Voivode is the title given to an official leader of Clan Tzimisce.
Description[]
Landholding Tzimisce commonly take the title "voivode," though other regional titles such as zhupan or margrave are used in the appropriate areas. In many ways, a voivode acts as any other vampiric ruler does: He dictates hunting grounds, arbitrates disputes, and otherwise oversees the affairs of the dark. In practice, though, voivodes are much more exclusive about their domains, and suffer new Cainites other than their own childer to dwell within. While the establishment of a power base is a long-standing Tzimisce custom, the base itself is merely a means to the ends of personal security and supernatural might. Regrettably, the voivode gives little thought to his subject's welfare, save that they are sufficiently nourished and populous to be fed from at will. On the other hand, even the cruelest voivode must mitigate his pleasure with an iota of pragmatism. Stories have wafted from the East -- tales of five-eyed voivodes angrily defending their subjects from werewolves or Teuton Ventrue. This is done not out of concern for the subjects' welfare, but as a matter of pride: The subjects are the voivode's to abuse, and he shall suffer no others to do likewise.
The first step to becoming a voivode is the construction of an impregnable fortress. Other Cainites whisper fearfully of the vast Tzimisce manses, spiring above the darksome forests and crags like stone dragons. Some voivodes take pride in constructing just such obvious, menacing citadels. Others prefer to use magic or simple topography to construct hidden lairs -- labyrinths and the like -- so that the peasants know the master of the domain only as an evil, invisible malignancy.
The first century of dominion is commonly spent in the cultivation of terror. Children are taken from their parents' cottages and returned as bloodless corpses or gibbering freaks; a rebellious headman goes to sleep and at cockcrow wakes up next to the empty skin of his wife; an overly intrepid forester disappears, and the villages discover... traces at various sites and intervals over the next year. However, a Fiend must be careful not to overdo things; constant massacres lead the inhabitants to leave, and not even a Tzimisce and all her retainers can stop an entire village's wholesale migration.
Once the mortals have been pacified and bullied, the next step is to mold the domain into whatever will best serve the voivode's interest. koldun and other sorcerous types seek merely to establish a secure herd, while Fiends of more political inclination take a more active hand -- or talon, as the case my be -- in the governance of their fiefdom. In many cases, this involves indoctrinating the mortal populace into serving as weapons against the voivode's rivals. The most effective form of rule is to insinuate one's minions into the mortal power structure. Revenant families are the most advanced products of this tactic, but many mortal families have also fallen under the intoxicating spell of Tzimisce vitae. Over the centuries, these families -- influenced by the nocturnal visitations of the vampyrs -- become more and more depraved, more and more tyrannical, more and more twisted. As decade blends into decade, individual incidents are woven into the cloth of legend, and it becomes impossible to distinguish the atrocities of the vampyr from those of his servitors. Some Tzimisce exacerbate this process, fleshcrafting themselves to resemble the mortal lord -- or fleshcrafting the lord to resemble the vampire. Tales of "devil twins" haunting crossroads have survived in the Old Country to this night. This, of course, serves to direct priestly aggression against the mortal pawns, leaving the vampire unscathed.
In certain sheltered areas, such as Lithuania and other isolated mountain tracts, Tzimisce rule overtly. The vampyr who utilizes this tactic must be strong indeed, fearful of neither Shadow Lords nor rival voivodes and sufficiently dreaded that his flock would sooner stay and suffer than risk of reprisal of a failed escape. He may use fleshcrafted doubles when necessary, but the peasants are well aware of whom they answer. In such places, the subjects often deliberately offer up sacrifices during appropriate holidays, preferring to lose a few loved ones per season than suffer the vampire's greater wrath.
History[]
Originally, the title denoted any Tzimisce with a claim of domain, with all Voivodes nominally answering to the Voivode among Voivodes.
The Council of Voivodes dealt with events, contemplated about actions of individual Voivodes and the consequences to Clan Tzimisce. The events, actions and development of situations discussed in the Council of Voivodes were often (deemed to be) of grave importance to Clan Tzimisce and/or had a certain amount of urgency. It was an institution commissioned for matters that required more than the attention and resolve of one Voivode or when it concerned the domains of more than one Voivode.
Sometime around the 12th century A.D. the Voivode of Voivodes was Urdo and he, was ascribed many a fear-instilling title, also proclaimed himself the Revenger of Wayward Voivodes. Voivode Vukodlak had endeavored to attain the power to devour Antediluvians and in doing so disobeyed the collective will of the Council of Voivodes and subsequently Urdo proclaimed he was the Revenger of Wayward Voivodes like Vukodlak. This implies that a Voivode among Voivodes or Voivode of Voivodes was granted the role of persecutor or could assume such a role in order to reprimand a Voivode and eventually take disciplinary actions against the Voivode. In this particular case, Vukodlak's demesne and holdings were divided amongst the Voivodes, Vukodlak's servitors/servants were decimated and Vukodlak himself put into deep Torpor.¹
Each Voivode had to present himself according to the ancestral tenets of the Clan. The domains of the individual Voivodes were put together in a loose confederation called the Voivodate.
The modern Tzimisce of the Sabbat give very little actual power to the Voivode, the current Voivode of Voivodes being ignorant of most traditions that would have nominated her before.
References[]
- VTM: Clanbook: Tzimisce, p. 27
- VTDA: Libellus Sanguinis 1: Masters of the State
- VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption
- VTM: Clanbook: Tzimisce Revised
