OLD CLAN TZIMISCE: HOUSE ELENADES

By Myranda Kalis (nagaina@yahoo.com)

Refer to the Old Clan Tzimisce: The Oradea League.

Description

Cradled in the mountains of Macedonia, the Tzimisce House of Elenades has survived nearly endless strife since its earliest nights, weathering internal attempts to engineer their destruction and a nearly overwhelming external threat in the form of the Tal'mahe'Ra. As the next thousand years draw closer, they struggle to change the perceptions of the Hand and their own Clan, and insure that their line, and their vision, does not die without a fight.

Born of the Methuselah known as Elena Lightbringer, the Elenades are one of the smallest Houses of the Old Clan, based in the mountainous, and thoroughly mutinous, Macedonian region of northern Greece. Their House's history is lost to all but the most knowledgeable Tzimisce scholars and geneologists, and they generally prefer it that way. The Elenades prefer that their secrets remain their own, despite the rumblings of distrust this causes among their own Clanmates. Few outside of the House itself know the name of their founder; even fewer could tell more than a bare minimum about them; no one but the House's eldest and most trusted members knows where, precisely, their main chantry lies or how to approach it. Despite their Clan weakness, the Elenades tend to be strongly mendicant in their tendencies, wandering the world, occasionally setting up shop in one place for a decade or two before continuing on to the next place. This has made them very difficult to pin down, and thus strike at, and has paid other dividends as well: they are, next to the Tzildaris, one of the most widely travelled and knowledgeable Houses in existence, having many connections amongst the other supernatural beings of the world. This is particularly true among the vampires of Clan Gangrel, the Scathach Sidhe, and the Garou tribe known as the Silent Striders.

Elena Lightbringer herself is believed by her House to have been a mendicant warrior-priestess, possibly a mage, but certainly a wisewoman of ancient traditions. The tale of how she won her epithet, as well as her embrace, is a tale ritually enacted at a decannual gathering that takes place near, but never at, the site where her torporous body lies protected by her four most loyal childer. Incorporating elements of myth and sacrifice, the legend speaks of the warrior-sorceress Elena who came upon the scene of a terrible battle, a lone warrior fighting a mass of shadow-creatures that flowed together and seemed to change shape at will. Realizing that he had no hope of defeating them alone, Elena came to his aid, and eventually the two succeeded in driving off his assailants. She took the horribly wounded and nearly torporous Antediluvian to her sister, whose own lands lay nearby, and together rendered him further aid, the ultimate result of which was his grateful embrace. Similar to the Kupala's Night ceremonies of the more northern Houses, the ceremony comemorating the embrace of the Elenades founder ends in a blood sacrifice, but of a willing victim whose death seals the sanctified bond between the Elenades and the Lightbringer herself, until the next celebration comes about.

How much of this is truth and how much is fancy, the Elenades will neither confirm nor deny to those who know of it. What is known is that they tend to follow an internal code of their own, nearly chivalrous in its nature, that nearly requires that they aid those in need, irregardless of appearances, species, or state of supernatural awareness. They have been compared to the Salubri for the depth of their commitment, but, unlike the Salubri, the Elenades do not go to self-destructive lengths in the application of their ideals: common sense and a genuine love of unlife, rather than suicidal self-loathing, characterizes their thinking. This, as well as their highly refined command of the Vicissitude discipline, has earned them no few enemies inside their own Clan, particularly those Houses who maintain ideals of extreme isolationism and who actively support the Tal'mahe'Ra and the Shadow Crusade. Periodically ravaged by both, the Elenades are deeply suspicious and resentful of most of the rest of their Clan, particularly those who insist that it is impossible for any good to come of their "tainted blood." They have, almost without trying, become the pivot on which the Clan's opinion of Vicissitude and the Shadow Crusade is turning, their beneficent use of the discipline fueling the interclan schism over its purely malific nature.

Character Creation

The oldest members of House Elenades tend to be of martial or scholarly concepts -- particularly pagan priests and warriors. Mystics are not at all uncommon among their numbers. Younger members tend to be students and career (or retired) military. Ethnically, the Elenades are a widely diverse House. Mental attributes and Talents or Knowledges tend to be primary. Common backgrounds include Age, Contacts, and Mentor. Additionally, due to their generally mendicant way of life, tend to possess the merits Well Travelled and Supernatural Companion. There are Elenades in both the Sabbat and the Inconnu, though most tend to remain genuinely neutral in Kindred politics and lend their services to their whims when it comes with dealing with others of their own kind.

Background

The Elenades choose their progeny from among a wide pool of ethnicities and nationalities -- only the very oldest members of the House are of strictly Eastern European descent. They prefer highly educated and knowledgeable progeny who can think quickly and react even more quickly. Inborn mystick ability is a plus, but not vital in their selection criteria.

Appearance

The Elenades, more than any other House, strive to blend into the background, affecting modern clothing when they must, as well as altering their appearance via Vicissitude as necessary. When alone, they tend to relax into whatever fashion or appearance they feel most comfortable in, not necessarily the one that any acquaintances they have might have last saw them in. This makes for some interesting customs when it comes to verifying identities.

Haven

The Elenades tend to have at least one small haven in every place that they return to habitually, as well as at least one other alternate haven in that same place, occasionally numbering as many as two or three. They are, of course, rather rabidly paranoid when it comes to their havens, and will abandon one if they think that its location has been compromised in any way. Older Elenades tend to settle down after several centuries of wandering on large, relatively isolated wilderness-havens where younger Elenades periodically find refuge; those who do so in the midst of civilization tend to run something like Elenades halfway houses, coordinating communications and activity within the House. If there is a main geographical Haven for the House proper, most Elenades are unaware of its location, though unsubstantiated rumor places it in Macedonia near the Albanian border, where the Lightbringer lies in torpor, guarded by her four favorite childer, and occasionally visited by the House's reigning Voivode to make certain all is well.

Preferred Paths

The Elenades tend to follow modified forms of the Path of Chivalry, the Path of Honorable Accord, the Path of the Beast, and the Path of Humanitas, alone or in combination. Their general sense of ethics can be discribed as chivalric, and they tend to have their own internal Code of Honor as well.

Disciplines

Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude. The Elenades use a highly refined form of Vicissitude, usually in combination with Auspex, that grants them the healing talents for which they are justly (in)famous -- they tend to completely lack the Zulo form in favor of other methods of discipline development. A familiarity with the physical disciplines is common, as is Thaumaturgy.

Weaknesses

The Elenades suffer the Tzimisce Clan weakness as normal, and must rest in at least two handfuls of their native earth or suffer the consequences. Additionally, their possession of Vicissitude makes them suspect in the eyes of many Houses of the Old Clan, as well as their decidedly non-traditional lifestyle. This tends to earn them the flaws Enemy and Notoriety somewhere along the line.