By Myranda Kalis (nagaina@yahoo.com)
Refer to the Old Clan Tzimisce: The Oradea League.
Born in the mist-shrouded mountains of Austria, on the banks of the River Danube, House von Klatka is an elder House of an elder Clan, despite their relatively modern name. Lore within the House tells of their sire, an elemental priest/mage of the tribes that prowled the lands around the great river, a willing childe embraced for his ready spirit and brilliant mind. Their earliest years were spent in relative peace and isolation in the mountains and forests of what would one day be called Austria, their House's progenitor, usually named Valorian, and his progeny dwelling quietly within the borders of their Domain, contemplating the truths of their undead condition, their world, and their place in it. They would, in all likelihood, have been content to continue doing so, being a House both scholarly and mystic, allowing the world to pass by them while they observed and studied it. They would have, had it not been for two things. The first was the Ventrue. The second was the Tremere.
Despite their notably peaceful and scholarly nature, the House was, nevertheless, also Tzimisce, so closely bound to their homeland that the footsteps of any invader resounded within their own souls. And invaders there were, for centuries, in plenty, tribes both eastern and western in search of new lands to seize and dwell in. With the easterners, the House, then called House Valorian, abided more peacefully, for after a few carefully timed and chosen demonstrations, they understood each other well and no further action was necessary on the part of the land's Kindred masters. Relations with the westerners would prove to be more problematic, for they had Kindred masters of their own goading them on, the Teutonic Ventrue stretching out their hands to expand their dominion from west to east. It was, by definition, a bad idea on the part of the Ventrue, and reignited a nearly-forgotten bloodfeud that had simmered between Clans Tzimisce and Ventrue for nearly as long as both Clans had been in existence. House Valorian were the first Tzimisces that the Ventrue and their human pawns/allies met on their way east, though they were not the last, and since that time, the House has been at war almost constantly -- first against the Ventrue, whom they justly accused of violating the laws of Domain, and later against the Lasombra as well. Dragged from their more peaceful mode of existence by the continual harrassment of their House and Clan, House Valorian became one of the most openly warlike of all the Houses of Clan Tzimisce, forming what constituted the Clan's first line of defense against invaders from the west, their abilities transmuting from a pure study of the mystick sciences to truly fearsome applications of Thaumaturgic war magick.
By the time of the rise of the Tremere, the House was a hard-bitten war machine that had suffered greatly in their devotion to their Clan, their numbers never particularly stable, the borders of their domain fluctuating at least once every decade, the best of their blood spilled in battle with a seemingly endless series of foes. The greatest enemy they would ever face, however, was growing within the borders of their own homeland, among the Magi of the Order of Hermes and the House of Tremere. Even then, word travelled quickly among the members of Clan Tzimisce, and so soon after the act the rumor reached their ears that the upstart human wizards had kidnapped a member of the Clan from where he lay in torpor in his mountain crypt -- and many wondered if it might not be time to do something about them, who bled the land for Quintessence and gave nothing back to it, grasping and greedy in their hunger for the pure essence of the universe. Rumor did not need to tell them what happened next, for every Tzimisce unalive felt it the night that Tremere and his seven closest councilors worked their ritual, using the vitae stolen from a Tzimisce Methuselah to transform themselves into a form that the ages could not touch -- they felt it as though their own souls had been defiled by the Magus' grasping talons, a horrible wrenching shock running through them, as though something inexpressibly precious had been torn away.
After that, there was no turning back, and House Valorian, along with House Ruthven, House Djilas, and most of the Houses of what would one day become the Tzimisces of the Sabbat, threw themselves into bloodwar with the upstart House Tremere to avenge the defiled honor and sanctity of their Clan. House Valorian, occupying the same territory as the Tremere themselves, endured more directly than any of the others the full fury of the wizards-turned-vampires, and the decades, then centuries, of warfare cost them dearly. Their House's founder was killed in battle, as were many of his childer, the House itself nearly decimated before a grandchilde of Valorian, a woman named Margaret von Klatka, came forward to claim the leadership of the House. As the Tremere/Tzimisce bloodwar died away in the face of the Inquisition and the Anarch Revolt, Margaret gathered up the shattered remnants of her House, withdrawing for the first time in millenia from the field of battle to her hidden Chantry in the mountains of eastern Austria. There the House, believed annihilated in the bloodwar and the Revolt that followed, hid beneath the very nose of their tormentors for nearly three centuries, regathering their strength and assessing both their losses and their prospects. A substantial number of the House's younger members had defected to the Anarchs when the Revolt first began, leaving the House with severely reduced numbers even before the casualties they had suffered in war; by the time the Revolt ended, there were perhaps seven members of the House of elder generation still in existence. It was around these seven that Margaret von Klatka rebuilt her House, giving it both her name and her full power as both koldun and, once they regained contact with the other Houses of the Old Clan that had survived, Voivode. For the next several hundred years they quietly and cautiously regained their strength, recruiting from among the most gifted and mystically inclined Kine that they could locate, relying heavily on not only their own ghoul families, whom had remained loyal to them throughout, but also on what was left of the old Order of Hermes. Margaret von Klatka herself had been a Magus of House Tytalus and recognized the potential inherent in embracing those who already had reason to despise the Tremere -- or, if the embrace was not an option, recruit them. By the time the Convention of Thorns came about, House von Klatka was strong enough again to pose a serious threat to the health and well-being of "Clan" Tremere, and in a fairly unique position to do so.
Rather than challenge the Tremere openly, House von Klatka went underground, insitituting a policy of guerilla harrassment on both a political and a Thaumaturgic front. Not content to merely hit the Tremere where they live, they have spread themselves out to cover every place that they can discover a Tremere presence or interest. They are, in fact, so obsessed with completely annihilating the Tremere, that they have nearly become the Tremere themselves: highly structured, incredibly disciplined, and extraordinarily effective. What drives the von Klatkas to such heights (or is that depths?) of homicidal effort is not, however, only the avenging of their Clan -- not any longer. Many of the House's most gifted Thaumaturgists and psychics are haunted by a vision -- a hideous vision -- of what the world will become if the Tremere are allowed to fulfill their agenda of locking the entire world into a pyramid of power with themselves at the top. This, more than anything else, is now what drives House von Klatka onward as Gehenna draws closer and their visions darken beneath a future ruled by the Tremere.
Brujah: They are savage warriors and they loathe the Tremere nearly as much as we do. Recruit them to our cause whenever possible.
Giovanni: Useless.
Followers Of Set: We have no traffic with them if we can avoid it -- but if we cannot, we quickly show them how tiresome their games really are.
Gangrel: Our friends and allies of old...and perhaps again.
Lasombra: Oh, please. Have they not curled up and died yet?
Malkavians: For an excellent laugh and even better terror tactics; simply point a Malkavian in the direction of the nearest Tremere chantry and wait for the explosions to begin.
Nosferatu: Admirable Kindred. We respect their neutrality and appreciate their business sense, particularly when it comes to the issue of information brokerage. There are no better spies on this earth.
Ravnos: Children.
Toreador: Utterly useless. Why are there so many of them?!
Tremere: It is as it always has been -- we will tear their stolen gift from their flayed innards, skewer them on the Carpathian peaks they defiled, feed the Danube vodyanoi with their bilious humours, and leave the rest for the carrion birds. Then we will truly begin to teach them the meaning of pain. I do not care what the Tzildaris say about them.
Ventrue: If they were half the Kindred they claim to be, they would have aided us in crushing the Tremere when they were still as insects.
Ba'ali: Vile, treacherous, twisted, evil -- they are all of these things -- but even Shaitan's vision is sweet compared to what will become of this world if the Tremere are allowed to succeed in their schemes.
Gargoyles: (withering glare)
House Brankovan-Waivadi: They, too, have suffered tremendously at the hands of our ancient enemies, and that alone earns them forgiveness for their failure to act against the Tremere.
House Vardalek: Are you certain they are not Toreador?
House Elenades: Every Clan needs their warriors, and every Clan needs their healers....a function this House fills well.
House Ruthven: Even more useless than they were during the Revolt. Why do the Tzildaris even bother with them?
House Smatzkhe: We can do nothing for them and they can do nothing for us. We will both either stand or fall on our own.
House Bathory-Nadasdy: Hmph. At least they do not attempt to spread their perversion...
House Venizelos: Bankers. What more need be said?
House Djilas: Djilaj needs to take his childer over his knee and remind them who brought them into this world.
House Frasheri: Even better than us -- and that is truly saying something.
House Tzildaris: Were it not for their revolting softness when it comes to dealing with the Tremere, we would call them the first among us. As it is, they must either redeem themselves in our eyes or forsake the name Tzimisce, for they cannot love the Tremere and remain of our Blood.