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Early History
Unique among the Antediluvians, Cappadocius viewed the Embrace as a unique opportunity to examine the condition of death and un-life. Throughout the early history of the Damned, he studied alone. Of all the Antediluvians, Cappadocius appears the least interested in politics or power; even Saulot sired childer and fought in wars. Cappadocius saw no need to do so, until he realized he would never find his answers alone. Long after the flood, and after the demise of the Second City, he began with one childe, Caias Koine. With Caias, he began to study mortal civilizations in order to understand death.

Cappadocian history begins with three events: the embrace of Caias, which creates the clan proper, the first visions of Cappadocius, which would guide the future of the clan, and an encounter outside of Jerusalem. There, Cappadocius encountered a lone traveler who introduced him to the nameless God, who would become the goal of all of Cappadocius' projects.

The first of these projects was the construction of Erciyes, the vast temple-complex at the mountain of the same name. This site became the Cappadocian headquarters, containing a monastery and the home of the Antediluvian and his oldest childer. Erciyes became the heart and research center of the clan, with the majority of the clan returning regularly to trade discoveries and set clan policy. Cappadocius had a goal, and unlike some more anarchic clans, the entirety of clan Cappadocian was dedicated to this goal of meeting, and then diablerizing, God. Cappadocius, a priest in life, was the only Antediluvian to adopt a human religion - following Christianity in his own fashion.


The Dark Ages
Cappadocius, a vampire of the "I wake up and read for the next 300 years" variety, ruled his clan with a project but a relatively loose hand. He was a visionary, not a manager, and the clan was largely controlled by his favored childer: Japheth Cappadocius, Caias Koine, and Lazarus. These three had childer of their own in positions of power (most notably Constancia, and Lamia, the founder of the bloodline of the same name). After those, the ones Cappadocius would regularly see the clan spread far. So far that they populated two cities of their own: Kaymakli and Derinkuyu. Cappadocius was not aware that his clan was, in fact, the largest of all vampiric clans until the mortals of Derinkuyu told him. Remorseful at this, Cappadocius prepared a massive purge of his own clan.

He called another meeting of the clan at Kaymakli, with Japheth and Caias in attendance. Leading the members of the clan deeper into the cave complex underneath the city, he asked his descendants a sequence of questions to measure their worth to society. The ones who answered incorrectly (on the surface, at least) were dismissed and abandoned in the tunnels, while the remainder continued along with Cappadocius. In the end, Cappadocius sealed thousands of vampires in the caves with the curse of an Antediluvian: "Let no childe of Caine ever leave through this passage; let no son of Seth ever enter". There, bound by their Clan Founder's ward, the rejected childer starved, frenzied, fed, and fell to torpor.

The Feast of Folly led to another reduction of the clan: Lazarus had not attended the gathering, along with his childer he remained in Egypt. At this time, Egypt was close to forbidden for the clan, as the Followers of Set would make short work of invaders to their territory. By dint of power and darker measures, Lazarus ensured his safety there, but he and his infitiores were severed from the clan, renouncing their identity as Cappadocians for their own projects.

Following the Feast of Folly, the founder sought further assistance for the clan in unraveling death's mysteries. Selecting a family of Venetian necromancers, the Giovanni, Cappadocius brought their patriarch into the undead, seeking to complement the Cappadocian mastery of death with insights into existence after it.

Embracing Augustus would become the undoing of the clan, however. Augustus Giovanni had his own motives for the Embrace, and eventually betrayed his clan, diablerizing the Antediluvian and remaking it in his own image in 1444.


Victorian Ages
The Giovanni hunted the clan to extermination by the 19th century, having extracted a promise of non-interference from the Camarilla. The only survivors of the clan were small offshoots: Lazarus' infitiores, the Premascine Giovanni under the canals of Venice.

As the Cappadocians fell, various offshoots of the clan mutated in fashions that had already begun before Cappadocius' death. Some of the infitiores decayed physically, becoming mobile corpses.

Meanwhile, other Cappadocians were active beyond the Shroud, waiting...

Modern Nights
Some accounts have it that a cabal of ancient, powerful, and very angry Cappadocians took advantage of the Sixth Great Maelstrom to break through the Shroud, claiming or forming new decayed bodies and seeking vengeance. Others have it that it was the Capuchin's magics which helped the cabal escape the Underworld.

Whatever the truth may be, it is known that these Harbingers of Skulls have made nominal alliance with the Sabbat, although it would be more appropriate to say that they are the enemies of a Camarilla which sold them out.

Another group of Harbingers have made alliance with the Tal'Mahe'Ra, assisting that sect with its Underworld affairs in return for the opportunity to study the Dark Umbra.

In addition, two legacies of Clan Cappadocian exist within the Giovanni, the Premascines and rare cases called "avatisms of the blood". Premascines are old Cappadocians, members of the Giovanni family and bloodline who live under Venice's canals. The second are rare members of the family who upon Embrace take on the weakness of Cappadocians (a corpse-like pallor) and lack the Curse of Lamia.

The mutation of the Cappadocian blood since the clan's fall means that most surviving Cappadocians are now, to all intents and purposes, considered members of bloodlines or other clan variants, but there are still one or two who are recorded as remaining Cappadocian, such as Angelique of Cairo by Night and Apacia of Children of the Revolution.

During the 2010s, the Harbingers of Skulls launched an assault on Clan Giovanni's holdings in Venice, with the assistance of a number of young Giovanni. This was one of the immediate causes of the Family Reunion.

The majority of the Cappadocian remnants and the Harbingers of Skulls, no longer able or willing to exist separately, have synthesized into a single bloodline within the Hecata called the Harbingers of Ashur. Still, some Cappadocians are migrating to Camarilla domains and are weighing leaving the Hecata to join them.

Both the Hecata Cappadocians and Harbingers of Skulls, have a great deal of influence over covering up killings done by them or their companions, and they learn far quicker their arts of necromancy than most Hecata.

Because of the clan-wide changes in the blood, Hecata Cappadocian no longer exhibit their corpse-like visage. In its place is the new clan-wide bane of the painful Kiss.

Curiously, and although it is not widely known, the Cappadocian and Hecata are immune to the Beckoning.