or never out of disrespect of the dead. They would perhaps resurrect a common beggar over a fallen hero due to the status of the individuals. In VtM the Cappadocian Clan are more likely to abide by this principle then the Giovanni.
  • "Principle of Taboo" on the other hand disregards all of this, necromancers willing summon beings but do so for power rather then anything else and ignore the significance of what they summon. Where they draw their power from can be anything from raising up rotting corpses with no consideration to the status of the individual, to raising them simply to fulfill sexual desires. The previously mentioned choice of beggar or hero in "Principle of Authority" would not matter as Taboo doesn't care for either individuals status, a corpse is a corpse. The bigger the taboo, the more power it brings. The taboo often comes with high risk or is morally wrong to the point of being socially unacceptable at its base core, leading to perhaps consequences in regards to how others view the Necromancer. Yet control over just one being may bring a bigger source of power then the many beings that Principle of Authority brings and is often the reason Necromancers may go for this Principle. In VtM, the Giovanni clan are more likely to follow this principle then the Cappadocian clan.
    • In the case of Luicua Brad, the "Taboo" would be to bring back his great uncle for the sake of his power, which was fueled by a Shard of Osiris. For having a piece of a divined beings power, the taboo here was the disregard for both divine essence (Gods, unlike ghosts are higher beings) and the Great Uncle (a lesser being), bringing him back as a puppet of his own desires and under his control. Had he successfully brought him back with self awareness, he would have had a strong source of power based on the Principle of Taboo.