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Giovanni History
From Cappadocius Onward
Augustus Giovanni entered the Embrace over 900 years ago in the decaying Cappadocian temple at Erciyes, under the watchful eyes of the Antediluvian, his lackey Japheth and some bitch Constancia. Augustus took the blood against the wishes of these petty yes-men, who tried to shoot down the whole thing from the start. In fact, some suspect that it was a curse whispered by Japheth that gave our Kiss its deadly effect, and not the blood of that whore Lamia.
In any event, we got the best of the deal, because we've still got our unlives to this night. Once Augustus realized that Cappadocius had lost his mind (Jesus Christ, the guy wanted to become God - I say we did the world a favor, you know?), he discussed with his childe Claudius what must be done. Cappadocius had to die, as the world faced serious repercussions if he were to complete his quest.
One night the shit came down, and Augustus knew he could wait no longer. I'm sure you've heard of the Founders - those self-important douche-bags who established the Camarilla. Anyway, the Founders came into conflict with some group of crackpots known as the Conspiracy of Isaac. As it turns out, Augustus had arranged for Claudius and the conspiracy to be foils for the Founders -while they were preoccupied with shutting down the conspiracy, Augustus could slip in and slaughter Cappadocius, and no one would be any wiser until after it was too late.
Long Story short, it didn't work out that way. Augustus shows up at St. Timothy's, and who's there? The fucking Camarilla Founders, and they're very upset at this vulgar display of treachery. (I can just imagine that he's somebody's mother.) Not that their presence stopped Augustus from drinking Cappadocius, it just complicated matters, and make things a bit difficult for us Giovanni afterward.
The Curse of Lamia
Through they've vanished from the world (the last one got waxed by the Camarilla, of all things), the Lamia have left their mark on the Kindred. Originally a bloodline of Cappadocian watchdogs, the Lamia followed their Graverobber parents into oblivion when we took up the crusade against them.
In a grand gesture of defiance, Augustus Giovanni himself diablerized Lamia, though it seems they had the last laugh. You see, the Lamia, as a bloodline, was the vampire equivalent of the Typhoid Mary; their inherent weakness was that they spread disease wherever they the teachings of the mother Lilith (though if you believe in that kind of crap, I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona that you should take off my hands, cheap!), but part of it involved bestowing a blood based, agonizing Kiss.
That Kiss of Death stuck with Augustus after he slaked his thirst with the "hereditary" leader of the bloodeline Lamia. (Every one of their high priestesses was known of Lamia; if you were picked to be it, you assumed the name or something.) Ever since then, almost all Giovanni brought into the Embrace have borne the kiss, which causes excruciating pain in whomever we feed upon.
Some of the more eschatological Kindred (most of whom are outside the Giovanni clan, mind you) believe that it was Japheth Cappadocius' curse which caused the Kiss of Death, but that's fairly disputable. After all if that was the case, wouldn't it have manifested when the curse was placed?
Almost immediately after Crappadocius got the Big Bite, the world entered the phase of history called the Renaissance, and I can't help but feel that we're partially responsible. In school, they only ever teach you about those
did Medici pussies, but believe me, there were other merchant families involved.
The Endless Night
Maybe it was the little bit of Cappadocius' soul still fluttering around in Augustus', but long about the Renaissance, the big chief started getting these weird ideas. He dug up a bunch of dusty old Cappadocian literature related to the defunct Death Clan's "ascension into Heaven" bullshit, and immersed himself in it. After studying for a few years, he decided that all those Cappadocians had been entirely wrong.
You couldn't bring Earth to Heaven, but you could sure drag it to Hell.
You see, a lot of this old Babylonian, Gnostic and Egyptian lore talks about the "other world" and the "home of the spirit" and "life beyond life". It's plain to see that they're not talking about Heaven (though I guess the Cappadocians were a little deluded and I can't fault them for being ignorant); they're talking about the Underworld. When Crappadocius thought he could diablerize God, he was taking literally what was supposed to be a metaphor.
These documents also talk about "invoking the great darkness" and "putting out the light eternal". The way Augustus read it, these ancient writings could teach him to peel back the Shroud, the layer of disbelief that separates our world from the land of the dead. Once this is accomplished, those who hold dominion over the ghosts who wander the dead world (i.e., us Giovanni) will be masters of it. You see, Cappadocius thought he would become God, but the way it really works, he would have become as a god among ghosts and men.
Determined not to make the same mistakes that Cappadocius did, however, Augustus never forced any Giovanni to undertake the quest. They way he sees it (just like the rest of us), the more success the clan and family garner, the closer they are to achieving any objective they wish. It's kind of a long cause and effect string: We make money to fund our studies of Necromancy to harvest the power of souls to open the "Portal of Night Everlasting" (or whatever) to bring the Endless Night upon the world. Simple right?
In truth, though, it's a little trickier. You can't just wake up one night and decide "tonight's the night I'm going to wreck the Shroud." Digging deeper into the growing assortment of philosophical necromantic literature, Augustus and company discovered that rending the Shroud would require a
fuck load of spiritual energy - more than any Giovanni had any access to. I don't know what kind of math they used, but apparently the document (which turned out to be part of the Khazar's Diary, but I'll talk about that later) stated that "ten thousand ten thousand souls" were required to perform the ritual successfully. Yes, that's a hundred million souls. And exactly how does one go about harvesting the ghosts of 100,000,000 dead people? Very slowly, and with the patience of only immortality can give you.
Taken from
Clan book Giovanni 2nd Edition: Sins of the Father |
