The Clans of Caine

[Tami]

(The following information is from the revised Dark Ages Books, but I am presenting the Clan information from both the original core book and from the 1148 AD setting and the revised 1230 AD)

The Clans of Caine

The Embrace is both a death and a rebirth. The fledgling is ripped from the mortal coil, and her breathing days end. Matter of family, race and gender all fade before the Curse and the Blood. But just like a human child arrives in the world with the inheritance of its parentage, the Embrace conveys its own legacy. The Vampire childe literally receives his sire?s blood and takes a great deal from it. This legacy includes a propensity for certain Disciplines and certain curses passed down from the antediluvians. Clan also has a social implication just as mortal parentage does. Some clans are thought to be made for rulership, others for scholarhip, others for less savory tasks. These beliefs are the most obvious in the divide between the High Clans and the Low Clans.

(It will be noted in the thread title if a clan is a High Clan or a Low Clan)

[Tami]

The High Clans

In all societies, there are those who are destined to rule, even among the Damned. Especially among the damned, some would say, as the beast drives many Cainties to dominate, influence and enslave those around them. Over the millennia, this quest for power has taken many forms. In ancient Mesopotamia and Greece, Cainites stood as nocturnal gods and demigods, pagan monsters who exacted a price in blood for their favors. In Rome, they were emperors and senators of the night, ruling councils and holding the grandest and most depraved of orgies. In the frozen woods of the far north, vampires lurk as sprits of war and wood. In Eastern Europe, they are ancient master of in bred families both noble and villainous.

Many of the Damned have adopted a feudal system of rulership in the last few centuries, and the High Clans are those who exist in its ruling class. Cainite feudalism grew out of one of the same processes the led (and continues to lead as of 1230) to the spread of mortal feudalism: the need of rulers and ruled to establish secure personal relationships with others. The glue of the feudal structure is an oath, sworn by ruler and rules alike, that binds the two together. The ruled swear fealty to his lord or lady, providing the support of his knights during times of war and part of the bounty in times of peace. The Lord, for his part swears to take good care of his vassals, not to overtax them and to provide them with the stability and security needed to prosper. In times of instability and chaos, the personal bonds of vassalage add much-needed strength and proximity to relations. Loyalty is not to some far off emperor or council, but to a baron or duke one knows and deals with regularly.

If anything, this impetus is stronger among the Dammed. Cainites are willful, independent creatures who distrust relations with those they cannot see. Therefore, oaths of fealty (Sometimes backed by the preternatural power of the blood oath) are far more trustworthy than bonds to sect and clan. Being a Prince?s vassal is a personal bond, one undertaken between individual monsters and backed by their own willful ways. This relationship is a mutual and flexible one ? each participant must gauge his counterpart?s feelings and his own with each decision. When the various monarchs stepped from out of the shadows as the Long Night came to an end, the feudal structure gave them an excellent way to organize their broods. Creatures who had once rules as gods (like Mithras) or High priest (like Montano) became Kings.

The Role of Scions

Scions (follower of the road of Kings) have a lot to be proud of in the dark Medieval. Indeed, the current state of Cainite feudalism owes much to their teaching and to their teachers. It was Scions who promulgated the feudal system among the Damned, taking the first stirring among the mortal herds and applying it to their own condition. And it is the Scions who provide much of the feudal systems strength. Its teachers and scholars often serve as witness to various oaths between vassal and lords. They share stories of oathbreakers and others who reject the system, making sure they receive no shelter in other courts or orders. Rumors persist of Scions who take it as their duty to hunt down oathbreakers and Autarkis.

[Tami]

Myths and Convenient Fallacies

Only the very young and inexperienced can doubt that the divide between high and low is not set in stone. For on thing, secure Princes who hail from the Low Clans are scattered across Europe, including Roque of Pamplona and Etienne of Acre. Individual achievement goes before pedigree almost without exception. Elders also remember previous social orders in which a different assortment of clans ruled the night. In Rome, for example Lasombra, Venture and Malkvain held the balance of power, with the supposedly High Blooded Brujah and Tzimisce treated as foreigners and ne?er-do-wells. Those who have traveled extensively in the Levant, speak of a society of the Damned in which Assamites, Lasombra and even Nosferatu are the highest clans.

Nevertheless, with the Children of Caine, blood does indeed run true. Clan is more then convenience of Embrace, and the high blooded can (and do) point to many stories to reinforce their rule. The following are the most frequent:

* Primogeniture: the most common justification for the primacy of the high Clans is that they are descendent from the eldest of the Antediluvians. According to this belief, the progenitors of the high clans were the first clutch of the third generation to be Embraced, and they may have been the only embraces allowed or planned out of the second generation. This gives them elevated status among the damned. Beyond this basic belief, the primogeniture theory has many (and often contradictory) variations. Clan venture says that its founder was the first childe of Enoch (first of the second generation). Others say all the high clans from two of the three. Some argue that the progenitors of the high Clans were embrace centuries before those of the Low Clans and that they reign in a perfect second city before the arrival of their lesser brother and sisters. The fact that the high blooded often call themselves the ?first cursed? has much to do with the primogeniture.

* The Blessing of Caine: The next leading theory is that the high-blooded clans or their founder were somehow blessed or sanctioned by Caine himself. Some say that the Third Mortal sanctioned only their embrace, therefore, only they are his legitimate successors. Other tales say that the high-blooded progenitors distinguished themselves during their early nights (by countering the schemes of the low-blooded, according to most tales). Fervent adherents to the Roads (especially the Road of Kings and heaven) are especially attracted to this theory, which brings with it the promise of sanctification and perhaps salvation from Caine the Dark Father

* Treason in the Second City: The flip side of the previous theory, this one argues that it is the Low Clans who have been punished, more than the High Clans have been raised up. Generally this idea goes back to the destruction of the Second City. The High Clans tell stories of the low-blooded progenitors (and, usually, their ill-defined ?broods?_ murdering their parents and drawing down the Curse of Caine and his loyal grandchilder. This theory is often used in conjunction with the other two to magnify the divide between the high and low. ?Not only were we blessed,? the first say, ?but you are doubly Damned.?

[Tami]

The Low Clans

If some must lead, others must follow – or so the theory goes. To ask most of the low-blooded, their status is not a matter of following but of being different. The Low Clans are, overall, those who do not participate wholly in the feudal system. Many of their members do, if only to survive, but they do not typically rise high in its structure. The typical Ravnos or Gangrel is not a prince and may not even be a vassal. This does not mean they do not seek influence or advantage; simply they do so in other ways or in other places.

In the feudal nomenclature, the low Clans are sometimes called the fallen. This Appellation reflects the wide-held belief in Europe that the Low Clans have somehow fallen from what ever grace their high-blooded better enjoy. Often these stories go back to betrayals in the Second City, but there are other stories as well. The Nosferatu and Malkavians are almost always held up as examples of these theories because they so obviously suffer from deliberating curses in the forms of twisted miens or fractured minds. Similarities to the brujahs rage or the Cappadocian’s deathly pallor are, of course, overlooked.

In Europe, the other Low Clans are usually dismissed as foreigners and barbarians. The Gangrel are hardly foreign, but their common rejection of settled unlife make them seem so. The Ravnos have been in Europe to some degree since the time of Alexander the great, but their clan tales of life in far-off India helps brand them as outsiders. The Assamites and followers of Set tend to appear in Europe only as ambassadors or travelers, making their status dubious at best.

The Tremere are not even a clan at all, as far as most Cainites are concerned. They are a usurping bloodline that has offended the Tzimisce and stolen Salubri blood (perhaps even Saulot’s, if one believes the most scandalous tales)

The Crime of Usurpation

There was once a seventh high clan, and it still persist in some parts of the world. Clan Salubri was divided between fierce warriors and arcane mystics, and never a numerous bunch. The warrior line warred against infernal vampires called Baali in the nights before Rome, and has been reduced to a stout few. The mystics, solitary scholars and researchers lair in lone monasteries and quiet merchant houses. It’s said that they exist under a deliberating curse in which the harm they do to others is revisited upon them. Needing to subsist on the blood of the living and saddled by a raging beast (like all other cainites) this curse causes the so-called Unicorns no end of trouble – or so the theories go.

And to many young vampires, stories of the Salubri are all that remains. Over the last century, the clan has fallen in sharp decline. Its members have become even more scarce, some falling to enemies, others going into hiding. Where most major most courts and domains could once count on a clutch of salubri mystics lairing in some temple nearby – often ready to serve as advisors, power-brokers and oracles – now very few make their presence known. Now, only in Outremer are there significant numbers of them. (They are said to be even more numerous in Saracen lands, but the stories of those lands are fanciful tot eh extreme.)

The cause of such a precipitous fall is unclear. Some great tragedy seems to have befallen Saulot, the Salubri Progenitor, around 1130 or so. Some elders gifted in the discipline of Auspex report having experienced terrible visions of blood and ash involving Saulot at the time. Others report seeing a great eye close forever in their fevered daytime sleep. Just who might have destroyed or wounded Saulot is another question without a solid answer, but the leading candidate is the Usurper Tremere. Indeed these warlocks-cum-vampire were once but a troublesome minor bloodline tied to the Tzimsce. In the last century, they have grown in power by leaps and bounds, holding back their enemies and seemingly forging a form of blood magic (called Thaumaturgy) that is superior to any other vampire sorcery used since the Second City. The elders of the High Clan associate such power with the blood of the third generation, and accusations that the tremere stole Saulot’s heart’s blood in some ritual are growing louder. (The Cappadocian oracle Constancia is a major proponent of this view) The fact that the Tremere once spread rumors about the Salubri being infernalist – which many prince’s found hard to believe –only adds to the suspicions.

[Tami]

Bloodlines and Offshoots

The Blood of Caine is not always as static as some would have it. While most childer do indeed inherit much from their sires, the Curse manifests itself differently in each individual. In Some cases, a qualitative change occurs in one childe and the passes on to that vampire’s own progeny (Such an offshoot is usually called a “bloodline”) It’s a common belief that this mutability is a sign of inferior blood, that it is only the Low Clans who spawn strange offshoots. Nobility runs true, it is said, while villainy is ever-mutable.

Princes and courtiers can site much anecdotal evidence to support this view. The leprous Nosferatu and the Charlatans of Clan Ravnos. For example, are widely recognized to group into familial broods who share characteristics. The Gangrel – hardly a clan at all according to some – are believed to have spawned dozens of twisted offshoots in pagan lands from Ireland to Scandinavia to Russia. The Tremere usurpers are not a clan at all according to most, but a creation of poorly misunderstood magics. Even the Saracen Assamites, who present themselves as nobles of their heathen lands, are rumored to be nothing but an aggregate of several bloodlines.

As with most “common knowledge”, however, eh claims of the High Clans are somewhat specious. Indeed, stories of offshoot of clan Ventrue and Brujah are rife from the time of the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, and clan Cappadocian quietly maintains clutches of offshoots of its own,

Significant Bloodlines

The total numbers of vampire bloodlines is, in all likelihood, unknowable. Indeed the term is so loose that it could refer to almost any inherited variation from the clan norm. the Following, however, have displayed unique gifts that make them worth mentioning.

• Baali: Once the scourge of the Holy Land, the Baali are debased vampires who serve various demons and hell-beast. They lurk in Europe as well, where they have learned to hide among the living and unloving as well

• Laibon: said to hail from the lands of Prester John, the dark skinned Laibon appear only very rarely as travelers in Europe. They are said to know the secrets of Golconda, but no proof of these claims has ever been forthcoming. They are more common in Saracen lands.

• Lamia: the prietess and temple guardians of ancient Cappadocians, the Lamia are among those who put the lie to the belief that only low Clans spawn bloodlines. The Lamia worship Lilith and have a reputation as fierce warriors.

• Lhiannon: thought to be an offshoot of the Gangrel, these so-called Druids lurk in the guise of nature goddesses and priestess in pagan lands. They are highly territorial and said to be targets of local churchman and Cainites alike.

• Gargoyles: strange thaumaturgic constructs of the usurper Tremere, the Gargoyles are made rather than Embraced. Nosferatu, Gangrel and Tzimisce are said to perish in Tremere lanes to provide raw material for the making of these slave warriors.