The Kingdom Of Concord

by Sasha Nir'Tirash

Welcome to our fair city traveller. You are seeking refuge from the constant unnecessary battles between the kindred? Have you been banned for affiliations your clan or your sect did not allow? Maybe you just have heard of the sanctuary and relief this place provides. It is possible to get along with us, if you heed our rules. There aren't many of these and they are easy to understand. Never attack another mystic until our Queen says so. Most of them are our allies.

See the darkly beautiful female there? She is the leader of the local pack of Black Furies garou. Fully aware of what we are, still we do not have to fight for our lives, because we are allies. Yes, I said live. Most say vampires are creatures of the grave, so called undead. This is the first misconception that even many of the Jindar fall prey to. We are still living beings, with our own diet, psychology and methods of procreation. A rare few have even mastered the art of doing the human way. Almost anywhere I have been that is more than enough to be considered a living being.

Let us not discuss, what exactly makes a living being, for we are definitely sentient beings, but still too many of us use their mind only for useless purposes. Children, when will you ever learn to accept both your civilised and your bestial part, this is the only key to success and even survival. You noticed that I said civilised part not human part. That is, because all humans have a bestial part too, it is only buried deeper within them. Usually.

If you want to understand us, you have to understand the kingdom of concord, something unique within this world. It is the secret of our success and our continued existence. Of course there are many parts to make it whole, but this is all part of an unique union, of harmony and concord like I have seen in few other places. It is age old and predates any written history still existing, and I have seen all you remember about your past, about the past of this world, for I walk on its surface for twelve millennia.

"But that was before the first time of clans, before the impergium, before the elders killed most of us, as history is told", you interject. Actually it is the third time if clans. When Caine was still young he sired three childer. Some say he was tricked by a succubus into doing so, angry that she could not drain his life force, while others say he did it because he was lonely. Even though he will not admit either the legend about the mortal mage are completely unfounded in reality. Those created more childer and so on, until someone destroyed these elders, and Caine walked alone again, the Jindar few and far between.

The second time he did it out of loneliness. He choose two childer well, myself, that is Sasha Nir'Tirash, and Storm Silvarino. He was a man at that time, but certain things conspired to have his true name exchanged with someone else's so that the noble Silvarino clan could continue to exist. The other elder clan still around is my own, the Ariniar. Little known and widely feared for our abilities at stealth and assassination, that let the Assassini appear like greenhorns in that area. Both survived because of the wisdom of their leaders.

The third was a misjudgement Caine's side. In difference to the Silvarino and the Ariniar, who followed his principles and kept their membership small and exclusive to preserve their power and the resources, he was corrupted by the sudden rush of power and created many childer. They are still known to legend as the anteduvillans, but most of them have been destroyed. They in turn created more childer and so on, until the garou could not endure it and started a long and brutal crusade against us. Caine, Silvarino and me hunted down those too powerful for the garou, fighting at their side. That is the reason, why we still exist.

Eventually some of the anteduvillans who had escaped us rose again and many of their childer also did. Their where simply too many to eliminate most of them. This time still lasts and the vampires are once again careless with their resources and the procreation. They still fear things that don't exist and weave plots within plots within plots, that might make a Yugoloth proud, but in difference to the latter their plots don't give them more power. They lead to their own destruction once again and they don't realise this.

Now the tale of the Kingdom in words other than my own:

As the first time of clans ended, the battles where many. Changing folk and vampires battled long lasting and loosing fights. The garou where at the prime of their power in that period of time and the Jindar where loosing, and one after another the clans and their strongholds fell. Helpless by day many of them where slaughtered defenceless, so great was the anger of the shapeshifters, so strong was the blight of the land they caused, that it was the only reasonable thing to do.

The changing folk had several allies in their battles, some of which where the at that time also powerful fey, but some didn't fit into this assumption. Both the Ariniar and the Silvarino clans battled at the side of the garou, as did Caine himself. Uncomfortable with their allies, the shapeshifters knew they had to battle them soon. When the immediate threat of the vampires had passed, they moved to the castle of the Ariniar.

In difference to the other, often pompous, strongholds, this one was still nice to look at, but it was obvious that it had been build with functionality in mind. High and thick walls, warded and empowered by magic, this castle could stand a siege even by the garou for decades and it was known that the Ariniar needed little blood. The leaders of the werewolves wondered what they where going to do. The discussion was already dangerously heated, when the drawbridge of the castle lowered almost silently. All here was in perfect and deadly repair.

There where three people on the bridge and walked slowly into the direction of the werewolf leaders. Two troll knights where flanking a single unarmed female. Calmly and confidently she walked into the moot and sat down, commanding her guards to stand back on the way. The Stargazer, the most reasonable of the pack asked: "What are you doing here?" Sasha replied: "I came to sit and learn." He wondered: "Learn?" She nodded and said: "How to live on the ground of our mother without being a blight, how to be guardians and protectors as Caine told us to be."

For a few moments there was stunned silence, then they started to parlay in the language of the garou, more a collection of growls and howls than anything resembling human speech. Sasha simply leaned back and waited until one of the changing folk asked her a question. "Why would you want to be like that?" She said: "As Caine himself said, we are all Gaia's children, so instead of fighting over her we should guard our mother from harm as well as we can. He has chosen both Silvarino and me because he knew we would."

"You mean the wyrm wants you to exist", one of them said. Sasha shook her head and said: "No. His creations are so terrible and hideous that they have to hide in spaces beyond our world, only occasionally troubling him. The other gods keep them out. Have you forgotten the legacy of Atlantis? The ancient gods that still watch over us, sustained by the beliefs of a half dozen or so worlds, where immigrants from the empire of light settled?" The garou looked at each other and started to discuss again, far calmer this time.

Finally one of them said: "When you are able to stand the light of the sun without harm, will believe you and consider you and your people friends of the garou." Sasha nodded and said: "Will any of them ever break the truce, I will personally hunt them down. I know I can walk in sunlight and the shadows of the night without harm." She curled herself up and closed her eyes to sleep like humans did. Not that she had to, but she could and obviously she didn't have anything better to do right now.

The day came and waned again. The sun made its way across the sky one more time. Ra's chariot rode over the horizon and the garou gathered again, where they had left the Jindar. Silent and disguised guards had watched her with unbroken vigilance and knew that she had been true to her word. The sun did not harm her. The leaders of the garou bowed their heads in reverence. None of the foul spawn they had battled could be in sunlight for more than a few heartbeats without beginning to burn. Sasha had stayed there for three days without even as much as feeling uncomfortable.

"We accept the truce", they said in unison. "Let us be brothers in the fight against our Mother's defilers." Sasha agreed and said: "Now the kingdom of concord is complete. Fey, Jindar, Magi and Roudar have joined forces to make the world a better place. Any who want to may stay here with us. No-one has to, because I have long ago learned to trust the word of a Garou." The leaders blood-bonded all witch each other to seal the pact, and so the kingdom of concord was born out of the wisdom of Silvarino and Sasha Nir'Tirash. Caine smiled and went to rest.

We hunted down the rest of our enemies, at least those of them, we could find. For a time we thought that they were gone for good, but time proved us wrong. For reasons too varied and complicated to explain now, we were forced to leave our castle. Before we went our magi created a demiplane and we gained the power to retreat there whenever we needed a respite from the often cruel and harsh world. After many years of wandering, we settled down in many places, but we liked none of them really, so we soon moved on.

Soon in my perception of time, which means a few centuries or so. Finally we moved to Münster. This city was occupied by demon worshipper and a group of particularly diabolic Baali, who followed the Great Old Ones, because they always figured the devil was a wimp. They drove the populace into the arms of the catholic church, who in turn installed a particularly ruthless variation of the inquisition there. In difference to many other places they have only killed very few innocents, but they where simply overpowered by their enemies.

We considered it the place we have been looking for and drove the diabolic spawn out of the city, with the aid of the holy Sisterhood. The Sisterhood is a relatively old organisation dedicated to fight the supernatural evil that crawls into our world. They still have a stronghold below the city. The people locked themselves up that night and whispered that the devils danced in the streets. When the battle ended, we slowly established ourselves. It was a long and sometimes painful process to take the fear of the mystical out of the population, but in the end we managed to do so.

Today we don't have a masquerade and the people silently accept us. We have stood several large scale attacks be both the Sabbat and the Camarilla. Naturally they have little chance since we as a true clan have no members below eighth generation. In addition we have the garou, the fey and the magi as allies. This might not be a fortress, but it is nearly as hard to conquer as our original stronghold.

I think I already mentioned that I am a childer of Caine. He is still alive and walks this world again. He is not pleased with the kindred and will call us to arms soon. I met him recently, only a triple o' decades ago. I also know what he looks like and is like. No, he is no impostor. Only one of us can be as ancient and powerful as he is. Don't ask me what he is doing either. I do not know, and it is a good thing too.

Welcome in our fair city traveller.