The History of the Clan of the Rose in Paris
The influence of the Toreador was important, always, in France. But the control of Paris and the rest of the country was always divided between most of the Clans of the Kindred. Until Alexandre and Saviarre succeeded in becoming King and Queen of France, slowly extending their control over all France.
But Paris had been regularly ignored as a common city among others, either by the commercial or courlty world. But, since the execution of the Templar Jacques de Molay, on a pyre, Alexander slowly lost his mind, Saviarre taking the tentative control of France under the name of her Sire. But then, in its paranoia, Alexander ordered a massacre that decimed the Clan Toreador.
Paris had, then, an stealthy visitor in the person of Helena of Troy (See Citybook: Chicago by Night, 1 and 2nd Edition). She had come here investigating about the possible discovery of Menele's presence in France. Her Childe, Beatrix, had little information to give her, but she had the time to tell her about Alexander's action.
Helena had little time to investigate, and was little inclined to lose her time when she could try to find her arch-enemy. Her gift to Paris was a poor, somewhat cynical, violent and most of all, genious poet: François Villon. Soon, Villon sided with the Anarchs, fighting the Ventrue Masters of France along with his friend, the Toreador who would be called Ivan.
In 1481, the Anarchs succeeded in destroying Alexander and Saviarre, and Beatrix, one of the most powerful remaining Elder, took the control of Paris. Secretly, she met with Villon to reach peace. Their bond was more than what could be hoped from the two Childer of Helena. The two Toreador soon shared their dream of a Toreador land where art and bon goût reigned supreme. In 1493, the Convention of Thorn signs the peace between the new Camarilla and the Anarchs. Villon appear in full light, and to the horror of parisian and even french Elders, he will be welcome by Beatrix, and will be offered to become her councillor.
In truth, this alliance will seal the begining of the end of the control of the other Clans over France. Villon, along with his former-Anarchs friends will imagine and enforce what will be known as the Hégémonie Toreador, taking most of the power from the french Princes.
The life at the french court will start to copy the Kindred salons, as the nobles will lighten their faces with withe powder, and copy the Esprit used by the Kindred walking among them. With the construction of Versailles, Beatrix will give Villon the Louvre. The two Kindred will continue to work for the betterment of the Clan, until 1789.
No one still really understand why it happened: The french people had known more severe winters, and were only in a common economic crisis. But some look, then, � the Brujah's influence, as well as the Toreador own, when promulgating the Age des Lumières when philosophers like Rousseau and Voltaire added to the enlightment of the populace.
Beatrix didn't survive the 1789 Revolution, and Villon was alone with the Vision. Soon after, he came back, and wrestled hard, always with his friends, Ivan, Alexis and Elle, to take back the control of Paris, and soon after, of France: The Clan reached his real potential in 1804, when the Toreador Hegemony was enforced definitively.
Since then, the Clan Toreador, or the Clan of the Rose (Le Clan de la Rose) as they like to call themselves, is now simply the greatest Clan of France. Their numbers reach more than three times the numbers of any other Clan or Bloodline. They never lost their power over France, even in the World Wars, or following revolution, and the french Toreador have now as much influence over the Clan than, in different ways, of course, the Seven Elders of Vienna over the Clan Tremere: Few art reach fame among the mortals or the Kindred (or both) without approval of Villon and his clique...
But with numbers and power comes the dissentions: Normally divided in two group all around the world, the Artistes and the Poseurs, the Toreador of France see four categories instead of 2, from the more creative to the least to some, from the more pretentious the the least for others.
But whatever the division, the other Clans aknowledge the deadly combination of these four categories: If the Creators and Performers are the soul of the Clan, the Beauties have the most deadly Esprit of the capital (or of the world!), honed by centuries of intrigues, and so form a protective barrier to their Clan from other Clan's status based attacks. Even the Poseurs have a real utility, as they normally embraces a kind of unlife that is profitable to the Clan, as some of them turns to archeology, or become patron of arts, and so discovering new and ancient forms of art, alike.
Contents
The Creators: Les Créateurs
These are the embodiement of the leading virtues of the Clan. The Créateurs are those who create beauty and art, for the future generations to know and appreciate them: Villon, who wrote his famous poems, is a Creator. Lazlo, who paint beautiful masterpieces is a creator: Anyone can copy them, but the ones behind those words, those colors or achitectura are the creators whose mind gave birth to Art, and so, are the True and Purest Toreador. They tend to concentrate their art through the Expression Talent.
Alain; ?th Generation. Arnaud; 6th Generation. Athanasios; 7th Generation. Beatrix; 5th Generation, deceased. Carla; 7th Generation. François Villon; 5th Generation, Prince of Paris & France. Lazlo; 6th Generation, Duc of the Toreador. Marc; ?th Generation. Merevith; 7th Generation, Veilleur. Nicolas; 11th Generation. Philippe d'Estrée; 10th Generation. Raphaëla; 11th Generation. Valérie; ?th Generation. Vivien; ?th Generation. ?; ?th Generation.
About the others:
The Performers: Ah... Without them, our Art would only be performed by machines. They add the final touch to our creations
The Beauties: They are part of the furniture. They compensate their lack of creative talent for their appearance. I don't know if it's a good thing.
Should their number increase any more, the soul of our Clan would be lost...
The Poseurs: Their chance is that they have something to do for us... They belong to the Clan, that's OK, but they should not brag around about it...
The Toreador Anarchs: There is two kind of Toreador Anarchs: The Old and the Young. The Old are Poseurs who can't live up with the realization they are worthless creatures,
that their Embrace was an horrible mistake. They hide their shame behind rebellion. The Young want to believe they can change the world in one night. They don't understand
we all had these dreams. While we understand them, and so, tolerate their passing passion, most of their time among the Brujah-lovers is forever lost to Art.
===The Performers: Les Interpretes
The Interprètes are those with a special talent for some thing. Aïsha, who dances with so much passion that it moves others, is a performer. Alexis, a famous sword master, was embraced by a Toreador who had been charmed by his style, and is a performer. No one can copy them in their style. They are unique, is some genius way. Should Alexis create a magnificent and deadly combination of moves, and he will become a Creator. Should Dominique create a whole beautiful and dark symphony dedicated at his own lost of humanity, then he will become a creator. But until then, they remain performers. The Performers tend to express their Art through the Performance Skill.
Aïsha; ?th Generation. Alexis; 7th Generation. Chan, Master-; 8th Generation. Cynthia; 8th Generation. Dominique; 8th Generation. Edmond; ?th Generation. Edouard; ?th Generation. Marlène; 10th Generation. Nathaniel; 9th Generation Veilleur Thibault; 9th Generation. Yorgues; 11th Generation.
About the others:
The Creators: They have genius, yes, but they lack the innate talent we, performers, have. They don't want to admit it, but we are as much Toreador as they are.
If they create from nothing but their soul, by sacrifying part of our own, we make the insipid become marvelous, and that is talentuous.
The Beauties: Living (Unliving?) Art. While they don't have the soul of a True Toreador, their presence is inspiration for us.
The Poseurs: Their work is sometimes useful.
The Toreador Anarchs: Rebellion is a form of expression, and as such, the Anarchs can express themselves with creativity. But this cretivity has a price: It creates
disorder, and disorder tend to destroy art. It's not worth the risk. The sooner they will come back to the fold, the better for the world.
The Beauties: Les Beautés
Part of the Toreador think art should be eternal, for the future generations to remember and admire them. They feel real pleasure when seeing the Eiffel Tower, or the Egyptian pyramids, and thank every god they know the creator of those monuments made them nearly eternal. And they scoff at the ones who think that art could be ephemeral, as this form of art does nothing to elevate the illumination of the humanity. Those Toreador are the ones, through, behind the Embrace of a category of Poseurs called the Beauties. they argue that such beauty had to be saved, as any Oeuvre d'Art must be saved from Time's outrages. In some way, they say, they follow Villon's Edict by saving potential living artwork. The Beauties are less numerous than the two other categories, but still exists. Some believe they should be destroyed as they are not real Toreador. Other would answer no one destroys an Oeuvre d'Art, not even Kindred ones. The Beauties are part of the decorum, part of the museum. While they are shown as much respect as other Creators or Performers, they are held in contempt by the True Artistes. Elle is a good example of Beauty, and her control of mortal activities that promulgate the Art makes her a useful Toreador. Should the Intrigue be elevated as an Art, and should her talent for Intrigue be discovered, she would become a performer... Or even a Creator. Anyway, the Beauty are thinking or electing their own Duc, and if Ivan would have seemed a good candidate, his loyalty to Villon, his contemptuous behavior and his lack of social talent makes the Beauties looks for someone else... And Elle would be a good candidate... No need to say that the Toreador Performers and Creators will not like it at all, even if neglecting the fact that it will probably weaken the Clan, even if the number of Ducs is increased.
Aimé,; 6th Generation. Agathe; ?th Generation. Anaïs; 8th Generation Veilleur. Blaise; ?th Generation. Elle; 6th Generation. Emeline; 9th Generation. Katya Illyana; 13th Generation. Ligeia; 9th Generation. Marie; ?th Generation, deceased. Mathias; ?th Generation. Maxime; ?th Generation. Richard; ?th Generation. Sylvain; ?th Generation. Xavier; ?th Generation.
About the others:
The Creators: The so-called Creators are so full of themselves they don't even try to hear that their soul cry for our beauty.
We are sentient, Living Artwork, and in a way, we are what they would like to create, but don't have the talent to.
The Performers: See the Creators.
The Poseurs: Good fellows. They do the work no one else in the Clan would want to do for the centuries to come.
The Toreador Anarchs: Worthless Neonates who all tried to take what they wanted from us, without enough wits to succeed. And now they cry out for injustice and rebellion.
They will learn, or they will die opposing our intelligence and cunning.
The Poseurs (Ugly Ones): Les Poseurs (Laiderons)
The less numerous category, and the less liked by everyone. The Poseurs nicknamed the Laiderons (Ugly Ones) are the mortal whose Embrace is a fraud or a mistake. A Toreador victim of a derangement, or poor art judgement, some art experience that went wrong, or some artist who turned out to be a total fraud and who had been embraced before finding the courage to tell it to his immortal supporter. They are the ones who can't survive in the Clan should a purge be decided by the Creators and the Performers. So they work hard to become so useful the Clan can't anymore separate from them. Ivan is a good example of Laideron, even if no one tells it loudly for fear of his wrath. But his Masques are so useful to the Clan security no one would think about destroying him (even if they could do it, anyway...).
Christian; 8th Generation Masque et Infant de Ivan. Ivan; 7th Generation, Grand Master of the Masques. Jean François Champollion; 8th Generation, Paladin Veilleur. Myriam; 8th Generation, Veilleur.
About the others:
The Creators: They have genius, but they should calm down their contempt, as it tarnish their artwork.
The Performers: The Performer are in the middle between the Beauties and the Creators. They simply don't want to admit it. I wonder if the Daughters of Cacophony
were not Toreador Performers before forming their own Bloodline. If so, they found their right place. The others should do the same.
The Beauties: The Beauties look at us with as much contempt as the others, but they don't understand that the difference between us is only skin deep. They don't create,
and in the difference with us, they do nothing productive for the Art or the Clan. They are the proof the Toreador Clan is as much about Appearance as Talent.
The Toreador Anarchs: The Anarchs are Artistes who disagree with the Artistes, so they join the enemy to make themselves appear important... Tsk, Tsk...
The Toreador Anarchs
Strangely (and perhaps because of Villon's past), the Toreador joining the Anarchs are simply thought as immature Toreador who must grow and learn before joining the Clan as mature Kindred. This contemptuous and tolerant position makes the position of Toreador Anarch really difficult as they are most of the time considered by their fellow Anarchs as superficial Kindred (thus, remaining Fugueurs).
Célène; 10th Generation. Frederic T. Moassy; 13th Generation. Jimmy; 13th Generation. Léa Nox; 13th Generation. Vivian Daremont; 12th Generation.
About the others:
The Creators: Full of contempt. They should open their eyes to see how much they are old and outdated.
The Performers: See the Creators.
The Beauties: See the Creators.
The Poseurs: See the Creators.
About Creativity and Art Appreciation...
You will see in any Toreador sheet these two Traits. They are central to the Toreador Clan, and so, were put in their own section.
Creativity is determined once for all at the creation. Roll one dice, subtract 3, and you have the Creativity rating. Zero or less means zero (and means your character is probably a Poseur).
To create Art, you must first find the original idea behind the creation. the Creation Roll Intelligence+Creativity. The success is ranged from 0 to 7 (different from the standard 0-5), and 3-4 Success is medium. The difficulty depends on the complexity of the work (but not always...).
The second roll is the production of the creation itself (writing the right notes, painting, drawing, etc.). The Roll is the suitable Attribute+Suitable Ability. The difficulty is up to the Storyteller (randomly or determined by choice). again, the range is from 0 to 7, and 3-4 is medium.
The final creation is then given two Traits: The Creativity and the Production. Artwork can spring from a totally original concept but can be poorly realized (thus destroying its value), or Artwork can be masterfully realized, but with a boring concept (most computer-based works are considered within this category).
To critique the works of others (one can't critique its own work, as it's assumed she already tried it in the creation/production stage), a roll of Perception+Art Appreciation must be succeeded. Again, the range is from 0 to 7, 3-4 giving a good appreciation of the work (with an error of 1).
While Creativity is a fixed Trait defined at the creation of the character, Art Appreciation is considered an Ability, which can be increased at the standard XP cost.
