Ventrue

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The Ventrue are a fictional clan of vampires, associated with the Camarilla, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages, and Vampire: The Requiem books and role-playing games. Their symbol is a scepter.

Jan Pieterzoon as portrayed on the cover illustration for Clanbook: Ventrue

The Ventrue are the rulers, leaders and politicos of the Camarilla, sometimes known as the Patrician Clan or the Kingship Clan. In Ancient Rome, they were generals and warlords of the Empire, and in the Dark Ages, they were knights and barons, leading crusades and conquests. In modern times the Ventrue still have great ambition and see themselves as conquerors, but their ways have changed, using courts and companies instead of feifdoms and mighty armies. Targets for Embrace by the Ventrue have always been people in positions of power, whether these people were aristocracy or company CEOs. The Ventrue perceive themselves as the most powerful of the vampiric clans thanks to their wealth, social influence, and powers over the thoughts and feelings of mortals. The clan as a whole is typified as conservative, be it in actions or customs. The Ventrue have their own nigh-inviolable code of etiquette. The clan's Elders have been known to punish violations of these unwritten rules with greater ferocity and resolve than the Traditions of the Camarilla.

The Ventrue claim that ruling vampires is their duty, their burden, a task which is interlocked with their fate, given by Caine (World of Darkness) himself (if he ever existed). The reality is that excessive pride and ambition seem a more convenient explanation as to why they strive to expand their already vast influence and assert themselves over other Kidnred. They tend to be politicians, businessmen, military officers, crime lords, important members of powerful religions, sects and cults.

In response to what they perceive as a degeneration of the clan from its noble roots, a smaller segment of the clan has forsworn their ties to the Camarilla to join the Sabbat as antitribu. They believe that greed has led the body of the clan astray from its previous glory, so their quest is for righteous military and tyrannical power over other Kindred to reestablish what they believe to be the proper order. The Camarilla Ventrue casually dismiss their antitrubu cousins as idealists doomed to failure. Both Ventrue and Ventrue antitribu refer to themselsves as the sole "true" heirs of the name.

In comparison to the other vampiric clans, the Ventrue are considered to be especially particular about whose blood they drink. In fact, any given Ventrue can only drink blood from a specific kind of mortal, or from mortals under a specific sort of circumstance. Some may only prey upon a given ethnicity, while others can only feed from humans of a certain occupation or even religion. Some Ventrue can only find nourishment from blood that carries a more rarified quality such as anger, fear or innocence. Regardless of the sort of blood the Ventrue requires, other blood is regurgitated or simply cannot be swallowed. They may feed from other Kindred with no such restriction. Ventrue prefer to view this flaw as a matter of refined tastes. Of course, with the power (both supernatural and temporal) most Ventrue possess, few go hungry.