The Brujah

"No. This is only the land of take-what-you-want. Anarchy means "without leaders", not "without order". With anarchy comes an age or ordnung, of true order, which is to say voluntary order... this age of ordung will begin when the mad and incoherent cycle of verwirrung that these bulletins reveal has run its course... This is not anarchy, Eve. This is chaos.”

-V, V for Vendetta

Overview

The Brujah have ever been a clan of individuals, yet it was the wish of Tyler, one of the eldest Brujah of Chicago, that the clan unite against Ventrue tyranny. Before the Beckoning drew her away from the Windy City, she addressed Critias and instructed him to keep the clan together. Due to their numbers and relative strength, the Brujah could potentially oust all opposition. Tyler’s wish was not to be, as Critias was bewitched by the fraying Blood Bond he shared with his sire. He doesn’t even recall Tyler’s reason for departure; he just knows she was there one night and gone the next.

The Brujah stand at a precipice where they face civil war with the Hellenes on one side and the Furores on the other. The former believe earnestly in the Camarilla’s Traditions, while the latter riposte that freedom for Kindred is impossible within such strict hierarchy. The Furores consider the Hellenes sellouts and scabs. With Critias among them, the Hellenes have the weight of power on their side, but as the Furores increase their number, it may soon spell an end to Prince Jackson’s tolerance for Brujah in Chicago. The clan may be forced to fight for its place or flee to another domain.

The Furores would like for nothing more than to see the high-and-mighty Chicago Camarilla fall, and the right time to act may not be far away. Though Anita Wainwright and Gengis jockey for the Anarch leadership role — at least among the Brujah — they both agree Jackson and the whole Primogen Council needs to fall in a way that doesn’t make martyrs of them. They need to look foolish, the Camarilla needs to lose faith in Chicago, and a space needs to be created for anarchy to blossom.

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After decades of threatening to walk out on the Camarilla, the Brujah have finally done it, and they punctuated their departure with the ultimate "fuck you" to the Ventrue when Theo Bell killed the elder Hardestadt and (purportedly) his childe Jan Pieterzoon.  While a large contingent of Brujah remain ensconced in the Ivory Tower, they now do so without the power and influence of a Justicar or member of the Inner Circle.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Brujah turn their attention to the Anarch Movement, and find themselves in a quandry.  It is easier to be a scold than a leader; tearing things down is easier than building them up, and except for their loathing of existing under the heel of the Ventrue, the Brujah can't seem to see eye-to-eye about... anything.  If they impose order and structure on the Anarch Movement, they betray its ideals; but a society does not prosper by an absence of order and organization.

Still, their sheer charisma keeps the Furores at the forefront of the Movement.  The Brujah received their modern clan name in Iberia, due to their ability to spellbind a crowd and lead it in whatever direction they saw fit.  Now if only they could choose a direction in which  to go.

Though every clique, coterie, and individual Brujah has their own ideas of the way things ought to be, the clan has two dominating schools of thought - the Furores of the Anarch Movement, who wish to tear down the existing power structures of the Jyhad in order to create a more perfect Pax Vampirica, and the Hellenes of the Camarilla who prefer to perfect Kindred society through gradual, iterative change - much as the Camarilla is better than what came before it, the Camarilla can in turn be reformed into something better.

Yeah, and maybe monkeys will fly out of the Inner Circle's collective ass and the Sabbat will all find Jesus, say the Furores.

The falling-out between the two factions of Brujah is total, and frequently flares up into violence - the Furores have numbers, but the Hellenes have the power of age and the institutional backing of the Camarilla.  Though the Hellenes have lost their seat on the Inner Circle and their Justicar, they remain influential, including retaining numerous powerful Primogenitures and Princedoms across the world, and even seizing new ones, such as the Princedom of St. Paul, Minnesota (read the Winter's Teeth graphic novel for more information on the ascension of Prince Cecily Bain).  The dispute amongst the Brujah about the destiny of the clan is not settled, not by a long shot.

Brujah SPCs of Note:

• Critias, Brujah Primogen and Sage of Humanitas

• Damien, Sheriff of Chicago and Leader of Baby Chorus

• Balthazar, former Sheriff and pariah among the Brujah

• Anita Wainwright, speaker for the Brujah Anarchs

• Gengis, Anarch Shit-Stirrer

• "Blackjack" Tarnopolski, Baron of Joliet/Naperville

• Evelyn Stephens, Baron of Gary

Lexicon:

Al-Ghadibun: "The Furious Ones" - the modern Arabic nickname for the Brujah.

Bash: A Brujah event involving organized fighting where the participants can cut loose and use their vampiric powers in a (sort of) safe place.  Bashes are still held by Brujah on both sides of the clan's ideological schism.

Bayt al-Eulamah - "House of the Scholars." The old Arabic name for the Brujah clan.  See also al-Ghadibun.

Boot: AKA Boot Party or Blanket Party, a gathering of Brujah Furores who form to handle a situation that requires physical violence, such as a clanmate, sectmate or member of the Camarilla who requires correction.

Brujah: More properly "Bruja" - "Witch" - a name given to the clan in Iberia stemming from a synonymization with the Latin Furiae and the clan's legendary ability to work a crowd.

Elois: The name of a small, secretive cabal of extremist Brujah Furores, purportedly devoured by the Sabbat Brujah (see Morlocks).

Furiae: Latin, "Furies."  The term used by Roman vampires to describe the Hellenes of Carthage which eventually evolved into the Roman name for the entire clan.   Slightly derogatory, as in "screeching Furiae", the feminine connotations of which led to name "Bruja" or "Brujah" as Iberian Latin evolved into modern Spanish.  Persists in the modern term for Anarch Brujah, the Furores.

Furores: "Furies" - the Brujah of the Anarch Movement, who have lost patience with the Powers That Be of the Camarilla and desire to tear down the Ivory Tower's ossified power structures and build a new Kindred society in its place.  Sometimes known as Iconoclasts or Carthaginians.

Hellenes: "Greeks."  The pre-Roman name for the clan. Brujah who believe that change is best made incrementally, from within an orderly, organized, secure society.  Aligned with the Camarilla.  Sometimes known as Idealists.

Ilyes: The most common name for the Brujah Antediluvian in Noddist scripture.  Diablerized in antiquity by their childe Troile.

Morlock: A perjorative term now used by the Brujah for Sabbat vampires of Brujah descent - an accusation that having abandoned all pretense of intellect, the Antitribu have degenerated into that which the Brujah most despise -something that is extremely dangerous physically, but not at all intellectually.  "It breaks things, it grunts, it howls incoherent gibberish about Caine, then it tries to eat you.  Maybe it mixes the order around.  Whatever.  It's a Morlock."

Osebo: "Leopards."  The name used by the Brujah of the Laibon Courts of Africa, where they are a dominant clan.

Rant: An informal meeting of the Brujah, one generally marked with a lot of incoherent yelling that culminates in a fight.

Rave: A term used by gatherings thrown by the Anarch Brujah when an important issue needs addressing.  Part clan meeting, part party.  See symposia.

Symposia: Singular Symposium.  A gathering hosted by the Hellenic Brujah.  Generally more sedate and academic in tone than a Furore Rant or Rave, given that the Hellenes are still Brujah, the possibility of violent arguments and argumentative violence remain high.

Troile: The founder of the modern lineage of Brujah, who purportedly diablerized their sire.  See Ilyes.  Historical accounts claim that Troile was destroyed in Carthage.