Amnesia
Flaw · 2 pts
You are unable to remember anything about your past, yourself, or your family (whether mortal or vampiric), though your past might well come back to haunt you. Your origins and the circumstances behind your amnesia are for the Storyteller to determine, and she is encouraged to make it as interesting as possible.
Also in BoS p. 49 — text differs from V20 (42%)
Life before Awakening remains a mystery to you. Friends? Family? Mundane existence? Whoever and whatever they were, you cannot recall. This amnesia might be related to PTSD, fugue-state dissociative Derangement (Mage 20, pp. 648-649), brain-trauma, Quiet, Social Processing (as shown in the Prelude for Mage 20), psychic assault (see Uncanny Influence in How
Do You DO That?, pp. 114-136), Things Man Was Not Meant
to Know, or other forms of identity disruption. Regardless of the reason, being a mage is all you can remember.
Beyond all of the obvious complications involved in near-total amnesia (lack of memories, social disorientation, legal nonexistence, a fractured sense of self, and so on), this Flaw also allows you to take up to five points in “mystery Flaws.” Your Storyteller will know what they are, but you won’t. Throughout the chronicle, she’ll spring them on you in various entertaining ways. Perhaps when all is revealed, you’ll be able to buy off this Flaw (or have it “paid off” by the Storyteller, in lieu of expe rience points), and then remember who you were. Whether or not you’ll like the answers, of course, remains to be seen…
Also in W20 p. 479 — text differs from V20 (54%)
You have no memory of your past before your First Change. You don’t know if you still have a family, or if someone is out to get you, much less where you were born or anything about your education (although you do remember what you’ve learned). Your past, however, may catch up with you, revealing many surprising facts about your former life. You may take up to five more points in Flaws that remain unknown to you. Your Storyteller picks them for you and brings them into play (to your surprise) during the course of your chronicle.