Maison Liban
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History
The first decade of the 11th century featured one of the dark sign's of ill-fated Tremere's growing power hunger in the form of the Hermetic Schism and the resultant destruction of House Diedne. According to the teachings of Liban mentors, Mathieu Calice was a trusted pontifex once apprenticed to Master Goratrix. Discomfited by the brutal magical fratricide of the Schism, de Calice began specialization in the practice of the Order's Parma Magica and in arts destined to defy scrying attempts. When he became aware of the plans behind Goratrix's experiments with vampiric blood, de Calice fled to Northern France. Within a month, the conversion to vampirism erupted, with Tremere himself seeking immortality.
Fortunately for the Magus de Calice and his apprentices, the Tremere's new difficulties with local vampires combined with effort necessary to bother tracking down a few insignificant expatriates, along with de Calice's protective and evasive magics, allowed a small house to survive to the modern day. Initially, the Tremere vampire-mages moved quietly, careful not to let their nature be discovered by the Order of Hermes as a whole. It was 150 years before the Order reacted with the Massasa purge, and that violence last for a century. The treachery of Goratrix, who had been assigned to France, also shielded the house's presence, as most strange reports of Tremere-like secretive orders were quickly blamed upon the old master. In the end, de Calice was forgotten to everyone -- except his few apprentices, and perhaps, Tremere himself.
Organization
One of Mathieu de Calice's first actions was to hide the house at a basic level. He renamed the tiny group, which consisted mostly of himself and his apprentices and later French and Spanish refugees whom they adopted and protected from Tremere persecution. In recognition of the fact that they remained human, the house became Maison Liban -- Liban meaning "Live, leave and survive" in the tongue of the Visigoths.
Students are encouraged to keep their private lives separate from their magical practice, yet to maintain normal respectable habits and employment. Unless deemed responsible enough to learn the "Art", a sorcerer's family, friends or co-workers may never even know that they have been the beneficiaries of numerous spells of protection cast on their behalf.
Maison Liban are not crusaders, though. They do not encourage violence or blatant activities. Even the relationship between master and student only requires students to be titled initiates until they are deemed worthy to teach, when they become a prater or mater. The "House" Liban does still recognize a single greatest teacher with leadership responsibilities earned through age and respect of peers. In deference to their founder, this position retains its honorific, pontifex.
Style
Not all the trappings of Hermetic sorcery have been left behind by the Liban, nor even all the ante-sanguinary practices of House Tremere. Seals, rings and magical circles predominate, due to their natural resonance with protective rituals. Symbols remnant from Hermetic tradition still find use, as does Latin, descending from a trove of tomes apparently plundered by the Visigoths from Rome, but both are supplemented with a liberal use of the Gothic tongue. The concepts of contagion and sympathy remain very strong; objects that resemble or once belonged to the focus of a spell play a prevalent part in nearly every mystical ceremony.
Common Paths
Countermagic (Parma Magica), Protection from scrying and divination, and the paths of Summoning, Binding and Warding all see regular use within the House of Liban.
Known Members
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