The Brasseaux were an offshoot of the Bratovich revenant family who moved with their Tzimisce masters through the Black Forest, eventually colonizing the eastern part of France, as far south as Provencal. Perfectly loyal to their Tzimisce masters, they protected them when crusades or wars threatened their havens. When the Cainite Heresy spread through the region like a plague, it was easily adapted by the Tzimisce to their needs and the Brasseaux became heretics. The establishment of the Camarilla put the families and their masters in the Sabbat camp but, again, little really changed. That is, until the Camarilla began its efforts to drive the Sabbat from Europe and the Brasseaux and their masters fled, like many others, to the New World. Settling in French Acadia, they met up with other Sabbat refugees. Unlike the Prejeans, they kept to their Acadian woods and enjoyed their freedom and solitude. When the British eventually pushed them from their homes, the families opted to follow the Cathari saint, Malena, to Louisiana, where they were told they'd be left to breed and live as they pleased.
Louis Brasseaux and his two brothers arrived in Lafayette Parish in 1790, settling near the Prejean family which had preceded them from Acadia. They immediately set about trying to carve a niche for themselves in the flurry of kindred trying to stake a claim in the territory. Their efforts immediately brought them into conflict with the Lasombra, Vicario, and the Houma pack during what was to become the First Sabbat Civil War. In the turmoil that followed, Louis' two brothers were killed, leaving him to claim their children as his own and establish himself as the head of the family. Under the guidance of the Matriarch, he wed the eldest and arranged for the rest to marry their children. He did not live to see his plan to fruition, however, as both he and his son died in the Battle of New Orleans trying to make amends with Vicario for the folly of his brothers.
His line continued, however, his children wedding and producing many children. The youngest daughter was wed to a mortal descendant of the leader of the Houma line as a way of settling the score for good and Louis' son, Dagobert, was Embraced by the Matriarch when his wife died in childbirth, to act as guardian of the family and keeper of the kennels. Once talk of succession began, the Matriarch began to prepare for the worst. Concerned for a branch of the family which had recently moved to Alexandria, she Embraced Dagobert's son-in-law, Herbert, and sent him to watch over his brother's family. The Civil War broke out the next year and soon Lafayette was under seige. During the fighting, the deformed and retarded twins Gil and Gui were born to Louis' youngest son, after suffering through his wife's numerous miscarriages and difficult pregnancy, and they were turned over to Dagobert, who transformed them via Vicissitude into warriors and gave them the Embrace. All of the extra help did not keep the family from sustaining heavy losses, though. The Alexandria branch was wiped out with the help of the Gangrel elder "Old Pete" and Gil and Gui's father, Curtis, was killed along with Herbert's eldest son, Armand. The losses enflamed the Matriarch, who pushed the females of the family into hasty marriages, interbreeding the two major branches in an attempt to keep the bloodline alive.
As the family grew, its politics grew more complex and the older members took part in subtle power struggles to become leader of the clan. This concerned the Matriarch, who decided to ghoul Gil and Gui's mother, since her problems with reproduction and dead husband provided her no other use, and used her as a spy to keep tabs on family affairs. After a time, Emeline grew resentful and bitter and the Matriarch began to depend on the use of Dominate to keep her in line, which slowly removed her will and subverted her personality, starting a tradition which continues to this day. Meanwhile, out of concern for the lack of branching in the family tree, she began to encourage marriage with the Prejeans. This proved to be a problem as time went on, as they had little loyalty towards the other Sabbat in the region, while the Brasseaux had come to think of the Houma Gangrel as family and were properly respectful of the Lasombra. Fighting over the issue occured until the onset of the Second Sabbat Civil War, during which a poorly thought out attempt on Vicario's unlife by Herbert's two remaining sons, Edmond and Gaston, led to their deaths, the suicide of Gaston's wife Loraine, and the slaying of two younger members of the family as retribution by the Houma pack, renewing the enmity between them. This enraged the Matriarch, who blamed it on the influence of the Prejeans, and almost led to violent conflict between both sides, had not the Spanish flu devestated the families several years earlier. When the Code of Milan was announced, the two families settled into brooding silence and tried to pick up the pieces.
With Emeline's death in 1934, the Matriarch took a new ghoul, this time Emeline's neice Audrey, who was also past her childbearing years and had just lost her husband. This time, she did not wait for disobedience, Dominating her from the beginning. Because of this, she was rendered a mindless idiot by the time of her death in 1954 of "natural causes", at which time she moved on to one of the younger women in the family, Louise, hoping that her relative youth would allow her to last longer. Louise was rendered unable to bear children after a difficult pregnancy, but unlike her predecessors, she was still married. Her mental deterioriation did not please her husband, Herbert Prejean, and its progress further drove a wedge between the two families. However, a much more tragic event was to draw attention away from it. In 1970, a Camarilla attack on the plantation left Louise and her father Roderic dead, along with several children and a half dozen of the Prejeans. The loss of life left the Matriarch obsessed with expanding the family. She began to contact lost branches and encourage breeding with any 'worthy stock' (meaning revenants).
The Matriarch has replaced the dead Louise with her sister-in-law Emeline, whose namesake was the first of her puppets. Her huband, Louise's brother, is foremost in a growing portion of the family who tires of the domination of the Tzimisce and is unwilling to see any more of its sisters, wives, and daughters sacrificed to her needs. However, the presence of Gil and Gui makes it difficult to revolt and so they just quietly plot. Meanwhile, Emeline loses all sense of self and indications are that her daughter Jocelyn will take her place. Gerard and Emeline's brother Beranger are unlikely to let this happen quietly.