During the course of the various stories of this chronicle the coterie has and will meet many characters so I'm therefore creating several profile pages for different groups within my version of kindred Los Angeles to help them keep track. I'll also amend these profiles as new information comes to light and old 'facts' turn out to be less factual than originally thought...
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The story behind the creation of the following faction can be found at the following links...
Story Five - 'The Missing Chantry' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five
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The Consolidated Chantry of Los AngelesThe story behind the creation of the following faction can be found at the following links...
Story Five - 'The Missing Chantry' - Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five
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Having little time to act he sealed his former haven with intricate wards and then camouflaged it's location using arcane means. It was then that he performed a powerful ritual rarely attempted that removed all memory of the buildings location from all kindred who had ever visited it. Unfortunately for them this also included the four of Strauss's students abandoned by their former Regent.
These four first attempted to create a new home within the domain of Louis Fortier but were driven from there by a small army of his ghouls commanded by his childe Catherine DuBois after their requirements for blood began to endanger the Fortiers own enterprises. From there they moved on the commune of a group of Verbena mages living deep in the Santa Monica mountains, slaying and draining the mages and turning their followers into a cult of blood. This assault did not go entirely their own way however as one of their number was destroyed in the attack, engulfed in magically summoned flame before the caster could be torn apart.
The search for the chantry once again became active when representatives of House Carna learned of it and began to seek allies throughout the city to help them locate it and take it for themselves. Eventually they combined forces with the coterie of Baron Michael of Pasadena, the former neonates of House Tremere in the mountains and a lone mage of House Goratrix who had been searching for it independently with the blessing of the Baron of Santa Monica, Therese Voerman.
After the chantry was found, the enchantment broken and the final guardian destroyed at the hands of Michael's enforcer 'Vin', the surviving members of the disparate Tremere Houses agreed to join in an alliance of convenience to share equally in it's secrets. How long this fragile alliance will hold is however a matter of some conjecture.
The Chantry
The building itself defies age having construction aspects from many era's and styles though internally always seems contemporary to the preferences of the observer. The residential floor of the house always seems to have exactly the amount of rooms as required, each labelled with the name of it's resident. These rooms are spacious, lavishly decorated and identical until personalised by their owner and strangely all contain an item of jewellery (usually a pendant) containing a purple gem. It also contains a well stocked library, a laboratory and a museum of occult items."This pendant is hot to the touch, a heat that seeps into your core and fills you with a new confidence. You're unsure if this power is entirely your own, but its intoxicating lure is seemingly beyond your power to resist."
The Library is smaller than most expect with many volumes in locked cabinets but despite that the information within is a treasure trove to any who wish to research the rituals and disciplines of Clan Tremere. The Laboratory contains a bewildering array of containers, intricate and seemingly random connections of glass pipes and other areas designed for the preparation potions or elixirs.
The inhabitants of the chantry have created a number of rules that all of the seven current residents there must abide by or risk expulsion.
Firstly, all issues effecting the chantry will be voted upon by the inhabitants and if more than one member disagrees with the decision then no action will be taken. Requiring more than one nay vote is seemingly in place to prevent the single representative of House Goratrix from holding the others to ransom with her vote.
Secondly, no direct action may be taken against another member of the chantry by a recognised resident either within it or without. The politics of each individual house are to be left at the door, once beyond the entrance to the chantry all are equal within.
The residents are becoming more and more convinced the building has an intelligence of it's own. Though quite definitely containing only the Laboratory, Library, Museum and personal quarters when they first arrived it now also has a meeting room which was discovered by Ruby mere moments after a discussion about establishing some rules of the house and three very comfortable lounges each with a different portrait over it's fireplace. These appeared the day after a debate within the chantry about the respective benefits of each house become quite spirited.
Strangely, many of the chantry residents seem to only feel comfortable in one of the three available rooms.
A meeting was convened between the Barons adjacent to Downtown which nominated the Baron of Pasadena to ensure the residents of the chantry understood what was required them if they maintained their presence in the Free States. After a sometimes tense meeting Michael has obtained their agreement to keep any Camarilla sympathies or Clan Tremere politics out of Los Angeles though has conceded the point that within the chantry itself they will do as they please. It remains to see if they hold to their word.
The Chantry: Haven 5
Cell 4 ('Test Subjects'), Holy Ground, Location, Luxury, Surgery
Laboratory 5: (Alchemy, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Genetics)
Library 6: (Alchemy, Blood Magic, Kindred Theology, Medicine, Occult, Research)
The Guardian of the Chantry
Though even it's inhabitants aren't sure exactly how their Haven pre-empts their desires and provides for their needs, this guardian provides the equivalent of the following benefits.
Security System 5+ (The Chantry is always watching...),
Warding 5+ (The Chantry defends itself from intruders...)
Watchmen 5+ (Though never seen, the Chantry has it's own servants...)
Flaws: Creepy (Should a member of one 'House' wander into the domain of another...)
Vanessa 'Ruby' Rubeus, Regent
Clan9th Generation Tremere
Rank
Rank
Regent
Backgrounds
Backgrounds
Influence 3 (Downtown, Los Angeles), Resources 3, Status 3 (House Carna)
Merits
Linguistics 3
Lore
Lore
Carna (1: Embrace the Vision, 2: The Rebel Trail, 3: Unorthodox Rituals, 4: Reimagined Bond), The Pyramid (3: Regent)
Rumoured by some to be a childe of Carna herself the blood mage known by her closest friends as 'Ruby' has fully embraced the vision of Carna and her fledgling House of a 'new' clan Tremere free of the restrictions it once inflicted upon it's members.
A member of Clan Tremere for nearly four centuries she had a reputation as an innovator in the field of ritual blood magic though many of her discoveries over the centuries had been attributed to her superiors within the pyramid to increase their own standing. With the abuses of authority suffered by her at the hand of those above her in the pyramid she was an easy recruit for Carna and had been one of her most loyal and overt supporters. This support would no doubt have resulted in her destruction along with the rest of Carna, the Princess witch's fledgling rebellion if not for the Second Inquisitions destruction and scattering of the Tremere hierarchy via the bombing of the main chantry in Vienna.
Now, along with her own followers and the somewhat selective support of the other houses within she is the de-facto Regent of the new Consolidated Chantry of Los Angeles. It's only a matter of time before the higher powers within what's left of the clan contact her to gauge her intentions and in anticipation she has reluctantly took on the title of Regent so as to maximise their negotiating position.
Matilda 'Maiti' Beck
Clan
Rumoured by some to be a childe of Carna herself the blood mage known by her closest friends as 'Ruby' has fully embraced the vision of Carna and her fledgling House of a 'new' clan Tremere free of the restrictions it once inflicted upon it's members.
A member of Clan Tremere for nearly four centuries she had a reputation as an innovator in the field of ritual blood magic though many of her discoveries over the centuries had been attributed to her superiors within the pyramid to increase their own standing. With the abuses of authority suffered by her at the hand of those above her in the pyramid she was an easy recruit for Carna and had been one of her most loyal and overt supporters. This support would no doubt have resulted in her destruction along with the rest of Carna, the Princess witch's fledgling rebellion if not for the Second Inquisitions destruction and scattering of the Tremere hierarchy via the bombing of the main chantry in Vienna.
Now, along with her own followers and the somewhat selective support of the other houses within she is the de-facto Regent of the new Consolidated Chantry of Los Angeles. It's only a matter of time before the higher powers within what's left of the clan contact her to gauge her intentions and in anticipation she has reluctantly took on the title of Regent so as to maximise their negotiating position.
Matilda 'Maiti' Beck
10th Generation Tremere
Rank
Apprentice
BackgroundsInfluence 2 (Downtown, Los Angeles), Resources 3, Status 2 (House Carna)
Lores
Lores
Carna (1: Embrace the Vision, 2: The Rebel Trail), , The Pyramid (1: Apprentice)
Owing her loyalty only indirectly to Carna through her friendship with Vanessa Rubeus she has acted as a protector to 'Ruby' when her support for Carna put her in danger from reprisal.
Though 'Maiti' is no amateur in the field of ritual blood magic her real skill set has always been in direct use of the Thaumaturgy discipline particularly in the area of direct and violent action. In fact she was one of many recruited to the Tremere not for their potential as occult practitioners but rather to supplement the warrior spirit that some believed that the clan was now lacking.
Owing her loyalty only indirectly to Carna through her friendship with Vanessa Rubeus she has acted as a protector to 'Ruby' when her support for Carna put her in danger from reprisal.
Though 'Maiti' is no amateur in the field of ritual blood magic her real skill set has always been in direct use of the Thaumaturgy discipline particularly in the area of direct and violent action. In fact she was one of many recruited to the Tremere not for their potential as occult practitioners but rather to supplement the warrior spirit that some believed that the clan was now lacking.
Though Victor is the most notable of these recruits Maiti has also shown considerable talents when set against Sabbat and Autarkis threats to chantries due in no small part to her mortal years as a professional bodyguard. Perceiving that her progress within the clan was being inhibited by a number of factors she threw her hand in with House Carna, after all it couldn't be any worse than House Tremere.
Brianna 'Brea' Rush
Clan
Brianna 'Brea' Rush
11th Generation Tremere
Rank
Apprentice
BackgroundsResources 2, Status 1 (House Carna)
Merits
Merits
Beautiful, Eat Food
Lores
Lores
Carna (1: Embrace the Vision), The Bahari (4: The Wombs Blood), , The Pyramid (1: Apprentice)
The youngest of the representatives of House Carna, 'Brea' was a naive woman playing at magic and occult ritual more as a hobby than anything else. Attracted by the forbidden nature of the activities she became involved in what turned out to be a particularly insidious cult whose inner circle were more interested in it as a way of procuring willing sexual partners than as a journey to occult power.
During one of the predictably sexually biased 'rituals' she found herself drawn to a beautiful and charismatic individual who she didn't recognise from any previous meetings of the group. Seeing something in her beyond that shown by the shallow cattle around her this mysterious newcomer beckoned her to follow them and in the darkness of the woods she joined the ranks of the kindred and learned that much of what she thought was impossible was actually merely a matter of being willing to acquire enough raw materials.
The youngest of the representatives of House Carna, 'Brea' was a naive woman playing at magic and occult ritual more as a hobby than anything else. Attracted by the forbidden nature of the activities she became involved in what turned out to be a particularly insidious cult whose inner circle were more interested in it as a way of procuring willing sexual partners than as a journey to occult power.
During one of the predictably sexually biased 'rituals' she found herself drawn to a beautiful and charismatic individual who she didn't recognise from any previous meetings of the group. Seeing something in her beyond that shown by the shallow cattle around her this mysterious newcomer beckoned her to follow them and in the darkness of the woods she joined the ranks of the kindred and learned that much of what she thought was impossible was actually merely a matter of being willing to acquire enough raw materials.
Brea is unapologetic in her use of seduction to acquire the blood she and her fellow mages need to create their magics seeing it simply as using a natural gift of beauty in the same way that the others use their talents for the occult or with disciplines.
Vanessa Rubeus is becoming concerned about the amount of time she's spending with Elizabeth 'Etain' Brooker, fearing that she is attempting to convert her to House Tremere. In fact 'Etain' is more interested in converting her to the Bahari.
'Marie'
Clan
'Marie'
12th Generation Tremere
Rank
Apprentice
BackgroundsMawla 3 (Marius Walker), Resources 3 (Blood Sommelier)
Merits
Merits
Iron Gullet, Stunning
Flaws
Flaws
Enemy 3, Folkloric Block (Churches), Notorious 1, Stigmata.
Lores
Lores
Carna (1: Embrace the Vision, 5: Book of the Grave War), The Pyramid (1: Apprentice)
Nominally loyal to the coterie of the Baron of Pasadena due to an arrangement of mutual protection, Marie bears a copy of a tome sacred to the followers of Carna and it is this that is the reason for her need for guardians.
Instrumental in the negotiations that bought the disparate houses together in cooperation rather than conflict she was pleasantly surprised to find that the chantry had a room for her as well as for the other surviving members of the search party. Of course it was also her manipulations that resulted in the deaths of one member of House Carna and another from House Tremere but sacrifices sometimes have to be made for the greater good.
After first consulting with her Mawla Marius Walker she has accepted the offer of residence within the chantry in order to further her own knowledge using it's considerable thaumaturgical resources.
House Tremere
Alanis 'Alannah' Ward
Clan
Nominally loyal to the coterie of the Baron of Pasadena due to an arrangement of mutual protection, Marie bears a copy of a tome sacred to the followers of Carna and it is this that is the reason for her need for guardians.
Instrumental in the negotiations that bought the disparate houses together in cooperation rather than conflict she was pleasantly surprised to find that the chantry had a room for her as well as for the other surviving members of the search party. Of course it was also her manipulations that resulted in the deaths of one member of House Carna and another from House Tremere but sacrifices sometimes have to be made for the greater good.
After first consulting with her Mawla Marius Walker she has accepted the offer of residence within the chantry in order to further her own knowledge using it's considerable thaumaturgical resources.
House Tremere
Alanis 'Alannah' Ward
9th Generation Tremere
Rank
Savant
Backgrounds
Backgrounds
Influence 3 (Downtown, Los Angeles), Resources 3, Status 3 (House Tremere)
Merits
Beautiful
Flaws
Flaws
Infamy 2 (Unpredictable)
Lores
Lores
The Pyramid (2: Savant)
Derangements
Derangements
Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED)
A dedicated believer in the merits of ordered systems of learning adopted by the Tremere, she saw the Pyramid as a useful and necessary way of keeping order amongst the notoriously fickle kindred.
Diligently working through the ranks she was often cited by others within the clan as an example to follow and it was this reputation for excellence that bought her to the attention of Maximilian Strauss who took her with him to Los Angeles.
Like many confronted with a situation that shatters their belief system, her abandonment by Strauss and the ease with which the Anarchs shattered the Camarilla's grip on the city caused centuries of repressed rage to erupt and almost overnight she went from a dedicated and ordered kindred to a wilful and self obsessed individual prone to uncontrollable rages and mood swings. Driven from a second home in West Los Angeles by the Fortier clan, Alannah vowed that it would never occur again and together with her then three followers fell upon the Verbena compound in Santa Monica and destroyed the mages within.
Elizabeth 'Etain' Brooker
Clan
A dedicated believer in the merits of ordered systems of learning adopted by the Tremere, she saw the Pyramid as a useful and necessary way of keeping order amongst the notoriously fickle kindred.
Diligently working through the ranks she was often cited by others within the clan as an example to follow and it was this reputation for excellence that bought her to the attention of Maximilian Strauss who took her with him to Los Angeles.
Like many confronted with a situation that shatters their belief system, her abandonment by Strauss and the ease with which the Anarchs shattered the Camarilla's grip on the city caused centuries of repressed rage to erupt and almost overnight she went from a dedicated and ordered kindred to a wilful and self obsessed individual prone to uncontrollable rages and mood swings. Driven from a second home in West Los Angeles by the Fortier clan, Alannah vowed that it would never occur again and together with her then three followers fell upon the Verbena compound in Santa Monica and destroyed the mages within.
Elizabeth 'Etain' Brooker
9th Generation Tremere
Rank
Apprentice
Backgrounds
Herd 3 (Blood Cult), Influence 1 (Downtown, Los Angeles), Resources 2, Status 1 (House Tremere)
Merits
Bloodhound, Penitence 2
Lores
The Bahari (1: Dangerous Reputation, 2: Ritual Scarification, 3: Sacrifice the Children, 4: The Womb's Blood), The Circulatory System (1: Tap Into the System), The Pyramid (1: Apprentice)
Derangements
Derangements
Haematophilia
Amoral as a mortal and cold-blooded as a kindred, Elizabeth made a perfect researcher into the effects of rituals upon willing and unwilling subjects as she quite frankly couldn't care less whether they survived or not, merely that the research advanced in one way or another.
Fine-tuning a number of previously unnecessarily complicated rituals through extensive and bloody research she was in the opinion of Strauss a perfect companion to Alannah's more systematic and 'by the book' approach to experimentation. Had he been aware of the source of some of this knowledge he may have chosen differently.
Amused by Alannah's almost immediate degeneration following their abandonment she happily followed her to their first haven in West LA and then to their subsequent home in Santa Monica and it was she who was responsible for the majority of the bloodshed necessary to take it for themselves. Now returned to the chantry she has once again access to the equipment necessary to resume her researches, whatever the cost.
House Goratrix
Amanda 'Mandi' Mcbride, AKA Arethusa
Clan
Amoral as a mortal and cold-blooded as a kindred, Elizabeth made a perfect researcher into the effects of rituals upon willing and unwilling subjects as she quite frankly couldn't care less whether they survived or not, merely that the research advanced in one way or another.
Fine-tuning a number of previously unnecessarily complicated rituals through extensive and bloody research she was in the opinion of Strauss a perfect companion to Alannah's more systematic and 'by the book' approach to experimentation. Had he been aware of the source of some of this knowledge he may have chosen differently.
Amused by Alannah's almost immediate degeneration following their abandonment she happily followed her to their first haven in West LA and then to their subsequent home in Santa Monica and it was she who was responsible for the majority of the bloodshed necessary to take it for themselves. Now returned to the chantry she has once again access to the equipment necessary to resume her researches, whatever the cost.
House Goratrix
Amanda 'Mandi' Mcbride, AKA Arethusa
8th Generation Tremere (Telyavelic Bloodline)
Rank
Pontifex
Backgrounds
Backgrounds
Contacts 1-5 (Various), Influence 3 (Downtown, Los Angeles), Mask 2, Mawla 4 (Therese Voerman, Baron of Santa Monica) Resources 4, Status 4 (Amongst Blood Mages), Status 3 (House Goratrix), Status 2 (Santa Monica)
Merits
Merits
Linguistics 5, Short Bond
Lores
Lores
Jeanette/Therese Voerman (1: Asylum Membership, 2: Performing Monkey), The Pyramid (4: Pontifex), Sect War Veteran (1: Survivor)
The eldest of all the kindred within the chantry, Amanda Mcbride spent over four centuries with the Tremere bloodline known as the Telyavelic before defecting to the Sabbat sometime in the eighteenth century after discovering that was the destination of Goratrix whose independent nature and force of will she admired believing that the darker rumours around him were simply lies spread by his enemies..
Unlike most Tremere elsewhere in the Dark Medieval world, the Telyavelic actively Embraced women, seeing them as embodiment's of the dark mother-goddess figures of local paganism. Although the majority of this group is still male, nearly a third is female, and many of these were created during the middle age. Candidates for Embrace must come from the ranks of pagans. Many of them are priests and priestesses of the old religion and such was the case with the woman then known as Arethusa.
Surviving and thriving within the ranks of the Telyavelic she advanced the clans knowledge of blood magic in a variety of areas though was particularly interested in the martial applications of the various paths and disciplines developed. As the variation of the pyramid used by her bloodline only bought neonates two thirds of the way to a blood bond her strength of will enabled her to break from the clan and she left to seek knowledge from whatever other sources she could including a dangerous but informative time amongst the Tremere antitribu of the Sabbat.
Torn between the brutal and in her opinion dangerously short sighted methods of the Sabbat and her loyalty to Goratrix she eventually left to seek her own path to power. Though the feelings of many of the other clans about the Tremere should have meant final death to a blood mage without the support of her clan she nonetheless thrived. Acting as an independent adviser and 'mage for hire' she became a common sight in the domains of Anarch, Camarilla and Sabbat alike always leaving before wearing out her welcome and always a little richer in one way or another than when she arrived.
When rumours of the missing chantry in Los Angeles came to her attention she took the long refused offer of permanent employment with the Baron of Santa Monica on the condition that she be left enough time between her duties to look into this other matter. Ever the pragmatist Therese agreed to her terms and despite now being a resident of the chantry she still fulfils her requirements to her Baron. Though the only representative of her house within the chantry she is still given significant respect due to her broad knowledge on the more obscure branches of Thaumaturgy.
Deceased
The fourth member of House Tremere 'Vasquez' died a decade ago in the assault upon the Verbena mages and Odrahn was killed by his own house member Etain when he refused to join in the alliance of houses within the newly discovered chantry. Nicholas 'Nic' Wilkerson was killed under the same circumstances by Matilda 'Maiti' Beck when he sided with Odrahn over his own house.
The eldest of all the kindred within the chantry, Amanda Mcbride spent over four centuries with the Tremere bloodline known as the Telyavelic before defecting to the Sabbat sometime in the eighteenth century after discovering that was the destination of Goratrix whose independent nature and force of will she admired believing that the darker rumours around him were simply lies spread by his enemies..
Unlike most Tremere elsewhere in the Dark Medieval world, the Telyavelic actively Embraced women, seeing them as embodiment's of the dark mother-goddess figures of local paganism. Although the majority of this group is still male, nearly a third is female, and many of these were created during the middle age. Candidates for Embrace must come from the ranks of pagans. Many of them are priests and priestesses of the old religion and such was the case with the woman then known as Arethusa.
Surviving and thriving within the ranks of the Telyavelic she advanced the clans knowledge of blood magic in a variety of areas though was particularly interested in the martial applications of the various paths and disciplines developed. As the variation of the pyramid used by her bloodline only bought neonates two thirds of the way to a blood bond her strength of will enabled her to break from the clan and she left to seek knowledge from whatever other sources she could including a dangerous but informative time amongst the Tremere antitribu of the Sabbat.
Torn between the brutal and in her opinion dangerously short sighted methods of the Sabbat and her loyalty to Goratrix she eventually left to seek her own path to power. Though the feelings of many of the other clans about the Tremere should have meant final death to a blood mage without the support of her clan she nonetheless thrived. Acting as an independent adviser and 'mage for hire' she became a common sight in the domains of Anarch, Camarilla and Sabbat alike always leaving before wearing out her welcome and always a little richer in one way or another than when she arrived.
When rumours of the missing chantry in Los Angeles came to her attention she took the long refused offer of permanent employment with the Baron of Santa Monica on the condition that she be left enough time between her duties to look into this other matter. Ever the pragmatist Therese agreed to her terms and despite now being a resident of the chantry she still fulfils her requirements to her Baron. Though the only representative of her house within the chantry she is still given significant respect due to her broad knowledge on the more obscure branches of Thaumaturgy.
Deceased
The fourth member of House Tremere 'Vasquez' died a decade ago in the assault upon the Verbena mages and Odrahn was killed by his own house member Etain when he refused to join in the alliance of houses within the newly discovered chantry. Nicholas 'Nic' Wilkerson was killed under the same circumstances by Matilda 'Maiti' Beck when he sided with Odrahn over his own house.
'Odrahn' - House Tremere, 'Nic' - House Carna
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Should you be interested in the chronicles and stories associated with these pages then links to them all can be found HERE.
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