Tzimisce

If you described a Tzimisce as inhuman and sadistic, it would probably commend you for your perspicacity on the inhumanity, and then demonstrate that your mortal definition of sadism was laughably inadequate. The Tzimisce have left the human condition behind gladly, and now focus on transcending the limitations of the vampiric state.

Dark Ages

 * Tremere Usurpation
 * Anarch Revolt - Kupala's eve
 * Diablerie of antediluvian
 * Formation of Sabbat

Final Nights

 * Lambach ruthven beneath New York
 * Tzimisce antediluvian as a giant fungus underneath the eastern seaborad

Organization
Historically, the Tzimisce embraced broods who maintained a particular plot of land. Tied to the land, Tzimisce broods were incestuous, violent hierarchies of hateful creatures who maintained a bare modicum of civility through raw power and the blood bond. With the elimination of this hierarchy during the anarch revolt, the Tzimisce have become intensely solitary creatures.

In the modern era, the Tzimisce have a recognized clan head, the voivode, but the office is largely religious. for most Tzimisce, authority is a function of power.


 * Discussion: zhupans?

Culture
Even before the rise of the Sabbat, the Tzimisce viewed their mortal charges as little more than a sophisticated form of herd beast; following the Anarch revolt, the majority of Tzimisce have abandoned lordship in favor fo their own project. As a result, the Tzimisce are intensely focused on the Vampiric condition: they gladly abandon their humanity in favor of the paths of englightenment, and they have spent more time thinking about their state than any other clan.

One of the immediate results of this is that sabbat culture is derived from medieval Tzimisce culture, traditions such as Vaulderie derive from Tzimisce custom.


 * metamorphosis


 * ghouling - szlachta and vozhd.

Version Differences
Between second and revised edition, the Tzimisce were subject to a controversial change imposed in Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand. DSotBH introduced the concept of Souleaters, alien entities who reproduced by spreading the Vicissitude discipline. As the clan of Vicissitude, the Tzimisce were hosts for the souleater disease. Souleaters were retconned out of the WoD history, but some rules (notably Vicissitude as a disease) were maintained.