Myrmidon (VTM)

The myrmidon is a bodyguard or enforcer serving under a member of the primogen. Although the myrmidon's duties are ostensibly limited to protecting their Kindred patron, in practice many of them act as enforcers or even assassins. Unlike the whip, the myrmidon's duties are not restricted to keeping the primogen's clanmates in line, although a myrmidon's more martial capabilities allows them to serve as a goad to clanmates who fail to pay heed to the whip. The role of the myrmidon under the primogen is roughly comparable to that of the sheriff under the prince &mdash; although myrmidons are far less likely to be formally recognized as such by the prince or, for that matter, by any Kindred outside of the primogen itself.

The first myrmidons were the direct agents (and, generally, also the childer) of the Founders during the Anarch Revolt. Each myrmidon served their patron's interests in the ongoing war against the Anarchs. Ultimately, the myrmidons' usefulness to the sect was undermined by the fact that their loyalties were to their individual masters' agendas first and to the nascent Camarilla a distant second. After the Camarilla was formally established and the first Justicars were appointed, the myrmidons' formal duties were subsumed into those of the newly-created office of archon. In subsequent centuries, the office of primogen was established in the domains of the Camarilla, and the office of myrmidon was revived to serve as the agents of these elders.