Cult of Veles

The Cult of Veles was a priesthood in honor to the Slavic deity Veles. The priests of Veles tell omens from the spirits of nature, and therefore have an interest in protecting the land, though they concerned themselves almost exclusively with the wilds.

Overview
Many thousands of years ago, some Gangrel must have started the Cult, but it's name hardly matters. Indeed, many of the priests of Veles go nameless but to their most intimate associates. But many of the Cainite courts of the Slavic lands revere Veles, at least superficially. They receive his priests, pay due homage and sacrifice at the appointed season invoking his name when swearing the most sacred oaths.

The Gangrel make up the greater part of Veles' priesthood. The famale Cainites who serve him are called Veela. However, not all who serve the god are Gangrel - he does sometimes choose Tzimisce to attend him, and more rarely Cainites of other clans may show the marks of destiny. Cainite worship of Veles originally began in the Slavic lands, but journeying Gangrel soon brought it to other places as well.

The priests of Veles tell omens from the spirits of nature, and therefore have an interest in protecting the land, though they concerned themselves almost exclusively with the wilds.

Veles
Veles is the god of the Underworld, magic and hunt, of horned animals and also of trade and oaths. He sometimes wears the head of a wolf; sometimes the horns of a stag, ram or bull; and yet in other occasions he appears as a great water-serpent. He is hunter and prey in one. The followers of the Cult believe that the Baltic god Velnias and the Norse god Odin are echoes of Veles (in fact, priests of Veles often treat the Einherjar as a lost outgrowth of their faith).

In the British Isles, Hu Gadarn, Gwynn ap Nuad and Herne the Hunter were masters of wild; in Gaul, Dispater and Cernunnos; in the Mediterranean, Pan and Faunus. Wherever they went, Veles' chosen found new cults, taking on the local names and folkways. Their traditions mingled - not always easily - with those already established by the natives.

During the Dark Ages, the Christianization of the pagans identified Veles with St. Blas, and appealed to him to protect their herds and flocks. Other now equate him with the Devil. Although the followers of the Cult are used to infidels insulting their god, they sometimes take personal offense at the turning away of their mortals, and exact suitable punishments.

The Tzimisce Antediluvian
The priests of Veles also found a welcome of sorts with the Cainite lords of their own homelands. Ancient legends claim that the Tzimisce Antediluvian, in return for secret wisdom, struck a bargain with Mother Earth herself and paid the price for it out of his own flesh.

He swore himself and all his progeny to the eternal duty of protecting the land that empowered him and the mortals whose blood and lives sustained him. Though dead himself, he would be a humble servant of life. The Tzimisce Shaper-priests of the Mother became the self-appointed guardians of this pact, reminding the voivodes of their duties and reading the omens.