The Kalderash Clan
Of the different clans of the Rom (gypsies), the Kalderash have been most involved with supernatural world. From their first travels from North Western India in the early 1000’s A.D., the ancestors of the modern day Kalderash had created quite a stir on their travels. Rumors of their success in predicting the future and majicks made them infamous.
The clan stayed put in woods of present day Transylvania, Romania, formally Walachia. There, they had settled and watched the chaos of the world go on around them. In the 14th century, a powerful king came into power over Walachia. His name was Vlad Dracule, or more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler.
Vlad’s armies managed to arrest a good number of the clan and, unsurprising, impaled them. This caused an uproar from the Kalderash. The clan women placed a curse on Vlad, sentencing his reign to be cut short and for him to die at the hands of the rival Ottomans, in which they presented his head to the Sultan. When he would be buried, his body and head would be rejoined, and was sentenced to spend the rest of eternity as a vampire.
Soon after they cursed him, life seemed to resume back to normal. That was, until the government officially made all Roma people slaves. To avoid this, the Kalderash placed a spell upon their clan of people, in which the general public could not see them. This continued on for a good 500 years, before in 1855, when Romania made the practice of enslaving gypsies illegal.
For the next 43 years, life amongst the Kalderash was peaceful once more. That was, until the future visionary of the clan was kidnapped by a beautiful, yet evil, vampire named Darla.
She took the girl to her lover, Angelus, where they beat, tortured, raped, and finally, killed the girl. The sent the clan in a deep depression, with the only thing on their minds was revenge. So, for an entire week, they plotted the ultimate vengeance. The elder woman of the clan then cursed Angelus with a soul. This act sent Darla and her and Angelus’ traveling companions, Spike and Drusilla, to come after and kill a good portion of the clan.
The survivors then reformed the clan and life continued. Then, in 1939, the Nazis invaded Romania. They began collecting local gypsies and sending them away to “work camps”. The clan then fled to France, where a great number of Romani. Unfortunately, one year later, Germany invaded the country, and, yet again, they fled, this time to England. The Kalderash remained there for five years until the war ended. They then reached the decision to return to Romania, since they grew attached to it.
Alas, this proved fateful. Russia got rid of Romania’s old government and replaced it with a communist one. This one was not so bad for the Romani, since this destroyed anti-Roma attacks.
Things continued peacefully for about 20 years. In 1967, they even had company. Yolanda, the wife of the current Rom Baro’s son, taught a former watcher named Morris Giles, while his girlfriend Alessa Hunt spent time with her son, Enzo. They left a year later, weeks before a truly tragic even occurred.
The Kalderash came under attack by the Coven of Sindell, who wanted access to the visionaries of the clan. In the process, they killed the goal of their mission, the future visionary Violaine Lautari, Yolanda’s five year old daughter. This eventually led to the Treaty of Violaine, which promised that the Coven would provide for the needs of the clan as long as they told of all the visions they received.
Although, in 1989, when Romania overthrew their harsh dictator and communism and caused the rise of anti-Roma feelings, the clan continued to revolutionize themselves. They soon abandoned their nomad lifestyle for a traditional lifestyle of being one place 24/7.
The Kalderash, to this day, are still big into the dark arts while their leader and first ever female Rom baro, Yolanda Lautari, leading them into a new era.
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