Septemi

Septemi
Nicknames	the Passionate, Maidens
Parent clan	Daeva
Disciplines	Abjurism, Vigor, Celerity, Majesty

The Septemi are a bloodline of the Daeva clan of vampires. The Septemi reject the teachings of the Lancea et Sanctum, instead believing that the doctrine of Christianity also applies to vampires, who have no special place in God's plan.

Overview

According to themselves, the Septemi originate in Robert le Tuteur, a soldier in the army of Jeanne d’Arc. He claims to have been Embraced by a woman named Septima, who was one of the last members of a bloodline that existed during the age of the Camarilla. Robert taught his followers that Christianity applied to the Kindred as it did to mortals, and that their fallen state gave vampires no inherent dominion over the living. He rejected the terms Canaille and Kine, refusing to see the mortals as mere feeding stock, and ruffled feathers by denying many of “the pretty euphemisms” (as he put it) of the Damned.

The bloodline experienced a major upsurge during the protestant revolutions in France. The Septemi tried to rebuild the destroyed villages, earning them the anger of the Sanctified, who found that Theban Sorcery failed against the Discipline wielded by the Septemi. In the centuries since their abortive crusade against the French Sanctified, the Septemi have made enemies almost everywhere they travel. During the late 18th century, nomadic Sanctified began spreading a message within each domain they traveled to: the Septemi, they claimed, were an infernal threat that must be cleansed from the world. Tonight the Septemi still exist, often hiding in the folds of the Carthian Movement and keeping the truth of their lineage hidden. Few among the Sanctified still remember that they exist, though within those parishes perennially plagued by the Passionate, especially in Central Europe, the feud continues to simmer to this night.

The Septemi lineage splits into three rough divisions, each corresponding to a member’s approach to the bloodline’s mission. The most active and aggressive division, the Justiciars, works to remove the tools that the Lancea Sanctum uses to keep humanity frightened and submissive. The second division, the Pacifists, strives to undo the horrors that the Sanctified inflict on the living by helping those who such vampires harm. The Custodians often content themselves with minimizing their own impact on the living rather than acting to undo that of other vampires.

Weakness

Members of the Septemi bloodline suffer the curse of the Daeva. Unlike the majority of their brethren, however, the Septemi find that their higher soul pulls on them with the same strength, addicting them to works of grace. Maidens must spend two Willpower points to avoid engaging in their Virtue when granted the opportunity. The opportunity must be one in which the character would regain all of her Willpower for acting in accord with her Virtue, and thus usually poses some danger to the character. If the character indulges her Virtue, she regains her full Willpower pool.

While a character can only regain her full Willpower once per chapter, by indulging in her Virtue, Septemi may be tempted to perform their Virtue multiple times in a single session. After the first time a vampire fulfills her Virtue during a session, thus refilling Willpower, subsequently indulging in her Virtue only spares the Maiden the two Willpower points she would have lost for not doing so - and confers no other benefits.

References

• VTR: Ancient Bloodlines, p. 89-92