Know your crypt: Etrius

In our "Know your crypt"-entries we will shed some light (not daylight though!) on the vampires of the game. It´s fun with some context around the cards we´re flipping around.

There are about 3 000 named vampires in the canonical World of Darkness lore, and many sources contradict. If you have corrections, additions or other feedback, please contact us.

As this site is Swedish, let´s start out with Etrius, one of few known Swedish vampires in the World of Darkness lore.

/Ashur


Etrius, the Loyal

Clan: Tremere
Generation: 4th (Explanation: Caine is 1st generation, the antediluvians are 3rd generation. Vampires generally considered 'methuselahs' are of generation 4 and 5.)
Embrace: No. Transformed in 1022 AD.
Sire: None, although he is the nominal childe of Tremere.
Haven: The Vienna chantry, Austria.
Childer: Mendacamina (E 1023), Lotharius (E 1030), Celestyn (E 1139), Filaereus, Anastasia, Astrid Thomas (E 1791), Peter Spizzo.

• Etrius was born 850 AD near what is now the city of Gothenburg in what is now Sweden. His father served Ansgar, the German bishop who made the first Christian mission to the area.

• The young and very pious Etrius was sent on a pilgrimage to Rome, but his party was attacked and Etrius was taken as slave. In Constantinople he was sold to someone who sensed his special talents for magic, a man called Tremere.

• Tremere was a mage and leader of House Tremere, one of the 12 great houses the Order of Hermes, a society of mortal mages in Europe during the Dark Ages. The headquarters of the house was at Ceoris, Transylvania, where Etrius was taken to learn the ways of magic.

• Etrius became Tremere´s favoured apprentice. His talents was only rivaled by those of his master and the mischievous Goratrix, who later turned traitor.

• Etrius was never Embraced. Instead he was one of eight mortal mages of House Tremere that sought power in undeath and in 1022 AD transformed themselves into vampires by means of magic. It was Etrius, Goratrix, Meerlinda, Calderon, three unnamed mages and Tremere himself. Etrius was opposing the transformation as all effects of it was not known, but followed his masters orders.

• Tremere made Etrius one of the seven members in the newly formed vampire clans Council of Seven, the top of the clans pyramidlike organization. Etrius is the councilor who oversees Eastern Europe.

• In 1133, Etrius was responsible for finding an Antediluvian for Tremere to diablerise. He found Saulot, who "died with a look of serenity that chilled Etrius to the bone." After this Tremere started to slip into torpor for long periods of time. "The reluctant vampire mage Etrius lives in fear of the future. Saulot know something none of the other vampires knew - something old, dark, wet and long buried. It frightened Etrius like nothing ever before".

•In 1189, Etrius is the Lord of Ceoris.

• Etrius wrote the "Veneficorum Artum Sanguis", literally 'The Art of Blood Sorcery', the definitive work on Hermetic Thaumaturgy.

• Etrius was originally of the 5th generation. He diablerised a 4th-generation Salubri called Mokur to reach 4th generation: ”The Tremere hunters who had captured him said the Salubri had not offered any resistance. He´d simply asked them to take him to his father.”

• “Etrius is a deep thinker, and he brings a formidably logical intellect to bear. Near any problem that confronts him becomes subject to a battery of intricate tests and feints to determine its roots and causes, after which Etrius methodically sets his subordinates to defusing it or turning it to his advantage.”

• Dieter Kleist of Clan Toreador is the blood bound chronicler of Etrius.

• Etrius appears to be in his mid 30´s. “Standing 5' 6'' tall and of average weight, Etrius has long, tawny blond hair and blue eyes. His face is slightly rounded. He prefers to wear the robes of a mage and never removes a golden chain with a blood-red stone set into a medallion given to him by Tremere when he first became a master magus.”

• In modern nights, Etrius watches over Tremere´s sleeping body in the Vienna chantry. “Etrius roams the havens of the Tremere on a slow burn, uneasy and afraid. His joy in learning, his questing curiosity, his passion for magic, and everything else that once motivated him has crumbled to ashes.
He still has nightmares of his act. The diablerie he helped Tremere commit haunts him like a specter. In the darkest hours of the night he succumbs to depression. concluding that he has crossed over an invisible line and can never cross back. Etrius suspects his act has unleashed something terrible at the heart of the vampire mystery. He doesn't know what. He doesn't know how. He just knows the look on Saulot's face, as if Saulot somehow invited the attack. As if the Antediluvian had attained Golconda and, from that mystical state of purity, willingly accepted Tremere into his soul.”

Statistics:
No statistics for Etrius has been published.

Sources:
“Clan book: Tremere” (WW 2057)
“Clan book Revised: Tremere” (WW 2357)
“Who's Who among Vampires: The Children of the Inquisition” (WW 2250)
“House of Tremere” (WW 2829)
”Transylvania Chronicles 1: Dark Tides Rising” (WW 2811)
“Transylvania Chronicles 2: Son of the Dragon” (WW 2812)
“Blood War” (WW 12400)
“Encyclopaedia Vampyrica” (WW 2440)

Note:
In these entries we will strive to not go deep into the metaplot of the World of Darkness. Things are preserved in a fuzzy, “frozen” state around 1996, before White Wolf decided that the metaplot should evolve drastically.