by kish_k@mindspring.com

Blank pages: I’ve stuck to Clanbook conventions when writing this, and one such convention is that every chapter begins on an odd-numbered page, with an art page facing it. However, there is no art in this book, due to both lack of artistic ability on my part, and lack of knowledge of PhotoShop. Accordingly, those pages which would be pure art pages in a Clanbook are blank here.

Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Presence. This isn’t what any "official" write-up gives the Ventrue antitribu, but I feel it makes more sense, and so it’s what I use. This book can be used with either "official" Discipline combination; just ignore the Flaw "Throwback."

Paths and Virtues: Again, my Sabbat is rather different from the official one, and I don’t have enough of a feel for the Path of the Feral Heart to know how the Ventrue antitribu would think of it. However, the different Paths and Virtues should be fairly easy to translate into what fits anyone’s version of the Sabbat.

Special Thanks to:
Shweta "Warrior Princess" Narayan, for arguing me to a standstill about pretty much everything.
Bryan "Path of Re-emergence" Rendell, for contributing to my version of the Sabbat without ever knowing it.
Joe "Inner Voice" Iglesias, for suggesting a quote.

Chapter One: Freedom

I clench my teeth to avoid shouting as Darius turns casually away from the body of his dead packmate. Scanning the faces of the assembly, I see no one else looking as shocked or outraged as I feel; instead, all the others are strolling away.

"Why?" I want to scream at Darius, but I can imagine what the result would be. Instead, I scan the throng until I see my sire, Amy, and go over to her.

"Am I missing something?" I ask her. "He did just murder his packmate over a kine, didn’t he? How–"

"Not here," Amy breathes, grasping my arm firmly. "Back at our haven. I’ll explain it all there."

"That upset you," Amy says quietly as she turns one chair to face another and sits in the first chair, gesturing me to the other.

"He killed his packmate — for a kine," I sputter, wondering what I’m missing. The detachment everyone has been showing is starting to get to me. Amy leans forward and tells me, "It wasn’t really about the kine." Leaning back in her chair, she says, "Define freedom for me."

"Freedom is — the right to do as you choose, as long as you respect others’ rights."

She smiles, showing her Vicissitude-perfect teeth. "Very good," she tells me. "That last part — as long as you respect others’ rights — is essential. Darius is a Harmonist; his Path requires him to care, even about lesser beings. Of course, that doesn’t mean all of us should avoid hurting humans, that we do not injure the sensibilities of our Harmonist brothers and sisters — not a bit of it!" She laughs, tossing her hair. I’m reminded again of how I first met her. She still appears as she did then, like an innocent, beautiful, vulnerable young human. Fixing me with her eyes, she continues, "But what Simon did, torturing a kine to death in front of Darius — that wasn’t about Simon’s freedom. That was about a lack of respect for Darius and his Path. Simon meant it as a challenge; Darius responded — appropriately. Everyone there understood that. Indeed, had Darius not killed him, everyone would have known Darius was a coward."

I blink, adjusting to this viewpoint. "Not about the kine," I repeat slowly.

"Not in the way which matters," Amy shrugs. "It’s simple, really. If you hurt a kine for — scientific research, it’s your business. If you take up social work, spending your spare time helping hungry kine get food, it’s your business. If you kill a fellow Sabbat for torturing a kine, it’s murder. If you kill a fellow Sabbat for trying to help kine," her voice clearly indicates the incomprehensibility of any sane vampire trying to help kine, but she finishes, "it’s murder. If you kill a fellow Sabbat who was provoking you, in a properly sanctioned Monomacy duel… it’s justice. Only the strong can be free, and if we cannot treat our brothers and sisters with respect, we are as weak as the Camarilla.

"Respect," I repeat the word. "All those of our clan I’ve met put so much emphasis on this. Most of the others talk about freedom and loyalty, but not respect.

She frowns slightly. "It’s an essential part of our clan’s ideology — but don’t generalize too much. Stereotypes can be useful, but not nearly enough to make up for the danger. Every other clan loses much to them, even the ones you’d think would know better. Inside the Camarilla, the Nosferatu make sure to humiliate every Toreador they can, even Toreador neonates who never considered laughing at a Nosferatu. This makes sure every Toreador who makes it past a century never misses a chance to put down a Nosferatu again. And so it goes. Some of those outside our clan recognize that freedom and loyalty both depend on mutual respect.

"What if a fellow Sabbat does not treat you with respect?" I ask, thinking of the Lasombra.

Her frown deepens. "There can be no respect which only goes one way. If one of your fellow Sabbat treats you with disrespect because of an error you have made, act to correct that error. If another vampire treats you with disrespect because of something beyond your control, such as bloodline, lineage, gender — talk to her. Try to make her see."

"And if she cannot see?"

Amy draws one fingernail across her throat, in a gesture that would be quite meaningful enough even without the bright red line that follows her finger. She tilts her head back, making sure I see, then the cut on her throat closes gradually. "All vampires are equal," she tells me quietly. "All. All generations, all clans, all bloodlines, the Panders — all deserve to be judged on their own merits as individuals. That is one of the guiding principles of the Sabbat. Anyone who says otherwise is a traitor — or a fool. Fools can be convinced of the truth. Traitors die."

"It’s not always that easy," I protest. "No priest would agree I had grounds to fight a Monomacy duel with every Lasombra who snubbed me. And even if I could— "You’d get smeared all over the ground by one of the elders?" she suggests dryly, then laughs. "Of course no one expects you to go out and beat up any Sabbat whose actions are unjust. Pointless bravado is not considered a positive quality in our clan. Survive and succeed. Believe me, when we act, it will be as a clan, with careful, well-thought-out precision and perfect unity…and the Lasombra will cease to lead the Sabbat."

I can’t quite suppress a start at her words. She rises to her feet. In that moment, she doesn’t look innocent, vulnerable, or even remotely human. "Oh, come now—it cannot be a surprise to you," she says sharply. She walks over to her chessboard and starts playing with the pieces as she speaks. "Even with the Lasombra, I do not generalize. Some can be good friends. Some are worthy to stand with the rest of us in the Sabbat. None are worthy to stand above us, and by ‘us’ I mean more than the Ventrue antitribu. The number of Lasombra who would accept a Sabbat where they did not get to dictate to the other members, who would accept truly being our equals, who have any real belief in freedom, or any loyalty to anything but their own power…few. Very, very few. As individuals, they deserve the same consideration as all other Sabbat. As a clan?" She gently lifts one of the chess pieces—a black king—into the air, then abruptly clenches her hand around it. I watch as the king explodes into fragments in her hand. The hand opens, letting the particles fall to the floor. "Dust," she finishes succinctly.

As Amy quietly resumes sitting next to me, she seems to shrug off the seriousness of the evening. "But that is all for later," she says, once again appearing harmless, but for the memory of that flash of terrible power. "In the meantime, I had a few kine from the club brought here and strung up in the next room. Their bodies are full of…alcohol. Let’s make an even out of it.

Chapter Two: Truth

Our true history as a clan is brief indeed. While we have accounts that date from before our split from the Ventrue clan, I have deliberately excluded anything that the eldest of those who now stand with us could not personally confirm the truth of. I make no apology for this; our ancestors are perhaps the greatest liars and hypocrites of the Cainite race, and their accounts are apocryphal, to say the least. One thing we can learn from the conflicting (and, probably, all false) accounts of Carthage is that false information is far more debilitating than an honest "I don’t know." As for what is here…it is confirmed enough to satisfy me, but you are encouraged to take it with as much salt as you like.

This is where it all started, with the young Brujah and Tzimisce. The Brujah objected to being abandoned to the tender mercies of the Spanish Inquisition when their elders went into hiding. The Tzimisce objected to being thrown into suicidal battles against the Tremere, used as cannon fodder by their elders. They banded together, calling themselves "anarchs," setting out to destroy all the elder vampires and set the young ones free. At first, the elders of the thirteen clans laughed at them. Then, they were joined by young Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Toreador, even a rare few Lasombra and Ventrue (our ancestors). They managed to arrange a temporary alliance with the Assamites. And suddenly they weren’t so funny anymore.

As near as I can figure out, the Lasombra elders were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mind you, the Lasombra nowadays claim their Antediluvian wanted to die and deliberately set himself up. Hardly any Lasombra will admit his clan was not in total control of any situation—ever—but our best evidence indicates that if the anarchs had first come upon the Toreador Antediluvian, say, that would have been the first Antediluvian to fall. In any event, what we can (mostly) agree happened goes something like this: one childe of Lasombra named Gratiano diablerized his sire, either because he believed in the anarch cause or because he saw an opportunity for power. Most of the other Lasombra quickly changed sides once their Antediluvian fell. Tzimisce was, by this time, much too attached to his homeland—and much too arrogant—to run. One Tzimisce anarch called Lugoj Blood-breaker, the inventor of the Vaulderie ritual that we practice today, fought his way into the Antediluvian’s sanctum. Many other anarchs fought at his side, and there was an epic battle with Tzimisce’s defenders, but Tzimisce himself never woke from torpor, not even when Lugoj sank his fangs into Tzimisce’s neck and diablerized the Antediluvian. This was the finest hour of the anarch revolt. We now had three full clans on our side, and there was every sign that we could continue in this fashion until all the Antediluvians were dead. Then we could have created an ideal world, a world in which all vampires treated each other with respect and none could force another’s will. At least in theory. I’m not sure how well it would have worked in practice.

In any event, we never found out, for we’d underestimated the Antediluvians’ cunning. Our parent clan was responsible for organizing the resistance to our movement; the Tremere helped them make their plans, the Toreador were the first to support them, the Brujah elders came back out of the woodwork to ally with them. In the end, the elders of seven clans supported them. We had all the Assamites, Lasombra and Tzimisce on our side, and we had some Ravnos (the bulk of the clan avoided the fighting altogether), but the Setites offered their support to neither side, and the Cappadocians…well…the Cappadocians were being eaten by their childer. (Yes, you have heard of the Cappadocians; you just didn’t know it at the time. Their descendants call themselves Giovanni now.) We were close to evenly matched, the elders and the anarchs. We fought for years and years, but finally…we lost. Oh, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. The fact that we’re still here attests to that. However, they definitely had the upper hand, and they offered us surrender terms. For the most part, we could join their new organization, or "camarilla" as they called it. If we surrendered to them, we would be Blood Bound to the Camarilla’s Inner Circle, but we would receive no further punishment. Many chose to surrender. The Brujah—they stopped being our leaders then, because so many of them caved in and joined the Camarilla. The Assamites surrendered for the most part, but refused to accept the Blood Bond. Instead, they negotiated terms with the Camarilla, terms which are well known to you.

Some from each clan, however, rejected the Camarilla’s terms. The Lasombra, anarch Ravnos, and Tzimisce—none of them surrendered, for their different reasons. None of our ancestors surrendered. Of course, there were never that many of us—the eldest of us was and is five steps removed from Caine. But all there were were completely dedicated to the anarch ideals—besides which, Clan Ventrue has never been much for leniency to traitors; we had little to go back to. We resolved to continue fighting. As long as there is blood in our bodies, we will fight the "Camarilla" and its corrupt, oppressive power, for our own sake and that of all our brothers and sisters. What happened then? We fell back. The Lasombra wanted to stand and fight, but we—the anarch Ventrue—knew that would be suicide. At that time, in that place, we had already lost. We pushed for a strategic withdrawal, and the Tzimisce supported us. Finally, we did indeed retreat from most of Europe. We developed new tactics and made new allies. We named ourselves the Sabbat, for we had been created, albeit inadvertently, by the human Inquisition. Our membership increased to include vampires of all thirteen clans, save only the Giovanni. Those who claimed membership in our Sabbat though their clan’s loyalties were elsewhere started calling themselves antitribu. Joseph Pander, with our help, forced the Lasombra to give his clan equal rights. This was all the good news. The bad news was that the Lasombra were easily the most numerous of all the anarchs now, except possibly the Tzimisce, who did not choose to stand against them. They claimed almost every leadership position, and they became, as they are today, fully as corrupt as their ancestors had been.

For six hundred years, we’ve been in the Sabbat. Six hundred years of watching the Ventrue rule the Camarilla. Six hundred years, and it seems we’ve finally managed to clean the stain of our ancestors’ actions from our hands. Tell a Pander that our clan kept the Caitiff down, and he’ll stare like you said the sky is falling. Tell a Sabbat Brujah that we should be his enemies, and his laughter will be heard for miles around. Six thousand years since the first Ventrue "princes" claimed territories and began striving to enforce their rule on other vampires, and it seems the more thingschange…the more they stay the same. Only now, here, it’s the Lasombra who hold the chains. The Brujah antitribu, the Gangrel antitribu, the Panders…they look to us to lead a revolution. We owe them, for all our ancestors put them through. And so we oppose the Lasombra, as strongly as we oppose the Camarilla. The Lasombra are strong and devoid of honor. Those who stand against them are accused of treason, framed for assisting the Camarilla, sometimes outright murdered. But in the end, they will lose, because in their hearts, the other clans know we want the best for all of us; they know the Lasombra want the best for no one but the Lasombra. We could destroy the Lasombra tonight, if we were willing to pay the price, but we’re not. We could win another civil war, without external interference, but as it stands, the price for starting one would be the fall of the Sabbat and the final victory of the Camarilla—and the Antediluvians. For now, we act with more subtlety because for now, we have no other choice, but believe me, the Lasombra will not rule the nights forever.

Chapter Three: Honor

The Ventrue antitribu regard organization—all organization—with a suspicious and wary eye, having seen what "organized" clans such as the Lasombra and Ventrue True Clan are like. Accordingly, they are deliberately as disorganized as they can be without becoming completely ineffectual. There are no "leaders" of the Ventrue antitribu; the main goals of the clan are agreed upon, and each individual clan member chooses how to pursue them. Since Ventrue antitribu ideology states that any power that one gains benefits all, they cooperate better than any other bloodline, with the possible exception of the Nosferatu. A fair number of Ventrue antitribu choose to ignore the clan’s larger goals entirely and spend their unlives doing as they please; however, even these ones never act to the clan’s detriment.

*Cain
This Path, like the kine religion it developed from, suffers from a fundamental lack of logic. No one currently exists who can claim to have met Caine and is remotely trustworthy, so followers of this Path try to pattern themselves after what is essentially a myth.

*Cathar
This disgusting Path holds honor and loyalty as flaws. It would have been better if it had never become an accepted Sabbat Path. Those who follow this Path are lost to any worthwhile cause; we must prevent them from doing any damage. Far too many of our clan follow this Path; that is their right, but as long as they choose it, they deserve nothing but contempt.

*Death and the Soul
They’re weird. That’s a compliment—normal is bad. Few of our Clan choose this Path, but those who do are certainly welcome to it.

*Evil Revelations
This Path is forbidden—for excellent reason. Its followers willingly enslave themselves to demons and work to force others into slavery as well. They are anathema to everything our Sabbat truly stands for.

*Harmony
Here in the Sabbat, we accept that we are not human. This gets twisted when those outside, especially the despicable elders of the Camarilla, speak of us. They call us "beasts," they call us "monsters." What they forget is just how twisted humans can be. Being inhuman and being immoral are two completely different, unrelated things. The followers of this Path are never deliberately cruel. Do not make the mistake of thinking this means they’re weak; most of them are deadly in battle, and when they see killing is necessary, no other Path’s followers can act with more determination or less hesitation. Still, few of our clan find this Path’s tenets to their satisfaction.

*Honorable Accord
Most of us follow this Path, as I do myself. It is, after all, the ultimate form of our beliefs: our personal honor is more important than anything, save the good of the Sabbat. It is our duty to make the Sabbat what it can be, what it was originally intended to be, for the sake of all vampirekind, and over the dead bodies of as many elders and Lasombra as care to get in our way.

*Lilith
The main difference between this Path and the Path of Caine is that the things followers of this Path do cannot be logically explained independently of the Path. That makes them seem, at the least, sincere in their beliefs. However, their actions appear quite insane to those not on this Path. I think I’m glad so few of our clan find this Path appealing.

*Power and the Inner Voice
This Path’s followers include our best friends and our worst enemies inside the Sabbat. Few of our Clan follow this Path, but if you meet one who does, treat her with respect and loyalty, and she will offer you the same.

Auspex
Exactly how it is that we gained skill in this Discipline, rather than the Dominate Discipline practiced by our ancestors, is unknown. There is much speculation about it, but in any event, it suits us. We do not desire to force others to obey us. With this Discipline, we can discern if the potential for choosing to support our goals exists within an individual’s heart. Also, it helps us select childer, since we have no desire to be as elitist as our parent clan, and cannot afford to Embrace as many total idiots as…some others do.

Fortitude
This is the only Discipline that remains exactly as our ancestors practiced it. It helps keep us undead. It is purely defensive, and that suits us too, for we do not consider ourselves warriors. Many consider this cowardice, but we do not care. There is no courage in choosing to use force where another tool would work better.

Presence
We still practice the Discipline of Presence, but our powers have changed since we split from our parent clan. Compelling others to obey against their will is wrong, and we have no desire to learn a way of doing that. Those who are blind should be helped to see, and that is what our Presence can do. Those who knowingly choose evil should be destroyed.

* Awe: No change
** Dread Gaze: No change
*** Inspiration
A vampire with this power is capable of inspiring his/her allies to great deeds. Anyone who is presently working toward and believes in the same ideals as the vampire can tap amazing reserves of inner strength. This can affect any being, but only works on those who actually are working toward an ideal shared with the vampire—temporary alliances against a common foe won’t work. The most common subjects are the vampire’s pack.

System: The vampire rolls Charisma + Leadership. The first success gives one ally one extra point of temporary Willpower for one hour. Each additional success can be used either to add one hour to the duration or to add another point of Willpower to the same or a different ally. This power cannot affect the user. Extra points of Willpower are always the first to be spent. This power can only be used once a day.

**** Summon: No change
***** Idealism
By speaking truthfully and persuasively with another being, the vampire can attempt to convert that being to her viewpoint. This Discipline has helped many vampires decide to join the Sabbat and has been useful in forming temporary truces with werewolves on occasion as well.

System: The vampire must speak for at least five minutes with the subject of this power, and everything the vampire says must be true to the best of her knowledge. Including a lie or saying anything the user doesn’t mean results in an automatic botch. At the end of that time, the vampire can roll Charisma + Expression at a difficulty determined by the Storyteller, based on how well the player roleplays the interaction and how open the subject is to what he is being told (this power requires careful adjudication). The subject’s Willpower has no effect on the difficulty number. Most often, the user speaks of how all vampires should be equal and free. This Discipline can only play upon what is already in the subject’s heart; one who has no common ground with the user cannot be affected. Also, note that this power results in an ideological conversion rather than a physical conversion (Example: Gavin, a Ventrue antitribu, uses Idealism on Naera, a Tremere elder, and scores nine successes. Naera is fully convinced that all vampires should have equal rights and freedom…but, this does not change her opinion of the Sabbat one bit. In a blast of Thaumaturgy, she incinerates Gavin, then goes back to her chantry and starts using her influence to convince the rest of her clan both that the Tremere hierarchy is stifling and that they really should be fairer to the Nosferatu, Brujah, and Caitiff).

1 success
The subject is slightly interested and willing to continue listening; you can roll again after another five minutes. If for any reason you stop now, the subject will likely dismiss your words.
2 successes
The subject will give serious thought to what you have to say. There is no guarantee that he will not eventually decide to disregard your words, but they will at least be seriously considered.
3 successes
Your words will never be completely forgotten by the subject. He may believe he stopped considering them long ago, but they will rise again at the most inopportune times throughout his existence.
4 successes
The subject is inclined to agree with you, even if your words run contrary to something he believed strongly before.
5 successes
The subject is completely won over and acknowledge the accuracy of your words. How he will react then is up to him.

A vampire with this form of Presence at Level Five can learn the normal Entrancement power at a cost of fourteen experience points, and the normal Majesty power at a cost of 28, from anyone who knows them. They do not have to be learned in that order (the vampire could also choose to pay 28 experience points for Majesty and never learn Entrancement). A vampire with the normal form of Presence at Level Five can learn Inspiration at a cost of fourteen experience points, and Idealism at a cost of 28, from anyone who knows them. They also don’t need to be learned in order, as long as the vampire has Presence 5. No vampire with less than 5 in one form of Presence can learn powers from the other form.

New Merits and Flaws
These Merits and Flaws are recommended for Ventrue antitribu only, although they may be allowed to other characters at Storyteller discretion.

Progressive (4 pt Merit)
Your mind adapts itself quickly to changing times. While other vampires balk at using cars, you surf the World Wide Web without difficulty. You can never have the Flaw: Anachronism, and no matter how old you get, you can reasonably expect to be perfectly comfortable with new technology. Even more importantly, your mind is as flexible as a human’s. In an Elder game, you use the Experience Point Chart for neonates, regardless of how many points of the Age Background you possess (note, however, that no Ventrue antitribu can reasonably possess more than four dots of Age, and only the founders of the bloodline should be allowed that many).

They All Look Alike (2 pt Merit)
Humans all seem alike to you, and your clan weakness has adapted itself accordingly. You can feed on any human, although animal blood is still off limits. However, if you ever accept that humans possess individual personalities, you lose this Merit and immediately gain the full Prey Exclusion of a normal Ventrue antitribu.

Throwback (2 pt Flaw)
Perhaps you’re a defector from the Camarilla, perhaps your sire or grandsire was, or perhaps there is some other explanation—in any event, your blood shows that you are more closely related to the Camarilla Ventrue than most Ventrue antitribu are. Your Clan Disciplines are Dominate, Fortitude, and standard Presence. You are viewed with distrust by the rest of your clan, and finding a teacher for Dominate will likely be difficult. Most of your clanmates will strongly encourage you to develop Auspex (at out-of-clan costs) and let your Dominate skills rust. It should be noted that not every Ventrue antitribu who traces her ancestry to a Camarilla member has this Flaw; in fact, the ones who do are a distinct and inexplicable minority.

Perspectives on Others
Assamites
They are warriors. They know no other way, nor do they wish to. For now, the ones in the Sabbat are essential allies against the Camarilla, but after our war is won, if we cannot find another target for them quickly, they will turn on us. If everyone they could possibly regard as an enemy was dead, they would turn on each other. They could never deal with peace.

Brujah
They are the best at rescuing innocent young vampires from the Camarilla’s web of lies. They always support us, and much of our political power in the Sabbat comes from that support. Indeed, we owe them much. That debt will be repaid. We will not allow them to destroy their own dreams as they did in the Soviet Union, and in long-ago Carthage.

Caitiff
They are a perfect example of what a world dominated by the Camarilla would be like: in no meaningful way are they inferior to other vampires, yet they are treated as nonbeings because their blood is not pure enough.

Followers of Set
As a clan, they are most abhorrent. They wish to reduce all others to dogs at their feet. However, they still retain free will, and those who choose to turn their backs on that evil deserve the same chances as any other vampire.

Gangrel
The ones allied with us ignore us, and we them, for the most part, yet they are loyal. The ones in the Camarilla fight for their sect only when forced to. For the most part, they prefer to be left alone, which is their right.

Giovanni
Their true goals are unknown to us. Their morals are appalling, their actions are incomprehensible, and their personalities are disgusting, but as long as they concern themselves exclusively with mortals, they’re not a threat to us.

Lasombra
The members of this loathsome clan must be pulled down from their current position of leadership. Leaders are supposed to serve their followers, not the other way around, but the Lasombra do not accept that, and so they must be overthrown. Those who will not accept being the equals of the other Sabbat must be destroyed.

Malkavians
As long as they don’t pose a danger to the Sabbat, they deserve the same rights as all of us. The ones who do oppose the Sabbat deserve the same mercy as the other loyal slaves of the Camarilla—Final Death.

Nosferatu
They’re not very friendly, and they keep secrets from their allies, even among the Sabbat. This is bad for sect unity. However, considering the way they’ve been treated by most other clans throughout history, we cannot blame them for being a little…standoffish.

Panders
Most Panders are thoroughly self-absorbed, show no signs of ever considering anyone besides themselves, and are prepared to gain equality by walking over the tattered corpses of both those who oppose them and those who try to help them. We cannot trust them, and I would prefer not to have to deal with them at all…but we must help them gain recognition as equal to the other clans. If we don’t, we’re the same as they are. Worse. We’re the same as the Lasombra.

Ravnos
They believe in an entirely one-sided definition of freedom. They demand it for themselves, but do not offer it to those they interact with. Most of the ones in our sect are less hypocritical, but, for the most part, the ones in our sect are bleeding hearts who worry far too much about the humans and not enough about the Sabbat.

Toreador
Despite their artistic pretensions, the members of this clan are extremely conservative in practice. This makes them really irritating to be around, the more so because in their unthinking support of the designated leaders of their sect, they possess no sense of the gravity of their own actions. Respect them only when they have earned it.

Tremere
This clan is one of the most vile in existence. Everything from their power structures to their custom of Blood Bonding most of their members stands in direct opposition to everything we believe in. However, far too many of our fellow Sabbat generalize from the clan to the individual members. Those of the Tremere who flee their pyramid system and join us in the battle against the Camarilla’s evil deserve our support and, as do all our brothers and sisters, our respect.

Tzimisce
They have almost the opposite problem from the Ravnos antitribu; they forget that without humans to Embrace, we wouldn’t exist. However, their sense of honor makes it easy for us to find common ground with them, although their unwillingness to take direct action can be very frustrating at times.

Ventrue
No Ventrue believes in leniency to traitors. The Camarilla Ventrue consider us traitors to our clan. We consider them traitors to their entire species, to all the other vampires, of all clans, of no clan, whom they profess to wish to help and mercilessly exploit. Some clans retain a chance of reconciliation with their antitribu, but not ours. There is no room on this Earth or anywhere else for us and the Camarilla Ventrue together, ever. The split in our clan can be resolved only by war.

The Camarilla
This sect is dedicated to the principles that those clans which are best at obeying their leaders deserve preferential treatment, that those from "lesser" clans or those without a clan are beneath contempt simply by virtue of their blood, and, most of all, that it is right for those with power to impose their will on all others without reservation. This vile sect is crumbling beneath its own weight, and we will help it fall any way we can.

The Sabbat
As it was created, with its original ideals, the perfect society for vampires to live together in mutual respect. Unfortunately, it was quickly corrupted by the Lasombra. I wonder, sometimes, if that was inevitable—if vampires are unable to coexist happily; if we truly are, as the Camarilla melodramatically calls us, the Damned—but then I get over it. The Sabbat can still be what we dreamed of it being, and if every last Ventrue antitribu must die the Final Death to ensure it, most of us are prepared.

The Black Hand
The Assamite approach to leadership. Join if you like fighting and having people scared of you. On the other hand, this provides a check and balance to the Lasombra control of the Sabbat, and those of us who do want to join it generally have an easier time than the Black Hand Lasombra. The Lasombra stack many things against us in the Sabbat, but the Assamites are our friends—just ask them.

The Secret Masters
They’re the oldest, most manipulative, corrupt, and evil beings imaginable. This is known to our parent clan, but we know something they don’t know. We know where the Secret Masters originated.

Our parent clan realized, long ago, that it didn’t work for them to try to justify gaining power for power’s sake. It didn’t even work for them to try to convince themselves that the other clans needed someone to control them for their own good. Stupidity is one thing that has never been endemic to our clan, and too many of its members could see the fallacious nature of their own arguments. They needed a reason for accumulating power, something that could conclusively demonstrate how it really was in everybody’s best interests for the Ventrue to control them. Then one night, the Secret Masters were discovered, and their power and evil is so great that whatever the Ventrue must do to fight them is justified. Truly, the world has been a far darker place since the Secret Masters arrived.

Yes, what was your question—what are the Secret Masters?
Most vampires know them as, "Clan Ventrue."

Lupines
If you meet a werewolf, she is likely to tear you in half before you have finished your greeting. The clan they call Glass Walkers can be reasoned with some of the time. The clan called Shadow Lords is always willing to talk, but I’m not sure talking to them is a good idea. Isn’t "Shadow Lord" English for Lasombra? The clan called the Black Spiral Dancers frequently makes alliances with the Sabbat, but they give me the creeps, and their auras—don’t ask. The Lasombra plan on wiping all the Lupines out once the Camarilla has fallen; making long-term alliances with the werewolves is, accordingly, guaranteed to piss off the Lasombra, and if that isn’t a reason to do it, I don’t know what is. How you personally deal with Lupines is up to you. Just be careful.

Mages
Mages are more dangerous the farther away they are. If you can reach them, they’re only kine; they break, they bleed. Some of them consider themselves above the rest ofhumanity, but they’re still just juice bags. For all of that, however, they still shouldn’t be treated with open contempt. I’m sure they can be dangerous if the circumstances favor them. My advice is to let the Tzimisce handle all dealings with them if you can.

Humans
They’re so far behind us on the evolutionary scale as to barely qualify as sentient, much less sapient. The only two ways in which they are significant are as food and as potential vampires. The ones we do not Embrace—their lives are ours, to take or spare as we choose. Most of us agree with this, but some among the Sabbat argue that the kine should be shown more consideration. I don’t understand that, but then, when I was human I didn’t understand why people chose to teach sign language to gorillas, either. It comes back to freedom again; those vampires who choose to waste their time "helping" juice bags are welcome to it. The humans who threaten us should die, without mercy, and none of us would debate that. The vast majority of all the kine should simply be ignored.

by WwTalikwW@aol.com, 1999

::muffled talking and harsh whispers::

Thank you all for coming. As usual, we have a situation on hand that we need to talk about.

The defacing of the Art Institute by anonymous Rabble? ::dirty look to Brujah::

Caitiff running wild? ::dirty look to Brujah::

The defacing of the Public Libraries? ::dirty look to Brujah::

::flashes a charming grin to all of them and puts his feet on the table::

No. Tonight we are here to discuss… and I do this with heavy reluctance… sex.

::stunned silence::

::stands starting the "Tush Push" and winks at Gangrel:: Let’s talk about SEX bay-bee, let’s talk about YOU an’ ME…

::growls:: Let’s not.

I swear on the blood of my familia, she told me she was 18.

Malkav. Please be seated. I… ::blinks and looks at Ravnos:: Um… well… ::shakes his head:: This is a SERIOUS discussion.

So what ABOUT sex?

The problem is too many of you take your unlife as permission for a post-mortem orgy. We have rules. Politics. Standards to follow. We are the next level of evolution people, SEX is no longer PLEASURABLE to us…. Therefore….

::looks to Giovanni:: <vq> You can say THAT again….

Well if some people didn’t just LAY there like the corpse they are..

No longer PLEASURABLE? ::shakes his head:: Trust me… yer doing it wrong dude….

Well… I guess I can eat all my edible undies. I like the cotton flavored ones the best.

Look. Our lust is for the BLOOD. Not physical pleasures and desires.

COME ON… I mean the blood is good… but when is the last time a set of double "D" medical packs turned your head?

Bobbit it. Cut if off. Recycle it. Make cocktail wieners.

Speak for yourself gajo some of us fall into larger groupings.

Ohh Hung like a HORSE–

::smiles::

–Fly.

It’s not just the male persuasion of our little group Brujah. Many of the FEMALES engage in sexual activities at constant rates.

::suddenly serious:: THAT is disgusting! That is… vile. WRONG. I demand justice. Kindly give me the names and current addresses of these women and I will see that they get what I… what THEY deserve….

::thumps Malk:: Siddown nutjob. You’ve got as much chance of getting laid as pickle puss over there. ::jerks her thumb to Nos::

::indignant:: This coming from the bearded lady.

::growls:: Watch it scabbie.

I am no stranger to sex my dear wood dweller.

::wrinkles her nose:: Sex… no. Soap. Now that is a different story all together.

Not that I particularly care, seeing I have BETTER things to do with my time than engage in pointless activities… but does this mean that we shall no longer be capable of having sex?

It’s fallen. And I can’t get it UP!

::looks at Giovanni:: Been there. Done that.

IT WAS COLD AND I WAS TIRED!!

::room looks to Gio, who shrinks into his seat::

<vq> Sorry.

::sighs ignoring the outbursts:: No Assamite. It simply means that you derive no pleasure from it. You can will the blood… if you MUST… to keep up appearances and what not…. But you have no DESIRE for sex.

Yeah…especially after finding out that Nos has it…. ::makes a face:: There’s a mental image I didn’t want.

Bumping UGLY. Monkey sex. The Leprous Lombada of Love. A Spew Screw. Oral–

::smacks him:: Shut up! You are making us all sick you weird little freak.

So what is the point of seduction… if you are not going to have sex?

The seduction is so you may obtain their blood, without them drawing suspicious. THAT is why our bite is so pleasurable to them. It surpasses sex.

::muffled grumbling::

Well? Final thoughts? Comments?

You sure you are not doing this because you can’t get laid and are pissed at those of us who can?

Well I can throw out my date book.

Please do, I’m sure Wild Kingdom would love to find it.

::smirks:: There are exceptions to every rule.

::shares the smile:: Exactly.

What about the ol’ yank and spank? Is that out? Ya know… the ol’ bap and slap? I mean I was REALLY good at that.

Rules were meant to be broken.

Meeting adjourned. And remember. We are not interested in sex. The blood is our sex.

<vq> Believe that and you are crazier than I am.

What did you say?

Nothing. Just commenting on the weather. ::smile bright::

by Millie Sumner

Do come out from the shadows brother dear,
That I might gaze upon your loveliness.
Your visage holds the truth that others fear.
They run to hide from their own ugliness.
Sweet mirror, mirror on the monster face,
Reflections of my soul is what I see.
Your flesh, my self, transformed into disgrace.
Be my abyss and look back into me.
I cannot stare enough to fill my need
To know, to see, to be. What must I do?
Oh slash me, cut me, maul me, make me bleed -
Strip flesh off from my face - let me be you.

The horror as I watch these gashes seal!
This wretched curse, by evening I will heal.

by Millie Sumner

Malk in, Malk out
Walk in, walk out
Stalk in, stalk out
Talk sin, talk about
No brain
Means no pain
And being sane
Reduces strain
And thus sanity
Is lessened mentality
Meaning lunacy
Brings lucidity…. and more agony… and more insanity…
and more clarity… and more misery…

I am not insane, at all… of course… I am hyper-sane…
Reality is what I see…
How else could it torment me so?
Imaginary creatures could not inflict such misery.
Illusions have not the power to break me down.
Silence is the state that the deaf reach.
I am not deaf… I hear what others fear.
I see what others shield their eyes from.
I feel pain in ways that others did not know it was possible to experience.
The five senses are nothing… nothing… compared to the others… mad caprices…
unjustifiable sadness… psychotic whimsy to see what is under the Prince’s bed.
And what exactly IS making that chanting from inside the
Brujah Primogen’s Harley? Someone has to check it out…
lest the truth be forever hidden. Damn dust bunnies…
they almost made me sneeze under his bed…
’til I remembered that I was dead…

they are you
you are we
malkav frets
that you are he

we are rhyme
without reason
’tis the time
lunacy season

yesterday comes
then is now
to limbo succumb
to paradox bow

A Pre-Malk experience…

Chill Pill

Without my exquisite delusions
And cured of my orgasmic illusions
This body will be just a shell,
My spirit locked in chill pill hell.

And now, time to go on Malk-about…

Toxic Clown

Harsh me up
Thrash me down
Tainted cup
Toxic clown.

Why so sad?
Why such sin?
Flush your torment
Through my skin.

Pitter patter
Of little feet.
Splitter splatter
Of brain’s dead meat.

Hear my hate -
Your ear to mine.
Daemon’s gate
Torment divine.

Voices sing -
Apocalypse!
Terrors ring.
Sanity eclipse.

Fear this dark
Dread the light.
My devil’s mark
Ever bound to night.

One point, two point
I think, therefore I bleed.
Silly perturbances anoint
My brain with fearsome need.

Crackers… They hurt my stomach…
People who are Crackers… fight.
And kick me in the tummy…
All through the night.

Why?… I only want a sip…
But Crackers are dry
and leave crumbs in my bed
That want only one thing…. Die…

Crumbs and Crackers
They make a fine quaff
Users and slackers
I drain with a laugh… and cry…

::spying, admiring the lovely Nossie from times past::

Lovely monster vile
Kill me with your smile
Your grimace is pure pain
I melt in your disdain.

Before every mirror
You are euphoric horror
I can only rend
My visage soon will mend.

I am denied the grace
You wear upon your face
Our putrid souls revealed
In unmasked truth you wield.

Sign upon the dotted line
Pen away your soul
Immortality divine -
Insanity the toll.

And still I ask… WhAt Is A MaLkAvIaN?

by Amy Aubuchon and Jason A. Lucas
February, 1998

Please put down your hand,
And try to understand
The things I cant stand.

Online RPing I just might drop - if certain things just do not stop.
Your profile says you’re 22… so how are you a rank 5 Garou?!
I’ll say this once and I’ll say it again, there’s no way in hell you’re a
2nd Gen.
You’d be too risky to the Masq or veil to stay alive, if you had stats over five.

One of the reasons I hate to fight,
Is ’cause one fucking round takes all goddamn night!!
I have to watch everything I say, cause OOC info doesn’t stay that way.
15 dice?! What is this I see? It’s a soak roll, buddy, stop bullshitting me!
Charmed Existence and Luck and Silver Immunity..OH MY!!
I’ll bet he didn’t have ‘em when you made up that guy.

Appearance of 8?! Ha! My ASS!
Your face looks like someone dragged it through glass!
You have this gift and that one to lean onto…
If I wanted you to fuck me, I’d bend over for you.
You can tell me how many STs approved your char… but youre spewing,
Cause you’re not a real RPer in my eyes, unless you know what you’re doing.

And what’s with all these damn aboms?
And Salubri that know paths of Thaum?
Vamps; there’s nothing that Garou hate more.
They’re age-old enemies, yet you want to score.
Botch gnosis roll to become one, you only get one shot.
It seems like a tough roll, but there sure seem to be a lot.

Of all these aboms, running around on-line,
I’d like to talk to your ST, if they have the time.
Cross-bred kindred, hybrid fomor; can the "Golden Rule" be flaunted anymore?
Starting chars, extra freebies a plenty.
It seems like all chars use the rules for Mummy.

Bonus 30 freebies for starting chars?
And you wonder why I laugh and stare…
At a starting level mage with 6 arete.
And what’s this? He’s a garou? Oh what a treat.
An Assamite/Tremere/Gangrel that’s just too scary,
And you say you did it with diablerie.

That’s another bitch I’d like to address,
This diablerie shit is just one big mess.
One of the most heinous crimes a vamp can commit.
"My ST allowed it." What total bullshit.
You’re ST’s on crack, or you’ve got them in bed.
Either that or you put a gun to their head.

Sitting here at my keyboard, I can picture it all,
You with your gun, ST’s w/ 8-balls.
"ST, oh ST. Please let this be.
For I have the gun, and oh can’t you see;
That the game’s no fun unless I can win,
For if it’s not easy, why even begin?"

The ST snorts and their eyes do glaze,
Their ST mind in a zombie haze.
"An awakened Garou? I don’t see why not.
And while you’re at it, no paradox!
A Salubri/Assamite? That I can see.
Why not? Hell, I am the ST.
Dear player, on my drugs I see colors galore,
And with that gun in your hand, I’ll be your whore."

You call us stuck up, for we won’t let you roll in our rooms.
And you bitch and moan when you meet your doom.
What’s the point in playing once you’re that high?
There’s no way you could ever die.

I guess IRL you shoot hoops against first graders.
That’s how I see all you power gamers.
I could say it reflects your inadequacies in life,
An App 8 cause you can’t buy a date for the night.
The black trench and Str 5 has become so cliche,
Among people who’ve never worked out for a day.
This may sound wrong, but as it appears to me,
Many of you would be better off playing FFG.

You snicker, but just think of how grand.
I think I saw Caine walking through that land.
And many of your chars have stats that high,
You enjoy flying in rooms, and have chars that can’t die.
It will work well for you in FFG, Gen Dice and Guilds.
Sounds like fun to me.

So remember when you sit there in your ultra-char class.
You think you’re clever, but you’re just being an ass.
Your ST knows dick, it’s become plain to me.
And you, like your ST, know not a damn thing.

by Chase Feonsdotter

Once upon a long time ago there was this big old transvestite (we couldn’t decide whether it was a guy or a girl) who got really, really bored. His name was Malkav. Being a cosmically unbalanced, ultimate, superpower he didn’t have too many friends (and most of them were weird winged people who just wanted to fly all day anyways). He decided to make unwinged people to talk to (cause of course, if they didn’t have wings, they wouldn’t have anything better to do). So this superpowerful, sexually confused being pulled out his Magna-Doodle and began designing the world on which his wingless friends would live.

First of all he had to make the ground. He started to go through his pockets and found an old piece of chewed bubblegum that he was saving for later. He looked at the gum and decided not to use it because a pink ground would look pretty silly. So he began looking through his pockets again. When he couldn’t find anything to use, he went into the kitchen. There he found a nice, big, round chocolate cake, with ice cream on both sides. So the being practiced secret, magical, arcane stuff (which the Tremere later stole from him) on it to make it levitate. Then he slapped it so that it would spin. He smiled at the spinning chocolate dessert that splattered his kitchen walls with frosting. He dragged his finger across the cake and licked the frosting off. That made big craters and ravines in his world. Now, Malkav didn’t want his world to be marred like that, so he filled them with water and made it stay there with his great magical powers (by the way, did we mention that the Tremere stole these from him later?).

Next, he had to make plants and stuff. He started digging through the garbage can in his kitchen and found lots of old veggies that someone had just thrown out. He also found a bunch of mold, but that would destroy his world, so he decided not to use it (after all, if cake molds, you have to throw it away). So he stuck some celery stalks and some broccoli into the world and called them trees.

Then it was time to create friends for his people and creatures for them to eat. So he thought up all these fuzzy, scaly, and slimy little things off the top of his head. Some he pulled from out of his drain in his sink, but most he created with the great magical powers (that the Tremere stole from him). And poof, so it was so!

It was about this time that one of the other great and powerful beings in the universe came over to Malkav’s house to visit. His name was Ventrue. He was a big, evil, icky man (I don’t know about this. Raphael told me to put this in. I’ve never met a Ventrue, myself). Ventrue was jealous of Malkav’s brilliance and plotted against him. He created a big wierd creature and put it on Malkav’s world. He called it the plottingpuss. Down through the years people eventually began calling it the platypuss (not even a Malkavian could come up with something like that).

Of course, this was when Gangrel (yet another superbeing) came over to Malkav’s house. She was very happy and worshipped and thanked Malkav for all the nice and great and fuzzy creatures he created on his world (cause everyone knows that Gangrel likes animals… a lot).

Then he made man and woman (at the same time because he was a transvestite and therefore not biased to either side). He made lots and lots and lots of them to populate his world. They were all different colors and sizes and shapes and stuff. This made Ventrue really, really jealous so he made one that was very, very, very, very ugly and smelly and named itNosferatu.

Toreador walked into the kitchen and gasped at the beauty of Malkav’s creation. He/she (we’re not sure what Toreador was — maybe he was a transvestite, too) loved the world so much that he stood there, entranced by it, until the sun came up and made him run screaming from the kitchen. Malkav (being the cosmically unballanced collosus that he is) withstood the sun, impervious to it’s burning rays, smiling down at his world.

The next night while Malkav was still in bed reading a comic book, Brujah (who had heard about the world from his good friend Ventrue) snuck into the kitchen. He saw the people on the world and how peacefully they lived together. He didn’t like this at all, being the big butthead that he is, so he made war between the people and they began killing each other.

In the morning, Malkav went into the kitchen to find his world a bloody mess. Only a few groups of people were left. He wept for his dead friends because he loved them very much. Knowing that he could not stop the wars now that they had begun, he made it so that his people could reproduce so that they wouldn’t kill each other off and go extinct like some other creatures did (like the Dodo — an aptly named creature).

Lasombra, who had waited quietly in the shadows watching all this time, now stepped forward. He said that the world needed a time of darkness for creatures that liked the shadows. So, Malkav let his buddy Lasombra create the nighttime for his world (cause everyone knows that Malkav didn’t dabble in dark magic, only good, powerful magic that the Tremere stole).

And, well, the world was finally complete except for the few things that Brujah and Ventrue (those jealous dippybutts) did to try and ruin it. Malkav tried to fix it, but that was when Tremere came in and stole his powers before he had a chance to.

So Malkav was happy with his world anyway. So happy, that he decided to live on it with his friends Lasombra, Gangrel, and the children of Toreador (it would have been Toreador himself, except he got fried by the sun). And they all lived happily ever after on Malkav’s beautiful world that he called Earth. (The werewolves call it Gaia, though. And they think it’s alive. That’s soooo wierd! If it was alive, that means Malkav would have to throw it away because that means it might eat him.)

by Ron White

by Chase Feonsdotter

To feel the warmth on your skin.
To feel the wind in your hair.
To smell the sweet scent of flowers in the sun.
This memory shall be everlasting.
He came to me in the darkness.
He didn’t ask me to join him.
His shadows engulfed me.
And I became one with the darkness.
When the light is gone,
And your soul screams from within it’s empty husk.
The dawn has come and the deep sleep beckons.
Death is my ascension.
Blood becomes wine.
Shadows speak.
Darkness swallows.
And he is my keeper.
I shall rise into the mouth of Hell.
And from there I shall conquer the world.
To be most powerful and glorified.
An artifact of immense beauty is passed into my hands.
And the Cup of Dreams has brushed against my lips.
The shadows fade into light as the pulse of life flares within me.
Yet he still yearns for my company.
Had my mind been shattered?
Splintered into a thousand tiny shards?
Or shall I never know?
I’ll sit in my room,
And stare at the plain white walls,
Until someone,
Anyone,
Answers me.
Again, he came to me.
This time he asked,
Ever so kindly,
For me to join him in the darkness,
Once more.
I remembered the sun.
The question — I answered.
Death began to devour me.
He tasted something in my blood,
And ran!
My pain was in his release.
Liquid life sprayed across the floor,
As my heart pumped crimson arches onto the wall,
And then they stopped.
All is clear now.
The path has been strewn before me.
There was one,
My savior.
In him I found solace.
His warmth enfolded me,
His love for me endured.
I remember seeing his life blood spill across the ground.
I remember the gleam of eyes that surrounded me.
I remember the smell of death on the air.
My life was gone.
With only one last glance back at a limp,
Lifeless form that had once given me so much,
I ran.
The earth seemed to move beneath my feet,
And the sounds around me were drowned out,
By the beating of my own heart.
The chase began once more.
Cold hands grasped me,
Pulling me down.
I fell for what seemed an eternity,
Toppling to the ground,
And there I cowered.
Their strength,
So much greater than mine,
They came for me with intent to steal.
I felt the burning on my throat,
And in my soul,
When they took from me what gave me life.
I saw the shadows creep closer.
Once again,
Darkness swallows.

by WwTalikwW@aol.com

Okay folks. We have another problem. The "kids" want to know how we tell each other apart…what makes us unique.

That’s easy…we are all unique…special..beautiful in our own way we–

Shut the Hell up. He means like what separates CLANS you pantywaste.

Never waste panties…Too hard to find this time of year.

Yes Brujah. What makes us…fit into a Category. What makes us… CLAN.

Yeah..just another way for the "man" to keep an eye on us.

What man?

Shut up before I mash you kook.

::sighs:: Any suggestions?

Signature clothing?

Necklaces? Mystical pendants?

Cheese…Different cheeses assigned to each clan. There are different types to choose from, you know?

::looks to Nosferatu:: Yeah..lemme guess who Limburger is….

I heard that.

I was thinking more along the lines… of a weakness… a… subtle flaw.

I call Kryptonite!!!

::smashes him on the head:: Must have a Kyrptonite fist. SHUT UP.

Unnrk.

Okay… Brujah… yours will be your temper. For obvious reasons.

TEMPER? WHAT TEMPER? …..fricking suits…. You’d be pissed too if you
had to sit next to Nos and Malk.

::coughs:: Torrie, since you love art…you will be known as the artist clan.

Tragic… yet… beautiful. Agreed.

::small voice:: I still want Kryptonite.

::SMACK:: Hehe. Temper… okay… cool.

Unnnggh.

::scratches his chin causing skin to flake off:: And my… flaw?

::silence::

::shivers:: We’ll get back to you. Gangrel. Yours will be… everytime you frenzy… you look more like an animal.

WHAT? What do you mean "you look more like an animal"?

It starts off small… you know… fur… deep voice… maybe horns….

WHAT??? Oh COME on… Torrie gets to moon over stupid drawings and I get a fricking BEAK? Yeah… that’s REAL fair… ::grumbles into a growl::

And I?

You can’t drink kindred blood…. ::laughs:: It’s poison. Your hair falls out and you look like him. ::points to Nos::

Agreed.

Still waiting.

::silence, Malk giggles::

Why does TREMERE get to pick my weakness?

Lump it pal.

Tremere… if Assamite can’t drink kindred blood… then you have to drink from… all of your elders.

No one got Kryptonite?

::BAP:: Temper… LOVE it.

Lasombra… hmm… no reflection.

You should give THAT to Nos…..

Still waiting….

::coughs:: Be right with you Nos….. Is that acceptable Lasombra?

Yeah… but you guys have to tell me when I have something on my chin.

No problem…. Hmmm… Tzim…. You’re weakness… will be….

Having a clan name no one can say or spell?

Yes… er… no. You… must sleep… in your native soil… or have some in your coffin….

WHAT??? I get WEBBED TOES and she has to sleep in DIRT??

Agreed.

I want a new one…..

Still waiting… have you forgotten me?

::silence::

Moving right along….. Giovanni… your Kiss hurts….. No pleasure in your bite.

You can say THAT again….

::room looks to Torrie::

Oh… sorry… was that out loud?

<vq> One off night… plagues you for your unlife…

Ravnos. You are a criminal by nature.

::gives back Ventrue’s wallet:: Sorry.

::blinks taking it:: Um… no. I meant…. ::shakes head:: Oookay. The money too….

Oh… here… sorry.

When do I get one?

<vq> At birth….

::stiffled laughter::

Ahem…. You, over there…. Setite… yours is… you don’t like the light….

OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD?? I get a set of BAT wings and he doesn’t like bright lights??

Fly, my little monkeys… fllllyyyyy….

::raises hand and Malk winces::

::grins:: Agreed… fair and just. ::winks::

::points:: He WINKED!! You two had A DEAL SET UP?? …..God DAMN snakes……

If you continuing ignoring me… I will get UGLY.

Too late….

::stiffled laughter::

Am I missing anyone?

Do I get Kryptonite?

You, little man, have ENOUGH problems… you don’t need an additional flaw.

Then it is settled….

You have forgotten yourself… and I.

Yeah, Mr. Picky. What is YOUR flaw?

::smiles:: I am picky… about… what I eat….

::stands up, throwing chair back:: I am LEAVING!! ::pointing around the room:: I get udders like a fucking COW and YOU get to sleep in DIRT? YOU are a fussy eater? YOU get to look at art? YOU… ::finger stops on Nos:: …okay… I guess it could be worse.

I get it. I am the unflawed clan… gotcha.

::laughs:: Yup… that’s it….

::coughs:: Meeting adjourned.

::leaving, very quietly singing:: You… oogly… you oogly… and yer mama dresses you foooney… you oogly… you oogly….

by kabael@bu.edu

Hello out there, my soon-to-be-loyal readers, allow me to introduce myself to begin my hopefully monthly column, mainly because I cannot think of any other way to begin. I’m Derek Guder. I’m also Kintaro Oe. No, wait, I’m also kabael. I’m the trinity all rolled into one. "Some of you may remember me from such things as…" alt.games.whitewolf, the various World of Darkness email lists and my fanboy reviews on RPGnet.

Anyway, I’m a college gamer from New England whose laziness continues to astound even myself. Amazing that. Even more amazing that I finally sat myself down to write this column. It got me all excited just thinking about it.

So just what the hell do I intend to do with this electronic space so freely given me? I intend to perform the greatest of all flatteries, imitation, and when deciding to imitate, you might as well go for the gold, so for the time it takes me to type up this column each month, I’m going to pretend that I an Kenneth Hite, the Lord God of Occult, Historical and Conspiratorial Information as it Relates to Gaming. Those of you unfamiliar with his work should go to Pyramid Online to read his Suppressed Transmission if you have a Pyramid subscription (it really is worth it, just for Hite himself). Or you could go to his column Out of theBox if you want to read some quick reviews and get some news on the gaming industry as a whole. Some other examples of his work are Nightmares of Mine (by ICE, I believe, all about horror games) and Cainite Heresy, the wondrous Black Dog sourcebook on heretical vampires for Vampire: The Dark Ages. The man is brilliant.

For those poor souls without a subscription to Pyramid Online, Hite’s weekly column The Suppressed Transmission is all about gaming and ideas for it. He talks at length about many topics, from historical celebrities to occult conspiracies to the "A to Z Guide for ______". That’s what I hope to emulate, his wandering "let’s try this" attitude and ability to both come up with something new and make it not only not suck, but actually seem appealing. He is the only man who could make UFOs and greys sound remotely interesting.

And that’s what I wish I could do. Since I can’t, I’m going to do the next best thing, I’m going to try.

What am I trying this month? The oh-so-controversial metaplot that is sweeping across the World of Darkness during this Year of the Reckoning, I’m going to talk about how to use it, how to not use it, and how not to use it.

Lots and lots of people (damned near everyone, I’d say) has an opinion on the metaplot. I like it. There, I admit it, I’m a canon-junkie. I feel dirty when I deviate from The Word (but I’m getting better, really). Many people hate it, which is fine, I bear them no ill-will.

Although I like the metaplot for the most part (I find that it makes the setting seem more alive to actually have it develop and change), I think sometimes that it is not implemented in the best of ways.

Three examples include the slaying of the Tremere antitribu, the breaking of the Assamite Curse, and the fall of the Ravnos Antediluvian and the subsequent disintegration of the clan. The first two were mentioned in quick comments in two different books and the Ravnos incident was given an Appendix in Time of Thin Blood. I won’t rehash the details of all of them, but they were all well-done in my opinion, the problem was that they were done and not begun. I think that they would have done better as stories or chronicles. White Wolf could have published a large volume called "Tales of the Reckoning" or "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" or something, but alas, that was not the case. I hear that the details on the demise of the Tremere antitribuwill be dealt with in Transylvania Chronicles IV, so I’m only going to deal with the latter two.

The Assamite Curse and Ur-Shulgi: Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition (mine was the extra-spiffy black leather printing — definitely worth it) was the first mention of this. The entire clan simply woke up one night free from the Curse, no explanation given. Quite the mystery, that. I liked it a lot myself, it had great potential to shake up the clan (and hopefully cause the clanbook to spontaneously combust). Then Children of the Night came out and we found out that the great Assamite Methuselah Ur-Shulgi had just awoken to herald Haqim’s return and with but a wave of his pinky, he had broken the Curse.

In some ways, that was very anticlimactic, but it was certainly nice in others. I was expecting something long and complicated to break the Curse, but I got an ultra-powerful Methuselah. It was a nice plot in many ways though: it advances the encroachment of Gehenna and proves beyond a doubt that generation is not a substitute for age, as the Tremere Inner Council is likely now acutely aware. It didn’t live up to my dreams (then again, nothing does), but it was certainly good.

How else could it have been handled? As an adventure of one sort or another. To showcase the oft-overlooked Assamite viziers and magi, let’s make this hypothetical game a Noddist Chronicle. These are so much fun as damned near every secret society wants it’s hands in the Book of Nod pie.

The characters travel about the world gathering tablets and scraps that speak again and again of "awakenings" and "in the cradle." What does it all mean? In a flash of insight, the group travels to the Middle East (the cradle of civilization) to await the awakenings of one sort or another. They arrive to find the scene that was detailed in Ur-Shulgi’s character write-up — dead soldiers, empty sarcophagi and the knowledge that something big indeed happened here. A few games of cat-and-mouse with Assamite and Setite assassins and scholars later and you are ready to lift the Curse. Have the players meet Al Ashrad and let them know that he wasn’t the one who did it. Leave it at that, let them wonder about the details.

I like that format much better than the speedy "The curse is lifted mysteriously by Ur-Shulgi. Sshh!" It allows for more information to be given to the PCs as well as being much more rewarding and exacting. Putting the metaplot in canonical adventures also gives the metaplot more veracity or anything else. It makes it immensely more alive, which is the same thing that metaplot does for the setting.

In their Trinity line, White Wolf is doing just that, as far as I know. Revealing the "Story So Far" metaplot through adventures, the Darkness Revealed and Alien Invasion trilogies of supplements. While I have never actually read either myself, I do think that they are the right way to do a metaplot, and all of the response I’ve heard about them have been great. White Wolf has proved that they can put a metaplot in a book of adventures and do well by it, it’s too bad that they don’t do so in the World of Darkness as well.

Well, moving on to the fall of the Ravnos. I posted a review of Time of Thin Blood that I wrote for RPGnet (it should be put up on their website within two weeks) to both usenet and the vampire-l mailing list, but suffice to say that while I thought that the section on Ravnos’ ultimate demise was exceedingly well-written, I think that there were some problems in it’s manner of execution. The plot came largely out of left field in my eyes, there was very little foreshadowing to the fall of the clan and I’m still wondering why it was in Time of Thin Blood at all (and why the Sabbat hasn’t produced dhampires and more high-generation vampires than anyone else).

I would have done the same thing with the Ravnos plotline that I would have done with that of the Assamites and Ur-Shulgi. The only hinting at the fall of the Ravnos that I remember strongly was the mention of awakening Eldersin the Revised Edition as well as perhaps "Ghivraan Dalaal, the Dead God" from Children of the Night. Initially I was puzzled by his presence in the book, but I think he was there to show how the clan had "fallen" in a sense, becoming more like the Sabbat than one would think.

So, what’s one way to utilize the metaplot in the story about the Ravnos? Maybe Callirus, "The Jackdaw King,", also of Children of the Night fame, shows up at the character’s doorstep posing as an authority figure within the Camarilla. He manipulates them into defending him from awu of Kuei-jin tracking him down. He departs before they discover the whole story, that he had attempted to infiltrate the Infinite Thunders Court of Sri Lanka (see the Kindred of the East Companion) as part of the Ravnos clan jyhad to wrest complete control over the Indian subcontinent from the Cathayans. The deal went sour and he had to flee, and that is where the characters entered.

Now the game turns from mystery to chase, as the characters track Callirus back to Calcutta, where he’s posing as the leader of some debauched bloodcult - who is actually not Callirus but Ghivran Dalaal…. The players show up and harass Dalaal (sure, the book says he’s in New Delhi, but we’ll pretend we didn’t read that part). Enter phase three of the chronicle, Heavy Foreshadowing and Prophecizing. The players might start getting visions, Chimerstry becomes more and more unpredictable and powerful, and prophets start foretelling doom like nothing before. Everything points to something BIG happening.

Then Ravnos and his three Bodhisattva dance partners appear and the Week of Nightmares reaches it’s climax. At this point, the players should leave, because while Ravnos can survive the bombs, they most assuredly cannot. When the dust clears, they are in a most un-enviable position. They have information about an event that way too many people want to know about.

This kind of chronicle would be great for scene cuts to other parts of the world as Chimerstry runs rampant. Dealing with the repercussions of having millions of people have their dreams and nightmares given form before them could be an entire story in itself.

By necessity, the metaplot is rather sparse on details and sketchy on definitive information. That’s okay with me, because I think that part of the fun of the metaplot is determining those details yourself in the game. I often like to role-play good pre-generated characters because I find them to be a challenge I can rise to. The same can be said for the metaplot. For meat least, it tends only to spur my creativity on further.

Well, this section should be short and sweet, I think. The best way to not use the metaplot is to simply ignore it. Diverging from canon is not that difficult, especially with much of the metaplot as it stands now.

So far, all that has been done is that the Assamites have been freed from their Curse and the Ravnos have fallen. Fool’s Luck: The Way of the Commoner had really nothing to do with the Reckoning, despite it’s billing. Cainite Heresy seems to be more of a foreshadowing of the Red Star and such than anything else. We also have the re-appearance of the Cappadocians in the form of the Harbingers of Skulls and the near replacement of the Tremere antitribu with the Salubri antitribu. From what I hear, Rage Across the Heavens will likely be along the same scale of shake-up as what has gone before, while Ends of Empire may very well be the veritable end for Wraith: the Oblivion sadly. I’m desperately trying to ignore the rumors, but I fear that my favorite White Wolf game will soon be walking in the footsteps of Changeling: the Dreaming.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that the metaplot as a metaplot will likely take a minimum of work to ignore if you really hate it. Time of Thin Blood, for example, had only an Appendix on the Ravnos (and it still seems like it was in the book because there was no where else to put it), and the rest of the surprisingly large book dealt with the thin-blooded, Gehenna and dhampirs. Even for the die-hard metaplot hater, there is enough in the book to make it worth buying.

"What about in the future, when the material will take the changes into account?" What about it? How many plots revolved around the Assamites and their Curse? How much published material relied upon the Ravnos as a clan and not as individuals (which still survive)? The Harbingers of Skulls and the Salubri antitribu are even easier to ignore. Just forget about them. Voila! The metaplot demon flees. That is really why I can’t understand why people are so concerned and annoyed by it. Sure, if it was horrid then I could see a problem, if it also irrevocably changed the setting. But since it is, so far, neither, then there is little to complain about.

Something else that I think needs to be addressed when talking about the metaplot is how not to use it. This is just general storytelling advice, but I think it bears mentioning that the metaplot just shouldn’t be used to screw a character over. Don’t want only kill of a Tremere antitribu just because the Guide to the Sabbat says that they are all gone. The same goes for the Ravnos. Sure both groups have been decimated in the plotline, and sure it would likely be common sense that the player character would as well, but unless you’ve talked it over with the player, wanton slaughter is only going to cause problems. Resentment and discontent is not the most conducive environment to having fun.

Also, if you are running a game that either deals with the metaplot or is the metaplot (like the examples I gave above), don’t feel absolutely pressured to be a slave to the details. Ghivran Dalaal was supposed to be in New Delhi, but I moved him to Calcutta for plot’s sake. White Wolf is producing a generic product, they cannot take into account everything that you might have in your game, so feel free to twist and bend and pull. That’s actually what the writers expect you to do.

A similar thought is that you are in no way obliged to use all of the metaplot either. Maybe you like the Ravnos falling ("Stupid Gypsies, never did like them bastards anyway.") but find the idea of the Assamites throwing off their Curse abhorrent ("What? Now the cool challenge has gone out of it, now their honor bleeds away like their conviction in the Jihad of Haqim."). Who says that you have to use both? If you can let me know who they are, I’ll be more than happy to slap them around for you. The books are collections not of standards and requirements, but of ideas to be incorporated or discarded as the case may be.

I also warn against trying to make sure that the player characters understand every little in and out of the plot you’ve written up. I know this from experience, when dealing with conspiracies (especially with 10,000 year old conspirators), trying to get every little twist and turn across only turns the whole tale flat, sadly. Sometimes you just have to settle for hints and allusions that may or may not be understood. If you have such a burning need to share your brilliant vision, wait until it’s over, and then you can spout to your heart’s content to the players, just keep it bottled up until then, it works much better that way.

You know what? I think that this is about as far as I can stretch out this whole discussion on the metaplot. Got rather long there, didn’t it? Anyway, that’s just my ramblings on the subject. I will hopefully be writing one of these columns every month to be posted on this site, so make damn sure you come back later on. I’ll be waiting here.

I’m all for feedback and suggestions. If people want me to talk about a certain subject, feel free to let me know. I have no specific plans of any sort (for the most part). This kind of electronic column works best if I get people to actually respond to me.

What do I have planned for next month? My tentative idea is "How to Make the Ventrue Grab You by the Balls, or Revamping Cliches and Stereotypes in Splats." Despite that title, it will be a general column for the World of Darkness, so if anyone has any ideas on what Tribes, Traditions, Guilds, and Kiths they find to be extremely dry and bland, let me know so I can spice ‘em up enough to make you breathe fire.

Until we meet again (well, okay, not really, but pretend), my good readers.