Tremere History in Paris
Once the second Clan in number and power in Paris, the Clan Tremere made the mistake of overestimating its own power, as well as underestimating the power of the Toreador.
At first, the attempts from the Clan to create a Chantry near Paris were subtles, with great caution. It was decided Meudon would be a great spot, as there was there a Node of Vis that was still an active source. But soon, as the other sources of the known world, this source was disminished. Still, the Chantry of Nonisis (Meudon) remained, too far from Paris to take an active part to Paris' intrigue (and thus, far enough to be overseen by parisian Kindred), and still near enough to gather useful information.
The Chantry of Saint Louis was created by secret Intrigue from Vienna. Having discovered from a parisian Mage, who had been Embraced, that the Order of Hermes were searching for a fabulous Node somewhere in Paris, the Clan sent Klawer, a 6th Generation Tremere, to Paris with the mission to find the source, and to build a chantry there. Due to his high Auspex, outranging the detecting powers of the mortal Mages, he swiftly found that the source was... In the Seine!
Next the Ile de la Cité, tiny islands were the only possible construction spot near the source. So Klawer, always impressed by the great roman works, imagined the creation of an island over the tiny islands, and on the spot where the Node's emanations were discovered, the construction of a powerful Chantry. The Node, as well as the occult past of Paris, would make the parisian Chantry one of the most important in the world, if not the most important behind Vienna itself!
His intrigue, involving the architect Marie, as well as a subtle Domination of Richelieu, minister of King Louis the 13th, used the problems with the italian and the french rebellious Princes to divert attentions from the creation of the Ile Saint Louis. By 1645, the island was completed, and the Chantry's construction was finished. Then Vienna sent Tremere Kindred to Paris asking Beatrix the right to install themselves in Paris. At first, she suspected nothing, as the Tremere were not the only ones to install themselves in Paris. Then, information from Villon and Ivan unhearted the secret: A magical fortress of the Tremere had been constructed in the middle of Paris, just under their nose!
Beatrix' reaction was to intrigue to weaken the resources of the Tremere of Paris, be it money, influence, herd, retainers. Vienna disliked this and, as no compromise was found, war erupted between France and Austria. France lost, and by such, the Tremere Chantry of Paris was accorded the right to exist as such, without fear of future attack from the Toreador in 1686.
Klawer, now official Regent of the powerful Chantry of Saint Louis, and Lord of the Chantries of the Ile de France (region around Paris, that was the first french territory, in the early Capetian era), dug an undergound complex and discovered the center of the Node was... nothing but empty air! He called Vienna for help. Lady Laureen, a former Mage embraced in england was chosen to second him in his research, because of her enormous theorical thaumaturgical knowledge. Becoming the Regent of the Chantry of Nonisis, making her the second Tremere of Paris, she started to work at once.
Another war, in 1748, started for different purposes, was another try to win against the Tremere, and so resume the aggression against the Chantry. But in 1756, a surprising change in the alliances in the view point of mortals, can be easily explained by the freezing relations with Mithras, the Prince of London. In the same time, the Tremere and the Toreador agreed to make peace: Elle, as ambassador by Villon, went to Vienna and signed a treaty of coorperation: The Tremere would keep a low profile in Paris, never challenging or endangering the Toreador domination of France. The Tremere would win by such the right to continue the study of the Node by being given the Saint Louis island. This new cooperation would enable the Tremere Clan to grow in numbers and in power and to become the second most powerful Clan of Paris, helping by their knowledge, the Prince of Paris over occult phenomena.
The 1789 Revolution will weaken the Tremere as much as any other Clan: Klawer will be guillotined by night. Gustacio, his ambitious second in command will take the power, and will keep it at the return of Laureen. She finally discovers the reasons behind the apparent source of Vis but keeps them to herself, continuing her research. Silian, a Tremere Magus and Pontifex of France, went to Paris to inspect the Chantries. He suspected something was amiss, but the appearance of the Veilleurs, with a strange and alien thaumaturgy visibly inspired by ancient egyptian magic diverted him from the study of Laureen's work. Still, he wondered why she didn't spent all her time in Saint Louis' Chantry.
Prussia attacks Austria in 1866, and France in 1870, thus weakening the Tremere and the Toreador. If the Tremere Chantry of Saint Louis was untouched by the 1871 Commune, the Order of Hermes attacks against it endangered the very existance of the Clan in Paris. Gustacio, in his rightful (and stupid) wrath, decided to counterattack. In 1894 the war grew in scale, and few days after, the Mage Traditions, led by the outraged Hermetic Mages, started a war against the Camarilla Kindred, who were helping their fellow Tremere. Soon after, the Inquisition knew about it. It was a major crisis in Paris, as Justicars threatened to come to the city to investigate.
Villon's forces were gathered: The Masques would protect parisian Kindred and the Masquerade, while the Veilleurs would investigate the sources of this war and try to start a non-agression pact with the second most powerful Mage Tradition in Paris, the Sons of Ether. The pact was signed, as the veilleurs discovered Technocracy's intrigues to weaken both the living and unliving mages. This will be the end of the greatness of the parisian Tremere and parisian Hermetic Mages: Until 1918, the Chantry of Saint Louis will be abandoned by all Tremere Kindred (The Chantry of Nonisis is not part of this decision, as it wasn't involved in the Wars of Traditions).
At their return in the Chantry of Saint Louis, the Tremere found that while the Chantry was untouched, the anger of the Toreador was still great: Villon authorized only a limited number of Tremere in Paris, and limited too, the contact between any Kindred (but the Veilleurs) and the Mages. The fact that a Tremere had sacrified himself to stop a Ritual threatening to weaken Paris own foundations (limestone mines whose roofs were being weakened by Magick) permited the Tremere to keep the Chantry as their own possession, and untouched by the other Kindred.
Criaâr, a Corax Abomination embraced by Gustacio (who had been called back to Vienna... And had not been seen since), has been freed from the influence of the Tremere and was to be let alone. As Veille was added to Veilleur's thaumaturgical Repertoire, the Tremere accused Alexis of stealing thaumaturgical tomes from the abandoned Chantry. Alexis challenged the Tremere, and their new Regent of Saint Louis, and Pontifex of France (he replaced Silian, who was destroyed in the War of Traditions), Abelard: If they could prove they can use the same Magic, then their claims will be accepted as true. The Tremere had not answered the challenge since then, thus unofficially accepting the fact Hekau Thaumaturgy is another new (old?) kind of Magic, different from Tremere Thaumatrugy (even more different than the Tzimisce Koldunic Magic), and was not stolen from their Chantry Library.
Since then, the parisian Tremere are at lost: Laureen's research is not giving satisfying results (it seems she is doing something else...), even if her Chantry shows dedication and good health, and Vienna even sent another Tremere, Laurent, replacing the deceased Henrique, officially to search another spot to built a third Chantry in Paris surroundings. In truth, he came to inspect the work of parisian Tremere, and their leaders, Laureen and Abelard, of course.
Abelard seems to neglect his own duty as Regent of Saint Louis and Pontifex of France. Only Alric, a Tremere Warlord embraced in Transylvania in the War against the Tzimisce centuries ago, seems to care for Vienna's plans, but as Alric is more known for his prowesses in warfare than for his Thaumaturgy research, so he can't be of real help in Paris.
The situation will change soon. As soon as Vienna decide the situation is not acceptable anymore and decide to replace the Tremere Leaders by more capable ones... Alric, and the parisian Tremere Ancillae could, perhaps, be among the next ones.
The number of Tremere, as well as their Influence in Paris, have been largely limited by different treaties, and, most of all, by the Treaty following the War of Traditions. The local pyramid of power is somewhat alien to most US Tremere, but the cause of such complex structure is the presence of multiple Chantries in the region. Thus, Abelard is Pontifex of France (and by such is Duc of the Tremere) and Regent of Saint Louis, which gives him power over any french Chantry... Laureen is Lady of Paris and Regent of Nonisis, which gives her power over any parisian Chantry, including Saint Louis! That means, in simplier terms that any parisian Tremere has two leaders to follow, which can be confusing, even if one of them is superior to the other. Most Kindred assume there must be a politician warfare in Vienna behind such confusion organisation...
Note that the Clan have a relatively high number of Ghoul Apprentices, all fighting each other to become or remain the first, with the hope that a Tremere will fail and be called to Vienna (or simply, be destroyed). So Tremere Neonates are not free from the fight for power: Ghouls look at them with envy, and the most ambitious ones will intrigue to remove them from the path...
