least not enough hope of power. The Invictus have spent centuries perfecting this balance; most members of the Circle cannot hope to match the First Estate’s skill. As a result, neonates tend not to join the cult, and the elders find themselves alone. When the elders are destroyed or pass into torpor, the cult vanishes with a whimper.

These cults often leave records and proud histories, so they are prime candidates for revival; the disappearance of the elders removes the problem that the cults had.

A variation on this problem occurs when elders refuse to adapt the cult to the modern world. In most cases, a cult can survive as an archaic relic, but some cannot. A few cults, for example, stop celebrating their central rites when the main holy site is destroyed, and without the unity provided by such continuing activity, the cult fragments and vanishes.

Resurrection

Asnotedinthesectiononbirth,cultsareoftenreborn when younger vampires choose to revive them. This is a common pattern in the history of the covenant; while many cults can claim roots that go back into prehistory, very few can convincingly claim a continuous tradition that goes back that far.

Acolytes in the City

The history of the Circle of the Crone in a particular city is more than the history of the individual cults found in that city, although those histories are an important part of the history of the covenant. Every city’s history is different, but there are common stages found in those histories, and certain transitions are more common than others.

Single Cult

The most common single pattern is that in which all Acolytes in a city are members of a single cult. Other Kindred in the city tend to think that all members of the covenant have those beliefs, and even some of the Chorus may think so. Any Kindred with Covenant Status in the Circle knows of the existence of other cults elsewhere, however.

Single-cult cities are most common under two somewhat opposed conditions. The first is when the Circle is vigorously persecuted in a city. In that case, most cults are wiped out, and rarely does more than one survive. Isolated Acolytes stand no chance of surviving long enough to found their own cults, so the monopoly is maintained. These cults are generally friendly to other variants of Acolyte belief, and would often welcome those Acolytes to the city, if they were willing to come. However, the cults’ internal loyalty is what enables them to survive.

Theothersituationiswhenthereisverylittlepersecution of the Circle, but it is still excluded from politics.

In that case, the single cult is gathering strength to force recognition and make persecution impossible. The cult actively recruits, and takes steps to stop other cults from taking hold and diluting its strength.

The Circle is also often represented by a single cult when a regime of heavy persecution has just ended. In this case, the single cult is made up of the first Acolytes to move into the city when it became safe to do so. The attitudeofthisculttoothernewcomerscanbeanything; some cults welcome additional allies, others want to be the only mistresses of Crúac in the domain.

This situation very often evolves into the Single Line of Descent situation as pressures of persecution are lifted, and can evolve into the State Religion situation if a single cult succeeds in gaining significant political power in a city. Almost any situation can lead to this one if persecution increases.

Single Line of Descent

In this case, all the cults in a city are derived from the same cult, or just from the same founding vampire. This does not mean that the groups are on friendly terms; the opposite tends to be the case. This may be due to hostility left over from the split, or may be due to real philosophical differences.

This situation does not tend to persist under conditions of heavy persecution, as the Acolytes cannot then afford the losses from internal conflicts. On the other hand, this situation is very common when a cult has survived a period of persecution, and that persecution ends. Differences that were put aside in the face of a common enemy are suddenly impossible to ignore, and the Acolytes split.

The city tends to move toward either multiple cults, or a state religion. In the former case, the various related cults are unable to band together to keep other Acolytes out,sothereligiouslandscapebecomesevenmorevaried. In the latter case, they are able to find enough common ground to present a show of unity, often as a prelude to seeking even more power for the covenant.

Multiple Cults

In the past, this was a very rare state of affairs. In recent nights, multiple cults have become increasingly common. The Circle in a single city is represented by multiple cults, which may have almost nothing in common. The Sipán and the Amanotsukai dominate Lima, for example.

Multiple cults almost never flourish when the Acolytes are persecuted. Similarly, this is rare when a single cult has survived persecution, as that cult tends to maintain control. If a single cult has fractured, however, this may open the way for new arrivals, and if the Acolytes were almost completely purged, multiple cults may arrive once persecution finishes. In a few cases, more

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than one cult has survived persecution in secrecy, and all make their existence public at around the same time, often in response to the appearance of the others.

Relations among the various cults vary a great deal. Hostility is probably the most common, as it is very difficult for widely disparate groups to agree on a single Hierarch. This weakens the covenant in that city, but theindividualcultscaremorefortheirownidentitythan for the covenant as a whole.

Cooperation, or at least peaceful coexistence, is not, however, rare. Many Acolytes still feel the need to band together against the Sanctified, and all members of the covenant have a great deal in common, despite their differences. The Liman Kindred, for example, are united in their rejection of JudeoChristian culture, although they differ over modern technology, and a solid truce exists between the two factions. If the Sipán manage to drive the Sanctified out, that might change.

Whenthegroupsareinconflict,thecityoftenbecomes a single cult city as one group wins and drives the losers out,ordestroysthem.Ifthecultsliveinpeace,thisoften developsintoastatereligion,astheAcolytesdesignrites to affirm their unity.

State Religion

A state religion develops when there are many different cults in a city, but they have agreed on a number of basic rites that they all celebrate in common. The differences are, officially at least, regarded as unimportant variations, and, in theory, transferring from one cult to another is easy.

This is most common when the Circle is very strong in a city, and is the case in almost every domain where the Circle holds praxis. There is a very practical reason for this: gathering the strength necessary to bid for praxis is extremely hard for a single cult, and almost impossible for a loose alliance of many cults, which must muster the necessary unity. As a result, this is also a very common situation in cities where the Circle is bidding for praxis.

For many Kindred, this is the paradigmatic image of the covenant, not because it is the most common, but because a state religion is what most Acolytes would like to be the most common. Ambassadors to other covenants, in particular, tend to put this forward as the model of the way that the Circle works. This is really no different from the image of unified doctrine put forward by the Sanctified, or the image of an effective hierarchy put forward by the Invictus. The Circle cannot, and does not want to, deny the diversity of cults within the covenant’s ranks, but does want to present itself as at least as strong and unified as the other covenants. The rhetoric appears to be taking hold, as cities with a state religion are becoming increasingly common.

Bristol

Bristol is a city on the west coast of England where the Circle has always been strong; the city’s history is a good example of how things develop. (Or are said to develop — this history of Bristol does not quite match the accounts of the local Invictus.) It’s possible that no other city follows precisely this pattern, but many are similar.

Two thousand years ago, in the last nights of the Camarilla, two Kindred cults were particularly powerful; one followed Sulis, a Celtic deity of the waters, and the other followed Ceres, the Roman deity. As the Roman Empire faltered and fell, the cults came into conflict with each other, and with the rising Sanctified. The arrival of Anglo-Saxon invaders and Irish raiders complicated matters, and the Sanctified took advantage of the disunity to purge as many pagan Kindred as the Lancea Sanctum could. By 600 AD, this process was all but complete. The only survivors were members of the cult of Sulis, and they hid completely, pretending that they were not even in the town.

From the year 1000 AD, Bristol began to flourish as a port. The mortal population increased, as did the Kindred population. The members of the cult of Sulis moved into the open, loosely affiliating themselves with the Invictus, and claiming to have immigrated to the city along with the kine. The Sulis followers still kept their pagan practices secret, but worked to drive a wedge between the Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum.

The cult members were extremely successful, to the extent that, in 1317, the cultists were able to reveal their affiliation openly. Their connection to the Invictus Prince was so strong that the Lancea Sanctum was unable to move against them. As news of this situation spread, Acolytes from across the west of Britain started to move to Bristol, in the hope of greater tolerance. The Sulis cult was not willing to share power, however, and hunted the other Acolytes down with vigor.

This,inturn,weakenedthecult’sposition,andaSanctified counterattack in the mid-15th century overthrew the Prince and, apparently, wiped the cult out. In fact, three members survived, and once again were forced to hide their very existence.

The Lancea Sanctum ruled until the middle of the 16th century, when religious chaos in England weakened the grip of the Church among mortals, and undermined the Sanctified in turn. The Invictus took advantage of this weakening to seize power, once again subtly supported by the cult of Sulis. Around the same time, antiquarians discovered more details of the cult of Ceres, and young Kindred revived that cult. This time, the cult of Sulis was more welcoming of the newcomers, bearing in mind the lessons of its previous mistakes.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Bristol became an important center of the slave trade, and African cults found their way to the city. Again, the resident Circle welcomed them, and the cults were able to forge a common set of rites, marking the covenant out.

TheAcolytesthenmadeaboldmove,claimingterritory inthegrowingsuburbs.TheSanctifiedpushedforapogrom, buttheInvictusPrinceowedtheCirclesomedebts,which madehissupporthalf-hearted.TheSanctifiedattackswere beaten off, inflicting great losses on the Circle, and significantly shifting the balance of power in the town.

Bristol continued to grow, and in the 20th century, the Circle made a bid for praxis. The Invictus Prince was toppled, but the First Estate found another strong leader, who negotiated a deal with the leaders of the cult of Sulis. Members of the Circle currently serve as spiritual advisers to the Prince, in the role filled by members of the Lancea Sanctum in many domains, but the positions of power are dominated by the cult of Sulis. The other cults within the covenant are becoming restive, and rumors suggest that they will make another bid for praxis soon.