Invictus

Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans in the year 800; in a similar fashion the Kindred sought to unite the fractured kingdoms of Europe and restore the Roman Camarilla. This idea saw the most traction in Germany, where a group of Princes gathered and fashioned themselves Prince-Electors, who would meet to elect an Emperor from amongst themselves to serve as the head of empire. The Emperor would be ratified by the Cardinal of Rome; and thus it was called the Holy Camarilla Empire, to signify the union between the First and Second Estates.

The Empire devolved into wars and infighting, and broke up long before the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon in 1806. It was said that each warring faction met a horrific end by unknown assailants. It was a warning, they said, that whenever the Kindred try to unite their fiefdoms under one rule, there would be calamity. The Council met one final time to dissolve the Empire, and each Prince returned to their realm, isolated and to rule separately.

The Margraves of Brandenburg were once Prince-Electors of the Holy Camarilla Empire. They nursed a long-standing feud with the House of Habsburg, which had came about for reasons lost to the Fog. The Hohenzollerns encouraged the rise of the Evangelical Creed (Westminster Creed) to rival the Monachal Creed practiced by the Habsburgs. They stirred their various proxies to war, culminating in the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Year's War, and the Austro-Prussian War. Frederick von Hohenzollern, warrior-king, perished in war to mercenaries hired by the Habsburgs. His heir, Leopold von Hohenzollern, rose from four centuries of torpor to claim the throne. He had an axe to grind with the Habsburgs (who, with a minor branch of their family, House Geheim, extended their reach to the Secret Estate). He worked to undermine them in every aspect, and to this day, the Habsburgs believed that their enemies schemed in the New World to force Woodrow Wilson to support the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.

Allegations of conspiracy aside, members of the Geheim bloodline did meet mysterious or violent ends in Berlin. Not without good reason, as some might say, for the von Geheims did plenty to deserve their diabolical reputation. Courtly intrigue was the order of the day as the Invictus bickered among themselves along the lines of guild or faction. Leopold von Hohenzollern grew increasingly mad with age. He became brutal, arbitrary, and erratic; he believed that his Praxis was besieged by invisible enemies, and towards the end of his reign, walled himself and the torpid bodies of his family in a crypt underneath the Berlin Cathedral, in the Museum Island in Mitte. According to Carthian accounts, he diablerized them all and was found on his own, covered in Vitae and *bits* of his family members.

The Carthians dragged Leopold out of the crypt and staked him, leaving him to the tender mercies of the sun. The Party claimed Praxis, and a few years later, all of the Royalists were wiped out. After the Blockade, the Carthians declared that membership in the Invictus covenant is illegal. West Berlin was officially declared “Invictus-Free” in 1954.

## **Source books**

* Secrets of the Covenants
* Blood and Smoke: the Strix Chronicles

All stats and abilities from the above books are approved for use unless stated otherwise.

### **Other references**

* Vampire: the Requiem (Fluff only.)
* Invictus (Fluff, Bloodlines, and some Merits.)

## **Links**

* Invictus Events and Practices
* Invictus Titles
* Invictus Abilities