Giovanni (World of Darkness)

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The Giovanni is a fictional clan of vampires, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games. Unlike most vampires, the Giovanni are associated with neither the Camarilla nor the Sabbat; much of the Giovanni symbology is Italian, and the organization was founded in Venice (c.1000 AD). Their symbol is the Giovanni seal. Most of the Giovanni are related to one another by birth in addition to their shared vampiric lineage; a number of their families are incestuous and necrophiliac. Even when compared to other vampires, the bite of a Giovanni (the so-called "Giovanni Kiss") is especially dangerous and painful; however, many Giovanni prefer biting corpses (instead of humans).

The Giovanni clan was originally a branch of the Cappadocians, but they killed and usurped that elder clan's power.

1 Intro to Clan Giovanni
2 What is up with the clan’s head? What is he up to?
3 Giovanni Traitors and Necromancy
4 Major and Minor Families of the Giovanni
5 Dates of Importance to Giovanni
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Intro to Clan Giovanni

In summary, the Giovanni clan is an enigma. The only clan to have truly stood outside Kindred politics since its inception, Clan Giovanni has a reputation that causes most fellow kindred to avoid them at all costs. The clan’s taste for the morbid is something that even the stuffy Ventrue and the wild Brujah can agree is not natural. They are the only clan that knows the joy of life, the dark twilight of unlife and the bitter ashes of true death. Founded during the Dark Ages and coming to ascendance in the Renaissance, the Family of Giovanni has since grown to include several other families. They are now stronger than they have ever been, while all around them disintegrate into dust. Still, suspicion of this clan has continued to the present day. By staying neutral in quaint battles, the Giovanni have had free rein to build its merchant empire. Now the clan's wealth is undeniable, but no one knows the exact purpose for which it employs this wealth. Few outsiders have ever taken part in the clan's necromantic rituals, so the purpose of these is likewise a mystery. Instead, suspicions and innuendoes have taken the places of facts and truths. Clan Giovanni is one of the more rigidly controlled clans and contact is constantly maintained between members of the clan.

[edit] What is up with the clan’s head? What is he up to?

He oversaw the aftermath of the 6th maelstrom’s effects on Venice. As of now he has just returned from a long trip in the Shadowlands. He was last reported to be under Venice talking with other Elders of the Clan or has fallen into torpor for a year or so.

[edit] Giovanni Traitors and Necromancy

Why are there so few Giovanni "traitors", and why isnt Necromancy leaked to other clans? This comes down to the insular nature of the clan, and the family structure. It's written in some books that the Ventrue and Lasombra may spend as much as 10 years evaluating potential embraces, testing them along the way. The Tremere have a rigid apprenticeship where ghouls serve as acolytes for many ranks. That's nothing compared to how the Giovanni do it. The Giovanni embrace within Family lines. You're not picked out as a potential and watched for ten years. You’re bred into the Clan and taught from the time you can speak that your Family is everything. And, if you show the most promise of any in your generation, you might get ghouled. And only then, if you show enough promise as a ghoul might you get embraced. Potential Giovanni have many opportunities to betray the Family long before they're even ghouled.

Those who show signs of disloyalty are simply never embraced. Furthermore, even after the embrace, the traffic in wraiths and unwilling spirits is significant enough that should a Giovanni betray the Family, one of the wraiths they've been abusing would use the excuse to inform on them.

[edit] Major and Minor Families of the Giovanni

Giovanni: The main family. Formed by Augustus as a massive merchant family who made their mark on the world by being war profiteers from the Crusades. Being masters of necromancy certainly helped matters.

Pisanob: Descendants of Aztec and Mayan priests from Mesoamerica. Their power base lie in the badlands of Mexico and South America.

Hidalgo: Another branch of the family that originated within Mexico. Rumored to be wiped out by the Sabbat as contact with them has been broken

Rosselini: From a similar Roman decent as the Giovanni. Also accomplished necromancers who typically exert force even when force isn't necessary to control their wraithly servants. Considered near equal to the main family.

Milliners: A family of bankers bar none. The head of the Milliners has a hard on for destroying the JFKs. While not interested in necromancy, they excel at what they do best and that's finance. The Milliners are a big reason the Giovanni have Boston to this day.

della Passaglia: Another family of traders who were rumored to have been connected to the great Marco Polo himself. They now serve as the Giovanni connection to Asian thanotology and their prime asian mercantile business men.

Ghiberti: A branch of the family from Africa and responsible for involving the Giovanni in the United States, West Africa, and West Indies trade triangle. Also responsible for inventing the Cenotaph path of necromancy.

Dunsirn: A Scottish branch of the Giovanni. Savvy bankers with a nasty taste for cannabalism.

Putanesca: Sicilian thugs with a temper that puts the Brujah to shame. Every clan has to have their guys to do the dirty work, and the Giovanni have the Putanesca

St John: Cabal of English Masons

Beryn: Flemish traders with inroads into Africa similar to the Ghiberti

Rothstein: Jewish-American Kabbalists who seem to be centered in Las Vegas

Li Weng: Chinese geomancers based out of San Francisco's Chinatown

Koenig: These German death cultists may have never come to the attention of the Giovanni had it not been for World War II when the Giovanni saw an entire nation rise up under a dark leader. His band of cultists had the sickest and most twisted ideas of death that the Family had seen since the induction of the Rosselini. They are also German arms manufacturers. I wouldn't try putting a Koenig and a Rothstein in the same room, it normally resolves in the death of both parties!

[edit] Dates of Importance to Giovanni

April 4th – Major date for the Giovanni family, when almost all embraces are performed. Clan Giovanni also celebrate the diablerie of Cappadocius on this date.
All Saints day – 2nd most important embrace day.
June 27th – Important to the South American members of the Clan.
September 15th – Important to Machiavelli for reasons unclear (Rumored to have been the day they were brought into the Family fold).