Clan History

Most of us accept what follows as the most valid history we know, but are willing to accept that our own myths and legends may be nothing more than well-constructed lies. Still, until we hear otherwise, these are facts we will espouse. After all, these are the facts that make is feel good.

The First Nights

He sat at Caine's side as Caine oversaw the growth of the paradise known as the First City. Originally a place of mud houses and open fires, it grew into a monument to all that the Kindred can accomplish. Without the benefit of modern machinery, the First City soon boasted marble towers spiring to the heavens. Caine's own palace shone with gold, and the beauty of his main courtyard has never been paralleled.

The finest craftspersons of that ancient age created artworks the likes of which this planet has never again seen - simple but glorious, reflecting the unchecked promise and hope of that time. Caine himself turned the garden into a crowning masterpiece, using both magic and skill to evoke his own vision of penultimate beauty. To walk in the garden was to walk in paradise.

Still our sire realized that all was not as it should be. After Caine's childer began siring the rest of the Third Generation, Ventrue saw lines of worry begin to crease Caine's unchanging face. Our founder beseeched Caine to speak of his fears, but at first Caine would not respond. Then the first Immortal spoke as though entranced. There, sitting amid the towering monuments of the First City, Caine revealed his dream of the future, wherein horror and catastrophe beset the world. Floods and earthquakes, volcanoes and disease would all strike.

Ventrue found it impossible to believe these stories, but Caine continued. His own childer would survive, but the mortals would be devastated by the destruction. Then they would seek someone to blame, and the childer of Seth would hunt the childer of Caine, using powers of fire and faith to drive us from our havens and destroy us one by one until all the immortals were no more.

Then Caine fell silent, and Ventrue sat stunned until he gathered the courage to ask his question. Then he hesitatingly asked his grandsire that which we all fear - "Is this future engraved in stone, unchanging and unchangeable?"

Caine looked out over everything he had created and quietly replied, "I do not know."

Sharing Caine's view of the gleaming vista that was Enoch, our clan founder could not believe that such a horror could occur. All his existence he had known nothing but peace and prosperity in a land where mortal and immortal lived without conflict. Had such words been spoken by anyone but Caine himself, our ancestor Venture would have dismissed them out of hand. Spoken by the Father of All, however, they tore at his soul, and he wished he could claw his ears from his head rather than hear of such horror.

Caine continued. He told our ancestor that we were not the only supernatural beings on this planet. He spoke of the beastmen and the dead, sorcerers and fey - beings with whom the undead would wage terrible, eternal war. And waiting in the shadows beyond these beings are far more powerful masters, and these masters cannot coexist. For all their power, these masters are afraid - afraid of each other and of those forces that even the masters cannot comprehend.

These masters see the undead as threats, for we were capable of surviving outside of their wars. We could work with humans as none of them could. Where the beastmen could only subjugate humanity, where the sorcerers must always live apart from their fellows, where the dead and faeries could be nothing but alien beings, we were as much a part of the mortals' world as were the sun and the moon.

When Ventrue was again alone, he could do nothing but ponder these words. When his beautiful lovers came to him, he sent them away. When the artisans who decorated his palace sought to show him their latest works, he ordered them out of his presence. Alone he sat, spending night after night in contemplation of Caine's words.

Finally after three weeks and two nights, he left his palace with a new determination. From that night one he would do everything in his power to keep this tragedy from occurring. Should it occur despite his best efforts, he would see to it that one night mortal and immortal threw off the shackles of the masters and freed themselves for all eternity.

The Jyhad

Of course, one cannot say that our clan founder did not contribute in some way to the devastation, which destroyed the First City. He began to gather those tools that might help him combat the masters, and the other Antediluvians took note. Venture's magnificent palace, once a museum for the most beautiful art, a building where every inch had been meticulously constructed in as awe-inspiring a style as possible, became a fortress. Here Ventrue gathered items of power, both natural and artificial.

Such relics as the Tapestry of Blood, the head of Medusa, the claws of Fenris, the Faerie Bridge and Oromazus' Mist littered the palace. To safeguard them, Ventrue used his awesome ingenuity to design an underground sanctum that no creature could penetrate. All this the Kindred saw, and they worried.

One night, when the moon filled the sky with silver, four of Ventrue's brethren approached the palace.

"Venture," cried out she who is now called Brujah, "why have you taken those items that should belong to us all and hidden them away?"

"My dear sister," Ventrue replied, "I but protect them from those who would steal them from us all. When the time has come, we shall use these tools to recreate the world."

"Ventrue," cried out he who is called Set, "you should share those items with all of us so that we might use them as we will."

"My dear brother," Ventrue replied, "if I did so, they would be wasted and lost, and when we need them we shall not have them. When the time has come, we shall use all these tools to recreate the world."

"Ventrue," cried out he who is now called Tzimisce, "you spend all your time alone or with Caine. Are you trying to turn our Grandsire against us?"

Now our sire saw the true motive behind their visit. Jealousy had begun to fester in their hearts, and Ventrue saw it as a sign that the masters had begun to work their evil magic. Maybe if Ventrue had lowered himself then, begging and pleading with the four, he could have averted the holocaust to come. But he was Ventrue, first among the Third Generation, and debase himself to his younger brothers and sisters he would not do.

"My dear brother," Ventrue replied, "I do what I do for the good of us all. When the time has come, we shall all use these tools to recreate the world."

He turned to the one who is now called Nosferatu, expecting the questions to continue, but Nosferatu merely smiled. Then the four departed, though Ventrue knew things could never again be as they had been. From that night on Ventrue prepared himself for war with his own kind, all the while hoping they would become his allies once again but knowing that this meeting had hastened the end.

The Deluge

Mighty Caine looked at Ventrue and, for the first time in ages smiled. We may never know the exact words the First Immortal spoke unto our ancestor, but we do know that when Ventrue returned to his Kindred, he was the only one prepared to direct the rebuilding that was required. He supervised all the Kindred, even his own sire, during the creation of Second City, and even though he knew that it would fall some night, he devoted all his energies to it.

Here he hid the mightiest artifacts that he had rescued from the First City. Here he buried a clay pot filled with the Vitae of Caine. Even when the city fell, and Ventrue was forced to flee, he knew these treasures would be safe, ready to be used by all the Kindred when the time is right. Some say this is why the Nosferatu delve beneath the earth - they still seek these relics of antiquity.

The Vast Migration

Vampires visited all ancient races of humanity, but some civilizations benefited from exceptional levels of Cainite involvement in their affairs. These included such lands as the Island Empire of Crete, the lands of Assyria, the cities of Sumer and, of course, the kingdoms of Egypt. During the earliest nights we Ventrue were active in all these lands, but not in the same leadership roles we fill today.

In those years we allowed other Kindred to take the vanguard while we followed a more reserved approach. Like the early Christians, we believed that the day of reckoning was near. Caine would return to lead us in battle against the Secret Masters, and from that night and henceforth, Earth would again be a paradise. We saw our tasks to be recording and preserving, keeping Caine's dream alive until he could return to fulfill it.

Of course some Ventrue became involved in the politics of the "ancient" world. By the time of the Persian Empire, we were immersed as deeply as anyone. Not until the time of the Roman Republic, however, did we take our place at the forefront of vampiric culture.

Rome and Carthage

Collat and his sire do not appear in further myths, though a reference to a beautiful Etruscan vampire who met her death in Asia Minor does bear resemblance to Tinia. The renowned Ventrue Camilla became the leading vampire in Rome and remained the most prominent Ventrue in the world until the time of Nero.

For centuries, Camilla's main opponents in the city were mages, not other vampires. Camilla worked extremely hard to bar other clans from the city, and as the Roman Republic spread, so did our clan's influence. By the third century BC, we controlled most of Italy, and Camilla stood out as the most influential of us all.

Two centuries earlier, members of the Brujah clan had taken control of Carthage, but we had little problem with that. Over time, however, they became more and more conspicuous. While the Masquerade had yet to be created, most vampires willingly followed the First Tradition. In Carthage, however, the Brujah walked the streets as lords, and all knew their real nature. Toreador flaunted their powers regularly, and the most blatant built temples where they accepted child sacrifices while the parents looked on.

Had these depredations been limited to Carthage, they might have safely been ignored, but the Brujah became bolder with each passing year. They conquered all the land surrounding the city, enslaving the native Africans and deploying their ghouls to do battle across the Mediterranean. To culminate their crimes, they promoted the study of blood magic to such an extent that no vampire anywhere felt safe. They made pacts with our own enemies in Rome, the fabled Doer of Mercury, and delta with demons to such an extent that even tonight vampires fear to visit that corner of Tunisia. Just walking on its soil causes the most horrible fits of Rötschreck one can imagine.

Had we ignored the Brujah's atrocities, Caine alone knows what sort of backlash Carthage would have created. What unholy alliance of mortals, werewolves and mages might have risen to fight it? Of course, once done with Carthage, this alliance would have turned against all Kindred. While most Ventrue were unwilling to take action, the noble Camilla saw a new destiny for our clan.

He quietly began to gather support among those Ventrue directly threatened by Carthage. When he had enlisted their aid, he made his proposal for all vampires to hear. Stressing the danger posed by the Carthaginian vampires, he called for an alliance of clans to destroy the city. Amazingly enough, the first clan to respond was Clan Malkavian, whose members were then fighting the armies of Carthage in Sicily. Camilla sent them aid, and the war began.

For more than a century the Kindred of the Western world fought. At first the Ventrue and Malkavians stood alone against the Brujah and their myriad allies. As the years passed, however, more and more Kindred began to see what would happen should the Brujah win. As further enticement, Camilla opened first Italy and then Rome itself to other clans, and they began to flock to our side. First the Lasombra, then the Cappadocians (now called the Giovanni), and then others joined our cause.

Still, not until we had brought the Toreador to our side with a show of force (the conquest of Greece) and a sign of appeasement (allowing them to move to Rome) did we have the strength to destroy Carthage. The Brujah fought with all the tricks and evil magics they had, and many of us met the Final Death in this final conflict. The fiercest and deadliest battle occurred in the hidden, bloodstained temples where the Brujah held their sacrifices.

In these massive monuments to cruelty, Roman soldiers, their ghoul leaders and Ventrue masters fought the Brujah room by room, inch by inch. Even the artwork the Brujah had forced their mortal subjects to create for them became weapons, and more than one Ventrue was slain after being trapped beneath golden statues. With their last blood the Brujah cursed the city, saying that from that night on whoever ruled Carthage would meet a bloody end. In response (and to make sure that all devil worshipping Brujah were destroyed), we set fire to the city and watched it burn for 17 nights. Then, with the aid of our own sorcerous allies, we salted the earth, ensuring that the Kindred in torpor there would never rise again.

A New Course

Camilla had unwittingly furthered this process by allowing an influx of Kindred into Rome as their reward for fighting Carthage. Not only was it unwise for us to let other vampires act without guidance, but having so many of them in thee heart of our own territory made it impossible. We had to interact with them on a nightly basis, that being so, the only safe course was to become their leaders. We would take on the role that Caine's slanders said he had rejected. We would become our brother's keepers.

Camilla, as Prince of Rome, found himself plunged into the midst of this torrent. As the most prominent member of our clan, he enlisted the Ventrue in the business of enforcing the First Tradition. Despite what other vampires have said, Camilla's efforts involved no coercion. Indeed, during this period the Ventrue clan was as democratic an institution as Kindred society has ever seen.

Each Ventrue recognized as having influence over a significant number of mortals had as much say as any other such Ventrue. Thus, the leader of a cult in the lands of Palestine had as much say as Camilla himself. Our clan would occasionally meet, usually in Rome, in gatherings that became the precursors of the Camarilla's Conclaves. All Ventrue in attendance could vote, and together they determined what course the clan, as a whole would pursue.

This system worked best during its first nights, but problems soon arose. Much to our clan's discredit, we split into factions, and soon these meetings became forums for us to voice disagreements rather than to enact policy. Meanwhile, the other clans were turning their eyes to that which we had built in Rome.

As we argued back and forth, spending our nights in endless debate, more and more Kindred flocked to Rome. And more and more Kindred took the opportunity to manipulate the local leaders. When the land under our control became too unwieldy, and the majority of Ventrue agreed to support an emperor, the other clans (and many mortals) fought this change with every weapon at their disposal. Our first candidate met a public and bloody death, and several more years of war were waged before we could steer Rome back on course.

Camilla had hoped that the change of government would limit the amount of influence the other clans exerted in the Roman Senate, but he discovered that everyone involved in those manipulations shifted their attention to the emperor himself. Soon the emperors were being pulled in so many directions that none of us knew what they were going to do next.

The Church

Other Ventrue did not see the Christianity as an opportunity. These vampires gradated toward the eastern half of the Roman Empire, where Christianity played much the same role religion did during the pagan times. These Ventrue included many of the eldest, wisest, and most powerful members of our clan. This not only weakened the Western Empire, contributing to its collapse in AD 476, but hindered our efforts to control the Church.

Despite the fact that we never obtained the level of control we desired, the Church began to fulfill a number of our goals. It allowed us to influence, and in many cases, control people of different nationalities. Where before we needed empires to influence large numbers of people, the Christian ideology allowed us to shape then across borders. Christianity's promise of heaven often allowed the kine to shoulder the temporal restrictions our other agents put on their lives. Finally, it gave us another weapon to use against our enemies and a way to check those individuals with True Faith.