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Clan Brujah
Clan Brujah

The Brujah are one of the thirteen clans of Kindred in Vampire: The Masquerade.

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See this article on the PDX V5 Wiki: Brujah


Overview[]

Brujah are one of the fourteen vampire clans of Vampire: The Masquerade. The Brujah are a clan of radicals and troublemakers, Embracing those willing to put someone in their place if the situation calls for it. Most see themselves as warriors with a cause, and these Rebels are guided by their passions, strength, and dedication to their ideals, whatever those may be. Brujah are generally Embraced from the ranks of those who are sympathetic to those who do not back down. Seeking out others who question the status quo and welcome countercultures. From spirited fighters to critical thinkers, the clan is bolstered by their ability to withstand the storm and persevere through hardships. The Brujah are commonly misplaced as the street punks or anarchists who are looking for nothing but trouble. However, this is far from the truth.

History[]

Early History[]

Scratch the surface of a Brujah, and these days you are more than likely to find a Brujah thug underneath. However, the clan is a fallen clan, still mourning the death of their Carthaginian paradise and decaying from their era of warrior-scholars to the petty rebels common in the Final Nights.

Little consistent knowledge is known about the Brujah Antediluvian because the stories may confuse two individuals: the original founder of the Brujah (named as "Ilyes" in one account and as "Troile the Elder" in another) and his childer and diablerist, Troile.

According to most records, Brujah was a callous and fiercely logical creature. Dispassionate in the extreme, the Antediluvian sired a clan of equally dispassionate childer. Among these, however, was a less controlled whelp: Troile the Rebel. What events caused the Embrace of Troile are unknown, but clan history holds that Troile diablerized her sire and claimed the clan as her own. A small bloodline, the True Brujah, claim descent from Brujah and hold this grievance close in the Final Nights.

Following the death of [Brujah] in unrecorded history, the clan Brujah lived among the mortals, letting themselves revere as kings and gods, trying to recreate the glory of the Second City and the harmony between the Children of Seth and the childer of Caine. The first place that became an experiment of the Brujah was Greece, specifically Athens. Learning from and discussing their ideals with the Athenian orators and philosophers, the Brujah found countless impeti to improve society. The Brujah allowed other Cainites to enter their city and to share Athens glory. Conflict with Spartan Ventrue led to discord and the first Brujah War. After that, many of the praedicandi, the rulers of the Clan, left Greece, convinced that the experiment had failed and that they should start again elsewhere. Many of the praedicandi seized the moment and followed Troile's example, diablerizing their sires to leave no witnesses or patrons to what they regarded as a failure.

The clan's next major moment is also its greatest moment. The Brujah built or co-opted a Phoenician colony, Carthage, for another grand experiment. The Brujah say that Carthage was a utopia — a city where Kindred and kine lived in harmony, and where justice reigned. Other clans, and history, tell the story somewhat differently. The Carthaginians were cowed by their gods, offering their children to the flames of Moloch; and, apparently if the blood of sacrifices should flow down the gullet of a methuselah, Moloch did not mind. Exactly what happened in Carthage is dependent on who speaks of it – the Brujah claim Paradise, the other clans claim the presence of the Baali and human sacrifice. Some of those who were present in Carthage admit and acknowledge the truth.

Carthage fell during the Third Punic War in 146 BCE, when Scipio Aemilianus, aided by the Malkavians and Ventrue of Rome crushed the shell of a city hollowed out by two previous wars. The earth was salted (preventing those Kindred who had melded with the earth from rising), the land was plowed, and the Brujah experiment ended.

Dark Ages[]

Clan Brujah c

Clan Brujah c. 1197 - 1242

During the Dark Ages, the Brujah were considered part of the High Clans, a clan of warrior-scholars noted for their fierce devotion to radical philosophies. The Brujah viewed themselves as the practitioners of a Greek philosophy of total mental and physical discipline (commonly called entelechy), and would often train their neonates in combat and the classics with equal discipline. Brujah of the Dark Ages were associated primarily with politics, especially in Greece. Their historical association with Carthage gave them a dim view of Rome and her heirs.

The Renaissance proved to be one of the turning points in the history of the Clan, when the division between the various ideological strains within the Clan exploded in the heavy infighting that strain them today. The cultural explosion within Europe resulted in ecclesiastical and civil strife, that the Brujah were only too willing to follow.

Victorian Age[]

Clan Brujah
Clan Brujah
Clan Brujah c

Clan Brujah c. 1880 - 1897

During the Victorian Age, the Clan was divided in those few who lived true to their legacy as the Learned Clan, and those bulk who were mere troublemakers and criminals in the eyes of their sect, as many neonates rebelled against the oppressive and stagnant politic of the Camarilla. The closeness of the clan to mortal passions brought forth the best and the worst of the Age within the clan. Many Brujah started to regard themselves as the proletariat of vampiric society and wanted to change this through revolution.

Many Brujah during this time were fierce supporters of various ideas like Marxism, collectivism, syndicalism, and Darwinism and engaged in various revolutionary groups to topple the rising pauperization during the Industrial Revolution.

Modern Nights[]

Clan Brujah
Clan Brujah

In the final nights, the Brujah are the clan of rebels. The ancient traditions of the clan are all but forgotten, with a few reluctant throwbacks like Theo Bell and undying artifacts like Critias to remember the clan's history and tradition.

For the Brujah, the twentieth century is marked by a sequence of failed projects. Two daring projects defined Brujah culture throughout the final nights: The Anarch Free State and the Brujah Council. In the first case, California was turned into a new Kindred society, led by the Brujah Jeremy MacNeil. The Anarch Free State was almost a separate sect for the Kindred for nearly 5 decades. However, under the weight of Camarilla influence, the invasion of the Kuei-jin and the eventual betrayal by Brujah such as Tara Kearney of San Diego, the Free State largely collapsed.

The Brujah Council was another, arguably more daring, and ultimately more frightening experiment. In the early twentieth century, the Brujah pitched in with the Soviet Revolution, eventually forming a separate council which managed the entire USSR's vampiric affairs. This Brujah Council was destroyed overnight, however, when Baba Yaga rose from torpor and mystically separated Russia from the rest of the world. Only with the Little Grandmother's death at the hands of a Nictuku have vampires been able to cross the Shadow Curtain and survey the ruins of vampiric Russia.[1]

Most of the clan left the Camarilla for the Anarch Movement after Hardestadt and Jan Pieterzoon were killed by Brujah rebels led by Theo Bell during the Conclave of Prague in 2012.

The Brujah call themselves the Learned Clan — certainly they have more philosophers among their ranks than any other. The Hellenes study, the Rabble smashes, and between them they hope to bring about a better world. Yet for all their learning and experience they cannot find a utopia that will stick . Is it human nature bringing corruption and cruelty each time a new regime has time to set? Is it the failures of philosophy that keep their fabled revolution a dream to reach for again and again? Or is it something in the Brujah themselves twisting every noble ideal into one which sends its enemies to the gulag or the chopping block? Some accuse each other of purposefully sabotaging the movement with violence to keep their supply of fresh victims churning. Others claim the bootlickers among them are more than happy to sit back so long as it keeps them and theirs free and safe.The Brujah are sure their dreams are possible. They know, within the central ventricles of their heart, that if only they can try again — if only they can make people listen — they can fix everything. Each of their failures only adds to the rage swelling through their clan at the injustices they each perceive in the world. Every movement needs some anger behind it to stoke the furnace, and the Brujah's nature ensures their anger can’t be sated. It's an inferno that grows until it consumes everything around it — including the Brujah themselves.

Organization[]

As a clan, the Brujah have next to no organization. Outside of the clan, the Brujah adore building structures, and then other Brujah adore tearing them down. Among modern Brujah, the primary structure is the division between the Iconoclast and Idealist factions of society.

Iconoclast[]

The Iconoclasts are rebels and almost uniformly young Brujah. They fulfill the clan's stereotypical image as mad, bad, and dangerous to know. They are more commonly known as the Rabble.

Idealist[]

In contrast to Iconoclasts, Idealists are the intellectuals and theorists of the clan. They are usually elders or ancillae, and the elders are Idealists simply because their habits have not changed since their Embrace. They are commonly known as the Hellenes as they follow Brujah ideals from ancient Greece.

Clan Variants[]

The Brujah had two clan variants as well several bloodlines.

Brujah antitribu[]

Main article: Brujah antitribu

Bay't Mushakis[]

Main article: Bay't Mushakis

Bloodlines[]

Culture[]

The Brujah of old followed the Olympian Ideal, also known as Entelechy, which predated even Carthage. The Olympian Ideal contained the perfection of both body and mind, and as a result, most of the ancient Brujah steeled and trained their bodies without relent and were well-educated in both metaphysical and scientific themes. The ancient Brujah philosopher Heracleitus placed fire as the ideal that kept the world in motion and enabled perfection even within the stasis that filled the greater universe. As seasons turned and life followed death, perfection was reached. Heracleitus also postulated that the rage and the passion of the Brujah was the result of this fire and that it was the duty of the Clan to enable change and, therefore, perfection. Although his works have been mostly forgotten by the modern rabble and Brujah argued even back then over the exact meaning of his teachings, certain elders and the adherents of the Path of Entelechy, which follows the ancient Brujah ideals, still keep on to the Olympic Ideal.

All that a Brujah does, he does with passion that is both his curse as well as his blessing. Brujah adopt passions and causes, which they support with volume and vitriol. Some Brujah follow charismatic members of their clan, while others prefer stances of blatant, defiant individualism. Many Brujah are glad to have an opportunity to speak their minds, then indulge in a bit of destruction afterward to illustrate their points. As divided as the clan is, all work against each other in some way, and even when some rivalries within are more embittered than in any other clan, they still keep together (after the proverb "I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, my cousins and I against strangers"). If any Kindred not of their blood would oppose a Brujah, they would face the wrath of the whole clan, as even Idealists would defend Iconoclasts in front of the Prince and each Iconoclast is more than ready to beat someone up who humiliated a clan member within Elysium.

Two conventions the clan does support universally are the Rant and the Rave. Rants are just that: informal meetings of Brujah (and other insurgents, Kindred and kine) at which anyone who can scream loudly enough can have her opinions heard. Raves, named after the all-night techno dance parties started in England, are social gatherings in the guise of huge-scale musical or entertainment events. One usually leads to another, and clues to the locations of the events are often hidden in the media of the gathering in progress.

Embraces[]

The Brujah are infamous for ignoring the Tradition of progeny, and consequently Embrace whomever they feel like whenever they feel like. Brujah are stereotypically the source for most Caitiff because they are presumed to neglect training their childer.

Weaknesses[]

Banes[]

  • Violent Temper: Quick to anger and always passionate in the Modern Nights, they have been regaining their position as a clan of lofty philosophers and activists and are often pointed to as a clan of unruly rebels and roughnecks that should not be messed with. Due to their inherent clan weakness, all difficulties to resist Frenzy increases by two for these Brujah characters, to a maximum of 10. In V5 it instead subtracts dice equal to their bane severity from their rolls to resist Fury Frenzy.
  • Variant — Violence: If these Brujah aren't ordinarily as quick to anger and Frenzy, their Beasts will still have latent violent urges. A messy critical at a Skill test will cause the Brujah to inflict Aggravated damage to the target equal to their Bane Severity and any other result of the Hunger dice. Spending a point of Willpower can reduce the severity to Superficial damage.

Compulsion[]

Rebellion: the vampire takes a stand against whatever or whomever they see as the status quo in the situation, whether that is their leader, a viewpoint expressed by a potential vessel, or just the task they were supposed to do at the moment. Until they have gone against their orders or expectations, perceived or real, the vampire receives a two dice penalty to all rolls. This Compulsion ends once they have managed to either make someone change their minds (by force if necessary) or done the opposite of what was expected of them.

Pronunciation[]

The 1st edition of Vampire: The Masquerade included pronunciation keys for several of the unique terms in the game. That key gives BROO-zhah as the proper pronunciation of the Clan's name (as heard in voice-overs in Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption), although in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines numerous characters pronounce it as BROO-hah.

Background Information[]

  • Fonts:
    • The Victorian Age Brujah logo uses the Felina Gothic font.
    • The Brujah font used from 2nd Edition (1992) through to V20 (2011) is Stucco 555.
    • The V5 Brujah font is currently unknown.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. ↑ VTDA: Veil of Night, p. 120-121 Buy it from DriveThruRPG! Now in Print!
Vampire: The Masquerade Clans
Banu Haqim (Assamites) · Brujah · Gangrel · Hecata (Cappadocians, Giovanni) · Lasombra · Malkavian · Ministry (Followers of Set) · Nosferatu · Ravnos · Salubri · Toreador · Tremere · Tzimisce · Ventrue
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