The Tzimisce

Overview

If someone were to call a Tzimisce inhuman and sadistic, the Tzimisce would probably commend them for their perspicacity, and then demonstrate that their mortal definition of sadism was laughably inadequate. The Tzimisce have left the human condition behind gladly, and now focus on transcending the limitations of the vampiric state. At a casual glance or a brief conversation, a Tzimisce appears to be one of the more pleasant vampires. Polite, intelligent, and inquisitive, they seem a stark contrast to the howling Sabbat mobs or even the apparently more humane Brujah or Nosferatu. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this is merely a mask hiding something alien and monstrous.

Early History

While Tzimisce is presumed dead at the fangs of Lugoj, the Tzimisce clan still holds their deceased founder in some reverence. Far more than their Darwinist Lasombra brethren, the Tzimisce are a clan of tradition and history, and while the founder may be dead, its ideals and quests still capture the minds of the Fiends.
What the Eldest originally was is open to debate, although only marginal interest - the Tzimisce consider humans to be clay at best, and the Eldest's mortal existence would be a trivial prelude to a far more important undead career. However, at least one legend among the Tzimisce suggests that the Eldest was an experiment. Enoch, seeking to expel all of his bestial qualities spat out his existence into an Embrace using a modification of the Protean discipline – the Beast, according to those Metamorphosists, who adopt this theory is not just rage, but also change, whimsy, intuition, and imagination, all traits that the Eldest showed after its Embrace. In this interpretation, the Eldest is not just a creature, but also a visible manifestation of Vicissitude.
The Eldest struck out early, eventually travelling to Eastern Europe, where it became tied to the land and Kupala, the demon of the area. Kupala's instruction of Tzimisce eventually culminated in an event known as Kupala's Night. Before the Deluge, and long before the rise of Rome, Tzimisce and its eldest and wisest childer gathered in the depths of the Carpathian mountains. Though the Lupines attempted to keep the demon-spirit imprisoned, the Tzimisce triumphed, and Kupala was set free – mostly. All of its chains to the mortal world were broken, save two: the Carpathian mountains, within which it had been bound for so long, and Tzimisce itself.
With the rest of the great demon freed, its only outlet was into the Clan, through the blood of the Antediluvian. The childer of the Eldest speak of a legendary single night in the Clan's history, during which their powers of Vicissitude were heightened to incredible levels, and their sorcerous magicks rivaled that of the gods. This was known as Kupala's Night – the night the Tzimisce Clan established their power and damned themselves for the rest of eternity.
Since Kupala's Night, the Clan has waged a private war with the werewolf tribes of Eastern Europe for custodianship of the Carpathians. Though any single werewolf is easily a match for an elder vampire, with the aid of koldunic sorcery and fleshcrafted war ghouls (vozhd), the Tzimisce eventually gained the upper hand, and from there largely drove off or slew the Lupines. Occasionally in later years, werewolf "crusades" were launched against the Carpathians, but the Tzimisce (oftentimes aided by Gangrel allies), kept the terrain free of their shamanistic influences.
In the Carpathians, the Eldest Embraced others, notably Yorak, Kartarirya, Byelobog, and the Dracon, each of these descendants spread both intellectually and physically around the world. While the Tzimisce are now noted for the madness and sadism of Metamorphosists like Yorak, creatures like the Dracon show an entirely different side – the Tzimisce are experimenters and creators, whether it be Constantinople or the Cathedral of Flesh.
The Tzimisce had little to do with Rome and its many conquests. Their real influence lay further eastward, in Constantinople. There, noted scholars such as Myca Vykos and the Dracon furthered the knowledge of the Clan in unheard-of ways. The city was the site of a major spiritual movement among Cainites: it seems that the Damned may not be so Damned after all. With this revelation, the Clan Tzimisce, along with many others (Malkavians, Brujah, even Nosferatu) could learn to enjoy the fruits of their decades-long labor and co-exist more-or-less peacefully among the mortals.
The Obertus order was involved in this movement most heavily, of all the Tzimisce lines. They had preserved quite a bit of the lost Library of Alexandria, making them some of the most well-read supernaturals in the world at that time.

Dark Ages

Clan Tzimisce c. 1197-1242
The Tzimisce Voivodate, a loose confederation of Tzimisce domains in Eastern Europe, had survived since the fall of the Second City only to face new threats to its existence during the Dark Ages. The first threat to Tzimisce power in the region was the emergence of the Tremere. Though the magi of the Order of Hermes were a familiar presence in the region, they invoked the wrath of the neighboring vampires after prying the secret to vampirism from captured Tzimisce. House Tremere, led by Goratrix officially became Clan Tremere in the wake of the diablerie of Saulot. Despite making enemies of mortal magi, the Tzimisce, the Salubri and later the Gangrel and Nosferatu, the fledgling Tremere managed to survive the Omen War with the Tzimisce. Voivode of Voivodes Vladimir Rustovich's assault on the Tremere was interrupted by the invasion of the Ventrue under Jürgen of Magdeburg. While Jürgen's assault was ended through the efforts of Myca Vykos and the Obertus Order, the Omen War continued until the Anarch Revolt rendered the Tzimisce incapable of any real organized efforts as a clan. Despite the Warlocks' continued survival, most Tzimisce continue to bear a grudge against them into the modern era, though many younger Tzimisce fail to comprehend why. The Voivodate, and with it the feudal structure of Tzimisce society, would last only a few centuries longer.

Anarch Revolt

The Tzimisce fell in line with the Lasombra in their opposition to the Convention of Thorns. Unwilling to concede their gains in the Revolt the Tzimisce elders and methulza destroyed their Antedeluvian and committed themselves to the ambitions of the Sabbat, seeking to free generations of kindred from the oppression of the old and lead to a new age honoring Cain's vision of kine subjugation and war on the divine. 

Victorian Age

Clan Tzimisce c. 1800+
Perhaps the most significant thing in the Victorian Age for the Tzimisce was the publishing of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Perhaps the most famous vampire novel (although by no means the first), it actually detailed a member of their clan (although a somewhat errant one). It introduced audiences to Transylvania, the home of the clan.
However, it was the Victorian Age that saw the beginnings of the Tzimisce's decline – once proud and aristocratic, the modernizing of the world turned them into anachronistic jokes. The ease at which mortals could travel and communicate meant that the Fiends could no longer exist as lords and rulers of their own fiefdoms – troubling news of shambling monstrosities and villagers impaled on pikes would reach more civilized parts of the globe in no time.
Science began to shake the iron foundations of folklore and superstition that the Tzimisce had built their fearsome reputation on. This was truly a double-edged sword for the Clan. Their hated enemies, the Tremere had become very powerful during this time, and the peasants over which most of the Fiends ruled rose up against their masters. Once again burned from their rotting manses and forced to hide from the Kine, most considered the age a great indignity. However, the leaps and bounds made in medicine and the sciences during this time yielded both a new crop of potential childer and a new way to study the effects of mutable forms. The Tzimisce had always been students of a sort, and having biology and anatomy codified and much easier to learn, their own knowledge of the body expanded.

Related Organizations

• The Sabbat and it's Present State