The Covenants of Kindred are a strange mixture of politics and religion for vampiric society. While what Clan you belong to ties you to other Kindred through blood, Covenants tie you to other vampires through belief.
The Carthian Movement is the most modern of the vampiric covenants, seeking to uproot tradition and create a more egalitarian system for vampiric rule. Carthians are full of ideas, fiery and passionate about their beliefs for Kindred self-rule. Few of them think about why the current status quo has lasted for as long as it has. Instead, they are eager to challenge it, fervent to accomplish something positive in the dark world of the Kindred. The Carthian Movement mostly comprises neonates and they tend to be wary of the elders of their kind. The older a vampire becomes, the more stagnant and callous he becomes to the world around it. The Movement has still had success in some areas, however, and has grown support by being patient and playing the political games that it must. Passion and unity are the weapons of the Carthian Movement.
Benefit: As a shared network of idealists, the Carthians find it much easier to advance their position in mortal society. As a result, it is much cheaper for players of Carthian characters to purchase the Allies, Contacts, Haven, and Herd Merits with experience points.
Ascendancy Benefits: Ascendant Carthians find it easy to interact with the mortal world and co-exist with the mortals in the domain. By calling in a favor or otherwise greasing the mortal wheels, Carthians can find an improvised haven somewhere in the city on very short notice, not needing to return to their normal homes. The cannot be left without shelter unless they are taken outside the city. Such improvised havens do not grant any of the benefits of the Haven Merit however.
Once per month, every ascendant Carthian can also call on her resources to attract a small crowd of mortals (between 8 and 15 people, depending on how many would be available in the area). These humans help out in an activity of the Carthian's choice, whether staging a protest outside an elder's haven or building a simple structure for a community group, so long as the activity is fairly innocuous and in line with the Carthian's rhetoric.This activity cannot involve anything immediately illegal beyond what might be expected of non-violent protesters. A sit-in is reasonable, but an armed uprising or robbery is not. The mortals also have no particular loyalty to the Carthian in question, so do not risk their lives or a lengthy jail sentence unless other means are used to convince them.
In Character Information For Members of The Carthian Movement
The Invictus is the landed aristocracy of the Damned. An elitist organization at its core, the Invictus teaches that power is everything and those who gain power deserve it most: those with the greatest skill, the greatest ambition, and overall, the greatest claim to leadership. The Invictus appeals far more to elder Kindred than to neonates, and the covenant believes that age and experience are worth far more than anything youth might offer. The so-called First Estate claims to have created most of the common titles and ranks in the modern nights, especially the title of Prince. The Invictus clearly thinks in terms of aristocracy, and like any aristocracy, it suffers in disorder. Therefore, the Invictus strives to maintain order among the Damned and seeks to uphold the laws of the Kindred to the fullest extent. The most frightening aspect of the Invictus is that the covenant might be right: If they don? hold the power of the Kindred, then who will? Perhaps the long history of Invictus tyranny exists because it? the only way to rule the Damned.
Benefit: Members of the Invictus benefit from their league of friends and the resources of the group as a whole. This allows players of Invictus characters to purchase the Herd, Mentor, Resources and Retainer Merits for substantially fewer experience points than players of other Kindred do.
Ascendancy Benefits: When the Invictus is Ascendant, members of the First Estate are protected from the vampiric games of rumor and innuendo. An Invictus Prince cannot lose any City Status dots during a month in which his covenant is ascendant, and Harpies who are not themselves members of the First Estate must spend three points of Status for every dot of City Status they wish to remove from a member of the Invictus. Finally, no member of the Invictus can have his last dot of City Status stripped from him, unless the Prince or Master of Elysium doing so is a member of the covenant.
In Character Information For Members of The Invictus
To members of the Lancea Sanctum, the self-proclaimed heralds of undead morality, their origin defines everything they are and everything they do. Indeed, the modern sobriquet “Sanctified,” by which the covenant is sometimes known, incenses many elders and traditionalists of the covenant, who prefer to use the Latin “Lancea Sanctum” when referring to the collective covenant. They are the religious and even moral backbone of the Kindred, yes, but they are also self-appointed priests and inquisitors. The most inhuman of an inhuman race, they exalt the role of predator. Universally respected yet universally feared, this covenant constantly seeks power over all Kindred everywhere, not for political rule, as the Invictus does, but to enforce the dictates, attitudes and even thoughts that they believe have been handed down to them from their originator Longinus, and by extension from God Himself.
The catechism of the Lancea Sanctum is that they are the ideological descendants of the Roman centurion who used his spear to prod Christ on the cross. According to the covenant’s dogma, some of Christ’s blood dripped onto the soldier, and this blood gave the centurion eternal life. It also carried with it, however, divine retribution, and though Longinus’ act revealed Christ’s divinity, it did so after an act of faithlessness on the soldier’s part. Thereafter, Longinus was cursed to live eternally, but he could walk only at night and subsist only on the same blood that had proved his undoing. As the creation myth blends into covenant philosophy, vampires are a form of “original sin,” though God allows them to exist, and indeed even charges them with the task of representing the risks of His divine displeasure.
Benefit: Members of the Lancea Sanctum have access to a special Discipline, Theban Sorcery. Theban Sorcery is a type of blood magic capable of leveling curses of seemingly Biblical origin.
Ascendancy Benefits: When the Lancea Sanctum is ascendant, the covenant's deep-seated belief in the righteousness of its cause combines with its influence in the city to strengthen the Sanctified ability to carry on the fight. Once per week, a Sanctified character may pray to Longinus and regain a spent point of Willpower. This prayer takes a full minute if done during a game session and approximately an hour if performed during downtime.
In a city where the Lancea Sanctum is ascendant, all Sanctified characters are further considered exempt from the authority of all Kindred officers save the CEO and Social Directors - unless the officer in question is also Sanctified. The Master of Elysium cannot strip covenant members of Corporation Status and the Sheriff cannot order them about. This exemption does not provide any supernatural protection, it is merely considered unthinkable (and a sin against the city) to attack an ascendant Sanctified.
In Character Information For Members of The Lancea Sanctum
The Circle is a secretive and mystic group of Kindred, holding its own belief about vampiric nature and even its own Discipline. The so-called Acolytes believe that vampires make up a natural part of the world and can learn, grow, and find enlightenment instead of wallowing in the guilt-ridden angst of other groups, which focus on penance. Therefore, members of the Circle of the Crone often find themselves dismissed as political outcasts and heretics of vampiric existence, especially by the more religious Kindred. The Circle believes that creation is power. Vampires must face their static condition and overcome it by creating and cultivating whatever they can. Acolytes also cherish testing themselves, believing that only by overcoming their physical, mental and spiritual limitations can they become something more than creatures of the night. This belief can also lead to persecution, as their strange rituals of testing can seem barbaric and even unholy tto some Kindred.
Benefit: Members of the Circle of the Crone may learn Crúac. This Discipline is a form of blood sorcery based on pagan rituals and observances.
Ascendancy Benefits: Circle members find it very rasy to develop small groups of mortal followers. Most of these people are typically convinced that they're involved in nothing more than a pagan worship circle. By making requests for help in ritual research or observances, a Circle member can use these mortals to help out with large rites (provided they don't violate the Masquerade), or to perform tedious and mundane research and acquisition of materials involved in rites. Ascendant Acolytes thus gain the equivilent of two dots of the Allies Merit in the field most useful to pursuing their research. So, an Acolyte whose occult studies focus on the lessons of the plant world might gain an Ally in the park service or the city's botanical garden. This is a seperate instance of the Allies Merit and does not combine with any similar Merits a character may already have. This Merit cannot be used for tasks that are overtly supernatural or illegal.
While engaged in rituals and similar observations, Acolytes also gather great spiritual strength from their faith. The knowledge that their covenant is dominant in a city - represented by ascendant status - strengthens the faith of those in the Circle of the Crone, allowing each member to regain a spent point of Willpower each week as they perform their rituals (during downtime).
In Character Information For Members of The Circle of the Crone
The curse of vampirism is but an obstacle, a hurdle before achieving true power. Granted, it’s a daunting hurdle, and one that most Kindred are ill equipped to even see as surmountable. For those with the necessary devotion, tenacity and intelligence, the Ordo Dracul, the Order of the Dragon, can provide the means. The vampires of the Ordo Dracul run the gamut from dogged fundamentalists with just as much zeal as any fanatic to coldly secular theosophists simply seeking the means to destroy an enemy. The covenant as a whole welcomes both mentalities, for both have much to teach.
This faction claims an infamous founder — Vlad Tepes, Dracula himself. Dracula is noteworthy because he acknowledges no sire. According to Dracula’s account of becoming a vampire, God turned His back on him, and in order to punish him for his wicked acts, God cursed him with undeath. The most widely accepted story of Dracula’s origin is that God punished Vlad Tepes for his abuse of faith in mortal life. According to certain historical records, Tepes was appointed as a “defender of Christianity,” a charge he then used as a means of advancing his own political agendas and as an excuse for atrocities. In addition to all his crimes against humanity, Dracula ultimately put his own desires before his holy oath, the act that Damned him.
The veracity of these statements remains unproven, of course, not the least obstacle to which is that Dracula himself hasn’t been seen in over a century. Legends of Dracula also ascribe to him strange circumstances. By knowledgeable members of Kindred society, he is suspected of siring a very few childer — but if Dracula wasn’t Embraced himself, what clan could he possibly be, and what does that make his get? By other accounts, he has never sired childer at all, or those he has sired are somehow “failed,” little more than hideous horrors doomed to slake their thirsts in a constant state of mindless rage.
Indeed, the organization that has grown up surrounding Dracula’s teachings is easily as enigmatic as its founderBenefit: Members of the Ordo Dracul may learn the Coils of the Dragon. The Coils of the Dragon are a special set of rites that allow Kindred to overcome some parts of the Curse.
Ascendancy Benefits: When the Ordo Dracul is ascendant, the Dragon's confidence in their mysticla abilities and the supremacy of their territory is so unshakeable that they are socially unflappable. For every dot of Corporation Status she has at the beginning of the month (before any ascendancy bonus), a Dragon may ignore the effect of a single Social (instant or extended) action performed against her that is not supernatural in nature.
What's more, each Dragon can select a discreet territory (no more than a few city blocks) and claim it as her personal fiefdom when the covenant is ascendant. The Dragon effectively becomes regent of the area. Others who hunt there must either pay a tribute or leave at the Dragon's discretion. The Dragon may not lay claim to a place already claimed by another unless she has a higher Corporation Status (after the ascendancy bonus). The Ordo normally uses this privledge to ensure that members have access to all the best wyrm nests at which to perform their mystic rites, though it has certainly seen more petty application. When the covenant falls from ascendancy, all claims to territories are lost unless individual Dragons can defend them.