Vampire the masquerade Jyhad – Intro

Gehenna is coming.
The day Cain himself will come back to trend on the soils of the World of Darkness, ready to deal with the Dark Mother, Lilith, and prepared to judge her descendants and their sins.
In modern nights, the Cultists of Nod are fashionable, they take care of finding information on Gehenna and on the omens that, according to the Malkavians, are getting ever closer. Even the most sceptics of the Camarilla are beginning to ask themselves some questions since the Weak Blood are growing constantly and the Cows are going back to being a real and evident danger.

The Tower continues to undermine all the rumours about the end of the world as untrue and impossible, but the Elders are planning the last moves of the Jyhad, oblivious to the youngers’ destiny, who are committed to find a place in the Damned society and to carry on their inconsequential power plays.

The Sabbat, on the other hand, goes on to reorganise itself evolving night after night to get ready to the Antediluvians and Father’s advent: the Cult realises that it isn’t actually prepared to face the real dangers of the World of Darkness and it works constantly on its blemishes reorganising itself cunningly, toning down all the structure’s flaws.

The Lasombra Clan plays a very crucial role in this intense evolution and the new Sabbat’s Ruler, Adine the Elegant, manages to bring back to the top loyalist factions, reinforcing the Inquisition. Many call her the Worthy heir of Moncada, others the Last Ruler, because she will engage the enemy leading the Sabbat Crusade against the Fathers, finally releasing the Damned from their chains.
While the Camarilla follows her policy against Gehenna, many Clans reconsider their priorities and the real benefits of belonging to one or the other faction.
The Nosferatu, who have always placed the Clan’s interests before those of the Cult, organize a fascinating assembly to face at continental level Gehenna’s problem and the imminent awakening of the Mask Clan’s Antediluvian.

The majority of the Elders, members of the various Clan, accelerate their moves, preparing themselves, some more than others, to the chance to face the last nights: throughout history many Gehenna’s cults have predicted events that have approximately happened, many Damned have carried out their job as pawns in the big chessboard of the centuries – old struggle as many have avoided the problem merely by ignoring it.

For this reason, during the Massacres of September 11 ended by 2020, many clans have reconsidered their arrangements, breaking away from their pillars and beliefs, renewing themselves and finding their way in the independence or in the anarchy. It is not uncommon that the cults related to the Mother sacrifice virgin women in the hope that the Antediluvians and the day the sun will become dark don’t devour them; others listen carefully the XIV generations’ rantings; still others research in the scientific method possible ways to reinforce their status of Damned and to face the Last Nightmare.

The following manual melds the Modern Nights with the Last Nights, offering a setting that includes a period from 2012 to the end of the World, divided in three Branches: “Before the Jyhad”; “Jyhad: Not Yet Gehenna” and “Echoes from Gehenna”.
In “Before the Jyhad” the World of Darkness is faced from 2012 to 2020 in a real and modern world very similar to that of Modern Nights, where historical events prepare the third world war and a conflict between Muslim and Christian countries.
Some new concepts are introduced, such as the Mortals’ Technologization who, through the evolution of a Multinational Corporation tied to the Vatican, the Bayer A.G., will be able to progress becoming a serious threat for the society of Damned.
In “Before the Jyhad” mortals face a significant social and cultural period of changes: many cities are struck by coordinated terrorist attacks from Isis and the Western countries get organised in a Co – Association of Intents called K12.
Narrators will have fun with the creation of stories in a scenery quite close to the next years, where Damned will experience the change in a very intense way.

The Clans and Cults will have to deal with what was faced during the first and second world war, finding the right way to survive humans’ fire.
The Bayer represents a troubling antagonist, since it will be able to control, from 2017, most of the Planet through provisional governments in support of the affected countries, centralised military resources and alliances with the most important political and economic leaders of the world.
The Bayer’s leader, Aida, harbours a deep hatred for Damned and she works discreetly to destroy the vampiric societies and to eradicate every Wyrm’s element.

“Jyhad: Not Yet Gehenna” is a more Sci-fi and modern setting than Modern Nights and it precedes the Last Nights in which the majority of the Antediluvians reawaken. In “Not Yet Gehenna” the Camarilla falls apart and most of the Damned organization comes back, more or less, the one antecedent the first Conclave of Venice (Dark Ages). Many Damned gather under charming, Anarchic or Independentist Leaders, or they embrace the Nomadism. Many join the Sabbat in hopes of finding, in the Sword, a way forward by embracing the Loyalist faith. The Mortals’ technological evolution reaches a rather advanced stage: on the streets the strident noise of the latest generation implant tech echoes.
The Bayer has economized and imposed its control through the commercialization of increasingly innovative implants tech, that enhance the human organism through the nanomachines and the individuals’ Energy.
“Jyhad: Not Yet Gehenna” precedes the real Gehenna and it is the richest narrative background, full of elements that can really complicate the nights of Damned.

“Echoes from Gehenna” represents the real Gehenna, that connects several extensions of “Vampires”: the “Masquerade” with other manuals (as Wizards, Wolves and so on).
In “Echoes from Gehenna” all of the scenarios of the manual “VTM: Gehenna” are studied, re-elaborated and adapted to Jyhad, by presenting a brand – new Gehenna that allows the players to test their role even in the Antediluvians’ struggle.

The three historical blocks in which the manual is divided have been studied to allow the players and narrators to choose the setting that comes closest to their way of seeing and playing “Vampires: the Masquerade”, selecting the favourite combination between the deep terror, the dynamism during the clash with the antagonists, Gehenna’s surrealism and the Futurism.

“From the Pyramids of Egypt to the skyscrapers in New York, the Jyhad has destroyed the world for ages. The most powerful vampires known on the earth, have turned the human civilization into their toy and even their own brothers are only instruments for their conflicts”.
The Jyhad, or the Eternal Struggle, is the conflict engaged, for ages, by Methuselah against the Antediluvians, likewise by Antediluvians against Cain.
The Jyhad is not fought directly on the battlefield, but it is played like a thin chess match between the most devilish and calculating existing minds, where not only human and young damned are unaware pawns of clever chess players, but also the same players are moved by more experienced hands than theirs.

It is not only the personal power and the universal control that push these old gentlemen of darkness to plan long-term strategies, but probably the will to survive. It seems that the Jyhad started when the Antediluvians turned on Enoch, Irad and Zillah eating them and engaging their first fight against Cain and, in the same way, the Methuselah have begun to take an active part to the Jyhad to preserve their integrity for the Antediluvians and Gehenna, by trying to avoid a catastrophe in every way, or by looking for being a part of it according to their personal vision – depends on the perspective.

The Jyhad is not only moved by the Methuselah’s fear for the Antediluvians and the fear felt by the Antediluvians for Cain, it is also moved by some more terrifying Gehenna’s elements: the same Cain has engaged a fight against Lilith and Crone, offended by his arrogance and carelessness.
What is clear is that the Jyhad’s mechanisms are unknowable, likewise the participants: Weak Blood’s nightmares testimonies speak about deranged absurdities even for the Malkavian’s worst. Will Anatole laugh at these rantings?

The Jyhad’s Elder Manipulators are never in the struggle, but they act from a distance to eliminate enemies, by destroying their influence and power. This is why they use a significant number of pawns, influencing and steering their little power plays, to obtain other devotees to be used in the most complex and deranged way according to the aims to be achieved.
What matters is throwing away the enemies’ work, whatever it is.

The Jyhad, as Gehenna, is a taboo concept in the Camarilla, that claims that the Antediluvians are dead or never existed. The Clan persecutes and points at those who say otherwise destabilising the Elders’ quiet and balance. In the Camarilla, the brothers who believe in the Antediluvians are few and there are even less brothers who deal with it without label it as a poorly reported or as a paranoiac element.
The Cain’s Sword concerns Jyhad and Gehenna in a more powerful way. The Sabbath is a real cult of the pseud – religious Gehenna, that embraces the idea of Antediluvians’ struggle and destruction, focusing also on the Jyhad’s actors, labelling them as a real damage of the Damned society and a danger for their own survival.

The Jyhad is an instrument used by the ancients to enslave, control or decimate all the Cainites.
It’s not important to know something else, except that in the first anarchic insurrection two Antediluvians, the Clans’ fathers at the head of the same Sabbath (Lasombra and Tzimisce), were destroyed by the strength of the organized alliance. However, Clan as Assamites or Seth’s disciples not only believe in the Antediluvians, but also follow the Clan’s customs that bring them to adore their fathers, considering them as members of the second generation or even instead of Cain.

These Clans, as other particular rituals, aren’t opposed to the Jyhad or Gehenna, but they commit to corrupt the society, or to purify it, with the aim of bringing the Last Nights closer. It’s not uncommon hearing a Snake’s prediction about the Set’s awakening, caught in an ecstasy of faith.

The sequential chronicles that created the setting end between 2019 and 2020, still quite far from the Sci – fi or Cyber scenarios. We have a first wave of Gehenna with a partial awakening of some Antediluvians, a Final Jyhad, considered as a human society unaware of this scenario and maybe, for this reason, a human society that has progressed greatly, especially in terms of technology. Tech aren’t suitable for all, so the players who want to play a Tech will have to invest many Background points.

It’s not impossible for a Vampire playing a different Tech. We assume that a Tech equipped by Devices in the arms (that aren’t prothesis, but a techno – organic system) is hugged by a vampire, upon his awakening he would be armless and with completely disabled devices, this can be an example for a basic Leather Tech, if we assume a Heavy Tech there are good chance to reawaken directly in Ashes.
Having to describe the setting, without using too many mince words, we can define the chronicle as the Cyberpunk/Sci – Fi sequel of “Vampire – The Masquerade”.

This manual is divided into several chapters, to explore deeply every section of the setting of “VtM – Jyhad”. In every Chapter, recurring themes will be examined in the expansions of “Vampires: The Masquerade” and all of the connections between “Jyhad: Not Yet Gehenna” and the basic setting of the World of Darkness will be highlighted.

Our chronicles are based on the time travel element (passive) from the players who encounter several situations and different places of the World of Darkness with which they could interact until they change the space – time evolutions of the most important World of Darkness chronicles’ events.
However, players can’t use actively the Time Travel and they aren’t able to travel consciously. These, indeed, are in different temporal dimensions, according to the scientific theories of the temporal relativism, and they are aware that their world and time are the only ones to be tolerable.
Complex? Maybe.

Player lives a chronicle that is a point in many other points and he can relive that chronicle in many different ways, without ever being aware of the other dimension in which he is living, only the narrator knows this different, transitive and relative version of the chronicle. Players, having seen the Offside evolutions of the previous chronicle’s versions, could touch concretely all the connections between the various time points.

How it is possible?
All the points, maybe at first side spread in a very chaotic way, are linked together by a figure, that all the most important Jyhad’s players identify as the Wizard of Time. Someone close to the same [Brujah]. The real Wizard of Time is someone who through the chronicles pulls the strings of a gigantic Puzzle, in order to all the fundamental elements gather in his hands to avoid or face Gehenna.

The time loops, indeed, are the only instrument that can be used to create so interesting crossovers to make a Gehenna’s scenario complete and playable, that includes not only the most habitual Jyhad’s players, but also the youngest player, the weakest Caitiff or the Thin Blood, the least useful protagonists of a big plan.

Every Player has his own advanced version in the future and each player, sooner or later, will meet him: this because it is expected from the Wizard of Time’s plan, because it is the focus of “Echoes from Gehenna”. The echoes are the hopeless cries or the hymns of glory of cainites, wizards, simple mortals, from other times and other places, that are the same time and the same place.

For this reason, we have included a Png that could actually support all the macro plot on which we develop – and on which the masters could develop – the general scenario of Jyhad. We talk about Adine the Elegant, a simple Cainit, young and maybe not suitable to face all that she will deal with.
Adine was only a simple Cainit. Nothing more. But, continuing in her no – life, somehow, she gets in touch with the most ignored truths, those whispered in the autistic children’s ears. Those echoes, that only the crazy malkavians can understand and interpret as too hermetic, too dissociated because someone can essentially comprehend… but Adine had an ace up her sleeve: she was selected for a series of totally causal causes and effects, that allow her to follow Moncada, to believe in his faith and to understand how important the concept of Abyss, relativity, state, act and action was.
Moncada was not a simple shadow, he probably was a real Shadow who talked through the mouth of God and who predicted Gehenna as his imminent judgement.

The wise Cardinal wanted that Adine looked after a certain Malkavian who would have revealed the secret to run away from Gehenna: because in the ancient prophecies it was said that the Malkav’s blood would have seen things far even from the highest minds’ comprehension. And, thanks to this crazy little girl, she understood that the world was not what she simply saw and lived. The abyss, the Arcadia’s kingdoms, the spirits’ umbers, a higher world, all of them were overlapped, all simultaneous but all so distant.
And for the same relativities Adine came to meet a shadow, one of the most ancient one, that gave her the power to come back to save it. We are talking about [Brujah] who revealed that if he was still able to step on earth it was for her, another her, who returned to the past to save him from Troilo, and because this was a fixed point in time, he was supposed to go in the future to teach her that art.
Adine didn’t understand how she could ever have come back to save it and then receiving the gift, if she had not yet it. This awareness of relativity and transitivity of space and time, allowed the Cainit to understand the truth: there wouldn’t be a Gehenna. There would be several. Many already happened, others had already occurred.

A burden that went far beyond the ancient fathers’ awakening, that she could know from afar in the first and second city.
So Adine became the Wizard of Time, persecuted by Saulot and Haquim, for which the ancients rise in the desire to destroy her, at whose side sits the same [Brujah], her only travelling companion and loyal friend.
Temporis is a difficult gift to use and, as far as precious, it is bearer of enormous solitude. Adine is not a cainit. She is not a mortal. Adine is a time traveller, who works every day for the world’s safety and destruction, supporting balances and working in order to the humans and cainits, and everyone else, can still exist and, simultaneously, in some place and space, a simple cainit kidnapped by the wise truths of her master Moncada.
“Echoes From Gehenna” is a Chronicle based on the moves of Adine in the Jyhad, that makes players authors of time, protagonists and audience of the World of Darkness’ storylines.

For example, any Tremere player, who plays a chronicle in 2040, might be in, a certain way, an ancient chapel of the abandoned Clan, where the diaries of a real Wizard reveal that the Tremere never existed, or that the Hermes’ order has been destroyed by the Wizards because considered inappropriate. In that moment he will ask some questions and the narrator could manage the chronicle with unprecedented creativity.
Shortly after, in another role, the same player might be sent from Adine in a particular place to do something and to meet an order of men who will convince him to reveal them the Tremere’s secrets.

Later, a player’s action, in the future or in the present, could be the real cause of the Hermes order’s slaughter from the Wizards.
Certainly, an entire setting based on the temporal loops would not make sense, if it weren’t connected to a definite linearity. For this reason, there are some fixed points that the characters will have to find, that will bring the chronicle to its natural completion: facing Gehenna and surviving, but above all, understanding that only Adine was able to understand.

As regards the Game’s system, we introduce the Techs: humans able to shape the Nanomachines thanks to the Energy, that works as the Vampiric BloodPool. This Energy is composed by electrostatic charges connected to blood, that move among the different Tech’s Devices thanks to the blood vessels. Techs dispose of a series of Abilities based on the equipment’s type and the possessed Tech Technology. It’s expected the presence of a black market for the components, therefore, beyond the Techs developed by the Bayer, it’s possible to find several solutions for those Humans that, for some reason, want to use the technology.

Finally, we introduce E-Childe in the setting, a Lasombra organization that refers directly to the New Regent of Cain’s Sword, the Shadow called Adine the Elegant, who plays in first person the Jyhad and who aims to destroy all the existing Elders and the Camarilla, avoiding Gehenna.
E-Childe includes only the Lasombras tied to the Regent by the wide vastness of the Vitae’s gifts. Only later, some Non-Lasombra’s members, who came from the former True Black Hand, are introduced; with the death of Vlad the Real Black Hand the organization shattered, replacing part of the members in E-Childe, while others, like saying… followed the old leader. The members of the organization follow the Regent’s orders diligently, pursuing her aims by tracing the lines of her plan. It doesn’t matter if this can bring the Sect to suffer some loss, after all: The end justifies the means. E-Childe works as the old Real Black Hand and nobody knows who composes it: the members of E-Childe follow their own path, called the Elegance Trail and all of them bring to the Code Names that start with E.

To the Elegance Trail it’s possible to admit also other Cainits, rather closer to the Regent or her vicars, in order to deduce the essence and existence.
Finally there are the Real Gehenna’s Trails and the Holy Beast’s Paths: the first door brings the Damned to believe that Gehenna should not be fought, but even understood and supported; on the contrary, the second one considers the Damned as Holy Beasts, ready to contribute to God’s plan before the Apocalypse and prepared to follow the precepts of the Nod and Bible’s books, considering the Ancient Father Cain a sort of second Prophet, who didn’t kill Abel for anger and hate, but only for an act of deep sacrifice, in order to allow the course of things.

This manual is divided into several chapters, to explore deeply every section of the setting of “VtM – Jyhad”. In every Chapter, recurring themes will be examined in the expansions of “Vampires: The Masquerade” and all of the connections between “Jyhad: Not Yet Gehenna” and the basic setting of the World of Darkness will be highlighted.

Chapter 1 – “The World of Darkness in the Jyhad”: the chapter introduces summarily the changes in the world and in the society of Damned, ever closer to Gehenna, in a setting between 2004 and the next two centuries, until the effective Gehenna’s resolution.

Chapter 2 – “Historical Events”: it offers a wide chronology with effect from the first period of the Modern Nights, by exploring all the historical phases that bring the World of Darkness to darken and enter in a futuristic setting very slowly, considering the historical realism and rationalism as a cornerstone.

Chapter 3 – “The Cain’s Sword and Ivory Tower”: it describes the changes of the Seven principals, Camarilla and Sabbat, in “Jyhad: Not yet Gehenna”. The vampire society is shaken by the wars and terror for the new mortals’ power, it’s natural for the seven facing a period of great reflection and renewal of their models.

Chapter 4 – “Independents, anarchists and Youngs Feud”: it is focused on the generally called “Independents” question, facing the damned world that are not Sabbat or Camarilla’s members. Important roles are playing by the Clans that move from a Sect to another, claim to be independent or playing an unscrupulous personal Jyhad: many other vampires discover a new awareness congregating in Brotherhood’s movements.

Chapter 5 – “The Bayer and Techs”: it analyses the new enemies of “Jyhad: Not yet Gehenna”. The Bayer Multinational corporation, similar to the former Pentex and somehow connected to it, is the main engine of the new mortals’ evolution that, thanks to it, can upgrade with Tech systems that use nanomachines to technologize themselves.

Chapter 6 – “New Gifts, Devotions and Systems”: it outlines the new powers of Damned, the new paths and all the additional playing systems compared to “Vampires: the Masquerade”.

Chapter 7 – “The Character creation and guide to the chronicle”: it is a Vademecum that guides the players to the creation of a Not – Dead, Bayer or Tech character. A careful paragraph as a guide to the narrator is given to create compelling scenarios in “Jyhad: Not yet Gehenna”.

Chapter 8 – “Important Brothers and others”: it introduces the main characters of “Jyhad: Not yet Gehenna”, it offers also an overview of the World of Darkness’ supernatural or not characters somehow connected to the Jyhad and Gehenna.

Chapter 9 – “We could be Gehenna, so we become it”: it is a compelling resolution of Gehenna, that reveals all the moves used by Jyhad’s main players. Antediluvians, Methuselah and very young damned are sucked in the Last Night’s tornado, that will bring to an unexpected Dawn. All the left unfinished elements from “Vampires: the Masquerade” and from its expansions are connected, completed and organized according to a unique chronical path.
It will be as playing to “Eternal Struggle” with your loved D20.

Musicals: Dubstep Music, O.S.T. As those of Hannibal, as for example “Vide Cor Meum” and “Aria da Capo”, O.S.T. of Cowboy Beepop and the most beautiful pieces of Yoko Kanno. Dominique di Soeur Sourire in A.H.S. Asylum O.S.T. of the videogames mentioned below, Black Metal.

Cinema and TV Series: Mirrors, Doctor Who, Hannibal Lecter, Total Recall, Blade Runner, Equilibrium are just a few movies that have inspired Jyhad. Aliens, Lenny Caution Operation Alphaville, ZARDOZ, Dark City give a short overview of the dark settings and the human’s state of decay, The Omega Man, Old Boy, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, 12 Monkeys, Silent Hill, Resident Evil’s saga, Lie to Me, Touch, Priest and American Horror Story among the recent ones.
Video games: the quotes are clearly taken from the famous sagas as Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Aida Bayer and the tech component are influenced by futuristic culture and a series of titles raging from Metal Gear to Final Fantasy VII.
The real deep mistake is not knowing you are alone.
But to be with something much more complex.