The Weihan Cynn, known sometimes as the Woods-Witches, were a Covenant that once was active in Britain.
History[]
Originating in the deepest history of the British Isles, the Weihan Cynn began as a group of vampiric sages who advised and protected the clans of Albion.[1] For a short while, they were driven away by the Kindred of Rome, but as it became too impractical for Rome to maintain the province of Londinium, the Weihan Cynn returned to their tribes.[1] From there, as the mortals began forming the kingdom of England, the Weihan Cynn remained shielded from continental turmoil.[2]
Those conflicts returned sharply with the Battle of Hastings, wherein William of Normandy killed King Harold Godwinson and took the crown.[2] This was followed by centuries of class wars, crusades, plagues, and famines that gutted England.[2] Vampires divided themselves as the mortals did, alternately fighting alongside peasants and lords.[3]
The Weihan Cynn only began to recover from the infighting and conflict when Æthelgifu took the position of Ieldra and began making bargains with the other creatures of the night, among them spirits and "wolves who were sometimes women".[3] The Ieldra then, during the time of the Tudors, began modernizing the Covenant, for mortals were more and more frequently being pushed out of rural areas and into the cities.[3]
During the late 16th century, during the rule of Elizabeth I, the Weihan Cynn quietly strengthened their positions as the First and Second Estates rip themselves apart due to ideological differences.[4]
Moving into the early 17th century, a small number of the Covenant left for the New World, regularly reporting to the Ieldra, who permitted their work, including their attempts to "save" native cultures, but did nothing to otherwise legitimate their work.[5]
Later in the century, as the English Civil War began to heat up, Ieldra Æthelgifu vanished from London.[6] Under later Princes, particularly Archbishop St. John, the Weihan Cynn languished in London[7], though unbeknownst to the London branch of the Covenant, Æthelgifu had merely moved to Edinburgh, where she succeeded in making the Weihan Cynn a dominant force, with other Covenants having a mere token presence in the city.[8]
The ultimate fate of the Weihan Cynn, which does not seem to exist in modern nights, remains unknown, though it is possible that they too suffered the Striges' attention, which is implied to have been the doom of Prince Paul Michael Hill.[9]
Culture[]
More than any other Covenant, the Weihan Cynn were noted for their awareness of and deals with other supernatural beings.[10]
Factions[]
- Dygol Kepen: Of the belief that the Covenant's greatest power was the secrecy in which their treaties were shrouded, the Secret Keepers regularly strived to find ever deeper secrets to make up for Æthelgifu's openness; interestingly, the Ieldra herself was aware of and applauded their efforts, aiding them whenever possible while maintaining plausible deniability.[11] They were noted to be rather conservative and made to stymie the Ieldra's efforts to modernize the Weihan Cynn.[3]
- Qalandariyyah: Firmly entrenched in mystic tradition, this Islamic splinter sought balance in the temporal world as a means to grace; they saw the deal-making of the Covenant as a form of said balance.[11] Though they made efforts to push their religious bent onto the Weihan Cynn, their true desire was to indebt the myriad powers of the world to themselves before returning to Andalusia.[11]
References[]
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