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What do Kindred do all day?

Kindred in southern Gaul, like those throughout history, are a varied race.  There's no one thing that any one Kindred will devote their time to.  Nonetheless, there are some generalizations that can be made. Most Kindred tend to find interest in mortal politics, both urban interest in advancing their own survival and from certain predilections that may remain from their mortal days.  Other Kindred find it interesting to socialize with their own kind; this as well comes from the survival instinct, but it can also stem from a desire to rule that most dangerous of subjects.  Additionally Kindred must worry about the basic necessities of life, perhaps the most important of which are money, and the safety and shelter it brings, and blood, the item most needed for survival. Then there are the matters of the mind, scholarly study and religious worship.  Finally, no Kindred spends all their time on productive endeavors, and many Kindred just want to have fun. Let's look at these seven pursuits individually


Mortal Politics

There are two main ways in which a Kindred can organize their mortal empire.  The first of these is traditional to Roman society, it is the system of patronage which serves as the glue to hold Roman society together.  The second of these is traditional to Gaulic society, it is a much more direct form of control.

In the Roman model everyone from slave to Emperor is part of the patron-client system.  The Emperor, of course, is no one's client, nor do any slaves act as patrons.  But within these limitations one can draw a direct line from the lowest slave to the mightiest Emperor with these patron-client relationships.  The Kindred, according to the Romans, fall within the system as well.  A Kindred will tend to have a number of clients, both mortal and immortal, and will have a patron, always immortal.  The patron-client system allows the patron to checkup on the client every day.  In fact, the more important patron the earlier the client must come to visit patron.  This, of course, means that the truly important patrons, vampires, are able to see their clients a bit before dawn.

In the Gaulic model, the Kindred are traditionally much more open about their rule.  Before Roman rule, vampires were open kings, or purely war leaders.  The Roman vampiric law that was imposed around 120 BCE outlawed such practices to give an advantage to Roman Kindred.  


Kindred Socializing

Manipulating a small stable of mortals is one thing, child's play to some.  Real achievement, and power, comes from ruling ones own kind.  Vampiric society is traditionally dictatorial, while Roman society is traditionally democratic (to some degree).  And, of course, one must consider the mortal and immortal culture of the provinces.  Finally remember that Romans hate to have anything ruled by just one person.  Except for the emperor, no one person has charge over anything, even generals will control an army in pairs.  All these factors combine to make Gaulic Kindred politics perhaps hopelessly complex.

A colony will be ruled by two praetores(magistrates), both local Kindred and always Roman citizens.  A polis (formerly Greek city) will be ruled by two praetores possibly both of whom will be Greek, though that will depend on how well behaved the city's immortals have been in the past.  A formerly native city always has at least one Roman praetor, the other praetor is often the old local ruler, assuming that ruler was wise enough to cooperate with the Romans.  Narbonensis as a whole does not have an immortal provincial government to match the mortal one.  But there are often several legatari (legates) floating around Gaul, Kindred from Rome who act with the backing of Rome... theoretically.  There is always such a Kindred in the capitol of Narbonensis, Narbo.  A legatarius will often spend a decade or more in one city or nearby group of cities before moving on; they are not really temporary troubleshooters so much as long term leaders.  In general the Roman kindred leaders are younger than their native counterparts.  A Roman praetor who is two hundred years old might share a city with a Gaulic praetor who claims to be two thousand years old.  But the threat of action from Rome, combined with the general elder Kindred interest in the status quo, keeps these strange situations stable.

Knowing about the overall structure of the political system in Narbonensis does not describe how one interacts with it however.  Really, one's citizenship will determine how one is able to interact with society to a large degree.  There are actually three divisions among Kindred when it comes to citizenship.  Twice blooded civis (citizens) were born Roman citizens (or had it conferred upon them before their death) and they were embraced by someone who was a Roman citizen.  A barbarus (non-citizens) was both born and embraced by a non-citizen.  But someone who is only graced with Roman blood from one of their heritages is referred to as a citizen by their mortal heritage (civis ingenuus) or a citizen by their immortal blood (civis sanguineus).  A full citizen tend to look down on all those who are not full citizens, though some respect is given to those with some connection to citizenship.  Conversely, a native Kindred will likely give preference to those who are also not citizens.  Lesser citizens can try to join the cliques of either group, but may have more luck with the full citizens, so long as they realize they will never be fully accepted.  They can also, of course, form their own groups.  Below the social cliques of citizenship there are the sub-groups known as circuli (coteries).  These were formed for the same reasons that modern coteries were formed, mutual protection and advancement.  

The common currency of obligations exists in Roman times as it did in the present time.  Governing those ties are the ties between patron and client.  In citizen cliques every Kindred is a client to some other Kindred, with most important Kindred having between two and five immortal clients.  This relationship obligates each part to the other.  The client owes a minor service to the patron every week or so, or a major service every three months roughly.  This service is decided by the patron. Similarly, the patron owes the client a minor service every week, but that service is at the patron's discretion so long as the services owed do not build up. Typically the patron gives the client the services of a skilled ghoul every week, or a moderate stipend of money, say 5,000 sesterces a year, or three dots of Resources.  There is no official reason why the client cannot cause the patron to owe him or her a great deal of services earned by other means, but it is not the usual state of affairs.  If the client can get the patron deeply in his or her debt and convince Kindred society to recognize this the relationship can switch.  This is highly uncommon, more frequently clients advance by the death of their patron.  Another method of advancement, or at least change, is the gathering of debt over a different Kindred by the client.  That Kindred can then be influenced to aide an unhappy client, perhaps by taking the client as their own, helping both the client and the new patron at the expense of the old patron.  But such advancement, by any means, is a frequent goal of Kindred politics.  Another frequent goal is the acquirement of new clients, often by applying pressure on the patron-less Kindred and by offering them incentives to accept the relationship.  As one might expect, most Kindred are their sire's clients, at least to start.

In addition to advancement there is simple lateral movement within the system.  Some patrons may have a reputation of being particularly good masters for instance, or a client may want to get free of an oppressive patron.  This type of movement is almost unheard of though, because of the custom of cliens inviolatum est.  A patron's clients are his or her own and may not be interfered with.  The one possible exception is when a client leaves his or her patron's city and travels beyond the patron's reach.  Of course, this is not possible under normal circumstances.  Its very difficult to go anywhere without proper letters of introduction and other Roman Kindred will be looking for "runaways."  But the client may be able to extort permission from their patron to leave the city and travel a few thousand miles away.  In this situation the patron has little choice but to accept a de facto separation.  On the topic of travel, a far more common situation is that the patron will send the client away voluntarily.  So long as the client does not travel too far the two can keep contact and maintain their relationship.  Recall that one can make the trip from Carthago Nova to Alexandria in only a month under normal conditions.  This situation can be very attractive to the client as he or she has a chance to operate outside the control of the patron.  The patron might wish such an arrangement to maintain a close watch on matters distant from his or her home city.  In fact, much of Rome's immortal power comes from these sort of distant relationships between patrons and their trusted clients.

Being a client seems to be a situation that the average neonate would not want to be in.  The relationship is theoretically equal, certainly, but in practice it is clearly not.  Of course one could also ask why a modern neonate enters the less formal, but no less oriented towards screwing the young, world of modern Kindred politics. The most important reason is social pressure. Since so many Kindred are a part of this system, all of a Kindred's peers are going to gang up on him or her to ensure that he or she falls into line and does not gain any advantage.  This pressure from peers is combined with the even stronger pressure from above, the elders and ancilla don't want to lose a potential pawn and so will band together to make sure that neonates join the system.  Finally there is the strongest pressure, the pressure from the sire who is will likely be the natural patron for the Kindred.  The sire wants to increase his or her power by gaining a client, and in addition, the sire does not want to be seen as weak and not in control of their childe.  But there are true advantages that make a neonate want to join the system as well.  The most explicit is the patron's weekly duty to the client, which is ultimately worth less than the client's duty, but a skilled servant or money or some other resource can be a valuable temptation to a fledgling with nothing.  Many neonates join the system shortly after their embrace because of the short term gains, not thinking that being locked into the system for the long term is a larger loss.  Some neonates join because of the promise of long term gain; join the system and in a hundred years you will have clients and power of your own.  Still other neonates join because of the political and legal protection a patron gives them.  If a neonate screws up the patron has a social obligation to get them out of trouble, or at least reduce the punishment.  Again, this social obligation is enforced by the patron's peers, who will see the patron as weak if the client gets punished too badly.

There are always neonates who wish to remain free of this system.  Amazingly, there actually are some neonates who do remain free of this system.  As one might expect, this is an exceptionally difficult task, less than ten percent of the neonates of Gaul are free of the patron-client system, and less than ten percent of those can say they are free of any elder vampire's influence.  The most obvious way to stay free of the constraints of society is to simply not be a part of it.  For those Kindred who are used to living in the wilds, often members of the Gangrel, Nosferatu or Skadi, this is at least possible, if difficult.  Within the cities a neonate can't stand apart from society.  In some cities a neonate can seek the protection of the native elders, who are not part of the patron client system.  This is generally only possible for a Kindred who is of native decent.  The child of a Romanized vampire will be born into the patron-client system.  Having a native master can be easier than being someone's client, there is no expectation of service.  On the other hand, the Gaulic Kindred rule by force, and the neonate had better step lightly lest he or she be made an example.  There is also little chance for advancement in native society.  A Kindred in the patron-client system can at least dream of the day when they have a client of their own.

And it is not entirely a dream.  Time passes, new Kindred are embraced, and yesterday's neonates become today's ancillae.  Gaining one's first client is considered the step that makes a neonate into an ancilla.  And it is possible.  Young native Kindred are available for recruitment.  Newly embraced Roman Kindred can be won from their sires, though that is rare.  An old patron can die and leave several clients who need patrons.  And most commonly a neonate can gain permission to embrace, and successfully ensure that their childe becomes their client.  Gaining a client most commonly occurs after about a hundred years of unlife, though this can vary wildly depending on the Kindred in question and the situation they find themselves in.  The chance destruction of some patron with many clients may give even the youngest of neonates a good shot at being a patron.  On the other hand, a neonate who is not involved in politics may wait hundreds of years before getting their first client.  In older cities where the population has remained stable and Roman traditions have been in effect for a long time neonates may never expect to become clients, though this is not the case in any cities in Narbonensis.  Ultimately any politically ambitious neonate will be constantly trying to get a client.


Making Money

Once again, there is a dichotomy between Roman and Gaulic practices when it comes to this activity.  Here, unlike most other activities, the Gaulic Kindred have the advantage because of the freedoms they have.  A Roman Kindred will be constrained by Roman conceptions of the role of a vampire and a noble.

Roman Kindred, like their mortal noble counterparts, do not directly mingle in such mundane affairs as generating revenue.  This is not to say that they consider these things unimportant, the basic definition of nobility is having a certain net worth.  None-the-less Kindred must manage their money somehow.  The main way they do this is via slaves and freedmen.  A Kindred will give charge of all his resources to a freedman, one of the more intelligent of his slaves who he frees for this purpose.  Often a Kindred will ghoul this freedman.  The freedman in turn will delegate responsibility or managing a specific business or estate to others below him.  Often these others are other freedmen, but they can also be citizens, a situation that causes a fair bit of social tension.  Roman Kindred tend to have their assets focused in land.  These are often large farming estates that grow olives or wine as the primary cash crop.  Because of this distance between the Kindred and their assets its moderately easy (well, kind of) to separate a Roman Kindred from his or her assets.  Also, because most Roman assets are kept as land they are less liquid and so are hard to quickly convert to cash or to expand them quickly.

Gaulic Kindred, at least those who are interested in such things, are much more personally involved in the managing and improving of their assets.  A Kindred who is so inclined might directly manage a shipping business.  Some Kindred even act as ship captains, using their supernatural skills to ensure a valuable cargo will get into port.  Though it might seem that acting as a ship captain would be a waste of an enterprising Kindred's time, in fact a cargo full of Spanish silver or oriental spices can bring in as much profit as several years income from trading a less important good.  As one might infer from the above, while the Roman Kindred tend to have their assets tied up in land, Gaulic, and other foreign Kindred, tend to gain wealth from trade.  Some Gaulic Kindred do own land in Gaul, but it tends to be the less valuable land where olives and wine cannot be grown.


Feeding

Popellus bonum gustat.  Vampires in ancient Narbonensis commonly feed from their clients or slaves.  Clients commonly visit with their patrons early every morning, providing a convenient way to fill up before the day.  If one is rich enough to be able to afford a hundred or so slaves there is no need to worry about feeding again.  Another reason adventurous feeding is rare is the danger of feeding off the wrong person.  Drinking from someone else's client is a violation of custom.  Additionally non citizens may not feed from any Roman citizen.  These two factors make slaves a popular target for adventurous feeders.  Of course, there are very few people out and about at night in a Roman city, which makes things even harder.  Many Kindred resort to breaking and entering.  One can also take advantage of merchants delivering their goods to shops which by law must occur after sundown.

On the other hand, one cannot drain senators in the streets and expect to get away with it.  As noted above there are customs that limit some Kindred from feeding on other's clients or on citizens.  In addition, killing those important to the mortal social order is generally considered dangerous.  Kindred are, after all, static creatures, and an elder may react badly if the bureaucrat he was counting on controlling is dead in some gutter.  In addition, the custom of dignity forces Kindred to conceal their feeding to some extent.  Its fine if the Flavians next door know that you are a vampire, but baring your fangs at Mr. Flavius while you suck Mrs. Flavius dry is... a bit tasteless.  It certainly is not fitting behavior for a creature of the night.  Killing while feeding is, in general, a breach of the custom of dignity.  If you kill while feeding you are assumed to have fallen in to frenzy, and that is certainly not civilized.  Killing should be a premeditated act, not one of passion.


Study

When discussing study and learning in Gaul its worth considering a dichotomy in the province. Unlike in the political sections above, this dichotomy is not between Gauls and Romans, but between Greeks and Romans. Roman culture is generally less interested in learning than Greek culture, both from the perspective of what an educated person is supposed to know, and the amount of original work that goes on.

It should be assumed that the average poor person in Narbonensis, no matter their ethnic background or citizenship, will have virtually no education. And poor people make up the vast majority of the population. So a Kindred from this type of background can likely read, but probably knows little to nothing of history or mathematics. Not being able to count over fifty may seem like a problem, but when that is the average educational level of the population its not really noticeable. A Kindred, however, is very likely to interact with the more educated members of society, both mortal and immortal, and so a Kindred from a poor background would be well advised to educate him or herself pretty quickly. Failing to bring yourself up to the base level of education has the same effect that it does in the modern day, others will tend to look down on the Kindred and believe they are stupid. Its hard to understand someone's oration when you don't understand the historical references they are making, and its hard to win arguments when you don't have the facts at hand to back yourself up.

For Romans, education is something that traditionally happens in the home; there is no system of public schools, either publicly or privately funded. For the aristocracy, the traditional teacher is the father of the pupil, but more modern families have a Greek slave serve as the teacher. The three main areas of education were reading, rhetoric, and weapon handling. Traditionally, weapon handling was emphasized over rhetoric, in more modern families the opposite was true. After about ten years of study, when the student was 16, a year of political apprenticeship occurred. After that, several years of military apprenticeship would happen. For these apprenticeships the student would follow a mentor, generally a family member, around as he did his duties. Those of the middle class mimicked this pattern of education, but apprenticeships would generally be to merchants or land owners as the expectation was that these boys would be going into those professions rather than governmental positions.

The study of reading covers just about everything from the writings of Greek philosophers to the popular histories of Livy (the Tom Clancy of the day). Through these works other lessons were learned. The Greek philosophers taught science and politics, as well as philosophy. History doubled as military theory. Students were not taught how to write well as it was not seen to be important. The great writers that Rome produced, and there were a great deal at this time, were self taught and often got their start by imitating previous great works. Writing was a very middle class activity, no aristocrat would write for popular consumption. Rhetoric, on the other hand, was a very aristocratic form of expression, a middle class student might learn rhetoric, but likely would not have a chance to use it. This skill was so important to the aristocracy because they relied on public or senatorial voting to gain most offices, including military offices. Weapon handling would have covered both the use of a lance on horseback, which was the main way an aristocrat fought, but also the shield and gladius that was universal in the Roman army. Aristocrats were both political and military leaders, so they needed to know how to defend themselves. Roman generals periodically fought and killed (or were killed by) enemy generals in single combat, so this training was by no means theoretical!

Then there is Greek education, which, in Narbonensis, is practiced only in Massilia. There are enough Greek city states dotting the Mediterranean that a character from just about anywhere can have been Greek educated, though obviously such people are concentrated in Greece, Asia Minor and the Judean coast. In the Athenian system, which was dominant at this time, Greek education is focused outside the home, in publicly funded schools. The subjects studied would include Homer, playing the lyre, drama, rhetoric, math, and writing. Studying Homer's poems was the central goal of Greek education, and the students would commit both the Iliad and the Odyssey entirely to memory. Where Roman schools focused on practicalities, Greek schools focused on learning for its own sake, including geometry and artistic theory. Greek learning had a military focus as well, from age 18 to age 20 they students attended military school, but this training was much less than what a Roman would learn. These Greek schools would have been open to all citizens, so basically everyone in the middle and upper classes would have learned together. Because of their learnedness, Greek trained scholars were valued by Romans as teachers and as governmental bureaucrats.

We know that officially women were not educated in either the Roman or Greek systems. On the other hand, we also know that a fair percentage, about ten percent, of the jobs requiring education were held by women. Many of these jobs could not be easily self-taught, such as jobs in the medical or legal professions. In the above I've assumed that the students in question are male, which obviously was largely the case. But there probably were female students, tutored in the home. They would not have learned any martial skills, but could have learned most other skills. These educated women would have been from the middle class exclusively, as the aristocracy was much more set in its ways.

All this influences a Kindred character in subtle ways. These issues of education will effect all characters, even if scholarship is not their primary focus. Its clearly good to know what knowledges your character should have based on his or her background. Its worth emphasizing, for instance, that every Kindred who grew up in a middle class or better Roman household should know how to use a sword (Melee) and how to give a public speech (Performance). And further, anyone wishing to take an academic ability, like History, should also have the basics of Greek or Roman education. A Kindred who does not have these abilities will be at a social disadvantage when relating to those Kindred and mortals who do, in the same way someone educated in a modern day college might look down on someone who never graduated from high school.

In addition to the issues of a Kindred's basic education, there are the issues of higher scholarship, creating original academic or artistic works. In the Roman mindset, this sort of scholarship was a task for the middle class, not for the aristocracy. And the line between an academically or artistically great work and a popular work was a very fine one. Livy's Ab Urbe Conditia was the greatest history of Rome ever written when it was published. But it was also a very popular work that played up the exciting parts of the history, and often just made stuff up to make the story better. There are differences in what sort of thing a Greek or Roman scholar might study, but they would both tend to live the same sort of life style. Academics and artists were almost always poor, they subsisted mainly on handouts from the aristocracy. They often taught to support themselves, either as citizens (for both) or as slaves or freedmen (for Greeks). Romans tended to be writers, either of prose, poetry, satire, or plays. The Greeks tended to be scientists, philosophers, and doctors. Greeks could fill other roles as well, but not in Narbonensis. Roman writing was heavily influenced by Greeks of course, in the same way writers in the United States are influenced by Shakespeare. But Roman writing was definitely its own creation.

Scholars, naturally, depended on books to do their work. The Roman world, like the medieval one, had no good method of duplicating books, and so they were often scare. Unlike later times though, the Romans had extensive public libraries, which greatly aided the task of the scholar. Private libraries also existed, and were popular among the aristocracy as a status symbol. They might hold rarer works, or concentrate on a specific subject depending on the desires of the owner. Recent areas of active scholarly research include the nature of the solar system (building mathematical models with Aristotle's geocentric theory of the universe) and the nature of life (i.e. vitalism, the idea that life can spring from dead matter). Libraries were good enough for commonly known subjects, but scholars studying more elusive subjects would probably not find them useful. Even the most basic information was sometimes kept very secret. The Pythagorean Society, for instance, kept the existence of the dodecahedron secret until the Society disintegrated in the fifth century BCE. In more recent times mystery cults have been the center of difficult to research knowledge. The secrets of the cults of Mythras or Isis are not recorded in any books, and a scholar interested in them must be creative to find out information about them.

Where education offers clear political advantage, or at least the lack of a disadvantage, among the aristocracy of Roman society, scholarly or artistic work offers an advantage with the populous. The great historians, play-writes, actors, poets, and satirists were adored by the Roman masses, and hence could exert great mortal influence. Buy these people were only tolerated by the aristocracy, and sometimes actively despised (especially actors). To the proper Roman Kindred, a vampire who actively pursues these goals could be said to violate the custom of dignity, but they may be so popular with the people that they can not be touched.

Religion

Its worth noting here that very few in the Classical world consider vampire's damned.  There aren't any Christians yet, but a Jew probably wouldn't think to highly of being a vampire (drinking blood and all).  Beyond that there aren't really any religions that would frown becoming a vampire.  Any given religion might definitely disapprove of what certain vampires do, but the state of being a vampire is not particularly reviled, any more than ghosts are feared.  In fact ancestor worship is pretty big in Roman culture!

Now, as to the matter of specific religions, there are two major types to consider, the state religion and the cults.  Monotheistic religion (Jews) are so rare in Gaul as to be not worth mentioning.  The cults were pretty rare as well, something like two or three percent of the population, and that divided up among four or five major cults.  So we will turn first to the state religion.

The Roman gods that everyone knows are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and others, the most important ones have planets named after them and the less important ones have smaller celestial bodies, like Ceres.  These gods were not central to the religion in the same way their "equivalents" were central to Greek religion though.  The gods were not worshiped day to day by the people, but were worshiped in large ceremonies, generally coinciding with the spectacles mentioned in the leisure section below.  In fact, most spectacles were thrown in honor of a given god, and a sacrifice was generally made before the event.  Sacrifices were the real religions ceremony, and few people actually attended them, certainly far fewer than attended the spectacle itself.  The more personal interaction that one had with a god was when you needed that god's help in some area the god was known to give aid in.  One might go to Aesculapius's temple when one was sick for instance.  Or one might go to Mars' temple before a battle.  Generally worship was in the form of a written contract, if the god does thing X then I will do thing Y (generally make a sacrifice).  Most of Roman worship followed this formula, but was most rigid and formal with these large scale gods who had extensive priestly supporters

A new up and coming god seems to be the spirit of the empire itself.  Julius Caesar was deified after his death in 44 BCE and Augustus has just been deified as the game starts.  In Gaul the emperors encouraged the worship of these deified emperors by encouraging the worship of the spirit of Rome, the cult of Roma.  This worship is expressed by worshiping the qualities of the empire and its emperors.  Virtue, Victory and Discipline are common ones.  The city of Lugdunensis, just north of Narbonensis, is the center of the worship of Fortuna Augusta, the luck of the emperors, for instance.  Roma is the most impersonal of the gods as he area of influence is the empire itself.  Its hard to get worked up about the health of the empire as opposed to the health of your grandmother.  On the other hand, Roma the best funded of any of the gods because holding a festival in Roma's honor is a smart political move.  Everyone living in the Empire is expected to worship Roma and the deified emperors.  Failure to do so is viewed as crazy as Roma fundamentally represents the foundation of society, and is punishable by death.

The gods with the most impact on the typical citizen's day to day life are the lares.  While every Gaul worships the major gods and the cult of Roma, typically only citizens worship the lares, though Romanized Gauls may adopt a set of these spirits for their own.  These minor spirits protect the house and the people in it, both physically and financially.  Each family has a set of lares whose worship has been passed down through the generations.  A minor sacrifice, generally bread or wine, is made to these gods daily, with more elaborate rituals being enacted three times a month or so.

So where do Kindred fit into all of this?  The average Kindred will view the state religion as a background element in his or her life.  They will make the necessary sacrifices to their lares and they will go to the spectacles if they are interested.  A wealthy Kindred interested in mortal politics might sponsor a festival in honor of some important god or the cult of Roma itself, but that would be viewed as a political move rather than a religious one.  There are likely a few Kindred who are involved in the priestly system.  Priests are exclusively aristocrats who perform their functions as part of the government.  These Kindred would see it as their duty to advance the causes of the state with the gods.  Such a Kindred would generally relate to one specific god, and would have the title of flamen.  In a popular view the Kindred would have a privileged position when relating to the gods, being semi-divine as it is, as so their vows and pleas to the god would have more effect.  Such a Kindred might vow to donate money or hold spectacles or sacrifice animals if the god supported certain causes.  Such a Kindred would personally lead the rituals of a given god in a city as well, presiding over the opening of spectacles in that gods honor, and over all sacrifices made to a god.

One select group of priests are the augures(augurs) who were trained for the role of predicting if a particular course of action had divine approval (note this is subtly different from truly seeing the future).  These priests were elected officials who had the exclusive right to read and interpret signs from the gods.  They did their work by observing the flight of birds or the feeding habits of chickens.  A lesser, but more numerous group of fortune telling priests were the haruspices.  They were not concerned with telling the future, but with telling if a single act had the favor of the gods, such as the founding of a city.  To do this they might examine the entrails of sacrificed animals, look for unusual births or growths, or observe the pattern and frequency of lightning.  These three areas were exclusive specialties, a priest would practice one area and none other.  To understand the difference between the two, consider this example, an augur might tell a leader if a particular plan for colonizing Narbonensis would succeed.  A haruspex might then say if a particular city was in a good location before it was built.  A Kindred could obviously play either of these roles, and given their supernatural abilities, would likely be very good at it.  These two roles require a good deal of study, and imply that the person holding the office is quite committed to the religion.  While a simple flamen might have that title for personal political gain an augur or a haruspex feels strongly about the state religion.  They will be absorbed in fortune telling and other priestly duties, like sacrifices, for a fair portion of their time.

Then there are the cults. While state religion did not evoke strong feelings in the people, those who were involved in a mystery cult often felt quite strongly about their religion. The cults most frequently focused on a single god, Mythras and Isis were two common ones, though there were many others. This god was not focused on a specific aspect of life, but was focused on a way of living life. Mythras, for instance, was a warrior's god as only men could follow him, and the myths surrounding the god focused on a single combat with a great bull. Mythrism focused on acting bravely in the face of danger, and overcoming that danger. A shopkeeper would not have joined the Mythras cults, but a solder certainly might have. The cult god was worshiped primarily, but the state gods were worshiped as well. This secondary worship generally simply emphasized how much better the cult god was than his or her rivals, but that was enough to satisfy the empire. The cults often had several grades of initiation, Mythrism had nine, that were reached by progressively more difficult and dangerous tests. As the initiate increased in rank he or she learned more and more about the true myths of the god.

Much as it is with the state religion, Kindred most commonly participate as the leaders of these cults. Because of the extensive internal structure of these cults, and the fact that Kindred who are followers of these cults group together, its rarely as simply as just taking over a cult. For a true Kindred believer, that would defeat the point in any case. Kindred are better than mortals, all cults accept that. So no Kindred will become an “entry-level” initiate. Rather, the Kindred have ranks above those of the mortals, that can only be advanced to if one is undead. Certain cults even consider the embrace to be just one test in the path of enlightenment. Kindred obviously must participate in the cult in different ways that mortals, but this actually follows logically from the levels of initiation. Members at one level of initiation typically had different duties and privileges than members at another level. Initiation tests for Kindred often reflect their supernatural nature, requiring exceptional endurance or perception. One of the immortal initiation rights of the cult of Mythras, for instance, forces the Kindred to remain in full sunlight for a certain period of time, proving that the candidate can be victorious over the sun, just as Mythras was.

Leisure

No one can do purely productive things all the time, especially not when one has eternity.  Many Kindred view their exalted existence as an excuse to have as much fun as possible.  Such Kindred tend to die fairly early, but those who can mix leisure with other pursuits will be able to enjoy the pleasures of this world forever.  

Naturally, there are many debaucheries available for the Kindred who is looking for them.  The most popular and common are theater, gladiatorial games, and the races, collectively known as spectacles.  Theater is not necessarily a debauchery.  Certain plays (ludi scaenici) were pretty cultured.  They were derived from Greek theater and were very stylized, similar to Japan's No theater in theory if not practice.  Of course, by this period they weren't very interesting.  Pantomimes (no speaking parts) and mimes (speaking parts) were the popular theater of the time.  This type of play included women, which had predictable results.  Slaves were often executed on stage when a dramatic death was required.  It was the sort of spectacle that the crowds could really get into.

The gladiatorial games are so famous that little need be said about them.  They did not always involve men fighting men, men would hunt wild animals, or the wild animals would hunt the men (always criminals).  The diversions involving beasts generally occurred in the morning and it was not until the afternoon and evening that the gladiators were brought out.  Women also fought in the arena, but they only fought other women.  They were immensely popular, aided by the fact that they were very rare... and the fact that they fought almost naked.  The most common fight was a simple one on one, but more extravagant battles might recreate major military engagements in miniature.  Some arenas could be flooded for naval battles.  Betting on the outcome of gladiatorial games was quite common.

Betting on horse races, however, made bets on the gladiators seem like spare change.  The races were likely considerably more popular in Rome than the gladiatorial fights, and they were the first public form of Roman entertainment.  The four factions, blue, green, white, and red, had as loyal a following as any modern sports team (and think of how loyal rioting English football fans are!)   Racing was not a peaceful sport, but certainly had a lower mortality rate than gladiatorial games.  The most common type of racing was four horses pulling a chariot.  

Finally there is the peaceful side of Roman leisure, the baths.  There might not be a spectacle every day, but one can always go to the baths.  The average person attends the baths not less than twice a week, and sometimes as often as everyday.  Most nobles have private baths in their houses, but they still attend the public baths when they wish to socialize.  The baths are more than just getting clean, though that is important.  But the baths also have physical activities available, such as wrestling or ball sports.  The baths are also the warmest place in the winter.  Finally the baths have plenty of places to sit around and talk.

As with most of Roman life, these leisure activities occurred mostly in the day time.  But there were ways around this for interested Kindred.  The spectacles were sponsored by private donation as well as by the emperor, especially in the provinces, so an interested Kindred could offer to pay for a night spectacle without any difficult questions being asked.  This is clearly a great way to gain status.  There were also traditionally three or four festivals that were held at night during the year.  The baths were also very open to Kindred interference, and a Kindred with mortal connections and seeking Kindred status would likely keep them open at night, for undead guests only.  This practice is rather similar to the modern practice of Elysiums held in public places that are officially closed at night.

Finally there are private forms of entertainment.  Common Romans did not really have time for such things, the 40 hour work week was still almost two thousand years away.  But noble Romans had plenty of time on their hands.  Reading was common, the most common books were histories and travel loges written in an exciting, if less than accurate or refined, style.  Romans could hire jugglers or other entertainers for their amusement.  And of course there was that most ancient form of entertainment that only takes two people.  In Rome sex was as much an industry as anywhere else in the world. Certain Romans were known to keep large collections of slaves for such purposes as well.  Of course, most vampires can't have sex as humans understand it, but recreational feeding was certainly common.


Clausula Est

Whew, that was pretty long.   Congratulations if you got through it.  That should give a good taste of what life was like for a vampire in ancient Rome.

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