VII - RoseRed

than a dozen Kindred all told, despite later claims that
vampires across Europe were prepared to join the nascent
Ordo. Indeed, although the Ordo Dracul and most of its
terms and practices were in place by 1600, the covenant
entered something of a “dark age” thereafter, not coming
into its own until almost 300 years later. Why was this?
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Dracula entered torpor not long after codifying the Ordo
Dracul, leaving the leadership and maintenance of the covenant
to his three “brides,” named in the Rites of the Dragon
as Mara, Anoushka and Lisette. This was a dangerous move
to make, as the three women had vastly differing views of
the Coils and their uses as well as the nature of God and the
Requiem in general. Indeed, they had originally refused to
work together, but Dracula (again, according to the Rites)
tricked the three of them into cooperation based on competition.
Each one would strive to prove her way correct.
Ordo Dracul historians disagree on what happened after
Dracula fell into torpor. Covenant histories from the 17th
century, what few still exist, are wildly skewed in favor of
one branch of the Sworn. Some state that the Sworn of
the Axe (under Mara) ruled that many members of the
other two branches of the Sworn were unfit to learn the
Coils and should be destroyed, while other histories state
that the Sworn of the Dying Light (under Anoushka) ruled
much the same thing. Clearly, some sort of schism occurred
within the Ordo Dracul, and current popular theory has it
that only the Sworn of the Mysteries remained true to the
purpose of the covenant for many years.
Whatever the truth, none of the three brides have been
seen in many years. Mara was the first to vanish. No reliable
records of her exist past the American Revolution.
Anoushka is said by some to have traveled to India when
England began its colonization and never returned. Lisette,
the youngest of the three, was an active member of the
Ordo Dracul up until 1889, when she boarded a ship from
London. To her attendants (whom she forbade from following
her), she would only quote William Shakespeare:
“I have a journey shortly to go/My master calls me, I must
not say ‘no.’” The ship was bound for “parts East,” but
that is all any Kindred historian has ever discovered of it.
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The greatest threat the young Ordo Dracul faced probably
was not its fractious leader caste, however. As the
teachings of the Ordo Dracul slowly spread, they became
farther removed from the three brides, and pockets
of the covenant slowly began to arise in various places
in Europe. As the Ordo Dracul attracted scholars (as it
continues to do tonight), the logical places for these
pockets were in cities that boasted large communities of
learned peoples, i.e., university towns.
Unfortunately, such cities provided ample feeding for the
Kindred, a fact not lost on members of the other covenants.
a history of the ordo dracul
A university town was usually a hotbed of conflict, especially
between the Lancea Sanctum and the Invictus, and
neither covenant took kindly to an upstart faction of vampires
taking up valuable resources in “their” cities. This,
coupled with the fact that the Ordo Dracul claimed Vlad
Tepes as its founder (stories of his cruelty circulated among
mortals long before Bram Stoker’s time, and Dracula’s
vampiric career was a subject of much discussion among
the Kindred), drove many Princes and Bishops among the
undead to refuse admission to their city to any vampire
with a known association to Dracula. When the infighting
between the brides and their respective factions worsened,
it wasn’t uncommon to see Kindred exposing their enemies
to hostile members of other covenants and then attempting
to fill their positions or usurp their knowledge. This, of
course, did not aid the covenant’s progress.
✳★✪✲✂✶✭✂✭✶✪✼✺
Finally, the Ordo Dracul suffered from the myopia of its
members. While some of the Kindred who joined the Ordo
Dracul were forward-thinking vampires who followed the
agenda Dracula (or his brides) prescribed, many only wished
to partake of the fantastic knowledge that the members
supposedly had. Intelligence, then as now, does not necessarily
mean that a given vampire had the right tools to
learn the Coils, but the young Ordo Dracul, already in chaos
in many ways, had to work with what it could. Ordo Dracul
historians theorize that until the scientific method became
prevalent, the Dragons had to rely on incomplete notes,
word of mouth and sheer luck in experimenting with the
Coils. This is dangerous, and probably hampered the growth
of the Ordo Dracul in many places.
Without clear leadership, without a clear method, the
Ordo Dracul fell into chaos in the early nights of its
existence. The Impaler had provided a set of terms and
a vision, but had slipped into torpor without taking the
time to solidify his dream. All across Europe, isolated
chapters of Dragons arose and struggled, but if their enemies
in Kindred society and in even their own covenant
didn’t destroy them, their slipshod experimentation
with the Coils often did. Communication with other
chapters was rare. It had to be, as the risks of frequent
communication were too great. A missive might fall into
enemy hands, a messenger would vanish between chapter
houses or domains, or, worse, provide an “ally” the
tools she needed to advance. The spirit of academic cooperation,
then as now, proved fatal to many Dragons.
This isn’t to say that the Ordo Dracul kept no records,
but the records the Dragons kept were often incomplete
and laden with references that only a select few Kindred
could understand. Originally, this was done to prevent enemies
or rivals from using the information should it be captured,
but it also had the effect of robbing the Ordo Dracul
of much of its early history. Even tonight, caches of documents
are sometimes discovered, usually near Wyrm’s Nests,
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chapter one
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