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the family, granting the power to take over the job. A valued ally might also ask an Invictus to Embrace a dying loved one, and not accept warnings that there are worse things than dying. Each particular circumstance is rare, but the covenant sees a steady trickle of such honor-inspired Embraces.

Covenant members also may Embrace mortals they hate, though this too is rare. For instance, an Invictus might Embrace the son of a witch-hunter he especially loathes, as an exquisite revenge. Princes do not encourage such perverse Embraces, for they usually lead to trouble for everyone, but sometimes Princes are trapped by their own promises to allow Embraces whose reasons are less than prudent.

Observation and Preparation

The decision to Embrace is seldom made quickly. The Invictus recommends that sires watch prospective childer for some time and investigate their backgrounds. The First Estate doesn’t like surprises. Small but unpleasant surprises include drinking or drug problems or work histories that turn out to be padded or entirely fictional. Some problems are more exotic and much worse: Kindred legend includes stories of prospective childer who turn out to be mages, kin to werewolves or lures set by cunning witch-hunters. While the Invictus disdains most innovations, its elders regard the invention of private detectives and background checks as, on the whole, a good thing.

The covenant also suggests that a sire refrain from Embracing a childe until she has a clear, definite notion of what will ensure the childe’s loyalty. Like other vampires, Invictus members cannot usually force their childer into Vincula. What else can make a childe want to work for her sire’s goals?

Access to power is one of the strongest and most frequent incentives. Many of the First Estate’s customs seem strange or archaic to modern mortals, but the covenant enjoys vast economic and political power. Members are advised to seek childer with strong ambitions, who can be seduced by that power. Such childer eagerly join the covenant’s patronage system, serving for decades in hopes they may, in time, become a few of the world’s secret masters. At least, that’s the Invictus promise.

Revenge is another lure, though one that operates on a shorter timetable. A First Estate sire can offer to help a prospective childe destroy an enemy who seems beyond his reach as a mortal. If the childe accepts the Embrace willingly, however, she will gain more-than- mortal power as well as the guidance and protection of the world’s greatest conspirators. The Invictus trusts that if a childe fails to feel gratitude for her revenge, she will at least feel a prudent fear of what the covenant could do to her if she betrayed it.

Money, however, is probably the easiest lure for a prospective childe. Many mortals feel the world does not give them rewards to match their talents. An Invictus sire can promise wealth beyond the dreams of avarice

— maybe not right away, but eventually. The Invictus further recommends that sires look for prospective childer with loved ones in need: the childe must cut herself off from the people she loves, but the sire can see the loved ones are taken care of, until the childe is in a position to do it herself.

Whatever the lure, the goal is the same: a childe who views her sire as a benefactor, someone she serves willingly. Not uncommonly, however, a prospective childe works for her sire before the Embrace, too. A childe is a huge investment of the sire’s time (and psychic force). Some Invictus members feel that a trial period is only prudent before making that investment. Not only can they test the mortal’s abilities, they can make sure the mortal is someone they can stand having around them for years to come. The sire also gets a chance to decide whether she really needs a childe: maybe the prospective childe is more useful as a mortal minion.

So, the sire finds an excuse to bring the childe into her organization. For instance, an up-and-coming political activist might find herself invited to work with one of her party’s local power-brokers — an Invictus or a front man for one. Or the young MBA gets a job offer from a famously reclusive tycoon. Or the private eye is hired to “recover” an artwork “stolen” from the Invictus esthete. Trial periods can last a few nights or a few years. Sometimes the mortal makes the sire’s choice for her, by figuring out that he works for a vampire. The sire Embraces the mortal rather than kill him and lose his useful skills.

Of course, ghouling is another option for a mortal minion who penetrates the Masquerade. The First Estate has no clear policy about ghouling as part of a prospective childe’s trial period. Some Invictus members believe a period as a ghoul helps ease a prospective childe into the Kindred world and that a Vinculum ensures loyalty while the sire trains the ghoul in Invictus ways. Other Invictus believe the Vitae-inspired servility of ghouldom spoils a candidate for the First Estate. Someone who has been that much a slave, they say, can never fully become a master.

The Embrace

Passing the Curse of undeath to a mortal is one of the most awesome and terrible acts in any vampire’s Requiem. It’s no surprise, then, that the First Estate surrounds this act with ritual. By concentrating on ceremony, the Kindred can acknowledge the forbidden power of the Embrace without feeling his transgression so keenly; by involving other Kindred, the vampire dilutes his own blasphemy. Such is

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the unholy intimacy of the Embrace, however, that not every Invictus wants other Kindred present when he sires a childe.

Petitioning the Prince

Before Embracing the childe, a dutiful Invictus formally asks the Prince for permission. Most likely, the Kindred already asked the Prince in private, perhaps years before. The Invictus will not consider the Embrace legitimate, however, unless the sire makes a formal request at the Prince’s court. This is usually just a formality — but occasionally, Princes change their minds and say no.

The petitioning process is steeped in ceremony. The ritual varies from city to city but typically begins with the would-be sire going down on one knee and declaiming the Prince’s absolute authority, as deputy of Longinus, to approve or reject all sirings. Then the sire offers a beautifully illuminated scroll of her request to sire a childe. The sire recites her lineage as far back as she knows it, and lists every honor she and her “ancestors” have achieved, to show her fitness to bring a childe into the Invictus. She continues with a description of the childe and the assets (financial, political or personal) he brings to the First Estate, and concludes with a pledge to train him in the traditions of the Kindred and the Invictus, and in obedience to the Prince.

Along the way in this peroration, the Prince and supplicant may exchange formulaic questions and answers as the Prince asks why the supplicant wants to sire a childe and questions her fitness to do so. For instance, the Prince might ask the supplicant if she knows the Three Commandments of Longinus and order the wouldbe sire to teach them to the prospective childe. The supplicant responds with the appropriate ritual phrases (see the sidebar for examples).

The Prince and supplicant may also exchange various symbolic gifts. For example, during the catechism of the Traditions, the Prince might give the supplicant a beeswax candle after each response, symbolizing the light of Longinus’ teachings to the Kindred, who must dwell in darkness. The supplicant responds by giving the Prince a phial of her Vitae, symbolizing that her unlife and that of her childe-to-be are in the Prince’s hands. (Note: The Invictus never does this when the Prince is a member of the Circle of the Crone or the Lancea Sanctum, covenants that can do terrible things with a sample of a Kindred’s blood.) The symbolism behind some exchanges may be so obscure and archaic nobody remembers the reason for them (assuming they were not the products of a long-ago Prince’s derangements). For instance, in Marseille, the supplicant gives the Prince a small silver cup and the Prince responds by giving the supplicant an egg carved of onyx and five bulrushes, which the supplicant then distributes to the five Primogen. No one knows why.

Invictus Princes usually do not ask Kindred from other covenants to undergo this long, ceremonial petition to sire a childe. In some cities, other covenants design their own formulas to “legitimize” the siring of a childe in First Estate eyes. In others, the sire merely asks the Prince for permission, without ceremony. Depending on the relative strengths of the covenants, other Kindred might not ask the Prince’s permission at all, and instead go to the elders of their own covenant. In most cases, though, Invictus Princes are strong enough that other covenants do not want to show disrespect over siring a childe. Few Invictus Princes are willing to provoke vendettas between covenants for the sake of childer, and, therefore, grant permission when the requests come from suitably influential members of other covenants.

CATECHISM OF THE SIRE

Prince: Sire-who-would-be, do you know the First Commandment of Longinus?

Supplicant: Great Longinus spake, Do not reveal your true nature to those not of the blood. Doing so forfeits you your claim to the blood.

Prince: Yet you would reveal your true nature to one of the kine through granting your blood. How do you plead?

Supplicant: Master, I crave your permission in Longinus’ name. I swear the mortal shall keep the secrets of the Kindred, before the Embrace and after. On my own blood, I swear it.

Prince: Let it be so. Take this candle, in token of your oath. It is the light of the First Tradition, given us by Longinus to guide us in the darkness of our Damnation. Let it be a light to your childe as well; and if you are foresworn by his deeds, let its fire burn in your blood, to your destruction or his own.

Supplicant: Let it be so.

Embracing the Childe

Most of the time, an Invictus sire Embraces a childe in private. The sire picks a time that seems convenient for her and for the childe to drop out of sight for a few days (or longer).

Sometimes, however, a childe deserves extra ceremony. When a mortal has knowingly rendered service to the Invictus and has pledged to serve the covenant from then on, the First Estate member turns the childe’s Embrace into a big production. Some high-ranking member of the covenant officiates — the Prince if possible, an Inner Circle member or Primogen if not. Other members of the covenant attend as well, for in showing honor for a favored childe-to-be, they gain honor themselves. (It’s also a chance to hobnob with the covenant’s elite.) Tradition recommends a dozen Kindred at the Embrace, plus the sire. (The number is variously explained as referring to

the disciples of Christ, the tribes of Israel, the paladins of Charlemagne or the astrological signs of the zodiac.) One of the 12 may include a priest from the Lancea Sanctum, exercising the Second Estate’s traditional prerogative to officiate at the great transitions of life and undeath.

The details of the ritual vary from city to city, but always include the childe-to-be swearing to uphold the Traditions of Longinus, obey the Prince and honor the Invictus in all things. The childe may receive the sacrament of extreme unction (popularly miscalled the “Last Rites”) from the Sanctified representative. Then the childe-to-be’s clothes are stripped away, symbolizing the death of his mortal identity. The 12 Kindred drink some of the mortal’s blood; the sire takes the last, before delivering the taste of Vitae that works the dark miracle of undeath. The newly Embraced childe is wrapped in a black shroud and laid on a bier. At his right side lies a scepter, representing the power of law and rulership; at his left side rests a sword, representing the First Estate’s martial power when law and tradition fail. On his breast is the shield of the Invictus, for the covenant shall be his protection, even as he protects it. His head rests on the Testament of Longinus, to show that his accursed state comes from God. At his feet lies a human skull, for he shall walk the paths of death forever more.

When the childe is ready to rise again, he is unwrapped and the shroud reversed to reveal a purple lining. The reversed shroud is draped around the new vampire while he is proclaimed a lord among Kindred and master of the kine. The sire brings in a mortal — the childe’s first meal — and bids him slake his thirst. The childe is supposed to stop feeding before he kills the vessel and to declare that he rules the Beast Within. The other Kindred are allowed to help him in this, as it is considered a bad omen for the childe to kill the vessel. (Besides, disposing of bodies is always a nuisance.) Each of the 12 Kindred offers the childe a brief homily on unlife in the Invictus, and the childe replies with expressions of gratitude and a promise to take the words to heart. The ceremony ends with the childe dressed in new clothing, to begin his Masquerade and Requiem. After that, courtesy demands the new sire offer a blood feast for his 11 guests.

A childe who receives this ceremonial Embrace begins his Requiem already a member of the Invictus in good standing. His still must serve his sire and receive training for years to come, but the childe has a head start on other neonates. Of course, he is also held to higher standards, and any failure or treachery reflects that much worse on himself and his sire.

Invictus Childehood: Unlife as a Paige

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graces and prepare for future training in knighthood. The Invictus keeps a similar view of childer.

The First Estate believes that a childe is her sire’s client in a patronage relationship. The sire has already provided largesse through the Embrace, which gave the childe eternity and the powers of the blood. The sire continues to act as the childe’s patron by training her in Disciplines and the customs of the Kindred and Invictus.

In return, the paige serves her sire in whatever capacity her sire demands. Officially, the sire can demand anything at all. Kindred traditions say the sire has near-total power over the childe; in some cities, this extends to the childe’s destruction, with no need to consult the Prince or anyone else. In practice, Invictus sires are usually quite reasonable in assigning tasks their childer can fulfill. Siring a childe is too difficult to waste the effort by making impossible demands; the sire usually had a very good idea in the first place of what service the childe could render as a paige.

SAMPLE SERVICES FOR A SIRE

•Help your sire take over the company you used to work for — or that you owned.

•Get an elderly couple to sell their home, so your sire can complete a bloc of property he wants to build on.

•Kill or drive away a gang that’s interfered with one of your sire’s projects.

•Deceive a community or activist group into protesting some project of your sire’s rival.

•Help your sire cope with “newfangled” technology, occupations and institutions, such as cell phones, environmental groups or arbitrageurs.

The sire also gains unlimited use of the childe’s property. Officially, the Invictus does not allow sires to confiscate a childe’s home, land, company or bank account

— but she can do whatever she wants with them. For instance, a sire could not simply take her childe’s shares in the company he created. She could, however, order the paige to sell the stock and use the money to buy out some other company. Some Invictus childer are Embraced as millionaires and leave their sires as paupers. For whatever it’s worth, the First Estate does not consider this honorable, and the Harpies will say nasty things about a sire who abuses her privileges this way.

During his childehood, an Invictus-in-training accompanies his sire to Elysiums and other Kindred affairs, at the sire’s discretion. The childe is expected to speak only when spoken to, and then as little as possible within the bounds of courtesy. Many older Invictus say that “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am” are all the vocabulary a paige needs.

Naturally, a paige cannot join a coterie. He must stay at his sire’s command at all times.

Personal and Impersonal Relations

During the period as a paige, the Invictus expects the sire and childe to detach the childe from any close ties to mortals. The covenant does not approve of Kindred who stay in touch with their mortal families and friends. The risk to the Masquerade is severe, of course: Kindred communities have been thrown into crisis because a childe had to tell his best friend what happened to him or her parents figured out why they only saw their daughter at night — and the frightened mortal tried to tell the world.

And yet, the Invictus needs members who maintain mortal identities. You can’t buy stock in a company or take out a loan if you’re legally dead or never existed. Many sires select childer precisely because they can walk into a corporate boardroom and everyone says, “Hello, sir” or because politicians will take their calls.

The covenant has no good answer to this conundrum. Sires exercise their own judgments about the mortal connections of their childer. A sire might insist on faking a childe’s death and creating a new, false identity; the childe wills his assets to his new identity, a trust fund or some other proxy by which he and his sire can reclaim them.

Other Invictus members, who select childer for their mortal connections, try to arrange their paiges’ existences to hide that they are vampires. This is easiest if the childe has no close family. If not, inconvenient relatives can be eliminated: a job offer from far away, mental conditioning to accept a no-fault divorce or murder. (In this case, though, the sire had better make it look like an accident to the childe as well as the police. Childer who seemed utterly loyal have attacked sires when the childer learned how loved ones were slain.) Business owners can become reclusive. Political activists can invent imaginary jobs that only leave them free at night. Some people can simply retire from their jobs but stay in touch with old associates. Although the Invictus doesn’t like most innovations, it welcomes the growth of work-from-home programs, consultancies and the 24-hour work schedule in general.

In any case, the sire helps her childe to distance himself from former mortal associates. Family and friends are cut off. Professional associates meet the paige less often, in surroundings that are more formal, and only to conduct professional affairs. Professional associates are less likely to figure out the paige has become a vampire because they don’t really know him that well, and probably don’t want to.

Childehood’s End

The Invictus does not say how long a childe must remain her sire’s paige. Different clans, bloodlines and factions are free to set their own standards. Some Invictus keep their childer bound to them as long as possible —

until the childe herself finds a way to escape. In other cases, a sire may need a childe’s skills so much that, from the moment of Embrace, the paige is more a partner than a servant. Such a childehood will not last very long.

Whether the time comes in five years or 50, however, it comes when other Invictus start asking when the paige shall receive her independence. Once again, the patronage system demands it. A sire who won’t release an increasingly competent paige shows disrespect for the childe’s abilities. Such a sire also breaks the promise implicit in training a childe: that the apprenticeship shall someday end, and the childe can put her training to work for her own sake. Prudent elders also recognize that, while they may dole out rewards to their juniors slowly, the elders do have to dole rewards out eventually. An everincreasing population of older, more powerful and deeply resentful paiges could lead to an explosive rebellion — or simply a mass abandonment of the covenant. Tradition says it’s happened before.

The First Estate calls the end of a vampire’s period of service as a paige her “manumission.” After that, she’s a free neonate. Naturally, the covenant soaks the event in ritual. One of the sire’s duties is to coach his paige in the proper ceremonies.

Ceremony of Manumission

The procedure for liberating a childe takes at least an hour. The Invictus conducts the ceremony at a grand gathering of the covenant. Not only is this an important event for the sire and childe, it matters quite a lot for other members: they may want to inspect the new neonate and evaluate her as a potential client, pawn or enemy. Older members also bring their paiges or manumitted childer to meet the new neonate and perhaps lay the groundwork for a coterie.

The ceremony begins with the sire asking for the attention of the Prince and other dignitaries. The sire announces, in suitably elaborate phrasing, that his childe wishes to be released and become a free Kindred. The Prince asks that the childe be summoned to his presence; the sire demurs, saying that the childe is not ready. Three times, the Prince commands the childe be called forth, and only on the third time does the sire obey.

The childe enters from another room. She wears chains on her wrists, symbolic of bondage to her sire. She also carries an illuminated parchment manuscript bearing her request for manumission, written in her own Vitae. The Prince asks her name; she responds with her complete Kindred lineage, as far back as she knows it. As usual, this is to assert her worthiness as a successor to these Kindred of the past; if her forebears are not particularly glorious, at least stating her lineage shows respect for tradition. (If her Kindred “ancestors” disgraced themselves, the childe mentions her intent to do better and redeem their names.)