Ventrue

The Ventrue are a clan of Vampires, and one of the core clans of the Camarilla.

History[]

The Ventrue claim descent from a third-generation vampire who lived in Enoch before the flood. They are an ancient and powerful clan even by Vampire standards. In ancient Rome, they were members of powerful Patrician families, emperors, and generals. In the Dark Ages they were great kings and noblemen, leading crusades and conquests. In the last days of Earth, they were great captains of industry. In space, they ruled over the Kingdom of Enoch and forced even the Earth Federation to acknowledge their right to rule over other vampires. Their clan founder rose in Gehenna, and if anyone can be said to have won that cataclysmic conflict amongst the Vampires, it was Ventrue himself. Also known as Veddhartha or Ventru, he was the most powerful of the surviving Antediluvians. Making alliance with Arikel, founder of Clan Toreador, the two of them defeated all the other Antediluvians and together they founded the Kingdom of Enoch. Ventrue himself was later tricked into attacking Wilke's Star and killed and diablerized by Mordred, but his clan elders remained the true powers in Enoch right up until the Kingdom was conquered by Clarke's forces in the late 2250's. Mostly driven back underground by military defeat and the watchful eyes of the Crusader Teams, Ventrue vampires continue to lead most surviving assemblages of vampires who still claim loyalty to the Camarilla and its traditions.

Clan Traits[]

As one might guess, Ventrue vampires and their Ghouls make excellent politicians and players of political games, whether those be in the halls of government, the boardrooms of megacorporations, or the dark alleys of the crime-ridden underworld. Their forceful personalities and sheer charisma enable them to almost effortlessly dominate the weak of will and mind, and persuade those they cannot dominate. Usually not quite as fast or strong as some of the more physically-minded clans, they make up for it by their uncanny ability to form alliances, so they rarely have to fight their battles alone, or at all if they can find enough others to fight on their behalf. Their rarefied tastes lead most Ventrue to restrict their feeding to a small subset of people whose blood they find particularly appealing in some manner, whether this means feeding exclusively from one ethnic group, one religion, or only beautiful young men.

The Ventrue do not get along at all well with the Brujah, and are absolutely loathed by Anarchs and most members of the Sabbat, who see in the Ventrue a distillation of everything they despise about the Camarilla in particular and organized Vampire society in general.

Notable Ventrue[]

Aside from Ventrue himself, notable Ventrue throughout history have included Crassus, Charlemagne, and George Soros.