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With its collapse, Rome’s outposts in Dacia and Pannonia were abandoned. Pannonians moved westward, pushed along by invading barba-
rians, while the Romanians fled to the Carpathian Mountains and into Transylvania. When the Roman troops fled, they left behind a sleeping
Cainite, a native of the region who had been Embraced by a Roman Malkavian. This tormented soul had unwittingly bound himself to the
demon’s heart while mortal, which maddened him with its visions of the future. This made him the perfect candidate for the Malkavian Em-
brace. The Cainite took the name Octavio, for he believed that eight great signs would portend the awakening of the demon Kupala. After
slaying his sire in a moment of madness, Octavio haunted the Roman settlement of Aquincum until he fell into torpor when the legions with-
drew. Destruction of some of the town overhead failed to disturb the underground crypt where he lay sleeping.

The Carpathian Basin became an outpost of the Hun Empire in the fifth century. Attila the Hun assaulted the eastern portion of the Roman
Empire, driving his troops as far as Constantinople. A huge ransom (and some say, other methods of persuasion by Michael of Clan Toreador,
patriarch of the city) dissuaded Attila from pressing further; his kingdom was short-lived.

Less stable kingdoms followed. Gespids routed Huns. Odoacer deposed the last Roman emperor in 476. Theodoric of the Ostrogoths deth-
roned Odoacet. Kingdoms rose and fell as barbarian hordes moved across the land in waves. Chaos spread throughout the East. Bulgars con-
quered the southern lands near Constantinople; Slavic tribes invaded the Balkans, sometimes with the assistance of either Shadow Lords or
Tzimisce and Gangrel who moved westwatd with them. The northern Slavs did not come as conquerors, but as settlers. They put down roots
in areas where they could farm without coming into conflict with more aggressive tribes. Avars dominated the Carpathian Basin through the
seventh and eighth centuries until the power of Charlemagne subdued them. Many accepted Christianity as the price of their continued exis-
tence.

The rift between East and West continued to grow as the Byzantine Empire practiced the Eastern Orthodox faith, turning away from Western
Europe’s Roman Catholic Church. The Balkans remain transfixed by religious war even today, crucified on the altar of differing doctrines.
The Orthodox Church, with its veneration of icons and married priests (so unlike the Catholic Church), has remained mysterious and disturb-
ing to the West for centuries.

The land’s current history begins with the arrival of the Hungarians, or, as they called themselves, Magyars. The name “Magyar” derives
from the Turkish word “Onogurs,” meaning “10 arrows,” indicating they once were a confederation of 10 tribes. They originated near the
Ural Mountains, where Shadow Lords watched over their development. Many of these fierce warriors were Shadow Lord Kinfolk. Seven of
those tribes lived a nomadic life in the Khazar Khanate, acting as soldiers for the Kagan, by the seventh century. The strongest tribe was the
Magyars, and all seven tribes eventually became known by that name.

When they refused to help the Kagan put down an uprising, the Magyars had to leave their homes. Many Shadow Lords went with them,
traveling westward in search of new caerns. Led by a charismatic leader named Arpad, the Magyars migrated westward across the Carpa-
thians and entered the Alfold in 895. In light of later events, when the chief-
The Land's Ancient Masters tains of the tribes chose Arpad to lead them, they swore fealty to him and his
male issue by the ritual drinking of their mingled blood.
Within their ancestral fastnesses in Transylvania dwelt
Ancient Ones who preferred to isolate themselves from
Each of the tribes was given a portion of the land they entered for their home.
the tumult of the mortal world. In darkness, the Tzimisce
Arpad’s tribe took the land around Buda. Then began a period that Hunga-
lived in contemplation of the horror within. Communing
rians refer to as “the adventure.” Years of lightning-quick horseback raids
with the night, infected by the miasma of corruption that
across the Danube and into Western Europe ensued. The Magyars plundered
lay in their territory, the eldest would sometimes walk
Bavaria and northern Italy. The name Hungarian was similar to “Hun,” and
among men and be worshipped as gods.
the Magyars did not apprise the terrified Westerners that they were no rela-
tion to the terrible Attila.
Humanity was never a concept the Tzimisce under- stood.
Endless experimentation on the mortals they bred brought
In 933, Emperor Henry the Fowler led heavily armed knights against the Ma-
them knowledge, but never understanding. The Tzimisce
gyars and defeated them. Agyula of the Arpads made an alliance that would
built their temples within caves and labyrinths in the east-
ensure the success of his warriors in 948. Bulscu, a fierce leader known as the
ern Carpathians. The greatest of these shrines was created
“Man of Blood,” made a treaty with the rulers of Constantinople. By accept-
by the Methuselah Yorak. Ghouled servitors brought Yo-
ing Orthodox Christianity in Byzantium, he gained the support of the mortal
rak abducted mortals, from whom he fed. Breeding and
Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. Michael of Clan Toreador also allied with
experimenting on them, he soon began to craft them into
Bulscu, seeking a tool to use against the Holy Roman Empire.
elaborate sculptures that stretched across the walls of his
meditation chamber. Thus, the Cathedral of Flesh took its
Hungarian cavalry assaulted Western Europe. The Hungarian race had lived
abhorrent and unnatural shape.
by tribal warfare for centuries, and their warriors spread like wildfire
throughout the German lands. Supernatural assistance aided them. Michael
While many of the childer of Tzimisce spread throughout
had enlisted allies, as certain Balkan Brujah were eager to join his crusade
Europe, the Old Country Tzimisce became increasingly
against the north. The Teutonic Ventrue held power there, and a military as-
introspective, Seeking to understand the Beast Within
sault on their domains would weaken them.
through working horrors upon their own (or others’)
flesh, they became an alien race — more monstrous than
The undead leader of these Brujah was Dominic, a vengeful warrior who had
human. The shadows over Transylvania deepened as
witnessed the destruction of Carthage firsthand. His soul hungered for ven-
many fell to the demon’s madness.

Chapter Two: A Land Bedecked In Darkness