"If you come at the King, you best not miss."
-Omar Little, The Wire

Overview

The Ventrue have held power in Chicago for as long as most ancillae vampires remember, with only a brief interregnum abating their grasp on power. Lodin toppled the Brujah Maxwell in 1871 and held the throne for over a century until Lupines destroyed him. Though the Primogen Council ruled without a Prince’s presence for a decade, the chaos of the Second Inquisition and the Beckoning allowed Lodin’s childe Joseph Peterson to claim the throne with threats and promises of turning the media — a significant part of Peterson’s influence — against his enemies. As sanity returned to the city, Kevin Jackson — the youngest of Lodin’s surviving childer — used his favors with the Primogen and influence over a multitude of mortal spheres, from education to organized crime, to tip the scales in his favor. Peterson received the gift of exile and Jackson took the crown.

While some of his clanmates disapprove of Jackson’s youth, few disagree he possesses the right balance of tyranny, charm, and underworld knowledge of how to remove one’s enemies quietly, to act as an effective Prince. The Ventrue are a proud clan. For most of them, it is enough that one of their own claims power. As long as a Blue Blood holds the throne, the rest of the Ventrue benefit.

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It is a time of mixed blessings for the Ventrue.

The Camarilla endures!  The Sabbat has at last collapsed into the the hissing pile of wights it was always destined to become!  The Lasombra and the Tzimisce have at last been brought low!  The Tremere have at last remembered their place!  The useful Banu Haqim have taken the place of the useless Gangrel in the Camarilla!  Mithras came back but might be dead for good, no one's quite sure (...yay?)  That's the good news.

The Second Inquisition rages on, the Brujah have walked out and joined the Movement in force, there are Anarchs everywhere, Theo Bell murdered Hardestadt and Jan Pieterzoon, something's calling Elders to North Africa and the Middle East and nobody can figure out what it is, the Tremere have been reminded of their place but they're also a useless mess, the Sabbat's rump state is running rampant in the Middle East, the Cappadocians just crawled out of their crypts and refounded their clan and are as ridiculously enigmatic as ever, the Lasombra are about to take the Brujah's seat in the Camarilla (ugh), and the Toreador are starting to hint that maybe everyone would be better off if they were calling the shots (pfft).  That's the bad news.

Oh well.  For every solution, a new problem, and for every problem, a solution.  It's just a matter of leverage and influence and just the right amount of naked force in order to remind these licks who's in charge and why.  To make that point, the Ventrue have adjusted their heraldry to include both the sceptre and the gladius.   Their power is still tremendous, they still hold the preponderance of the Camarilla's princedoms and they can still pull the levers of the mechanisms of Mortal society like no one else.  

Since the death of Hardestadt, subtle tremors have echoed down through the Clan of Kings.  Members of the Ephorate who were once of one accord now disagree with one another on important issues more vociferously, creating political tumult within a clan that once prided itself on having kept such things to a minimum since the formation of the Camarilla.  Ventrue Princes and luminaries see to their own affairs and mind the political headwinds, but the Strategoi are beginning to choose sides, while young Ventrue unleash ambitions the clan has kept under tight control for centuries.

Still, uncertain times breed strong vampires.  And the Ventrue know what it takes to come out on top in a crisis.  They broke Carthage, they spearheaded the War of Princes, they formed the Camarilla.  When the history of the next chapter of the Jyhad is writ, it will be by Ventrue hand or not at all.

Ventrue SPCs of note:

• Kevin Jackson, Prince of Chicago

• Horatio Ballard, Titan of Industry

• Alan Sovereign, Seneschal of Chicago

• Naomi Stewart, Voice of the Downtrodden on the Board

• Edward Neally, traitor twice-over

• Bobby Weatherbottom, tech expert

• Amelia Locke, Ventrue Media Mogul

Views on other Clans:

A Ventrue would never let a preconceived notion of another Kindred threaten their Dignitas or imperil their ambitions, but the Ventrue do have some opinions on other clans that color their overall interactions with them.

Brujah - Hate:  Even the Tzimisce and the Lasombra never came as close to destroying the Camarilla as the Brujah did.  In that moment, the Brujah earned their nickname of "The Rabble" - they chose what was base over what was elevated, what was crude over what was sophisticated, and imperiled the best hope for survival of all Kindred everywhere because they just couldn't see things the way they really were.  The Ventrue think words they would never say in good company, and what they think is fuck the Brujah.  While the remaining Hellenes are necessary to the Camarilla's survival, the Ventrue will never, ever trust them.

Lasombra - Contempt:  The best the Lasombra could do was the Sabbat, and in the end even the haughty Magisters had to admit they'd lit a tire fire and called it a beacon.  Now they're coming to the Camarilla hat-in-hand, and as far as the Ventrue are concerned la Sombra are lucky the Camarilla needs tough soldiers who are good at getting into people's heads.  Most Ventrue retain a smooth and polished Dignitas while dealing with Lasombra - with an unspoken policy of setting a humiliatingly high price for admission into the Ivory Tower, so they can enjoy every moment of watching the Magisters pay up.  But having paid up, they're members of the Camarilla just like any other, free to enjoy the beneficience of Ventrue authority.  Rivals indeed.

Tremere - Annoyance: For five hundred years, the Blue-Bloods patiently endured the Tremere, as they slowly dug in their hooks and went from cowardly, groveling simps to arrogant posturers.  The Tremere were - and are - necessary, but God, was dealing with them a chore.  The smugness, the blackmail, the constant waving of some vague sorcerous nuclear option that turned out to be nothing but smoke and flash.  Some Ventrue wonder if it was a decision from the Gerousia to sell the Tremere out to the Second Inquisition just to take them down a peg.  The Magician advises the Emperor, but does not take the crown for himself.  The Tremere forgot that... and as far as many Ventrue are concerned now's the time to remind them of their place. 

Toreador - Unease: In the wake of the Second Inquisition, the Ventrue need the Toreador more than ever, to guide the Camarilla through the storm of rapidly-evolving human culture and to help them develop new ways of keeping the Masquerade.  The Ventrue-Toreador alliance is vital because while the Ventrue understand power and how to exert it as a lever to manipulate systems, the people who move in those systems are a chaotic variable they need the Artistes to manage.  And the Ventrue are becoming increasingly aware that the Toreador are more and more unconvinced that they need the Ventrue at all.

Lexicon: 

Aedile: A Ventrue of high rank within a domain.  Also called Supervisors.

Danava: The name of the Ventrue clan among the courts of the Rakshasa.

Dignitas: The Ventrue concept of maintaining face and deportment.

Directorate: A more modern name for the Ephorate.

Eiren: The lowest rank of the Ventrue Peerage, Eiren are Ventrue who have completed their Accounting but do not have a role in the clan's hierarchy in a domain.  Also known as Associates.

el-Hijazi: "The Reserved" or "Those Above." the name for the Ventrue among the Ashirra.

Ephorate: (Singular Ephor, plural Ephors) Greek, "senior magistrates" with militaristic connotations (the term originated in Sparta).   The Ventrue use the term to refer to the council of their 12 most powerful Elders currently awake.  See Directorate.

Gerousia: The organization of Ventrue in a domain.  In more modern parlance, The Board.

The Ignoble: A term for Sabbat vampires of Ventrue lineage.  Where once the Sabbat Ventrue were dark nobles, the current breed have renounced all Dignitas.

Lictor: Latin, assistant to a magistrate.  An internal clan position roughly analagous to an Archon in the wider Camarilla.  Lictors answer to the Strategos of the region in which they operate.

Strategos (Plural Strategoi), Greek for "general" or "military governor").  Ventrue Elders who oversee a region and enforce the will of the Ephorate.

Peer: A term for any Ventrue of the Camarilla who has completed their accounting and is in good standing with the clan.  See also Eiren.

Praetor: The ranking Ventrue in a domain.  Usually the Prince, if the Prince is Ventrue.  If not, almost certainly the Ventrue Primogen.

Tribune: Latin, "officer of the people".  In a bit of true and deliberate irony, the Tribunes are the eyes, ears (and spies) of the Ephorate.

Questor: Ventrue who have been recognized as notworthy in a domain but who have not yet received the title of Aedile.  Also known as Foremen.

Ventrue: Literally translated this is the feminine singular of the french "Ventru" ("pot-bellied")  Possibly a corruption/conflation with the Latin "Ventura" ("that which will come/is destined/is the future").  Given the Ventrue dominance of the Imperial Roman nights, this seems likely.  The Ventrue simply shrug and muse that the French Toreador probably had something to do with it, but a true noble wears an insulting name like a crown, and so it becomes one.

Veddartha: Possibly the name of the Ventrue progenitor, though more likely one of their 4th generation offspring.  Cited by the Danava as the first of their line.