The hermetic seal of Clan Tremere
The Tremere are a clan of Vampires, and one of the core clans of the Camarilla.
History[]
Alone among the major Vampire Clans, the Tremere do not claim direct descent from any Antediluvian or even from Caine himself. Instead, their clan founders were a group of medieval alchemists and Mages of the Order of Hermes. As the ancestors of the Technocracy began to establish rationalism as a cultural paradigm and belief in magic decreased among the population at large, the Order of Hermes found their powers diminishing, and the elixirs and potions they used to extend their lifespans began to weaken and fail. In desperation, they began to capture Vampires of the clan Tzimisce to study. These vampires were cruelly tortured and experimented on, until finally the mages believed they had found the secret to Eternal Life. Gathering the leaders of their order together, they enacted a powerful magical ritual to transform themselves into a new, more powerful, and naturally immortal form, but it did not work in quite the way they had hoped. They became immortal, but undead rather than alive, and they were stripped of their natural Mage powers and transformed into a new kind of Vampire. In genius borne of desperation, they combined their alchemy with their new Vampiric powers and created the art of Thaumaturgy, or blood magic, as a subtitute and replacement for their previous powers. Beset on all sides by enemies, they were expelled from Mage society for their actions, hated and hunted by the Tzimisce and other Vampire clans seeking revenge for their tortured brethren, and no longer able to blend in with human society in the light of day. Seeking allies and protection, the Tremere became among the most enthusiastic supporters of the nascent Camarilla organization, and they have remained among its core adherents ever since. Lacking a normal Antediluvian founder, the clan took their name for one of the most powerful of the founding group of Vampires, a mage who went by the name Tremere, and who had managed soon after becoming a Vampire to locate the tomb of the Salubri clan founder Saulot, rouse him from his torpor, and then kill and diablerize him to gain his power and knowledge.
Clan Traits[]
Among the most powerful and dangerous of Vampires thanks to the terrifying possibilities of the potion-based magic of their Thaumaturgy, Tremere are also one of the most organized and rigidly hierarchial of all Vampire clans. Mass Embrace is strictly forbidden and each new neonate must be carefully chosen for their mortal skills and intelligence, then brought before the local leadership of the clan to be initiated in a complex magical ceremony designed to impose a powerful supernatural bond of obedience to clan and sire in the newly-embraced Vampire. Those few Tremere who rebel against their clan's elders are ruthlessly hunted down and exterminated -- which means the tiny handful who survive and prosper are very cunning and powerful vampires indeed, and among the most dangerous individuals in the galaxy.
Notable Tremere[]
Among the founding leaders of the clan was the famous mage the Comte De St. Germain.