The Prejeans were a branch of the Zantosa revenant family which migrated to the south of France with Bogomil refugees from the Black Sea area to escape oppression. Settling in the Languedoc region, they spread their own twisted version of the Gnostic beliefs of their escorts in small pockets, far from church authorities, helping to spread the Cainite Heresy through the region. Many of the branches of the family clustered around a kindred "saint". One such figure was Malena of Aragon, who survived the Albigensian Crusade and joined the nascent Sabbat, eventually fleeing to the New World to escape destruction. The Prejeans came with her, settling first in Nova Scotia, but spreading their influence throughout the northeastern part of the continent. When Canada was seded to the British, they accepted Malena's prophecy that the promised land lay to the south and gathered those they could to begin the journey to Louisiana.
Brothers Peire and Sevin Prejean arrived in Louisiana with their families in 1781, settling in Lafayette Parish near the town of Vermilionville. They immediately set upon the construction of a large house on orders from their Tzimisce patriarch, Jean-Michel, funded by the proceeds of their trapping, his hoarded gold, and money obtained in a variety of unethical ways. When the Brasseaux arrived, nine years later, they were welcomed and contribued their own efforts to the swiftly growing plantation. While one of the purposes of their arrival in the colony was to support the Lasombra Vicario in his bid to claim New Orleans, the patriarch was slow in communicating with the family's supposed ally, a situation which increased tensions as more kindred flooded the region with the arrival of Santo Domingo refugees soon after. The situation came to a head with the onset of the Sabbat Civil War, which led to a clash between the loyal Houma pack and the two revenant families. During the struggle, both Peire and his wife Saissa were killed, but the rest of the family was able to hold their ground against the Gangrel until the Purchase Pact put an end to the war. Soon after, they united with them to fight afainst the Camarilla during the Battle of New Orleans, leading to the death of Hugues, Peire's second oldest son.
As the family settled in, Jean-Michel decided to take the two eldest grandchildren of Peire as his ghouls and eventually Embraced them to help defend the familial estate while he retreated to his research, leaving the revenants to prosper in Louisiana's newfound economic growth. Several marriages were arranged with other Cajun families as well as a few further flung, the most important of which were to the Castille family, which established the Texan branch of the bloodline in Galveston, and the Ambre family, which would found the Mississippi branch in Biloxi. The family thought little of the rising furor over slavery and talks of succession, owning no slaves nor having any interest in politics. However, history would catch up with them when the outbreak of the Civil War brought an influx of Camarilla agents, as well as pillaging soldiers, to their town. The fighting in Lafayette was vicious and both of Sevin's sons lost their lives as well as two of his granddaughters, Peire's eldest son and both of Jean-Michel's childer. Sevin himself had died of yellow fever shortly after the Purchase Pact, leaving his wife Amada as the elder of the clan.
The family worked hard at rebuilding as the kindred of the state fought viciously over control during Reconstruction. Jean-Michel's isolationist policy was quickly adopted by the elders of the family and communication with the Lasombra was severly limited while members of the family outside of Lafayette were encouraged to send reports of any news back to the plantation. Edgar Prejean received the Embrace, in order to replace Lothaire and Olivier, and ties with the outlying branches of the family were solidified. Also, during this period, the family began to intermarry heavily with the Brasseaux in order to decrease tensions between the two clans over the issue of loyalty to the New Orleans Sabbat and the various power struggles within the plantation itself. Tempers continued to heat, however, as many of the marriages were unhappily arranged and the Second Sabbat Civil War forced the issues of loyalty back out into the open, even though the Prejeans stayed out of it this time, some blamed the dissent they "sowed" for a plot that left several Brasseaux dead and invited retributive action by the Houma pack. Tempers were already heated due to an outbreak of Spanish flu which claimed a dozen members of both families.
Things became more difficult after the Code of Milan dictated that members of the Sabbat were obliged to assist each other in the furthering of the sect. While it forced a sort of peace between New Orleans and Lafayette, the Lasombra also felt that it obliged the Tzimisce and their families to assist in the ongoing struggle with the Brujah. In order to keep his family out of the war, Jean-Michel offered the fruits of his burgeoning intelligence network to Vicario in lieu of more direct assistance. While the Lasombra wasn't thrilled with the arrangement, the elder Tzimisce wouldn't budge and so it sufficed. As this practice expanded, relations between the branches of the family soured somewhat, particularly with the Galveston branch, who become more loyal to the Lasombra than to their family in Lafayette (or, at least, so it was perceived). However, the attempt at cooperation helped to settle affairs with the Brasseaux and kept the Houma pack off of their land, which sufficed to content Jean-Michel. By 1970, many of the older members of the family had died, leaving Herbert Prejean, who had taken two Brasseaux wives and was, thus, one of the major links between the families, as the eldest of the clan. His uncle, Edgar, kept things in line for Jean-Michel while he continued his arcane studies.
In 1970, the Camarilla staged a raid on the Lafayette plantation which, without Jean-Michel's magic, would have burned it to the ground. As it was, the attack left Herbert, his wife Louise, his son Esmond, and Uncle Edgar dead, as well as Roderic Brasseaux, Louise's father. Much of the property was damaged and several children and dogs were killed in the resultant fires. Unable to organize quickly enough to counterattack and thrown off by Tremere magic, all the clan could do was lick its wounds, bury the dead, and rebuild. Since then, however, there has been a growing passion among the survivors who remember the attack to get more involved in the war with the Camarilla, in order to pay them back for the damage. Foremost among these are Herbert's son, Beranger, and Esmond's son Joseph, both Prejean agents in New Orleans.
Jean-Michel against chose a member of the family to receive the Embrace with the destruction of his childe. This time he surprised the family by choosing Emma Ambre, Esmond's daughter. The decision has been puzzled over by most of the family, who wonder why he risked alienating the Ambres by stealing her away from her husband, Raoul, and what use he has for her, for unlike her predecessors, she seems to be assisting her sire in his occult studies rather than taking his place as head of the family. Furthermore, Emma was one of the last childbearing females in the line, meaning that her Embrace leaves only her two daughters to continue the line. There has been some very quiet speculation that perhaps Jean-Michel is more concerned with his own research than the family.