Post by Iota on Jun 4, 2010 16:05:36 GMT -5
Thaumaturgy demands great attention to detail, and Tremere social practices mirror this. Position in the pyramid is of utmost importance at all times; proper deference to one's superiors must be maintained. The Tremere follow a highly regimented meeting schedule. Just as every Apprentice of the First Circle meets with the local Regent once a week, each Regent meets with his peers and Lord once a year. Above them, each Lord meets with her associates and Pontifex once every three years, and the Pontifices meet with their peers and their superior once every seven years. (Note: Only the given Pontifices, Lords, Regents etc. under a single superior meet. Cross-pollination is strictly forbidden.) The Council of Seven meets once a decade in Vienna, and occasionally as a result of crises at other times. However, such irregular meetings are extremely rare; the Tremere have a schedule and they like keeping to it, exactly. Variation invites chaos, chaos disrupts control, and the Tremere like having control very, very much.
Beyond these organizational meetings, the Tremere gather frequently for mystical purposes.
An entire chantry comes together for a Convocation every Tuesday, with each Convocation serving as equal parts rite and board meeting. Convocations are conducted telepathically, so as to frustrate any eavesdroppers. A city’s Tremere also host open meetings the third night of every third month; such meetings are open to outsiders, and are conducted via speech, not mindspeech. Finally, at the end of each October, the clan joins for two nights in a mystical communion. A sort of hive-mind is formed by a chant in which each Tremere takes part. Knowledge and wisdom can be exchanged (though deep probes of individual minds are impossible), and each Warlock is reminded of his place in the greater whole.
It’s more than good indoctrination policies that keep the Tremere so unified. Each neonate, at the time of her creation, drinks a chalice’s worth of the mixed blood of the Council of Seven. Grail imagery and similarities to the Sabbat Vaulderie aside, putting each new Tremere one step closer to being bound to the clan elders is simply good politics. Most neonates stay in line thereafter for fear of having the full bond enforced, while troublemakers are that much easier to Dominate or bond fully. Woe betide a Tremere who gets himself blood bound to someone outside the clan and is discovered, for by doing so he has destroyed his elders’ most effective leverage on him. If the error is uncovered, the bound Tremere can expect an unpleasant time, and the vampire he is bound to will probably be marked for death.
The Embrace: Many Tremere dabbled in occult or other scholarly pursuits in life. However, a fascination with the unknown is hardly enough to draw a Warlock’s attention; clan members seek "apprentices" with aggressive natures and clear thinking, and care little for muddle-headed New Agers or befuddled conspiracy theorists. Clan Tremere has an unspoken tradition of sexism, and most of its elders are male. Tremere ancillae have become rather more open-minded of late, though, and draw ample numbers of suitably ambitious and persistent acolytes from both sexes.
Appearance: The sorcerous Tremere are typically imposing or sinister in mien. Some favor classic suits; others prefer a slightly more antiquated look, dressing in 1940s-cut suits, Edwardian finery or the simple black turtlenecks of the Beat era. Many wear charms or amulets inscribed with cabalistic or other arcane symbols, as a sign of their learning. Although individual Warlocks may run the gamut from immaculately precise to disheveled and eccentric, the vampiric sorcerers’ eyes always gleam with hidden insight and frightening acuity.
Havens: While Warlocks may maintain their own individual havens (often complete with extensive libraries), the clan maintains a chantry in every city that harbors a strong Tremere presence. A chantry is open to any of Tremere’s bloodline and absolutely forbidden to all others. The Warlocks are infamous for their well-guarded havens; almost all boast mystical wards that even other Tremere would find difficult to circumvent.
Weaknesses: By clan law, all neonates must drink the blood of the clan’s seven elders when they are created. All Tremere are at least one step toward being blood bound to their elders, and therefore usually act with great clan loyalty--in order to avoid having such loyalty forced on them. What's more, this arrangement means that Tremere are hard-pressed to resist the will of their elders; the difficulty of any Dominate from a clan superior is one less.
Concerns: Extinction and power—-those are the two concerns of Clan Tremere. The Warlocks never have quite recovered from the terror of their first nights as Kindred and the horrific war waged against them by the Tzimisce. Kindred too young to remember the nights in the Carpathians are fed endless stories of the battles against Tzimisce war ghouls and the nights when every hand was against them. That fear has never gone away. The Tremere are still convinced, perhaps with good reason, that their enemies still wait, and simply seek an opportunity, a moment of relaxed vigilance before striking once again. The Tzimisce are the featured players in such paranoid fantasies, but the Ventrue, the Toreador and even the escaped Gargoyles also play roles.
And what of the Salubri? Ever since Tremere’s diablerization of Saulot, his childer have been haunted by the fear of Salubri vengeance. Such fears are ludicrous, of course — the Salubri are a hated, hunted remnant, driven underground by relentless Tremere persecution and propaganda. Surely there is no way they could ever mount a threat. But the oldest of the Tremere remember the strange events that led the clan to abandon its Wallachian stronghold of Ceoris, and wonder.
The Embrace: The clan never creates new vampires in times of Jyhad. In times of peace, its members look for individuals with more eagerness to learn and native intelligence than drive or ambition, but they do not rule out these traits. The Sabbat Tremere put their fledglings through an apprenticeship similar to the Tremere.
Appearance: Most Tremere antitribu dress in the manner they did in life. The majority are not nearly as neat or conservative as the Camarilla Tremere. Long hair is especially noticeable among clan members.
Havens: Like the Tremere, they have chantries of sorts. Within the larger Sabbat temples, a separate section is set aside for the Tremere antitribu to use for research. Each clan member has his own private sanctuary. Only the Tremere antitribu of New York are known to have their own chantry in a separate building.
Weaknesses: The Sabbat Tremere’s drawback comes from a special Tremere curse. They will always be immediately recognizable as Tremere antitribu to non-Sabbat Tremere and many other practitioners of magic. This gives the Tremere a special advantage in their efforts against their hated Sabbat brothers and sisters. In all cases, the Tremere have been ordered by their superiors to either capture or destroy all of this rogue breed. Another disadvantage of the Tremere antitribu is their inability to ever gain open leadership within the Sabbat. Those caught manipulating other sect members for personal reasons are usually put to the stake.
Beyond these organizational meetings, the Tremere gather frequently for mystical purposes.
An entire chantry comes together for a Convocation every Tuesday, with each Convocation serving as equal parts rite and board meeting. Convocations are conducted telepathically, so as to frustrate any eavesdroppers. A city’s Tremere also host open meetings the third night of every third month; such meetings are open to outsiders, and are conducted via speech, not mindspeech. Finally, at the end of each October, the clan joins for two nights in a mystical communion. A sort of hive-mind is formed by a chant in which each Tremere takes part. Knowledge and wisdom can be exchanged (though deep probes of individual minds are impossible), and each Warlock is reminded of his place in the greater whole.
It’s more than good indoctrination policies that keep the Tremere so unified. Each neonate, at the time of her creation, drinks a chalice’s worth of the mixed blood of the Council of Seven. Grail imagery and similarities to the Sabbat Vaulderie aside, putting each new Tremere one step closer to being bound to the clan elders is simply good politics. Most neonates stay in line thereafter for fear of having the full bond enforced, while troublemakers are that much easier to Dominate or bond fully. Woe betide a Tremere who gets himself blood bound to someone outside the clan and is discovered, for by doing so he has destroyed his elders’ most effective leverage on him. If the error is uncovered, the bound Tremere can expect an unpleasant time, and the vampire he is bound to will probably be marked for death.
The Embrace: Many Tremere dabbled in occult or other scholarly pursuits in life. However, a fascination with the unknown is hardly enough to draw a Warlock’s attention; clan members seek "apprentices" with aggressive natures and clear thinking, and care little for muddle-headed New Agers or befuddled conspiracy theorists. Clan Tremere has an unspoken tradition of sexism, and most of its elders are male. Tremere ancillae have become rather more open-minded of late, though, and draw ample numbers of suitably ambitious and persistent acolytes from both sexes.
Appearance: The sorcerous Tremere are typically imposing or sinister in mien. Some favor classic suits; others prefer a slightly more antiquated look, dressing in 1940s-cut suits, Edwardian finery or the simple black turtlenecks of the Beat era. Many wear charms or amulets inscribed with cabalistic or other arcane symbols, as a sign of their learning. Although individual Warlocks may run the gamut from immaculately precise to disheveled and eccentric, the vampiric sorcerers’ eyes always gleam with hidden insight and frightening acuity.
Havens: While Warlocks may maintain their own individual havens (often complete with extensive libraries), the clan maintains a chantry in every city that harbors a strong Tremere presence. A chantry is open to any of Tremere’s bloodline and absolutely forbidden to all others. The Warlocks are infamous for their well-guarded havens; almost all boast mystical wards that even other Tremere would find difficult to circumvent.
Weaknesses: By clan law, all neonates must drink the blood of the clan’s seven elders when they are created. All Tremere are at least one step toward being blood bound to their elders, and therefore usually act with great clan loyalty--in order to avoid having such loyalty forced on them. What's more, this arrangement means that Tremere are hard-pressed to resist the will of their elders; the difficulty of any Dominate from a clan superior is one less.
Concerns: Extinction and power—-those are the two concerns of Clan Tremere. The Warlocks never have quite recovered from the terror of their first nights as Kindred and the horrific war waged against them by the Tzimisce. Kindred too young to remember the nights in the Carpathians are fed endless stories of the battles against Tzimisce war ghouls and the nights when every hand was against them. That fear has never gone away. The Tremere are still convinced, perhaps with good reason, that their enemies still wait, and simply seek an opportunity, a moment of relaxed vigilance before striking once again. The Tzimisce are the featured players in such paranoid fantasies, but the Ventrue, the Toreador and even the escaped Gargoyles also play roles.
And what of the Salubri? Ever since Tremere’s diablerization of Saulot, his childer have been haunted by the fear of Salubri vengeance. Such fears are ludicrous, of course — the Salubri are a hated, hunted remnant, driven underground by relentless Tremere persecution and propaganda. Surely there is no way they could ever mount a threat. But the oldest of the Tremere remember the strange events that led the clan to abandon its Wallachian stronghold of Ceoris, and wonder.
Antitribu
The Embrace: The clan never creates new vampires in times of Jyhad. In times of peace, its members look for individuals with more eagerness to learn and native intelligence than drive or ambition, but they do not rule out these traits. The Sabbat Tremere put their fledglings through an apprenticeship similar to the Tremere.
Appearance: Most Tremere antitribu dress in the manner they did in life. The majority are not nearly as neat or conservative as the Camarilla Tremere. Long hair is especially noticeable among clan members.
Havens: Like the Tremere, they have chantries of sorts. Within the larger Sabbat temples, a separate section is set aside for the Tremere antitribu to use for research. Each clan member has his own private sanctuary. Only the Tremere antitribu of New York are known to have their own chantry in a separate building.
Weaknesses: The Sabbat Tremere’s drawback comes from a special Tremere curse. They will always be immediately recognizable as Tremere antitribu to non-Sabbat Tremere and many other practitioners of magic. This gives the Tremere a special advantage in their efforts against their hated Sabbat brothers and sisters. In all cases, the Tremere have been ordered by their superiors to either capture or destroy all of this rogue breed. Another disadvantage of the Tremere antitribu is their inability to ever gain open leadership within the Sabbat. Those caught manipulating other sect members for personal reasons are usually put to the stake.
