Meneleans

The Meneleans is a confused cult with no leadership in these modern nights, the cult were once dedicated to rebuilding Carthage anew, revering the wisdom of the Brujah methuselah who unknowingly founded their order, and fighting the servants of the Toreador methuselah Helena. In their recorded history, the Meneleans read stories of the frequent clashes between the vampire known as Menele or Menelaus, and his rival Helena. The two fought using thousands of mortal and undead proxies for millennia before finally reaching the United States, where the two reached an ostensible stalemate and the war went underground.

In part dedicated to freeing vampires from elder subjugation and manipulation, while advocating closer bonds with the kine to help ground the cultists, the Menelean faith is one that’s not outwardly destructive like that of many cults. Aside from Helena’s cultists, the Meneleans had no natural enemies. They furthered a cause of freedom without the vice of worshiping Set, spoke in favor of domains drenched not in bloodshed but in understanding, and strongly believed the pathway to Golconda was through perfect assimilation into mortal life. The only price was drinking a dose of Menele’s vitae every decade. Then Menele disappeared, probably Beckoned, and a hundred bonds snapped.

Overview

The great fraud of the Meneleans was that Menele enforced his will through his vitae. The cult operated so successfully, and appeared so uniformly altruistic, because Menele wished it so. Whenever a cultist tried to pursue their personal interests, he or one of his childer intervened to correct the course through the Blood or destroy the bug in the system. Undoubtedly, the cult’s followers achieved many great things in Anarch and Camarilla domains alike, encouraging vampires on the cusp of becoming wights to fold into mortal society, softening a Prince’s tyranny, and influencing the building of new cities such as Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom and Songdo in South Korea specifically to cater to Kindred needs. However, this was only sometimes the will of the vampires involved. Most of these schemes filtered down from on high.

The question many free Meneleans now ask is whether they would have pursued the same goals were Menele not involved. They also want to know how much control Menele had over their pursuits, as for all they know they could have been receiving subtle pushes from Menele’s dreams, or dictates from a tyrant methuselah. The cult is in disarray, with their ancient grudge against Helena’s followers even put to the side as Meneleans come together and discuss how they’re going to act without their master’s vitae.

Description

The Meneleans once sought to rebuild Carthage. Under the guidance and vitae of Menele, their patron Methuselah, they learned the lost city’s secrets. They believed vampires had a higher purpose and enlightenment could be found through assimilation with humanity. They struggled for a fairer society for the Kindred. To the Meneleans, one of the greatest forms of tyranny was the one elders held over younger generations. When Menele vanished and the cult’s blood bonds shattered, his cultists were fully aware of the irony. Abandoned by their Methuselah, the Meneleans now search for meaning. How much of their faith came from their own morals, and how much came from Menele’s direct influence? Though they may never know for sure, some press on.

You are one of those adherents. You’ve set aside any questions of whether or not you’ve been manipulated, because you still feel that Menele had ideas worth spreading. You’ve come away from the experience with insights into the blood bond that the rest of the domain is keen to hear.

Loresheet

• Mortal Empathy: You believe in the importance of cleaving to humanity and ensure you see them as people, not just as food. Once per chapter, you may reroll any failure on a Social roll involving mortals.
• Peacemaker: Menele’s school taught you the importance of conflict resolution. Those around you tend to see you as a voice of reason. Once per chapter, when you are involved in a social or physical conflict, you gain two bonus dice in an attempt to resolve things through diplomacy. If one of your allies (such as a retainer or member of your coterie) then breaks the terms of your negotiation, you must roll to resist fury frenzy.
• Show of Defiance: Tyranny is the enemy of peace. One of the best ways to prevent it is to humble the powerful. Once per story, when you chastise or humiliate someone in a higher position of authority than you, you may add the number of dots you possess in Status as bonus dice to your roll to cajole the individual or persuade the crowd to turn against them. The outcome of using this Loresheet is a likely Adversary possessing dots equivalent to your target’s power level.
• Becoming the Mask: You’ve assimilated into humanity so well that you have a separate, almost mortal life. You receive an identity represented by Mask 2 and may split two dots between Contacts, Resources, and Influence. When you take on this Mask, you take on mortal connections, including family and friends (assumed to have been cultivated in the build-up to this Loresheet). However, they pose risks to your security and privacy as they’ll ask the usual questions of “where are you going to work these days?”, “why are you out all night?”, and “why did someone come to my door saying you’re a vampire and part of something called a charcuterie?”.
• Bond Breaker: The dissipation of Menele’s blood bond permanently changed you. You’ve become Unbondable (Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 181), and feeding a Rouse Check’s worth of vitae to a thrall immediately breaks the regent’s hold. However, you are incapable of creating your own blood bonds.

References

VTM: Children of the Blood