The Carthian Movement - Coteries
Politics have no relation to morals. —Niccolo Machiavelli
Of all the covenants, the collectivist Carthian Movement finds the act of gathering into coteries the least unnatural. For them, collective action is both natural and ethically superior to the selfish lunge up the ladder commonly seen in other covenants. Carthians view group endeavors with a certain reverence and coterie membership as a noble calling. Given that Carthians, in general, trend toward the younger edge of the Kindred age spectrum, they are also safer and more effective working together than alone. Only through effective group action have the Carthians been able to make any headway against the monolithic power structures established by the Camarilla and continued into the modern nights by The Invictus and The Lancea Sanctum.
Since history is against them, the Carthians are keenly aware that they need to make the future work for them. Innovation appears to be somewhat less difficult for the young Kindred of The Carthian Movement than for most of the Damned, a fact that works in the covenant’s favor. Carthians make it a point to be less hidebound than the Kindred of the older covenants, and they’re also more willing to experiment with new concepts in coterie structure. Innovation and risk go hand in hand, of course. While the covenant’s openness has resulted in a number of noble failed experiments, it has also led to a handful of remarkable successes that have served the Movement well. In certain American cities, for example, the covenant has adopted the form of a union. In the mid-’60s, one domain’s Carthians called a “strike” of the city’s neonates (and Carthian ancillae and elders) against the unfair tactics of the dominant Invictus and brought the city’s Kindred politics to a standstill. Without its minions, the First Estate was seriously compromised, and the Carthians gained immense standing. That approach resonated so strongly with the city’s neonates that it is now easily the strongest covenant in that city.
On the whole, Carthian coteries show more variety than other covenants’ coteries do. They include teamsters’ unions small pockets of political dissidents, governmental councils, salons of political philosophers and similar social bodies. They do not typically revolve around power and control the way the coteries of other covenants do. Instead, they focus on what they can do to loosen the bonds of the Kindred condition. A caveat is in order at this point for those who might see the Carthians as altruists among the Kindred. They are not. Carthians are drawn to that which provides them with a sense of equality and protects them from the depredations of elders, not to that which is kind or compassionate. For all their lofty principles and ideals, they are just as prone to excesses as any other Kindred. Indeed, they have the same thirst for blood that characterizes all of the Damned. No political system is immune to corruption, and the Carthians often take inherently noble systems (democracy or true communism, for example) and bring out the worst in them. While the Carthians favor egalitarianism and freedom for other Carthians, they are not so generous to those who lack the ideals to join the revolution, whom they often regard as no better than beasts or kine — and treat accordingly. The collectivist urge pushes Carthians to work together toward a goal, but that goal need not be noble. In fact, among the Kindred, it rarely is. Fascism and communism are both, at their roots, noble systems. Just as mortals failed to make those systems work, however, Carthians — especially as they grow older and more powerful — are predisposed to turn even the most perfect systems into dangerous totalitarian nightmares.
When he signed the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin said, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” The sentiment of his words informs the actions of many young Carthian coteries in the modern nights. Strength thrives in numbers, and Carthian Kindred make more use of that group-derived safety than any other covenant does. Any vampire who espouses equality among Kindred is automatically making enemies of most elders who benefit from the inequality of the Danse Macabre (which is to say, most of them). A coterie of Carthians, for example, might hold its own in an influence battle with an entrenched elder by pooling its influence and other Resources.
Many coteries have one and only one function: to spread the word of The Carthian Movement in that particular domain. The more Kindred the covenant can lure to its banner, neonates in particular, the more power the covenant has to shape the face of Kindred politics.
One of the ironies of the Carthian approach is that while the covenant as a whole claims to respect and work for the betterment of individual Kindred, the covenant itself recognizes only group identity. The Carthians get their power through group actions. They see and interact with Humanity as a mass, and they school like fish through the midnight world of the Damned. A single Kindred attempting to achieve anything of import as an individual is nearly heretical in the view of The Carthian Movement. It reeks of grandstanding, of setting oneself above others, or of being “first among equals.”
Consequently, as long as a Kindred is content being a cog in the machine, she and her fellow cogs can achieve great things. The moment she tries to be something more, though — to think in terms of “I” instead of “we” — she’s likely to find the whole covenant turning on her.
This describes a great deal of what happens to Carthians as they age. They have a tendency to think of the work of their neonate nights as a form of paying dues, but when they’ve gained some experience from their nights of struggle and want to lead instead of follow, they’re accused of trying to waylay the Movement. At that point, they can either shut up and take their place among the masses, or they can defect to another covenant.
At the coterie level, this conflict confronts all members with an opportunity: They can either fall to the bickering that plagues their covenant, or they can rally around the ideals of their brand of Kindred politics and achieve something. For a coterie, this means deciding exactly what its political structure is. Does it mean that the coterie’s more powerful members have to handicap themselves to stay in league with its weaker members? Does it mean that no single Kindred is allowed to guide the coterie? Does it mean that the Language of those in the coterie has to be cleansed of any words or phrases that might suggest an inferior/superior dynamic between two Kindred? Do members favor syndicalism? Communism? Fascism? Democracy? A classical senate? Members must come to some sort of agreement about what brand of political system they favor before the coterie can strive for it, after all. In this sense, coteries can often become a dysfunctional microcosm of the covenant as a whole. A new Carthian coterie should address these issues in the course of the chronicle to explore just what it takes to be a member of the Movement.
At its root (in theory, anyway), The Carthian Movement seeks rational governance, a vampiric order established “by the Kindred and for the Kindred.” Most Carthians feel that mortals have stumbled onto something good with democracy, and that Kindred need to stop clinging to obsolete power structures and adapt to the times.
Nowhere is the idealistic nature of The Carthian Movement more obvious than at the coterie level. There are no hierarchies to worry about, no favored clans, no second class Kindred — and there is precious little order. Under most circumstances, Carthian coteries are half a step away from being undirected rabble. Every member of the coterie knows full well that she’s neither better nor less than any other member of the coterie. Yet, from this chaos comes the covenant’s strength.
In most Carthian coteries, every Kindred has an equal say. The group is less likely to take extreme courses of action, as the group dynamic tends to counsel against extremism. Once the coterie has agreed to a course of action, every member can work toward that goal energetically, knowing that once the goal is attained, an equal share of the power (or blame) will be hers. For the Carthians, this is the greatest motive of all.
Among some other covenant-specific coteries, many (though by no means all) are the products of elder decree or experimentation, a sort of Kindred version of arranged marriage. Most Carthian coteries, on the other hand, typically assemble themselves according to whatever criteria they feel are important, and any outside Kindred interfering with that in any way is subject to severe social sanctions (e.g., being snubbed, scolded or glared at by her peers). In the absence of elder involvement, the selection of coterie members can be haphazard. There is rarely any strategy in how a coterie gains members. More often than not, the luck of the draw is the only thing dictating the result of a bunch of Carthian Kindred joining together as a coterie, as long as ideals mesh. Some of these free-form coteries work. Others don’t. Others might not work initially, but the members learn relatively quickly how best to cooperate to further the goals of the coterie as a whole. And, of course, vampiric nature makes the process harder than it needs to be.
This approach to coteries is the most common in the Movement, but by no means the only way coteries come into being. From time to time, ancillae put out a call for Kindred to volunteer for a particular duty that furthers whatever cause the dominant Carthian faction favors. These ancillae (or possibly elders) don’t assemble the resultant coteries directly, they simply call attention to a need, suggest some criteria and hope for the best. (“The Carthians in this infiltration coterie should have exceedingly good social skills and preferably some ability and experience with stealth operations.”) If this method doesn’t result in a workable coterie, the ancilla might offer a reward to those Kindred who volunteer.
Members of a coterie choose one another for myriad reasons and explain it away as “the best thing for the coterie.” A Carthian Daeva might opt to take a Nosferatu into her coterie out of a feeling of obligation, pity or political correctness. The Nosferatu might accept her invitation because he sees the Daeva as a good tool to further his personal goals. A Mekhet philosopher in the process of choosing his own coterie might decide, however reluctantly, to include a Gangrel brawler for his martial prowess. The Gangrel brawler might agree because the Mekhet stokes his lusts. The adage about how politics makes strange bedfellows is particularly true when describing the process by which Carthian coteries come into being. Members of The Carthian Movement have been using idealistic politics to cloak their less noble agendas since the covenant’s very first nights.
Once a coterie forms, however, it needs some kind of guidance or direction. Unlike the strict hierarchical system used by the less progressive covenants, many Carthian coteries refuse to lower themselves to recognizing any sort of hierarchy inside the coterie, unless their personal politics favor such things. They prefer to take a more enlightened approach to managing the coterie, and any attempt to choose a leader would be considered scandalously atavistic. Having one designated leader calling the shots in a Carthian coterie is looked down upon by many Carthians, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Allowing one member of the coterie to make decisions for the group is considered not just anachronistic, but horribly passé as well. The obvious alternative is a sort of anarchy, which, as a general rule, results in the coterie tearing itself apart within a month or two. The more effective Carthian coteries adopt one of two approaches to decide who makes the group’s decisions.
If a coterie would rather not lose a particular member, however, the members might vote with her more often than they’d like just to keep her around. A vampire with important political connections, knowledge crucial to the coterie’s goals or an enormous amount of money might find that she can get away with a lot more in her coterie than she could otherwise.
These Carthian figures can be inspired, subtle, effective leaders, but just because they’re members of the Carthian covenant doesn’t make them any less Damned. An un-leader in a Carthian coterie can easily be an enlightened despot, absolute in her control over the group, but subtle and indirect enough that the power disparity doesn’t chafe the other members. Daeva (or other Kindred with Majesty) are particularly good at guiding coteries thus. If they don’t for some reason, such leaders rarely hesitate to appeal to group loyalty, Carthian dogma, the laws of the domain, social standing or anything else necessary to get her orders carried out.
Often, the aspect of the un-leader that drives her coterie to follow her is her absolute devotion to the political cause. In some circumstances, Kindred are surprised to find out that “the cause” carries more weight with their leader than the unlives of the coterie’s members. More than one un-leader has seen fit to sacrifice her entire coterie (including herself, in many cases) in the name of achieving some great goal for the cause. Indeed, multiple individuals might find themselves jockeying for the position of un-leader in a Carthian coterie. Such behavior is usually the product of a great deal of personal politicking and a good many secret deals and special arrangements.
In coteries using the revolving-guide approach, each coterie member leads the coterie for a set period before handing over the reins to a compatriot. In this way, every member gets equal say in the group’s activities, but there’s still focus and order. Some coteries find this to be the best of all choices, but others find that certain guides take the coterie in such personal directions that the other members can hardly wait for the term to be up. Most Carthians with experience in using the revolvingguide approach strongly advocate some kind of override or veto ability for the rest of the coterie to keep the guide from rampaging over the rest of the group. In such cases, if all of the other members side against the guide, his decision is overturned. Furthermore, most coteries also stipulate that if the guide is overruled by the coterie in this way, he forfeits the rest of his term of guiding as a reminder to lead more wisely in the future.
It’s not unusual for “the cause” to request that a coterie make a small sacrifice from time to time, and large ones less frequently. Such sacrifices vary enormously, but they can include a commitment of anything from time to money to a member of the coterie’s mortal Herd or even to fighting in the name of the Movement. Such sacrifices aren’t called for often, and when they are, it’s usually because the covenant as a whole needs to fend off the other covenants or needs to increase its power in a certain domain. For example, if a Regent’s tenurial domain is known as a Haven for Carthians, that Regent might be asked to host Carthians from outside the domain in order to increase the covenant’s presence in a city. Of course, like all Carthians, the Regent is perfectly free to decline the request. She might find her social options drying up, her support from others in the covenant growing sporadic and other members of her covenant leaving the room when she enters it, but she’s certainly free to refuse the request.
Typically, the smaller the requested sacrifice is, the more pronounced the social consequences are for not acquiescing. A coterie that declines to make some small sacrifice for the betterment of the Movement (a moderate sum of money, for example) might face total social ostracism, while a coterie asked to sacrifice the lives of the Herd the members feed from might get only a brief cold shoulder for refusing.
Curiously, it tends to be the covenant’s ancillae who do the asking in these situations and neonates who provide most of the sacrifices, though this arrangement is by no means absolute. What this means to a particular coterie is that it learns the techniques of social extortion as it gains experience working with The Carthian Movement. Once the group has learned to sacrifice Resources to the cause (or suffered the ostracism of its peers after not making such sacrifices), it will know better how to manipulate younger Kindred using those same techniques. In many ways, this dynamic is the very heart of the Carthian philosophy, which makes it all but transparent to the members of the covenant. Those who have recognized this “abuse of lesser” typically pass it off as one more cost of playing politics.
For a coterie of characters, the willingness to sacrifice could potentially impact some of the Merits each character started with. While it can be rough to lose those points that way, it’s pale shadow of what such a sacrifice means to the character in the context of the chronicle.
Almost any Merit can be sacrificed in the name of the cause, should it come to that. A Haven hiding Carthians from out of town can be burned to the ground. Money can be spent or lost. Retainers, Allies and Contacts can be killed, as can members of a Herd who are fed from too frequently. City or Clan Status can be sacrificed, often resulting in some increase in Covenant Status. Unless the circumstances are truly extraordinary (outright war between the Carthians and another covenant, for example), no member of a coterie should lose more than one dot in any given Merit in any single situation. After all, one of the reasons for working collectively is to spread out the sacrifice as much and as thinly as possible. That said, dots lost thus are gone until the player buys them back with experience. The struggle for dominance in the Danse Macabre does not offer consolation prizes.
Some of the most vociferous supporters of equality among the Carthians are sophisticated neonates. Of all the Kindred, the young are those most regularly relegated to positions of inequality throughout Kindred society. Their influence within the covenant, based on both their unshakable absolutism on the matter and sheer numbers, keeps The Carthian Movement honest. The moment a savvy neonate sees something that undermines the Carthian ethic of equality, the voice of popular dissent within the covenant grows progressively louder until the inequality is addressed.
All members of a Carthian coterie are considered equally valuable. Given that most members of The Carthian Movement are neonates, and that a few coteries combine neonates and ancillae, that’s likely to be accurate. Any member of a coterie suggesting, in any way, that all members are not equally valuable could be reprimanded (or possibly accused of undermining the Movement and kicked out of the covenant) for both his callousness and heterodoxy.
An emphasis on equality is not necessarily an emphasis on compassion or morality. Some Carthian coteries are together because all members are equally terrible or equally willing to take advantage of the mortal Herd. For example, one coterie might decide that the best way to advance its political goals is to weaken the mortal Herd. To that end, it would make a concerted effort not to feed on the disadvantaged and seek more vital blood in order to remove them from the mortal population (and keep them from ever becoming Kindred).
The Carthian Movement staunchly advocates interaction with mortals. Through mortals Carthians learn the tricks that will further their long-term goals. To that end, Carthians interact with mortals on a regular basis, and not just as predators among prey. Carthian vampires are often inclined to converse with mortals wherever they find them, and they believe that by doing so they’re staying in touch with what is most innovative and vital in themselves.
The relative dynamism of Carthians is part of what underpins their reputation as the innovators of Kindred society. Another part stems from the covenant’s acceptance of dissent. Arguing, sharing opinions and participating in the covenant’s ongoing internal dialogue are all mainstays of Carthian existence. While a member of a more calcified covenant might have an idea for improving the covenant, she’s unlikely to voice it lest she antagonize her elders. Likewise, even if she does propose her idea, the elders would likely dismiss such a suggestion out of hand, coming as it does from someone so young. The best this hypothetical Kindred can hope for is to have her Mentor steal her idea and present it as his own. After experiencing the resentment and useless rage stemming from that a time or two, she’s likely to lose all motivation to bring up her ideas ever again — even if they’re brilliant.
The Carthian Movement, however, approves of constructive dissent. Consequently, neonates who are eager to impress others in their coterie or to make a name for themselves as clever, innovative types are likely to share their ideas at the drop of a hat. The constant brainstorming inevitably leads to an evolution of ideas that works in the covenant’s favor (despite the occasional periods of chaos).
This dynamic is more obvious among the Carthians’ coteries of philosophers and politicians, but even in more martial groups, debate over the most appropriate tactics to use in a given situation lead to better outcomes than sticking with a more static approach would.
Some members of the Movement have suggested that debate is the covenant’s main strength. Unlike other covenants that use dogma or authority to quell their younger members, the Carthians advocate a free exchange of ideas. While this exchange unavoidably opens up the covenant to the input of firebrands and radicals, it also allows the Movement to hear the ideas of insightful neonates as well.
Debates within Carthian coteries sometimes come right after the group performs the Chain (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 47). Whoever holds the revered object is the designated speaker. No interruption or crosstalk is allowed as long as that member holds the object. Once the member has had her say, she passes the object along. A vampire who wants to challenge or refute her views must wait until the object gets to him. In this way, Carthians have open debate without it degenerating into shouting matches (which is how most other approaches to “free exchange of ideas” turned out before the current method was adopted). In other, similar formats, the object passed around during the Chain serves as the “speaker’s right” but isn’t necessarily passed in a circle, allowing for more point-counterpoint forms of debate.
While Carthians like to preserve the peace, insightful dissent is valued as a means of forcing the covenant to consider ideas with which it might not necessarily be comfortable, but which could help the Movement function better.
The overarching goal of the Carthian covenant is the leveling of the playing field for all Kindred (whatever form that takes personally for each Carthian). In the absence of hierarchy and division — or so the visionaries claim — all Kindred will be equals, freed from the ages-old systems of enslavement used by the other covenants in their pursuit of the Danse Macabre.
The unofficial motto of the Carthians is “Whatever it takes.” This motto could be (and has been) used to answer any of several questions, including the following: “What are we supposed to do about this damned Acolyte Prince?” “What did you want us to do about the Haven’s security?” or “How much pressure did you want us to put on the union guys to make them show up tomorrow night?” Carthians, on the whole, are the most innovative vampires dwelling in their domains. Some of this capacity comes from the basic intelligence of the mortals culled for the Embrace, some from coteries’ willingness to brainstorm ideas, some from their relative nearness to the mortal state and some from sheer animal cunning. They are like ants or rats in their ability to find ways around obstacles, and that ability is one of the covenant’s single greatest strengths.
The Carthians are pushing for a hierarchical change that will wipe out the ossified power structures of the old Kindred establishment and level the playing field for all of the Damned. Some of the Movement’s members go so far as to describe themselves as revolutionaries. When pushed to it, they are not averse to adopting the violent tactics used by other revolutionary movements. As far as these radical Carthians are concerned, force is the only thing that ever persuades powermad elders to loosen their collective grip on vampire society. Even as the covenant presents itself as an idealistic and egalitarian alternative to “the establishment,” it works behind the scenes using whatever tactics it has to — including some that would likely horrify its own less devoted members.
Carthian coteries often find themselves with the awkward dilemma of choosing between their Humanity and their revolutionary cause. A coterie that maintains its connection to Humanity might be forced to forgo certain very effective tactics (betrayals, assassination and the like) in its war for equality. On the other hand, a coterie that takes advantage of every available violent, destructive technique will quickly find itself alienated from the human morality its members had hoped to maintain over the centuries.
This dilemma is, predictably, the basis for much intra-covenant disagreement. Carthians who truly value the human side of their personalities find themselves horrified at the mayhem caused by some of their fellow Carthians. On the other end of the spectrum, the more violent members of the faction find themselves constantly frustrated by the inability of their “gentler” brethren to get things done, expeditiously or otherwise.
Any given Carthian coterie likely contains adherents of both views. What tactics the group winds up using depends, in the end, on how the group makes decisions and what tools it has in place to avoid or resolve conflict within the group.
The Carthian Movement uses an array of tactics in its fight for the common Kindred. Given its many disadvantages (such as the relative lack of elders and the frequent disdain of the other covenants), the Carthians need to make the most of what advantages they have. The following are among the most common tactics used by Carthian coteries in their nightly struggle for the cause.
Carthians are aware of this strength, and they wield it strategically. Minor infractions against the cause can be overlooked, but serious offenses — such as abandoning a fellow Carthian to Final Death — is grounds for action. Hostile members of other covenants have been forced to stand down from violent action against Carthian coteries (or individuals) after being threatened with widespread rebellion by the covenant’s members.
This is not to suggest that individual Carthian coteries don’t have their own agendas, just that the covenant’s agenda can come first. As The Carthian Movement sees it, every time an entrenched vampire takes advantage of a disempowered vampire, he’s striking at the Movement’s very heart. If the Carthians take no action, the foe grows emboldened enough to do it again. If, on the other hand, the Carthians take action against the foe every time he steps out of line, even if some of those actions are not entirely successful, it reminds their adversary that any vampire taking advantage of the Kindred masses can expect to be met with resistance. The first, second or third time the Carthians resist might not have any impact at all, but even the most arrogant elder is eventually going to get tired of bracing for conflict, defending his Haven and influences, just to play power games with younger Kindred.
These tactics can be chalked up to making a virtue of necessity, as the Carthians typically lack massive financial Resources and upper-tier pawns. Rather than compete with more traditional Kindred directly for mortal influence through the same channels, The Carthian Movement appeals to human nature and the Herd instinct to press its agenda. As the Carthians have phrased it, they prefer taking a more “grassroots” approach to acquiring influence among mortals.
While the gap between Kindred and mortals might be too wide to span entirely, Carthian coteries downplay the differences and interact with mortals in as egalitarian a manner as possible. While mortals have nothing to gain from helping the Carthians, per se, the Movement is adept at making mortals believe that its goals are their goals. The relative youth of Carthian Kindred is an advantage in such cases, since fewer members of the covenant have lost touch with their own Humanity and don’t exude the same disturbing presence or alien philosophies as the Damned of other covenants do.
First, most local incarnations of the covenant harbor more neonates than ancillae and elders put together. There’s no way that established Kindred can watch every Carthian operative all the time. The Carthians have many sympathizers among the neonates of other covenants, and they can sometimes call on those sympathizers to provide information or similar favors.
Additionally, Nosferatu and Mekhet vampires make up over half of the Carthians’ numbers. Kindred from both of those clans are drawn to The Carthian Movement in disproportionate numbers, and both of those clans play a key role in the Movement’s undercover operations. Not only do the powers of Obfuscate allow them to pass unseen among other Kindred, but the information-gathering abilities of the Shadows surpass those of any other clan, giving the Carthians a pronounced advantage in the espionage department.
That fact that the Carthians should resort to such methods should really surprise no one. Guerilla tactics represent one of the few viable strategies available to weaker groups when confronted with the superior power of a monolithic enemy. The young and relatively inexperienced Kindred of The Carthian Movement would be annihilated if they went against the power of established covenants directly, so they don’t put themselves in direct conflict. Instead, they keep a low profile, they wait, and they watch for the enemy to reveal his weakness. Then they exploit that weakness viciously and to the best of their ability. At least one city has seen control of the domain pass to the Carthians after engaging in a concerted war of attrition in which the Carthians killed or intimidated enough members of the rival faction that they not only stopped persecuting the Carthians, but ceded praxis.
When the Carthians are dominant or at least wield an appreciable amount of political power, terrorist tactics tend to fall by the wayside for all but the most extreme groups. Not only does the covenant see little reason to continue waging guerilla actions in a cause it might well win, relying overmuch on these tactics tends to unite Kindred of other covenants against them. Carthian “Bosses” and other Prince-analogues have met their own ends as their coups succumb to the swings of political pendulums, ousting them from praxis as quickly (and violently) as they seized them.
Due to its large numbers of neonates, its lack of rigid structure and its tendency to innovate, The Carthian Movement boasts many types of coteries, ranging from the standard, easily recognizable coteries fielded by other covenants to the experimental or prototypical coteries that would be found only among the Carthians.
Boot squads are among the Carthians’ best weapons in their struggle for equality among the Kindred because they provide many elders with a reason to rein themselves in and not antagonize members of the Movement. The presence of such coteries has proved to be a powerful deterrent to elders’ excesses in some domains and little more than an irritant in others. Untroubled with political niceties or petty influence wars, boot squads exist solely to monitor, stalk and punish rival Damned who take too-frequent aim at members of The Carthian Movement. An errant Kindred might find his Haven burned, his Ghouls killed or his mortal pawns dead or under Vinculum to someone else. He might even find himself staked and placed in the concrete of a building’s foundation. The violence of such efforts sends a clear message to foes, which can sometimes result in the boot squad becoming the champions of the downtrodden within a city. Alternatively, though, it could result in the coterie’s members becoming seen as dangerous thugs, depending on what spin a city’s covenants place on its actions.
The typical boot squad consists of Mekhet and Nosferatu vampires, and they are generally ancillae, as neonates lack the power necessary to go against the breadth of political foes a Kindred might face. Motivated Gangrel or overt Daeva might occasionally join a boot squad as well if they’re intent on serving their covenant in a martial capacity.
Some boot squads have found that their calling sets them up nicely to commit Diablerie upon elders with whom they come into conflict. Those coteries that are willing to pay the price for power can find themselves rapidly becoming the most powerful Carthian coterie in the domain. While the covenant officially forbids this practice, it appreciates unofficially the increase in the raw power of its membership.
Only the most liberal Prince would stand for a boot squad coterie forming in her domain. When most Princes hear of such a coterie forming, a blood hunt likely follows in short order. Consequently, many boot squads masquerade as other sorts of coteries entirely.
Most such coteries occur organically, as dissatisfaction with the existing hierarchy festers and affected Kindred learn of Carthian causes and methods. Some also form as crypto-Carthian sympathizers, meet up and begin working together for the ideals of their Movement. Due to the extreme consequences imposed by the powers that be upon those caught operating in anti-Carthian domains, a mood of Paranoia sometimes permeates dissident cells.
Ironically, young dissident cells are nearly as likely to appear in domains under Carthian control as they are anywhere else. While “the revolution eats its young” is a commonplace Carthian aftereffect, dissident coteries prove that the Movement is perfectly capable of devouring its elders as well. Operating in a Carthian domain, such coteries claim that the order isn’t egalitarian enough, that it’s not pushing for change fast enough, that it isn’t dedicated in the right way. Ideological clashes between factions of Carthian coteries occur, as between totalitarians and those favoring democracy or socialists and fascists. From the standpoint of the ancillae, they’ve done everything they can within the framework of the Kindred political structure, but the newest of the neonates place ideals before political realities and consequently see their own ancillae (and elders) as being part of the problem.
Carthian vampires not only spy on their foes, they take an active role in undermining activities they don’t approve of (which includes anything that works against the overarching goals of the local Carthian Movement).
A spy coterie might pose as some other type of coterie, something innocuous like philosophers or recruiters, to prevent undue attention from being placed on them. Alternatively, they might pass as members of another covenant entirely. When they’re not being watched, however, they monitor the Prince, Regents, Prisci, Primogen and other power brokers for anti-Carthian sentiments and activities.
Such a coterie might even go so far as to pose as members of the extant hierarchy, over the phone, in correspondence or in person, in order to sabotage their target’s relationships with influential mortals or other key underlings.
More than one rival has found his strategies against The Carthian Movement hopelessly compromised or deftly shut down by the activities of a coterie of dedicated spies and saboteurs.
Most of the Kindred operating in an exemplar coterie are likely to have the significant amounts of Covenant Status, even if that translates more into reputation than position in the covenant. Each is likely to be an ardent supporter of the covenant’s ideals and tactics. While the covenant as a whole is still too young to be certain, it appears that exemplar coteries have the greatest likelihood of reaching elder Status without alienating the Movement’s younger members. That’s one reason the covenant reveres these coteries so highly: Anything that helps the Movement gain more credibility among other covenants’ elders stands to benefit the covenant immeasurably.
Of course, that’s exactly why exemplary coteries make it to elder Status. Their dedication to the covenant’s goals are so utterly without question that even accusations that they’ve sold out are obviously without merit. Exemplars demonstrate that it’s not “elders” that the Carthians hate so much, it’s the arrogance and abuse of power that typically come with being an elder vampire. If an elder can maintain her integrity and Carthian values, the covenant is all for it, because it provides a big gun with which to fight the big guns of the other covenants. As perennial underdogs, Carthians aren’t averse to anything that furthers their vague, overarching goals. Again, “whatever it takes” serves as the vital methodology.
While these philosophical coteries maintain the lowest profile among other Kindred, they often determine prevailing Carthian policy and serve as the drivers of the local Carthian Movement itself. Some Carthians think of the philosopher coteries as éminence grises lurking behind the scenes of the covenant. Others see them as the unsung heroes of the Movement.
Such philosophical coteries typically operate in the largest and strongest bastions of Carthian power and surround themselves with such defenders as they can field. Hostile scions of other covenants see these “think tanks” as the real root of the Carthian problem and would love to wipe them from history entirely.
Very few standing coteries perform this function, but those that do certainly make a place for themselves not only among the Carthians but also among the (relatively) forthright Kindred of the city. What Regent wouldn’t want a devoted group of muckrakers reporting to him? What Harpy wouldn’t want to hear about failed coups and daggers in the night when Elysium convenes? At other times, whistleblowers rapidly become unwelcome in a city. At the very least, it’s common for whistleblower coteries to find themselves on the wrong side of those selfsame Harpies, and when the Prince or Regent is the one plotting treachery, well, the obvious answers go unsaid. The best of all possible worlds, from a Carthian standpoint, is when a member of a coterie of whistleblowers actually gets promoted to or claims the role of Harpy, because it lets her gain Status in the city by doing the things she’s already doing. This happens most often in those rare cities where the vast majority of power sits in Carthian hands, because the other covenants are often loath to allow this to happen.
If it needs to be said, many such coteries meet unpleasant ends after exposing the wrong Kindred with powerful Allies — and most relatively soon after forming. Members of such a coterie would do well to have better than average combat skills and ample political connections to protect themselves from those whose enmity they provoke (and whose failures or hypocrisies they expose).
Recruiter coteries generally comprise attractive, gregarious and socially skilled Kindred, but they also need some ability to defend themselves or avoid combat if they are beset by members of another covenant who don’t like Carthians spreading their philosophy. Many Carthian recruiters hail from Clan Mekhet, although a number of Daeva take pleasure in seducing members away from other covenants as well.
Obviously, hive coteries are hard to miss or mistake for anything else, rendering them uncommon outside domains where Carthians are accepted as part of the local infrastructure. Where they are found, they are considered a curious and somewhat eccentric variant of the Carthian type.
Members of a hive sometimes even go to the extreme of subjecting each other to Vinculums as a way of increasing the coterie’s intimacy and group cohesiveness. Most such coteries see to it that at least one member possesses enough Auspex to act as a telepathic nexus for the group’s members, allowing them to access one another’s consciousness.
Given that hive members have so much else in common, it’s all the more important that the coterie comprise members of different clans, otherwise the group will have an extremely truncated range of competence. The coterie is already likely to have many interests and talents in common, so if the members share the same Disciplines as well, it could be very difficult for the coterie to function in wide range of situations.
The sense of belonging that members of a hive coterie share is intense and deeply fulfilling. It sometimes leads to too much unanimity as no one in the coterie wants to dissent from any stance taken by the group. Members of such a coterie might eschew their personal identities in favor of an identity relative to the coterie (such as “the tallest of us,” or “our spokesperson”). A Kindred who has spent any length of time in such a coterie might prefer Final Death to being separated from his coterie.
While other Carthians generally allow hive coteries to operate as they see fit, some members of the covenant find them disturbing and illustrative of a dangerous vein of Carthian thought.
From the standpoint of a Carthian coterie, real Status is gained only through the act of changing the society of the Damned (which is difficult). A Carthian coterie often finds it difficult to gain Status outside its covenant unless The Carthian Movement has a controlling share of the power in a city. At that point, a coterie gains Status to the degree to which it works for Carthian ideals.
Status among Carthian coteries is problematic. Carthian philosophy dictates that all Kindred are created equal, so no coterie should be elevated above another, yet it happens. More successful coteries are praised as champions of The Carthian Movement while the Carthian establishment ignores the less driven and less competent ones. The covenant at least has the grace to attempt to explain the paradox away.
Because egalitarianism does figure so prominently in the ideals of the Carthians, Status and age play less of a role in Carthian coteries than they do in any other covenant. This is great for the neonates because they have no overlords. It’s good for the ancillae because they wield the kind of power and influence in the Movement that other covenants reserve for the elders. For elders, however, the egalitarian approach is often a problem. If an elder isn’t truly and deeply committed to Carthian principles, she’s likely to start resenting her decades of service to the covenant. More than a few Carthian elders have grown so annoyed with their own upstart neonates that they’ve recanted their belief in the covenant’s principles and defected. The Carthians have only recently been around long enough to boast any elders in their ranks at all, and the high rates of defection make many Carthian philosophers wonder about the Movement’s long-term viability.
Only North America boasts more than a handful of these paradoxical Kindred.
Since history is against them, the Carthians are keenly aware that they need to make the future work for them. Innovation appears to be somewhat less difficult for the young Kindred of The Carthian Movement than for most of the Damned, a fact that works in the covenant’s favor. Carthians make it a point to be less hidebound than the Kindred of the older covenants, and they’re also more willing to experiment with new concepts in coterie structure. Innovation and risk go hand in hand, of course. While the covenant’s openness has resulted in a number of noble failed experiments, it has also led to a handful of remarkable successes that have served the Movement well. In certain American cities, for example, the covenant has adopted the form of a union. In the mid-’60s, one domain’s Carthians called a “strike” of the city’s neonates (and Carthian ancillae and elders) against the unfair tactics of the dominant Invictus and brought the city’s Kindred politics to a standstill. Without its minions, the First Estate was seriously compromised, and the Carthians gained immense standing. That approach resonated so strongly with the city’s neonates that it is now easily the strongest covenant in that city.
On the whole, Carthian coteries show more variety than other covenants’ coteries do. They include teamsters’ unions small pockets of political dissidents, governmental councils, salons of political philosophers and similar social bodies. They do not typically revolve around power and control the way the coteries of other covenants do. Instead, they focus on what they can do to loosen the bonds of the Kindred condition. A caveat is in order at this point for those who might see the Carthians as altruists among the Kindred. They are not. Carthians are drawn to that which provides them with a sense of equality and protects them from the depredations of elders, not to that which is kind or compassionate. For all their lofty principles and ideals, they are just as prone to excesses as any other Kindred. Indeed, they have the same thirst for blood that characterizes all of the Damned. No political system is immune to corruption, and the Carthians often take inherently noble systems (democracy or true communism, for example) and bring out the worst in them. While the Carthians favor egalitarianism and freedom for other Carthians, they are not so generous to those who lack the ideals to join the revolution, whom they often regard as no better than beasts or kine — and treat accordingly. The collectivist urge pushes Carthians to work together toward a goal, but that goal need not be noble. In fact, among the Kindred, it rarely is. Fascism and communism are both, at their roots, noble systems. Just as mortals failed to make those systems work, however, Carthians — especially as they grow older and more powerful — are predisposed to turn even the most perfect systems into dangerous totalitarian nightmares.
Psychology
Coteries of Carthian vampires often gather for protection and find that they they’re much more effective together than they are apart. The very notion of the political individual is strange and vaguely menacing to the Carthians, who strongly favor group effort. Publicly, Carthians support the rights of the individual, but privately they assume that any Kindred who spend too much time alone is up to something suspicious. That’s only one reason Carthians gather into coterie, of course. Given the importance of coteries among the Carthians, they have myriad reasons for working together.Fear
Young Carthian coteries are held together by fear as much as anything. The world of the Damned is cruel, and some small degree of safety can be found in the company of others. That said, a Kindred might find that buying into an alien spiritual, political or philosophical paradigm (as represented by the other covenants) comes at too high a price to pay for companionship. In comparison, the collectivist model of the Carthians is familiar, especially in the Americas where “team spirit” and revolutionary zeal have long held an important place in the mortal consciousness. The concepts of democracy and egalitarianism play well to groups of young Kindred who’ve just been confronted with the realities of the Requiem. It feels more familiar and, possibly, more “natural” than the structure supported by other covenants.When he signed the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin said, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” The sentiment of his words informs the actions of many young Carthian coteries in the modern nights. Strength thrives in numbers, and Carthian Kindred make more use of that group-derived safety than any other covenant does. Any vampire who espouses equality among Kindred is automatically making enemies of most elders who benefit from the inequality of the Danse Macabre (which is to say, most of them). A coterie of Carthians, for example, might hold its own in an influence battle with an entrenched elder by pooling its influence and other Resources.
Idealism
Another force that holds many Carthian coteries together is sheer idealism. There ought to be a better way to go through the Requiem than the other covenants provide. There should be opportunities for young Kindred who don’t want to buy into the corruption of the vampiric underworld. And there is: The Carthian Movement. The covenant is somewhat vague on just what its goals really are, though. Freedom from oppression by elders, the right of each Kindred to determine the course of her own Requiem and a more equitable approach to Kindred politics are all very noble — but very vague — goals.Many coteries have one and only one function: to spread the word of The Carthian Movement in that particular domain. The more Kindred the covenant can lure to its banner, neonates in particular, the more power the covenant has to shape the face of Kindred politics.
Effectiveness
There’s no arguing that the deck is stacked against younger Kindred in nearly every domain. The elders of other covenants have done everything in their power to consolidate their own position, often at the expense of subsequent generations of vampires. The Kindred of The Carthian Movement overcome this disadvantage by working in concert. An elder of The Invictus or The Lancea Sanctum might be more powerful than any single member of The Carthian Movement, but a collective of Carthian Kindred can resort to swarm tactics and take out even most powerful elders, though probably at a terrible cost to the covenant. In a sense, the mob power possessed by Carthians is akin to the much-feared mob power possessed by mortals. Elders might dislike the Carthians, they might think of them as uppity fledglings, dangerous loose cannons or anything else they please, but they’re still forced to give them a free hand in the nightly Danse Macabre. To do otherwise would risk the wrath of the most united of all the covenants.One of the ironies of the Carthian approach is that while the covenant as a whole claims to respect and work for the betterment of individual Kindred, the covenant itself recognizes only group identity. The Carthians get their power through group actions. They see and interact with Humanity as a mass, and they school like fish through the midnight world of the Damned. A single Kindred attempting to achieve anything of import as an individual is nearly heretical in the view of The Carthian Movement. It reeks of grandstanding, of setting oneself above others, or of being “first among equals.”
Consequently, as long as a Kindred is content being a cog in the machine, she and her fellow cogs can achieve great things. The moment she tries to be something more, though — to think in terms of “I” instead of “we” — she’s likely to find the whole covenant turning on her.
This describes a great deal of what happens to Carthians as they age. They have a tendency to think of the work of their neonate nights as a form of paying dues, but when they’ve gained some experience from their nights of struggle and want to lead instead of follow, they’re accused of trying to waylay the Movement. At that point, they can either shut up and take their place among the masses, or they can defect to another covenant.
Intra-Coventant Conflict
The goals of The Carthian Movement are (necessarily) somewhat vague. Without a definite agenda (beyond “striving together against the incumbent system”), Carthians often find themselves split on many issues. This was, perhaps, inevitable, given that the covenant’s goal is to gather up masses of disparate Kindred, mostly neonates with very little sense of history, and forge them into a powerful force for adapting understandable governmental models to Kindred society. The covenant has no policy on preferred tactics, and since having only one agenda would alienate many of its members, it aims for very general goals. It’s the perfect recipe for internecine conflict. The doves want to stay connected to Humanity while the hawks want to achieve their goals by any means necessary. Older Carthians feel that they’ve attained many of their goals and want to “take the Movement to the next phase,” while the younger ones feel the revolution hasn’t even started in earnest yet. The intellectuals want to debate their policies more before taking action, while the hands-on members of the covenant think it’s time to act now. Some elders from other covenants (including many who have defected from the Carthians) have stated that the ideal image of The Carthian Movement is the ouroboros, the snake that’s perpetually devouring its own tail. The elders might even laugh about this if the 20th century hadn’t seen the Carthians become so dangerous. A prevailing cynicism is that the Carthians have only two enemies that they really have to worry about: themselves and everybody else.At the coterie level, this conflict confronts all members with an opportunity: They can either fall to the bickering that plagues their covenant, or they can rally around the ideals of their brand of Kindred politics and achieve something. For a coterie, this means deciding exactly what its political structure is. Does it mean that the coterie’s more powerful members have to handicap themselves to stay in league with its weaker members? Does it mean that no single Kindred is allowed to guide the coterie? Does it mean that the Language of those in the coterie has to be cleansed of any words or phrases that might suggest an inferior/superior dynamic between two Kindred? Do members favor syndicalism? Communism? Fascism? Democracy? A classical senate? Members must come to some sort of agreement about what brand of political system they favor before the coterie can strive for it, after all. In this sense, coteries can often become a dysfunctional microcosm of the covenant as a whole. A new Carthian coterie should address these issues in the course of the chronicle to explore just what it takes to be a member of the Movement.
Philosophy
Of all the Kindred covenants, only the Carthian philosophy takes into consideration the plight of the common vampire and sees the humblest Nosferatu neonate as having a voice equal in worth to the haughtiest Daeva Prince. Whereas the basically feudal power structures of the other covenants strive to raise elders up by subjugating younger Kindred, the Carthians strive to achieve an egalitarian vampiric society in which a neonate receives the same kind of justice an elder does. They want a feral Gangrel to receive the same treatment as a politically connected Daeva. They want the modern rights of the individual to prevail over corruption.At its root (in theory, anyway), The Carthian Movement seeks rational governance, a vampiric order established “by the Kindred and for the Kindred.” Most Carthians feel that mortals have stumbled onto something good with democracy, and that Kindred need to stop clinging to obsolete power structures and adapt to the times.
Nowhere is the idealistic nature of The Carthian Movement more obvious than at the coterie level. There are no hierarchies to worry about, no favored clans, no second class Kindred — and there is precious little order. Under most circumstances, Carthian coteries are half a step away from being undirected rabble. Every member of the coterie knows full well that she’s neither better nor less than any other member of the coterie. Yet, from this chaos comes the covenant’s strength.
In most Carthian coteries, every Kindred has an equal say. The group is less likely to take extreme courses of action, as the group dynamic tends to counsel against extremism. Once the coterie has agreed to a course of action, every member can work toward that goal energetically, knowing that once the goal is attained, an equal share of the power (or blame) will be hers. For the Carthians, this is the greatest motive of all.
Coterie Formation
Among the Carthians, the phrase “coterie organization” is an oxymoron. What little organization a coterie has is the direct result of how much organization its members choose to adopt.Among some other covenant-specific coteries, many (though by no means all) are the products of elder decree or experimentation, a sort of Kindred version of arranged marriage. Most Carthian coteries, on the other hand, typically assemble themselves according to whatever criteria they feel are important, and any outside Kindred interfering with that in any way is subject to severe social sanctions (e.g., being snubbed, scolded or glared at by her peers). In the absence of elder involvement, the selection of coterie members can be haphazard. There is rarely any strategy in how a coterie gains members. More often than not, the luck of the draw is the only thing dictating the result of a bunch of Carthian Kindred joining together as a coterie, as long as ideals mesh. Some of these free-form coteries work. Others don’t. Others might not work initially, but the members learn relatively quickly how best to cooperate to further the goals of the coterie as a whole. And, of course, vampiric nature makes the process harder than it needs to be.
This approach to coteries is the most common in the Movement, but by no means the only way coteries come into being. From time to time, ancillae put out a call for Kindred to volunteer for a particular duty that furthers whatever cause the dominant Carthian faction favors. These ancillae (or possibly elders) don’t assemble the resultant coteries directly, they simply call attention to a need, suggest some criteria and hope for the best. (“The Carthians in this infiltration coterie should have exceedingly good social skills and preferably some ability and experience with stealth operations.”) If this method doesn’t result in a workable coterie, the ancilla might offer a reward to those Kindred who volunteer.
Members of a coterie choose one another for myriad reasons and explain it away as “the best thing for the coterie.” A Carthian Daeva might opt to take a Nosferatu into her coterie out of a feeling of obligation, pity or political correctness. The Nosferatu might accept her invitation because he sees the Daeva as a good tool to further his personal goals. A Mekhet philosopher in the process of choosing his own coterie might decide, however reluctantly, to include a Gangrel brawler for his martial prowess. The Gangrel brawler might agree because the Mekhet stokes his lusts. The adage about how politics makes strange bedfellows is particularly true when describing the process by which Carthian coteries come into being. Members of The Carthian Movement have been using idealistic politics to cloak their less noble agendas since the covenant’s very first nights.
Once a coterie forms, however, it needs some kind of guidance or direction. Unlike the strict hierarchical system used by the less progressive covenants, many Carthian coteries refuse to lower themselves to recognizing any sort of hierarchy inside the coterie, unless their personal politics favor such things. They prefer to take a more enlightened approach to managing the coterie, and any attempt to choose a leader would be considered scandalously atavistic. Having one designated leader calling the shots in a Carthian coterie is looked down upon by many Carthians, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Allowing one member of the coterie to make decisions for the group is considered not just anachronistic, but horribly passé as well. The obvious alternative is a sort of anarchy, which, as a general rule, results in the coterie tearing itself apart within a month or two. The more effective Carthian coteries adopt one of two approaches to decide who makes the group’s decisions.
Consensus Building
The Carthian Movement places a great deal of importance on egalitarianism. The covenant’s philosophy of treating all Kindred with the rights they could expect among the living is responsible for a large portion of its membership, particularly the high percentage of neonates among its membership. No member of a coterie should have unwarranted power over another. Some Kindred may accept positions as spokespersons or advisors for their coterie, but only with the consent of the other members. Still, coteries need some means of reaching decisions. A coterie without the ability to establish and follow an agenda won’t get much done or stay together for long. As with most things, coteries are encouraged to make their own choices regarding the group’s decisionmaking processes. The strictest and most dogmatic Carthian coteries require unanimity before engaging in any given course of action. That is, all members of the coterie have to agree before the group takes any action. That degree of accord requires an enormous amount of discussion before the undertaking of every significant action, and most Carthians secretly agree that coteries that insist on consensus do more talking than anything else. On the other hand, some Carthian coteries are like macrocosmic dictatorships themselves, with the empowered, revolutionary leader calling all the shots. Practically, most coteries are comfortable with simple majority rule, mostly because a majority is far easier to achieve while unanimity can slow down a coterie to such an extent that it gets nothing accomplished. In the long run, majority rule results in more ideologically unified coteries, since members who find themselves consistently outvoted on issues that are important to them are more likely to find a place in another coterie. A Nosferatu with a bad temper might want his coterie to crack more rival heads, but if he’s constantly outvoted by the coterie’s calmer members, he’s likely to leave eventually. Not only will he be more satisfied with a more aggressive group of Kindred, but his original coterie won’t have him pushing them toward conflicts they’d rather avoid. A Kindred who finds himself at odds with his coterie on a regular basis, but who doesn’t want to leave for whatever reason, might choose to stick it out and try to win over other members to his approach. Alternatively, he can wait until the coterie acquires new members and try to sway them as early as possible toward his approach to the Requiem. Or, most easily, he can start trying to understand the perspective of the majority more often and work with his coterie, not against it.If a coterie would rather not lose a particular member, however, the members might vote with her more often than they’d like just to keep her around. A vampire with important political connections, knowledge crucial to the coterie’s goals or an enormous amount of money might find that she can get away with a lot more in her coterie than she could otherwise.
The Un-leader
The majority of Carthian coteries are content to let majority rule dictate the group’s direction. Other coteries, perhaps attracted to the convenience of having one person do all the thinking or simply drawn to old habits, might like the idea of having a strong leader because it makes the Requiem so much simpler. One member of a coterie might have the charisma (or resources) to command the group’s votes on a regular basis, and the coterie might implicitly begin to treat her as though she were the leader. Such an individual is usually a bit older, a bit more experienced, or she might just be more charismatic. This “un-leader” makes decisions for the group, usually after soliciting its members’ input. Her orders are often phrased as suggestions to downplay the appearance of leadership. (Of course, no one uses the term “unleader.” That’s simply a conceit for the sake of discussion here.)These Carthian figures can be inspired, subtle, effective leaders, but just because they’re members of the Carthian covenant doesn’t make them any less Damned. An un-leader in a Carthian coterie can easily be an enlightened despot, absolute in her control over the group, but subtle and indirect enough that the power disparity doesn’t chafe the other members. Daeva (or other Kindred with Majesty) are particularly good at guiding coteries thus. If they don’t for some reason, such leaders rarely hesitate to appeal to group loyalty, Carthian dogma, the laws of the domain, social standing or anything else necessary to get her orders carried out.
Often, the aspect of the un-leader that drives her coterie to follow her is her absolute devotion to the political cause. In some circumstances, Kindred are surprised to find out that “the cause” carries more weight with their leader than the unlives of the coterie’s members. More than one un-leader has seen fit to sacrifice her entire coterie (including herself, in many cases) in the name of achieving some great goal for the cause. Indeed, multiple individuals might find themselves jockeying for the position of un-leader in a Carthian coterie. Such behavior is usually the product of a great deal of personal politicking and a good many secret deals and special arrangements.
The Revolving Guide
Another innovative approach some Carthians have taken to the subject of coterie leadership is to let each member act as the coterie’s guide for a week. The term “guide” is sufficiently removed from the concept of unilateral or dictatorial authority that most Carthians find it acceptable.In coteries using the revolving-guide approach, each coterie member leads the coterie for a set period before handing over the reins to a compatriot. In this way, every member gets equal say in the group’s activities, but there’s still focus and order. Some coteries find this to be the best of all choices, but others find that certain guides take the coterie in such personal directions that the other members can hardly wait for the term to be up. Most Carthians with experience in using the revolvingguide approach strongly advocate some kind of override or veto ability for the rest of the coterie to keep the guide from rampaging over the rest of the group. In such cases, if all of the other members side against the guide, his decision is overturned. Furthermore, most coteries also stipulate that if the guide is overruled by the coterie in this way, he forfeits the rest of his term of guiding as a reminder to lead more wisely in the future.
Sacrifice
The dark reflection of zeal is sacrifice. No Carthian can be called a true member of his covenant until he has sacrificed something important for the Carthian cause. This message is reinforced frequently by other members of the covenant from the night of their Embrace. Members of The Carthian Movement, therefore, are intensely aware that their cause needs its members to sacrifice from time to time. The willingness of Carthians to sacrifice for the covenant is one of the strengths of the Movement. It allows the relatively young covenant to achieve things that even a more established covenant might have difficulty pulling off. Depending on what the situation calls for, a Carthian might find himself sacrificing key mortal Contacts, financial stability, his social standing or even his unlife in the name of The Carthian Movement’s local ideology.It’s not unusual for “the cause” to request that a coterie make a small sacrifice from time to time, and large ones less frequently. Such sacrifices vary enormously, but they can include a commitment of anything from time to money to a member of the coterie’s mortal Herd or even to fighting in the name of the Movement. Such sacrifices aren’t called for often, and when they are, it’s usually because the covenant as a whole needs to fend off the other covenants or needs to increase its power in a certain domain. For example, if a Regent’s tenurial domain is known as a Haven for Carthians, that Regent might be asked to host Carthians from outside the domain in order to increase the covenant’s presence in a city. Of course, like all Carthians, the Regent is perfectly free to decline the request. She might find her social options drying up, her support from others in the covenant growing sporadic and other members of her covenant leaving the room when she enters it, but she’s certainly free to refuse the request.
Typically, the smaller the requested sacrifice is, the more pronounced the social consequences are for not acquiescing. A coterie that declines to make some small sacrifice for the betterment of the Movement (a moderate sum of money, for example) might face total social ostracism, while a coterie asked to sacrifice the lives of the Herd the members feed from might get only a brief cold shoulder for refusing.
Curiously, it tends to be the covenant’s ancillae who do the asking in these situations and neonates who provide most of the sacrifices, though this arrangement is by no means absolute. What this means to a particular coterie is that it learns the techniques of social extortion as it gains experience working with The Carthian Movement. Once the group has learned to sacrifice Resources to the cause (or suffered the ostracism of its peers after not making such sacrifices), it will know better how to manipulate younger Kindred using those same techniques. In many ways, this dynamic is the very heart of the Carthian philosophy, which makes it all but transparent to the members of the covenant. Those who have recognized this “abuse of lesser” typically pass it off as one more cost of playing politics.
For a coterie of characters, the willingness to sacrifice could potentially impact some of the Merits each character started with. While it can be rough to lose those points that way, it’s pale shadow of what such a sacrifice means to the character in the context of the chronicle.
Almost any Merit can be sacrificed in the name of the cause, should it come to that. A Haven hiding Carthians from out of town can be burned to the ground. Money can be spent or lost. Retainers, Allies and Contacts can be killed, as can members of a Herd who are fed from too frequently. City or Clan Status can be sacrificed, often resulting in some increase in Covenant Status. Unless the circumstances are truly extraordinary (outright war between the Carthians and another covenant, for example), no member of a coterie should lose more than one dot in any given Merit in any single situation. After all, one of the reasons for working collectively is to spread out the sacrifice as much and as thinly as possible. That said, dots lost thus are gone until the player buys them back with experience. The struggle for dominance in the Danse Macabre does not offer consolation prizes.
Equality
The vast majority of Carthians believe fervently in an adaptation of modern, mortal notions: that all Kindred are Embraced equal, and that what they choose to do with their Requiem is and should be up to them. Almost every Carthian philosophy states that if every vampire were shown respect and granted an equal say in the nightly governance of a city’s Kindred population, it would bring an end to many of the injustices suffered by many vampires (including the gratuitous game-playing by elders who are so wrapped up in the Danse Macabre that they lose sight of all else). Of course, espousing the equality of Kindred is anathema to covenants such as The Invictus, whose entire structure is based on inequality. For Carthians, however, nothing but equality among Kindred is acceptable — even if some individuals make them wish it were otherwise.Some of the most vociferous supporters of equality among the Carthians are sophisticated neonates. Of all the Kindred, the young are those most regularly relegated to positions of inequality throughout Kindred society. Their influence within the covenant, based on both their unshakable absolutism on the matter and sheer numbers, keeps The Carthian Movement honest. The moment a savvy neonate sees something that undermines the Carthian ethic of equality, the voice of popular dissent within the covenant grows progressively louder until the inequality is addressed.
All members of a Carthian coterie are considered equally valuable. Given that most members of The Carthian Movement are neonates, and that a few coteries combine neonates and ancillae, that’s likely to be accurate. Any member of a coterie suggesting, in any way, that all members are not equally valuable could be reprimanded (or possibly accused of undermining the Movement and kicked out of the covenant) for both his callousness and heterodoxy.
An emphasis on equality is not necessarily an emphasis on compassion or morality. Some Carthian coteries are together because all members are equally terrible or equally willing to take advantage of the mortal Herd. For example, one coterie might decide that the best way to advance its political goals is to weaken the mortal Herd. To that end, it would make a concerted effort not to feed on the disadvantaged and seek more vital blood in order to remove them from the mortal population (and keep them from ever becoming Kindred).
Innovation
Carthians rarely favor formalized notions of vampiric superiority. On the contrary, they recommend holding on to as many mortal practices as possible, in part to avoid losing Humanity, and in part to help the covenant stay up to date with new developments in mortal politics and governance. The closer the members of the covenant stay to Humanity, the more they can stave off the encroaching stasis brought on by their damnation. By holding onto their mortal ways, Carthian vampires hold at bay the ossification to which so many Kindred are prone. While doing so puts them at odds with their own static nature, it also gives them an advantage when it comes to adapting to a changing world. Whereas Kindred of other covenants, the older ones in particular, are still trying to understand the concepts behind computers in general, Carthians long ago adapted to computers and now concern themselves with the details of videoconferencing, Internet security and optimizing bandwidth. Computers represent only one facet of the covenant’s knowledge of the modern era that it uses to maximum benefit. The Kindred of The Carthian Movement do everything they can to prevent the kinds of generation gaps that divide other covenants.The Carthian Movement staunchly advocates interaction with mortals. Through mortals Carthians learn the tricks that will further their long-term goals. To that end, Carthians interact with mortals on a regular basis, and not just as predators among prey. Carthian vampires are often inclined to converse with mortals wherever they find them, and they believe that by doing so they’re staying in touch with what is most innovative and vital in themselves.
The relative dynamism of Carthians is part of what underpins their reputation as the innovators of Kindred society. Another part stems from the covenant’s acceptance of dissent. Arguing, sharing opinions and participating in the covenant’s ongoing internal dialogue are all mainstays of Carthian existence. While a member of a more calcified covenant might have an idea for improving the covenant, she’s unlikely to voice it lest she antagonize her elders. Likewise, even if she does propose her idea, the elders would likely dismiss such a suggestion out of hand, coming as it does from someone so young. The best this hypothetical Kindred can hope for is to have her Mentor steal her idea and present it as his own. After experiencing the resentment and useless rage stemming from that a time or two, she’s likely to lose all motivation to bring up her ideas ever again — even if they’re brilliant.
The Carthian Movement, however, approves of constructive dissent. Consequently, neonates who are eager to impress others in their coterie or to make a name for themselves as clever, innovative types are likely to share their ideas at the drop of a hat. The constant brainstorming inevitably leads to an evolution of ideas that works in the covenant’s favor (despite the occasional periods of chaos).
This dynamic is more obvious among the Carthians’ coteries of philosophers and politicians, but even in more martial groups, debate over the most appropriate tactics to use in a given situation lead to better outcomes than sticking with a more static approach would.
Some members of the Movement have suggested that debate is the covenant’s main strength. Unlike other covenants that use dogma or authority to quell their younger members, the Carthians advocate a free exchange of ideas. While this exchange unavoidably opens up the covenant to the input of firebrands and radicals, it also allows the Movement to hear the ideas of insightful neonates as well.
Debates within Carthian coteries sometimes come right after the group performs the Chain (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 47). Whoever holds the revered object is the designated speaker. No interruption or crosstalk is allowed as long as that member holds the object. Once the member has had her say, she passes the object along. A vampire who wants to challenge or refute her views must wait until the object gets to him. In this way, Carthians have open debate without it degenerating into shouting matches (which is how most other approaches to “free exchange of ideas” turned out before the current method was adopted). In other, similar formats, the object passed around during the Chain serves as the “speaker’s right” but isn’t necessarily passed in a circle, allowing for more point-counterpoint forms of debate.
While Carthians like to preserve the peace, insightful dissent is valued as a means of forcing the covenant to consider ideas with which it might not necessarily be comfortable, but which could help the Movement function better.
Methodology
The Carthians’ unity is a powerful advantage in their nightto-night struggle for justice. What the covenant’s visionaries scheme, its coteries can often achieve when they work together. This willingness to cooperate gives it an advantage over the dogma-bound Lancea Sanctum, the scholarly Ordo Dracul and the ultra-hierarchical Invictus. Likewise, the members of the Circle of the Crone are so individualistic that they’re less likely to work en masse toward a group goal.The overarching goal of the Carthian covenant is the leveling of the playing field for all Kindred (whatever form that takes personally for each Carthian). In the absence of hierarchy and division — or so the visionaries claim — all Kindred will be equals, freed from the ages-old systems of enslavement used by the other covenants in their pursuit of the Danse Macabre.
The unofficial motto of the Carthians is “Whatever it takes.” This motto could be (and has been) used to answer any of several questions, including the following: “What are we supposed to do about this damned Acolyte Prince?” “What did you want us to do about the Haven’s security?” or “How much pressure did you want us to put on the union guys to make them show up tomorrow night?” Carthians, on the whole, are the most innovative vampires dwelling in their domains. Some of this capacity comes from the basic intelligence of the mortals culled for the Embrace, some from coteries’ willingness to brainstorm ideas, some from their relative nearness to the mortal state and some from sheer animal cunning. They are like ants or rats in their ability to find ways around obstacles, and that ability is one of the covenant’s single greatest strengths.
The Carthians are pushing for a hierarchical change that will wipe out the ossified power structures of the old Kindred establishment and level the playing field for all of the Damned. Some of the Movement’s members go so far as to describe themselves as revolutionaries. When pushed to it, they are not averse to adopting the violent tactics used by other revolutionary movements. As far as these radical Carthians are concerned, force is the only thing that ever persuades powermad elders to loosen their collective grip on vampire society. Even as the covenant presents itself as an idealistic and egalitarian alternative to “the establishment,” it works behind the scenes using whatever tactics it has to — including some that would likely horrify its own less devoted members.
Carthian coteries often find themselves with the awkward dilemma of choosing between their Humanity and their revolutionary cause. A coterie that maintains its connection to Humanity might be forced to forgo certain very effective tactics (betrayals, assassination and the like) in its war for equality. On the other hand, a coterie that takes advantage of every available violent, destructive technique will quickly find itself alienated from the human morality its members had hoped to maintain over the centuries.
This dilemma is, predictably, the basis for much intra-covenant disagreement. Carthians who truly value the human side of their personalities find themselves horrified at the mayhem caused by some of their fellow Carthians. On the other end of the spectrum, the more violent members of the faction find themselves constantly frustrated by the inability of their “gentler” brethren to get things done, expeditiously or otherwise.
Any given Carthian coterie likely contains adherents of both views. What tactics the group winds up using depends, in the end, on how the group makes decisions and what tools it has in place to avoid or resolve conflict within the group.
The Carthian Movement uses an array of tactics in its fight for the common Kindred. Given its many disadvantages (such as the relative lack of elders and the frequent disdain of the other covenants), the Carthians need to make the most of what advantages they have. The following are among the most common tactics used by Carthian coteries in their nightly struggle for the cause.
Teamwork
On the whole, Carthian coteries comprise Kindred of young Vitae, but while few Carthian neonates or ancillae are the equal of a crafty elder from another covenant, a coterie of determined vampires can apply more than enough force to succeed. If a single coterie cannot accomplish a given task, it might bring in another (and another and another…) until enough Kindred are assembled to get the job done. The persistence of Carthians is one of the few reasons the covenant is a credible threat to the older and more entrenched covenants. One Carthian vampire might not be able to take on the covenant’s enemies, one Carthian coterie might not be able to take on the covenant’s enemies, but having several coteries of zealous, diligent vampires working toward the same goal is likely to be devastating to nearly any enemy.Carthians are aware of this strength, and they wield it strategically. Minor infractions against the cause can be overlooked, but serious offenses — such as abandoning a fellow Carthian to Final Death — is grounds for action. Hostile members of other covenants have been forced to stand down from violent action against Carthian coteries (or individuals) after being threatened with widespread rebellion by the covenant’s members.
This is not to suggest that individual Carthian coteries don’t have their own agendas, just that the covenant’s agenda can come first. As The Carthian Movement sees it, every time an entrenched vampire takes advantage of a disempowered vampire, he’s striking at the Movement’s very heart. If the Carthians take no action, the foe grows emboldened enough to do it again. If, on the other hand, the Carthians take action against the foe every time he steps out of line, even if some of those actions are not entirely successful, it reminds their adversary that any vampire taking advantage of the Kindred masses can expect to be met with resistance. The first, second or third time the Carthians resist might not have any impact at all, but even the most arrogant elder is eventually going to get tired of bracing for conflict, defending his Haven and influences, just to play power games with younger Kindred.
Mortal Masses
Quite frequently and with its own unique methods, The Carthian Movement works well and effectively with mortals. It makes inroads into mortal institutions and cultivates mortal Contacts more easily than any other covenant does because of its inherent proximity to mortal governmental structures. While Carthians never explicitly claim solidarity with the mortal masses, most Carthians reflexively eschew any kind of dominance/submission dynamic, even with kine. Unlike the more anachronistic covenants, the Carthians don’t lord over their mortal pawns, they work with them to achieve the Movement’s goals. “Working with” in this instance simply means that the Carthians tend to use mortal curiosity, gullibility and idealism instead of money and threats to accomplish their goals. Carthians use their advantages to cultivate masses of followers instead of fewer but better placed ones. Carthians are much more likely to have a hand in labor unions, political causes, radical youth groups, New Age cults, organized crime and other groups and organizations that respond well to charisma and causes. In the face of a corporate power play backed by The Invictus, for example, a Carthian coterie might use its mortal influence to incite a strike to hamstring key labor influences. Alternatively, if The Lancea Sanctum were to launch a crusade of some sort using the Church, the Carthians could call for a coalition of alternative denominations or religions to protest, demonstrate or write letters. They might even incite mortal firebrands to launch a more direct, physical attack against the Church and make the Sanctified fight a rear-guard action to pull strength away from their main force.These tactics can be chalked up to making a virtue of necessity, as the Carthians typically lack massive financial Resources and upper-tier pawns. Rather than compete with more traditional Kindred directly for mortal influence through the same channels, The Carthian Movement appeals to human nature and the Herd instinct to press its agenda. As the Carthians have phrased it, they prefer taking a more “grassroots” approach to acquiring influence among mortals.
While the gap between Kindred and mortals might be too wide to span entirely, Carthian coteries downplay the differences and interact with mortals in as egalitarian a manner as possible. While mortals have nothing to gain from helping the Carthians, per se, the Movement is adept at making mortals believe that its goals are their goals. The relative youth of Carthian Kindred is an advantage in such cases, since fewer members of the covenant have lost touch with their own Humanity and don’t exude the same disturbing presence or alien philosophies as the Damned of other covenants do.
Secrecy
Undeniably, the Carthians use secrecy and “cloak and dagger” methods to further their goals. The covenant enjoys a few advantages where espionage is concerned.First, most local incarnations of the covenant harbor more neonates than ancillae and elders put together. There’s no way that established Kindred can watch every Carthian operative all the time. The Carthians have many sympathizers among the neonates of other covenants, and they can sometimes call on those sympathizers to provide information or similar favors.
Additionally, Nosferatu and Mekhet vampires make up over half of the Carthians’ numbers. Kindred from both of those clans are drawn to The Carthian Movement in disproportionate numbers, and both of those clans play a key role in the Movement’s undercover operations. Not only do the powers of Obfuscate allow them to pass unseen among other Kindred, but the information-gathering abilities of the Shadows surpass those of any other clan, giving the Carthians a pronounced advantage in the espionage department.
Terrorism
Violence is neither the favorite tool nor a desired goal of The Carthian Movement, but as many revolutionaries have noted in the past, sometimes it’s the only way by which immense change can be effected immediately. Carthians have been known to kick ass with extreme prejudice in their quest for an equitable Kindred society. Threats, violence and pyrotechnic excess are all tools that have been used by Carthians in the past when navigating through the obstacles placed in front of them by other covenants. The Carthians think of themselves as eternal underdogs, and they feel that even extreme tactics are sometimes necessary to make up for their lack of pedigree. It’s not like breaking heads runs counter to any Traditions, after all. Sometimes the easiest way to deal with an insufferable Prince or overzealous Sheriff is to have Ghouls burn or raze their havens on the sunniest day of summer. What the truly radical Carthians lack in power they more than make up for in viciousness. Some deny using terrorist tactics and claim instead to be using the tactics of guerilla warfare, but the result is the same: Havens are reduced to cinders, arrogant elders disappear, and the Movement’s most aggressive detractors find themselves the targets of hidden enemies.That fact that the Carthians should resort to such methods should really surprise no one. Guerilla tactics represent one of the few viable strategies available to weaker groups when confronted with the superior power of a monolithic enemy. The young and relatively inexperienced Kindred of The Carthian Movement would be annihilated if they went against the power of established covenants directly, so they don’t put themselves in direct conflict. Instead, they keep a low profile, they wait, and they watch for the enemy to reveal his weakness. Then they exploit that weakness viciously and to the best of their ability. At least one city has seen control of the domain pass to the Carthians after engaging in a concerted war of attrition in which the Carthians killed or intimidated enough members of the rival faction that they not only stopped persecuting the Carthians, but ceded praxis.
When the Carthians are dominant or at least wield an appreciable amount of political power, terrorist tactics tend to fall by the wayside for all but the most extreme groups. Not only does the covenant see little reason to continue waging guerilla actions in a cause it might well win, relying overmuch on these tactics tends to unite Kindred of other covenants against them. Carthian “Bosses” and other Prince-analogues have met their own ends as their coups succumb to the swings of political pendulums, ousting them from praxis as quickly (and violently) as they seized them.
Coterie Types
Carthian coteries often come together randomly as the situation (and the cause) dictate. Being less static than many Kindred, Carthian coteries change membership and purpose on a fairly regular basis. Carthian coteries might come together for only a brief time or might work together for decades. Likewise, a coterie that came together for one purpose might choose to stay together and turn its attention to other goals. The Carthians have a particular talent for re-purposing coteries in this way.Due to its large numbers of neonates, its lack of rigid structure and its tendency to innovate, The Carthian Movement boasts many types of coteries, ranging from the standard, easily recognizable coteries fielded by other covenants to the experimental or prototypical coteries that would be found only among the Carthians.
Boot Squads
Boot squads are the Carthians’ eager vigilantes, coteries that take matters into their own hands when the Kindred of other covenants get too carried away with their own power. In most cities, they are the shock troops of their covenant, forming when needed and going to ground or disbanding after carrying out an action of singular importance. If elders of other covenants dislike The Carthian Movement on general principal, they save their pure, unmitigated loathing for its boot squads. More than one such Carthian coterie has found that elders are susceptible to the quick-thinking, fast-paced assaults of younger (and often more tech-savvy) vampires.Boot squads are among the Carthians’ best weapons in their struggle for equality among the Kindred because they provide many elders with a reason to rein themselves in and not antagonize members of the Movement. The presence of such coteries has proved to be a powerful deterrent to elders’ excesses in some domains and little more than an irritant in others. Untroubled with political niceties or petty influence wars, boot squads exist solely to monitor, stalk and punish rival Damned who take too-frequent aim at members of The Carthian Movement. An errant Kindred might find his Haven burned, his Ghouls killed or his mortal pawns dead or under Vinculum to someone else. He might even find himself staked and placed in the concrete of a building’s foundation. The violence of such efforts sends a clear message to foes, which can sometimes result in the boot squad becoming the champions of the downtrodden within a city. Alternatively, though, it could result in the coterie’s members becoming seen as dangerous thugs, depending on what spin a city’s covenants place on its actions.
The typical boot squad consists of Mekhet and Nosferatu vampires, and they are generally ancillae, as neonates lack the power necessary to go against the breadth of political foes a Kindred might face. Motivated Gangrel or overt Daeva might occasionally join a boot squad as well if they’re intent on serving their covenant in a martial capacity.
Some boot squads have found that their calling sets them up nicely to commit Diablerie upon elders with whom they come into conflict. Those coteries that are willing to pay the price for power can find themselves rapidly becoming the most powerful Carthian coterie in the domain. While the covenant officially forbids this practice, it appreciates unofficially the increase in the raw power of its membership.
Only the most liberal Prince would stand for a boot squad coterie forming in her domain. When most Princes hear of such a coterie forming, a blood hunt likely follows in short order. Consequently, many boot squads masquerade as other sorts of coteries entirely.
Dissidents
The shape taken by most Carthian coteries in non-Carthian (or anti-Carthian) domains is the dissident coterie. Such a coterie comprises Kindred who are dissatisfied with the political situation in the city and who are willing to work together to do something about it. Members of most other covenants, especially elders and the more entrenched ancillae, see dissident coteries as dangerous rabble-rousers, so they take aggressive action against them. Such action serves only to drive the dissidents underground and fuels their outrage and determination to change the Status quo.Most such coteries occur organically, as dissatisfaction with the existing hierarchy festers and affected Kindred learn of Carthian causes and methods. Some also form as crypto-Carthian sympathizers, meet up and begin working together for the ideals of their Movement. Due to the extreme consequences imposed by the powers that be upon those caught operating in anti-Carthian domains, a mood of Paranoia sometimes permeates dissident cells.
Ironically, young dissident cells are nearly as likely to appear in domains under Carthian control as they are anywhere else. While “the revolution eats its young” is a commonplace Carthian aftereffect, dissident coteries prove that the Movement is perfectly capable of devouring its elders as well. Operating in a Carthian domain, such coteries claim that the order isn’t egalitarian enough, that it’s not pushing for change fast enough, that it isn’t dedicated in the right way. Ideological clashes between factions of Carthian coteries occur, as between totalitarians and those favoring democracy or socialists and fascists. From the standpoint of the ancillae, they’ve done everything they can within the framework of the Kindred political structure, but the newest of the neonates place ideals before political realities and consequently see their own ancillae (and elders) as being part of the problem.
Spies and Sabateurs
Much of The Carthian Movement is populated by Nosferatu and Mekhet vampires. That alone would account for the covenant’s emphasis on espionage even if it weren’t one of the best ways to deal with the greater power of the other covenants.Carthian vampires not only spy on their foes, they take an active role in undermining activities they don’t approve of (which includes anything that works against the overarching goals of the local Carthian Movement).
A spy coterie might pose as some other type of coterie, something innocuous like philosophers or recruiters, to prevent undue attention from being placed on them. Alternatively, they might pass as members of another covenant entirely. When they’re not being watched, however, they monitor the Prince, Regents, Prisci, Primogen and other power brokers for anti-Carthian sentiments and activities.
Such a coterie might even go so far as to pose as members of the extant hierarchy, over the phone, in correspondence or in person, in order to sabotage their target’s relationships with influential mortals or other key underlings.
More than one rival has found his strategies against The Carthian Movement hopelessly compromised or deftly shut down by the activities of a coterie of dedicated spies and saboteurs.
Carthian Exemplars
Some coteries perfectly capture the essence of what it means to be a part of The Carthian Movement. These Kindred usually epitomize all of the archetypes venerated by the covenant: a diverse group of individuals striving for and embodying the Carthian virtues of Kindred autonomy, egalitarianism and mutual effort and responsibility. These coteries are somewhat less common, because it’s difficult for a whole coterie of Carthians to come together who have the same notion of just what the covenant’s local goals are. Many coteries that claim to be exemplars are model coteries put together by ancillae or elders as rallying points for the covenant.Most of the Kindred operating in an exemplar coterie are likely to have the significant amounts of Covenant Status, even if that translates more into reputation than position in the covenant. Each is likely to be an ardent supporter of the covenant’s ideals and tactics. While the covenant as a whole is still too young to be certain, it appears that exemplar coteries have the greatest likelihood of reaching elder Status without alienating the Movement’s younger members. That’s one reason the covenant reveres these coteries so highly: Anything that helps the Movement gain more credibility among other covenants’ elders stands to benefit the covenant immeasurably.
Of course, that’s exactly why exemplary coteries make it to elder Status. Their dedication to the covenant’s goals are so utterly without question that even accusations that they’ve sold out are obviously without merit. Exemplars demonstrate that it’s not “elders” that the Carthians hate so much, it’s the arrogance and abuse of power that typically come with being an elder vampire. If an elder can maintain her integrity and Carthian values, the covenant is all for it, because it provides a big gun with which to fight the big guns of the other covenants. As perennial underdogs, Carthians aren’t averse to anything that furthers their vague, overarching goals. Again, “whatever it takes” serves as the vital methodology.
Philosophers
The driving intellectual force behind The Carthian Movement is found in its coteries of political philosophers. These coteries generally comprise ancillae or elders and consist of the brightest and most idealistic Kindred the covenant has to offer. Such coteries spend large portions of the Requiem discussing mortal and Kindred politics, debating the history of the Kindred political establishment, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of various political systems and brainstorming ways to improve the lots of average Kindred. Such coteries generally go out of their way to include vampires from the five main clans, and any such bloodlines as are available, in an effort to represent a wide range of personal views. The opinions of noteworthy philosophical coteries are often disseminated among the Kindred of The Carthian Movement, sometimes as fodder for discussion, sometimes as outright propaganda. Recommendations made by such groups might become widespread policy within the covenant, or they might remain codicils to the main body of local Carthian political philosophy.While these philosophical coteries maintain the lowest profile among other Kindred, they often determine prevailing Carthian policy and serve as the drivers of the local Carthian Movement itself. Some Carthians think of the philosopher coteries as éminence grises lurking behind the scenes of the covenant. Others see them as the unsung heroes of the Movement.
Such philosophical coteries typically operate in the largest and strongest bastions of Carthian power and surround themselves with such defenders as they can field. Hostile scions of other covenants see these “think tanks” as the real root of the Carthian problem and would love to wipe them from history entirely.
Whistleblowers
The nightly games of corruption in which Kindred engage serve to perpetuate the hegemony of elders over ancillae and neonates. Every underhanded deal, every strategic bribe and every unfairly acquired advantage increases the power of those with power and takes away from those who already have little. Whistleblower coteries shine light on the seamy underside of Kindred politics and reveal the lies, the graft and the corruption that keep powerful elders in control and the common vampire entrapped. They bring to light the untoward sources of elders’ dominance. They ask questions that those in power don’t want asked and then spread the answer throughout Elysium. (And they usually have enough evidence to back up their claims to prevent their target from ignoring them.) Did the Ventrue Priscus arrange for the death of the Nosferatu Primogen because the latter was blocking a lucrative construction deal with a mortal corporation? Did The Invictus make an underhanded deal with The Lancea Sanctum to screw over The Ordo Dracul? If so, then a whistleblower coterie looks into the specifics of the deal and does everything in its power to expose the details.Very few standing coteries perform this function, but those that do certainly make a place for themselves not only among the Carthians but also among the (relatively) forthright Kindred of the city. What Regent wouldn’t want a devoted group of muckrakers reporting to him? What Harpy wouldn’t want to hear about failed coups and daggers in the night when Elysium convenes? At other times, whistleblowers rapidly become unwelcome in a city. At the very least, it’s common for whistleblower coteries to find themselves on the wrong side of those selfsame Harpies, and when the Prince or Regent is the one plotting treachery, well, the obvious answers go unsaid. The best of all possible worlds, from a Carthian standpoint, is when a member of a coterie of whistleblowers actually gets promoted to or claims the role of Harpy, because it lets her gain Status in the city by doing the things she’s already doing. This happens most often in those rare cities where the vast majority of power sits in Carthian hands, because the other covenants are often loath to allow this to happen.
If it needs to be said, many such coteries meet unpleasant ends after exposing the wrong Kindred with powerful Allies — and most relatively soon after forming. Members of such a coterie would do well to have better than average combat skills and ample political connections to protect themselves from those whose enmity they provoke (and whose failures or hypocrisies they expose).
Recruiters
Religiously driven covenants are not the only groups that make use of missionaries to increase their numbers. Carthian coteries comprising some of the covenant’s more socially adept members have been known to “poach” members from other covenants to swell their own numbers. Their favorite targets are the disenfranchised young Kindred of the other covenants, or unaligned Kindred who have grown disillusioned with their own political abstinence. Such vampires are often so far removed from their covenant’s rewards that they’re happy to entertain offers from other covenants. Members of such a coterie play up the benefits of Carthian egalitarianism and make much of the freedoms and privileges enjoyed by all members of The Carthian Movement. Often they follow this propaganda by asking their target if she’s really happy with her covenant (or self-imposed exile) and its myriad practices, while discretely suggesting that she might be happier in the Carthian camp instead. This approach is fairly straightforward (though elders of other clans call it insidious), and it yields a surprising number of new recruits from all the other covenants. Especially responsive are members of the archconservative covenants due to the cavalier way the standing members treat their neonates. While other covenants disdain the Carthians in general, they actively loathe recruiting coteries, because their success inarguably comes at the detriment of the other covenants. On occasion, such coteries place an emphasis on scholarly debate and make heavy use of rhetoric and the complex art of persuasion.Recruiter coteries generally comprise attractive, gregarious and socially skilled Kindred, but they also need some ability to defend themselves or avoid combat if they are beset by members of another covenant who don’t like Carthians spreading their philosophy. Many Carthian recruiters hail from Clan Mekhet, although a number of Daeva take pleasure in seducing members away from other covenants as well.
The Hive Coterie
Rarest of the Carthian coteries, a hive is a group of Kindred who take the covenant’s collectivist tendency to its extreme. Not only do members strive to be equal, they strive to be as similar to one another as possible. To a hive’s members, such a group is the logical outgrowth of the Carthian approach to the Requiem. Members of a hive coterie dress alike, talk alike, think alike and share one Haven. They often pursue the covenant’s doctrines with a fanatical enthusiasm. Some fancy themselves the avant-garde of The Carthian Movement, while others are more cultic or literally anti-individualist.Obviously, hive coteries are hard to miss or mistake for anything else, rendering them uncommon outside domains where Carthians are accepted as part of the local infrastructure. Where they are found, they are considered a curious and somewhat eccentric variant of the Carthian type.
Members of a hive sometimes even go to the extreme of subjecting each other to Vinculums as a way of increasing the coterie’s intimacy and group cohesiveness. Most such coteries see to it that at least one member possesses enough Auspex to act as a telepathic nexus for the group’s members, allowing them to access one another’s consciousness.
Given that hive members have so much else in common, it’s all the more important that the coterie comprise members of different clans, otherwise the group will have an extremely truncated range of competence. The coterie is already likely to have many interests and talents in common, so if the members share the same Disciplines as well, it could be very difficult for the coterie to function in wide range of situations.
The sense of belonging that members of a hive coterie share is intense and deeply fulfilling. It sometimes leads to too much unanimity as no one in the coterie wants to dissent from any stance taken by the group. Members of such a coterie might eschew their personal identities in favor of an identity relative to the coterie (such as “the tallest of us,” or “our spokesperson”). A Kindred who has spent any length of time in such a coterie might prefer Final Death to being separated from his coterie.
While other Carthians generally allow hive coteries to operate as they see fit, some members of the covenant find them disturbing and illustrative of a dangerous vein of Carthian thought.
Status
Status is paradoxical among the Carthians. To attain any degree of Status means to become part of the establishment, and the establishment is what The Carthian Movement is trying to change.From the standpoint of a Carthian coterie, real Status is gained only through the act of changing the society of the Damned (which is difficult). A Carthian coterie often finds it difficult to gain Status outside its covenant unless The Carthian Movement has a controlling share of the power in a city. At that point, a coterie gains Status to the degree to which it works for Carthian ideals.
Status among Carthian coteries is problematic. Carthian philosophy dictates that all Kindred are created equal, so no coterie should be elevated above another, yet it happens. More successful coteries are praised as champions of The Carthian Movement while the Carthian establishment ignores the less driven and less competent ones. The covenant at least has the grace to attempt to explain the paradox away.
Because egalitarianism does figure so prominently in the ideals of the Carthians, Status and age play less of a role in Carthian coteries than they do in any other covenant. This is great for the neonates because they have no overlords. It’s good for the ancillae because they wield the kind of power and influence in the Movement that other covenants reserve for the elders. For elders, however, the egalitarian approach is often a problem. If an elder isn’t truly and deeply committed to Carthian principles, she’s likely to start resenting her decades of service to the covenant. More than a few Carthian elders have grown so annoyed with their own upstart neonates that they’ve recanted their belief in the covenant’s principles and defected. The Carthians have only recently been around long enough to boast any elders in their ranks at all, and the high rates of defection make many Carthian philosophers wonder about the Movement’s long-term viability.
Neonates
The vast majority of Carthians are neonates, which is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. Young Carthians are full of passionate intensity to make changes to a system they see as unjust, unethical and hopelessly corrupt. What they possess in enthusiasm, however, they lack in guidance. The covenant is painfully short on elders, and the absence of more experienced mentors results in inexperienced vampires taking action based on impulse more than wisdom, experience or strategy.Ancillae
By the time the members of a Carthian coterie rise to the level of ancillae, they’ve seen the ethical, idealistic side of the struggle as well as its grimy underbelly. If they’ve opted to side with Humanity, they’re still close enough to the mortal Herd that they can work closely with the kine without drawing undue attention to themselves. If they’ve sacrificed their Humanity to achieve greater and more devastating victories for the Movement, then they’re probably hardened enough to do anything the revolution requires of them, no matter how vicious. With their proven ability to work in unison, coteries of Carthian ancillae are both accomplished team players and revolutionaries.Elders
The Carthian Movement has so few elders associated with it that there’s really no typical coterie of Carthian elders. Every Carthian elder associates with the movement for her own unknowable reasons. Many of these motives are noble; some are not.Only North America boasts more than a handful of these paradoxical Kindred.
We will not labor in service to an outdated aristocrat. It is not the duty of the Kindred to exist in conditions more deplorable than those of the kine.
— Handsome Jack, “Confessions to a Prince”
— Handsome Jack, “Confessions to a Prince”
Type
Alliance, Generic
Ruling Organization
Collectives
The strength of the Carthian Movement lies in its numbers, but sometimes a single coterie simply doesn’t possess the sheer numerical force necessary to achieve a goal important to the covenant. In such cases, Carthians may put together a collective, an ad hoc aggregate of several coteries working in concert as one large “meta-coterie” to achieve a one-time major goal. The goal can be any large task, such as a crucial investigation, purging a domain of another covenant’s influence, clearing a neighborhood of an infestation of dangerous mages, repelling an incursion by another covenant or seizing imminent praxis.Kindred of other covenants rarely develop any concept of a mid-level social unit between coterie and covenant. Even their internal factions rarely work openly and in tandem. A single coterie is enough of a challenge to vampiric nature, no less two or more coteries working in concert. The sight of a dozen Carthians working together in tight unison is very disturbing to other Kindred, most of whom are either completely self-focused or unused to thinking of Kindred acting in groups larger than coteries.
The process of gathering coteries into a collective is fairly simple. A call for assistance goes out, stating what the objective is and how many Carthians are needed. Members of the coteries involved gather and discuss taking a cooperative approach to their shared problem. The nascent collective usually convenes a planning session in which strategies are worked out and then the coteries merge into one large group. Each coterie sends one member to represent it in an “executive council” that guides the group. A collective pools all the resources of its component coteries, so a collective can bring to bear vast power and influence in its joint effort, be it financial, mortal, martial or what have you. Whatever it takes.
Obviously, collectives are relatively common in cities where Carthians are numerous. Yet even in places where Carthians are weak, the covenant has fielded enough Kindred to assemble collectives large enough to deal with critical obstacles (even if some members brave the dangers of travel to aid the cause from elsewhere). Participating in a collective doesn’t pay or benefit a coterie in any way other than the recognition of others in the covenant. It’s one more thing Carthian coteries are expected to do “for the cause.” In general, coteries might grumble if the call for collectives goes out too often, but if they didn’t support the cause to begin with, they likely would have joined another covenant.
Assembling a collective can’t help but be a political action. Not only does it function as a show of force for the Carthians, it tends to swell their ranks with disaffected neonates from other covenants and make the Vitae of the other covenants’ Kindred run colder than usual. Some Princes and Regents have taken to subtly punishing known Carthians after the formation of a collective, just to see that it doesn’t come to be too common an occurrence.
It’s possible that a collective action could be called if another covenant were to commit some kind of atrocity against a Carthian coterie. The offense would have to be severe (such as persecuting the group solely on the basis of its covenant affiliation or martyring a Carthian), because collectives are a threat best wielded with discretion.
While there’s nothing technically barring other covenants from using collectives, only the Carthians have ever shown the social wherewithal necessary to suspend typical Kindred infighting long enough to make one work.
From a Storyteller perspective, collectives are a good way to accommodate visiting friends who want to give the game a shot or for super-sized one-shot games. They also serve as significant plot devices that don’t necessarily plunge a city into utter chaos, but nevertheless presage significant changes in the power structure.
Night to Night: Neonates
Enthusiastic, aggressive and unrestrained are three terms commonly used to describe Carthian coteries. The line between anarchic mob and dynamic agents of change is, among Carthians, a thin one. Any project that intensity and impulse might facilitate is perfect for the Movement’s youngest members. Such coteries are known for achieving their goals through means best termed “unorthodox.” No other group embodies the “whatever it takes” philosophy like a coterie of Carthian neonates. On any given night, such a coterie might be found…- undermining the domain or influences of an elder who's been harassing local Carthians
- staging a rally to make other Kindred aware of the unjust actions of some elder or covenant
- making inroads in a local mortal instution such as a labor union, gang or civil service branch
- looking for suitably idealistic mortals to bring into the covenant
- touting the advantages of revolutino and the Carthians to neonates of other covenants in an effort to attract "converts"
- using the Internet, libraries or other archives to research a torgat of the Movement
- finding a way to break an elder's monopoly on some sphere of mortal influence in the city
- obtaining the components for some terrorist endeavor
Night to Night: Ancillae
For all intents and purposes, ancillae are at the top of the heap in the Carthian Movement — or would be if the covenant recognized a unilateral hierarchy. Still, while power and the obedience of younger Carthians are two benefits an ancilla might not be able to depend on, she can still command a certain respect through her great experience. Given the dearth of elders in the covenant, coteries of ancillae have to do everything that a covenant’s elders would normally do. Luckily, they work well together, because they’d be out of their league otherwise. Any given night might find a coterie of Carthian ancillae…- launching an influence attack on a troublesome elder
- coordinating a unified recruiting campaign to increase the number of the domain’s Carthians
- establishing a cult
- arranging to have a key “enemy of the Movement” kidnapped, staked or destroyed
- assembling a collective to achieve a major goal
- inciting younger Carthians to action
- conducting a spirited debate about the future of the Movement
- keeping its eyes on the activities of fractious Carthian neonates
Night to Night: Elders
Coteries of Carthian elders do not often enjoy the status or the comfort of station that elders of other covenants do. Younger members of their own covenant might perceive them to be part of the problem that the Carthian Movement set out to solve or resent them as potential traitors. The elders might come to believe that revolutions are for the young, but the decades that they gave to the Movement are like chains restraining them from exploring other options. There is no rest, no reward for sticking with the cause except for the suspicious and contemptuous glances from the Movement’s younger members and the occasional, fleeting, impression that they might be doing the right thing. The Movement’s elders are forced to push the Carthian agenda of egalitarianism even more aggressively than they did early on in their time with the covenant lest the Movement’s neonates and ancillae accuse them of “selling out” and overthrow them. Consequently, there is no comfortable reward for devoting their Requiems to the pursuit of justice and equality. Instead, any given night might find a coterie of Carthian elders…- pretending to defect to another covenant to discern inside information
- leading the younger Carthians in attempts to overthrow the more antiquated covenants (which is to say, all the others)
- convincing younger Carthians not to overthrow them
- concocting a new identity to strengthen the local Carthian “revolution” through sheer charisma and star power
- quietly arranging the destruction of a Carthian neonate or ancilla who didn’t know when to hold his tongue
- fending off attacks and assassination attempts from other covenants, who find the very notion of a “Carthian elder” simultaneously deplorable and threatening
- placating the fears of other elders who find themselves feeling threatened by the Carthian Movement
- talking younger members of the covenant out of some of their more extreme ideas for “the grand revolution to come”
- planning a period of torpor
- defecting to another covenant