The Heresy: An Alternate Cosmology for Vampire: the Masquerade
The Catholic Church -- from which all other Christian traditions have developed -- took several hundred years to formulate its mission and theology, and to organize itself. Although the Kindred have pressed their influence on the Church, it is still an essentially human, mortal, institution: the Kindred have developed their own traditions and insitutions in its shadow.
"Why seek thee the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen." :: Luke 24: 5-6
The Clans and Their Founding Disciples
Ventrue. Progenitor: Simon the Zealot, whose zealotry was inherited by his childer; although the traditional first Pope was of Clan Brujah, the Ventrue and their rivals the Lasombra have exerted the most control over the Church since.
Gangrel. Progenitor: Matthew (the tax collector, ironically; some Kindred see the Gangrel's present state as punishment for their progenitor's mortal life.)
Salubri (later Tremere). Progenitor: Bartholomew, who inherited his Master's ability to work miracles, and passed the potential for thaumaturgy and other blood magics on to his childer.
Cappadocian (later Giovanni). Progenitor: unknown. They claim descent from a thirteenth disciple whose name was stricken from the Scriptural record by a Brujah-controlled Church. In the Dark Ages, before contact was re-established with the Assamites, many believed they were the childer of Judas.
Toreador. Progenitor: Philip.
Malkavian. Progenitor: John, author of the Revelation, which is clearly the first sign of the madness he would pass on to his childer. Brother of James the Greater. Those who would dismiss the Malkavians as insane children would do well to remember Jesus's nickname for John: "Son of Thunder."
Brujah. Peter. "Brujah," despite its similarities to the Spanish word "bruja" (witch), is actually a corruption of "Bar-Jona" (son of John) -- as in Simon Bar-Jona, Peter's name before Jesus appointed him the Rock.
Lasombra. Thomas, the doubter, cursed by Jesus to doubt even his own reflection. The Lasombra prefer to emphasize the traditions, which have gained support in recent scholarship, which hold that Thomas was Jesus's twin brother.
Tzimisce. Andrew, brother of Peter. A dutiful servant of his brother in public, he studied Vicissitude in private, seeking to understand and exert control over the legacy of flesh left him by his master.
Setites. Thaddeus. Also called Leddaeus and Judas, after Jesus's death, Thaddeus was sent to Syria, Arabia, and Mesopotamia, which may explain his childer's odd renaming of him after an Egyptian deity.
Ravnos. James the Lesser, whose children were scattered across Europe and the Near East after the fall of the Roman
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