Greetings, Young Ventrue:

If you are reading this scroll, you have just gotten caught doing something incredibly stupid that seemed absolutely necessary at the time. You are now facing punishment -- the wrath of public opinion, unpalatable consequences, rage, internal bickering, all or some of the above.

It is likely for one of you that your first thoughts will be of rage; of revenge. Banish them from your mind! Now is the time for humility and contrition, not foolish pride! Power flows from the anger of your enemies. Your power ebbs through the scandal of your actions. Now is not the time to outfight your enemies, but to outwit them. Damper their anger and your dampen their power. Mollify public opinion and you restore your strength.

Be like water, not stone.

You may be thinking: “I’ll kill them all.” Since when are Ventrue given to short-range, knee-jerk plans? The elaborate machinations of our kind are spun over decades if not centuries. And rarely are they so simple minded as “I’m gonna get you, sucka.”

Do the Traditions and the sanctity of Elysia mean nothing to you? Do you consider yourself above such constraints? If so, you are little better than an anarch, the rarefied gift bestowed upon you squandered.

Perhaps your sire was remiss in pointing out that every *independent* action that you take, forwarding your own *selfish* agendas, reflects on every member of this clan AS A WHOLE. The reputations of hundreds of Ventrue: nobles, financiers, artistrocrats, captains-of-industry across several continents with several millennia of longevity between them will be besmirched and tarnished for your arrogance.

Think carefully if you can shoulder the responsibility inherit in such an august familial relationship. Do you begin to see how and why we are sometimes seen as slow to act; weighing the ramifications of each action with great deliberation?

You forget that we are the weakest of the 7 clans. Our strength and success come only through inordinate hard work to transcend the handicap. To take a page from biology, the most complex lifeforms take the longest time to reach maturity: humans more than monkeys more than lions more than dolphins more than birds more than worms. A hawk is a ferocious predator, but in time, a weak human infant will grow into a tool-using adult able to subjugate all the lesser creatures. So if you feel ready to take on the world, chances are, it’s your Resilience or Aegis or Majesty or Possession or other newfound power talking, whelp. Back to your toys! It is why your elders allow you to exert yourself over corporations, politicians and the like. Play with them, grow in skill, and then you will be ready for greater challenges.

Like measles among mortal children, our childer are prone to the onset of the power madness disease which strikes swiftly, fatally, and unerringly among young Ventrue. Those inoculated by the appropriate humiliating experience who survive go on greatly fortified by the experience.

Understand these following laws of leadership and think on where your failings lie:

If you would command, you must first learn to obey. If you would lead, you must first learn to serve. If you would own, you must first learn to give. If you would control, you must first learn to submit.

Does your spirit rebel that you, *A Ventrue*, be so reduced in stature as to endure obedience to others, service to lesser men, submission to weaker Kindred? If so, you are dangerously ill prepared for life in the Elysium, prone to the sins of greed and pride.

Was your pride wounded? Was that what led you to ill fated actions and your current predicament? We are a clan of nobility and dignity. Pride is a sin better suited to the Tremere.

Nobility. To carry ourselves as a breed apart. We expect the best for ourselves and accept nothing less. We demonstrate concern where others show only apathy. We are the example to which other clans should aspire: generous, just, compassionate, active public servants and leaders.

Did your recent scheme exemplify this trait?

Dignity is the perfection of your character; a quiet ferocity of will that cannot be overcome. It is a human quality that cannot be faked or taught. You must aspire to it, anchor it within your soul. Dignity, quite simply, is an undeniable affirmation of your value and self-respect. It does not depend on external trappings, in contrast it appears stronger the more humiliating the circumstance. Throughout the trials ahead it will be your refuge. Even should you be stripped bare and spit upon in the public square, your dignity will shine through. Kindred seek to destroy what they cannot have, and will focus almost pathologically on attempting to humiliate the Ventrue.

Be strong and they will burn with shame for their own misdeeds.

But you must accept responsibility for your actions. If you run, whine, cower, beg, bitch, moan, gripe, kvetch, grumble, you will be little better than a common criminal, ranting about “the Man.” A diatribe best left for the Brujah. I refer you to the writings of Confucius on the qualities of a great man. 4 billion Chinese and your clan Elder can’t all be wrong.

(Sometimes I envy the Temere, how their apprentices willingly go to their chastisement with perfect obedience. One of the few positive qualities that clan has demonstrated.)

I leave you with the following thoughts:

Merely because you can do a thing, does not mean that you should do that thing. Violence is the last option. If you have to use your disciplines, you’ve already lost. The more it seems like the deed has to be done NOW, the more likely it is that you are not looking at the situation clearly or objectively. If your plan HAS to be done, it is a bad plan. Nothing HAS to be done. Discard your first three plans. They will be tainted by shortsightedness, emotion, and impatience. Only put pen to paper for the fourth. Had you considered rallying the clan to your side on this matter rather than going off half-cocked? Perhaps the clan refused, and you ignored their collective wisdom.

If you learn from this experience, you will be wise. Your wisdom will go on to serve and further the interests of the clan.

If you repeat this experience, you will be a liability.

Be quiet. Be contrite. Be controlled. Be cautious. Be humble.

Your longevity among the Kindred will be decided by your ability to turn this situation to your advantage. It will require creativity; flexing that unused muscle between your ears. In the end, it won’t matter whether or not you got caught or punished, but who came out on top.

If you are reading this scroll, I am already dead. But know that my death came at a time of my own choosing, and that sufficient advance preparation was made that my voice still resounds, even now -- days, months, years, decades, centuries after my passing. Was your planning as thorough? Perhaps that is why you have failed. Yet you have lived to plot again and for that I am glad.

If you insist on pursuing a violent retributive course of action, know that there is a large cache of weapons and explosives prepared for just such an eventuality in Lisbon. Simply present yourself to the ranking Ventrue there and tell him Sir Henry Czerny sent you.

Author: Frank Gerkens