Tremere

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. The background originally has 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. They became immortal as promised, however, in exchange, they turned into vampires.

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.

According to the game's background, the Tremere are one of the youngest vampire clans, having just come into existence during the Dark Ages. In the little time since then they made incredible inroads within vampiric society and are arguably the most powerful clan in the modern nights. This was due in no small part to their strict hierarchy, secretive nature, and mastery of Thaumaturgy, the clan's trademark discipline, all of which brought suspicion, fear, and respect from other Cainites. The Warlocks were a pillar of the Camarilla and were one of its main defenders, despite the fact that they existed almost as a subsect. Some even went as far as to consider themselves the evolution of vampirism, citing their extreme versatility of blood magic and lack of a true clan curse.

History

Clan Tremere was originally a collection of magi of the House Tremere from across Europe. Tremere, along with several others from his house, created the first clan chantry deep in the Carpathian mountains. The Tremere were all organized via chantries. These were almost completely destroyed in the war against the Tzimisce. Only the fortified Ceoris, 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). Tremere would soon become the preeminent clan in Central Europe.

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 ensure 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.

Gehenna

One Gehenna scenario describes the ultimate possible fate for the Tremere. Saulot gains 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 rebirth (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.

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.

Players gain 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 players 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 events towards the end of the game's timeline have brought that group’s destruction.

Clan information
Name	Tremere
Nickname	Warlocks, Wizards, Usurpers
Founder	Tremere
Parent Clan	Created via magical ritual withTzimisce blood, Salubri
Bloodlines	Antitribu, Telyavs
Sect	Camarilla
Disciplines	Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy
Weaknesses	All Tremere characters are at least one step toward being Blood Bound to the clan

Tremere of note

• Maximillian Strauss, Regent of Los Angeles 
• Aisling Sturbridge, High Regent of the Chantry of Five Bouroughs.
• John Dee, English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and philosopher.
• Deitrik, Elder Astor of Clan Tremere, Sabbat infiltrator.

Minor bloodlines

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; Tremereantitribu and the Telyavs.

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.

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. In 1999, an in-game event leads every Tremere antitribu to be killed by their parent clan. The relevant Gehenna scenario states that Saulot regained 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.

Many practiced the discipline 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.

Name	Tremere antitribu
Nickname	Traitors, Spellbinders
Founder	Goratrix
Parent Clan	Tremere
Status	Extinct
Sect	Sabbat
Disciplines	Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy
Weaknesses	Marked forever as a traitor upon their first Vaulderie

Telyavelic Tremere

In the Dark Ages iteration of the game there was a small bloodline known as the Telyavelic Tremere which was influenced by pagan practices and arose in Lithuania. This bloodline took their name from the Lithuanian god of the dead, Telyavel, having split from rest of Clan Tremere seeking a cure for their vampirism.

The Telyavs can sense a mystical emanation from the land called Siela, the part of the spirit that remains bound to the world after death and also inhabits plant and animal life. The gives the Telyavs rules for 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 vis-rich soil enables Telyav players to draw upon the metamorphic aspects of their character's Tzimisce blood.

Unlike Clan Tremere, who prefer to work in secret, the Telyavs operate openly amongst the pagan populations of Lithuania who see them as incarnations of Telyavel. They use their vampiric nature to work as shamans and priests carving out a unique niche in the everyday life of pagan society.

Name	Telyavs
Nickname	Shepherds
Founder	Unknown
Parent Clan	Tremere
Status	Extinct
Disciplines	Auspex, Presence, Thaumaturgy
Weaknesses	Negative modifiers to resist frenzy are scored two higher than usual when confronted by an enemy who uses "True Faith"