However, ironically, despite relying massively on manipulation and proxies, the Lasombra are actually very bad at manipulating people - another key difference from the Ventrue. That is why the Lasombra often stand "in the shadows", "behind the scenes", not acting as official figures like the Ventrue, but rather manipulating and controlling the "official" leaders from the dark corner of the room and the secret hallways of the palaces. They need to be on top of people, they need to have servants and underlings, they need to exerce not just power but authority. The Lasombra, however, are obsessed with exercing their powers over other people. No matter if they have no one to exerce their power upon, as long as they have the power. The Ventrue are vampires obsessed with power, obsessed with the idea of being at the top, of wielding a form of might, of ruling and leading. And of course, they ended up drifting away with the Masquarade, the Ventrue enforcing the Camarilla while the Lasombra went off to create the Sabbat.Īnother big difference with the Ventrue could be resumed by "power VS domination". While the Ventrue became members of monarchies, of governments, part of the state and the politics, the Lasombra rather joined the Church and controlled religion. Throughout history, the Ventrue and the Lasombra always stood in a perpetual rivalry : where the Ventrue hold their domination over Germany, the Holy Roman Empire and "inland" Europe, the Lasombra spread across the countries bordering the Mediterranean sea. It is no luck that they ended up as the head of the two factions of vampires always at war with each other (well, a cold war).
But the two actually can't stand each other. In fact, it makes them a "twin clan" with the Ventrue : both are leaders of their respective organizations (Sabbat/Camarilla), both are "leaders", both are power hungry and arrogant beings. They are always thirsty for domination, with a visceral need to have someone or something to dominate. If you can't take or keep the power, you are weak and worthless.
For them, power should only be wielded by the "worthy", and to prove yourself worthy, you simply need to take and control said power. They are "elegant and inhuman predators", who believe in the sentence "might makes right". Their most defining trait? Their social darwinism. They are the "leaders" of the Sabbat, their economical and political force, their administration. The Night Clan, the Abyss Mystics, the Magisters, the Shadows, the Traitors.
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