Arikel Toreador

Do You

• About the Toreadors

  About the Toreadors
  The Toreador clan of the Vampire is the most classic of Vampires. Dark Angels of beauty. Toreador are beauty, sex and death incarnates, seeing themselves as the supreme Vampire. They hold themselves in the highest regard. They also consider themselves artists of every kind, seeking the beauty in all. To make art is to be a Toreador.
  
  Since the First City, Toreadors have excelled in beautifying their environment and expressing their thoughts and selves through every means imaginable. The Toreador has created art and played muse to mortal artists. The spirit and will to create and the drive towards beauty are at the core of the Toreador soul.
  
  Why are Toreadors, of all the Kindred, more open in their attraction to the curious experience called Love? Well, they do have an innate attraction to beauty. Love can be said to be one of the most beautiful emotions mortal kind experiences, so Toreadors might easily become fascinated by it due to their clan weakness.
  
  Also, Toreadors are often said to be closest to their humanity. Thus they may be closer to human emotions, particularly the queen of emotions, Love. Toreadors are passionate creatures, even though their passions are no longer the same as when they were mortals. The rapture of the Kiss and the thrill of immortality may well remind them of the tempestuous passions of human Love and push them towards seeking the real thing.
  
  And besides, if a Toreador wishes to be a truly tortured artist, what more exquisite torture than seeking, experiencing, and losing Love? -In most cases, intimate relationships [between vampires and] mortals are disastrous, but for a brief moment, the Toreador experiences love, something most Kindred have forgotten. Through love, Humanity is restored, insanity cured, and zest for un-life renewed. It is, perhaps, the possibility of love that makes the Toreador so special. Love is a powerful force, superior in many ways to all the dark powers of the Sabbat, the respect of the Ventrue, the intrigues of the Tremere, and the secrets of the Nosferatu. It is a force of good that nurtures and heals.
  
  Toreadors can easily be stereotyped as trendy clothes horses, forever following the whims of the fashion rags. What these generalizes fail to recognize is that they set those fashions and write and produce those magazines and always have! Toreadors have an iron grip on the fashion industry, from the billion-dollar couture designers down to the silliest music videos. Sometimes they're the power behind the scenes, and sometimes they're even the public players. And there are usually different Toreador divas fighting against each other for power and prestige, which results in the mercurial changes from long hemlines to short skirts to pants, from retro 70s to retro 40s to futuristic, etc., etc., etc.
  
  These battles, plus the universal Toreador desire to be the brightest peacock in the crowd, all influence many Toreadors to actually avoid slavishly following trends. It is only by setting the trends that they can hope to gain status among their kind...