Unlife in The Carthian Movement
The Carthians offer unity and brotherhood, which isn’t glamorous when you compare them to the triumphalism, ritual or arcane power of other groups. Nevertheless, they’re a major covenant, so clearly the Movement is meeting needs for a lot of vampires.
The question outsiders ask is whether that’s all there is to the Carthians, or is there some massive dire secret behind them? From the outside, the Movement doesn’t seem like it could possibly accomplish anything (especially for Kindred who aren’t accustomed to the modern mindset). The Carthians govern cities, though, maintain The Traditions and do at least as good a job of it as the typical collection of undead. Patently, there’s something at work. But what? Magic? Some powerful secret agenda? Or does it all come down to organizational skills?
The Carthians contradict themselves and aren’t even embarrassed. They claim to support collectivism and the individual, and they say the Movement is a unified whole that accepts broadly divergent points of view. Philosophically, the Movement is the most diverse covenant. At the same time, Carthian principles, be they ever so vaguely stated, seem to call members together in a way that seems, sometimes, stronger than religious impulse, mysticism or even self-interest.
The following four core beliefs are common to the Carthians, because, without these values, you’re just not in the Movement. There are some whose are passionately devoted, and there are some who are mostly along for the ride, but at least part of the program appealed. Otherwise, why not just screw it all and declare yourself unbound? (Admittedly, some domains have Carthian presences big and aggressive enough to take a “join or die” stance, but, for our purposes, we’ll consider voluntary membership.)
Philosophical accord is fine. Most Carthians, however, are in the Movement because it functions. The more it works for them, the more they believe in it. The more they believe in it, of course, the better it works.
Some Carthians believe in the God of The Lancea Sanctum. Some Carthians are aggressive atheists. Some Carthians are agnostic to the point of arguing that even if God exists, He’s irrelevant to the Requiem. Some Carthians claim that Kindred were mistakenly animated from dust by God’s tears as He wept for the fall of Humanity, and that they can only escape their merited destruction by consuming the blood of his favored children, which he is (in their version of things) loath to spill.
If religion was the determining factor for every action taken by all those disparate vampires, they’d never agree on anything. But since they’re all Carthians, clearly their relationship to the Lord isn’t their fundamental motivator. This unity bypasses more than religious difference. Carthian Democrats who think a social safety net provides a more complacent Herd class work beside Carthian Republicans, who think welfare leads to economic stagnation, the growth of the criminal underclass and, ultimately, more jobless jerks with shotguns and the free time to investigate their cousins’ mysterious disappearance.
Despite disagreements, Carthians put up with one another. They’re willing to admit that, while they think others are wrong, others may think they’re wrong. That’s no reason they can’t set their differences aside when it’s time to deal with a haunted Elysium, or an incursion of mortal refugees who are unpleasantly well-informed about Kindred or a Belial’s Brood coterie popping up from nowhere.
Working well together on big things leads to cooperation on smaller things, such as the one breather cop who’s distressingly resistant to corruption, or a threat to a favorite Rack, or a neonate who doesn’t know how to keep his fangs shut or just property taxes that are going insane, and dammit, I’m not paying to put any kids through school.
That’s the Movement in a nutshell. Theoretically, the Carthians’ factional disagreements should yield resentment, spite and murderous hatred. In practice, most Carthians would rather get along than fight about matters of personal choice. At least, they’d rather get along with other Carthians.
A common Carthian precept is “The fear of showing weakness is, itself, a debilitating weakness.” In the Movement, you can admit to screwups and problems without shame (or, in any event, less shame). Carthians accept as a given fact that the Kindred condition is miserable. Calling it a curse dresses it up, but Torpor and sun scorching and incessant evil urges and needing blood, blood, blood is miserable. Being a vampire is a problem, a huge problem. It’s a problem too big for one scared and ignorant person to handle, particularly one who’s just starting out. The Movement is there to ensure its members don’t have to face being a vampire alone.
There’s a price for all this togetherness and mutual aid, and it’s paid when you’re no longer that weak fledgling and everyone starts coming to you for a sympathetic ear and, say, maybe a loan until he comes into some money and some help scrubbing cordite burns off the Honda’s upholstery. But, by that point, most Carthians are used to getting tapped for unexpected deliverance. Some don’t know any other kind of Requiem. For a few who really get it — often converts from more self-oriented covenants — looking out for another person, even an undead one, gives a kind of meaning to their existence that no degree of power, or security or occult knowledge can accomplish.
That said, the collectivism of the Movement also has a lot to offer those who seek only power, security and knowledge. Existential rewards aren’t universal, they’re rare — and only an option for those motivated to seek them.
For Kindred saddled with Predator’s Taint and prey-hunter ratios to encourage a lone-wolf approach, pursuing solitary studies or ceremonies may actually be more comfortable. Even a vampire who strongly backed the Circle’s beliefs might join the Movement instead because she prefers the Carthian approach, or because she just doesn’t want to share, explain or compromise her personal understanding of the myth of Xquic’s pregnancy and her relationship to the rulers of Xibalba.
It’s not all a bed of roses for such iconoclast individualists. A lone religious mystic doesn’t have to worry about being punished for heresy, but she doesn’t get the spiritual support of a prayerful community, either, or can go consult libraries amassed over centuries by undead theologians. If she’s willing to make that bargain, she can join the Carthians and know there are other vampires who will help her make rent, manage a Herd and keep the police at bay. All the Carthians ask in return is that she perform the same kind of secular services now and again.
The great thing about the Carthians is that they don’t give a damn about anything but paying your dues. Of course, the unavoidable drawback to the Carthians is also that they don’t give a damn about anything but paying your dues.
While the role of individual rights is clearest in the case of those with individual obsessions, individual rights plays a role for Kindred who are less focused on specific, esoteric goals such as enlightenment or Golconda or claiming praxis. Citizen Kindred with a more night-to-night focus on getting by, being comfortable and attaining security grasp, pretty quickly, that every covenant asks you to jump through some hoops. The Carthians aren’t a free ride. But often, the price they ask (“help a brother out when he’s low”) seems a lot more palatable and simple than covenants that promise far more, but demand humiliation, servitude or spiritual pollution in exchange.
Position is important because it makes Carthianism more than a social club or a clearinghouse for skills and favors. Position makes Kindred into something more than short-sighted bundles of vicious hungers. It provides a purpose, goals beyond slaking the Beast, and therefore keeps the Man ascendant.
It is important to understand that taking a position is not seen as just a sort of hobby therapy that helps vampires keep their heads together. Remaining a human and not a monster is an important byproduct of the process, indeed a necessary one, but unless your position means enough to you that you’d tend to it even at cost, it’s not going to work. Unless you’re genuinely committed to your cause, you’re going to degenerate anyhow, eventually.
This doesn’t stop certain desperate vampires from pursuing a cause without real belief, simply because they’ve got nothing better (or because a cause that could truly inspire them is too difficult or dangerous to pursue). In some cases, they even develop a real care for what began as a pose. More often, they burn out.
Providing existential nourishment is hardly unique to the Carthians. Indeed, every covenant provides positions, ranging from “serve the will of God through perfect monstrosity” through “transcend the shackles of your condition through perfect egoism.” The Carthian difference is that you get to pick the reason to your Requiem, instead of accepting one handed down by the ancient authorities.
As with so many Carthian advantages, this is double edged. You get to do it yourself, but you don’t get to stand on the shoulders of giants while you do. Instead, you stand side by side with those Carthians who believe as you do. Or, if you can’t find any, Carthians who are willing to help you just because you’re in the Movement.
Positions can be lone beliefs, but far more often they’re held in common with other Carthians. The Movement contains many “position coteries,” which function much like activist groups, or revolutionary cells. Some beliefs are popular enough to encompass several coteries within a city, or several Carthian groups within connected cities or (if a position is broad and strong enough, like “Kindred should be governed democratically”) multiple cities on a continent.
The Night Doctors, The Final Civilization, Humanism, The Conscionauts, Radical Collective Coteries, Hives, Zen Carthianism
Every meaningful position implies concrete action. If your beliefs don’t prompt you to act, they’re either an empty pose or they’re irrelevant to anyone but you so who gives a fuck? Shut up already and make yourself useful!
This doesn’t always mean firebombing Elysium (though it can, and has). Most often, ‘action’ takes the form of proselytizing. Furthermore, there’s a tendency within the Movement to judge by effort as much as by results. The guy who spends a decade writing out his 400-page manifesto is accorded respect for being a serious thinker who made a statement, even if no one reads his book. Conversely, the Carthian gal who adapts superbly to a crisis and winds up Sheriff after a long and deadly weekend gets credit, too, even if she never set out to gain authority. The highest esteem, however, redounds on those who make a play, pursue it and achieve their goals. That’s the ideal of everyone who states a mission.
No one ever said positions were one to a customer. The most common ideological marriages are between beliefs of behavior (such as the Radical Collective notion that Kindred are more trustworthy when they’re all threads in a mutual psych safety net) and beliefs of philosophy (such as anarchy, fascism, democracy or less reputable notions such as pursuing the Final Civilization). There are communist Hives and Zen Conscionaut coteries, sharing the Movement with nihilist Kindred who operate in a strictly regulated free-market barter economy. They mix and match, not because they’re flighty, but because creatures with eternity on their hands and no grocery bills have a lot of time in which to really contemplate the issues that inspire them. Humans being what they are, these issues are often diverse, even contradictory. In the attempts to reconcile them or find commonalities, prodigies can emerge.
For example, there’s a book that circulates among the Carthians. It’s entitled A Practical Guide to Rustling. It’s short, about 70 pages, no author listed; it explains the practice and theory of stealing mortal vessels (typically blood dolls but also members of Osiris cults) from other Kindred.
What’s interesting about the Practical Guide is not just its contents, but its origins. Back in the late 1950s, a Conscionaut performed a psych survey of blood dolls (or “Vitae Annies” as they were known back then). He wrote up a paper entitled “The Willing Swoon: A Survey of the Sanguine Submissive Personality.” Kindredread it and were interested, and many extrapolated its conclusions into a set of guidelines for finding blood dolls or identifying people predisposed to become blood dolls. Those notions circulated by word of mouth until they reached the ear of a communist Kindred-supremacist Carthian in the early 1970s.
This woman, the author of the Practical Guide, regarded human beings as the means of production (a departure from the then-mainstream communist Kindred, who identified mortals with the proletariat and themselves, typically, as the left-wing intelligentsia swooping in to free them). Stealing Herd from other Kindred was, in her view, a radical act of wealth redistribution.
Certainly, she might have tried to rustle Herd without the insights of The Willing Swoon, but it’s doubtful that she would have been as successful, or would have created so thorough a step-by-step primer for those who would duplicate her act.
Tensions exist in the covenant, along a thousand factional and personal lines. But most of those tensions are diffused by the general structure of camaraderie. Even if feelings of brotherhood aren’t sincerely felt, they’re frequently invoked and expressed. More importantly, perhaps, there are exterior threats that keep the Movement unified. In most domains, this takes the form of other covenants, but dominant Carthians have to pull together against nosy cops, crusading reporters who know too much or politicians in the pocket of some other supernatural mystery. For that matter, Carthians often find that as soon as they finally pacify a domain and cement their grip on the Kindred demimonde, they bump into uppity sorcerers, territorial shapeshifters or cults of demon worshippers invested with diabolical powers. Soon, the Carthians are at loggerheads with an external enemy again, if they’re lucky.
If they’re not lucky, the Movement (so long defined by struggle) finds itself internally riven as factions divide against one another. Observers have opined that a good Carthian collective can retain integrity against any outside corrosive, but inevitably dissolves in a vacuum. The more cynical among them say Carthianism is predicated on conflict, and that when there isn’t any, the Movement creates enemies within itself.
The dirty little secret that Carthians of greater Status hold close is that tradition works. Having fixed ideas about how to settle disputes is a good idea. Letting people get used to a governing style, and changing it through evolution instead of revolution — it’s solid policy. Otherwise, rivals for praxis are going to swoop in while the Carthians are offbalance from reinventing themselves once again.
The Movement is always on the lookout for new ideas. The Carthians who become leaders are those who realize there’s a lot to be said for keeping the old ideas, too.
Sometimes one Carthian wants to stay in her Haven, working on her paintings or her manifesto or her efforts to corner the Hong Kong bauxite market online. Her coterie-mates, however — or even some Carthians with whom she’s less connected — want her help decorating for Elysium or making a case before the Justiciar or helping them invest the proceeds from their train robbery in socially progressive stocks.
The solo Carthian thinks they should respect her individuality and leave her alone to do her thing. Obviously, the other vampires think she should feel the collectivism and help them instead. According to the principles of the Movement, they’re both right.
In some domains, there’s a rigid hierarchy, and, when someone of higher rank tells you to do something, you salute and say “Jawohl!” If someone of lower or equal rank asks you for a favor, you can comply or tell him to beat it. While this is easy to figure out, it’s also a fertile field for resentment, treachery and the ugliness you get when revenge and ambition are pulling in tandem. Smart commanders either make reasonable demands and cut slack, or they make sure they’re invincible compared to the Kindred being abused.
A more serious problem for those domains is member attrition. After all, other covenants can offer that same kind of fealty structure, and they usually hold out additional benefits to make it more palatable. The Carthian stop-loss program is a system of redress in which the lowly can make complaints about their superiors and be judged fairly and impartially, without fear of punishment even if the court (or whatever) finds in their superior’s favor. These systems ease the pressure of resentment, but at the cost of vastly multiplying the complexity of the Movement’s local politics.
In democratic domains, or anarchist ones particularly, it’s a lot less clear-cut. Except for a small minority of governing officers, most of whom have authority only over limited matters such as “Masquerade Breaches” or “Food Supply Control,” members of the Movement are equal, free to accept or decline requests for aid as they see fit. At the same time, there’s an expectation that everyone kicks in when and what she can.
To go back to our example of our loner who doesn’t want to help: if there’s no hierarchy in her domain, the outcome of her refusal depends on her history and the history of the people who want her aid. The rejected group may grumble, but if she’s known as a solid citizen who has already done plenty for the Movement, it probably reflects badly on the whiners. On the other hand, if she turned down a local hero and has made a habit of declining requests, she may have just dealt her own reputation a black eye.
It’s not always articulated (though, in some domains, it’s meticulously articulated) but less is expected from those who ask little, while those who receive much are expected to sacrifice much. When the reckoning of debts is left vague, everyone always has a different idea of who owes how much. When it’s concrete and tallied, there are always dissentions about how much a given task meant. Naturally, the people keeping the records are always everyone’s best friend.
Working against activists, who are focused on what they can gain, are the conservative Carthian progressives. Often more experienced and influential, they’re focused on what they have. Progressives hesitate to knock off the king until they know exactly who is going to inherit the throne. Where the activists are constantly looking outward for an allyagainst the powers that be, progressives focus their attention inward on their covenant-mates. Progressives are the ideological police, refining their theories and policies so that when they do take over, there’s a smooth transition of power and a set of governing theories that can hit the ground running.
The revolutionary front is always bringing in more and more Kindred from the fringe, operating on the theory that mutual enemies make them friends. They do this out of fervor for change and belief that there’s strength in numbers. Petty ideological disagreements can be ironed out at leisure, they say. The camaraderie of the barricades is supposed to form personal bonds that will lubricate compromise once the power has been seized from the oppressors.
Progressives, on the other hand, are always marginalizing those who don’t follow the majority beliefs, striving for strength through ideological unity. They are just as fervent about change as the activists, but progressives are more aware of the pitfalls. They’re pretty sure they have one good chance and if they bungle it — or get betrayed mid-stream bysome poorly-chosen ally — then decades of effort get wasted. Instead of a mass, violent uprising of the type the activists favor, progressives pursue small, additive changes that build up over time. It’s not just fastidiousness about the mess of a genuine insurgency: Because they’re unwilling to buddy up with anyone who hates the Prince, they’re less muscular and have little choice but to run a marathon instead of a sprint. Though, it must be said, aging Carthians tend to favorthe long, subtle view even when a turbulent overthrow is tactically feasible. This is because they get to be old by being Kindred first, Carthians second. Most old Kindred got old because they respect the Masquerade and know that any time things turn chaotic, the Masquerade trembles.
Revolution cannot be sustained forever, even by deathless creatures. In some domains, the Carthians actually succeed and seize power. There’s no one blueprint for revolt, and no common outcome, but one universal element is that success doesn’t make the tensions release.
Provoking a conflict with the uneasily united religions against the Dragons, the Carthians then mediated a peaceful settlement, since none of the factions were really committed to a spate of Final Deaths. Nobody from the other three really wanted a Carthian Prince, but it was a far more acceptable compromise than anything else. They all believed that a ruling council, maintained with Carthian oversight, would give them a voice. This was particularly true of the Sanctified and the Acolytes, who had assurances from their more radical Carthian Allies. The progressives didn’t take long to marginalize and then completely purge those radicals from real power, however, and with them gone, the influence wielded by the Sanctified and the Acolytes waned rapidly. The ruling council made concessions to the Order, who were angry at losing most of their authority but, philosophically, reconciled themselves to the new order to keep as much power as they could. Many within The Lancea Sanctum and The Circle of the Crone found themselveselevated (to their own surprise as much as anyone else’s) by the new leadership. These were, of course, Kindred whose interests were primarily spiritual. By giving a little power to the un-ambitious, the Carthians could argue that the Circle and The Lancea Sanctum had benefited from the change. After all, they had freedom to worship now, as long as they didn’t bother themselves with governance.
When the dust settled, The Circle of the Crone and The Lancea Sanctum were marginally better off than they had been, though not nearly as well off as they’d expected. The Dragons had fallen the furthest, but they actually wound up backing the Carthians, who were certain to tolerate the Dragons much more than anyone else. As for the radical Carthian revolutionaries, they just had to scratch their heads and wonder why nights after the revolt seemed so much like the nights before.
The Carthian Movement (or, as it was known in that city, the Carthian Revolution) took a risk that paid off. They went traveling. They risked daylight and uncertainty to recruit unbound and dissatisfied Carthians from all over the state, and a few from Georgia and Alabama, too. Promising freedom, authority and other rewards for loyalty, these Carthians brought their recruits home and began a program of guerilla warfare — burning havens, murdering Ghouls and running vessels out of town.
Against a violent and well-organized opposition, The Invictus finally agreed to deal. At that point, the local progressives (who were, oddly enough, believers in the Final Civilization) nearly hijacked the Movement. They haggled and bargained with The Invictus, and peace might have descended. The Invictus would have retained praxis, but with Carthians tolerated and warily respected.
The revolutionaries weren’t willing to settle for half a loaf, however. They broke the progressivenegotiated truce, The Invictus’ reprisals were brutal and the violence escalated. Both sides were losing members to Final Death, herds were being decimated and the Carthians were raising hell in entire sections of town, just because those areas were known Racks for prominent Invictus soldiers.
Eventually, one powerful Invictus coterie just got fed up and left — moved all the way to Jacksonville, if the rumors are true. After that, parts of the First Estate defected, or fled or simply surrendered, and the Carthians became the sole covenant in town.
Since that time, the Kindred population has steadily shrunk as the ruling revolutionaries try, and fail, to rein in the violence of their subjects. In their attempts to stifle the bloodlust, they’ve become more repressive than The Invictus ever was. To be fair, however,the outlook for advancement is much more open under the Carthians. At least, it is for those who are unflinchingly loyal to the government, no matter what atrocities it now commits in the name of order.
Had it been a straightforward assault, one night of mayhem in which the combined Resources of The Invictus and the Movement were flung into overwhelming the Acolytes in their dens, it’s quite possible that the Circle would have been massacred and that whichever covenant had the misfortune to bear the brunt of any counterstrike would have been next on the chopping block. But that scenario was grim enough to scare both covenants off from such direct action. Even the most zealous Carthian revolutionary knows better than to show weakness to The Invictus, even a weakened Invictus.
So there was no sudden putsch. Instead, each group hedged its bets, cultivating Contacts within the Circle. An ugly and little-discussed truth of revolution is that there are serious drawbacks to removing the entire infrastructure of governance in one satisfying crash. Better by far to quietly co-opt the middle range of the bureaucracy — the people who know, metaphorically, where the stamps and toner cartridges are stored at City Hall. These functionaries may not know the secrets, but, more important than the secrets, they know the things anyone could find out, that everyone needs to rule, but that very few have learned.
Once both outsiders had friends on the inside, it was just a question of who was going to betray first. Being innovative and intuitive and enthusiastic and young, the Carthians pulled the trigger. The Invictus-aligned Acolytes were swept from power, and, indeed, many were destroyed in a manner far more dramatic thanthe Movement would have dared hope. The Circle was nervous and on edge by that point, ready to pounce on any threat. They therefore expended their greatest ferocity on the traitors in their midst.
Of course, the Circle’s extremism against their own people alarmed The Invictus, who charged into action backed by their Allies, the Carthians. But with help from within the Circle, the Carthians were able to pit the First Estate against the top tier of the Acolytes, then sweep in, finish off The Invictus and inherit the earth.
That was the plan, anyhow. The Invictus spiritedly resisted being finished off, and by the time they were finally put paid, they’d done such grievous damage to both the Circle and the Movement that neither one was in much shape to govern.
So they merged. The Carthians agreed to at least attend ceremonies and pay lip service, and the Acolytes ceded most day-to-day administration to Carthian authorities, with big policy decisions being made by a Senate, the Senate to initially be composed of equal numbers of (former) Carthians and (ex–) Acolytes.
The Acolytes figured the ceremonies would reveal the truth to the Carthians. The Carthians figured that with enough minor power, they could rule in everything but name (and half in name, too). As it turned out, both sides were right. The city is now run by a theocracy as fervent as the Circle, as politicized and strident as the Movement and as deeply factionalized and variegated as both.
Some Carthians aren’t satisfied with maintaining a mainstream appearance. They go out of their way to identify with a cutting-edge mortal movement, taking pains to assemble the right looks so that they fit in perfectly. Sports enthusiasts with the current year’s jerseys, garage punks with carefully selected thrift wear, mod revivalists with scooters and suits — anything works, so long as it emulates a human fad. Keeping up with cutting-edge style is a more difficult approach, because it requires sincerity. The members of a given subculture are likely to spot a “tourist” who just wears the clothes he thinks he’s supposed to wear, rather than someone who actually knows and feels the reasons behind the right choices. For those who are sincere, the identification with their chosen culture and the attendant acceptance from particular mortals is well worth the ridicule a vampire is likely to face from the out-of-touch denizens of Elysium.
Some Carthians philosophize heavily on the importance of fashion, noting that a mainstream appearance tends to put mortals at ease, which in turn reduces the stress on a vampire. Those Kindred who expend the relatively small effort of blending in, these Carthians say, tend to expend less energy in securing Vitae, are less likely to lose their self-control in public and are generally happier in their night-to-night existence. Moreover, they seem to have less trouble identifying with their mortal counterparts, making these Kindred much less likely to engage in abusive practices.
On the other hand, some Carthian Kindred have noted that those who seem exceptionally skilled at blending in are often at risk of withdrawing from vampire society entirely, slipping into a semi-delusional state of nostalgia and denial. The vampires of the Movement must never forget that the practice of emulating the mortal majority is a utilitarian one, not an expression of the inner self.
Many vampires eventually slip in the maintenance of their appearance, whether they want to or not. Eventually, the constant updating wearies them, and they just stop bothering. The relatively small effort involved begins to grate on their nerves, seeming more and more unnecessary as they become less and less human. Raw power can be relied upon to negate any difficulties in hunting. Only the Carthians try to follow a policy to resist this encroaching laziness, noting the many advantages a fashionable appearance bestows upon a vampire and the many bad habits that take root in those who ignore it.
As with clothing, some Carthians seek to insinuate themselves with specific mortals, taking pains to understand their way of communication. As a result, vampires of the Movement can be overheard engaging in truly bizarre turns, especially considering their age. An elder vampire who expresses himself in ghetto slang is perfectly acceptable to the Carthians, as is an ancilla with a tendency to voice her concerns in modern corporate jargon or a neonate who refers to his surroundings in hacker “leetspeak.”
The connection between progressive Language and progressive thought is often acknowledged by Carthian Kindred, who take frequent opportunities to point out that a society that bases its primary laws on “traditions” engages in a de facto vilification of innovation, whether consciously or not. To that end, some scan the development of mortal Language avidly, hoping to find and adopt neologisms that open the path to new ways of thought. Entire manifestoes have been written about the application of new words or the reassignment of meaning to old ones.
Thoroughly modern Language can bewilder and alienate elder vampires though — and that’s not always such a good idea. The Carthian Movement benefits greatly whenever older Kindred soften to their viewpoint, and setting up barriers to understanding can prevent it from happening. While Carthians are often enthused in their pursuit of exclusive knowledge, they need to remind themselves that their covenant is, ideally, one that includes all vampires.
Moreover, Carthian Kindred who were artists in life find great inspiration (or great provocation) in the unfolding trends of the arts. Those vampires who perfect their understanding of a popular trend can earn cash by carefully emulating its features in their own work, while those who make it their business to traffic in influence can quickly spot positions of advantage. Staying current means staying commercially viable — an invaluable resource for vampires looking to escape the traditional means of subsistence without abandoning the comforts of a clean home, mutable wardrobe and idle entertainments.
Maintaining an understanding of the modern arts seems to be one of the most demanding practices of The Carthian Movement. Kindred are easily jaded, and those with less Humanity are unlikely to experience any genuine emotion when witnessing a truly inspired work. Of all the pursuits of Carthian fashion, keeping pace with the trends in art is the most likely to be abandoned, often by dejected vampires who consider the barrier to understanding an alltoo- undeniable reminder of their inhuman state. Worse yet, some art may actually embody an emotion that the vampire never encountered in life, inspiring confusion and discomfort instead.
The Carthian Movement finds one of its greatest strengths in the steadily increasing rate of advance in mortal technology. While the vampires of the other covenants are left rapidly in the dust, grinding their teeth in frustration, the Carthians keep comfortably abreast of new developments, adopting them almost as rapidly as their human counterparts. In the early years of the 20th century, many Kindred were inspired to join the Movement because of telegraph communiqués, and the modern nights are no different. Cellular technology is used to keep the Kindred of the Movement in touch across an entire domain, and GPS locators help to make sure that nobody gets lost alone in enemy territory. IPods and laptops help keep up the human Camouflage, and media traded on them helps to keep Carthians in touch with the newest mortal trends.
New weapons are adopted just as quickly. Laser scopes and night-vision sight attachments on firearms provide Carthian soldiers with an unexpected edge, and lightweight sport plastics can add serious coverage to makeshift armor. Ghoul bodyguards are easily dispatched with Tasers, non-lethal weapons that surpass the understanding of all but the most informed elder.
A lot of Carthians like to play a game of oneupmanship with the adoption of new technologies, seeing if they can outdo one another with their forethought and early acceptance of imminent trends. The neophile stereotype holds well for these vampires: they’re constantly upgrading their Equipment and displaying it to one another, shrugging off the confused glares of their contemporaries at Elysium as they do so. Some elders even get in on the game, reveling in the completely alien world of the new. They claim it allows them to immerse themselves in a Requiem filled with unknowns, a sensation that can be both terrifying and exhilarating for a previously world-weary, centuries-old creature.
The pointed comfort and familiarity with modern technology allows Carthian Kindred to develop skills that are simply unavailable (and unfathomable) to more archaic vampires. Computer and Drive are obvious selections, but many ultramodern Skill Specialties can also be applied.
Note that any expression that originated in the past 50 years or so is considered relatively new to many vampires, so the rebellious expressions of Carthian Kindred might seem a little understated to modern mortals while provoking the nearly uncontrollable ire of conventional members of outside covenants. Stepping up and shaking hands without invitation is an egregious offense to the elders of The Ordo Dracul, for instance, while referring to a compatriot as “cool” might invite misinterpretation.
Clever Carthians make use of the disconnected nature of the other covenants, displaying a modern face to recently embraced neonates. Since many new Kindred go through a period of adjustment when learning the protocol of their chosen organization, the Movement can seem quite appealing just because it seems more like modern life (at least on the surface). More than a few neonates have defected to the Carthian cause just because they got more and more annoyed with the relatively strict guidelines of their previous covenant.
More distressing, to the increasingly outdated Kindred of competing covenants, is the notion that the Carthians might actually be better predators than they in the modern nights. While The Invictus remains mired in Middle-Ages procedure and The Lancea Sanctum’s ecclesiastical practices become more and more foreign to current styles of thought, the Carthians continue to blend perfectly with the Herd, slipping with ease into the role of seducer, brawler, confidant — anything that brings in the Vitae without raising Suspicion. Since The Carthian Movement has defined modernity As One of the covenant’s key features, attempting to adopt an updated sense of style risks earning a reputation as a Carthian, even if one has no intention of supporting those politics. The Movement has, in a sense, identified itself with progress, thereby forcing the other covenants to identify themselves with obsolescence.
The Carthians’ easy communication with the mortals provides access to Allies and influence that outsider Kindred never even become cognizant of, much less take advantage of. Entire hacker communities are working for The Carthian Movement, completely unaware that their partners in crime are undead. Street gangs rush to the aid of their charismatic vampire Allies, overwhelming ill-equipped outsider Kindred with laughable ease. Doctors and scientists diligently provide curious Carthians with useful information that is unlikely to reach their enemies for decades.
By associating so closely with mortal culture, Carthians do sometimes tread alarmingly close to undermining the Masquerade. On the other hand, they begin to identify their own cause with that of the humans, making it difficult to oppose them without appearing callous — and difficult to show interest in the mortal populace without appearing to sympathize with the Movement.
Carthians make sure that their lively energy displays itself in their appearance, often opting to expend Vitae to warm their bodies and color their flesh, even when they aren’t masquerading among the mortals. This habit may be costly to do so, but many consider it well worth the drain, considering that coloring their flesh allows them to remain human-like, and it draws the envious stares of less-vivacious Kindred. ManyCarthians also claim that the habit simply renders them more attractive to mortals and vampires alike.
To facilitate the connection between themselves and potential future converts, the Carthians often accept and encourage declared members who retain membership in other covenants. Assuming they are tolerated in their original organizations, these dualist members forge links between the groups, representing points of contact for curious Kindred attractedto the attitudes of the Movement.
Some covenant chapters will reject a vampire who openly declares allegiance to The Carthian Movement but a surprising number tolerate such behavior, preferring to take advantage of the direct line of communication presented in order to exchange messages, glean information or engage in deceptive practices. A Sanctified Priest who announces his affiliation with The Carthian Movement might find that his Status freezes within The Lancea Sanctum, but doesn’t disappear outright — he simply becomes known as a “radical.” In fact, it’s likely that he’d be assigned to a parish in Carthian territory to demonstrate the Church’s tolerance of fringe ideas.
In Carthian-ruled domains, it’s often advantageous for a covenant to allow citizens of the Movement to hold official dual membership, since it means that one of their number may take part in the decisionmaking process for domain law. Effectively, it guaranteesa sympathetic voice in Carthian government — something that’s rarely allowed under other systems of rule. If the Carthians aren’t careful, a covenant can actually flood the Movement with dual citizens, swaying the system of government until it returns to the more traditional mode they’re used to. Strangely, certain Carthian philosophies consider this possibility a perfectly acceptable evolution of government and not a threat.
As with any subculture, The Carthian Movement recognizes itself by several means:
This local cant may be an innocent, entertaining pursuit for Carthians looking to stay sharp (and demonstrate their capacity to do so), but outsiders often treat slang as a sinister code. Since they can’t understand it and nobody seems willing to teach them unless they indicate an urge to join the Movement, most assume the worst. The stolid Princes of some domains have outlawed Carthian slang in their Elysium halls, only fueling the passion of freedom-seeking Kindred outraged by the suggestion that someone should be allowed to dictate their mode of speech.
The devastating power of Carthian slang lies in its attractiveness. The Language might seem stupid or annoying to those who don’t understand it, but the fact remains that it’s an exclusive secret. Some Kindred just can’t stand to be on the outside of anything, much less a cryptic system of communication that takes place in their own Elysium. Of course, as soon as someone expresses an interest in learning or mimicking the Carthian Language, the Movement has an in for presenting their ideas to him. Since the Carthians can choose almost any word to represent any concept, they’re free to redefine meaning and warp Language as a means of propaganda. If “Tick” means “Prince,” you’re evoking an unfavorable image of mindless gluttony every time you mention one.
The development of Carthian local dialects is considered a philosophical extension of the “power to the people” attitude of the Movement. Some domains build their personalized code by encouraging contributions from every member, creating a ragtag assembly of words and phrases from their diverse experiences and preferences. This encourages evolution as well, bringing in new additions every time a member joins.
The signals of the Movement are rapidly adopted and discarded, both as a means to ensure that only those “in the know” can effectively make use of them, and also to reflect the willingness of Carthian Kindred to change with the times, whether they need to or not.
For a few years during the 1950s, the Carthians of one domain in Mexico walked with a specific shuffling step, brushing their left hand through their hair (or over their scalp) when greeting each other. Every member displayed an image of the Catholic sacred heart — some as tattoos, others on their clothing. One year, these signals were all suddenly abandoned, and the members of the Movement chose todisplay their affiliation through Language alone. Years later, a complicated handshake was adopted instead, and the image of the sacred heart was reintegratedinto the identification system, but this time with a distinctive pattern worked into the heart.
The displays can be as serious or whimsical as the Carthians choose. What’s important is not what these signals look like, but rather what they say: “I am one of the group. I understand how to make myself known to you, and I keep up with the times.”
The Carthians of a French domain in the 1980s would all chew a specific brand of gum, blowing a bubble as a means of greeting. They would stick a wad of the gum to a doorjamb to mark friendly territory, and often passed messages scrawled on the wrappers and reinserted into a pack. The practice was abandoned shortly after outsider Kindred started to clue into it.
In high-conflict domains where tempers run hot, Carthian Kindred often make use of signals that are direct insults to their enemies, hoping to provoke them into irrational behavior. It’s not unusual in some places to see a Carthian wearing anti-religious slogans sure to upset Sanctified vampires or insulting caricatures of Dracula for the benefit of The Ordo Dracul. The childishness of these slights may be obvious to all, but the fact is that it’s not really that hard to provoke a vampire, especially if her Beast is close to the surface — and sometimes that’s exactly what the Carthians are looking to take advantage of. The harsher the measures invoked by enemies of the Movement in response to the insults, the more unreasonable and intolerant they look and the more attractive the apparent freedom of the Carthians seems.
How do Carthians justify this behavior? Under some systems of thought, identification with a secret set of rules serves the same purpose as dressing in uniform. The notion of secret rules enflames the pride of the “in crowd” while shaming those who are not included, motivating them to seek instruction from the Carthians. Such rules renders the citizens of the Movement easily identifiable to one another, so that the benefits of membership can be readily shared between them.
It’s also true that vampires are instinctively territorial creatures, and they like to own things: Language and style no less than actual material goods. Marking one’s subordinates, associates and Allies helps to lay out the political territory of every Carthian, satisfying their inner need for ownership.
But who are the “others” that they’re seeking to exclude, really? The Carthian Movement is, ostensibly, one that wants to incorporate every vampire in the world. They will readily accept members of outside covenants, encouraging them to learn the culture and philosophies of the Movement, and are supposed to share their passion for change without prejudice. Ideally, the practices of the Carthians are exclusive only to those who don’t wish to learn them — the slightesteffort on the part of outsiders to identify with the members of the covenant ought to be rewarded with acceptance and instruction. In practice, it’s more difficult to realize this ideal, especially when personal friction, arrogance and intolerance come into play. The territorial nature of the vampire rises in opposition to the notion of accepting outsiders, and the Carthian involved must overcome his natural urges in order to satisfy his philosophical stance.
It’s easy for enthused Carthians to forget where they’re coming from, and why the Movement exists at all. Those who get caught up in cliquishness and surface judgment are really emulating the systems they claim to disagree with. How can a Carthian who dismisses a neonate for failing to understand the convenant’s style of dress or etiquette claim to be in dispute with The Invictus? There is no appreciable difference in their behavior.
Some Carthian cells do get completely carried away, though. More than one domain has witnessed the genuine political interests of the covenant co-opted and then superceded by strictly shallow considerations. This “tyranny of style” is a pernicious element of the Movement, occasionally instigated by its open-arms attitude. If enough Kindred who don’t actually care about politics become part of the group, then, by definition, any democratic group ceases to be about politics.
A lot of Carthians, admittedly, adopt mannerisms and accessories that even they don’t understand (or are comfortable with), just to maintain a modernist look. Fearful of losing the prestige they’ve accumulated over the years, many will do almost anything to avoid the appearance of obsolescence. As time passes, they become more and more afraid of slipping up and exposing themselves as frauds. A cycle of Paranoia and frustration can spring up around something as simple as choosing which car to drive or what kind of suit to wear, and self-imposed pressures eventually debilitate the vampires in question.
Self-aware Kindred rarely fall into this trap. They are happy to accept the recognition they might earn as capable social and technological chameleons, but remain dedicated to the political progress that forms the core of their motivation. Maintaining ties with outsider covenants and promoting the views of the Movement is their primary goal, and added prestige gained by looking right and sounding right are just optional additions, enhancing (but not overshadowing) one’s arsenal of rational arguments andsincere passion. To these serious vampires, the superficial obsessions of their counterparts are actually a threat to the Movement, and many Carthians will do their best to prevent superficial obsessions from inspiring too much respect.
Encouraging the spread of Carthian style by those who sport dual covenant membership is a valid tactic, too, and helps to draw attention to the representatives of the Movement without (usually) taking offensive action. Many a competing covenant official, failing to notice the genuinely inspiring message the Carthians convey to their contemporaries, has underestimated those same Carthians as faddish peacocks because of certain members’ outré behavior.
The populism of Carthian philosophy may take subtle root in a vampire who becomes aware of the philosophy, perhaps only as a curiosity at first. Sooner or later, usually provoked by a perceived injustice, she begins to consider how populism could apply to her own covenant. She might begin to believe that a Bishop should listen to and learn from his own flock just as much as he preaches to them, or that her Ordo Dracul instructors are withholding information from her unfairly, and that she should be free to learn as she chooses. An Invictus neonate might note that his Guild Meister would benefit from the modern tools employed by mortal craftsmen, and wonder why the Meister is so resistant to the suggestion.
When a vampire starts to accept the ideals of The Carthian Movement, she poses an immediate threat to the established traditions of her covenant. If she isn’t quickly reined in, she will eventually seek to apply her newfound beliefs to the operation of her covenant. If she doesn’t realize, somebody will sooner or later point out her “Carthian” tendencies, and she will have to consider whether or not she actually wishes to declare her sympathies outright.
It is interesting to note that Kindred can define themselves as Carthians just by deciding that they want to change the night-to-night organization of their covenant in a certain way. Even if the Movement fails to recognize such Kindred as citizens, their own compatriots will brand them as sympathizers. Carthian philosophers refer to this occurrence as “negative recruitment,” noting that the pressures of a covenant can often provide a strong force of repulsion that equals or exceeds the attractive attempts of the Movement.
Each subculture within the covenant may adopt its own style of speech and dress, further distinguishing the subculture from the “mainstream” Carthians. Layers of discrete political elements are formed, one within the other, distilling down from the basic message of the Movement to more detailed interpretations of its goals and methodology.
Technically, each clan or bloodline forms a subculture within the Movement, unless the clan or bloodline’s members take great pains to homogenize with their counterparts among the other clans. It’s not unusual for Carthian Kindred to blur the lines of clan membership by trading information and Discipline training, and they tend to refrain from restrictive rules about intermingling, all to promote a unified feeling of citizenship among their members.
By definition, any smaller group that distinguishes itself from the prevailing Carthian Movement organization is a subculture. If it eventually overtakes the rest of the populace, directing the local chapter of the Movement, the subculture becomes the dominant culture. New subcultures form (from the remnants of the previous dominant culture, or as an entirely new entity), and the struggle for control of the Movement continues. Complete accord rarely happens within the Movement: too much stock is put in the individual freedoms and fundamental equality of the Movement’s members in most domains to allow for such accord. Even the most dictatorial interpretations of the Movement’s aims tend to inspire some rebellion from within.
Every coterie of Carthian Kindred is likely to display all three of these features to some extent. So long as the group participates in the established political approach of the Movement in the coterie’s domain, no such group is likely to be considered a sub-segment of the covenant. Instead, the group will just be regarded as a unit that may or may not display the cliquish behavior that is common to vampires. The definition of a subculture by the human markers, then, is incomplete — especially in a covenant that encourages emulation of varied mortal expression and styles. In Kindred terms, the line is crossed when the coterie or sub-group begins to organize around a principle or political system that is not considered part of the nightto- night practice of the rest of the Carthians in their city. At that point, the sub-group becomes a Carthian sub-unit, attempting to promote a minority outlook. A small cell espousing communist ideals in a domain where the Carthian majority is organized as a republican parliament would be considered one such unit.
Division within a Carthian community is relatively common, and rarely leads to serious dispute. In most cases, the subculture either grows in local popularity until the subculture outshines the previous “mainstream” outlook, or the subculture’s members eventually abandon their unpopular beliefs and are absorbed back into the larger body of the Movement.
Carthian vampires do have to be careful with their choices, lest they begin to look fickle and disorganized. Those who seem to bounce from one unpopular position to the next begin to earn a reputation as directionless naysayers, less concerned with advancing the Movement than being “on the outside.” If these Carthians don’t settle down, they’ll eventually find themselves ejected from the covenant.
Most Carthian systems build in a mechanism for the presentation of alternate ideas and the absorption of those ideas into the system. Being adaptable in one’s approach is advantageous, after all — especially when facing off against the entrenched systems of the competing covenants. Democratic and Parliamentary systems of government are the most likely to accept new ideas, whereas any system founded on tyrannous principles is the least likely.
It is interesting to note that outsider Kindred, conditioned by their own governing principles, tend to view the frequent splits and disputes in The Carthian Movement as a sign of weakness. Carthians, on the other hand, usually regard disputes as a blessing in Disguise: an indication of open-minded rule and an evolutionary urge.
Some Carthians work to prevent such disasters by creating a detailed system of argument, including a process for registering new ideas, discussing them, voting on their implementation or rejection and officially recognizing them as integrated into or eliminated from governmental policy. While certain domains have comfortably implemented these processes, others find that their citizens buck against them, finding the rigid etiquette involved to be too reminiscent of the procedural operation of competing covenants.
Others go so far as to create systems that do not allow for the integration of new ideas unless they fall within a defined scope. Constitutional tyrannies, constructed on unalterable laws, are the ultimate extension of this policy, and are one of the least enduring systems of Carthian government as a result. Avoiding the consideration of innovative philosophies seems to be anathema to the average Carthian citizen — most of whom joined the Movement to avoid stagnant or unfair systems of rule in the first place.
Ultimately, the majority of Carthian domains are populist, and will tolerate dissent only if either the argument or the Kindred presenting the argument is respected by the majority. An extremely stubborn vampire with high Covenant Status can get away with bringing up the same unpopular argument again and again (so long as he finds a way to keep his Status from slipping), while a brand-new member with little regard is going to have a hard time sticking to the very same argument.
It’s true, though, that any vampire, no matter how new or how little-respected, generally has the right to present any idea to the Movement. Each citizen is supposed to have a voice, and most domains stick with that rule. It is, after all, one of the most attractive features of the Movement. The distinction is made when the majority decides that they don’t like or want the innovation presented by the vampire in question, and she sticks to her guns despite the ruling. Then, she makes the move from participant to dissenter, and may find herself wandering into dangerous territory, depending on the prevailing attitudes of her domain.
In some domains, The Carthian Movement is so strong that it can sustain a split down the middle and still hold its ground against opportunist attacks from competing covenants. In these rare cases, the two sides in dispute may form their own governments, setting themselves at odds with one another and greatly complicating the operation of the domain. Competing Movements are rarely long lasting, though, and one or the other often collapses under the strain of doing battle with their own kind.
One domain in China has actually sustained two Carthian schisms in a row, resulting in three distinct Movements within the territory. Almost all of the vampires in the domain are participating in the ongoing three-way battle for supremacy, based on a dispute over the assignation of voting rights and the weight of individual votes. There are, in effect, three Movements in the domain: a pure democracy with equal weight on each citizen’s vote, a pure democracy with votes weighted based on purity of intent (as attested to by accomplishment and excluding the votes of “vice-ridden” Daeva) and a relatively unpopular socialist dictatorship. Those Kindred who are not part of the Movement tend to operate on the far fringes of the domain in question, claiming a complete inability to understand the complex interactions of the three Carthian groups, but unable to consider removing all three from power.
The reliability of the latter approach is absolutely unsound. While it can effect sudden and serious change, the fact is that every vampire compelled to vote against his wishes will seek to undo that vote’s effects as soon as he is able. Blackmail, Seduction, physical threats and magical compulsion are all short-term solutions that can very easily lead to a long-term problem. They may get the job done for a while, but any vampire who puts them to use is going to have to sink a lot of effort into maintaining loyalty or making sure that the changes he’s initiated become permanent before things fall apart.
Factions of dissatisfied Kindred often arise when citizens feel that they have been compelled to support a platform they do not agree with. If they can band together for strength, these vampires become very difficult to manipulate, and can bring significant power to bear. Kindred who think they can bring the political practices of The Invictus or The Lancea Sanctum to The Carthian Movement are sadly mistaken, and often learn the error of their ways sooner or later.
Members of outsider covenants are occasionally called upon to engage in a “political suicide attack” on The Carthian Movement, applying pressure to as much of the citizenry as they can bear in order to provoke just such an uprising. The point is usually to demonstrate the weaknesses of the Movement to its members and undermine their confidence, but often it’s just an ordinary attempt to disrupt the ongoing operation of the covenant. The initiator of the attack often suffers the persecution of the Carthian citizenry when it’s all over, but some consider a few enemies a small price for the damage done.
While the designation of clan is ostensibly irrelevant to the selection and performance of roles within the covenant, most Kindred find that their Skill set and Discipline spread often determine their best fit. Thus, while any vampire may perform any function, the likelihood is that those possessing the relevant powers will be more likely to use them in filling certain roles.
Many Carthian Observers make a habit of following and predicting all sorts of human trends, not just political ones. Arts, fashion, tactical psychology and commercial attitudes are subjects that many Observers favor, and some become very specialized, spending their entire Requiem analyzing and predicting the development of a particular subculture.
Many Carthian Scholars spend countless hours comparing details and debating the significance of finds, presenting their conclusions to one another (and to the other members of the covenant) and arguing the application of their favored subject to modern nights. Some are derided for their obsession with the past, but those who provide useful insights are appreciated no less than their neophile counterparts.
Carthian Detectives are not spies. They rarely interact with their subjects, and only engage in surveillance to further their understanding of their origins. Most Detectives spend the majority of their time digging through records, gleaning information from a subject’s former possessions and properties and interviewing the subject’s acquaintances (mortal and Kindred alike) to build as complete a psychological picture as possible.
Carthian Detectives will often keep secure, coded files on subjects in their home cities. Fellow covenant members are occasionally paid for tidbits of information, and the Detective may be called upon to consult when a problem surfaces with a local vampire. Some Carthian Detectives trade information back and forth in a give-and-take, working to build a complete profile of the entire Kindred population of the domain.
Of course, Dominate involves stripping the will of a subject, rendering her incapable of free thought and considered resistance. It’s a Clockwork Orange-style the ultimate herders, latching onto a subset of the mortal populace and creating the necessary conditions for that subset to settle and flourish in Carthian territory. The mysterious relocation of trendy club districts or the sudden revitalization of a derelict neighborhood can often be traced back to the activities of these Kindred and their mortal Allies.
Carthian Crowd-Pullers often deal closely with mortals, becoming something of minor celebrities in certain circles. As risky as this proposition may be, it does allow them to exert their power directly over the Herd that gathers, facilitating the free exchange of ideas and ensuring that the mortals stay put. Many Crowd-Pullers become central figures in a mortal movement, patronizing artists or arranging popular events. Other Crowd-Pullers operate in the shadows, securing businesses and aligning environmental factors so as to encourage and direct the demographic flow of a city.
Majesty can enhance the appeal of an argument (or, more accurately, the vampire who delivers the argument) or encourage opponents to honestly reveal their intent at the table, making things easier for Carthian Negotiators and clearing the way for the covenant in dicey situations. Considering that the Movement is often either subject to open persecution or facing it as a possibility in many domains, Negotiators are often valued and appreciated.
Internal debate often benefits from the assistance of Negotiators as well. Establishing laws and focusing the efforts of the citizens of the Movement can take some serious deliberation, and it’s always best to have someone charismatic on board when trying to steer the discussion in favor of one’s preferred course.
Although frightening off an assailant might be insulting, it isn’t actually an overtly violent attack, so it isn’t likely to violate the tenets of a pacifist or otherwise non-aggressive Carthian cell. Carthian Defenders work to maintain the safety of their cohorts while preventing open conflict, averting what can often lead to a disastrous course of action.
Carthian Scarecrows will typically do anything they can to discourage interlopers without actually engaging in violence. It’s not that they aren’t capable in direct conflict, but rather that their purpose is to prevent incursions into their territory and potential slipups in the Masquerade, not to do battle with those who defy their warnings. The last thing a Scarecrow needs is a street fight with a determined vampire in front of mortal witnesses. Instead, Scarecrows usually shadow their targets, making it abundantly clear that they’re out of their element while staying just barely out of reach. When violence is necessary, a Scarecrow will do her best to make it as quick and brutal as possible so that the trespasser retreats with a real fear of the Carthians and their territories.
Most Princes have little tolerance for terrorist Kindred, and will dispatch them as quickly as they are discovered. Many Carthians argue that terrorism usually strengthens an enemy organization’s resolve even as it carves the weaker vampires away from them, leaving a leaner, angrier foe to deal with. Then again, some Carthian governments are built on terrorism, keeping outsider Kindred too afraid to resist the imposition of experimental rule.
Contrary to Expectations, terrorism is technically illegal in very few Carthian domains. Most don’t bother to make the distinction between violent terrorism and murder, which is often covered under law, and psychological attacks, abhorrent as they may be, are usually too difficult to prove or pin down to allow for enforcement.
Carthian Messengers typically build up an unparalleled familiarity with their environment, mapping out the fastest routes in the city and arranging necessary obstructions with their mortal Allies and Contacts. Messengers take advantage of the rapidly changing scenery of their domain, making use of construction sites, temporary features of the landscape and scheduled mortal events to maximize the confusion of less informed pursuers.
Carthian Decoys are often used to assist Kindred looking to defect from their covenants, leading those who would prevent the betrayal on a circuitous wild goose chase. Other Decoys prefer to infiltrate competing covenants, spreading disinformation and seeding their organizations with doubt and dissent.
Carthian Assassins are likely to make a public declaration of their motive, making it clear that the destruction of the victim was a political act, not a personal one. The assistance of Obfuscate can be invaluable when escaping the scene of a murder, especially when a statement is made. Martyring one’s self for the cause may provide emotional impact, but is more likely to undermine the strength of the Movement in the domain — especially if so doing robs the Carthians of a powerful warrior.
Just about every Carthian domain outlaws the assassination of citizens, and many outlaw the destruction of Kindred in general. Carthians who dwell in domains ruled by competing covenants, however, are more likely to be flexible in the consideration of assassination as a valid tactic.
Some Carthian Explorers go even further afield, seeking out towns and villages that don’t yet have a significant Kindred population. Those that seem promising become the home for a small cell of Carthian vampires who establish a new experimental government and live out a Requiem removed from the interference of competing covenants. Some of the purest Carthian attempts are preceded by the travels of an Explorer, who often rules the new domain as its Prince.
Different domains require different watchmen. If Carthians ran Paris’s unlife, they would need a few good local officials whose word was trusted by other Parisian vampires. In New York, nobody trusts anybody, so an extensive and impersonal system would be better. In a small town with a dozen or fewer Kindred, the roles of Myrmidon and Prefect might even be rolled into one. The Carthian judicial system shares the diverse character of the rest of the Movement, but news of successes and failures travels fast in the information age of tonight. The most successful practices proliferate quickly, giving the Movement hope that their efforts are not in vain.
There are no misdemeanors in the Carthian system. The nature of a vampire’s existence demands such depravity that minor offenses are not worth punishing. Not only that, but with no minor charges, it makes it more difficult for officers to justify using their rights of office frivolously. There is only a short list of crimes that all Carthian domains police, though of course individual domains may have their own rules arising from their history. The list of possible punishments is even shorter, and lacks the typical mortal option of incarceration. This option is a little impractical when the only effective methods include things such as sealing the criminal in concrete. Instead, the least punishment that can be levied is a fine of Vitae. From there, the next step is to give up a Retainer or vessel, or to lose access to some hunting territory. Occasionally, a criminal might be branded, the method usually being as simple as the same punishment on a mortal; the fiery iron tends to leave a scar on vampiric flesh that cannot soon be healed. The last minor punishment, doorstep to the major punishments, is evicting the criminal from his Haven. This is the last step before exile from the domain entirely; a vampire in a Carthian domain with no Haven has no property or territory, and exists at the sufferance of other Kindred. Exile may seem a mercy after this sort of existence. If the criminal is deemed too dangerous to unleash on other domains, but potentially redeemable, then a sentence of Torpor may be carried out. The question of what to do when such a sentence ends has never really been addressed so far, since the sentences tend to be rather long. Finally, for extremely serious offences, the offender may be sentenced to destruction. This is usually carried out by first putting the offender into Torpor, then incinerating him at a commercial funeral incineration facility.
The most common crime is poaching vessels on someone else’s territory. Obviously, this is a crime which could happen innocuously and accidentally. Because of this, the first offense is never punished if poaching is all that happens. If the vessel doesn’t die, the criminal is rarely even caught; even if she is, she’ll usually be let off with a warning without even seeing The Myrmidon. When a vessel is killed, the official supervision starts. Another wrongful death will lose the poacher some feeding territory of her own, and a third repeat offense Merits exile. Repeated stupidity is too dangerous for a Carthian domain to play host to, even if something so relatively innocent is the cause.
The next most common offense prosecuted in Carthian cities is theft. Theft only qualifies as an offense, however, if an item somebody actually cares about is stolen. Usually this means an item stolen from someone’s Haven. Most drafts of Carthian Law put the blame for losing anything not kept in a declared Haven squarely on the idiot who lost the item, unless it was taken from his person by violence. Even then, the violence is the crime, not the theft. Even in an actual case of theft, if the item is returned undamaged there is usually no punishment. There is punishment on the books for theft, though, however rarely such punishment is implemented: branding is used for the first offense. The pain of the fire sears the punishment into the memory of the thief, while the mark reminds everyone who sees it that this vampire is even less trustworthy than his fellow Kindred. A brand administered as a punishment in accordance with Carthian Law inflicts one aggravated damage, and leaves a burn scar for over a century even after the damage is healed. If someone with such a brand is caught and convicted for stealing again, exile awaits the repeat offender. Serious theft does create one thing any government finds intolerable, after all: unrest in the populace.
Inciting unrest intentionally is another crime most versions of Carthian Law contain, but make conviction for inciting unrest difficult. After all, argument and debate are usually encouraged as means of exploring different options and experiments. Rhetoric with the explicit purpose of creating anger and violence is dangerous, though, and is not tolerated. Speaking in such a way will at least get the agitator barred from Elysium for a period of time. If the offender is found agitating again during that period, or twice more even after the period elapses, the troublemaker will be exiled from the city. Even Carthians only want one revolution at a time, and they certainly want it done their way.
When it comes to unrest, neonates are the easiest to agitate, so the Movement’s leaders like to know when new vampires are created in their domains. Creating unsanctioned childer is as serious a crime to Carthian officials as it is under a Prince. It’s not so bad by itself, but it is potentially very dangerous. The first such childe is thus usually remanded to custody and supervision by some trusted officer of the court. The sire is allowed to see the childe, and might even be allowed to conduct her normal duties of helping her childe adapt to undead society, so long as neither of them make any trouble. The second time, though, both sire and childe are remanded to alternate custody and supervision. The sire is supervised for a period of time, probably a decade or more, to ensure that no more unsanctioned childer are created. The childe is given to an officer of the court to raise as his own, which supposedly ensures a greater degree of responsibility from the childe than the sire has so far shown. Any vampire who sires a third unsanctioned childe in a Carthian domain is exiled from the city, along with the unacknowledged childe. Both are left to fend for themselves, if they can.
The crimes Carthian courts treat as serious go beyond mere unrest. Injury to members of the Kindred community is the worst crime against Carthian Law, and this is what Carthian officials focus on prosecuting. Proof of a charge of this nature is relatively easy. Corroborated witness reports with no conflicting witnesses or alibi will often make the case. The prior record of the suspect is taken very strongly into consideration as well; someone known to be violent may be a ticking bomb anyway, so many officials are eager to get these Kindred out of their domains. Assaulting another Kindred carries serious penalties, including forcing the guilty attacker to give up enough Vitae to heal the other Kindred and the offender’s exile from the city. Self-defense is sometimes accepted as a partial excuse, but will only excuse the offender from the exile part of the punishment. Often, if two Kindred get into a fight, both of them are kicked out of the city. Records of the attacker’s identity will be kept indefinitely, in case he finds his way back to the city under another name. A variety of forensic tests can be used to positively identify the criminal, should he ever cause trouble in the same city again.
There is no excuse in Carthian Law for destroying another Kindred. Self-defense is no excuse, and no other circumstance is considered mitigating. Exile is the best that a vampire who kills his own kind can hope for in a Carthian city. If the guilty one has ever been convicted, or even suspected, of another crime, the sentence is more likely to be a period of some decades or centuries in Torpor. If the crime was violent, or the Kindred destroyed was particularly well connected, the killer is probably doomed to destruction himself. Staked and left for sunlight is the usual method. This is often handled much like the Louisiana tradition of “drumming someone out.” The criminal is left in a spot that will get sunlight in the morning, staked; if there’s someone left in the city who will stand up for the criminal, that vampire is welcome to help the criminal, so long as the criminal is never seen in the city again.
Diablerie, however, is never treated so leniently. If this heinous crime is proved beyond a reasonable doubt, immediate destruction is the only punishment. “Burned at the stake” is literally that; the offender is usually staked, put in a coffin and taken to a commercial funeral facility for incineration. A sufficient amount of money changing hands prevents unnecessary questions. If this crime cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, it is simply treated as the destruction of another Kindred. The uncontested testimony of a reasonably trustworthy Mekhet is generally accepted as proof enough, though; nobody sheds many tears if a killer is destroyed wrongly as a diablerist when he really was a killer.
Assaulting or killing another Kindred’s ghoul is also a serious crime, though not as serious as actually attacking another Kindred. Giving up enough Vitae to heal the ghoul is usually considered sufficient punishment. A second incident or the death of the ghoul, however, is sufficient grounds for exile. Ghouls don’t have many rights, but they are the most important form of property a Kindred owns besides her own Vitae. In this case, the murder of the ghoul is treated as an assault on the Kindred’s own person. Exiling criminals is very popular with Carthian courts. It’s less morally repugnant than execution, even with the admitted probability that other cities won’t take the criminal in, and survival on the road is difficult.
There is also one other crime serious enough to merit exile: conspiracy. If a group of Kindred conspires to commit any of the other punishable crimes, even if the crime actually committed was not serious, a conspiracy is, in the eyes of Carthian Law, a threat to the authority of The Carthian Movement. Thus, all participants in the dangerous group are sentenced to exile as soon as it is proven that they conspired together.
The extra tools of a Carthian investigation — the Disciplines of the investigators — are absolutely necessary to overcome the natural disinclination Kindred have to revealing the truth. Different domains have different specific rules, but the generally accepted uses of the various Disciplines in criminal investigations have spread among various Carthian domains all over the world.
Animalism: Animals communicated with and controlled through this Discipline make excellent informants. They will not remember or understand the information they are used to gather in any way that could be damaging, and they are utterly expendable. Suitable animals, such as mice, are also quite innocuous. The full mastery of this power is extremely useful for keeping suspects under control when apprehending them.
Auspex: A reliable investigator with Auspex is the boon of any Carthian law-enforcement coterie. If two can be had, and kept separate so they don’t taint each others’ testimony, investigations become extremely easy. The problem with this scenario is in no way the effectiveness of Auspex in revealing all kinds of information. The problem is that the reliability of any Kindred is suspect from the beginning, and keeping two Kindred with Auspex from communicating with each other is difficult if not impossible. The usual method is for city officials to make they sure know at least two Mekhet who dislike each other, and thus would not talk to each other independently. Then the unconnected individuals can be brought in to corroborate each others’ testimony about the information found with Auspex.
Celerity: Criminals run. Investigators with high levels of Celerity are faster. The advantages of this in apprehending the criminals should be obvious. Besides that, Celerity is an excellent way to avoid death at the hands of a dangerous criminal.
Dominate: Because of Carthian Law, using Dominate in the pursuit of a criminal investigation is actually much simpler than might otherwise be. Confessions obtained by a Carthian Ventrue using Dominate on the perpetrator of the crime are usually admissible in Carthian courts, because Carthian Law would prevent the Ventrue from forcing anything but a true confession out of the criminal. On the other hand, most city administrations are slow to actually use this “magic bullet,” because, although it is very reliable, it also reliably pisses everyone off. As mentioned before, Kindred hate revealing their secrets. If Dominate is used on the wrong vampire, that vampire will feel justifiably wronged. Carthian Law can’t prevent this from happening, but it does provide penalties after the fact. If not for the sake of avoiding making enemies, avoiding these penalties usually keeps Ventrue investigators in line.
Majesty: Along the same lines as Dominate, this Discipline can easily be used to make criminals reveal their secrets, and it is similarly dangerous to force such revelation without adequate certainty that the subject in question is the perpetrator. Daeva investigators, however, are able to play their somewhat disreputable clan reputation to their advantage in this case. Daeva are expected to worm their way into other Kindred’s confidences, after all, so it doesn’t make people quite as mad when Daeva do so during a criminal investigation. Confessions wheedled out with Majesty are less admissible in court than those commanded with Dominate, but the one is certainly grounds to seek the other.
Nightmare: When using the Interrogation tactic of “good cop/bad cop,” the Nosferatu are the ultimate bad cops. The various powers of their signature Discipline are of incredible utility when apprehending and interrogating criminals, but even more risky than Dominate. Where a Dominated Kindred will be insulted and angry, the subject of what can only be called a Nightmare attack will be threatened and angry. These tactics are thus reserved for suspects nobody would mind seeing disappear.
Obfuscate: Proficiency in this Discipline is another thing that makes Mekhet and Nosferatu scarily good investigators. Criminals who believe they are unobserved continue blithely on in their crimes, until the Carthian officers drop their veil of Obfuscate and bust them. Unfortunately, the criminals the officers are seeking often use their own Obfuscate to hide their crimes, so this sword for justice cuts both ways.
Protean: Not running in fear from an elder criminal is good. Having a safe day’s slumber when anyone who commits a crime against Carthian Law has to worry about you first is much better. The sheer deadly authority of Claws of the Wild prevents a lot of argument when apprehending criminals. Animal forms taken with Shape of the Beast aren’t exactly innocuous most of the time, but the bat form especially has great mobility. The simple subconscious confusion factor is even still useful for stealth, because not even Kindred will always see “bat” and think “Gangrel using Protean.” The ability to turn into mist, finally, is as useful for stealth as Obfuscate, and as useful for avoiding injury as Celerity. All in all, this Discipline makes Gangrel quite hardy and versatile as investigators.
Resilience: When the criminal attacks, Resilience causes the investigator not to die. It’s pretty much that simple. Most other applications of having high stamina are made pretty much moot by the vampiric condition, but the need to be protected from an untimely death is great in the investigation profession. Not dying is sufficient incentive for most vampires, let alone Carthian investigators, to practice Resilience as much as possible.
Vigor: Criminals run. Unconscious criminals don’t run. Vigor facilitates the latter condition. “Police brutality” is not generally an issue in Carthian Law, so long as the criminal survives to stand trial.
Despite a willingness to use violence and the various Discipline powers at disposal to enforce the law, Carthian officials do follow a form of due process of the law. Hearsay is given no credibility; only eyewitness testimony is allowed, though what an Auspexuser discovers from an object or a target’s mind is considered an eyewitness report. Some domains make the rule that only testimony sworn out under a Dominate command to be truthful is admissible as legal evidence. Circumstantial evidence, such as a weak alibi, can be used to establish probable cause for an arrest, but sworn testimony under Dominate is the most trusted source of evidence by far. After all, although a memory may be placed in someone’s mind, doing so is much more difficult than planting some piece of incriminating physical evidence.
Unlike in mortal society, there is usually no separation of police and court in the process of Carthian justice. The investigators, whether they be the Sheriff’s, The Myrmidon’s or The Magistrate’s officers, report all their findings back to their superior officer, and all the Carthian officers involved in the case share the information with each other. By the time the criminal is brought before The Myrmidon or The Magistrate, the Kindred sitting in judgment already has all the evidence in the case. The criminal is allowed one chance to make a statement in his own defense, once again, under a Dominate-induced injunction to truthfulness. If evidence is revealed at this time that may help the accused, the investigation continues until it is corroborated or debunked. Otherwise, the judging officer makes her decision based on all the evidence that has been gathered. Usually, if enough evidence has been gathered to bring a criminal in front of the judge, and the accused can’t say anything in his defense to change the theory of the crime, the only forthcoming verdict is guilty.
It’s not that suspects aren’t presumed innocent until proven guilty. Quite the opposite; the standards of evidence the investigators are held to are supernaturally higher than those possible for mortal police to achieve. The mortal democratic ideathat one’s peers have some kind of right to judge the crime is only seen in the rare case of a treason tribunal, however, because only in that case is the crime considered to be against the entire community. In some ways, this is another nod to the secrecy most Kindred prefer; besides the investigating and judging officers, only the accused and the accuser must be at the final trial. In other ways, it is an acknowledgement that trusting several vampires is a worse idea than knowing how to predict just one. To most Carthians, one judge with special training and put under intense scrutiny seems a more trustworthy agent of justice than a jury.
The fact that Carthians know each other and share Contacts this way is the underlying reason players of Carthian characters get a discount when buying Allies, Contacts, Haven and Herd. However, the diversity of Carthian experiments begs a better picture of these Merits in practice in some different contexts. Not all Carthians have lots of friends, know everybody’s phone number, live in communes and have a cult of goth vampire wannabes to feed off. Some, even with the same levels in the same Merits, might just be friends with one popular guy (who has the phone numbers to give them), live in a safe-house set up for homeless Carthians and frequent a nightclub with kinky VIP rooms with bondage and blindfolds making feeding easy. The mission and position of a given domain’s Prefect and other leaders affect what these Merits actually look like in extreme ways.
Allies: In a democratic domain, all the citizens will meet frequently, probably at least once a week for meetings to vote on any issues that need to be addressed. These meetings provide a starting point for any Kindred of the domain to get to know each other, so anyone interested in making friends has ample opportunity to do so. Individuals will also sometimes be appointed by the assembly to make friends and cultivate influence with certain groups, so they can then introduce others, or simply call in favors when the city needs them. Gathering friends is an active occupation in this environment, and everyone is actively encouraged to play. Unwary neonates often end up owing quite a few favors they later come to regret, and the lesson is powerful; it’s better to be owed than to owe. Kindred who fail to participate, though, learn that it’s worse to lack connections than to owe favors; people whom you owe have a reason to keep you around.
Contacts: While these citizens are busily making friends and influencing people, it is both necessary and hard to avoid meeting a wide variety of less influential people who nonetheless have access to certain things. While making friends in the police department, for instance, it’s a short step from doing a favor for the lieutenant to finding out who to call in the department to get the names of known criminals of various stripes. It’s an even shorter step from making friends in the forensics lab to finding out where they buy their Equipment, or the schools they prefer to hire from. Democratic politics put Carthians in an easy position to make these short steps on their own.
Haven: Adequate housing is difficult to find when you have very particular needs, as Kindred do. Solving this problem is a continuing chore in any growing domain, and even relatively stable cities see quite a few Kindred moving or upgrading their manses. The Carthian Movement promises members they will have the shelter they need, which in a direct democracy makes it everybody’s responsibility. Usually, a set of general laws are drafted so that every housing decision doesn’t call for a vote. When a citizen has housing desires not provided for in the Law, a vote is called. Often the entire night of the city meeting is taken up with debate, because a change in the housing rules that benefits one Kindred almost invariably puts the burden on another one. If one citizen gets assistance purchasing renovations, why not all citizens? Does she really need these repairs? Why can’t she pay for them herself? In the end, though, most requests for assistance are granted, because even those opposed to a particular request know they will probably want one of their own granted in the future.
Herd: This issue is the most common cause of the failure of direct democracy. When feeding territory is parceled out by majority rule, it’s always a compromise, which means nobody is happy. All too often, the Carthian citizens also forget to include the other Kindred of the city in the Carthian division of the Herd, leading to bloody conflicts often ending in fire. Success usually lies in creating a standard of law by which each citizen can apply for a certain amount of feeding territory, and establishing what is allowed in defense of that territory. The definition of “territory” is a sticky point, though, since this term just as often includes groups of mortals as it does locations. The end result of this mess is that Kindred in these cities have a lot of hoops to jump through, but once the territory is acquired, it is sacrosanct.
Allies: A vampire needs friends to survive; it’s a simple, every-night fact. Keeping the citizens who elect them happy means that Carthian representatives are well served by making sure those citizens have ample opportunities to make connections. Some representatives do this by holding parties and other social events, inviting the Kindred they represent. Other representatives push resolutions through Parliament to create social clubs and meeting places where a Kindred community could form. Once the Kindred of the domain have gotten to know each other, they provide each other with references and introductions when they need to make friends outside the community.
Contacts: Carthian domains of this style usually appoint an officer to gather the necessary information to find all kinds of things, whose job is to then help others in the Movement find Contacts when they need them. He keeps huge files of phone numbers, names, addresses and preferred forms of compensation for brokers of all kinds of information and Materials. His duty is then to hand this information over to any Carthian who needs it, and keep a record of who asked for it and why. Of course, if the reason specifically contradicts Carthian Law, he’s not going to hand over the info. This officer’s job can be very dangerous, because what he guards is almost as valuable as Vitae itself. Sometimes, it’s much morevaluable, so some domains prefer to spread the risk by assigning multiple officers to gather information fordifferent types of acquisitions. Carthians call these contact-brokers many things, but the most common title is RC, short for “requisitions clerk.”
Haven: Housing assistance is available easily enough in republican domains. The Parliament usually establishes a trust fund, authorizing yearly withdrawals for all Carthians in the city for the purpose of improving their havens. Whenever a withdrawal is made, the Kindred in charge of the trust fund helps the one making the withdrawal spend the money, taking notes and making sure it actually goes to haven-related purchases. Although there is enough scrutiny of these funds that embezzlement isn’t practical, overseeing them does carry the advantage of knowing where every Carthian in the city sleeps.
Herd: The usual republican policy on this issue is, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Established feeding territories are left alone, unless a new Carthian is in desperate need. Mostly, laws are made protecting Kindred’s rights to their territories and herds. Sometimes, the Parliament also hands out incentives to generous elders who help younger Kindredestablish their own herds.
Allies: To make sure all citizens are well connected, socialists hold many parties. These are the same parties where citizens are encouraged to celebrate how equal they are, how much conditions have improved for so many. Those who had to give up wealth to be redistributed are encouraged to meet with the Kindred who received their money or property, and everybody is encouraged to meet new people and make friends. Any Kindred in town who don’t attend the occasions are sought out and asked why they refused the invitation, so no Carthian has a good excuse not to make a few friends.
Contacts: Information is one of the Resources socialist Carthians seek to distribute fairly. To this end, every Carthian is set up with a cell phone plan granting unlimited minutes to other Carthians, and a list of the numbers of all the other members of the plan. Members are encouraged to call around the list to find anything they need, and some members are periodically assigned to call the less active members of the list to keep them in touch and abreast of the news.
Haven: All Carthians are assigned somewhere to live in socialist domains, and that’s that. This is the most resented aspect of socialist rule, because those who have the money and property are forced to house those who don’t. Those who receive free housing are seen as freeloaders, and that’s often true. Some domains encourage the beneficiaries of the city’s generosity to consider their free homes as temporary, and actively seek other lodging. Some don’t, though, and subject the resentful Kindred to a communitywide guilt trip over their antisocial attitude.
Herd: Kine are the most basic resource for Carthian socialists to share, but perhaps the most difficult. Mortal will is easily bent to Kindred purposes, but to bend it so that any vampire may feed instead of just one, without revealing the nature of all involved to the public — that is a tricky thing indeed. Long before the socialists take power, clubs and businesses offering convenient ways to feed are procured by active Carthians. These establishments range from kinky sex clubs where the Kiss is just one more taboo pleasure enjoyed behind closed doors and never spoken of in daylight to semi-legitimate blood banks that purpose many donations to a darker cause.
Allies: It’s easy to make friends when you’re required to spend a certain number of hours each week in a work group assigned by the government. Communist Carthians assign each member of the Movement a task for the general good, so in this style of domain it’s normal to end up in two coteries at once: the one you choose and the one assigned to you for covenant work. Some of these groups are actually formed just to encourage friendships among covenant members, and some are assigned the task of cultivating friendships with valuable mortal Allies.
Contacts: In a communist domain, it’s always somebody’s job to know who to talk to. The basic necessities of unlife are officially provided for, and everything else is moved smoothly through thriving black markets that are usually secretly encouraged. There’s usually an official in charge of contacting Mercenaries and procuring weapons, for instance, and, for a small favor, he’s probably more than willing to share the name and location of one of the guys he buys guns from. The line between official channels and under-the-table deals is often difficult to discern, and usually meaningless anyway; if something needs to get done, it gets done — and nobody asks too many questions.
Haven: Shared housing is a simple matter. In a domain such as this, any property owned by Kindred is considered the property of Parliament. All citizens are assigned their own space to stay and sleep. Usually, this space shared by a work gang, so they can do their community service together first thing each night, then disperse for their free time. Depending on how well a work gang does their job, they can apply for better housing.
Herd: Cultivating easy feeding grounds is one of the most prestigious tasks for a work gang in a communist domain. This is a necessary part of any Kindred’s Requiem, making the gangs in charge of handing out drinks very popular. The form of the Herd depends entirely on the gang in charge of gathering it. A Carthian hooked up with vessels in this kind of city might be introduced to a kinky nightclub with private rooms and plenty of willing customers, or unveiled as a prophet in a false cult or even given a sterile medical treatment, receiving the blood intravenously. It all depends on what the work gang assigned to gather the Herd is able to make work.
Allies: Ritual remembrances of Carthian identity are essential for a functional tyranny, because the citizens must stay committed to the ideals embodied by the constitution. The Chain is practiced every week, if not each night, and other events marking important times in the history of the domain and the Movement are also celebrated. These rituals provide a strong sense of community, and ample opportunities to make acquaintances, or even friends.
Contacts: The community in a constitutional domain promotes free sharing of information. Some cities host meetings for various interest groups, explicitly and officially educating citizens about how to acquire guns, people’s phone numbers and addresses or any number of other things. Usually it’s just a matter of word of mouth, facilitated and encouraged by the ceremonies that bring citizens together almost every night. By providing citizens with an easy excuse to see each other, community events naturally provide the chance for anyone who’s interested to build their network of Contacts.
Haven: Whether by the sire, the sire’s coterie or someone else, newly embraced members of the Movement are usually provided with free housing assistance from a specific source by the constitution. This assistance is usually in the form of advice on how to sun-proof and fire-proof the home that sufficed when the neonate was a mortal. An existing house can be turned into a Haven fairly easily by making it vampirefriendly; its location can even be improved by learning of good feeding grounds that happen to be nearby. This philosophy is prevalent in constitutional domains: take what’s already there, and make it work.
Herd: Co-opting hospital or Red Cross blood banks is by far the favorite method for tyrants to feed their citizens. It’s reliable, and it eliminates the risk of accidental killings during feeding. The problem, of course, is the risk of Masquerade breaches. Therefore, in cities where this approach is unfeasible, a more standard approach such as introducing new Kindred to some of the local nightclubs is used. There is a stronger tendency in these domains than most for the Carthian government to actually make a point of owning the most popular feeding grounds, to reduce the possibility of problems with the Masquerade.
The question outsiders ask is whether that’s all there is to the Carthians, or is there some massive dire secret behind them? From the outside, the Movement doesn’t seem like it could possibly accomplish anything (especially for Kindred who aren’t accustomed to the modern mindset). The Carthians govern cities, though, maintain The Traditions and do at least as good a job of it as the typical collection of undead. Patently, there’s something at work. But what? Magic? Some powerful secret agenda? Or does it all come down to organizational skills?
The Carthians contradict themselves and aren’t even embarrassed. They claim to support collectivism and the individual, and they say the Movement is a unified whole that accepts broadly divergent points of view. Philosophically, the Movement is the most diverse covenant. At the same time, Carthian principles, be they ever so vaguely stated, seem to call members together in a way that seems, sometimes, stronger than religious impulse, mysticism or even self-interest.
Carthian Unity
Carthian unity is real, no matter what sneering petty tyrants from other covenants say. Sure, the Carthians are no selfless band of brothers, all for one and one for all in the grand musketeer tradition — Kindred are instinctive loners with a lot to gain from secrecy and a “me first” attitude. If nothing else, though, the Carthians have some key traits in common beyond the name and a preference for Proletariat Chic fashion.The following four core beliefs are common to the Carthians, because, without these values, you’re just not in the Movement. There are some whose are passionately devoted, and there are some who are mostly along for the ride, but at least part of the program appealed. Otherwise, why not just screw it all and declare yourself unbound? (Admittedly, some domains have Carthian presences big and aggressive enough to take a “join or die” stance, but, for our purposes, we’ll consider voluntary membership.)
Philosophical accord is fine. Most Carthians, however, are in the Movement because it functions. The more it works for them, the more they believe in it. The more they believe in it, of course, the better it works.
One: Tolerance, Within Reason
One idea the Carthians support is the notion of an environment in which a broad coalition of ideologies can move, interact, exchange concepts, challenge one another without animosity and thereby become stronger.Some Carthians believe in the God of The Lancea Sanctum. Some Carthians are aggressive atheists. Some Carthians are agnostic to the point of arguing that even if God exists, He’s irrelevant to the Requiem. Some Carthians claim that Kindred were mistakenly animated from dust by God’s tears as He wept for the fall of Humanity, and that they can only escape their merited destruction by consuming the blood of his favored children, which he is (in their version of things) loath to spill.
If religion was the determining factor for every action taken by all those disparate vampires, they’d never agree on anything. But since they’re all Carthians, clearly their relationship to the Lord isn’t their fundamental motivator. This unity bypasses more than religious difference. Carthian Democrats who think a social safety net provides a more complacent Herd class work beside Carthian Republicans, who think welfare leads to economic stagnation, the growth of the criminal underclass and, ultimately, more jobless jerks with shotguns and the free time to investigate their cousins’ mysterious disappearance.
Despite disagreements, Carthians put up with one another. They’re willing to admit that, while they think others are wrong, others may think they’re wrong. That’s no reason they can’t set their differences aside when it’s time to deal with a haunted Elysium, or an incursion of mortal refugees who are unpleasantly well-informed about Kindred or a Belial’s Brood coterie popping up from nowhere.
Working well together on big things leads to cooperation on smaller things, such as the one breather cop who’s distressingly resistant to corruption, or a threat to a favorite Rack, or a neonate who doesn’t know how to keep his fangs shut or just property taxes that are going insane, and dammit, I’m not paying to put any kids through school.
That’s the Movement in a nutshell. Theoretically, the Carthians’ factional disagreements should yield resentment, spite and murderous hatred. In practice, most Carthians would rather get along than fight about matters of personal choice. At least, they’d rather get along with other Carthians.
Two: Collective Action
One powerful impetus for getting along is that Carthians are fans of collective action. Even something as personal as feeding is easier when you’ve got a couple of coterie-mates at your back keeping your meat from reaching the rear exit and guarding the door from prying mortal eyes.A common Carthian precept is “The fear of showing weakness is, itself, a debilitating weakness.” In the Movement, you can admit to screwups and problems without shame (or, in any event, less shame). Carthians accept as a given fact that the Kindred condition is miserable. Calling it a curse dresses it up, but Torpor and sun scorching and incessant evil urges and needing blood, blood, blood is miserable. Being a vampire is a problem, a huge problem. It’s a problem too big for one scared and ignorant person to handle, particularly one who’s just starting out. The Movement is there to ensure its members don’t have to face being a vampire alone.
There’s a price for all this togetherness and mutual aid, and it’s paid when you’re no longer that weak fledgling and everyone starts coming to you for a sympathetic ear and, say, maybe a loan until he comes into some money and some help scrubbing cordite burns off the Honda’s upholstery. But, by that point, most Carthians are used to getting tapped for unexpected deliverance. Some don’t know any other kind of Requiem. For a few who really get it — often converts from more self-oriented covenants — looking out for another person, even an undead one, gives a kind of meaning to their existence that no degree of power, or security or occult knowledge can accomplish.
That said, the collectivism of the Movement also has a lot to offer those who seek only power, security and knowledge. Existential rewards aren’t universal, they’re rare — and only an option for those motivated to seek them.
Three: Individual Rights
While duty to the Movement is job one (at least, the other Carthians think duty should be job one), once that’s discharged the Movement takes a hands-off attitude. Carthians don’t let members trounce The Traditions on a whim, but other than that, they don’t much care about any individual interests, obsessions and crusades its members pursue. There are Carthians who study occult texts, sites and incidents as fanatically as anyone in The Ordo Dracul. There are Carthians who pursue penitence and scripture with fervor one of the Sanctified would envy, if envy wasn’t a sin. Because the Carthians as a whole are aggressively secular, individual Carthian mystics can follow their beliefs without worrying about cleaving to some contrary covenant-wide party line.For Kindred saddled with Predator’s Taint and prey-hunter ratios to encourage a lone-wolf approach, pursuing solitary studies or ceremonies may actually be more comfortable. Even a vampire who strongly backed the Circle’s beliefs might join the Movement instead because she prefers the Carthian approach, or because she just doesn’t want to share, explain or compromise her personal understanding of the myth of Xquic’s pregnancy and her relationship to the rulers of Xibalba.
It’s not all a bed of roses for such iconoclast individualists. A lone religious mystic doesn’t have to worry about being punished for heresy, but she doesn’t get the spiritual support of a prayerful community, either, or can go consult libraries amassed over centuries by undead theologians. If she’s willing to make that bargain, she can join the Carthians and know there are other vampires who will help her make rent, manage a Herd and keep the police at bay. All the Carthians ask in return is that she perform the same kind of secular services now and again.
The great thing about the Carthians is that they don’t give a damn about anything but paying your dues. Of course, the unavoidable drawback to the Carthians is also that they don’t give a damn about anything but paying your dues.
While the role of individual rights is clearest in the case of those with individual obsessions, individual rights plays a role for Kindred who are less focused on specific, esoteric goals such as enlightenment or Golconda or claiming praxis. Citizen Kindred with a more night-to-night focus on getting by, being comfortable and attaining security grasp, pretty quickly, that every covenant asks you to jump through some hoops. The Carthians aren’t a free ride. But often, the price they ask (“help a brother out when he’s low”) seems a lot more palatable and simple than covenants that promise far more, but demand humiliation, servitude or spiritual pollution in exchange.
Four: The Duty to be a Complete Being
Along with a sober recognition of Kindred limits and a healthy appreciation for cooperation, the Carthian philosophy holds deeper levels. Even as its tolerance for diversity makes the Movement a Haven for comfortable Kindred who just want to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble, there’s a contradictory urge for members to find a passion and pursue it. In Carthian lingo, this is called “mission” and “position.”Position
The Carthian Movement gives its members tremendous latitude of belief. The reason the Movement hasn’t been weighed down by inertia is its expectation that members act on their beliefs. That core belief is termed a “position” — some attitude or philosophy the individual not only likes or approves of, but which she thinks is important enough to merit the full attention of her Requiem.Position is important because it makes Carthianism more than a social club or a clearinghouse for skills and favors. Position makes Kindred into something more than short-sighted bundles of vicious hungers. It provides a purpose, goals beyond slaking the Beast, and therefore keeps the Man ascendant.
It is important to understand that taking a position is not seen as just a sort of hobby therapy that helps vampires keep their heads together. Remaining a human and not a monster is an important byproduct of the process, indeed a necessary one, but unless your position means enough to you that you’d tend to it even at cost, it’s not going to work. Unless you’re genuinely committed to your cause, you’re going to degenerate anyhow, eventually.
This doesn’t stop certain desperate vampires from pursuing a cause without real belief, simply because they’ve got nothing better (or because a cause that could truly inspire them is too difficult or dangerous to pursue). In some cases, they even develop a real care for what began as a pose. More often, they burn out.
Providing existential nourishment is hardly unique to the Carthians. Indeed, every covenant provides positions, ranging from “serve the will of God through perfect monstrosity” through “transcend the shackles of your condition through perfect egoism.” The Carthian difference is that you get to pick the reason to your Requiem, instead of accepting one handed down by the ancient authorities.
As with so many Carthian advantages, this is double edged. You get to do it yourself, but you don’t get to stand on the shoulders of giants while you do. Instead, you stand side by side with those Carthians who believe as you do. Or, if you can’t find any, Carthians who are willing to help you just because you’re in the Movement.
Positions can be lone beliefs, but far more often they’re held in common with other Carthians. The Movement contains many “position coteries,” which function much like activist groups, or revolutionary cells. Some beliefs are popular enough to encompass several coteries within a city, or several Carthian groups within connected cities or (if a position is broad and strong enough, like “Kindred should be governed democratically”) multiple cities on a continent.
The Night Doctors, The Final Civilization, Humanism, The Conscionauts, Radical Collective Coteries, Hives, Zen Carthianism
Mission
Having a deeply felt faith is a great first step, but it’s only the first step. Carthians have very little patience for those who develop elaborate theories and then sit on their asses, even if they’re sitting around elaborately discussing the theories they’re developing. Position is what you believe and that’s important. But it’s hollow without mission. Mission is what you do.Every meaningful position implies concrete action. If your beliefs don’t prompt you to act, they’re either an empty pose or they’re irrelevant to anyone but you so who gives a fuck? Shut up already and make yourself useful!
This doesn’t always mean firebombing Elysium (though it can, and has). Most often, ‘action’ takes the form of proselytizing. Furthermore, there’s a tendency within the Movement to judge by effort as much as by results. The guy who spends a decade writing out his 400-page manifesto is accorded respect for being a serious thinker who made a statement, even if no one reads his book. Conversely, the Carthian gal who adapts superbly to a crisis and winds up Sheriff after a long and deadly weekend gets credit, too, even if she never set out to gain authority. The highest esteem, however, redounds on those who make a play, pursue it and achieve their goals. That’s the ideal of everyone who states a mission.
Hybrid Positions
Dog breeders notice that purebreds tend to be highly strung and less intelligent. Carthians believe this applies to philosophies as well. They seek the strength of alloys, the Resilience of mutts and mongrels and the unexpected synergies that strange combinations provide.No one ever said positions were one to a customer. The most common ideological marriages are between beliefs of behavior (such as the Radical Collective notion that Kindred are more trustworthy when they’re all threads in a mutual psych safety net) and beliefs of philosophy (such as anarchy, fascism, democracy or less reputable notions such as pursuing the Final Civilization). There are communist Hives and Zen Conscionaut coteries, sharing the Movement with nihilist Kindred who operate in a strictly regulated free-market barter economy. They mix and match, not because they’re flighty, but because creatures with eternity on their hands and no grocery bills have a lot of time in which to really contemplate the issues that inspire them. Humans being what they are, these issues are often diverse, even contradictory. In the attempts to reconcile them or find commonalities, prodigies can emerge.
For example, there’s a book that circulates among the Carthians. It’s entitled A Practical Guide to Rustling. It’s short, about 70 pages, no author listed; it explains the practice and theory of stealing mortal vessels (typically blood dolls but also members of Osiris cults) from other Kindred.
What’s interesting about the Practical Guide is not just its contents, but its origins. Back in the late 1950s, a Conscionaut performed a psych survey of blood dolls (or “Vitae Annies” as they were known back then). He wrote up a paper entitled “The Willing Swoon: A Survey of the Sanguine Submissive Personality.” Kindredread it and were interested, and many extrapolated its conclusions into a set of guidelines for finding blood dolls or identifying people predisposed to become blood dolls. Those notions circulated by word of mouth until they reached the ear of a communist Kindred-supremacist Carthian in the early 1970s.
This woman, the author of the Practical Guide, regarded human beings as the means of production (a departure from the then-mainstream communist Kindred, who identified mortals with the proletariat and themselves, typically, as the left-wing intelligentsia swooping in to free them). Stealing Herd from other Kindred was, in her view, a radical act of wealth redistribution.
Certainly, she might have tried to rustle Herd without the insights of The Willing Swoon, but it’s doubtful that she would have been as successful, or would have created so thorough a step-by-step primer for those who would duplicate her act.
Carthian Diversity
As is already clear, Carthians are a diverse bunch. Containing their variety of opinions in one structure is a challenge, one common to all covenants but uniquely acute for the Carthians. Suffering from more pronouncedsymptoms, they need stronger medicine to keep their community healthy. The nature of the steps they should take is, of course, a subject of much debate.Tensions exist in the covenant, along a thousand factional and personal lines. But most of those tensions are diffused by the general structure of camaraderie. Even if feelings of brotherhood aren’t sincerely felt, they’re frequently invoked and expressed. More importantly, perhaps, there are exterior threats that keep the Movement unified. In most domains, this takes the form of other covenants, but dominant Carthians have to pull together against nosy cops, crusading reporters who know too much or politicians in the pocket of some other supernatural mystery. For that matter, Carthians often find that as soon as they finally pacify a domain and cement their grip on the Kindred demimonde, they bump into uppity sorcerers, territorial shapeshifters or cults of demon worshippers invested with diabolical powers. Soon, the Carthians are at loggerheads with an external enemy again, if they’re lucky.
If they’re not lucky, the Movement (so long defined by struggle) finds itself internally riven as factions divide against one another. Observers have opined that a good Carthian collective can retain integrity against any outside corrosive, but inevitably dissolves in a vacuum. The more cynical among them say Carthianism is predicated on conflict, and that when there isn’t any, the Movement creates enemies within itself.
Modernism and Tradition
One tension lies between modernism and tradition. Most Carthians consider themselves thoroughly modern — not, perhaps, in the “iPod and titanium golf club” sense, but ideologically. Carthians pride themselves on plucking the ripest fruits of political and philosophical thought, while other covenants content themselves with shriveled, flyblown windfalls that passed their peak before America was discovered. Let the fearful losers squabble over whichreligion’s theocracy is supreme in history’s garbage can: the Carthians are operating with democracy, or the republic, or fascism or something that can adapt. On the other hand, they’re vampires laboring under a curse of stagnation. Every fiber of their unnaturally animated beings cries out against change. This collision of motives results in some paradoxical Carthian elders who are fervently attached to ideas that were modern and innovative when they were Embraced — ideas such as Marxism, or strictMaoism. There are a few Carthians whose opinions about politics Haven’t much changed since the most important political machine was the guillotine. They even refer to “the month of Thermidor” when they’re tired and not paying attention.The dirty little secret that Carthians of greater Status hold close is that tradition works. Having fixed ideas about how to settle disputes is a good idea. Letting people get used to a governing style, and changing it through evolution instead of revolution — it’s solid policy. Otherwise, rivals for praxis are going to swoop in while the Carthians are offbalance from reinventing themselves once again.
The Movement is always on the lookout for new ideas. The Carthians who become leaders are those who realize there’s a lot to be said for keeping the old ideas, too.
Collectivism and Individuality
The Movement’s ability to contain many conflicting philosophies under an umbrella of solidarity and collective action is its greatest strength. This is not an unflagging strength, however.Sometimes one Carthian wants to stay in her Haven, working on her paintings or her manifesto or her efforts to corner the Hong Kong bauxite market online. Her coterie-mates, however — or even some Carthians with whom she’s less connected — want her help decorating for Elysium or making a case before the Justiciar or helping them invest the proceeds from their train robbery in socially progressive stocks.
The solo Carthian thinks they should respect her individuality and leave her alone to do her thing. Obviously, the other vampires think she should feel the collectivism and help them instead. According to the principles of the Movement, they’re both right.
In some domains, there’s a rigid hierarchy, and, when someone of higher rank tells you to do something, you salute and say “Jawohl!” If someone of lower or equal rank asks you for a favor, you can comply or tell him to beat it. While this is easy to figure out, it’s also a fertile field for resentment, treachery and the ugliness you get when revenge and ambition are pulling in tandem. Smart commanders either make reasonable demands and cut slack, or they make sure they’re invincible compared to the Kindred being abused.
A more serious problem for those domains is member attrition. After all, other covenants can offer that same kind of fealty structure, and they usually hold out additional benefits to make it more palatable. The Carthian stop-loss program is a system of redress in which the lowly can make complaints about their superiors and be judged fairly and impartially, without fear of punishment even if the court (or whatever) finds in their superior’s favor. These systems ease the pressure of resentment, but at the cost of vastly multiplying the complexity of the Movement’s local politics.
In democratic domains, or anarchist ones particularly, it’s a lot less clear-cut. Except for a small minority of governing officers, most of whom have authority only over limited matters such as “Masquerade Breaches” or “Food Supply Control,” members of the Movement are equal, free to accept or decline requests for aid as they see fit. At the same time, there’s an expectation that everyone kicks in when and what she can.
To go back to our example of our loner who doesn’t want to help: if there’s no hierarchy in her domain, the outcome of her refusal depends on her history and the history of the people who want her aid. The rejected group may grumble, but if she’s known as a solid citizen who has already done plenty for the Movement, it probably reflects badly on the whiners. On the other hand, if she turned down a local hero and has made a habit of declining requests, she may have just dealt her own reputation a black eye.
It’s not always articulated (though, in some domains, it’s meticulously articulated) but less is expected from those who ask little, while those who receive much are expected to sacrifice much. When the reckoning of debts is left vague, everyone always has a different idea of who owes how much. When it’s concrete and tallied, there are always dissentions about how much a given task meant. Naturally, the people keeping the records are always everyone’s best friend.
Action and Stasis
One of the most perilous tensions within the Movement is between incremental progressives and activists who want change now, not after a decade of negotiating. Found most often in domains where the Carthians aren’t in charge, activists demonize the Prince or Bishop or other dominant power structure, and they agitate for immediate overthrow, by any means necessary. Usually, they mean violence.Working against activists, who are focused on what they can gain, are the conservative Carthian progressives. Often more experienced and influential, they’re focused on what they have. Progressives hesitate to knock off the king until they know exactly who is going to inherit the throne. Where the activists are constantly looking outward for an allyagainst the powers that be, progressives focus their attention inward on their covenant-mates. Progressives are the ideological police, refining their theories and policies so that when they do take over, there’s a smooth transition of power and a set of governing theories that can hit the ground running.
The revolutionary front is always bringing in more and more Kindred from the fringe, operating on the theory that mutual enemies make them friends. They do this out of fervor for change and belief that there’s strength in numbers. Petty ideological disagreements can be ironed out at leisure, they say. The camaraderie of the barricades is supposed to form personal bonds that will lubricate compromise once the power has been seized from the oppressors.
Progressives, on the other hand, are always marginalizing those who don’t follow the majority beliefs, striving for strength through ideological unity. They are just as fervent about change as the activists, but progressives are more aware of the pitfalls. They’re pretty sure they have one good chance and if they bungle it — or get betrayed mid-stream bysome poorly-chosen ally — then decades of effort get wasted. Instead of a mass, violent uprising of the type the activists favor, progressives pursue small, additive changes that build up over time. It’s not just fastidiousness about the mess of a genuine insurgency: Because they’re unwilling to buddy up with anyone who hates the Prince, they’re less muscular and have little choice but to run a marathon instead of a sprint. Though, it must be said, aging Carthians tend to favorthe long, subtle view even when a turbulent overthrow is tactically feasible. This is because they get to be old by being Kindred first, Carthians second. Most old Kindred got old because they respect the Masquerade and know that any time things turn chaotic, the Masquerade trembles.
Revolution cannot be sustained forever, even by deathless creatures. In some domains, the Carthians actually succeed and seize power. There’s no one blueprint for revolt, and no common outcome, but one universal element is that success doesn’t make the tensions release.
Example: Colombia
A Carthian praxis-grab in Colombia was, to the surprise of anyone who knows Colombian history, shockingly peaceful. The city’s progressive faction rallied The Lancea Sanctum and the Circle behind them against the ruling Ordo Dracul by masterfully encouraging occult one-upmanship among all three covenants. This would seem to be atypical progressive behavior, since Carthians usually don’t want to share power with anyone other than fellow Carthians — and Carthians of their particular ideological slant, at that. While these progressives pacified their own revolutionary branch by allying with other covenants, and comforted the Circle and The Lancea Sanctum by holding no competing beliefs, the hammer fell once the Carthians had achieved power.Provoking a conflict with the uneasily united religions against the Dragons, the Carthians then mediated a peaceful settlement, since none of the factions were really committed to a spate of Final Deaths. Nobody from the other three really wanted a Carthian Prince, but it was a far more acceptable compromise than anything else. They all believed that a ruling council, maintained with Carthian oversight, would give them a voice. This was particularly true of the Sanctified and the Acolytes, who had assurances from their more radical Carthian Allies. The progressives didn’t take long to marginalize and then completely purge those radicals from real power, however, and with them gone, the influence wielded by the Sanctified and the Acolytes waned rapidly. The ruling council made concessions to the Order, who were angry at losing most of their authority but, philosophically, reconciled themselves to the new order to keep as much power as they could. Many within The Lancea Sanctum and The Circle of the Crone found themselveselevated (to their own surprise as much as anyone else’s) by the new leadership. These were, of course, Kindred whose interests were primarily spiritual. By giving a little power to the un-ambitious, the Carthians could argue that the Circle and The Lancea Sanctum had benefited from the change. After all, they had freedom to worship now, as long as they didn’t bother themselves with governance.
When the dust settled, The Circle of the Crone and The Lancea Sanctum were marginally better off than they had been, though not nearly as well off as they’d expected. The Dragons had fallen the furthest, but they actually wound up backing the Carthians, who were certain to tolerate the Dragons much more than anyone else. As for the radical Carthian revolutionaries, they just had to scratch their heads and wonder why nights after the revolt seemed so much like the nights before.
Example: Tennessee
A city in Tennessee had a very different experience from the slow but thorough Carthian digestion in Colombia. There, the rival covenant cast in the role of “the Man” was that old Carthian nemesis, The Invictus. Furthermore, the local Invictus tyrant was so firm in his grip of the city that no other covenants were tolerated. This put the Carthians in the position of being a genuine outlaw insurrection, and one with no mystically inclined Allies, either.The Carthian Movement (or, as it was known in that city, the Carthian Revolution) took a risk that paid off. They went traveling. They risked daylight and uncertainty to recruit unbound and dissatisfied Carthians from all over the state, and a few from Georgia and Alabama, too. Promising freedom, authority and other rewards for loyalty, these Carthians brought their recruits home and began a program of guerilla warfare — burning havens, murdering Ghouls and running vessels out of town.
Against a violent and well-organized opposition, The Invictus finally agreed to deal. At that point, the local progressives (who were, oddly enough, believers in the Final Civilization) nearly hijacked the Movement. They haggled and bargained with The Invictus, and peace might have descended. The Invictus would have retained praxis, but with Carthians tolerated and warily respected.
The revolutionaries weren’t willing to settle for half a loaf, however. They broke the progressivenegotiated truce, The Invictus’ reprisals were brutal and the violence escalated. Both sides were losing members to Final Death, herds were being decimated and the Carthians were raising hell in entire sections of town, just because those areas were known Racks for prominent Invictus soldiers.
Eventually, one powerful Invictus coterie just got fed up and left — moved all the way to Jacksonville, if the rumors are true. After that, parts of the First Estate defected, or fled or simply surrendered, and the Carthians became the sole covenant in town.
Since that time, the Kindred population has steadily shrunk as the ruling revolutionaries try, and fail, to rein in the violence of their subjects. In their attempts to stifle the bloodlust, they’ve become more repressive than The Invictus ever was. To be fair, however,the outlook for advancement is much more open under the Carthians. At least, it is for those who are unflinchingly loyal to the government, no matter what atrocities it now commits in the name of order.
Example: Ontario
A city in Ontario experienced a Carthian powergrab in the late 1980s, with an outcome that absolutely no one in the city would have predicted. The beginning situation was that a Circle-dominated city faced opposition from the Carthians and The Invictus. The two secular covenants quickly made common cause against the Acolytes, hoping that aslight advantage in their combined numbers would offset the disturbing powers of Crúac.Had it been a straightforward assault, one night of mayhem in which the combined Resources of The Invictus and the Movement were flung into overwhelming the Acolytes in their dens, it’s quite possible that the Circle would have been massacred and that whichever covenant had the misfortune to bear the brunt of any counterstrike would have been next on the chopping block. But that scenario was grim enough to scare both covenants off from such direct action. Even the most zealous Carthian revolutionary knows better than to show weakness to The Invictus, even a weakened Invictus.
So there was no sudden putsch. Instead, each group hedged its bets, cultivating Contacts within the Circle. An ugly and little-discussed truth of revolution is that there are serious drawbacks to removing the entire infrastructure of governance in one satisfying crash. Better by far to quietly co-opt the middle range of the bureaucracy — the people who know, metaphorically, where the stamps and toner cartridges are stored at City Hall. These functionaries may not know the secrets, but, more important than the secrets, they know the things anyone could find out, that everyone needs to rule, but that very few have learned.
Once both outsiders had friends on the inside, it was just a question of who was going to betray first. Being innovative and intuitive and enthusiastic and young, the Carthians pulled the trigger. The Invictus-aligned Acolytes were swept from power, and, indeed, many were destroyed in a manner far more dramatic thanthe Movement would have dared hope. The Circle was nervous and on edge by that point, ready to pounce on any threat. They therefore expended their greatest ferocity on the traitors in their midst.
Of course, the Circle’s extremism against their own people alarmed The Invictus, who charged into action backed by their Allies, the Carthians. But with help from within the Circle, the Carthians were able to pit the First Estate against the top tier of the Acolytes, then sweep in, finish off The Invictus and inherit the earth.
That was the plan, anyhow. The Invictus spiritedly resisted being finished off, and by the time they were finally put paid, they’d done such grievous damage to both the Circle and the Movement that neither one was in much shape to govern.
So they merged. The Carthians agreed to at least attend ceremonies and pay lip service, and the Acolytes ceded most day-to-day administration to Carthian authorities, with big policy decisions being made by a Senate, the Senate to initially be composed of equal numbers of (former) Carthians and (ex–) Acolytes.
The Acolytes figured the ceremonies would reveal the truth to the Carthians. The Carthians figured that with enough minor power, they could rule in everything but name (and half in name, too). As it turned out, both sides were right. The city is now run by a theocracy as fervent as the Circle, as politicized and strident as the Movement and as deeply factionalized and variegated as both.
Thirty-Four Favors
While the Carthians like to dress it up with rhetoric about the rights of man, a large part of The Carthian Movement is saying yes when another Carthian asks you for a favor. Sample favors can include the following:- You know that girl who disappeared, Vonda whatsername? In all the headlines? The manhunt for her is near my Haven, and I’m feeling the heat, so — what? No! Give me some credit, ’kay? I even know what happened, she wandered off from that party with some guy — I think he’s from out of town, I can’t find him — they went swimming, she drowned and he split. The cops have their heads up their asses, thinking abduction, and — yeah, okay, yes, mea culpa. Can we move on? I’m thinking if we can just drag the lake ourselves, the whole thing will blow over. You’ve got a boat, right?
- I have it on good authority you died with your hymen intact. I need a virgin for my ritual. Don’t worry. You won’t get hurt. I’ll be at much greater risk than you.
- Did I ever tell you I was married? Um, while I was alive. Married and divorced, actually. Now my ex is coming into town, and we’ve kind of kept in touch, so it would be weird if we didn’t visit. And I said I’d remarried. Which means I need someone to pretend to be my spouse, and, the funny part is, you fit the description I gave. Please?
- Here. Chico backed out of the job at the last minute. You know how to handle a shotgun, right? Just stay cool, and don’t let the guards put their hands down.
- Regina told me you were an engineer. I’m trying to design and build a collapsible, completely sunproof shelter than can fit in a backpack. Ideally, I should be able to put it up in an hour or less. Will you help? Oh, and I’m on a bit of a deadline.
- All you have to do is stick the briefcase in your closet and don’t let anyone know you have it. You can forget about it. I’ll pick it up Monday night, first thing. Just don’t open it. Oh, and if you think you’re hearing voices from it, just ignore them.
- Yeah, the asshole had a Spear. It’s the 21st century, who carries a fuckin’ Spear? I’ll be okay. I just need to get some, y’know, snacks. I was hoping you could help me out, like. Help me get some groceries, right?
- The bacon’s really on me about those runaways. I need your help finding a good patsy and putting on the frame. What? Hey, this isn’t just for me, this is Masquerade business!
- You don’t have to be a good drummer, just keep the beat. I’ll find another regular player, but I’ve been chasing this audition for months and if I can get an in at that club, it’ll be like an all-you-caneat. The owner probably won’t even notice you.
- Your name will be Mavis McQueen. Your job is to run a clumsy and transparent grift on this man here, Jim Conrad. I’ll swoop in and save him from you, and thereby gain his confidence.
- I really need a sparring partner. Y’know, to keep my edge. It’ll be fun! I promise not to freak out like last time.
- I’m not asking you to commit to the girl, just fuck her one time. Maybe twice. It’s just a piece of meat now, what’s the big deal? You can probably get a good feed from her while you’re at it.
- Just $3,000. I swear this is the last time. It’s a lock, a sure thing. I’ll pay you back within a month. I swear!
- My childe Megan has wandered off, and I want to find her before anything unfortunate transpires. You know how overconfident she is. She was last seen near the industrial barrens, possibly headed for the housing project Rack on the other side. Yes, I know it’s not ours. She should know, too. No, leave her punishment to me, please. Just help me find her. Oh, one last thing: she’s probably on acid.
- You gotta get over here now! The walls, shit, the walls are bleeding, and everything’s screaming! Help me!
- You really can read hieroglyphics? That’s great. I’ll bring it right over, and, um, the sooner you can get it translated the better. Oh, and The Message is scarred into the dead girl’s back. Is that a problem? No, they’re pretty clear. I mean, some of them are a little blobby, but I’ll understand if it’s, y’know, incomplete. I just need an executive summary of what it says before she starts to smell up the place. Hm? Tried that. Funny thing is, the body won’t show up on film. Not like us, either.
- I know Elyse is unreasonable. No one knows that better than me. But I need her help for this project, and since she’s in your clan I thought you might be able to broker an arrangement. Just talk to her, pour some oil on the water, get me some face time without everything being anger and accusations. That’s all.
- She stole my boyfriend! I want you to hold her down while I scratch her eyes out!
- I understand your feelings toward your Haven and how threatening this development must look. So I’ll sweeten the pot. You move out and find somewhere else to rest for a couple of years, and I’ll make sure you get a secret spot, nice and tight, in the condo complex. Hidden doors, sun proof, a regular bat cave. Listen, making this happen puts the mayor in my corner. There’s plenty of juice to go around, if you can just give me room to operate.
- I want you to seduce the district attorney’s husband. I don’t care if she gets a divorce or goes into therapy or hands off the case against my ghoul to one of her underlings. Any of those is better than having a lawyer with a 150 IQ and no distractions investigating my blood slave. No one wins in that scenario. So go give her a distraction.
- We need you to drive the truck, and we need you to dig. Unless you can get a backhoe and know how to use it? No? Damn. You have to dig, then. We all have to dig.
- There’s nothing wrong with her really. Just clingy, I guess. Calling me on the phone all the time, bugging me for the Kiss. My mistake was giving her my cell number. But you need a blood doll, right? Take this one with my blessing. Really.
- She’s coming into town all the way from Winnipeg, and the Haven we lined up for her fell through in a very big way. Yeah, that fire at the drycleaners. Saw that on the news, huh? So we want you to host her for a while. We’ll keep her fed, you keep her safe.
- Holy cow! The way you beat up that Acolyte — was that kung fu or something? Can you teach me how to do that?
- This is kind of embarrassing, but would you take me shopping? It was the Prefect’s suggestion. He said you always look like a catalogue shoot and I always look like I dressed out of the laundry hamper. Let’s just make it painless and quick.
- I’ll freely admit that the bet is stupid. Yeah, spend a night in a “haunted house,” whatever. The stakes, however — we could get the deed to the place free and clear, knock it down, build ourselves a whatever. I just want you there to get my back in case it’s a setup. Don’t think it is though — the guy seemed genuinely terrified. What a drip. Hm? C’mon, do you think we’re going to run into anything more scared than ourselves?
- I’m well aware how much time and money it took you to restore that car. I respect that. See, that’s what makes it work. The guy’s a total recluse. The only thing that gets him off the estate is a classic car from that Beach Boys era. Yours, he’d go nuts for it. No one else has one that’s even close.
- Come as quick as you can. Bring guns. If you have any extra Pool Shock, bring that too.
- I’m not going to be coy. I know you have ties to both gangs. You talk them down from this war — I don’t care how you do it, but get it done. Otherwise, this whole city’s going to be crawling with Feds, not to mention beefed-up attention from the local precincts, which means they won’t be policing as hard over on Lancea hill. Think about that for a second. Oh, and I’ve got it on good authority that there’s a proposal to fund a statewide task force. It’s just hanging fire until there’s something ugly enough to make sure it sails through the legislature. So if your two groups of friends can’t give peace a chance, we won’t be able to swing a dead vessel around here without hitting a cop and knocking him into a Fed. Get on it. Blessed are the peacemakers.
- Did you hear the verdict? Man, the riot’s already started on the east side! Let’s go already! The worse we make it, the more the more concessions we can squeeze from the Prince for helping stop it. Plus, lots of scared cops and Tear Gas makes for good eatin’!
- Obviously I can’t approach the child in my current condition, and, by the time the burns heal, the damage will be done. If, that is, the girl understood the events she witnessed. You just need to gain her trust and find out what, if anything, she thinks she saw. Of course, if you’re too busy, I can just kill her and deal with the consequences. But I really would prefer to take a more elegant approach.
- Werewolves, man. Straight up. Probably we’ll just talk, but, hey, it never hurts to have a getaway driver. Just in case negotiations break down.
- The way I see it, you brokered this deal with your Sanctified pal, so it’s partly your fault that half those Reliquaries were duds. Therefore it’s your responsibility to help me beat the hell out of him.
- We’re petitioning the Prince in protest of his abuses of The Circle of the Crone. I know you don’t believe in their religion, but I hope you believe in our philosophy of free practice. If we say nothing while he oppresses them, who’s going to be left to say anything when he comes for us? Will you sign the petition?
Attitude and Style
The Kindred of The Carthian Movement make a point of staying in contact with the modern world, ostensibly to learn from its bewildering changes and advances and adapting them to their own Requiems. Philosophically speaking, this tendency informs their political initiatives, but it doesn’t stop there. Vampires who maintain close ties to humankind find themselves advancing aesthetically as well, both out of the necessity to blend in with the mortals and due to the inspiration the Kindred draw from their experiences.Fashion
Carthian Kindred take great pride in keeping pace with mortal fashion, maintaining an appearance that helps them blend perfectly with the local populace. Most Carthians are nearly indistinguishable from humans in their dress, taking pains to change with the seasons and keep abreast of current trends. Doing so is actually easier than many older vampires think; all you have to do is make sure to empty out your wardrobe at the start of each season and fill it up again with new purchases. Visiting a number of mainstream shops (or sending a ghoul to do your shopping for you) can produce an entire season’s attire in just a day or two. The result may be unremarkable, but it’s perfect Camouflage — and it will be conspicuous enough at Elysium, where many vampires’ inability to stay timely becomes readily apparent. Those Kindred who can’t afford to replace their wardrobe every few months have to put a little more effort into staying current, but not much: just picking up a couple of items here and there will keep the vampire looking timely.Some Carthians aren’t satisfied with maintaining a mainstream appearance. They go out of their way to identify with a cutting-edge mortal movement, taking pains to assemble the right looks so that they fit in perfectly. Sports enthusiasts with the current year’s jerseys, garage punks with carefully selected thrift wear, mod revivalists with scooters and suits — anything works, so long as it emulates a human fad. Keeping up with cutting-edge style is a more difficult approach, because it requires sincerity. The members of a given subculture are likely to spot a “tourist” who just wears the clothes he thinks he’s supposed to wear, rather than someone who actually knows and feels the reasons behind the right choices. For those who are sincere, the identification with their chosen culture and the attendant acceptance from particular mortals is well worth the ridicule a vampire is likely to face from the out-of-touch denizens of Elysium.
Some Carthians philosophize heavily on the importance of fashion, noting that a mainstream appearance tends to put mortals at ease, which in turn reduces the stress on a vampire. Those Kindred who expend the relatively small effort of blending in, these Carthians say, tend to expend less energy in securing Vitae, are less likely to lose their self-control in public and are generally happier in their night-to-night existence. Moreover, they seem to have less trouble identifying with their mortal counterparts, making these Kindred much less likely to engage in abusive practices.
On the other hand, some Carthian Kindred have noted that those who seem exceptionally skilled at blending in are often at risk of withdrawing from vampire society entirely, slipping into a semi-delusional state of nostalgia and denial. The vampires of the Movement must never forget that the practice of emulating the mortal majority is a utilitarian one, not an expression of the inner self.
Many vampires eventually slip in the maintenance of their appearance, whether they want to or not. Eventually, the constant updating wearies them, and they just stop bothering. The relatively small effort involved begins to grate on their nerves, seeming more and more unnecessary as they become less and less human. Raw power can be relied upon to negate any difficulties in hunting. Only the Carthians try to follow a policy to resist this encroaching laziness, noting the many advantages a fashionable appearance bestows upon a vampire and the many bad habits that take root in those who ignore it.
Language
The discourse of mortals changes no less rapidly or unpredictably than the clothes they wear. Although keeping up with the most current street slang or scientific jargon requires no real effort for neonates, elder Kindred have to work quite hard to maintain an understanding (and a working knowledge) of human dialects. Some read and watch as much modern media as they can tolerate, hoping to absorb the information through simple observation, while others take lessons from younger vampires or engage in frequent interviews with unsuspecting mortals. The Carthians understand that an awkwardly outdated turn of phrase can expose an interloper just as easily as decades-old dress sense, and a smooth emulation of correct speech can pave the way for acceptance within just about any human group.As with clothing, some Carthians seek to insinuate themselves with specific mortals, taking pains to understand their way of communication. As a result, vampires of the Movement can be overheard engaging in truly bizarre turns, especially considering their age. An elder vampire who expresses himself in ghetto slang is perfectly acceptable to the Carthians, as is an ancilla with a tendency to voice her concerns in modern corporate jargon or a neonate who refers to his surroundings in hacker “leetspeak.”
The connection between progressive Language and progressive thought is often acknowledged by Carthian Kindred, who take frequent opportunities to point out that a society that bases its primary laws on “traditions” engages in a de facto vilification of innovation, whether consciously or not. To that end, some scan the development of mortal Language avidly, hoping to find and adopt neologisms that open the path to new ways of thought. Entire manifestoes have been written about the application of new words or the reassignment of meaning to old ones.
Thoroughly modern Language can bewilder and alienate elder vampires though — and that’s not always such a good idea. The Carthian Movement benefits greatly whenever older Kindred soften to their viewpoint, and setting up barriers to understanding can prevent it from happening. While Carthians are often enthused in their pursuit of exclusive knowledge, they need to remind themselves that their covenant is, ideally, one that includes all vampires.
Artistic Expression
Keeping up with modern trends means that Carthian vampires are also able to maintain an understanding of movements in mortal art. An unbiased view of culture gives the Carthians a solid basis from which to make observations of the mood and inclinations of their domain’s human population. Moreover, cultural activities provide another access point for Kindred seeking to insinuate themselves into mortal subcultures. A shared appreciation for entertainments goes a long way in modern society, and even vampires who don’t feel anything can benefit from emulating that appreciation.Moreover, Carthian Kindred who were artists in life find great inspiration (or great provocation) in the unfolding trends of the arts. Those vampires who perfect their understanding of a popular trend can earn cash by carefully emulating its features in their own work, while those who make it their business to traffic in influence can quickly spot positions of advantage. Staying current means staying commercially viable — an invaluable resource for vampires looking to escape the traditional means of subsistence without abandoning the comforts of a clean home, mutable wardrobe and idle entertainments.
Maintaining an understanding of the modern arts seems to be one of the most demanding practices of The Carthian Movement. Kindred are easily jaded, and those with less Humanity are unlikely to experience any genuine emotion when witnessing a truly inspired work. Of all the pursuits of Carthian fashion, keeping pace with the trends in art is the most likely to be abandoned, often by dejected vampires who consider the barrier to understanding an alltoo- undeniable reminder of their inhuman state. Worse yet, some art may actually embody an emotion that the vampire never encountered in life, inspiring confusion and discomfort instead.
Technology
The arts may be a confusing, discouraging subject for aging vampires, but technology often inspires a near-pathological fear. For Kindred who have still have difficulty understanding the operation of television and radio sets, the advances of the past 10 or 20 years are positively incomprehensible:cellular technology, the Internet, global positioning Equipment, digital storage — all represent mysterious, unanticipated sea changes in the mortal approach to everyday life.The Carthian Movement finds one of its greatest strengths in the steadily increasing rate of advance in mortal technology. While the vampires of the other covenants are left rapidly in the dust, grinding their teeth in frustration, the Carthians keep comfortably abreast of new developments, adopting them almost as rapidly as their human counterparts. In the early years of the 20th century, many Kindred were inspired to join the Movement because of telegraph communiqués, and the modern nights are no different. Cellular technology is used to keep the Kindred of the Movement in touch across an entire domain, and GPS locators help to make sure that nobody gets lost alone in enemy territory. IPods and laptops help keep up the human Camouflage, and media traded on them helps to keep Carthians in touch with the newest mortal trends.
New weapons are adopted just as quickly. Laser scopes and night-vision sight attachments on firearms provide Carthian soldiers with an unexpected edge, and lightweight sport plastics can add serious coverage to makeshift armor. Ghoul bodyguards are easily dispatched with Tasers, non-lethal weapons that surpass the understanding of all but the most informed elder.
A lot of Carthians like to play a game of oneupmanship with the adoption of new technologies, seeing if they can outdo one another with their forethought and early acceptance of imminent trends. The neophile stereotype holds well for these vampires: they’re constantly upgrading their Equipment and displaying it to one another, shrugging off the confused glares of their contemporaries at Elysium as they do so. Some elders even get in on the game, reveling in the completely alien world of the new. They claim it allows them to immerse themselves in a Requiem filled with unknowns, a sensation that can be both terrifying and exhilarating for a previously world-weary, centuries-old creature.
The pointed comfort and familiarity with modern technology allows Carthian Kindred to develop skills that are simply unavailable (and unfathomable) to more archaic vampires. Computer and Drive are obvious selections, but many ultramodern Skill Specialties can also be applied.
Anti-Archaism
One common feature of Carthian style is the extension of modernism to an exclusive anti-archaic approach to speech, dress and behavior. Some Carthian Kindred make a point of eliminating all old forms of expression, even abandoning common terms of reference (“Kindred”) from their vocabulary and replacing them with updated or invented ones (“Licks”). Traditional etiquette is abandoned for new expressions of respect, much to the bemusement of older vampires.Note that any expression that originated in the past 50 years or so is considered relatively new to many vampires, so the rebellious expressions of Carthian Kindred might seem a little understated to modern mortals while provoking the nearly uncontrollable ire of conventional members of outside covenants. Stepping up and shaking hands without invitation is an egregious offense to the elders of The Ordo Dracul, for instance, while referring to a compatriot as “cool” might invite misinterpretation.
Clever Carthians make use of the disconnected nature of the other covenants, displaying a modern face to recently embraced neonates. Since many new Kindred go through a period of adjustment when learning the protocol of their chosen organization, the Movement can seem quite appealing just because it seems more like modern life (at least on the surface). More than a few neonates have defected to the Carthian cause just because they got more and more annoyed with the relatively strict guidelines of their previous covenant.
More distressing, to the increasingly outdated Kindred of competing covenants, is the notion that the Carthians might actually be better predators than they in the modern nights. While The Invictus remains mired in Middle-Ages procedure and The Lancea Sanctum’s ecclesiastical practices become more and more foreign to current styles of thought, the Carthians continue to blend perfectly with the Herd, slipping with ease into the role of seducer, brawler, confidant — anything that brings in the Vitae without raising Suspicion. Since The Carthian Movement has defined modernity As One of the covenant’s key features, attempting to adopt an updated sense of style risks earning a reputation as a Carthian, even if one has no intention of supporting those politics. The Movement has, in a sense, identified itself with progress, thereby forcing the other covenants to identify themselves with obsolescence.
Integrationism
All of the aesthetic tendencies of The Carthian Movement tie together into a single, powerful toolkit for interaction with mortals. These tendencies contribute to a complex Disguise, they create a more informed understanding of human behavior and they help to attract like-minded mortals to a waiting vampire. On the surface, differentiating one’s self and friends from the majority of the Kindred may seem just a rebellious urge, but it is, in fact, the Movement’s shield and sword. Nobody can disappear into a mortal neighborhood the way a well-informed Carthian can. Nobody can strike from an unexpected position with surprise advantages as a well-equipped Carthian.The Carthians’ easy communication with the mortals provides access to Allies and influence that outsider Kindred never even become cognizant of, much less take advantage of. Entire hacker communities are working for The Carthian Movement, completely unaware that their partners in crime are undead. Street gangs rush to the aid of their charismatic vampire Allies, overwhelming ill-equipped outsider Kindred with laughable ease. Doctors and scientists diligently provide curious Carthians with useful information that is unlikely to reach their enemies for decades.
By associating so closely with mortal culture, Carthians do sometimes tread alarmingly close to undermining the Masquerade. On the other hand, they begin to identify their own cause with that of the humans, making it difficult to oppose them without appearing callous — and difficult to show interest in the mortal populace without appearing to sympathize with the Movement.
Vivacity
It is said that a vampire who occupies herself with mortal style and entertainments is not quite as dead as her neglectful counterparts. Whether or not this is literally true, Carthian Kindred do seem to hold on to their Humanity more easily than the members of other covenants. Those vampires who devote themselves to occult studies or separatist religious doctrine find themselves drifting toward the Beast just because they rapidly sever their emotional ties to the living world.Carthians make sure that their lively energy displays itself in their appearance, often opting to expend Vitae to warm their bodies and color their flesh, even when they aren’t masquerading among the mortals. This habit may be costly to do so, but many consider it well worth the drain, considering that coloring their flesh allows them to remain human-like, and it draws the envious stares of less-vivacious Kindred. ManyCarthians also claim that the habit simply renders them more attractive to mortals and vampires alike.
The Movement as a Subculture
There is a school of thought that posits The Carthian Movement is not a true covenant, but rather an evolution of the existing body politic of the Kindred. The face of the Movement is distinct and public, but its most effective functional elements are buried within the competing covenants: unacknowledged members who are inspired to seek change by the philosophies and arguments of their revolutionary contemporaries. More than one domain has seen a covenant shift slowly toward Carthian-inspired operation, eventually becoming indistinguishable from the Movement.To facilitate the connection between themselves and potential future converts, the Carthians often accept and encourage declared members who retain membership in other covenants. Assuming they are tolerated in their original organizations, these dualist members forge links between the groups, representing points of contact for curious Kindred attractedto the attitudes of the Movement.
Some covenant chapters will reject a vampire who openly declares allegiance to The Carthian Movement but a surprising number tolerate such behavior, preferring to take advantage of the direct line of communication presented in order to exchange messages, glean information or engage in deceptive practices. A Sanctified Priest who announces his affiliation with The Carthian Movement might find that his Status freezes within The Lancea Sanctum, but doesn’t disappear outright — he simply becomes known as a “radical.” In fact, it’s likely that he’d be assigned to a parish in Carthian territory to demonstrate the Church’s tolerance of fringe ideas.
In Carthian-ruled domains, it’s often advantageous for a covenant to allow citizens of the Movement to hold official dual membership, since it means that one of their number may take part in the decisionmaking process for domain law. Effectively, it guaranteesa sympathetic voice in Carthian government — something that’s rarely allowed under other systems of rule. If the Carthians aren’t careful, a covenant can actually flood the Movement with dual citizens, swaying the system of government until it returns to the more traditional mode they’re used to. Strangely, certain Carthian philosophies consider this possibility a perfectly acceptable evolution of government and not a threat.
As with any subculture, The Carthian Movement recognizes itself by several means:
Distinctive Language
Taking advantage of the most current mortal slang is one thing, but the Kindred of the Movement also have their own modern jargon. The vulgar argot of young vampires is commonly spoken by Carthians, in a constantly shifting, evolving tongue. In fact, the Language of the Movement changes so rapidly in most domains as to become an isolated dialect within mere decades. Carthians who travel often have as many problems understanding their brethren as outsiders (although they are much more likely to receive friendly instruction).This local cant may be an innocent, entertaining pursuit for Carthians looking to stay sharp (and demonstrate their capacity to do so), but outsiders often treat slang as a sinister code. Since they can’t understand it and nobody seems willing to teach them unless they indicate an urge to join the Movement, most assume the worst. The stolid Princes of some domains have outlawed Carthian slang in their Elysium halls, only fueling the passion of freedom-seeking Kindred outraged by the suggestion that someone should be allowed to dictate their mode of speech.
The devastating power of Carthian slang lies in its attractiveness. The Language might seem stupid or annoying to those who don’t understand it, but the fact remains that it’s an exclusive secret. Some Kindred just can’t stand to be on the outside of anything, much less a cryptic system of communication that takes place in their own Elysium. Of course, as soon as someone expresses an interest in learning or mimicking the Carthian Language, the Movement has an in for presenting their ideas to him. Since the Carthians can choose almost any word to represent any concept, they’re free to redefine meaning and warp Language as a means of propaganda. If “Tick” means “Prince,” you’re evoking an unfavorable image of mindless gluttony every time you mention one.
The development of Carthian local dialects is considered a philosophical extension of the “power to the people” attitude of the Movement. Some domains build their personalized code by encouraging contributions from every member, creating a ragtag assembly of words and phrases from their diverse experiences and preferences. This encourages evolution as well, bringing in new additions every time a member joins.
Signals and Signs
Words aren’t the only personalized signals adopted by the Movement. Specific accessories and postures are often employed to indicate membership. Local cells become so distinct, at times, as to appear freakish to the majority of Kindred — but this is rarely the purpose. More experienced Carthians alwaystake pains to advise the younger set not to push too hard when separating themselves from the mainstream unless they’re willing to undermine their own political aspirations in exchange for a meaningless sense of exclusive superiority.The signals of the Movement are rapidly adopted and discarded, both as a means to ensure that only those “in the know” can effectively make use of them, and also to reflect the willingness of Carthian Kindred to change with the times, whether they need to or not.
For a few years during the 1950s, the Carthians of one domain in Mexico walked with a specific shuffling step, brushing their left hand through their hair (or over their scalp) when greeting each other. Every member displayed an image of the Catholic sacred heart — some as tattoos, others on their clothing. One year, these signals were all suddenly abandoned, and the members of the Movement chose todisplay their affiliation through Language alone. Years later, a complicated handshake was adopted instead, and the image of the sacred heart was reintegratedinto the identification system, but this time with a distinctive pattern worked into the heart.
The displays can be as serious or whimsical as the Carthians choose. What’s important is not what these signals look like, but rather what they say: “I am one of the group. I understand how to make myself known to you, and I keep up with the times.”
The Carthians of a French domain in the 1980s would all chew a specific brand of gum, blowing a bubble as a means of greeting. They would stick a wad of the gum to a doorjamb to mark friendly territory, and often passed messages scrawled on the wrappers and reinserted into a pack. The practice was abandoned shortly after outsider Kindred started to clue into it.
In high-conflict domains where tempers run hot, Carthian Kindred often make use of signals that are direct insults to their enemies, hoping to provoke them into irrational behavior. It’s not unusual in some places to see a Carthian wearing anti-religious slogans sure to upset Sanctified vampires or insulting caricatures of Dracula for the benefit of The Ordo Dracul. The childishness of these slights may be obvious to all, but the fact is that it’s not really that hard to provoke a vampire, especially if her Beast is close to the surface — and sometimes that’s exactly what the Carthians are looking to take advantage of. The harsher the measures invoked by enemies of the Movement in response to the insults, the more unreasonable and intolerant they look and the more attractive the apparent freedom of the Carthians seems.
Exclusion of the Other
Certainly, one of the motives of Carthian identification signals and slang is simple exclusion of those who aren’t “in the know” — elder or otherwise ill-informed vampires who remain outside the Movement and fail to understand its progressive ideals. Identity and pride become entangled, and Carthians become aggressivelyelitist, often behaving in direct contradiction to their espoused philosophies. Excluding Kindred doesn’t give power to the people; exclusion restricts power to those with the guarded knowledge of cultural indicators.How do Carthians justify this behavior? Under some systems of thought, identification with a secret set of rules serves the same purpose as dressing in uniform. The notion of secret rules enflames the pride of the “in crowd” while shaming those who are not included, motivating them to seek instruction from the Carthians. Such rules renders the citizens of the Movement easily identifiable to one another, so that the benefits of membership can be readily shared between them.
It’s also true that vampires are instinctively territorial creatures, and they like to own things: Language and style no less than actual material goods. Marking one’s subordinates, associates and Allies helps to lay out the political territory of every Carthian, satisfying their inner need for ownership.
But who are the “others” that they’re seeking to exclude, really? The Carthian Movement is, ostensibly, one that wants to incorporate every vampire in the world. They will readily accept members of outside covenants, encouraging them to learn the culture and philosophies of the Movement, and are supposed to share their passion for change without prejudice. Ideally, the practices of the Carthians are exclusive only to those who don’t wish to learn them — the slightesteffort on the part of outsiders to identify with the members of the covenant ought to be rewarded with acceptance and instruction. In practice, it’s more difficult to realize this ideal, especially when personal friction, arrogance and intolerance come into play. The territorial nature of the vampire rises in opposition to the notion of accepting outsiders, and the Carthian involved must overcome his natural urges in order to satisfy his philosophical stance.
It’s easy for enthused Carthians to forget where they’re coming from, and why the Movement exists at all. Those who get caught up in cliquishness and surface judgment are really emulating the systems they claim to disagree with. How can a Carthian who dismisses a neonate for failing to understand the convenant’s style of dress or etiquette claim to be in dispute with The Invictus? There is no appreciable difference in their behavior.
Some Carthian cells do get completely carried away, though. More than one domain has witnessed the genuine political interests of the covenant co-opted and then superceded by strictly shallow considerations. This “tyranny of style” is a pernicious element of the Movement, occasionally instigated by its open-arms attitude. If enough Kindred who don’t actually care about politics become part of the group, then, by definition, any democratic group ceases to be about politics.
Cultural Cache
The regard Carthians maintain for those who can keep up with the vagaries of the modern world often translates directly into Status — an unusual feature, since Status seems to have little to do with the actual aims of the covenant. In truth, charismatic, fashionable vampires who can move easily and comfortably among the mortals are arguably the greatest recruiters for the Movement, attracting a good number of younger Kindred who are dissatisfied with their membership in outsider covenants.A lot of Carthians, admittedly, adopt mannerisms and accessories that even they don’t understand (or are comfortable with), just to maintain a modernist look. Fearful of losing the prestige they’ve accumulated over the years, many will do almost anything to avoid the appearance of obsolescence. As time passes, they become more and more afraid of slipping up and exposing themselves as frauds. A cycle of Paranoia and frustration can spring up around something as simple as choosing which car to drive or what kind of suit to wear, and self-imposed pressures eventually debilitate the vampires in question.
Self-aware Kindred rarely fall into this trap. They are happy to accept the recognition they might earn as capable social and technological chameleons, but remain dedicated to the political progress that forms the core of their motivation. Maintaining ties with outsider covenants and promoting the views of the Movement is their primary goal, and added prestige gained by looking right and sounding right are just optional additions, enhancing (but not overshadowing) one’s arsenal of rational arguments andsincere passion. To these serious vampires, the superficial obsessions of their counterparts are actually a threat to the Movement, and many Carthians will do their best to prevent superficial obsessions from inspiring too much respect.
Encouraging the spread of Carthian style by those who sport dual covenant membership is a valid tactic, too, and helps to draw attention to the representatives of the Movement without (usually) taking offensive action. Many a competing covenant official, failing to notice the genuinely inspiring message the Carthians convey to their contemporaries, has underestimated those same Carthians as faddish peacocks because of certain members’ outré behavior.
Beliefs
A fundamental feature (perhaps the fundamental feature) of The Carthian Movement that separates its members out into a subculture of their own is their shared philosophy, and the application of that philosophy to a vampire’s night-to-night existence. Acceptance and promotion of the secular modernist message of the Movement, with its compelling “powerto- the-people” base are the most obvious marks of a true Carthian, whether he declares himself or not.The populism of Carthian philosophy may take subtle root in a vampire who becomes aware of the philosophy, perhaps only as a curiosity at first. Sooner or later, usually provoked by a perceived injustice, she begins to consider how populism could apply to her own covenant. She might begin to believe that a Bishop should listen to and learn from his own flock just as much as he preaches to them, or that her Ordo Dracul instructors are withholding information from her unfairly, and that she should be free to learn as she chooses. An Invictus neonate might note that his Guild Meister would benefit from the modern tools employed by mortal craftsmen, and wonder why the Meister is so resistant to the suggestion.
When a vampire starts to accept the ideals of The Carthian Movement, she poses an immediate threat to the established traditions of her covenant. If she isn’t quickly reined in, she will eventually seek to apply her newfound beliefs to the operation of her covenant. If she doesn’t realize, somebody will sooner or later point out her “Carthian” tendencies, and she will have to consider whether or not she actually wishes to declare her sympathies outright.
It is interesting to note that Kindred can define themselves as Carthians just by deciding that they want to change the night-to-night organization of their covenant in a certain way. Even if the Movement fails to recognize such Kindred as citizens, their own compatriots will brand them as sympathizers. Carthian philosophers refer to this occurrence as “negative recruitment,” noting that the pressures of a covenant can often provide a strong force of repulsion that equals or exceeds the attractive attempts of the Movement.
Subcultures Within the Movement
Kindred already divided from the crowd by their populist philosophies and experimental adaptability, the Carthians are also a varied group within themselves, often splitting into several subcultural Movements of their own. A single city may sport two or three different Carthian groups, each espousing a competing set of ideals or proposed revolutionary tactics. Most will cooperate in creating a unified front against the policies of outsider covenants, but that doesn’t mean they see things the same way — just that they all agree to oppose the dominant system.Each subculture within the covenant may adopt its own style of speech and dress, further distinguishing the subculture from the “mainstream” Carthians. Layers of discrete political elements are formed, one within the other, distilling down from the basic message of the Movement to more detailed interpretations of its goals and methodology.
Technically, each clan or bloodline forms a subculture within the Movement, unless the clan or bloodline’s members take great pains to homogenize with their counterparts among the other clans. It’s not unusual for Carthian Kindred to blur the lines of clan membership by trading information and Discipline training, and they tend to refrain from restrictive rules about intermingling, all to promote a unified feeling of citizenship among their members.
By definition, any smaller group that distinguishes itself from the prevailing Carthian Movement organization is a subculture. If it eventually overtakes the rest of the populace, directing the local chapter of the Movement, the subculture becomes the dominant culture. New subcultures form (from the remnants of the previous dominant culture, or as an entirely new entity), and the struggle for control of the Movement continues. Complete accord rarely happens within the Movement: too much stock is put in the individual freedoms and fundamental equality of the Movement’s members in most domains to allow for such accord. Even the most dictatorial interpretations of the Movement’s aims tend to inspire some rebellion from within.
Division and Absorption
Individual style and personal philosophies are common in the Movement. Simply standing out in the crowd or debating from an unpopular stance doesn’t make for a legitimate division within the covenant. The actual formation of a subculture begins only when several Kindred begin to adopt the distinguishing marks: the fabricated signals, the exclusion of outsiders and the recognition of inside knowledge as qualification for membership.Every coterie of Carthian Kindred is likely to display all three of these features to some extent. So long as the group participates in the established political approach of the Movement in the coterie’s domain, no such group is likely to be considered a sub-segment of the covenant. Instead, the group will just be regarded as a unit that may or may not display the cliquish behavior that is common to vampires. The definition of a subculture by the human markers, then, is incomplete — especially in a covenant that encourages emulation of varied mortal expression and styles. In Kindred terms, the line is crossed when the coterie or sub-group begins to organize around a principle or political system that is not considered part of the nightto- night practice of the rest of the Carthians in their city. At that point, the sub-group becomes a Carthian sub-unit, attempting to promote a minority outlook. A small cell espousing communist ideals in a domain where the Carthian majority is organized as a republican parliament would be considered one such unit.
Division within a Carthian community is relatively common, and rarely leads to serious dispute. In most cases, the subculture either grows in local popularity until the subculture outshines the previous “mainstream” outlook, or the subculture’s members eventually abandon their unpopular beliefs and are absorbed back into the larger body of the Movement.
Carthian vampires do have to be careful with their choices, lest they begin to look fickle and disorganized. Those who seem to bounce from one unpopular position to the next begin to earn a reputation as directionless naysayers, less concerned with advancing the Movement than being “on the outside.” If these Carthians don’t settle down, they’ll eventually find themselves ejected from the covenant.
Most Carthian systems build in a mechanism for the presentation of alternate ideas and the absorption of those ideas into the system. Being adaptable in one’s approach is advantageous, after all — especially when facing off against the entrenched systems of the competing covenants. Democratic and Parliamentary systems of government are the most likely to accept new ideas, whereas any system founded on tyrannous principles is the least likely.
It is interesting to note that outsider Kindred, conditioned by their own governing principles, tend to view the frequent splits and disputes in The Carthian Movement as a sign of weakness. Carthians, on the other hand, usually regard disputes as a blessing in Disguise: an indication of open-minded rule and an evolutionary urge.
Toleration of Dissent
Although most Carthian governments will happily entertain new ideas and the near-inevitable spate of disagreements that accompany them, there is a line that must be drawn. If the originators of the new contribution fail to find support among the majority of Carthian Kindred in the domain, and yet stubbornly continue to hold to their ideas, an irreconcilable conflict may be in the making. Careful vampires will work to defuse the impending battle, trying to find a compromise that satisfies all. Doing so is not always easy (or possible), but the attempt must be made. Otherwise, a small dispute can lead to schism, and the Movement will split, turning itself from one covenant into two, weaker units. Keen observers outside the covenant will notice when a dispute flies out of control, and will be quick to take advantage. More than one Carthian domain has fallen to enemies because of inner turmoil spawned of a simple legal disagreement.Some Carthians work to prevent such disasters by creating a detailed system of argument, including a process for registering new ideas, discussing them, voting on their implementation or rejection and officially recognizing them as integrated into or eliminated from governmental policy. While certain domains have comfortably implemented these processes, others find that their citizens buck against them, finding the rigid etiquette involved to be too reminiscent of the procedural operation of competing covenants.
Others go so far as to create systems that do not allow for the integration of new ideas unless they fall within a defined scope. Constitutional tyrannies, constructed on unalterable laws, are the ultimate extension of this policy, and are one of the least enduring systems of Carthian government as a result. Avoiding the consideration of innovative philosophies seems to be anathema to the average Carthian citizen — most of whom joined the Movement to avoid stagnant or unfair systems of rule in the first place.
Ultimately, the majority of Carthian domains are populist, and will tolerate dissent only if either the argument or the Kindred presenting the argument is respected by the majority. An extremely stubborn vampire with high Covenant Status can get away with bringing up the same unpopular argument again and again (so long as he finds a way to keep his Status from slipping), while a brand-new member with little regard is going to have a hard time sticking to the very same argument.
It’s true, though, that any vampire, no matter how new or how little-respected, generally has the right to present any idea to the Movement. Each citizen is supposed to have a voice, and most domains stick with that rule. It is, after all, one of the most attractive features of the Movement. The distinction is made when the majority decides that they don’t like or want the innovation presented by the vampire in question, and she sticks to her guns despite the ruling. Then, she makes the move from participant to dissenter, and may find herself wandering into dangerous territory, depending on the prevailing attitudes of her domain.
Growth Into Factions
An unpopular idea may survive within the Movement. Kindred who support a policy that is rejected by their peers can always undertake the risk of travel in hopes of finding like-minded vampires in foreign domains. On the other hand, stubborn vampires who remain in a domain long enough may find themselves attracting sympathizers over time, even if their idea is initially rejected. Sincerity and sustained passion can go a long way with the Carthians. Eventually, a single vampire’s Crusade can turn into a fully realized Movement within the Movement, pushing back into consideration or forming the basis for a coup. A defining ideal can easily become the nexus for a dissenting faction, crystallizing their dissatisfaction and lending meaning to their rebellion. Such a faction can become a powerful unit in the body politic of the domain, making decisions with a single voice and threatening to disrupt the individualist structure of the Movement unless acceded to.In some domains, The Carthian Movement is so strong that it can sustain a split down the middle and still hold its ground against opportunist attacks from competing covenants. In these rare cases, the two sides in dispute may form their own governments, setting themselves at odds with one another and greatly complicating the operation of the domain. Competing Movements are rarely long lasting, though, and one or the other often collapses under the strain of doing battle with their own kind.
One domain in China has actually sustained two Carthian schisms in a row, resulting in three distinct Movements within the territory. Almost all of the vampires in the domain are participating in the ongoing three-way battle for supremacy, based on a dispute over the assignation of voting rights and the weight of individual votes. There are, in effect, three Movements in the domain: a pure democracy with equal weight on each citizen’s vote, a pure democracy with votes weighted based on purity of intent (as attested to by accomplishment and excluding the votes of “vice-ridden” Daeva) and a relatively unpopular socialist dictatorship. Those Kindred who are not part of the Movement tend to operate on the far fringes of the domain in question, claiming a complete inability to understand the complex interactions of the three Carthian groups, but unable to consider removing all three from power.
Popularity Versus Compulsion
There are two ways for ideas to find support in The Carthian Movement. The first, and simplest, is popularity. If an idea appeals to the majority of Carthian citizens, the idea is likely to be adopted and integrated into policy without much trouble. The second, and more troublesome, is compulsion. Particularly manipulative or powerful Kindred can force the majority of citizens to accept a personal dictate whether they like it or not.The reliability of the latter approach is absolutely unsound. While it can effect sudden and serious change, the fact is that every vampire compelled to vote against his wishes will seek to undo that vote’s effects as soon as he is able. Blackmail, Seduction, physical threats and magical compulsion are all short-term solutions that can very easily lead to a long-term problem. They may get the job done for a while, but any vampire who puts them to use is going to have to sink a lot of effort into maintaining loyalty or making sure that the changes he’s initiated become permanent before things fall apart.
Factions of dissatisfied Kindred often arise when citizens feel that they have been compelled to support a platform they do not agree with. If they can band together for strength, these vampires become very difficult to manipulate, and can bring significant power to bear. Kindred who think they can bring the political practices of The Invictus or The Lancea Sanctum to The Carthian Movement are sadly mistaken, and often learn the error of their ways sooner or later.
Members of outsider covenants are occasionally called upon to engage in a “political suicide attack” on The Carthian Movement, applying pressure to as much of the citizenry as they can bear in order to provoke just such an uprising. The point is usually to demonstrate the weaknesses of the Movement to its members and undermine their confidence, but often it’s just an ordinary attempt to disrupt the ongoing operation of the covenant. The initiator of the attack often suffers the persecution of the Carthian citizenry when it’s all over, but some consider a few enemies a small price for the damage done.
Clan Roles Within the Movement
In almost all cases, the role of a Carthian citizen is determined by her individual ability, not her ancestry. It is very nearly impossible to assume that any Daeva in the covenant, for example, is likely to work within the same functional parameters as any other Daeva, except in that they are likely to share certain Disciplines. Citizens within The Carthian Movement are inclined to trade their so-called clan-specific Disciplines more freely than the Kindred of more traditional covenants. A member making use of unexpected powers is not so unusual: if a Ventrue with Auspex gains the extra benefit of surprise, he is an asset to the Movement.While the designation of clan is ostensibly irrelevant to the selection and performance of roles within the covenant, most Kindred find that their Skill set and Discipline spread often determine their best fit. Thus, while any vampire may perform any function, the likelihood is that those possessing the relevant powers will be more likely to use them in filling certain roles.
Auspex, Investigation and Academics
Observers
At the forefront of The Carthian Movement, eager Kindred seek out and record the advanced, experimental philosophies of humankind in hopes of making a discovery that will contribute to the progressive politics of the covenant. Some vampires make a full-time profession of this search, scanning the minds of mortal intellectuals directly so as to bypass the delays involved in waiting for their innovations to reach the masses. These vampires’ discoveries are presented at Carthian gatherings for consideration, where fellow Kindred discuss the implications of trends in mortal thought and decide whether or not to apply them to their own approach.Many Carthian Observers make a habit of following and predicting all sorts of human trends, not just political ones. Arts, fashion, tactical psychology and commercial attitudes are subjects that many Observers favor, and some become very specialized, spending their entire Requiem analyzing and predicting the development of a particular subculture.
Scholars
Not all Carthian thinkers look to the future for their inspiration. Some are historians and investigators, digging through archaic texts in search of clues and details relating to their favorite periods in mortal development. Keen senses can be invaluable in determining the veracity of an apparent find, and telepathic probing can draw important elements (or even entire texts) from the minds of mortal archaeologists and archivists. Carthian Scholars will frequently devote themselves to the pursuit of a single historical subject, hunting down all available information to provide themselves with the fullest possible understanding of its development and implications.Many Carthian Scholars spend countless hours comparing details and debating the significance of finds, presenting their conclusions to one another (and to the other members of the covenant) and arguing the application of their favored subject to modern nights. Some are derided for their obsession with the past, but those who provide useful insights are appreciated no less than their neophile counterparts.
Detectives
There are members of The Carthian Movement who can see that there is more than one solution to almost every problem. Direct confrontation may be the most obvious (and most tempting) approach, especially when facing an aggressive foe, but confrontation is often the road to the worst of all possible outcomes. Understanding that many of the obstacles the Movement faces are embodied in the Kindred of the other covenants, some Kindred take it upon themselves to learn everything they can about those vampires and their histories. If these Carthians can get to know the enemy, the reasoning goes, they can find some kind of common ground and defuse any potential conflict. A vampire who hates the Carthians just because he’s had some bad experiences with the technology they use can be brought onside if the members of the Movement are careful to alleviate his fears.Carthian Detectives are not spies. They rarely interact with their subjects, and only engage in surveillance to further their understanding of their origins. Most Detectives spend the majority of their time digging through records, gleaning information from a subject’s former possessions and properties and interviewing the subject’s acquaintances (mortal and Kindred alike) to build as complete a psychological picture as possible.
Carthian Detectives will often keep secure, coded files on subjects in their home cities. Fellow covenant members are occasionally paid for tidbits of information, and the Detective may be called upon to consult when a problem surfaces with a local vampire. Some Carthian Detectives trade information back and forth in a give-and-take, working to build a complete profile of the entire Kindred population of the domain.
Dominate, Intimidation and Persuasion
Police
Every Carthian society has citizens, and those citizens need to be protected. While brute force might help keep some threats at bay, the truth is that a strong voice and a fierce gaze are just as effective deterrents. Avoiding escalation of conflict via a mental end-run, application of Dominate can be one of the most efficient and (apparently) painless ways to deal with outlaws and troublemakers in a domain.Of course, Dominate involves stripping the will of a subject, rendering her incapable of free thought and considered resistance. It’s a Clockwork Orange-style the ultimate herders, latching onto a subset of the mortal populace and creating the necessary conditions for that subset to settle and flourish in Carthian territory. The mysterious relocation of trendy club districts or the sudden revitalization of a derelict neighborhood can often be traced back to the activities of these Kindred and their mortal Allies.
Carthian Crowd-Pullers often deal closely with mortals, becoming something of minor celebrities in certain circles. As risky as this proposition may be, it does allow them to exert their power directly over the Herd that gathers, facilitating the free exchange of ideas and ensuring that the mortals stay put. Many Crowd-Pullers become central figures in a mortal movement, patronizing artists or arranging popular events. Other Crowd-Pullers operate in the shadows, securing businesses and aligning environmental factors so as to encourage and direct the demographic flow of a city.
Negotiators
Frequent protests and displays at Elysium might stir up the fire with less powerful Kindred, but real wheeling and dealing requires real negotiation. That’s where the socially focused vampires of The Carthian Movement step in, handling delicate conversations and facilitating cooperation with more prominent outsiders. Some take up prolonged positions, making a profession of smoothing over disputes and establishing a good reputation for the Movement on a night-to-night basis.Majesty can enhance the appeal of an argument (or, more accurately, the vampire who delivers the argument) or encourage opponents to honestly reveal their intent at the table, making things easier for Carthian Negotiators and clearing the way for the covenant in dicey situations. Considering that the Movement is often either subject to open persecution or facing it as a possibility in many domains, Negotiators are often valued and appreciated.
Internal debate often benefits from the assistance of Negotiators as well. Establishing laws and focusing the efforts of the citizens of the Movement can take some serious deliberation, and it’s always best to have someone charismatic on board when trying to steer the discussion in favor of one’s preferred course.
Nightmare, Intimidation and Crafts
Defenders
The citizens of The Carthian Movement are not safe in every domain — especially when the covenant is engaged in outright ideological conflict with outsider Kindred. Sometimes, it falls to those with the necessary skills and powers to push would-be oppressors away, ensuring that their fellow citizens remain unharmed. Nightmare is a particularly useful Discipline when discouraging attack, helping to defuse or delay some particularly dangerous encounters or fostering an ongoing feeling of fear or unease among the active enemies of the covenant.Although frightening off an assailant might be insulting, it isn’t actually an overtly violent attack, so it isn’t likely to violate the tenets of a pacifist or otherwise non-aggressive Carthian cell. Carthian Defenders work to maintain the safety of their cohorts while preventing open conflict, averting what can often lead to a disastrous course of action.
Scarecrows
The territory of The Carthian Movement is often violated by outsider Kindred looking for a quick snack. Mortals therein tend to be more comfortable and vulnerable than those dwelling in close proximity to the members of other covenants (especially the mystic ones), and the Carthians are easy scapegoats for Masquerade mishaps. To divert potential trespassers, some talented vampires take on the role of “Scarecrows” — territorial guards who apply tactics of intimidation in order to guard the Carthian feeding stock.Carthian Scarecrows will typically do anything they can to discourage interlopers without actually engaging in violence. It’s not that they aren’t capable in direct conflict, but rather that their purpose is to prevent incursions into their territory and potential slipups in the Masquerade, not to do battle with those who defy their warnings. The last thing a Scarecrow needs is a street fight with a determined vampire in front of mortal witnesses. Instead, Scarecrows usually shadow their targets, making it abundantly clear that they’re out of their element while staying just barely out of reach. When violence is necessary, a Scarecrow will do her best to make it as quick and brutal as possible so that the trespasser retreats with a real fear of the Carthians and their territories.
Terrorists
All Kindred are familiar with the powerful motive force of fear. Effecting change via explosive violence or psychological assault is an option that the most desperate vampires may turn to, regardless of the inevitable backlash. Some Carthian Kindred form terrorist cells, operating defiantly in oppressive domains and staging frequent assault on the weaker members of competing covenants in hopes of undermining their sense of security and loyalty.Most Princes have little tolerance for terrorist Kindred, and will dispatch them as quickly as they are discovered. Many Carthians argue that terrorism usually strengthens an enemy organization’s resolve even as it carves the weaker vampires away from them, leaving a leaner, angrier foe to deal with. Then again, some Carthian governments are built on terrorism, keeping outsider Kindred too afraid to resist the imposition of experimental rule.
Contrary to Expectations, terrorism is technically illegal in very few Carthian domains. Most don’t bother to make the distinction between violent terrorism and murder, which is often covered under law, and psychological attacks, abhorrent as they may be, are usually too difficult to prove or pin down to allow for enforcement.
Obfuscate, Celerity, Stealth and Larceny
Messengers
In any politically charged environment, being ill informed can be extremely dangerous. Up-to-date news on the happenings at Elysium (and elsewhere) must be delivered to relevant members of the Movement in a quick, trustworthy manner to ensure that the Carthians can respond appropriately. Agents capable of avoiding interference and escaping discovery while delivering intelligence can provide the covenant with an unexpected edge at the negotiation table, and those capable of entering secure locations to retrieve that information are more valuable still.Carthian Messengers typically build up an unparalleled familiarity with their environment, mapping out the fastest routes in the city and arranging necessary obstructions with their mortal Allies and Contacts. Messengers take advantage of the rapidly changing scenery of their domain, making use of construction sites, temporary features of the landscape and scheduled mortal events to maximize the confusion of less informed pursuers.
Decoys
It can be dangerous to be a particular Carthian on some nights. When the opposing covenants catch wind of a planned protest or a representative speech at Elysium, they tend to get aggressive. Some will go quite far to try and prevent embarrassment, while others will do anything to earn the favor of their superiors. The Movement commonly employs tactics of misdirection when danger presents itself to one of their respected members, sending a Decoy (or two, or three) into the streets to distract the violent servants of the enemy and ensure that the Carthian in question makes it to his planned appearance. Most Decoys wear a Disguise and draw their hunters as far away from the site of the event, choosing the moment of maximum inconvenience to shed their costume. Some employ Obfuscate to actually vanish, while others rely on wit and skill to make their escape.Carthian Decoys are often used to assist Kindred looking to defect from their covenants, leading those who would prevent the betrayal on a circuitous wild goose chase. Other Decoys prefer to infiltrate competing covenants, spreading disinformation and seeding their organizations with doubt and dissent.
Assassins
The validity of assassination as an ethical political act may be the subject of debate among Carthians, but that an undetermined stance isn’t the same thing as discouragement. Sometimes, the only way to get around a firmly entrenched opponent in Kindred society is to make him go away — by any means possible. Stealthy, loyal Carthian adherents may dedicate themselves to the destruction of enemies on behalf of the Movement.Carthian Assassins are likely to make a public declaration of their motive, making it clear that the destruction of the victim was a political act, not a personal one. The assistance of Obfuscate can be invaluable when escaping the scene of a murder, especially when a statement is made. Martyring one’s self for the cause may provide emotional impact, but is more likely to undermine the strength of the Movement in the domain — especially if so doing robs the Carthians of a powerful warrior.
Just about every Carthian domain outlaws the assassination of citizens, and many outlaw the destruction of Kindred in general. Carthians who dwell in domains ruled by competing covenants, however, are more likely to be flexible in the consideration of assassination as a valid tactic.
Protean, Animalism, Athletics and Survival
Explorers
In some domains, the establishment of a Carthian power base depended entirely on the ability of the Movement’s ability to identify and explore territories that were destined to become bustling neighborhoods before development. Moving on the outer edges of a domain and recognizing the features that will appeal to a growing population, Carthian Explorers often help to secure valuable real estate that seems useless to the less modern covenants. The uncanny ability of some Kindred to analyze and grab promising land is arguably one of the most valuable talents available to the Movement, and helps explain the tendency for the covenant to hold domain over some of the busiest and most appealing sectors of cities around the world.Some Carthian Explorers go even further afield, seeking out towns and villages that don’t yet have a significant Kindred population. Those that seem promising become the home for a small cell of Carthian vampires who establish a new experimental government and live out a Requiem removed from the interference of competing covenants. Some of the purest Carthian attempts are preceded by the travels of an Explorer, who often rules the new domain as its Prince.
Spies
A simple fact: only the most experienced or paranoid Kindred constantly scan their environment for spies. Those who do are less likely to notice a bird or a bat in the distance, and of those, few are likely to realize that the animal is actually a vampire. Protean is a protest into environmental damage, hoping that a sudden release of anger can spark a whirlwind riot among oppressed Kindred. Many an Invictus neonate has been swept up in a mob rampage, violating their oaths of fealty in the exhilarated throes of activity.Carthian Justice
The Carthian Movement is predicated on the idea that all Kindred are equal in their Damnation. They believe that decisions affecting members of a group should be made by the affected parties. They also share the major grief of the French revolutionaries who deposed the monarchy: that Kindred are not equal under Kindred law. In Carthian domains, there is no Prince, and no officer is treated any differently from any other vampire. If one officer has more or different privileges, those privileges only apply in the pursuit of her duties to the domain and the covenant. This is not to say that Carthians don’t abuse their power; vampires are even more treacherous by nature than humans, so of course they do. However, the Carthian system is designed to make up for this with checks and balances, just as mortal systems are. Because of the greater temptation to wrongdoing, these balances are much more complex than their mortal equivalents. The separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers is merely the beginning. Each branch of the Carthian governmental structure is always subdivided with some kind of self-monitoring system of its own. All the watchmen are watched somehow.Different domains require different watchmen. If Carthians ran Paris’s unlife, they would need a few good local officials whose word was trusted by other Parisian vampires. In New York, nobody trusts anybody, so an extensive and impersonal system would be better. In a small town with a dozen or fewer Kindred, the roles of Myrmidon and Prefect might even be rolled into one. The Carthian judicial system shares the diverse character of the rest of the Movement, but news of successes and failures travels fast in the information age of tonight. The most successful practices proliferate quickly, giving the Movement hope that their efforts are not in vain.
Crime and Punishment
In most domains, there is little resemblance between an arrest by the modern mortal police and the punishments handed down by the Sheriff for breaking Kindred traditions or defying the will of the Prince. Carthian cities are different. The vampires who take you down there might even be legitimate officers of mortal law. Certainly, they will follow procedures similar to those of mortal police, and they will be following Carthian Law. Since this law is designed with its officers’ capacity for capricious application of the rules in mind, the criminal can expect a similar level of fairness in his treatment to what he would receive from mortal police.There are no misdemeanors in the Carthian system. The nature of a vampire’s existence demands such depravity that minor offenses are not worth punishing. Not only that, but with no minor charges, it makes it more difficult for officers to justify using their rights of office frivolously. There is only a short list of crimes that all Carthian domains police, though of course individual domains may have their own rules arising from their history. The list of possible punishments is even shorter, and lacks the typical mortal option of incarceration. This option is a little impractical when the only effective methods include things such as sealing the criminal in concrete. Instead, the least punishment that can be levied is a fine of Vitae. From there, the next step is to give up a Retainer or vessel, or to lose access to some hunting territory. Occasionally, a criminal might be branded, the method usually being as simple as the same punishment on a mortal; the fiery iron tends to leave a scar on vampiric flesh that cannot soon be healed. The last minor punishment, doorstep to the major punishments, is evicting the criminal from his Haven. This is the last step before exile from the domain entirely; a vampire in a Carthian domain with no Haven has no property or territory, and exists at the sufferance of other Kindred. Exile may seem a mercy after this sort of existence. If the criminal is deemed too dangerous to unleash on other domains, but potentially redeemable, then a sentence of Torpor may be carried out. The question of what to do when such a sentence ends has never really been addressed so far, since the sentences tend to be rather long. Finally, for extremely serious offences, the offender may be sentenced to destruction. This is usually carried out by first putting the offender into Torpor, then incinerating him at a commercial funeral incineration facility.
The most common crime is poaching vessels on someone else’s territory. Obviously, this is a crime which could happen innocuously and accidentally. Because of this, the first offense is never punished if poaching is all that happens. If the vessel doesn’t die, the criminal is rarely even caught; even if she is, she’ll usually be let off with a warning without even seeing The Myrmidon. When a vessel is killed, the official supervision starts. Another wrongful death will lose the poacher some feeding territory of her own, and a third repeat offense Merits exile. Repeated stupidity is too dangerous for a Carthian domain to play host to, even if something so relatively innocent is the cause.
The next most common offense prosecuted in Carthian cities is theft. Theft only qualifies as an offense, however, if an item somebody actually cares about is stolen. Usually this means an item stolen from someone’s Haven. Most drafts of Carthian Law put the blame for losing anything not kept in a declared Haven squarely on the idiot who lost the item, unless it was taken from his person by violence. Even then, the violence is the crime, not the theft. Even in an actual case of theft, if the item is returned undamaged there is usually no punishment. There is punishment on the books for theft, though, however rarely such punishment is implemented: branding is used for the first offense. The pain of the fire sears the punishment into the memory of the thief, while the mark reminds everyone who sees it that this vampire is even less trustworthy than his fellow Kindred. A brand administered as a punishment in accordance with Carthian Law inflicts one aggravated damage, and leaves a burn scar for over a century even after the damage is healed. If someone with such a brand is caught and convicted for stealing again, exile awaits the repeat offender. Serious theft does create one thing any government finds intolerable, after all: unrest in the populace.
Inciting unrest intentionally is another crime most versions of Carthian Law contain, but make conviction for inciting unrest difficult. After all, argument and debate are usually encouraged as means of exploring different options and experiments. Rhetoric with the explicit purpose of creating anger and violence is dangerous, though, and is not tolerated. Speaking in such a way will at least get the agitator barred from Elysium for a period of time. If the offender is found agitating again during that period, or twice more even after the period elapses, the troublemaker will be exiled from the city. Even Carthians only want one revolution at a time, and they certainly want it done their way.
When it comes to unrest, neonates are the easiest to agitate, so the Movement’s leaders like to know when new vampires are created in their domains. Creating unsanctioned childer is as serious a crime to Carthian officials as it is under a Prince. It’s not so bad by itself, but it is potentially very dangerous. The first such childe is thus usually remanded to custody and supervision by some trusted officer of the court. The sire is allowed to see the childe, and might even be allowed to conduct her normal duties of helping her childe adapt to undead society, so long as neither of them make any trouble. The second time, though, both sire and childe are remanded to alternate custody and supervision. The sire is supervised for a period of time, probably a decade or more, to ensure that no more unsanctioned childer are created. The childe is given to an officer of the court to raise as his own, which supposedly ensures a greater degree of responsibility from the childe than the sire has so far shown. Any vampire who sires a third unsanctioned childe in a Carthian domain is exiled from the city, along with the unacknowledged childe. Both are left to fend for themselves, if they can.
The crimes Carthian courts treat as serious go beyond mere unrest. Injury to members of the Kindred community is the worst crime against Carthian Law, and this is what Carthian officials focus on prosecuting. Proof of a charge of this nature is relatively easy. Corroborated witness reports with no conflicting witnesses or alibi will often make the case. The prior record of the suspect is taken very strongly into consideration as well; someone known to be violent may be a ticking bomb anyway, so many officials are eager to get these Kindred out of their domains. Assaulting another Kindred carries serious penalties, including forcing the guilty attacker to give up enough Vitae to heal the other Kindred and the offender’s exile from the city. Self-defense is sometimes accepted as a partial excuse, but will only excuse the offender from the exile part of the punishment. Often, if two Kindred get into a fight, both of them are kicked out of the city. Records of the attacker’s identity will be kept indefinitely, in case he finds his way back to the city under another name. A variety of forensic tests can be used to positively identify the criminal, should he ever cause trouble in the same city again.
There is no excuse in Carthian Law for destroying another Kindred. Self-defense is no excuse, and no other circumstance is considered mitigating. Exile is the best that a vampire who kills his own kind can hope for in a Carthian city. If the guilty one has ever been convicted, or even suspected, of another crime, the sentence is more likely to be a period of some decades or centuries in Torpor. If the crime was violent, or the Kindred destroyed was particularly well connected, the killer is probably doomed to destruction himself. Staked and left for sunlight is the usual method. This is often handled much like the Louisiana tradition of “drumming someone out.” The criminal is left in a spot that will get sunlight in the morning, staked; if there’s someone left in the city who will stand up for the criminal, that vampire is welcome to help the criminal, so long as the criminal is never seen in the city again.
Diablerie, however, is never treated so leniently. If this heinous crime is proved beyond a reasonable doubt, immediate destruction is the only punishment. “Burned at the stake” is literally that; the offender is usually staked, put in a coffin and taken to a commercial funeral facility for incineration. A sufficient amount of money changing hands prevents unnecessary questions. If this crime cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, it is simply treated as the destruction of another Kindred. The uncontested testimony of a reasonably trustworthy Mekhet is generally accepted as proof enough, though; nobody sheds many tears if a killer is destroyed wrongly as a diablerist when he really was a killer.
Assaulting or killing another Kindred’s ghoul is also a serious crime, though not as serious as actually attacking another Kindred. Giving up enough Vitae to heal the ghoul is usually considered sufficient punishment. A second incident or the death of the ghoul, however, is sufficient grounds for exile. Ghouls don’t have many rights, but they are the most important form of property a Kindred owns besides her own Vitae. In this case, the murder of the ghoul is treated as an assault on the Kindred’s own person. Exiling criminals is very popular with Carthian courts. It’s less morally repugnant than execution, even with the admitted probability that other cities won’t take the criminal in, and survival on the road is difficult.
There is also one other crime serious enough to merit exile: conspiracy. If a group of Kindred conspires to commit any of the other punishable crimes, even if the crime actually committed was not serious, a conspiracy is, in the eyes of Carthian Law, a threat to the authority of The Carthian Movement. Thus, all participants in the dangerous group are sentenced to exile as soon as it is proven that they conspired together.
Investigation Procedure
Carthian criminal investigations are conducted very similarly to their mortal counterparts. The differences come from two things: the tools and, more importantly, the secrecy necessary. Even in highly classified FBI investigations, there is never quite the same tension as when vampires believe their existence might be revealed to the public. The truth is not something often sought in Kindred society, openly or otherwise, because exposing the truth about certain important things is so dangerous to the very existence that the Kindred enjoy. Getting to the bottom of a crime involves many uncomfortably direct questions. Not only does the very concept of an investigation threaten the Masquerade, but most of the undead keep their own secrets as well. They are dangerous beings, andloathe letting anyone see what they keep hidden.The extra tools of a Carthian investigation — the Disciplines of the investigators — are absolutely necessary to overcome the natural disinclination Kindred have to revealing the truth. Different domains have different specific rules, but the generally accepted uses of the various Disciplines in criminal investigations have spread among various Carthian domains all over the world.
Animalism: Animals communicated with and controlled through this Discipline make excellent informants. They will not remember or understand the information they are used to gather in any way that could be damaging, and they are utterly expendable. Suitable animals, such as mice, are also quite innocuous. The full mastery of this power is extremely useful for keeping suspects under control when apprehending them.
Auspex: A reliable investigator with Auspex is the boon of any Carthian law-enforcement coterie. If two can be had, and kept separate so they don’t taint each others’ testimony, investigations become extremely easy. The problem with this scenario is in no way the effectiveness of Auspex in revealing all kinds of information. The problem is that the reliability of any Kindred is suspect from the beginning, and keeping two Kindred with Auspex from communicating with each other is difficult if not impossible. The usual method is for city officials to make they sure know at least two Mekhet who dislike each other, and thus would not talk to each other independently. Then the unconnected individuals can be brought in to corroborate each others’ testimony about the information found with Auspex.
Celerity: Criminals run. Investigators with high levels of Celerity are faster. The advantages of this in apprehending the criminals should be obvious. Besides that, Celerity is an excellent way to avoid death at the hands of a dangerous criminal.
Dominate: Because of Carthian Law, using Dominate in the pursuit of a criminal investigation is actually much simpler than might otherwise be. Confessions obtained by a Carthian Ventrue using Dominate on the perpetrator of the crime are usually admissible in Carthian courts, because Carthian Law would prevent the Ventrue from forcing anything but a true confession out of the criminal. On the other hand, most city administrations are slow to actually use this “magic bullet,” because, although it is very reliable, it also reliably pisses everyone off. As mentioned before, Kindred hate revealing their secrets. If Dominate is used on the wrong vampire, that vampire will feel justifiably wronged. Carthian Law can’t prevent this from happening, but it does provide penalties after the fact. If not for the sake of avoiding making enemies, avoiding these penalties usually keeps Ventrue investigators in line.
Majesty: Along the same lines as Dominate, this Discipline can easily be used to make criminals reveal their secrets, and it is similarly dangerous to force such revelation without adequate certainty that the subject in question is the perpetrator. Daeva investigators, however, are able to play their somewhat disreputable clan reputation to their advantage in this case. Daeva are expected to worm their way into other Kindred’s confidences, after all, so it doesn’t make people quite as mad when Daeva do so during a criminal investigation. Confessions wheedled out with Majesty are less admissible in court than those commanded with Dominate, but the one is certainly grounds to seek the other.
Nightmare: When using the Interrogation tactic of “good cop/bad cop,” the Nosferatu are the ultimate bad cops. The various powers of their signature Discipline are of incredible utility when apprehending and interrogating criminals, but even more risky than Dominate. Where a Dominated Kindred will be insulted and angry, the subject of what can only be called a Nightmare attack will be threatened and angry. These tactics are thus reserved for suspects nobody would mind seeing disappear.
Obfuscate: Proficiency in this Discipline is another thing that makes Mekhet and Nosferatu scarily good investigators. Criminals who believe they are unobserved continue blithely on in their crimes, until the Carthian officers drop their veil of Obfuscate and bust them. Unfortunately, the criminals the officers are seeking often use their own Obfuscate to hide their crimes, so this sword for justice cuts both ways.
Protean: Not running in fear from an elder criminal is good. Having a safe day’s slumber when anyone who commits a crime against Carthian Law has to worry about you first is much better. The sheer deadly authority of Claws of the Wild prevents a lot of argument when apprehending criminals. Animal forms taken with Shape of the Beast aren’t exactly innocuous most of the time, but the bat form especially has great mobility. The simple subconscious confusion factor is even still useful for stealth, because not even Kindred will always see “bat” and think “Gangrel using Protean.” The ability to turn into mist, finally, is as useful for stealth as Obfuscate, and as useful for avoiding injury as Celerity. All in all, this Discipline makes Gangrel quite hardy and versatile as investigators.
Resilience: When the criminal attacks, Resilience causes the investigator not to die. It’s pretty much that simple. Most other applications of having high stamina are made pretty much moot by the vampiric condition, but the need to be protected from an untimely death is great in the investigation profession. Not dying is sufficient incentive for most vampires, let alone Carthian investigators, to practice Resilience as much as possible.
Vigor: Criminals run. Unconscious criminals don’t run. Vigor facilitates the latter condition. “Police brutality” is not generally an issue in Carthian Law, so long as the criminal survives to stand trial.
Despite a willingness to use violence and the various Discipline powers at disposal to enforce the law, Carthian officials do follow a form of due process of the law. Hearsay is given no credibility; only eyewitness testimony is allowed, though what an Auspexuser discovers from an object or a target’s mind is considered an eyewitness report. Some domains make the rule that only testimony sworn out under a Dominate command to be truthful is admissible as legal evidence. Circumstantial evidence, such as a weak alibi, can be used to establish probable cause for an arrest, but sworn testimony under Dominate is the most trusted source of evidence by far. After all, although a memory may be placed in someone’s mind, doing so is much more difficult than planting some piece of incriminating physical evidence.
Unlike in mortal society, there is usually no separation of police and court in the process of Carthian justice. The investigators, whether they be the Sheriff’s, The Myrmidon’s or The Magistrate’s officers, report all their findings back to their superior officer, and all the Carthian officers involved in the case share the information with each other. By the time the criminal is brought before The Myrmidon or The Magistrate, the Kindred sitting in judgment already has all the evidence in the case. The criminal is allowed one chance to make a statement in his own defense, once again, under a Dominate-induced injunction to truthfulness. If evidence is revealed at this time that may help the accused, the investigation continues until it is corroborated or debunked. Otherwise, the judging officer makes her decision based on all the evidence that has been gathered. Usually, if enough evidence has been gathered to bring a criminal in front of the judge, and the accused can’t say anything in his defense to change the theory of the crime, the only forthcoming verdict is guilty.
It’s not that suspects aren’t presumed innocent until proven guilty. Quite the opposite; the standards of evidence the investigators are held to are supernaturally higher than those possible for mortal police to achieve. The mortal democratic ideathat one’s peers have some kind of right to judge the crime is only seen in the rare case of a treason tribunal, however, because only in that case is the crime considered to be against the entire community. In some ways, this is another nod to the secrecy most Kindred prefer; besides the investigating and judging officers, only the accused and the accuser must be at the final trial. In other ways, it is an acknowledgement that trusting several vampires is a worse idea than knowing how to predict just one. To most Carthians, one judge with special training and put under intense scrutiny seems a more trustworthy agent of justice than a jury.
The Case for Freedom
Members of The Carthian Movement are part of a massive network of Kindred that spans the world. Other covenants are only loosely related from city to city; Carthians, although not connected by ties of government across different domains, do take advantage of modern telecommunications technology to maintain their networks of Contacts and friends. This is the grandest expression of Carthian forwardthinking. They embrace the modern global economy and community, enabling them to draw on Resources from far-off places. Information, money, people — whatever it is they need, Carthians are not limited to one city to get it. On the other hand, the Carthian network is not one thing. Each Carthian knows different people, and a few other Carthians. The path from Carthian A, who wants something, to Carthian contact C, who has that thing, usually passes through most of the rest of the alphabet before even finding Carthian B, who knows contact C. Back on the first hand though, thanks to cell phones and email, this only means it takes several nights of calling and contacting different people to track something down.The fact that Carthians know each other and share Contacts this way is the underlying reason players of Carthian characters get a discount when buying Allies, Contacts, Haven and Herd. However, the diversity of Carthian experiments begs a better picture of these Merits in practice in some different contexts. Not all Carthians have lots of friends, know everybody’s phone number, live in communes and have a cult of goth vampire wannabes to feed off. Some, even with the same levels in the same Merits, might just be friends with one popular guy (who has the phone numbers to give them), live in a safe-house set up for homeless Carthians and frequent a nightclub with kinky VIP rooms with bondage and blindfolds making feeding easy. The mission and position of a given domain’s Prefect and other leaders affect what these Merits actually look like in extreme ways.
Democratic Liberties
Direct democracy is popular in small Carthian domains, partly because it is far removed from the usual feudal system of Kindred leadership, and partly because everybody gets a vote. Direct democracies vote on everything — division of feeding territory, whether to pursue a project, where to house the Kindred citizens of the domain, everything. This means a relatively free sharing of information, and though Resources are not shared as such, they are always on the table for a vote.Allies: In a democratic domain, all the citizens will meet frequently, probably at least once a week for meetings to vote on any issues that need to be addressed. These meetings provide a starting point for any Kindred of the domain to get to know each other, so anyone interested in making friends has ample opportunity to do so. Individuals will also sometimes be appointed by the assembly to make friends and cultivate influence with certain groups, so they can then introduce others, or simply call in favors when the city needs them. Gathering friends is an active occupation in this environment, and everyone is actively encouraged to play. Unwary neonates often end up owing quite a few favors they later come to regret, and the lesson is powerful; it’s better to be owed than to owe. Kindred who fail to participate, though, learn that it’s worse to lack connections than to owe favors; people whom you owe have a reason to keep you around.
Contacts: While these citizens are busily making friends and influencing people, it is both necessary and hard to avoid meeting a wide variety of less influential people who nonetheless have access to certain things. While making friends in the police department, for instance, it’s a short step from doing a favor for the lieutenant to finding out who to call in the department to get the names of known criminals of various stripes. It’s an even shorter step from making friends in the forensics lab to finding out where they buy their Equipment, or the schools they prefer to hire from. Democratic politics put Carthians in an easy position to make these short steps on their own.
Haven: Adequate housing is difficult to find when you have very particular needs, as Kindred do. Solving this problem is a continuing chore in any growing domain, and even relatively stable cities see quite a few Kindred moving or upgrading their manses. The Carthian Movement promises members they will have the shelter they need, which in a direct democracy makes it everybody’s responsibility. Usually, a set of general laws are drafted so that every housing decision doesn’t call for a vote. When a citizen has housing desires not provided for in the Law, a vote is called. Often the entire night of the city meeting is taken up with debate, because a change in the housing rules that benefits one Kindred almost invariably puts the burden on another one. If one citizen gets assistance purchasing renovations, why not all citizens? Does she really need these repairs? Why can’t she pay for them herself? In the end, though, most requests for assistance are granted, because even those opposed to a particular request know they will probably want one of their own granted in the future.
Herd: This issue is the most common cause of the failure of direct democracy. When feeding territory is parceled out by majority rule, it’s always a compromise, which means nobody is happy. All too often, the Carthian citizens also forget to include the other Kindred of the city in the Carthian division of the Herd, leading to bloody conflicts often ending in fire. Success usually lies in creating a standard of law by which each citizen can apply for a certain amount of feeding territory, and establishing what is allowed in defense of that territory. The definition of “territory” is a sticky point, though, since this term just as often includes groups of mortals as it does locations. The end result of this mess is that Kindred in these cities have a lot of hoops to jump through, but once the territory is acquired, it is sacrosanct.
Election Night
A parliamentary republic, known in the American system as a “representative democracy,” is a compromise between the desire to represent the interests of all citizens and the impracticality of direct democracy in large populations. A representative democracy is also a solution to the problem of ignorant people voting on issues they know nothing about. The elected representatives are set apart form the rest of society so they can devote all their time to knowing how various issues affect the people who elected them. Of course, the oldest complaint in any republic, all the way back to Rome, is that these full-time politicians are full-time useless, or worse, full-time criminals, robbing their constituency for their own profits. The truth is somewhere in betweenthe extremes, but however corrupt or irreproachable, a Parliament allows the citizenry control over who decides their fate while relieving them of the responsibilities of doing so themselves. Although most republic and omains retain the office of Prince, Parliament is always the body truly in control of the domain. Any motion passed by Parliament that the Prince denies without good reason would surely be taken as grounds to remove the Prince in question.Allies: A vampire needs friends to survive; it’s a simple, every-night fact. Keeping the citizens who elect them happy means that Carthian representatives are well served by making sure those citizens have ample opportunities to make connections. Some representatives do this by holding parties and other social events, inviting the Kindred they represent. Other representatives push resolutions through Parliament to create social clubs and meeting places where a Kindred community could form. Once the Kindred of the domain have gotten to know each other, they provide each other with references and introductions when they need to make friends outside the community.
Contacts: Carthian domains of this style usually appoint an officer to gather the necessary information to find all kinds of things, whose job is to then help others in the Movement find Contacts when they need them. He keeps huge files of phone numbers, names, addresses and preferred forms of compensation for brokers of all kinds of information and Materials. His duty is then to hand this information over to any Carthian who needs it, and keep a record of who asked for it and why. Of course, if the reason specifically contradicts Carthian Law, he’s not going to hand over the info. This officer’s job can be very dangerous, because what he guards is almost as valuable as Vitae itself. Sometimes, it’s much morevaluable, so some domains prefer to spread the risk by assigning multiple officers to gather information fordifferent types of acquisitions. Carthians call these contact-brokers many things, but the most common title is RC, short for “requisitions clerk.”
Haven: Housing assistance is available easily enough in republican domains. The Parliament usually establishes a trust fund, authorizing yearly withdrawals for all Carthians in the city for the purpose of improving their havens. Whenever a withdrawal is made, the Kindred in charge of the trust fund helps the one making the withdrawal spend the money, taking notes and making sure it actually goes to haven-related purchases. Although there is enough scrutiny of these funds that embezzlement isn’t practical, overseeing them does carry the advantage of knowing where every Carthian in the city sleeps.
Herd: The usual republican policy on this issue is, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Established feeding territories are left alone, unless a new Carthian is in desperate need. Mostly, laws are made protecting Kindred’s rights to their territories and herds. Sometimes, the Parliament also hands out incentives to generous elders who help younger Kindredestablish their own herds.
Share and Play Nice, or Else
Altruism is about as common in vampires as a love of tanning. Observing this, some noble-minded Carthians take it upon themselves to perpetuate the dictatorial role of Prince in their domains, using that autocratic power to force policies of sharing and cooperation on the city’s population. This is known as a socialist dictatorship, a system plagued by many, but not all, of the same problems as the feudal system usually replaced. Even a small change to the system is enough to keep people from figuring out how best to exploit it for a while, though, and to a Carthian any system of laws is better than a system of unilateral decrees. Even the Prince is expected to share and share alike. Naturally, non–Carthians who are forced to participate in this sharing are never happy about it. Domains attempting this form of government rarely succeed without a huge Carthian majority in the Kindred population, or elsethe other covenants at least (if not the unbound) must be exempt from the redistribution of wealth.Allies: To make sure all citizens are well connected, socialists hold many parties. These are the same parties where citizens are encouraged to celebrate how equal they are, how much conditions have improved for so many. Those who had to give up wealth to be redistributed are encouraged to meet with the Kindred who received their money or property, and everybody is encouraged to meet new people and make friends. Any Kindred in town who don’t attend the occasions are sought out and asked why they refused the invitation, so no Carthian has a good excuse not to make a few friends.
Contacts: Information is one of the Resources socialist Carthians seek to distribute fairly. To this end, every Carthian is set up with a cell phone plan granting unlimited minutes to other Carthians, and a list of the numbers of all the other members of the plan. Members are encouraged to call around the list to find anything they need, and some members are periodically assigned to call the less active members of the list to keep them in touch and abreast of the news.
Haven: All Carthians are assigned somewhere to live in socialist domains, and that’s that. This is the most resented aspect of socialist rule, because those who have the money and property are forced to house those who don’t. Those who receive free housing are seen as freeloaders, and that’s often true. Some domains encourage the beneficiaries of the city’s generosity to consider their free homes as temporary, and actively seek other lodging. Some don’t, though, and subject the resentful Kindred to a communitywide guilt trip over their antisocial attitude.
Herd: Kine are the most basic resource for Carthian socialists to share, but perhaps the most difficult. Mortal will is easily bent to Kindred purposes, but to bend it so that any vampire may feed instead of just one, without revealing the nature of all involved to the public — that is a tricky thing indeed. Long before the socialists take power, clubs and businesses offering convenient ways to feed are procured by active Carthians. These establishments range from kinky sex clubs where the Kiss is just one more taboo pleasure enjoyed behind closed doors and never spoken of in daylight to semi-legitimate blood banks that purpose many donations to a darker cause.
More Equal Than Others
When a Carthian Parliament starts passing laws enforcing shared Resources and equal feeding, the domain is transformed from a republic to a democratic communist state. As with mortal communism, complaints that the government takes away from everyone until everyone is equally poor are often voiced. Successful communists hand out enough to everybody that there are no serious thoughts of revolt, despite universal grumbling. Communism is usually phased in gradually by Parliament rather than as a sweeping change all at once, further reducing unrest by appealing to Kindred’s natural stagnation.Allies: It’s easy to make friends when you’re required to spend a certain number of hours each week in a work group assigned by the government. Communist Carthians assign each member of the Movement a task for the general good, so in this style of domain it’s normal to end up in two coteries at once: the one you choose and the one assigned to you for covenant work. Some of these groups are actually formed just to encourage friendships among covenant members, and some are assigned the task of cultivating friendships with valuable mortal Allies.
Contacts: In a communist domain, it’s always somebody’s job to know who to talk to. The basic necessities of unlife are officially provided for, and everything else is moved smoothly through thriving black markets that are usually secretly encouraged. There’s usually an official in charge of contacting Mercenaries and procuring weapons, for instance, and, for a small favor, he’s probably more than willing to share the name and location of one of the guys he buys guns from. The line between official channels and under-the-table deals is often difficult to discern, and usually meaningless anyway; if something needs to get done, it gets done — and nobody asks too many questions.
Haven: Shared housing is a simple matter. In a domain such as this, any property owned by Kindred is considered the property of Parliament. All citizens are assigned their own space to stay and sleep. Usually, this space shared by a work gang, so they can do their community service together first thing each night, then disperse for their free time. Depending on how well a work gang does their job, they can apply for better housing.
Herd: Cultivating easy feeding grounds is one of the most prestigious tasks for a work gang in a communist domain. This is a necessary part of any Kindred’s Requiem, making the gangs in charge of handing out drinks very popular. The form of the Herd depends entirely on the gang in charge of gathering it. A Carthian hooked up with vessels in this kind of city might be introduced to a kinky nightclub with private rooms and plenty of willing customers, or unveiled as a prophet in a false cult or even given a sterile medical treatment, receiving the blood intravenously. It all depends on what the work gang assigned to gather the Herd is able to make work.
My Way or the Highway
In a socialist dictatorship, the despot is the sole arbitrator of the law. Some Carthians view this as unacceptable, but still want one person ultimately in charge. One person to rein in the evil, one person to blame for failure. In a system called constitutional tyranny, one vampire makes the laws, and the courts interpret them, with neither having any power to affect the purview of the other. If there is a clear law for a situation, then the tyrant cannot affect the outcome of a judicial case. If there is no clear law, the tyrant must make one, and the court has no say in what it will be. There are many more details, which vary from one constitution to another (see p. 96 for more). Whatever they are, the tyrant makes the rules the city will pass its nights under, and the courts make sure the rules are put into practice.Allies: Ritual remembrances of Carthian identity are essential for a functional tyranny, because the citizens must stay committed to the ideals embodied by the constitution. The Chain is practiced every week, if not each night, and other events marking important times in the history of the domain and the Movement are also celebrated. These rituals provide a strong sense of community, and ample opportunities to make acquaintances, or even friends.
Contacts: The community in a constitutional domain promotes free sharing of information. Some cities host meetings for various interest groups, explicitly and officially educating citizens about how to acquire guns, people’s phone numbers and addresses or any number of other things. Usually it’s just a matter of word of mouth, facilitated and encouraged by the ceremonies that bring citizens together almost every night. By providing citizens with an easy excuse to see each other, community events naturally provide the chance for anyone who’s interested to build their network of Contacts.
Haven: Whether by the sire, the sire’s coterie or someone else, newly embraced members of the Movement are usually provided with free housing assistance from a specific source by the constitution. This assistance is usually in the form of advice on how to sun-proof and fire-proof the home that sufficed when the neonate was a mortal. An existing house can be turned into a Haven fairly easily by making it vampirefriendly; its location can even be improved by learning of good feeding grounds that happen to be nearby. This philosophy is prevalent in constitutional domains: take what’s already there, and make it work.
Herd: Co-opting hospital or Red Cross blood banks is by far the favorite method for tyrants to feed their citizens. It’s reliable, and it eliminates the risk of accidental killings during feeding. The problem, of course, is the risk of Masquerade breaches. Therefore, in cities where this approach is unfeasible, a more standard approach such as introducing new Kindred to some of the local nightclubs is used. There is a stronger tendency in these domains than most for the Carthian government to actually make a point of owning the most popular feeding grounds, to reduce the possibility of problems with the Masquerade.
Is this your first meeting, kid?
Take my advice: sit in the back.
That way they won’t see you
get up and leave
when all their rhetoric starts to drive you crazy.
—Mickey Spit, Carthian cadre leader
Take my advice: sit in the back.
That way they won’t see you
get up and leave
when all their rhetoric starts to drive you crazy.
The Carthian Movement
The Carthians don’t have a lock on ambitious, motivated go-getters, and no other covenant has a monopoly on laziness. There are lazy Carthians who go along, get along, do the minimum and phone in their commitments to the cause. They’re disliked and regarded with contempt, but as long as they make a token effort, they’re grudgingly tolerated. Now and then, East Coast coteries that feel particularly put out by laziness might stack up bricks in front of (or completely obscuring) the entry to the slacker’s Haven. The more grieved they feel, the more bricks (or bigger things, such as boulders or motorcycle engines or whatever they can get away with under the Masquerade) they stack. A playful, mocking warning is a small pile of bricks, maybe spray-painted gold and plopped down in the middle of the night. A genuinely pissed coterie makes sure to put down a heavy load while the lazy SOB is out, ideally near enough to sunrise to make him worry while moving them.
Carthians who never help anyone may well find themselves blackballed from the covenant, and when the Carthians eject you, it’s not quiet. A tradition that started in Louisiana is to literally drum out the offender. The local Prefect and all the Carthians who lobbied for ostracism show up at Elysium with percussion instruments, one apiece. They make an appalling racket entering, process to the offending party and then drop their instruments at his feet. “This is your mess,” the Prefect says (or words to that effect). “If you can’t get anyone to help you clean it, we’re done with you. You can’t be part of the Movement by standing still.”
Carthians who think the guy should be allowed to stay are each permitted to pick up one instrument and carry it out. The guy on public trial at Elysium can carry one as well. If he can scrape together enough Carthians, he can stay in the covenant. If not, it’s tough shit for lazybones.
All Carthians in good standing can purchase the Herd Merit at half the normal experience point cost. This presumes that they’re calling on the covenant’s connections, experience and community spirit for help in building a Herd up from nothing (or, perhaps, that they’re repurposing Herd members discarded by Carthians who have tired of them).
If a player wishes to spend the full experience point cost for the Herd Merit, she may do so and increase her character’s Herd at the expense of some other vampire. Instead of building her collection of donors from scratch, the character is simply taking over mortals who have already been brought into a Herd by someone else. If the other character’s Herd is a cult, they convert. If they were obeying from fear, they now fear her more than their former master. If they were in it for kinky sex, she’s sexier and kinkier.
Storytellers should note that the story process of acquiring these blood dolls is rich fodder. A simple statement from the player that he’s robbing and spending the points wastes a lot of possibility for interesting and meaningful interaction, especially since the Kindred who’s been robbed is going to notice. Rustling, even if it’s legal in a given domain, is a grievous insult and tantamount to a declaration of war. Fortunately for the Carthian, if handled right, the war starts with one side holding more Ammunition.
As well, this should never rob another player’s character of points the player legitimately spent on Herd. The intent with rustling is to show how in tune Carthians are with the mortal world, not screw another player out of his rightful earnings.
Vampires often hate one another. It just works out that way. The Movement rarely has any percentage in encouraging emotional conflicts between its members. Disagreements are fine, vigorous debate is encouraged, maybe even some heated exchanges. Hey, eternity’s a long time, and anything energetic is entertainment to someone. The expectation, however, is that the disputants see beyond the conflict and accept that their larger brotherhood in the Movement is moreimportant. Kindred being what they are, this expectation often goes unmet.
Some Carthian domains pursue a policy of reconciliation by force. Here’s how this policy works: it’s an informal process, but at least five Carthians need to be irked enough by the bickering pair that these annoyed Carthians propose this extreme solution to the Prefect. If the complainers’ totaled dots in the CovenantStatus (Carthians) Merit exceeds the sum of those Merits held by the disputants, the Prefect probably considers reconciliation by force. Other Carthians may argue against it, effectively adding their Carthian Status Merits to those of the pair being considered. If the two enemies weigh in with greater Status, the Prefect probably doesn’t want to antagonize them. (Story considerations can,and definitely should, provide temporary Status dots on either side of the equation. Characters who call in favors and lobby hard can definitelytilt this either way.)
If the Prefect decides to pursue reconciliation by force, both Carthians are arrested and starved until they enter Wassail. At that point, they’re given a measured amount of blood (about three or four pints) and put in a locked room together with instructions to kick each other’s asses.
Senior Carthians watch these cage matches, and not just out of bloodlusty voyeurism. The spectators are ready to intervene and pull the combatants apart before one kills the other. (Accidents happen, of course. Sometimes one fighter is so outclassed that he gets torn to piecesbefore the referees can arrive.)
The unspoken idea behind reconciliation by force is that there’s a pretty good chance that when two hungry vampires fight, each tries to bite the other and steal Vitae. If that happens and the elders swoop in to pull them apart, the former enemies now have mild Vinculums to each other. Additionally, each has had a chance to express his anger physically and may either feel vindicated (if he won or can reasonably convince himself he would have) or cowed and unwilling to pursue the argument anymore (if he got whipped).
It doesn’t work out perfectly every time, but even when one vampire outclasses the other, biting and draining makes the winner magnanimous in victory. If a Final Death occurs, it’s unfortunate, but that’s the risk you run. The Silver lining is, there isn’t a pair of bickering Carthians anymore.
Vampires who become familiar with specialized slang may actually be able to express themselves perfectly openly to one another while remaining incomprehensible to their less contemporary kin. Two Carthians rapidly firing the latest mediafueled teenspeak at one another will seem, for all the sense older Kindred can make of it, to be speaking a foreign Language to a contingent of tradition-bound elders.
A Storyteller wishing to reflect this linguistic drift may choose to allow outsiders an Intelligence + Streetwise roll to see if they can make any sense of the dialog at all. Alternately, players who wish to do say may be allowed to spend experience on the system of slang as a Language Merit, representing a system that is either complex enough or cutting-edge enough to escape the understanding of all but the select few who take the time to learn it.
The effort Carthians expend on blending in with mortals isn’t just about the satisfaction of shallow preferences. Socializing with them is a hell of a lot easier if one maintains a fashionable appearance and keeps up on current trends. Every vampire who tries going to a bar and picking up a potential snack quickly learns that poor costume choices or inappropriate Language choices can badly hinder their attempts. Additionally, those vampires who manage to update their masquerade simply blend in better than those who fall behind. Disappearing in a crowd of mortals is easier for them, as is flying under the radar of suspicious humans. Hunters are much more likely to investigate the strange, isolated woman who never seems to change her clothes than the one who looks like a trendy clubber, exchanging jokes with the familiar faces of the scene.
It would be logical for Storytellers to apply Socialize and Stealth bonuses to those characters who make an effort to stay in touch with human trends, assuming that these characters are mixing with a mainstream crowd (or one that they’ve researched properly). Cumulative +1 bonuses could be applied for dress, speech and a shared interest in up-to-date entertainments.
Example: Julia, an ancilla Daeva, takes great pains to watch and listen to the local mortals so that she can keep up with their fashions. Her player documents her efforts and expenditures aimed at keeping her wardrobe up-to-date and the frequent conversations she engages in with the local mortals in order to maintain her understanding of modern slang. She can’t be bothered to keep up with their tastes in entertainment, though, because she never really managed to get over her distaste for television sets and CD players. When Julia hunts, the Storyteller decides that her appropriate clothing and easy, authentic approach with Language will give her player a +2 bonus on rolls — so long as she sticks to the mainstream crowd she normally hangs around with.
It’s best to apply these modifiers as positive adjustments, creating an enjoyable incentive for players to consider how much effort their characters want to put into trendy behavior. Failing to stay in touch should only produce a negative modifier when the character is interacting with an extremely dedicated and exclusive subculture. The relatively clueless nature of the average vampire should be considered the norm in interaction with most mortals, with no modifier applied.
Note that the local dialect of Carthians is not meant to be a reflection of mortal slang. Carthian slang is an artificial system of speech, created by and for the members of the Movement as a personal code. The advantages of inventing a Language are twofold: not only does it allow free communication near uncomprehending members of competing covenants, but such new Language confuses and frustrates those who think that they’re just speaking in modern mortal idiom, only to find that thelanguage doesn’t work on the streets.
The problem with a fabricated dialect is that it’s only as complicated as its speakers make it. As an optional system, the Storyteller can reflect the development of the dialect by encouragingperiodic Intelligence + Expression rolls. When a determined number of successes is reached, (perhaps 20 or 25), the slang can officially become a distinct Language, reflected by the purchase of a Merit. Until then, an Intelligence + Academics roll could be made by witnesses to see if they can figure it out.
A Storyteller should consider the local composition of The Carthian Movement before deciding to award Status to a character for his stylish comportment — if the group is largely intellectual with little concern for surface details, raised Status wouldn’t be appropriate. If, however, the group is weighted toward the “cool-hunter” Kindred, the reward of Status for style should be valid. Sometimes, entire sub-plots can be based around the justification of Status for style, wherein characters debate the validity of the approach with their fellow revolutionaries.
It’s safe to say that if a domain sports any Carthian Kindred who have Status ••• or higher for purely stylistic achievement, the local Movement is losing touch with its political roots. Most domains will cap a “chameleon” at Status ••, noting that she doesn’t really deserve any more respect than that until she starts promoting the true agenda of the Movement more actively.
Of course, not every domain allows for a familyblind division of labor. Depending on the local flavor of The Carthian Movement and the rule of law, certain clans find themselves in positions of inequality. One democratic Carthian group in Japan, for instance, outlawed full citizenship for Gangrel early in the 20th century with a vote that declared them “intellectually inferior” and “incapable of rendering decisions with necessary consideration.” Another small group operating with a fascist model in western Canada has declared the Nosferatu to be the “ideal form” of a vampire, and restricts all power to that clan and those who are bound by Vinculum to them.
Even in less extreme domains, it must be admitted that Blood Ties do occasionally translate into social strata. The members of certain clans may enjoy the “plum” jobs because they are close to high-status members of the covenant, while others find themselves gravitating to the riskier or more tedious roles by simple exclusion.
Trusted Carthian Observers have real potential to falsify mortal advances, claiming to witness thoughts and preferences that Haven’t actually occurred yet in hopes of manipulating the direction of the Movement in their domains. Spotting a dishonest Observer can often be difficult, especially if his fellow Kindred are used to responding to his predictions before humans openly adopt them.
The potential for this manipulation is strongest in domains where Carthians seek to one-up each other with respect to the speed and full devotion with which they adopt the modern fashion of their living counterparts. The truly complicated results spring from the close relationships Carthian Kindred tend to maintain with their favorite innovators, and the possibility that those innovators will be influenced by the behavior of their vampire friends.
Nightmare may actually present Carthians with peaceful solutions to violent confrontation, but this Discipline also tends to damage the populist image of the covenant. Nobody who espouses a “power to the people” philosophy wants to be known for cowing their enemies by invoking their deepest fears, whether or not it’s actually more humane than other available options.
As a result, most Carthian Kindred who make use of Nightmare are careful to make sure that it’s covert, letting the enemy assume that their fears arose naturally rather than understanding that they were provoked.
The Carthian Movement is one of the only covenants that actively encourages its members to explore new territories, if possible, and seek domains that have no established government. The practice of trailblazing is controversial, as some Kindred believe that the purpose of the Movement is to encourage change in the existing systems, saving the multiplicity of vampires from the choking grasp of tradition. Others believe that establishing “pure Carthian domains” is perfectly acceptable, citing the philosophical opportunities presented by a “carte blanche” territory.
Both sides of the debate are satisfied by the tendency of certain Carthian Explorers to seek out domains that are already ruled by small groups of Kindred, paving the way for invasion and eventual conquest by representatives of the Movement who have reason to look for a new home.
“I don’t see what business of anyone else’s it is where I feed and who I feed on so long as I don’t get in their way. What sucks worst is, I don’t get to choose. I wouldn’t mind asking nice and making sure everyone’s got their own, but I just get told by everyone else, ‘this is where you can feed.’ They said it’s ’cuz that’s where I live, but know what? They told me to live there! ’Course, they pay for the place, so I guess I’m aight. I dunno, ’s just humiliatin’.”
“Welcome to my office. Now, you’re new, so here’s the ground rules. My associates Rainer and Smith are my blood Retainers, and you are to respect them as you would me. They are asleep now, but Rainer will soon wake for his shift. They are in charge of the rest of my staff. The rest of my staff are mortal, so watch what you say and do. They are extremely intelligent, and suspicious by nature. This is necessary, in the work I hired them to do. I serve our fair city by running this detective agency, and these mortals do the legwork. They make phone calls, comb the classified sections of newspapers, monitor thousands of Internet sites and keep extremely detailed files. I have more mortals employed in my company than there are Kindred in this city.” “Now, what did you want to know?”
“This is unacceptable, simply unacceptable. I require the use of my entire facility exclusively for myself and my students, but this Carthian who is now Prince says I must house neonates! Are my students not neonates? Yet he wants me to house more. So I say to him, will they be learning from me then? Do they have the devotion to live in my house, under my rule? He says, of course they have that choice, but I must not force them. Fah! It is him forcing me to house them, not me forcing anybody!
“Why doesn’t this busybody Prince house these young fools himself, or make his supporters do it? I did not subscribe to this egalitarian nonsense! I will certainly not be supporting it. If these neonates wish to live with me, let them try to pass my tests and learn. Otherwise, I will give them nothing. “I have taken nothing from any Prince this city has ever had, and I thus owe nothing in return. It does not matter to me whether Carthians, Invictus or either of the ridiculous churches rules. I just want to be left alone!”
Laziness
The Carthians don’t have a lock on ambitious, motivated go-getters, and no other covenant has a monopoly on laziness. There are lazy Carthians who go along, get along, do the minimum and phone in their commitments to the cause. They’re disliked and regarded with contempt, but as long as they make a token effort, they’re grudgingly tolerated. Now and then, East Coast coteries that feel particularly put out by laziness might stack up bricks in front of (or completely obscuring) the entry to the slacker’s Haven. The more grieved they feel, the more bricks (or bigger things, such as boulders or motorcycle engines or whatever they can get away with under the Masquerade) they stack. A playful, mocking warning is a small pile of bricks, maybe spray-painted gold and plopped down in the middle of the night. A genuinely pissed coterie makes sure to put down a heavy load while the lazy SOB is out, ideally near enough to sunrise to make him worry while moving them.Carthians who never help anyone may well find themselves blackballed from the covenant, and when the Carthians eject you, it’s not quiet. A tradition that started in Louisiana is to literally drum out the offender. The local Prefect and all the Carthians who lobbied for ostracism show up at Elysium with percussion instruments, one apiece. They make an appalling racket entering, process to the offending party and then drop their instruments at his feet. “This is your mess,” the Prefect says (or words to that effect). “If you can’t get anyone to help you clean it, we’re done with you. You can’t be part of the Movement by standing still.”
Carthians who think the guy should be allowed to stay are each permitted to pick up one instrument and carry it out. The guy on public trial at Elysium can carry one as well. If he can scrape together enough Carthians, he can stay in the covenant. If not, it’s tough shit for lazybones.
Practical Rustling
All Carthians in good standing can purchase the Herd Merit at half the normal experience point cost. This presumes that they’re calling on the covenant’s connections, experience and community spirit for help in building a Herd up from nothing (or, perhaps, that they’re repurposing Herd members discarded by Carthians who have tired of them).If a player wishes to spend the full experience point cost for the Herd Merit, she may do so and increase her character’s Herd at the expense of some other vampire. Instead of building her collection of donors from scratch, the character is simply taking over mortals who have already been brought into a Herd by someone else. If the other character’s Herd is a cult, they convert. If they were obeying from fear, they now fear her more than their former master. If they were in it for kinky sex, she’s sexier and kinkier.
Storytellers should note that the story process of acquiring these blood dolls is rich fodder. A simple statement from the player that he’s robbing and spending the points wastes a lot of possibility for interesting and meaningful interaction, especially since the Kindred who’s been robbed is going to notice. Rustling, even if it’s legal in a given domain, is a grievous insult and tantamount to a declaration of war. Fortunately for the Carthian, if handled right, the war starts with one side holding more Ammunition.
As well, this should never rob another player’s character of points the player legitimately spent on Herd. The intent with rustling is to show how in tune Carthians are with the mortal world, not screw another player out of his rightful earnings.
Dealing with Nemesis
Vampires often hate one another. It just works out that way. The Movement rarely has any percentage in encouraging emotional conflicts between its members. Disagreements are fine, vigorous debate is encouraged, maybe even some heated exchanges. Hey, eternity’s a long time, and anything energetic is entertainment to someone. The expectation, however, is that the disputants see beyond the conflict and accept that their larger brotherhood in the Movement is moreimportant. Kindred being what they are, this expectation often goes unmet.Some Carthian domains pursue a policy of reconciliation by force. Here’s how this policy works: it’s an informal process, but at least five Carthians need to be irked enough by the bickering pair that these annoyed Carthians propose this extreme solution to the Prefect. If the complainers’ totaled dots in the CovenantStatus (Carthians) Merit exceeds the sum of those Merits held by the disputants, the Prefect probably considers reconciliation by force. Other Carthians may argue against it, effectively adding their Carthian Status Merits to those of the pair being considered. If the two enemies weigh in with greater Status, the Prefect probably doesn’t want to antagonize them. (Story considerations can,and definitely should, provide temporary Status dots on either side of the equation. Characters who call in favors and lobby hard can definitelytilt this either way.)
If the Prefect decides to pursue reconciliation by force, both Carthians are arrested and starved until they enter Wassail. At that point, they’re given a measured amount of blood (about three or four pints) and put in a locked room together with instructions to kick each other’s asses.
Senior Carthians watch these cage matches, and not just out of bloodlusty voyeurism. The spectators are ready to intervene and pull the combatants apart before one kills the other. (Accidents happen, of course. Sometimes one fighter is so outclassed that he gets torn to piecesbefore the referees can arrive.)
The unspoken idea behind reconciliation by force is that there’s a pretty good chance that when two hungry vampires fight, each tries to bite the other and steal Vitae. If that happens and the elders swoop in to pull them apart, the former enemies now have mild Vinculums to each other. Additionally, each has had a chance to express his anger physically and may either feel vindicated (if he won or can reasonably convince himself he would have) or cowed and unwilling to pursue the argument anymore (if he got whipped).
It doesn’t work out perfectly every time, but even when one vampire outclasses the other, biting and draining makes the winner magnanimous in victory. If a Final Death occurs, it’s unfortunate, but that’s the risk you run. The Silver lining is, there isn’t a pair of bickering Carthians anymore.
Modern Gibberish
Vampires who become familiar with specialized slang may actually be able to express themselves perfectly openly to one another while remaining incomprehensible to their less contemporary kin. Two Carthians rapidly firing the latest mediafueled teenspeak at one another will seem, for all the sense older Kindred can make of it, to be speaking a foreign Language to a contingent of tradition-bound elders.A Storyteller wishing to reflect this linguistic drift may choose to allow outsiders an Intelligence + Streetwise roll to see if they can make any sense of the dialog at all. Alternately, players who wish to do say may be allowed to spend experience on the system of slang as a Language Merit, representing a system that is either complex enough or cutting-edge enough to escape the understanding of all but the select few who take the time to learn it.
A Tangible Advantage
The effort Carthians expend on blending in with mortals isn’t just about the satisfaction of shallow preferences. Socializing with them is a hell of a lot easier if one maintains a fashionable appearance and keeps up on current trends. Every vampire who tries going to a bar and picking up a potential snack quickly learns that poor costume choices or inappropriate Language choices can badly hinder their attempts. Additionally, those vampires who manage to update their masquerade simply blend in better than those who fall behind. Disappearing in a crowd of mortals is easier for them, as is flying under the radar of suspicious humans. Hunters are much more likely to investigate the strange, isolated woman who never seems to change her clothes than the one who looks like a trendy clubber, exchanging jokes with the familiar faces of the scene.It would be logical for Storytellers to apply Socialize and Stealth bonuses to those characters who make an effort to stay in touch with human trends, assuming that these characters are mixing with a mainstream crowd (or one that they’ve researched properly). Cumulative +1 bonuses could be applied for dress, speech and a shared interest in up-to-date entertainments.
Example: Julia, an ancilla Daeva, takes great pains to watch and listen to the local mortals so that she can keep up with their fashions. Her player documents her efforts and expenditures aimed at keeping her wardrobe up-to-date and the frequent conversations she engages in with the local mortals in order to maintain her understanding of modern slang. She can’t be bothered to keep up with their tastes in entertainment, though, because she never really managed to get over her distaste for television sets and CD players. When Julia hunts, the Storyteller decides that her appropriate clothing and easy, authentic approach with Language will give her player a +2 bonus on rolls — so long as she sticks to the mainstream crowd she normally hangs around with.
It’s best to apply these modifiers as positive adjustments, creating an enjoyable incentive for players to consider how much effort their characters want to put into trendy behavior. Failing to stay in touch should only produce a negative modifier when the character is interacting with an extremely dedicated and exclusive subculture. The relatively clueless nature of the average vampire should be considered the norm in interaction with most mortals, with no modifier applied.
Cracking the Cant
Note that the local dialect of Carthians is not meant to be a reflection of mortal slang. Carthian slang is an artificial system of speech, created by and for the members of the Movement as a personal code. The advantages of inventing a Language are twofold: not only does it allow free communication near uncomprehending members of competing covenants, but such new Language confuses and frustrates those who think that they’re just speaking in modern mortal idiom, only to find that thelanguage doesn’t work on the streets.The problem with a fabricated dialect is that it’s only as complicated as its speakers make it. As an optional system, the Storyteller can reflect the development of the dialect by encouragingperiodic Intelligence + Expression rolls. When a determined number of successes is reached, (perhaps 20 or 25), the slang can officially become a distinct Language, reflected by the purchase of a Merit. Until then, an Intelligence + Academics roll could be made by witnesses to see if they can figure it out.
Status for Style
A Storyteller should consider the local composition of The Carthian Movement before deciding to award Status to a character for his stylish comportment — if the group is largely intellectual with little concern for surface details, raised Status wouldn’t be appropriate. If, however, the group is weighted toward the “cool-hunter” Kindred, the reward of Status for style should be valid. Sometimes, entire sub-plots can be based around the justification of Status for style, wherein characters debate the validity of the approach with their fellow revolutionaries.It’s safe to say that if a domain sports any Carthian Kindred who have Status ••• or higher for purely stylistic achievement, the local Movement is losing touch with its political roots. Most domains will cap a “chameleon” at Status ••, noting that she doesn’t really deserve any more respect than that until she starts promoting the true agenda of the Movement more actively.
When Clan Matters
Of course, not every domain allows for a familyblind division of labor. Depending on the local flavor of The Carthian Movement and the rule of law, certain clans find themselves in positions of inequality. One democratic Carthian group in Japan, for instance, outlawed full citizenship for Gangrel early in the 20th century with a vote that declared them “intellectually inferior” and “incapable of rendering decisions with necessary consideration.” Another small group operating with a fascist model in western Canada has declared the Nosferatu to be the “ideal form” of a vampire, and restricts all power to that clan and those who are bound by Vinculum to them.Even in less extreme domains, it must be admitted that Blood Ties do occasionally translate into social strata. The members of certain clans may enjoy the “plum” jobs because they are close to high-status members of the covenant, while others find themselves gravitating to the riskier or more tedious roles by simple exclusion.
Prediction or Production?
Trusted Carthian Observers have real potential to falsify mortal advances, claiming to witness thoughts and preferences that Haven’t actually occurred yet in hopes of manipulating the direction of the Movement in their domains. Spotting a dishonest Observer can often be difficult, especially if his fellow Kindred are used to responding to his predictions before humans openly adopt them.The potential for this manipulation is strongest in domains where Carthians seek to one-up each other with respect to the speed and full devotion with which they adopt the modern fashion of their living counterparts. The truly complicated results spring from the close relationships Carthian Kindred tend to maintain with their favorite innovators, and the possibility that those innovators will be influenced by the behavior of their vampire friends.
Nightmare and Public Relations
Nightmare may actually present Carthians with peaceful solutions to violent confrontation, but this Discipline also tends to damage the populist image of the covenant. Nobody who espouses a “power to the people” philosophy wants to be known for cowing their enemies by invoking their deepest fears, whether or not it’s actually more humane than other available options.As a result, most Carthian Kindred who make use of Nightmare are careful to make sure that it’s covert, letting the enemy assume that their fears arose naturally rather than understanding that they were provoked.
Expansionist Policy
The Carthian Movement is one of the only covenants that actively encourages its members to explore new territories, if possible, and seek domains that have no established government. The practice of trailblazing is controversial, as some Kindred believe that the purpose of the Movement is to encourage change in the existing systems, saving the multiplicity of vampires from the choking grasp of tradition. Others believe that establishing “pure Carthian domains” is perfectly acceptable, citing the philosophical opportunities presented by a “carte blanche” territory.Both sides of the debate are satisfied by the tendency of certain Carthian Explorers to seek out domains that are already ruled by small groups of Kindred, paving the way for invasion and eventual conquest by representatives of the Movement who have reason to look for a new home.
Sound Bite:
Samael Winters, Nosferatu
“I don’t see what business of anyone else’s it is where I feed and who I feed on so long as I don’t get in their way. What sucks worst is, I don’t get to choose. I wouldn’t mind asking nice and making sure everyone’s got their own, but I just get told by everyone else, ‘this is where you can feed.’ They said it’s ’cuz that’s where I live, but know what? They told me to live there! ’Course, they pay for the place, so I guess I’m aight. I dunno, ’s just humiliatin’.”
Samael Winters, Nosferatu
Sound Bite:
Richard Sandoval, Mekhet RC
“Welcome to my office. Now, you’re new, so here’s the ground rules. My associates Rainer and Smith are my blood Retainers, and you are to respect them as you would me. They are asleep now, but Rainer will soon wake for his shift. They are in charge of the rest of my staff. The rest of my staff are mortal, so watch what you say and do. They are extremely intelligent, and suspicious by nature. This is necessary, in the work I hired them to do. I serve our fair city by running this detective agency, and these mortals do the legwork. They make phone calls, comb the classified sections of newspapers, monitor thousands of Internet sites and keep extremely detailed files. I have more mortals employed in my company than there are Kindred in this city.” “Now, what did you want to know?”
Richard Sandoval, Mekhet RC
Sound Bite:
Nicholas Kraft; Ordo Dracul Ventrue
“This is unacceptable, simply unacceptable. I require the use of my entire facility exclusively for myself and my students, but this Carthian who is now Prince says I must house neonates! Are my students not neonates? Yet he wants me to house more. So I say to him, will they be learning from me then? Do they have the devotion to live in my house, under my rule? He says, of course they have that choice, but I must not force them. Fah! It is him forcing me to house them, not me forcing anybody!Nicholas Kraft; Ordo Dracul Ventrue
“Why doesn’t this busybody Prince house these young fools himself, or make his supporters do it? I did not subscribe to this egalitarian nonsense! I will certainly not be supporting it. If these neonates wish to live with me, let them try to pass my tests and learn. Otherwise, I will give them nothing. “I have taken nothing from any Prince this city has ever had, and I thus owe nothing in return. It does not matter to me whether Carthians, Invictus or either of the ridiculous churches rules. I just want to be left alone!”