By Brian Connors (connorbd@bc.edu) Refer to World of Darkness: The Roman Empire.
The wounds of Carthage are fresh. The secret of Carthage that was kept from the world is that `eluhim (gods) were said to walk the earth in what would become known as North Africa. The truth was that the Brushah, only called gods because there was no better word for them at the time, walked among, lived with, and ruled with (not over) the people of Carthage. The human rulers of Carthage were frequently embraced upon their deaths, and it is said among vampires that the Greek gods of the Underworld and many of the "souls" that they watched over were Brushah, living underground because they couldn't come out in the day.
No one knows the origins of the curse, though. Most Brushah frenzy easily. This is something those who do deny and those who don't constantly tease those that do. It is, however, known to be related to genealogy. Six hundred years ago, in the dawning days of the (allegedly) Ventruta-instigated Punic Wars, one of Brushah's direct progeny, a vampire of a gender that has not been passed down named Troile, made a trip to Italy. No one knows what happened in Italy (whatever it was was apparently enough to incite two centuries of warfare), but Troile came back different. She (or so most of "her" line consider Troile) had come back a much less secure, even edgy being; some say she had been feeding on Lupines while in Italy, while others say she may have taken down a good portion of the Ventruta council in Latium or Etruria and not really been able to deal with it.
In any case, the Etruscan-ruled city-state of Ruma, in Latium, declared war on Carthage. The Ventruta, who were primarily of Etruscan and noble Italic and Gaulish extraction in those days, were thought to have been behind it. After decades of fighting and paranoid ceasefires and numerous Carthaginian and Roman victories, Ruma, no longer ruled by the Etruscan Tarkhna family but by Italic nobles from the surrounding area of Latium, finally reached Carthage and completely destroyed the city, rendering its fields infertile with mass quantities of sea salt and utterly subjugating its inhabitants. Troile struck back at ascendant Rome in a parthian volley, landing by night on the coast of Latium and personally diablerizing the now-forgotten Ventruta progenitor and achieving Antediluvian status for herself.
It was not long after that that Brushah himself disappeared; suspicion fell on one of Troile's lieutenants, but until a century ago no blame has fallen on the exceedingly reclusive Troile. This has all changed, and divided the clan into factions. The Brusiatus Verus, whose members by and large do not suffer the easier frenzy, have remained in north Africa and managed to keep at least some of the ancient Phoenician culture of Carthage alive; the Troilites, on the other hand, many of whom do suffer the curse, have become much more numerous and martial and have spread to other parts of the nascent Empire. Troilite Brushah have had their own influence on the Taureator-born philosophies that have emerged from the Hellenic civilization that Rome has begun to absorb, but their expansion as far as Tartessus has begun to run afoul of the secretive Shadowed Ones, the nameless vampires of the territory of the ancient Vascones.
Troilites (to Verus Brusiatus): Failures. Their frenzy will be their downfall, and their devotion to a monster like Troile will be their discrediting. Then we shall return the Brushah to their rightful place.
Cappadocii: They need to learn what it is to work with what is instead of what was.
Gangrilli: These barbarians will not be welcome in our New Carthage. They would surely ruin it for everyone.
Haqimin: Whomever destroyed Brushah studied the methods of these creatures. Certainly we'll never find out what these hide.
Malcafii: So many see these as manipulative and untrustworthy. We think they're simply insane. It scares me that they rule at all.
Nictuci: I'm not sure whether to sympathise or ridicule. They are divided as well, but their quarrel seems so much deeper.
Rafanuti: Stories have been passed down to us, but you cannot trust the unknowable.
Salubri: Too passive, but they have the right ideals. If they are still here when we rebuild our Carthage, they will most certainly be welcome.
Simistis: What we have gleaned of them we do not like. A strict society is doomed only to failure.
(Note the irony... -bc)
Taureator: Hedonism is no path to enlightenment, and they are only the heirs to the Ventrutae. They have learned no more than those they drove out.
Umbrati: The lack of control among the Troilites will make it very difficult for us to resist their manipulations in Tartessus. And their power over darkness covers too efficiently for us to trust them.
Ventrutae: They deserve their exile for being so vile.