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 Ventrueantitribu 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 Four: Dark Paladins
Although much fewer in number than the Ventrue True Clan, the Ventrue antitribu are more diverse. While Auspex prevents the accidental Embrace of those who could never accept Ventrue antitribu ideals, the antitribu are deliberately far less choosy than their ancestor clan, and so nearly anyone can reasonably be considered for membership in the bloodline.
Quote: You shall not do that while I stand.
Prelude: You were the eldest daughter of an Indian king. In your youth, you were taught swordplay, some politics, and the scriptures, because you were the oldest child and your father had no son. When you were sixteen, you started learning from a British teacher, who claimed he came in peace and wished only to spread the words of enlightenment. About a year after that, your British teacher drugged and kidnapped you and your two sisters, taking you to the massive army waiting a day or so away.
When you woke, an army captain told you you belonged to England, as all of India soon would. You pretended to faint, and the fools let go of you. You had a British sword in your hand and two guards dead at your feet before they knew what had happened, and they were unable to disarm you. They finally got you to surrender by promising you in their God’s name that if you calmed down and allowed yourself to be held, your sisters would be returned to your father.
When they had you bound, they showed you how lightly they held their words. They did return the children—after raping, killing and mutilating them. This insult forced your father out onto the open field, where he was vastly outnumbered and out-armed. You escaped from the British the next day, only to find that the men of your city had all been killed in battle and the women had taken the only honorable way out—Sati, death by fire. You prepared a fire for yourself, but were interrupted by a man with glowing eyes. He explained that he wasn’t a demon, but an instrument of vengeance, as you could become, if you so chose.
You accepted the Embrace. Your sire explained that the British were conquering India, but not by their own will—the Ventrue clan of the vampires was behind the assault, and his sire was one of the leaders at the forefront. He himself could not act against his sire, who had Blood Bound him, and so he intended to warn the rest of India before the conquest was complete. He charged you to seek out and slay his sire.
As you searched for your grandsire, you waged a private war on your country’s invaders, seeing yourself as an aspect of Kali. Soon after your Embrace, you were severely wounded in a battle and fell into torpor.
You awakened in the 1980s and tracked your grandsire to California, where he had become the leader of a powerful coterie. As you considered how to get him alone and vulnerable, his coterie was jumped by a pack of wild vampires, and you took the opportunity to join the battle and drain your grandsire’s blood. By the time you had finished with him, the battle was over—your unexpected allies had won. One of them came up to you and asked you if you weren’t worried about losing humanity by committing "diablerie" so easily. Realizing he meant drinking your grandsire’s blood, you explained that you were not human, but an aspect of Kali; he looked over at one of the other vampires and nodded to him.
The vampire explained to you that he was part of a society called the Sabbat, which opposed the tyranny of the Ventrue and their Tremere allies. He invited you to learn more about the Sabbat; you accepted and soon chose to join.
Roleplaying Tips: You now see yourself as an aspect of Durga, she who gives people strength in time of need, rather than Kali. You’re a kshatriya (warrior caste) and as such, your duty in the world is to fight and kill, for the Sabbat’s cause. You would never consider Embracing anyone who wasn’t a true warrior. You feed only on those who are weak in spirit.
Equipment: Daggers, occasionally a sword. You normally wear a sari, which lacks pockets, and accordingly don’t have any way to carry much—not that you really want to. You generally sleep in the communal haven, where you and your packmates can guard each other’s backs.
Quote: I told you not to do it. You didn’t listen. I’ve been around long enough to know what we can and can’t do without pissing off the bishop. Let’s hit the Rack. I’m hungry.
Prelude: You were always the straight-A student. You always did everything right, and your siblings really didn’t like you because of it. After college, you decided to go to law school on a corporate grant. You did well, but everyone knew you would. Then your life suddenly changed.
Jyhad was raging in the city and you became a recruit for the Sabbat. You were chosen by a Ventrue antitribu because of your education; he might have passed you by, had he had time to get to know you better. You were dragged out of your apartment to the graveyard, Embraced, bashed over the head with a shovel, and buried. You were smart and survived the Jyhad, though your roommate, who was also chosen, was killed. You proved your ability; nonetheless, no one really liked you. Yes, you did your job well, but for some reason no one else would take your advice, which you gave constantly.
Roleplaying Tips: You love to tell others what to do. You are not involved in any of the Ventrue antitribu’s larger goals, although you are loyal to your clan. You can be very annoying, the more so because you’re always right. "I told you so," is one of your favorite phrases to use on people when they screw up and, conversely, you make sure no one’s ever in a position to say it to you. You speak with confidence and often talk over the heads of your fellow pack members. It gives you pleasure to point out their ignorance to them. You feed only on intellectuals.
Equipment: You own a green Chevrolet Berretta and maintain a private apartment as your haven. You sleep with the pack about half the time. You carry no weapons except during Jyhad, when you carry some sort of automatic weapon. You always dress in nice clothes of the latest style
Quote: Of course I believe in the Sabbat’s ideals. And what is the main principle of the Sabbat? Freedom. We’re tremendously powerful, we can do whatever we want, and so many of us waste their unlives worrying about things that don’t make a damn bit of difference in the long run. The only logical approach to an existence such as ours is to think of yourself first.
Prelude: Born into the Grimaldi revenant family, you lived what appeared to be a normal, human life on the outside. Several times during your childhood you formed friendships with humans—kine. Each time, the friendship was severed when you were moved to prevent the kine from noticing your slow aging.
Your family raised you to be a town councilor and protect the interests of your family and the Sabbat. You were taught swordplay by an uncle who had spent much of his 300-year life in Europe. You were also taught the fine art of telling people what they wanted to hear. When you were 78 years old (chronologically; physically you were nineteen), you were introduced to a distant cousin who worked as a forensic pathologist, covering up the deaths of humans who were killed by the Sabbat in hard-to-explain ways. As your family had planned, your friendship with her blossomed into romance, and soon you made plans to marry. Then she confided her secret to you—she cared about humans, cringed whenever she filled out another death certificate for a human who died horribly as a Sabbat pack’s toy, and secretly hoped to run away from the Sabbat. You made plans to run away with her, plans which you then revealed to one of the vampires. You smiled and waved as your fiancée was carried away by a szlachta, and the vampire you had spoken to, a young Ventrue antitribu, rewarded your display of loyalty with the Embrace. Since that time, you’ve made yourself a valuable member of your pack. You always keep an eye out for the best angle and look out for your own interests above all else. You are aware that most Ventrue antitribu despise you, but you don’t really care—their concern for honor shows them as fools.
Roleplaying Tips: Make sure whoever you’re talking to believes you’re the same as her. Speak of honor, of devotion to the Sabbat’s goals, of caring for that person, of generally whatever they want to hear. Always remember, though, that the only person who really matters to you is you. You feed only on females below the age of thirty.
Equipment: You don’t keep a separate haven—it might make your pack think you don’t trust them. You normally carry large amounts ofmoney—who’s going to rob you? When wearing your trenchcoat, you carry your uncle’s European longsword, which he didn’t want to give up—such a pity. When wearing a trenchcoat hurts your image, however, you carry a tiny switchblade knife, which fits nicely into a pocket of nearly anything you wear.
Quote: I regret the necessity for this. You do not know what you truly serve. After the Camarilla has fallen, we will mourn the young vampires like yourself who could not be extricated from its coils.
Prelude: You were born into a working-class family in London, England. Your mother died when you were young. Your father was a firm believer in corporal punishment; whether his actions qualified as "abuse" depends entirely on the definition used. He did not beat you with his belt, lock you in the cellar, or do any of the other things that come up in case studies and made-for-TV movies—in fact, his actions never even came close to violating the law—however, it was definitely abuse as far as you’re concerned. As soon as you graduated from college (with honors in Psychology), you severed all your ties to him and moved to New York City. You hated it there—the violence, the smog, the generally harsh, selfish attitude of the people. However, one evening, in a bar, you met a very unusual and colorful woman. After talking about politics with her for half the night, she invited you to come home with her. You agreed; your Embrace was relatively gentle, practically unheard of among the Sabbat.
The next night, she sat up with you all night long, explaining that New York City bears such a remarkable resemblance to a war zone because it is a war zone, contested between the forces of freedom and equality in the form of the Sabbat, and the staid, conservative, oppressive Camarilla. While she made it clear that the Sabbat certainly had the moral high ground in its war, she admitted that some of the sect’s members might choose to make it as corrupt as the Camarilla, if they had their wish. You asked her if there were no good people among the Camarilla. You’ve never forgotten her reply: "The Camarilla holds to the delusion that they are still basically human, despite their obviously changed state. As long as they do this, they can never realize what potential for goodness exists among our kind. Some of the young ones might be salvageable, but membership in the Camarilla ultimately dooms all who hold it. The best thing we can do for all vampires—even the ones of the Camarilla, though they will not thank us, at least at first—is to destroy the Camarilla as quickly and efficiently as we possibly can. Besides…there is another reason." She concluded by telling you of the Camarilla’s ultimate masters, the Antediluvians, of their limitless power and mindless, hungry evil, and finally, of the fact that the Sabbat had slain two of them, and thus, they knew the Antediluvians could be defeated.
In the following nights, you learned more about your nature. You quickly understood that you were no longer remotely human, and that your purpose in existence could not be the same as theirs. A year after your Embrace, you killed a Camarilla Malkavian and became a True Sabbat. After that, you traveled and became separated from your sire, winding up in California. Although you still hold great affection for her, you have little contact with your sire.
Roleplaying Tips: You’re a firm believer in vampiric freedom and equality, and while you recognize the flaws in the Sabbat, you consider it far easier to fix than the Camarilla. You feel no guilt about using violence if necessary, but you do not think of yourself as a warrior, nor do you wish to be one. Instead, you serve a vital, but frequently neglected function among the Sabbat: manipulating kine power structures. Using your vampiric powers, you’ve made several influential human friends: one of them in particular, a young Filipina-American politician from the Peace and Freedom party, you’re grooming to eventually become Governor of California. Although you would willingly sacrifice your human friends if necessary for the Sabbat cause, you care deeply for them nonetheless and hope to Embrace them all one day.
Equipment: You wear comfortable clothing, usually jeans and T-shirts, and carry whatever you think might be useful to your pack at the time. You are armed less often than most Sabbat, but in time of Jyhad, you carry a Smith and Wesson M640.
Chapter Five: Champions of Chaos
The Ventrue antitribu have done much to shape the face of the modern Sabbat, and while all vampires are officially considered equally deserving by the members of the bloodline, some few have risen to special notoriety.
Embraced into the Camarilla, used as a pawn in the feud between the Scottish Toreador and the English Ventrue, set up as puppet prince of Montreal by his ancestor Mithras, idealistic young Prince Kyle Strathcona grew to loathe his sect. Strathcona brought his city over to the Sabbat in the mid 1700s, and has since ascended to become one of the highest-ranked Sabbat members not Embraced by the sect or originally part of it. His loyalty to the Sabbat is matched only by his former clan’s hatred for him. A distinguished gentleman who wears formal clothing, Strathcona is philosophical and remote. As Archbishop of Montreal, he is informal and charming to most, but quick to anger with those who act contrary to the spirit of the Sabbat.
As a Knight Templar Embraced before the Anarch Revolution, Vincent Day fought in the Anarch Revolution and helped found the Path of Honorable Accord as a member of the Sabbat. Although he has never formally joined the Inquisition, that group frequently retains his services as an emissary or warrior. He practices a Spartan existence very rare among the Sabbat and regards the Antediluvians and the forces of hell as personal enemies. If the Age of Chivalry is over, Vincent Day would appear not to have noticed.
The vampire who calls herself simply Caitlyn joined the Sabbat as it began; she has never shared the details of her life prior to that with anyone. She has rejected invitations to join both the Inquisition and the Black Hand, ascending to the position of Sabbat priscus over the centuries. She is believed to have followed both the Path of Power and the Inner Voice and the Path of Harmony during her unlife. One of the most powerful and mysterious figures in the modern Sabbat, she is much loved by her clan. She is believed to have greater knowledge of the unusual denizens of the hidden world than any other Sabbat, and to have allies among the shapeshifters, mages—and Inconnu, some whisper.