Oprinchniki

The Oprichniki, who became the Russian vassals of Clan Tzimisce, can trace their origins to the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the mid-sixteenth century. A group of cutthroats served the Czar of all the Russians as his secret police force to hunt dissidents and ensure his right to rule. The Oprichniki were given free reign to exact punishments as they saw fit, and committed torturous acts that ranged from flaying a villager who complained too loudly to boiling a foreign assassin alive. However, whenever the Czar wished to exact his vengeance upon his own people, it was the obedient Oprichniki who carried out his orders. History may describe the late Czar as a dictator, but it was the Oprichniki who attacked cities like Novgorod, which resulted in the murder and torture of thousands of innocent civilians.

Toward the end of his life, however, the Czar paraded the Oprichniki as the true monsters of his realm, and forced them to turn on each other in a bitter battle for survival. Only the vilest of their lot was left standing, and the remaining mercenaries were threatened with imprisonment and exile for both real and imagined crimes. Betrayed but defiant, an unlikely group of saviors rescued the Oprichniki before they were to be executed. A group of Russian Tzimisce vampires, called the Oradea League, Bound the survivors and commanded the former secret agents as their ghouls until the dawn of the seventeenth century. Eventually, the Oprichniki were bred to become a family of revenants, in part because the ghouls proved to be capable warriors, but also because the Elders within the Oradea League felt they would be more valuable if they could act more autonomously of their masters.

Even before the rise and fall of the Iron Curtain, the Oprichniki family was a well-kept secret. The Russian Fiends primarily used the Oprichniki as their bodyguards, assassins, and couriers, and have slowly given their revenants more freedoms, even going so far as to promise them the Embrace in exchange for their loyalty. Though their numbers are few, the Oprichniki remain hidden from the majority of the Clan to this night, still serving the Oradea League as they always have. The Oprichniki’s loyalty to the defiant Fiends has not gone unnoticed by the rest of Clan Tzimisce, and some vampires believe this is a death sentence. After all, it has long been suspected that the Oradea League was isolated from the rest of the Clan as a punishment for their unwillingness to join the Sabbat.

In the modern era, rumors circulate about how the Oprichniki have become heavily involved with the Russian Mafia or Organizatsiya. Precious few revenants, along with several blood relatives, act as the Organizatsiya’s bodyguards, enforcers, and scouts. While some vampires believe that the Oprichniki are slowly learning how to build a criminal organization of their own, few know the truth behind their actions. Their efforts to join the Organizatsiya were blessed by their patrons, because the Oprichniki have discovered they have a talent for hunting vampires.

While the Oradea League invests themselves in Clan politics, their revenants travel alongside members of the Russian Mafia to wreak havoc and destroy their masters’ enemies in any way they can. Though the Oprichniki number less than a few hundred revenants, it is clear to their victims that this family refuses to face extinction. Thus, for all surviving members of the Oprichniki, the family’s purpose seems to either be related to hunting vampires or being groomed for the Embrace.

Unfortunately for the Oprichniki, it is more than likely that the Oradea League’s Elders have guided them into this predicament, just as Ivan the Terrible did all those centuries ago. Only time will tell if this revenant family is savvy enough to survive and thrive.

**Appearance:** The Oprichniki are well-muscled and lean, and their clothes do not hide this fact. Members tend to wear their hair short, in either a military-style haircut or closely-cropped, and favor combat boots, black T-shirts, and camouflage pants. In general, the Oprichniki are found traveling together in groups of two, three, or more, and are rarely seen in public alone.

**Character Creation:** The Oprichniki tend to focus on vigorous, physical training to ensure that they are ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Typically speaking, characters share rules befitting a soldier of fortune. Physical Attributes and combat-focused Talents and Skills hold more use than social skills. Strategists do exist, however, and those revenants tend to take on a combination of Mental Attributes and Knowledges in military-and-urban related areas.

**Disciplines:** Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence

**Weakness:** Russian koldun believe the Oprichniki family is haunted by the ghosts of their victims, and all future generations have been cursed for their founders’ crimes. Revenants suffer at the hands of at least one ghost as per the Haunted Flaw, found on p. 495 of V20. This is a permanent Flaw that cannot be resolved through the use of blood magic, Disciplines, or other means. Should any Oprichniki revenant discover a way to get rid of a specific ghost, another always takes its place.

**Quote:** “I am compelled to fight, like a moth is drawn to the flame.”