Cyclical Dynasties
The extreme durability of the Kindred gives them much longer timeframes to work with when planning for their Requiems. Being essentially immortal, they don’t need to adopt the short-term strategies they relied on as mortals. The scheming, plotting Kindred of the Invictus see this durability as one more advantage for them to exploit in the Danse Macabre. Longterm planning, after all, leads to long-term rewards, and the Invictus is a great believer in moving slowly and cautiously.
Invictus Kindred consider it a luxury to be able to spin their webs over a span of centuries, and while they aren’t obliged to plan for their deaths the way mortals must (at least not with the same degree of certainty), they do find it practical to plan for the next time they fall into eclipse (i.e., the fitful sleep of torpor). To that end, Invictus Kindred find themselves thinking in cyclical, not linear, terms. Yes, they will, eventually, fall into torpor, but they will also rise from torpor to feed and plot again.
In brief, that means that they do pay attention to matters of estate planning — they didn’t establish their empire of influence and money just so they could lose it the moment they fall into torpor, after all. To that end, many Invictus Kindred choose an “heir” who gains control over their fortune when they enter torpor. But not only have the Invictus established a system of inheritance, they’ve also established a system for inheriting their empire back when they rise.
The vassals of such elder Kindred all strive to be their mentor’s favorite so that they can be the executor and heir of their patron’s estate when the elder next goes into torpor. This in itself is the basis for many games of one-upsmanship among Invictus ancillae. Some try to prove their worth to their wouldbe patron through flattery, others through strategy and others yet through simple overall competence. To become the chosen protégé of a powerful patron is among the greatest honors (not to mention strategic benefits) an ancilla can aspire to.
For his part, the patron wants to treat his heir with the greatest respect and kindness. After all, at some point he will be entirely vulnerable to his protégé, and he wants the full measure of his protégé’s goodwill during that period of eclipse. (This is one of the many mechanisms the Invictus has adopted to ensure that elders don’t simply grind down those beneath them in the hierarchy.)
There is more to the system, however. Once the patron has reawakened from his long sleep, he is weak. He will have lost Blood Potency and all that comes with it. Meanwhile, his protégé will have been advancing in age and growing in power. And, at this point, the patron and the protégé effectively change places. The oncepowerful elder gets back his estate and all that goes with it, but he is likely weaker than the Kindred who was once his heir.
And when, in the fullness of time, the former protégé himself succumbs to torpor, it will be his former master who oversees his empire in turn. After one or two cycles of this, the two vampires’ fortunes begin to meld together. The elder may have originally gathered much of the wealth, but it was nurtured, grown and added to by the younger while the elder was in torpor. Likewise, the younger should have generated his own fortune while his patron was in eclipse, and his mentor is responsible for building on that when the younger, in his turn, reaches a point where he must enter torpor.
As time goes on, the “estate” winds up belonging neither to the patron, nor to the protégé, but to that cyclical dynasty. It is theirs jointly, because each builds on it when he is the more powerful and guards it when the other is in torpor.
The Invictus calls this system of alternating fortune and eclipse “a cyclical dynasty” or “a dynastic house,” and this system is one of the underpinnings of the Invictus’ power. There are those within the covenant who see cyclical dynasties as “the Invictus among the Invictus.” Those involved in such arrangements clearly think of themselves as major anchors of the covenant’s power. Those who participate in this practice may even make statements implying that only those in a dynasty are real Invictus members, but since they’re in the minority, they don’t say it as loudly as they might prefer.
Most Kindred refer to a cyclical dynasty simply as a “House” in common parlance, as in “Michael, of House Glamorgan.” The House name itself, traditionally, is not the name of any vampire in the cyclical dynasty, as that would imply the superiority of one member over the other, which, most Invictus Kindred will tell you, is a fleeting illusion in this ongoing system of revolving ascendance. House names, then, are frequently the name of a place (generally the place where the House was first established) or a new name entirely arrived at by both parties to represent the nighttime empire they hope to establish together.
Establishing a cyclical dynasty, obviously, requires great trust, faith and responsibility on the parts of all Kindred involved. What may appear to be a simple property-holding arrangement inevitably becomes a very intimate partnership, like a marriage in many ways, often with a blurring of separate identities into a shared House identity. Active members of a cyclical dynasty frequently pass their days next to their torpid partner(s) as an expression of intimacy, loyalty or trust, and this comes with advantages, as you’ll see shortly.
A handful of the cyclical dynasties that exist in the modern night were established as far back as the age of the Roman Republic. These are the great anchors of the First Estate. Members of these cyclical dynasties are among the wealthiest and most powerful Invictus Kindred. Their fame is such that young Kindred will grow amiliar with their names within a few months of their Embrace, even if they have no idea what or to whom that famous name refers or why. It is common in these oldest of Houses that members of the House are often known only by their shared House name, their personal names long ago having dissolved in the corrosive nightmares of torpor. In such cases, the personal identities of these Kindred became subordinate to the dynastic identity, just as their personal agendas are replaced by the dynastic agenda: the continuation of the dynasty and the maintenance and growth of the House’s holdings.
Neither is this the whole of the system involved in a cyclical dynasty.
The waking member of the dynasty is entrusted to look for a suitable third member. A cyclical dynasty can exist with two members, but it is considered to be more stable with three; with more than three members, a House begins feeling crowded. In a two-member House, the Final Death of one party causes the entire House to collapse instantly. A third member grants a House greater resilience and more companionship to the members of the house as a member spends one half of his active span with each of the other members. A three-Kindred cyclical dynasty is not unlike a revolving ménage à trois, with two members active at any given time while the third is in eclipse. In situations like this, an arrangement is struck so that each member sleeps for one century out of every three.
A two-member House may easily transition into a three-member House, and this is not an uncommon occurrence as both parties keep an eye out for other promising young Kindred to include in their revolving dynasty.
Some Houses have been known to incorporate four (or even more) vampires into their dynastic cycle, but some Kindred find that they don’t like that because they then have to share their “shift,” and hence their empire, with too many others. It gets messy, power struggles ensue and it detracts from the elegant simplicity of the two- or three-Kindred dynastic model.
Whatever the specifics of the House system, Invictus Kindred agree on one thing: those admitted to a House unquestionably weather the ages better than other Kindred. The fortunes of Invictus Kindred who are part of a House do not stagnate while they sleep, and their minds are less battered by the rigors of torpor. Having a trusted companion during torpor and, in particular, at the moment of waking into a new age, appears to mitigate the cumulative weight of centuries to a remarkable extent.
Some younger members of the Invictus have tried to get around the “generation gap” that exists between elders and younger Kindred by forming Houses with others their own age. While it’s theoretically possible for a group like this to coalesce into a House, it doesn’t have the same advantages, specifically the great accrued experience, wealth and influence, that an elder can bring to the arrangement. Elders themselves are inclined to quietly scoff at younger Kindred trying to form a cyclical dynasty on their own; they call it “playing House,” and, while they applaud the urge behind the attempt, they find it amusing that ancillae (or even neonates) would even contemplate entering such a relationship without an elder to guide them.
And yet, for all that, a minority of Invictus Kindred takes part in the House system. The covenant’s paranoid elders keep this number low. Horrifying stories that tell of ungrateful protégés who gleefully take responsibility for their patron’s estate and then commit foul diablerie upon their prone forms circulate through the population of elders.
When carefully investigated, only a handful of these tales have ever proven to have any basis in fact, but the popularity of the stories reflects the degree of paranoia felt by Kindred elders. It is not easy to give up an empire for the uneasy sleep of torpor and harder still to trust that another Kindred will be capable of competent, loyal guardianship over the span of the elder’s decades of eclipse. Kindred know themselves, and they know how little they would trust themselves — so it’s extraordinarily difficult to trust others, particularly to this extent. Trust issues may prevent Houses from forming, but such issues rarely enter the picture after the first decade or so.
When Houses do fall apart, it is rarely due to betrayal or the catastrophic mishandling of the estate, but rather over timing. Cyclical dynasties are often very particular about the timing of each member’s torpor and rising. No Kindred wants to remain in torpor any longer than necessary, and the notion that another in their House is getting more “active time” doesn’t appeal to members of such a House. When dynastic Houses break apart, petty issues of timing are the root cause more than any other factor. In the 17th century, House Marzandi came apart after the waking Kindred brought their third member out of torpor two nights later than agreed upon. While that’s an extreme case, it illustrates the crucial role timing can play in House politics.
Truth be told, other covenants eschew the House system for precisely these reasons. The Invictus’ emphasis on loyalty, order and hierarchy, however, make Houses a feasible system.
That and a system called the tribunal.
Should it come to pass that the protégé actually does betray his patron, it is the role of the tribunal to send the traitor to Final Death via the most excruciatingly painful means possible.
One does not become a member of a tribunal because one is allied with the elder who requests it; one becomes a tribune in the name of the Invictus’ devotion to order. More than one elder has asked a Kindred he doesn’t particularly like to be part of his tribunal as he prepares to enter torpor, not because of any alliance between the two but because the elder knew that the tribune’s dedication to Invictus ideals would force his hand if he found the protégé guilty of breaching the dynastic compact.
Unlike the swearing of oaths, the signing of dynastic compacts is a relatively private affair. For strategic reasons, Kindred often don’t want to advertise that they’re entering into a cyclical dynasty until it’s a done deal. Three elders witness for the patron (these witnesses will later become the tribunal), and three ancillae witness for the protégé.
While the compact is primarily a legal document, it hardly reflects the true depth and significance of entering a cyclical dynasty. The closest comparison to a dynastic compact would be a marriage license: by itself a marriage license is only a legal document, but it’s a document that reflects a serious commitment on the parts of those who have entered the contract.
The dynastic compact is revised at every cycle (that is, when the elder has awakened and the protégé is preparing to enter torpor). Each Kindred involved in the compact enters into a separate dynastic compact with every other member.
A dynastic compact carries at least as much weight as an Oath of Fealty, and the punishments for violating the terms of the contract are extraordinarily severe, a point that reflects the elders’ paranoia more than anything else.
The establishment of a cyclical dynasty is almost always initiated by an elder who feels himself on the verge of entering torpor and who feels he has found a shrewd, reliable protégé capable of managing the elder’s assets. The elder vampire approaches the younger with a rough set of the terms that will eventually become the basis of the dynastic compact. On occasion, an enterprising younger Kindred might approach an elder, but doing so is nothing short of brazen.
The establishment of a cyclical dynasty is traditionally kept quiet right up through the moment when the elder enters eclipse and his protégé takes control of his holdings. Ideally, only the elders who witness the signing of the dynastic compact should know what’s taking place. This is to prevent, among other things, young Kindred approaching the patron and trying to coax him into making them his protégé instead or hostile elders making a lunge for the patron’s assets before the protégé has fully mastered his patron’s various sources of wealth.
It also keeps other covenants from trying to interfere in a potential Invictus asset. Other covenants hate cyclical dynasties because established Houses represent a major asset for the First Estate. If a House is going to fail, it’s likely to do so within five years of the patron first entering torpor or within five hours of his rising from it. A House that survives those critical moments could well wind up being one of the Invictus’ bulwarks in the centuries to come, and is deserving of at least token interference on those grounds alone.
On the other hand, there are the very visible and unquestionable advantages of continuance of a line. Being part of a House mitigates the fears many vampires have of torpor and makes them more willing to enter torpor for shorter periods of time; many of the advantages of the cyclical dynasty system originate with that fact.
Sweet Torpor
Cyclical dynasties do away with much, if not all, of the fear many elder Kindred have of torpor. The House system makes voluntary torpor a palatable idea and a feasible practice. Elders can comfortably turn over their empires to others while they regenerate themselves in relatively untroubled torpor. Given the system of timing adopted by many Houses, it’s quite likely that some member of the House will always have sufficiently potent Vitae to rouse the sleeping members of the House, so torpor ceases to be a looming threat but becomes, instead, a minor disruptive annoyance. Freely entering torpor in such a fashion has many advantages, not the least of which is the higher quality of dreams that follow a serene transition to eclipse.
Kindred who are members of cyclical dynasties almost always share havens and pass the day in close proximity, often in physical contact. While they would never volunteer this information to vampires of other covenants, Invictus Kindred believe that this practice strongly mitigates the negative effects of torpor: the torpid vampire is at peace; complete and blissful unconsciousness replaces the fevered hallucinations common to eclipse. This reduces the psychic strain and mental horror of torpor and allows the sleeping vampire to retain more and clearer memories from before his eclipse. It also prevents the Kindred from picking up derangements during long bouts of torpor. Truly old Kindred consider this one of the greatest advantages of the dynastic arrangement.
The exact benefits of sweet torpor are up to the Storyteller, but Invictus lore suggests that sweet torpor may grant elders perfect recall of their Requiems, help elders retain their Humanity or grant other subtle advantages at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Houses and Bloodlines
Among the Kindred of the Invictus, cyclical dynasties are often associated with bloodlines. The continuity and unity of purpose provided by a dynastic House simplifies the otherwise complex task of establishing a bloodline, and minimizes the danger of the bloodline going awry after the founder succumbs to torpor. Obviously, this is easier if all members of the House are from the same clan, but even mixed-clan Houses have succeeded in creating bloodlines.
Once a House has established a bloodline, the House may move to create a brood of childer from that bloodline as the House’s agents in the Danse Macabre. To many Invictus Kindred, this kind of arrangement is the pinnacle of accomplishment in the Requiem, a lasting legacy that many consider to be the one true indicator of success in the Requiem.
Continuance of Office
Any official title held by a Kindred is held by his House. Known members of a cyclical dynasty are expected to take one another’s place in official Kindred positions (all those roles that the Invictus created in the first place). When Prince Miriam of House Hekovah needs to enter torpor, her protégé David (whom she, in all likelihood, has been grooming for decades for the position) steps into the position as though nothing had changed. Decades or centuries hence, when it’s David’s turn to enter torpor, he will either return the Princedom to Miriam (assuming she’s out of torpor) or to the House’s third member.
This custom is considered absolute and inviolable by the Invictus, although other covenants, especially the Carthians, see it as oppressive and occasionally try to override it in domains where the Invictus is relatively weak. The problem with this, of course, is that domains with a House at the helm are precisely those places where the Invictus is strongest and where it has held power for the longest. In the modern nights, then, the best that other covenants can hope for is to keep members of a House from becoming Prince in the first place.
Among other things, he must be able to fulfill the obligations of all of his House’s offices. If his House holds the title of Prince, he must be able to manage the domain effectively; if his House is Sheriff, then he must possess the abilities necessary for that position.
A member of a House must also be able to shepherd the House’s holdings, building on what he has been given, in the form of financial assets and in mortal influence, boons and social capital.
Caring for the House’s sleeping member(s) is a significant portion of the duties associated with cyclical dynasties. Active members are expected to pass their days slumbering alongside the House’s torpid member(s) as a gesture of solidarity, loyalty or love.
Waking members of the House are also responsible for rousing members of their House from torpor at predetermined times or in cases of emergency. At these times, the active member is expected to have ample blood waiting to help smooth the transition from torpor to wakefulness as much as possible and avoid the drama of a hunger frenzy. Those Kindred with more regal sensibilities often stipulate that they expect to be immersed in fresh, warm blood at the moment of their rising; the House’s waking member is responsible for seeing that this comes to pass.
Even members of a cyclical dynasty can have misgivings about an approaching Summit, depending on the state of the House’s holdings and how the torpid member of the House felt about how he was treated while he was in eclipse.
Dread, however, is only one response to a House during its Summit. Depending on the House and the city where it’s located, a Summit might be celebrated with a huge party (as it would be in an Invictus city where members of the House were powerful and respected) or a Summit might be kept a closely guarded secret (as it would be in cities where the Invictus is weak or if the members of the House were feared or despised).
On a covenant-wide basis, the greatest problem of Houses is the effect they have on the morale of younger members of the Invictus. One city can only have so many dynastic Houses and still hope to gain new converts to the First Estate. Advancement in the Invictus is slow enough as it is. The presence of Houses brings advancement to a complete standstill, as one dynastic House can hold onto a coveted city office forever. Only the largest cities with the strongest Invictus presence can have even two cyclical dynasties before recruitment starts to suffer. More than that, and neonates are reduced to little more than disruptive rabble, pawns with no hope for advancement (at least not without packing up and leaving town). Still, even that can serve the Invictus’ long-range plans. More than one city has been colonized by young Invictus Kindred who went out on their own after growing tired of the smothering effect of too many dynastic Houses.
If cyclical dynasties are problematic within the Invictus, they are loathed by the other covenants, particularly the Carthians. Cyclical dynasties embody everything the other covenants hate (or envy) about the Invictus: they’re arrogant, spoiled, condescending and, worst of all, they seem to control everything. Other covenants recognize the Invictus’ House system as a serious strategic advantage, but the covenants also know that, for a variety of reasons, the system would not translate well to their own covenant. Truth be told, other covenants have made attempts at cyclical dynasties, but never with results that could be called anything better than mediocre. The Carthians lack the elders, the Circle of the Crone lacks the discipline, the Dragons lack the interest and the Sanctified have yet to decide if the House system might be sinful or unsavory.. Ultimately, cyclical dynasties, by their very nature, capture the essence of the Invictus mentality, and no other covenant can imitate their success without adopting certain philosophies or modes of thought that are quintessentially Invictus.
Vinculum
Given the numerous responsibilities associated with taking part in a cyclical dynasty, developing a Vinculum with a House member may be the least of a Kindred’s worries. Still, no vampire is so trusting that he’s willing to sign his unlife away without taking every opportunity to see that he’s not betrayed while in eclipse. More experienced Kindred see their Vinculum with House members as an advantage, not a disadvantage. A Vinculum prevents them from being bound to anyone else and maintains the bond between members of the House better than any other method.
When the Vinculum can be a disadvantage is when an established House takes in a new member. If three members of a cyclical dynasty all have a Vinculum to one another and they decide to admit a fourth member into the House, the new member will be expected to undergo the Vinculum to his new brethren, but they will not be able to develop a Vinculum to him in return. Since it’s the loyalty of the incoming member that’s most suspect anyway, that may not be a problem, but the newer Kindred may find it a little harder to trust the other members of his House when he realizes how things stand.
Oaths
A Kindred taking part in a cyclical dynasty is presumed to have sworn an Oath of Fealty to the other members of his House. He may not swear any of the major oaths to any other Kindred for any other reason. His time and energy are expected to go toward furthering the goals of his House.
There is one infrequent exception to this rule. A vampire may swear an Oath of Service to another Kindred, provided the Oath is of short duration and relatively simple to execute. At no point may a Kindred in a cyclical dynasty ever swear oaths that conflict with his allegiance to his House. Such arrangements are in clear violation of the spirit of the dynastic compact and will almost surely result in distrust and destruction.
Trust is a rare and precious commodity among the Kindred, and it’s indispensable to the establishment and maintenance of a cyclical dynasty. There is no room for questionable loyalties or even the appearance of questionable loyalties in the House system, and any Kindred whose loyalties do appear questionable is unlikely to remain part of a House for long.
Coteries
A Kindred’s true loyalty will always lie with his House, but this need not prevent him from joining a coterie. The coterie will certainly benefit from the Kindred’s increased fortunes, but the other members of his coterie must also realize that a Kindred’s loyalties to his coterie are always secondary to his loyalties to his House.
One way of dealing with this awkward situation is for all or most members of a coterie to be members of Houses (although Houses are hardly common enough for this to be an easy answer). In this situation, all members of the coterie will at least understand the basic rules of engagement and know what they can and cannot do in the context of their coterie.
Death in the House System
Killing a vampire who is a member of a cyclical dynasty is akin to removing the favored arm of the surviving Kindred in that House. It is emotionally — and often financially — crippling. To members of the House system, there is no worse transgression, and there is no limit to the lengths they will go for revenge. Any vampire who kills one member of a House had best be prepared to kill the others as well, as that’s the only way he’s going to escape retribution. In this sense, being a member of a House offers an additional modicum of security; any vampire aware of a Kindred’s participation in a House may be inclined to seek another victim rather than earn the enmity of the House’s remaining members.
Still, the loss of a member is devastating to a House, and the smaller the House, the more devastating the loss. If a House has only two members, the member in torpor may wake to find his resources long since disbursed or stolen. If the House has particularly loyal allies, another Kindred may take steps to awaken the torpid vampire and explain what has happened. Over the centuries, more than one Kindred has landed himself a place in a prestigious House by risking everything in order to wake an elder whose protégé had met Final Death.
In Houses with three or more members, the remaining active member of the House is free to rouse the torpid partner — the preferred course of action — or take a new protégé. The latter course of action is more acceptable the older the House is, although members of a cyclical dynasty with the Speaker for the Dead Merit (see below) may do so freely.
Conservatias (Restorative Vessels)
A conservatias is a “restorative vessel,” a bottle, jar or other container for the storage of Vitae over long years. A rare handful of those owned by modern Invictus date from the dark of Rome. Several more conservatii were crafted by contracted or imprisoned warlocks in the medieval nights. For a brief time in the 19th century, new restorative vessels were being carried by nomads out of New England and South America, but their makers are not commonly known.
Many restorative vessels resemble nothing more than simple clay urns. Others appear as old alchemical beakers made from black iron and etched with alchemical symbols. Strictly speaking, a conservatias can be made from any suitably large vessel capable of holding blood — most are ornate or priceless only because Kindred of the Invictus have paid for them.
A conservatias does nothing but maintain the potency of blood stored within it, up to two Vitae’s worth. That, however, is enough for Kindred who fear torpor. An elder vampire preparing to enter a long torpor can put enough of his own Vitae into this vessel to bring him out of torpor only 50 years later. (Kindred lose Blood Potency at the rate of one point every 25 years, and it takes Vitae of a vampire of Blood Potency two notches higher to revive a torpid vampire, so, after 50 years, the vampire’s own Vitae, preserved in the phial, is sufficiently powerful to rouse him from torpor. See Vampire: The Requiem p. 99 for more on Blood Potency.) This may not seem like much, but when torpor can last for a thousand years for some aged vampires, it’s a great boon. Many elders want to make sure their protégés can rouse them at any time, if necessary, and such elders have been known to pay vast sums for one of these phials.
Heart Thorns
Crafted from a short length of rose stalk, heart thorns are perhaps the ultimate representation of fidelity and solidarity between members of a House. Heart thorns are an all-or-nothing sort of item in that either all members of the House have them or no one does. When all members of a House decide to use these odd mystical devices, they gather lengths of thorny rose stem (on occasion with the roses still attached) and have a blood sorcerer or mage of some sort prepare them. The earliest blood thorns were created using the Crone’s art of Crúac, according to popular belief. Tonight, Acolytes sometimes trade training in the ritual to the Invictus in exchange for other favors.
When all members are ready, they undergo “heart surgery,” during which the participants must remain perfectly conscious and not enter frenzy. This last part can be difficult, as the operation inflicts the equivalent of four levels of lethal damage on those who endure it. The chosen elder carefully wraps the thorny lengths of rose stalks around their hearts in what is invariably an agonizing procedure. While the Kindred “surgeon” — usually one of the highest-ranking Invictus elders in the city, by tradition — does this, the participants swear allegiance to each other individually and to the House above all. These oaths are sanctified by the blood and pain of the participants.
Once the procedure is finished, a toast of blood is drunk to the House. (This toast isn’t part of the ritual; it’s to help replace the blood the Kindred expended to heal after their “operation.”) The House members are then free to go about their business. Heart thorns only have two effects: If a member of a House is ever about to harm another member of his House knowingly, either directly or indirectly, the thorns in the rose stalk immediately pierce his heart and send him mystically into torpor. Likewise, if a Kindred implanted with a heart thorn ever takes it out, the heart thorns in his brothers’ hearts writhe painfully in their chests, alerting them to his treachery or distress. The pain caused by this pronged mass moving in a vampire’s chest is excruciating, and is easily enough to awaken a vampire from sleep or even, in some mythic cases, torpor.
Invictus Kindred consider it a luxury to be able to spin their webs over a span of centuries, and while they aren’t obliged to plan for their deaths the way mortals must (at least not with the same degree of certainty), they do find it practical to plan for the next time they fall into eclipse (i.e., the fitful sleep of torpor). To that end, Invictus Kindred find themselves thinking in cyclical, not linear, terms. Yes, they will, eventually, fall into torpor, but they will also rise from torpor to feed and plot again.
In brief, that means that they do pay attention to matters of estate planning — they didn’t establish their empire of influence and money just so they could lose it the moment they fall into torpor, after all. To that end, many Invictus Kindred choose an “heir” who gains control over their fortune when they enter torpor. But not only have the Invictus established a system of inheritance, they’ve also established a system for inheriting their empire back when they rise.
The vassals of such elder Kindred all strive to be their mentor’s favorite so that they can be the executor and heir of their patron’s estate when the elder next goes into torpor. This in itself is the basis for many games of one-upsmanship among Invictus ancillae. Some try to prove their worth to their wouldbe patron through flattery, others through strategy and others yet through simple overall competence. To become the chosen protégé of a powerful patron is among the greatest honors (not to mention strategic benefits) an ancilla can aspire to.
For his part, the patron wants to treat his heir with the greatest respect and kindness. After all, at some point he will be entirely vulnerable to his protégé, and he wants the full measure of his protégé’s goodwill during that period of eclipse. (This is one of the many mechanisms the Invictus has adopted to ensure that elders don’t simply grind down those beneath them in the hierarchy.)
There is more to the system, however. Once the patron has reawakened from his long sleep, he is weak. He will have lost Blood Potency and all that comes with it. Meanwhile, his protégé will have been advancing in age and growing in power. And, at this point, the patron and the protégé effectively change places. The oncepowerful elder gets back his estate and all that goes with it, but he is likely weaker than the Kindred who was once his heir.
And when, in the fullness of time, the former protégé himself succumbs to torpor, it will be his former master who oversees his empire in turn. After one or two cycles of this, the two vampires’ fortunes begin to meld together. The elder may have originally gathered much of the wealth, but it was nurtured, grown and added to by the younger while the elder was in torpor. Likewise, the younger should have generated his own fortune while his patron was in eclipse, and his mentor is responsible for building on that when the younger, in his turn, reaches a point where he must enter torpor.
As time goes on, the “estate” winds up belonging neither to the patron, nor to the protégé, but to that cyclical dynasty. It is theirs jointly, because each builds on it when he is the more powerful and guards it when the other is in torpor.
The Invictus calls this system of alternating fortune and eclipse “a cyclical dynasty” or “a dynastic house,” and this system is one of the underpinnings of the Invictus’ power. There are those within the covenant who see cyclical dynasties as “the Invictus among the Invictus.” Those involved in such arrangements clearly think of themselves as major anchors of the covenant’s power. Those who participate in this practice may even make statements implying that only those in a dynasty are real Invictus members, but since they’re in the minority, they don’t say it as loudly as they might prefer.
Most Kindred refer to a cyclical dynasty simply as a “House” in common parlance, as in “Michael, of House Glamorgan.” The House name itself, traditionally, is not the name of any vampire in the cyclical dynasty, as that would imply the superiority of one member over the other, which, most Invictus Kindred will tell you, is a fleeting illusion in this ongoing system of revolving ascendance. House names, then, are frequently the name of a place (generally the place where the House was first established) or a new name entirely arrived at by both parties to represent the nighttime empire they hope to establish together.
Establishing a cyclical dynasty, obviously, requires great trust, faith and responsibility on the parts of all Kindred involved. What may appear to be a simple property-holding arrangement inevitably becomes a very intimate partnership, like a marriage in many ways, often with a blurring of separate identities into a shared House identity. Active members of a cyclical dynasty frequently pass their days next to their torpid partner(s) as an expression of intimacy, loyalty or trust, and this comes with advantages, as you’ll see shortly.
A handful of the cyclical dynasties that exist in the modern night were established as far back as the age of the Roman Republic. These are the great anchors of the First Estate. Members of these cyclical dynasties are among the wealthiest and most powerful Invictus Kindred. Their fame is such that young Kindred will grow amiliar with their names within a few months of their Embrace, even if they have no idea what or to whom that famous name refers or why. It is common in these oldest of Houses that members of the House are often known only by their shared House name, their personal names long ago having dissolved in the corrosive nightmares of torpor. In such cases, the personal identities of these Kindred became subordinate to the dynastic identity, just as their personal agendas are replaced by the dynastic agenda: the continuation of the dynasty and the maintenance and growth of the House’s holdings.
Neither is this the whole of the system involved in a cyclical dynasty.
The waking member of the dynasty is entrusted to look for a suitable third member. A cyclical dynasty can exist with two members, but it is considered to be more stable with three; with more than three members, a House begins feeling crowded. In a two-member House, the Final Death of one party causes the entire House to collapse instantly. A third member grants a House greater resilience and more companionship to the members of the house as a member spends one half of his active span with each of the other members. A three-Kindred cyclical dynasty is not unlike a revolving ménage à trois, with two members active at any given time while the third is in eclipse. In situations like this, an arrangement is struck so that each member sleeps for one century out of every three.
A two-member House may easily transition into a three-member House, and this is not an uncommon occurrence as both parties keep an eye out for other promising young Kindred to include in their revolving dynasty.
Some Houses have been known to incorporate four (or even more) vampires into their dynastic cycle, but some Kindred find that they don’t like that because they then have to share their “shift,” and hence their empire, with too many others. It gets messy, power struggles ensue and it detracts from the elegant simplicity of the two- or three-Kindred dynastic model.
Whatever the specifics of the House system, Invictus Kindred agree on one thing: those admitted to a House unquestionably weather the ages better than other Kindred. The fortunes of Invictus Kindred who are part of a House do not stagnate while they sleep, and their minds are less battered by the rigors of torpor. Having a trusted companion during torpor and, in particular, at the moment of waking into a new age, appears to mitigate the cumulative weight of centuries to a remarkable extent.
Some younger members of the Invictus have tried to get around the “generation gap” that exists between elders and younger Kindred by forming Houses with others their own age. While it’s theoretically possible for a group like this to coalesce into a House, it doesn’t have the same advantages, specifically the great accrued experience, wealth and influence, that an elder can bring to the arrangement. Elders themselves are inclined to quietly scoff at younger Kindred trying to form a cyclical dynasty on their own; they call it “playing House,” and, while they applaud the urge behind the attempt, they find it amusing that ancillae (or even neonates) would even contemplate entering such a relationship without an elder to guide them.
The Risks
The advantages of cyclical dynasties are numerous and profound. They help younger Kindred advance, provide elders with security, ease the burden of torpor and help the Invictus as a whole remain strong.And yet, for all that, a minority of Invictus Kindred takes part in the House system. The covenant’s paranoid elders keep this number low. Horrifying stories that tell of ungrateful protégés who gleefully take responsibility for their patron’s estate and then commit foul diablerie upon their prone forms circulate through the population of elders.
When carefully investigated, only a handful of these tales have ever proven to have any basis in fact, but the popularity of the stories reflects the degree of paranoia felt by Kindred elders. It is not easy to give up an empire for the uneasy sleep of torpor and harder still to trust that another Kindred will be capable of competent, loyal guardianship over the span of the elder’s decades of eclipse. Kindred know themselves, and they know how little they would trust themselves — so it’s extraordinarily difficult to trust others, particularly to this extent. Trust issues may prevent Houses from forming, but such issues rarely enter the picture after the first decade or so.
When Houses do fall apart, it is rarely due to betrayal or the catastrophic mishandling of the estate, but rather over timing. Cyclical dynasties are often very particular about the timing of each member’s torpor and rising. No Kindred wants to remain in torpor any longer than necessary, and the notion that another in their House is getting more “active time” doesn’t appeal to members of such a House. When dynastic Houses break apart, petty issues of timing are the root cause more than any other factor. In the 17th century, House Marzandi came apart after the waking Kindred brought their third member out of torpor two nights later than agreed upon. While that’s an extreme case, it illustrates the crucial role timing can play in House politics.
Truth be told, other covenants eschew the House system for precisely these reasons. The Invictus’ emphasis on loyalty, order and hierarchy, however, make Houses a feasible system.
That and a system called the tribunal.
The Tribunal
When an elder opts to enter into a dynastic pact, he chooses three elders (or older ancillae) to witness the signing of the pact. These Invictus elders need not be allies of the elder, but they do need to be devoted to the orderly principles of the Invictus. Tribunes, as these elders are called, distantly monitor the protégé’s behavior after his patron enters torpor. They watch the protégé’s aura for signs of diablerie and see to it that he isn’t doing anything bizarre or outrageous with his patron’s assets. The scrutiny of the tribunes is most severe for the first five years of the patron’s torpor, after which the scrutiny tapers off. The responsibilities of the tribunal last only for the first cycle of a new House, after which it is assumed that the members of the dynasty have arrived at some sort of equilibrium and are, therefore, no longer in danger of betrayal or otherwise going awry.Should it come to pass that the protégé actually does betray his patron, it is the role of the tribunal to send the traitor to Final Death via the most excruciatingly painful means possible.
One does not become a member of a tribunal because one is allied with the elder who requests it; one becomes a tribune in the name of the Invictus’ devotion to order. More than one elder has asked a Kindred he doesn’t particularly like to be part of his tribunal as he prepares to enter torpor, not because of any alliance between the two but because the elder knew that the tribune’s dedication to Invictus ideals would force his hand if he found the protégé guilty of breaching the dynastic compact.
Dynastic Compacts
When an elder and a younger Kindred have arrived at their decision to establish a House, the two write out a formal document of agreement called a dynastic compact. The compact spells out the expectations each party has of the other. The patron, for example, may insist that his financial assets increase by a particular percentage, that he wants to be swaddled in black silk during his torpor and that he wants three young men lined up to feed from when he arises from his long sleep; the protégé might stipulate that he would rather not be held responsible for the outcome of a real estate deal recently made by the elder or that he be allowed to use an attorney other than the patron’s unhinged old ghoul. These terms are negotiated far in advance of the actual ceremony when the compact is signed, so the terms of the compact will not be a surprise to either party.Unlike the swearing of oaths, the signing of dynastic compacts is a relatively private affair. For strategic reasons, Kindred often don’t want to advertise that they’re entering into a cyclical dynasty until it’s a done deal. Three elders witness for the patron (these witnesses will later become the tribunal), and three ancillae witness for the protégé.
While the compact is primarily a legal document, it hardly reflects the true depth and significance of entering a cyclical dynasty. The closest comparison to a dynastic compact would be a marriage license: by itself a marriage license is only a legal document, but it’s a document that reflects a serious commitment on the parts of those who have entered the contract.
The dynastic compact is revised at every cycle (that is, when the elder has awakened and the protégé is preparing to enter torpor). Each Kindred involved in the compact enters into a separate dynastic compact with every other member.
A dynastic compact carries at least as much weight as an Oath of Fealty, and the punishments for violating the terms of the contract are extraordinarily severe, a point that reflects the elders’ paranoia more than anything else.
Enforcing the Compact
Invictus members who enter into a dynastic compact are initially under immense pressure to succeed. The first several years of the patron’s torpor are critical. If the protégé looks like he’s betraying his patron or if he somehow seems not to be fulfilling his duties, other members of the First Estate will not hesitate to let him know. In the long run, a functional House is a major asset to the covenant, and the covenant has been known to take an active interest in cultivating young dynasties, particularly if the patron is a Kindred of any standing. The protégé may find that he has unexpected allies at critical junctures. While this can be a good thing, it can also be disturbing to have other members of one’s covenant knowing more about one’s business than one would like.Establishing a Cyclical Dynasty
Cyclical dynasties are uncommon, and with good reason. Finding the perfect team of Kindred necessary to function at this level of intimacy and interdependence is difficult. Were it not so rewarding to those in the House, it would not be done at all.The establishment of a cyclical dynasty is almost always initiated by an elder who feels himself on the verge of entering torpor and who feels he has found a shrewd, reliable protégé capable of managing the elder’s assets. The elder vampire approaches the younger with a rough set of the terms that will eventually become the basis of the dynastic compact. On occasion, an enterprising younger Kindred might approach an elder, but doing so is nothing short of brazen.
The establishment of a cyclical dynasty is traditionally kept quiet right up through the moment when the elder enters eclipse and his protégé takes control of his holdings. Ideally, only the elders who witness the signing of the dynastic compact should know what’s taking place. This is to prevent, among other things, young Kindred approaching the patron and trying to coax him into making them his protégé instead or hostile elders making a lunge for the patron’s assets before the protégé has fully mastered his patron’s various sources of wealth.
It also keeps other covenants from trying to interfere in a potential Invictus asset. Other covenants hate cyclical dynasties because established Houses represent a major asset for the First Estate. If a House is going to fail, it’s likely to do so within five years of the patron first entering torpor or within five hours of his rising from it. A House that survives those critical moments could well wind up being one of the Invictus’ bulwarks in the centuries to come, and is deserving of at least token interference on those grounds alone.
House Advantages
As practiced by the Invictus, cyclical dynasties have many advantages beyond the obvious stability benefits to wealth and influence. Some of these advantages are political. Moreover, the arrangement is often characterized by the Invictus as having a spiritual or subtle sorcerous element that benefits all members of the House, though this could be simple superstition or showmanship. Members of the First Estate don’t know how these additional advantages are conveyed, but the Invictus make the most of the advantages.On the other hand, there are the very visible and unquestionable advantages of continuance of a line. Being part of a House mitigates the fears many vampires have of torpor and makes them more willing to enter torpor for shorter periods of time; many of the advantages of the cyclical dynasty system originate with that fact.
Sweet Torpor
Cyclical dynasties do away with much, if not all, of the fear many elder Kindred have of torpor. The House system makes voluntary torpor a palatable idea and a feasible practice. Elders can comfortably turn over their empires to others while they regenerate themselves in relatively untroubled torpor. Given the system of timing adopted by many Houses, it’s quite likely that some member of the House will always have sufficiently potent Vitae to rouse the sleeping members of the House, so torpor ceases to be a looming threat but becomes, instead, a minor disruptive annoyance. Freely entering torpor in such a fashion has many advantages, not the least of which is the higher quality of dreams that follow a serene transition to eclipse.
Kindred who are members of cyclical dynasties almost always share havens and pass the day in close proximity, often in physical contact. While they would never volunteer this information to vampires of other covenants, Invictus Kindred believe that this practice strongly mitigates the negative effects of torpor: the torpid vampire is at peace; complete and blissful unconsciousness replaces the fevered hallucinations common to eclipse. This reduces the psychic strain and mental horror of torpor and allows the sleeping vampire to retain more and clearer memories from before his eclipse. It also prevents the Kindred from picking up derangements during long bouts of torpor. Truly old Kindred consider this one of the greatest advantages of the dynastic arrangement.
The exact benefits of sweet torpor are up to the Storyteller, but Invictus lore suggests that sweet torpor may grant elders perfect recall of their Requiems, help elders retain their Humanity or grant other subtle advantages at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Houses and Bloodlines
Among the Kindred of the Invictus, cyclical dynasties are often associated with bloodlines. The continuity and unity of purpose provided by a dynastic House simplifies the otherwise complex task of establishing a bloodline, and minimizes the danger of the bloodline going awry after the founder succumbs to torpor. Obviously, this is easier if all members of the House are from the same clan, but even mixed-clan Houses have succeeded in creating bloodlines.
Once a House has established a bloodline, the House may move to create a brood of childer from that bloodline as the House’s agents in the Danse Macabre. To many Invictus Kindred, this kind of arrangement is the pinnacle of accomplishment in the Requiem, a lasting legacy that many consider to be the one true indicator of success in the Requiem.
Continuance of Office
Any official title held by a Kindred is held by his House. Known members of a cyclical dynasty are expected to take one another’s place in official Kindred positions (all those roles that the Invictus created in the first place). When Prince Miriam of House Hekovah needs to enter torpor, her protégé David (whom she, in all likelihood, has been grooming for decades for the position) steps into the position as though nothing had changed. Decades or centuries hence, when it’s David’s turn to enter torpor, he will either return the Princedom to Miriam (assuming she’s out of torpor) or to the House’s third member.
This custom is considered absolute and inviolable by the Invictus, although other covenants, especially the Carthians, see it as oppressive and occasionally try to override it in domains where the Invictus is relatively weak. The problem with this, of course, is that domains with a House at the helm are precisely those places where the Invictus is strongest and where it has held power for the longest. In the modern nights, then, the best that other covenants can hope for is to keep members of a House from becoming Prince in the first place.
Responsibilities to the House
Being part of a cyclical dynasty is not without its costs and its inconveniences. A vampire must prove himself extensively before he’s even invited to join an established House, and once he’s signed the dynastic compact, he must constantly live up to the standards of his House or be taken to task by the House’s other members.Among other things, he must be able to fulfill the obligations of all of his House’s offices. If his House holds the title of Prince, he must be able to manage the domain effectively; if his House is Sheriff, then he must possess the abilities necessary for that position.
A member of a House must also be able to shepherd the House’s holdings, building on what he has been given, in the form of financial assets and in mortal influence, boons and social capital.
Caring for the House’s sleeping member(s) is a significant portion of the duties associated with cyclical dynasties. Active members are expected to pass their days slumbering alongside the House’s torpid member(s) as a gesture of solidarity, loyalty or love.
Waking members of the House are also responsible for rousing members of their House from torpor at predetermined times or in cases of emergency. At these times, the active member is expected to have ample blood waiting to help smooth the transition from torpor to wakefulness as much as possible and avoid the drama of a hunger frenzy. Those Kindred with more regal sensibilities often stipulate that they expect to be immersed in fresh, warm blood at the moment of their rising; the House’s waking member is responsible for seeing that this comes to pass.
The Summit
Any period when all members of a dynastic House are up and active is called a Summit. This is a rare occurrence, usually taking place no more than once every 25 to 50 years; a Summit usually lasts no more than a month before one or more members of the House fall into torpor. During this time, the members of the House discuss developments that have taken place in the world (the world of the Kindred, in particular), respond to challenges (of whatever type) to the House and plan their collective strategies for the next several decades. This is also when a House is most likely to take direct action against those it sees as its enemies. If a Kindred has landed herself on the wrong side of a dynastic House — say, by working against its interests or by consistently evincing contempt toward the House’s members — she would do well to keep a low profile while the House is having its Summit because this is the ideal time for the House to strike against its enemies.Even members of a cyclical dynasty can have misgivings about an approaching Summit, depending on the state of the House’s holdings and how the torpid member of the House felt about how he was treated while he was in eclipse.
Dread, however, is only one response to a House during its Summit. Depending on the House and the city where it’s located, a Summit might be celebrated with a huge party (as it would be in an Invictus city where members of the House were powerful and respected) or a Summit might be kept a closely guarded secret (as it would be in cities where the Invictus is weak or if the members of the House were feared or despised).
Complications
While participation in a cyclical dynasty is almost always an excellent long-term strategy for a Kindred, it also complicates certain aspects of the Requiem. Being part of a House means that one’s greatest loyalty must always be to one’s House. This makes some other social arrangements difficult, if not impossible, and impacts a number of other elements of the vampire’s Requiem.On a covenant-wide basis, the greatest problem of Houses is the effect they have on the morale of younger members of the Invictus. One city can only have so many dynastic Houses and still hope to gain new converts to the First Estate. Advancement in the Invictus is slow enough as it is. The presence of Houses brings advancement to a complete standstill, as one dynastic House can hold onto a coveted city office forever. Only the largest cities with the strongest Invictus presence can have even two cyclical dynasties before recruitment starts to suffer. More than that, and neonates are reduced to little more than disruptive rabble, pawns with no hope for advancement (at least not without packing up and leaving town). Still, even that can serve the Invictus’ long-range plans. More than one city has been colonized by young Invictus Kindred who went out on their own after growing tired of the smothering effect of too many dynastic Houses.
If cyclical dynasties are problematic within the Invictus, they are loathed by the other covenants, particularly the Carthians. Cyclical dynasties embody everything the other covenants hate (or envy) about the Invictus: they’re arrogant, spoiled, condescending and, worst of all, they seem to control everything. Other covenants recognize the Invictus’ House system as a serious strategic advantage, but the covenants also know that, for a variety of reasons, the system would not translate well to their own covenant. Truth be told, other covenants have made attempts at cyclical dynasties, but never with results that could be called anything better than mediocre. The Carthians lack the elders, the Circle of the Crone lacks the discipline, the Dragons lack the interest and the Sanctified have yet to decide if the House system might be sinful or unsavory.. Ultimately, cyclical dynasties, by their very nature, capture the essence of the Invictus mentality, and no other covenant can imitate their success without adopting certain philosophies or modes of thought that are quintessentially Invictus.
Vinculum
Given the numerous responsibilities associated with taking part in a cyclical dynasty, developing a Vinculum with a House member may be the least of a Kindred’s worries. Still, no vampire is so trusting that he’s willing to sign his unlife away without taking every opportunity to see that he’s not betrayed while in eclipse. More experienced Kindred see their Vinculum with House members as an advantage, not a disadvantage. A Vinculum prevents them from being bound to anyone else and maintains the bond between members of the House better than any other method.
When the Vinculum can be a disadvantage is when an established House takes in a new member. If three members of a cyclical dynasty all have a Vinculum to one another and they decide to admit a fourth member into the House, the new member will be expected to undergo the Vinculum to his new brethren, but they will not be able to develop a Vinculum to him in return. Since it’s the loyalty of the incoming member that’s most suspect anyway, that may not be a problem, but the newer Kindred may find it a little harder to trust the other members of his House when he realizes how things stand.
Oaths
A Kindred taking part in a cyclical dynasty is presumed to have sworn an Oath of Fealty to the other members of his House. He may not swear any of the major oaths to any other Kindred for any other reason. His time and energy are expected to go toward furthering the goals of his House.
There is one infrequent exception to this rule. A vampire may swear an Oath of Service to another Kindred, provided the Oath is of short duration and relatively simple to execute. At no point may a Kindred in a cyclical dynasty ever swear oaths that conflict with his allegiance to his House. Such arrangements are in clear violation of the spirit of the dynastic compact and will almost surely result in distrust and destruction.
Trust is a rare and precious commodity among the Kindred, and it’s indispensable to the establishment and maintenance of a cyclical dynasty. There is no room for questionable loyalties or even the appearance of questionable loyalties in the House system, and any Kindred whose loyalties do appear questionable is unlikely to remain part of a House for long.
Coteries
A Kindred’s true loyalty will always lie with his House, but this need not prevent him from joining a coterie. The coterie will certainly benefit from the Kindred’s increased fortunes, but the other members of his coterie must also realize that a Kindred’s loyalties to his coterie are always secondary to his loyalties to his House.
One way of dealing with this awkward situation is for all or most members of a coterie to be members of Houses (although Houses are hardly common enough for this to be an easy answer). In this situation, all members of the coterie will at least understand the basic rules of engagement and know what they can and cannot do in the context of their coterie.
Death in the House System
Killing a vampire who is a member of a cyclical dynasty is akin to removing the favored arm of the surviving Kindred in that House. It is emotionally — and often financially — crippling. To members of the House system, there is no worse transgression, and there is no limit to the lengths they will go for revenge. Any vampire who kills one member of a House had best be prepared to kill the others as well, as that’s the only way he’s going to escape retribution. In this sense, being a member of a House offers an additional modicum of security; any vampire aware of a Kindred’s participation in a House may be inclined to seek another victim rather than earn the enmity of the House’s remaining members.
Still, the loss of a member is devastating to a House, and the smaller the House, the more devastating the loss. If a House has only two members, the member in torpor may wake to find his resources long since disbursed or stolen. If the House has particularly loyal allies, another Kindred may take steps to awaken the torpid vampire and explain what has happened. Over the centuries, more than one Kindred has landed himself a place in a prestigious House by risking everything in order to wake an elder whose protégé had met Final Death.
In Houses with three or more members, the remaining active member of the House is free to rouse the torpid partner — the preferred course of action — or take a new protégé. The latter course of action is more acceptable the older the House is, although members of a cyclical dynasty with the Speaker for the Dead Merit (see below) may do so freely.
Dynastic Treasures
Over the centuries, Kindred who participate in the House system have occasionally devised wondrous items that help maintain their dynasties. The Invictus looks kindly on those who create tools or baubles that support the institution of dynasties.Conservatias (Restorative Vessels)
A conservatias is a “restorative vessel,” a bottle, jar or other container for the storage of Vitae over long years. A rare handful of those owned by modern Invictus date from the dark of Rome. Several more conservatii were crafted by contracted or imprisoned warlocks in the medieval nights. For a brief time in the 19th century, new restorative vessels were being carried by nomads out of New England and South America, but their makers are not commonly known.
Many restorative vessels resemble nothing more than simple clay urns. Others appear as old alchemical beakers made from black iron and etched with alchemical symbols. Strictly speaking, a conservatias can be made from any suitably large vessel capable of holding blood — most are ornate or priceless only because Kindred of the Invictus have paid for them.
A conservatias does nothing but maintain the potency of blood stored within it, up to two Vitae’s worth. That, however, is enough for Kindred who fear torpor. An elder vampire preparing to enter a long torpor can put enough of his own Vitae into this vessel to bring him out of torpor only 50 years later. (Kindred lose Blood Potency at the rate of one point every 25 years, and it takes Vitae of a vampire of Blood Potency two notches higher to revive a torpid vampire, so, after 50 years, the vampire’s own Vitae, preserved in the phial, is sufficiently powerful to rouse him from torpor. See Vampire: The Requiem p. 99 for more on Blood Potency.) This may not seem like much, but when torpor can last for a thousand years for some aged vampires, it’s a great boon. Many elders want to make sure their protégés can rouse them at any time, if necessary, and such elders have been known to pay vast sums for one of these phials.
Heart Thorns
Crafted from a short length of rose stalk, heart thorns are perhaps the ultimate representation of fidelity and solidarity between members of a House. Heart thorns are an all-or-nothing sort of item in that either all members of the House have them or no one does. When all members of a House decide to use these odd mystical devices, they gather lengths of thorny rose stem (on occasion with the roses still attached) and have a blood sorcerer or mage of some sort prepare them. The earliest blood thorns were created using the Crone’s art of Crúac, according to popular belief. Tonight, Acolytes sometimes trade training in the ritual to the Invictus in exchange for other favors.
When all members are ready, they undergo “heart surgery,” during which the participants must remain perfectly conscious and not enter frenzy. This last part can be difficult, as the operation inflicts the equivalent of four levels of lethal damage on those who endure it. The chosen elder carefully wraps the thorny lengths of rose stalks around their hearts in what is invariably an agonizing procedure. While the Kindred “surgeon” — usually one of the highest-ranking Invictus elders in the city, by tradition — does this, the participants swear allegiance to each other individually and to the House above all. These oaths are sanctified by the blood and pain of the participants.
Once the procedure is finished, a toast of blood is drunk to the House. (This toast isn’t part of the ritual; it’s to help replace the blood the Kindred expended to heal after their “operation.”) The House members are then free to go about their business. Heart thorns only have two effects: If a member of a House is ever about to harm another member of his House knowingly, either directly or indirectly, the thorns in the rose stalk immediately pierce his heart and send him mystically into torpor. Likewise, if a Kindred implanted with a heart thorn ever takes it out, the heart thorns in his brothers’ hearts writhe painfully in their chests, alerting them to his treachery or distress. The pain caused by this pronged mass moving in a vampire’s chest is excruciating, and is easily enough to awaken a vampire from sleep or even, in some mythic cases, torpor.
What's to Gain
Some Kindred might wonder why Invictus vampires expend so much effort on becoming an elder’s heir or protégé, but to the First Estate, it’s obvious. It’s like winning the lottery. In the space of one night, a protégé’s fortunes are multiplied a hundredfold by the addition of his patron’s wealth to his own.This means money, stock portfolios, real estate and financial power, of course, but it also includes the patron’s journals, haven, ghouls and, ideally, most of his mortal influence.
If the protégé needed investment capital, he now has it in spades. If he needs Retainers to do his bidding, he has those as well.
The only stipulation, of course, is that at the end of his patron’s torpor, he has to give back everything, plus what had better be a substantial return on investment. Any protégé who gives back only what his patron bequeathed him or — scandalously! — less than what he was bequeathed will have a lot of explaining to do if he hopes to avoid truly brutal punishment (and probably the dissolution of the arrangement.)
More than a Contract
Joining a cyclical dynasty may at first seem like a straightforward contractual arrangement. It’s not. Partners joining in a House often find their identities melding together over the decades. Members of Houses frequently adopt the “royal we” as a mannerism in their speech, but this isn’t out of arrogance so much as a new sense of firstperson-plural existence. By using “we,” they convey that they speak for both themselves and, by extension, for their House, because there’s no longer any effective way of differentiating the two. Their fortunes, motivations and, in time, personalities bleed together until they can no longer be untangled (or at least not without catastrophic consequences). Kindred who do not reach this degree of connection generally find themselves intensely uncomfortable with the arrangement and dissolve the compact as soon as possible. Mystically inclined Kindred (and the Invictus has more than one might expect) talk of the soul bond that arises when two Kindred are so intimately linked for so long, a Vinculum that has nothing to do with Vitae. And while most Kindred would rather not acknowledge the existence of such a link — as it is in blatant defiance of their highly rational approach to the Requiem — those members of Houses who have been asked about such a spiritual link almost always respond with enigmatic words, knowing smiles or haunted glances.
Marinus et Marinus
Abe and his sire Donatella were there at the station to meet the midnight train. It had been chartered by some Invictus from the Old World. Nothing like this had ever happened before, and the city’s Invictus Prince had rented out the gorgeous Victorian train station and declared it Elysium for the evening in order to provide a proper welcome.“So what are these gentlemen’s names?”
“Marinus,” Donatella replied.
“And the other one — ?”
“Marinus,” she said again.
“They both have the same name?”
“Yes. Actually, all three of them share the same name. Their third is in eclipse in Rome.”
“Isn’t that just the teensiest bit affected?” Abe asked in a tired voice.
Faster than he could see and hard enough to knock him to the floor, Donatella slapped him. The sound echoed through the train station and scared the birds roosting in the eaves. The Kindred around them stepped away instantly to give them room. The Harpy gave them an acid look and wrote something in his notebook. Donatella glared at Abe even as she reached down to help him up.
“No, it is not affected,” she hissed. “Those who go by their House name, and Roman ones at that, are among the eldest of us, and more dangerous than you can imagine. Keep a civil tongue in your head if you want to keep any tongue at all. And don’t embarrass me like that again, with your stupid questions.”
Stung into silence, Abe watched as the two men emerged from the train. They were shorter than he had expected, with dark hair and eyes and skin like alabaster, and they stared at the city’s assembled Kindred with a cold, alien gaze.
Another Way In
Most Invictus Kindred know at least the basics of how one winds up as part of a House, but there are other ways to get there. One trick is to find an elder who’s not entirely satisfied with his choice of prot g and then work on him to sow dissent between patron and prot g while presenting yourself as a promising up-and-coming Kindred.“I know Sebastian has been your protégé for many decades now, Violet, but he really hasn’t been keeping up on the best investment techniques. Had you left me in charge last time you entered eclipse, you’d be worth three times as much by now, and here are the charts to prove it.”
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