Tremere

Tremere
Pseudonyms	Usurpers; Warlocks; Wizards
Sect	Camarilla
Disciplines	Auspex Dominate Thaumaturgy
Bloodlines	Gargoyles Telyavs
Rarity	Common

The Tremere are the youngest clan of the Camarilla; unlike the other clans, ancient and descended from the earliest vampires in existence, the Tremere are self-made and dragged themselves up to prominence through sheer force of will, establishing themselves in the eleventh century. Of course, to human society this is the misty past, but to the long-lived vampires, the Tremere are still young upstarts competing with the other clans to be taken seriously as a power in their own right (the only clan considered even newer and less proven are the similarly upstart Giovanni).

Being one of the founding members of the Camarilla helps give them some hard-won legitimacy, but for the most part they are respected because of their mysterious sorcerous powers, which other vampires have never been able to duplicate or fully understand, and the gigantic, complicated, and byzantine power structure within their ranks that keeps their secrets impossible to uncover and their members completely and utterly loyal to the clan's goals. Tremere are all wizards - all of them, wielding strange, eldritch powers that even other vampires do not know - and those powers come only with total devotion to the clan.

Organization

The Tremere are the most complex and extensive hierarchy among the undead; even clans far older and more hegemonic don't have the sheer number of complicated laws, rules, and positions, mostly because no one who is not trying to organize a clan full of fractious wizards probably doesn't need them.

Offices

The following offices are observed within the Tremere, although outsiders to the clan are unlikely to ever have heard of them or have any idea what they do or mean:

• Councilors are the members of the Council of Seven, the highest authority in the clan other than Tremere (Antediluvian) himself (and functionally in charge while he is usually in torpor). Each of them covers and has intimate knowledge of and control over Tremere operations in one region of the globe.
• Pontifices are responsible for a large region, such as a country or group of countries (for example, the Philippines), and report directly to the Council.
• Lords are responsible for operations in a group of states or small country (for example, the Upper Mexican States, or Lichtenstein), under the direction of the Pontifices.
• Regents are in charge of individual chantries, making them the on-the-ground authority in most Camarilla cities.
• Magisters are Tremere who could be Regents or higher, due to their tenure or accomplishments, but who instead serve as advisors and traveling arbiters for the rest of the clan.
• Apprentices make up the majority of the clan; these are those Tremere who don't run anything, but who can distinguish themselves by learning new powers, inventing new rituals, performing research, and generally making themselves valuable to the clan at large. The vast majority of Tremere are Apprentices.
• Acolytes are the lowest rung on the Tremere ladder, and are Tremere who are for one reason or another considered risks; they may have made mistakes and need reeducation, or be considered not yet proven to be loyal to the clan in some way. These Tremere rank only above ghouls and any Gargoyles that may reside in their city.

Circles of Mystery

Within each of the ranks above, the Tremere further divide themselves into seven levels, referred to as the Circles of Mystery. Tremere who distinguish themselves through power, skill, or knowledge can rise higher in the circles; Tremere who are below the fifth Circle of Mystery in their current rank cannot hope to advance to another one, even if they take impressive actions.

The Tremere are very insular about when and how they allow their members to rise through the ranks, and most are given promotions only after long periods of time, usually in response to especially impressive services rendered to the clan. In a few cases, if whether or not a given vampire should advance is disputed, Magisters may be called in to hold a tribunal to settle the matter.

There are also extensive secret societies, spell guilds, and other weird divisions within the Tremere, many of them imported from their origins as Mages and altered for the realities of vampiric life. It is unlikely that anyone outside the clan would be able to even identify them all, let alone be able to explain how and why they work.

History

In the beginning, the Tremere were mortals like everyone else: specifically, they were Mages, members of the Order of Hermes under the guidance of their leader and founder, Tremere, after whom the clan was eventually named. By about the eleventh century, the group had discovered that they were struggling to hold onto their powers as the world began to trend more rationally and Paradox began to be an increasing problem, and they threw themselves into research into how to sustain their lives, ideally achieving immortality in order to continue their studies.

The Creation of Clan Tremere

The breakthrough came in 1022, when the elder Goratrix created a ritual that would allow all of the Mages, if they consumed a powerful enough ancient vampire's vitae, to die and be reborn as vampires, losing their tie to the Spheres but gaining the unique powers of blood magic (with all its different freedoms and restrictions) instead. The sleeping Tzimisce Antediluvian was chosen as their target, and the Tremere claim to have destroyed it utterly in the process (although members of the Tzimisce, en masse sworn enemies of the Tremere from that time and showing no signs of changing their minds any time soon, argue that their ancient founder could not be truly destroyed so easily).

Goratrix did not warn the seven original mages that they would lose their existing powers, realizing that they would refuse the ritual if he did, and only Tremere's intercession prevented them from immediately turning on him in revenge once they realized what had happened. Instead, the seven remained with Tremere to become the Council of Seven, and the nascent clan began to Embrace likely mages and send them out into the world to found its first chantries. By 1037, in spite of Tzimisce agitation and the growing suspicions of the human mage societies they had left behind, the Tremere were an established power in Europe. The clan bent all its members to replacing the mage powers they had lost by researching and inventing new types of blood sorcery, eventually developing their refined version of Thaumaturgy.

The Middle Ages

The Tremere remained severely unpopular with other vampire clans throughout the Middle Ages, who saw them as cheeky, disrespectful upstarts at best and traitorous worms at worst. Seeking to become so powerful that they could not be ignored, the clan set their sights on another Antediluvian: the Salubri founder Saulot, whose resting place they discovered after much research. Once Saulot had been diablerized, the clan, having learned their lesson from the ongoing hostilities with the Tzimisce, bent their resources toward discrediting and destroying the Salubri, eventually succeeding in cutting them down from a powerful clan to a handful of nearly-forgotten malcontents.

By the Renaissance, the Order of Hermes had discovered Tremere's defection and perversion of his powers, and declared ongoing hostilities against the Tremere as well, a crusade that has never ended; even now, Hunters, Mages, and other human magic-wielders are more likely to target the Tremere than any other vampire clan.

Modern Camarilla Nights

The Tremere managed to finally ingratiate themselves and become a founding member of the Camarilla through use of their sorcery, which they leveraged to send communications secretly between elders during the Anarch Revolt and ensure that resting places and war rooms were warded and protected. It was also the Tremere who, sensing a chance to become part of the budding structure, laid the Blood Curse on Clan Assamite, earning yet another set of undying enemies.

Clan Advantage and Weakness

Advantages

All Tremere are magicians, so they are automatically better at the Occult skill than other Kindred. They also gain additional powers through their studies, and may have one additional Thaumaturgy power per level. The clan takes care of its own to an unprecedented extent among the Tremere, so all members of the clan are provided free housing in the central Chantry, and may call upon elders and mentors of their clan for information and teaching whenever they need to.

Disadvantages

The Tremere became their own clan through the manipulation of blood magics, and as a result they are more susceptible to such sorceries than others. A single drink of another Kindred's blood causes them to develop a two-point Blood Bond, and a second drink brings them to a full-blown three-point bond. Even worse, their blood is less than effective due to being converted by a magical ritual instead of passed down from Caine, and it requires one additional drink of their vitae to bloodbond anyone outside of their own clan (although those within the clan are able to be bonded by one another as normal).

The Tremere also suffer from being distrusted by the other clans of the Camarilla, for a variety of reasons; they are secretive, they're too young to be taken seriously, and they "stole" their existence from the other clans in many vampires' eyes, making members of other clans (especially elders) likely to dislike and refuse to cooperate with them.

The Tremere in DC

DC is a burning hot point of contention for Clan Tremere; the current Prince, Marcus Vitel, seized power from a Tremere leader, and the clan has never stopped feeling like the city "belongs" to them and they deserve to take it back. Although no one was able to legally argue with the reasons behind the previous Tremere Prince's demise (she had taken too much personal power for the other clans to tolerate her in a city that could quite literally affect events all over the globe), the clan actively plots against the current Prince for all they're worth, with the Pontifex of the Mid-Atlantic region, Peter Dorfman, poised to seize power if any of their plans come to fruition. Unfortunately, intrigue among the Tremere who might take power has caused them to spend at least as much time fighting one another as making any useful moves against the Prince, and most of them await an opportunity provided by an outside source.

Tremere Player Characters

Alessandra Ricci	Alexander Villanova	Anton Lazar	Arianne

Barnabas Stride	Bishop Raines	Catherine Lafayette	Daniela Graff	Dorian Hyers	Gideon Croups	Helena Taylor
Isaac Nichols	Israel Abramov	Jodie Chase	Johanus	Kyle Beckinsfield	Laurence Redmonde	Leo Marsden
Lily Trevelyan	Lorne Setton	Sonja Aliavich	Theolonius Kapak	Thomas Noble	Thomas Taylor	Viktor Alexandrov

See Also

Gargoyles
Telyavs
Tremere Antitribu

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