Lhiannan

The Lhiannan are priests and priestesses of the undead. They have always seen vampires as a part of nature and not a damned condition to be feared or lamented. They practice an ancient mystical art, Ogham, which draws from many ancient pagan traditions. In ancient days, the Lhiannan were blood priests in agrarian tribes, leading them in sacrifices, fertility rights, and finding their own connection to the seasons and the natural world. Now the Lhiannan cannot be as open among mortals as they once were, but still like to influence human believe and spirituality. They still see themselves as spiritual guide for humanity, there to help humans commune with things greater than themselves. This includes being patrons of the arts, supporting political and social causes, and sometimes even creating cults that they can lead as they did in the ancient days. They feel the most comfortable in small rural communities instead of big cities. Even those Lhiannan who dwell in cities often have havens on the outskirts, in suburbs, or even parks where they can be closer to nature. Those cities which are most influenced by the Lhiannan are those not far from rural countryside or vast wildernesses - most of the Lhiannan will live outside of the city and only make the occasional journey to handle Clan business, deal with politics, or for some special purpose. Perhaps more than any vampires, the Lhiannan continue to treasure human sexuality and many of their rituals involve sexual congress with each other or with mortals. The darker side of their desire to guide humanity is a need for control and power, to be worshiped and desired by mortal followers.

Nicknames: Druids, tree huggers.

Disciplines: Animalism, Presence, Ogham (Ogham is the first path that all Lhiannan learn, other paths available to them are the Green Path, the Path of Blood, Neptune's Might, the Path of Mars, the Berserk Path, and Weather Control. They can also learn rituals as normal.)

Weakness: the Lhiannan are most at home in natural surroundings, places with trees, crops, or the bare earth. For each day that a Lhiannan is deprived of such surroundings, they suffer a cumulative -1 penalty to all dice pools down to the Lhiannan's Stamina. Recovering these lost dice requires at least a full day in a rural or wilderness location, though a point of Willpower can be spent to ignore the penalty for a scene.

Advantage: The Lhiannan draw vitality from nature, their domain, and the revelry of mortal followers. If a Lhiannan leads a ritual involving nature, sex, and blood, then the blood he or she consumes during that ritual is doubled in value. For example, the Lhiannan could consume 3 Blood Points from a human during such a ceremony and gain 6 Blood Points from it. The ritual requires 2 human participants for each extra BP gained (so six in the previous example) and requires an equal number of hours to perform (or bask in the revelry of) the ritual.

Permutations: there are some Lhiannan who dedicate themselves to fighting and combat. In modern times they are called beserkers, though there are many other names depending on the Lhiannan's culture or ideology. Berserkers have Potence as a Clan Discipline and their main Path is either the Berserk Path (if Potence replaces Presence) or Path of Mars (if Potence replaces Animalism).

Appearance: Typically, Lhiannan come from rural communities in Europe and North America and their style of clothing represents styles from rural cultures. Practical or conservative clothing is common, work clothes or old fashioned dresses are common, though hippy or earthy styles aren’t rare either. The great majority of the Clan members are caucasians, though individual appearances vary. When they gather together or appear in formal setting, Lhiannan will often wear white Druid’s robes. Many Lhiannan also mark their bodies with tattoos or painted mystical symbols, traditionally woad is used.

Haven: The druids live in rural areas, in small villages or forests. Their havens are usually on farms, plantation houses, or remote estates. On occasion, a number of Lhiannan will dwell together on a large farm along with a number of ghoul and human servants, though it is also not uncommon for a single Lhiannan to live in a house by herself or with a small number of servants. The Lhiannan favor rustic abodes, made from rough hewn wood or natural stone, sometimes large luxuriant houses are prefered but some Lhiannan like small and humble havens, simple log cabins or stone huts.  

Background: The Lhiannan are Clan of priests and mystics, each coven leading a group of mortal followers in the Clan's ancient religion. New childer are almost always selected from among the Lhiannan's cult following and embraced by the head of the coven. The embrace is often given as a reward for long and faithful service, as well as competence and natural talent. The Lhiannan also believe in using magical divination to determine a mortal's potential - sometimes such divination causes them to reject seemingly perfect candidates or embrace subpar ones. Members of a Lhiannan's cult are almost always rural people or those with a great love or knowledge of nature and the wilderness, but aside from these qualities they can be from all walks of life - rich or poor, educated or illiterate, male or female, strong or weak. They can all find a place with the Lhiannan, though the vast majority of Lhiannan as well as their mortal followers are of European ancestry. Despite their diversity in some regards, most cult followers and especially those who are considered for the embrace tend to be intelligent, willing to think introspectively, and have a strong sense of spirituality. Most candidates for the embrace are either on the older side for mortals or have spent time as a ghoul before being embraced, as time and loyalty of service is often a big factor in selecting a childe.

Organization: The Lhiannan organize themselves in small groups, sometimes called covens. These covens lay claim to large swaths of land, usually in rural or wilderness areas. The members of the coven live with or near each other for centuries and are quite loyal to each other, acting almost as a vampiric family. The covens are usually lead by the eldest in the coven, sometimes the sire of the other members. Covens of Lhiannan are fairly territorial and don't like other vampires to come into the area under their protection - it is expected that any traveling Lhiannan must get permission from the local owners of a domain before entering it. On special holy days, various different covens of the Clan from miles around gather during certain days of the year (winter solstice is the holiest of days to the Lhiannan) and have a great celebration in some neutral area, often a holy place the Lhiannan. During the holy day, the Lhiannan establish friendships between covens, share mystical knowledge, and generally grow closer as a Clan. In some cities, the Lhiannan presence may include a number of different covens from the surrounding area. In most cases, Lhiannan give each other preferential treatment, even to members of other covens. There are some cases where two covens might have a rivalry, in which case other Clans may play upon these rivalries for their own benefit.

Stereotypes

Ahrimanes: They cannot see beyond their own egotism. They cannot coexist with others and will thus eventually perish.
Baali: Useful allies by any standards, but what dark gods do they worship in the secrecy of their havens?   
Blood Brothers: Savage barbarians who would destroy all on their own mad quest for power.   
Children of Osiris: Their faith is strong, but they seek to destroy us and themselves in hopes of becoming something that they never can be. 
Gargoyles: The unfortunate results of using unnatural magics without thought for the consequences.   
Kiasyd: Their blood is thick with magic and age, dominance is their birthright and they have earned their position through dedicated labor. Of course, they need us to secure their position.
Laibon: These savage priests worship lesser gods and have therefore condemned themselves to mediocrity.  
Lamia: A pillar which provides vital support to the Camarilla. Though they have many dark secrets, what is the true goal of their Clan?         
Nagaraja: Monsters and boogeymen, they can be useful but is associating with these creatures worth the cost? 
Salubri: Their knowledge is wide but shallow. They gaze upon many things but only see the surface.   
Samedi: We have powers over life while they command what lies beyond. We have much to learn from each other.  
Sybarites: They are more in touch with their true nature than many of our kind, unfortunately they cannot seem to use this wisdom for any higher purpose.    
Caitiff: Some mortals are born to rule and others to serve, why should kindred not be the same? 
Camarilla: It is right that the old should rule over the young, that the strong should rule over the weak, that the immortal rule the mortal.  
Sabbat: When one fights the natural order, it can only lead to ruin. 
Anarchs: The young are foolish, they must be disciplined and shown the error of their ways.

Lhiannan