he Ravnos are not present in Europe in a significant number. Their people, the Gypsies, are currently slowly moving west, spreading across Europe. For now most are found around the cities of the East, through the Arab lands and northern India as far away as China. There are a few groups of Ravnos vampires around the eastern Mediterranean. They have a prince in the Crusaders' city of Acre, where dark Cainites (Setites, Assamites, Lasombra, et al.) often meet to trade goods and information, hatch plots and strike alliances, and they have a community in the Setite-controlled port of Alexandria. From here, small bands of scoundrels visit Constantinople, Venice and other European ports to steal or extort from the Cainites or mortals.

Many Cainites resent the offhand way that Ravnos trick, rob or swindle other clans. The Ravnos believe they have a sacred duty to keep others from becoming too attached to impermanent things ( possessions, beliefs, and really just about everything ). However, they also see the dim view the outsiders take of their activities. So for now, the Ravnos are a tatterdemalion collection of wanderers and loners, nothing like the hierarchical clans of Europe. It is not their place for such stuffiness, the Ravnos maintain, and so it is the open road and the back alley for them, from now until the final trump.

STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE

The Ravnos have very little military strength in Europe. If threatened with violence, the typical Charlatan will simply laugh and go away (quickly, if need be). If one needs to do harm to an enemy, she will try to trick her foe into a deadly feud with another Cainite (preferably another enemy). If all goes well, the two will be at each others' throats long enough to let the Ravnos go her own way. If not, the Ravnos tries to make as clean a getaway as possible.

The Ravnos are master strorytellers and serve as messengers when few others are able. They bring news from far places, and if need be are willing to shape the news to their own advantage. A clever Ravnos can begin a slander that sounds perfectly true, feed it to all the reliable sources and watch his enemy's power base crumble like old clay. Of course, one must be very good to make this stratagem work, but the Ravnos elders have had quite some time to perfect their little fabrications.

ORGANIZATION

Ravnos deliberately shy away from organization, as that would require entirely too much trust and too little independence. It is generally acknowledged that the oldest of the clan are somewhere in the East and have little interest in their childer's doings. However, there is always a grudging respect between Ravnos, and they will usually leap to each other's defense when an outsider starts making threats. "Only I am allowed to insult my brother", or so they would say.

CURRENT PRACTICES

Although ousiders see no real method to the Ravnos' ways, the Charlatans are actually carefully examining Europe. Those elder Ravnos who walk European lands are scouts after a fashion, ascertaining the best time for the majority of their clan (and their mortal people) to return.

The nomadic lifestyle is the most important facet of any Ravnos' unlife; if shackled to one place for too long, they would likely grow mad as a Malkavian. To some extent, the Ravnos have pursued friendly relations with the Gangrel, whom they call cousins, the better to survive the longs wild roads. The Gangrel do not welcome such efforts and hold the deceitful Ravnos in contempt. This does not deter the Ravnos, whose sense of humor keeps them good-natured even when confronted with a snarling, bestial Cainite and his menagerie.

PRESENT CONCERNS

Many locals call the meandering Ravnos plague-bearers and stormcrows. The outsider is often mistrusted in times of war, and so the Ravnos steer as clear as they can of the petty battles and feuds across Europe. They avoid the Tremere war when possible, but are not averse to striking deals (or cons) with combatants or suppliers on either side. Those clans concerned with "courtly decorum" run the Ravnos out of their domains on whatever grounds they can find.

Ravnos wagons have also been threatened by Lupine attacks in recent years. As the bloody excesses of many vampires stir up other supernatural activity, the lonely Charlatans have found the long roads growing more dangerous.

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