Capitolo 3 – The Sects

The Camarilla has always claimed to be a universal sect, declaring that no Damned was excluded from its protection until proven otherwise – as the belonging to the Sabbat or the formal rejection of its hegemony – but during the Last Nights, many things are changed: the distinction between high and low Clans is so clear that Gangrel and Nosferatu have officially left the sect, following unanimously their Mediators’ decision.

The Ivory Tower, which had kept its newborns away from the truth, is the one that suffers the most damage during Gehenna’s prelude, for its geographic position, its obsessive habit to interfere in the mortals’ businesses and for the young’s low inclination to pay attention to the elders’ bullshits. Cracking from the inside, along the generational lines, the Tower suffers a breakage in four ranks. On one side Elders who realize that Gehenna is coming and search to do everything they can to improve their blood and face the danger. On the other side, less arrogant Elders accept, against their will, the future destruction and search to maintain almost impossible balances. Others – younger and less involved in Jyhad damned – prefer not to care, or play in the power struggle to change things and dig a bigger niche.

Finally, young people, under the pressures of the Last Nights, fear, rage and obvious groundlessness of the sect’s principles – which do everything except supporting the damned society to the benefit of few people – think of organizing themselves to reverse the status quo and remove the princes’ asses from their thrones of lies and incompetence.

Vampires from all over the world have reconsidered their position, their Kings’ hegemony and real conflicts of their own freedom of choice in the World of Darkness.
Among the lower clans very few people still want to officially recognize the Ivory Tower’s authority, which is reduced to be the weakest and opposed of the vampires’ formations.

Camarilla has always showed its skepticism towards concepts like Gehenna, the Antediluvians and the existence of Cain with a great strength. The Elders are very attentive to reprimand the youngest about the beliefs on Gehenna: they don’t want that Infants and Ancillae really believe in Gehenna because this would totally alter the control exercised by the Elders over them; rational and scared vampire are something that Camarilla doesn’t need and then Jyhad works as long as pawns ignore to be parts of the game. For this reason, the Thin Blood’s presence is a serious problem for the Ivory Tower’s elders. They have so weak blood that some aspects of Vampirism transcend, but above all they have, as the visionaries’ prophecies suggest, the ability to see things hidden even from the Malkavian’s eyes. The Noddists believe that the Thin Blood are, with the red star, one of the Gehenna’s symbols: chosen by the Antediluvians to propagate mysteries and secrets, the most powerful pawns of Jyhad.

A danger that the Elders can’t tolerate.
Since some Thin Blood predicted the destruction of all Ravnos at the hands of their Antediluvian and the Clan is effectively disappeared some years later, the Camarilla’s Brothers started to pose themselves questions and let the prophecies and Thin Blood give the answers. This tested the Young’s confidence in their elders by destabilizing the balance on which the Camarilla had stood for centuries.

All of this has led the Elders to announce real blood hunts against Thin Blood, starting a carnage. Thin Blood had to learn how the exchange of favors between Brothers works, how difficult not being able to have a Ghoul is, having to look for solutions such as finding strength in the group, searching for safe shelters and then share them with others, and things like that.

The scarce Elders’ diplomacy has contributed to the birth of a structure among Thin Blood and, therefore, to the ascent of some charming Leaders between the 14th and 15th generations: they have decided to form a strategic alliance with the Cowards in order to take revenge on the Camarilla.
The Camarilla still doesn’t know it but underestimating Thin Blood will be the Sect’s death sentence.

The Gangrel Clan leaves the Camarilla at the behest of their Justicar, Xaviar.
However, outside the Conclave’s walls of Atlanta, nobody knows what really happened.
Indeed, Xaviar had left with the herd to fight something: a terrible creature that shook him so deeply to convince him that it was, probably true, an Antediluvian. Once the question was presented to the Camarilla’s heads, Gangrel’s concerns were not accepted, in fact Xaviar was so much ridiculed by the falsest elders’ conjectures that he left the conclave with the sentence “You are already dead”.

The Gangrel Clan, now lonely, follows Xavier in the struggle against the infernalists who had targeted the Beast’s Clan; many are the allies of the former camarillic who support the cause – Gangrel also Sabbat’s members, who help him to destroy the threat – and who will avenge, with the same Sabbat, his death at the hands of an infernalist True Brujah. Indeed, the Sabbat will announce a sort of blood hunt for all the True Brujah for the outrage suffered at Xaviar’s expense.
Rumors say that Xaviar had announced the entrance of the Gangrel Clan in Sabbat and that he is not really dead. Obviously, despite the stories that see the infernalist devouring his heart after the fight, nobody really saw the fact.

What is clear is that the Gangrel Clan passed from the Camarilla to Sabbat, following Xaviar’s will in the struggle against the Antediluvians, reinforced in spirit by the ideals of the Cain’s Sword. Few of the Gangrel remain independent.

The Assamite Clan enters in Camarilla as Gangrel Clan’s substitute, at any rate this is what the Camarillics say.
Ur-Shulgi, avatar of the same antediluvian Haqim, orders all the Assamites to abandon the new Muslim faith to idolize only the antediluvian, as it’s specified by the Path of Blood.

Many others, on the contrary, leave Alamut, escaping from the ferocious revenge of Ur-Shulgi who even strikes against the elders who have refused his dictate of faith. Many viziers and wizards have found a sort of refuge in the Camarilla and they have supported the Sect mainly for geographic or convenient reasons: going in the new world – where the Sabbat domineers – and risking not being welcomed with open arms is not a very smart solution for any sensible damned, for this reason, also those warriors who don’t approve the Camarilla’s attitude were forced to choose her as ally, by using the role of High Guard and “replacement of Gangrels” as an excuse to satisfy their own bloodlust, managing to legalize it in any way.

One of the saddest choices of Camarilla was surely to pay little attention to the elder Nosferatu Thryomanes’ initiative and then to put the blame for his actions on the entire Clan.

Thryomanes is known among the mortals as a rich projects financier, tied to the government secret and arms production. Among the Damned he has the reputation of Experienced Political strategist with his nose in the high-profile government’s issues and, for this reason, he is estimated by many Princes. The Nosferatu has always enjoyed the Ventrue’s respect and he has interceded in many Conclaves in favor of the high Clans persuading the Mask’s Clan to support a round of information to the benefit of the Camarilla rather than the Sabbat, in many occasions. Thryomanes has also played an important role in the issues related to the domains and susceptibility of Nosferatu about the intrusions of the Ivory Tower’s young damned in the cities’ subsoils: Nosferatu Elders never let that any other Damned – whether Prince or Baron – could have an opinion on the Natural and legitimate patronage of the subsoil’s Territories from the Nosferatu, but the “City in the city” policy was never particularly appreciated by princes, who saw in the Nosferatu’s attitude a far from being loyal and reasonable autarky. That’s why princes often have “granted that the Nosferatu could stay underground”, offering them what they already had, since the beginning. Thryomanes pacified Ventrue, Toreador and Nosferatu by bringing up sophisms and political cavils that have somehow solved the situation. However, the Nosferatu Clan has always wrinkled its nose for Thryomanes’ words, accepting thus his authority for political manners.

Thryomanes had already identified in the first postwar the strength that a company as the Bayer could give him, reason why, after the accusations of tests on Jews suffered by the pharmaceutical company during the second postwar, the Nosferatu has fixed things, by eliminating evidences and traces of the fact, protecting it.

The Bayer could have been a fundamental instrument for the Camarillic Hegemony. Naturally, it’s unlikely that the Nosferatu was able to cover up alone some anti-Semitic and inhuman situations of this magnitude shortly after Hitler’s fall: it’s easy to understand that many Princes gave their contribution by offering money, contacts and political-industrial alliances. The Bayer was funded and protected by the institutions, silenced media and departments helped to support several industrial sectors. The Camarilla’s general idea was to create a multinational corporation like Pentex Corporation, if not superior, that could work in the sectors of energy, widespread medicine, food manipulation and more. Germany chose the Bayer for its good economic stability, an element deduced from some analyses carried out by the Ghoul, lustful Ventrue businessmen, even in times of extreme international financial difficulty.

Thryomanes approached the president Wenning when the Bayer proved to be ready to enter in the international market, since: Samsung, Apple, LG and Huawei were making a ferocious war, Yahoo was continuing to slow down, Microsoft was working hard on a technological advancement by giving less priority to the services offered and Google was taking care of everything else; there wasn’t in fact, a company involved in the Real Life of people – too busy living trapped in the virtual world. War, the economic difficulties of the first decade of the 21st century and the even more ambiguous political situations ensured that the People hid in the virtual world and social networking, rather than facing the World of Darkness’ rigidity. The Governments were too busy completing their plans of conquest of the Middle East or controlling the emerging markets to take care of a German pharmaceutical company. To finish everything, the Nosferatu Thryomanes was simply supposed to embrace the Bayer’s president, just like his beloved Ventrue used to do.

Wenning had a seriously ill daughter: Nosferatu offered to Wenning truths about vampires, the Vitae’s powers and possibility to give to Aida a chance for Life through the embrace. Wenning didn’t think twice before accepting it, but the young Aida Bayer wasn’t very happy to reawaken as Nosferatu: she didn’t understand what she had become, or why her face was so monstrous, as well as the rest of her body.
In the impetus of anger and revulsion towards herself she attacked the Sire, who had to disappear in the shadows to get away from her terrible rage. Horrified and disgusted by her own image, she covered her face with an iron mask.

During the Conclave of 2017 a maniple of Justicar and Archons discuss the Camarilla’s problems in geopolitical terms and its lack of promptness in grasp the new continent, remaining anchored to a dangerous and hostile to Damned Europe.

The Gangrel Clan’s loss and the heated conflict with the Nosferatu and Malkavian clans caused serious problems for Camarilla, therefore the most ancient Sect’s protectors have decided to face the problem. If the Ventrue Clan proposes a firmer return to the autocracy, the Rose’s Clan promotes the entrance of new Clans in the Tower: after all the Camarilla has always considered itself a universal sect. If the Assamite entrance was sufficiently accepted by the Scepter’s Clan, the idea of uniting the Giovanni authority was even less successful. But the Restorers, within the walls that host the Inner Circle in Venice, declare that the Camarilla needs precisely some Italian Necromancers. The most social and less sneaky policy involves deliberate meetings with the elders of any sect or affiliation, to discuss seriously the Gehenna’s affair and the new danger represented by the Mortals. For this reason, Madame Guil, a very important Toreador, decides to become the initiative’s mouthpiece by starting to sell American territories to Sabbat in exchange of extremely useful favors to the Tower – as for example recovering the fugitive Vittorio Giovanni to bring him back, with the kidnapped Marianna, to Venice obtaining the Giovanni’s Approval. The Giovanni are not only useful as Necromancers, but they had one of the biggest Companies of the world, with which Madame Guil wants to compete against Bayer A.G. and destroy it, by eliminating the danger created by Thyromanes as soon as possible. So, the Camarilla decides to create several Restorer Coterie in order to complete a series of diplomatic missions to give back hegemony and strength to the sect.

Unfortunately, Madame Guil will soon meet ultimate death at the hands of a former Huntress of Leopoldo’s Order who became Damned – probably with the help of the True Black Hand or something far more frightful – starting to carry out chain executions among the lowest Tower’s Generations.
The Camarilla is on high alert: it wants to use all the resources and new Restorers’ Coterie to revenge Madame Guil and destroy the enemy.

The most skeptical Princes declare, on the contrary, that there is no Ruthless and unbeatable Hunter, rather than Madame Guil had been investigated by the Camarilla a long time ago for its relationships with a Sabbat Templar, with whom she would have had a love and diablerie affair in the past, during Villon’s times. Someone has even accused her of the Parisian Prince’s disappearance.
What is sure is that there is no sign of Madame Guil after the stipulation of the Roses’ Convention.

The Giovanni get close to the Ivory Tower creating a considerable displeasure: Roses’ Convention – by the Coterie led by the Justicar Toreador – brings the Necromancers to offer support to the Camarilla in exchange for convenient trade goods. Mainly, what the Giovanni are trying to obtain from the union with Camarilla is simply more power.

Gehenna is real and the elders believe they have made a mistake: maybe they should not underestimate the Antediluvians.
Even the most reliable ancillae of Italian Family can’t know how the Camarilla can be useful to them.

The Tower’s Actions – and not only – bring the most underrated two Clans to examine their politics and escape en masse from the Camarilla in a short time.
The Nosferatu have always considered the Sect as a useful market for buyers: whether they were Infants, Ancillae or smart Elders, the Camarilla’s Brothers have always paid out favors, contacts and large sums – if not much more interesting wares – to obtain the requested information from the Mask’s Clan. In the Clan the relationships between different Sects have never been particularly tense, since each Nosferatu placed the Clan’s consent before the Sect’s ideals. This has facilitated exchanges of information between the Primogen Nosferatu and the bravest Sabbat’s pack leaders, including healthy Barons and Independents.

The Thyromanes and Aida Bayer’s fact has been, indeed, the reason why the Clan decided to leave the Tower: Ventrue Princes, initially in support of the Thyromanes’ political lines, have put the blame on him for that which, instead, turned out to be in the eyes of the skilled Nosferatu informers a bullshit of the Scepter’s Clan. Thyromanes had made a big mistake, but that type of mistake was certainly uncommon among the Nosferatu Elders: he had received from the Camarilla’s upper echelons a lot of pressures, due to the fact that the Camarilla desired a reality as the Bayer’s one.

The Mask’s Clan reunited, effectively, in the most important cities’ subsoils, through an encrypted conference network on Internet, establishing the new line to follow: Aida Bayer would have hit the Nosferatu first, for the reasons related to the blood’s curse that associates them to her, that’s why firstly they would have leave the Camarilla. After all, when the Ship sinks the mice escape. By the way, unlike the Camarilla, the Sabbat’s Damned have always kept their word – solving personal problems with the monomachy – and not certainly with intrigues and cowardly acts typical of the dark ages’ courts.
The Nosferatu grasped the evolution and they broke their balls of the Camarilla’s Elders, still stuck to five centuries earlier.

Speaking about the Malkavian Clan, after the Punitive expedition against Camarilla and Sabbat from the Tzimisce, the Malkavian are disappeared to discuss what happened. At least this is what rumor has it. Organizing the meeting of an entire clan on a global scale and in one night is certainly improbable, but the Malkavian have somehow communicated each other through a network or something else. The result is that, simply, they have decided to end the games and recovering the lost way, since their father is alive, somewhere.

The Mistake committed by the Camarilla in giving permission to Thyromanes to embrace Aida Bayer has been payed dearly by many princes of the North European area.

After having cleverly freed from her biological father, the young Nosferatu, with no knowledge on the World of Darkness and Damned, has started her personal hunt and research on the “Mutants”, as she defined them. In the full force of secrecy, she has funded researches on Assamites, Gangrel and some Tzimisce, in the Bayer’s basements throughout the world. Rebellions and joint attacks from Clans belonging or not to Camarilla towards the Bayer have been a real and strong Laceration in the Masquerade, which costed damned the ultimate death at the hands of the mortal enemies and Aida Bayer’s possibility to demonstrate her charisma through the media. Aida has learned, thanks to Vittorio Giovanni’s intervention and teaching, how to manipulate the masses and how to hide uncomfortable truths. The Bayer has made available to all the public archive on the Mutation’s diseases caused by war, that would have provoked features of those men who would have attacked the Bayer’s headquarters to steel the medical supplies not addressed to them. The convenient lies invented by the president Bayer have proved to be very persuasive.

The princes and their Camarillae were shaken by an enemy who has already understood the Jyhad’s functioning even though he didn’t know anything about the World of Darkness: Aida will prepare violent executions against Many Elders, funding the reviving Leopoldo’s Order, thanks to the agreement with the Vatican. It goes without saying that many Damned have somehow supported the discovery of the enemies’ shelter, or in some way they have helped the Order to find their preys. Many Princes have been betrayed by their own subordinates, the Camarillae have easily fallen apart, to the point that many domains have followed the rule of the Elder’s Dark Ages, keeping the Masquerade and traditions as required. The Restorers’ big work was to give back the hegemony to new Princes, where possible.

Aida Bayer, under Vittorio’s suggestion, understood how to destabilize the Camarilla’s power by bringing to Death not the useless young Mutants, but their Elders, Masters, the real Vultures.

“Revenge is often an objective that takes time and powers beyond the human reach. In this sense, the embrace is anything but a curse”.

Whether it’s about Camarilla’s Tremere, European Anti-tribes of the Goratrix’s house or American Charmers of the Cain’s Sword, this doesn’t matter to the Tzimisce clan. All the Usurpers have to die: after the destruction of all Anti-tribes Tremere at the hands of the same Tremere – somehow pushed by the Tzimisce or Tzimisce in person – now the Demons Clan aims to the death of all the Usurpers of Hermes’ Order in Vienna, that’s why they organize the biggest punitive expedition after those narrated in the Nod’s Book.

Among all the Tremere who were present there, only Etrius and two dozen others will be able to escape, while it is not known what happened to the Antediluvian Tremere’s body. What is particularly interesting is that many Tzimisce have verified an excessive weakening in the power of their blood, both in the application of the magic art related to the Koldun Thaumaturgy and in the flesh’s manipulation art. The surviving Tremere are very few, the Assamites hired by Sabbat and the Carpathians’ gentlemen have launched a real wizard hunt, who will force the Tremere to hide: better safe than sorry.

One of the hardest blows for the Camarilla is the purification suffered by the rare but precious Anti-tribes Lasombra. Lucita, Moncada’s lineage reaches the Sire to lead him to Ultimate Death, right before the Mexico City’s conquest by the Thin Blood.

The Lasombra Clan pronounces the death sentence towards Lucita and all the Anti-tribes Lasombra – allowing the use of all necessary resources. There are many, if not too many, elders who are forced to cooperate with the Keepers’ Clan, that had prepared its death and destruction networks for a very long time.

Lucita – as other important Anti-tribes Lasombra – will be captured, staked and exposed to sunlight under a grating, to extend terribly the agony strand by strand of light. The Lasombra Revenge is not particularly tied to the Sect, but to the Clan and Shadows’ Princes: whether they were Friends of the Night, Angels, the worst Pirates of the Night or traditional Ecclesiae’s Members: all, absolutely all, the Lasombra of the Cain’s Sword were ready to the mass execution, following the indications of the Moncada’s heir: Adine.

Around 2300 Camarilla collapses definitively, since the Bayer advances on a large number of European cities by forcing many to leave the old continent in order to reach the new one, most of them decide to abandon the Sect and declare themselves independents, mostly to not fall into the Sabbat’s hatred.

The few left organizes themselves in structures similar to Dark Ages’ ones, between High and economically wealthy clans. Being sure to keep the Masquerade is no longer essential: it’s already open season and the Brothers know well they will have to take a very low profile to survive.

Sect par excellence, Camarilla’s enemy and nemesis, was born mainly to contrast it, the Sabbat has always been the second largest vampire organization in the world, but, just before the Last Nights, it becomes the first sect for organization and number. The Cain’s Sword has always been the Mongolic horde of the vampire’s society, with capable people, strong ideals and an enviable nature. The only problem of Sabbat was the large number of dickheads who, after having solve the external problems, continued creating new internal ones; for this reason, many of the best droves broke up shortly afterwards or they destroyed themselves in internal wars.
Briefly, just before the Last Nights, the sect loses also its leader for a Thin Blood’s revolt in the USA, they were led by an obsessed who bright them to unite against the Sword in America and against the Tower in Europe, up to take Mexico City giving the ultimate death to the former ruler. The Sabbat, although it has lost important cities, firstly including the fundamental headquarters in Mexico City – not to mention the east coast of the United States – is the one that was ready to face the worst nights since the beginning. After all, what is a world war compared to the Great War against the Antediluvians?

A new leader, the shadow of Adine the Elegant, takes the sect’s reins, moving the headquarters to Detroit, a geographically strategic place for fights and sect’s safety. The idealism and passion with which Adine animates the Cainites remember those of the same sect’s foundation.
Certainly not a girl, but not yet an elderly woman, Adine represents an important example to follow for the Sword’s Damned. The Sabbat was established on two fundamental pillars: Freedom and Devotion; these pillars are not changed, on the contrary, the new ruler reinvigorates them with new power. The Sabbat’s young know that the Antediluvians are awakening and the final confrontation is imminent. For this reason, the Sabbat leaves its war against the Camarilla to deal with more important things, as for example finding the Ancients – just like Gratiano and Lugoj did – to exterminate them even before the awakening. This is the real mission of all the Sword’s droves. The Vaulderie’s culture is reinforced, just like the factions of the Loyalists, Inquisition and Crusaders are.

The Sabbat faces the Gehenna’s echoes fearless and the Ruler greets all those Independents and Anarchists who are escaping in the sect, by offering them a shelter and an ideal to believe in.

Having ups and downs is normal. Even the Sabbat risked losing itself and it was saved only by the Clan Lasombra’s perseverance and foresight. That’s why factions as the Status Quo or Black Hand were eliminated by the organization, for this reason, after Monçada’s departure, mentor and almost a father for Adine, the ecclesiae were restricted only to the Shadows’ Clan. The Lasombra are the Sabbat and they are the only ones willing to support this big responsibility. The others have to think only about the fight.

The Sabbat was damaged by the political desire of some damned, that’s why a pyramidal scheme must be excluded.
Nothing but an army and its leader: Adine and the others.
The Camarilla is on the verge of destruction at the own hands. Now the eyes of each Cainite must rest on the real mission: the fight against all the elders – Antediluvians and not – who go against the ideals of Freedom and Loyalty.

Adine has always been a Cainite very close to Monçada. After his death, many said that nobody would ever be able to inflame souls as him did.

That’s not entirely true. Adine’s heritage is not limited to Lucita’s destruction, but also to the big strength of ideal that Monçada has always demonstrated. For this reason, after his Ultimate Death, Adine the Elegant had the proof that her mentor was right all along: the last nights are coming and somebody had to take responsibility of the war, but really this time, not as the Cainites – some more, some less – did before him.

Monçada revealed to Adine that the last nights would have swallowed the Sabbat first, with all its vivacious rookies, and the cause was the Lasombra Clan’s corruption, that had to be punished. In fact, because of the Friends of the Nights, labeled in future by her as plotters and manipulators, elders, just like the Camarilla’s ones, friends of the Inconnu, of the True Black Hand and even companions of the Anti-tribes, in the super saectis salons in their clever strategies: the Jyhad endured, was uncomfortable and the Lasombra made him destroyed by her own daughter, an Anti-tribes who should have been exposed to sunlight only because she betrayed the Cain’s Sword.

The lineage of Sasha Vykos’ commits Diablerie against the Sire thanks to the help of Sasha’s mortal Brother, a Vampire known by everyone with the name of Third. Sasha was particularly devoted to Kupala and this was certainly nothing new for the Demons Clan, but the fact that the same Third made a deal with the Demon declaring himself Adine and Monçada’s ally made the Tzimisce very suspicious.

The death of many Sabbat’s elders at the hands of the young Lasombra was seen as a clear distress signal for the Tzimisce, that abandoned the Sect en masse. In addition, the death of all the Anti-tribes Tremere tied to Goratrix, in the Old continent, appeared to be a very important fact: in Europe the AT Tremere had, for geographical reasons, more relevance in Sabbat, but they hardly managed to make clever campaigns, and also they made too often deals with the True Black Hand and Elders, especially Lasombra Anti-tribes and Old Tzimisce. For this reason, the Tzimisce come up with the idea that the extermination is actually Lasombra’s work: that’s why they abandon the Sword, decide to make a clean sweep by declaring themselves Independents.

There were very hard times for Sabbat: Thin Blood from all over the world, respectively in Europe and America, have attacked Mexico City, Milan and Geneva. The Sects have been floored by this stance and the elders receive actually a big moral slap. Adine had foreseen this evolution and moves strategically some droves, through a network of contacts belonged to the dead Monçada.

The city in which the Cainites cleverly decide to follow the ‘bizarre’ paranoia of Adine and her drove, mostly Gangrel, is Detroit. That’s where Adine plans a revenge against Thin Blood, by starting to instigate the masses and proposing herself as a Leader for the armies of a new, stronger and indestructible Sabbat. Adine becomes in all respects the new Sabbat’s Leader. She deposes Mexico City by carrying out a real massacre.

An important event for Sabbat is the total support that Adine obtains from figures like Sasha Vykos and some anarchic barons of big depth, who see, actually, not only a potential big enemy but also a possible great ally in Adine and in the new Sabbat.

In so hard times, especially after the loss of one of the most charismatic Spiritual Lasombra Leader, Sabbat folds back on itself until it falls under the Thin Blood’s hands. Adine the Elegant, direct heir of Monçada since the times in which Lucita had not yet repudiated her blood and sect in order to become an Anti-tribe, holds the reins of the situation.

Adine is the typical modern Lasombra, although she is not as young as she wants to seem: shadows’ daughter more than everyone, the Lasombra has enflamed the souls by declaring herself Prima inter Pares, persuading the young Sabbat to abolish the ecclesiae and take power away from the elders, reducing the sect to an army where everybody was equal in the war placed in front of them.

They, the Sabbat Crusaders, and she would be their leaders, ready to fight in the front row against the Antediluvians’ danger.
Naturally words weren’t able to convince an entire sect: Adine had to work hard to persuade them by arguing her theories. Firstly she accused the Elders of having handled the Thin Blood’s manner very bad: in a sect where the mass embraces are considered a useful solution to war purposes it made no sense to substract the rights to Cowards and Thin Blood only for their blood “difference”: as long as a Thin Blood had the strength to fight and made himself be respected in the Monomachies, his condition of distance from Cain was an irrelevant detail.

The Tzimisce Clan was suspected of dealing with the old Toreador ruler, Melinda Galbraith’s disappearance at the hands of Sasha Vykos and their dirty little secrets. When these replied that the Lasombra have planned everything with maniacal precision, Adine did not have to reply: all the Sabbat’s formations were ready to energetically protect her, moved by the great trust towards her.

Adine also publicly denounced the Gangrel and Assamites’ condition, declaring that the Antediluvians were already awake: Haquim was ready to exterminate the fugitive Assamites, who were forced to testify what Adine had said; Xavier and the Gangrel had experienced a meeting with one of them.
Would be able the Seth’s disciples to awaken their God of Chaos and Destruction? Would Mekhet bring hell on earth? Would Cain come to punish everyone?
Adine was able to give only an answer to so many questions: “Let’s fight and Avoid it”.

The Sword was reborn stronger and more idealist from its own ashes, moving the center of its power to Detroit, an interesting city as well as Mexico City, which soon would be fallen at the hands of the Baali, as promised by Adine. The New Sabbat – or Re-forged Sword – had abolished things as the Inquisition, Status Quo and other visions of the Sect’s Ideology leaving space only for the Loyalist Faith. Power games were not tolerated, the Ductus was the only important figure in a drove. Internal violent acts were not allowed: the Sabbat had to be unified, preparing for the fight and becoming itself the Gehenna.

Many elders considered Mexico City the best place to host the Sabbat fortress and, after its fall, many Cainites thought that no other place would have represented the majesty of the Cain’s Sword.
When the new Ruler proposed the Sword’s Refoundation – after the fortress’ attack at the hands of the Thin Blood – the first thing to do was facing the geographical position of a new Fortress. The place proposed by the Elegant, supported by Monçada and Tzimisce Third, was Detroit: place of chaos and perdition, where neither the Bayer is able to contrast the high percentage of criminality and mortality rate. City’s deterioration seems to be a natural fertilizer so that the Sabbat’s grass can grow abundantly: the city is an anthill of homelessness and immigrant people, depraved souls, families on the brick of collapse, young without hope and cynic debt-ridden businessmen.

Despite the Bayer AG’s presence and its strong determination to tidy up the city the results are not encouraging. Deterioration and criminality push the local population to escape, although the political situation and fear for war keep the Detroiters well tied to this complex, full of dangers and paradoxes city.
The dark and rarefied air of Detroit will represent an ideal habitat for the Re-forged Sword by which it will be possible to stretch its tentacles in every direction. Unlikely Mexico City, Detroit is not a place suitable to the coexistence between dark and different beings. The Lupines spotted within a radius of 200 kilometers are few and no particular sighting has ever been made.

The Lasombra Clan decides to erect the new Sword’s location in the woods of the outskirts, planning a fortress worthy of the name: The Mansion.
A mansion designed to host the most important Ritae and, at the same time, give prestige to Sabbat thanks to a modern but royal furniture. The Sabbat mansion is considered by someone a way to tease the Camarilla’s Patricians who had annexed the Giovanni to their ranks – and the Giovanni, everybody knows, love the Mansions – just like Goratrix who had created the council of six to make fun of the Tremere’s traditions.

The Mansion, a majestic residence in the heart of an impenetrable and dark thicket, is called the “windowless House” by the mortals, since it has no other openings excluding the front door. The Sabbat’s members who reside in the house (or who are its guests) have big services and honours at their disposal, indeed in addition to the large dark rooms for their rest, there are some places usable for their personal pleasures, being able to give free rein to their darker, sadistic and terrible habits. The Sabbat does not refuse their nature, on the contrary it glorifies it.

The Lasombra Mansion, one of the most loved places by the members of Cain’s Sword, is built according to the new Ruler’s personal taste. It includes a large pool filled with the victims’ blood still hung from the ceiling, whose bodies have been horrifically wounded and dismembered in order to support their vitae’s emission, as if they were pigs in a slaughterhouse; some of these victims endure for days, emitting laments, cries of despair and useless pleas that would make even the blood of some elders run cold; in the basement a big eternal flame burns, designed for the Courage’s Ritae and some Ritae with a particular artistic taste. The fire is powered by the victims’ bones, which give to the flames some green-blue shades. At the pyre’s centre there is a pedestal, used to tie the victim: as well as the Fire’s Raite, some fearless Cainites play trying to feed on the burned victims despite the flames in order to demonstrate their courage, valour and absolute control of the Beast.

The various rooms of the Mansion reflect totally the new Sabbat’s spirit. Among the macabre spaces inside the big house, one in particular leaves visitors shocked: a Lithuanian-style torture chamber, enriched by a precious collection of Tzimisce production tools. Additionally, there are the holding cells, commonly called “Asylum”, used to control and lock up the moody considered too crazy and dangerous to be set free by the same Cainites. In this holding place, as if it is a reflection of the real Lasombra nature, the prisoners who are exiled there are forced to listen to a religious but equally disturbing melody, at the behest of Monçada in order to bring back their crazy and dark souls to the right path – or maybe, simply, to make their stay even more unpleasant -. Before their eyes, beyond the thick bulletproof glass walls, there is an electric chair as a warning for any escape attempt.

On the Mansion’s upper floors, there is a large laboratory, the Ruler’s pride, built in order to study Vitae’s phenomena and the Cainites’ anathemas. Here the ruler brings together the most brilliant and cleverest minds to study new powers of blood, without using conventional methods.
Her third lineage, the Eschatological, will give birth, in these labs, to the discipline called Elegance, originated as a fusion between obfuscation and vicissitude and then developed as a discipline to be jealously preserved.

Among the most interesting inventions, there is a very particular one: what makes this big Sabbat’s headquarters unique is the presence of an hydraulic system that allows the Vitae to flow through the water pipes, so that the Cainites can draw fresh blood to feed on from it.
The Re-forged Sword and fortress are a perfect combination, even if not all the mansion’s secrets are revealed to the most: only through a formal invitation and a long stay the Cainite guest will be able to enjoy of the possibility to visit unthinkable places, as the botanical studies’ room, sea area for the Seejungfrau’s study, the chamber of a thousand crosses and the Shadowlands’ room.

The E-Childe, a Lasombra organization, is introduced in the Sect, it refers directly to the New Ruler of the Cain’s Sword – the Shadow called Adine the Elegant – who plays in first person the Jyhad and wants firstly the destruction of all the existing Elders, in order to avoid Gehenna. The E-Childe includes only Lasombra, deeply tied to the Ruler thanks to the Vitae’s gifts. Later, Adine will give the access to some Not Lasombra members from the former True Black Hand, that was completely shattered with the death of Vlad, keeping part of the members in the E-Childe, while others, you know, have followed the old leader.

The members carry out the Ruler’s orders without batting an eyelid pursuing her purposes and tracking the lines of her plan: no matter if this can bring the Sect to suffer some loss, after all the ends justify the Means.

The E-Childe works as the former True Black Hand and nobody knows who composes it: E-Childe’s members follow their own path – called the Path of Elegance – and all have some Code Names that begin with the E.  Other Cainites – close enough to the Ruler to understand her essence and existence – or her vicars can be annexed to the path of Elegance.

Nickname: Elegant or Tentacles.
Some Paths of Illumination are, simply, specific points of view on the world and, although they are taken to inhuman extremes, they are founded on human basis; it’s different for the Path of Metamorphosis – trail made by the Tzimisce – but another “mental birth” is certainly the Path of Elegance.

Unlike how the name could misdirect, it’s not about following a form of Bon-Ton, or showing kindness towards others, indifferently from their Nature.

The Path of Metamorphosis has been mentioned because some basic concepts are reported in this new path: as it has taken inspiration from it; in fact, also the Path of Elegance is focused on the alienation, inhumanity’s cultivation and, finally, abandon of any human characteristics, exactly as a butterfly abandons its own cocoon. The path’s basic doctrine declares that the “human stage” is only a precursor of the more advanced “vampiric stage”, but unlike the path of Metamorphosis, where the vampirism is seen only as the prelude of something else, in the Path of Elegance there is the certainty that it’s already the final state.

Many, if not all who follow this path, have dealt with Adine the Elegant or with one of the E-Childe’s members, because this path is often instilled through a multitude of Strong blood ties and Elevate Dominations, enough to change the Cainite’s self-awareness. Apprentices are competitive, in the best case, openly rivals or opponents, in the worst, but they in no way would go against specific basic principles. Unlike the Path of Metamorphosis – where at some point it became a competition with others – in the Elegance there is a tacit and eternal cooperation between everyone: it’s a kind of network that, for better or for worse, connects them, canalising the involved Cainites in situations that can give them some advantages, but in other cases also unpleasant surprises.

This path sometimes works against or for the same sect, but pursuing Adine’s interests, whether they are declared by her or one of the E-Childe; this gives them the ability to go against the Sabbat for a “superior purpose”.

The Path’s main goal is unlocking the complete potentialities of a vampire because, mentioning Adine’s thought, vampires actually use only 13% of their potential contained in the Vitae. Basic Beliefs as all the Paths. The Elegance tries to release its Disciples from the Beast’s chains but saving the benefit of the doubt about that. It still doesn’t know if the Beast is a good or a bad thing for the vampire, so it pushes him to experiment it whenever possible: he studies it, tests it, searches for a degree of compatibility with it, but only during the examinations. The experiments of Murasaki the Eschatological on subjects in excitement are very popular, it is believed that it’s possible to perfect the beast by giving a bit of lucidity in order to use more the mind in a similar stage.

All the supporters of this Path are mostly Sabbaths or closely linked to Adine, but they see the sect as an instrument and a laboratory rather than a “sacred” institution, as actually the same Ruler does. Generally, they tend to carry on their Sabbat tasks for a sense of duty.

Another substantial difference between the path of Metamorphosis and that of Elegance is their expectation of Gehenna: deep down, even if none of them ever talk about it, they wait for it anxiously because – probably – all were involved in the big Insanity of Adine, and convinced that they can stand up to the Antediluvians thanks to all the discoveries that this path has already brought. After all, the Camarilla is already winding down and Techs’ arrival seems the famous prophecy’s mirror.
Adine – despite tacitly drugs almost everybody to convince them to be prepared to anything – deep down she knows that probably it is not yet time, but – seeing what they have managed to develop at Bayer in a few years – she is willing to do anything to take possession of these knowledges, assimilate, elaborate and perfect them in order to achieve the Path’s Principal Objective…
…The Creation of Perfect Vampires
Hierarchy of sins, Ethics and Quotes
[10] Offering the Slightest Scruple to feed when hungry.
What’s the point of being on top of the food chain if you have to control all around when you’re hungry? Don’t you want to mess up? Kill everybody break recording systems if you’re not a shadow and enjoy the feast.
[Cit.] “Happy Birthday Sweetie! Blow out the candles!!!” [Lilith the Ephemeral to Alyson, in front of some burned bodies]

[9] Showing the slightest hesitation in expressing your own will when you are in conflict with strangers
He bothers you too much, you hate him, you don’t like him and moreover nothing stops you from showing your displeasure, you don’t go against the Ruler’s orders, you don’t infringe the E-Childe’s interests: so, what are you waiting for?
Spit on his face!
[Cit.] “PLAY THE PIANO OF MY ASS, SHITHEAD!” [Alyson the Erotic to a Toreador Elder before ending very badly…Alyson of course]

[8] Revealing the Path’s tacit movements to someone (although they are protected by Loyalty and much more)
Look, a fucking pretty boy who wants to do me a brainwashing (Ventrue – Domination), he can’t make it, pathetic… Money? What the fuck can I do with money, territories? Nah, instead of thinking about what this idiot is saying let’s think about how we can rip his head off, yeah tear off… let’s tear his head off while he’s talking. Uh, what does he say? Blah blah blah, yeah, yeah, now I nod, maybe he believes that I’m interested in these bullshits…
[Cit.] “I’m sorry, what? Really, and then what? Have you hugged Santa and the Holly Man? Give me a break, dude. [Adeline Muller – Speaking with a curious… before the ultimate death…his ultimate death, of course]

[7] Wasting time
Don’t waste time thinking too much about what you were, you are not like that anymore. What’s the point of analysing what you could have done before and what you can do now by drawing up a list of pros and cons?
[Cit.] “We are wasting Time” [Murasaki the Eschatological – Most of the time]

[6] Refusing Execution of Diablerie
That is so cool! I’m having fun because he doesn’t die with two burps, but at the end, from what I hear, I can also learn something! Refusing? Are you kidding? Indeed, call me when you want, especially if they are badass: at least it’s fun!
[Cit.] “But…but why the fuck did you kill them both…you said that only one of them had to die…” [John Resolver to Adine… the second hesitated a diablerie served on a silver plate…]

[5] Submitting to someone who is out if its ranks (Sect).
You’re out of my circles, if basically I didn’t consider you for shit because you’re not a real–Sabbat now you are the fucking nothing. Did Adine say that I have to listen to you? No, I don’t think that, so get the fuck out of here, dead or Dead.
[Cit.] “Yes, yes, I like you, come to the Mansion and I’ll let fuck you with a Tzimisce” [Magdalena the Emotional – whenever someone is going to die…]

[4] Listening to the external requests, even only supposing to help third parties Uhm… I see, you need my help… you can’t do it without me… well, well, wait a second, just a second, I’ll add it to the list of those things I don’t give a fuck about.
[Cit.] “…” [David the Hermetic – when in addition to avoid listening to requests… he doesn’t even waste his time answering them]

[3] Failing in the experimentation, even at your own risk and peril. C’mon, how hard can it be, holy shit? How can you say to have lived your Not-Life if you don’t get pierced by a X quantity of metal sheets for a couple of hours, where X equals the hypotenuse of Y calculated by your weight divided by Z that represents your height? You have to do it; you have to give your contribution.
[Cit.] “SQUIT!” [Lilla and Dodo – the brave lab rats in chorus in the Mansion before every test]

[2] Refusing the orders given by the E-Childe
List of people who can say to have done it: —
[Cit.] “…” [No one – while he’s saying to have done it]

[1] Showing mercy
The one in your place would not think twice… you are a favourite, even more so a privileged will try to rip your head off as soon as he can: precede him… what are you waiting for?
[Cit.] “Mercy means suffering together…putting yourself in others’ shoes…HAHAHAH, whether you believe or not also those bottles gave me attention”.
[Don Oreste Benzi – who makes fun of the human innocence by referring to his declaration]

Whether it’s about the Lasombra or other clans’ devoted acolytes, the Elegant support the cause of regency without sparing themselves. In exchange for their devotion, these dark damned can enjoy the benefits and privileges in the sect.

The Elegant take orders directly from the E-Childe, the restricted number of Adine’s sons, and through these they can communicate with their Leader. Among the ranks of these disciples there are mainly Gangrel and Brujah, as well as Lasombra naturally, and some handful of brave Tzimisce.
Smart, fast, flawless and paranoiac. They are continually exposed to dangerous situations, reinforced in the difficulties of decisive battles and subjected to circumstances of considerable political stress: these Cainites know how to see beyond the veil of bullshits that the world offers to everyone else and they know perfectly what is their place in Jyhad.

Virtues: The Path of Elegance’s disciples practice Conviction and Instinct.
Common Abilities: The Elegant rely on the scientific instruction of a Cainite or on the Occult side, some “older” ones amuse themselves in both subjects, because Adine tries to obtain wide results in both fields at any cost. The characters must have good scores in Computer Skills (for obvious reasons of the advanced equipment), Occult and Science, in order to understand the reality around them.

Favourite Disciplines: Side effect of the excessive contact with Adine and her various Manipulations, dominations, ascendants, blood lines, loyalty and so on and so forth: all or almost all this path’s disciples harbour admiration and nearly envy for Obscurity, discipline used (very often inopportunely) by Adine only to improve, in her opinion, her Elegance. It is understood that the Lasombra keep to conserve it jealously and they don’t waste it for any reason, Adine would deny this discipline’s divulgation. Surely, beyond side effects, as those mentioned above, it’s a path that loves particularly the mental disciplines, especially when they are used for research purposes; but, very often they tend to use the experimentation’s story as an excuse to conceal their own personal entertainment.