The Toreador

Overview

For decades Chicago’s Toreador have been underestimated, all while a methuselah of their clan manipulated half the city to fight her war, one of their elders acted as the deciding vote for the Primogen Council, and others of their clan controlled the flow of information via Herald and Harpies. Other Kindred find it easy to dismiss the Degenerates as artistic hacks obsessed with hedonistic revelry, but the Toreador know diplomacy, they play the long game, and they’re just waiting for the right time to start the greatest, longest party of all: Toreador rule over the Camarilla’s American throne.

If the city’s Toreador were to have their way, Annabelle would take her rightful place as Prince in the wake of Ventrue failure. All they need to do is push the Ventrue so far and show how much better the Clan of the Rose can handle the subtleties of Masquerade. Ask Nero, Kathy, Erzulie, and Bret, and they’ll all agree the Masquerade is served better through rubbing shoulders and skin with the kine. Certainly, it makes for a more enjoyable existence than hiding behind layers of accounts, paperwork, and ghouls.

As the Toreador position themselves for a celebrated coup, Helena hides in plain sight as the shy artist and amateur model, Portia. The ancient vampire pulls the strings of Degenerates across North America, and members of other clans besides. She believes that with the disappearance of her eternal opponent Menele, the time for a Toreador kingdom has arrived. She just needs to establish it without toppling the Camarilla applecart, and has no designs on praxis herself. 

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The general consensus among the Camarilla's body politic is that the Toreador are in the ascendant.  The Ventrue, while still powerful, have lost their original representative to the Inner Circle.  Hardestadt directed the Ventrue's successes for five centuries, and it is not clear who will take his seat on the Inner Circle and direct the affairs of the clan.  In fact, since Hardestadt's death, there has been a subtle destabilization of Clan Ventrue, almost as if some sort of hold... or bond he had over the clan's elders has been broken.

Hm.

The Toreador created the Masquerade - the concept of moving among humans with the explicit intent of pretending to be of them.  The survival of the Kindred depends on the cultivation of Humanitas the same way a gardener tends his roses and no clan really understands how to do that the way the Toreador do.  So let the other clans look on and imitate the Toreador's successes in avoiding the Second Inquisition and pulling the strings of mortal government and culture.  Imitate, but never duplicate.

The Toreador have made a grand spectacle out of allying themselves with the Banu Haqim via the Vermilion Wedding and are making power moves to consolidate their power in domains across the world.  More than any other Pillar clan except maybe the Malkavians, they have been quick to absorb Sabbat renunciates and other "undesirables" of Toreador blood seeking asylum in the Ivory Tower.  The Toreador firmly believe that the tools the Kindred will need to survive the New Burning Times and outlast the Second Inquisition are best held in the capable hands of the Artistes.  They might even be right.

Toreador SPCs of note:

• Annabelle, Toreador Primogen

• Dr. Benway, Antiquities dealer, Theatre patron

• Kathy Glens, Baby Chorus chanteuse

• Erzulie, founder of the Blood Disco, High Priestess of Lilith

• Portia, Manager of the Succubus Club, Who Is That Girl?

Lexicon:

al-Jamilah: "The Beautiful."  The name for the Toreador clan among the Ashirra.

Arikel: The most common name for the Toreador progenitor in the clan's histories, though there are others.

Artistes: French, "Artists."  A common nickname for the Toreador.

Cenobites: Originally a term for cloistered monks.  A nickname for Sabbat of Toreador lineage, taken from a popular 20th century horror movie franchise.  Degenerate creatures who are now so callused they only find pleasure - and art - in inflicting pain.  Also sometimes just called Pervs.

Ishtarri: "Of Ishtar."  The name of the Toreador clan in the Laibon courts of Africa.  Some histories suggest that this was the pre-Roman name for the entire clan.  Also used among the Ashirra as an archaic.  See Ishtar.

Ishtar: Also known as Inanna, the Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility.  Another possible name for the Toreador progenitor.

Red Toreador: Toreador who have defected to the Anarchs.

Toreador: "Bullfighter on horseback."  Though some in the clan claim they have had this name for over 800 years, the origin of this word is in Iberia in the early 1600s, from Torero.  Where a torero fought bulls for fame and fortune, a toreador practiced bullfighting as a sport and an art.  The Toreador claim to have used this word some 400 years before it entered into common language may be because the clan's Latin names came to be seen as unflattering after the fall of the empire (see Succubae and Vanitas).

Succubae: Latin, "paramour".  The name of the Toreador clan during the heyday of the Roman empire.  Eventually developed parasitic and demonic connotations, possibly because of its association with a clan of vampires.  See also vanitas.

Vanitas: Latin, "Vanity."  A style of art showing the transitory nature of life, the folly of beauty and materialism and the inevitability of death.  Another name for the Toreador clan in the Roman Empire that transformed into a sly perjorative during the Middle Ages.