Tremere (VTM)

History
Clan Tremere began as one of many Houses of mages among the Order of Hermes. At the end of the first millennia, the House realized the Hermitic arts were failing and its immortality potions no longer working. Facing the possibility of losing everything, Tremere ordered research into alternate methods of sustaining their lives. House Tremere undertook numerous experiments, but it was Goratrix who devised a solution in his investigation of the night creatures.

In 1022, Goratrix invited Tremere and six of the founder's closest advisers to participate in the completed ritual. Whether Goratrix knew what would happen is known only by him and, perhaps, Tremere, but at the completion of the ritual the participants fell unconscious and were reborn as vampires, destroying their avatars and with them their magical abilities. They had gained true immortality but lost the power they lived for. Though the others would likely have slain Goratrix for his folly (or trickery), Tremere ordered them to halt and declared that they would remain at his side, leaving their chantries in the hands of subordinates while they discovered the powers of their new forms in secret.

In time the Tzimisce made war against House Tremere in payment for the Fiends that had died in their pursuit for immortality. The other Houses of the Order of Hermes also became suspect of diabolical practices being performed by the increasingly secretive House, but Tremere was able to belay their suspicions. Finally, in 1037 gathered the seven together and forced upon them the blood bond. He then declared that their House would be given a new pyramid heirarchy with him at the top and they forming the Inner Council of Seven below him. They would slowly begin Embracing the rest of the House, with each initiate being made to drink of their blood to ensure their loyalty. In time, all members of House Tremere would die or become vampires.

Dark Ages
The new bloodline of Tremere found itself in the middle of a war. Capturing and exsanguinating Tzimisce had already driven that legendarily bloody clan into warfare, and the Tremere neonates were now surrounded by enemies from their former Order (when the truth of their ritual was uncovered) and the fiends of Transylvania. In addition, with their magic unreachable due to their new static forms, the Tremere had to start over from scratch, creating the Discipline known as Thaumaturgy. The House survived through organization, more than a little magical genius, and spectacularly cold-blooded solutions such as the creation of Gargoyles. However, even then the Tremere found themselves third-class citizens among the clans of Caine. Whatever boldness Tremere had shown in entering the night was ignored by the staunchly traditionalist clans.

The Tremere's response to this was further boldness. As they (rapidly) acquired more lore about the other clans, the Tremere discovered the history of the Antediluvians and diablerie. The Tremere began a search for a viable Antediluvian victim, and settled on Saulot, the enigmatic founder of the Salubri clan. In 1133, Tremere diablerized Saulot, promptly entering torpor and leaving his clan to deal with the result.

As with everything else that the Tremere had done to this point, the result was a mixed blessing. The Tremere were now accepted as vampires, as one of the Low Clans: Usurpers, distrusted Warlocks and known diablerists. They responded with a vicious propaganda campaign against the remaining Salubri, preying on a running concern that the Kindred had about this clan of healers. They sold their services as mages, using their mastery of Thaumaturgy to make themselves indispensible to the other clans.

Renaissance
The Tremere slowly rose in reputation. They continued to hunt down and diablerize Salubri - ending with the diablerization of the Salubri Methuselah Mokur by Tremere's "right-hand man" Etrius in the 14th century.

The Tremere improved their status radically by helping Hardestadt the Elder create the Camarilla. The Tremere became one of the pillars of the Camarilla, and solidly placed their history of usurpation behind them, happy to dust anyone who brought up their not-so-savory history of naked ambition, diablerie, forced mutation and demon-summoning.

The Tremere were not entirely unified after the formation of the Camarilla, however. During the Anarch Revolt, one of Tremere's seven councillors, Goratrix, defected from his master's side. Goratrix, a creature of prodigious ego created a separate bloodline of the clan, House Goratrix, the Tremere antitribu, who became the warlocks of the Sabbat.

Victorian Age
With the Sabbat schism and the increased hostility in Transylvania, Etrius eventually moved the motherhouse of the Tremere from their ancestral home of Ceoris to the Vienna Chantry.

Final Nights
Unknown to anyone except Tremere and Etrius, the diablerie of Saulot was a mixed affair. It turns out that when a 450 year old mage and neonate Methuselah attempts to drain the vital essence of a 9,000 year old Antediluvian and secret master of all aspects of the soul, odds tend to be stacked against the mage. Saulot had played Tremere for a patsy, although to his unliving credit, the mage was able to hold off Saulot for close to nine centuries as his body lay in a crypt in Ceoris, constantly wracked by Vicissitude. In 1998, however, Saulot won.

Tremere, realizing that he could not maintain his sanity and identity much longer against the Antediluvian, abandoned his body. Placing his soul in the body of Etrius, he traveled to Mexico City, there to steal the body of his former aide Goratrix. Throwing Goratrix's soul into an enchanted mirror, Tremere proceded to use his new body to rectify outstanding problems - eliminating the antitribu and to prepare the clan for Gehenna.

Organization
The Tremere are a highly organized clan of Vampires, with an organized power structure, a recognized hierarchy and a wide degree of clan rules. Of all the Camarilla clans, the Tremere are the most tightly bound, and are viewed as clannish and aloof even within the Camarilla. This separation is enforced by their mastery of Thaumaturgy; they are the only Camarilla clan to practice this discipline, and they claim that the Tremere version is superior to all others.

The Tremere structure is pyramidal, at the top of the clan is Tremere, followed directly by the Council of Seven. These Seven councilors oversee almost all of the real business of the clan (at least until 1998). Underneath the councilors are the 49 pontifices (written "pontifexes" by anarchs, people ignorant of Latin, and most of the world). Underneath the pontifices are lords, who oversee multiple chantries. The head of each Chantry is termed a regent, and underneat the regent are various apprentices. Each rank in the hierarchy has further subranks, and the higher ranks in the pyramid have a limited number of positions available, leading to a certain degree of enthusiastic homicide at the higher levels.

Tremere take their rank, training and insularity seriously. Most Tremere live in their communal chantries and devote a fair degree of effort to rising in the clan hierarchy. In addition, the Tremere embrace far more seriously than most Kindred - embraces usually require permission from the Regent in addition to the Prince, and neonates are trained extensively by the clan.

Tremere rise in the clan primarily through the acquistion of power and knowledge, with the most successful Tremere demonstrating an equal amount of both. While the clan has its fair share of toadies, true power in the house of Tremere means a number of ancillae jockeying for your position, so a successful Tremere has already survived a good number of internal attempts to eliminate him.

Culture
The Tremere differ from other clans from their intense clan solidarity and their mastery of Thaumaturgy. In addition, the clan has an obsession with face, a legacy of their history as the lowest of low clans.

Given their history as usurpers and power-grabbers, the Tremere are obsessed with the image and reputation of the clan in modern nights. In the Final Nights, the Tremere are one of the primary pillars of the Camarilla, arguably second only to the Ventrue in terms of the support and influence they possess - most of this power comes from the Tremere's monopoly on thaumaturgy, but also from the tendency of individual Tremere to place clan interests high on their priority list. Of all the clans, the Tremere are the most likely to exploit prestation for the benefit of their clan as a whole.

The clan is synonymous with Thaumaturgy, and they tend to remind everyone about this given half a chance. The Tremere are not the first Thaumaturges in Kindred history (arguably, this honor goes to the Assamites), but they are the most flexible. This flexibility partly comes from the Tremere's original need to innovate or die (something which, given the static nature of Vampires, is still a trademark of the clan - Tremere are notably technofetishistic), but also from the introduction of Hermetic theory into blood magic. The Tremere differ from the other thaumaturges by adopting a uniquely scientific approach to magic, and they encourage active experimentation - the result (apart from many exsanguinated corpses) is a staggering array of thaumaturgical paths and rituals. Clan identification with hermetic theory is so tight that Tremere chantries enforce the Hermetic Paradigm.

Embraces
In the Camarilla, the Tremere have a reputation for being the nerds at the prom, a tendency reinforced by their embraces. As noted above, Tremere tend to be very constrained on their embraces, usually requiring permission from their clan elders, if not actually just ordered to Embrace by their clan elders.

The candidates for the embrace are generally scholarly, often with an occult bent (although the Tremere will take a moderately open-minded and intelligent candidate over a firmly believing ditz any day. Thaumaturgy is not for the undisciplined). Tremere embraces are usually extensively vetted before the event, with more than a few literally being interviewed by their prospective sires and given an option to reject (that rejection usually results in death isn't mentioned).

Once a candidate is Embraced, he is formally bound to the clan. Every Tremere is 1-step blood bound to the council of seven, reinforcing the loyalty that every good tremere feels to his leaders. After that, the neonate is sequestered in the Chantry and extensively educated in Thaumaturgy until (and if) he is released.

The Tremere do make all the classic mistakes when Embracing; the Council of Seven isn't sitting on the back of every moony sire vetting every point they spend. That said, the clan has a fairly good track record of controlling its embraces - accidental embraces are usually killed (often by the Sire when he comes to his senses).

Bloodlines and Antitribu
In canonical Vampire: Revised, there are no Tremere antitribu. In previous editions, "House Goratrix" were marked with a special sigil visible to Tremere.

Version Differences
The Tremere backstory is heavily based on Ars Magica, and the original House Tremere appeared as a Hermetic house in that game system. As the World of Darkness progressively diverged from Ars Magica's medieval Europe, certain elements of the backstory become problematic.


 * de-emphasis on pyramid. elimination of antitribu.