The High Clans

Please Note: The information in this thread is (mostly) summarized from the Dark Ages Core Book Revised. If you have read Chapter Two: Clans of Caine there is no need to read this thread though feel free to use it as a refrence. Some of the sentences or parts of sentences in this thread were written by White Wolf Publishing, and I give them full credit for the contents.

DarkeST is the ST for the High Clans.


Over the last few centuries the Damned have adopted the feudal system, and the high clans are those who are among the ruling class. Creatures who had once rules as Gods, like Mithras, came to rule as kings. These bloodline have identities that (at least in Europe) are strongly based upon the Lord Vassal relationship. The Vassal swears loyalty to his Lord, providing the bounty of his lands and knights in times of war. The Lord promises to not overtax his Vassals, and to provide them with the strength and stability they require to prosper. The Damned are willful and distrustful, there loyalty is even more likely then man’s to lie with the immediate Lord one sees and deals with then to a far off council. Oaths of fealty are a personal relationship among the Damned, seen as stronger even then bonds of clan and sect.

The experienced know that the line between the high and low clans is not set in stone. Individual achievement is more important than rank. There are low clan princes ruling in Europe today, and the elders have lived in times when different groups of clan ruled the night of great domains. Yet the high blooded say that there rule runs is in there veins. Most common is the claim of Primogeniture, that the primogenitor of the High Clans were embraced by the second generation before the other low blooded. Some continue to say that they ruled for centuries in the perfect second city, before they were joined by the lesser siblings. They also say that the high blooded were blessed by Cain himself, because he sanctioned only there ancestor’s embraces. Or there primogenitor simply stood out as superior to the Third Mortal. Some continue to say that it was the low blooded and their brood who turned against there elders and destroyed the second city, drawing Cain’s curse down upon us all.

Brujah


The founder of Brujah was a man named Troile, who the Third Mortal valued for his cold wisdom. Over the years Trolie became increasingly detached from his childer and the mortals of the First City, until he had lost all emotions and care. He experimented on the Danmed and the living, harming and killing others on whim. A childer of Trolie's whose original name has been forgotten dreamed of Canites and humans someday reaching an understanding. Trolie dissmissed his Childe's request that he behave less ruthlessly, and in a fit of rage his Childe attacked him. Unable to stop once he had tasted his sire's blood,the Childe committed the first Amarath. Caine was displeased that he had drunk another's soul, and cursed him (and his progeny) to aspire to Troile's wisdom but be subject to rage that lead to the act.

So the Childe took the name Troile and his place among the third generation. The second Troile too, is the founder of the Brujah. His progeny carry his passion. With Able's murder the world went wrong, and it is the Brujah's cause to see the horror that it has become corrected. For this, they are warriors of daunting conviction. Each Brujah has his or her own vision of what the world should be, and they strive to make this reality through argument, manipulation, and force of arms.

In Carthage Troile and his Childer tried to establish his dream: Cainites and Mortals living together for mutual benefit. When Troile saw the Brujah fall prey to his mistake of anger he left and has not been seen since. Carthage lost the ideal to the point that even the demon worshiping Baali were welcomed within its walls. Finally, the other clans acted under the guidance of Roman Ventrue to end what had become an abomination. The failure of their great experiment makes the Brujah's blood boil even hotter. The world is falling further from what it should be, and the clan grows more divided on what must be done to make it right, or what right is. Many younger Brujah no longer heed their elders. The passion of their blood tells them to act now.

Sobriquet: Zealots

Appearance:
The Brujah choose on an ideal of fitness irrelevant to transitory notions of beauty. They tend to be more striking and powerful then beautiful. As philosophers they keep up with mortal culture, and are thus more likely to know current mortal fashions. Most Brujah dress neatly, perhaps an outward display of their quest for perfection.

Haven and Prey:
Brujah tend live among humanity in cities and large towns, if possible were exceptional thinkers reside. A Childer lives for years with his sire undergoing rigorous training. However in recent years young Brujah with similar beliefs have set up communal havens. Most Brujah pray on the dull, the weak, the ignorant, or those who oppose their chosen cause. Thus they serve some small purpose.

The Embrace:
Brujah look for commitment to a cause, the intelligence to comprehend that cause, and the passion to make it a reality. Most Brujah are from the upper echelons of society, though some low born show enough spirit to attract a Zealot Sire.

Character Creation:
Most Brujah are focused in mental or physical attributes. Younger Brujah are slightly more likely to be physically focused. They tend to have martial skills and knowledges, though talents might be primary for newly embraced characters. While it is not uncommon for a Brujah's demeanor to be cold or aloof their nature's tend to be passionate perhaps even aggressive.

Clan Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence

Weakness: The difficulty of a Brujah's roll to resist frenzy is always two higher than the listed number.

Common Roads: Humanity, Heaven, Kings

Organization:
With so many ideals to espouse in the Dark medieval world, the Brujah find it increasingly difficult to work together. A Sire and fledgling stay together some years in an apprentice/master relationship, until the Childe finds their own cause and sets off to peruse it. (Without necessarily being formally released.) In major cities, Brujah meet every few years for grand councils to share world views and ideals. In some cases an impressive leader wins others over to her cause, but more likely such events result in week long exercises in circular debates and conflict.

Cappadocian


Stories of desert sands, subterranean cities, and rolling plains lead many to suspect the Cappadocians originated in Anatolia or Armenia. Their progenitor is known as Cappadocius and asks only of his childer that they uphold his quest for answers to the undead state. The bloodline is as much about the philosophy as the lineage. They are fascinated with death and what remains once the soul has departed. Their flesh is more obviously dead then other Canites, though they have the most vigorous minds. Cappadocains revere knowledge and congregate at temples, libraries, and universities.

While not a highly political clan, their knowledge, wisdom, and contacts earn them the rank of High Blooded. The influential Cappadocians may advise princes, act as viziers to mortal king, or tutors to royal families. The more secluded scholars may haunt monasteries or plunder graveyards for subjects. They earned their reputation as secretive and morbid with Cappadocians who cloister themselves for decades in laboratories and havens emerging only for sustenance and subjects. To many Cappadocians this is a serious spirituality that leaves the cold, alien, and withdrawn from the mortal world pursuing mysteries unfathomable to lesser Kine and Canites.

Open for a High Clan the Capadocian span across Europe and into the south and East. There are graverobbers in Coptic monasteries in Africa and the courts of Pashas beyond the Levant. The Giovanni, a Venetian merchant family of Capadocains, is developing their own arts of Nigrimancy. The clan’s spiritual center is said to be great temple of Erciyes in Anatolia where Lady Constancia is oracle and fragments of the Book of Nod are gathered. No outsiders or neonates have seen Ercyies but there are rumors of temples more terrible and secret still. Yet Cainite history implies there should be far more Cappadocians then we see these nights. It is suspected that many are in torpor or that they have moved to the Saracen East.

Sobriquet: Graverobbers

Appearance:
The Cappadocians are afflicted with the ghastly pallor and emaciated frames of the dead. They usually tend to hide their corpselike quality, the severity of which varies. Cappadocians tend to dress in the affects of their chosen station, be it simple monks garb or the fine robes of a chamberlain.

Haven and Prey:
Cappadocians often have secluded havens to study and conduct unsettling experiments in peace. They are not exclusive about their prey, denying the emotional charge of the Kiss and seeing it as a function. Cappadocians have no reservations about draining animals and corpses, though fresh mortals are more delectable. For convince they often feed on the dregs of man.

The Embrace:
The Cappadocians are not prejudice, embracing Persians, moors and other foreigners. They choose those interested in or working with death, and talented scholars who may be guided onto such a path. Soldiers, priests, hermits, pilgrims, gravediggers, and supposed witches are embraced with little regard to birth.

Character Creation:
Mental attributes and knowledges are primary. Natures and demeanors are often contemplative, and virtues extreme by being highly developed or callously ignored. Backgrounds help Cappadocians be self-sufficient or at least well regarded.

Clan Disciplines:Auspex, Fortitude, Mortis

Weakness:
The visage of death is cold corpselike flesh which only exacerbates with age. They may never display the “flush of life.” The difficulty of ALL rolls with any social attribute is +1.

Common Roads:
There are Cappadocians on every major road, but most tend towards Heaven or Sin. The most spiritual and morbid follow the clan’s Road of Bones.

Organization:
The Cappadocians have no formal hierarchy, though most respect the priests of Erciyes. However their inquisitive natures lead them to forum scholarly fraternities, coteries in search of lost relics, or simple correspondences.

Lasombra


Devious and refined, the Clan of Shadows sees itself as the superior bloodline in a world governed by superior blood. Lasombra believe that whereas the Low Clans exists to shoulder the burden of Caine's curse, the High Clans - led by their highest clan, naturally - function as the inheritors of his majesty. They are the embodiment of Divine Right, and the absolute epitome of the Cainite existence. As a result, the Lasombra accept no other Cainites as equals, although they readily admit that each clan has its place in Cainite society. That place simply lies beneath that of the Lasombra.

From its earliest nights, Clan Lasombra has been associated with the lands around the Mediterranean Sea, the clan's founder is said to have been born and first brought into undeath so many millennia ago. Since then, his dark seed has crept outward, touching all the surrounding costal lands and isles, including Iberia, Italy, North Africa, and Byzantium.

One characteristic endemic to the Lasombra character is an insatiable appetite for power in all its myriad forms. Form the hushed quarters of cloisters to the glimmering halls of royal rule, Lasombra seek to entwine their shadowy tendrils around every realm of influence available to them. According to clan lore, however, such ambition is merely the outward manifestation of their internal struggles. The Lasombra claim that it is their curse and to exist as eternal conduits to the Abyss itself, that they might be perpetually confronted by the inner darkness of the undead form. This curse has given the Lasombra an instinctual awareness that undeath is much more than mere feral subsistence, and many seek their own mastery of this eternal conflict through a reconnection with the divine. One clan tendency feeds into another, as spiritual revelation drives many Lasombra into the arms of the Church - the greatest single source of power in the Medieval world. As such, the entire monolithic organization, from its lowliest parishioners to the papacy itself, crawls with the machinations of the clan and its numerous mortal agents.

The spread of Islam throughout the Iberian peninsula, however, as a terrible rift appear throughout the clan. During the golden age of the Cordoban Caliphate, many Muslim Lasombra claimed vast demesnes in al-Analus signally the dawn of a shadow war with entrenched Christian clan members already in residence. Even the Amici Noctis, the secretive ruling council of the clan, was split by religious differences: Just as many clan elders supported the mortal Reconquista as railed against it. The Christian faction mounted a "Shadow Reconquista" to eject their Muslim clanmates and the tide of mortal fates have turned their way in recent times.

Sobriquet: Magisters

Appearance:
Lasombra hail predominantly from Italian, Moorish, or Spanish nobles with dark or olive skin draped in only the finest garments. However, those in holly orders tend to dress in the vestments appropriate to such service.

Haven and Prey:
Many Lasombra take refuge in the manors or landed estates of their own mortal families; some masquerading as their own inheritors. This also provides convenient feeding as mortals are required to maintain such domains. Church Lasombra often feed from the the congregation, although some object to this sort of behavior and seek out sinners to punish with feeding.

The Embrace:
Lasombra typically Embrace from the most highly regarded members of society including men and woman of title or of the cloth. Innate aptitudes are valued as Lasombra feel the Cainite condition is merely a magnification of an individual's latent capabilities. Lasombra take pride in those whom they would Embrace, wooing their would-be childer for months or even years.

Character Creation:
Magisters prize Mental Attributes and Talents most, followed closely by whatever traits is required to excel at his duties. Natures vary but ambition and guile are most common. Influence and Resources are common Backgrounds especially Domain or Mentor, but rarely both. Lasombra do not appreciate being openly vassal to anyone
Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Obtenebration, Potence

Weakness:
Magisters cannot be seen in mirrors or in other reflective surfaces, such as pools of still water or quicksilver. In addition, as creatures of darkness they suffer an additional level of aggravated damage from any exposure to sunlight.

Common Roads:
The majority of the clan walks either the Road of Heaven or Kings. A dedicated few preach the clan's own puritanical Road of Night.

Organization:
The clan's organization is structured with position stemming from a factors such as age, ancestry and past accomplishments. While the Amici Noctis provides an overarching semblance of order few decisions that affect the entire clan are made in formal gatherings. Much of clan policy is established in private chambers between a single Lasombra and his visitors, liege, or prey. The Amici Noctis have the Courts of Blood, a method of jurisprudence whereby one Lasombra may petition for right to commit the Amaranth on another.

Toreador


Caine went to one his three childer and expressed his frustration with the incomprehensible kine. His childe could see how others of his generation and their progeny grew further from humanity, and promised to bring Caine an answer to his misery. The childe chose one of the greatest of artists among the humans, Arikel, to craft an expression of the mortal plight in Enoch. She unveiled a mural of stunning beauty, which brought into stark relief the relationship between God's curse upon Caine and his race's eternal problem in controlling the Beast. Enraged Caine and his childer destroyed the mural before they saw the final section showing how Arikel thought the vampires could retain something of the human soul. Caine ordered his childe to embrace the artist, and cursed her that as she distracted him so shall her attention by consumed by beauty.

Arikel passed this curse to her childer, but also the secret of controlling their Beast. Through an appreciation of beauty they continue to understand what it means to be human. Every time a Toreador sees a supremely beautiful thing, she feels a rush of passion that reawakens the emotions atrophied by death like suddenly remembering to breath. The quest for this rush destroys the weak of will, but others can use it to regain partial ownership of their damned souls. The clan continues to move amidst mortal society, courting the best artisans, artists, and scholars. Some Toreador maintain mortal families. This connection also keeps a small spark of what they were alive in their dead forms. While other Cainites are left behind by changes fashion, language and culture, the Toreador can continue to socialize with, and subtly influence, their prey.

Toredor remain vampires first and foremost, however, and the same curse that afflicted Caine afflicts them. Few can resist the chance to manipulate the people around them, setting one group of artisans or against another or competing with others of their clan in the area to see who can best cultivate their chosen part of society. Many of them argue that these manipulations give them a greater insight into the human soul, which makes these acts not only justifiable, but necessary. As they age, this tendency only worsens, and the games they play with their mortal toys become more and more extreme. Many see beauty in the patterns of destruction on the battlefields and in the suffering of those whose loved ones are killed in these petty skirmishes. After all, experiences too are part of the human existence they must not forget.

Sobriquet: Artisans

Appearance:
Toredor dress in the finest clothes, made by the best local tradesmen. The members of the clan are, on the whole, as beautiful as their clothes, although that beauty sometimes reflect the aesthetic values of a bygone age or foreign land once dear to that Cainite's sire.

Haven and Prey:
Toreador make their havens among the upper echelons of society; those who can afford to pay for art and a sizeable collection of books. Many add secure and comfortable cellars to town homes for daytime. Artisans are faddish eaters, spending a month drinking from the local whores, before devoting a couple of weeks to the family of a local lord.

The Embrace:
The Clan chooses the most beautiful and socially adept people for its fledglings. An appreciation of the fruits of humanity is a prerequisite for maintaining that humanity in death. Artisans rarely Embrace the peasantry. They often choose great scholars, scribes, artists, craftsman, and sometimes even member of the church (particularly those who were more concerned with secular affairs. )

Character Creation:
The Toreador value Social Attributes and Abilities beyond all else, with some regard for talents. Some choose Knowledges as their primary Ability group. Backgrounds such as Domain, Retainers, Herd and Resources are very common.

Clan Disciplines:
Auspex, Celerity, Presence

Weakness:
When an Artisan encounters music, a piece of art, a person, or even an idea that meets that is truly beautiful, she becomes fascinated with it and enters a reverie that may last hours. While under this rapture, the Toreador may not even defend herself, although an attack allows the player to make another Self-Control or Instinct roll.

Common Roads:
The Roads of Humanity and of Kings are the Toreador's preferred journey through the night.

Organization:
Artisans typically keep in regular contact with clanmates in their vicinity. These meetings are hardly friendly, though-they are more akin to social and intellectual battlegrounds. The most influential of these gatherings occurs in France, where the Courts of Love-once a venue for Toreador socialization-have become the ruling structure for vampiric domains.

Tzimisce


From the earliest nights, the Tzimisce have haunted the European east, laying claim to northern march and southern mountain, fertile plain and trackless forest. The koldun – the clan’s witch priests and lore-keepers – have preserved the tale of how the Elest, solitary and arcane, turned his back on the ruin his sibling’s power struggles had made of the Second city and went of his own into the world to build a dominion of his own shaping. He came to the mountainous heart of their homeland as though called, and there he settled. He laid deep roots and forged pacts of blood and kinship with the old gods of the earth, binding his line to the land in a sacred union. God-touched through their unbreakable tire to the earth, the clan both ruled and served, offering sacrifice in the blood of the men and beasts within their domain to renew the earth, and paying the price from their own strength when that was not enough. This duality and symbiosis persisted for millennia, and the Tzimisce were conquerable within heir homeland.

In these nights, the Tzimisce are beset from all sides. From the very heart of their homeland, the sorcerous Tremere have violated both Tzimsice blood and domain and have provoked the most vicious nocturnal war since the fall of Cathage, In the north and west, Germanic Ventrue have taken the opportunity to invade territories left vulnerable by the struggle with the Tremere, assaulting pagan enclaves in Livonia and Lithuania through crusade and undermining the weak-livered Kingdom of Hungary with commerce. Worse yet, within the clan, hereditary rivalries and fresh resentments sabotage any attempt at unified action. More and more of the clan’s eldest broods disintegrate amid petty struggles for power, and precious knowledge is lost with every koldun who falls.

Tsimize pride is the red-hot goad that has blinded them to their own failings, to the undeniable fact that there are forces arrayed against them that can finally drive them to their knees. Within the most stable domains of the voivodate, unlife continues in traditional fashion – elders rule their childer, their childer scheme and serve in the hopes of earning favor, and they sire offspring of their own who do the same. Among themselves, the Tzmisce still value what they always have: respect for, and submission to, their elders, concern for personal honor, adherence to the demands to the family hierarchy, and, above all else, a fierce love of and devotion to the homeland. If the Tzimisce with to survive, they must unite beneath a hand strong enough to shape them as they have sought to shape their world.

Sobriquet:
Fiends (Some koldun and more scholarly members of the clan refer to themselves as Shapers)

Appearance:
Either derived from revenant breeding stock or modified through Vicissitude, Fiends tend to be or stunningly beautiful or hideous, with very little middle ground. Adherents to the Metamorphosist change-cult twist themselves into whatever form best expresses the god within. Elders lean toward modifications that inspire awe, desire or fear.

Haven and Prey:
The Tzimisce clan claims one of the largest territories in all Europe, from Livonia nearly to the walls of Byzantium. In the pagan north some Tzimisce elders are worshipped as gods in temples with blood-cults. In the nominally Christianized south, the Fiends dwell in fortified country manses, reigning as the cruel landlords. Many Tzimisce havens are near the summits of hills a primal confluence of earth and sky in the koldun belief. Tzimisce cherish elaborate protocols of hospitality, guests to their domains are treated like princes and trespassers punished with the viciousness that earned them their reputation.

The Embrace:
Traditionally, Tzimisce are selected from the clan's revenant minions and groomed from a young age. More rarely, Tzmisce embrace a gifted “pet” or lusted-after “bride”, or a koldun suggests that the auspices are right for enlarging ''the family.'' Tzimisce sires gift their fledglings with the funeral rites believed to cement the new childe's holy bond to the earth.

Character Creation:
Mental Attributes are usually primary. Domain is the most common Background, though Mentor (sire and immediate family), Retainers (revenant underlings or Vicissitude-sculpted ghouls), Herd and Resources are also popular.

Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude

Weakness:
A Tzimisce must rest with at least two handfuls of earth from a place that was important to him in life usually either the land of his birth or the soil of his grave. Failure to do so halves his health every night until he rests amid the special soil for eight hours.

Common Roads:
Tzimisce tend to walk the Road of Kings or the aspects of Heaven, that glorify the follower. Some hardcore Tzimisce follow their own clut-like Metamorphosis. Very few are on Humanity.

Organization:
The Tzimisce hierarchy is familial, not feudal. A family is a sire and her brood, connected to many other families. Within the family, the elder receives great respect as the natural center of the household, while her childer compete murderously for acknowledgement, advancement and affection. Rival families often maintain running vendettas across the centuries governed by maddeningly complex social protocols.

Ventrue


Ventrue say their founder was the first childe of Enoch, eldest of the second generation granting them the mandate of leadership. In Gehenna, there will be war; there will be a night when swords and armies are that stand between the Damned and the saved. These are the Ventrue’s marching orders. Ventrue are the fearsome knights, noble warriors and empire-builders of Caine's get. While others may ''rule'' as priests and potentates they will beg for protection in the last battle like all others cowering behind Ventrue knights.

Ventrue identify strongly with the late Republic and early Roman Empire, looking to Julius Caesar and others as exemplars of the warrior-king ideal. In the later Empire, however the decadent Lasombra and addled Malkavians were closer to the soul of the eternal city. Some rub this in the face of by calling them Ventrue “Particians” the nobles who became an inbred privileged caste. The Long Night was not a great time for the Ventrue the get of Cain was often too isolated for empire-building. Some Venture who could not prove themselves on the battlefield became guild masters, courtiers, and the seneschals. Now, the War of Princes rages a last and they are Warlords. Elders have returned to gather armies and claim new kingdoms. The knight is Ventrue made manifest: a warrior lord bound by his honor and judged by his sword, and the clan has several orders of chivalry for the Damned. But the corruption and indolence of the past are not gone. Clan warriors clash with one another in personal vendettas or under the banner of great Ventrue factions. And still others refuse to return to the warrior's ways seeking power in commerce and intrigue instead.

The greatest Ventrue factions are the Normans who follow Mithras, Prince of London and Monarch of the Baronies of Avalon; and the Germans, under Lord Hardestadt of the Fiefs of the Black Cross. Both courts rally around powerful Methuselahs and claim whole swaths of Europe as their extended domains. Other Ventrue warlords and nocturnal dukes stake claims of their own or under the banners of other lords, including the Arpad brood of Ventrue in Hungary and the freelances who fight in Iberia under Lasombra banners. Various merchant princes who have been carefully constructing their leadership around a system of money-lending and cooperative guilds are strong as well. This new class of Ventrue still remains a strange aberration to many of the more traditional elders, but the power of the guilds is a force to be reckoned with. Mortal society is important to the Ventrue, but not nearly as important as what one gains after the Embrace. A few independents maintain influential positions within mortal political institutions and the Church. Any Ventrue with ambition, however, should be viewed with respect, for the clan is a formidable force indeed.

Sobriquet:
Warlords (some still use the less-flattering Patrician)

Appearance:
Whether merchants or princes, the Ventrue dress to their station impeccably. They endeavor to portray an impressive elegance. Ventrue commonly carry weapons.

Haven and Prey:
Ventrue are never far from centers of political power or battles. Old castles and mansions or frontier fortresses make excellent havens. Younger Warlords either serve under elders at a great court or head to outlying areas to gain power and position. Because of specific feeding habits of the Ventrue, they often choose a haven that allows them access to the specific type of prey that they require.

The Embrace:
Ventrue Embrace those who personify honor, power, and conquest. Ventrue customarily choose members of the aristocracy. Other powerful mortals such as military leaders, merchants, or Knights Templar, also make excellent candidates for the Blood. Sires often train childer for several years, forging vassals and lieutenants out of their progeny.

Character Creation:
Physical Attributes and Skills are primary in most Venture, but Social Attributes and Knowledges are also popular. Important Backgrounds include Allies and Retainers (for brothers in arms), as well as Domain and Resources (for lands that they hold).

Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence

Weakness: All Warlords only gain sustenance from the vitae of one type of mortal (priests, non-Christians, virgins, Englishmen, and so on) chosen at character creation. However, Ventrue always gain sustenance for Cainite blood.

Common Roads: There are Ventrue on every major road, but the clan identifies most strongly with the Road of Kings.

Organization:
The Ventrue believe firmly in Cainite feudalism. Oaths of loyalty (sometimes backed by blood) are common between Ventrue of differing rank. Others join chivalic orders of the Damned, some exist as a conspiracy within mortal orders. The largest one is the Order of the Black Cross, which is hidden with the Teutonic Knights.