The Houses of the Vampiric Council
Meet the different houses that make up the great Vampiric Council and your candidates for election as Council Leader.
The Houses
There are four houses in line to lead the Great Vampiric Council, seeking your vote.
While attendees are invited to show affiliation by dressing in House styles, it is worth noting that all houses employ human thralls and familiars - so humans in shirts, suits and dresses are a regular sight and welcome at The Gathering.
House
Brightwell
House
Orloff
The
Caligars
The
Sutherlanders
House Brightwell
The Brightwells first appear in records in the middle of the 16th Century. Lord William Brightwell, envoy to Henry VIII was sent to the Balkans to meet an influential Christian warlord who was fighting the Turks. On his return he was filled with vigour and lived an extraordinarily long life, even outliving Queen Elizabeth. He died at the Siege of La Rochelle in 1627, impaled on a splintering gun carriage.
His son John Brightwell was beheaded at Edgehill in 1642 and the line passed to his daughter Theophania. She has been the leader of the House since, taking and siring a husband George Feversham, Lord Brightwell in 1665. The Order believes that the outbreak of the Black Death in this year was a direct result of the wedding, with European guests bringing the Plague on their ships. While it was cleansed from the City in 1666 there is no evidence to support the theory that the Great Fire of London was orchestrated by the Order to cleanse both the plague and Brightwells from London.
The Brightwells rose from a minor house to prominence in the mid 18th Century during the Răscoala, operating in the glamour of the Courts and noble classes. Lord and Lady Brightwell were regular, fashionable attendees at parties and gatherings - the power couple of their day. It is believed they were the first to export vampirism to the New World and that the witch who summoned the Headless Horseman at Sleepy Hollow may have been a member of the House. They were also favourite guest in the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before the Revolution. In later years they represented Dracula's interests in the growing and world encompassing British Empire. It is believed the Brightwells accompanied Arthur Wellesley to Waterloo in an attempt to turn Order member Napoleon Bonaparte.
The House can be described as old fashioned and aristocratic. They favour the attire of the 18th Century, and despise modern fashions and attitudes with little or no tolerance for non-vampires and lesser undead. They are Of The Blood and can trace lineage directly to Dracula.
Dress like a Brightwell
The Order believe that Anne Rice based the character of Lestate de Lioncourt on a real life Brightwell and Interview with the Vampire is a good example of the fashions of the House. Attendees can wear ball gowns, ridiculous dresses, bright suits and colours. Life (or death) for a Brightwell is a long party with the Aristocratic Lord and Lady Brightwell at the top.
Dress like an Orloff
The Orloffs inspired the film makers of the early 1900's and the traditional Vampire look is thought to be based on them. Attendees can wear the Christopher Lee, or Bela Lugosi look or lean into the Gothic Horror, Elvira vibe with cloaks, flowing blouses and black gowns. Black has always been the new black for Orloffs.
House Orloff
The Orloffs can trace their origins to Imperial Russia. Founded originally, it is believed, by Count Gregory Gregorivich Orloff in the late 18th Century. They are Of The Blood and can therefore trace their lineage directly to Dracula, however they did not become a stable house until the late 1800's.
Their history is intertwined with that of the Tsars and the nobility of Northern Europe, mainly Poland and Prussia. The Order believes it is likely that both Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II were Orloff vampires sired by their wives: Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein and Alix of Hesse respectively.
The Order was able to use the Bolshevik uprisings in Russia to destroy most of the House in 1917 along with their sorceror/thrall Rasputin however it is believed the Princess Anastasia survived to rebuild the House. This cull is widely considered to be Dracula's attempt to stunt the growth of the House.
It is worth noting that female vampires in this bloodline are vastly more powerful than the males and it has been led exclusively by women since the 1900's. As with most European nobility, they are distantly related to other Houses, including the British Brightwells.
House Orloff is currently ruled by Lady Lillith Orloff and her two daughters Saphira and Artemisia. While a powerful House and influential, it is not peaceful and the daughters are open in their desire to overthrow Lillith and rule. This ambition and callousness is typical of the Orloffs who respect these traits.
They are a traditional minded house, inspiring the dark, Gothic look most people now associated with Vampires.
The Caligars
The Caligars have many names - Keepers of the Dead, Night Lords, Crypt Keepers, Guardians of the Darkness.
The original Caligar was woken with Dracula during the first crusade when the first entities were released on the world. Having allied with House Dracul during the Epurare they were spared his wrath.
Actual Caligar vampires are rare. Their strength comes from their ability to control the undead and some in the Order believe they are necromancers. Where there is a Caligar, there will certainly be the restless dead: skeletons, wights, ghosts, zombies and ghouls, but also creatures drawn to the darkness like witches.
Caligars are the most vulnerable to the sun and rely heavily on thralls and servants to keep them safe during the daylight hours. The first Caligar was destroyed centuries ago and the Clan is more a collective of Vampires and creatures operating in the realms of the darkness rather than a bloodline House. While thought odd by most Houses they are nonetheless respected.
The Clan's leader is currently Baron Vito Polidores, who emerged from Venice to become the undisputed leader. Like most true Caligar vampires he appears less human than the Dracula line - with a bald head, pointed ears and spindly fingers. When researching the film Nosferatu in the 1920's, artist Albin Grau famously based the look of Count Orlok on his encounter with Baron Polidores.
Sightings of Caligars are as rare as the vampires themselves, as they prefer to remain heavily in the shadows with their books, knowledge and mastery of the dead.
Dress like a Caligar
To blend in with the Caligars, attendees may draw inspiration from the film Nosferatu which was based on the Clan. Gothic Victorian appeals to the Caligars who are amongst the most sombre of the Houses. They also appeal to other creatures: ghosts, creatures that go bump in the night, Frankenstein's monsters, witches and most other costumes that are not Vampires.
Dress like a Sutherlander
The Sutherlanders are a new House, from the 60's onwards, and notably the 1980's. Attendees can wear anything from Woodstock, to Lost Boys inspired fashions, even to 1980's yuppies or the leather clad fashion of Blade and Underworld. They are welcoming of werewolves, so this is a common sight amongst Sutherlander groups.
The Sutherlanders
The Sutherlanders are a very new House, considered upstarts by the Council and even despised by Dracula himself.
Their origins are in the Second World War when Occultist inspired Nazi doctors created horrendous experiments. Mixing the blood of captured vampires and creatures including werewolves with the ambition of creating a race of vampiric soldiers. The experiments were a success, but came too late and when the war finished, the creatures escaped.
Taking the name Sutherlanders, they were active in post war Britain and America, becoming an organised house during the Swinging Sixties. Some of the Order operatives have suggested there is a strong possibility that Ronald and Reginald Kray were Sutherlanders, or certainly thralls.
The 1980's saw the greatest surge in the House's growth. They infiltrated multiple layers of human society. Some threw themselves enthusiastically into the world of finance, building huge corporations to hide their activity. Others took advantage of growing subcultures, feeding on the disaffected and vulnerable.
As they are not a pure Bloodline, they are thought of as dirty blooded by the Council, and it is an insult that they demand a seat at the Council table. The Sutherlanders as a house are much more progressive in Vampiric terms, welcoming Lycans and Werewolves into their ranks. There is strong evidence to suggest that Daywalkers, those that can tolerate the sun, were born from Sutherlanders and the experiments that created them.
Leadership of the House is currently undetermined. The Sutherlanders are here to move the Council's attitudes forwards into the 21st Century and they despise the pomp and outdated traditions of the Council and Vampiric Courts.
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