An Overview of the Giovanni
"Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever."
--Michael Corleone, The Godfather
Description
For thousands of years the thirteen major clans existed, and their lineup was unchanging. Then, the Tremere overcame the Salubri and essentially stole a place in the realm of the Kindred. It was only a matter of time before such a thing happened again, and it is because of such a violent coup that the Giovanni came to power. Once upon a time, the Giovanni family was a mortal cult interested in death magic. Clan Cappadocian was known as the Clan of Death because of their fascination with and study of death in all its forms. When the clan's Antediluvian, Cappadocius, heard of the Giovanni, he became interested in what they might be able to teach his clan. Thus, Cappadocius chose Augustus Giovanni to be his childe, though several key Cappadocians disagreed. Perhaps the Antediluvian was blinded by the promise of new knowledge and didn't see the threat that Augustus would become.
For several hundred years Augustus learned, planned, and spread the blood of Caine to members of his family. The Giovanni learned how to manipulate spirits so that when the time was right, they had ghostly messengers to tell them where all of the Cappadocians laired. The Giovanni then began to hunt their parent line and the Lamia, a bloodline that also came from the Cappadocians. They worked through mortal and ghoul servants, and no doubt made bargains when it was required; with their great wealth and network of ghostly informants, the Giovanni had a lot to bargain with. What became known in Kindred history as the Giovanni purge was startlingly successful, with the effective eradication of the Cappadocians and the Lamia. By the end of it, Augustus Giovanni had diablerized his sire and diablerized Lamia for good measure.
At some point, the Giovanni developed their own clan weakness and clan disciplines apart from the Cappadocians. No one knows exactly when or why this happened. It didn't happen overnight but it didn't take long; some accounts say that the changes were in place 100 years after Augustus' Embrace. From the beginning, however, the Giovanni have kept everything within the family. From the Middle Ages into the modern nights, the Giovanni have operated in the same manner: Those who show the most promise serve the family as ghouls for years and only some of those are Embraced. Most of the family is allowed to live without vampire blood so that they can do business during the day and breed more generations of Giovanni. The difference is that quite a few mortal Giovanni know about the family's vampirism - and most of them aren't phased by it at all. If anything, the mortals get excited.
Allegiances
The Giovanni have always been one of the most insular clans; while they have dealings with others, they do not serve any sect. If anything, the Giovanni are a little too tightly knit: many of them are twisted and incestuous as mortals, and this only gets worse after the Embrace. It is also quite difficult to get away from the family once you're of any importance in it; for all intents and purposes, the Giovanni are also a mob family. Once you know too much, the family will never let you go. Even death doesn't guarantee an escape from the Giovanni, since they can summon and manipulate the spirits of the dead. Most of the other clans believe that the Giovanni are just filthy rich crime bosses with interests in material power. What they don't know is that the Giovanni have much larger designs in mind that deal with the spirit world and their eventual place in it.
Founde
As far as anyone knows, Augustus Giovanni is the most recent person to become third generation; as such, Augustus is one of the more active members of his generation and probably more in tune with the modern world than the others. He has periods that he spends in torpor and these periods of time have been growing steadily longer, but he is still awake and in contact with his clan a good deal. He is sometimes called "Uncle Augie" in whispers by irreverent younger Giovanni, but he is really more of a father figure to the family, guiding the larger efforts of the clan. He is also something of a feared disciplinarian, because if you mess up big enough he will hear of it, and then you will become an example of why you don't fuck with Augustus Giovanni, in this life or the next.
Weakness
When a Giovanni bites a living being, they deal more damage than normal. This makes it difficult to keep people alive after feeding from them. In the modern nights, the Giovanni tend to have clandestine deals with blood banks and many feed from the newly dead to avoid this nasty inconvenience.
Disciplines
Dominate, Necromancy, Potence
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