Cainite Conspiracies: Family is Family

Vampire: The Masquerade

The Cainite Conspiracies for V20 Dark Ages releases later today, so we reached out to some of the anthology’s authors to get an inside look at their chapters:

Family is Family

Written by Renee Ritchie

“Family is Family” tells the story of Zamra, a Brujah elder looking to preserve what positive history exists over Carthage. I wrote this story to tie into the notes and apocrypha included about the Brujah in the main V20 Dark Ages Vampire book.

In the story, Zamra teams up with Aidan, the neonate childe of an old friend and clanmate, to retrieve some old letters from Carthage, specifically written by her sire. In addition to the wide age gap of elder and neonate, they’re near exact opposites: he’s crafty and underhanded where she’s more forthright, and he was a European Crusader while she is at least a practicing Muslim. They press each other’s buttons just by existing, which inflames the Brujah temper in both of them. However, a Baali threat to those documents, as well as the Cainite holding them, helps them push past their differences, at least a little. Strong opinions and self-identity are key to the Brujah experience, and I wanted to give those elements a proper showcase. How do these strong ideals stand up to dealing with people with the exact opposite stance, but an unrelated common goal?

Also, I wanted to examine what happens when a Brujah discovers her cause is built on lies. How does such a passionate being with firm convictions react when those convictions that you’ve lived by for years, centuries even, turn out to be misguided, if not flat-out wrong? That kind of crisis can make even the most ancient Cainite feel like a useless fledgling. How old is too old to be forced to start over?