True Brujah



The True Brujah are a bloodline of Clan Brujah that claim to be descendants of the original Antediluvian founder of the lineage and not his diablerist/childe Troile. The True Brujah are noted for their cool detached behavior which puts them in contrast to the main lineage which is known for their rather short violent tempers.

They are believed to descend from the original progenitor of the Brujah clan, sometimes called Ilyes, who was diablerized by one of his own descendants, whose name was allegedly Troile. Vampires who call themselves Brujah are believed to descend from this usurper, while the True Brujah claim lineage leading directly to the original clan founder himself.

True Brujah often hide within the ranks of the Modern Brujah. It is said that they are biding their time till they can bring the "usurpers" back into the fold.

Unlike their cousins, the True Brujah are said to be dispassionate and cold even to the point where they find summoning emotions to be difficult. They are feared for their alleged control over the flow of time (Temporis). Many True Brujah are supposedly members of the Sabbat sect called the True Black Hand, though there is some confusion on this matter as reports of some covens have been reported thriving as far north as Greenland and are said to be devout followers of Camarilla law heavily influenced by the True Brujah.

History
Many (some would say the majority) of the True Brujah were involved with the Tal'Mahe'Ra or True Black Hand and were instrumental in that sect's founding. In the metaplot of the revised edition of Vampire: The Masquerade the True Brujah, already a rare bloodline, became even more scarce with the destruction of City of Enoch, the True Black Hand's headquarters in the Shadowlands.

Early History
After Enoch was destroyed, remaining True Brujah decided to search a new home, in the west, where they could dedicate their life to scripts and scrolls and study kindred lore in peace. Although they already had some kind of animosity with their Brujah cousins (although Elois do not hate Brujah, they simply dissaprove their pointless waste of talents), Elois settled in North Africa (they claim that it was them who built Carthage, antique haven of Brujah clans), where they spent time aquiring knowlege of kindred lore. During the war with Rome and Ventrue clan, Elois even participated in the conflict fighting alongside Brujah. After The Second Punic war though, True Brujah elders decided it is time to leave, since they decided it is unecessary to die against overwhelming force for the empty cause, thus they left the city they founded themselves, leaving it to Brujah who were already preparing for a final war with Rome. This act not only antagonized Brujah, it broke every connection between the clans forever. After they departed from Carthage, Elois split into several groups, mostly spending their time in Asia Minor, Greece and Parthia, gathering scrolls and living in seclusion.

Dark Ages
Although Elois managed to stay out of sight for quite some time, rise of the various sects and clans in the Middle East began to bother them. Various ecounters with other kindred and numerous clan wars convinced True Brujah chapters that it is time to leave again. This time most of the chapters completely fall apart since some Elois scholars (who were already low in numbers) decided to travel alone in their pursuit for knowledge. Some went to Egypt, posing as Arab scholars who studied classical literature, some went to Byzantium hiding in monasteries, and some even travelled to the western kingdoms, living as hermits or travelling bookpeddlers. The most famous Elois chapters that occasionally cooperated with kindred society (mostly trading scripts, or decrypting some antique knowledge for Ventrue officials) were installed in Thesalonniki (Byzantine Empire) and Bologna (Kingdom of Milan). The rise of The Tremere shook up the balance of things. The Tremere, scholars by themselves, during their war against the Salubri and Tzimizce aquired vast amount of books and scrolls, thus Ventrues began rellying more on them, and the old sterotype about cold Brujah outcasts was in place again. Most Tremere found Elois as a perfect prey for their ambitions; they had vast amount of knowledge and books, they had mysterius discipline of Temporis which granted great power to those who master it, and they had no reliable allies. Homever, unlike the Salubri, Elois did not want to allow their own demise. In a matter of days all chapters were abandoned, all knowledge was preserved and hidden and all clanmates dissapeared out of sight. Avoiding open conflict, Elois relocated themselves in Castille, Granada and Morocco, secretly travelling in the regions that were mostly out of Tremere influences. During that years it is said that some of the Elois schollars indirectly aided Lasombra cardinals in their struggle against the fledgling Camarilla, not because they had love for the Sabbats ideology, but simply because the Sabbat was perfect tool to hold Tremere at bay.

Victorian Age
At the beginning of The Victorian Age, Elois were mosty a beings from the past. New fledgling kindred didnt ever saw one, and the older vampires had more pressing matters to attend to than to chase some creatures who maybe got extinct long time ago. Traveling alone, or in a small groups Elois mostly pose as Brujah to avoid attention, avoiding crowded places or other kindred's dominions. The colonization of the new world brought new challenge to the Elois, who immediately began settling America and some smaller colonies in Africa or India. Homever, as time passed, most of True Brujah inhabited, either Europe or european colonies in North America simply because the Laibon or Kuei-Jin pushed them off their territory. They were still lurking in the shadows seeking knowledge only for themselves. As Camarilla and Sabbat came to USA, so Elois contact with individual kindred travellers became more rare. At the dawn of the Industrial era, suddenly several chapters resurfaced in Europe and US, forging again new contacs with Camarilla and Anarchistic movement. The posibble reason for such occurence is suprising increase in Elois numbers who were slowly gathering again from all around the world since the travel was now much easier. Some chapters were quickly abandoned (like those in Warsaw, Munich, Manchester or New York), because local Camarilla princes or Sabbat leaders tried to violate Elois discretion, but some managed to forge some kind of understanding with the locals and preserve their existence (Most notable are those in Brussels, Prague and Seattle).

Final Nights
In the final nights, Elois are the traders of knowledge who are avoiding any form of conflict whenever possible. Since they are lower in number than any other clan that surrounds them, they avoid attracting too much attention, they follow Camarilla laws and try to maintain neutral relations with both Camarilla and Sabbat. Homever in the recent nights the old idea of Reunion resurfaced. The once powerful and united Brujah clans are now split in two as Elois sees it. It is practically impossible for Elois to return Brujah to the old path (and the Elois leaders are very much aware of this) since these two clans are opposed in nearly every way possible and Elois numbers are much fewer than Brujah. Elois live under no illusions, but still as time passes and Brujah are more and more weakened, the more individuals are going to abandon the anarch cause, and one day someone will finally acknowledge the fact that all of it was a pointless waste of time that lasted for centuries and weakened the bloodline. Be that as it may, True Brujah managed to survive, hidden in the dusty libraries or travelling through dangerous tombes looking to preserve all kind of kindred's legacy in secret, beeing always one step ahead of everyone, either through Temporis or vast amount of knowledge.

Organization
Some of the Elois travel alone, but some of them live in chapters. Chapters are organizations (consisted mostly of 10-15 members, but the largest in Brussels have around 40 members) in which Elois gather knowledge and most of them look like libraries or warehouses, depends of the material that they are keeping. The leader of the chapter is called Deccanus (who also negotiate with outsiders,often accompanied with several Scribes), and it is always the most educated (and often the most powerfull) member of the group. The Scribes are the keepers of stored material (even if they are not working with literature) and their duty is to protect the haven at all costs until the total evacuation become an option. Some may see them as harmless scholars, but they have excellent trainig in combat and their dedication to protect the haven is nearly fanatical. The last group are called Prospectors, and they are always on the move, looking for the new items for the chapter, ranging from a single page from and old book to the Antedeluvian artifact. Most fledglings first spend some time with the Scribes, studying lore and practicing the use of Temporis before they go out in the field with Prospectors. Younger prospectors work in the groups of two or three members, while the more seasoned ones go alone.

Culture
The True Brujah (nicknamed Elois after the post-humans in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine) have command over their own proprietary Discipline called Temporis which allows them limited control over time and time-travel. It is said that Celerity is a bastardized version of this power developed by Troile to keep up with her broodmates [Possibly not - Caine initially learned Celerity according to the book of NOD). Conversely it is proposed that the True Brujah developed Temporis centuries later drawing on both Celerity and all vampire-kind's innate stasis in time to create the Discipline. All Elois are mostly polite, they talk slowly and are not used to provoke the person they are talkin with. They are dressed casualy, although some of them wear amulets, rings or some other hunting trophy (mostly not related to kindred history, because such items are stored in the haven) they gathered in their travels. They will rarely first interact with other person (kindred or kine), and if they do, it will be away from the crowd since they are not comfortable with shouting or noise. During the dialog they do not approve innapropriate language, boring subject or any other form of time waste. Some kindred and kine get confused when talking to Elois, because their faciall expressions are rather static, so it is not easy to discover Elois true intentions. (Some kindred, like Toreadors, avoid speaking to Elois because they find them too cold, boring or creepy). They generally do not feel love or hate, but they can find someone to be a reliable friend, or dangerous foe. They do not feel fear, but during conflict if they face a certain death, they will look for an alternative escape route, homever if they are cornered they will definitely not hold back, and they most certainly will never surrender. Stange as it sounds, Elois do have firm sense of honor, and they will always honor a bargain they made with someone (Perhaps it is not beacuse they are some kind of noble creatures, as it is because of their habit to avoid the creation of animosity with other people). They do not tolerate when someone tries to cross them and if someone eventually tries, he will be most probably killed, since it is no use to keep around unreliable scum as far as Elois are concerned. During the fight Elois do not take prisoners, simply because it is not practical, and if they do, then such person will definitely have some further use.

Embraces
True Brujah always embrace people who have some affinty towards history or people who are scholars themselves.True Brujah will meet the target and even test his level of knowledge in the field. The emotional profile of the target is highly irrelevant, since nearly all emotions will cease after the embrace. The target is embraced in a secluded location and is held for some time under surveillance until he or she manages to overcome emotional turbulence that follows few days after the embrace. During that time the victim cannot control his emotions and he is feeling anything from mindless rage to severe depression. When fledgling calmes down it means that it is ready to step out into the world. Elois usually spend few years or even much longer with the childe until he manages to master the discipline of Temporis, and therefore secure his chances for survival on its own. After that comes the turning point where sire will either leave the progeny and pursuit his own goals (since there is no emotional connection between them, both sides feel indiferent about it) or stay with him for a long time or even permamently (If sire judges his childe capable and reliable companion worthy to travel with).

Version Differences
One of the scenarios in the Gehenna book reveals that Troile was the only childe of the Antediluvian (who is named here as Ilyes for the first time) and the True Brujah are in fact just some scholarly Brujah that rediscovered Ilyes' signature discipline of Temporis. It turns out that Ilyes hates the True Brujah even more than the rest of the clan, for they claim that he made the mistake of siring more than one childe.

Source:
 * VTM: Time of Judgment: Gehenna pp.101