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Invictus

Page history last edited by Francesco 6 mos ago

There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.

-Cyrus Curtis

OUT of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

-William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903

Where there are Kindred, there is a Society. And where there is a Society, there must be someone who rules. And as far as the Invictus, the Unconquered, are concerned, that someone is them.

From the outside, the Invictus may look quaint. Old. Outdated. What place can there be for feudal covenant, one that holds to the traditions of the First Estate, in the modern nights? In a world becoming more and more diverse, more and more casual, what place is there for the rigid traditions and rules of order that exist within the Invictus? It is very easy for a young Kindred, new to the ways of the Damned, to dismiss or mock such archaic ways.

Until that young Kindred finds themselves locked out of mortal institutions, or finds their every movement reported to an Invictus Lord who seems to never leave his estate. Until they realize that there isn’t a mortal, from the gangbanger hanging on the street to the lofty corporate executive, who can’t be reached or influenced by the First Estate. And that there are webs that the Invictus have woven into every part of Society, webs that anyone can be caught up in without realizing it.

Influence is something that the Invictus wield like a finely tuned instrument. There are politicians whose reelection campaign must be financed, dirty cops who need to stay on the force until they can access their pension, and young MBAs who want to move further up the corporate ladder. There are Masquerade threats that need to be quietly covered up, havens that need to be kept safe, favors that need to be done.

No, those who are on the outside eventually come to realize how it is that so many Princes, Seneschals, and so many other respected members of Kindred society come from the Invictus. They can curse it, resent it, or fight against it. But the First Estate shows no sign of letting go of what it has spent so long building.

In Chicago, the name most associated with the Invictus for many years was Harrison Whyte. He claimed the title of Primus shortly after the Great Fire, and was an effective leader for the Covenant for decades. For years he worked to keep James Milligan and the Carthians in check – not able to rival them for power, perhaps, but still carving out a place for the Invictus in a city that one does not necessarily associate with Invictus ways or ideals.

When Whyte disappeared, assumed dead, in 2003, the mantle of Primus of the Invictus and Regent of the Northwest passed to Featherby.Slowly the binds that Whyte used to keep the covenant strong and unified began to fray. By 2006 Josephine Honore took the central leadership role in the Covenant, and six months latter passed it to Mercurio Mendoza. Rumors spread of intense infighting within the Invictus, even attempts at assassination, until Featherby’s passing in 2007.

While many pointed to the chaos that seemed to disrupt the usual order of the Invictus after Whyte passed, there are little that doubt that, eventually, the old rule managed to assert itself with a vengeance. Chicago saw its first Invictus Prince Ed X. Edison, as Josephine Honore claimed the prized Northern Regency. Edison's reign was frought with scandal, and yet, when the dust cleared, it was Josephine Honore who challenged James Milligan for the Praxis, and won. And she did it with the support of prominant Carthians in the city.

It is a lesson, perhaps, in the real strength of the Covenant – whenever they are assumed to be at their weakest, they seem to rebound with an amazing tenacity. Just when one thinks they have the Invictus beaten, one of the strings on that web gets pulled, and everything changes.

This is the First Estate. This is the Unconquered. This is the Invictus.