Gangrel

Gangrel

**of Note**

The sign of Leo, the Lion, rules the Clan of the Beast.

Apropos of their place in the Celestial Chain, the Gangrel are another warrior clan. I find the Gangrel incredibly brave, amazingly tough, murderously powerful as individuals — and Clanbook: Setite completely ineffectual as a group. They prefer the forests and wastelands to urban unlife. Venture not into their domain, and they will probably never notice you. If you must travel far from cities, hire a Gangrel as your guide and pay him well.

The goddess Tefnut gave the Gangrel their powers. She enjoyed taking the form of a lion and wandering through desert places, until the god Thoth persuaded her to return home. The Gangrel take after her: they love to travel, and with time their appearance and mannerisms become more bestial. Most Gangrel possess shape-shifting powers somewhat similar to our own ophidian metamorphoses.

Do not let the Gangrel’s rustic ways make you doubt their intellects or potential for spiritual insight. Many Gangrel slip the Aeons’ leash and walk their own paths, scorning all creeds and mortal concerns. Strive to become the Thoth who leads the wanderer home to true wisdom.

Cappadocian/Giovanni The Clan of Death suffered a replacement from within; they now call themselves the Giovanni, after the surname of the vampire who supplanted his sire, the clan’s founder. This coup de gens took place very recently, in the 15th century CE.

The Cappadocians of my younger nights looked like animate corpses. The current Giovanni look as “alive” as any other vampire, but their bite does not cause the strange ecstasy that one enjoys from the fangs of other vampires. Instead, the Giovanni bite causes intense pain, more even than a mortal would feel from a purely mundane piercing of his flesh.

I retain the clan’s older name because the Giovanni usurpers did not entirely destroy the older clan. The Giovanni devoured all the Cappadocians within Europe, North Africa and the Levant, but I believe the older lineages endure in more remote countries.

For instance, a colony of Cappadocians who call themselves “Samedi” thrives in the Caribbean region of the New World. I have no reliable reports of Cappadocian vampires in further Africa and India. If you should meet any, kindly let me know.

Anubis granted the Clan of Death their powers, and the sign of Virgo holds dominion over them. The Giovanni partake of both natures in full measure. Anubis granted the Cappadocians and Giovanni a remarkable power over the spirits and bodies of the dead. Apropos of Virgo, the Cappadocians were thoughtful but stolid and conservative; the Giovanni show the sign’s affinity with money and social position.

Many Cappadocians shared our clan’s search for enlightenment and spiritual power, although they quested in different directions. They taught us much about the realms of the dead.

After taking counsel with great Set, their founder Cappadocius vowed to usurp the Creator himself. We do not enjoy such cordial relations with the Giovanni. Their lust for a “respectable” facade tightly binds the Giovanni to the laws of the Aeons. Their ambitions and especially their avarice, however, make Giovanni vampires fairly easy to subvert. Thus you shall bring their necromantic powers to our Lord’s service after all.