Angustri
Curiosity may kill cats, darling…
The Ordo Dracul is notable for its use of thrall bloodlines. The covenant is nigh obsessed with all the options and permutations available to the Kindred. One of those permutations is the creation of Ghouls, and a less common option of that ilk is the creation, breeding and maintenance of a ghoul family. Such families are quite useful to higher-ranking covenant members, for a number of them can be bred for intense servitude. Moreover, an entire servant family could theoretically double as a curious social and supernatural experiment when time allows. The Order certainly loves its experiments.
Most Ghoul Families watched and controlled by The Ordo Dracul act as little more than house-bound servants. They turn down beds, monitor the “wine cellars,” scrub bloodstains from bathtubs. For the most part, these families are not suitable breeding stock for future Order members. While occasionally a member of one of these bloodlines is secreted away and given the Embrace, such families are generally meant to be inferior personnel, more slaves than protégés.
One bloodline, however, is unique among the covenant- bound families. The Angustri family, a small clan of Roma Gypsies, has served the Order since 1941 and managed to collect a certain prestige and Notoriety among the Kindred of the covenant. The bloodline is renowned for handling much of the covenant’s dirty work, and perhaps more importantly, keeping records of all the pertinent knowledge and data associated with the Order’s “work.” The bloodline’s almost dangerous proximity to the covenant’s secrets mean that some of the Angustri Ghouls are eventually chosen for the Embrace, or are instead drained of blood and buried six feet deep.
In 1939, all the members of the Angustri family were rounded up in Germany and taken to local work camps. In 1940, at a conference in Berlin, the Nazis decided that all of the captive Gypsies (30,000 of them) would be transferred to camps outside the country, mostly located in Poland. All 25 members of the Angustri family were taken to the camp at Treblinka. Right off the train, 19 of them were taken away and gassed. The six who remained, three men and three women, were made to work and suffer at the hands of local camp “doctors.”
Secretly overseeing this camp and other camps was a Mekhet vampire of The Ordo Dracul. This short and stocky woman was Giselle Werner, a Dragon with an insatiable curiosity. The camps, to her, were an experiment — not one of her own, but that diminished their value only slightly in this case. While the Nazis were occasionally detrimental to the covenant’s activities, the camps remained models of human suffering. How much could a mortal take? How tough were some, how weak were others? Did the blood of desperate men taste differently than the blood of the Nazis in control? Did this apply at all to the vampiric condition, and if so, how? She watched with clinical curiosity. The Angustri family had not piqued her interest… not until a night in late 1941.
One night, the Nazi doctors took one of the Angustri girls into surgery, accusing her of whoredom, claiming she was simply “viel zu schön” (far too pretty). The girl, Pesha, was the subject of several gruesome operations in a single night. The fingers on her left hand were sewn together. Her face was scarred with a series of latticework cuts and then awkwardly stitched. Similar incisions were left on her stomach and back. The worst, however, were the operations meant to obviate her reproductive capabilities. She was given an oophorectomy and a clitoridectomy. Then she was put back with her family.
Three days later, held at gunpoint, the guards forced her to have sexual relations with her younger brother, Balo. The most surprising — and at the time, the most horrific — event was yet to come. Two months later, Pesha began showing the signs of pregnancy. With that, Giselle Werner became intensely interested in the Angustri family. Was it possible that this family was somehow preternaturally made to survive? Was there something different about it, something not present in the rest of the Herd? Giselle decided to find out. After discussing her plans with other local Order members, she went to the camp at Treblinka and used her guile and Disciplines to track down the Angustris. She made them a one-time offer, and that was to promise their family’s blood to her and the Order. Seeing little choice, the family members agreed and were secreted away that night, never to re-enter the barbed wire gates of Treblinka’s death camp.
Seven months later, Pesha’s child was born, forced from her ruined womb in a gush of blood (that Giselle saved, along with the afterbirth). They called him Danior, meaning “born with teeth.” Thus began the ghoul bloodline of the Angustri family.
And yet, each Angustri, unlike Werner’s other thralls, rarely obeyed her to the precise letter of the law. They seemed always to find the loopholes in commands, or simply exploited what wasn’t said while performing what was. They were dangerously curious. As a matter of fact, they were often caught looking through forbidden books or handling some of Giselle’s collection of artifacts and puzzle boxes. She punished them, of course, but it didn’t seem to matter. They would return to their wayward habits whenever possible, even going so far as to offer whispered disrespect. This behavior fascinated Giselle. She wondered why they continued to buck at their leash when the promise of swift and unpleasant punishment was at hand every time? Even young Danior seemed possessed of a keen intelligence and a bitter, anarchic streak.
Giselle decided to further experiment with the family, offering tasks different from (and above) those expected of her other servants. The tasks were rarely pleasant, nor were they simple. Such tasks served both as tests as well as necessary evils. Bodies needed to be removed and secreted across town, a function now given to the Angustris. Giselle’s specific and fickle tastes in blood were hard to serve (one night, it was cripples, another it was virginal boys), so she demanded they fetch her meals. Moreover, Giselle did not always prefer her meals directly from the body, and sometimes asked that the Angustri Ghouls remove the blood and contain it in various clearly labeled phials. The Angustris performed their tasks. They did not do so perfectly, but they did so eagerly. More importantly, their rebellious habits dwindled (though never disappeared). It seemed, Giselle decided, that they had simply been bored.
No longer relegated to domestic employ, the Angustris are chosen by Order vampires to perform those tasks that are both difficult and distasteful. They collect parts and people for the covenant’s experiments. They rid the covenant of enemies when the Kindred themselves wish not to be bothered. They pass messages through dangerous territory, thieve well-guarded and well-regarded treasures from other Ghouls and vampires, and even keep heavily annotated books and records detailing the specific data of the Order’s “Research.” The Angustri family members serve as assassins, scribes or simply go-to functionaries. They are known to be both troublesome and effective.
Annals of the Balaur Gard: the Angustri family.
“This record of our covenant’s Angustri family of thralls is here written by Anna Valshenka, student of Giselle Werner. My sire discovered this bloodline in 1941 in a German concentration camp, the same year in which she Embraced me to save my mind from the German gas. Since then I have applied myself to the study of genealogies in thanks to my mistress, and I have been able to trace the Angustri lineage back to the early 16th century. Comparing these with some of our order’s earliest records of apprenticeship, it seems that there was, in fact, a connection even that far back in history. The name and location of one of the younger Angustri sons of that day who left no progeny matches up with the records of one of our own named Mikal Angustri of Venice. The records indicate that he had been taken as a thrall, and some time later was deemed worthy of the Embrace. Unfortunately, the boy was too reckless in his experimentation with The Coil of Banes and he burned in the morning sun. Even more unfortunately, no records that I have yet uncovered directly verify my theory that the boy had enthralled his sister with The Vinculum, though I have discovered that she gave birth to a daughter shortly after her brother met Final Death. She then died in childbirth with terrible blood loss. That child is a direct ancestor of Pesha Angustri, who my Mentor discovered is capable of carrying children to term while under the influence of Vitae. Pesha is alive and well tonight, serving my mistress Giselle by producing many children by many different men, as our search for the best characteristics to foster these bloodlines continues. Her horrible disfigurements are almost completely mended, thanks to the wonderful power of the Blood.”
Most Ghoul Families watched and controlled by The Ordo Dracul act as little more than house-bound servants. They turn down beds, monitor the “wine cellars,” scrub bloodstains from bathtubs. For the most part, these families are not suitable breeding stock for future Order members. While occasionally a member of one of these bloodlines is secreted away and given the Embrace, such families are generally meant to be inferior personnel, more slaves than protégés.
One bloodline, however, is unique among the covenant- bound families. The Angustri family, a small clan of Roma Gypsies, has served the Order since 1941 and managed to collect a certain prestige and Notoriety among the Kindred of the covenant. The bloodline is renowned for handling much of the covenant’s dirty work, and perhaps more importantly, keeping records of all the pertinent knowledge and data associated with the Order’s “work.” The bloodline’s almost dangerous proximity to the covenant’s secrets mean that some of the Angustri Ghouls are eventually chosen for the Embrace, or are instead drained of blood and buried six feet deep.
Born with Teeth
Both before and during World War II, the Nazi party was deeply concerned about the so-called purity of its country and of the people within its boundaries. As such, Hitler and his party made no small effort to collect and purge all “degenerates” from Germany, including Jews, Russians, homosexuals, the handicapped and Roma Gypsies.In 1939, all the members of the Angustri family were rounded up in Germany and taken to local work camps. In 1940, at a conference in Berlin, the Nazis decided that all of the captive Gypsies (30,000 of them) would be transferred to camps outside the country, mostly located in Poland. All 25 members of the Angustri family were taken to the camp at Treblinka. Right off the train, 19 of them were taken away and gassed. The six who remained, three men and three women, were made to work and suffer at the hands of local camp “doctors.”
Secretly overseeing this camp and other camps was a Mekhet vampire of The Ordo Dracul. This short and stocky woman was Giselle Werner, a Dragon with an insatiable curiosity. The camps, to her, were an experiment — not one of her own, but that diminished their value only slightly in this case. While the Nazis were occasionally detrimental to the covenant’s activities, the camps remained models of human suffering. How much could a mortal take? How tough were some, how weak were others? Did the blood of desperate men taste differently than the blood of the Nazis in control? Did this apply at all to the vampiric condition, and if so, how? She watched with clinical curiosity. The Angustri family had not piqued her interest… not until a night in late 1941.
One night, the Nazi doctors took one of the Angustri girls into surgery, accusing her of whoredom, claiming she was simply “viel zu schön” (far too pretty). The girl, Pesha, was the subject of several gruesome operations in a single night. The fingers on her left hand were sewn together. Her face was scarred with a series of latticework cuts and then awkwardly stitched. Similar incisions were left on her stomach and back. The worst, however, were the operations meant to obviate her reproductive capabilities. She was given an oophorectomy and a clitoridectomy. Then she was put back with her family.
Three days later, held at gunpoint, the guards forced her to have sexual relations with her younger brother, Balo. The most surprising — and at the time, the most horrific — event was yet to come. Two months later, Pesha began showing the signs of pregnancy. With that, Giselle Werner became intensely interested in the Angustri family. Was it possible that this family was somehow preternaturally made to survive? Was there something different about it, something not present in the rest of the Herd? Giselle decided to find out. After discussing her plans with other local Order members, she went to the camp at Treblinka and used her guile and Disciplines to track down the Angustris. She made them a one-time offer, and that was to promise their family’s blood to her and the Order. Seeing little choice, the family members agreed and were secreted away that night, never to re-enter the barbed wire gates of Treblinka’s death camp.
Seven months later, Pesha’s child was born, forced from her ruined womb in a gush of blood (that Giselle saved, along with the afterbirth). They called him Danior, meaning “born with teeth.” Thus began the ghoul bloodline of the Angustri family.
Emergence
For the first few years after the liberation, Giselle used the Angustri family as simple servants. The eldest and largest man would help to guard her chambers, while the others served largely as butlers. The women functioned as domestics, cleaning up messes, dusting shelves and locked cases, bringing and pouring draughts of Vitae for the mistress of the manor.And yet, each Angustri, unlike Werner’s other thralls, rarely obeyed her to the precise letter of the law. They seemed always to find the loopholes in commands, or simply exploited what wasn’t said while performing what was. They were dangerously curious. As a matter of fact, they were often caught looking through forbidden books or handling some of Giselle’s collection of artifacts and puzzle boxes. She punished them, of course, but it didn’t seem to matter. They would return to their wayward habits whenever possible, even going so far as to offer whispered disrespect. This behavior fascinated Giselle. She wondered why they continued to buck at their leash when the promise of swift and unpleasant punishment was at hand every time? Even young Danior seemed possessed of a keen intelligence and a bitter, anarchic streak.
Giselle decided to further experiment with the family, offering tasks different from (and above) those expected of her other servants. The tasks were rarely pleasant, nor were they simple. Such tasks served both as tests as well as necessary evils. Bodies needed to be removed and secreted across town, a function now given to the Angustris. Giselle’s specific and fickle tastes in blood were hard to serve (one night, it was cripples, another it was virginal boys), so she demanded they fetch her meals. Moreover, Giselle did not always prefer her meals directly from the body, and sometimes asked that the Angustri Ghouls remove the blood and contain it in various clearly labeled phials. The Angustris performed their tasks. They did not do so perfectly, but they did so eagerly. More importantly, their rebellious habits dwindled (though never disappeared). It seemed, Giselle decided, that they had simply been bored.
Protégés
The Angustri bloodline has grown, shepherded along by Giselle Werner and several other Kindred of The Ordo Dracul. No longer located only in Germany and Poland, the family can be found serving various Order members across the world.No longer relegated to domestic employ, the Angustris are chosen by Order vampires to perform those tasks that are both difficult and distasteful. They collect parts and people for the covenant’s experiments. They rid the covenant of enemies when the Kindred themselves wish not to be bothered. They pass messages through dangerous territory, thieve well-guarded and well-regarded treasures from other Ghouls and vampires, and even keep heavily annotated books and records detailing the specific data of the Order’s “Research.” The Angustri family members serve as assassins, scribes or simply go-to functionaries. They are known to be both troublesome and effective.
Annals of the Balaur Gard: the Angustri family.
“This record of our covenant’s Angustri family of thralls is here written by Anna Valshenka, student of Giselle Werner. My sire discovered this bloodline in 1941 in a German concentration camp, the same year in which she Embraced me to save my mind from the German gas. Since then I have applied myself to the study of genealogies in thanks to my mistress, and I have been able to trace the Angustri lineage back to the early 16th century. Comparing these with some of our order’s earliest records of apprenticeship, it seems that there was, in fact, a connection even that far back in history. The name and location of one of the younger Angustri sons of that day who left no progeny matches up with the records of one of our own named Mikal Angustri of Venice. The records indicate that he had been taken as a thrall, and some time later was deemed worthy of the Embrace. Unfortunately, the boy was too reckless in his experimentation with The Coil of Banes and he burned in the morning sun. Even more unfortunately, no records that I have yet uncovered directly verify my theory that the boy had enthralled his sister with The Vinculum, though I have discovered that she gave birth to a daughter shortly after her brother met Final Death. She then died in childbirth with terrible blood loss. That child is a direct ancestor of Pesha Angustri, who my Mentor discovered is capable of carrying children to term while under the influence of Vitae. Pesha is alive and well tonight, serving my mistress Giselle by producing many children by many different men, as our search for the best characteristics to foster these bloodlines continues. Her horrible disfigurements are almost completely mended, thanks to the wonderful power of the Blood.”
Naming Traditions
Other names
Nickname: Gypsies
Culture
Common Dress code
Appearance: Members of the Angustri family do not necessarily dress like “traditional gypsies.” The only distinctive mark worn by all of them is their earrings, which are unique to each person. Otherwise, their dress ranges the spectrum from completely formal and socially acceptable to completely casual and “alternative.” The dark skin, eyes, hair and accent indicate their ethnicity somewhat, although few Americans can recognize someone as “gypsy” based solely on complexion or accent.
Art & Architecture
Havens: Ghouls of the Angustri family tend to share whatever Haven their Regnant has, but their independent temperament often leads them to find some obscure corner to call their own, into which they can disappear when they want to. Their regnants generally find this practice to be irritating at first, but most quickly learn that there is no way to put a stop to it. Eventually, some come to enjoy it, as it forces them to be more intimately familiar with their own havens than otherwise. Although they continue to punish the Gypsies (so their other Ghouls won’t get the wrong idea), those Dragons who have Angustri retainers are generally grateful for the lessons that their servants teach them. For outsiders, the result of this relationship is that an Ordo Dracul Haven that has Angustri retainers is much harder to penetrate, whether by stealth or by force, than would be immediately apparent.
Major organizations
Covenants: As has already been mentioned, this family is a pet project of certain members of The Ordo Dracul. It is possible that the family will be spread around The Ordo Dracul even more if the breeding programs are successful. Members of other covenants are not at all likely to possess members of this family as servants, although it must be said that the official position of other covenants is that they aren’t interested. The wise know to keep their hands off the Angustri, though, because the Dragons take meddling in their experiments very seriously. For their part, the Gypsies realize that the Dragons have treated them well on the whole, and that they probably would not have as much luck with the other covenants.
Organization: Within the Angustri family, the highest authority they recognize is Pesha, who is the oldest living member of the direct line. Though she still appears the same as she did at 18 when she was first made a ghoul, Pesha is now more than 60 years old and full of the wisdom of those years. Pesha has refused the Embrace several times, because she loves the sunlight. “Besides,” she points out whenever offered this boon, “as a vampire, I could make no more babies.” The German scientist who accused her of being a whore might actually have been on to something, because whether by original preference or by development over the course of time, Pesha is now a very lustful individual. Angustri boys in their teen years often receive the exciting honor and privilege of having their first love-making with “Grandma” Pesha.
The family is, in general, a gerontocracy. Age and experience have the biggest say in who makes family decisions, but the words of a clever youth are rarely ignored. Of course, the family makes very few decisions for itself, because all its members are still slaves to the Kindred of The Ordo Dracul. On the other hand, individual Angustri do have a high degree of freedom as long as they complete their assigned tasks. Even so, most Kindred never look at them as anything more than fertile breeding stock and efficient tools, and that is their place within the Order. Within the small (but slowly growing) number of Angustri whom the Order has Embraced, the Status of their family members becomes truly equal in private. Appearances must be maintained in front of other Kindred, however, which causes significant tension when those appearances involve whipping a family elder or the like.
Organization: Within the Angustri family, the highest authority they recognize is Pesha, who is the oldest living member of the direct line. Though she still appears the same as she did at 18 when she was first made a ghoul, Pesha is now more than 60 years old and full of the wisdom of those years. Pesha has refused the Embrace several times, because she loves the sunlight. “Besides,” she points out whenever offered this boon, “as a vampire, I could make no more babies.” The German scientist who accused her of being a whore might actually have been on to something, because whether by original preference or by development over the course of time, Pesha is now a very lustful individual. Angustri boys in their teen years often receive the exciting honor and privilege of having their first love-making with “Grandma” Pesha.
The family is, in general, a gerontocracy. Age and experience have the biggest say in who makes family decisions, but the words of a clever youth are rarely ignored. Of course, the family makes very few decisions for itself, because all its members are still slaves to the Kindred of The Ordo Dracul. On the other hand, individual Angustri do have a high degree of freedom as long as they complete their assigned tasks. Even so, most Kindred never look at them as anything more than fertile breeding stock and efficient tools, and that is their place within the Order. Within the small (but slowly growing) number of Angustri whom the Order has Embraced, the Status of their family members becomes truly equal in private. Appearances must be maintained in front of other Kindred, however, which causes significant tension when those appearances involve whipping a family elder or the like.
Strengths: Their blood affinity with the Mekhet allows members of the Angustri family to select one Mekhet Discipline to learn even if their Regnant is of another clan. This Discipline must be the second Discipline learned — the first must be a physical Discipline of the Regnant’s clan. Angustri who are Mekhet Ghouls learn one of their Disciplines with the facility of a Kindred (use out-of-clan Discipline experience values). From the perspective of their Kindred masters, one other quality of this family is very desirable: The seed of their men is potent, and the wombs of their women are particularly fertile. Angustri never fail to conceive, and their women never fail to carry the babies to term, though mothers and children sometimes die in childbirth.
Weaknesses: The similarity of blood between Mekhet vampires and the Angustri’s Roma blood is a doubleedged sword: The Vinculum is easier for the Mekhet to enact upon the Angustri. The first drink counts as the second, and the second drink counts as the third. The unusual fertility of the Angustri is as much a curse to them as it is a blessing to their masters, for it is this fact more than any other that ensures their eternal slavery to the Kindred.
Concepts: con artist, fixer, fortune-teller, negotiator, body or body-part collector, assassin
Gypsies?
Members of the Angustri family are aware of the different clans of vampires, as well as the different covenants. They have, in fact, studied the records of their masters and come to the conclusion that the Mekhet clan actually originated from the Gypsy people. Their primary “evidence” for this is that Mekhet vampiricabilities match those of the legendary Rom: they possess the Sight (Auspex), amazing powers of stealth (Obfuscate) and the speed to escape persecution (Celerity). They explain the odd name of Mekhet by positing that when a branch of the family traveled to Egypt far back in history, some creature from there must have envied their abilities. This creature might have been a vampire already, or a sorcerer of some kind, or some kind of demon. In any case, the Angustri believe that this creature stole the blood of their ancestors, and so gained their power. The other clans are all considered gaje (outsiders), and so their Angustri servants are somewhat less loyal and cooperative (those Angustri who subscribe to this legend, of course).Of course, this is probably nothing but a family myth, propagated to keep the now far-flung family members feeling connected, and to help them deal with their servitude. The victims of the horrors of Nazi concentration camps and then eternal slavery to vampires, the Angustri simply try to validate their existence and their identity any way they can.
Hope — Not Quite Equal
Although their condition as Ghouls is still one of horror on a very personal level, the Angustri are treated better on average by their Kindred masters than most other Ghouls are thanks to their valuable qualities. Their fertility is not the only quality that interests The Ordo Dracul. The cleverness and curiosity that the Gypsies exhibit also make them ideal protégés. So ideal, in fact, that several family members have been granted the Embrace. With connections like that, the mortal family members are able to escape many of the worst problems that could come with their situation.One of those Angustri who have received the Embrace is a young man by the name of Andrei Angustri, now of the Mekhet and The Ordo Dracul. He sees it as his family’s destiny to regain the powers of his ancestral blood that have been lost in the modern era, and his personal destiny to guide them there. To him, the curse of vampirism is an obstacle on that path, and The Ordo Dracul a tool to help him surmount that obstacle. His Mentor encourages this mindset, because it seems to help the boy focus on his work, and the boy’s insight is keen. Andrei has two pet projects at the moment: fostering his own bloodline from among his family members and advancing The Coils of the Dragon to new levels. He has been more successful at the first than the second, and now a few members of his bloodline also serve the Order. Andrei is an extremely charming man, and his charisma gives his bloodline a natural predilection for the Discipline of Majesty. Andrei is also obsessed with keeping his bloodline “pure,” however, and this obsession creates a mental block in his childer. The blood of anyone who is neither Mekhet nor Roma is only half as nourishing to Angustri Mekhet as it should be. Therefore, most members of this bloodline stay close to mortal or ghoul family so that they can feed easily. Angustri Mekhet also cannot bring themselves to Embrace non-Roma (and Andrei would certainly destroy any who tried).