The Ravenblack Grimoire

Virgo contacted me a week ago for an interview about The Temple of Lies. I told her then that I don’t do interviews. Never could abide them and do not see the need in them especially since I have my own paper to spout on in and had, when I was ready, planned to write about this myself.

The Temple of Lies is topical for sure. You’d have to be deaf and stupid not to see der Tote regurgitating his measly mouthed truisms in bastardised Lucius styles and wonder what this new Temple incarnation is going to take.

Ars Gratis artis right? Or whatever was the last catch phrase Lucius coined in the dying embers of the original Temple.

I’ve observed what I’ve come to term as the Groupie Phenomenon when it comes to Lucius in my time connected to the man and after. For all of his egocentric infamy and megalomaniac charisma he was never as shining in reality as he was in historical text.

Lucius for all of his many faults was made more infamous by the vampires who heralded his past than his own accounting. I’ll have to give him his due though, because lets face it if you didn’t know why he did what he did then I don’t mind enlightening you that the bright ideas he did have were shining examples of vainglorious acts of selfish self advancement. He was the ultimate Lucius PR machine.

But his brilliance, for the many who only want to see the negative was that he was so damned good at what he did. He was the honey so many in this city needed to taste. He exuded a flagrant disregard for all vampires but himself and somehow in a strange mimicry of a battered wife syndrome of addiction to neglect, the hoards would flock to him for but a mere taste of his dubious mercy. And love him for his sneering distaste of them, despite themselves. And he used it to his advantage.

So why do I go on about Lucius now? Well, that too is topical don’t you think?

The revival of the Temple of Lies is but another notch in the legacy of his history in this city.

The Midnights were the poor facsimile Priests of the current age, a community of vampires whose ideals set them apart in form and practice who in their own way attempted the same tom foolery of the Priests of old, fools who fooled the foolish with their fool hardy attempts at fool inspired satire. Sadly, falling horribly flat. A fate which may be destined for this current incarnation of The Temple of Lies.

Inu Adaire is quoted in The Bite to say that at the moment the new Temple is a library of collections from the old Temple and the new Priests and Priestesses are sitting around…. Doing what? No one seems to know, least of all it seems the Priests themselves. The only Priest roaming about doing much of anything is der Tote and even that is sporadic, tired and lacklustre.

Inu, darling that she is, has been attempting to revitalise the Temple for years now, wearing the title of Priestess all the years since, but doing precious little except create a library.

I was never a true member of The Temple of Lies. I found their satire and thinly veiled (and oft times clumsy) humour to be cheap and tawdry. But it worked for them. They were artistic free spirits taunting the city denizens with that dubious wit in a commendable effort to be original at least.

But what made them who they were, what inspired them to create and be creative was Lucius. It was always Lucius. It’s still Lucius. Although for certain those who inhabit their new walls would beg to differ I think that the real truism of the attempted revival of The Temple of Lies proper is that they want what only Lucius can give.

Charismatic Inspiration.

And no one in those walls currently has the ability to do it. They never have. It took the megalomaniac vision of someone as sociopathically self driven as Lucius to see the absurdity of those around him. Not only to see it, but then to believe his observation to be the canniest, the most succinct, his truth to be the most revealing of another’s farce that he would inspire his Priests to observe it and write it in terms of his own directing. In his own eyes the mastermind puppeteer pulling the strings on his little tribe of believers.

That was Lucius’ ability. Egocentric visionary.

The only good I can see of this current interest in the Temple is the fleeting reappearance of Pollux after so long and even better to see others calling him an egocentric arrogant bastard. Ironic really don’t you think?

The one vampire Lucius knew could lead as High Priest the Temple needed to be led and the one vampire who burnt it down rather than see it fall to facsimile ruin. Better to burn than to watch it waste into something tired and worn, led by someone with little self confidence and even less ability to become the visionary that is needed to see The Temple of Lies prosper.

So, the new Priests and Priestesses are sitting around collecting historical texts of the past. Well, that’s nice. That is actually, exactly what I thought they were doing.

And it’s exactly why I think Pollux was right to burn that bitch down.

Inu is no Lucius and she has, for all her efforts, only managed to become Lucius’ Librarian.

Funny that.