By the modern age, they had become known well enough that any court would dread the arrival of a Ravnos, but they would never be barred from a city for fear of bringing down a horde of vengeful Deceivers.

Obviously, the charlatanry of the Ravnos grates on the other clans, yet none have bothered to move against the Deceivers. Perhaps it’s because Ravnos solidarity ensures that any aggressor would suffer an excruciatingly annoying demise, or maybe it’s just because

the Ravnos aren’t worth the time. For their part, the Ravnos seem to espouse a philosophy that places most Cainites somewhere

below invertebrates on the karmic scale — to the Ravnos, the undead are without purpose in the greater scheme of things, and

they must be taught properly (by tearing the veils of illusionfrom their eyes through lies, subterfuge and thievery) or destroyed.

It is for this reason that the Ravnos spread discord in their wake: They hope that an enlightened few will awaken to their true purpose

as heralds of change, while others may be slain and reincarnated into new roles. During their heyday, the Ravnos most often brought in new recruits from the Gypsy families, mostly male. The diluting blood and customs of the modern age brought in a few more worldly recruits, and now that the Ravnos are scattered and few, they take potential childer where they can get them. Just about anyone with a keen wit can qualify for entry into the clan. Once regarded as buffoons, the Ravnos are now deadly serious. It seems that they may be the first casualties of an impending Gehenna.

 

Roleplaying Hints:

It’s not only the power of the illusions that you craft, but the voices that bubble in your blood. You are one of the few survivors of a world

gone mad. Svadharma has taken hold of the Ravnos as a whole and spun them about, slaying many and leaving only a few to balance the wheel of karma. The world continues on a terrifying course to destruction, and there is no time left to save it. Perhaps all you can do now is survive, playing off greater forces while you hide and see what madness strikes next.

 

 

Disciplines:

 

Animalism, Chimerstry, Fortitude

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advantage:

The Ravnos tricksters, even those not of Romani blood, are expected to be chaotic whirlwinds of deception. Those who fall into their labyrinthine plots often blame themselves for their stupidity, and they would be too embarrassed to admit to their foolishness in any case. Thus, Ravnos can often get away with cons and deceptions that would land other Cainites in a great deal of trouble. Since they all tend to practice various vices and move from city to city, all Ravnos gain one level of Streetwise Ability for free. They also have a level of Street

Influence or Transportation Influence.

 

Disadvantage:

Perhaps trickery runs in the blood, or maybe the Ravnos truly are harbingers of some greater chaos. Whatever the cause, all Ravnos suffer from a particular weakness for their own favored con games, scams and crimes. Each Ravnos has a particular “signature crime”; once each game session, the Ravnos must make an attempt to indulge in the particular vice, unless a test of Self-Control/ Instinct (difficulty of three Traits) can be made, with the usual risks for failed Virtue Tests.

 

Bloodlines:

The Ravnos hail from several families of Gypsy stock. Different sorts of Ravnos thus have different capabilities. A Phuri Dae Ravnos learns Auspex instead of Fortitude; the Urmen learn Chimerstry more than any other Discipline, and the Vritra and Kalderash remain in India and the East, where they supposedly deal with the Cathayans. A few younger Ravnos — mostly gorgio — are found as antitribu in the Sabbat, but they are functionally similar to their independent cousins.

 

History:

Noddists say that in Enoch, Irad embraced a thief named Dracian, to spy on the Third Generation. Dracian immediately betrayed his sire to the other Antediluvians, leading to the end of the Second Generation.

However, the Ravnos claim a richer prehistory, recorded in the Karavalanisha Vrana, The Wounds of the Night's Sword. This epic poem details how angelic beings (probably Kuei-Jin) betrayed their original purpose and became blood-drinking demons; to balance them out, the Gods brought back to live a man who had been wronged more by these asuratziyya more than any other. This creature, named Zapathasura was charged by the Gods to exterminate the asuratziyya and restore balance to the world.

In his quest for vengeance, Zapathasura embraced five childer: Marizhavashti Kali, a seer; theRakshasa, a shapeshifter; Chandraputra, a military leader; Ravana, who betrayed Zapathasura and may be the Yama King of the same name; and Ramessu, who served as an internal policeman for Zapathasura's war. These five Methuselahs are the ancestors of all other Ravnos. They served Zapathasura for centuries in prehistoric India until the wearied of their sire's endless war and slaughter, abandoning him to his own devices as time passed. Ravnos eventually fell into torporand the clan restructured.

The majority of the elders left India for the west, while Chandraputra remained in the subcontinent and reordered the clan along a more caste-oriented society. This culture faced two invasions around the time of Alexander the Great - western vampires following the conqueror, and Kuei-Jin on a crusade from China. At this time, Ravnos society diverged. The Ravnos heading towards the west began to deviate from the philosophy of Zapathasura, eventually creating what would become known as the Path of Paradox. Meanwhile, the Indian Ravnos split into castes in a fashion similar to the Assamites, with multiple Jati fulfilling different roles in the war against the Wan Kuei.

Dark Ages

Ravnos society in the Dark Ages was influenced by two phenomena: the continuing degeneration of western Ravnos from the Path of Paradox, and the influx of Indian Ravnos following the Rroma.

The Path of Paradox is a degenerate form of the Mayaparisatya, the classic path as followed in India. Sybaritic Roman Ravnos changed the path into a license for self interest and wanton diableries without following the original tenets. This form eventually became the standard path of the western clan, while the eastern path remained in India. The path of paradox and the associated culture of the clan led to the low reputation that the Ravnos had throughout Europe.

Meanwhile, unknown to the other clans, Ravnos arrived with the Rroma; these Ravnos were chandalas, almost the Ravnos equivalent of Caitiff, but still felt superior to their mongrel cousins. The cultural interchange (with knives) that followed led to a predominance of eastern Ravnos in the western clan. As time passed, the Rroma Ravnos became the stereotypical Ravnos in the minds of western Kindred, and the Path of Paradox became the standard path for western Ravnos.

By the 15th century, western Ravnos were stereotypically seen as Gypsies, degenerate and vermin.

Victorian Age:

During this period, the Camarilla learned that not all Ravnos were Gypsies and that they were a formidable force in India.

This discovery, of course, changed nothing in the way Western Ravnos were treated and seen in Camarilla society. Contributing to this, many Ravnos saw the harsh and strict Victorian taboos and rules as obstacles and constantly attcked and overstepped them in order to further destabilize the establishment. Many also used the blossoming interest in occultism and mysticism in order to trick and fool otherKindred and mortals alike with "long-forgotten secrets" and therelike.

Final Nights:

For the Ravnos, the Final Nights were just that. The entire history of the clan pivots around theWeek of Nightmares.

In the 1990s, the cold war between the Kuei Jin of the Infinite Thunders Court and the Ravnos of India heated up. The Ravnos eventually took a page from the Sabbat playbook and began mass-Embracing candidates, sending armies of neonates to be slaughtered by the Wan Kuei. The psychic backlash from these deaths reverberated up the lineages of the Ravnos, eventually waking Methuselahs who joined the fight, only to result in the eventual awakening of Zapathasura himself in 1999.

Zapathasura broke his fast on his own clan, then proceeded to attack everything in sight, including most of Bangladesh. His exact motivations were never clear, because by the time the dust settled, three Bodhisattvas, several packs of Garou, uncounted mortals and an awful lot of Technocracyammunition had barely been able to stop the Antediluvian. With his dying curse, Zapathasura set off a psychic bomb within his own clan, resulting in the Ravnos devouring each other in a cannibalistic frenzy.

Most outsiders were aware only that the Ravnos spontaneously developed incredible powers ofChimerstry for about a week, then proceeded to attack and devour each other. By the time the Week of Nightmares ended, there were perhaps 100 Ravnos still this side of Final Death, and none of them (except Durga Syn) was of significant Generation or power.  With their ranks significantly depleted and weakened, the surviving Ravnos of India sought shelter by other indian Kindred in order to avoid what would have otherwise been the finishing blow from their Bijali enemies of the Infinite Thunders Court. 

 

Organization:

Before the Week of Nightmares, the Ravnos were broken into western and eastern divisions. Western Ravnos are largely individuals without larger clan loyalties outside of perhaps tribal (and Rroma loyalties).

Eastern Ravnos have their own caste system, developed from the lineages that descended from Zapathasura. These jati are effectively bloodlines with the clan:

• The priests of the Indian Ravnos were the Brahmin, who maintain mayaparisatya and advise the other castes. The Brahmin replace Fortitude with Auspex, and many learn Sadhana. The Western cousins of this caste, the Phuri Dae, are treated as a distinct bloodline due to their variant clan Disciplines. Clanbook: Ravnos Revised erroneously names this caste as "Brahman".

• The Kshatriya were the military leaders of the Ravnos and ran the war against the asuratizayya.

• Vaisyas maintained the equivalent of a Masquerade in India and also managed mortal resources. The Vaisyas were effectively a military manager caste.

• Chandalas were the Ravnos equivalent of Caitiff; and Caitiff in India were automatically classified as Chandalas. Demotion to Chandala status was a common punishment for heresy.

These jati are directly related to the jati of Hindu society, with the equivalent of the Shudra caste being ghouls.

Since the Week of Nightmares, the Ravnos don't have a clan organization.

 

Cultures:

Western Ravnos, historically connected with the oppressed Rroma, maintained a strong sense of clan solidarity for a very long time. The most common manifestation of this solidarity was through a form of retaliation called "The Treatment". The Treatment was a vengeance attack where a mistreated Ravnos would contact fellows in the clan, who would then swarm upon the city where the original Ravnos was victimized. In general, a dozen Ravnos running amok could bring even the most experienced Prince to the brink, and well-placed exaggerations about the impact of the Treatment was the main weapon the Ravnos used to squeeze out what place they did have in Western society.

Past that, Ravnos culture was dominated by its religious role; the greatest division between Indian and Western Ravnos being the differences between mayapisatya and the Path of Paradox. In 1998, Ravnos elders began to "educate" (with knives) their heretical cousins, setting the clan back on the straight and narrow.

In India, the Ravnos dominated the continent, probably the largest concentration of a single clan in one country. In several ways, the Ravnos paralleled the Assamites - both clans had a caste system invisible to outsiders, and both clans were defined by a military role.

 

Ravnos Antitribu

The Ravnos antitribu is possibly the least 'anti' as antitribu goes. They, too, revel in trickery and deceit. They too want to wander as they please, often joining nomadic packs. Sect notwithstanding, the Ravnos antitribu have a traditional code of conduct for dealing with their clanmates. This code may be difficult for those outside the clan to follow, but nonetheless, a Ravnos' word to his pack is the law. They follow the "spit and shake" rule of all Ravnos on verbal agreements, but the Rogues take this one step further. If a Sabbat member wants an agreement in writing, it will be signed in blood, the pen dipped in an open wound on the Ravnos' own arm. This binding in blood is as strong as the Vaulderie to the Sabbat Ravnos, and it can be broken only by Final Death. Violating the code costs the perpetrator a considerable loss of face with other Ravnos, which has been adopted by the sect at large. Few Sabbat Ravnos feel comfortable giving this guarantee to Sabbat members outside their clan, and most do get quite indignant should the other party suggest it.

In the Final Nights, the antitribu suffered the least of all branches of the clan, as many traveled in packs with various members of other Clans and could be put down by their packmates until their apocalyptic rages had died down.