Toward
The Renaissance — in Two Forms After the Becoming, Giovanni history once again grows quiet for a few hundred years. This was a period in which the family was simultaneously conducting two calculated risks. First, not long after the Giovanni became Kindred, the First Crusade occurred at the behest of Pope Urban II, followed by a subsequent series of other Crusades. This provided numerous opportunities for the Giovanni. I can honestly say that without the healthy dose of good-old-fashioned mortal hatred for his fellow man, the Giovanni wouldn’t be what we are tonight.
Ostensibly, the Crusades took place to turn back the tide of heathens, infidels, heretics, satans, Turks and other human detritus. Under the banner of “converting” these mongrel elements, war was waged, and furiously at that.
How did this help the Giovanni?
First, despite my modern and apologetic opinion of the whole affair, the Crusades were a holy war. The Giovanni, always devout in their unique fashion, had evolved from their Roman religion to the universal Catholicism of Western Europe. Say what you want about the practices we undertake, but we know that we’re God’s people at the end of the night. This holy war was a chance to prove our righteousness to the world and to God Himself. Much like the Jovians’ ships brought Roman troops to northern Africa, the Giovanni’s ships carried platoons of holy knights to Chapter One: A Familiar Conceit the Levant. Also, a few Giovanni fought on the front lines of the conflict itself. Cosimo Abruzzi, a ghoul who was Embraced on the field of battle, rode to Jerusalem with Baldwin of Edessa, who was crowned king. Cosimo (“the Faithful”) turned against Baldwin on that trip, knowing that Baldwin’s coronation would make Jerusalem a feudal state instead of Archbishop Daimbert of Pisa’s vision of Jerusalem as a church state. That’s an important point — regardless of some of the financial benefits the Giovanni reaped during the Crusades, their faith lay with the Church. Obviously, Archbishop Daimbert’s desires didn’t come to fruition and the Giovanni lent their support to the wrong player, but there’s no better outcome than failure for what becomes a martyred cause. Maybe your own failure (or, as in Cosimo’s case, death by burning) isn’t pragmatic for you, but it serves a great rallying point for those who believe in your cause.
Next, let’s be honest, the Giovanni made tremendous profit from the Crusades. Armies require supplies, many of which were also provided by Giovanni merchants, and also shipped on those same Giovanni vessels that carried Crusaders to the Holy Land. The Giovanni also returned fallen pilgrims to their homes… for a price… and ferried communications back and forth between the Popes and the field marshals. Even the battlefields themselves offered financial gain for Giovanni scavengers: After battles, the blood-soaked fields were often found littered with severed fingers — the aftermath of those who cut the digits from the dead in order to more easily remove the rings from their lifeless hands. When the Crusades had run their course by the late 14th century (yes, other Crusades occurred after that, but by then the Giovanni had already made a place for themselves), the already appreciable Giovanni coffers had swelled to as much as 10 to 15 times their previous value. That doesn’t mean as much now, in the modern nights with their overnight Internet millionaires, but consider the value then. If I offered to increase your wealth by an order of fucking magnitude just because the Palestinians hate the Jews, would you pass up the offer?
Finally, and most important for the time, all the Giovanni help with the Crusades made for a sympathetic ally in Rome and the Vatican. I’m not going to suggest that we had the Church under our thumb — realpolitik doesn’t work like that and besides, the few Lasombra, Ventrue and Toreador crawling through the clergy would never have allowed that to happen. Rather, the Pope gave his blessing to the Giovanni family. While our goals were different, they at least coincided on matters of faith and on the desire to keep the city-states free from unilateral feudal rule. When the three greatest wielders of political power were the rich, the aristocracy and the Church, you’re doing pretty well if you can put two in your corner.