History
From Ordo Dracul
Historicus
The Ordo Dracul claims to follow the teachings of Vladislaus Tepes, Dracula himself. Dracula claimed to have no sire, but to have been struck by God Himself with undeath for his abuse of faith. While most of the terms and practices of the Ordo Dracul were in place by 1600, the Ordo Dracul only emerged as a potent and legitimate covenant in the 19th century. Shortly after codifying the Ordo Dracul, Dracula fell into torpor, leaving the Ordo in the hands of his "brides"
Covenant histories from the 17th century suggest that some sort of schism occurred within the Ordo Dracul during this time, pitting the various factions of the Sworn against one another under the leadership of the "brides", who had wildly different views on the nature of God and the purpose of the Coils. None of them has been seen in over a century. Mara vanished around the time of the American Revolution, Anoushka vanished in India during the English colonial period, and Lisette boarded a ship from London in 1889 for "parts East", and was never seen again.
During this period, the Ordo Dracul, as an upstart faction, was persecuted from without by the other covenants, especially the Invictus and Lancea Sanctum. This led some domains at this time to foster very close relations with the Circle of the Crone. Rumors of vampire "witches" possessing the secrets of both the Coils of the Dragon and Cruac have not been credibly established outside of a few very rare cases..
The early Ordo Dracul also suffered from a lack of focus. Before the scientific method became prevalent, work on the Coils was haphazard and extremely dangerous. Record keeping and communication were also sporadic or encoded so obscurely as to be near useless even a generation later..
Beginning around 1820, the Ordo Dracul experienced a large surge in membership. While there's no single reason for this, a few reasons have been identified. The Industrial Revolution, coming to fruition at this time, seems to have jolted the Dragons to adopt the scientific method. This opened up vast new horizons for the Ordo Dracul, and the new approach sparked a renaissance in Ordo thought..
The rise of spiritualism also brought new members into the fold. Spiritualists often had the right temperament and ability to think outside the box needed prized by the Dragons. By turning the scientific method on mediums, they were also able to discover those psychics and mediums with true power, and either enlist them or destroy them..
In 1837, the Ordo Dracul largely withdrew from society, becoming a secret society similar to the Freemasons. During the sixty years that followed this withdrawl, many Dragons claimed membership in one of the other covenants. The Ordo also adopted many of the trappings and ceremonies of a secret society during this time, which continue to this day..
In 1897, Bram Stoker published Dracula. Memory of the long-hidden covenant led to "investigations" that flushed out the hidden Dragons, leading the Ordo Dracul to openly declare itself as a covenant. During this period of unrest, many of the Dragons who had held joint membership in the Ordo Dracul were killed, and others withdrew, and began the modern tradition of the Kogaion..
The Order teaches that nothing is permanent, that even vampirism can be overcome. The Dragons have developed a number of supernatural paths that lessen the effects of the Curse, paths they call the Coils of the Dragon. Although there is no evidence of any Kindred fully escaping the Requiem through the Dragons' arcane secrets, the Order's beliefs still attract Kindred of all types and ages into its ranks. All are welcome, so that their knowledge and experiences of the vampiric condition can be shared.
This growing pool of knowledge is one of the goals of the covenant - the more they know of the Curse, the better they can act against it.
