Circle of the Crone
We are the muses of le nouveau-nouveau. Montreal will take its last breath when we say so.The official "Mother's Army" was formed sometime two hundred years ago in Ireland and Scotland and spread like an infectious plague into Europe and then across the world. The Acolytes of Montreal have no link to them. They were here before and survived when the Europeans came with there gold and false promises. They fought fang and claw against muskets and blades. They Joined Montreal's Dusk to Dawn Affair, grew and evolved with the city around them. They claim the name of Circle of the Crone, only because the modernist Kindred names them as such. They are monsters and beloved.-Patricia Desmontagnes, Hierophant of the Circle of the Crone
Structure
The first argument for anyone wanting to join the Acolytes: There is no organization or structure. There are stronger Acolytes, wiser Acolytes, affluent Acolytes. But no one is really in charge. At least not on the surface.
The guiding hand of the Circle of the Crone is Les Nymphes du Mont. Those part of the Chorus, the lower ranks of the Circle, believe Les Nymphes to be a legend. The Hierophants, acting high priests and spiritual guides of the Acolytes, know better. The composition of Les Nymphes has changed depending on the needs of the Circle during a certain era or time. They have been as little as three and as many as eight. Each with a designated role and each said to be awakened by the Crone herself.
Beyond that, each Acolyte answers to themselves and their Coterie. Coteries formed of purely Circle of the Crone members are known in Montreal as Charites and are of no more than 3 members.
The guiding hand of the Circle of the Crone is Les Nymphes du Mont. Those part of the Chorus, the lower ranks of the Circle, believe Les Nymphes to be a legend. The Hierophants, acting high priests and spiritual guides of the Acolytes, know better. The composition of Les Nymphes has changed depending on the needs of the Circle during a certain era or time. They have been as little as three and as many as eight. Each with a designated role and each said to be awakened by the Crone herself.
Beyond that, each Acolyte answers to themselves and their Coterie. Coteries formed of purely Circle of the Crone members are known in Montreal as Charites and are of no more than 3 members.
Culture
The Circle can be experienced in two ways: personally and communally.
On a personal level, being an Acolyte is an excessive existence. After all you are a monster, you know it and the world around you knows it. So why not dive deep and explore every part of what that means? Some Hierophants have been able to present paths to those of the Chorus in an attempt to aid them in their discovery of what they and who the Blood Gods are. The most common paths are Physical Exertion, Battle, Sex, Construction, Hunting, Frenzy and Torpor. Acolytes will often throw themselves into one or multiple paths to reach the state they call: Ecstasy.
In the Circle community, the existence becomes Mythological. To be in tune with the Spirits and Gods around them, Senior Acolytes will join together and live out the season as a group. Summer is for The Hunt, Fall for The Feast, Winter for The Sleep and Spring for New Life. The Hunt is when the Circle is at its most aggressive as every interaction can and often is considered part of a hunt in honor of the Spirits and Gods they seek to please. The Feast is most dangerous to humans as this is when the Circle feasts beyond their nightly needs. The Sleep is the period in which certain members of the covenant will volunteer or be chosen for Torpor. Finally, New Life is when members are awakened from Torpor or when the Circle chooses to embrace those it has selected to share its state with.
On a personal level, being an Acolyte is an excessive existence. After all you are a monster, you know it and the world around you knows it. So why not dive deep and explore every part of what that means? Some Hierophants have been able to present paths to those of the Chorus in an attempt to aid them in their discovery of what they and who the Blood Gods are. The most common paths are Physical Exertion, Battle, Sex, Construction, Hunting, Frenzy and Torpor. Acolytes will often throw themselves into one or multiple paths to reach the state they call: Ecstasy.
In the Circle community, the existence becomes Mythological. To be in tune with the Spirits and Gods around them, Senior Acolytes will join together and live out the season as a group. Summer is for The Hunt, Fall for The Feast, Winter for The Sleep and Spring for New Life. The Hunt is when the Circle is at its most aggressive as every interaction can and often is considered part of a hunt in honor of the Spirits and Gods they seek to please. The Feast is most dangerous to humans as this is when the Circle feasts beyond their nightly needs. The Sleep is the period in which certain members of the covenant will volunteer or be chosen for Torpor. Finally, New Life is when members are awakened from Torpor or when the Circle chooses to embrace those it has selected to share its state with.
Public Agenda
As the Circle got the party started during the Quiet Revolution, they intend to keep it going. Every Charite exists purely with the intent of inspiring grace, beauty, adornment, joy, mirth, festivity, dance and song. These Coteries take hold of entire neighborhoods and target the most beautiful, or the most talented or any they deem to have sufficient joie de vivre and through them inspire the City of Festivals to rise to its namesake.
Assets
Themselves, Spirits, Gods and Cruac Blood Sorcery. As far as the Circle of the Crone is concerned, they don't need or want anything else.
History
As long as there have been humans around the Saint-Lawrence River, there have been pagan Kindred. It wasn't until the Europeans arrived that those Kindred decided to unite so that their ways and culture would survive. Faced with superior technology, the young Circle of the Crone resisted the fascism of the First and Second Estate through the sheer numbers of their servants as well as the raw power of their elders.
The Acolytes could have pushed the offensive but these Kindred from far away lands were bringing ships full of new Kine with them and the Acolytes were hungry. In 1754 the open hostilities ended between the two sides and the Circle of the Crone was included into Montreal's young Court. Accepting this invitation would cripple the Circle for nearly 200 years. Some of the Elders of the covenant claim that joining the Court may have provided them with a much needed meal ticket, but it caused many of their servants to leave, disappear and die, and it would displease the Spirits and Gods they had served for time immemorial. Robbed of what made them powerful, the Acolytes would be fending off the zealots of the Second Estate every night, vowing revenge.
With the arrival of the Carthians however, the Circle found itself a partner with whom it could join up and disrupt the status quo and so it began building up its own connections and resources to mount up an offense the likes of which the Invictus and Lancea et Sanctum had ever seen. By the early 1900s, the Acolytes had reconnected with some of the Spirits of the area, mainly feast Spirits, and so would seek to strengthen this renewed relationship and strengthen their alliance with the Carthians by assisting them during the United States Prohibition period.
Killing two birds with one stone, gave them the power and the resources to begin the Quiet Revolution. When 1967 came to a close Montreal would never be the same and the Circle's star would be on the rise as Kindred around the city now finally had 4 covenants to chose from.
As the Invictus saw the Quiet Revolution as a Carthian plot, they had no ill will towards the Acolytes and even welcomed their assistance with acquiring the Grand Prix in 1978 and opening the Jazz Festival in 1980. To the Circle this was an ends to a means: pleasing the Feast Spirits they worshiped and requested power from. Both yearly events would attract millions of tourists to the city for decades to follow. Tourists who would bring with them drugs, prostitution and a vile need to party. A need the Circle knew too well and would happily indulge.
Shifting into the 21st Century, the Circle of the Crone continue to harass and hope to be rid of the Lancea et Sanctum, after which they may turn their attentions to the teetering throne or maybe to an ecstasy filled existence for all eternity.
The Acolytes could have pushed the offensive but these Kindred from far away lands were bringing ships full of new Kine with them and the Acolytes were hungry. In 1754 the open hostilities ended between the two sides and the Circle of the Crone was included into Montreal's young Court. Accepting this invitation would cripple the Circle for nearly 200 years. Some of the Elders of the covenant claim that joining the Court may have provided them with a much needed meal ticket, but it caused many of their servants to leave, disappear and die, and it would displease the Spirits and Gods they had served for time immemorial. Robbed of what made them powerful, the Acolytes would be fending off the zealots of the Second Estate every night, vowing revenge.
With the arrival of the Carthians however, the Circle found itself a partner with whom it could join up and disrupt the status quo and so it began building up its own connections and resources to mount up an offense the likes of which the Invictus and Lancea et Sanctum had ever seen. By the early 1900s, the Acolytes had reconnected with some of the Spirits of the area, mainly feast Spirits, and so would seek to strengthen this renewed relationship and strengthen their alliance with the Carthians by assisting them during the United States Prohibition period.
Killing two birds with one stone, gave them the power and the resources to begin the Quiet Revolution. When 1967 came to a close Montreal would never be the same and the Circle's star would be on the rise as Kindred around the city now finally had 4 covenants to chose from.
As the Invictus saw the Quiet Revolution as a Carthian plot, they had no ill will towards the Acolytes and even welcomed their assistance with acquiring the Grand Prix in 1978 and opening the Jazz Festival in 1980. To the Circle this was an ends to a means: pleasing the Feast Spirits they worshiped and requested power from. Both yearly events would attract millions of tourists to the city for decades to follow. Tourists who would bring with them drugs, prostitution and a vile need to party. A need the Circle knew too well and would happily indulge.
Shifting into the 21st Century, the Circle of the Crone continue to harass and hope to be rid of the Lancea et Sanctum, after which they may turn their attentions to the teetering throne or maybe to an ecstasy filled existence for all eternity.
Territories
The Circle of the Crone lay claim to the following districts in the Greater Montreal Metropolitan area:
- Mont-Royal(Montreal)
- Outremont(Montreal)
- Plateau-Mont-Royal(Montreal)
- Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie(Montreal)
- Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension(Montreal)[Contested]
- Kahnawake(South Shore)
- Chateaugay(South Shore)
- Sainte-Catherine-Saint-Constant(South Shore)
- La Prairie(South Shore)
- Chomedey(Laval)[Contested]
- Laval-Ouest(Laval)
- Fabreville(Laval)
- Auteuil(Laval)
- Vimont(Laval)
- Saint-Eustache(North Shore)
- Deux-Montagnes(North Shore)
- Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac(North Shore)
- Pointe Calumet(North Shore)
- Oka(North Shore)
- Saint-Joseph-du-Lac(North Shore)
Divine Origins
In 1893 the Montreal Hockey Club won the first ever Stanley Cup. In 1896 motion pictures are shown in Canada for the first time. the emotions of these two monumental events were felt on the island of Montreal but also across the veil between our world and the spirit world. A coterie took notice of these events and began to perform rituals their long dead sires taught them.
Soon after, many Acolytes were able to commune and sacrifice to these hungry spirits. Events were created and although they started small, the Circle of the Crone was able to witness Cruac Blood Sorcery for the first time in over a century. The covenant banded together in their efforts to build relationships with these spirits and give birth to many other Blood Gods and Spirits who could feed off of festivals and festivity.
Cosmological Views
To the Acolytes, the world is felt and experienced. Every experience reveals an answer and poses more questions of how to live. It is through this lens that the Crones view the world and are thus inspired to hunt after and be the catalysts of human and kindred ecstasy.
Worship
The Acolytes of Montreal have no predetermined method of worship, but anyone part of the Chorus in the City of Festivals knows that true power and purposed existence comes through communion with the Blood Gods and Spirits of festivity that inhabit and island and the surrounding areas.
This communion has been achieved through elevated artistic expression, blood drawing combat, euphoric orgy, etc. So each Acolyte will nightly collect small experiences, like a builder collects blocks and stones, to be able to someday build there Sixteenth Chapel of ecstasy.
This communion has been achieved through elevated artistic expression, blood drawing combat, euphoric orgy, etc. So each Acolyte will nightly collect small experiences, like a builder collects blocks and stones, to be able to someday build there Sixteenth Chapel of ecstasy.
Sects
Two sects have formed during the Circle of the Crones rise in the last few decades: La Bourgeoisie
and Liber of the Main.
La Bourgeoisie
Those of this sect tend more towards the artistic and expressionists of the covenant. The musicians, actors, painters, dancers, poets, writers, singers, models and exhibitionists. They are Acolytes who prefer worship through art and expression. They pride themselves on being on the edge of the next "big thing". They want to know "it" and experience "it"; they want to own "it" before anyone else does. La Bourgeoisie are frequently found in Plateau Mont-Royal, often inhabiting the various restaurants and shops on and around Avenue Mont-Royal.
Liber of the Main
The Liber of the Main is a page less book of records, events and experiences that have happened on Montreal's Main Streets: St-Denis, St-Laurent and the infamous Ste-Catherine. These tales are stored and kept with the kindred who associate to this sect. They have been shared with others through oral tradition or reliving. Those of the Liber are the front runners of festivity and social experience. They seek the next party, festival or tradition in the hopes that it brings them to a truer communion with the local Blood Gods and Spirits .
Those of this sect tend more towards the artistic and expressionists of the covenant. The musicians, actors, painters, dancers, poets, writers, singers, models and exhibitionists. They are Acolytes who prefer worship through art and expression. They pride themselves on being on the edge of the next "big thing". They want to know "it" and experience "it"; they want to own "it" before anyone else does. La Bourgeoisie are frequently found in Plateau Mont-Royal, often inhabiting the various restaurants and shops on and around Avenue Mont-Royal.
Liber of the Main
The Liber of the Main is a page less book of records, events and experiences that have happened on Montreal's Main Streets: St-Denis, St-Laurent and the infamous Ste-Catherine. These tales are stored and kept with the kindred who associate to this sect. They have been shared with others through oral tradition or reliving. Those of the Liber are the front runners of festivity and social experience. They seek the next party, festival or tradition in the hopes that it brings them to a truer communion with the local Blood Gods and Spirits .
Founding Date
Unrecorded
Type
Political, Faction / Party
Alternative Names
The Acolytes, The Wytches(derogatory)
Demonym
Brother or Sister
Leader
Government System
Anarchy
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Barter system
Parent Organization
Deities
Location
One Way Amicability
The Carthians are currently weary of the Circle of Crone. They were once a tool and almost became a threat. In the firebrand's minds, they still could become one.
The Acolytes do feel a sense of gratitude towards the Fire Brands but that will only go so far as the individual Acolyte desires.
The Acolytes do feel a sense of gratitude towards the Fire Brands but that will only go so far as the individual Acolyte desires.
Neutral
There is currently no link between the Invictus and the Crones.
Open Aggression
The Quiet Revolution may have been a Carthian and Acolyte ploy, but it was the Circle of the Crone that most benefited from the change in scenery. They have decimated the Lancea et Sanctum and left them on islands waiting for Final Death.
The Second Estate however is so depleted that they cannot refuse help offered, even if it comes from the hands of a Wytch.
The Second Estate however is so depleted that they cannot refuse help offered, even if it comes from the hands of a Wytch.
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