By Sarah Trout (holychao@swbell.net). Also see the Disciples of Eris mage tradition.
Which turned out to be easier said than done.
Thie first attempt of the Tremere to catch her resulted in profound embarassment as the Warlock troops sent against her danced themselves into torpor, thanks to Eris's enchanted flute music. After this incident, she changed her name to Eris (the Greek goddess of chaos), had a friend well-versed in Vicissitude to give her a new face, and had one of the elder Akashic Brothers of her old chantry give her a new aura...an aura that screams "nyeh nyeh nyeh" to the Tremere.
That done, Eris set about recruiting Mage and Vampire alike to crusade against the Tremere. These early recruits were the founding fathers of House Kallisti, Eris's network of chantries that specifically researched antimagick. Even now, Eris has no problem finding interested parties to join her army, whether as Mages or as Vampires. Those who choose to become Vampires no longer consider themselves Tremere.
Like all Tremere antitribu, the Erisians are marked with a sigil on their foreheads. The Erisians are marked with an iridescent blue glyph, so that they can be distinguished from normal Tremere antitribu. Not only that, but the mark of the Erisian is visible to everybody, not just Tremere! Supposedly, this was done by Eris herself, just to rub salt in the wounds of the Tremere. Basically, every Erisian shouts "Here I am! Come get me!" every time she walks out in public. The Camarilla has mixed feelings about the brand. The Ventrue and Toreador tend to frown upon showing it openly, claiming the Masquerade is endangered. Most of the other clans don't seem to mind. Humans have been seen, on more than one occasion, declaring it "cool," thinking it's just a neat tattoo.
The Erisians have attracted surprisingly little fire from the Camarilla despite their wars with the Tremere. In fact, the Justicars of the Gangrel, Nosferatu, and Ventrue Clans have suggested extending full Camarilla membership to the Erisians. Of course, the Tremere are not happy about it. Also causing concern to the Tremere is the fact that there is documented proof that Eris was originally 9th generation, and now she exhibits powers more suited to a 6th or 7th generation Vampire. The Tremere are blaming the disappearance of one of their Lords on her and have formally accused her of diablerie; however, the Camarilla has dismissed this as hearsay (although, in strict confidence, one user of Auspex claims to have seen black veins in Eris's aura...). Worse, they fear she is "working her way up the pyramid" and will not stop until she has drained the blood of Tremere himself, and the Camarilla looks the other way all the while. After all, the elders say when the Tremere start pissing and moaning, that's how Tremere got where he is today. Tremere elders are accusing the Camarilla of slowly pushing the Tremere out of the fold and replacing them with the infinitely more trustworthy Erisians.
"Ha, ha! I love these guys. They save me a lot of work keeping those nuts at the Chantry busy and outta my hair."
Tremere: (blows very wet raspberry)
"No comment. We would rather not think about these embarrassments to our House and Clan."
Ventrue: Now here's the biggest bunch of geeks I've ever seen. They need to get up off their asses and enjoy what immortality has to offer. And I don't mean kissing the Tremeres' butts for a century or two.
"We became grudging allies of the Tremere long ago. The Erisians seem to be loyal to the Camarilla despite the fact that they loathe the Tremere and protect the Salubri...if they do succeed in their quest, I would welcome them as replacements for the damned Warlocks."
Gangrel: They're okay. They don't like the Tremere, we don't like the Tremere, that's about as far as it goes.
"It amuses me to no end to watch the Tremere running around chasing their tails while the Erisians throw their antimagick at them. I say more power to them."
Brujah: Once in a while you find one that actually has a clue, like they were before they got all pissed off and learned Celerity and all that. Recruit him right there.
"I gotta go with the Gangrel on this one. I love these guys. The Tremere are so busy chasing them down they leave the rest of us alone."
Malkavian: Yeah, they're scary. They're so damn scary because they're the only ones who really know the truth about what's going on.
"They're cool. They treat us real nice and stuff, and they help us play jokes on the Tremere."
Toreador: They do some good stuff, like helping out the kine and whathaveya, but they get on my damn nerves something fierce.
"We're not sure what to think about these weirdos. Yes, they keep the Tremere on their toes and out of our business, but at what cost to the Camarilla?"
Setites: Eww. These dudes make our butts draw up in knots. They actually scare the hell out of us...but don't tell 'em we said that.
"Well, speaking as a Cam Snake, I say leave them alone. Now of course you realize, one of my independent counterparts wouldn't be so nice."
Ravnos: They'd be fine if they weren't such damn kleptos...that's the last time I let one of 'em in here, I swear my guitar was right over there!
Salubri: Now please refresh my memory...what the hell did they do to make everyone hate them!? Oh. Oh yeah. They were nice to everyone and helped a bunch of licks find Golconda and made some crazy folks sane again and healed some hurt people...gee, that sounds awful to me. Damn Tremere.
"We don't know why they risk so much to help us, but we definitely appreciate it!"
Description: Nothing clears a roomful of Mages faster than your entrance. Mortal mages and Erisians alike scatter as soon as you whip out those foci. Maybe you hadn't been a mage for very long when you were Embraced, or maybe you managed to get away with a lot of really wild stuff in your breathing days. That's all changed now. Even the teensiest little bits of vulgar magick generates enough Paradox to knock you flat, but you can't help yourself.
Description: You were probably one of the rare Hermetic mages that made her way into the ranks of the Erisians, or maybe you just wanted to learn it all right now. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to try Holy Chao out so soon, and perhaps you could have found a better target than that 6th generation Tremere Lord. Oh well. Too late now. For what it's worth, Malkavians love you.
Description: You are just sick and tired of all the bickering. Whether your brothers and sisters like it or not, you and the Tremere are of the same blood. Not that you approve of what the Tremere do; not that you don't enjoy conjuring a roomful of Styrofoam packing peanuts in the Tremere chantry's main hall; you just think if the two bloodlines could set their differences aside everything would be fine. Naturally, you are looked upon with suspicion by both groups.
Description: You are either a real Erisian that's getting paid something fierce by the Tremere or a Tremere that's Dominated to believe she's an Erisian (and pre-programmed to call in every so often). However, you know deep down that what you're doing is wrong and it could get your ass killed by both sides if you make one wrong move. Although you may seem cheerful on the outside, anyone with a decent grip on Auspex will sense that there's something not quite right about you.
Description: This character can also be used by an Assamite working for the Erisians, incidentally. Plain and simple--you hate the Tremere. You hate everything they stand for. So logically, if you hate the Tremere and Eris hates the Tremere, Eris is Numero Uno in your life. You would gladly suffer Final Death or worse if you managed to send a few Warlocks to meet Allah at the same time.
Description: The bulk of the Disciples of Eris fall into this category. You remember why you liked the Cult of Ecstacy so much, and being a vampire has only made it better. And there's no high quite like the one you get from human blood laced with psilocybin...