Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

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chapter one: society of the damned
Kindred Covenants
If the clans represent family and perhaps culture among the Kindred, and cities are their domains,
then the various covenants represent the closest vampiric equivalent to nations, political
parties and even religions. The covenants form a cornerstone of undead society and — as far as
is possible to determine — are ancient traditions that have been part of the vampiric world for
centuries. The covenants that are (supposedly) oldest hold a more respected “pedigree” than
others, but none is truly modern. Even those young vampires who believe that Kindred society
as it exists tonight is a relatively recent development admit that the covenants almost certainly
predate the Industrial Revolution in some form or another.
The covenants serve as nations, for they provide the Kindred with a sense of community
that they can fi nd nowhere else. Kindred are Embraced into a clan, with no say of their own.
Like many mortals, even if they feel a loyalty to their blood and their family, they often differ
with one another in their opinions and beliefs. For the most part, they are trapped in their
home domains, and their loyalty toward the local regime is usually purchased with fear and
enforced by ambition. Covenant allegiance, however, is something over which Kindred have
personal control. They are drawn toward factions that espouse doctrines in which they can
believe (or at least to which they don’t object). Here, more than anywhere else, they are likely
to encounter other Kindred who share at least some of their ideas and objectives.
The covenants serve as political parties, for they provide ambitious Kindred with built-in
support. Most covenants seek as much infl uence in the local Kindred power structure as
possible, either to advance their own goals or to simply prevent rivals from gaining power.
For the most part, politically active Kindred would rather have a fellow covenant member in
power than any other rival (though many would certainly rather hold the power themselves,
when at all possible). A vampire with many elder allies working to aid his ascendance has an
undeniable advantage over rivals with less support.
Perhaps most strangely, the covenants even serve as a religious body for some members.
While some of the covenants are overtly religious, all of the factions have strongly held beliefs
and attitudes that often reach the level of dogma. While some young Kindred fl it from
ideology to ideology, either in search of a place to belong or trying to fi gure out their own
attitudes, many other vampires cling so completely to the doctrines of their chosen covenants
that they are unable to comprehend any other viewpoints. While only a few covenants declare
outright that their way is mandated by Longinus, God or some other higher power, most of
them claim zealots who certainly seem to act that way.
Further distinguishing them from clans, covenants have a fl uid membership. A Kindred’s
clan never changes, but a Kindred’s covenant may. Certainly, it is diffi cult to forswear one’s
covenant and join a new one, but doing so is not impossible. An expected lack of trust often
accompanies such behavior, but only the most severe members of either the renounced or
the new covenant stoop to leveling claims of treachery against a convert. In many cases, a
Kindred’s philosophies simply change over the course of the Requiem. Most covenant members
would rather lose a dilettante whose heart doesn’t truly belong to the cause any longer
than have her lack of faith undermine the rest. Granted, those who repudiate all covenants
usually lose signifi cant esteem in the eyes of erstwhile peers, but sometimes a Kindred just
grows… away.
Such being the case, it is with raised eyebrows that the Damned allow others of their kind
to move from one covenant to another. Oddly, neonates and under-accomplished ancillae