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

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THE CIRCLE OF THE CRONE
Few vampires outside the Circle of the Crone have a complete understanding of the group’s
secretive beliefs and behaviors. As a covenant, the Circle is as devoted as the Carthians, more
tightly organized than the Invictus, and often more feared and misunderstood than the Lancea
Sanctum and the Ordo Dracul. For many neonates, these mysterious Kindred are the
“bogeymen” of vampire society — those who gather in sequestered cabals, where they practice
ancient and eldritch rites in reverence to bloody gods and goddesses of cultures forgotten or
shunned. These are the vampires about whom elders warn their childer: the political outcasts,
iconoclasts and, to some, heretics of the Damned.
OVERVIEW
The Circle of the Crone decries what are the most widely accepted creation myths of the vampire.
To these cultists, the Lancea Sanctum’s progenitor is not to be revered, worshipped or even heeded.
Nor is the Ordo Dracul’s nigh-mythical founder anything but a grand ruse. Instead, the Circle of
the Crone claims a more naturalistic origin for vampires, that they have always been a part of the
world, spawned in the dark places where mortals fear to tread and where guarded suspicion yields
to open fear. Their origin stories invoke such names as the Russian witch Baba Yaga, the horned
god Cernunnos, the Thracian goddess of moon and magic Bendis, the animal-god Pashupati, bull
sacrifi ces in the name of Mithras, and the bloodier incarnations of the Morrigan. Members of the
Circle of the Crone occasionally even incorporate elements predating Lancea Sanctum dogma
into their philosophy through Lilith, the fi rst wife of Adam. Acolytes, as members of the Circle
are often known, reject vampiric notions of penitence entirely. Instead, they take a more organic
approach to unlife, one that allows for all creatures — even the living dead — to continue to learn,
grow and fi nd enlightenment over time. While much of Kindred tradition places emphasis on
guilt and penance according to the Judeo-Christian model, the Circle of the Crone sees itself as
outside that framework.
Members of this covenant maintain that the primary lesson to be learned from any origin
myth of the undead is that a vampire is never more or less a victim than he chooses to be.
Empowerment and enlightenment are both well within the reach of any creature, vampire
or otherwise, who is truthful and dedicated enough to attain them. Although the Circle is
primarily a vampiric phenomenon, its ideology extends beyond the worldly borders of the
Kindred plight and is attractive to non-Kindred as well. As such, the Circle boasts some of
the most extensive and unusual contacts among similarly inclined creatures, including mages
and even werewolves.
chapter one: society of the damned