Toreador

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Their symbol is the thorned rose.

The Toreador are some of the most beautiful and glamorous of the Kindred. Famous (and infamous) as a clan of artists and innovators they are one of the bastions of the Camarilla, as their very survival depends on the facades of civility and grace on which the sect prides itself.

It is said that the Clan's founder, Arikel was a mortal painter in the First City. Famed throughout the lands for her work, after her Embrace she painted a mural on which the past, present and future of Kindred society was depicted. When Caine saw a terrible future for his race, he cursed her with the affliction that affects Toreador today - the art that she loved most dearly would now be her obsession and distraction above all things.

In the middle age, the Toreador were a member of the High Clans, and their numbers were made up of the same types that are common in the modern nights - minstrels, painters, poets and actors.

Like most Clans, some of the members left the Clan proper upon the formation of the Sabbat. Toreador antitribu are the dark reflection of their Camarilla cousins - while they are beautiful social butterflies, their weakness has twisted so that all antitribu derive joy from the emotional, physical and mental suffering of others.

The Toreador revelled in the Victorian age. The Industrial Revolution led to a phenomenon that only the rich had been previously afforded - leisure time. A heyday of theatre, music and art began in cultural nexuses like New York, London and Paris and spread throughout the globe. While the influence of the Church in people's lives (and consequently, the influence Toreador held over the church) waned, those Kindred that latched themselves onto businessmen prospered. Possibly the one thing most Toreador love with the exception of beauty is money, and it was now accessible from places other than the landed gentry of the time. While the Clan has had peaks and troughs, this was a time that cemented them as a true power in the Camarilla.

Clan	Progenitor	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Toreador	Arikel	Camarilla	Auspex, Celerity, Presence	Artisans	The members of this clan are as much prisoners of their artistic vision and sensitivity as they are its beneficiaries. They are often overcome by the beauty they see around them, and become immobilized with fascination. Such things as paintings, neon signs, or even sunrises can captivate them. It requires a successful Willpower roll to break the fascination quickly; otherwise, the Toreador will stand, awed and helpless, for minutes or even hours. This trait explains why Toreador so often fall in love with mortals.

Final nights

The Toreador play their games as they always have, albeit at a slightly more frantic pace due to the upheaval of the various skirmishes the Camarilla have fought. The recent innovations of cinema, television and the internet means that new forms of art and expression are being discovered almost daily, meaning the Toreador have become even more varied.

However, the Toreador are still a noble and aristocratic clan, and many perceive the Embrace of graffiti artists, Wall Street Wizards and CGI technicians as a pollution of the vaunted ideals that the Clan used to stand for. Many nights are filled with one Toreador bickering with another over what can be considered true art, and each Toreador's opinion is as varied as the definition of art itself.

Culture

It is said that while the Ventrue are the mind of the Camarilla, the Toreador are its soul. It was one of their number, Rafael de Corazon, who was instrumental in its formation. The Toreador are the greatest supporters of many of the Camarilla's traditions, most notably that of Elysium. This is where the Toreador are in their element, showcasing their latest pieces and practicing their highly effective (and sometimes deadly) form of social manouevreing. From the outside, most other Clans think of one face of the Toreador, but see another. When speaking of them to another, most envision Toreador as the Artistes - billowy shirted, frock-coated fops who crow about the beauty of the ages and lamenting their lost humanity. In reality, outsiders are less likely to meet such characters, given as they are to sequestering themselves away to work on their latest masterpiece. Far more often encountered are those Toreador whose unlives have become dedicated to the Kindred social scene - Toreador are often a large contingent of the city's Harpies, and having spent years with their bitchy and conniving clan-mates they are more than capable of ruining someone's reputation with a pithy comeback or a damning piece of gossip whispered in just the right ear.

The Toreador portray themselves as the vampires closest to the living breathing pulse of the humans around them (though this honour might be shared with the Brujah). They claim that this is what keeps them so vital and modern. Indeed, Clan members are often the first ones to be aware of what mortals are wearing, eating, buying and sleeping with. While a Malkavian elder might be found in his 1800s finery, the Toreador is much more likely to be wearing something from this year's Paris catwalks.

Minor bloodlines

Toreador antitribu

The Toreador antitribu were instrumental in the formation of the Sabbat, and much of what came out of the Convention of Thorns did so under the direction of Toreador anarchs who would later guide the sect. With the organizational efforts of the Lasombra and Tzimisce, and a few Ventrue antitribu, the Toreador created much of the sect's structure, as well as codifying many of the sect's beliefs. Indeed, the early, anarchic nights of the sect may have seen its destruction, "if not for the masterful misdirection of our esteemed artistes."

In the modern nights, the Toreador antitribu have similar interests as their Camarilla siblings, only their appreciation for the aesthetic has grown to include pain, savagery, cruelty and depravity. How is a rose, sonnet or portrait any more enrapturing than a masterfully executed flaying, reason the Toreador antitribu? What is beauty, if not subjective? The Perverts' talent for torture rivals even the Tzimisce in pain and duration. Young clan members begin on human subjects, while their elders graduate to "other" subjects. Some of the more practiced members have actually gotten their art introduced into Camarilla salons and Elysia, where they have garnered much Cainite support, to the dismay of the vampires whose bastions have been violated. In the 1980s, an anonymous artist showed "Woman's Submission at the Hands of Man" through the medium of a dress made of raw meat. This exhibit toured several Camarilla-held national galleries and made headlines in every city it visited. No one ever questioned the type of meat used, nor the method of creating the sculpture.

Tattoos, scarification and body piercing among Toreador antitribu provide another opportunity as well one to which very few members inside the Sabbat (and none outside) are privy. The artists have created their own language of symbols and codes, which they use to pass information to each other for their own benefit and the benefit of the pack. A certain lattice of keloids or a particular stone in a nose-stud can provide vital information to those pack members who can read the hidden message. Tattoos and piercings heal over and force themselves out of Vampire bodies unless they existed before the Embrace: Toreador antitribu can send different messages each night, relishing the exquisite pain of the process every time they do so.

Of all the Sabbat clans, the Toreador antitribu interact most frequently with mortals. They move in the most glamorous mortal circles, plying their trade in art and society, feeding as they will from the rich and indolent. Like the Toreador of the Camarilla, the Sabbat Toreador are lethal social butterflies, moving visibly yet mysteriously through mortal circles. Little do their sycophants and admirers know that behind every invitation, innuendo and expression lies the horror of the Sabbat.

Bloodline	Progenitor	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Toreadorantitribu	Unknown	Sabbat	Auspex, Celerity, Presence	Perverts, Pervs	The Toreador antitribu once possessed the same flaw as their non-Sabbat counterparts, though their indulgence in blood-games and twisted passions has warped this failing somewhat. While they once found beauty even in extreme violence or sadism, they have since become needlessly cruel, inflicting their own viciousness on those around them. If presented with an ample opportunity (feeding, a rival embarrassing herself, torturing a captive Cainite), a Toreador antitribu will inflict physical or emotional pain on her subject more often than not.

Version differences

A change to the weakness of the Toreador antitribu. In 2nd Edition the Sabbat Toreador had a similar weakness to those in the Camarilla (although the Sabbat members could also find beauty in great ugliness). Revised edition changed this to forcing Sabbat Toreador to make a Willpower check when confronted with an opportunity to cause pain to somebody.

Toreador of Note

• Isaac Abrams, Anarch Baron of Hollywood.
• Velvet "V.V." Velour, proprietor of 'Vesuvius' strip-club in Hollywood.
• Victoria Ash.
• Michael of Constantinople, One of the Trinity of Methuselahs who ruled Constantinople.
• Marcus Tertius, the Roman centurion of remarkable faith featured in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
• Giulietta D'avena, consort to Marcus Tertius.
• Edward Monroe, Primogen of St. Petersburg.
• François Villon, Fifth Generation Kindred, Prince of Paris.