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For the Vampire: The Eternal Struggle expansion, run into Sabbat (VTES). For the Fifth Edition book, see Sabbat: The Blackness Paw

The Sabbat is a loose organization of Cainites who reject the Traditions. Unlike the Camarilla, the Sabbat believes in the Antediluvians and Caine. Also known as the Sword of Caine, as they believe they will be the regular army Caine will employ to destroy the Antediluvians once Gehenna arrives.

Daftar Isi

History

The Sabbat was founded in 1493 CE, 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 endeavour were the Tzimisce and the Lasombra, two Clans that had ostensibly destroyed their Antediluvian founders and had accepted that at that place was no turning back for them. The Tzimisce would not sacrifice their lands to the hated Tremere and submit the philosophy of Metamorphosism for the limited ideals of Humanity, while the Lasombra had invested also much in the Revolt to surrender their success to decrepit elders of other Clans (in the words of the Association representative at the Convention of Thorns: "I came to negotiate, not to surrender."^[1]) Delegations of both Clans met at the island of Majorca and began their ain negotiations,^[2] aided by several malcontents amid 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" past the superstitious mortal population for their rapacious behavior and proud brandish of their inhumanity. Slowly, these disparate packs were brought to heel past the spreading of the Vaulderie, uniting the remnants of the Anarch Revolt as the Sabbat, a sect devoted to warfare confronting 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 marking their allegiance. Equally the Camarilla consolidated their hold on the major European cities, the Sabbat were thrust 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 had become obsolete. Despite open protests against it every bit a tool of the Antediluvians, the Sabbat Elders realized the worth of secrecy in the modern nighttime and the real danger of falling into Wassail in the face of the demands of the Beast, so they sought to suit to these circumstances without pretending to be human being.

Besides Espana, which was controlled by a bulk of Lasombra, and territories in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, which were claimed by the Tzimisce, most packs traveled beyond 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 amid the insurrectionists, fighting confronting the Cainite masters of the Aztecs, the dreaded monster Huitzilopochtli and his peers, as well as against the native Lupines.

Civil War

The relative prominence of the Sabbat in the Americas faced opposition, though, as disenfranchised Camarilla vampires too journeyed beyond the oceans, hoping to carve out legacies for themselves away from the ironbound holdings of European princes. Due to a lack of organization within the American packs, internal struggle between the Lasombra and Tzimisce resulted in the events of the First Sabbat Ceremonious War.

The war weakened the sect plenty that the Camarilla was able to seize much territory from them, before, after xxx years of conflict, the Purchase Pact officially forbade it to attack other Sabbat members in 1803. Absurd heads never prevail in times of war however, and another moving ridge of infighting broke out, which culminated in the Second Sabbat Ceremonious War, a conflict grounded in simmering animosities that nevertheless rumbled on beneath the Purchase Pact. Convening in New York, which the sect had managed to concord against all the best efforts of the Camarilla, high-ranking Sabbat reconsidered their commitment to the sect's causes. Not content to merely sign a goodwill agreement as they had before, Sabbat vampires took a long, hard look at what was important to the Sword of Caine. An unheard-of congregation of Sabbat committed to certificate the Code of Milan in 1933, a collection of tenets that composed Sabbat ideology supposedly since the establishment of the sect. The new Code of Milan was approved by the new Regent Melinda Galbraith, as well as several Seraphim of the Black Hand. Information technology also served to establish Mexico City as the informal upper-case letter of the Sabbat.

In the times of struggle, the Sabbat had managed to keep control of some major cities in the United states fifty-fifty through the internal state of war. Some cities, such equally Philadelphia, remained nether Sabbat domination because the Blackness Hand centralized most of its number in these locations. The Dioceses in Europe remained untouched by the upheavals overseas. The Sabbat began to develop forth two lines - city Kindred and nomadic Kindred. Many of the nomadic packs were Sabbat that fled their cities after defeat at the easily of the Camarilla or other Sabbat. The city Kindred maintained permanent havens and and further resembled their Camarilla counterparts in that they inserted themselves in the local infrastructure of the city, while the nomadic Kindred traveled all over the country, never existing in 1 place too long and upholding the old tenets of the ancient Anarchs.

The Third Sabbat Civil State of war, the briefest of the three, lasted simply 100 nights, in the latter one-half of 1957. Incited by a failed coup of New York on behalf of the Brujah antitribu, violence again ensued. Ironically, the end of the problem came as a consequence of the rarest of Cainite diplomacy-compromise. Later on the Brujah antitribu coup fell, the clan rose against the united Lasombra and Tzimisce, which was leap for disaster. Out of the ashes of the fighting, however, emerged a unified group of Caitiff calling themselves the Panders, after their leader, Joseph Pander. The Panders had the support of the Brujah antitribu, every bit they were rabble and outcasts, much like the Brujah had become later on the migration to the New World. Seeing the opportunity to avoid another protracted (and dreadfully embarrassing) state of war, the Lasombra and Tzimisce recognized the Panders equally a distinct entity, conferring on the group association or bloodline status.

Mod Nights

In the Modernistic Nights, the Sabbat has undertaken smashing offensives against the Camarilla, but too faced several internal crises. Atlanta and Washington, D.C. have fallen to their hands, merely they lost New York Urban center and Milan. The devastation of the Tremere antitribu and the attacks against mexican Sabbat holdings past 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, one time a bastion of stability, shakes with the devastation of the infiltrators of the "True" Black Hand, as 2 Seraphs vanished and several Assamites abandoned the sect to return to Alamut nether the leadership of Ur-Shulgi. Tensions between the Sabbat elders of the Old World and those of the New World ascend. The Regent has been slain, although this is known just by the Cainite who impersonates her until the charade will be revealed.

V5 Timeline

"

I can't help just think of all the blood shed in Africa and the Centre East for this Gehenna Crusade, all the Cainite lives lost, of how we celebrated the one in twenty vampires who returned from conflict with a Methuselah, bloated like a tick on new power. We just forgot the 19 fallen and where their vitae went. Who it fed. Who or what the ashes of Methuselahs summoned to the surface.[3]

"

Afterwards the rise of the 2d Inquisition and the kickoff of the Gehenna Crusade in the Middle Eastward, the Sabbat has (seemingly) given upwards on controlling the cities of America and flocked to the state of war zones of the globe. All the same, near Sabbat domains are yet out-of-bounds to the Camarilla. A "Gehenna War" between the Camarilla and the Sabbat is being waged in the Middle Eastward and the disputed regions of Ukraine. The conflict begun as the majority of the Sabbat abandoned most of its domains to wage what they perceive to exist a pre-emptive "crusade" against the coming Antediluvians. In response to this aggression, the Camarilla began fighting them back in social club to preserve the Masquerade and to protect torpored methuselah from whatsoever Sabbat state of war parties who may confuse them for Antediluvians.

The Chicago Folios also gives some data about Sabbat. Chicago, for all its corruption and horrors, understands though it may wallow in deposition, it has nothing on the empire of perpeturbation that is the Sabbat. The city has had many horrific encounters with the fanatical sect, nearly recent being the dread nights of 1993. Trivial is known about the fringe and alien sect. What is known is the Sabbat relinquished control over its holdings and threw itself into a purported "Gehenna War." With the advent of the Lasombra defection, at that place have been whispers of concern about what the Sabbat will exercise in retaliation. To help the Lasombra in their quest to join the Camarilla is to potentially put a target for the Sabbat on your back. The Chicago Sabbat have become a cell organization, perpetuating atrocities by some byzantine pattern. These cells have become known every bit "The Seven Fires" - the surviving cells not chosen off to the Gehenna State of war, destroyed by Edward Neally, or killed by the defecting Lasombra. This is probable a name given to them due to their ferocity, related to their brutal "ritae", often connected to fire, their bloodcurdling "games", or something to do with their numbers of operatives or groups known as packs. The Seven Fires leave zip but carnage and perplexing propaganda in their wake. In their graffiti, their trail of mutilated bodies, and arcane scrawl, they reference the story of Peter Pan, possibly an innuendo to the Lasombra defection and "losing their shadow". These Cainites are actualization close and closer to Chicago edge, emerging in more run down or economically suburbs. What befell the Sabbat in the United States is still broadly a mystery. Packs disappeared, the hierarchy dissolved, and many of the Cainites remaining in place lost their grip on reality and stability as their purpose disappeared.

While most Kindred try to resist the Beckoning, Sabbat vampires become towards it. In the Sabbat: The Blackness Hand, it'southward revealed that the Gehenna War is not only focused in the East, but all over the world.

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 fellow member place another. In do, few Sabbat can recognize more than a few of these signs - virtually larn to identify one another by face at ritae or other sect gatherings.

Typically only a Bishop or Archbishop will be able to positively identify whatever vampire in their domain as Sabbat or not-Sabbat - in the case of nomadic packs, even this becomes a job. Additionally, each of the private packs of the Sabbat tin can assume their own particular symbol, gesture, or other way of identifying themselves. Pack members who are undercover have even more obscure and difficult-to-spot ways of making their identities known or passing along information.

It has go quite the affectation amidst younger Sabbat (peculiarly those of Clan Lasombra) to wearable crucifixes somewhere on their person - a necklace, an earring, fifty-fifty a tattoo. The irony of being damned simply bearing the symbols of salvation is a source of dandy amusement to these vampires, especially if the bearer is a pack "priest". Older, more mature Lasombra regard the exercise equally irritating or outright cursing, even if they clothing such a cross themselves. Their argument is that the neonates do not 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: is non the Sabbat'due south 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 respond, and even bishops are hard-pressed to come upwardly with a convincing response.

The typical mental attitude is that being a True Sabbat is a matter of importance and distinction – yous do non want simply 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 means of making themselves experience special.

The higher upwards one goes in the Sabbat ranks, the less frequently such symbols are seen, and the "us against the world" outlook of the immature packs becomes more and more "me against the world". In order to survive long plenty to achieve position and historic period within the sect, a vampire must learn how to alive for themselves, and to fight for every fleck of profit or slightest advantage. Unlike the Camarilla, there is no rigid bureaucracy in place to promote or control the ambitions of Sabbat vampires – the simply rank and championship a Sabbat holds is what they have the power to take.

Both the Tzimisce and the Lasombra encourage this dog-eat-dog culture, equally it seems to ensure that only the strongest, smartest, and near capable pb the sect, and all the rest are fodder for the appetites of their betters. The only time Monomacy can exist suspended is during a Cause, and fifty-fifty and so, all the reckless charges and Wild Hunts tend to accept a way of weeding out the slow and weak from the Sabbat's ranks.

Countering this anarchic atmosphere is the Vaulderie. There are nonetheless 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, and then the only thing stopping them from existence 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 take going for them.

Ritae

"	In nomine Caine; et Patris, et Gladius, et Sanguis Sancti...	"
	— Sabbat doctrine[4]

The Sabbat values its bonds of loyalty and fraternity higher up all else. To this end, the sect has established many rituals, which reinforce pack and sect solidarity and construction. The entire sect observes the same xiii Auctoritas Ritae , while the Ignobilis Ritae vary greatly in number, field of study and observation from pack to pack. The official corpus of ritae, also equally their authenticity and orthodoxy, is scheduled during Synods of high-ranking Noddists.

Packs observe the auctoritas ritae at common times: at esbats, before sieges, or when bringing a new member into the pack, for example. The ignobilis ritae may occur at whatever time, commonly when the pack priest believes them to exist most appropriate. Some packs discover greeting or parting ritae, feeding ritae, ritae of diablerie and whatsoever number of variations.

Nigh ritae exalt the vampiric country and are striving for perfecting information technology – equally a effect, these ritae are especially brutal to mortals and kindred akin. Many Ritae take shamanistic or even koldunic origins.

Organization

The Sabbat sees itself every bit the regular army of Caine and consequently is tightly organized, far more the relatively anarchic Camarilla. The Sabbat consists mainly of Clans Tzimisce and Lasombra and numerous antitribu from Clans normally contained or associated with the Camarilla.

Although Sabbat vampires may sire childer as usual, and are no less picky than whatsoever other vampire about it, during a state of war endeavour, they often properties to utilise Mass Embraces for a steady supply of daze troopers. These unfortunate vampires are knocked over, Embraced and cached. By the time the and then-called "shovelhead" has clawed himself upwardly, he is usually confused and aggressive and so directed with the rest of the Mass Embrace in a commencement vinculum against the enemy. Most shovelheads exercise non survive their first weeks, they are considered Simulated Sabbat and are not respected in any fashion by the members of the sect. Once they have proven themselves repeatedly, they are normally introduced into the sect and undergo the Cosmos Rites to become True Sabbat. Childer who are specifically called to exist Embraced frequently receive this instructions much earlier directly from their sire.

The cornerstone of Sabbat system is the pack; Sabbat packs are organizations of three-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 spring in a vinculum – a sort of communal blood bail – created by the blood-sharing ceremonies. Packs generally occupy communal havens; given the Sabbat's rejection of human mores and its use of bogus loyalties enforced by the vinculum, at that place is less demand for privacy.

Bureaucracy

To a higher place the pack is a set of hierarchical titles specifically mocking the titles of the Cosmic Church building. Bishops oversee multiple packs and may also have a specific portfolio; overseeing Bishops are Archbishops, by and large belongings a position coordinating to Prince for a city. Higher up the Archbishops are the Cardinals, who oversee big geographic regions (such as Canada, or the Eastern Seaboard) and who incorporate the Consistory, the governing body that selects the Regent. Advising the Regent, Consistory, and Archbishops, or other leaders are the Prisci, a group of elders and other respected Sabbat who take an advisory and judicial function. The higher ranks of the Sabbat enforce their volition through agents usually called Templars or Paladins, depending on rank.

Sabbat Political Hierarchy

• False Sabbat
• Truthful Sabbat
• Ductus
• Pack Priest
• Templar (or Paladin)
• Bishop
• Archbishop
• Priscus
• Key
• Regent

These titles are formally recognized, but as well generally involve a certain degree of self-selection. The Sabbat has a formal rite for recognizing Bishop and higher ranks, but whatever Sabbat may claim a title and try to defend it. Nevertheless, the higher the rank claimed, the more than likely the claimant will encounter a gruesome end. The Prisci, in item, are selected just by other Prisci.

Equally with all Vampiric organizations, organization eventually bows to the demands of power. While most Sabbat belong to packs, elder Sabbat are more likely to live and work without packmates. At the higher levels of the organization, the divergence between Camarilla and Sabbat elders is negligible, regardless of how different it may announced in the trenches.

Factions

The Sabbat is a fractious lot that values personal freedom above everything else. In the chaos of the Sabbat, it is non unlikely to find members of these factions among the packs, though by no means does every fellow member of the Sabbat support a faction.

• Loyalists: On the far left side of the political spectrum, supporters of the Loyalists see themselves as heirs to the original Anarchs. They believe that the only way to be loyal to the Sabbat is to follow the original principle of the Anarch Movement - that all vampires must be free and ultimately responsible for their own actions. They are strongly opposed to the Lawmaking of Milan and the Buy Pact.
• Moderates: Not as radical as the Loyalists, the Moderates see the modern Sabbat every bit chock-full with rules and regulations that are in dissimilarity to the original spirit of the Anarch Revolt. They support the Purchase Pact, merely oppose several tenets of the Code of Milan.
• The Status Quo: The Status Quo literally seeks to keep things the manner they are and piece of work within their electric current systems, believing that allowing members a looser rein volition compromise the secrecy and security of the sect. They support the Purchase Pact and the Code of Milan in its current form.
• The Orthodoxy:^[five] The Orthodox Sabbat advocate a strengthening of the religious aspects in the higher echelons of the Sabbat, believing that to do otherwise would invite divine ire. They advocate a no-quarters attitude to heretics, likewise as a reinforcement of the position of the Pack priest over the Ductus.
• Ultra-Conservatives: The far-correct wing of the sect, the Ultra-Conservatives believe that Gehenna is simply around the corner and that the sect must be set up for war. In their optics, even the Revised Lawmaking of Milan goes not far enough to unite the sect.

Other groups are the Elders of the Quondam Clan Tzimisce, who joined with the Sabbat mainly to have their peace and not be bothered by pestering fledglings, the Pander Movement, charmingly referred to equally "total political whores", who support any faction that supports them or anyone who helps them increment their "legitimacy", and the Guild of St. Blaise, a clerical order within the ranks of the Catholic Church that serves every bit the Sabbat's liaison to the Cosmic clergy.

In addition to these factions, two parallel organizations exist within the Sabbat. The Sabbat Inquisition investigates vampires within the Sabbat for any signs of demon worship or betrayment. Contrasting, the Black Hand is a militant sect inside the sect, and operates semi-independently from the Sabbat that it predates.

Heresies

Accented freedom is not used wisely past everyone. Packs are seduced by the false teachings of the Path of Lilith or other Paths of Enlightenment that preach subservience to the Fathers, like the Path of Typhon or the Path of Claret. Others fall to the temptations of Infernalism, sometimes through the Path of Evil Revelations, sometimes through misplaced appetite and curiosity. The Sabbat Inquisition works difficult to bring these heretics to justice, but the widespread nature of nomadic packs makes a consummate eradication of heretics difficult. Some dioceses harbour heretics without knowing, who then spread their teachings to unsuspecting Shovelheads. Because these groups threaten the Faith that is i of the cornerstones of the sect, they are dealt with harshly.

Gallery

Old symbol of the Sabbat (1992-1998)

Old symbol of the Sabbat (1998-2018)

References

1. ↑ VTM: Guide to the Anarchs, p. nineteen
2. ↑ VTM: Clanbook: Tzimisce Revised, p. 22
3. ↑ ^{[citation needed]}
4. ↑ VTM: Rites of the Claret, p. 33
5. ↑ VTM: Rites of the Claret, p. 48

• VTM: Guide to the Sabbat
• VTM: Storytellers Handbook to the Sabbat
• VTM: The Players Guide to the Sabbat
• VTM: Sabbat: The Black Manus

Vampire: The Masquerade Sects
Major	Anarch • Ashirra • Camarilla • Sabbat (Black Hand)
Pocket-sized	Inconnu • Independent Clans • Hecata • Tal'Mahe'Ra
Other	Independent Alliance • Lost Tribe

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Source: https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Sabbat