The Arcesilia

The Arcesilia is named for Acesilaus, the Greek philosopher and student of Plato who founded the Middle Academy.  Famous for being a skeptic and doubting the capability of the senses to determine truth, his name was borrowed by Phillip Byron for the institution in Khallam dedicated to questioning assumptions about the Kindred condition and the larger universe, when relevant.  Tragically, this meaning and name are lost on many of the undead citizens of Khallam, most of whom simply call it the Blood College.

Created in the wake of the 1943 New Crown Siege, the Arcesilia was only possible due to the united stance of the Kindred afterward.  Founded by Phillip Byron its first group gathered in 1944 with a full 30 members inducted by 1962.  It is a powerful local institution socially and has the reputation of being where power is traded in favors even more than in Elysium as its a concentration of those with power.  Ironically, it has the effect of magnifying the attention at Elysium on those few who have influence but are not members of the Arcesilia.  It is important to understand that the Great Work of the Ordo Dracul is not the task of the Arcesilia.  The Arcesilia was founded to explore the extent of the kindred condition, abilities and limitations.  Given a natural preference for the arcane as well as obscure, research tends to lean to mystic avenues of research rather than psychology or physiology, though these are certainly respected as well.

Because the express purpose of the Arcesilia is not the Great Work, it seeks to be inclusive and include those from other covenants and obscure traditions.  As a result it also provides a special opportunity for scholars to exchange knowledge, usually in a quid pro quo scenario where each hopes to gain at least as much as they give.  Academic and mystic knowledge grant great status in Khallam, especially if it bears on a better understanding of the kindred and even more so if it advances the Great Work.  Indeed, many non-dragons hope that by joining the Arcesilia they may gain some status and learn rudimentary coils.  While this certainly happens for a few, it is also true that those who embrace the coils will not progress far without joining the Dragons.  Certainly, there will expectations on the part of some that they will after this initial trust.  The reverse is not true though.  Many Dragons hope to learn obscure disciplines and magics from others and are expected to bring that knowledge back to the Great Work.

At any given time there are only 30 members of the Arcesilia.  In common parlance it is known as the Arc by the more respectful and the Blood College by the less so.  The 30 members are called degrees and when they gather they stand in a circle with thirty points.  Six members stand at the “cardinal” points.  These include the three stewards of Khallam and three others they have elected to serve unending sentences on the governing body.  These six are sometimes called Cardinals within the Arcesilia but always referred to as Masters or Fellows when speaking with outsiders.  These six each select two people who serve as Journeymen or Residents.  These 12 positions serve until dismissed.  Those 12 each select 1 person who serves as a Guest or Apprentice.  These positions are typically filled for a period of one to three years before the person is asked to step down and be replaced.

The structure is built to be much like an academic guild and provide the greatest influence from the top down, rewarding those who have ascended to power, providing motivation for ascendancy and resources for the most powerful to continue their work.  Obviously the Cardinals hold the most power since they never leave the organization and can directly select two members each and thus indirectly select two more.  In theory these selections serve a research purpose with each Cardinal selecting those whose research supports their own and each Journeyman selecting one who supports either their own individual research or collaborative.  Indeed, collaboration is expected throughout the Ascesilia though quite a bit of fighting for prestige takes place.  A Journeyman who selects a Guest who supports their Master will find favor but their own original research can sometimes bring even greater prestige to their Master.  Indeed, in the last forty years some some Journeymen have gained enough status that they are essentially permanent fixtures and highly unlikely to ever be replaced.  There is discussion since the 1990s that the membership might be becoming static and should expand its membership on a meritocratic basis.

In theory there is no shame in a Resident being asked to leave but in truth people wonder, if they were really any good why didn’t they produce the results for their Master that would continue that line of research?  That is hard to answer but certainly there are often exceptions to that logic.  Fortunately for Apprentices there is little expectation and even leaving within a single year is generally held as acceptable and there is no shame.  There is prestige to be gained from behind asked to stay longer though, especially if one’s Journeyman or Master is held in particular esteem.  Cliques form around certain areas of research and interest that inform these social statuses.  So far no Masters have ever been replaced and Residents have only been replaced a dozen or so times.

Even the most unsocial of researchers will find gaining status among the Dragons lubricated by membership and even most Guests have rank 1 or 2 though not all do.  This grants additional authority when trying to find rooms or gain resources from the covenant.  So, what of those few, and they are few, who have substantial status in the Ordo Dracul but aren’t members of the Acresilia?  After all in a city with nearly one hundred fifty order members the Arcesilia has non-members, insightful neonates being given a chance and even a few mostly useless people that seem to sit in their positions like undead statues.  The simple fact is that status is status and those few with great status outside the Arcesilia are assumed to hold that status for good reason.  Some are seen as eccentric scholars who don’t work well with others.  Some have that status for totally non-academic reasons such as highly ranked sworn members of the Ordo Dracul.  Others are mostly isolated for good reasons such as the Kogain.

Aside from prestige and having the ear of influence what does membership grant someone?  The simple answer is potential access through fellowship to rare levels of scholarship and mystic knowledge.  Additionally, there are benefits when special situations arise.  It is true that anyone who wants to do a special project, such as an incident of following the dragon’s tail, that might violate the law can ask for exemption from the Stewards under some guidance.  However, it is far more likely to be granted to those with low status if they are members of the Arcesilia.  Aside from any inherent bias the Arcesilia gives even low status members a rare chance to talk up their ideas and gain approval before formally approaching the Stewards, especially if they have little to give in bribes.  Indeed, more than one elder’s name has been attached to an ambitious project to gain favor just as elder professor’s may be attached to papers.  Additionally, although the spoils of war go first to the Sworn of the Axe, Byron as the first of the sworn grants many of those privileges to the Arcesilia if they hold mystical value.  This attracted many of the initial members.  The Masters then decide who gains these things including who has the will, the fortitude and character to absorb such knowledge safely and who is mostly like to make the most use of it and contribute back.  Almost without exception these things are given to Journeymen or Masters of the Ordo Dracul.  Rarely, such stolen knowledge has been gifted to a very junior member but never one outside the order.  This can include the right of diablerie if someone is captured and thus the ability to learn rare disciplines.

Of the six masters Byron is the best known but least known for his scholarship.  He is seen largely as s dilettante, mastering coils that allow ones to interact better with humanity.  Some dismissively see this as very like a Daeva but its utility is clear.  Furthermore his appointees often look into area of physics and behavioral studies that few others do.  Istavan’s appointees often hear little from him and have a great deal of independence but all share his strong moral character.  Istavan rarely speaks about his own mystical studies but it is known that he is fascinated by Golconda, the nature of God’s creations as a whole and his opposition to the Lancea Sanctum.  Only the other masters know of his great heresy.  Tegen is a master of blood magic, appoints scientests who study the genetics of blood, he tracks bloodlines and studies feng shui and law.  In short he studies the blood’s connection to history and its intersection with the earth and how these are codified into contract and law.  Many in Khallam think of Tegen as a bureacrat but those of the Arcesilia know him as an aggressivle scholar as well.  Rounding out the masters include the Gangrel master of the coil of blood that replaced a previous masters, a mekhet blood sorcerer who has long studied obscure forms of ghouls and the former diablerist who wants to recreate the Camarilla.

There is a theory, that I just made up, that anything can be broken down into 10 short distinct pieces of information. I call this my d10 theory.  I got the number by rolling a ten sided die.  I still see new folks slowly coming over to Vampire the Requiem and the nWoD even though its hardly a new system anymore and I can’t blame them – I was a hard sell and slow convert myself.  Still, I love the new system and here’s a primer for those coming over to VtR from VtM.

1.  Title.  The title underlies a difference.  Vampire: The Masquerade often was very much about hiding, hiding from the world and maintaining the masquerade.  Did it have to be and was it always?  No, and Requiem builds on those strengths expanding the themes of the game into the nightly unlives of kindred as a whole.  And the challenge of the tradition of the masquerade is still a part of that.  If anything it makes the potential for playing a monster more monstrous but allows you to ignore it if you wanted to as well.

2. Malkavians got a slap dash treatement in the main book but got their proper treatement in the Ventrue Clanbook.

3. The 13(ish) old clans are gone.  The new format is a 5×5 that gives 5 clans (very broad ideas) and 5 major social structures so there are 25 basic permutations for characters.

4. Bloodlines further expand on the built in mechanisms to expand characters.

5. Don’t forget personal motivation and personalities but Nature and Demeanor are gone from the character sheet replaced by Virtue and Vice.  I still use Nature and Demeanor in addition to Virtue and Vice though simply because I think they’re good aids even though they have no mechanical effect.

6. The 5 major political factions are not all encompassing.  There are others, there are shadow cults, there are factional fights among the factions and with the vampires somewhat isolated city to city local variations arise.

7. You’ll need to buy at the least the core World of Darkness book and Vampire the Requiem now as core rules are split off.

8. Even though there are clans called Nosferatu, Ventrue, and Gangrel they are the clans you remember and more.  The Daeva are far more than the Toreador were and the Mekhet are not new, they were there as an an umbrella idea unnamed over many oWoD bloodlines.  I enjoy finding nWoD homes for a lot of old stuff.

9. You’ll want to look outside the Vampire game line for a lot of great stuff to use in Vampire games.  The World of Darkness is a baseline product line especially is good for more than just mortals.

10.  Throw out the assumption that every Werewolf hates your guts.  A given one might hate you for being a vampire, or just likes your Italian loafers.  Or wants to bum a smoke.  Or will ignore you.  The other game lines have changed a lot too.