[pennypincher]

PENNYPINCHER THEATER PRESENTS:

Clan Gangrel, a history that... Isn't really... All that great... Sorta.

By their very nature, Clan Gangrel doesn't really have much clan structure, or much clan history too speak of, because they are constantly wandering around seperated from each other and don't usualy act as a group in many things. If you asked a Gangrel to get his/her clan together for some great activity, they'd prolly give you a very confused look and then wander off, Embrace someone, and come back saying: "There you go, we're all here buddy."

The second problem is, as a clan, they are somewhat feral and wild. They like to wander and interact with the animals and get to know the beast and such other creepy things that you can prolly download videos of from the net but may result in a police raid on your house. To that end, a lot of the history of the Gangrel focuses on what indivdual Gangrel have done, and not so much on the clan as a group. That being said, I hate individuals bitterly which is why I plan to re-populate the earth with robots, so I'll try and keep this as general as possable.

Lots of Gangrel claim gypsy heritage, and claim their founder was a gypsy as well. Unfortunatly, thats like saying "I'm from earth" and expecting someone to instantly know that your 25, from Russia, like long walks along the beach and sunsets and that your favourite food is Tuna on the belly of a naked Asian woman. It's generaly acepted, even by the Gangrel themselves, that this means Romainia Gypsy heritage... Which causes no end of hostility bewteen clan Gangrel and Clan Ravnos, both of whom see the other claiming Gypsy blood as a slap in the face to all Rom everywhere and fight to the bloody death over the matter... Sadly both clans have Fortitude, so these fights often take hours and hours and have the end result of the Ravnos using it's clan power to say "Look over there, a three headed Cammerilla Clan Founder!" and running away when the Gangrel looks and sees that there really is one there... Huzzar Chimestry!

By contrast however, they have always been a very martial clan. They do gather, once in a while, at meetings they call gathers... Displaying an overall lack of real imagination, or a total unwillingness to be bothered. At these meetings they talk and boast about great deeds they have done, respect always being shown to the eldest first, then they disperce again to perform more great martial deeds so they can boats more at the next meeting. Less likley to be the masterminds behind great wars and battles, and more likley to be the brutal force that agrees to travle along with the Brujah in the front ranks, they are usualy considered meaningless shock troops by both Cammerilla, Sabbat and Anarchs alike. Why you ask?... Well you got some balls interupting me!!

The clan has always shown a great disdain for politics and the jyhad, sorting out most of their problems by clawing at their enemies till they stop being alive any more. They ocassionaly acept positions such as Sherif or Scourge, anything that gives them enough respect that people leave them alone, but lets them wander around and boot some folks in the behind. This might stem from a short lived period in which they were all but totaly subserviant to clan Tzimisce. The Tzimisce took great delight in the Gangrel ability to change themselves at will and the fact that they were permently changed by the beast if they became to close to it, and took it upon themselves to bribe, trick, enslave, hire, bond or own as many Gangrel as they could, using them like hunting dogs to seek out their enemies. A Tzimisces power could be measured by the strength of his pack... However, like rabbid dogs, the Gangrel have a tendancy to turn suddenly when the last straw breaks their back.

The Cammerilla had been the home of the clan up untill recently. Xavier, the clans representitive on the council came to them in a panic declaring that he had seen a great monster he belived to be an Antedeluvian and that he wanted the Cammerilla to take action with him against such a mighty monster. The Inner Circles response was to pet him gently and tell him that theres no such as Antedeluvians and if he didn't pipe down about it they would put him outside like a bad puppy. Obviously, this didn't go down well, and he officaly detached clan Gangrel from the Cammerilla... Mind you, as Gangrel tend to do, he didn't really inform the other members of his clan, so as a whole, they sort of... Kept doing what they were doing and just sort of... Shrugged indifferently when Princes would inform them that they were officaly no longer with the Cammerilla. What difference did it make to them? It's not like they really ever saw each other anyway, so big whoop. As long as nobody pee'ed on their tree they were pretty much alright with it.

Of course, the greatest thing about clan Gangrel is the much vaunted "Understanding" they have the with Lupines... The Werewolves. The truth of the matter is, this is as much a matter of luck and convience as anything else. The Gangrel were intent on living in the wild, and there was little the Garou could do to dislodge them without losing dozens of their own number, and the Garou viewed the choice to move away from human society and live as one with nature as a better choice for Vampires then the alternative, and so the two came to a stand off where they mostly just agreed to stay out of each others way. Of course, this wasn't an offical, signed and sealed deal... Mostly a Gangrel as at as much risk from Werewolf attack as anyone unless they are very lucky, but thats a 100% risk decrease over "certain doom" so it seems like quite an achivment when you put it like that.