Long before western civilization had real knowledge of the African continent and the mysteries within, gods walked the earth. Sometimes alien and bizarre, these gods interjected themselves into the lives of the mortals throughout the area. They were known to take on widely different forms, and most of their appearances did not resemble the typical dark-skinned native African. Just as varied were the stories of creation each tribe or culture attributed to their patrons; some legends claimed that humanity sprang from the earth or grew from unorthodox parts of their god’s anatomy.

The Lugbara were, at one time, a culture spread throughout areas including modern day Uganda and the Republic of Congo. They worshipped a god named Adroa, a being of two aspects, good and evil, his body split in half. Half of his form — one arm, one leg, one eye, and half of his torso — resided in their world. The other half existed in the heavens. He was tall and white, always looking like he was near death. His offspring were the Adroanzi. Also said to appear like they had only half of a body, they were visible when viewed from one side and vanished when turned to view the other.

The Adroanzi had more contact with the tribes of the Lugbara than their deific parent ever conducted. They would protect the people from wildlife and malevolent bandits, they would keep watch over their chosen, and they would ensure benevolent harvests for the most worthy tribes. They were not, however, wholly benign patrons. Stories told by the Lugbara warned against trying to look at the god-children. A mere glance would infuriate the Adroanzi, prompting them to kill and devour the offender immediately. Even more mysterious tales were told of the homes of the Adroanzi. From time to time, the tribesmen would find groves of demented trees, full of perverted plants that could not be found anywhere else in their lands. Those who ventured into these groves returned with horrifying stories of venomous flowers, carnivorous trees and crawling roots. All of these plants dripped with blood, and were growing from or around disturbed graves and bodies of those claimed by the gods.

History and Culture: Long before Europeans made their way into the interior of Africa and interfered in the affairs of the indigenous cultures, a number of vampires took the roles of gods. While many required their human subjects to perform various rituals or provide different tributes, most of them appeared to be often benevolent. Almost universally, this benevolence was simply given to keep the mortal tribes from fleeing or fighting back. Thus it was that the Adroanzi “cared for” the Lugbara tribes.

A number of these supposed gods had a culture and a form of society of their own. Throughout central Africa, most of these vampires conducted games and competitions through their devoted tribes. Tribes would wage war upon each other, challenge each other for land and resources, and demand rights of breeding from the other tribes. In most cases, these tribes were simply going about their own business. However, the Adroanzi never left their subjects unmolested for long. They would command their chieftains, sour the local wildlife (forcing the tribe to migrate), or subtly instigate aggressions. With the intrusion of European outsiders, the tribes’ cultures began to change. Some were decimated by the invaders, some incorporated the teachings of others. Christianity, however, was the benevolent poison to the Adroanzi’s carefully cultivated Lugbara.

The Adroazni did not take well or adjust easily to the shifting cultures, introductions of new religions, and emergence into a larger world. A significant number of them perished in battles against the outsiders and a sizeable portion fell into torpor, hoping to be swept up to the heavens with the rest of the gods once revered by the people of Africa. Only a minuscule minority of these vampires made any serious attempt to integrate themselves with the Europeans or Asians, and with the world around them in general. The youngest and most impressionable, who did make the effort, quickly discovered a niche they could fill.

Through the decades and centuries of ruling the mortals from the position of gods of nature, they had accumulated a great deal of skill in manipulating plants. These manipulations certainly bore the mark of the vampiric condition, and there was one beneficial side effect to this practice. The Adroanzi became known as Lacrimists because their horticultural experiments produced mandragora plants more reliably than any other known practice. From these mandragora, the Adroanzi were able to extract quantities of lacrima. A rare delicacy among Kindred, Adroanzi were able to barter great favors and vast resources for their lacrima. It took very little time for a few entrepreneurial Lacrimists to make the transition into the societies outside of Africa.

Initially, these vampires traveled with and settled near the Kindred who had first discovered them among the African tribes. Thus, they were most prevalent near colonies controlled by the Grémio de Corajoso. Where the Gardeners went, the Grémio forged mutually beneficial relationships. The guild protected the Adroanzi while they capitalized on their association with the peddlers of Kindred vice. Few knew of the Gardeners’ origins, and those with such knowledge rarely cared after their first sip of lacrima. A few of the fallen gods attempted to return to their old ways, especially those rare elder Adroanzi who had ventured out into the world. On the heels of mortal explorers, these vampires sought out cultures and civilizations that had not suffered the same dilution theirs had. Attempting to enslave new villages, manipulate other Kindred, and reestablish their divine place over mortals rarely met with success.

This time, in the relative public eye of Kindred society, the acts of a number of Adroanzi elders cast a shadow over the bloodline. They developed a reputation as maniacal monsters who threatened the Masquerade. When they did occasionally find success and enthrall a remote village, explorers and invaders swiftly put an end to the oppression. Most of the bloodline was hunted down. The temptations of lacrima became tainted with suspicion. The majority of Kindred who learned of the substance through dealings with the Gardeners suspected foul play. Most wondered how many vampires had become unsuspectingly blood bound to the African elders. Even the most reputable Gardeners ended up running from Kindred domains, fearing destruction. Memories clouded by torpor, information inaccurately passed from one generation to the next, and the passage of time eventually allowed them to return from hiding.

Modern Adroanzi differ very little from the members of the bloodline who existed centuries ago. They are consistently reminded of their divine origins and take great pride in the fact that they still possess their mastery over nature and the flora around them. Between the uneasiness they cause in social situations and their utter contempt for humanity’s decision to abandon them for Christianity, the Gardeners tend to isolate themselves with personal pursuits. These activities commonly involve the exploration of various types of mandragora and the varieties of lacrima they can produce, but they can also bury themselves in the past. Feeling such a connection to the divine spurs a number of these vampires to delve into their own history, searching for how and why they fell from the grace of the other gods.

If the Adroanzi are more prevalent in any single covenant, it is in the Circle of the Crone. Lost rites, connections to ancient gods, and bloody tradition certainly appeal to many of them. The rest of the covenants generally attract only small numbers of the Gardeners. These also tend to be younger members of the bloodline. Searching any path that might offer answers to their past and longing for stability in a group separated from Man, they spread across the other covenants. Kindred aware of the bloodline’s history are always surprised to hear about one of the Adroanzi joining the Lancea Sanctum. However, the Sanctified are, after all, certainly not like the devout Christians of the breathing world. Indeed, younger Gardeners are far more open to exploring the darker side of the Sanctified.

Mandragora and Lacrima
Mandragora (sometimes called “mandrakes”) are plants that have been infused with Kindred Vitae. They are not ghouls and do not have any sentience of their own, but they do have intrinsic value to many Kindred. These warped and perverted plants produce small amounts of a bloody sap known as Lacrima (also referred to as “mandrake tears”). Lacrima is a unique substance that Kindred may consume. In fact, due to its compelling taste and properties that allow it to be blended with human blood, the rust-colored sap is sought out as a rare delicacy. Creating mandragora is an exceedingly difficult process that takes months and requires specific conditions for the plant to transform into this aberrant thing.

Mandragora and lacrima are discussed in more detail in Ghouls, but in brief: A plant can become a mandragora if a vampire feeds it blood for a long period of time. Not every plant becomes one (most die, in fact), and there is no set formula for how much Vitae is required to make the change. Larger plants require more blood, yes, but it’s possible that a smaller patch of greenery becomes voracious and sucks up whatever the vampire gives it, while an oak grows sickly and dies after only a few nights of the treatment. Mandrakes sometimes gain a bit of mobility, and slowly grow toward sources of blood, much like normal plants turn toward sunlight.

Reputation: Most Kindred find the Adroanzi to be eccentric and deviant peddlers of their liquid sin. Some elder Kindred may remember the years of ambitious and egotistical Adroanzi insisting that they were the direct offspring of a god, but very few would have had (or currently remember) direct confrontations with the “lost gods” trying to reclaim their glory. That being said, they tend to be viewed as novelties; worth attention only when the tiny bottles of lacrima are being passed around. Kindred who choose to roam the wilderness might have the most need to raise a conflict with Adroanzi in their own territory. Wherever the Gardeners conduct their experiments with plants, the property or landscape is littered with failed attempts — dead vegetation that take years to decompose, pools of bloody, pulpy, putrid and liquefied plants, and aggressive, bloated insects that scour the area of any other, more normal, insects. These disposal sites and groves for experimentation certainly cause a taint on the land around them, scaring away wildlife and placing a strain on anyone who depends on that land.

On the other hand, movers and shakers within the Kindred community feel very fortunate when they can contact and maintain a relationship with one of the Gardeners. Simply possessing lacrima can elevate a vampire’s reputation; having a regular method to distribute tiny vials of the substance to favored allies can place a vampire’s admirers in awe.

Concepts: Vintner to the elders, poisoner, herbalist, inner city pharmacist, drug dealer, graveyard gardener, god of the dead forest, monster of the woods, wood stake weaponsmith, African refugee protector

It was one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen: Amara’s ruin smoking in the moonlight, the scent of gun-powder and rock-dust still hanging in the air, thick enough to taste, and beneath that blood and death-ashes. I was numb with exhaustion already, my strength drained to the dregs by nights of battle, and yet the sight struck me, wrung pain from me when I thought I had no more grief left to give. Amara, the heart of my people, lay broken before me, and I knew that the ash I tasted belonged to my sire, and my sire’s sire, and all of my kin, broken along with it. They would not have abandoned the ancient temple-sanctuary to be defaced and despoiled by foreigners, living or dead. They would not have abandoned our king to be slaughtered by assassins unless they themselves could fight no more. A wrathful madness seized me, and for a searing moment all I wanted was to kill — had anything or anyone been unfortunate enough to come upon me, then, it would have ended the night in bloody shreds. As I came closer, across the fields torn by horses’ hooves and artillery caissons, the furious madness ebbed away and an even more terrible anguish took its place. It was even worse than I had feared, than could be seen at a distance, the whole of the temple’s outer face was simply gone, pummeled to rubble and buried in the landslide caused by the wholesale collapse of the hill’s crown. Beneath my feet, the earth still trembled from time to time and the sound of falling stone echoed out through the wreckage, as the collapse of the temple interior had not yet finished. I knelt in what was left of the outermost court and could not even find in myself the desire to move as the sky slowly paled with oncoming dawn. I wept, and whispered quiet pleas for the souls of my dead, and would have stayed to join them, had not Narayan found me there and forced me to my feet, his hoarse voice insisting that all was not yet lost. It was true, though I did not believe him at that moment. The temple was not wholly destroyed. The deepest chambers survived, and were re-excavated and reinforced in slow and careful stages over many years. We return there now by hidden ways, to take counsel among one another, and to whisper our questions to the ghosts of the warriors who came before us, and to fear for the future of our people. Or, at least, I do.

Thus it is written in the puranas of the Amara Havana: The asura Mahishasura, blessed for the purity of his piety, the many austerities of his existence, and his unfailing adherence to the dharma of his kind, could be neither conquered nor slain by the hand of any god or man. The terror of the three worlds, he conquered Heaven and drove forth all the gods, whose weapons were powerless against him, and sewed chaos and destruction upon the helpless Earth. In secret, the mightiest of the gods came together upon the banks of the holiest of waters and offered to the universe their prayer: that the Great Goddess should send forth a savior in her own form, a warrior goddess mightier than any man or god, whose strength could save Heaven and Earth from ruin at the hands of the demon none of them could slay. Their prayer was heard, and from the waters she came with ten arms to bear the weapons that were powerful in her hands, and three eyes to see all that had befallen the realms of Heaven and Earth and the Underworld, and a tongue that wished to taste the blood of demons.

The battle between the mighty warrior goddess and the pious demon shook the Heavens and the Earth, and raged from the sea to the sky, from the mountains to the plains, and across the length and breadth of the three worlds. For nine days and nine nights they fought with one another, neither able to claim victory, and the blood of the goddess and the demon rained down upon the Earth and the creatures that dwelt upon it, transfiguring all that it touched in the demon-haunted world. The men and women upon whom the goddess’s blood fell suffered from its touch, first with a terrible heat that burnt away their mortal lives. Then a terrible cold gripped their souls, and when they rose from where they were stricken, they were neither human, nor god, nor demon, but some part of all. A fierce hunger was upon them, a desire to sup upon the blood of the asuras who, following Mahishasura, had risen from the dark places of the world to slake their lusts upon the people of the Earth while the gods could do naught to aid or comfort those who cried out to them for succor. And so, since the gods were helpless, the new-born warriors, in whose veins ran the blood of both gods and demons, took up their arms for the first time to slay the despoilers of their world.

Thus it is written:

On the tenth day, the goddess was victorious. Her blade parted the hideous head of Mahishasura from his shoulders and the asura armies that the fiend had drawn into his service fell back in horror and dismay, to be pursued and driven back into the darkness from whence they had come. Shining with the gentle light of the newest of crescent moons, the goddess descended into the broken, ravaged world and surveyed it with sorrow in her heart. As the last light of the day died, the warriors who wore her blood as their mantle came forth from the darkness in which they had fought and suffered and knelt in supplication at the goddess’s feet, to beg her mercy and her blessing. To them, she extended her hand and, laying it upon their brows, she found that she could not take back the change that had transfigured them — but she could acknowledge the value of what they had become, and charge them to keep and carry out the dharma of kings and warriors so long as they continued to exist. These first warriors accepted that blessing, that responsibility, and the name that the goddess gave to them: Amara Havana, the Deathless Sacrifice, who had offered their flesh and souls to the struggle against asuras and adharma and whose faith could no more perish than they.

Thus it was written, and thus it remains.

History and Culture: The Amara Havana hold themselves to be the literal descendants of gods (or, rather, a goddess) and of demons, the offspring of a war that raged thousands of years before humanity even possessed the means to record its history. During this dark time, the world was overrun with both asuras (immensely powerful spiritual beings who were neither gods nor demons, and which could be malicious or benevolent and were often both) and demons hostile to both humankind and the gods. These entities were released, from the prisons and vows binding them, by the demon king Ravana, through his own rebellion against the gods and the strictures of the universe’s ordered adherence to dharma. It was a time of great terror and strife in Heaven, Earth and the Underworld, the horror fueled by the fact that many of the mightiest demons were pious enough to have achieved divinely which protected them from death except by specific circumstances. Such was the case of the shapeshifter buffalo-demon Mahishasura, whose piousness and prayers to Brahma had been rewarded with a body that could not be slain by any man or god and who achieved the conquest of Heaven as a result. In order to defeat and destroy him, the three greatest gods — Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma — offered their prayers to the holy river Ganges to bring forth a champion for the gods, and thus was born the goddess Durga, the warrior aspect of the great goddess Mahadevi. The mightiest of the gods gave her their most powerful weapons, the mountains gifted her with a white tiger to ride into battle, and she went forth to destroy the demon that could not be slain by any but a woman warrior.

Unlike several other Indian bloodlines, the Amara Havana do not believe that their patron deity actually incarnated as one of their own in order to found their lineage. Rather, when the blood of the goddess Durga and the asura Mahishasura rained down from their battle in heaven, those who were bathed in that blood were forever transformed by the touch of mingled divine and demonic essence. When the battle between the goddess and the demon ended in her victory, she descended to the ravaged Earth to set in motion its healing. When the first vampires of this bloodline knelt to her in supplication and prayed for her blessing, she answered those prayers with a boon of great power. Mighty and compassionate though she was, even the goddess could not purify them of the demon-taint to their blood, nor could she make them truly immortal. Instead she set forth conditions by which death could claim them, rendering them immune to age or disease, and vulnerable only to fire and the weapons of other warriors. She also decreed that the tainted blood that had so changed them would be the strongest of their weapons, anointing them as her chosen warriors, the rulers and guardians of their people by night as the mortal kshatriya were the rulers and guardians of the day. Thus, the Amara Havana consider themselves, and all other vampires, to be a form of asura, neither god nor man nor demon, but an admixture of all three, who have chosen a way of righteousness and self-sacrifice for the sake of dharma and the life of the universe itself.

This history is recorded in the puranas sacred to the bloodline as a whole and, in general, they do not credit the attitudes of western Kindred concerning the unlikelihood of their origin. If the westerners choose to believe that there are none in the world older than a thousand years, their delusions are of no concern to those who know better. The eldest vampires of the Amara Havana remember Harappa at the height of its power. The eldest of their lineage hand down artifacts, bearing the tongue of the ancient Indus, to the younger generations. They keep faith with the dharma laid out for them in the puranas and vedas and, as far as they are concerned, this is all that truly matters. Some Kindred of this bloodline even go so far as to believe that the western Daeva clan descends from them and not the other way around — with these westerners being the offspring of those too weak to adhere to the demands of rajadharma, who fled the cradle of the blood to hide their cowardice. This attitude naturally does not much endear them to their western cousins. Among the Kindred bloodlines of India, the Amara Havana generally consider only one other bloodline to be their peer in terms of ancient pedigree — the Nosferatu Rakshasa bloodline, with whom they have enjoyed a relationship that has ranged from semi-amicable rivalry to open, bloody warfare — and only one to be their superior, the kshatriya bloodline of the Mekhet, called the Ananta Naga.

In strict truth, no one knows precisely how old the Amara Havana really are, though they, like the Rakshasa, claim a history that stretches back thousands of years beyond the accepted limits of early human history. Certainly, there were vampires present and active within the Indus culture back then, though whether any of the current Indian Kindred bloodlines are direct descendants of those vampires is debatable. In practice, the Kindred of India make those claims and very few in the world could possibly gainsay them — they accept that history as true and teach it to their neonates as fact, admitting very little debate on the issue. In essence, the Amara Havana have retained their own startlingly resilient and contiguous internal culture by virtue of a fundamentalist attitude about their own history, which has admitted no editorial or adjustment by outside social forces. While the Rakshasa were falling under the “civilizing” sway of the brahmins for the first time, the Amara Havana were refining their own understanding of rajadharma to a razor’s edge without the need of such interference in their internal affairs. While the brahmin Kindred would have their own kind and the westerners believe that all the foremost advances of vampire society can be credited to their account, the kshatriya bloodlines in general, and the Amara Havana in particular, know otherwise.

The nocturnal battles, that secured the safety of the brahmin Kindred to practice their sorceries and develop their philosophies, were fought by the kshatriya. The blood that watered the mountains and plains and forests of India flowed from the veins of her warriors, living and dead. The burden of rulership was laid by the decree of the gods on the shoulders of those most fit to bear it, and those shoulders did not reside in the brahmin bloodlines. It became, over a period of some five centuries, a matter of not inconsiderable grievance that the princes of the Amara Havana would take counsel with the brahmin Kindred, would listen to the religious teachings of the brahmin Kindred, and would willingly do the fighting for the brahmin Kindred, but would not permit themselves or their dominions to be governed by a sorcerer-priest from behind their own thrones. Where the Amara Havana held sway, they were the rulers.

The Warrior of Warriors

The office of the Chhatrapati is as old as the kshatriya Kindred themselves, steeped in the martial traditions of the warrior vampires that cut across bloodline, loyalty and antagonism alike. The Chhatrapati is, in essence, the ruler of the entire warrior caste, the vampire who has, through dint of martial skill, political acumen, religious piety and personal magnetism, managed to claim the title in trial by combat or through the acclaim of the majority of the kshatriya elders. In times of danger, this individual becomes the strategos of the warrior caste, the general whose plans direct the actions of the kshatriya elders and their subordinates to meet their dharmic responsibility to protect the great mandala of Kindred society. In times of peace, the holder of the office wields considerable political influence within the counsels of the kshatriya bloodlines and does much to shape the balance of power between them and the brahmin bloodlines — with whom they are sometimes peaceful partners and sometimes vicious rivals. Even when the need is acute, the office of the Chhatrapati is not always filled. In fact, it is currently vacant. The last to hold the title was assassinated by Invictus agents in the 19th century and none of the surviving elders of the kshatriya bloodlines have yet proven themselves to possess the requisite social heft to claim the throne and keep it. The Ananta Naga, the pre-eminent kshatriya bloodline of the Mekhet, and the Amara Havana essentially traded claims to the title for the best part of a thousand years, the majority of all Chhatrapati coming from these two bloodlines, though the last to hold it was a Rakshasa. At the moment, there are three potential claimants, all of whom possess a valid case for their assertion. Ravindra of the Amara Havana holds claim as being the sole survivor of his lineage, which has produced no less than six Chhatrapati over the last thousand years and which was nearly annihilated fighting in defense of the previous holder of the title. Kalapriya of the Ananta Naga contests the claim on the grounds of the incompetence of both the Amara Havana and the Rakshasa in recent decades and the need for care and delicacy in the execution of current plans. Narayan of the Rakshasa holds claim as being the grandchilde of the last Chhatrapati and the foremost warrior of his remaining lineage. Contested claims of this type are usually resolved in trials by combat. No one has yet issued such a challenge, but many within the kshatriya caste believe it is only a matter of time.

Matters stood thus at the dawn of the 19th century, when the great European powers began exerting their colonial influence on the Indian subcontinent. The influx of mortal conquerors brought vampire conquerors in their wake like carrion birds and, in the eyes of many with the kshatriya caste, conflict was inevitable. Unfortunately, malign providence worked against the native Kindred, including the Amara Havana: a number of powerful elders retired their positions, leaving untried successors to navigate the perilous social waters of newly colonial India, and the results were almost uniformly disastrous. The Chhatrapati resisted the siren call of sleep for as long as he could but, in the end, even he needed to lay down his sword. His retirement, and the subsequent internecine quarrel among the kshatriya over who should replace him, led to open bloodshed between all the major bloodlines and most of the minor ones, as well. The Amara Havana and the Ananta Naga joined forces to lesson the Rakshasa, whom they perceived as the lapdogs and puppets of self-serving brahmin manipulators, and then turned upon each other to settle the question of dominance between themselves once and for all. Before either could claim victory, however, the war was joined from another quarter: European vampires beholden to the Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum, as well as native pawns and traitors, attacked the embattled kshatriya bloodlines. Already weakened by the struggle with their traditional rivals, the Amara Havana were hit particularly hard by the European onslaught: whole lineages were wiped out root and branch, and many dozens more were driven into torpor and exile before the conflict finally ended with much of southern India under the rulership of conquering European princes.

Licking their wounds in exile, the Amara Havana realized the folly of their own actions and moved to correct them. Over the next century and a half they formally sued for peace with the Ananta Naga, who accepted without conditions, and then made similar overtures to the Rakshasa, who were even more broken and embittered than they. As it happened, the Rakshasa were more than willing to make common cause and, together, they made a project of isolating and destroying the Invictus Kindred who laid claim to their former dominions — slowly but surely reclaiming and rebuilding the foundations of their power. Now, the Amara Havana and their allies are planning to extend their vengeance beyond the borders of India.

Working closely with Rakshasa infiltration specialists, agents of the Amara Havana have assumed an assortment of guises and have begun slowly introducing themselves into western courts in both the Americas and Europe. Frequently, an Amara Havana will travel in a Rakshasa merchant-envoy’s retinue as a bodyguard or other high-ranking servant whose position would allow for reasonably unfettered access to a western court. More level-headed members of this bloodline are assigned to merchant-envoy missions themselves. Once ensconced in the cities of their unwitting hosts, these infiltration teams gather intelligence, recruit reliable local sources of information, engage in the fundaments of Kindred intercultural commerce, and report their findings back to their superiors. When and if a target is selected for elimination, these teams will often be the means by which an assassin or group of assassins enters and leaves a specific domain; these infiltrators also arrange the particulars of travel and accommodations for missions, as well as providing a readily available source of assistance should greater force be required to complete a given assignment. Lamentably, the Amara Havana themselves are not the best of assassins, being prone to the sort of honorable behavior that would lead them to challenge an enemy instead of simply staking him and leaving him posted somewhere facing eastward five minutes before dawn. When, however, a coterie of kshatriya are assigned a task that involves a high degree of violence to an enemy’s servants — particularly his body-servants or other retainers of a martial nature — the Amara Havana are generally the ones best equipped to dispense it. True elders of this lineage consider vastly uneven odds to be an interesting tactical complication, not an insurmountable disadvantage.

Some members of this lineage, however, have been known to go west, with or without companions, and simply never return. The world outside the rigid social hierarchy of the Indian Kindred is intensely seductive to many young, and no few old, vampires — particularly those whose ability to govern the passions left to them is somewhat chancy. Hot blood and occasionally poor judgment is considered somewhat excusable in youngsters of this lineage and should such an individual choose to abandon his duty to his kin and his dharma to wallow in the heathen fleshpots for a time…well, that can be understood, so long as he eventually returns, makes penance, and has some sort of advantageous connections or bits of information to offer in compensation for his earlier moral failings. This sort of behavior coming from anyone more than 50 years undead, however, is considered significantly worse than a transitory failure of ethics and such individuals can, at the very least, expect harsh penances in order to regain the purity of soul they have willfully defiled. Failure to return home and accept proper chastisement leads to only one outcome, though the Amara Havana are loath to use it. Expulsion from one’s bloodline (the social aspect of it, anyway; obviously one can’t literally have a bloodline removed) is generally construed to be a fate worse than Final Death by all Indian Kindred. Destruction is preferable to a declaration of pariah, outcast and untouchable by all. Only a handful of Kindred have ever suffered this fate in the history of the Amara Havana bloodline, but their lesson stands starkly in the minds of all whose missions take them far from home.

Reputation: Among the Kindred of India, the Amara Havana possess something of a mixed reputation. On the one hand, they are undeniably kshatriya among kshatriya: they have refrained, for centuries, from taking the path of least resistance, of allowing foreign influences to mutate their clan culture, to abandon their traditional beliefs and adopt an ethic more suited to the changing face of the world. Traditionalist vampires have long considered them to be the rock to which other, less faithful lineages might cling and be sheltered by their willingness to bleed and kill for the sake of all their kind, keeping faith with their rigid and unchanging dharma even as the rest of the world erodes around them. On the other hand, that unyielding adherence to tradition can, and has, worked against them. When one’s enemy is dishonorable, treating honorably with such opponents becomes a fatal weakness. When the world changes and one refuses to change with it long enough, even the simplest alterations in the shape of one’s beliefs can become points of breaking strain. The Amara Havana, in this day and fallen age, are a throwback to ancient honor and glory — and are very, very fragile. The coming conflicts may either signal a return to power for the line, a remaking of unbalanced Kindred society in their own image, or finish breaking them once and for all.

Within the senior counsels of the bloodline, at least two distinct factions have come into being. The traditionalist elders of the Amara Havana have, for the most part, thrown their lot wholly in with those who wish to avenge themselves on the western Kindred whose conquest of southern Indian during the 19th century so ravaged the kshatriya lineages. These vampires are highly conservative in general, adhering to social conventions that were ancient before Alexander marched his armies to the Hyphases and nourishing their sense of grievance with the modern world like a man cuckolded by his favorite wife. The loyal opposition within the bloodline is, in fact, only slightly less conservative — but that “less” embraces such heretical notions as not picking a potentially unwinnable intergenerational war with the western Kindred to salve the bloodline’s wounded pride, not declaring those Indian Kindred who travel to the west for their own reasons pariah, and a general greater willingness to adopt such elements of the modern world that do not directly threaten the integrity of their clan culture. The unappeasable fury of the conservatives drives most of the bloodline’s current activities with regard to its involvement in the Southern Cities Alliance; but the loyalists, somewhat greater in numbers, exert a certain amount of counterbal- ancing influence, forcing a consideration of tactics, objec- tives, and, most importantly, consequences that many of the more bloodthirsty elders would prefer to ignore. As matters currently stand, neither faction has the numbers nor the continuity of influence necessary to completely undermine the other’s efforts. The only thing that could significantly alter this balance of power is, of course, the vacancy of the Chhatrapati’s throne. Should Ravindra, one of the most potent loyalist elders, feel it necessary to issue a challenge, the traditionalists would move to neutralize him, and by extension those allied to him, with a challenger of their own. On the eve of war it remains to be seen, however, if anyone — Ravindra included — desires to unsettle the entire kshatriya caste in such a way.

Concepts: Genius chessmaster tactician, reluctant assassin, dumb but honorable muscle, individual of mass destruction, dharma rebel, hard-bitten veteran of the colonial wars, warrior poet, private military contractor with an agenda, Bollywood martial artist, ultraconservative culture cop

Members of the Apollinaire bloodline are champions of death. They are the favored children of Ghede, the loa of death and keeper of the eternal crossroads. Members of the bloodline have unique abilities bestowed upon them by Ghede, allowing them to open and close the gateways to the land of the dead. They are loyal servants of the Baron and are granted dominion over the dead by the loa.

For one night a year, Ghede gives up his charge as Lord of the Dead to members of the Apollinaire bloodline. On that night, the Gatekeepers take up his burden and patrol the shadowy borders between life and death, fighting back the dead who attempt to cross into the world of the living while their lord is absent. In exchange, for the remainder of the year, members of the Apollinaire bloodline enjoy the abilities granted to them by the Ghede.

History and Culture: Before the Haitian revolution, a vampire known only as Bokor Apollinaire grew to become one of the most influential Kindred of the first wave in St. Domingue. Apollinaire was a powerful houngan; it is said that he was favored by Ghede and that the vampire and loa came to an agreement that could benefit them both.

To hear the Apollinaire speak of it, Ghede was the first man who ever died. Since the dawn of Humanity, he has ruled over the dead and has controlled the gateways be-tween the world of the living and the dead. As centuries passed, Ghede grew exhausted from constantly maintaining the barriers between worlds. One night, he appeared before one of his most devoted and loyal servants, Bokor Apollinaire, with an offer.

“I grow weary of my charge,” the loa said. “You have shown your loyalty to me, and are among the most powerful of my houngan. If you agree to carry my burden for one night out of a year, I shall bestow upon you and those of your blood great power.”

Bokor Apollinaire was honored to have been chosen by Ghede, and accepted the proposal. Ghede plucked out Apollinaire’s left eye, and planted magic in the empty socket, granting him the ability to see the dead. Then, Ghede bestowed upon his loyal servant the power to rule over the dead and maintain the gateways of this world and the next. For one night a year, Ghede relinquishes his charge and duties as Lord of the Dead to the Apollinaire bloodline. Ghede then walks the streets in the guise of a human, drinking, feasting, dancing and reveling flamboyantly in mortal pleasures. While Ghede is absent, the Apollinaire bloodline patrols the borders between life and death, fighting back the ghosts who attempt to cross into the world of the living while their master is absent.

The night of Ghede’s absence is not fixed. He may choose to leave at any time, delegating his duties to the Apollinaire bloodline. As such, Gatekeepers must constantly be prepared for his signal. To alert the Gatekeepers, Ghede causes a glowing vévé to emerge with a slight prickling upon the forehead of those who carry Apollinaire’s blood. The mark signifies the authority granted to the bloodline by Ghede, and is visible only to those of Apollinaire’s bloodline and to ghosts. Vampires who fail to answer the call of Ghede are punished by the loa by being thrown into Twilight and left to fend for themselves, often leading to the Final Death of the Gatekeeper.

Some believe that Bokor Apollinaire met his Final Death during the Haitian Revolution, though members of his bloodline believe Apollinaire could never have died, having been the favorite of the loa of death.

A Ventrue is recognized as a member of the Apollinaire bloodline once he has sworn to honor the agreement between the founder of the bloodline and the loa. A ritual is performed, during which the initiate’s left eye is removed and Ghede possesses the body of the vampire. The character gains the ability Eye of Ghede (see below), making him a true Gatekeeper.

Although the Apollinaire are sworn to uphold the agreement between Bokor Apollinaire and Ghede, they are not required to take Ghede as their patron loa (see Kindred Vodoun on p. 73.), or, indeed, to become practitioners of Vodoun at all. While many choose to practice Vodoun, and the Apollinaire encourage new members to take Ghede as a patron, it is not mandatory. Once a Gatekeeper is acknowledged by Ghede as an Apollinaire, and he has sworn to take up the burden of Ghede for one night per year, he is free to lead his unlife as he pleases.

Reputation: Because of the Gatekeeper’s connection to Vodoun (despite the fact that members of the bloodline may or may not actually practice Vodoun), the bloodline has a negative stigma for vampires who adhere to traditional European values. As such, the bloodline is often looked upon with disdain, or even tense apprehension, by the Invictus and Lancea Sanctum.

The Ordo Dracul is particularly interested in the Apollinaire, as the bloodline’s connection to Ghede has clearly shown that Vodoun can be an effective means of altering the vampiric condition. Gatekeepers do not appreciate being looked upon as the result of some de- monic experiment meant to be studied, however, and do not typically offer assistance to the Ordo Dracul without good reason.

Concepts: Vodoun priestess, prison guard, wealthy traveler, vigilant guardian, eccentric magician, homeless vagrant, clairvoyant medium consultant, contraband runner, reclusive occultist, escape artist

Eye of Ghede

Ghede is often portrayed wearing dark sunglasses with one eye out, to symbolize his power in the worlds of the seen and the unseen. During the initiation to become a member of the bloodline, the initiate’s eye is removed from the socket, and the empty hole is filled with the magic of Ghede during possession. The Eye of Ghede looks like a constantly swirling, white mist contained within the Gatekeeper’s eye-socket. Once the “eye” is in place, the new Gatekeeper is able to see, hear and speak with ghosts (but not spirits). Additionally, the Apollinaire can detect their unseen presence, even if they are hiding or have chosen not to reveal themselves. Finding an unseen ghost is a contested action, pitting the vampire’s Wits + Composure against the ghost’s Finesse + Resistance.

The Bak-Ra (literally, Servants of Ra) were once leaders of a great society of Kindred. They united the clans of Ancient Egypt when solidarity was needed most. They led by example, by fear and by wielding power that both terrified and awed their brethren. Once the Romans invaded the Kingdom of the Nile, however, the Bak-Ra found themselves being hunted down and persecuted for heresy and other crimes against the “one true God.” Many of the Bak-Ra decided to enter voluntary torpor as a means of escaping the insidious traps of the Roman Kindred, hoping to keep Ra’s greatest, most powerful secrets away from the mongrel Ventrue of Rome and their vampire puppets.

Unfortunately for the Bak-Ra, they were forgotten, left buried in their tombs for an unfathomable three thousand years, unable to awaken themselves, consumed by madness and trapped in the fog of time. Now, they have an unquenchable thirst for everything that was taken from them. For the Bak-Ra of modern nights, their only hope is to rediscover their history and locate the rituals, tools and abilities that made them what they once were. They are in a desperate search for their identity and clues to their place in modern nights.

Now, an irresistible drive to remember who they were, and what they were once capable of, fills their blood with renewed purpose and vitality. The Bak-Ra who have awakened in the modern nights have become obsessive scholars, doing everything in their power to relearn their history. Sadly, those who have managed to crawl up from their earthen tombs find that they are often the targets of scorn, ridicule and mockery. This only fuels their insane fervor more, feeding their Beast for the night that they can unleash it and exact their revenge.

Finally, it is important to note that all the Bak-Ra know about their past is what is available to the historians of the modern nights, along with the few fragments that individual Bak-Ra kept in their tombs. No known member of this bloodline has awakened with her memories intact.

Nickname: Servants of Ra, Childer of the Sun, The Sun-Stroked (derogatory)

History and Culture: It seems odd that a clan most noted for its aversion to the sun and affinity towards shadows should, in fact, not only worship the god of the sun, but claim to have once been able to walk beneath it as easily as any human. The power of Ra, however, remains within their collective souls. They fervently, obsessively, believe that they were once able to walk during the day, beneath the Sun, and they know for certain that it is only a matter of time before they remember how to do so again.

Perhaps the secrets are still hidden in one of their buried tombs. Perhaps one of their allies, the Usiri, has their secrets and memories stored in dream-space somewhere. Whatever the case, the Bak-Ra are intent on rediscovering their past glory. In the meantime, they endure the ridicule and spend much of their time in self-imposed exile, studying and waiting for the night when they can make the heretic invaders suffer for their transgressions.

What the Childer of the Sun know in their undead hearts is that Ra ruled the heavens and thus, it is only logical that his followers ruled the Earth. However, history tells them that Ra’s priests didn’t rule unilaterally, but rather that the Cult of Ra merely managed an already unified covenant of gods. Rather than provide comfort however, this information merely angers and confuses them. How could such disparate beliefs ever come to a consensus and unity? Why would Ra deign to share power with lesser beings?

And yet, every historical artifact discovered and every piece of information received leads the Bak-Ra to the realization that this was, indeed, the case. The possibility that their history is a lie, a fiction written by the murderous, invading Ventrue dogs of Rome, flames their already virulent distrust and hatred of the Lords. There can be, in their minds, no other plausible explanation for what has happened to them. Why hadn’t the others awakened them sooner? Where were the Anubi, the Usiri, the Hori or the Thothites? Why hadn’t they come?

The one thing that all Bak-Ra retain is their physical ties to ancient Egypt. They often appear in colorful, flowing gowns which are always adorned with scarabs and symbols of Ra somewhere on their person. Their havens display Egyptian artifacts as if they were artwork. Indeed, the Bak-Ra can often be seen creating new papyrus in the ancient style, perhaps as a way of relearning their culture. Whenever entertaining a perspective client, it is always remarked, later, that the look in the Bak-Ra’s eyes is one of joyous expectation, as if they know it is only a matter of time before the lesser “covenants” look up to them once again, begging them for Ra’s mercy and trembling in fear of the Sun God’s wrath.

The Servants of Ra disappeared from history and those who have been awakened do not like what they are learning of the past three thousand years. They harbor grudges against their former allies, the Usiri, the Anubi and the other cults of Egypt that still exist. They shudder at the thought that Ventrue hold so much power and that the gods are nothing but myths, parables and fables. This Lancea Sanctum troubles them, as does the Ordo Dracul and its progenitor. The Carthians make no sense to the Bak-Ra, for what is an existence without the gods to offer strength and guidance? Only the Circle of the Crone and the Agoniste bloodline offer them hope that they might regain some of their lost knowledge. Unfortunately, the Circle’s history is almost as muddled as their own and the Agonistes are unable to provide the Bak-Ra with what they really need.

A Terrifiying New World
Recently, a Sanctified coterie, searching for relics beneath one of the great pyramids of Giza, located a well-hidden entrance beneath the deepest of the known archeological digs. This opening dropped the coterie deeper into the Earth and fed into a trap-laden network of caves and crawlspaces. The coterie lost two of its members in the exploration, which eventually ended in the tomb of an ancient Kindred, still in torpor. The remaining vampires decided to awaken the sleeping vampire, curious as to what it was and, hopefully, prepared for what they would learn. He rose from his sleep enraged, claiming to be something called a Bak-Ra. He began screaming incoherently, and the coterie believed that he had been driven insane by the amount of time spent in torpor. The coterie quickly subdued the Bak-Ra and realized that they had discovered an ancient vampire who might offer them power beyond their imagination. They returned to the surface with their find and showed the ancient vampire what he had awakened to, hoping that he would understand the futility of his situation and go with them for further study and indoctrination into this terrifying new world he had been awakened into. The shock of seeing such dramatic change was enough to shatter what was left of his precarious sanity. He escaped the coterie and fled back into the depths of the Egyptian sands. The coterie attempted to track him, but lost the ancient in the tunnels. They left before sunrise and when they returned the next evening, they discovered that the entire network of tunnels beneath the pyramids had collapsed. Their prize was gone, and with him whatever secrets he may have held in his withered brain.

Reputation: The Bak-Ra are considered eccentric and excitable misfits. They have a reputation among Kindred of the modern nights as neonates with delusions of grandeur, sad little sun worshippers who can never get what they want. The Sun-Stroked hide in their shadowy lairs, wear their fancy robes, talk to their beetles and whisper to themselves in harsh, guttural curses. Especially among the Invictus, they are considered useless.

Derogatory nicknames notwithstanding, the Bak-Ra are absolutely certain that they were once able to walk in sunlight without fear of the curse burning them to ash. They are convinced that all they need to do is rediscover the secrets that time has stolen from them. Those secrets are surely hidden somewhere inside their minds or beneath the desert sands and it is only a matter of time until they are found.

From a practical standpoint, it is impossible to argue with a Bak-Ra regarding her beliefs. The total conviction each member of this bloodline possesses seems to be hard-wired into their blood and that kind of religious zeal is difficult to refute.

They say that history will prove that their claims are not just lies and madness. When they discover the truth, and they will discover the truth, the Servants of Ra will remember those who helped them. And they will especially remember those who stood in their way.

The Bak-Ra and the Agonistes
The Agonistes are a bloodline devoted to uncovering the truths of Kindred history and spreading that truth to every covenant and individual vampire they can. Unfortunately, the Bak-Ra have no memory of their past. This severely limits their uses to the Agonistes.

The Bak-Ra have been reduced to begging the Agonistes for the use of their libraries in order to gather more information about themselves. They promise to share with them everything that they discover. However, there is no guarantee that the Bak-Ra will ever learn anything about their past, although the Servants will never admit that as a possibility. Thus, they spend much of their time questioning the Agonistes, whose information of Kindred history prior to the fall of Rome is incomplete at best. The Bak-Ra hope that the Agonistes will provide something that may spark a fog-enshrouded memory to surface, or show the path to discovering where those bits of history might be.

Concepts: Psychology student, eccentric collector, self-help guru, political advisor, ancient history professor, Kindred sociologist, astronomer, Agoniste stalker, occult preacher, Harpy

We’ve spent the last century poisoning ourselves. A nuclear power plant melts down in the Ukraine. A chemical plant explodes in India. One of the largest cities of the world near-collapses under the weight of its polluted air. And in the first World War, we found ever more efficient ways to poison each other. Every side propelled countless shells, full of deadly gases — phosgene, chlorine, mustard gas — onto soldiers who could do nothing more than pray that their battered, sweaty masks would keep them alive.

And standing behind those in the trenches, the dead, who could not be poisoned, found ways to exploit these horrors. One dead man in particular, who bore the most mundane of names, learned how to internalize the poisons in the air, mud and water, and use them for his own ends.

The bearers of his legacy survive, a line of monsters who thrive on toxins, under whose pale skin lies the chemical pollutant that has done its part in the poisoning of a century.

History and Culture: A rolling cycle of death and boredom ruled the trenches, punctuated by the terror of gas attacks. Pvt. Owen Thomas Jones, a 19-year-old soldier from Barry, was reported as one of the 90 men who died in the chlorine attack on Hill 60 at the Second Battle of Ypres. At least that’s what he tells his childer: he says he was Embraced when he was already dead from the gas. Whether true or not — and very few vampires believe him — it’s part of his personal mythology, something Jones had a talent for.

Jones may not have enjoyed being a private soldier, but he flourished as a vampire. Within a couple of months, Jones managed to maneuver his sire into the way of a five-nine and was on his way across Western Europe, hiding among the troops by night and dwelling in the vast networks of trenches that the Entente powers developed across France and Belgium. He wasn’t alone in the vampires’ makeshift trench-society, and he soon became well-known in the mud-soaked Elysiums of the trenches. He was particularly good at taking advantage of the chaos and bloodshed of the various battles of the war. His enemies didn’t fare so well, falling prey, according to Jones, to shells, machineguns, barbed wire and sunlight. If Jones’s blood became potent particularly quickly, no one had the time to object. And if Jones’s Mekhet childer noticed that his aura had turned partly black, what were they going to do about it?

Jones thrived in other ways as well. Gas attacks didn’t bother the undead in the trenches. They didn’t need to breathe. Dead eyes couldn’t be blinded. Dead skin had no living cells to mutate and burn. Jones found the gas attacks to be an excellent cover for assaults on men who were going to die soon anyway. Jones began to develop a taste for the gas, for the blood of choking, poisoned men. He found, one night, that he had internalized the gas without even realizing he had done so. He found his taste for poisoned blood had become a need, but that he could use the poison for his own ends.

It suited most of his childer to benefit, with his help, from the same transformation of the blood. It was easy enough in the chaos for them to move on. Jones was always a loner himself, and when the war ended, he cut the members of his new bloodline loose.

Jones had Embraced men just like him: chancers and dealers, and they in turn had taken as childer people on both sides of the war. When the battles ended, they spread quickly with a speed that reflected the dizzying change that overtook the 20th century. By the beginning of the current century, they had become more numerous than any bloodline with less than a century of history has any business being.

They followed the British to Mesopotamia in the 1920s, and profited from the widespread use of chlorine on Arab and Kurd resistance fighters. Meanwhile, another branch of the bloodline gained influence on the battlefields of the Russian Civil War. They strode through the middle of gas clouds in Ethiopia and Morocco.

In the Second World War, one or two Brothers of Ypres fed well from some of the most callous evils ever perpetrated by mortals against their fellow human beings. And after the war, some even got as far as Japan, where the new kinds of poisoning visited upon the people by the bomb gave them more food than they had ever seen before.

And so it went. The notorious London smogs of the 1950s that claimed so many lives were attractive to the Brothers, as was the disaster at Bhopal and the nuclear event at Chernobyl (in fact, power stations in general have been a desired place for Joneses to hunt). Lesser events, such as the poisoning of Camelford, the English village whose entire population suffered from aluminum contamination in the water supply back in the late 1980s, always seem to bring a Brother or two to hunt as soon as the news gets out.

The Brothers of Ypres themselves don’t seem cut out for working together. They cooperate happily with other vampires, but tend to see other members of the bloodline as competition for valuable food resources. It’s only when a poisoning event is big enough to create a regular source of Vitae for more than a couple of Jones that they appear in numbers. When they Embrace, they do it for a purpose, and don’t generally tend to tell their childer much about the bloodline. A lot of second- and third-generation Joneses (there are no fourth generation Joneses so far) seem to come into the bloodline spontaneously when their blood thickens enough, without being told anything about the limitations or benefits of their heritage. It has always been unusual, although not unheard of, for a Trencher to bring an outsider into the bloodline. The Brothers don’t need the competition.

Reputation: The covenants and clans do not generally have a lot of time for the Joneses, and consider them more of a nuisance than anything else, not least because their power is so useless against the undead. They make the food supply taste vile sometimes, but the miseries they inflict upon the kine are not communicable. Yes, they’re not trustworthy — but who is?

The only thing that Owen Thomas Jones ever really passed down to his bloodline as a tradition is that the Joneses should only ever be seen to profit from toxins in their food — they shouldn’t be the cause of it.

And it’s important for the reputation of the line that no one knows that a high proportion of Joneses keep stocks of toxic substances, ranging from cans of rat poison right through to the vats of Iraqi nerve gas Owen Thomas Jones added to his personal collection only a few years ago.

Concepts: Over-zealous toxicologist, pest exterminator, Black Widow, war crimes suspect, experimental test subject, Gulf War Syndrome sufferer, fired UN weapons inspector, shell-shocked veteran, “unlawful combatant,” urban cyclist

History and Culture: The Canda Bhanu consider themselves but one among many: they are of the bloodlines of vampires who, in the aftermath of the terrible war between the gods, the demons, and their own demon-tainted people, were chosen by the gods to bring healing to the world. In this they are at least somewhat humble, though the brahmin vampires, as a whole, are not at all meek. While they are, in total, the least populous of the varnas, they wield political and social influence that far outstrips their numbers — thanks to their exalted station as teachers, scholars, priests, and, perhaps most significantly, blood-sorcerers. Even among the brahmin, the Canda Bhanu are a small but vastly influential bloodline, and this prominence extends not only within their own clan but to others as well, owing to their skills as diplomats and politicians more than to any particular esoteric skills for which the brahmin are generally known.

This is because the Canda Bhanu are not what they claim to be, though even they have forgotten the truth of what they are. They are, in fact, the descendants not of a native lineage of brahmin extraction but from that of a refugee seeking a safe exile in their land: a Ventrue adventurer who fled Rome in the waning days of the Empire, escaping the consequences of his own poor decisions, of treachery that would otherwise have been resolved only with his Final Death. He escaped the Eternal City with the most loyal of his childer and servants, just ahead of his enemies, and took ship to the East. When he ran out of sea, he and his attendants fled by land across the desolation of the Hindu Kush, seeking a safe haven where no one knew his face or his name or his deeds. He found that haven in the great cities of India, teeming with mortal life among whom he could lose himself while he learned the lay of the land and the local Kindred society.

It required some time, and some effort on his part, but eventually he found his way into the counsels of the prince, who was a kshatriya of the Gangrel, and from there into a position as that prince’s close advisor, in preference of the brahmin counselor whose guidance he found an onerous imposition on his desire to make war with his neighbors. An elegant solution to their mutual dilemma was devised: in return for the gods’ blessings upon his endeavors, the Roman refugee would be permitted to dispose of the irritating brahmin as he wished.

Thus the Canda Bhanu were (re)born in an atrocious crime. The already tiny brahmin bloodline, their entire dominion residing within the grasp of a prince hostile to them, was systematically hunted down and devoured by the Roman, his kin, and his newly acquired native allies. None escaped to tell the tale, and, knowing the infamy of what he had done, the newly created paterfamilias took no chances in further hiding the evidence. Within a decade, he arranged for the deposition and assassination of the prince whose ambitions had enabled the massacre in the first place, along with his entire immediate brood and any allies to whom he might have confided. Eventually, time, torpor, and the helpful effects of native internecine struggles succeeded in obliterating any recollection of the original Canda Bhanu and what they had been, leaving only what they had become.

Thus it is written:

The wars between the gods and the demons, and the armies of their chosen warriors, ravaged the Earth by both day and night. The suffering of all peoples was great. Famine stalked the fields, stole the food from the tables of kings and sages, warriors and farmers, and the starving multitudes cried out to Heaven for sustenance. Pestilence flowed through the cities and the towns, the great temples and the humble villages, carrying away first the very young and the very old, and then laying its baneful touch on all, that none lived to offer prayers for those who had fallen or aid to those who yet survived. Demons carried away the sons and daughters of men, to profane them with unholy lusts, and taught blasphemy from the defiled altars of the gods, to turn the people away from their dharma and bring the whole of the universe to unending darkness and chaos. This terrible war gave birth to the night-hunting warriors of the kshatriya and, in time, the cruel weight of its toil wore away at their minds and souls, until they were little more than demons themselves.

The gods saw how far their night-warriors had fallen and shed tears of grief and despair. As the tears of the gods fell upon the blighted Earth, some among the night-warriors came forth to bathe themselves in these divine waters, seeking to wash away the stain of hatred and violence that the war had left upon their souls. At the sight of this, the gods knew hope again, for if the demon-tainted could still seek out righteousness, all was not lost for the world. One of the highest of all the gods left his seat of contemplation and descended to the soul-hungry night-warriors, who fell upon their knees before him in awe and worship, offering him prayers for the healing of their pain. To assuage the hungers of their flesh, he laid open his own veins and permitted them to drink deeply of his divine blood. To assuage the hungers of their souls, he took them apart from the world to the holy mountain where he dwelt, that he might teach them more deeply of the ways of righteousness and the path to conquering the demon-madness that lay within them. There they abided for many long years, learning the way from the great divine sage, and, when the hour seemed darkest for those left behind, they emerged again to offer the fruits of their studies to all the asura-children of the great war.

Thus it is written:

The newly-born brahmin of the night peoples went forth into the world to bring the word of hope and righteousness to their fellows, to let them know that the war they fought was not the beginning and the ending of all things for them. Many at first refused to listen, for their anguish had blinded them to all but terrible despair, and many more had no desire to receive the teachings, for their hatred and their lusts were better served by base indulgence. But, for some, the gentle words of their brahmin kin were as a balm to the soul and in them they found healing and a path beyond war and suffering to a future unshackled from both. Slowly, the words that the sages spoke spread from the small circles of their first students, washing out like soothing water, making pure that which had been sullied, making whole that which had been sundered, bringing peace to that which had been at war.

Thus it is written and thus it remains

Eventually, even the Canda Bhanu themselves forgot that their lineage had originated in treachery and murder, though both continued to follow the bloodline’s destiny like a bloodstain that refused to wash away. Bereft of the blood sorcery that had been the province of the name’s previous owners, the Canda Bhanu nonetheless maintained their brahmin social status, serving a succession of princes as political advisors, diplomats, religious advocates and social provocateurs, eventually branching out from their northern “roots” to take positions of great intellectual and religious prominence in the city-states of the south, as well. In the process, they became almost more brahmin than even other brahmin, cleaving to the native philosophies they co-opted for their own gain with something approaching a convert’s zeal and passing that zealotry down to their offspring, who perpetuated it down the line to the present. The social battles for dominance between the kshatriya vampires, who believed they possessed a divinely bestowed mandate to make war and rule according to the precepts revealed to them, and the brahmin, who believed they possessed the divinely bestowed right to overrule the dictates of even immortal rulers in order to promote the proper adherence to vampiric dharma, were the source of much of their influence. Few princes wished to rule without the imprimatur of the gods or the approval of the priestly caste, and the Canda Bhanu were among the most adept at ruling from behind the thrones of those who sought their counsel — and occasionally seizing those thrones for themselves. Their efforts, in particular, bore fruit in their extensive alliances with, and manipulations of, assorted Rakshasa kshatriya princes, many of which persisted deep into the 19th century and the coming of the European invaders to the Indian subcontinent.

Karmas Retribution

None still undead tonight, including the “new” Canda Bhanu themselves, remember the original Canda Bhanu, the tiny, insular, extremely devout and scholarly Mekhet bloodline destroyed and consumed by the Ventrue invaders who claimed their name. The blood in their veins, however, does not forget what it is…and neither does the vengeance levied against that blood. When it became obvious that their doom was upon them and would not be denied, the eldest and most powerful blood sorcerer of the original Canda Bhanu lineage spent the last of herself in a terrible curse: that the treachery and murder that their killers brought to their doors would revisit itself upon them and bring them low, karma twisting upon itself to avenge the fall of the blameless and righteous. The act of diablerie that ended her unlife sealed that magic into the blood of her murderer and all his descendants. The Canda Bhanu are doomed to end as they began. Whether they will destroy only themselves or if they will take others down with them remains to be seen.

The European invasions created both conflict and opportunity. Pre-existing social pressures, within the rigidly stratified culture of the Indian Kindred, were coming to a boil as the perpetually fractious kshatriya caste prepared to enter into one of its cyclical changes of rulership, the pretenders to the office of the Chhatrapati lining up to assert their dominance over the others. Meanwhile, assorted factions within the brahmin caste were also contemplating changes in the society of their kind. It was the thinking of many brahmin — the majority of the Canda Bhanu bloodline among them — that for too long the stability of their society had depended on the violent whims of the kshatriya, who were becoming less and less biddable with every passing year, less inclined to accept the wisdom of their spiritual superiors. Certain overtures were made to a selection of European Kindred, certain communications exchanged, certain agreements put into place. When the kshatriya, as they inevitably did, ceased their preliminary “negotiations” and drew their knives on each other, the situation was ripe. The Canda Bhanu and their co-conspirators in the brahmin and vaisya castes passed intelligence to their European allies, disclosing the safe resting-places of a dozen torpid kshatriya elders, the temple-havens of dozens more kshatriya princes and influential ancillae, and then stepped back to allow the western mercenaries and assassins to do their work. The kshatriya were decimated in a series of swift, savage attacks that left many of the southern courts in chaos, deprived of their princes and many of their governing elders. Unfortunately for the brahmin, what happened next did not precisely unspool as planned: the European Kindred proved more than willing to extend the already treacherous situation to their erstwhile allies, as well. The Canda Bhanu, as the bloodline who had interacted most closely with the Europeans as a go-between and intelligence conduit, suffered the most directly from this turnabout. Never as populous as some of the older brahmin bloodlines, they and their dominions were ravaged by the invaders and their numbers horribly reduced by outright murder. Only one Canda Bhanu who claimed personal rulership of her own domain survived the assault against them, and even she was wounded almost to Final Death. Only a handful of the bloodline’s most powerful and puissant members survived to flee back into the north, exiled, their power utterly broken. The only consolation — and it was extremely cold comfort — was that the betrayal of the European Kindred had effectively obscured the culpability of the brahmin in general and Canda Bhanu in specific in the slaughter of the kshatriya caste.

From their northern exile, the Canda Bhanu brooded on this reversal of their fortunes and considered their options, slowly nursing their wounds and nourishing their bitterness. Their Rakshasa allies, who had suffered heavy losses in both the kshatriya blood-war and the subsequent attempt to annihilate their caste, slunk out of the south to bring word of the Europeans, their strengths and weaknesses. The surviving kshatriya bloodlines, bloody and broken but fundamentally unbowed, began to coalesce again in knots of fury and unexpectedly robust resistance to further European expansion, though no single leader emerged from their ranks. A slow but steady program of retaliation against the European invaders and European princes who had seized Indian thrones began. The Canda Bhanu were gratified when the proud, fierce Amara Havana finally swallowed that pride for the first time in centuries, making their peace with the Rakshasa and consenting to take counsel with the brahmin, creating an alliance between the three bloodlines that successfully targeted and executed a series of vicious, precision attacks against their particular nemesis: the Invictus princes of the south. Though it took the best part of a century, eventually the European invaders were forced into flight, abandoning their Indian holdings and childer to the tender mercies of the kshatriya they had displaced. Now, in the 21st century, the Canda Bhanu, still bitter at the failure of their own treachery, still furious at being betrayed themselves, are at the forefront of the movement within Indian Kindred society to continue retaliation against the European Kindred wherever they now lair. The honor of the blood demands it, they say. The honor of those who were betrayed and who fell, the honor and rajadharma of the kshatriya which were despoiled and defiled by the invaders, cries out to be avenged upon the defilers. If not now, when?

Politicians and manipulators with few peers, the Canda Bhanu were also one of the handful of Indian bloodlines to expend any effort at maintaining those few connections they possessed with non-hostile western Kindred. These relationships are being put to work now. Younger members of this lineage, more likely to possess the necessary cosmopolitan mind-sets and educational backgrounds, have been sent forth to renew old ties of diplomacy and scholarship, the better to use those bonds to secure intelligence on their western enemies — and work subtly against the schemes of their erstwhile allies. In truth, the Canda Bhanu thirst to humble, humiliate and tame the kshatriya even more than they desire to avenge themselves against the western Kindred. Certain factions within the bloodline have begun undermining the efforts of the kshatriya to locate and isolate the western elders who attempted the conquest of India a century and a half ago, while other factions work to advance those goals. Eventually, something is going to give.

Reputation: The Canda Bhanu have, among their own kind, a reputation for extreme piety. They exemplify the moral code of the vampiric brahmin: control of their emotions and the resistance of the darker heart of their nature, pursuit of truth and purity, extensive study of and teaching from the sacred scriptures, the offering and acceptance of sacrifice, and the performance of ritual. In fact, many among their own kind perceive the Canda Bhanu as not only being exceptionally righteous, rigidly so, but also more than slightly self-righteous –— the pride they take in their own unsullied purity, which they claim they maintained by preferring Final Death to submission to the European invaders, is particularly galling to the Amara Havana, whose elders suffered destruction in a considerably less ritually pure fashion.

In truth, the Canda Bhanu are treacherous, murderous, extremely self-righteous bastards, almost one and all, with a sufficient population of genuinely pious individuals to give their less tolerable kin a screen behind which to work. Furious at having been denied their opportunity to dispose of the intractable, ungovernable kshatriya — the primary stumbling-block to their own assumption of power — they are fully prepared now to finish the job they started a century and a half ago, manipulating their countrymen through the twin mechanisms of legitimate desire for vengeance and cultural guilt.

Concepts: Diabolical mastermind, self-serving spiritual guide, manipulative power behind the throne, ultraconservative cultural judge, sadistic teacher, tragically true believer, wise old master, waif goddess, karma’s chew toy, rebellious scion

The 12 Battles of the Isonzo saw not only the horrors of the trenches, but the “white death” — avalanches brought down by the constant impact of shells against the sides of the mountains. Thousands upon thousands of men met their ends under the rolling slides of stone and snow. The lucky ones were crushed instantly. But others, trapped in their trenches, suffo- cated or slowly froze under the ice, with no hope of rescue. And some of those trapped under the collapsed mountainside faced the creatures who burrowed under the snow and dragged their victims away into the dark, one by one, storing them away in subterranean larders, keeping them alive for months or years if necessary as vessels for their thirsts.

When the Battle of Caporetto ended, the armies withdrew from the Isonzo, and gradually the monsters of Caporetto exhausted their hellish pantries and moved on.

Over the years, they found other burrows, other places to hide far away from that blood-soaked mountain range. But the frozen death of the Isonzo became part of that strange cold vampire tribe, and it travels with them wherever they go.

History and Culture: None of the Caporetti know for sure who founded their bloodline. All that has been established is that the Nosferatu of the Isonzo devel- oped an aptitude for burrowing and an affinity with the cold. Of the three likely candidates for the founder of the bloodline, one had been a resident in the region of Caporetto for several hundred years, and had apparently always been that way; one was a neonate with a talent for killing; and one, allegedly, wasn’t even really a vampire. If these monsters ever existed, they were gone by the end of the Great War, leaving their childer able to make their own way.

These original Caporetti were loners who kept frozen larders made of the hapless soldiers of the Isonzo. Most of them kept to themselves, and, if they had the urge to create childer, cut them loose soon after the Embrace. The result was that beyond their supernatural affinity with the cold and the urge to burrow, the Caporetti have little in common other than the name, a certain moleish look in the eyes and a way they hold their hands… which are almost invariably large and spadelike, and usually filthy.

They traveled. They Embraced. By the end of the 1920s, Caporetti had turned up in places as far afield as the Rockies and the Himalayas. In the Second World War, coteries of Caporetti thrived in the snows of the Eastern front, and fed well on the bleeding wounded of Stalingrad, dragging them under the snow and earth as they stumbled on the killing fields of the Great Patriotic war. During the Vietnam war, a Caporetto somehow wound up in the tunnels under Saigon.

Mostly, however, their hunting tactics don’t define them so much as the role they take in the night society of the Kindred. Some style themselves as enforcers, or hunters, or hounds. Some keep out of the way of living humans altogether, except when they have to feed. Some set themselves up with a fake mythology as the ghosts who haunt deserted mountainsides and well-worn suicide spots.

Reputation: Other Kindred are ambivalent about the Caporetti. On the one hand, a Caporetto is hugely valuable as an assassin — the first thing a victim knows about the presence of a Caporetto is a chill in the air, followed by the hand that erupts from the mud or the snow and drags the target underground.

Some princes, on the other hand, see the presence of a monster who makes the air cold just by being there as a breach of the Masquerade that cannot be tolerated. In the end, though, it depends on the Caporetto. A vampire who attempts to make his lair under the middle of a busy park or common will attract far more attention — from vampires and humans alike — than one who keeps himself to himself and dwells up a mountain.

Concepts: Tunnel rat, morgue worker, meat packer, sewer maintenance man, professional spelunker, missing mountaineer, escaped prison inmate, mole-man, obsessive snowboarder, urban explorer

Family unity is a strange concept in the minds of most Kindred. Between the passage of time and the Machiavellian schemes of rivals, mortal relations become a liability, merely a torturous reminder of a vampire’s breathing days, if he is lucky. Some Kindred, however, find comfort of sorts in the limited trust and familiarity that close relatives in blood are more apt to demonstrate than other Kindred — who simply share the same general characteristics determined by clan. Sires usually have a driving purpose behind a vampire’s Embrace, and childer can provide a backdoor to an enemy, should the childe become neglected or antagonized. The Corajoso not only found value in the relationships within any given vampire’s lineage, but they capitalized upon it.

As the post-Crusades European nations sought to expand their capacity for trade with the Orient and explore the new lands they discovered in the process, the Kindred who existed among them risked their unlives for the prestige of discovering or founding vampire domains across the world. The Corajoso bloodline discovered that one of the primary difficulties in traveling the vast distances across the seas, whether the destination was to an established civilization or into the frightening unknown world, was the lack of communication and the substantial delay in the exchange of information. In many cases, even the most basic bit of knowledge sent to the correct individual could prevent future catastrophe or spur immediate aid… if only it could get there in time. With the relative unity of the Kindred of the Corajoso, their network stretched across the globe, allowing members of this bloodline to coordinate their actions through the mystical ties of blood and their unique expertise in the arts of the Linagem. Being a brood of Lords, however, ensured that there was certainly madness to this method. The bloodline was, after all, formed in order to ensure a legacy for the line’s progenitor.

History and Culture: Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, Portugal struggled to find stability in its own independence and identity. So, too, did a brood of Kindred spread throughout the regions of Portugal and Galicia (now part of Spain) to the north. The chaos of the tumultuous transitions in Kindred power across Europe combined with the constant bloody conflict with the Moors throughout the southern Iberian Peninsula. A Ventrue named Afanso had solidified a domain that, when combined with the domains of his two childer, encompassed much of northern Portugal and southern Galicia. As the Crusades came to a close, Kindred of Castille and Aragon organized themselves and pressured Afanso to fall in line with their iron-fisted rule. The elders knew his weakness; Afanso held a particularly strong affinity for the tiny nation and its peoples. When he refused to offer tribute, a strategically placed village would suddenly be missing most of its young men, or a fire would strike the home of an important noble. Before long, urged by his childer, Afanso submitted to the myriad of rules, tributes, and other demands placed upon his “sovereignty.”

Brave Origins

Late in the 13th century, Afanso vanished. His childer set adrift without his guidance and his lands open to any Kindred insurgent, he simply disappeared without warning or reason. Many of his superiors and adversaries throughout Castille and Aragon (then beginning to solidify into Spain) assumed that he had been driven into torpor by one of their own. Afanso’s childer tried to lash out at the powerful network of vampires descending upon Portugal, but had no long-term success. Alfonso’s fate was not what everyone assumed, however. During his decade of absence, Afanso had struck deals with mystics among the Moorish Kindred still resisting expulsion to Africa. In return for a future of relative safety in his domain, the strange Kindred among the Moors taught him secrets necessary to put his plans into motion.

After Afanso returned to Portugal, his childer and their handful of childer quickly followed his lead. They did not attempt to regain their lost domains. They found a new purpose and plan for the future. Professing strength in unity, Afanso urged his brood into the arduous process of retaking their homeland — bypassing the traditional methods of influence and prestige. As fate would have it, the royalty of Portugal involved the nation in a series of naval expeditions that pushed Europe into an era of exploring unknown seas and discovering unknown lands. The new techniques of the Vitae Afanso had taught his childer suited this era perfectly. He considered himself blessed — divine, even.

Throughout the following few centuries, the Corajoso thrived. Stowed away in ships’ cargo holds, masquerading as nobles and merchants, and taking on the role of intrepid explorers, the Telepaths spread across the world. They initially focused on the efforts of the Portuguese Empire, but they quickly latched on to the successes and results of other European nations as well. A disproportionate number of this bloodline worked among the Kindred who established new domains. Others sought out vampires of the newly discovered cultures, hoping to broker their secrets to the world (those secrets they did not hoard for themselves). The subtle arts of Linagem assisted them in ways that amazed other Kindred and roused deep suspicions, as well. Indeed, those secrets virtually ensured that the bloodline’s progenitor would indeed receive his legacy… and the consequences of the debt he had failed to fulfill.

Hubris Takes Hold

A bloodline of vampires capable of peering into others’ minds is especially untrustworthy, particularly among Kindred. As the Corajoso elders grew in power, they were faced with the problems of cementing their individual legacies while at the same time keeping their childer (and themselves) from Final Death at the hands of other, understandably fearful, Kindred.

Greed, paranoia and fear motivated the eldest of the Corajoso. Each one of them harbored the terrifying awareness that their record of stealing the carefully hidden histories and secrets of other vampires would return to haunt them. The youngest continued to carry on with personal schemes and goals. However, those who had at one time held a closer connection to their founder turned towards the darker side of Linagem in order to protect themselves. Finding difficulty functioning in the ever-growing courts of Kindred society, they focused on the younger and more easily manipulated descendants of their own blood. With greater skill in the bloodline’s unique talent came an even greater affinity for the Lords’ ability to cloud and control the minds of their own childer, grandchilder, and occasionally those of even more distant blood relations.

At least as vicious and controlling as any other group of elder vampires, Corajoso ancients carefully arranged their pawns and more valuable pieces across the world and nudged them into roles suitable for the various elders’ plans and defenses. The ancillae and neonates geographically closest to their elders (whether those younger Kindred were aware of the fact or not) suffered the most diabolical acts of the bloodline. The masters of Linagem had resorted to using various methods of mind-control upon their younger descendants, forcing them to succumb to the Vinculum. On many occasions, the thralls continued such an existence without any memory of taking the Blood Oath.

Irony Divides

Were it not for the eventual necessity of torpor, this bloodline may have completely devolved into an incestuous breeding stock of withdrawn, paranoid monsters. Over time, however, various elders have been lost to the Fog of Eternity or to other more tangible foes. Some of the younger members of the line found freedom from their invisible chains and once again ventured out on their own voyages of discovery. As part of their intricate systems of control and continued shackling of the younger generations, many of the Corajoso kept a variety of Requiem Diaries, scattered clues, and hidden methods of communicating with other elders in their “secret dynasty.” Irony certainly finds a home in the domains of Kindred. The younger and newly liberated Telepaths now make use of those elders’ relics.

The Corajoso have become a bloodline of two widely varied philosophies. Most of the ancient Kindred of the line hold on to the older values; they use complex schemes of control and manipulation to hide from and defend against the enemies who they have accumulated over the ages. In turn, many of the younger Corajoso have taken the more offensive road. They endeavor to free those who have fallen under the control of their ancestors and scour the world for clues to their own history and their predecessors’ host of enemies.

The Corajoso have found homes in every covenant. Most of the older members of the bloodline hide within and function from positions of power inside the Invictus and, to a lesser extent, the Lancea Sanctum. Tradition, ritual and the relative monotony of those covenants suit the elders’ need to be vigilantly aware of their peers. On the other hand, most of the younger Corajoso turn to the Carthian Movement and occasionally to the Ordo Dracul. Aware of the value of the status quo the elders seemingly require, Telepaths among the Carthians take part in some of the most chaotic factions of the covenant. Modern concepts and tonight’s fluid society tend to be the greatest weapons in freeing others from the elder Corajoso shackles. The rare younger Telepath who does not feel a particular calling or obligation to “fix” the sins of their fathers tends to dive into the mystery of where their unique nature comes from and just why it has evolved into such a potent weapon. The Dragons are commonly the only vehicle suitable for exploring such questions.

Regardless of age or place in Kindred society, the Telepaths’ talents and curses force them into certain roles. Most tend to be loners. Those who insist on taking part in a more crowded floor of the Danse Macabre tend to lead other Kindred through force and intimidation. Typically, individuals are Embraced into the bloodline because of their fearlessness, because they are visionaries of sorts, or due to their specific skills and experience in uncovering the hidden. Survivalists, private investigators and scientific explorers could easily find themselves brought into the ranks by younger Telepaths. Older Corajoso, by contrast, typically came from the strata of the wealthy nobles, influential clergy, and from the ranks of knowledgeable members of specifically useful cultures encountered during initial explorations of the “new” world.

Reputation: Publicly, the Telepaths are widely distrusted. In addition to snippets of real knowledge that some Kindred might know about them, a number of rumors fly about as well. In domains where Corajoso vampires are known to dwell, one might hear tales of mass mind-reading, gained knowledge through diablerie, and insidious bloody rites of divination. Most Kindred in positions of power expel the suspect from the city immediately, but some call for more drastic measures. Telepaths have been tortured and coerced into sharing accumulated knowledge. Others have suffered destruction at the hands of princes demanding information that these Kindred are not omniscient enough to obtain. Especially paranoid princes order any Corajoso vampires within their domains slaughtered.

Individuals, however, are far more curious about the Corajoso. Handfuls of brave Kindred seek out members of this bloodline. Some of these vampires offer a variety of payments in exchange for information the Corajoso might possess or be able to discover about their rivals. Most of the time, the Telepaths tend to shy away from such contracts; digging up a vampire’s secrets usually attracts more trouble than simple payments or favors are worth. On other occasions, Kindred employ one of the Corajoso for finding lost sires or missing members of their coterie. Even this can be dangerous; Kindred do not take kindly to being found if they don’t have the desire to deal with old contacts.

Concepts: Kindred genealogist, charlatan psychic, explorer of the urban jungle, sinister psychologist, dilettante, vampiric profiler, surreptitious blood-bonder, Age of Exploration apologist, stalking horse, werewolf photographer

Members of the En bloodline seek power above all else, and will stop at nothing to obtain it. They hail from royal blood, and believe themselves worthy and entirely deserving of unquestioning loyalty from their lessers. Emperors are self-made and self-proclaimed leaders, and often seek positions of political, financial or even military power. En are not known for their patience, however, and many gain their power though corrupt means, rather than through work and hard-won support of others. While many of the Damned have a thirst for power, the En bloodline is, perhaps, more capable than most to achieve greatness. Members of the bloodline are host to symbiotic demons, called alu, that grant the En potent abilities and assist them in their rise to power. An En must always remind himself of who he was before his union with the demon, however, lest he lose himself entirely on the path to greatness.

History and Culture: The En bloodline takes its name from the Sumerian word meaning “lord” or “god” which was also the title given to the Kindred ruler of the shadow empire of ancient Babylonia. The En bloodline traces its roots back to a singularly puissant En, Isiratuu, who held regency over much of Babylonia for twelve thousand years. It is said that the founder of the bloodline gained a “great and terrible gift” from a dark stranger in a dream. It was this gift that gave him the strength and the right to rule over all. Kindred descending from the En are said to have similar experiences involving a shadowy being of some kind.

Members of the bloodline are born leaders, and, as most En would say, were obviously meant to reign due to their royal lineage. Many Emperors feel utterly justified in unceremoniously claiming positions of authority, and they expect nothing less than the utmost respect when they do so. Members of the En bloodline do not tolerate objection to their inherited supremacy, and, when it will not hinder his advancement, an En uses brutal means to make certain that contesting vampires are aware of that fact.

A Daeva is recognized as a member of the bloodline when he is chosen by a “Dark Stranger” — a symbiotic demon called an alu. Alu feed off of the corrupt power of their Kindred host, and, in return, they assist those of the bloodline in their rise to greatness by granting them certain abilities known as the Gifts of the Alu.

An alu seeks out a Kindred host and offers a partnership. While any Daeva might be suitable, Alu tend to prefer Kindred descended from En Isiratuu, perhaps drawn to the lust for power passed on through the progenitor’s blood. If the vampire accepts the demon’s offer, he becomes a full-fledged member of the bloodline. The alu merges with the new Emperor, becoming one with his blood. As the demon feeds off of its host it increases in power, and the abilities it bestows upon the vampire become more formidable. The powers granted by an alu should be used carefully, however, as the En runs the risk of losing himself entirely by consorting with the demon (see Gifts of the Alu, below).

En Embrace often, but are relatively few in number because they typically do so purely to build up a support system of loyal followers. They are not fond of competition, and as such, En typically try to Embrace from mortals who others easily manipulated in life. However, because members of the bloodline are so focused upon their own advancement, they tend to frequently misjudge the strength and potential of their children. True En arise from these errors in judgment, as an alu can recognize innate potential for power even if an Emperor cannot.

New En surpass their sires to repeat the vicious cycle with each new generation.

Reputation: En have a reputation for using corrupt methods to quickly rise to power, making them unpopular to all but their most devoted subjects. Diablerie is common among the En bloodline, and Emperors do not suffer the same detriments that other vampires would by committing such an act. Perhaps because of this, Kindred who know of the En greatly fear the bloodline.

Some vampires, however, are more than willing to follow an En, as power often trickles down to those beneath. An Emperor can be most generous to those who serve him devotedly and acknowledge his superiority, granting favors and portioning authority among his supporters.

Concepts: Corrupt politician, rising starlet, demanding father-figure, brash drug lord, deluded serial killer, condescending magistrate, cult leader, callous CEO, mob boss, arrogant aristocrat

Risen from the twisted households of the Austrian aristocracy, the Geheim seem to outsiders equal parts depraved extended family, bizarre esoteric society and cunning aristocrats. Never particularly trusted or popular, the Geheim suffered a public relations fiasco in the 20th century when it (its detractors claim) became involved in the Nazi Party. Tonight the family retains positions of prominence throughout Central Europe, spreading beyond the borders of former Habsburg holdings and bringing their syncretic combination of hedonism and alchemy to the rest of the world.

History and Culture: Scattered throughout the ruling class of the Holy Roman Empire, the rise and fall of the lineage’s fortunes have largely mirrored those of the Habsburg family. Dilettantes claim that the founder of their bloodline, a Kindred known to his contemporaries as Count Geheim of Graz, was Embraced from among the sprawling Habsburg family. While the assertion has proven difficult for members of the line to substantiate, there’s little doubt that Geheim of Graz moved in the same social circles as the Habsburgs, as early as 1480. Personal correspondences among the Habsburgs across the centuries often mention a shadowy teacher or similar figure who matches the accepted description of Geheim. (The fact that these letters and diaries occasionally fawn over Geheim has been interpreted as evidence that he kept some of the writers under the bonds of Vinculum.)

In a ceremony documented by Invictus, Sanctified and Ordo Dracul records of 1577, Geheim and two childer, Cecilia and Volker, formally announced the formation of their bloodline, making a number of claims of entitlement regarding domains within Vienna and Switzerland — claims which they were apparently able to back up, despite the difficulty of travel during the period. Modern detractors point out that several of the locations claimed by the lineage boasted fewer than 1,000 mortals, making them poor possessions for any vampire.

Geheim and his childer had already garnered a reputation for hedonism and excess, having hosted lavish parties for even the most lowly of visiting functionaries. While reports of baths of blood and bodies hanged from rafters are probably exaggerations, few scholars doubt the tales of woozy, blood-drained nobles stumbling to their waiting carriages after a night of debauched intemperance. The bloodline’s status as esoteric dabblers only began to grow after their official declaration in 1577. After acquiring territory in Vienna and Prague, they began hosting salons for the discussion of unusual and esoteric texts. These gatherings, which usually lacked the depraved self-indulgence of their parties, were not limited to attendance by Kindred, and numerous mortals of learning came to be regulars at Geheim soirees. Some Kindred even suspect that a few of the bloodline’s consorts were mages or creatures stranger yet. The lineage prospered, even through the anarchs’ war, somehow gaining new members and territories even as the rest of Kindred society collapsed about them. They became early and energetic advocates of the studies of the Ordo Dracul, assisting that covenant in its mission to find recruits from among the erudite and open-minded members of the Invictus and Lancea Sanctum.

After the Thirty Years’ War however, the Habsburg House entered a centuries-long decline. The Geheim, once one of the most expansive Kindred families in Central Europe, with close ties to a royal line that held much of Europe at its height, found itself deteriorating in influence. The line continued to grow, but the power it had to share among its membership decayed. The esoteric work of the Geheim, once lauded as ground-breaking, became old hat, and while the ability to turn blood into gold kept the bloodline’s coffers fat, their tricks provided them little other help in the Danse Macabre. The group attempted to cope by infiltrating and creating numerous secret societies (a fact that furthered its reputation for witchcraft and infernalism among the Sanctified), utilizing their bloodline Discipline to gain high standing among the mortal adherents to the esoteric.

The most infamous of these organizations was called the Thule Society, created by a group of Germans in the early twentieth century. The group’s focus, the mythological pure race called the Aryans, drew the attention of the Geheim, who felt that exploration into the lost civilization of Thule might provide new sources of mystical strength. The Geheim had little chance to influence the Society before two of its members formed the political group that would grow to become the Nazi Party. While the Nazis renounced and disbanded the Thule Society, rumors of the connection between the Geheim and the Nazis quickly spread through Kindred society. The bloodline found itself less trusted and more loathed than ever before.

Tonight the bloodline still reels from its greatest political blunder, which occurred only recently as some European Kindred reckon history. Its three founding figures have all entered torpor, (though members of the line seem to be preparing to ease the return of Count Geheim himself in the near future) leaving the lineage to flounder listlessly without direction. While many of the eldest cleave to the ideals of the bloodline’s past, continuing studies into the unknown and infiltrating and manipulating the highest strata of mortal society, the youth of the line indulge themselves with an almost apocalyptic fervor. The fall of the traditional aristocracy has resulted in the bloodline becoming more closely associated with organized crime and corporate culture, and some of the line’s newest recruits have been garnered from the ranks of those groups.

Reputation: As their sobriquet suggests, the Geheim have garnered a reputation for failing to fully devote their unlives to any cause. The lineage contains its fair share of spoiled, wealthy Ventrue, many of whom take the bloodline’s philosophy as an excuse to wallow in whatever excesses can hold their attention. The lineage’s deep connections to the aristocracy of Europe garner them only slight esteem and no small amount of derision; the Carthians object to such outdated social structures on principle (plus there’s the whole Nazi thing), while many Invictus feel that the Geheim simply don’t take full advantage of the benefits they are handed. Their love affair with organized crime infuriates the Sanctified (not to mention their study of alchemy, which the Lancea Sanctum generally labels as witchcraft).

Even the Ordo Dracul, the bloodline’s chosen patrons, keep the lineage at arm’s length, viewing their discoveries with no small amount of skepticism. Thus far no one outside of the bloodline has been able to precisely reproduce the Geheim’s results. Most Dragons consider that evidence that the Geheim’s procedures reflect some strange quirk of their blood rather than verifiable scientific or occult principles.

The Geheim tend to join the Ordo Dracul with greater frequency than any other covenant. Not only do the Dragons value the bloodline’s abilities, but their position in the covenant’s history grants them a bit of freedom from the derision they almost universally face from other Kindred. Those who aren’t cut out for the Order’s psychological exercises and bizarre rites often end up with the Invictus, turning the covenant’s resources towards the end of feathering their own nest. Invictus Dilettantes typically make an effort to hide the greatest of their excesses and experimentations. Those who can’t even manage that occasionally fall in with the Circle of the Crone, which allows greater leeway for a vampire hoping to explore the full range of the Kindred experience.

Concepts: Bloodline apologist, debauched celebrant, destitute aristocrat, hidden diablerist, lustful philanthropist, mad chemist, overbearing society matron, silent international business partner, vampire Mafioso, Vitae connoisseur

Dark sorcerers and subtle assassins, members of the Iltani bloodline are as clever, spiteful and venomous as snakes.

They operate in stealth and secrecy, and are masterful manipulators and deceivers. Vipers are unusually adept at controlling their own emotions, and they cling to their anger in death, fueling and transforming its corrosive energy to suit their own purposes. A vampire meeting an Iltani for the first time could never hope to see or understand the depth of the seething anger that is forever just beneath the surface of her stoic gaze — at least, not unless she chooses to unleash her fury.

The rare and highly specialized poisons the Iltani use to weaken their enemies are distilled from anger, spite and resentment. Kindred scholars speculate that it is by channeling this dark, emotional energy and transforming it through the Beast that members of the bloodline are able to harness their unique abilities. Whether or not this theory has any veracity may never be ascertained, as members of the bloodline are uncommonly elusive and secretive.

History and Culture: The Iltani bloodline can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia. The bloodline’s founder, Nanshe Iltani, was a powerful priestess of the Coven of Nanaja, and a consult to the Kindred royalty of the shadow empire of Babylonia.

According to Kindred of the bloodline, Nanshe Iltani had a lover, Arahunaa, to whom she was deeply devoted.

One night, the En (a title for the Kindred emperor in ancient Babylonia) came to consult with Nanshe Iltani. When the En saw the beautiful Arahunaa, he immediately wished to possess her. Despite Nanshe Iltani’s desperate pleading, En Isiratuu took Arahunaa back to the royal temple to live at his side. Adding to the tale of treachery, Arahunaa went with the En willingly — preferring an unlife of royal luxury over the companionship of Nanshe Iltani. The cruel actions of Arahunaa and the En enraged Nanshe Iltani, and she vowed from that night forward that she would be the one to bring about their Final Deaths. She knew that she would never succeed in killing her betrayers outright and survive. Instead, she would be patient, using a subtler approach of stealth and sorcery, striking when the moment was right. It was Nanshe Iltani’s desire for vengeance that led her to uncover the secrets associated with her bloodline tonight.

In the years that followed, Nanshe Iltani devoted herself to finding new ways in which her powers could be used to destroy Arahunaa and the En, taking many solitary walks through the moonlit steppes and deserts of Babylonia to reflect upon her goal. It was during these travels that Nanshe Iltani was believed to have developed her affinity for the venomous, lowly creatures of the earth: snakes, spiders, insects and scorpions. That she was drawn to such creatures is not surprising, as she herself was poisonous from her own festering resentment. She found that she could call the stinging, biting creatures of the desert to her side, and even influence their movements. After a time, she uncovered methods of condensing and transforming her anger, through the Beast within, into potent venoms. Eventually, she made use of the creatures she called upon to act as vessels of her spite, using their stings to deliver her poison to the victim. While Nanshe Iltani did not succeed in discovering a poison strong enough to lead to instantaneous Final Death, her newfound abilities were useful to her cause nonetheless.

One night, Arahunaa appeared to Nanshe Iltani in a dream. According to her former lover, the En had developed a terrible, dark gift, the likes of which the Damned of Babylon had never seen. Soon, the En would be unstoppable, and the empire would suffer for it.

Seeing that the news could be used to her advantage, Nanshe Iltani seized her chance. Feigning sympathy for her plight, Nanshe Iltani gave Arahunaa a scorpion with a poisonous sting to set upon the En. The venom of Iltani’s scorpion did not directly cause the deaths of Arahunaa and the En, but it was potent enough to indirectly guide them to their ultimate end. It was through Nanshe Iltani’s cursed venom, members of the bloodline claim, that the Edimmu of legend were able to gain access to the En, tearing him apart from within and then subsequently killing Arahunaa in the massacre that followed.

In the chaos that occurred shortly after the death of the En of Babylonia, it is unclear what became of Nanshe Iltani. Since then, however, her progeny have spread throughout the world, refining her techniques and passing along her secrets in low whispers to each new generation.

Kindred of the bloodline almost always choose to sire a childe from an individual who was resentful or bitter during his mortal life. Iltani encourage their childer to cling to their anger, to fuel and strengthen it, but never to allow their fury to show. If anything, a Viper appears void of emotion. It is through an Iltani’s ability to control her feelings that she gains her power — skillfully transforming and molding her vitriol into useful manipulative tools.

Initiates to the bloodline must prove that they can control their anger. New Kindred are treated harshly, chastised and provoked until the young vampire enters a state of anger frenzy. The initiate must successfully “ride the wave” (see pp. 178-181 of Vampire: The Requiem) to prove he has the self-control required to become an Iltani.

Reputation: Members of the Iltani bloodline are unusually guarded and secretive, even for the Damned. Many Kindred tonight believe that the Iltani bloodline does not exist at all, and that it is simply a legend from the long-forgotten past. Those who do know of their existence, however, fear them for their strange ways and deadly abilities.

Because many Kindred laugh at the notion of the Iltani bloodline’s very existence (and the Iltani prefer to keep it that way), members of the bloodline are excellent assassins. While some Iltani may be willing to offer their services as an assassin, it usually comes with a steep price. Vipers are much more likely to use their abilities to manipulate rather than kill. They prefer to stand in the shadows, watching as their venom slowly tortures or drives their victim to madness.

Kindred who know of the Iltani also know never to cross one. An Iltani never forgets those who have betrayed her, and she uses memories of past transgressions to fuel her anger. A vampire who betrays an Iltani may not pay immediately, but he always pays dearly in the end.

Concepts: Kindred assassin, lord of the flies, manipulative sociopath, espionage agent, underhanded informant, stoic enforcer, herpetologist, power behind the throne, eccentric collector, mysterious apothecary

Driven into hiding hundreds of years ago, the Kinnaree believe themselves to be the secret keepers of Thailand and the protectors of its Dharma. This bloodline of social monsters uses a combination of perfected bodies, poise and insight to hide among the Kindred of Thailand, waiting for their chanceto strike at their prey — namely any demon, monster or god who has outlived her purpose.

As protectors of these traditions in the Free Land of the Thai, they preserve the Hindu and older folk practices that predate Buddhism. Having an earthy and ancient form of Crúac, they tend to be Acolytes though their western cousins rarely accept them. In many European Acolyte traditions, a Kindred is a “maiden” only up until the point where she kills for the first time. The Kinnaree consider themselves immortal virgins in the service of their Patron Demoness no matter how often they kill, and this sets them apart from Western Acolytes and often makes it difficult for them to find a place within their covens.

History and Culture: Scholars tell the story of Banna, a thousand armed demon and devotee of Shiva who earned the gift of invulnerability from his patron for his dedication and penance. The stories say that the All Mother created a virgin avatar to destroy this menacing Asura once and for all. A girl slew the greatest demon of the age because it was her Dharma to do so. The Ramakien tells the story of Ravan, with his thousand heads, who was also a devotee of Shiva, and also gained from him virtual invulnerability. The Ramakien goes on to say that his sister, an Asura with long terrible nails, caused a war between her brother and the greatest king the Thais ever knew that ultimately ended in Ravan’s utter defeat.

History and mythology treats these as dissimilar myths with no root connection. The Kinnaree, secret defenders of Thailand, know the truth. There is no difference. The virgin avatar was able to destroy the Asura Banna because she knew his secret flaws. Shurpanakha, the long nailed demon, manipulated her brother into a war he could not win in an act of revenge for her husband’s death earlier on. What’s more, to the Kinnaree, this virgin slayer and the demoness were one and the same.

The secret cult of Acolyte-like witches in Thailand worships Shurpanakha as a local and powerful Asura. However, the Daeva of the Kinnaree see themselves as direct descendents of the Asura’s blood and claim their history starts where she fades from legend. In the Kindred version of the story, Shurpanakha was a tragic victim whose Dharma largely involved the destruction of her own kind. A child, she was created from the soil by the All Mother and in child-like stumbling, fell in love and married. Still not quite a woman she was unknown to her husband’s marital bed and when her brother murdered him, she was left heart broken and vengeful.

After her husband’s murder, she went to the Himmapan woods and preformed great and bloody penance to Durga. Being so young, and with penance so horrible, Durga looked at the girl with pity and restored the parts of her face she had slashed away and mended the skin she had burned in sacrifice. Durga asked the girl why she would show such devotion, and the child simply responded that she wanted to know what her fate was so that she could fulfill it with joy instead of sorrow. Durga was impressed and not only explained to the girl her duty, but granted her a gift to aid her in her quest.

For Shurpanakha, her Dharma was simple: all things must come to an end, even gods and demons. Because she was of the latter and gifted by one of the former, it was for her to know the Asura and the Devi — and when they grew bloated and stagnant with age, she was to destroy them. Her gift was the Embrace without a sire. The Kinnaree do not assume their patron and imagined founder was the first Daeva, just the most important one.

Kinnaree is a name taken from the Sukhothai half-bird women of the Himmapan forest. They were said to have protected and succored Shurpanakha after she received Durga’s blessing. They hold to two ideals: that the traditions of Thailand must be maintained or the greatest and most evil of the Asura will return from Hell and destroy the world, and that lesser earthbound Asura who have forgotten their place in the celestial order must be slain. All things must come to an end for the Wheel to turn and Kindred and other demons are no exception. This puts them into direct opposition with the Kindred monks of the Sakadagami order, though ancient agreements between the Kinnaree and the founder of the order prevent it from devolving into an all out war.

These Fawn, a Thai word for dance, have spent the last thousand years infiltrating and manipulating all levels of Thai culture, including the ritual dances so important to national holidays. In fact, the bloodline draws many childer from the traditional dancers, since the Kinnaree believe that an expert dancer physically experiences the history of the people of the land. A special secret telling of the Ramakien presents Shurpanakha as the puppeteer and true hero of the story, and only the greatest of these dancers are invited to dance it.

In the 12th century, when the Kingdom of Sukhothai was first established, the kings started sporting events around a marital practice called Muay Boran. This would later evolve into the brutal fighting form called Muay Thai. Among themselves, the Kinnaree claim that it was due to their influence with the King and the monks of the time that so many of the maneuvers are named for events from the Hindu Thai epic, the Ramakien. The brutal and athletic nature of Muay Thai appealed to the dancers among the Fawn and many of them took on its study, though mostly in secret.

The Masquerade is only loosely observed in much of Thailand, and this has been the case as far back as any elder can remember. Most humans live with the knowledge that the Asura and Devi of legend might exist, though few can report actual interactions with them. Still, erring on the side of prudence is always wise, and the citizens practice many folk rituals to appease or keep the old monsters at bay. Most Thai boys wear phra phrim, a protective amulet made using special recipes and spells, from an early age. While older mortal Buddhist monks make most phra phrim, the Kinnaree’s subversive hand is found in the fact that most recipes include the burnt ash of a temple’s oldest scrolls. After all, all things must become ash. In more rural areas, farther from the organized temples of the Sakadagami, devotees of Shurpanakha interact with the farmers and villagers. Here, the Kinnaree might even openly lead, largely recognized as priests and revered demons. Gaining good Karma by “making merit” is an old Buddhist tradition in Thailand, and often families invite monks into their homes and feed them as a way of helping everyone along the path to peace. In a dark and bloody version of this tradition, some rural households open their doors at night in an elaborate ceremony where the demons are invited to drink their fill in exchange for blessings in the season to come. Due to the rarity of this belief, these nights of “making black merit” rarely end in death. That would be wasteful.

Contrary to belief outside of the Sakadagami, the acolytes and their Kinnaree leaders are not strictly female. In fact, the worshipers of the old Hindu gods and especially those of Shurpanakha welcome male Kindred as a necessary balance. Many seasonal celebrations need male participants and in fact many older drama-dances were once composed of all male dancers. While that is rarely true today, male Kinnaree are granted many boons, including first feeding rights. In some rural areas, people believe that being fed upon by a male Asura is a part of fertility superstitions that might predate Hinduism. Outsiders analyzing the beliefs of the Kinnaree might see a direct conflict in concepts like preserving the magic and culture of the distant past, and destroying old monsters to make room for new life. This paradox, however, is not one the Kinnaree consider.

Story Hooks

• The Anand family has just moved to Miami in order to send their son to medical school. They bring with them traditional food, rituals, beliefs and great-grandmother in a box. Grandmother is over a hundred years old and has her own ideas about how to do things. First things first, though, and that’s to create a new generation of devotees to Shurpanakha.
• Some rare pieces of Thais Hindu art are on display at the museum where court is held. The pieces on display, however, are stolen, and a coterie of Thai Kindred come to court to demand them back.
• A young cult of Shurpanakha, quickly disenchanted by the agreement between their elders and the elders of the Sakadagami, pack up and leave Thailand to come to the States — with the full intention of fulfilling their Dharma.

Reputation: Because they are social chameleons like their parent clan, it is possible that more Kindred know a Kinnaree than know of the bloodline. This is as true in Thailand as it is in the rest of the world, thanks to the need for extra secrecy among the Sakadagami controlled court.

They are not openly known among the Invictus, as any Fawn among them would be there in secret in order to destroy wayward Asura. To the Carthian Movement in and around Southeast Asia and in American communities with a large Thai population, the Kinnaree are valuable allies if not easy converts. To the small sect of Islamic Lancea Sanctum in the area, the concepts of being demonic are similar, but damnation and ignorance in the face of local religion have lead to active disputes with this bloodline and the Acolytes around them.

Concepts: Seasonal dancer, Mauy Thai instructor, Carthian infiltrator, flagellant, elder hunter, monster hunter, long-nailed monster in the woods, overly curious historian, half Thai Army brat, second generation family defender

Those of Les Gens Libres bloodline believe in freedom above all else. Members of the bloodline are Embraced from those who were subject to a cruel or unjust exercise of authority or power. Among their ranks might be a former slave, an ex-criminal, a prisoner of war, a man who has suffered a life of poverty in the hands of a corrupt government, or a battered woman trapped in an abusive relationship. In death, those chosen to become a part of Les Gens Libres finally find freedom. The Gens Libres are a rebellious lot, and they revel in their vampiric powers, seeing their abilities as tools that can be utilized to turn the tables on their oppressors and liberate those who are still oppressed.

Members of the Gens Libres bloodline typically belong to no covenant, finding the very notion of an organized hierarchy oppressive. They operate independently of established systems, sometimes alone, but more often in groups, to further their cause. Les Gens Libres are vigilante freedom fighters — self-proclaimed defenders of those who are oppressed by authority. To Les Gens Libres, the world quivers in anticipation each night, waiting for revolution.

History and Culture: Bloodline historians have never been able to pinpoint who exactly was the founder of the bloodline, but it is widely believed that the line is relatively recent in the grand scheme of things. The bloodline clearly originated in Saint Domingue (modern-day Haiti), sometime shortly before or during the Haitian Revolution at the end of the 18th century. Originally, members of the bloodline were Kindred turned from Haitian slaves, still burning with unforgotten hatred remaining from their mortal lives held in bondage. As the years passed, the bloodline grew to encompass a much wider range of cultural backgrounds — any of those among the masses who have been oppressed, and who believe in freedom above all else. Freedmen often choose to belong to no covenant, wishing instead to devote themselves utterly to their cause.

With the European tradition no longer threatened by the blasphemous practices of the Kindred of the first wave, there was very little left to do in Saint Domingue but systematically destroy those who remained. According to most records, that is precisely what happened.

But the truth is far more sinister where Les Gens Libres are concerned. Rather than kill the remaining Kindred slaves, the elders of the second wave corralled those who remained and developed a means of tracking their blood and the blood of any childe they sired. They bred out the Gangrel’s troublesome tendency to grow horrific claws, and instead they purposefully developed in the line an affinity for staying hidden — at least, from anyone who didn’t know how to find them. After the bloodline cemented itself, the founders of Les Gens Libres bloodline were set loose in the world to multiply. The elders of the second wave did this so that a new, relatively weak bloodline could serve as a food source for vampires who had grown too powerful to sustain themselves on human blood. Even tonight, certain vampires know how to use the tracking method devised by the Kindred of the second wave. The information on how to find Kindred of the Gens Libres bloodline can be bought for a high price by those influential enough to acquire it. The unpleasant truth of the Freedmen’s origins has, thus far, not come to light — or at least, no Freedmen still extant seem to know this truth.

Kindred who are initiated into Les Gens Libres must show their dedication to the cause by freeing a mortal (or, in some cases, a vampire) from some oppressor. An oppressor in this sense may or may not be a person. It may be a government, an unhealthy situation, or physical bindings, such as shackles or a prison cell. The fact the some people may not want to be free is, in most cases, a concept that Les Gens Libres cannot (or do not wish to) understand. They look upon those who willingly subject themselves to servitude as utterly deluded, and sometimes choose to end their lives rather than let them continue to suffer slavery.

Reputation: In small numbers, Kindred with more traditional ideals generally see Les Gens Libres as nothing more than a loud and annoying nuisance. When their numbers swell, however, their strength becomes formidable, and not many are more adept at garnering support for their cause than are the Freedmen. As such, the bloodline tends to be closely monitored to ensure they remain contained and easily controlled.

For the most part, Les Gens Libres are on relatively friendly terms with the Carthians. Though their motives and methods may differ, the two groups both share a similar progressive attitude. The groups may occasionally find common ground and work together to achieve a mutual goal.

Concepts: Vigilante, jaded ex-military officer, fervent patriot, rebellious teenager, disgruntled blue-collar worker, misguided rabble-rouser, guerilla warrior, falsely-accused ex-convict, zealous visionary, charismatic politician

The path to Nibbana, or Enlightenment, is paved with far more steps than meditation and denial. It is more complicated than putting on a robe and feeding less often than Kindred would like. It is largely about making merit, making right choices and leading the type of unlife a vampire’s Dharma demands. No lineage of Kindred understands this better than the Mayarap, descendants of the Naga King forever bound to pay for his deeds, and indeed, the deeds of all Kindred.

History and Culture: After Asira, the Naga King, took up robes and became the Naga Monk, he fell into a deep meditative state, only stirring to dictate thoughts from his internal study to his closest and most devoted childer. While much of Asira’s Dharma was already determined by the time he converted, his childe Suna was not so restricted and was able to hone his blood to what he considered highly spiritual ends.

Suna spent 20 years walking the woods of Thailand (then still called Sukhothai), contemplating his sire’s words and the secondhand lessons he’d heard of the Mae Ji. He slept in the soil, always under fig trees, and battled with his Beast and many demons in the woods. At the end of his danger- ous walking meditation, he saw a change in himself he could not fathom. Gone were the ravages of his demonic appearance and the mortals’ wise fear of him. Gone too was the bubbling rage that had underlain most of his unlife. Once changed, he returned to the Wat Ning to share all that he had learned and all the growth that he had accomplished.

Asira, his sire, nodded almost sadly as he listened to what Suna had to say. It was then that Suna noticed that his sire’s face was still the terrible visage it had been in his old unlife. He saw that for all his time in contemplation and skillful thought, Asira’s Beast still sat close and nearly in control of his every action.

Horrified, Suna asked his sire, “I do not understand. I practiced the Eightfold Path that you have taught me. I have followed all the precepts as you perform them and I would not know meditation except that you showed it to me. Why is it then that I have changed so much and you remain the same?”

Asira thought on this at his childe’s side for three nights before he spoke with a forked tongue. He answered: “I have a great debt to the world in my karma, my childe. The crimes I have committed are many and perverse over hundreds of years. It might be that one lifetime of following the right path and doing the right thing is not enough. Perhaps a thousand lifetimes would be required for me to reach Nibbana. Perhaps a thousand family members making merit in my name would be enough for me to reach Nibbana. I do not worry, though. This, too, is impermanent.”

Suna marveled to see his sire content with his fate of suffering, and wondered at the paradox of peace found in affliction. He meditated on this paradox for a month before deciding that it was a koan, a problem without a logical answer. Knowing this, he meditated further, and his intuition finally answered the puzzle.

In order for the Naga Monk to continue on in his path he needed a great many others seeking Nibbana to share their merit with him. Sharing merit makes merit, and so by suffering, Asira was able to offer many others the chance to make more merit, which was itself a merit-making act.

With this flash of insight, Suna understood his Dharma and how it tied into Asira’s. From that night on, Suna spent his unlife turning over rocks and seeking in gutters the lowest of the low — murderers, pimps and drug addicts, crooked politicians and actresses so vain that they believed their own lies. Suna, his childer, and his childer’s childer sought the most despicable among the mortal world, the people so very lost in illusion and ego that they did not even realize they were suffering. People whose crimes were so great a hundred lives serving under the Mae Ji herself would not grant them peace.

Once found, Suna and his growing family would strip them of mortal ties, Embrace them, and set them back on the path to right thought and right deed.

Sometimes new Mayarap want neither enlightenment nor all the responsibility that comes with it. Sometimes, newcomers simply aren’t cut out for the monastic unlife among the Sakadagami. Sometimes they resist, and sometimes their souls are just too dark to be able to change. At its most mild, resistance is met with the patience of the Bodhisattva. Time and kindness (a merit in itself) go a long way with most of the saddest dredges. In more extreme cases, older and more experienced members of the line are called in to inflict real and legitimate cruelty on the neonate, with acceptance of her role as the only out. (The Mayarap do not consider this a violation of free will because the neonate is still making a choice. The most important choices tend to be the hardest ones.)

At its worst, usually only a problem among converts to the line or late bloomers, those who are far too close to their final frenzy or utterly unrepentant monsters, the only solution is a tragic one. Not often, but when it is right to do so, the line will gather at a private temple deep in the woods, a Wat with no name built on the site where Suna first saw the change in himself. Once there, they take the irredeemable to a pit seven meters by seven meters by seven meters. He is asked once more if he would like to enter the stream and one night reach Nibbana. If he once more refuses or proves false, he is dropped down into the pit, shackled and unable to escape. The pit is covered with a grating of iron locked to the floor. The Mayarap say prayers and blessings to the unfortunate and leave him to his fate.

The roof of the temple there has a hole in it just large enough to fill the pit with sunlight not long after dawn. One elder, far along in his understanding of the Treasure of Anicca, stays behind in the room for as long as he can in order to observe the unfortunate’s Final Death. It is thought that at worst, the creature will reincarnate in Hell where he can fulfill his Dharma in another way.

In addition to the normal duties of all ordained, the Mayarap are expected to make as much merit as possible so that it may all be shared with their greatest ancestor, the Naga Monk. Great acts of charity, teaching Dharma, and providing blood for other Ordained is expected to such extremes that some find it impossible to satisfy the needs of others and maintain themselves and their own gracelessness, they are largely attributed with a level of supernatural influence they simply do not have. In more rural temples, they are given saint-like status, and some few do take advantage and cultivate that reputation.

To those heathens and nonbelievers, the Acolytes, the Mayarap are often considered “the problem” as it was their ancestor’s dogma that drove them underground. Laity who have had their less-than-enlightened endeavors interrupted or stopped by these do-gooders tend to seek first to discredit them, then to destroy them. The pressures to the Mayarap are endless.

Concepts: Politically driven priest, sadistic teacher, hippy guru, former drug addict, farmer-cum-defender, ‘reformed’ Acolyte, doomed perfectionist, serial killer, ‘fair-minded’ blood merchant, guilt-ridden son

History and Culture: Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces, in power during Armenia’s decision to grant legal religious freedom to the dualist Paulician sect, encouraged an influx of members of the sect into Byzantine lands. With the sect came a small group of Armenian Kindred nomads devoted to the Lancea Sanctum, but possessed of a heresy similar to that of the Paulicians. These Kindred, almost exclusively of Clan Gangrel, had long eked out a furtive existence on the very edges of the Longinian world. Now in Christendom’s greatest metropolis, the sect came to the attention of the Sanctified authority who worked to absorb the nomads into their orthodoxy. With the exception of a pair of elder Savages, the Sanctified met with success.

The two Gangrel, however, found that their relatively easy new existence within the Tagma ton Xenon (the primary military group of the Byzantine Kindred) granted them a reprieve from the base struggle for survival, and they turned their attention ever more deeply to their spiritual explorations. Over time they sired a small brood, which devoted itself to furthering the philosophy of the line, and the group garnered a reputation for studious understanding and spiritual sensitivity that rivaled the Mekhet. The Priscus of Gangrel petitioned the Imperator to elevate the group to the rank of Theme. He did so, naming them Mystikoi and granting them exclusive feeding rights over a monastic order within the city so long as they kept safe the many detailed records of the Athanatoi. This action birthed a thousand-year feud with the Agonistes line (which had, until then, been the primary record-keepers and historians of Constantinople).

At the same time, the eldest Illuminated began slipping into seclusion, often wearing heavy robes to obscure the strange malformations taking root in their physical forms. Only among other members of the line did the Mystikoi leave their physical changes exposed, and within the fellowship the bizarre markings came to signify advanced spiritual understanding. The line withdrew from the Tagma ton Xenon and petitioned for membership in the Lancea Sanctum. They were rejected and took shelter instead under the aegis of the Athanatoi.

The destruction of Constantinople saw the scattering of the Mystikoi. Most traveled north into the Carpathians or east into Russia. There they became wondering priests, a role they were particularly suited to, bridging the gap between animist native Kindred and the monotheistic religious tradition that the pagans found so difficult to understand. In time, the Illuminated drew the attention of a Transylvanian vampire called Vlad Dracula, and the lineage became one of the early cornerstones of the Ordo Dracul, lending the covenant many of its ideals.

The Hidden Church

The bloodline takes care to choose its childer from among the faithful and studious. The lineage respects scholarship and quiet meditation, tasks often at odds with the vociferous Beast of Clan Gangrel. As a result, members must be intelligent and willful enough to overcome the instinctual need to exist forever in the moment. Sires largely reject ceremonial trappings during the Embrace and entrance into the bloodline. They usually encourage childer to continue the research they pursued as mortals, but to add to it studies of faith and philosophy.

The Illuminated maintain a strange, uncomfortable relationship with their inner Beast. Mystikoi philosophy posits three levels of being: the physical, the intellectual and the spiritual, each a more pure pursuit than the last. Traditional Mystikoi faith upholds the Beast as the syzygos, the Divine Self, a spiritual guide towards transcendence. The Beast is that which is eternal within the Kindred, and thus more akin to the divine source than not. While the Sanctified pursue oneness with the archons, the Darkness’s jailors over his creation, the Illuminated step up the rung, setting their sights on the higher Unity. Through the secrets of Spiritus Sancti, the lineage communes with the hidden world. Most consider the spirits they encounter through the power to be higher beings, the spiritual counterparts to physical creation, and emulate them in order to become more like them. (The vicious behavior among spirits observed by elders of the line serves as part of the reason that so many consider their Beast a divine guide.)

In modern nights a schism has formed within the bloodline. Some members claim that the Beast, as a creation of the Darkness, serves primarily as a cruel warden over the jail of the adherent’s physical form. Furthermore, the spirits the Mystikoi venerate exist primarily as a reflection of the physical world. No understanding of the divine can be garnered from meditation on such base entities. These Kindred instead work to reject and chain the Beast, pursuing perfection primarily through the Coils of the Dragon and utilizing Spiritus Sancti as a tool of study.

Like many older bloodlines, the Mystikoi have almost nothing in the way of an overarching organization. Their rejection of ritual as frivolous pomp results in a culture based primarily in the members’ understanding of how one goes about scholarship and study, an understanding that changes over the centuries. Teachers have a position of particular reverence within the line, however, and those who serve as Avus to bloodline applicants earn a great deal of respect.

Reputation: The Mystikoi, though historically important, remain a small and insular bloodline in the modern nights. They tend to operate in separate enclaves, sharing their discoveries with one another and the Ordo Dracul. They rarely burden unbelievers with their theories and almost never proselytize. As a result, few Kindred have a strong opinion of them. They go largely unnoticed by both the Invictus and the Carthians, who simply don’t share their esoteric interests. The Circle of the Crone feels that the line likely began among their number but has become woefully misguided over the centuries. The Sanctified still consider them heretical, but hardly any more so than the Dragons who they associate with.

Members of the Ordo Dracul tend to hold the lineage in some esteem. The Illuminated not only focus their existence on the study of philosophy and esoterica (primary concerns of the Order as a whole), they were also the first lineage outside of Dracula’s to pledge itself wholesale to the Dragons in the early nights of the covenant’s history. To this night, the vast majority of the Mystikoi hold membership among the Dragons, while a rare few join the other major covenants. For their part, the Mystikoi work well with members of other lines and covenants, as they are often eager to learn more of the world around them in all of its endless variations and more than happy to explore the philosophies of other vampires, at least for a while.

Concepts: Antiquities dealer, bizarre banker, Catholic priest-turned-Longinian heretic, drug-addicted student, esoteric scholar, New Age guru, science fiction writer, sorority sister, street corner preacher, weird scientist

The First Estate’s acceptance of the bloodline and knightly order known as the Order of Sir Martin comes as something of a surprise to most Kindred. Often described with epithets ranging from “unpleasant” to “scurrilous” or worse, the Knights of Sir Martin seem at first glance antithetical to the First Estate. They claim to uphold the law, never openly defying it and always adopting a stance of submission towards the authority of the Invictus, yet they seem constantly plagued by accusations of secretly flaunting the edicts of the domain and spreading disease among the masses.

In truth, the Order of Sir Martin acts as a sort of secret police for the Invictus, willing to act in ways and investigate in places that the more proper members of the covenant could never sanction. The eclectic membership of the order opens it to Kindred who would never otherwise find a niche within the First Estate, while the covert operations it engages in on behalf of the Invictus allows its members to channel their most destructive impulses into productive avenues. The Invictus appreciates the Leper Knight’s unique talents and have kept them close to their breast for almost a thousand years.

Parent Clan: Nosferatu; rumors persist, however, that the Order of Sir Martin can spread their foul disease to members of other clans, drawing them into the bloodline against their will.

Nickname: Leper Knights (or more derogatorily, simply Lepers)

History and Culture: The Most Noble Order of the Fallen King, more commonly known as the Order of Sir Martin, originated in the late 11th century, just as the Crusades first fell upon the Holy Land. Bloodline legend accredits the formation of the line to an ancient monster called Martin of Jerusalem. The Haunt, long blighted with deformities that gave him the appearance of a leper, dressed in rags and existed among the colonies of the diseased and infirm. Over the centuries he drew several vampires to him, most of which were Haunts whose curse had manifested in ways they felt too severe to allow them to exist within the framework of Kindred society.

The pilgrims of the First Crusade slaughtered much of the populace of Jerusalem, robbing the local Kindred of a once-plentiful herd. While his more erudite and sophisticated contemporaries fell into torpor, Martin adapted, moving among the mortal knights and spreading the diseases he had long carried within his blood. The population of hospitalized westerners rose, and Martin moved among the blighted knights, studying their philosophies and religion and melding it with his own understanding of the world. A few of the warriors proved too pleasing to release to the cold grasp of death, and Martin took on new childer, empowering them with his Vitae and teaching them his own brand of survival.

By the end of the 12th century, the lineage had grown to almost a dozen Kindred residing throughout the Holy Land. While a few were directly related to Martin, most were European monsters who had followed the Crusade east. Martin took such outcasts to his bosom, as he had always done, and taught them to move with subtlety and guile. Better to skulk, hide and survive within Kindred society than be banished to the wilds and fall to the rapacious monster within. Yet the line faced rejection, both from the local Kindred, who felt Martin had become too westernized, and from the Sanctified and Invictus that had followed the Crusade, who saw Martin as a local heathen and threat.

Martin again adapted, adopting the organization of the knightly orders that accompanied Kindred of the two great covenants to the Levant. In 1183, Martin gathered his extended family and bound them together in an oath, christening his group the Most Noble Order of King Baldwin the Leprous (who was then the King of Jerusalem). After Baldwin’s death two years later, Sir Martin renamed his followers the Order of the Fallen King.

Though the Leper Knights never gained the respect of the other knightly orders of the period, they both outperformed and outlasted the vast majority. Martin taught his followers to cleave only to the words of oaths, discarding the spirit for a convenient loophole. He taught them to defend themselves, not only with weapons and armor, but with the fear of the diseases they might have. Members of the line teach their childer the following aphorism, attributed to Martin himself: “Be so unpleasant that they cannot bear to look at what you are doing. Smell so of filth that they keep their noses out of your business.”

The lineage began haunting the various roads between the west and the Holy Land, feeding on the sick and infirm and spreading fear and loathing in their wake. The western covenants, too repulsed by the Order’s habits, failed to realize the wide-ranging network the Order had established. A dark reflection of the Knights Templar, the Order began trading in favors and influence, allowing a Kindred to provide a service to a Leper Knight in Europe for the promise of a later favor in Jerusalem. Nomadic Kindred leapt at the opportunity, allowing the Order to
garner wealth and power at a startling rate. Members of the Order printed notes with special seals that attested to what the traveler was owed by the line. The Leper Knights of the Levant even honored the writs of those few vampires who survived the arduous journey.

With Martin’s blessing, the Order melded with the Invictus in 1317. Since then the Order has grown in size, always clinging to the outskirts of Kindred society, providing necessary services that the majority of Invictus find too repellent to perform themselves. The Order continues to take in those who would otherwise founder in the Danse Macabre, teaching them to overcome their curse and work towards their own welfare rather than devolving into slaver- ing monsters.

Tonight the Order looks much as it always has. In Europe, where the bloodline boasts the most members, the Leper Knights organize into Chapters, each of which usually covers a small region (such as London and its environs). In areas with smaller populations, a Chapter may cover a larger geographical area, but never so large that the Chapter cannot gather four to five times a year or easily communicate. Nomadic members of the lineage, called Rovers, travel between the Chapters, providing information and aid to compatriots in distant domains. Thus the bloodline manages a rough communication system that spans Europe, allowing information within the line to pass between domains far more quickly than it does through other sources.

In the Americas, the Chapter system breaks down, and few such organizations exist outside of New England. More typically a small city may include one or two members of the line, while a larger metropolis may boast a small gang of Leper Knights (who often adopt a gangland attitude and fashion sense, if only to further their unwholesome image). Groups of Leper Knights (even the New England Chapters) in the Americas rarely communicate across the vast expanses of wilderness and don’t benefit from the same information network that their European cousins do.

Reputation: The Order of Sir Martin has never enjoyed a particularly positive reputation among either its peers within the Invictus or in Kindred society as a whole. The Carthian Movement, especially, finds the Order distasteful. According to the Carthians, they serve as exemplars of the worst mercenary tendencies of the Kindred, willing to take any assignment, no matter how degrading, for whatever table scraps the Invictus throw their way. Most grating to the Carthians is the fact that many of the Kindred the Order takes on were vampires who the Movement was eyeing for recruitment.

The Lancea Sanctum and Circle of the Crone have eerily similar opinions about the Order. Both groups feel that the bloodline wallows in self-interest, rebuffing any opportunity for enlightenment or grace. In short, the line fails to uphold the will of God (or the gods). The Leper Knights don’t share the animosity, and in domains in which the Invictus has a strong relationship with either covenant, members of the lineage often attend mass or the solstice rituals.

While Kindred of the Order of Sir Martin almost universally swear fealty to the Invictus, a rare few forsake the First Estate for the Ordo Dracul. Such Kindred are almost always elders who have decided that they want something more out of unlife than the riches that come with membership in the Invictus. These Kindred find enough familiarity in the Order to embrace it, and many become celebrated members of the Sworn of the Axe. Unfortunately, leaving the Invictus requires a Leper Knight to recant his sworn oath to the knightly order. The lack of reprisal such turncoats face often worries the Ordo Dracul, and the Dragons usually watch their new members with extreme care, making entirely clear what will befall them if the local Invictus begins showing signs of the Coils of the Dragon.

Concepts: Anti-Crone crusader, apparent AIDS victim, disease carrier, doctor-turned-murderer, extremist militant, gangland tyrant, information broker, spy in a foreign court, unceremonious prostitute, urban cowboy

The Advantages of Membership

Members of the Order of Sir Martin gain two advantages. First, upon entering the bloodline, the character swears an oath of fealty to his fellow Leper Knights. The Knights help one another regularly, forming a web of mentorship with a slightly different focus than the Invictus. As a result, characters who claim both membership in the bloodline and Status of at least 1 in the Invictus may purchase the following Merits at half the usual cost in experience: Fighting Styles, Haven, Mentor and Retainer. They do not continue to purchase Herd at half price, and this bonus does not apply at character creation.

Additionally, members of the Order of Sir Martin gain access to the following Devotions. Each is a closely guarded secret within the sect and never taught to outsiders.

While the Sanctified have long claimed to be the most faithful and godly possible vampires, the Septemi exist as a relatively modern phenomenon set to challenge the covenant’s presumptions. Where the Sanctified attest that the Kindred were personally Damned by God to act as his lash against the back of a sinful mortal populace (thus driving them towards divinity), the Septemi spare the rod, declaring that vampires have no exalted place in the Lord’s creation. They work from the shadows to counter the influence of the Sanctified, driven by their higher soul to undo the work of evil men and lead humanity to salvation through charity and education. Such altruism dooms a Kindred to a difficult Requiem (often made more difficult yet by the fact that the Septimi’s altruism does not necessarily extend to their fellow vampires).

Nickname: Passionate (among themselves), Maidens or Roaches (among the Sanctified — both derogatory terms)

History and Culture: The genesis of the Septemi is a matter of some confusion. The ostensible founder of the lineage, Robert le Tuteur, served as a soldier in the army of none other than Jeanne d’Arc (known to English speakers as Joan of Arc) during the Hundred Years’ War (and in fact, some claim, received the Embrace on the third night after her martyrdom). He has since claimed that his introduction to the Requiem came at the hands of a Daeva elder who gave only the name Septima and that she told him of her legacy, a long line of Kindred who served God’s true will in the face of great perfidy. She set him on the path he would follow before vanishing into the night, intimating that she was the last surviving member of a bloodline that had existed since before the rise of Rome. No record of such a lineage can be found prior to Robert, however, and the fact that no record remains of any Kindred in France by Septima’s name or description at the time of Robert’s Embrace further muddies the waters (though, as many scholars point out, were Septima a Sanctified heretic she may have given a false name for her own protection).

Most Passionate accept Robert’s story, but also claim that whether Robert inherited an older legacy or created the lineage remains immaterial to its overarching goals and beliefs. There can be no doubt that Robert serves as the single most important figure in the bloodline’s modern history, acting as a catalyst for the growth of a small movement of Christian Daeva unwilling to accept the teachings of the Lancea Sanctum. Robert taught his followers that Christianity applied to the Kindred as it did to mortals, and that their fallen state gave vampires no inherent dominion over the living. He rejected the terms Canaille and Kine, refusing to see the mortals as mere feeding stock, and ruffled feathers by denying many of “the pretty euphemisms” (as he put it) of the Damned. He drew to him numerous young vampires, many of whom he initiated into his own bloodline, though he purportedly sired no childer of his own. These schismatic Kindred drew negative attention from the Lancea Sanctum, but the covenant was too distracted by the mortal inquisition during the bloodline’s initial growth to effectively move against it. Misguided vampire heretics seemed a lesser problem than torch-wielding priests. Instead, they largely dismissed the heretics, branding them with the sobriquet “Maidens” due to the founder’s supposed association with Joan of Arc, the Maiden of Orleans.

Children of the Revolution

The lineage truly came into its own during the waning years of the anarchs’ revolution. Among the mortals, the Catholic French backed the Protestant revolutionaries, initially through grants of wealth and eventually with martial assistance. The elders of the French Lancea Sanctum, eager to see the Holy Roman Empire fall into decline, followed suit, providing aide from their own coffers and stables of blood-bound servants. Yet their plan made slow progress. The Septemi had already entered the Empire, making every attempt to stop infighting among the Austrian and German Kindred and descending on destroyed mortal villages to assist in the rebuilding efforts. While the Sanctified would normally have dismissed the Septemi as minor thorns at worst, the Septemi began openly employing the signature mutation of their blood, a mystical ability that interferes with the supernatural, including the sacred dark miracles of Theban Sorcery.

The French Lancea Sanctum immediately became incensed, naming the entire line anathema and destroying all members of the group who surfaced within their parishes. Though some German Sanctified followed suit, the Septemi remained in Central Europe, working to undo the horrors of the civil wars both among vampires and the living. Yet, for all their work, the blood-borne selfrighteousness of the Septemi garnered the line few allies, and members quickly migrated. The line grew, spreading into Eastern Europe, Russia and Great Britain.

The Septemi Tonight

In the centuries since their abortive crusade against the French Sanctified, the Septemi have made enemies almost everywhere they travel. Far from being heroes, their blood addicts them to the rush of martyrdom, the pleasure inherent in giving of themselves for an apparent greater good. The fact that many use less than noble tactics in their quests has done nothing for the lineage, and those Kindred familiar with the line label them hypocrites (and, more recently, terrorists).

During the late 18th century, nomadic Sanctified began spreading a message within each domain they traveled to: the Septemi, they claimed, were an infernal threat that must be cleansed from the world. What followed were numerous bloody witch-hunts as suspected Kindred were dragged from their havens and rendered torpid. On occasion, the accused even stood trial before being left for the sun. The onus of proof, however, rested with the accused, and proving that one’s lineage does not include the taint of an obscure bloodline can be incredibly difficult.

The hunts were not terribly effective, however, and in most cases, trials simply served as an excuse for one elder to strike against a Daeva rival. Later Sanctified would call the Septemi “Roaches” for their ability to survive everything the covenant threw at them; the reality, however, is that the Sanctified largely undercut their own initiatives.

Tonight the Septemi still exist, often hiding in the folds of the Carthian Movement and keeping the truth of their lineage hidden. Few among the Sanctified still remember that they exist, though within those parishes perennially plagued by the Passionate, especially in Central Europe, the feud continues to simmer to this night. On those rare occasions that the Septemi openly display their presence in a city with any Sanctified influence, the church attempts to have them banished, destroyed or tried for treason against Kindred society. The wise Passionate never grants them that chance.

The Three Roads

The Septemi lineage splits into three rough divisions, each corresponding to a member’s approach to the bloodline’s mission. The most active and aggressive division, the Justiciars, works to remove the tools that the Lancea Sanctum uses to keep humanity frightened and submissive. They observe local Sanctified, destroying connections with mortals through physical abuse and scare tactics (a gangster once loyal to a Lancea Sanctum bishop may be considerably less so after a visit from one of the Septemi) and directly physically assaulting the Sanctified only if all else fails. They usually veil their genuine objectives behind typical covenant and Kindred politics, so as to avoid giving away their true identities.

The second division, the Pacifists, strives to undo the horrors that the Sanctified inflict on the living by helping those who such vampires harm. If a Sanctified places a Vinculum on a mortal, a Pacifist attempts to break it. When a Sanctified priest keeps a city block under his rotting thumb, the Pacifist disseminates literature of hope and faith. Kindred of the bloodline consider the Pacifists the oldest philosophy within the line, and Robert le Tuteur, the founder of the lineage, has expressed personal beliefs in line with this faction on the rare occasions he has made his presence known to his descendents.

Unlike the other two divisions, the Custodians often content themselves with minimizing their own impact on the living rather than acting to undo that of other Kindred. They hope to lead by example, demonstrating that the Kindred can survive without causing undue harm to the mortal herd. These Kindred can easily fall into an ascetic style of existence, but they tend to be the Passionate most likely to rise to positions of prominence within Kindred society (mostly by dint of stepping on fewer toes than the Justiciars and Pacifists). From there they guide their chosen covenant in a way consistent with the bloodline’s philosophy.

A member’s sire has nothing to do with which of the three groups she falls into. Instead, her curse draws her to one group at the exclusion of the others. In game terms, a character’s Virtue determines which of the three philosophies she is most inclined towards. Characters with Justice and Fortitude usually join the Justiciars, allowing nothing (sometimes including their Humanity) to stand between them and their quest to end the evils of the Lancea Sanctum. Characters who uphold Charity and Hope typically join the Pacifists, believing that they cannot heal the world through harm. Temperate or Prudent characters, on the other hand, often join the Custodians, striving to curb their own excesses. Finally, the Faithful among the Passionate find themselves drawn to all three divisions, always choosing a path based on the nature of their faith but often acting as intermediaries between the groups. Exceptions do occur, of course, and a Maiden might pursue Justice through public works and government manipulation while another might Prudently plot out every aspect of her plan to destroy the local archbishop.

Yet the Septemi have little in the way of bloodline organization. The three paths are less factions of the line than they are personal decisions made by the Kindred in question. Most Septemi teach their childer a series of closely guarded pass phrases designed to help Septemi differentiate one another from the rest of Kindred society. These phrases usually resemble riddles, biblical passages, koans or sutras, but cannot be traced back to a written source.

Sires choose childer they feel will strive to improve the lot of mortals and vampires alike, but remain vigilant against Embracing those who lack the reserves of willpower necessary to survive the Requiem. As a result, Septemi come from many different walks of life, but tend to be those who possessed some interest in philanthropy or vigilantism in life (sometimes both, and the line boasts more than one self-styled modern-night Robin Hood). Thus a Passionate may be a former night-shift emergency room nurse, a disgruntled police officer or a gangster trying to clean up his neighborhood.

Septemi never inform a newly Embraced childe of her lineage. Instead they do what they can to raise the member in a manner consistent with the bloodline’s beliefs. These eachings tend to begin privately, but are of a largely secular philosophical nature. If the neophyte shows acceptance and interest in the bloodline’s principles, the instruction sessions slowly transform, becoming steeped in religion and baroque mysticism. If (and only if) the childe seems willing to take on the lineage’s mission at the risk of her unlife will the sire adopt her into the line (a similar initiation awaits outsiders who the line deems promising). After all, a failed indoctrination could doom the sire.

Reputation: The Kindred consider the Septemi misguided and naïve at best and dangerous and maladjusted at worst. Neither the Invictus nor the Sanctified would knowingly shelter or admit a member of the bloodline except under the most unusual of circumstances. While the Invictus stops short of branding the entire lineage a heresy to be wiped out, the bloodline’s beliefs and tactics tend to directly counter those of the First Estate more often than not. The Sanctified, on the other hand, would see the Septemi wiped from creation. Their actions, sins in the eyes of Longinus, disrupt Kindred society and endanger all vampires, they claim. Some go so far as to declare that the abilities of the Septemi display an almost certain link to infernal practices, but few other Kindred take such accusations seriously.

While the Circle of the Crone would be unlikely to admit a Passionate into its ranks (and the Passionate even less likely to apply for admission), the faith as a whole appreciates the Septemi. The lineage’s tendency to draw heat away from the Acolytes is welcome, though the Circle frowns upon the line’s adherence to mortal religion. Worse yet, in domains where the Sanctified don’t pose a problem to the mortal populace, the Septemi tend to turn their attention towards the blood witches, a group hardly known for its altruistic attitude towards humanity.

The Ordo Dracul rarely crosses paths with the Septemi. Each group has quite a bit to offer the other, however, and alliances do occasionally form. The Septemi, for their part, dearly covet the advantages the Coils grant (especially those that minimize impact on the mortal populace, such as the Coil of Blood); they do not, however, appreciate the grisly studies that many Dragons embark on in order to unearth their eldritch powers. The Dragons, on the other hand, find the Abjurism Discipline and its capacity for overcoming the various threats in the World of Darkness fascinating. As a result, short-term relationships between single Dragons and Passionate occasionally occur, but usually collapse when each finds the other’s approach reprehensible.

The Septemi assisted the anarchs during the troubles of the 17th century and aided the nascent Carthian Movement when it began to spread across Europe. While the line hardly has a position of importance within the covenant as a whole, its philosophies mesh with those of the Carthians more often than they do other groups. As a result, the Movement attracts more Septemi than any other covenant. While the average Carthian finds the Passionate’s dedication to Christianity unusual, few actively work against members of the lineage so long as they pull their weight. Given the bloodline’s weakness, members often rise above the call of duty.

The Septemi do possess one major claim to fame (and to the efficacy of their philosophies): The lineage’s founder, Robert le Tuteur, remains active to this night and is rumored to have achieved the much-debated state of Golconda. He leads a nomadic unlife, typically hiding his true nature (and masquerading as a neonate) unless forces conspire to inspire him to intercede in a situation. While detractors point to his supposed achievement of enlightenment as an obvious lie and bit of propaganda spread by the line to further its heresy, those who have met Robert report that there’s something about his pale blue eyes, long sandy hair and beardless face forever frozen at two decades of age that inspires belief. Others point out that a Succubus of his age certainly possesses a stunning mastery of Majesty. Whether tales of Robert’s spiritual puissance will be authenticated or disproved as a hoax remains to be seen.

Concepts: Ascetic martial artist, Carthian investigator, ghetto Robin Hood, law in a lawless neighborhood, mob instigator, monstrous monster hunter, political activist, protest singer, suicide hotline operator, wealthy charity chairperson

Think of the way a shepherd tends to his flock. The herder watches over the sheep. He stays nearby, he directs them, he keeps them safe from wolves and starvation and disease. And then, when the time is right, he exploits the animals for their milk, wool and meat.

That’s what the Shepherds do. These Savages stand guard over the food supply — that food being the human herd from which vampires feed. Admittedly, it’s not just about food, given that humans are powerful resources in ways beyond being just walking, talking bags of blood, but that still speaks to a core need to keep the herd relatively safe. Either way, whatever a human offers, he can’t be utilized if he’s dead or on the run. The herd is best when kept docile and ignorant.

The Shepherds call this idea the “Fourth Tradition,” or the “Tradition of the Herd.” They claim that it’s just as important as the other three Traditions supposedly put forth by the Camarilla so many centuries ago, and that the Kindred have grown gluttonous and indulgent with the food supply. Any sense of moderation has gone out the window, and now the vampires let their Beasts have a taste whenever they see fit — often leaving a trail of bloodless bodies as a result.

That doesn’t help anyone. The herd gets spooked, and then it withdraws. At night, they lock doors and windows. They don’t go out to the clubs as much, and the hookers all carry razors and Tasers and even pistols, none of which will stop a hungry vampire, but can all cause more than a degree of trouble. They call the police. Someone investigates the bodies, the blood spatter, the flakes of dead flesh left behind. They grow aware. Vampire hunters arise. The herd knows it’s being hunted. The Masquerade shudders and fractures.

The Shepherds seek to stop this wanton disregard for the herd. And so they do what seems anathema to many Kindred: they protect the humans from vampiric excess.

History and Culture: It began during the mid-19th century with the Montrose Party — a group of humans heading Westward toward Oregon. They were not alone. With them came a number of young Kindred, moving the “flock” of humans through the wilderness the way a cattleman might move his herd dozens of miles so the beasts could have grass to graze on. It was a curious experiment — neither man nor vampire had ever easily crossed such a wild expanse before. It was also a failed experiment: the Montrose Party was beset by a wild tribe of horrific vampires, seemingly not Kindred at all (the Sta-Au). Few survived, most perishing at the hands of the monsters, others claimed by them.

One of those who did survive and escape was Greta Devenpeck, a Gangrel who had a powerful way of blending in with the human herd, hiding in plain sight. Despite what was ostensibly a coldly pragmatic solution (usher the food supply to a place where the vampire herders could act as kings), she had formed a certain connection to the people of the Montrose Party — in much the same way as a keeper feels about a dumb hound or a stubborn herd of goats. Greta had come to know these people intimately. She’d discerned their quirks, watched their relationships unfold, and of course tasted their blood from time to time. And then, like that, they were all gone. Dead, because she and the others couldn’t protect them (couldn’t even protect themselves, truth told).

White Hats
The reality is, the Shepherds aren’t the “good guys” just because they keep humans safe. They’re basically just pragmatic predators, tending to the flock the way a cautious drug dealer keeps his customers from killing themselves so that they can continue to indulge their addictions. A parasite does best when it keeps the host alive, right?
Still, pop culture is home to a number of anti-hero protagonists, and Vampire: The Requiem falls in line with that idea from time to time. The Shepherds in particular can play — if you and your Storyteller agree — as something a bit more high-minded and heroic, if need be. They still play at being pragmatic predators, but in this more optimistic version, they’re actually unwittingly or willfully keeping the herd safe because they strive against the Beast within and the evils of Kindred society. They’re the bulwark against cruel predation, and thus you have a mode in which your vampire Shepherd can be more of a “good guy” than you’d perhaps find in a standard mode of play.

It was traumatic, and it changed her. Back in towns and cities, she found she could stand in a crowd of humans and they’d barely even notice her. The sheep did not see the wolf that stood among them in full sight. Years later, while on the East Coast, Greta came to notice things about people: sometimes, the herd would grow spooked. If too many fell victim to monstrous predations, they’d start to circle the wagons (so to speak), standing vigil over one another, shuttering the windows at night. Even a mote of awareness blooming in ignorance became dangerous, and when the vampires had trouble feeding, the competition over resources became all the fiercer. Fat and happy, the Kindred had an easier road to peace. Lean and hungry, they tore at each other like starving dogs.

Greta and her coterie took it unto themselves to police the overindulgences of their kind. If they caught a Kindred slaking his thirst like a mad dog, leaving a trail of bodies, they came to that animal and did what anybody would do with a rabid beast: they gave it swift mercy with stake and axe. From Devenpeck and her coterie of Savages grew the transformed blood of the Shepherds. It’s why they’re more than just a small covenant of vampires. The Blood shifted within them. They are wolves who walk in shadow, they are hunters in darkness. But above all else, they are Shepherds.

Joining is as easy or as difficult as making a mark on one of the local Shepherds. One must of course be judged worthy. If a Gangrel has given herself over to hungry excesses too many times, the Shepherds will cast her to the curb (or destroy her outright). But if she can prove her devotion to moderation, to the safety of the herd and not to her own raw desires, then they’ll give her a proper look.

The Shepherds don’t dress in any notable way, and in fact are purposefully non-notable. They wear non-descript clothes for the most part, and keep their hair and any makeup to acceptable but not extreme levels (unless, of course, the general fashions of an area suggest such a thing — the goal is to blend, not to be a dullard in a room full of fashion mavens, or a golf caddy walking amidst a gaggle of homeless).

Reputation: Their reputation is, at best, mixed. Some value their presence. They can be a bit self-righteous and icy, and it’s downright spooky the way they often just appear (sometimes with two or three of them in tow), but for the most part they’re actually fulfilling a useful function for the good of Kindred society. Some Princes keep them on retainer, and make them a valuable part of “the organization.” Many Shepherds have even ended up as sheriffs and seneschals.

The problem is, most of the Damned aren’t interested in “the good of Kindred society.” They want to eat. They want to party. They want to fuck and kill and run and laugh. What the Shepherds warn against is something most don’t ever see — while a snowball effect does indeed occur when a vampire indulges in gross feeding excesses, most are too blind to really notice it. And, even if they do notice it, who cares? Blood’s the same two blocks over, so the vampire simply moves his hunting ground.

And that attitude makes the Shepherds seem like sanctimonious conservationists of the most annoying order… which further makes them enemies to any Prince or Archbishop or pack of snarling nomads. It’s a bit of a vicious circle. The Shepherds end up hunted, but they themselves are capable hunters. Factions clash, and in the interim, the human herd suffers anyway. It’s a struggle the Shepherds must endure; truthfully, those of the bloodline have yet to safely navigate such troubled waters in most cities.

Concepts: Embattled Prince, helpful sire, Kindred pragmatist, reserved glutton, self-righteous castigator, seneschal, survivalist, wary sheriff, trend-setter, penitent avenger

They are twice-dead. They died once and became vampire, and died twice and became Sta-Au. They are as much ghost as they are Kindred, as much monster as they are human. When one is made Sta-Au, his soul is cut like cloth into ribbons. His teeth are made into a mouthful of needles, his skin bears the stains of death and the marks of his wickedness. To enter the lands of the Sta-Au, the Land of the Worms, is to leave tranquility and to enter tribulation. They measure their wealth in the skulls they have taken from their victims.

At least, that’s what the Sta-Au would have others believe. Not all of it is off the mark, but it’s certainly an embellishment. The vampires of the Sta-Au are not truly twice-dead — no, this is a symbol, a warning that to meet the Wicked Ones is to die one way or another, and those who are allowed to continue existing within the bloodline are not considered spared, but reborn. They are not ghosts, not at all, but they can sense ghosts, as if they have been urged closer to the cusp of this mortal coil (close enough to see over the edge and to perceive the limitless dead that waits below). Their teeth do not transform into terrible, needled fangs upon becoming Sta-Au. They file them down to those wretched points, expending the blood and the will to keep them at their sharpest.

It’s true about their territory, though. The Sta-Au claim the places of North America that are dead zones, places that are forever marked as badlands by both truth and legend. Certainly this continent has become profoundly developed. Highways criss-cross the nations, cities spring up and cast a sprawling net of suburban wasteland, tiny towns dot the map. But it’s still home to distant places, places where mankind hasn’t gone, and perhaps won’t ever go. Places that man thinks he cannot survive: blasted canyons, bleak tundra, wide-open spaces said to be marked by terrible winters or awful pollution or searing heat. That being said, some Sta-Au carve out small territories in the midst of the cities, too. Even a large metropolis can be home to places humanity avoids. Places like a trash-heap, or a small island in the river (a “potter’s field”) where the nameless are buried, or an industrial park long left to rust and ruin.

Just what are the Sta-Au, then? What is it they want with these desolate places? The Sta-Au seek to become more than what they are. They seek to alter the limitations placed on them as humans and vampires. They think themselves both punished for their wickedness and rewarded for being allowed a way to move past this corporeal state. They are, in essence, a misguided Golconda cult, believing that the path to becoming truly one of the gracious and wicked dead (as opposed to the “half-dead” that they are, now) is by exiling themselves in haunted dead-lands, letting their Humanity die off like fruit on a diseased vine.

The sand hills
The “Sand Hills” is the Blackfoot Indian notion of Heaven, kind of a “Happy Hunting Ground” reached for the true warriors of the tribe. For the Sta-Au, this idea remains, but has been perverted somewhat by their perspective as monsters. The Sand Hills are their interpretation of Golconda. Once they push past their awkward “half-existence,” straddling the worlds of life and death, they’ll be allowed to roam free in a blessed hunting grounds — the Sand Hills. They actually expect that their extant territories (the Land of the Worms) will change from the bleak and desolate places they are now into the sacred “hunting ground for glorious monsters” they desire.

Parent Clan: Unknown, though likely Mekhet or Gangrel; some within the bloodline believe that it has two founders, one from the Tunaxa people, one from the Tunaha. That being said, once one joins the bloodline, that individual eschews clan as an identifier (and vampires of any clan may become part of this lineage).

History and Culture: The story the Wicked Ones tell to their own is this: the origin of the Twice-Dead began with two men who were exiled by their societies. They came from different peoples (some within the bloodline suggest that one man came from the Tunaxa or K’Tunaxa, while the other came from the Tunaha/Tunahe) but were both criminals cast out for their wickedness. The story is quite clear on the point that neither of these men was dead at the time, and both were human and unfazed by the rising of the morning sun.

Some stories have these men forging a deep friendship in the blasted hills and badlands where they met in exile, while other branches of the tale have them falling in love. Either way, their relationship was not long for this world as they were both dying: they had no food and little water, and the days were hot and the nights cold. And so, the legend says, they lay there, poised on the edge of this world and nearly ready to tumble into the next. All the while it was clear to them that they would not receive a reward in the afterlife. They would not be allowed to hunt the Sand Hills, for they were wicked.

This revelation spared them, the Sta-Au claim. Ghosts — wicked shades, dark shadows — emerged, claiming the two men as their own. The spirits consumed what was left of the two men’s human souls, leaving them as almost ghosts themselves. The ghosts said that others would join them one day, and that they would not be alone as Wicked Ones. Someday, they might be able to complete the transformation into something greater than what they already are, and then they will be allowed to hunt the Sand Hills. In the meantime, they are meant to stay in the dark places, the distant reaches, forever exiled from the world of man. These places — the Land of the Worms — are themselves “exiles” of a sort, pushed to the margins of this physical world, touching the very edge of the realm of the dead. (More information on the Land of the Worms can be found on p. 40.) And so it goes that the Wicked Ones are a curious (and to some, contemptible) breed of vampires that recognizes its own iniquity as a failing, yet also exalts such wickedness as being a path to not just enlightenment, but to a full-scale transformation of their condition. They are not a part of the world. The world is home to temptation in the form of life and humanity, and they seek to secede from such temptations.

Joining them is not a passive affair. One is not slowly drawn into the web of the Wicked One, seduced for so long that one evening a character wakes up and finds that his blood is that of those around him. Joining is far more active. A vampire either seeks out the Sta-Au, or they “claim” a potential member by abducting certain Kindred who brazenly wander into their territory. Even then, they ensure that the abducted has a choice to join. Those who refuse are considered sad, and deserving of pity for being unprepared to transform (note: not transcend) one’s nature. A swift death is the mercy that is given to them.

So why seek them out? A vampire might track down the Sta-Au for a number of reasons, some true, some based on deception. If the character thinks them a group truly closing in on Golconda, and Golconda is his greatest desire, it makes sense to walk among them. Another vampire may have grown weary of hiding among humans. In recognizing one’s own base desires and sins, it isn’t unusual to want to leave the world of temptation and find a place and a people who are willing to help you realize your full, awful potential. (For some, that’s even a noble quest — “I don’t want to hurt these people anymore, but I cannot make myself better.” For others, it’s selfish — “I am a monster, and I want a place where I am allowed and encouraged to be that very thing.”)

Those who join them are considered truly dead, so much so that they are given a version of a Blackfoot funeral where the prospective member is “left for dead” in a tree, covered from the sun only by a heavy swaddling of dark blankets, and put to the mercy of hungry carrion birds. Those who survive the process are allowed to become full-fledged “shades” within the bloodline, considered twice-dead and as much ghost as vampire or human.

Times have changed the Sta-Au, somewhat. Once, they were monsters kept to the furthest-flung fringes, and all they needed to do was hunt. More fiend than common beast, they stalked the lands they called their own, the Land of the Worms — and any animal, human or vampire that would dare to wander into their domain was quick to become prey. They’d consume the blood and use the rest for leather, or build weapons from the bones, drums from the skulls, or blankets from the hair. Should other Kindred enter the Land of the Worms, they’d first measure them at a distance. They’d warn them away, making it very clear that to continue on was to take a step into a very bad land. Believing that they were not monsters for the sake of monstrousness, they’d even attempt to give potential prey three chances to turn away, to save themselves from a vile fate. Those who dared to ignore the warnings (frankly, most everyone) were treated to the greatest of cruelties. Why shouldn’t they be? They were forewarned.

Now, these incursions by outsiders happen all too often. The continent may still be home to some truly out-of-the-way places (think Saskatchewan forests, tracts of land high up in the Rockies, or long stretches of dead Mexican desert), but it’s not like it was 200 years ago. People stumble into the Land of the Worms with far greater frequency: lost vacationers, explorers, scientists, drug-runners, isolationists and so forth. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily. It allows the Sta-Au to hunt within their territories far more frequently without sending out hunting parties (which they’re known to do — they aren’t bound to their territories), but it does ensure that they cannot be as exiled and isolated as they once were.

Physically, those of the bloodline have eschewed any native garb, though some elders still walk the world naked or dressed in very minimal deer leathers. Most mark themselves as monstrous in some way: filing teeth to points, scarification, branding, dizzying tattoos and so forth. Skulls are a common motif. Animal skulls are used as masks, or painted skulls like those found during the Mexican Day of the Dead are worn. (Skulls are also used as warnings, marking the edges of Wicked One territory.)

Reputation: Few know of them, so it’s difficult to garner a widespread reputation. The Ordo Dracul is aware of the Sta-Au, and actually has a very loose alliance with those of the bloodline. They are given a pass to walk amongst the Wicked Ones so that the two groups may share secrets about the transformation of the vampiric condition (a few Sta-Au have even joined the covenant, but have done so against the wishes of the other Twice-Dead). Secretly, the Wicked Ones accept that the Ordo Dracul will never truly transcend or transform the Kindred condition because to do so necessitates a refinement of the Blood, not membership in a club. It’s true, of course, that the Coils work; the Dragons are theoretically on the right track. The Sta-Au, however, maintain that while the Dragons might be on to something, there’s more to finding the Sand Hills than dodging the Curse.

Outside of what the Order of Dragons knows, the reputation that precedes the Sta-Au is one of mystery and urban legend. They represent one more grave warning whispered from sire to childe about the dangers of “going nomad.” Wandering away from the city lights puts one in the center ring of a circus of monsters, and the Sta-Au are just one more bogeyman out there in the dark.

Concepts: Death-obsessed freak, exile from the Ordo Dracul, grief-struck loner, lost soul, Kindred nomad, unrepentant monster, vampiric embodiment of the Wendigo, scholar of atrocity, ghostly hitchhiker, hunter-turned-hunted

The Cult of Osiris was dedicated to assisting those who knew that the brother of sleep, otherwise called torpor, was soon to come. They offered assurances that memories would be kept safe and that battles against the demons of the Underworld and the God of the Dead would be fought and won. The creator of the bloodline, a Nosferatu High Priest of Osiris, became concerned that their secrets could easily be stolen by spies from the traitorous Cult of Set or even from lands beyond Egypt. So he decided to make sure those secrets would be safe from anyone and everyone who were not of his blood.

The Usiri, who called themselves the Warriors of the Dead, were quite different from what most other Kindred believed them to be. In reality, they were collectors of information, hoarders of that most precious of commodities: secrets. The rest of the Kindred of Ancient Egypt, however, saw the Usiri as their protectors and guides through the dangerous realm of nightmares and dreams associated with torpor.

As far as non-Usiri knew, the Warriors had a twofold mission: to fight Kindred enemies in the dreamscape of torpor and to assist their Kindred allies on an undoubtedly difficult and often nightmarish journey through the Underworld. Those who awakened from torpor often found themselves being comforted by an attending Usiri priest, who would whisper to them of the glorious battles they had fought against demons and, in some cases, even manifestations of Osiris himself. These whispered tales were described by the Usiri in exhaustive detail, providing the newly awakened Kindred with numerous images and stories to draw upon.

In modern nights, the Usiri have found a niche as information gatherers, Kindred psychologists and advisors to elder Princes who covet what the Usiri offer. Thus, the Warriors of the Dead have reinvented themselves. They still proclaim to do battle with the spirits of the Underworld and they continue offering to protect and store the memories of those Kindred who near their time of torpor. Now, though, they do so from a more secular standpoint. The ancient Egyptian god of the dead has no place in the modern world, it seems, and some ultra-orthodox Usiri fear that Osiris might consider them betrayers, and even go so far as to exact vengeance upon them for abandoning Him. This consideration has caused those Sleepers to take their own, memory-saving precautions.

Nickname: Warriors of the Dead (ancient times), Sleepers (modern nights)

History and Culture: Usiri was initially the title given to the High Priest of Osiris. Kindred who worshipped this particular god became fascinated with stories of the Underworld and with assisting Ra, the Sun, in its nightly battle to rise again each morning. The Usiri began searching for ways, through study and prayer, to protect the mind while the body slept and the spirit waged war on the Underworld’s demons. The Usiri became known as Warriors of the Dead, Kindred who would take and protect the memories of their allies as they slept. They were trusted among many ancient Egyptian Kindred (including followers from the Cults of Ra, Anubis and Horus, for example) and rejected by others (the Cults of Set and Thoth, whose followers feared the idea of trusting others with their thoughts more so than losing those memories to the fog of time).

Everything changed for the Usiri upon the Roman (and Ventrue) invasion. The gods of Egypt were dismissed as mythology and the Usiri were decried as liars and tricksters. It was then that they made a pact among themselves to leave the waking domain and enter Osiris’s Realm. They agreed to enter voluntary torpor and vanish into the Underworld until such a time as the invaders had long forgotten them. They hoped that, by spreading their memories and histories among each other, through numbers alone enough of their history would survive the time spent in the Underworld. Until enough of them are awakened, the Sleepers bide their time.

Enough Kindred in modern nights fear what they could lose should they be forced prematurely, for whatever reason, into torpor. The Usiri use this fear as a tool to gain positions of power within various Courts. They can be found in every covenant, whispering to whomever will listen to them, offering guaranteed protection from the brother of sleep and returning the memories handed over for safe storage. Fortunately for the Usiri, the information they help to protect will always be a part of them.

In their efforts to adjust to present time, the Usiri have begun making overtures to their ancient allies, the Anubi, and the re-awakening Bak-Ra, concerning the formation of a pact between their respective bloodlines. Whispers within the Circle of the Crone suggest that they, too, have been contacted by the Sleepers. After all, they have given up so much and have received so little in return. The Sleepers are snake-oil salesmen, except that their particular concoction is the stuff of nightmares. They continue to perform their rituals of memory protection, however, all the while collecting and storing every other bit of information they can to help them survive.

An Usiri Truth

Before the birth of Christ, when preparation for the final sleep included both judgment and the actual journey into the Underworld, Usiri Kindred used their abilities to pretend at being real warriors of the dead. Any problems with a memory that was unrecoverable, for whatever reason, could be explained away as the wrath of Osiris or a battle lost within the dreamscape. Obviously, this rarely happened, otherwise the Usiri reputation as knowledgeable guides and steadfast protectors would suffer.

Usiri of the present are faced with a much more difficult conundrum. Belief in the Underworld is no longer a given in modern nights. A vampire may indeed fear torpor enough to ask for Usiri protection, but that aegis might be from something that the Sleepers know nothing about. Usiri awakening in modern nights are therefore drawn to the occult and, specifically, to more recent Kindred history, in an effort to get “up-to-speed” on the fears and needs of their clients.

The Sleepers are masters at making their clients believe what they want them to believe. The truth of the Usiri predicament is far more pathetic than a simple lie, however. The Usiri know that everything they are peddling to their clients is a complete fabrication. They manufacture magnificent Underworld battles and plant those thoughts, images and ideas into the minds of their clients. The members of this bloodline are aware of this and it is their job to continue to spread the lie, if only to keep their bloodline from being hunted down and destroyed by those who might take offense. They are the faux guardians of the dreamscape. Their existence is predicated on the ability to keep torpid vampires from losing their memories (and their minds). In this, at least, they offer a great service to many within the Kindred community, regardless of how they sell themselves.

Reputation: The history of the Usiri has been lost, as far as most Kindred know. These days, they are thought of as either the protectors of secrets (by those who believe in dreams, the occult and superstition) or as con-artists (by those Kindred with mental abilities who aren’t so swayed by the power of dreams or the threat of losing precious memories). At this point in the modern Requiem, there are simply too few of them to make an accurate assessment of the bloodline as a whole, although if they are capable of even half of what they claim, there might be reason to worry. The Usiri bring into question the entire notion of what is real and what isn’t — a vampire might ask, are the thoughts in my head my thoughts or were they placed there by someone else?

Concepts: Court advisor, bodyguard, dream interpreter, spy/information gatherer, occult instructor, new-age guru, private detective, Egyptologist, archeologist, Kindred psychologist