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

it, nor does it mean to adhere to an ancient set of laws or to venerate a god. Its members seek
simply to move beyond, and that attracts a certain class of vampire. Kindred who are dissatisfi
ed with their lot but who attribute that dissatisfaction to a spiritual or mystical state rather
than to a political or temporal one make good candidates for the Ordo Dracul. Vampires who
believe in some sort of origin for the Kindred, but who lack the zealotry or dogma necessary
to join the Lancea Sanctum do so as well. The most accomplished Dragons of the Order tend
to come from those Kindred who are open-minded and realistic before the Embrace. They
see what they have become and do not immediately accept that the Requiem is the ultimate
end of their existence. These sorts of Dragons are the cream of the crop.
Most, however, join the covenant to cheat the curse of undeath, pure and simple. The
lure of the group’s high rites draws all clans, and even members of the Lancea Sanctum have
been known to leave their covenant, thus committing unthinkable blasphemy, to join the
Ordo Dracul. The reverse is also true. Occasionally a member of the Order decides that the
ceremonies she observes are sins against nature or a higher power and resolves never to call
upon her hard-won knowledge again, passing the rest of her nights in quiet penance for her
dabbling in forbidden mysteries. The Order has even noticed that certain specifi c areas of
study induce this response more than others, and these texts and formulae offer a tempting
target for young Dragons looking to make names for themselves.
The Ordo Dracul boasts members from all clans. The covenant hasn’t seen that any one
widespread lineage has any particular advantage over another. Of course, a given bloodline
might spawn members of the Order as one sire trains his childe in the ways of the covenant,
and that childe does likewise, but on the whole, the Dragons look past clan when considering
members. The decision process has more to do with temperament and intellectual ability.
While not all or even most members of the Ordo Dracul are bookish or scholarly, the vast
majority are literate and educated at least moderately well.
The hardest part about joining the covenant is fi nding members who trust other Kindred
enough to be willing to teach. That in mind, the fi rst task a prospective Dragon has is to
get a potential mentor to notice her. Investigating the Ordo Dracul, experimenting with the
vampiric form and with the various Disciplines, and trying the limits of the Requiem are good
ways to go about gaining attention. If an entire coterie wishes to attempt to fi nd a mentor, its
members’ chances improve dramatically. The Order approves of this approach for a number
of reasons. Aside from the obvious advantage of having peers with which to trade ideas, a
coterie can protect itself better than a lone vampire can, from both enemies and potentially
disastrous mystical errors. Also, a bit of healthy competition is ultimately good for the covenant,
as it weeds out members who are only in it to cheat undeath for its own sake.
Once a prospective Dragon fi nds a mentor, the apprenticeship period begins. This period
never really ends. Since all members of the Ordo Dracul are meant to learn constantly, all
members can teach constantly. The Order observes “graduation” ceremonies of the most
elaborate kind. Indeed, it relishes the fact that even an elder might still be able to learn at
the feet of a wiser and more powerful member of the Order (a fact that frightens the other
covenants more than they’d ever admit).
Just as it performs graduation ceremonies, the Ordo Dracul also performs initiations as
a covenant (though individual mentors might elect to test would-be pupils privately before
fully introducing them). It becomes clear within the fi rst few weeks of training whether a
student has the right mettle to learn the Coils of the Dragon, which the Dragons regard as
the fi rst necessary step in joining the covenant. If the pupil cannot learn at least the basics
of this esoteric body of ceremonies — and the reasons for doing so range from simple lack
of intelligence to an unwillingness to surrender their souls to spiritual study — the mentor
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chapter one: society of the damned