Introduction Chapter One: Power Structures 13 Chapter Two: The Status Quo 25 Chapter Three: Tools of Control 39 Chapter Four: Elder Characters 57 Appendix: Gehenna Cults Contentsand ay the nighta stretch on inta weeks and the weeks to years and the years to decades and the decades to centuries, a bitte of the soul steals over me Bitterness so Yaatin size and mating atsa glacial« pace that J cannot dersee the pete Only in moments of seflectionon may Rasher ees the damage dane the glacier's manstrous wake, wher thas hallowed aut my ance indomitable spirit. Only inmomentaofcontemplatianupon my fatureean I ave therm 5 fragments of theskimmeringjevel that was oncomy soul: J scethe little Rumanity lefta me, and awdailthedaywhenittaa shall be ground down by the millstanc af the passage of time Gaidnat quent ths Bxistnc Never-Ending. J J know ofrnonewhodid, sarethe failed Romanian Prince Vlad, S Son of the Dragon, Lordof the Inconnu: I didnot ash for anenistence that makes amockeryaf all’ S ance lredandall S ancedreamed eh achat Idid not ask to-reeall that J laved perish inthe olin embers. of J didnot ark to see the tides of lime wash away even the greatest kmen.of my day g dt notaal Hs seemy sean plunged inty the te cvof waggle enelrable Sarth on which J vas born. J cannatgo to myc as my ald faves. Shey arcno more. J cannot rove over the countryside Eowdaas and neversee another soul. Ididnotaak forall this, and yet, Rere itis. J didnotask fovan clemilyof enlarging decay and contracting joy: And here J ai Hea tired ofd, empty old man, Wandering wher dart Went, ehis lores went, where his fife went The challenges befo v insurmountable, TRe resources al my com seomscant IRe hope and ; jeal that blazed inmy youth arecald akin my ag no eet am locked ina constricted role, in which I Rave | oor ch S. aa F deemfit, within tRe confines of my station, Knowing ferd of my enemies and critics Wouldar coulda differently inn stead. Ind yet with eachinew act, with cach new punishment afananarch, with each new sepelling, of Sabbat incursion, with each ionon martal society ond Vile, J die byaniota. Butalbothervoptions — the compromise of th Camarilla, the breach of the Masquerade — are invitations to cRaos. She only other chaice is death by degrees, death froma life J neither Want nev want to fos a myaged Blood curdles, less and leas atirs iLte passion. J couldadministermy froldinge as. diapassionately av an automaton. Where once the minutest perceived alight would infla passions, now only the gravest aacaull stirs a reaction; I muat force myself to: respond to any Soften know the indignation of Wounded