The Clans

The vampire clans of Roseburg are part of The Book of Falling by Rob Pegler.

Vampires around the world tend to organize themselves into clans, usually made up of various gangs and sub-clans. The city of Roseburg has been home to six different clans since its early days as a copper mining town, and owes much of its development (and ever-present urban decay) to this fact.

The first Clan to stake their claim on Roseburg were the Staryekorolya, who moved there in 1896 (they always claimed they founded the town, but it had actually been there for fifty years before they arrived). They remained the most powerful local Clan until 1968, when Johnny Fantôme launched his now-legendary coup and overthrew them.

The Chernysvet were the next to arrive, establishing a territory in the city’s northern district. Damian Argyros and his daughters joined the clan in the 1960s, and Argyros later rose to become clan boss. Under his leadership the Chernysvet have consolidated their hold on their territory, only coming into directly conflict with the others when Argyros can be assured of a substantial advantage. They recently extended their territory by taking over the territory of the Okhotniki Clan to the east.

The Okhotniki, along with the Staryekorolya and Chernysvet, were one of the original Three Clans for which Roseburg became infamous. Unlike the others the Okhotniki were founded locally, made up of an alliance of individuals and gangs left out in the cold by the conflict between the other two. They established themselves on the east side of the city and enjoyed a respectable amount of success until the somewhat ineffectual Xander Moorden took advantage of a power vacuum to become clan boss sometime in the 1970s. Under his questionable guidance the Okhotniki became a clan of self-serving thugs and cowards, easily manipulated by the likes of Johnny Fantôme, who used them as scapegoats in the murder of Lazarus Pope. The Okhotniki were more or less easy pickings when Gabriel Pope began his revenge campaign against them shortly afterwards, and with his help they were wiped out by the Chernysvet in a single night.

The Krasnayaruka Clan, led by Johnny Fantôme, are the strongest clan in Roseburg. Formed three hundred years ago, they arrived in Roseburg in the mid-1960s and overthrew the Staryekorolya Clan within half a decade. They control the central city and have considerable influence in their rivals’ territories as well, allying themselves with various gangs, buisnesses and criminal organizations in the human world.

The Uvyadayasvet were a nomadic clan of Ukrainian vampires, possibly descended from Cossack hosts, until they came to Roseburg to support the beleagured Staryekorolya. Their aid proved less than effective, especially when Vadik and Jerzy Orlokov took over leadership and decided to bolster their own clan’s position rather than help someone else’s. They now rule the industrial sprawl to the south of the city, and are heavily involved in organized crime as well as supernatural concerns. They are now the second most powerful vampire sydicate in Roseburg.

The Khranitelya Clan are largely despised by other vampires, because they’re a passive clan who have long sought peaceful co-existence with humans. Many of them still feed on human blood, but a growing majority of the “families” within the clan have sworn off it. The Khranitelya’s continued existence relies on the fact that most of their senior members are business-oriented types, good at making money and brokering deals with human coporations and politicians. It was for this reason that Johnny Fantôme invited them to establish themselves in Roseburg, settling in the affluent western suburbs. The clan exist largely under the protection of the Krasnayaruka, but sell their services to all the other clans as well. The Khranitelya were led by Edgar Moon, until he met a more-or-less accidental demise during the last Konferentsii.