The Ordo Dracul

Read Blood and Smoke for an exploration of the Ordo Dracul mindset and covenant aims. Our notes below give an idea of how they will function socially and politically within Dark Metropolis.

Please bear in mind that these are still early notes and are not set in stone, especially as more setting information becomes available from White Wolf. However, we do not anticipate deviating from these notes drastically when we run Dark Metropolis.

The Ordo Dracul

You could be so much more...


Mask: The modern Prometheus stealing fire from the gods
Dirge: Dangers to society and themselves in the single-minded pursuit of progress

Who Are They?

Part secret society, part excitable group of scientists, artists and innovators of all kinds, the Ordo Dracul push the boundaries of the Kindred condition. They see Kindred identity and form as malleable and espouse their peculiar brand of philosophy (each to their own) with a fervour verging on fanaticism, rejecting any naysayers with confident intellectual superiority.

They can't turn down a good mystery and will often be at the forefront of investigations into any number of areas (not just, as many people assume, the occult). They guard their covenant secrets carefully, but are generous with the knowledge and investigations they can share with others. There can be no advantage to locking magical objects away in vaults or hoarding knowledge that you never intend to be shared: they wish to improve the lot of all Kindred. They just want to be the first to do it.

Where Did They Come From?

Dracula. Taking inspiration from the life of Vlad Tepes a.k.a. Dracul, the Order of the Dragon follow his writings, The Rites of the Dragon and constantly forge themselves anew into a better shape.

The Dragons have been making their mark on the city for a long time. One of the most coveted Regencies in Norwich has been in Ordo hands since before the current Prince began her reign and they are, and have always been, a necessary evil. They helped develop some of the most important innovations in the city, and as such they are respected for their abilities. If that means that some of their...indiscretions...have to be brushed under the carpet, well, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. As long as the covenant makes it all neat and tidy afterwards, they can keep their position. Kindred make uncomfortable jokes about their experiments, but they always acknowledge that it’s only in jest. They aren’t that bad really.

By now, they are a Kindred institution, and they intend to stay that way.

What Do They Want?

The Ordo Dracul maintain that the Kindred condition is a) flawed and b) filled with potential. They dedicate their Requiem to experimentation and innovation, always striving with to find and surpass the limits of the Kindred condition. What do they want? To be better. To be more. To be the one who rectifies a weakness, who improves Kindred everywhere. It’s ambitious and dangerous, and that’s how the Ordo like it. Safe experiments are for those who lack the courage to innovate.

They also want to continue their experiments undisturbed, but other Kindred keep getting in the way with their narrow ideas and twisted moralities. The Kogaion is aware that the order exists on a knife-edge and keeps a careful eye on what's going on in the city, and there are rumours of the 'discouragements' for those stupid enough to cause a mess. Luckily, the Prince sympathises with their position, being a bit of an innovator herself, but they make sure to respect the Traditions and, most importantly, they have become very good at covering things up. They've gained a good reputation for keeping the Masquerade, often teaming up with the Lancea et Sanctum to keep things off the Internet and out of the papers. There’s a running joke that is told with a dangerous grin: the Ordo are the best at covering things up because they have the most to hide.

What Do They Do?

Anything and everything. There is, predictably, a strong vein of science in the Norwich Ordo’s approach, but there are also artists, social scientists and experts in many other disciplines. The main thing is that they all have some area of interest that they believe can aid in furthering the Kindred condition. And they’re not selfish about this - while the Coils and the Scales are protected within the covenant, they share many innovations with other Kindred.

The sins that are frowned on within the covenant are apathy and lack of responsibility. Resting on your laurels is boring. A good scientist tidies up when the experiment is over. A good artist doesn’t let the aftermath of their art spoil its effect. The Ordo expects its members to clean up after themselves or call in the covenant to do it for them. They exist in a delicate balance at the Prince’s pleasure, and the Prince likes things to tick along quietly.

From the outside, the Kogaion is definitely in charge. The public face of the covenant and the warden of this madhouse, they are certainly the covenant's voice in the city. However, internally the Ordo has a labyrinthine and archaic hierarchy based on achievement and many other factors. Those within the covenant sometimes have difficulty working out its politics, but they know that you're nobody until you've proved your worth, either as a lackey to the higher ups, or, more rarely, through some innovation the High Court Dragons can't ignore.

Then there is the Lancea et Sanctum. The Sanctified seek out anything that might rock the boat, and the Ordo seek out the biggest waves. However, given their relatively equal standing in the city, they have come to an accord: as long as it doesn’t upset the status quo, the Dragons can have it. Or, at the very least, as long as they clean up afterwards. In fact, the Lance and the Ordo often find it useful to work together. After all, covering up after the fact is always harder if you don’t know what happened.

The Ordo Dracul doesn't have a monopoly on any kind of research, as long as it isn't going to upset matters, and in fact they generally try to work with Kindred of other covenants. The idealists say it's because every covenant can bring something different to an investigation. The cynics say that the Ordo just love to observe the powers of other covenants up close. The realists say it doesn't matter: what matters is that everyone knows more at the end of it than they did at the beginning.

Development Notes

The Ordo Dracul are largely unchanged in Blood and Smoke (though their Coils are very different between the two editions), but the overwhelming idea that came across was that they were more intense, more driven, even to the point of endangering themselves and others. Considering our Kindred Court values self-control and the status quo, we had to wrap our heads around why they’d allow such activities, or risk watering down the covenant’s passion. We came up with the idea that they are a necessary evil, something the Invictus have to encourage because the Ordo hold keys to the systems that make the city work well for the Kindred.

We also ran into the classic conundrum: how to make the covenants fun when the Lancea et Sanctum and the Ordo were set up as going head to head over occult matters in Blood and Smoke? From experience, we know that having a faction in the game that exists purely to regulate how many occult artifacts other players have access to can be really frustrating. And that’s before we get to the question of making the occult mysteries accessible to other covenants, which we’re addressing through other bits of the setting. We decided that the Sanctified and Ordo would be going after very different things, and that, the way the Lance were set up in Norwich, it would be in their best interests to work with the Ordo, and vice versa. That’s not to say tensions won’t come in - in fact, we’ll be making sure that there are conflicts and tensions all over the place - but we’re also trying to build in reasons for the covenants to work together.

We also chose to emphasise that the Ordo don’t just experiment through hard science. They are innovators in all fields, and if the arts and social sciences can be part of the growth of Kindred as a species, then they will embrace it wholeheartedly, which is a part of the Ordo that is implied but not explored in Blood and Smoke.

Questions to think about for Ordo Dracul characters 

In what way are you seeking to further the Kindred condition? What are the implications for Kindred society?

How are you going to make a splash in the covenant? How will you stand out in a covenant of equally brilliant Kindred?

How do you make sure your experiments don't attract the wrong kind of attention from your superiors?

What are you doing to make yourself useful? The Ordo, and the court, appreciate usefulness.

Do you hang on every word of the Rites of the Dragon, or is Dracula just a figurehead for your ideals?
The mentor-student relationship is very important in the Ordo. Who is your mentor and what is your relationship with them?