The Circle of the Crone - A History

Vampire the Requiem - Covenant - Circle of the Crone

History of the Covenant

To a great extent, there is no history of The Circle of the Crone. Many histories of particular pagan cults exist, or of the Acolytes in a particular city, but on the whole these do not tie together into a grand narrative of the covenant.
A number of grand narratives of the history of the covenant do circulate, but these are best thought of as legends — they are mutually contradictory, and regularly disagree with facts that are as well established as facts about Kindred history can be. Even within the Circle, many Acolytes do not see the need for such legends.
In fact, a number of vampires see no point in investigating the history of the covenant at all. They say that the Circle is merely an umbrella term for all the pagan groups among the Kindred. The history of particular cults is of greater importance to the members of those cults, but these vampires see little reason to worry about the muddied history of the covenant as a whole.
Is any Acolyte really a member of a covenant larger than the city in which she hunts? Is any Acolyte really faithful to the distant gods of faraway cults? No. Other Acolytes in other cities have their faiths and their gods and their parts of the covenant to tend. The Acolytes here in this city do things their own way — and, overall, the covenant enjoys marvelous diversity. Other cults of the covenant have their own rituals, their own futures and their own histories.
There is, however, one question that must be answered. Why do so many pagan vampires revere a goddess who exalts tribulation and creation? Where are the pagan cults following male deities who delight in destroying your enemies while living a life of luxury? (Some Acolytes may say that’s The Invictus, but that’s a mocking answer that doesn’t really answer the question.)

The Triumph of The Crone

Writing the history of the Kindred is even more difficult than writing human history. The first well-attested reference to The Circle of the Crone by that name (in Latin translation) is found in a document from early 12th-century Croatia. If lines of connection are followed back from that reference, it becomes clear that the organization has existed, under other names, since at least the seventh century, when existence of the covenant is recorded in Spain. The individual pagan cults within the seventh-century covenant can, in turn, be traced back further — much further. A vampire cult of Isis existed in the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt, for example.
Working from the other direction, the last reliable mention of a substantial group of pagan vampires primarily honoring a god is found in English records of the ninth century. Disputed, but probably sound, evidence suggests that there was a Priest of a god who was a master of Crúac active in the nights of the fifth century. Records of conflicts between the Kindred of Syracuse demonstrate that the pagan Kindred were not part of a single covenant in the first century before Christ, and that both sides of the conflict had access to Crúac.
This much is solidly attested; few Kindred historians dispute that the Circle came into existence by drawing together older cults, that this happened some time during the first centuries of the Christian era and that the covenant had essentially taken control of paganism among the Damned and of Crúac before the birth of Islam.
The outline of the process is also a matter of general consensus. After the fall of Rome and the Camarilla, the rising alliance between The Invictus and The Lancea Sanctum put a great deal of pressure on the various groups of pagan Kindred. Many were simply destroyed, and those that were not realized that they must cooperate in order to survive. A number of covenants formed, but the covenant devoted to The Crone proved strongest, wiping out the competition and turning Crúac into the Circle’s exclusive preserve. There is little dispute over why the Circle would want to do this; Crúac is an important edge in political disputes, far stronger if held in a monopoly, and resisting the Sanctified left little space for internal disputes.

The Blinded Queen

Much more disputed is the tale of the Blinded Queen. On the one hand, this has many features of legend; the name she called her goddess varies from one cult to the next, the reason for her name is given variously and even the site of her Requiem is not subject to consensus. However, the broad outline is found in the tales of many cults, and even in local traditions held by members of other covenants.
The Blinded Queen was high priestess of a powerful goddess of blood and death. While many of her contemporaries saw the advance of the Sanctified, and of the Christian church among the kine, as a sign that the Kindred had failed their deities, she saw the Sanctified as a test designed to make the true servants even stronger. She traveled from city to city, spreading her message among the Kindred who would listen, leaving behind the core of her teaching and a few rituals of Crúac. (Some legends claim that she was the first Kindred to know Crúac, but if that is so she learned it several centuries before she founded the covenant.) She taught the importance of struggle and the importance of creation, and then moved on.
A few decades later, she came back, blind. She visited every city, and either destroyed her followers, or taught them more Crúac rituals and put them in contact with other members of the new covenant. The grounds for her judgment vary so much from legend to legend that they are impossible to recover; only the fact that she destroyed some followers for failing, in some way, is constant. A few decades after that, a command from the Blinded Queen was passed from one city to the next: all practitioners of Crúac outside the covenant must be destroyed. The command was carried out, and the covenant’s existence assured.
Most Kindred historians think that the Blinded Queen actually existed, and effectively founded The Circle of the Crone from many disparate pagan groups. Every Kindred historian has his own theory as to who and what she was, and the debates over this show no sign of ending. A few Kindred have actually claimed to be the Blinded Queen. In two cases, the claim was backed up by power, knowledge of Crúac and knowledge of the covenant that made the claim highly plausible. One of the Kindred was a tall, blond Mekhet from Norway, the other a short, dark Daeva from Cyprus. Their active times have overlapped briefly, in 1814, when one was in New York and the other in Vienna. Nevertheless, there are a few historians who claim that the two were actually the same vampire, and really were the Blinded Queen. While many of the candidates have gained great authority over the local Acolytes, none have been able to take control of the whole covenant, and none of the strongest candidates have even tried.

Persistence

Ironically, the continuing existence of the Circle as a single covenant is probably due to The Lancea Sanctum. The Sanctified persecution of pagans meant that only those pagan vampires with an edge, and backing from a large organization, survived. That meant the members of the Circle. They had Crúac as the prize for recruitment, and Acolytes fleeing persecution in one city could find some degree of refuge with the Acolytes in another. Other groups of pagans lacked both of these advantages, and disappeared under persecution.
The Ordo Dracul is the exception that proves the rule. The Coils of the Dragon provide an alternative to Crúac, and the covenant’s organization allowed its members to maintain themselves in the face of Suspicion. An interesting question is whether the Circle will remain unified in the future. The power of the Sanctified is waning in modern nights, making the need for unity less pressing. Some outside observers feel that the Circle is likely to fragment back into many local cults in the near future.

Cults of the Crone

There is no way to give the history of every cult within the Circle in a book of reasonable length. The factions and bloodlines described elsewhere in this book serve as examples, and a few briefer ones are given here. More useful are the patterns of history that are seen repeatedly. Cults are born, maintain themselves and die. The patterns of struggle at each of these stages are repeated many times across the covenant.

Birth

For all the rhetoric of unimaginably ancient roots, and despite the truth behind that rhetoric, almost all of the current cults and factions within The Circle of the Crone were founded within the last five centuries, and according to one of a handful of patterns. Cults continue to be born in current nights, as might be expected from a covenant that exalts creation.

Inspiration

Something speaks to a vampire, imparting knowledge of an effective way to worship The Crone, and often leaving some evidence of the validity of the vision. This is the classic mode of cult foundation, and one that almost all claim to trace themselves back to, even if indirectly.
Inspiration can come at any time, but normally when the vampire is in some abnormal mental state. The most common time is Torpor, when goddesses speak to Kindred in their dreams. Hag cults often form in this way. A Kindred’s daily sleep is another possible time for inspiration; the Sand of the Stone Mother is a small cult in the Rockies founded when its high priestess dreamed repeatedly that the mountains were talking to her. Finally, some Kindred find inspiration while in the throes of frenzy. The type of cult created is appropriate to the type of frenzy, which could indicate either that the inspiration comes from the Kindred herself, or that the goddesses choose those in an appropriate frame of mind as prophets. Such cults do tend to be more extreme than most.
Inspired Kindred often feel the need to follow their inspiration regardless of the political climate, and so this is the most likely origin for cults founded in a hostile city. Cults founded in this way thus cause trouble in the Danse Macabre rather more often than others do.

Secession

Some cults are formed by secession from an existing cult. A small group of Kindred decide that the cult’s teachings are not wholly appropriate, and so split off to follow their own version. Both the seceding group and the group left behind normally claim to be the true heirs of the original cult.
Secession is normally hostile, with the two resulting cults moving politically or physically against one another. It is thus not uncommon for one group to be driven out of one city, and forced to carve out territory elsewhere. Unless one group wants to leave, this is normally preceded by nights of covert struggle, and the arrival of a coterie of new Kindred often provokes further struggle in their new home.
The pace of change of modern mortal society seems to have increased the rate of secession. Neonates these nights often believe that the elders are out of touch, and that the rites need to be updated to reflect reality. The neonates may even be right, but the elders are rarely sympathetic. In these cases, almost invariably the neonates have to flee to a new city.

Revival

As noted below, cults within The Circle of the Crone die out. There are many possible reasons for this, but most often traces are left behind, even if only in the records of heresy kept by The Lancea Sanctum. There is a long tradition of young members of the Circle reviving such destroyed cults.
Revival allows the new cult to claim the history of the old, without having to deal with the presence of elders. Revival has thus always been a popular option with politically ambitious neonates and ancillae. The link to politics is so well established, in fact, that Kindred of the Circle instinctively look for the political angle when confronted with such a new cult. In some cases, this leads them to join, as they see a way to advance their agenda without being the figurehead.
Cults are also often revived when the power of the Sanctified wanes in a domain. Acolytes take advantage of the newfound freedom to reclaim their history, which often results in a sudden profusion of re-founded groups springing up throughout the city, vastly complicating the Danse Macabre.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction is an altogether more scholarly undertaking than revival. The founding vampire works from the scholarship of mortal historians and archaeologists, reconstructing pagan worship that had vanished entirely and creating a new cult honoring the old gods.
Because the creator is not bound by the actual practices of any previous cult, reconstructed cults tend to be very well suited to the nights in which they are created. A number of cults with strong Christian influences were reconstructed during the Middle Ages, of which the Cult of the Magdalene, which takes Mary Magdalene to be an avatar of the sacred whore, is the strongest in the present day. With the rapid growth in antiquarian studies during the 17th and 18th centuries, reconstruction became even more common. The cults founded then tended to imbibe ideas of democracy and rights from the intellectual atmosphere, and thus found themselves most often in alliance with the Carthians.
While revived cults often have political aims, reconstructed cults are more idealistic. That does not make them ‘nicer’; Kindred ideals include such ideas as ruling over submissive herds of mortals and feeding at will. It does mean that the reconstructed cults tend to respond less to immediate conditions in the Danse Macabre, and more to the long-term goals of their founders. These cults are less likely to have a political impact, but more likely to effect large changes if they succeed.

Pure Creation

Some cults are not so much cut from whole cloth as woven from threads spun by the founder from sheep she raised herself. It is not uncommon for the founder to claim spirit inspiration, but such deceit is ultimately a poor foundation for a religion. The more successful cults are quite open about their origins.
The attitude of the Circle as a whole to such cults is ambivalent. On the one hand, creation is good. On the other, the arrogance involved in designing your own religion strikes even most Kindred as unconscionable. As a result, most such cults wither and die quite quickly.
The exceptions are those founded by powerful elders with a deep mastery of Crúac. These may involve worship of the elder, and if the vampire is powerful enough, this can seem a sensible option to many neonates. In other cases, the elder might have simply made the goddess up, but it is plausible that she now exists. Indeed, some elders claim to know a Crúac ritual that creates a deity. The existence of the ritual (or rituals) is beyond dispute, but the nature of its effect, if any, is much more controversial.

Survival

Simple survival is an issue for most cults of The Crone. This is not so much the risk of dying out as the risk of being destroyed. In past centuries, the Sanctified often actively sought to destroy Acolytes, and this is far from unheard-of, even tonight. A number of standard tactics are found in the history of many cults, and most old groups have used more than one.

Secrecy

Secrecy is the most common survival strategy. If the crusaders do not know you exist, they cannot hunt you down. This tactic takes two main forms.
In the first, the Kindred are known to be in the city, and deal with the Prince in the normal way. However, their affiliation to The Circle of the Crone is kept secret. They may be unaligned, or on the fringes of one of the other covenants, most often The Invictus. Some cults, such as the Cult of the Magdalene, were comfortable feigning loose attachment to The Lancea Sanctum, but this was rare in the past and is even rarer tonight. This form of secrecy is becoming less common as the power of the Sanctified wanes. It is hard to keep up, and there are many Kindred for whom the necessary hypocrisy is a strain. More importantly, it takes long enough to fulfill the obligations of an Acolyte, without adding the need to dance attendance on an Invictus lord.
The biggest advantage of this approach is that it is not brittle. That is, a small amount of evidence suggesting pagan links need not be fatal to the hiding Kindred, as they can use their political connections to cover it up, discredit it or explain it away as a misunderstanding. Most of the cults that survived centuries of persecution did so this way.
The second approach is to hide completely, keeping even the existence of the members of the cult secret. Such absolute secrecy makes communication with other members of the covenant difficult, and the cult tends to drift away from the Circle, becoming more isolated. In addition, the Kindred need only be spotted once to be hunted down. No Prince can tolerate vampires who ignore his authority, whatever their religious affiliation; discovering hidden pagans merely tended to make the pogrom more vicious. As a result, the Circle believes that most cults that tried this method were destroyed, although a few have emerged from hiding as the political climate has become more favorable.
Of course, the essence of this approach is that, if it succeeds, other vampires do not know you exist. Every few years, a small pagan cult appears in a city somewhere, claiming ancient history and years of hiding. The cult’s confrontation with contemporary Kindred society is often violent.

Domains

Another technique practiced by the stronger cults was to carve out a domain within a city. This never worked for mortal pagans, as the state was able to muster overwhelming numbers to destroy them. Kindred are scarcer, and harder to muster, than mortals, so the strategy is more viable in the Danse Macabre.
The cult claims a geographical area of a city, generally one that is not highly desirable. If any other Kindred enter that area, they are hunted down and killed. (Certain Crúac rituals can help with this, making it much harder to enter the domain undetected.) The leader of the cult then offers certain kinds of service and tribute to the Prince, on the understanding that they would be withdrawn if hostilities started.
The goal, which was achieved with some frequency, was to make it not worth the Prince’s while to try to wipe out the pagans. Obviously, this worked much better with Invictus Princes; Sanctified Bishops had a tendency to overlook immediate advantage in favor of ideological purity. The cities where this was most successful were those in which there was more suspicion than usual between The Invictus and The Lancea Sanctum, a state that the Circle tried to maintain.
In a few cases, this arrangement has persisted to modern nights, with the Hierarch of a city controlling an area and allowing no non-Circle Kindred within it. The most notable example is Copenhagen, where a cult devoted to Hel maintains absolute control of almost a third of the city. On the other hand, Acolytes showing their faces in the rest of the city are marked for destruction. In most cases, however, the more accepting political climate has led to the domain being somewhat opened up, as the Acolytes maneuver for more power at the heart of politics, rather than being confined to the edge.

Alliances

Alliances tie the Circle fully into the Danse Macabre of a city. They were extremely rare in the past, but are now perhaps the most common survival strategy. Alliances can be with other covenants, or be far more personal.
In the past, personal alliances were the most common. A coterie of Acolytes provided supernatural advice and backing to the Prince, and in return he protected them from the attentions of the Sanctified. As no Prince can rule forever, these alliances were unstable, and most collapsed. In a few cases, the Acolytes were able to form the alliance with the Prince’s successor; the Five Hags of Madrid were able to do so for centuries, and remain an important element in the city’s political landscape tonight.
In more recent nights, alliances between covenants have spread. The Carthians and The Ordo Dracul both make natural Allies for the Circle, although alliances with The Invictus against The Lancea Sanctum are not unheard of. Alliances between The Circle of the Crone and The Lancea Sanctum are the stuff of legend; no trusted reports exist. Of course, simply reporting such an alliance makes a report rather incredible.
Successful alliances move the Circle into the mainstream of Kindred politics without any major events. As a result, alliances have become increasingly common, and groups that followed other strategies have started to seek Allies in the Danse Macabre, hoping to join the mainstream.

Wandering

The final common response to persecution is running away. The highly local nature of Kindred society makes this a very effective response; few vampires care so much about the existence of pagans that the Kindred are willing to pursue them beyond the bounds of the city.
On the other hand, running away is very dangerous. Kindred do not survive well in rural areas, for a large number of reasons, and gaining acceptance in a new city is even harder than establishing yourself at the site of your Embrace. These dangers applied harsh Darwinian selection to the cults that tried this approach, so that thesurvivors are highly skilled and highly dangerous.
Wandering, similar to secrecy, comes in two varieties. The first is the adoption of a purely nomadic lifestyle. This is very rare, but extremely effective for the groups that managed to pull it off. The second is to try to maintain absolute secrecy, and to move to a new city once discovered. The second method is the more common, and most of the absolutely secret cults that survive to the present night made use of it. Some still do, and their arrival in a new city often triggers a wave of mysterious events. This sometimes compromises the cults’ secrecy, but centuries of experience mean that, more often, the causes of the suspicious Final Deaths are never established.

Identity

Physical survival is not the only problem facing a cult within The Circle of the Crone. Unlike The Lancea Sanctum, which has a relatively centralized doctrine, the Circle covers a very wide range of cults. For a particular cult to survive within the Circle, the cult must maintain its own identity as separate from, and at least as appealing as, the other options. Again, cults have used varying strategies to this end.

Rites

The communal rites of a cult are very important in producing a sense of group identity. In some cases, this is their main, and explicit, purpose, but more often group identity is a side effect of rites that ostensibly aim at something else.
If any strategy is universal, it is this one. Cults without group rites rarely survive more than a few decades, and many Acolytes feel that something is not really a cult unless it has rites. The most secretive cults hold their rites masked, so that no cultist knows the identities of the others, but even these cults have their rituals.
The importance of rites means that they are often used to declare historical affiliations. A revived cult, for example, almost always has ritual continuities with the original version, even if other doctrines have been altered. Similarly, seceding groups generally mark their departure by a change in one or more of the rites, although the cults may label the change as a return to original practice.

Initiations

Initiations are almost as common as rites. In the ancient world, these were a standard feature of mystery religions, in which the initiates knew secrets hidden from outsiders. In modern nights, many Acolyte cults adopt the same structure. Initiations typically involve suffering before secrets are revealed, and thus mesh tightly with Circle philosophy.
Persecuted cults tend to set truly dangerous initiations. Simply joining risks Final Death, so the cult has an interest in weeding out applicants who are not truly loyal before revealing any secrets. In addition, the shared bond of having survived the same peril can be very strong, reinforcing group loyalty.
Cults in power often have more nominal initiations, with advancement linked to political power. Sometimes, these are ritualizations of initiations that were originally truly dangerous. A cult of Artemis based in Maine requires its initiates to travel, alone, to a certain forest clearing outside the city. Years ago, the location was kept secret and the forest infested by werewolves, so only the canniest and most powerful survived. These days, there is a road to the clearing, and most initiates drive.

Mutual Support

Members of cults generally support other members of that cult. This is true even when the cult does not form a single coterie; Kindred in such a situation can buy other members of the cult as Allies. Mutual assistance is a powerful way to reinforce loyalty and group identity. The problem is that Kindred find it very difficult to sustain; selfishness and the Beast tend to weaken this bond over time.

Creation and Approval

While the Circle approves of Acolytes creating new rituals, this runs the risk of pulling a cult apart, as different vampires’ visions branch out in different directions. Most cults respond to this by giving the leader responsibility for approving or rejecting proposed new rites. In many cases, the leader simply takes this power, but creating rituals is far more effective if the other members support this wholeheartedly.
When wielded well, this power is extremely effective. Kindred who have created some of the group’s rites feel a strong connection to it, and the constant evolution makes the cult seem more relevant to modern nights. If the contributions of neonates are accepted, they do not feel alienated from the cult’s leadership.
The power of this approach is well-known in the covenant, and, as a result, the creation of new rituals is widely practiced. Thus, even the most ancient cult often has central rites that were designed within the last few years. Members of other covenants who expect the Circle to be full of reactionary primitives are often surprised.

Death

Nothing is forever, not individual Kindred, and not individual cults. The causes of death are many and varied, but, as with birth, a number of patterns are common. The death of a cult is not necessarily forever, of course. It might be revived by later Kindred, or even by a member who spent centuries in Torpor before awakening to spread the word once more.

Persecution

Historically, the most common cause of the end of a cult has been persecution. While many cults have survived the centuries, many more cults have not, being destroyed by the paladins of the Sanctified, or by other forces.
This tends to be the most thorough form of destruction, as the hunters make an effort to find every adherent of the cult and all of its texts, and destroy them all. Even so, some evidence normally remains, and occasionally even individual Kindred are overlooked. When there are Kindred survivors, they often seek revenge, and are willing to wait centuries to have it.
Cults can also be destroyed almost by accident. Constant pressure on pagan Kindred can draw off potential recruits, and when a cult consists of only half a dozen individuals (a very typical size), only a little bad luck is needed to render the cult completely nonviable. In these cases, individual members might be destroyed for heresy, but there is no concerted attempt to wipe out the cult. This often leaves extensive, if well-concealed, remains. A cult of Inanna that was wiped out in late antiquity left an underground temple, complete with ritual texts, implements and robes. The temple’s rediscovery in the late 19th century was the spur for the foundation of an entirely new cult.
Historically, most cults have perished this way, at the hands of their enemies. In recent nights, however, this has become rarer.

Sedition

Many cults also fall to the enemies within. Acolytes are no more immune to rivalries and feuds than other Kindred, and these have brought many cults low. Sometimes a cult splits into two or more groups that all claim to continue the original tradition, but which cannot really be described as the same. In those cases, the records of the original cult often remain intact, and it may be revived at a later date. Such revivals almost invariably come into conflict with the continuing cults that claim to be the heirs.
Other cults fall to simple factionalism. Groups of Kindred with no real theological differences battle for control of the cult, and the losses of the war render the whole organization impotent. This would rarely be enough to destroy a cult by itself, but in an environment of persecution, such impotence often leaves a cult very vulnerable to the Sanctified.
One other distinctive ending is common enough to be worth noting. Often, a powerful high priestess goes into Torpor, leaving management of the cult to trusted aides. Sometimes these aides take the cult along different paths; sometimes the aides do not, but the memory of the high priestess is warped by the visions of Torpor, and she thinks they have. Either way, the elder awakens from Torpor, is horrified by what has become of her cult and launches a campaign to destroy it.
These struggles erupt completely unpredictably, and can utterly reshape the political geography of cities.

Ossification

The last cause of death has been rare in the past, because this cause could best be described as ‘natural death.’ Most pagan cults in the past have perished under the swords of persecutors. As things have changed, however, ossification has become more common.
This happens when elders have too firm a grip on the cult, and do not allow neonates enough power, or at least not enough hope of power. The Invictus have spent centuries perfecting this balance; most members of the Circle cannot hope to match the First Estate’s skill. As a result, neonates tend not to join the cult, and the elders find themselves alone. When the elders are destroyed or pass into Torpor, the cult vanishes with a whimper.
These cults often leave records and proud histories, so they are prime candidates for revival; the disappearance of the elders removes the problem that the cults had.
A variation on this problem occurs when elders refuse to adapt the cult to the modern world. In most cases, a cult can survive as an archaic relic, but some cannot. A few cults, for example, stop celebrating their central rites when the main holy site is destroyed, and without the unity provided by such continuing activity, the cult fragments and vanishes.

Resurrection

As noted in the section on birth, cults are often reborn when younger vampires choose to revive them. This is a common pattern in the history of the covenant; while many cults can claim roots that go back into prehistory, very few can convincingly claim a continuous tradition that goes back that far.

Acolytes in the City

The history of The Circle of the Crone in a particular city is more than the history of the individual cults found in that city, although those histories are an important part of the history of the covenant. Every city’s history is different, but there are common stages found in those histories, and certain transitions are more common than others.

Single Cult

The most common single pattern is that in which all Acolytes in a city are members of a single cult. Other Kindred in the city tend to think that all members of the covenant have those beliefs, and even some of the Chorus may think so. Any Kindred with Covenant Status in the Circle knows of the existence of other cults elsewhere, however.
Single-cult cities are most common under two somewhat opposed conditions. The first is when the Circle is vigorously persecuted in a city. In that case, most cults are wiped out, and rarely does more than one survive. Isolated Acolytes stand no chance of surviving long enough to found their own cults, so the monopoly is maintained. These cults are generally friendly to other variants of Acolyte belief, and would often welcome those Acolytes to the city, if they were willing to come. However, the cults’ internal loyalty is what enables them to survive.
The other situation is when there is very little persecution of the Circle, but it is still excluded from politics. In that case, the single cult is gathering strength to force recognition and make persecution impossible. The cult actively recruits, and takes steps to stop other cults from taking hold and diluting its strength.
The Circle is also often represented by a single cult when a regime of heavy persecution has just ended. In this case, the single cult is made up of the first Acolytes to move into the city when it became safe to do so. The attitude of this cult to other newcomers can be anything; some cults welcome additional Allies, others want to be the only mistresses of Crúac in the domain.
This situation very often evolves into the Single Line of Descent situation as pressures of persecution are lifted, and can evolve into the State Religion situation if a single cult succeeds in gaining significant political power in a city. Almost any situation can lead to this one if persecution increases.

Single Line of Descent

In this case, all the cults in a city are derived from the same cult, or just from the same founding vampire. This does not mean that the groups are on friendly terms; the opposite tends to be the case. This may be due to hostility left over from the split, or may be due to real philosophical differences.
This situation does not tend to persist under conditions of heavy persecution, as the Acolytes cannot then afford the losses from internal conflicts. On the other hand, this situation is very common when a cult has survived a period of persecution, and that persecution ends. Differences that were put aside in the face of a common enemy are suddenly impossible to ignore, and the Acolytes split.
The city tends to move toward either multiple cults, or a state religion. In the former case, the various related cults are unable to band together to keep other Acolytes out, so the religious landscape becomes even more varied. In the latter case, they are able to find enough common ground to present a show of unity, often as a prelude to seeking even more power for the covenant.

Multiple Cults

In the past, this was a very rare state of affairs. In recent nights, multiple cults have become increasingly common. The Circle in a single city is represented by multiple cults, which may have almost nothing in common. The Sipán and the Amanotsukai Dominate Lima, for example.
Multiple cults almost never flourish when the Acolytes are persecuted. Similarly, this is rare when a single cult has survived persecution, as that cult tends to maintain control. If a single cult has fractured, however, this may open the way for new arrivals, and if the Acolytes were almost completely purged, multiple cults may arrive once persecution finishes. In a few cases, more than one cult has survived persecution in secrecy, and all make their existence public at around the same time, often in response to the appearance of the others.
Relations among the various cults vary a great deal. Hostility is probably the most common, as it is very difficult for widely disparate groups to agree on a single Hierarch. This weakens the covenant in that city, but the individual cults care more for their own identity than for the covenant as a whole.
Cooperation, or at least peaceful coexistence, is not, however, rare. Many Acolytes still feel the need to band together against the Sanctified, and all members of the covenant have a great deal in common, despite their differences. The Liman Kindred, for example, are united in their rejection of Judeo- Christian culture, although they differ over modern technology, and a solid truce exists between the two factions. If the Sipán manage to drive the Sanctified out, that might change.
When the groups are in conflict, the city often becomes a single cult city as one group wins and drives the losers out, or destroys them. If the cults live in peace, this often develops into a state religion, as the Acolytes design rites to affirm their unity.

State Religion

A state religion develops when there are many different cults in a city, but they have agreed on a number of basic rites that they all celebrate in common. The differences are, officially at least, regarded as unimportant variations, and, in theory, transferring from one cult to another is easy.
This is most common when the Circle is very strong in a city, and is the case in almost every domain where the Circle holds praxis. There is a very practical reason for this: gathering the strength necessary to bid for praxis is extremely hard for a single cult, and almost impossible for a loose alliance of many cults, which must muster the necessary unity. As a result, this is also a very common situation in cities where the Circle is bidding for praxis.
For many Kindred, this is the paradigmatic image of the covenant, not because it is the most common, but because a state religion is what most Acolytes would like to be the most common. Ambassadors to other covenants, in particular, tend to put this forward as the model of the way that the Circle works. This is really no different from the image of unified doctrine put forward by the Sanctified, or the image of an effective hierarchy put forward by The Invictus. The Circle cannot, and does not want to, deny the diversity of cults within the covenant’s ranks, but does want to present itself as at least as strong and unified as the other covenants. The rhetoric appears to be taking hold, as cities with a state religion are becoming increasingly common.

Bristol

Bristol is a city on the west coast of England where the Circle has always been strong; the city’s history is a good example of how things develop. (Or are said to develop — this history of Bristol does not quite match the accounts of the local Invictus.) It’s possible that no other city follows precisely this pattern, but many are similar.
Two thousand years ago, in the last nights of the Camarilla, two Kindred cults were particularly powerful; one followed Sulis, a Celtic deity of the waters, and the other followed Ceres, the Roman deity. As the Roman Empire faltered and fell, the cults came into conflict with each other, and with the rising Sanctified. The arrival of Anglo-Saxon invaders and Irish raiders complicated matters, and the Sanctified took advantage of the disunity to purge as many pagan Kindred as The Lancea Sanctum could. By 600 AD, this process was all but complete. The only survivors were members of the cult of Sulis, and they hid completely, pretending that they were not even in the town.
From the year 1000 AD, Bristol began to flourish as a port. The mortal population increased, as did the Kindred population. The members of the cult of Sulis moved into the open, loosely affiliating themselves with The Invictus, and claiming to have immigrated to the city along with the kine. The Sulis followers still kept their pagan practices secret, but worked to drive a wedge between The Invictus and The Lancea Sanctum.
The cult members were extremely successful, to the extent that, in 1317, the cultists were able to reveal their affiliation openly. Their connection to The Invictus Prince was so strong that The Lancea Sanctum was unable to move against them. As news of this situation spread, Acolytes from across the west of Britain started to move to Bristol, in the hope of greater tolerance. The Sulis cult was not willing to share power, however, and hunted the other Acolytes down with Vigor.
This, in turn, weakened the cult’s position, and a Sanctified counterattack in the mid-15th century overthrew the Prince and, apparently, wiped the cult out. In fact, three members survived, and once again were forced to hide their very existence.
The Lancea Sanctum ruled until the middle of the 16th century, when religious chaos in England weakened the grip of the Church among mortals, and undermined the Sanctified in turn. The Invictus took advantage of this weakening to seize power, once again subtly supported by the cult of Sulis. Around the same time, antiquarians discovered more details of the cult of Ceres, and young Kindred revived that cult. This time, the cult of Sulis was more welcoming of the newcomers, bearing in mind the lessons of its previous mistakes.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Bristol became an important center of the slave trade, and African cults found their way to the city. Again, the resident Circle welcomed them, and the cults were able to forge a common set of rites, marking the covenant out.
The Acolytes then made a bold move, claiming territory in the growing suburbs. The Sanctified pushed for a pogrom, but The Invictus Prince owed the Circle some debts, which made his support half-hearted. The Sanctified attacks were beaten off, inflicting great losses on the Circle, and significantly shifting the balance of power in the town.
Bristol continued to grow, and in the 20th century, the Circle made a bid for praxis. The Invictus Prince was toppled, but the First Estate found another strong leader, who negotiated a deal with the leaders of the cult of Sulis. Members of the Circle currently serve as spiritual advisers to the Prince, in the role filled by members of The Lancea Sanctum in many domains, but the positions of power are dominated by the cult of Sulis. The other cults within the covenant are becoming restive, and rumors suggest that they will make another bid for praxis soon.

What is all Knowledge too but recorded Experience, and a product of History;
of which, therefore, Reasoning and Belief,
no less than Action and Passion, are essential materials?
— Thomas Carlyle

Associated Covenant
The Circle of the Crone

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All?

Are there really no groups of pagan vampires worshiping gods of pleasant tyranny? That seems very unlikely, and indeed small cults answering that description do exist in cities across the globe. However, they remain small cults, often harried out of existence by The Lancea Sanctum or eventually absorbed by The Circle of the Crone. At the covenant’s most basic levels of belief, The Circle of the Crone does not abhor or exclude cults surrounding male gods. The Circle’s philosophy is not anti-men; it is pro-creation. And since the earliest nights of mortal existence, the uniquely feminine act of birth has been the supreme symbol of human creation.
But not the only symbol of creation. Zeus begat Athena from his thigh or, some say, his skull. Male deities are revered by many Acolytes with the same fervor and ferocity as female deities. Male gods are simply not as universally iconic of the covenant’s reverence for the power of creation.

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