The Tremere, while not the first Reapers, are the most infamous and successful, partially due to the hollowness of their being that allows them to absorb other Legacies to a certain degree into their own by removing the souls of these Reapers, creating a sub-legacy within the greater structure of the Tremere known as a House.
Benefits
Membership in a House does not grant separate oblations, additional Arcana or the first attainment of the original Legacy. In order to sustain the shape of his non-being according to the soul structure of his House, the Tremere has to devour twice as many souls as a regular Tremere. Each House also contains a significant weakness that will take hold of any initiate of the House.
An Initiate, however, is able to learn Attainments outside the regular ones of his Legacy and can learn them more quickly.
Structure
Each House is led by a Princeps, who is attended by the other initiates into the House, known as custodes. The exact numbers of Houses and their membership is not known. In order to join a House, the proband has to pledge five or six Sleeper souls or one mage soul to the Princeps.
Houses
- House Nagaraja, wandering ascetics from India that were the first Reaper Legacy to be consumed by the Tremere. They cultivated spiritual strength by practicing, mastering, and discarding their quarry’s passions.
- House Seo Hel, Nordic witches dedicated to Hel that were among the most feared mages in the North. They believed their patron represented the spiritual reflection of physical decay and that the material and physical realms retain a bond with the soul upon death.
- Each Custodes of House Seo Hel has scaly, black skin that covers his whole body.
- House Thrax, descendants of apostate Roman generals from Scotland that channeled souls into frenzied rage
- House Vedmak, warriors against supernatural evil that originally used willing souls (modern custodes are not that picky) to inhabit the dead to pursue enemies through spiritual realms.
References
- MTAw: Left-Hand Path
, p.85-86