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The back cover illustration depicts a Tzimisce whose face is fleshcrafted to resemble pierced female genitalia; this fact caused the Clanbook to be distributed in a brown paper wrapper once it was noticed by retailers. White Wolf Wiki Explore. Main Page All Pages Community. Chronicles of Darkness. World of Darkness. Books Characters Glossary Timeline. Characters Glossary Timeline. Books Pantheons Glossary. With this revelation, the Clan Tzimisce, along with many others Malkavians , Brujah , even Nosferatu could learn to enjoy the fruits of their decades-long labor and co-exist more-or-less peacefully among the mortals.
The Obertus order was involved in this movement most heavily, of all the Tzimisce lines. They had preserved quite a bit of the lost Library of Alexandria, making them some of the most well-read supernaturals in the world at that time. The Tzimisce Voivodate, a loose confederation of Tzimisce domains in Eastern Europe, had survived since the fall of the Second City only to face new threats to its existence during the Dark Ages.
The first threat to Tzimisce power in the region was the emergence of the Tremere. Though the magi of the Order of Hermes were a familiar presence in the region, they invoked the wrath of the neighboring vampires after prying the secret to vampirism from captured Tzimisce. House Tremere, led by Goratrix officially became Clan Tremere in the wake of the diablerie of Saulot. Despite making enemies of mortal magi, the Tzimisce, the Salubri and later the Gangrel and Nosferatu , the fledgling Tremere managed to survive the Omen War with the Tzimisce.
Despite the Warlocks' continued survival, most Tzimisce continue to bear a grudge against them into the modern era , though many younger Tzimisce fail to comprehend why. The Voivodate, and with it the feudal structure of Tzimisce society, would last only a few centuries longer.
Perhaps the most famous vampire novel although by no means the first , it actually detailed a member of their clan although a somewhat errant one. It introduced audiences to Transylvania, the home of the clan. However, it was the Victorian Age that saw the beginnings of the Tzimisce's decline — once proud and aristocratic, the modernizing of the world turned them into anachronistic jokes.
The ease at which mortals could travel and communicate meant that the Fiends could no longer exist as lords and rulers of their own fiefdoms — troubling news of shambling monstrosities and villagers impaled on pikes would reach more civilized parts of the globe in no time. Science began to shake the iron foundations of folklore and superstition that the Tzimisce had built their fearsome reputation on.
This was truly a double-edged sword for the Clan. Their hated enemies, the Tremere had become very powerful during this time, and the peasants over which most of the Fiends ruled rose up against their masters.
Once again burned from their rotting manses and forced to hide from the Kine, most considered the age a great indignity. However, the leaps and bounds made in medicine and the sciences during this time yielded both a new crop of potential childer and a new way to study the effects of mutable forms.
The Tzimisce had always been students of a sort, and having biology and anatomy codified and much easier to learn, their own knowledge of the body expanded. The Tzimisce are a clan in decline, and have been ever since the Anarch Revolt.
However, only in the Final Nights do these events come to a head and only, until the last moment, in the head of one vampire. Lambach Ruthven , an unwilling sire of Dracula , finds himself dissolute and wandering throughout Sabbat territory, haunted by occasional messages from his dead sire.
Weak-willed and ineffective as Lambach is, he is still fifth generation and a major figure in the Anarch Revolt — respected and feared , he is largely left alone by the cannibals of the Sabbat. He is eventually forced, or encouraged, or led to the sewers of New York City , where he finds a horrifying truth: Lugoj was destroyed that night, and [Tzimisce] "lives". The Tzimisce Antediluvian, through advanced mastery of Vicissitude, has become a gigantic miles-long pseudo-fungal infestation under the tri-state area.
Its consciousness is spread across thousands of creatures, and it can form bodies or new selves at will. It offers Lambach metamorphosis, a chance to be as it is as part of what it is. Lambach fled and tried to tell anyone who would listen, but the endeavor was fruitless. The Tzimisce who bother with politics still remain most populous in the Sabbat in these nights, but there is now also a non-insignificant number who have found their way within the Anarch Movement; especially younger, disenfranchised ones whose ambitions cannot find purchase in other domains, and must redirect their impulse to dominion beyond the old ways.
Finally, although it is understood by both parties that their presence is barely tolerated, a few other Dragons still associate with the Camarilla, mainly for instrumental purposes. The Old Clan also remains an unliving presence in modern nights, one notable name being the autarkis Mayumi Shibasaki , a powerful Kindred corporate who exerts a great deal of influence over the city of Tokyo. Historically, the Tzimisce Embraced broods who maintained a particular plot of land.
Tied to the land, Tzimisce broods were incestuous, violent hierarchies of hateful creatures who maintained a bare modicum of civility through raw power and the blood bond. The central government of the Tzimisce, so to speak, was the Council of Voivodes, guided by the Viceroy. The Viceroy was elected by his peers, but his tenure was set "for life". However, given the jealousy and suspicion among the Clan, there was a relatively regular progression of Viceroys, as one after another fell to the political or physical traps set by another ambitious clan member.
The Council had anywhere from less than a dozen to nearly a hundred members during the Dark Ages, making it the single most influential factor in Clan politics.
With the elimination of this hierarchy during the Anarch Revolt , the Tzimisce have become intensely solitary creatures. They now tend to Embrace more unusual individuals, psychopaths and sadists are common choices as are people who indulge in self-mutilation, however intelligence and dignity are still key concerns: the Tzimisce would choose Hannibal Lecter over Leatherface any day of the month.
In the modern era, the Tzimisce have a recognized clan head, the voivode , but the office is largely religious. For most Tzimisce, authority is a function of power. Tzimisce who have awakened their zulo shape i. Zhupans are respected for their knowledge and power, and may "suggest" courses of action to lesser Tzimisce. The lesser Tzimisce are not required to heed a "suggestion," but ignoring a zhupan is considered extremely rude and will almost inevitably alienate the zhupan so snubbed.
Within the Sabbat , the Tzimisce are the spiritual leaders and scholars, in contrast with the Lasombra's preference for leadership and temporal power. While the Lasombra are the Cardinals and Bishops , the Tzimisce prefer being Pack Priests , Prisci , or even not having titles at all and focusing on personal development.
Some people even ponder out of earshot, of course that the Tzimisce are not very sincere in their attachment to the sect, and that the only reasons they are even present amongst the Sabbat is their dislike of Camarilla clans especially the Tremere and not fitting with the Camarilla's policy of hiding among humans Tzimisce tend to see humans as mere plaything below their consideration. However, those Tzimisce who show genuine dedication to the Sabbat ideal are paragons of their sect, impressing and even scaring other Sabbat with their fervor and contributions.
In Eastern Europe, however, many Tzimisce give only lip service to the Sabbat and prefer to live solitary unlives following their own pursuits. Most Sabbat give these Tzimisce leeway, since most of them are very old and very powerful. More than one upstart neonate has been toyed into an unrecognizable visceral mess by angry Tzimisce wanting to be left alone.
While all Tzimisce consider themselves scholars, scientists, and sorcerers of a sort, those who call themselves kolduns claim to be the first vampires to have mastered sorcery.
It is uncertain if kolduns are a true variation of the blood or a title bestowed upon those who have mastered the eldritch energies of the land, but in any case, kolduns are rare and respected among the Tzimisce. Not all have the aptitude to properly harness and control the land's spirits in the practice of koldunism , and those who fail are incinerated by the unbound power.
Those who succeed are Kolduns. Due to their unique ties to their ancestral soil, most Kolduns belong to the Old Clan, and the discipline is almost universal among them; most Tzimisce in the Sabbat lack the spiritual strength to master Koldunism, although exceptions are becoming increasingly common in the modern nights.
The younger generations of Tzimisce have taken to calling them the Old Clan Tzimisce , members of the Tzimisce clan who did not join the Sabbat or cultivate the use of Vicissitude, but they call themselves the Dracul and do not consider themselves a bloodline.
Most of them are old at least years old, as they predate the formation of the Sabbat , of low generation and rule small domains almost exclusively in Eastern Europe. The majority of Tzimisce elders met Final Death when the clan joined the Sabbat, but a fair number escaped their vindictive progeny. Securing their demesnes against the ravages of the Sabbat, these vampires continued to exist much as they had for centuries, albeit more warily.
Though some refer to these Tzimisce as the "Old Clan", that is a misnomer. These hoary vampires have little use for sect, clan, or other ties. They remember well the nights of old when each vampire was a law unto itself, and any other vampire was a potential enemy. Note that like the surviving non-Sabbat Lasombra, Old Clan Tzimisce do not call themselves " antitribu ". Some of them have gathered in the Oradea League to fend off the sects who threaten their autonomy.
Accordingly, Old Clan Tzimisce society is structured around individual broods comprising a sire and one or more Blood Bound childer. Childer, for Old Clan Tzimisce, fill the roles of lovers, family, friends, bodyguards, and servants. Tzimisce mastery over the Blood Bond allows the sire to attune the emotions of his childer to the desired pitch.
Thus, a vampire lover may be Blood Bound to feel all-consuming desire for the sire, a guard may be Blood Bound for loyalty, and a mate may be "programmed" for love.
The fact that these emotions are artificial and one-sided rarely bothers the sire. Old Clan Tzimisce rarely congregate. Other Tzimisce are, if anything, even less trustworthy than other vampires. Indeed, many Old Clan Tzimisce spend more time brooding over some millennia-old, centuries-forgotten slight by one of their "peers" than they do worrying about the genuine threat that the Sabbat poses. This is not to say that Old Clan Tzimisce have forgotten their traitorous progeny.
On the contrary, many Old Clan Tzimisce have gone so far as to disown younger Tzimisce entirely.
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