[davidtmoore]

Hmm. It's a level playing field - none of the Clans have many big hitters around - so I'd still see the Ventrue's cohesion as an advantage. That said, it occurs to me the Ventrue would also be hit by their Clan weakness; perhaps only a minority would be cut off from their food supply by the Banestorm (those whose feeding restriction is ethnic, say, or specific to a family or location), but enough to undermine them.

So with the Lasombra and Toreador heading up the Megalan/Caithnesser contingent, how about that manifesting as a church and state divide? The Lasombra reform the Amices Nocti in Megalos itself and inveigle themselves in the Church, creating a strong vampiric church across the growing Empire, with some cities being ruled by "Bishops" rather than Princes, while the Toreador focus on noble families and the civic power structures. The Ventrue, when they pick themselves up and dust themselves off, become involved in the mercantile middle classes. The Brujah, Salubri and Cappadocians fit into the system around them, with the Brujah's heartland in the chivalrous Caithness and the Cappadocians fortifying themselves on Abydos.

Over time, Yrth's equivalent of the Camarilla is a "Three Estates" model, with a Prince and a Bishop in every city, and the Church of Caine and the Empire of Night acting as checks and balances to each other.

I figure if you don't end up with goblin Tremere, then you certainly end up with goblin thaumaturges, although maybe they spawn their own bloodline off another Clan and found Thaumaturgy independently. But they would also submit to the Megalan establishment.