VII - RoseRed

in Europe, carefully safeguarding Wyrm’s Nests, had their
hands full stopping battalions of soldiers from stumbling
across these places of power and ruining decades of work.
Kindred throughout Europe and the United States had
to cope with the loss of mortal herds (though of course
those in Europe had much more direct problems), and
scholars within the Ordo Dracul made a special study of
what the Great War and the influenza pandemic that followed
it were likely to do to the world’s Wyrm’s Nests and
mystical energy flow.
What they found was that the worst was yet to come.
✾✶✹✳✫✂✾★✹✂✰✰
The Ordo Dracul sprang from a man years ahead of
his time in terms of psychological warfare. Vlad Tepes
understood all too well that brutality could be used as a
method of control. During his time, he ordered the
deaths of 100,000 people within his principality (the
population of which was about half a million). But
Dracula would have been amazed by the Nazis.
Hitler outlawed Freemasonry during this reign in Germany,
as any secret society was a threat to his rule. The
much-publicized fact that Hitler dabbled in the occult didn’t
do much to help the Ordo Dracul survive those years. A
selection from the journal of a Kogaion from Poland speaks
of the Ordo Dracul’s activities in Nazi Germany:
“We had our chance. Had we ingratiated ourselves with
the Third Reich at the beginning, when Hitler was first made
Chancellor, we might have stood a chance of retaining our
Wyrm’s Nests in Germany and Poland. We might have made
Hitler our puppet as our founder’s diaries say he once did to
his own brother. But we were afraid, or lazy or both. We
had our own balance of power with the Invictus, and if they
did not corrupt leaders with their blood, why should we?
“We had our chance, but when Hitler’s secret police found
our Wyrm’s Nests and scattered our notes to the wind, burned
the ancient writings (which they, of course, could not decipher)
and exposed our havens to the light, we saw that we had lost it.”
Theories in the decades since the war state that Hitler
did indeed have several secret projects dedicated to finding
what the Ordo Dracul calls Wyrm’s Nests, as well as
summoning demons, recruiting ghosts to spy for the
Reich and learning the secrets of magic. Very few of these
rumors bear enough evidence to seriously consider. What
is known, however, is that many of the Wyrm’s Nests in
Germany, Poland and even Romania fell out of the Ordo
Dracul’s hands during the Second World War, and many
of them have not yet been recovered.
✻✯✬✂✶✹✫✶✂✫✹★✪✼✳✂✻✶✵✰✮✯✻
After the war, the Ordo Dracul in Europe took to secrecy
once again; in the United States, it remained as
visible as any of the other covenants. As such, members
of the Ordo Dracul are thought to claim domain in a
a history of the ordo dracul
greater number of cities in the New World than in the
Old, but the overall number of Kindred who claim membership
in the Ordo Dracul is probably larger in Europe.
Some major modern areas of concern for the Ordo
Dracul, both geographic and ideologic, follow.
★✪★✫✬✴✰✪✂✪✶✴✷✬✻✰✻✰✶✵
The Ordo Dracul includes some of the finest Kindred
scholars in the world — but like mortal scholars,
the desire for glory and credit for a find sometimes outweighs
the find itself. A Dragon might share news of a
mystical breakthrough with her fellows, only to discover
that one of her contemporaries claims the accolades.
The ruling bodies in most Ordo Dracul domains
try not to get distracted by this sort of petty politicking,
but when individuals and coteries keep secrets from
the rest of the covenant to make themselves appear
more powerful, the problem grows. Outwardly, Dragon
chapters may claim that mages, werewolves and other
covenants are the primary rivals for the acquisition and
understanding of occult sites and artifacts, but in truth
the Kindred of the Order are often each other’s most
dangerous rivals.
✺✻★✮✵★✻✰✶✵
The Dragons might strive for change, but they are
still vampires. The mortal world around them is changing
faster than ever. Many Dragons see the staggering
pace of technology and cultural shift as a good thing
— it forces them to keep up, to keep changing themselves
and studying their world, or else retreat to a haven
and wait for torpor. Unfortunately, as members of
the covenant strive to keep up with mortal innovations,
they have little time remaining to study the Coils,
which, of course, are the main source of renown within
the Ordo Dracul.
✻✯✬✂✴✰✫✫✳✬✂✬★✺✻
Historically, the Ordo Dracul has been weak in this
region of the world, due to the lingering bias of its
founder. In recent years, however, much of the world’s
attention has been focused on the Middle East, and the
Ordo Dracul has recognized that the area of the world
that birthed the three major monotheistic faiths probably
has secrets still left uncovered. Dragons Embraced
in the 20th century care more about the covenant’s pursuits
than the out-dated bigotry of the Impaler. Although
the region is torn by war, corruption and fanaticism, a
growing number of Dragons are exploring the ancient
mysteries that hide therein.
Rumors circulate, too, that Anoushka, the second
bride of Dracula, walks the Earth again. Some tales place
her in Egypt, some in the Sudan and some in Turkey,
but almost all state that she is somewhere in the Middle
East, and that she is gathering members of her covenant.
27
chapter one
6