Toulouse

The prosperity of Toulouse since the 2nd century BC is due its privileged position between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, as well as its river port on the Garonne.  The city became a bishopric around 260.  In 418, Toulouse, taken by King Athaulf, became the capital of the Visigoth kingdom and the center of a remarkable and brilliant civilization.  Reconquered by the Franks in 507, it became the capital of a brief Aquitaine kingdom, then the seat of a county.  From the 11th century, the city attracted a strong community of merchants around Saint-Sernin, benefiting from river traffic to Bordeaux and the salt and wine redistribution market.  From the 13th century, Toulouse merchants were very present in the fairs of Champagne with their spices, their furs and especially their draperies and the pastel culture of Lauragais which are exported as far as Italy and Spain.

In the middle of the 12th century, an enclosure united the town and the city ​​which then had commercial privileges granted by the Count of Toulouse.  The Chapter bringing together six capitouls and four judges responsible for administering the city for the count appeared at the same time and gained its independence in 1189 (he is then administered by twenty-four capitouls designated by election).  Following the Albigensian Crusades, Toulouse passed under the control of Simon de Montfort.  Count Raymond VII restores his authority in 1240, but himself designates the capitouls which are no longer elected.  Toulouse hosts a large Jewish community (increased by families recently exiled from the North of France), with a privileged status that contrasts with the time.  This contributes greatly to its commercial success and its cultural development.

From 1229, the city extended outside the walls.  The enclosure of the previous century was partly demolished and its ditches filled in to allow its urbanization and the development of new agglomerations within its perimeter.  In the middle of the thirteenth century, Toulouse has nearly thirty thousand inhabitants.  The same year, Pope Gregory IX founded the University of Toulouse.  Dialectics and theology are the main subjects, the aim being to bring back into the bosom of the Church these heretical lands.  A training in civil law makes its appearance thanks to the many lawyers trained in Montpellier and allows Toulouse to shine in the administrative fields and French law.

Saint-Étienne Cathedral, in Romanesque style, is in the process of being modified as the famous nave takes shape.  The city is home to also a large number of ecclesiastical establishments, including Saint-Sernin and its basilica (Augustinians) which houses the remains of the counts of Toulouse of the 11th and 12th centuries, as well as Notre Dame-de-la-Daurade (Cluniacs) which is undoubtedly the first sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin in Roman Gaul (perhaps because that it was built in place of a pagan temple dedicated to a enigmatic goddess rather than Apollo as we think).

Dominic de Guzman established the first establishment of his order in 1215 and the Inquisition was organized there from 1229 by the Council of Toulouse.  The convents of the mendicant orders will flourish very quickly in the city (whether they are designated by the names of Dominicans and Franciscans, Friar Preachers and Friars Minor or Jacobins and Cordeliers).

A city of great importance since antiquity, Toulouse is passed from the Roman Ventrue to the Visigoth Brujah Athalaric (or Athalareiks in the Gothic language, which would mean "noble then sant").  Recognition by Rome of the Visigoths of Aquitaine as a federated people (and kingdom) enrages the Ventrue and Lasombras who oppose Athalaric and try to destabilize him by manipulating the believers of this new religion which considers the goth deities as pagan.  Ensue many persecutions of Christians and the destruction of several places of worship by agents of Athalaric. However, under the reign of the Brujah, Toulouse took off considerably and culture is already honored there, as are the arts.

When the troops of Clovis push back the Visigoths in Iberia, Athalaric withdraws with them.  For more than a century, he attempts to regain control of Aquitaine and Toulouse, without ever succeeding, and mysteriously disappears at the beginning of the 8th century (possibly murdered by members of the Assamite clan accompanying Muslims who have set foot on the peninsula).

Transformed into a military city in order to fight against Visigoth incursions, Toulouse lost its influence and its luster.  For two centuries, the Ventrue let the city wither away and many Cainites regret the Visigoth period, mainly the Toreadors who organized themselves to take control.

The siege of the city in 731 by the Umayyad armies provided an opportunity to strike a blow against the Ventrue power in place.  An influential Toreador of Aquitaine, Michaelis (sire of Esclarmonde, Embraced two years before), takes the Patricians of courts via his deadly pawn Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, and calls upon allies of Burgundy and Neustria under the influence of the clan of the Rose.  The defeat of the Umayyad governor is stinging.  So that the siege of Toulouse is lifted, the allied armies serve as means of pressure against the Ventrue who are forced to give up control of the city to the Toreadors and more particularly Michaelis.

The ancient Toreador participated for several centuries in the influence of Occitan culture, particularly influenced by the Latin world from which he originated.  Strongly independent, he does not take long to become a leading rival for Salianna, largely participating in the cultural conflict between the North and the South of France.  However, Michaelis makes three mistakes of judgment that quickly lead to its decline in the second half of the twelfth century.

Completely impervious to the principle of the courts of Love, these will develop mainly in Provence, in the Poitou and in Champagne, allowing Salianna to impose a new form of political power and to take in a few only years the ascendancy over Michaelis.  It's at that moment

that strong tensions arise between the Toreador and his childe, already Prince of Carcassonne.  Rejecting the opinion of Esclarmonde and his advice, he would have entered into a fit of rage and would have humiliated and even struck his descendant.

Salianna, grasping the importance and gravity of the event, approached the prince of Carcassonne to propose to her to become the queen d’Amour, not only from the county of Foix, but from Toulouse as well.  Esclarmonde accepted the offer and Salianna was already savoring his forthcoming victory over his rival.  But the error most important of Michaelis was to underestimate the religious fact and more particularly the importance of the Cathar heresy on its lands.  Of course, the problem was not so much these good men and good wives pious and honest, but rather the members of the Cainite Heresy whose influence began to take root in the region under the supervision of Toreador Ranulph Longue Sword, bishop of the Scarlet Curia.

No one ever knew if the madness that gripped Michaelis' mind was the product of rapid moral degeneration, a deliberate act on the part of a master of Dementation or a mixture of both.  A violent paranoia took possession of the Prince of Toulouse who, it was said, exchanged vicious words with his childe, reproaching her for not having supported him and to have delivered him to the “bitch of Paris”, destroying all that he had built… but he spoke alone and seemed to be fighting against shadows, illusions

One winter morning in 1191, a few inhabitants got up shortly before dawn and said they met a man who was crossing the dark city without even carrying a lantern.  As he walked past them, their light revealed a man of nobility and undeniable charisma, of those who immediately inspire the greatest respect, but her cheeks were covered with scarlet tears.  As the sun went down that evening, its ashes had already been swept away by the winds, leaving behind the long string of ivory beads that he never took off.

The tragic death of Michaelis was also a release for many Cainites of his court, his madness threatening to carry many innocent Damned.  But the importance of the old prince, his political and cultural heritage, as well as the influence of his childe in the region, made his succession difficult.

An assembly of elders was constituted, arbitrated by the Toreador and chamberlain Lissandre de Béraud.  A new provost was also appointed, at the request of Esclarmonde: Urraca Sanxes from Lleida.  This Aragonese Lasombra, who distinguished himself during the early days of the Shadow Reconquista, has since turned its attention to the Cainite Heresy which persists in surviving despite the destruction of the Headquarters of Nod.  It is then a true crusade of the shadows which will engage against the Scarlet Curia, alternating mixed successes and bitter failures.

When the crusade against the Albigensians arrived in 1209, Esclarmonde retires to Foix, under the protection of the prince Beatrice.  Powerless, the queen of Toulouse sees her country being devastated, the innocents massacred, the lands occupied by the invading invaders from the North.

In 1211, Esclarmonde and Beatrix put pressure on the Count of Foix so that the latter came to the aid of besieged Toulouse.  The city resists, but the county of Foix is ​​ravaged by the troops of Simon de Montfort in retaliation.  In 1218, Esclarmonde goes personally to Toulouse to undergo a new headquarters.  This time, she took advantage of the almost ten years that separate it from the beginning of the crusade to prepare for war, finding many allies among the lower clans.  The siege is a failure, Simon de Montfort is killed and the crusaders must flee.

The following year, Amaury de Montfort, supported by the troops of the future Louis VIII, once again failed at the gates of toulouse.  Esclarmonde joined Carcassonne for a time, but again had to fall back on Toulouse from 1226, leaving Louis VIII's troops to once again ravage "his" city.

If relative peace has returned to the region, the King of France Louis IX impressed his domination on the region and the count Raymond VII must submit after a last attempt to revolt in 1242.  For his part, Esclarmonde proved several times that she was a force to be reckoned with and a formidable tactician and politician.  She forged alliances with Éon de l’Etoile, Ventrue prince of Béziers, many elders belonging to the lower clans, the Lasombra of the kingdom of Aragon, as well as with the ancient Brujah Themistocles who defends fiercely the Cathar cause and became personally involved in several battles to save Perfects.  The Queen of Toulouse even won the respect of the Assamite vizier Salim Al-Ahzan and enjoys the protection of two members of the warrior caste in exchange for hospitality and protection of Muslim philosophers, poets and doctors in Montpellier and Toulouse.

## The Word of God

Ranulph Longsword has created a new sect on the ashes of the Scarlet Curia: the Verbum Dei.  The Toreador swapped his title of bishop for that of apostle, professing to the "verbatims" that the destruction of the Siege of Nod is only the result of the vanity and self-loathing that animated the members of the Curia.  The third Cain is on his way and the false church of Rome, the Babylon of the Apocalypse, will soon fall, already deprived of its sovereign pontiff.  The Inquisition is only the instrument of the prostitute of Babylon, who is drunk on the blood of the true saints and martyrs: the Cainists.

The Verbum Dei prepares for the arrival of the Word of God, the Third Cain described in the Apocalypse of John: "clothed with a garment stained with blood”; “out of his mouth came a sharp sword”; as for the birds devouring "the flesh of all men, free and slaves, small and large”, it can only be a question of the Antediluvians carrying the judgment of the Word of God (Revelation, chapter 19) precipitating Gehenna.  Then the Cainites, already dead and risen, will reign on earth for a thousand years with the Third Cain, their soul freed from the Beast finally defeated (can this refer to the mythical state of Golconda?).  At the end of these thousand years of reign, Satan will be defeated and the Cainists will create a new world in the Third City: the heavenly Jerusalem.

## The Chapelet of Michaelis

This long rosary of nearly one meter has no religious connotation, dating from the beginnings of Christianity.  He comprises one hundred and six ivory beads linked together by a thread of silver so fine that it seems invisible, although it has an incredible resistance.  The nature of the ivory is unknown, but Michaelis said that the pearls came from the same colossal defense that had enabled Pygmalion to sculpt his Galatea.

The origin of the rosary is unknown, just like the symbolism of the hundred and six pearls or the identity of the craftsman who had it realized.  However, Michaelis having been Embraced (according to him) in Rome in the year 131, each pearl could represent a decade of his existence as a Cainite, somehow prophesying his end.  Perhaps this is his ultimate death which has tarnished its whiteness, more than the ephemeral fire which consumed it?  Another coincidence, it seems according to some historians that the oppidum of Tolosa fell into the hands of the Romans one hundred and six years before the birth of Christ.  But no doubt there is no particular symbolism.

The Michaelis Rosary is now the property of Esclarmonde who wears it permanently, mixed with his long braid.  Each of the pearls contains one of its sire's most vivid memories, clearly accessible via the Psychometry power (at the discretion of the storyteller, some secret events can be logged there).

But, among all these pearls, only one has retained its whiteness and radiance: the one containing the memory of the embrace of Esclarmonde.

Consumed by remorse, the queen of Toulouse made the promise to overthrow Salianna from her throne and eradicate the Cainite Heresy, responsible, according to her, for the death of her sire and the ruin of his beautiful Occitan country

## The courtyard of the Golden Cross

Esclarmonde no longer reigns over a simple Court of Love, but on a courtyard paying homage to Occitan beauty and passion.  Renamed "cour de la Croix d'Or", it refers to the Occitan cross, emblem of the region and of the Cathar cause, but also resistance symbol

Surrounded by an assembly of elders (bringing together high and low clans), as well as his chamberlain Lissandre de Béraud, his provost Urraca Sanxes of Lleida and his grandchild Aimeric de Cabaret, Esclarmonde succeeded against all waiting to strengthen its position.  She welcomed refugees from Constantinople expelled from Paris, granting them the same privileges as the Cainites established here for centuries.  If such an attitude would have brought down any prince, too mighty as it is, adversity has strangely united in a fragile harmony of beings as selfish and quick to betray as the vampires.

Little by little, the domains confiscated by the Cainites from the north during the Albigensian crusades are taken up, the latter suffering the fate they had reserved for their victims.  The divide is deep between the North and the South of France.  If Louis IX is indisputably victorious over the Count of Toulouse, he is not the same for the Great Court and Salianna who does not not yet understand all the reasons for their failure.

Esclarmonde continues his standoff from a distance with Salianna and Geoffrey, although the latter has somewhat strayed from this conflict and ended up providing discreet support to Éon de the Star, influential Ventrue representative on the lands of the queen of toulouse.

## The Mysterious Stefano

Among the factions fighting over Rome in the twelfth century, that of the Malkavian Stefano intrigues to return to the city its ancient glory.  The method is to facilitate the rise in power of the See of Saint-Pierre, a tool for international power.  Stefano triumphs with the election

of Innocent III in 1198.  In 1208, he left Rome to organize the following year the capture of Languedoc, which was to serve as an example to all the enemies of Rome.  The crusade against the Albigensians is his child… Following his success, he settled in Toulouse where he joined the assembly of elders, with his influence on the Church.  Nowadays [1242], he lives in the bishopric and enjoys a disturbing immunity against the Inquisition investigations.

You can learn more about Stefano in the The Cathar Heresy campaign, the publication of which will accompany the France by Night supplement.

## The faydit knights

Bearing the name given to the Languedocian lords and knights dispossessed of their domains by the Crusaders, these warriors (mostly Toreadors, though a few Lasombra Aragonese and Brujah have joined their ranks) are dressed in the amaranth surcoat, symbolizing the blood shed by the "crusaders" and the murders of the Occitan Cainites, as well as the matching mantel stamped with the Occitan Gold Cross.  Together they form the arm armed with Esclarmonde, bringing death to his enemies.

Something unusual for an "order" of chivalry, even among the Cainites, it is led by two women from the clan of the Rose, also blood sisters: Bellisenda and Ermisenda (both of 8 generation).  Sometimes nicknamed "the harpies of the battlefield", they show as little mercy as their mythological counterparts when it comes to applying a deserved punishment.

## Cainite exodus and return

During the early days of the Albigensian Crusade, many Cainites from Languedoc fled to the Kingdom of Aragon.  Their situation, scarcely more enviable than that of the refugees from Constantinople, gave birth in them to a formidable desire for revenge.  Used in Shadow Reconquista by Cainites from both camps, many of them found the final death.  Now, the survivors who were unable to settle in the Kingdom of Aragon intend to regain possession of their domains and quench their bloodlust, both towards those who chased them from their lands only towards the “men of God”.  Whether Languedoc now seems relatively peaceful, a war is book again night after night, threatening the Sixth Tradition.

## The Cainite Heresy

This evil, so deeply rooted that it took a century to dislodging him, considerably weakened the power of the Occitan Church and allowed the Albigensian beliefs to flourish, leading to the most terrible of the repressions against heretics in France, which was only a pretext for the lords of the north who wished to seize the lands of the south, rich and flamboyant.

Having to fight on two fronts, on the one hand the servants of the Scarlet Curia and on the other the crusaders answering to the order of the pope, the Languedoc Cainites were soon overwhelmed and massacred, captured or put to flight.

Quickly, Esclarmonde la Noire led part of her hatred against the Cainite heretics, responsible for so many horrors and, indirectly, for the creation of the Inquisition.  In order to flush out, she had to make an alliance with the Nosferatus, delighted to deliver the last members of the Avenging Blades Scarlet Curia knights faydits of the queen of Toulouse and allies of circumstances, like the Brujah and fighting brother Mathieu (see page 194), who nevertheless opposes the pro-Albigensian vision of Themistocles.

Now under the double threat of the Inquisition and Esclarmonde, the last members of the Cainite Heresy depart towards lands more conducive to their business, such as the North of the France and Italy.

## The University of Toulouse

Like Paris, Toulouse has a university.  Even though it was recognized by Pope Gregory IX above all to fight against the scourge of heresy and that the majority of teachers belonged to the ranks of the Dominicans, it participated in the influence of the region and did not hesitate to stand out from its Parisian counterpart by teaching philosophers there considered "dangerous" by the Church, a sign of a certain desire for transgression.

Classes are mainly held in recent convents mendicant orders and to exert an external influence on them (and cainite) is complicated to say the least.  Themistocles tries, without success, to integrate theological foundations close to the Cathar dualism in the hope of gradually changing the vision of its detractors.  But the evil is deep and apathy awaits the former Brujah who will soon withdraw from the mortal life after the fall of the last Cathar stronghold, the castle of Quéribus, in 1255.

## Assamitic presence

Some Children of Haquim went to the lands of South-West of France during the 12th century in order to judge the mortals and Cainites responsible for massacres of Muslims, under the command of the Count of Toulouse Raymond de Saint-Gilles.  Others fled the Iberian Peninsula soon after the turning point of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 (marking the beginning of the fall of Al-Andalus and the reconquest of Lasombras) and settled on the other side of the Pyrenees, mainly in the old Septimania (Narbonne region).

If some of them have decided to remain neutral during the Albigensian Crusades, most sided with the oppressed and stood against the Inquisition and its unworthy courts to exercise any judgment on pious and pacifist people, it does not matter that their faith does not go to Islam.

The court of the queen of Toulouse welcomes the Assamites in a pragmatic goal.  Even if the presence of these occasional allies angers the Christian Cainites, they prove to be far too

useful for an Esclarmonde trying to hold on to its enemies from a distance.  Moreover, it also hosts many Muslim Toreadors and Lasombras, which is not without creating some tensions with the Aragonese Magisters deeply invested in the Shadow Reconquista.  This fragile balancing act aimed at maintaining openness to all cultures could very quickly turn into a disaster in a society where religious divisions are growing stronger.

## The Other Esclarmonde: the Black Lady of Montségur

Among the most famous Albigensian heretics is a Perfect: the great Esclarmonde of Foix. Became widowed in 1200, she turned to religion, spreading the Cathar spiritual thought and multiplying the benefits.  She is also behind the reconstruction of the square stronghold of Montségur from the start of the Albigensian Crusades.

When he died in 1215, his faith was sorely tested when she woke up on the other side of the Shroud.  She refuses to believe that there is no reincarnation or salvation and convinces himself that God gave him a mission.  She would haunt since the Montségur castrum, sometimes appearing to the eyes of true believers in the form of a woman wearing the robes black typical of the Parfaits

Toulouse intrigues

The sarcophagus of Alexandria.  Not long ago, under cover of the night, a sarcophagus from Egypt that seemed to be made of gold and polished glass was landed in the greatest secrecy in the port of Agde, in the presence of Prince Éon de l’Étoile and his most faithful Ventrue knights.  He was loaded with the most great reverence on a carriage specially prepared for occasion and carried to a secret location.  Speculation abounds among the few Cainites present or aware of the matter as to the contents of the sarcophagus.  Most believe it to be the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great which is believed to have been missing centuries ago.  The interest of the Prince of Béziers in the conqueror could lend credence to this assertion, but some Auspex users have been able to detect an immaculate and shining aura coming from the sarcophagus which does not correspond to anything to the founder of Alexandria.  Rumors are swirling about the fact that it could then be the body of a saint, perhaps Saint Anthony or Saint Mark, although such a thing seems impossible.

Of course, if the aura visualized can correspond to a being "holy" or "pure", it can just as well correspond to a virtuous being much older than Christianity itself, whether human, vampire… or something else.

Although all memory of the sarcophagus has been erased from the memories of the mortals who transported it, one of the Alexan Drins sailors was seized with a high fever and died in Agde in quarantine.  According to the woman who had agreed to watch over him, he repeated only one thing over and over in his feverish dreams and delirious: “Abrasax”.

Abrasax. This word, engraved in the Coptic language on the sarcophagus brought back from Alexandria, is not a name, but a term referring to the thought of the True God, the one opposing the Demiurge in the belief-specific Gnostic tradition Albigensians.  It is a word which, engraved on an amulet, could protect its wearer from evil influences.

The holy remains found in the sarcophagus are those of Basilides (disciple of Simon the Magician), who taught his own doctrine in Alexandria in the second century and is said to have wrote a personal version of the Gospels.  The fact that he is considered a heretic by the Church nevertheless makes him a holy being and his body greatly spared by more than a millennium of decomposition, all as the aura of True Faith that emanates from it, attest to this.

What could the Prince of Béziers do with the real remains of a saint?  Does she have any special power?  Is it a currency of exchange?  Or just the room mistress of her collection?  And is Basilides really dead?

Interfector in tenebris.  When Alvaro Inès Dolores of Santiago, the heretical Lasombra bishop of Béziers, was flushed out, torn from his refuge (during a confrontation who drove into madness the crusader ghouls charged with capture) and finally dragged to a specially pyre drawn up for him by Éon de l'Etoile, he pronounced a terrible curse on his executioner.

This curse born of ungodly faith, suffering, of terror and hatred, was heard by a spirit of the Abyss which gave him body in the form of a mortal shadow: the Interfector in tenebris (the assassin in the dark).

This creature with a monstrous silhouette has sown death among the servants of Éon before finally being defeated at the first light of dawn.  But this tenebrous entity, perhaps the soul of Santiago himself, has only been plunged into a kind of torpor, in the deepest corner dark on the outskirts of the city: in the depths of the maze underground rains the remains of the Roman arena.  There, for more than two decades, the shadow regenerated and grew, drawing a new force within the Abyss itself, fashioning a refuge of darkness.

Now the Interfector is fully awakened and more powerful than it was in 1209.  Anyone who will make their way even in his unholy sanctuary would be in an area under the perpetual effect of the power of Obtenebration Evocation oblivion; with each turn passed in this zone, the intruders suffer an attack (pool of 10 dice, difficulty 6) and disappear for seven days into the Abyss if they cannot dodge or parry (cf. VAT20, page 269)

STATS IN BOOK

Special: Interfector takes double aggravated damage fire and sun (he can nevertheless try to reduce these damage with his Fortitude).  Unless destroyed by fire or sun (or a weapon with the True Faith trait), it dissipates to be reborn seven days later in its refuge.

Annihilating his refuge and his shadows by fire when the Inter fector is regenerating destroys him permanently.  Furthermore, it is immune to all mental disciplines (or powers) and social.

Haquim Ibn Hafsa, the Cainicide.  This former 5th grade Assamite generation is in torpor under the city of Nîmes.  Hard stricken by the curse cast upon the warrior caste Assamites during the Second Baali War, Haquim Ibn Hafsa battled his demons and gorged on the blood of ancients Cainites, growing ever more powerful, his last victim being a Methuselah Gangrel Visigoth, devilized on the side of Béziers during the Arab conquests of the early 8th century.

During the wars against the Franks, the cruelty he showed proof, as well as his inability to defeat his enemies for the glory of Allah, made him fall on his Way, bringing him closer and closer to the Beast that devours him. If this ruthless warrior, swifter than death itself and practically elusive, were to wake up, he could continue his old fight and probably reduce the city to ashes in just one night.

The secret of the Prince of Rodez. Garsinde was devilized by the Tzimisce Agoston the Younger in 1229 and since then the powerful Demon reigns in his place, having taken his appearance.  From his real name Agos, Agoston "the Younger" is a former Magyar and comrade in arms of the Grand Prince Almos.  Embraced in 895 when he was about to be executed by his own men following the defeats against the Bulgarians, he became the perfect pawn of the voivode Ayakul, to the cruelty unmatched.

During the Hungarian invasions of the first part of the 9th century, the Tzimisce finds itself at the head of the armies Magyars, plundering Germany and Italy, even pushing to Languedoc (from 924 to 932).  Finally rebuffed by the Count of Toulouse Raymond-Pons, Agos returns to his sire.  However, after almost a century and a half of humiliation and suffering, Agos led a revolt against his sire, but failed in his attempt to destroy and had to flee far to the west with some ghouls having miraculously survived.

After a decade of wandering, Agos remembers the beautiful region of the south-west franc and settles on the side of Turenne, in the Duchy of Aquitaine, taking control of a small local noble family.  Aware of having to build his own domain, he embraces his first child, Jehan du Pleaux, a simple horse breeder in which he detects a special talent for the selection and crossing of species.

For a century, Agoston hid his presence and sought a lord to overthrow, in order to take his place and begin to build “his” voivodship without anyone knowing.  In 1229, his choice relates to a Ventrue from Rouergue, Garsinde, whose methods of governance agree with his own.

Eliminating him was child's play, and drinking his memories simple formality thanks to its high level of Auspex.  Controlling the domain of Garsinde with an iron fist, imposing his will on the Arpajon family by breaking their conditioning to impose his own and being able to rely on particularly efficient ghouls thanks to patient work of Jehan, Agoston is about to see his dream come true.

Patiently building his voivodeship, gradually becoming infected small the Ventrue clan who come to consider "Garsinde" as one of their brightest elements walking the way of the Kings, Agoston feels almost at home, even if he still hears the call of the eastern lands.

Note: Agoston masters the Domination discipline (3) but does not has no Presence, fortunately, Prince Garsinde would never resort to this discipline, at least not in public.

Jehan's ghouls.  Creating a line of ghosts takes centuries, but Jehan is very gifted.  The beginnings were difficult, for even with the best subjects, the accursed blood of the Cainites caused many miscarriages and often gave birth to deformed beings.  Fortunately, mortality less affects the most promising "females", reinforced by their vitae and capable of procreating for decades with the appropriate rituals.

The first promising subject has finally been born and it shows all signs of a hybrid between human and Cainite.  Jehan just hope the vitae didn't alter his mind instead of his body, as may have happened on several occasions previously; but he is hopeful.  However, successive generations of ghouls show themselves more and more receptive to the powers of the vitae.  They have two discipline points at creation and can increase them to level 3 regardless of generation of their domitor.  Additionally, they can learn the Auspex, Might, and Vicissitude Disciplines for a reduced cost. (15 experience points for the first level, then 10 x the current level in experience points to increase them).

As for the fruits of his failed experiments, these pathetic and deformed creatures, Jehan uses them as labor and murderers.  Strangely, he likes them more than the others and does not hesitate to amplify their deformities, transforming them into "magnificent and deadly" creatures.  Number of persons superstitious claim that certain deformities are a sign of demonic possession or ancestry.  They don't don't know how right they are.

The relics of Éon de l'Etoile. The Prince of Béziers accumulated a prodigious number of relics, whether purchased, stolen from the order of the Bitter Ashes or donated by Esclarmonde la Noire.  Currently, he would negotiate with the Occitan Tremeres to recover those being in their possession.  The reason for this compulsive search for sacred objects remains mysterious; is he just a collector or does he have a plan in mind?  If many relics turn out false, some exhale a weak divine power important (True Faith • to ••••) in the hands of believers. Officially, the goal is to steal potentially deadly tools, even used by mere humans.

Unofficially, he would assemble an arsenal capable of overthrowing the most powerful Cainites

THE VISION OF JEAN LE FOL

This Malkavian, "jester" accompanying Queen Isouda of Blaise wherever she goes, told her of a vision he had had, while the latter reveled Salianna's failures against Esclarmonde:

"My Lady, this day I had a strange dream when I was usually a prisoner of the dreamless sleep that afflicts us.  I saw a formidable skein made up of scarlet threads, intertwined without ever tangling.  By untying this ball, whose threads seemed not to want to leave their lascivious and bewitching aunt embrace, I discovered there what was prisoner in her heart: there had five crowns.  One of them was gold, another alabaster and purple, the third was solar and its painful sight, the fourth of steel and the last had the color of silver coins.

When they slipped from my hands, two broke, those gold and alabaster.  From these shattered crowns blood flowed,forming a sixth crown which then spread out on the ground, absorbing that of steel.  Then blood flared and ashes sprouted a formidable vermilion rose, which towered over me with its size and its imposing presence.  It was then that I fled, and in doing so, I came across a wolf trapped in a bush of black roses with sharp thorns.  And the wolf laughed... he laughed and it was your laugh, madam.