The Feast of Folly was a great gathering of the entire Cappadocian clan called by the clan founder himself.
Overview[]
Sometime before the Embrace of Augustus Giovanni, the Antediluvian Cappadocius looked up from his books to hear the complaints of the humans who lived with Cappadocians in Kaymakli. There, he found that the prodigious breeding of his childer had led to a population crisis: anemic humans, disease spread by the constant presence of corpses, and a society on the brink.
Realizing that something had to be done, Cappadocius returned to Erciyes and perused the Book of Nod. Then, one night, he called all Cappadocians to join him in Kaymakli, resulting in a pilgrimage of over 12,000 Cainites to a tiny Turkish underground city.
The objective of the Cappadocian Antediluvian was to judge those whom he deemed unworthy of his blood. The Feast took place in the ancient city of Kaymakli, thousands of years ago, and ended with the imprisonment of nearly half of the Cappadocian vampires that existed at the time. Those among the Cappadocians who refused their Antediluvians' summons to the Feast of Folly were called the "Infitiores".
The Questioning[]
For the next week, Cappadocius and his childer Japheth and Caias Koine quizzed his descendants, sending those who answered certain questions in the affirmative deeper into the city. Questions like:
- Who among you cannot read or write?
- Who among you has not helped build a church?
- Who among you does not follow the Via Caeli?
- Who among you does not pursuit the answer to the great enigma?
Thousands of vampires went into the mountain, only to have Cappadocius seal the mountain shut with a millstone and a curse: "Let no child of Caine exit, let no son of Seth enter this place". He condemned thousands of his own descendants to cannibalism and then eternal torpor.
Cappadocius sent the mortal residents of Kaymakli out into the world, telling them the city was cursed and they should never return. He and his surviving progeny then returned once more to the various tasks that lay ahead of them.
Aftermath[]
The Feast of Folly was a defining moment in the structure of the clan; the majority of Cappadocians from then on hewed to the stereotype of placid, heaven-obsessed, thanatophiles. Those few stragglers, the Infitiores, left the clan entirely. Notably among them was Lazarus, one of the direct childer of the Antediluvian. Lazarus behavior did not sit well to Caias Koine, causing a feud between the two that eventually cost the latter his life.
It is speculated, that at some point centuries later, some of the entrapped Cappadocians escaped their underground prison. The escapists now form out the bloodline (due to the loss of their Antediluvian) known as the Harbingers of Skulls, whose true purpose and vendetta is as obscured and mysterious as their reason for joining up with the Sabbat.
References[]
- VTDA: Clanbook: Cappadocian, p. 16-18
- DAV: Players Guide to High Clans, p. 27-28
- VTM: Giovanni Chronicles III: The Sun Has Set, p. 73
- VTM: Nights of Prophecy, p. 127 - "House of Lies"
- VTM: Gehenna: The Final Night, p. 28
- VTM: Gehenna - "Nightshade"