Tremere Information & Tremere Links at HealthHaven.com

**World of Darkness**
Vampire series
	Vampire Settings; World of Darkness Clans; World of Darkness Concepts
Old World of Darkness
	Vampire: The Masquerade; Clans & Bloodlines; Masquerade Society; Cainite History; Vampire Lore; Genealogy
New World of Darkness
	Vampire: The Requiem; Clans & Bloodlines;
Other
	Vampire: The Eternal Struggle; Mind's Eye Theatre
	This box: view • talk • edit

Tremere Clan Symbol

The Tremere are a clan of vampires in the Old World of Darkness

Clan Tremere is one of the youngest vampire clans, having just come into existence during the dark ages. In the little time since then they have made incredible inroads within vampiric society and are arguably the most powerful clan in the modern nights. This is due in no small part to their strict hierarchy, secretive nature, and mastery of Thaumaturgy, all of which elicit suspicion, fear, and respect from other Cainites. The Warlocks stand as a pillar of the Camarilla and are one of its main defenders, despite the fact that they exist almost as a subsect. Some even go so far as to consider themselves the evolution of vampirism, citing their extreme versatility of blood magic and lack of a true clan curse. The Final Nights have many things in store for the Tremere, however, and the more powerful they grow the more their enemies gather.

The Tremere were originally a group of human mages from House Tremere of the Order of Hermes. When they found their magical life-extending elixirs started failing due to the growing lack of belief in magic, they started looking elsewhere. They captured vampires of the Tzimisce clan and conducted experiments on their bodies and blood, and they found how to become immortal with the help of a fellow patron named the Comte de Saint Germain. The fact is, they became immortal as promised but in exchange, they turned into vampires.

Almost immediately after their transformation, the Tremere were beset with enemies on all sides: the Tzimisce wanted revenge, the Order outlawed them, and their awakened Avatars left them on the transition to death, taking their magic with them. Tremere crafted the art of blood magic, Thaumaturgy, and they defended themselves. Wanting more power for his bloodline, Tremere found the resting place of Saulot, the Antediluvian founder of clan Salubri, and diablerized him, consuming his very essence and gaining his power. Tremere declared his bloodline a full Clan, and started spreading rumours that the Salubri were soul-stealers, and managed to hunt them to near-extinction; it is believed that no more than seven Salubri survive into the Final Nights.

Clan	Progenitor	Parent Clan	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Tremere	Tremere¹	Crated via magical ritual with Tzimisce blood, Salubri	Camarilla	Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy	Warlocks, Wizards, Usurpers	Tremere neonates must all drink from the blood of the seven elders of the clan when they are created. This means that all Tremere are at least one step toward being Blood Bound to the clan, and therefore must watch their step very carefully when around their leaders.

[edit] History

Originally from Eastern Europe, the Tremere were organized in chantries. These were almost completely destroyed in the war against the Tzimisce. Only the fortified Coeris, in the Southern Carpathians in Transylvania, survived, but the Tremere soon spread again and founded strongholds in Prague and Vienna (the latter was to become their main center of power), with smaller chantries elsewhere (such as the one in Perugia, in central Italy).

With the destruction of many Elder vampires during the Inquisition and the retreat into torpor of many other Elders, most surviving vampires had little knowledge of the Salubri and no source to counter the Tremere's allegations of the Salubri's soul-stealing. This, combined with the Thaumaturgical powers the young clan made available for the fledgeling Camarilla's defense, brought them greater esteem among the Kindred population in later centuries.

When the Camarilla was organized, the Tremere were one of the group's strongest defenders, although the Gangrel and Nosferatu clans harbour deep resentment toward the Tremere due to their use of Gangrel and Nosferatu blood to create their gargoyle servants.

The Tremere have a strict formal hierarchical structure called the Pyramid. The heads of the Pyramids insure the loyalty of their subjects by having each childe presented to the regent of the local chantry and forced to drink the blood of the Seven elders through a Thaumaturgical ritual, thus bringing them closer to a blood bond, as well as swear an oath. All Tremere are expected to respect and obey their superiors, or else risk being harshly punished.

[edit] Gehenna

One Gehenna scenario describes the ultimate possible fate for the Tremere. Saulot regains control over Tremere's body (with Tremere's soul being displaced into Goratrix's body) due to Tremere having diablerized Saulot in order to cement the status of his clan. Either Saulot/Tremere or Tremere/Goratrix then proceeds to diablerize most of the clan in order to regain his strength and then (depending on the scenario) either proceeds to either destroy the Baali or help Lilith destroy Caine. However, since Clan Tremere are technically a bloodline of the Tzimisce - and all Tzimisce vampires carry a "seed" of their antediluvian - the Tzimisce Antediluvian uses Saulot/Tremere or Tremere/Goratrix's body as the vessel of his re-birth (since "The Cathedral of Flesh", his previous body, is now mindless). As usual, it is up to the story teller's discretion if Saulot is capable of resisting the Tzimisce Antediluvian. However, in most Gehenna scenarios, Saulot acts as a messiah saving vampire kind and defeating Tzimisce.^[1]

[edit] Clan organization

The Tremere clan is highly organized, arranged in a pyramidal hierarchy, with Tremere (the clan elder) at the top.

Councilors: The members of the Inner Council of Seven and the true rulers of the clan. Each Councilor is responsible for directing clan efforts in a particular portion of the world. Each councilor appoints seven Pontifices.
Pontifices: A Pontifex oversees a large region, such as parts of a nation or groupings of smaller countries and islands, and in turn oversees seven Lords.
Lords: Each Lord is responsible for a small country or group of states and uses their influence and knowledge to sway the Tremere in their domain, particularly the seven Regents they oversee.
Regents: The most visible figures of Tremere authority. A Regent runs an individual chantry and is charged with the well being and training of Apprentices.
Apprentices: The youngest and most numerous Tremere. Apprentices must spend much of their time training, serving some need within their chantry, or playing the politics of the clan as best as their inexperience allows. Some never advance beyond this rank, either because they are more interested in Camarilla politics or their own affairs to rise among the Tremere or because the Lord of the region sees no need to create a new chantry and Regent.
Acolyte (OWbN): Within 'One World by Night' these are oath bound Ghouls in service to House & Clan. They follow the same ranking system as Apprentices. This often creates an early rift within the lower ranks of the clan, between those that claim up from Acolyte, and those that are embraced directly as an Apprentice.

The Tremere grant prestige within the clan in slow, carefully measured doses. Following orders to successful conclusions, triumphs of thaumaturgical research, eliminations of the clan’s enemies and efforts that advance the clan’s agenda are all rewarded, albeit in small increments. Tremere who disobey orders, engage in failed experimentation or who weaken the clan drop in prestige dramatically. Considering the rigidly hierarchical nature of the Tremere and the intense competition for advancement within the clan structure, a single misstep can set a Tremere’s ambitions back literally centuries.

The strict organization of the Tremere, as well as their insistence on obeying one’s elders, offers few freedoms. No variants of the Tremere bloodline have been allowed to survive to the present night. A small group of Tremere rebels once made its home in the Sabbat, but recent events have seen to that group’s destruction.

[edit] Tremere of note

Aisling Sturbridge, Lord of the Chantry of Five Bouroughs
Deitrik, Elder Astor of Clan Tremere, Sabbat infiltrator
Dorian Chambers, Regent of Wilmington, Delaware
Maximillian Strauss, Regent of Los Angeles

[edit] Minor bloodlines

Tremere antitribu Symbol

The Tremere are arguably a bloodline of the Tzimisce, as it was the blood of Clan Tzimisce that the Tremere magi used to gift themselves with unlife. Regardless, there are no modern bloodlines of the Tremere, as the clan's uniformity does not allow deviations. There are however two notable extinct bloodlines; Tremere antitribu and the Telyavs.

[edit] Tremere antitribu

During the formation of the Sabbat, a group of Tremere under the leadership of a powerful vampire named Goratrix defected to become the Tremere antitribu, which ultimately came to be based in Sabbat-dominated Mexico. The Tremere antitribu were originally descended from Goratrix, and were marked by the Tremere as traitors through a special ritual. In 1999, every Tremere antitribu was killed by their parent clan. One Gehenna offers a possible explanation for this, stating Saulot regains control over Tremere's body (with Tremere's soul being displaced to Goratrix's body). As all vampires' powers begin to weaken during Gehenna, Tremere/Goratrix sacrificed all the antitribu in order to regain his strength.^[1]

Many practiced Dark Thaumaturgy, a name given to Thaumaturgy learned from demons. Besides the Tremere antitribu, the Baali were the major practitioners of this form of blood magic.

Bloodline	Founder	Parent Clan	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Tremere antitribu²	Goratrix	Tremere	Sabbat	Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy	Traitors, Spellbinders	Upon their first Vaulderie, a Tremere antitribu receives a very painful mark on their forehead, marking them forever as a traitor to the clan.

[edit] Telyavelic Tremere

In the dark ages there was a small bloodline known as the Telyavelic Tremere that was influenced by pagan practices and arose in Lithuania.

Taking their name from the Lithuanian god of the dead, Telyavel, the Telyavs left the main branch of Clan Tremere seeking a cure for their vampiric condition. Arriving in Lithuania, they were greeted by the local population who saw them as incarnations of Telyavel.

Additionally, the Telyavs sensed a mystical emanation from the land from what the locals called Siela, the part of the spirit that remains bound to the world after death and also inhabits plant and animal life. The Telyavs soon discovered a unique Thaumaturgical path based on combining their vitae (vampiric blood) with the soil, tree sap, and the blood of animals to produce a variety of effects. In addition, their deliberate closeness the the vis-rich soil itself enables them to draw upon the metamorphic aspects of their Tzimisce blood.

Unlike Clan Tremere who prefer to conduct their affairs in secret, the Telyavs operate openly among the pagan populations of Lithuania. Their vampiric natures serve them as shamans and priests carving out a unique niche in the everyday life of pagan society.^[2]

Bloodline	Founder	Parent Clan	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Telyavs	Unknown	Tremere	Extinct	Auspex, Presence, Thaumaturgy	Shepherds	Repulsed by Christian iconography. Difficulties to resist frenzy are two higher than usual when confronted by an enemy who uses "True Faith" as a defense.

[edit] Version differences

The Tremere backstory is heavily based on Ars Magica, and the original House Tremere appeared as a Hermetic house in that game system. As the World of Darkness progressively diverged from Ars Magica's medieval Europe, certain elements of the backstory become problematic.

As part of the metaplot, the antitribu were eliminated at the start of Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition. The reasons and methods were expanded upon in Transylvania Chronicles IV: The Dragon Ascendant and Nights of Prophecy.

[edit] Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

The Tremere appear as a playable faction in the PC game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines developed by Troika Games in 2004.^[3]

[edit] Notes

¹ Tremere was a powerful mage who stole vitae from the Tzimisce and then diablerized the sleeping Saulot in order to cement his bloodline as a clan.

² As of 1999, the Tremere antitribu were mostly wiped out. Only a few survivors and those who joined the Sabbat after 1999 remain.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Shomshak, Dean, et al., Gehenna , White Wolf Publishing; Package edition, 2004.
^ Summers, Cynthia, et al., Libellus Sanguinis 2: Keepers of the Word, White Wolf Inc. 1998
^ http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/510/510375p2.html

Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised Edition) by White Wolf (1998)
Hartshorn, Jennifer , et al., Vampire: The Dark Ages, White Wolf Inc., 1995

[edit] External links

Vampire NPC gallery Unofficial NPC (non-player character) gallery with examples of Tremere characters

[Shomshak.2C_Dean_2004-0] Shomshak, Dean, et al., Gehenna , White Wolf Publishing; Package edition, 2004.

[1] Summers, Cynthia, et al., Libellus Sanguinis 2: Keepers of the Word, White Wolf Inc. 1998

[2] ttp://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/510/510375p2.html

[1]

[2]

[3]

Contents