The Grand Council

The tale behind the formation of the Grand Council can be found in the section on Kindred History.  However, as it is the ostensible ruling body of all the Kindred, Louise and the Club have tangled with the Council on numerous occasions.

Each member of the Council was a Prince before being elected to their current post.  Each is a vampire of great age and power, with most believed to be of the Fifth or Sixth Generations.  However, there are stories that one or more of the Councillors may even be Methuselahs (Fourth Generation).  As might be expected, the Councillors themselves say nothing on this issue.

As each city has a vampire Prince with responsibility for enforcing the Traditions of Caine (see thumbnail below) in her own domain, the Councillors are the Kindred behind the decisions that affect entire countries or even the world.  They are the final arbiters of disputes between Princes and the ultimate enforcers of the Six Traditions.  They can even remove a Prince from power, though this is done very rarely due to the inevitable chaos that follows.

The Councillors' enforcement arm are the Justicars.  These are vampires who have sworn direct allegiance to the Grand Council over any Prince, and they speak for the Council if the situation is not yet serious enough to warrant a Councillor's personal appearance.  The Head Justicar is currently Cassius, personal aide to Count Radulescu, but all of them are specifically chosen for their utter loyalty (as much as is possible among the Kindred) and ruthlessness.

Louise has attempted to develop communications with the Council in a joint effort to combat The Ravening Ones, but has been stymied by their response.  The official attitude of the Council has always been that the 'Nictuku' were nothing more than a myth, and they seem determined to continue this approach (at least as far as all the other Kindred are concerned) despite recent events.  Their argument is that all ruling Kindred, whether Grand Councillors or Princes, rule by fear and fear alone.  If their lessers are afraid of the Ravening Ones more than their Princes, they will cease to obey and anarchy will result. 

So, they are in fact telling the Princes to crack down even harder than before; the idea being to distract their childer with purges while they build hopefully impregnable defences, and if worst comes to the worst they plan to throw their childer to the Nictuku in hope that this will assuage their dreadful thirsts.

The current members of the Grand Council, and the region over which each has influence, are detailed below:

COUNT RADULESCU - EASTERN EUROPE

Detailed further in the section on the Seven, Radulescu is one of the three Councillors to have served since the creation of the Grand Council in the 14th Century.  However, some say his influence is waning following the appearance of The Shadow Curtain, as he has not yet been able to say with any certainty what lies behind this magical barrier or what has happened to the Kindred of Russia.  Saying this to his face, however, remains a fatal mistake.

ONTAI - AFRICA

A sinewy, black-skinned monster, this Councillor's depraved and diabolical tastes are infamous even by the standards of his kind.  His killing rampages are legendary, and rumours whisper that he is close to losing all control over his Darksoul.  Despite this, he has been a member of the Grand Council ever since the True Death of Tariq the Accursed in 1625.  It is also whispered that looking too closely into the circumstances of Tariq's demise is a good way to follow him into oblivion.  Ontai and Louise despise each other, and many have expressed surprise that she is still around in the face of his hatred.

GRATIANO OF MADRID - WESTERN EUROPE

The most recent addition to the Council, Gratiano was elected in 1998 after Marcus Vitel was assassinated by anarchs.  He was notorious for ruling Madrid with an iron fist, and in his new post he continues to speak out for harsher penalties for those who break Caine's laws.  He is short and stocky, with a neatly trimmed moustache and beard and the demeanour of a nobleman.  He is always civil, even when ordering the torture and True Death of an anarch rabble-rouser.

CURTIS - NORTH AMERICA

To all appearances a swaggering cowboy, the Stetson and sixguns hide a cunning mind and monstrous appetites.  Many say it is his influence that has led to the USA's pre-eminence in the modern world, and older Kindred remember when he was the Prince of London prior to Alexander Vargoss.  He has never forgotten how Vargoss ousted him from power, and there is little doubt that much of the loss of British power can be laid at his door.  He replaced Lodin the Foul after the latter fell to werewolves in 1819.

XAVIER - SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA

Allegedly the Childe of Xipe Totec, the Methuselah who was the 'Flayed God' of the Aztecs, Xavier is one of the few Nosferatu to hold high office rather than lurk in the shadows behind the throne.  His hideous visage conceals one of the most fiendish masters of the Jyhad, and it is told that he has obtained many secrets from secret Mayan and Olmec writings.  He is obsessed with Gehenna, and undoubtedly knows more than he lets on.  He is an original member of the Grand Council, and his mastery of sorcery is matched only by...

KUEN CHAO - ASIA

The 'Fiend of the East' is possibly the most enigmatic of the Councillors.  He has been a member of the Council since the very beginning, and although he is loathe to use his vampiric Disciplines and sorceries many speak in hushed tones of the power they have witnessed.  Many also whisper of the legends that he was one of the ancients who fought in the great war against Shaitan 3700 years ago.  Kuen Chao is the youngest-looking of the Councillors, having seemingly been Embraced in his late teens, but his eyes betray his untold centuries of existence.

REBEKAH WARREN - OCEANIA

Elected to the Grand Council in 1970 following the disgrace and execution of her diabolist predecessor, the former Prince of Sydney is the only Councillor who shares Louise's supposedly 'alarmist' view of the rise of the Ravening Ones.  The tall, Nordic blonde Rebekah is probably the most reasonable member of the Council and certainly the most approachable.  But when roused to anger she is a whirlwind of destruction.  Before travelling to Australia she was a power in Scandinavian Kindred politics, and some have noted in her feral beauty a resemblance to the Walkurie of legend.

The thumbnail below is of a description of each of the Six Traditions of Caine, supposedly penned by the Dark Father himself, that are the basis of all Kindred laws.  Observant players will note that most are honoured in the breach rather than the observance.