Path of Paradox
Externally, the Ravnos clan would seem to be the most human of the independent vampires. After all, the Ravnos tend to be good-natured tricksters, not ruthless assassins, corrupters or vile necromancers. They take no active interest in the most brutal vampiric pursuits and are thus believed to possess some vestiges of moral and mortal nature. Little could be more naive.
Those few who have truly understood the games of the Ravnos have come away shaken. To the Ravnos who follow the Path of Paradox, unlife is indeed but a dream, and living creatures the merest phantasms. The Path of Paradox teaches that all existence is fluid and malleable. Nothing is permanent or real. The universe is an ever -shifting vortex, and all in it is composed of variable amounts of ethereal matter. This matter is referred to as "weig" by those on this Path. In its natural state, weig flows willy - nilly from being to being, object to object, creating and destroying without care. A given object can be filled with weig one moment and nearly empty the next; such is change, such is existence.
Eons ago, however, a great blasphemy was committed. Twelve beings who were momentarily filled with great amounts of weig decided to retain that weig instead of spewing it into the void when the time came. These beings then began to suck in even more weig - enough to allow them power, and mold the surrounding chaos to their will. These 12 beings became the vampire Antediluvians, and proceeded to sculpt reality into a fixed shape that would enable them to retain their weig, and thus their power.
Because even they could not entirely resist the universe's call to release their weig, the Antediluvians periodically exuded small amounts of their weig, molding them into their own images. Thus were other vampires created. Just as their progenitors blasphemously consume the universe's weig, so do vampires consume earth's stuff of life, blood. Of course, the Antediluvians plan to reabsorb their weig in due time. On this night - the night of Gehenna, or the Flux - the 12 Antediluvians, acting in concert and devouring the power of their children, plan to shape the universe permanently into the gray and stagnant mausoleum-realm that is their ideal.
The Antediluvians' abomination did not go unnoticed. A vortex -being, given momentary sentience by a random fluctuation in the weig, decided to fight the newly created Antediluvians on their own terms. This being retained its own weig, gaining sufficient power in the process to battle the Antediluvians - indeed, to become as they. This being sired the Ravnos clan to assist it, and became the 13th Antediluvian, though only the followers of this Path know that this "Antediluvian" exists only to disrupt the others' plans.
Ravnos on this Path gradually learn their raison d'etre: to destroy the blasphemous creation of the Antediluvians, that thing known as reality. To effect this, they learn to harness their internal weig for the production of reality altering effects. These effects are mere illusions at low levels of power, but as the Ravnos becomes more powerful, the effects gradually increase in potency. Ravnos on this Path also actively attempt to alter others' perceptions of reality. Their favorite methods for so doing are through trickery and theft. Such are surprisingly effective weapons. After all, a hoary old sixth-generation Tremere who loses his pants during a Conclave also loses the respect of his peers, and his self-confidence; furthermore, the entire Conclave is disrupted. Thus are a powerful pawn of the Antediluvians, Clan Tremere, and the Camarilla all weakened in one fell swoop.
Ultimately, however, the weig must be released into the vortex. Ravnos who are advanced students of this Path actively seek to do so. They seek out items that retain weig "magic" items, Lupine fetishes, and the like - and destroy them. The most powerful members of this Path seek out vampires with great amounts of weig - of low generation - and do likewise. Though many followers of this Path are anarchs, not all are, for such a "party line" would be predictable. Indeed, there have been occasions when two members of the Path of Paradox have fought on opposite sides of a cause, subsequently laughing and reveling in the chaos their battle incited.
Ethics
· Reality is what one makes it.
· Free the weig into the vortex.
· This existence is a lie, a fever -dream of the sleeping Antediluvians, designed to coax us into waking torpor. Only the gifts of our founder enable us to unravel the tapestry and weave it anew into something better.
· The farther one is from the Antediluvians, the less real one is - not that being real necessarily makes one superior.
· The night of the Flux - the night others refer to as "Gehenna," when reality will be reshaped, for better or worse draws nigh. The more reality can be altered between now and that night, the more confused the Antediluvians will be, and the more likely it is that the Flux will turn out for the better.
· Tricking, confusing and humiliating other Kindred, particularly those high in the Antediluvians' esteem, discombobulates the Ancients and aids our war. Besides, it's fun.
History
This Path arose among the Ravnos in the latter days of the Roman Empire. Ravnos followers of this Path are believed to have had much to do with the fall of the Empire (as a strike against the rigid, boring Ventrue and Lasombra). Since those days, the followers of this Path have constantly striven against the evil tomb-thoughts of the Antediluvians - the vile creations of society, law, shape, matter and structured reality. The recent breakthroughs in quantum physics may well be the results of the efforts of those on this Path.
Hierarchy of Sins
10 - Refusing to commit diablerie upon an elder of another clan
9 - Refusing to lead a "locked" being into the light - or into destruction
8 - Showing any concern for mortals
7 - Failing to acquire item s or knowledge that would affect the Flux
6 - Failing to trick others when the opportunity arises
5 - Being caught altering another's reality via the select redistribution of possessions (known among the vulgar as stealing)
4 - Refusing to release the weig of an empowered device
3 - Joining another sect (Camarilla or Sabbat) and actively maintaining the existing structure thereof
2 - Actively hindering change
1 - Actively inducing boredom