Invictus
Leadership is not a gift everyone is blessed with. It takes a strong and sure heart, conviction that your way is the best way. Though lineage does matter, far more vital are the gifts an individual possesses that prepare him to rule. Others see the greed of the Invictus, the way they surround themselves with glittering symbols of their power, but they are sincere in their conviction that they are the leaders of the Kindred because that is their destiny. That they are not the rulers, that the Blood Queen who sits upon London’s throne is an ancient witch rather than a cutting-edge nobleman, rankles them deeply.
The Invictus are found throughout Europe and most of the Far East, and they have succeeded in attaching themselves to power. Among the courtiers of so many rulers (and some infamous) is often found a member of the Invictus, standing in the shadows. Sometimes, they are royal favorites; one in the time of Henry VII was rumored to have been groom of the stool. More often, though, the Invictus take positions of power that are not so public or under scrutiny. Prominence means attention, and attention threatens the Masquerade.
As for the Masquerade, the Invictus have long considered themselves the guardians at the gate. Of course their upper echelons enjoy mingling with the powerful of London, but at least aloud their devotion is always to the great secret of the dead. Occasionally their need for secrecy intersects neatly with the suppressive mechanisms of Elizabeth’s government. But more recently and more often, the Tudor police state makes the Masquerade ever more fraught.
The Invictus see their machinations as an elaborate, courtly dance, spinning their intrigues into fine threads to wrap a duchess in. Surely, it is so much better to be in the shadows behind the throne. In the imaginations of the common Kindred, their supporters and subjects are sprinkled all throughout Whitehall, through Elizabeth’s court and the great lords of the country. But threats to the Masquerade do not often occur in palaces. Even a member of the First Estate who holds a knightly title among the Damned may spend his nights prowling taverns, stalking a ghoul with loose lips.
Power, true power, does not require a show of force; it is the iron within the soft kid gauntlet. Invictus play their games with high-stakes. The loser risks her land, position, and sometimes her very existence. But why play if the stakes will not be high?
The old, old money of the Invictus face a challenge. Their ways are fading. Their vast manor lands and holdings from the Middle Ages are being sub-divided, split and fading. Elizabeth has no desire to expand the nobility, and economic changes are sweeping their power base from under them. The people who worked the land, once popularly imagined to be docile, are now demanding more than some tired turnips they can scrabble out of a dried-out lot. Though the oaths of fealty and service are still used, the peasants have more power to bargain. And on those out-of-the-way country estates where vampires rule almost openly, mortals are tiring of paying their rent in blood.
The newest of the dead, whom the Elders have trained in the ways of power-mongering, are stirring for a fight. They have money and power, but they want more. They are quickly uilding personal connections in the city, networks of mortals who have amassed their own wealth and power. Many of these merchant princes become patrons of new Invictus, not realizing whom they are supporting.
The young see the cities as the future, see the waves of people flocking towards London for a chance at a better life. They see herds to rule, choice pickings for servants and hangers-on. They are fascinated by the wave of inventions created at this time, a thousand things to make their Requiems just a little better and a little easier. Though they do see the wisdom in maintaining power structures that have been around for hundreds of years, new Invictus are impatient. Why start at the bottom if you can lunge to the top? What they don’t realize is that fate is a wheel and no one is on top forever.
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