Tremere

WHO ARE THE MINISTRY?

The Broken Clan | Usurpers | Thaumaturges | Warlocks | Hemetics

A Hermetic mage in eighth century Romania, Tremere was the leader of cabal of magick users rightfully feared for their obsession with knowledge and power. Able to prolong his life unnaturally for centuries, his powers eventually lessened and his grip on youth became shaky. Unable or unwilling to accept his own mortality, Tremere cast his eyes on the hallowed secret of immortality. In his greed, the mage instigated the most terrifying magickal experiments ever conducted, damning himself and his followers to a hell of their own making. Thousands of mortals were murdered and hundreds of Kindred vivisected and drained in ritual circles before Tremere and his cultists thought they had found the elixir of life. How surprised they were to have discovered the curse of Caine. Terrified, they died and woke again to an eternity of unlife and hunger, cut off from their craft. In a mockery of their former magickal rituals, now only fresh blood allows the Tremere to cast their thaumaturgic spells to twist reality.

After the Second Inquisition destroyed the Prime Chantry in Vienna, the Tremere fell from gray eminences to personae non gratae in many regions. The arrogance of the Pyramid had made the Usurpers few friends. But the need for sorcery has not disappeared; if anything, it grows as the cursed Blood shifts in the veins of the Kindred.

Without the Pyramid ordering them into rank and value, the warlocks find themselves competing with their fellow Kindred and, increasingly, with each other for anything that might allow them to regain some of their former power. A clan-wide chase for artifacts and grimoires belonging to their ashen ancestors rival the social intrigues in ugliness, and the alliance with the Camarilla is an oft-used weapon between the houses of Clan Tremere. Meanwhile, the term “mercenary magus” is becoming increasingly widespread, as warlocks who were formerly Bound by the will of their masters find themselves free to serve for whatever price they choose.

Tremere serve in three ways: the Warlocks serve the other clans with occult expertise, they serve the Camarilla with Blood Sorcery, and they serve themselves with their missions to grasp power. Though more Tremere ascend to praxis these nights than ever before, they still claim fewer thrones worldwide than Clan Nosferatu. In truth, most Warlocks acknowledge that becoming the Prince is only useful if it helps them expand their knowledge. Tremere see true power as knowing the ways of shaping the world, having access to the right blood, and owning the rarest of ancient artifacts.

DISCIPLINES

Auspex: Tremere use Auspex to perceive the auras of others, search for evidence of magical essences and important objects left behind, and to communicate with each other across vast distances without fear of being overheard. When needing to feed, Auspex assists a Tremere looking for a pliable vessel, as they can discern the enthusiastic from the reluctant. Many Tremere use Auspex to determine what a mortal needs in order to be more malleable.

Blood Sorcery: Master thaumaturges, the Tremere’s expertise in blood magick makes them a valued, if mistrusted, pillar of the Camarilla. Using Blood Sorcery, they can convey devastating attacks on an opponent’s mind and body, defend themselves, and ease their feeding. Some warlocks use Thaumaturgy to sap a mortal’s blood from their veins without ever having to touch them. Dominate

Dominate: The Tremere will do almost anything for the sake of knowledge and influence, and Dominate is the Discipline that lets them g et away with it. Thievery, backstabbing, and the unjust mur der of a clan member’s ghoul are all made easier by the ability to control a mortal’s mind and body. When attempting to feed, a Tremere will show little compunction against using the Discipline to for force a mortal into baring their throat.

BANE

Once the clan was defined by a rigid hierarchy of Blood Bonds reaching from the top to the bottom of the Pyramid. But after the fall of Vienna, their Blood has recoiled and aborted all such connections. Tremere vitae can no longer Blood Bond other Kindred, though they themselves can be Bound by Kindred from other clans. A Tremere can still bind mortals and ghouls, though the corrupted vitae must be drunk an additional number of times equal to the vampire’s Bane Severity for the bond to form. Some theorize this change is the revenge of the Antediluvian devoured by Tremere, others attribute it to a simple mutation. Regardless, the clan studies their vitae intently to discover if the process can be reversed, and, indeed, determine if they would want to do so.

Clan Bane Variant

Agonizing Empathy: The curse of the Toreador is that they feel too much — sometimes literally — of the sensations around them. Especially in intimate moments such as feeding, a Diva physically suffers the agony they inflict on a mortal, damage to their dead bodies mimicking the harm inflicted on the vessel.

When a Toreador vampire feeding causes damage to a mortal, the vampire suffers similar (usually Aggravated) damage in return, though a single feeding cannot cause more damage than their Bane Severity. The damage takes the form of involuntary internal bleeding, the vampire exhibiting vivid bruising in whatever spot matches the bite location on the victim.

_{Players Guide, pg. 59}

COMPULSION

Perfectionism

Nothing but the best satisfies the vampire. Anything less than exceptional performance instills a profound sense of failure, and they often repeat tasks obsessively to get them “just right.”

Until the vampire scores a critical win on a Skill roll or the scene ends, the vampire labors under a two-dice penalty to all dice pools. Reduce the penalty to one die for a repeated action, and remove it entirely on a second repeat.

ARCHETYPES

Pyramid Loyalist

Until recently, the Pyramid hierarchy made the Tremere one of the most rigid clans. They still include a number of conservative loyalists, fiercely bound to the clan’s original order by will, if not by blood. A Pyramid loyalist might still adhere to the customs of responsibility between sire and childe, uphold the ranks and tutelage of a formal chantry, and seek to rebuild the clan’s prestige and notoriety. Some Pyramid loyalists wish to search Vienna for the remains of their clan’s information trove, though Tremere elders have declared the domain out of-bounds.

Eternal Scholar

This Tremere was a dedicated researcher before their Embrace, and death does nothing to stop them from their obsessive pursuit of knowledge. Even if the clan has always looked to the arcane, the scholar does not need to be a former occultist, but might as well have been a ground breaking surgeon, a theologist with a taste for sacrilegious texts, or a collector of rare books. Often this Kindred is preoccupied with understanding their own nature, and it is possible they have become an expert on the history of their kind.

Pagan Nonconformist

Other Kindred often style Tremere followers of Carna as “new agers,” failing to understand the depth of magical exploration, feminine worship, and liberty these warlocks practice. Whether actually a former Wiccan or Satanist, a prior member of Clan Tremere who has aligned with Carna’s rebellion, or just someone who in life was downtrodden and longed for personal autonomy and authority over those who would hurt them, something about this blood witch goes against the grain of the clan’s traditions. They speak of change, and excitedly pursue their dreams of forbidden magick.

Ambitious Outsider

The new willingness to Embrace from outside the traditional ranks of academics and occultists brings forth an array of individuals with ideas for the clan and the practice of Thaumaturgy. The ambitious outsider may be a white witch or a rebel destined for the Anarchs. It is likely such a Tremere would struggle to gain respect in the clan, but with a lot to prove and the nominal support of House Carna, the ambitious outsider could go far.

Chief of Security

The Tremere are more than scholars and librarians. The gifts they possess allow them to identify threats, manipulate minds, and destroy aggressors – even after the dissolution of the Pyramid, many other Kindred still regard the usurpers with mistrust, remembering them as the clan of killers and torturers. The Tremere sheriff or chief of security likely inherited their specialized skills from a former life as an enforcer of some kind.