VII - RoseRed

✻✯✬✂✷✼✹✷✶✺✬✂✶✭✂✪✯★✵✮✬
A principle that mentors occasionally reference at
all points of a Dragon’s training — but comes into sharp
relief as the student enters the phase of enacting change
upon the world — is that change must always have a
purpose. Even when Following the Dragon’s Tail or engaging
in similar instructive exercises, Ordo Dracul
teachers caution their students to remember that
change with no purpose is chaos, and chaos is the woodland
of the Beast. Murdering someone just to watch
the ripples his ended life creates might have no further
purpose beyond its teaching value, and that’s fine, but
if those ripples aren’t followed and appreciated, the
death is pointless.
Note, too, that most Dragons don’t engage in a great
deal of existentialist discussions when discussing the
purpose of change. Change must have a purpose to them,
not in some grandiose cosmic scheme. A hurricane destroying
buildings is pointless chaos — as the Order cannot
control — but the Order can benefit from the
changes that follow in its wake. A vampire lost to the
Beast is likewise a random element in the world, beyond
the careful designs of the Ordo Dracul.
In every action a Dragon takes, she is advised to consider
her desired goal. Short-sighted goals aren’t necessarily
discouraged — sometimes, satisfaction of vengeance
or lust is all one really needs for a while. Mentors
do require that their charges acknowledge such goals
for what they are, however, rather than cloaking a desire
to slay a rival in any self-righteous blather about
slaying a degenerate Kindred or doing God’s will. The
Ordo Dracul knows God’s will — God tests the Kindred,
and the Dragons test Him in turn.
★✪✻✺✂✶✭✂✮✶✫
A lively debate among the Dragons, particularly
those of a more theosophist bent, is how much to look
for the hand of God in otherwise random-seeming
events. Natural disasters such as the aforementioned
hurricane is one possibility, but riots, shooting sprees,
strange election results and other events that no one
could have logically predicted also fall into the category
of what the Ordo Dracul considers “acts of God.”
Ordo Dracul scholars search for meaning in this seeming
chaos, trying to determine if such events are truly
random or the result of mundane weather patterns or
insanity, or if the Creator is still taking a direct hand
with the world. Each possibility has implications for
the Ordo Dracul.
When searching for meaning in acts of God, the first
question Dragons ask is cui bono — who profits? A hurricane
is damaging to everyone it touches, but suppose it
destroys the haven of a particularly diabolical Kindred
and his childer, paving the way for more reasonable
unlife in the ordo dracul
vampires (say, of the Ordo Dracul) to take his domains?
A shooting spree might kill good people but might also
slay someone who, in his private life, was a closet occultist
or scholar who might have had something to teach
the Ordo Dracul. Follow every tragedy long enough and
it will lead to a boon for someone.
In every change of the world, the Dragons must consider
whether the change affects them — and whether
it was meant to.
✻✯✬✂✮✹✬★✻✂✾✶✹✲
A Dragon who firmly grasps the Ordo Dracul’s philosophy
of change and embraces both its practical and
metaphysical principles is prepared to embark upon the
covenant’s most important undertaking: transcending
the Kindred condition. Most often referred to as the
Great Work in order to distinguish it from less portentous
investigations or Lesser Works, the Dragons’ quest
for transcendence has much in common with the aim of
the medieval alchemists. The common man of that period
believed the alchemists sought to turn base metals
into pure gold via something known as the Philosopher’s
Stone, a kind of universal solvent. Alchemical experiments
were not only incomprehensible to the uninitiated,
but they were also deemed to be borderline blasphemy.
Critics believed that God had not intended for
man to be able to transform the basic materials of Creation
for selfish purposes and, therefore, any mestruum
universale, if discovered, was perceived to be the work of
the Devil.
The alchemists saw their efforts in an entirely different
light. To them, the Philosopher’s Stone was not simply
a precious metal of economic import but a substance
capable of curing illness, restoring youth and even prolonging
life indefinitely. While they had no proof that
the Philosopher’s Stone existed, they were convinced
that it did. In fact, they were certain that God had hidden
it so that only those truly worthy to possess it might
do so. As might be expected, the alchemists felt that by
dint of their rare knowledge of natural philosophy and
their disciplined methodology, they were the only people
worthy of discovering and using the grail they sought.
Through effort and unwavering dedication, they were
sure that the Philosopher’s Stone and all it promised
would be theirs.
The Dragons, too, have their Philosopher’s Stone, but
outside the Ordo Dracul its true nature is rarely understood.
Most Kindred believe that the Dragons seek
merely to transcend the curses of the Kindred condition:
hunger, frenzy and the agonies of flame and daylight.
By doing so, the Dragons will be able to enjoy the
benefits of undeath without the suffering. From the
perspective of most vampires, this seems purpose enough.
Of course, because the Dragons do not share their discoveries
with outsiders, they are also seen as selfish and
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chapter two
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