Places

For many Kindred, the idea of Golconda is one of redemption and of transcendence beyond the Curse of Caine. Golconda occasionally takes on a darker cast, however, for those who seek it (or deride it...) claiming that vampires “elevated” by Golconda are no gentle-spirited saints.

The Kindred of Hunedoara Castle — rumored to be a stronghold of the Inconnu — have many different views on their own claimed states of Golconda. Some seem to take the aspect of shepherds, with a philoso­ phy seemingly leading from the mire and sorrow of the Kindred condition, but others are veritable Biblical terrors, asserting that transcendence of the vampiric state certainly doesn’t arise from denying it. Behind the craggy castle walls and its guardian gargoyles, the true monsters dwell, a dozen in number.

Whatever the truth of Golconda, Castle Hune­ doara, hidden deep within the ancestral lands of the Tzimisce, provides a haven for these deathless gurus of the Golconda philosophy. The hoary halls of the castle are no sanctuary, and any place Cainites con­ gregate, sanguinary rivalries and clashing peccadilloes are sure to color the landscape.

Indeed, among those outsiders who know of the castle, its reputation as a den of heresy and bloody debauchery competes with that of its sanctity. Cer­ tainly, the truth lies somewhere amid the extremity of rumors it engenders. But how do these Kindred stave off the ennui and madness of their flawed immortality if they never venture beyond the stony walls of the castle?