Brujah

Brujah
Plural	Brujah
Pronounce	BROO-hah or BROO-zhah
Nicknames	The Learned Clan, Warrior Scholars, Philosophers, Punks, Rebels, Rabble, Zealots, Agitators, Troilites (by the True Brujah)
Antediluvian	Troile (via diablerie of Brujah)
Faction	Camarilla Anarch Movement
Disciplines	Celerity, Potence, Presence

The vampires of Clan Brujah were once scholars and seekers of wisdom. They inspired the glory of ancient Carthage, a mighty city where mortals and vampires lived together in peace. However, Ventrue treachery and the armies of ancient Rome laid Carthage low and forever shattered the Brujah clan. Over the centuries, internal divides have shaken Clan Brujah to its core, changing the clan’s nature from stoic philosopher to passionate warrior. The Brujah are no longer the creatures they were in Carthage.

History

Scratch the surface of a Brujah, and these days you are more than likely to find a Brujah thug underneath. However, the clan is a fallen clan, still mourning the death of their Carthaginian paradise and decaying from their era of warrior-scholars to the petty rebels common in the Final Nights.

Little consistent knowledge is known about the Brujah Antediluvian because the stories may confuse two individuals: the original founder of the Brujah (named as "Ilyes" in one account and as "Troile the Elder" in another) and his childer and diablerist, Troile.

According to most records, Brujah was a callous and fiercely logical creature. Dispassionate in the extreme, the Antediluvian sired a clan of equally dispassionate childer. Among these, however, was a less controlled whelp: Troile the Rebel. What events caused the Embrace of Troile are unknown, but clan history holds that Troile {{www|Diablerie (VTM)|diablerized her sire and claimed the clan as her own. A small bloodline, the True Brujah, claim descent from Brujah and hold this grievance close in the Final Nights.

The Brujah built or co-opted a Phoenician colony, Carthage, for another grand experiment. The Brujah say that Carthage was a utopia — a city where Kindred and kine lived in harmony, and where justice reigned. Other clans, and history, tell the story somewhat differently. The Carthaginians were cowed by their gods, offering their children to the flames of Moloch; and, apparently if the blood of sacrifices should flow down the gullet of a methuselah, Moloch did not mind. Exactly what happened in Carthage is dependent on who speaks of it – the Brujah claim Paradise, the other clans claim the presence of the Baali and human sacrifice.

Carthage fell during the Third Punic War in 146 BCE, when Scipio Aemilianus, aided by the Malkavians and Ventrue of Rome crushed the shell of a city hollowed out by two previous wars. The earth was salted (preventing those Kindred who had melded with the earth from rising), the land was plowed, and the Brujah experiment ended.

Dark Ages

During the Dark Ages, the Brujah were considered part of the High Clans, a clan of warrior-scholars noted for their fierce devotion to radical philosophies. The Brujah viewed themselves as the practitioners of a Greek philosophy of total mental and physical discipline (commonly called entelechy), and would often train their neonates in combat and the classics with equal discipline. Brujah of the Dark Ages were associated primarily with politics, especially in Greece. Their historical association with Carthage gave them a dim view of Rome and her heirs.

The Renaissance proved to be one of the turning points in the history of the Clan, when the division between the various ideological strains within the Clan exploded in the heavy infighting that strain them today. The cultural explosion within Europe resulted in ecclesiastical and civil strife, that the Brujah were only too willing to follow.

Victorian Age

During the Victorian Age, the Clan was divided in those few who lived true to their legacy as the Learned Clan, and those bulk who were mere troublemakers and criminals in the eyes of their sect, as many neonates rebelled against the oppressive and stagnant politic of the Camarilla. The closeness of the clan to mortal passions brought forth the best and the worst of the Age within the clan. Many Brujah started to regard themselves as the proletariat of vampiric society and wanted to change this through revolution.

Many Brujah during this time were fierce supporters of various ideas like Marxism, collectivism, syndicalism, and Darwinism and engaged in various revolutionary groups to topple the rising pauperization during the Industrial Revolution.

Modern Nights

In modern nights, the Brujah are a fiery group of warriors, individualists, and rebels, driven to both success and failure by their tempestuous natures. They feel mortal passions more deeply than other vampires, and are prone to attack first and ask questions later. Members of this clan love a cause, and will eagerly act on anything they see as injustice. They come together in violent gatherings called rants, where they give passionate speeches, challenge rivals to personal combat, or drum up support for crusades against the status quo. They know best that the capacity for emotion can also be a dark path. Many Brujah are driven to frenzy and madness if they cannot control their passions.

Members of the Brujah clan are Embraced from many cultures, regions, and religions. The Brujah have never been selective — they choose childer based on an individual’s drive and desire to right wrongs. When it comes to fitting in with the modern world, Brujah do it better than most vampires. They easily adopt styles of rebellion: shaved heads, motorcycles, rivets, leather jackets, or t-shirts with rude slogans.

Organization

As a clan, the Brujah have next to no organization. Outside of the clan, the Brujah adore building structures, and then other Brujah adore tearing them down. Among modern Brujah, the primary structure is the division between the Iconoclast and Idealist factions of society.

Iconoclast

The Iconoclasts are rebels and almost uniformly young Brujah. They fulfill the clan's stereotypical image as mad, bad, and dangerous to know.

Idealist

In contrast to Iconoclasts, Idealists are the intellectuals and theorists of the clan. They are usually elders or ancillae, and the elders are Idealists simply because their habits have not changed since their Embrace.

Related Pages

• Redding

Characters

• Jaquline Rosé Vesper
• Theo Bell
• Rigel
• Tristian Allerdale
• Adna Haddad
• Romana Pendragon
• Psycho
• Piper
• Jim McCoy
• Gerald Steadhand
• Havok