Gorgon (VTR)

The Gorgons are a Ventrue bloodline that claims descent from the Olympian gods through the mythological Medusa. They are closely affiliated with the Circle of the Crone.

According to the Gorgons, Medusa was a vampire Embraced by the gods themselves, and when Perseus killed her, her handmaidens devoured her divine flesh and became the forerunners of the bloodlines. They wielded enormous power throughout the Mediterranean world until the Roman Ventrue displaced them; then the entire bloodline seems to disappear into torpor at once. After the fall of the Camarilla, they briefly re-emerged and formed a tight relationship with the Circle of the Crone, who revered them as demigods. By the start of the Renaissance the Gorgons had all vanished again.

In the 19th century the Gorgons re-emerged in Kindred societies, though not everyone is certain that these are the same bloodline from antiquity. Modern Gorgons often seem vulnerable to flattery and happy with the illusion of power rather than the real thing; they are the monarchs of the night and they expect to spend their requiems in an appropriate level of luxury. They do have a signature discipline, Amphivena, that seems to support their claims about their pedigree. Additionally, on top of the Ventrue clan curse, the Gorgons must be in physical contact with a live snake at all times, and as they age they begin to take on snake-like physical features.

Two "houses" of Ventrue are align with the Gorgons, though they may or may not rate as separate bloodlines: they call themselves the Stheno and the Euryale, after Medusa's equally horrific sisters. They cultivate the Disciplines of Vigor and Celerity (respectively) and often seek out status by aligning with particularly powerful or popular Gorgons.