The Ventrue are a clan

Clan (World of Darkness)

In White Wolf Game Studio's role-playing games about vampires, a clan is a group of vampires joined by blood relations...

 of vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

s, associated with the Camarilla, from White Wolf Game Studio

White Wolf, Inc.

White Wolf Publishing is an American gaming and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine, and was initially led by Mark Rein·Hagen of the former and Steve and Stewart Wieck of the latter. Since White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with...

's Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world....

, Vampire: The Dark Ages

Vampire: The Dark Ages

Vampire: The Dark Ages is a role-playing game originally published by White Wolf Game Studio in 1996. Later, in 2002, the gameline was replaced by Dark Ages: Vampire...

, and book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

s and role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

s. Their symbol is a scepter.

The Ventrue are the rulers, leaders and politicians of the Camarilla, sometimes known as the Patrician Clan or the Kingship Clan. In Ancient Rome, they were generals and warlords of the Empire, and in the Dark Ages, they were knights and barons, leading crusades and conquests. In modern times the Ventrue still have great ambition and see themselves as conquerors, but their ways have changed, using courts and companies instead of feifdoms and mighty armies. Targets for Embrace by the Ventrue have always been people in positions of power, whether these people were aristocracy

Aristocracy

Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...

 or company CEOs. The Ventrue perceive themselves as the most powerful of the vampiric clans thanks to their wealth, social influence, and powers over the thoughts and feelings of mortals. The clan as a whole is typified as conservative, be it in actions or customs. The Ventrue have their own nigh-inviolable code of etiquette. The clan's Elders have been known to punish violations of these unwritten rules with greater ferocity and resolve than the Traditions of the Camarilla.

The Ventrue claim that ruling vampires is their duty, their burden, a task which is interlocked with their fate, given by Caine himself (if he ever existed). The reality is that excessive pride and ambition seem a more convenient explanation as to why they strive to expand their already vast influence and assert themselves over other Kindred. They tend to be politicians, businessmen, military officers, crime lords, important members of powerful religions, sects and cults.

In response to what they perceive as a degeneration of the clan from its noble roots, a smaller segment of the clan has forsworn their ties to the Camarilla to join the Sabbat as antitribu. They believe that greed has led the body of the clan astray from its previous glory, so their quest is for righteous military and tyrannical power over other Kindred to reestablish what they believe to be the proper order. The Camarilla Ventrue casually dismiss their antitribu cousins as idealists doomed to failure. Both Ventrue and Ventrue antitribu refer to themselves as the sole "true" heirs of the name.

In comparison to the other vampiric clans, the Ventrue are considered to be especially particular about whose blood

Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....

 they drink. In fact, any given Ventrue can only drink blood from a specific kind of mortal, or from mortals under a specific sort of circumstance. Some may only prey upon a given ethnicity, while others can only feed from humans of a certain occupation

Profession

A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain....

 or even religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

. Some Ventrue can only find nourishment from blood that carries a more rarefied quality such as anger

Anger

Anger is an automatic response to ill treatment. It is the way a person indicates he or she will not tolerate certain types of behaviour. It is a feedback mechanism in which an unpleasant stimulus is met with an unpleasant response....

, fear

Fear

Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...

 or innocence

Innocence

Innocence is a term used to indicate a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, sin, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence refers to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime.-Symbolism:...

. Regardless of the sort of blood the Ventrue requires, other blood is regurgitated or simply cannot be swallowed. They may feed from other Kindred with no such restriction. Ventrue prefer to view this flaw as a matter of refined tastes. Of course, with the power (both supernatural and temporal) most Ventrue possess, few go hungry.

Clan	Progenitor	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Ventrue	Veddhartha	Camarilla	Dominate, Fortitude, Presence	Blue Bloods, Patricians	Ventrue have exacting and rarefied tastes, even when it comes to blood. The player must pick a restriction on the type of blood her character can feed upon, e.g. only young men, no animals, only virgins, etc. The character will feed on no other type of blood, not even if she is starving or under duress.

Ventrue antitribu

Long ago, before the Sabbat and Camarilla existed, before the Anarch Revolt and before the Lasombra slew their Ancient and drank his precious vitae, the Ventrue were knights and lords, masters of their manors. After the powder keg of the Anarch Revolt and Tyler's bold attack of the Hardestadt the Elder came the Renaissance, and the Ventrue changed with the times. Driven by greed and power-lust, the Ventrue shifted track. Rather than maintain their noble status, they pursued greater interests in the merchant class. Leaving behind the duty of nobility and the divine right of kings, the Ventrue surrounded themselves with excess and filthy lucre.

So believe the Ventrue antitribu. The few Ventrue anarchs who had originally opposed their elders' iron-fisted rule had grown frustrated with the static reins of power held by the aged Blue Bloods. As mortal currents changed, these elder powers still clenched tightly to their empires, forever preventing younger and more able Ventrue from taking their rightful places. By selling themselves, the Ventrue had given up the true nobility. For the Ventrue anarchs, their leaders had failed, tempted by material wealth and corrupted by power. In proclaiming themselves antitribu, the Ventrue who joined the Sabbat carved for themselves a unique niche that occupies their valorous hearts to this very night.

The Ventrue antitribu practice chivalrous noblesse oblige. They are grim knights and paladins, sworn to combat the Antediluvians and bring down the degenerate Camarilla. Although their aims may seem noble in comparison to the hellish violence of the Sabbat, they support the Sword of Caine to the bitter end. The Ventrue know, as their preserved medieval chronicles attest, that Gehenna lurks just around the corner. In these final nights of chaos and Thin Blood, the only way to avert the impending Armageddon is to pull it out by the roots. Cainites and kine alike serve the Antediluvians unknowingly, and only those with the drive to fight their secret masters shall survive past the rain of fire and blood. The Ventrue antitribu see their Camarilla counterparts as failures, and they have assumed the roles of the race of Cainites' saviors to atone for this. They believe mortals to be ignorant cattle, sufficient only for food and service to their terrible lords. The world will become a hell, surely, but Cainites, as tools of God's vengeance and the Devil's will, are fit to be rulers of the Children of Seth. To accept anything else is to take the path of the disgraced Ventrue of the Camarilla, and the Sabbat Ventrue are not willing to accept that failure.

Bloodline	Founder	Parent Clan	Faction	Disciplines	Nicknames	Weakness
Ventrue antitribu	Unknown	Ventrue	Sabbat	Dominate, Fortitude, Presence	Crusaders, Paladins	Sabbat Ventrue suffer the same rarefaction of tastes as Camarilla Ventrue, and they may feed only from certain vessels (as decided at the time of character creation). For example, the Crusader may be able to derive sustenance from only Christians, of the blind, or perhaps might be able to drink only cold blood from crystal flutes. The character will feed on no other vessels, even if frenzied or starving. Ventrue antitribu may feed on vampiric vitae normally.

Ventrue of note

• Hardestadt, Elder of the Ventrue Clan.
• Jan Pieterzoon, Child of Hardestadt the Younger, Hammer of the Inner Council.
• Lucinde, Justicar of Clan Ventrue.
• Lewis Colburn, Archon, prominent member of the Federalist movement.

Version differences

In 1st and 2nd Edition, Venture antitribu possess Auspex, Dominate and Fortitude as in-clan Disciplines. Revised edition changed their Disciplines to Presence, Dominate, and Fortitude like the main clan. Some 1st and 2nd edition books will thus present Ventrue antitribu characters with Auspex and little or no Presence. The antitribu was also first describe as a bunch of wiseguys and low-lifes, an antithesis to the 'blue-blood' concept of the main clan. In the Rev. Edition the antitribu are instead those Ventrue who did not approve the change from nobility to merchant the mainclan chose.

The discrepancy can be dealt with by assuming that the Ventrue-antitribu exist as two pseudo-bloodlines sharing the same name. One is a true bloodline in having a different Discipline spread, the other is a bloodline based primarily on social conditions. They are sufficiently difficult to tell apart (due to possessing the same weakness) that they never completely split into two separate bloodlines.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

The Ventrue appear as a playable faction in the PC game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines developed by Troika Games

Troika Games

Troika Games was a video game developer created by the key people behind the first of the critically acclaimed Fallout series of games. The company was focused on role-playing video games between 1998 and 2005, best known for Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Vampire: The Masquerade –...

 in 2004

2004 in video gaming

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.