Races

Khavosian Vampire - by T.A. Saunders ©2009 v1.8

Racial Articles The Structure and Guidelines of the Coven

The two remaining covens of vampires is kept small purposefully to remain unnoticed and out of harm's way of large acts of military aggression against them. Ko's ultimate failing was she had over-reached her sense of purpose and took too much control. While she had maintained the facade of Sundown for several hundred years, it took the domino of a single event to bring it all crashing down around her. Now, with the remaining covens banded together secrecy and control become paramount to ensure that vampires once more become an obscurity.

The two cities with a sizable vampire populous, Brookshire and Sundown have established a closely-knit hierarchy of order that ensures that creation of more progeny is done only with the permission of that city's Elder. This had not been the rule with Ko; her will was that the four elders that ran Sundown for her were given notice on such things. The tradition of asking permission before turning one into a vampire originated in Brookshire, under the gentle guiding hand of the Lady Amarys. This maintained a more personal relationship between the elder and both the sire and the one to be made. Those turned without permission are almost always destroyed, though this is usually at the discretion of the elder and the sire is punished in some fashion.

Wanton acts of violence or revealing one's nature in public has also been cast as a unfavorable act. Those that choose to flaunt their existence openly are shunned by the coven and no aid will be rendered if they are hunted. Killing without regard to location and in the public eye earns the same treatment from the elders of either city; such acts rob the vampires of the ability to blend in and to quietly infiltrate society.

When a vampire from one coven visits the city of another coven, it is expected and polite to make one's presence known to that city's elder. This is an unwritten rule of vampires in general, so it is expected of even vampires not of the Khavosian line. Those who enter the city without the leave of that city's elder will at the very least be shunned and depending on their further actions, may actually be hunted by the coven.

Above all things, the elder's word is law. Disobeying a city's elder is essentially asking to be hunted or have that elder turn the city's resources against the one who disobeyed his or her will. Lord Lyons often deals with rogue caitiff by simply informing Sundown's Shadow Hunters, through various third parties that a vampire is on the loose and lets them deal with the rogue. The Shadow Hunters are none the wiser that they may have gotten a tip indirectly from a vampire Elder.