Clan Tremere Primer
Clan Tremere
Editorial Notes
Note the first: This page represents the degree of IC knowledge a Tremere character should have about the House/Clan's history. It is a redux of the contents of Rites of the Blood and Lore of the Clans and presented as an IC understanding of the history. Certain things are presented as known and factual that, in the books, are expressed as uncertain from a historical perspective. This is an editorial decision to create an established dogmatic doctrine, which is how House Tremere works as a clan.
Note the second: Within the halls of the Chantry, Tremere refer to each other as House Tremere. In general, when talking to other Vampires, they refer to the Clan as Clan Tremere. Only if you're being haughty and arrogant would you use 'House Tremere'. And that's a tool best used infrequently.
Note the third: Tremere characters know this. Any Tremere character found discussing the secrets of House Tremere with any outsider, regardless of how much the outsider claims to know already, should expect instant death. House Tremere spent centuries estalbishing themselves as cornerstones of the Camarilla.
Hidden History
By the dawn of the 11th Century, the world began to disbelieve in the supernatural and magics of the Order of Hermes began to fade. Goratrix, a member of one of the Houses of the Order of Hermes, devised a ritual to provide immortality and thus safeguard the legacy of House Tremere's magic. Goratrix, Tremere and six of the leadership underwent the ritual, entered a deep slumber and awoke with their Avatars. Little by little, House Tremre were Embraced, each blood bound to the Pyramid to ensure loyalty and structure; the pyramid being one of the sacred symbols of enlightenment.
Clan Tzimisce, in retribution for Goratrix' use of Tzimisce; Gangrel; and Nosferatu Kindred in his experiments devising the ritual of immortality, began a war that would last for a little under a century. This conflict, known as the Omen War, lead House Tremere to create the Gargoyles as their foot soldiers and, eventually, to discovere and diablerize the Salubri Antideluvian Saulot. Casting their lot in with the Princes in Europe, mostly Ventrue at the time, Tremere proved themselves ideal viziers. Cultivating deals which they adhered to unwaveringly, providing their unique blood magic to the clans. Clan Salubri were villified in this arrangement, cast as diablerists and demon worshippers by an impeccable propaganda engine.
The Black Death was the first turning point for House Tremere, their blood magic removing the threat of plague from Ventrue Herds. This provided an opportunity for them to both ingratiate themselves with the power elite and to present Thaumaturgy as a tasteful, noble, sanguine Discipline and not at all the bloody, inhumane, inhuman, sanguine thing it is. It was not long after this that the Inquisition began its war on the Supernatural, in particular Vampires. Many of the House Chantries were burned down, but this provided House Tramere the second opportunity to insinuate itself as reliable and upstanding members of Kindred society. Turning their magic to the protection of Kindred society, once again, the Inquisition found papers missing, their scouting missions hexxed, their investigations quite literally cursed.
Then, which House Tremere consider their crowning achievement, came the Camarilla. Though, of course, Clan Ventrue take the credit for the formation of the Kindred authority and enshrining the Masquerade, and Clan Toreadore for making it culturally necessary to join; it was House Tremere's magic that allowed Kindred to survive the Inquisition. After the foundation of the Camarilla, the Anarch Revolt was brought to a swift end with the Convention of Thorns. It was the cursing of the Assamites, preventing them from committing diablerie without risking death, that cemented House Tremere as the singular authority on Thaumaturgy within the Camarilla.
Modern Nights
Though there are practitioners of blood magic to be found in the Sabbat, the Assamites, and even the occasional Anarch; it is only the Hermetically codified Thaumaturgy of House Tremere that allows the clan to stand as the ultimate magical authority, policing blood magic within the Camarilla ruthlessly and defending the Camarilla from magical threats beyond the Ivory Tower. The monopoly that House Tremere hold on blood magic within the halls of power, however, has bred both mistrust and jealousy. And though in the sanctity of their own havens, some Kindred might speak ill of House Tremere; doing so publicly risks their name being added to The Black List, the international Tremere catalogue of embargoed Kindred who are forever banned from receiving the Thaumaturgical aid of the House.
Power among the Chantries is found exclusively within the Ranks Pyramid. All Kindred start as Acolytes, within the Acolytes are the Trimira[1]. These are Kindred who have been released by their Sires and are members of the Clan at the base of the Pyramid. Only when they have sufficiently proven themselves within the Pyramid are they granted the Rank of Apprentice and presented to Kindred society at large. This is the rank that most Tremere spend their entire Unlives occupying. Magisters are responsible for the day to day running of Chantries, educating Acolytes and Apprentices. Above Magisters, the Regents are responsible for the loftier goals of the Chantry.
Tremere of any Rank can be expected to answer the Thaumaturgical call for members of the Camarilla. Any practitioner is expected to check The Black List before peforming even the simplest of Rites. The general prestation for ritual is one or two trivial boons for a lesser ritual[2] or a minor boon for a greater ritual[3]. Reducing the cost of pretastion requires extenuating circumstances or the approval of the Pyramid.
