Ventrue

Their symbol is a scepter.

The Ventrue are the rulers, leaders and politicians of the Camarilla, sometimes known as the Patrician Clan or the Kingship Clan. In Ancient Rome, they were generals and warlords of the Empire, and in the Dark Ages, they were knights and barons, leading crusades and conquests. In modern times the Ventrue still have great ambition and see themselves as conquerors, but their ways have changed, using courts and companies instead of feifdoms and mighty armies. Targets for Embrace by the Ventrue have always been people in positions of power, whether these people were aristocracy or company CEOs. The Ventrue perceive themselves as the most powerful of the vampiric clans thanks to their wealth, social influence, and powers over the thoughts and feelings of mortals. The clan as a whole is typified as conservative, be it in actions or customs. The Ventrue have their own nigh-inviolable code of etiquette. The clan's Elders have been known to punish violations of these unwritten rules with greater ferocity and resolve than the Traditions of the Camarilla.

The Ventrue claim that ruling vampires is their duty, their burden, a task which is interlocked with their fate, given by Caine himself (if he ever existed). The reality is that excessive pride and ambition seem a more convenient explanation as to why they strive to expand their already vast influence and assert themselves over other Kindred. They tend to be politicians, businessmen, military officers, crime lords, important members of powerful religions, sects and cults.

In response to what they perceive as a degeneration of the clan from its noble roots, a smaller segment of the clan has forsworn their ties to the Camarilla to join the Sabbat as antitribu. They believe that greed has led the body of the clan astray from its previous glory, so their quest is for righteous military and tyrannical power over other Kindred to reestablish what they believe to be the proper order. The Camarilla Ventrue casually dismiss their antitribu cousins as idealists doomed to failure. Both Ventrue and Ventrue antitribu refer to themselves as the sole "true" heirs of the name.

In comparison to the other vampiric clans, the Ventrue are considered to be especially particular about whose blood they drink. In fact, any given Ventrue can only drink blood from a specific kind of mortal, or from mortals under a specific sort of circumstance. Some may only prey upon a given ethnicity, while others can only feed from humans of a certain occupation or even religion. Some Ventrue can only find nourishment from blood that carries a more rarefied quality such as anger, fear or innocence. Regardless of the sort of blood the Ventrue requires, other blood is regurgitated or simply cannot be swallowed. They may feed from other Kindred with no such restriction. Ventrue prefer to view this flaw as a matter of refined tastes. Of course, with the power (both supernatural and temporal) most Ventrue possess, few go hungry.

Clan	Progenitor	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Ventrue	Veddhartha	Camarilla	Dominate, Fortitude, Presence	Blue Bloods, Patricians	Ventrue have exacting and rarefied tastes, even when it comes to blood. The player must pick a restriction on the type of blood her character can feed upon, e.g. only young men, no animals, only virgins, etc. The character will feed on no other type of blood, not even if she is starving or under duress.

Minor bloodlines

Ventrue antitribu

Long ago, before the Sabbat and Camarilla existed, before the Anarch Revolt and before the Lasombra slew their Ancient and drank his precious vitae, the Ventrue were knights and lords, masters of their manors. After the powder keg of the Anarch Revolt and Tyler's bold attack of the Hardestadt the Elder came the Renaissance, and the Ventrue changed with the times. Driven by greed and power-lust, the Ventrue shifted track. Rather than maintain their noble status, they pursued greater interests in the merchant class. Leaving behind the duty of nobility and the divine right of kings, the Ventrue surrounded themselves with excess and filthy lucre.

So believe the Ventrue antitribu. The few Ventrue anarchs who had originally opposed their elders' iron-fisted rule had grown frustrated with the static reins of power held by the aged Blue Bloods. As mortal currents changed, these elder powers still clenched tightly to their empires, forever preventing younger and more able Ventrue from taking their rightful places. By selling themselves, the Ventrue had given up the true nobility. For the Ventrue anarchs, their leaders had failed, tempted by material wealth and corrupted by power. In proclaiming themselves antitribu, the Ventrue who joined the Sabbat carved for themselves a unique niche that occupies their valorous hearts to this very night.

The Ventrue antitribu practice chivalrous noblesse oblige. They are grim knights and paladins, sworn to combat the Antediluvians and bring down the degenerate Camarilla. Although their aims may seem noble in comparison to the hellish violence of the Sabbat, they support the Sword of Caine to the bitter end. The Ventrue know, as their preserved medieval chronicles attest, that Gehenna lurks just around the corner. In these final nights of chaos and Thin Blood, the only way to avert the impending Armageddon is to pull it out by the roots. Cainites and kine alike serve the Antediluvians unknowingly, and only those with the drive to fight their secret masters shall survive past the rain of fire and blood. The Ventrue antitribu see their Camarilla counterparts as failures, and they have assumed the roles of the race of Cainites' saviors to atone for this. They believe mortals to be ignorant cattle, sufficient only for food and service to their terrible lords. The world will become a hell, surely, but Cainites, as tools of God's vengeance and the Devil's will, are fit to be rulers of the Children of Seth. To accept anything else is to take the path of the disgraced Ventrue of the Camarilla, and the Sabbat Ventrue are not willing to accept that failure.

Bloodline	Founder	Parent Clan	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Ventrueantitribu	Unknown	Ventrue	Sabbat	Dominate, Fortitude, Presence	Crusaders, Paladins	Sabbat Ventrue suffer the same rarefaction of tastes as Camarilla Ventrue, and they may feed only from certain vessels (as decided at the time of character creation). For example, the Crusader may be able to derive sustenance from only Christians, of the blind, or perhaps might be able to drink only cold blood from crystal flutes. The character will feed on no other vessels, even if frenzied or starving. Ventrue antitribu may feed on vampiric vitae normally.

Ventrue of note

• Hardestadt, Elder of the Ventrue Clan.
• Jan Pieterzoon, Child of Hardestadt the Younger, Hammer of the Inner Council.
• Lucinde, Justicar of Clan Ventrue.
• Lewis Colburn, Archon, prominent member of the Federalist movement.
• Dominique, Antitribu, prominent member of the Sabbat
• Bruce de Guy, Antitribu, Cardinal of South America whom signed the Code of Milan
• Mithras, Prince of London and all of Britain

Version differences

In 1st and 2nd Edition, Venture antitribu possess Auspex, Dominate and Fortitude as in-clan Disciplines. Revised edition changed their Disciplines to Presence, Dominate, and Fortitude like the main clan. Some 1st and 2nd edition books will thus present Ventrue antitribu characters with Auspex and little or no Presence. The antitribu was also first describe as a bunch of wiseguys and low-lifes, an antithesis to the 'blue-blood' concept of the main clan. In the Rev. Edition theantitribu are instead those Ventrue who did not approve the change from nobility to merchant the mainclan chose.

The discrepancy can be dealt with by assuming that the Ventrue-antitribu exist as two pseudo-bloodlines sharing the same name. One is a true bloodline in having a different Discipline spread, the other is a bloodline based primarily on social conditions. They are sufficiently difficult to tell apart (due to possessing the same weakness) that they never completely split into two separate bloodlines.