No struggle in all the history of the Jihad has had more
influence on the relationships between the clans than the
conflict between the Kindred of this city and those of Rome.
The Carthageans believed in the dream of peaceful co-existence
between vampires and mortals. The kindred lived without any
secrecy to the mortal inhabitants there, who willingly shared
their blood with their fellow vampire citizens, at least at first.
Over the years, power and responsibility slowly shifted away
from the mortals to the Kindred, until near the end of the
society, the mortals were little more than the pets and slaves
of their vampire masters. The end came when word of the true
nature of this "peaceful co-existence" finally leaked out to
the Kindred in the rest of the world. In Rome, where the
Kindred manipulated the mortals from behind the scenes, it
became clear that if the existence of vampires became common
knowledge, the mortals would rise up against their secret rulers.
After the report of a Toreador agent named Helena, the Ventrue
of Rome led a coalition of most of the other clans to besiege
and sack the north African city. After Carthage lay in ruins,
the ground was salted and rituals were performed to prevent
any Kindred from approaching the city again. Those few who
have tried over the following centuries have either all collapsed
into immediate final death or run away screaming, their minds
permanently destroyed by madness. It is suspected that the
Kindred who survived the battle lie forever entombed under the
ruins, perhaps even the progenitor of the Brujah clan himself.
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