The Masquerade Sects

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Diabolique

They see me rooooollin.
Sects

Overview:
The majority of Kindred are loyal to one Sect or another, which are strongly clan-oriented but primarily political entities. The two major sects are the Camarilla and the Sabbat, which respectively comprise Kindred who attempt to uphold the Masquerade and generally maintain their humanity at passable levels, and Kindred who seek to eliminate the Masquerade and rule humanity as predators. This isn’t to say that the Camarilla are nice, they’re just pragmatic.

These sects trace their history back to 15th century Europe and the Convention of Thorns, which ended the Anarch Revolt. The Sabbat are the descendants of those Anarchs, while the Camarilla are the signatories to the convention. The two sects have been mortal enemies ever since, although the difference is blurred at the higher and lower generations.

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The Camarilla


Domain:
City of London
Borough of Tower Hamlets
Borough of Hackney
Borough of Islington.


History:
The Camarilla's birth was grounded in the growing threats of the Inquisition and the Anarch Revolt, both of which were threatening Cainite domains throughout Europe. Though there had been attempts to form alliances in the past, a meeting of elders to seriously consider the idea of forming a league of vampires was not held until 1394. Little came of it, however, until a bold attack was made on the castle of the elder Ventrue Hardestadt led by the famous anarch Tyler. The Founders-to-be recognized the need for a unified front and so banded together several of their most trusted childer and servants into a joint task force to use against the Anarchs. Though meant to illustrate what could be accomplished if elders pooled their resources together, politics and rivalries would continue to divide them even as the Founders slowly made preparations for their new alliance.

The formation of the "Camarilla" (a word that denoted both that it was a convocation of peers or comrades and that it met in session secret from mortal knowledge) was announced in 1435 as the Founders began openly rallying support for a coalition to protect vampires from the dangers of roving anarchs, the invading Assamites, and the increasingly dangerous mortal mobs. After all, the very Spanish word Camarilla also means to mutually scratch one another’s back, a meaning that would be given expression in the convoluted workings of prestation throughout the sect.

War continued to rage over the next several decades and the Founders, now called justicars, fought to hold the nascent sect together. In 1486 the first national conclave was convened, during which the justicars were given broader authority to punish vampires who violated the Traditions. A new body of agents was also formed to report to the justicars and free them to further develop the sect, creating what would eventually become the position of archon.

In 1493, the Convention of Thorns marked the end of the First Anarch Revolt and the birth of the Camarilla as it is known today. The Traditions were accepted as law. Representatives for the Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue clans officially joined the sect, while those speaking for the Lasombra and Tzimisce, who were majoritarily anarchs, rebelled against what they considered an offensive ultimatum and went on to form the Sabbat in opposition to everything the Founders intended. While the Convention of Thorns was a significant victory for the Camarilla, it set the stage for the next five centuries of conflict between the two sects.


The New World:
Over the next two centuries those anarchs who refused to accept the Convention of Thorns coalesced into the Sabbat and struck out against the Camarilla's power. The organization and superior numbers of the older sect gave it a distinct advantage, however, and during the 17th century the younger Sabbat vampires began migrating to the New World en masse, leaving most of Europe to the Camarilla.

For a time there was some debate as to whether to pursue their enemy to the Americas, but eventually the idea of staking out new territories was accepted as a means of placating younger Kindred. Whereas it had seemed that the Sabbat might claim all of the New World, as their enemies fell into internal conflicts over dwindling resources the Ivory Tower consolidated power in the English, Dutch, and French colonies. The War of 1812 mirrored a renewed battle for the Atlantic coast where the Camarilla gradually lost city after city throughout the first half of the 19th century. As the war expanded to the American frontier the Camarilla was barely able to hold on its domains only because of civil war within the Sabbat's ranks.

In the 20th century, the Camarilla was greatly weakened by internal disputes as Kindred took differing sides in the mortal conflicts in Europe. This was especially true during the Second World War when many elders, particularly among the Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue, supported the Axis Powers; the Inner Circle refused to take sides, and even individual justicars ended up working against one another. However, when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, it became deadly apparent how important preserving the Masquerade and global peace was, for mortals now possessed the power to destroy both themselves and all Kindred.


Culture:
In general, much of the Camarilla's approach to maintaining order involve enacting the Traditions, which among other things means supporting a system of feudal domains and the responsibilities of sires for the conduct of their childer. The latter idea is often taken farther to mean the sire has authority over the childe, and that elder vampires are intrinsically more deserving of respect and fit for leadership than younger vampires. Whatever the merits of that position may be, it has a tendency to instill great resentment among young Kindred and in the past has driven many to the Anarchs. Older vampires naturally support the social order which they have mastered over the centuries, and in fact much of the Camarilla's policies are designed to facilitate the activities of Kindred who have long ago lost touch with the mortal world.


Views on Humanity:
The Camarilla's position in regard to mortals is simply pragmatic. In the Dark Ages the Inquisition and other mortal forces were responsible for the destruction of countless vampires. Now that the mortal population is counted in billions instead of millions and have created weapons stronger than the most powerful Disciplines, they could easily destroy most of Kindred society should their existence be revealed. Thus, the Camarilla ensures that mortal populations are not unduly harmed by vampire activities in order to protect the Masquerade, not out of any good will towards humanity. Still, Kindred are encouraged to blend in with mortals as best as possible and to retain the civility and composure that comes from holding onto one's human characteristics. Almost all Camarilla members are on the "Path" of Humanity, with Paths of Enlightenment being strongly discouraged and usually only practiced by elders.


Organization:
The Camarilla is a global organization that maintains and oversees a collection of feudal domains, particularly in North America and Europe. It is a loose alliance lacking a strong central authority or standing military. Individual Camarilla cities are almost always ruled by a prince with the assistance of the primogen, who either act as a council of advisers or hold their own measure of power. Other offices of a city include the Harpy, Keeper of Elysium, Seneschal, Sheriff, and Scourge.

Most Camarilla cities are fairly autonomous, and the broader Camarilla authority usually only becomes involved when there are concerns of a large Sabbat incursion, significant breaches of the Masquerade, or conflicts between a city's elders that could cause greater instability. In such cases one or more archons are dispatched to look into the matter and either resolve the matter or report back to their respective justicar. Whereas there are any number of archons that have been enlisted to serve the sect's leaders, there is only one justicar for each official clan in the Camarilla. These influential vampires represent the highest visible authority of the Camarilla and hold tremendous power to enforce the sect's precepts and call on its resources. They answer only to the Inner Circle, a secretive body of the Camarilla's eldest members that determines the sect's direction and policies.


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The Anarch


Domain:
Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.


Overview:
Anarchs are vampires who reject the status quo of Cainite society. The resulting organization of anarchs is called the Anarch Movement, whose traditional strongholds are Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

The Anarchs especially resent the privileged status held by elders within the Camarilla and other vampire sects; when the eldest hold the most power in a society of immortals, the lot of neonates is not a happy one. The Anarchs themselves are not a sect, per se; in most areas, they are simply a faction on the fringes of the dominant Camarilla hierarchy. However, a loosely-organized Anarch Movement has emerged over the course of the past century, and has begun to establish its own traditions, power blocs, territories, and all the other trappings of a full-fledged sect.

Anarchs are often targeted for recruitment by the Sabbat, but most respect the Masquerade and some of the other Traditions, even if they do not respect the vampires who enforce them or the system that benefits from them. Anarchs, like all vampires, are considered members of the Camarilla by default, but unlike the Sabbat they are tolerated, as per the terms of the Convention of Thorns.

The Anarch's historical origins lie in the Anarch Revolt that birthed the Sabbat, but in the modern nights they are mostly an unorganized rabble of younger vampires and Caitiff. "Anarch" was originally a name imposed upon them by Camarilla elders, since they sought to overthrow the leadership structures of Cainite society, but while many Anarchs are indeed anarchists, the more traditional desire has been to bring equality and democracy (or at least meritocracy) to Kindred society.

In the modern era, the Anarchs that have been sidelined to the fringes of Kindred society have gathered together under the banner of the Anarch Movement. The Anarchs made their single largest coup against the tyranny of the elders and the sects in the Second Anarch Revolt. In this revolution, the Anarchs liberated Los Angeles in 1944; within a year, they established an Anarch Free State across southern and central California. The Princes of the liberated cities were overthrown and slain, and in their place the much more tolerant "barons" were given a much more tolerant degree of authority over their fellow Anarchs.

The establishment and continued existence of the Free State has put a greater strain on Anarch-Camarilla relations than at any point since the original Anarch Revolt. During the second half of the twentieth century, the Free State withstood constant incursions from Camarilla and Sabbat alike. However, the Kuei-jin staged a concentrated incursion into the region in the late 1990s with the assistance of a few highly-placed ex-Anarchs who sought to preserve the region's independence from both Camarilla and Sabbat. The Kuei-jin ousted Jeremy MacNeill, the Baron of Los Angeles, only to lose the city to a Camarilla counteroffensive. Now the region holds a fragile détente between four factions: the Anarchs in what remains of the Free State, the Kuei-jin in the New Promise Mandarinate centered around San Francisco, the Camarilla with footholds in Los Angeles and San Diego, and the Sabbat to the south in Mexico.


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The Sabbat


Domain:
Borough of Southwark.
Borough of Lambeth.

History:
The Sabbat was founded in 1493, largely in reaction to the Convention of Thorns which founded the Camarilla. They are the remnants of the Anarch Revolt of the time.

Leaders of the endeavor were the Tzimisce and the Lasombra, two Clans that had ostensibly destroyed their Antediluvian founders and had accepted that there was no turning back for them. The Tzimisce would not cede their lands to the hated Tremere and submit the philosophy of Metamorphosism for the limited ideals of Humanity, while the Lasombra had invested too much in the Revolt to surrender their success to decrepit Elders of other Clans (in the words of the Clan representative at the Convention of Thorns: "I came to negotiate, not to surrender."). Delegations of both Clans met at the island of Mallorca and began their own negotiations, aided by several malcontents among the Anarchs, who refused to surrender to the Elders or did not share the view of their main Clan. Others joined to escape the practice of the Blood Bond, among them venerable Elders like the Malkavian Vasantasena, the Tremere Goratrix and the Ventrue Dominique Touraine. These groups existed as small packs in the wilderness that harassed the holdings of the Elders and those who had submitted to the Camarilla, called "Sabbats" by the superstitious mortal population for their rapacious behavior and proud display of their inhumanity. Slowly, these disparate packs were brought to heel by the spreading of the Vaulderie, uniting the remnants of the Anarch Revolt as the Sabbat, a sect devoted to warfare against the Antediluvians and the tyranny of their catspaws.

Bitter war raged between the vampires of the newly formed Sabbat and the not-much-older Camarilla. The Inquisition continued to claim victims while all of Europe’s Cainites drew lines in the sand to mark their allegiance. As the Camarilla consolidated their hold on the major European cities, the Sabbat was thrusted into the defensive. Within the Black Monastery in Switzerland, the sect formalized the modern Paths of Enlightenment in 1666 out of the old Roads that were no longer applicable. Despite open protests against it as a tool of the Antediluvians, the Sabbat Elders realized the worth of secrecy in the modern night and the real danger of falling into Wassail in the face of the demands of the Beast, so they sought to accommodate to these circumstances without pretending to be human.

Besides Spain, which was controlled by a majority of Lasombra, and territories in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, which were claimed by the Tzimisce, most packs traveled across the sea to the New World. For a while, the sect flourished in the evolving colonies. Amid a revolutionary and radical mortal backdrop, the Sabbat’s presence was easy to hide among the insurrectionists, fighting against the Cainite masters of the Aztecs, the dreaded monster Huitzilopochtli and his peers, as well as against the native Lupines.


The New World:
The Sabbat has undertaken great offensives against the Camarilla, but also faced several internal crises. Atlanta and Washington, D.C have fallen to their hands, but they lost New York City and Milan. The destruction of the Tremere antitribu and the attacks against Mexican Sabbat holdings by unknown perpetrators have been damped by the arrival of new allies, the Salubri antitribu and the Harbingers of Skulls, who joined the Sabbat to exact vengeance against their enemies. The Black Hand, once a bastion of stability, shakes with the destruction of the infiltrators of the "True" Black Hand, as two Seraphs vanished and several Assamites abandoned the sect to return to Alamut under the leadership of ur-Shulgi. Tensions between the Sabbat Elders of the Old World and those of the New World arise. The Regent has been slain, although this is known only by the Cainite who impersonates her until the charade will be revealed.


Culture:
The Sabbat has many ways of identifying its members: the sect has an official color (purple), an official symbol (an inverted ankh), and dozens, if not hundreds, of specific signs, passwords, and gestures that theoretically let one member identify another. In practice, few Sabbat can recognize more than a few of these signs - most learn to identify one another by face at Ritae or other sect gatherings.

Typically only a Bishop or Archbishop will be able to positively identify any vampire in their domain as Sabbat or non-Sabbat - in the case of nomadic packs, even this becomes a chore. Additionally, each of the individual packs of the Sabbat can assume their own particular symbol, gesture, or other way of identifying themselves. Pack-members who are undercover have even more obscure and hard-to-spot ways of making their identities known or passing along information.

It has become quite the affectation among younger Sabbat (particularly those of Clan Lasombra) to wear crucifixes somewhere on their person - a necklace, an earring, even a tattoo. The irony of being damned but bearing the symbols of salvation is a source of great amusement to these vampires, especially if the bearer is a pack "Priest". Older, more mature Lasombra regard the practice as irritating or outright blasphemous, even if they wear such a cross themselves. Their argument is that the neonates don't believe in their own damnation, or in God's immortal power over their souls.

Many neonates in the sect wonder why they have to bother with all these trappings of espionage: isn't the Sabbat's mission statement to tear down the Camarilla and its Masquerade and rule humans openly? Sabbat elders who lived through the Inquisition do not dignify these questions with an answer, and even bishops are hard-pressed to come up with a convincing response.

The typical attitude is that being a True Sabbat is a matter of importance and distinction - you don't want just anybody coming in and claiming all the rights and privileges of Sabbat without having proven themselves first. Also, given the pack structure of the sect, many members think of themselves as a collection of gangs or neo-feudal warbands, complete with initiation rites and other ways of making themselves feel special.

The higher up one goes in the Sabbat ranks, the less frequently such symbols are seen, and the "us against the world" outlook of the young packs becomes more and more "me against the world". In order to survive long enough to achieve position and age within the sect, a vampire must learn how to live for themselves, and to fight for every scrap of profit or slightest advantage. Unlike the Camarilla, there is no rigid hierarchy in place to promote or control the ambitions of Sabbat vampires - the only rank and title a Sabbat holds is what they have the power to take.

Both the Tzimisce and the Lasombra encourage this dog-eat-dog culture, as it seems to ensure that only the strongest, smartest, and most capable lead the sect, and all the rest are fodder for the appetites of their betters. The only time Monomacy can be suspended is during a Crusade, and even then, all the reckless charges and Wild Hunts tend to have a way of weeding out the slow and weak from the Sabbat's ranks.

Countering this anarchic atmosphere is the Vaulderie . There are still a few elders who, in nights past, were members of the same pack, and will occasionally work together and share the Vaulderie. Younger vampires, who are living and fighting together as one unit, develop a fierce protection of one another, or else. If you cannot rely on your packmates, or their loyalty is in question, then the only thing stopping them from being ripped to shreds is the Vinculum bond they share with the rest of the pack. In the World of Darkness, being part of a pack is sometimes the only thing these vampires have going for them.


Organization:
The Sabbat sees itself as the army of Caine and consequently is tightly organized, far more than the relatively anarchic Camarilla. The Sabbat consists mainly of Clans Tzimisce and Lasombra and numerous antitribu from Clans normally independent or associated with the Camarilla.

Although Sabbat vampires may sire childer as usual, and are no less picky than any other vampire about it, during a war effort, they often backdrop to use Mass Embraces for a steady supply of shock troopers. These unfortunate vampires are knocked over, Embraced and buried. By the time the so-called "Shovelhead" has clawed himself up, he is usually confused and aggressive and then directed with the rest of the Mass Embrace in a first vinculum against the enemy. Most shovelheads do not survive their first weeks, they are considered False Sabbat and are not respected in any way by the members of the sect. Once they have proven themselves repeatedly, they are usually introduced into the sect and undergo the Creation Rites to become True Sabbat. Childer who are specifically chosen to be Embraced often receive this instructions much earlier directly from their sire.

The cornerstone of Sabbat organization is the pack; Sabbat packs are organizations of 3-10 vampires mutually bound through the standard blood-sharing rites of the cult. Packs have a ductus, who is the pack's warleader, and a pack priest who reminds the pack of its responsibilities to Caine. In addition, pack members are mutually bound in a vinculum — a sort of communal blood bond — created by the blood-sharing ceremonies. Packs generally occupy communal havens; given the Sabbat's rejection of human mores and its use of artificial loyalties enforced by the vinculum, there is less need for privacy.


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