Vampire Covenants: Status and Politics Among the Kindred

Written by Harry

In the underworld of the Kindred, status is everything. While the Forsaken have their politics and hierarchy, the Forsaken Tribes aren’t as politically charged as the Kindred’s’ covenants.

Strange Bedfellows

Kindred are solitary creatures by nature. They don’t feel a need to run in packs like the Forsaken do, nor does their unlife depend on it. Most vampires are perfectly happy to live out eternity without interacting with others of their kind.

Unfortunately, Kindred society is so power-hungry that if a vampire were to alienate himself from other Kindred, he may have more problems than he would if he were to shun the world as a whole.

The Basic Questions

Is it mandatory to join a covenant? No. Unlike the Ghost wolves of the Forsaken, Kindred have no social stigma attached to shunning covenants.

How do you join a covenant? Your character may receive an invitation from a member or know another vampire already in a covenant and request admission. Alternatively, your character may have no choice and his or her Sire may determine the covenant.

What are the benefits of joining a covenant? Status and power, plain and simple. If your Kindred character has ambitions to one day become Prince of his city, he’s going to have to start at the bottom and work his way up. He’ll need the connections a covenant provides.

The Five Covenants

The Ordo Dracul: I had to start with my favorite covenant. The Ordo Dracul are also known as “The Dragons”. This covenant follows the teachings of Vlad Dracul, who claimed that God, rather than another vampire, sired him after Vlad renounced his faith.

The Ordo teaches that nothing is permanent, not even this state of unlife. Many of the Ordo strive to understand and master themselves and their affliction with the hopes of one day conquering it and reversing the effects of the Curse.

The Lancea Sanctum: This covenant is the most religious, trying to reconcile the Kindred’s’ internal conflict of damnation and salvation. The crusade began with the testimony of Longinus, the soldier who became a vampire when he pierced Christ on the cross with a spear.

The Lancea Sanctum serves as the priests and spiritual leaders of the Kindred, working hard to convert whomever they can, often with the zeal of the Spanish Inquisition. It is common to find a member of the Lancea Sanctum serving as the right-hand man or woman to an Invictus Prince.

The Invictus: Like the Ventrue, The Invictus are considered royalty among the covenants, and no doubt many Ventrue swell Invictus ranks. This covenant believes that power is everything. Since many of the members are elder Kindred, they more often than not always get their way.

It is also believed that the Invictus were the ones who came up with the Kindred ranks (Prince, Bishop, Senechal, etc.). They are the self-proclaimed aristocracy. Like any other aristocracy, they fail to see their short-comings. Some believe it’s only a matter of time before the Revolution brings them down.

The Circle of the Crone: Steeped in blood magic, or Cruac, the Circle believes that vampires are a part of nature and meant to be just as anything else that walks the earth. Many of the Circle’s members refuse to pity themselves and seek enlightenment in order to grow. They refuse to be held down with the same guilt so many other Kindred suffer.

The Carthian Movement: Carthians are the total opposite of the Invictus; they are young and idealistic. Carthians, much like Iron Masters of the Forsaken, seek ways to move their kind forward and improve rather than be stuck in the stagnation of the old ways.

Here’s an interesting exercise: If you were a Kindred, which covenant would you follow?

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