a zhugan he must first master the form At least one

a zhugan, he must first master the & form. At least one

them. As Sascha says, it was a way to prove that a future candidate was master of his Beast, proof against the Old World Tzimisce’s accusation that the New World elders were appointing another rabid dog to the post.

Adopting a Path requires the will and rigor to oppose your baser urges. It is, therefore, a rare act for a Cainite.

Then, as now, most Tzimisce want a Voivode who is disciplined.. . . ..and obscure. In the Final Nights, most Tzimisce regard their Voivode like lapsed Catholics might regard the Pope - they get furious if they hear him insulted, but they don’t exactly agree that he’s infallible. The currentvoivode may be the last. Her name is little known within the clan, almost unheard of within the larger sect. Her voice does not carry beyond Mexico City. And she is ignorant of koldunism. If the Ancient still exists, it is surely dissatisfied.

No doubt this news distresses you. At least thezhupam still exist - they bear the duties once expected of our titular leader, maybe because their status is earned rather than ordained. These are the wisest (not necessarily oldest) members of the clan - in the Final Nights, they remain the most conversant in the lore of the Tzimisce.

Their knowledge, as well as their prowess in battle, proves they deserve their titlebefore a Fiend can be considered a zhugan, he must first master the & form. At least one of the ancient ways still endures, Methuselah.

Some Tzimisce still claim the title of voivode, though the ritual of formal recognition no longer exists. These voivodes, not to be confused with the Voivode of the entire clan, appoint themselves and enforce their claims as best they can. They fulfill an obsolete function that was the heart of the Tzimisce feudal ideal - oversight of a demesne, or domain.

Most Tzimisce who claim the title enforce domain over a particular stock of mortals, usually a neighborhood or small city. The voivode of Athens, Georgia (surely a laughable title to the Old World Fiends) claimed domain as the only Cainite who makes his haven in that town after the siege of Atlanta. The voivode of Miami can enforce his claim only in Little Havana.

FACTIONS AMONG FIFNDS Not every childe ofTzimisce aligns himself with some faction, the Sabbat included. Aside from dozens of packs, Metamorphosist schools and Gehenna cults, the Tzimisce have also organized themselves into several large factions within our clan.

THE OLD CLAN Does this branch of the clan cling to the oldest ways of the Tzimisce, or are they something akin to puritan radicals? Accounts conflict, but at some point in the ancient past, a segment of the clan either refused or denounced the “defilement” of Vicissitude. Some memCHAPKRTWO: EGO AND EVOLUIION bers of the Old Clan are exceedingly ancient - perhaps they know some lore of which the rest of the clan is ignorant. Scholars have contrived all manner of unlikely theories to explain why these “Old World” or “Old Clan”

Tzimisce reject the fleshcrafting arts, but the Fiends in question aren’t talking. In fact, they’d prefer never to talk to their clan at all, but holding their noses and joining the Sabbat seems preferable to fending off the fangs of our hungry cousins.

As the name applied to their branch of the clan implies, many of the Old Clan Tzimisce maintain demesnes in Eastern Europe and continue to manage their holdings in the medieval fashion (if less openly). The Cardinals of the Land Beyond the Forest hesitate to make many demands on this uneasy relationship, but the Sabbat can rely on occasional assistance from the Old Clan, particularly in Romania - that is what the world now calls your homeland, old one.

Old Clan Tzimisce have mastered Caine’s gift of mental domination in place of Vicissitude. They consider themselves to be the clan’s aristocracy, a family that still conducts its affairs in the ancient Tzimisce way. Their witchesstillknow the most obscure waysofkoldunism. The Old Clan still practices the ceremonies of coronation and rites-of-passage for childer. The rim are abhorrent to them. Perhaps you would find more identifiable company among their ranks, old one.

CHILDRFNOFTHFDRACON The Children of the Dracon trace their roots to Constantinople, though Noddist scholars disagree on whether this history is genuine or was later co-opted to lend credence to the group. Members of the Children, also called “Dracons,” claim to be descendants of the first childe of Tzimisce.

This knightly order of Fiends exists so that Clan Tzimisce may atone for its sins. Dracon’s Children believe that the clan as a whole committed some grievous error at acritical point in its history. The Dracons reject Koldunic Sorcery - maybe Kupala’s Night was the error in question. If so, why did they join the Sabbat? Perhaps because their founder instructed them not to abandon their clan.

Instead, they now oppose almost every decision made by the clan Voivode or enacted by several influential elders, seemingly for the sole purpose of being contrary, but this seems unlikely. They voice this opposition through their continued involvement in the Sabbat. The Children of the Dracon produce legions of templars and claim a few European bishoprics. They are excluded from the Black Hand, however, and no Dracon has ever served as the Voivd of Clan Tzimisce.

The rather arbitrary opposition to any policy endorsed by the clan troubles many Tzimisce because the Children’s motivations are not entirely clear. One rather ancient Metamorphosist suggests that evolution is a response to a threat -perhaps the Children spur the entire clan’s advancement by providing the requisite resistance.

Another popular theory is that this perpetual opposition is apunishment for the clan’s great mistake. SaschaVykos, a former resident of Constantinople, will tell me only that “Dracon is dead to me. His so-called Children make a mockery of their purloined heritage.”

The Children of the Dracon organize themselves much like a monastic order, with “scions” establishing monasteries made up primarily of their own broods. The monasteries coordinate their activities through the Hagia Sophia, a Dracon Vatican of sorts somewhere around the Mediterranean. The scholarly wing of this order, the Akoimetai, is drawn almost exclusively from a branch of the Obertus revenant family, though this family produces some knights as well. Tzimisce not descended from a scion are rarely allowed to join, and even those who do are referred to as “carrion” and never granted full understanding of the meaning of the 12 legacies that this sect-within-a-sect abides. Children of the Dracon also tolerate the existence of thin-blooded Cainites within their ranks, a trend that disgusts conservative elements within the clan.

Before the Embrace, the Children leave the monastery to studythe“12 legacies”-preceptsoftheorder-withvarious enclaves across the globe. Then, they return to their monastery of origin to be Embraced. If the initiate is an Akoimetai, he is entrusted with one volume from the Library of the Forgotten. If a knight, he is charged to carry a letter in an envelope he is forbidden to open, sealed with the mark of Dracon himself, to some other Fiend elsewhere in the world. confirmed in the order, the new Child of the Drawn departs to establish himself within Sabbat society.

In the modem nights, the haven of the scion is the “monastery” for any given cell, and no one but the scion and perhaps a member of the Akoimetai makes their permanent haven there. The Children prefer that their ranks remain involved with the sect rather than cloistering themselves. Some Dracons aspire to follow the Path of Metamorphosis or the Path of Honorable Accord, though elder members and a few young prodigies claim to follow a different Path unknown to the Sabbat at large. The Akoimetai observe a variety of ignoblk ria, but most Children refuse to take part in any rim they believe to be derived from koldunic practices.

Prominent Children are sometimes granted unique titles and serve specific functions within the order. Some educated Tzimisce may recognize the titles Keeper of the Faith and the Gesudian, though more obscure titles exist as well. My own knowledge fails here, as well; I have no idea what duties or benefits the Keeper of the Faith or the Gesudian perform or enjoy.

CLANBOOK: TZIMISCE THE ROMANIAN LEGACY FOUNDATION You may recognize some of the names on this foundations’ board of trustees: Bratovitch, Obertus, Grimaldi, Zantosa. The last you know, though you might not immediately recognize it-a corruptionof the name Szantovich.

These names represent the four remaining revenant families of any size. During your slumber, they came to serve the Sabbat. I will explain this later. For now, it is enough to know that our clan still draws many neonates from the ranks of these four families.

The Romanian Legacy Foundation is composed of Cainites who sprang from our revenant houses. Although the board of trustees is composed of proven ancillae, the foundation is made up mostly of young Tzimisce. Those who still draw childer from the revenant houses rarely welcome their chosen to undeath with ashovel in the face.

The Romanian Legacy Foundation gives these new children amore cultured introduction toundeath. Foundation members from all over the world fly to cities like Boston, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam or Oradea for “conventions.”

These conventions are actually rites of welcome for these Cainites-to-be.

Fifty or so members meet at the haven of the host, or at a revenant estate, and engage in the bloodiest of Sabbat bacchanalia. Mortals hang from the ceiling, dripping blood into enormous urns that are later overturned at the tops of stairways, the host’s demonstration that blood is available in abundance. The blood is usually consumed before the stroke of midnight. Relatives who haven’t seen each other since the last convention share the Vaulderie.

No entertainment is excluded, if it strikes the host’s fancy.

Even if no revenants are inducted through the foundation one year, various members host at least two or three such gatherings to maintain ties with the organization.

Just before morning, the new childer are Embraced while they are drunk, exhausted and, quite likely, weak from loss of blood. If they do not leave with their sires the next night, the fledglings are assigned to a sponsor, a member of the foundation who’s probably no more than a few years dead herself. Because the fledglings are of revenant blood, they probably understand quite a bit more about undeath than their once-mortal peers. If they are to be instructed by a neonate, only aformer revenant will do.

Although these sponsors can teach their students how to deal with the undead condition, they give their charges something far more valuable: an introduction to the society of the Damned. Sponsors show their charges around the city, introducing them to their fellow Tzimisce and perhaps other members of the Sabbat as well. The sponsors show their students the best areas to feed and the locations where significant rim take place. The new Cainites receive the welcome to undeath that a worthy revenant should strive to earn.

Why does this family affair require such a misleading name ?The foundation requires a degree of publicity, since another of their purposes is to locate branches of their families or of the families that supposedly vanished or no longer serve the Tzimisce. The name is for the sake of America’s tax collectors, to whom the foundation represents itself as a “nonprofit genealogical organization.”

Mortals who see their classified advertisements for “conventions” or find the right page in the book of the Internet can petition for membership. They must submit their family trees to be considered. The scholars affiliated with the foundation scour these submissions for any relatives to our revenant families.

Somewhere, a child bearing an Anglicized name grows with our blood coursing through her veins. Her blood may be too watery for her to be considered a revenant, or maybe not. Regardless, the Tzimisce blood within her no doubt makes her an exceptional mortal. If she is like most of the cousins located by the foundation, she is emotionally disturbed in some way, given to fits of depression or indulging in the torture of cats, perhaps.

Despite her haunted life, she could grow up to be a bold leader, a fiery priest or an ingenious scholar like many of our distant relatives. If the foundation locates her in time, she may be fit to receive the Embrace rather than die as an exceedingly old and talented mortal.

CHAPTERTWO: EGO AND EVO~U~ON The majority of revenants brought into undeath aren’t associated with the Romanian Legacy Foundation.

Still, some of our clanmates see the organization as a way to maintain our old traditions, even though our revenant aristocracy is spread so thinly across the world. Even revenants who weren’t inducted into the foundation at their creation can join, provided they survive the remedial initiation rite, about which the less said, the better.

NFOFFUDALISTS Moreasensibility thanamovement, theneofeudalistsare thm Tzimisce who seek a return to the nights when the we ruled h e as lungs ruled serfs. They often claim vast tracts of domain, sire large broods of childer and defend their possessions with a territorial f.., that would do their Ancient proud.

For neofeudalists, relying on their own resources rather than the Sabbat’s is a point of honor, especially since they find themselves at odds with their own sect as often as they do the Camarilla Some Fiendsregardneofeudalists as anachronisms.

Others see them almost like folk heroes reclaiming some lost native pride. Most archbishops, however, would prefer Lupines infating their cities to having a neofeudalist move in next door. Few survive in the F~nal Nights, and fewer still survive for very long.

FXSANGUINISTS A blood cult exists within Clan Tzimisce. Unlike most suchcults, awash inoceansofvitae, the Exsanguinists