Morality is integral to Vampire. “A Beast I am, lest a Beast I become” has been an iconic phrase for the game, and summarizes the struggle between morality and monstrosity. The curse of vampirism can strip away the character’s mortal nature, and the character’s Humanity is a vital part of the game. Even those Cainites who have shed their human morality to follow a new Path of Enlightenment often do so as a specific refutation of Humanity. A vampire without any form of morality is nothing more than a mindless killer enslaved by their thirst for vitae, so Humanity and Paths are an intimate part of every Vampire character. Humanity and Paths, unlike most other Traits, are rated on a scale of 1 to 10.

Degeneration

Despite all efforts to the contrary, a vampire is going to succumb to moral failure sooner or later in their unlife. Willfully or otherwise (ethics are particularly hard to maintain in frenzy), a vampire occasionally commits an atrocity and risks losing to the Beast. If the character feels remorse for their actions, they know that their morality is still intact. If they commit a wrongful act and callously disregard it, however, their resistance to the Beast is obviously waning.

One of the most important themes of Vampire is the Kindred’s struggle to retain their souls and avoid the clutches of the Beast. Thus, it is extremely important to use morality in a consistent, dramatic manner. If the Storyteller allows the players to (sometimes literally) get away with murder, the story will suffer as one of the tragedies of vampiric existence vanishes. If the Storyteller is too strict with the morality rules, though, all the characters will be ravening, blood-gorged maniacs by the end of the first session. Keeping a handle on morality is a hard thing to do, but the degeneration system is designed to help that. (Since most vampires are on Humanity, from this point forward this we will talk exclusively in those terms — special rules for those on Paths of Enlightenment start in the Alternate Virtues and Alternate Paths sections.)

The system is simple: Whenever a character takes an action that the Storyteller decides is morally questionable, the character may suffer degeneration — a permanent loss of Humanity. If degeneration is a possibility, the player whose character commits the act should make a Conscience roll for that character. The Difficulty is 5 — reprehensible acts are hard to justify — though the Storyteller may modify this. Willpower may not be spent for an automatic success on this roll — all the ego in the world won’t protect a character from guilt.

If the player makes the roll (even with no extra successes), the character loses no Humanity — they feel enough remorse or somehow manage to justify their transgression. If they fail the roll, the character loses a point of Humanity. If the player botches, the character loses a point of both Humanity and Conscience, and also gains a Derangement, decided upon by the Storyteller. Obviously, morality is not something a Kindred can afford to take lightly. Remember that a vampire whose Humanity drops to 0 becomes a character controlled by the Storyteller.

On the Brink

A Storyteller should always warn a player before they take an action that may cause degeneration. Players should understand the consequences of their characters’ actions, and should have the opportunity to enjoy making the decision. Likewise, a player whose character is in frenzy should be told when the character is about to do something heinous. (Remember, though, that a player may spend a point of Willpower in order to stave off the pangs of frenzy for a turn.) Players should not be allowed to think they can get away with anything. Make it obvious that a roll may become necessary if vicious characters persist in committing self-centered deeds. Likewise, don’t bait and switch. If you warn them that a roll is imminent, go through with it, or you risk ruining the mechanic’s usefulness.

Using Hierarchies of Sin

Degeneration checks may seem arbitrary or ill-defined. To some degree, they are, but this is intentional. Moreover, degeneration checks are not random so much as they are subjective. A Storyteller has carte blanche to monitor character morality in their chronicle. This is a huge responsibility for the Storyteller, but one that ultimately makes for a great deal of tragedy and horror, as the characters gradually descend into a state of utter monstrosity though they desperately rail against it. Storytellers, beware — players should never feel that you are screwing them out of Humanity or, consequently, their characters. Use degeneration checks consistently but sparingly, lest the tragedy erode to an incessant series of failed die rolls.

To lend a sense of order to degeneration checks, consult the Hierarchy of Sin for Humanity. (Other Paths use Hierarchies of Sin as well, though their ideas of “sin” are different.) Whenever a character commits a dubious act, see how that action relates to the hierarchy. If the action is at or below the level of the character’s Humanity rating, a roll is warranted — as a character falls further down the Humanity scale, they become increasingly callous, and minor peccadilloes cease to bother them. The use of the term “violation” in the hierarchy is deliberately vague, to aid the Storyteller. A violation may be anything questionable, and is presented to avoid inclining the scale toward any single transgression. Violation may be killing, callous injury, rape (what do you think taking blood by force is?), or any other villainy.

It seems hard to slide to the lowest echelons of the scale, but consider the prominence of the Beast as Humanity falters. Sooner or later, the character will be committing depravity outside their own volition. The Storyteller is free to decree that characters of low Humanity (4 or less) occasionally act according to various urges and impulses that must be resisted with Conscience rolls or Willpower expenditure. This is the crux of Vampire — how closely can the character walk with the Beast before it drags them into damnation?

Bearing

A vampire’s morality has a direct impact on their bearing — a feeling the Kindred unconsciously projects. The greater the vampire’s Humanity or Path rating, the stronger this tendency is. For example, vampires on Humanity have a bearing of normalcy; the humane connection that such vampires hold keeps them from seeming strange and terrifying to mortals.

Generally, a vampire’s bearing has little or no direct effect on their nightly activities — it’s only a vague impression. Very high or low morality ratings impose a bonus or penalty to specific rolls associated with the character’s bearing — for Humanity, the bearing modifier affects Social rolls for appearing normal and winning sympathy. These modifiers can affect rolls used for Disciplines, where relevant. Paths of Enlightenment have their own bearings, which are listed with each Path description.

Virtues

The Virtue Traits define a character’s outlook on unlife — they shape a character’s ethical code and describe their commitment to their chosen morality. Virtues exist to help give a character a sense of being, not to force players to portray their characters in a given way. However, Kindred are passionate creatures, and sometimes an act or situation may force a character to consider exactly how ze should react to a given stimulus. Virtues come into play when a character faces an impending frenzy, does something ethically questionable (according to the character’s morality), or confronts something that terrifies or disturbs zir.

A vampire’s Virtues are determined by zir Path, the particular code of ethics ze follows. Most Camarilla Kindred maintain their mortal values and follow the Path of Humanity (referred to simply as “Humanity”), but other vampires often subscribe to radically different philosophies.

At character creation, a character’s Humanity is equal to zir Conscience + Self-Control Virtues.

Conscience

Conscience is a Trait that allows characters to evaluate their conduct with relation to what is “right” and “wrong.” A character’s moral judgment with Conscience stems from zir attitude and outlook. Conscience is what prevents a vampire from succumbing to the Beast, by defining the Beast’s urges as unacceptable.

Conscience factors into the Difficulty of many rolls to avoid committing a transgression. Additionally, Conscience determines whether or not a character loses Humanity by committing acts that do not uphold zir moral code. A character with a high Conscience rating feels remorse for transgressions, while a character with a lower Conscience may be more callous or ethically lax.

Some vampires replace the Conscience Virtue with the Virtue of Conviction; unless your Storyteller tells you it’s okay to do this, assume Conscience is used.

Self-Control

Self-Control defines a character’s discipline and mastery over the Beast. Characters with high Self-Control rarely succumb to emotional urges, and are thus able to restrain their darker sides more readily than characters with low Self-Control.

Self-Control comes into play when a character faces zir Beast in the form of frenzy. Self-Control allows the character to resist the frenzy. Note: A character may never roll more dice to resist or control a frenzy than ze has in zir blood pool — it’s hard to deny the Beast when one’s mind clouds with hunger.

As with Conscience, Self-Control can be replaced, in this case by the Virtue of Instinct. Again, unless the Storyteller specifies otherwise, assume Self-Control is used.

Courage

All characters have a Courage Trait, regardless of the Path they follow. Courage is the quality that allows characters to stand in the face of fear or daunting adversity. It is bravery, mettle, and stoicism combined. A character with high Courage meets zir fears head-on, while a character of lesser Courage may flee in terror.

Kindred use the Courage Virtue when faced with circumstances they endemically dread: fire, sunlight, True Faith.

Let’s make one thing clear: just because a vampire follows the Path of Humanity doesn’t mean they are a friendly, congenial saint. Vampires are predators by nature, and Humanity only gifts them with the ability to pretend they’re not. It is an internal charade that protects a Kindred from zirself, much as the Masquerade protects vampires from the mortals outside.

Unfortunately, the very nature of existence as a vampire is anathema to one’s Humanity. As the centuries wear on, the Beast takes hold, and Kindred become less and less concerned with the wellbeing of the kine (after all, they’ll die eventually, anyway). As such, characters are likely to lose Humanity over the course of the game.

Mortals also typically follow the Path of Humanity, though this is largely out of ignorance: They don’t know they can be anything else. As such, this mechanical system for morality rarely comes into play for them. Certainly, some mortals — rapists, murderers, and the like — have low Humanity ratings, but they have no Beast roiling within them, as do the Kindred. It is possible for a vampire with a high Humanity rating to be more humane than some mortals are!

Effects of Humanity

A Kindred’s Humanity rating reflects how much of a character’s mortal nature remains despite the curse of Caine. It influences how well a character may deny their vampiric state, as well as how effectively they may pass for mortal.

• Vampires sleep unnaturally deeply and are loath to rise even if presented with danger. Vampires with higher Humanity rise earlier in the evening than vampires with lower Humanity ratings. Also, if a Kindred is forced to act during the day, the maximum dice pool ze may employ for any action is equal to zir Humanity rating.
• Humanity also affects a character’s Virtues. Whenever a certain Virtue is called into question, a player may not roll more dice for a Virtue than zir character has dots in Humanity. Obviously, as the character sinks ever more deeply into the arms of damnation, questions of morality and self-preservation mean less and less. As Humanity depletes, the character creeps slowly toward the night when ze loses all self-control.
• The length of time a Kindred spends in torpor relates directly to zir Humanity rating. A vampire with low Humanity remains in torpor for a longer time than a vampire with a higher Humanity rating.
• Humanity determines how human a character appears and how easily they may pass among the populace. Vampires with low Humanity acquire unnatural and disturbing features like sunken eyes, perpetual snarls, and bestial countenances (a reflection of the vampire’s bearing).
• If a character’s Humanity rating ever drops to 0, that persona is no longer suitable for use as a player’s character. Completely controlled by zir Beast, the character is mindless and falls under the Storyteller’s control.

Humanity ratings fluctuate based upon the Hierarchy of Sin — if a vampire accidentally or purposefully commits an act rated lower than their Humanity rating, they must roll their Conscience Trait to see whether they accept the act (and thus lose Humanity) or feel remorse and maintains their current level. Humanity may be raised only by spending experience points on it.

The Downward Spiral

Vampires are monsters, and even a Kindred with the highest of Humanity ratings is nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Nonetheless, as Humanity erodes, vampires not only become capable of, but also actively pursue, ever more depraved acts. It is in a vampire’s nature to hunt and kill, and eventually every vampire finds zirself holding the corpse of a vessel ze had not intended to murder.

It is important, then, to know how vampires change as their Humanity ratings deteriorate. Vampires’ behavior, even under the auspices of Humanity, may become so utterly depraved and alien that the very thought of them causes discomfort in others. After all, a low Humanity rating indicates that very little connects the Kindred with their mortal origins.

Humanty 10-8

Kindred with Humanity ratings this high are, ironically, more human than humans. Many fledgling vampires sometimes adhere to codes more rigorous than they ever held in life, as a reaction against becoming a predator. Older Kindred scoff at this practice, laughing at the thought of newly whelped neonates cowering beneath fire escapes and subsisting on the foul blood of rats, vainly rebelling against their murderous natures.

In truth, vampires who maintain high ratings in Humanity are rare, as every Kindred must kill sooner or later. Vampires with high Humanity are almost unbearable by their peers, who find frustration in their perceived naïveté and self-righteousness; most Kindred prefer to suffer through unlife without kicking themselves. High Humanity ratings indicate aversion to killing and even distaste for taking more vitae than is necessary. Though not necessarily passive or preachy, Kindred with high Humanity uphold excruciatingly exacting standards, and often have very clearly defined concepts of moral right and wrong.

Humanity 7

Most human beings have Humanity ratings of 7 or so, so vampires at this level of Humanity can usually manage to pass for mortals. Vampires with 7 Humanity typically subscribe to “normal” social mores — it’s not acceptable to hurt or kill another person, it’s wrong to steal something that another person owns, but sometimes the speed limit is just too damn slow. The vampire is still concerned with the natural rights of others at this stage of morality, though more than a little selfishness shines through.

Humanity 6-5

People die. Stuff breaks. A vampire below the cultural human norm has little difficulty with the fact that they need blood to survive, and they do what needs to be done to get it. Though they won’t necessarily go out of their way to destroy property or end a victim’s life, they accept that sometimes that’s what fate has in store for some folks. Though not constantly horrid, Kindred at this stage of Humanity are certainly at least mildly unpleasant to be around. Their laissez-faire attitudes toward others’ rights offend many more moral individuals.

Humanity 4

The vampire begins an inevitable slide into urge indulgence. A Humanity of 4 indicates that killing is acceptable to this Kindred, so long as zir victim is “deserving.” Many vampire elders hover around this level of Humanity, if they haven’t adopted some other moral code. Destruction, theft, injury — these are all tools, rather than taboos, for a vampire with Humanity 4. The vampire’s own agenda becomes paramount at this point, and screw whoever gets in the way.

Humanity 3-2

The lives and property of others are irrelevant to a Kindred this far gone. The vampire likely indulges twisted pleasures and aberrant whims, which may include any manner of atrocity. Perversion, callous murder, mutilation of victims, and wickedness for its own sake are the hallmarks of a Kindred with very low Humanity. Few vampires maintain ratings this low and lower for very long — their damnation is all but certain at this point. Physical changes show up at this stage; while not hideous in the sense of the Nosferatu or certain Gangrel, the vampire acquires a pallid, corpselike, and noticeably unwholesome aspect.

Humanity 1

Only nominally sentient, Kindred with Humanity 1 teeter on the edge of oblivion. Little matters to vampires this far gone, even zir own desires outside of sustenance and rest. There is literally nothing a vampire with Humanity 1 won’t do, and only a few tattered shreds of ego stand between zir and complete devolution. Many who attain this stage find themselves no longer capable of coherent speech, and spend their nights gibbering blasphemy in their gore-spattered havens.

Humanity 0

Must sleep. Must feed. Must kill. Players may not run characters with Humanity 0. Vampires at this stage are completely lost to the Beast.

Alternate Virtues and Paths

Some vampires forgo the petty mortal concerns embodied by the concept of Humanity. These Kindred reason that they are no longer human, so they have no need to apply the sentiments of the living to themselves.

Whether or not a Kindred chooses to follow the moral tenets of Humanity, some sort of behavioral system must exist. To accept utter randomness is to invite the Beast to rule, and no vampire wishes to sink into the clutches of mindless depravity. Even those vampires who plumb the depths of immorality have some ethical bulwark they use to anchor themselves against the Beast.

Kindred who voluntarily abandon Humanity follow behavioral codes known as Paths of Enlightenment. While mechanically similar to Humanity, these codes have very little — in fact, sometimes nothing — to do with the mores of mortal culture. Adopting a Path of Enlightenment means giving up everything that matters to a “normal” person (or indeed, many vampires).

Only those Cainites who have truly abandoned themselves to the dark majesty of vampirism follow Paths, and rarely do any turn back. Players may choose between a variety of different Paths (at the Storyteller’s discretion). It is important to know a few things before you commit to a Path of Enlightenment, however.

• Paths are exclusive. Few Kindred are initiated into the secrets of the Paths. Most vampires — even those of the independent clans and the Sabbat — follow the ways of Humanity; they simply tend to degenerate to very low levels over time. Not just anyone can follow a Path; becoming such an inhuman creature requires discipline and spiritual strength, albeit of a distinctly alien sort. A person seeking to join a Path must have the capacity to discard their human nature, as well as the fortitude to survive the process.
• Paths are utterly inhuman. Players wishing their characters to adopt Paths of Enlightenment are in for extremely demanding roleplaying experiences. These are codes of immortal ethics that Kindred have spent hundreds of years, if not millennia, studying. It’s fine and good to have a Lasombra character following the Path of Night, but the player will have to devote an enormous amount of energy toward understanding how that character really thinks.
• Paths shock conventional moralities. Paths use game systems similar to Humanity, but the codes that constitute these ideas emphasize such alien ideals that mortal characters observing an adherent are likely to be put off. Some codes espouse killing, while others cannot be bothered with it. Indeed, some codes are so selfish that even thinking about helping others constitutes a moral failure.

These Paths are here to illustrate how utterly inhuman and removed the Kindred are from humankind, and to give them spiritual protection from the talons of the Beast. Use the Paths when the story or character demands them, not to free the characters from penalties for wanton murder or perversion.

Systems

Characters on Paths of Enlightenment use the same systems for degeneration as characters who still subscribe to Humanity. Each Path has its own Hierarchy of Sin, which functions the same as the one for Humanity. Some Paths are so far removed from conventional human morality that concepts like Conscience and Self-Control do not apply to them at all. For these codes of ethics, different Virtues apply. Depending upon which Path a character follows, Conscience may be replaced by the Virtue of Conviction, while Self-Control may be replaced by the Virtue of Instinct. No character may have both Conscience and Conviction or both Self-Control and Instinct. Which Virtues the character actually possesses depends upon which Path ze follows. Remember, however, that all characters have Courage, regardless of Path.

Conviction

The Conviction Virtue quantifies a character’s ability to maintain a sense of reason when faced with desire, suffering, or need. Conviction represents the reconciliation of the predatory urge with the character’s capacity for atrocity.

As opposed to Conscience, which deals with remorse and atonement for Path transgressions, a character with Conviction recognizes zir failure and plans to overcome it. Conviction is completely inhuman; the character who has this Trait can no longer pass for human under anything but the most cursory scrutiny. Creatures who can sense the Beast (vampires, werewolves, etc.) immediately recognize someone with the Conviction Virtue for what they truly are: a monster. Like Conscience, Conviction comes into question when a character must check for degeneration.

Instinct

The Instinct Virtue refers to a character’s ability to control the Beast by familiarity rather than denial. It allows characters to “ride the wave” of frenzy and emotional excess by keeping a close rein on their passion, rather than letting passion control them. As atavistic as Conviction, Instinct is the Virtue of a monster who accepts zir nature rather than maintaining a sense of human compassion.

Instinct allows the character to harness the Beast’s destructive power; a character with high Instinct is primal and turbulent. A player rolls Instinct when attempting to control a character’s existing frenzy. When a character who possesses the Instinct Virtue faces frenzy, ze always enters the frenzy, unless the Difficulty to avoid it is less than zir Instinct Trait, in which case ze may choose whether or not to frenzy. Thereafter, for the duration of the frenzy, the character is wholly under the Beast’s sway, and must be run by the player (or controlled by the Storyteller) in an appropriate fashion. Any time the player wishes the character to consciously take an action (known as “riding the wave”), ze must roll Instinct against the Difficulty to avoid the frenzy. Frenzies affect the character normally (including ignoring wound penalties, etc.), though ze may sometimes exert a bit of control while so enraged.

Creating a Path Follower

If a player wishes to create a beginning character on a Path, a few changes in the character-creation rules take place.

• Alternate Virtues begin at 0: While every human (and thus every recently Embraced Kindred) has a modicum of their “natural” Virtues, vampiric Virtues must be learned from the ground up. So, while a character with Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage is created with 1 free dot in each Virtue, then has 7 points to spend on Virtues, a character with Conviction, Self-Control, and Courage begins with only 2 free dots (in Self-Control and Courage). A character with Conviction, Instinct, and Courage begins with only 1 free dot (in Courage). All characters receive 7 points to spend, but must use points to buy the inhuman Virtues to at least 1. This may seem unfair, but shunting off one’s human nature is not undertaken lightly. Even monsters are not created overnight.
• A vampire following a Path of Enlightenment must begin the game with a Willpower Trait of 5, minimum: This can be achieved by spending points on Courage or raising Willpower with freebie points. Beings of lesser ego simply do not have the spiritual vigor needed to break down their souls and rebuild them from the ground up.
• Beginning characters may not start the game with Path ratings above 5: If the combination of the character’s Virtues would indicate a Path rating of higher than 5, simply record “5.” Likewise, freebie points may not be spent to increase a beginning character’s Path rating above 5, either. Beginning character vampires who subscribe to these codes still have only 25 or fewer years of experience as Kindred — hardly enough time to master the rigors of inhuman codes of behavior. (Players starting with older characters may start with increased Path ratings at the Storyteller’s discretion.)
• In all other ways, unless otherwise specified, inhuman Paths and Virtues are used like their human counterparts. So, if a roll calls for the player to use Perception + Self-Control, and the character has Instinct, roll Perception + Instinct. Mechanically the Virtues often fulfill the same purpose, even if some of the application differs.

Switching from Humanity to a Path

A character may also elect to eschew their human nature in favor of a Path. This is exceedingly difficult, and those who fail find themselves permanently soul-scarred as a result.

A character seeking to switch from Humanity to a Path must have a Humanity rating of 3 or below, as well as ratings of 1 in whichever Virtue or Virtues are to change to their counterparts. For example, a vampire seeking to follow a Path espousing Conviction and Instinct must have Conscience and Self-Control ratings of 1.

During the chronicle, a candidate is typically approached by a Kindred already on the Path; in this sense, Paths resemble secret fraternal orders, approaching candidates they deem worthy rather than being open to solicitation. This process should be roleplayed. If the character chooses to initiate zirself toward the Path, ze begins a program of rigorous study, and a vampire already on the Path is assigned as the initiate’s mentor. An initiate spends at least a year in contemplation and study of the Path’s ways. During this time, the initiate must forcibly degenerate zir human Virtues, dropping them to “acceptable” levels (Humanity 3 or below, ratings of 1 in appropriate Virtues), if ze has not done so already.

The vampire then undertakes a test, which can be roleplayed by the player and Storyteller. This test can involve study of forbidden lore, answering of riddles, completion of ordeals and tasks, or whatever else the Storyteller deems appropriate for the given Path. However, part of the test always involves the vampire committing an act that, in human terms, would be viewed as an atrocity. Such a deed is undertaken not for the sake of mindless evil, but rather to impart a lesson about the character’s nature in relation to the Path.

Following the completion of the test, the character makes a Willpower roll. If the character’s Humanity is 3, the Difficulty of the roll is 5. If the character’s Humanity is 2, the Difficulty is 4, and if the character’s Humanity is 1, the Difficulty is 3. Willpower may not be spent to gain automatic successes on this roll. If the character succeeds, ze sheds zir human nature and the Virtues that accompany it, gain ratings of 1 in all appropriate Path Virtues, and gain a Path rating of 1. If the character earns 3 or more extra successes, ze experiences a profound (if twisted) enlightenment, gaining a Path rating of 2.

If the character fails the roll, ze commits a stupid, pointless atrocity without gaining any corresponding understanding. Ze loses a point of Humanity, fails to attain the rudiments of the Path, but may reattempt the test (at a Difficulty appropriate to zir lowered Humanity Trait) in a month’s time. If the character botches the roll, ze loses a point of Humanity and may not reattempt the test for an entire year.

Should a character be driven to Humanity 0 in this fashion, zir soul is lost to the Beast, and the character is permanently taken over by the Storyteller.

Basic Beliefs: This Path is practiced almost exclusively by the assassins of Clan Assamite, although only vampires who demonstrate true loyalty to the clan learn its harsh code. The founding principle of this Path explains that the children of Caine (or Khayyin, as the Assamites refer to him) are wicked failures, fit primarily to bring the brood of Haqim (the Assamites’ name for their own clan founder) closer to “the One,” a state of mystical transcendence. Haqim instructs his childer to salvage or strike down Khayyin’s other childer to destroy the taint they inflict on the world.

Assamites on this Path follow two basic precepts. First and foremost, the clan seeks to convince other Kindred of their flawed, cursed nature, and thus convert them to the service of those on the Path. Kindred as a whole are a blight upon the earth, and only by upholding Haqim’s righteous code can they redeem themselves. Should vampires resist attempts at conversion, the Assamites kill them. Before they were cursed, Assamites would diablerize their victims, using the blood of the fallen to lower their Generations and thus return to Haqim’s bounty. Now, unable to drink the blood of other vampires, they instead collect blood from vampires as payment, using that to follow Haqim’s directives until the night when the curse upon them can be lifted. Although they are not inherently psychotic murderers, Assamites on the Path of Blood place little value on the unlives of other Kindred, and must have good reason not to slay most vampires with whom they come in contact. Vampires on this Path pose a serious threat to other Kindred around them, and do not frequently associate with non-Assamite Kindred. Blood is blood, however, and Assamites are not so fatuous as to disregard the value of the vast web of Kindred society.

Few young Assamites follow this Path or even know of its existence — Clan Assamite conspires to keep its beliefs secret from most other Kindred of the world. Hundreds of years ago, the Assamites’ bloodthirsty ways united all other Children of Caine against them, and they are loath to face the concerted opposition of Khayyin’s bastard brood again. As such, only the most accomplished and able Assamites learn this Path’s tenets.

History

The Assamites practiced an early version of this Path for hundreds of years before the formations of the Camarilla and Sabbat. Their bloodlust led them into open conflict with powerful elder Kindred, who desperately sought to stifle the marauding diablerists. The Assamites found themselves in the same situation as the Anarchs during the time of the Anarch Revolt, and the Camarilla levied a curse on the clan, making it impossible for the Assamites to consume Kindred vitae. For centuries, the clan have followed a debased version of the Path, crippled by its members’ inability to commit diablerie directly.

Current Practices

The fatal nature of this Path with regard to other Kindred stands behind much of the fear and mistrust of Clan Assamite. Predominantly practiced by proven ancillae and elders of the clan, the Path of Blood leads these beings into direct conflict with non-Assamite vampires. Kindred on the Path of Blood gracefully attempt to convince other Kindred of their “one true way,” so a few individuals from other clans also support this Path.

Practitioners of little understanding seek merely to follow the teachings of Haqim, doing so without question. However, those of greater wisdom seek to explore just what “becoming One” entails. By taking the cursed blood of the Antediluvians and their spawn, the followers of the Path hope to concentrate the curse of Khayyin in the hands of those who will use it responsibly (namely, the Assamite clan). In such a way, according to Path doctrine, can the great endgame of Gehenna be averted. Accordingly, Assamite Ancients practice rigorous purity and meditation, and rumors of a Golconda-like state among these beings have recently trickled into the larger Kindred community.

Description of Followers

Study, proselytism, and selective strikes against the rest of the Kindred world occupy the nights of Kindred on this Path. Fanatical in their quest, the Assassins bring Final Death to those who would get in the way of collecting the blood payments or sending a portion of those payments back to their sires and leaders in Alamut. Mostly, however, Assamites seek to convert those of high Generation, as they are farther removed from their progenitors and, thus, the taint of evil.

Following the Path

This Path espouses the liberal practice of Kindred murder and the acquisition of blood. More enlightened Kindred on the Path of Blood also seek to uncover lore and knowledge that may lead them to a key to remove the Tremere ritual that cripples them. As such, vampires who follow the Path of Blood are not mindless monsters murdering Kindred in the streets, but would-be saviors of the entire world. All Kindred on the Path of Blood strive to attain “Oneness” with the mythical Haqim, though few who have reached this lofty goal deign to explain its nature. Most Dervishes believe that Oneness resembles Golconda, or another state wherein vampires can cast off their curse and revel in their Cainite natures.

Basic Beliefs: The Path of the Bones, it is believed, grew out of a warped code upheld by the morbid vampires who sired the Giovanni: Human, Kindred, or otherwise, every being sooner or later ends up in death’s arms. The most ardent followers of this Path espouse “giving oneself over to the comprehension of life’s inevitable end.” Vampires who follow this Path seek the knowledge of precisely what death is: Is it simply the end of life? The transition of the soul to what lies after life? Is it the end of the soul’s desire to exist? These questions haunt the followers of the Path of the Bones each night.

Many vampires believe that the Path of the Bones is a degenerate Path that encourages followers to participate in all manner of murder and deviance. Those who uphold the Path and those who are familiar with it, however, know that it involves itself with a pursuit of life’s — and unlife’s — meaning. Followers of the Path seek to understand death’s nature and purpose, and thus the roles individuals play in the greater scheme of the world. Mortality is inevitable, except for vampires, who have somehow managed to cheat the cycle.

Kindred nature, however, is generally outside the avenues this Path explores. It is truly a scholar’s code, as the Kindred who follow it forsake even their own comfort to advance their understanding of mortality’s mysteries. These Kindred are not necessarily cruel — they merely value comprehension more than human life.

At its simplest, the Path of the Bones seeks to define not only what death is, but also its meaning to those who have escaped it. It is a Path of knowledge and power, and many who support it learn to wield great influence over the living and dead alike. Many among the Path become quite erudite in the ways of ghosts, but even these odd beings fail to answer many of the Gravediggers’ questions — what, for example, happens to a ghost that resolves its psychic struggle or discorporates into the void?

History

This Path grew out of a moral code upheld by the Cappadocians, whom the Giovanni destroyed in their bid for greater power. A select few Giovanni saw more than a means to an end in their practice of Necromancy, and upheld the rituals and studies of their forebears. Although the Path is not widely practiced among the clan, followers of its precepts pioneered most of the Giovanni’s advances in Necromancy.

Current Practices

Elder members of Clan Giovanni follow this Path, as do those with a sincere interest in improving their Necromantic knowledge for a purpose other than temporal power. Giovanni who uphold the Path of the Bones rarely deal with mortals, as their grim inquisitiveness often proves fatal for mortals with whom they come in contact.

Description of Followers

Vampires on this Path are genuinely curious, wishing to learn exactly what purpose individuals serve. Thanatology is more a science than a philosophy to Kindred on the Path of the Bones. This Path is quite introspective, and greedy Giovanni rarely follow it, preferring the more materially comfortable outlook of Humanity. Gravediggers support the Giovanni family primarily through the knowledge they bring it, rather than through advancing the political aims of the clan.

Following the Path

Vampires who subscribe to the tenets of the Path of the Bones should be detached yet inquisitive. Although they are not cavalier about death, Gravediggers seldom aid anyone about to die, preferring to watch and learn. Less fatalistic vampires may take issue with this, and the Kindred on this Path will not act against them should they seek to aid the dying individual. Obviously, their time has not yet come.

Basic Beliefs: Scholars of nights long past, in seeking keys to the nature of vampiric existence, pursued fragments of knowledge from the Book of Nod. Drawing upon the history from that book as well as other esoteric sources, Cainite scholars concluded that only Caine, as the first vampire, is the paragon of vampiric nature. The Noddists seek to become more like Caine, in order to discover the limits and powers of the undead form. By learning from Caine’s example, the Noddists claim, one can understand the true nature of vampirism and how vampiric existence differs from one’s mortal life.

Noddists seek knowledge and history, recording the experiences of Caine, so that they may learn from his example. To them, Caine’s life reveals the mystery of the vampiric curse; by understanding the undead form, they transcend their mortal weaknesses. They prize any knowledge about the vampiric condition, but the writings and stories of the First Vampire form the core of Noddist lore. As Caine was marked and cast out from mortal society, the Noddists believe that he exemplifies most keenly the differences between vampires and humans. Therefore, this Path’s adherents cast aside their humanity as inadequate and useless, emulating Caine’s exile and seeking new rules to govern their predatory drives.

The heart of the Path of Caine lies in the exemplification of vampiric nature: The questions of existence, the limits of the vampiric form and the changes wrought by the Embrace all drive the Noddists into endless speculation, debate, and research. Scholarship and historical insight are valuable, but the vampire must simultaneously develop spiritually and physically, to explore the limits of their undead form. Diablerie serves as more than a simple theft of power; it allows the practitioner to learn from the experiences of other undead, thereby developing greater understanding. Other vampires lose themselves in attempts to save lost humanity or find meaning in obscure philosophy. The Path of Caine, instead, finds meaning in the fundamentals of vampirism.

The Path of Caine is demanding and rigorous; few vampires follow its tenets in the modern nights. This Path places a high emphasis on scholarship, insight, and personal discipline. With the eternal patience attributed to Caine, say the followers of the Path, comes the opportunity to slowly refine oneself.

History

The Path of Caine developed in the early 16th century as vampires sought new insights into personal enlightenment during the Renaissance. Many vampires felt the need for a system of self-improvement that circumvented the limitations of humanistic beliefs, as human morality conflicted with vampiric nature. This Path gained a great following over the next 200 years, as many vampires viewed Caine as an ideal figure. Following the Enlightenment, this Path began to decline in favor of newer Paths. Few vampires maintained the discipline and studiousness necessary to uphold this Path, so it dwindled to a small but devoted following. The remaining Noddists maintained a respected place in the Sabbat and continued to recruit from the most intellectual and insightful prospects. As the modern Sabbat selects more fledglings based on their individual potential and achievement, this Path has experienced an influx of new followers.

Current Practices

This Path appeals to some of the most introspective and reflective of vampires, but all Sabbat subscribe to parts of the theory (if not the practice) of this Path. Followers focus on personal growth, but also lead missions to garner hidden knowledge and powerful elder vitae. Additionally, many of this Path’s students often oversee and participate in rituals and plays celebrating the history of vampirism. Noddists are loath to Embrace randomly, instead choosing recruits from promising mortals. Recently, many Noddists have eschewed scholarship in favor of traveling, experiencing the world and emulating Caine’s wanderings. Many of these “adventurous” Noddists travel the globe to chase bits of information and experience the variety of vampiric existence.

Description of Followers

Noddists are often reserved and educated, with a strong knowledge of history and a drive for self-awareness. Followers of the Path are not inquisitive in the sense of seeking deductive answers to problems; rather, they study traditions and historical events in hopes of finding solutions for their questions. Cainites who espouse this Path often display a great deal of self-mastery. Additionally, Noddists tend to engage in debate with other vampires, to discern how other Cainites experience the Curse. Noddists tend to assume positions of spiritual authority in the Sabbat, as Pack Priests or Bishops. Many other Cainites find followers of this Path haughty and vain.

Following the Path

Sons and Daughters of Caine should always seek information regarding the vampiric condition, through experience, personal growth, and the pursuit of occult lore. Diablerie, development of Disciplines, and self-mastery are all valid means of refining the vampiric form. Noddists rarely engage in politics, choosing instead to acquire new information and experiences. They also serve as priests who lead vampires to seek awareness — and development — of their undead condition. Those on this Path lead by example, embracing their monstrous natures and striving to attune themselves to their differences from humans, then helping other vampires do the same. Noddists do not hesitate to share their insights, so that all vampires have the opportunity to become closer to Caine, though they hoard dangerous secrets to prevent misuse.

Basic Beliefs: The Path of Cathari sprang from the Catharist heresy of the Middle Ages. A dualistic philosophy, Cathar doctrine holds that the world was created in equal parts by a good (“light”) creator responsible for virtue and spirit, and an evil (“dark”) creator who fashioned the material world and its vices. The original Cathars believed the soul to be the root of all that is pure in humanity, while the material body was a shell in the corrupt physical world. Cathars pointed to the noble aspects of the spirit — compassion, sacrifice, honesty, and the like — as proof that the only true good lay in the ephemeral. The material world, with its suffering and misery, bore obvious flaws and imperfections. After much persecution, this dualistic doctrine vanished from the mortal world, crushed by papal declarations of heresy. Over the years, the vampires who favored tenets of the philosophy adopted it as their own.

According to the vampires who follow this Path, the undead are minions of the evil creator, given eternal existence to tempt others with the lures of the material world. Followers of the Path believe that they fulfill a destiny as creatures tied to the physical world through vampiric immortality. Because vampires have been denied the spiritual realms of death, the Albigensians reason that they must serve the vices of the physical realm. Therefore, they seek to spread evil and corruption, seeing iniquity as their natural state.

The Albigensians have perfected a code of evils in which to indulge, however. Theirs is not a Path of pointless amorality. Taking the beliefs of the original Cathar priests and twisting them, these vampires deliberately search for means of spreading evil. They pursue sins of greed, lust, and pride avidly. Cathars seek material wealth and comforts, and they encourage others to do the same. A vampire can serve their proper purpose only by embracing the flaws inherent to their form and to the world, and accepting their duties as a purveyor of vice. Followers of the Path of Cathari thus ironically find spirituality in depravity.

History

The Path of Cathari grew out of the aftermath of the Albigensian Crusade in the 13th century. The Manicheanist beliefs in dualism influenced some members of the Church, leading to a 30-year war that many believe led to the creation of the mortal Inquisition. After Albigensian vampires resurfaced following the crusade, they developed this moral system out of the logical consequences of their philosophy, seeing vampires as tied to the mortal world and therefore purveyors of evil, while the spirits of humans possessed the only potential for good. Soon, many vampires took it upon themselves to fulfill their “duty” as providers of the mortal world’s corruption. Over the intervening years, the Path changed to include broader philosophies and less formal religious overtones. The Path continued to prove adaptable, keeping the core belief of vampires as traffickers in the vices of the material world. Quite a few vampires find purpose in the business of pleasure — and damnation.

Current Practices

The Albigensians lead others to temptation, despoiling the purity of the spirit. Neonates and elders alike can be found among the Albigensians. Many practitioners see the fast-paced, decaying modern world as a sign of success for the forces of the evil creator, and they seek out ever more challenging converts among mortals and vampires alike.

Description of Followers

Albigensians are hedonistic and impulsive, but they believe that they serve a purpose. The followers of this Path are not lazy; rather, they undertake their duties with fanatical abandon. Each Albigensian considers it their duty to embody the vices of the material world and to share those comforts and pleasures with others. The Cathari encourage others to explore their monstrous natures and to spread hedonism among mortals.

Following the Path

Cathari are usually quite passionate, devoted to vulgarity and pleasure. They see the mortal world as a vast playground wherein they may satiate their base urges and encourage others to do likewise. Believing themselves to be agents of immorality, the followers of this Path are often highly social, befriending and using others to serve their sinful purposes.

Basic Beliefs: Conventional morality is a rigged game set by the Aeons. All those rules, taboos, and obligations are shackling all the world’s souls. Shame is a thorny chain. To escape, the Ecstatics grease the spiritual fetters and writhe and writhe.

For initiates on the Path of Ecstasy, the act of reveling is holy. They seek elation beyond mortal limits — bacchanalian euphoria — pleasure so pure and passion so dire, the gods above quake. Maenads glut the Beast with sensation until it is sluggish and pliable. Although this Path shares certain precepts and mythology with the Path of Typhon, its practitioners reject the base cruelties of the Theophidians. Corruption is incidental. The pleasure’s the thing.

For these serpents of mania, the pleasure has a higher function. In a world hopelessly ensnared in materialism, the Ecstatics push that materialism to such extremes that they crash through the other side into a religious experience. Maenads reserve a special contempt for secular sensualists. Hedonism without a spiritual dimension is one of the few profanities they recognize.

History

The Path of Ecstasy began as scattered seeds of spiritual philosophy, back in the earliest nights of the Theophidian cults. It was not until after the fall of Egypt that the Followers of Set dwelling in Constantinople wove the disparate threads into a cohesive whole. In that voluptuous scene of Byzantine decadence, the path founders reached such levels of feverish mania, their supernal senses dilated. In that beautiful moment, the vistas of the true spiritual war and their invisible enemies took on terrible clarity. Since then, the Ecstatics have waged that war, cloaked in their guise as debaucherous sense junkies.

Current Practices

The modern world teems with so many more traps that drain the soul down to a dull, sepia husk, and yet so many new ways to explore sensation. The Ecstatics exalt in the new challenges and possibilities. Theirs is a path that benefits from an emotional feedback loop — ecstasy shared is ecstasy multiplied — so they work well with mortal cultists. Ecstatics sprinkle themselves throughout the Setite cults and factions, with a large portion of their number joining the Cult of Taweret. Ecstatics rarely get along with practitioners of the Path of the Warrior, but the Theophidians tend to understand their worth. The Ecstatics make good ambassadors to the other clans and an excellent gateway to the larger Setite religion. Want the local Prince to underestimate your chthonic cult? Let the Ecstatics be your face.

Description of Followers

Ecstasy takes on many forms, as do its practitioners. The drug pusher leads you away from the troglodytes of the cocaine circle and rubs the semi-toxic extract of some extinct amphibian on your wrist. The meditation guru’s voice, accompanied by the reversed recording of whales in distress, guides you to a screaming catharsis. The extreme sports enthusiast shows you an all-new adrenaline high, before you have to flee the approaching red and blue lights. The dominatrix invokes god through your nerve endings. The snake-handling preacher brings you to a frothing rapture, as you writhe on the floor. Your eyes tear up at the beauty blessing your taste buds, as the epicurean feeds you your ex-spouse.

While the Path of Ecstasy may appear outwardly similar to the Path of Cathari, they diverge in key points. The Maenads are less concerned about corrupting the physical world, than they are about achieving preternatural ecstasy to transcend it. Where the Albigensians see themselves as barred from the spiritual world, the Maenads see it as their right and create windows to it through beautiful moments. Sin is not the end goal, but a potential tool in crossing the tyrannous taboos of the moralists. The Maenads do not serve the cosmic Punch and Judy show of dualism, but seek to break the paradigms entrapping the world.

Following the Path

Ecstasy is the art of extremes. Ecstasy produces a trancelike state in which one loses consciousness of one’s surroundings, breaking down the hypocritical illusions that bind one’s animus. This philosophy may seem gentler than the other Setite Paths — and it often is — but it contains more frightening dimensions beneath. To achieve the supernal, the Ecstatic must reach past the limits of human experience. They will go to any lengths to achieve these beautiful moments. Any sensation that unlocks this is valid, any extreme emotion. Some do so through beauty and pleasure, and some through the repulsive glamour of transcendent horror. Ecstatics often lose themselves to their passion, rage with the terrible joy of the Maenads, and not everyone survives their Bacchanalian orgies. Ecstatics often awaken wearing the parts of the one they loved the night before. Sparagmos is a holy rite.

Basic Beliefs: The Path of Entelechy is ancient but was lost for centuries, and only recently recovered for use by modern Brujah. An application of Stoic philosophy to the Brujah condition, the Path of Entelechy focuses on protecting one’s Humanity, on searching for truth and purpose, and above all, on mastering the Beast and the fury it provokes within the Brujah. The term entelechy comes from Aristotle and, among modern Brujah Philosophers, means “self-actualization.” The pursuit of entelechy demands that the Brujah actively develop zir mind, zir body, and zir supernatural abilities. While the Path is consonant with Humanity, it is more proactive in resisting the Beast.

An intellectual approach to unlife, the Path focuses on three fundamental concepts believed to have been essential characteristics sought in potential Brujah progeny in the days of Carthage: enkrateia, reie, and sophrosyne.

Enkrateia refers to inner strength. It is not enough for the Philosopher to passively accept the frustrations that come zir way, as the Path of Humanity requires. Instead, ze must hone zir reason into a sword and zir will into a shield against the forces that would cause zir to degenerate. In practical terms, this means that Philosophers usually have high Willpower and Self-Control ratings or else aggressively pursue those traits.

Reie refers to moral courage. The Philosopher must not shirk zir responsibility to pursue either enlightenment or moral character out of fear of frenzy or other degradations. Instead, ze must confront difficult situations with reason and self-discipline, eschewing the impetuosity that defines the modern Brujah. As a practical matter, this means that the Brujah will (or at least should) proactively avoid situations that are likely to provoke frenzy or risk degeneration. At the same time, the Path also encourages Philosophers to show courage in the face of adversity, but only to advance a cause the Brujah considers moral or just.

Sophrosyne means control of the self and represents the idealized goal of all Philosophers: mastery over the Brujah rage. It also means that the Brujah has committed to an eternity of mental, spiritual, and physical development. Philosophers develop sophrosyne by working to improve Physical and Mental Attributes and Abilities, rather than focusing on Discipline or Social traits.

History

Despite its ancient origins, the Path of Entelechy is a new phenomenon, driven largely by Brujah elders who despair over the degradation of their once-proud clan. Those founders look upon the fact that Brujah are called “Rabble” with shame. Accordingly, they recruit younger Brujah who want something more than violence, anarchy, and death out of unlife.

Current Practices

The number of Entelechy Philosophers is presently small, though they have ambitions to grow quickly. Most currently reside in Europe, though the Philosophers who have advanced the farthest along the Path have begun “missionary work” in America and especially in the decadent gang-laden enclaves of the Free States. Currently, most organized instruction is offered in Greece and Crete, though the Chicago elder Critias has taken students in North America. Most of the teachers will accept no more than four students at a time, so the growth of the Path has been slow.

Most Philosophers are Anarchs or Autarkis. A few may be among the Camarilla, but they are discrete in their beliefs in light of that sect’s general hostility towards Paths as opposed to Humanitas. It is possible that some Brujah among the Sabbat seek enlightenment along this Path — stranger things have happened — but such Sabbat Philosophers would be fantastically rare, as most of the sect would consider the Path’s pro-Humanity precepts anathema.

Description of Followers

The most important sponsor of the Path of Entelechy is Menele, a Brujah Methuselah who psychically communes with his followers even while his torpid body lies beneath the city of Chicago. The childe of Troile wants to leave a legacy greater than 2,500 years of petty conflict with his old rival, the Toreador Helena. He has reached out to fellow travelers in Greece and Turkey, and guides potential candidates to philosophy teachers in preparation for his own imminent rising. He hopes that when that day comes, he will be met with a clan of leaders and thinkers rather than thugs.

Following the Path

The defining characteristic of the Path is its view of much of the vampiric condition as weaknesses they must purge. The Beast is not a part of one’s nature to be parlayed with; it is an external force to be fought at all costs. Lust, frenzy, hunger, and passion must all be resisted and beaten into spiritual submission. The Path leaders constantly challenge adherents to improve themselves in the quest for personal excellence.

Basic Beliefs: Vampires are merely one expression of supernatural evil in the World of Darkness. Although vampires are creatures of great power and depravity, they pale in comparison to the ancient beings that reside in Hell beyond the realms of the dead. This, then, is the credo of the Corrupted: All vampires are but playthings to the demons of the Inferno, and the proper place of the vampire is to acknowledge the supremacy of these infernal masters. Some vampires revel in their evil natures and spread their filth, and see themselves as lords of vice. The true masters, whisper the Corrupters, are the creatures formed of the spiritual essence of malevolence, the demons that enslave and devour human souls.

To follow the Path of Evil Revelations, a vampire must believe that all vampires were created to serve a greater evil, and that both demons and infernal entities are greater harbingers of the taint that vampires cause. All Corrupters claim one or more infernal “patrons,” and spread the specific brand of vitriol espoused by their demonic lords. Vampires who follow the Path of Evil Revelations claim to be given tremendous powers and a place in the infernal hierarchy in exchange for absolute servitude and the sacrifice of their own souls, and the souls of their victims. With such enticements, the Corrupter acts to poison their fellow vampires, hoping to eventually turn them to his cause so that they might take their rightful (and subordinate) places in the hierarchy of Hell.

Because the followers of the Path of Evil Revelations give themselves over to various demonic lords, they paradoxically control their actions by serving the interests of their patrons. Obviously, other vampires hate and fear the Corrupters because they remove a vampire’s will and force them to abandon their self-interests. The Camarilla considers infernalists a threat to the organization’s security and the Masquerade, while the Sabbat loathes anyone who would willingly enslave themself to some greater unseen power, whether archdemon or Antediluvian.

For their part, most followers of the Path of Evil Revelations consider both sects weak and misguided, due to their failure to recognize the infernal lords and their professed “morality,” be it in the form of the Camarilla’s wayward protection of a Masquerade that preserves both human and vampire, or in the shape of the Sword of Caine’s holy crusade to free vampires from the tyranny of the elders. Still, the Corrupters move quietly in both circles, subtly influencing other vampires and arranging the downfall of elders who stand against their demonic masters.

Ultimately, the Path of Evil Revelations embraces inward evil as a tool for outer darkness. Students of the Path come in many forms, but all have bartered their souls for the hope of advancement in a hierarchy predicated on corruption and depravity. Through malicious servitude, the Corrupters seek to be raised above the other vampires — whom they believe will one day be brought to heel by their infernal lords.

Followers of more rigid codes of ethics find Corrupters affected and laughable. Why make such ostentatious shows of adolescent and shallow “evil”?

History

Although many vampires believe that the Path of Evil Revelations was founded by a group of infernalists in the 1600s (or as part of a medieval death cult in the Dark Ages), the truth is that vampires, like humans, have pledged their souls to infernal powers since time immemorial.

While profane vampires have always existed, the actual codification of this Path and its philosophies did not occur until the Renaissance era. The Path of Evil Revelations did not come into being until after the other Paths were created, the Corrupters subvert that which already exists.

Despite being infernalists, the Corrupters have never been unified beyond a generic purpose because they each serve a separate demonic master. A group that’s pledged to serve one demon is just as likely to work against a different band of Corrupted just as they would a coterie or pack of vampires.

Current Practices

Although the Corrupters have no unified structure, they share some common practices. Most involve themselves in secret debased rituals in which they make sacrifices to their dark lords. Although human sacrifice is common, it’s by no means universal — the importance, to these infernalists, lies in the symbolism of the sacrifice itself, so human sacrifice is really the sacrifice of community, morality and free will. Additionally, all Corrupters make a practice of bringing others into the fold, via coercion or compulsion. The lure of power without responsibility to any sort of conscience is a tempting one for many vampires or humans. Indeed, the unification of practices among the Corrupters is really only evident since many of their infernal masters desire similar devotions.

Still, loyal infernalists reaffirm their devotions every night; the dark powers are notoriously fickle with those who show any signs of slackening. Corrupters are fond of using pawns and intermediaries, especially ill-informed dupes, to fulfill their master’s goals and devotions. Followers of this path rarely Embrace others — to avoid creating a potential threat to their own power — but do make copious use of blood bonds among mortals and vampires alike.

Ultimately, Corrupters can be found amongst the most depraved aspects of society. The spread of virulent plagues, the kidnapping and torture of families, the engineering of cartels that cater to vice and addiction — each Corrupter has a specialty, a form of malevolence honed and practiced to an exquisitely sublime grotesquerie. Corrupters of the Decani, the lords of disease, encourage the explosive growth of slums and shantytowns, where people choke in their own filth and effluvia. Children of Chykas the Riven, a demon of strife, carefully promote emotional confrontations and rifts in friends and associates, until their passions explode into murder and terror. Servants of Nulpheggorath, a demon of vengeance, raise cults of ghoulish followers who dine on the decanted brain matter of those who fail the dark masters, promising power and eternal life to those who do not falter.

The coming years will be dark indeed, as the Corrupters plant their seeds in an overripe world set to burst with its own rot.

Description of Followers

The “typical” Corrupter is intelligent, charismatic and relentlessly immoral. These Corrupters use their charm and cleverness to bring less talented (and competitive) minions into the fold that can be manipulated for their dark intent. Corrupters usually choose slaves based on their brawn and their tendency to be easily swayed by promises of power.

Most Corrupters do not reveal their true nature until instructed to do so by their demonic masters, and will disguise themselves as vampires of the area’s predominant society to blend in. When an infernalist is revealed, the shock of zir existence turns the local vampire community upside down — and brings out the hunters who dog at the Corrupter’s heels, forcing them to flee the area. Often, a Corrupter leads a “double unlife” in which they act as an unassuming but loyal member of a vampiric sect, while keeping their private affairs carefully concealed.

Following the Path

All Corrupters must be ready to place their masters’ desires above their own selfish motives. At any moment, the Corrupter could be called upon to serve as a tool or even a meal for zir infernal lord, and ze must obey without compunction. Every goal, every Corrupter’s desire must bend toward the advancement of zir demonic overlord’s mission at all times. And, whenever possible, the follower must also bring converts into the fold to recognize the superiority of a greater darkness.

Each infernal lord has its own agenda; most are categorized by a specific form of a recognized “evil.” Thus, a servant who’s pledged to the Lord of Disease might be charged with carefully spreading plagues and compromising medical achievements, while the Duke of Violence’s agent will likely push other vampires to acts of frenzied destruction and bloody combat whenever feasible.

The most effective Corrupters advance the goals of their demonic masters subtly and indirectly. A servant of chaos who embarks on a six-state killing spree will only draw unwanted attention to zirself, while the Corrupter who quietly nudges other vampires to infiltrate the local police force and force them to shoot innocent mortals furthers the work of zir master in a better way. Corrupters who plot and scheme in this manner not only fulfill their demonic master’s wishes, they have also managed to recruit other vampires — both of which ensures their survival.

Basic Beliefs: Vampires are the ultimate hunters — immortal and invulnerable. The Beast Within is merely the expression of the predator’s instinct. To deny one’s atavistic impulses is to go against the dictates of nature, or so this Path’s followers believe. A vampire can only survive by adhering to their inner character and accepting the monstrous drives that accompany the unliving state. Though the Beasts do not revel in their predations, neither do they avoid them. By learning to accept the role of hunter, thereby acknowledging the proper role of the unliving, a vampire becomes like an animal: feral, predatory, but ultimately in their proper place.

A follower of this Path feels that the Beast is a natural part of being a vampire and that its needs must be satiated. Still, the vampire is intelligent, and a cunning hunter is a more effective one. Therefore, it is important to strike a balance between Beast and Man — the feral cunning and vicious instincts of the vampire are excellent survival tools, tempered by the reasoning and insight of the mind. By satiating the Beast’s urges from time to time, the vampire ironically gains a greater degree of personal control.

Vampires on the Path of the Feral Heart (sometimes called the Path of the Beast) have little use for the trappings of civilization or education. Modern transportation and weaponry is unnecessary, for the unliving form provides the necessary tools to stalk and kill. Subterfuge and politics are trivial concerns; politicking does not bring blood to one’s throat. Vampires are made to hunt and kill, and the followers of this Path excel at both.

History

The Path of the Feral Heart seems to have grown out of ancient codes by which vampiric berserkers accepted their animalistic nature. Espoused originally by the Gangrel, the Path spread to a few other vampires who learned to elevate their predatory ways. This Path was never a popular one, but its constituency remained constant throughout the ages. The Path has changed relatively little over the years. Beasts see no real need to “adapt” the Path to a more modern age.

Current Practices

Beasts have no real organization, and they rarely engage in any sort of concerted rituals or traditions. Some few nomads, though, exist as wandering hunters. When Beasts meet, they often indulge in the Gangrel practice of sharing stories or indulging in a little practice combat. Beasts also serve as frighteningly effective assassins; their loyalty, once given, is unquestionable. Beasts who feel that a particular individual is a threat to themselves or their pack are relentless in hunting and destroying the opposition.

Description of Followers

Most Beasts care little for fashion or attire, instead choosing functional clothing that serves well while hunting. Some Beasts even disdain ornamentation and clothing completely, though these are rare. Followers of this Path often have a great attunement to their senses, and such individuals are often noted carefully listening to and watching their surroundings at all times, or even staying in constant slow motion and sniffing at the air so as to avoid hidden adversaries. Many Gangrel follow this Path, and they invariably have animalistic features that they do not bother to conceal.

Following the Path

Beasts must always recognize and indulge in their predatory natures. Followers of this Path therefore strive to develop their prowess as hunters. A Beast has little desire to use the trappings of technology, believing that the vampiric form provides zir with all of the powers necessary to survive. Indulgence in politics is frowned upon, as there are more important matters to handle; force is a simpler and often more effective tool. Mercy and compassion have no place in the predator’s heart, and enemies must be harshly destroyed while allies and packmates are protected, as they in turn protect the individual. Beasts do not kill whimsically, but when killing is necessary, there must be no hesitation.

Basic Beliefs: As shepherds, Abelenes have been tasked to guide and protect Creation against demonic influences. The true accursed and enemies to all of creation are the children of the Lightbringer: demons, devils, and fallen angels. These ancient intelligences, birthed before the Word of the One Above unleashed Creation, wait in slumber, trapped by the One Above. Should these horrors be awakened, Creation would be flayed of all life.

The blasphemous titles of these entities are tremendously puissant, and each call uttered by infernal tongue rouses them further from rest. To ensure the preservation of this great duty of keeping the sleepers passive and trapped, the Methuselah Moloch developed Via Hyron for his disciples — the ancient ethos of the Baali bloodline. To accomplish his work, Moloch consumed one of the sleepers, and it spoke in his soul with the voice of a swarm. The chittering clicks translated by Moloch gave unity to the Baali. He learned the secrets of the sleepers and how to ensure they remain dormant on the edge of existence.

In order to maintain their slumber, the sleepers must be appeased through tireless efforts to flatter their horrendous dreams and desires. Chaos and destruction are the only lullaby that pacifies, and so a requisite balance is struck by the Abelenes: burn half the world or watch all of Creation erupt in flame. Though it revels in demonic trappings and profaning Christian iconography and text, Via Hyron is not infernalistic. Infernalists are believed to be especially dangerous to the Abelenes.

The names of the sleepers fuel infernal power, allowing them to patiently inch their way into Creation by devouring the souls of their supplicants. Therefore, all trace of their names must be erased from Creation. The misplaced faith of those corrupted to follow Lucifer’s churches has ever repelled the angels of the One Above and stunted humanity. The recently discovered Abelene Heresy (nearly stricken from the Guarded Rubrics but vouchsafed by the Molochim Old Clan Tzimisce and Baali) enhanced Moloch’s original teachings.

The writings contend that when the farmer Caine failed to sate the hunger of the One Above with his offering of herbs, grains, fruits, and flowers, his brother Abel showed him the way. Abel, the shepherd, ceased the beating heart and stained crimson the white coat of the most majestic goat in his flock in blood-offering to the One Above and was blessed for his sacrifice. Caine, seeing the path, wept as he lanced the heart of his brother Abel, sacrificing the first part of his joy with the branch of a pomegranate tree hewn from his unwanted oblation.

The One Above cursed Caine, marking him and his progeny for all time to gain no sustenance from the Earth without sacrificing joy for toil. Revoking the curse of death levied on mankind in Eden, he resurrected Abel to an immortal angel of vengeance, tasking Abel to be his brother’s shepherd and cull from Caine’s flock to reclaim the blood his brother had stolen from him. Abel’s broken heart was replaced with that of the beast Abel had offered. However, the One Above could not heal Abel’s sorrow despite the Beast tucked in Abel’s breast; the spiritual scar of Caine’s spear would perpetually wound him.

Seeing his trickery in Eden undone, the fallen angel Lucifer, bringer of morning and herald of the sun, grew jealous and spiteful that a child from the tribe of Adam was shown immortal favor and station that he himself had lost. He cursed Abel to the night, so the light from the One Above (presaged by the Morning Star Lucifer) would scorch and burn him evermore. Abelenes believe that all vampires are children of the light, shadows cursed to darkness, angels of vengeance blessed by the One Above, shepherding humanity and protecting creation against the Children of the Night.

History

Via Hyron would have declined into obscurity were it not for the Tal’Mahe’Ra and Old Clan Tzimisce inculcating the Molochim Baali to form the Order of Moloch. In 1998, the demon Kupala awoke from its cage beneath the Carpathians. Molochim Baali flocked to the mountains in an attempt to quell the demon back to slumber. Only a few escaped extinction. Though failing, the Baali were not alone in their assault; Old Clan Tzimisce fought to restrain Kupala as well. The few Baali survivors found much in common with their new allies and pledged themselves to the Old Clan, sharing the Path’s sacred mission.

The Path went under serious revision by the Old Clan patrons. Its former ban on sorcerous practice of any kind was viewed as overly cautious and removed. The lack of its employment had crippled the Baali for millennia in their war and almost destroyed them entirely in their battle against Kupala. The Ethics of the Path and its Hierarchy of Sins were reconstituted to adapt the demonological knowledge of the Old Clan and formalize the mythos of the Abelene Heresy — a controversial 14th century Latin document thought to be derived from older sources unknown and considered dubious by the Rawi.

Current Practices

The swarm needs to endure; to endure, the sleepers must remain imprisoned. Disciples of Moloch study demonology as a means to an end, collecting vast amounts of forbidden knowledge to learn the hidden resting places and true names of the sleepers that they may better supplicate them into perpetual dreaming. Abelenes are noted occultists and incredibly skilled blood sorcerers who congregate in Nests, fluctuating groups of 3 to 10 in membership, with no central authority. The Path itself was rebuilt to espouse the precepts of the Order of Moloch and all followers of the Path are, without exception, members of the Order. As it stands, the precepts of the Path are still in flux. A few artifacts from the previous Path still exist, but as its new patrons continue to exert influence, the Path of the Hive could become extinct, evolving into something new.

Description of Followers

Abelenes seem distant and inhuman to those outside of the Path. The needs and demands of the swarm (members of the Order of Moloch) guide the Path’s adherents. Followers do not possess a “hive mind,” but do focus on issues related to the Path within Nests. Members are demonologists, not infernalists. They do not submit to the powers of Hell or relinquish authority over their own souls. Abelenes strive to acquire the secrets of the demonic and either enslave, eradicate, or steal power from demons. Acolytes of the Path actively seek converts, choosing candidates who have been touched by the demonic and resisted its influence.

Following the Path

Nests of Abelenes support one another and keep each other in check to make sure none on the Path slip into infernalism. Unanimous vote guides the direction of a Nest, regardless of age or strength of the blood held by any member. Any within a Nest who disagree with a course of action chosen by the majority are required to leave. This method of governance guarantees that dangerous undertakings are rarely pursued without the strength of numbers to support a goal. Given the potential risks of infernalism, the refusal to allow individual leadership limits the liability of more powerful Abelenes from eclipsing their peers, curbing possible infernalists hiding within the Order from rapidly seizing control and spreading their filth throughout an entire Nest.

Basic Beliefs: In a world rife with corruption, malevolence, and insanity, some vampires find direction through a firm and unyielding code of personal conduct. These vampires do not delve into philosophical questions of existence or wanton indulgence of their monstrous sides. Instead, they focus upon one singular principle: honor. Order, fairness, and duty are the watchwords of these undead, and though still monstrous, they abide by standards of conduct that are rigidly understandable.

To a follower of this Path, unlife must be given direction and purpose. These vampires choose honor as their guiding hand. By focusing on firm rules and personal boundaries, the Knights keep the rage of the Beast at bay. Accepting a duty and fulfilling its obligations provides the Knights with goals to achieve. Bound by their codes of honor, these vampires uphold causes with the utmost devotion, even to the ends of their unlives.

Make no mistake; the vampires who follow this Path are not compassionate or humane in any sense. Indeed, they see humans as little more than chattel or food, and undeserving of the considerations of honor that are bestowed upon other vampires. Even so, a Knight will never willingly break zir given word or renege on an agreement, as doing so would be a disgrace to personal honor. The subject of commitment matters little to a follower of this Path. It is the strength of the commitment and the unyielding determination that is important.

Many of the beliefs of the followers of this Path mirror the feudal codes of chivalry or the bushido of the samurai. Knights gladly suffer Final Death before showing cowardice or betraying their allies. Similarly, this Path’s soldiers uphold the policies of their sects and organizations with fanatical zeal. Pitted against an unyielding or recalcitrant foe, a solitary Knight is a fatalistic and deadly warrior.

History

The Path of Honorable Accord grew out of bygone nights, as vampires of the Dark Ages grappled with the problems of human morality by finding a harsh and unyielding code of conduct to replace the ethics of mankind. Sabbat followers of the Path turned their loyalty to the idealism of the sect and the letter of the Code of Milan, in the process acquiring the moniker “followers of the Code.” There are also some Camarilla Archons and Alastors who follow the Path, loyal agents reserved for the most dangerous or difficult missions. A rare few Camarilla elders, primarily Ventrue, hold on to the precepts of this Path from their nights of vampiric, medieval chivalry.

Bound by loyalty to the ideals of their sects, combined with a strong sense of duty and honor, the Knights fought to uphold the unity of both the Camarilla and the Sabbat over the centuries. Now, the Path of Honorable Accord forms the backbone of the Sword of Caine. The dedicated Knights are the core of the sect, serving the ideals of the Sabbat with inhuman devotion.

Current Practices

Followers of the Path of Honorable Accord have always placed a high value on ritual and ceremony. As a whole, the followers of the Path seek to knit together disparate factions under the common banner of loyalty to a cause. Although alternately ignored or derided by followers of other Paths, the Knights are a stern example of the best qualities of any vampire, and they cannot be faulted by their brethren. Knights do not often take leadership positions (as they find the political duplicity appalling), though they are at the forefront of many battles, showing courage and discipline unmatched by any other soldiers among the undead.

Description of Followers

Knights are by turns cold and aloof, yet honorable and trustworthy. A Knight never goes back on zir word and always honors zir agreements. Ze does not shirk zir duty or flee from battle. Still, ze is far from humane: The Knight sees humans as a resource, just as another warrior might see a fine warhorse as admirable but far from an equitable associate. Many of this Path’s followers display a grim and taciturn image, but the Knights are capable of humor and joviality — they simply find that duty outweighs personal gratification.

Following the Path

A follower of the Path of Honorable Accord must always keep honor foremost in zir mind. A Knight cannot act rashly or in haste; ze must always be aware of the nature and consequences of zir actions. The devout student of this Path must hold onto courage and discipline at all times while ze seeks to dispense justice and fairness. The true Knight fights and dies for zir cause.

Basic Beliefs: Considered heretical by most Cainites of the Sabbat, the fragments of Lilith’s teachings — sometimes erroneously referred to as the Lilith Cycle — showcase an elaborate history and an alternate tale of Creation itself. Cast out from the first garden for the crimes of elevating herself with the Fruits of Knowledge and Life, and for seeking to be equal to both man and God, Lilith wandered the unformed and barren world, becoming a power of creation equaling the deities of old. Through tribulation and pain she discovered the ways of survival; by fire and thorn she created her own garden, a mirror of the suffering and enlightenment that she endured. The architect of Caine’s power, the creator of magick, and the mother to gods, Lilith watered the seeds of wisdom with her own blood, which empowered anyone to walk through the fire and swim through the frost to come to the revelation of ultimate freedom and self-empowerment.

Claiming followers among vampires and other denizens of the hidden world, the Bahari practice the ancient ways handed down by Lilith. By following the image of the mother-goddess, they raise themselves from the status of children. Like a parent disciplining an errant child, Lilith passes on a legacy of pain that teaches, and so the Bahari seek to overcome the weaknesses of their blind, helpless births, ascending to understanding and power. By walking in fire, impaling themselves on thorns and blades, suffering deprivation, and plunging into icy water, the Bahari excite their bodies and minds to true sensation, and open their consciousness to the entirety of the world. From the dizzying heights of comprehension, at the needlepoint of pain, they learn the true measure of creation, that they may take the formless stuff of the world and cast it in a new image.

Make no mistake, the Bahari have little room for compassion or conscience. They fully believe that one must grasp the blade of enlightenment — and suffer its lacerations — before rising to the truth. Those who do not have the will or the insight to learn through suffering are chaff, cast aside sadly but unhesitatingly. No time or resource is wasted on those who do not have the overpowering need to suffer, change, and grow. The Hierophants, the vampire-priests of Lilith, choose those who have heard Lilith’s song and punish, flagellate, and excoriate them until they arrive on the cusp of seething awareness. Only then are the tears brushed away with lover’s care, the wounds comforted, and the supplicants brought into the fullness of Lilith’s glorious Path.

History

According to apocryphal tales, the cult of Lilith started when a vampire Methuselah, searching for ancient artifacts in Africa some millennia ago, discovered strange writings purported to tell of the Dark Mother. Although this Cainite could not acquire the artifacts, he carried with him the knowledge of what he had seen. Soundly defeated by the mortal and demonic guardians of the writings, he retreated to gather others to him with the knowledge and insight to delve into the mysteries pieced together from the fragments. Over the years, followers of the Path of Lilith slowly spread their archaic knowledge, drawing in small numbers of erudite and mystically curious vampires. The Path eventually took on aspects of religion as it absorbed the rituals and ceremonies of its followers’ native lands.

The Path of Lilith never had very much of a following in the Sabbat, where the antithetical Path of Caine took sway, but enough followers existed to ensure that the Path survived. Indeed, even some elders of the Camarilla came to follow the Path. As rumors of Gehenna grow, more vampires are drawn to the apocryphal teachings of this Path. The visions of Caine as a blundering fool, cursed with incredible power that he refuses to understand, draw together vampires who seek an alternate means to survive the End Times. Through the auspices of the Dark Mother, they hope to rise above their Cainite nature and become untouchable to the Antediluvians.

Current Practices

Modern Bahari inherit many of the traditions of their ancient forebears. The followers of this Path rarely discard rituals or beliefs, for only true understanding of all of the world’s mysteries can unlock the door to enlightenment. As such, the Bahari employ many and varied rites of worship. They often cultivate the hidden knowledge of alien cultures, and they are quick to absorb and adapt new and different occult practices. Because of this openness, Bahari engage in a loose network of vampires who trade lore and mystical knowledge, even dealing with wizards, ghosts, and other keepers of ancient secrets. Bahari often practice rituals that are bizarre even by the standards of the Sabbat, and though they are loyal as long as they may continue to practice their rites, the final loyalty of all Bahari is ultimately to themselves.

Description of Followers

Bahari live fast-paced, hectic unlives, constantly striving for the next change and the next learning experience. Anything that shocks or outrages the sensibilities of others is fair game, since there is always the hope of pushing someone beyond the boundaries of the banal. Bahari cherish the development of personal understanding, so followers of this Path can be found equally among the squalid and the wealthy. When moving among mortals, Bahari are flamboyant and mysterious. In their ceremonies, they often wear flowing, open cloaks and ceremonial masks of wood or bone.

Contrary to some beliefs, this Path is not exclusively followed by women, although they do make up a majority of its practitioners. Anyone who throws away the caul of childish ignorance for painful maturity is welcome in the circle of Lilith.

Following the Path

A Lilin breaks with convention, flouting “accepted society” in order to force others to re-evaluate their views of the world. With the branding-iron and the scourge, the Cainite brings painful lessons that, if survived, make the postulant stronger. Those who hover on the edge of awareness are watched carefully for the final soul-wrenching revelation that brings them strength. To visit pain and even death is the greatest gift that can be given, for through these trials the individual comes to understand themself. Each must discover their own inward seeds of Knowledge and Life, so as to become a universe unto themself and an architect of creation. The garden, the symbol of life shaped and cultivated with care, is the manifestation of the Bahari’s devotion to expressing what they have created and learned.

Basic Beliefs: The world is made up of evolutionary chains. Animals are below humans, who are below the Kindred. The metaphysical, arcane members of Clan Tzimisce follow this Path, which focuses on defining and attaining the state of being beyond the curse of vampirism. Citing their transformative use of Vicissitude, the Tzimisce believe they have the potential to transcend the constraints of the flesh. Hearing Metamorphosist Fiends speak, however, reveals the true monstrosity of their philosophy. They believe that the next step is a state akin to apotheosis, and they will do anything — anything — to achieve it.

The Tzimisce are characteristically thorough in their study of this Path’s ideals. By coordinating their experiments on living, dead, and undead subjects (as well as other curiosities they may come across, like werewolves or the errant faerie), the Fiends have formed complex theories as to precisely what the next step in vampiric transcendence is. The solitary and suspicious Tzimisce rarely compare notes, however, and the Path’s development suffers as each follower spends much of their unlife learning the rudiments that other Kindred have already deciphered.

History

The Tzimisce have researched this Path in their solitary way for literally thousands of years. They have always been creatures of tremendous mystical potential; the followers of this Path seek to realize that potential. Followers of this Path relate very little to the world outside themselves, and many relate this fact to the inexorable decline of the clan itself.

Current Practices

Most Metamorphosists claim membership in the Sabbat but pay it little more than lip service, involved as they are in more esoteric pursuits. In truth, this Path predates any sect, and Kindred committing themselves to it subscribe to beliefs and creeds far older than petty notions of Kindred politics.

Description of Followers

Followers of the Path of Metamorphosis are truly some of the most alien creatures any Kindred could meet. Metamorphosists are cold, utterly inhuman, and exactingly scientific. Their concerns are metaphysical rather than ethical, and it is precisely this frame of mind that leads many to believe that the Metamorphosists have literally begun their transformation into something else. Some take this a step further by altering their flesh in various means until they no longer have a recognizable gender or look even remotely human.

Following the Path

Metamorphosists conduct all manner of bizarre experiments, most of which take place far from others’ eyes. It is a distant, lonely philosophy, removed from any needs other than the matter of sustenance. Followers should be heedless of others around them, existing only to satisfy their personal concerns.

Basic Beliefs: Those vampires who follow the Path of Night wholly accept their damnation; indeed, they believe that, as vampires, it is their preordained role to act as agents of damnation. Unlife is nothing without pain, and misery enjoys company. This Path is practiced largely by young Kindred of Clan Lasombra, who gladly mortify their own souls in the interests of bringing atrocity to the world.

The Path of Night borrows heavily from Catholic dogma, though it concerns itself more with abandonment and damnation than redemption. The vampire’s purpose in unlife, according to this Path, is to scourge the Earth, to act as an agent of evil and, thus, ultimately to do the bidding of the greater powers that dictate good and evil alike. No one lives without original sin, and those who follow this Path are beholden to expose and exacerbate that sin. Life and unlife are varying states of damnation; those who fail to realize their full potential are lost sheep, suitable only for slaughter.

This is one of the most terrible Paths in existence, as it concerns itself with the outright and intentional persecution of others. Its followers are more than mere bullies or sadists, however. One who receives the curse of Caine is bound by fate and duty to wreak vengeance upon the Children of Seth. In so doing, vampires on this Path hope that, by fulfilling the roles meant for them, they can transcend those roles and find ultimate peace. This final goal aside, though, the Path of Night is a Path of hostility and antagonism, and the company of those who follow it is extremely hard to abide.

History

Few, if any, have certifiably chronicled this Path’s inception or evolution. By varying accounts the outgrowth of medieval death cults, Satanic cabals, debased Methuselahs, or the practices upheld by Adam’s first wife Lilith and her children, the Path of Night has been forsaken by most Kindred with any sense of Humanity at all. Some suspect a coterie of Lasombra known as the Black Angels foment dissension among the clan, turning impressionable Keeper neonates down the Path’s unwholesome trail.

Current Practices

No sin is too vile for a follower of this Path to indulge, and no trust is too sacred to break. Kindred on the Path of Night tie their fates very closely to mortals, who bear the brunt of their depredations. As harbingers of damnation, the Nihilists cull the secret fears and sorrows of humans around them, inflicting these terrors upon the kine as the whim takes them.

Ironically, vampires on this Path often have great reverence for those whom they perceive as truly “good” or “blessed.” Indeed, one infamous Keeper, who plagued a family of witch-hunters down three generations and was finally destroyed by a scion of the line, is rumored to have praised his destroyer for her resolve.

Description of Followers

This Path is upheld almost exclusively by Lasombra, though the Keepers find occasional converts among other clans. Lasombra who follow this Path are held in low regard by many other Keepers, as there is no room for nobility on this Path. While most Lasombra maintain other codes of morality drawn from the Sabbat, the ones who follow this Path are true fiends.

Following the Path

Vampires on the Path of Night terrorize their victims, a term which may apply to anyone to whom the Nihilist is drawn. Kindred on this Path are loath to kill — that removes potential targets, though they are not above doing so if the death may cause great grief to others or if preventing it would inconvenience their own existence. To some degree, the Nihilists shepherd the kine, showing them what may await them if they are unrepentant. However, no follower of this Path would openly admit such a thing. In their own minds, they are devils, pure and simple.

Basic Beliefs: Inspired by Hinduism and upheld predominantly by vampires of the Ravnos clan, the Path of Paradox concerns itself with the vampires’ karmic duty to continue the grand cycle of ages. According to the Path of Paradox, Kindred are locked perpetually outside the illusory cycle of the universe (maya). Whereas most beings are reincarnated through samsara, a continual “entanglement” in the cycle of rebirth, Kindred have eluded that cycle. Every individual has their own purpose, or svadharma, according to the Path of Paradox, although vampires, excluded from the cycle, have lost theirs. In place of the dharma they once followed, each Kindred must now try to advance maya, hopefully understanding it in the process and finally penetrating the great illusions that shroud Ultimate Truth from their eyes.

The means by which the Ravnos undertake this cyclical advancement, however, is by selective deception. Other vampires look upon the Ravnos as untrustworthy, and can hardly be expected to take the advice of the Deceivers. As such, the Ravnos have had to resort to elaborate ruses in order to get other vampires — or, indeed, anyone with whom they come in contact at all — to undertake a course of action. Ravnos vampires see their undead state as a curse, like many other Kindred do. However, the Ravnos believe this is due to their failure to understand maya. Other Kindred, also removed from the karmic wheel, often fail to realize the necessity of their return to the cycle. Shilmulo understand this — and expedite their return by destroying them.

History

This Path arose among the Ravnos during the latter nights of the Roman Empire. The deceit the Ravnos command is even believed by some to have played a major role in the collapse of the empire. The Path, according to many Ravnos, had become debased shortly after Rome’s collapse and had remained so for hundreds of years until a stirring (and secret) event contrived to encourage the Ravnos to rethink their ways.

Current Practices

It is too simple a conceit to say that the Ravnos destroy vampires and burn karma. In fact, the Path of Paradox is arduous and demanding. Many of the Ravnos’ deceptions are, in reality, complicated tests designed to cause the subject to reveal hidden aspects of themself. Thus, the Ravnos travel the world, ousted by ignorant Kindred who fail to realize the necessity of the Shilmulo’s duties.

Description of Followers

Most followers of this Path are Ravnos, though small numbers of Malkavians and Gangrel adhere to the Path. Increasingly cosmopolitan Kindred have surfaced among the Ravnos clan, indicating that either the Ravnos pay little heed to their code or that jati are more extended than one might think.

Following the Path

Kindred on the Path of Paradox commonly hold other vampires in contempt, believing that they ignorantly or arrogantly refuse to seek their reintroduction to the cycle. As such, the Ravnos have taken the responsibility upon their shoulders to do it for them. This may require concocting complex webs of deception in order to ascertain what a given person’s svadharma is, or simply destroying a vampire and placing them back in the cycle, where a new svadharma awaits.

Basic Beliefs: When given eternal life, incredible power, and inhuman thirsts, the only true existence is as an undying overlord. There is no use in pining for lost humanity or in secreting oneself away to study arcane lore; vampires are without honor or compassion. The role of a vampire is the role of a master.

The followers of this Path see the exercise of power and control as the best reason for vampiric existence. Control of the self and of the external world is the only goal worth pursuing. To this end, a vampire must develop their abilities, extend their influence and play their pawns. By bending the world to their will, the vampire creates order and stability. Every form of power, influence, or control can be used to further some end. Therefore, Unifiers seek all forms of power, whether political, material, or spiritual.

Unifiers follow their own insight when exercising their authority. Although this Path is highly concerned with temporal power, it is also quite spiritual; Unifiers are avid pursuers of wisdom and enlightenment. Of course, all such knowledge ultimately turns to the pursuit of personal power. By understanding oneself, it is possible to begin to describe the motivations of others. True understanding, therefore, allows the vampire to unlock the secrets of enemies and allies alike, to carefully dissect any situation and discern the most proper course of action. From such judgments, the vampire decides upon the most favorable means of taking or keeping control.

The followers of this Path are rightly feared and respected. No adherent to this Path tolerates weakness or failure; punishment is swift and often fatal. Indeed, punishment serves not only to remonstrate the offender, but as an example to others. Thus, Unifiers have no mercy or compassion. Sabbat packs with Unifier Ducti are Darwinian in the extreme.

Unifiers are consummate politicians and strategists. Although blood bonds and emotional ties can motivate followers, the pragmatic students of this philosophy recognize that such measures can be fought and compromised. Thus, vampires of this Path believe that control should only be woven through methods that cannot be subverted: Pain, rage, desire, and depravity are key among their tools. A recruit who serves out of loyalty can be bought; a follower who serves out of duty can be blackmailed; an adherent who serves out of love can be disillusioned. Therefore, fear and respect for power, anger, and hate directed towards one’s enemies, the fulfillment of lust and the lessons of pain make the most persuasive directives.

History

The Path of Power and the Inner Voice supposedly started with a Lasombra by the name of Lord Marcus, in the early 16th century. The Path’s constant push to develop power and influence led to many followers who devoutly supported the Sabbat in its early nights, and as such, many of the Path’s adherents assumed positions of authority during the formation of the Sabbat. Even tonight, the Path is well-respected within the Sabbat, and some of its precepts have even started to gain grudging acceptance among the power-hungry and jaded elders of the Camarilla.

Modern nights have seen an explosion of membership in this Path. Though always popular, the Path has attracted many new followers from the expanding ranks of the Sabbat. The sheer ruthlessness and shrewdness of many of these recruits is responsible for the slow evolution of the Path from a respectable but dictatorial philosophy into a Path of iron-fisted, Machiavellian social tyranny.

Current Practices

Followers of the Path of Power and the Inner Voice do not have an organized association, but they do engage in many similar practices. All Unifiers participate in War Parties and blood hunts, often assuming roles of leadership. Various displays of willpower are a means to demonstrate power and self-mastery, so Unifiers participate in many such rituals or opportunities as well.

Description of Followers

Unifiers are driven, confident, and even megalomaniacal. The need for control combined with introspection makes followers of this Path into corrupt and brutish tyrants. Some followers of the Path espouse dictatorship, but the truly enlightened use martial philosophy and an understanding of psychology to incite their followers. The typical Unifier accepts no excuses, drives zirself and zir subjects mercilessly, and shows no pity or compassion for failure.

Following the Path

A Unifier accepts no defeat. The appearance of benevolence is useful, but all failure must be punished eventually. The follower of the Path must always strive to control the situations around them and heed their own judgment. Respect should be given to those in positions of authority, but those who falter must be cast down and replaced. Followers of this Path seek wealth, influence, and support. Rule should be achieved by any means necessary — when alliances or honor are useful, they are used, but otherwise, fear and hate are more appropriate. The Unifier constantly seeks out means of developing zir own capabilities and furthering zir own agenda.

Basic Beliefs: The Martyrs hold that vampires are God’s punishment on humanity, an instrument of His vengeance and a tool for salvation. Those chosen for the Embrace are not selected by their sires, but by the Curse of Caine itself. Those chosen are punished for their sins — but they are also tested, forced through a purgatory on Earth and can be remade into a new thing: a saintly servant of God.

To be a vampire is to be denied the ideals that are most important to a mortal — the sun, love and God’s grace. But that denial serves to make the soul stronger, and a strong soul can be purged of sin and can enter Heaven and God’s favor. Those vampires who follow this Path seek to explore the limits of their vampirism so that they can know a little of God’s plan. He cursed Cainites and that means that God is present in the world. By resisting the compulsions of the Curse, the childer of Caine immerse themselves in the power of God Almighty. They reject the Beast so that they may be made pure, that they may do God’s work, and that they may hunt down those who fall to the Beast or the Devil.

This Path draws heavily on the ideals and morals of the Jesuit order. The Jesuits hold that they are Christ’s soldiers. Martyrs consider themselves Christ’s enforcers and destroyers. By purging themselves of sin and bringing terror and death to God’s enemies, followers use their undead nature to save themselves and others. The Society of Jesus is a scholarly organization that prizes research and scientific investigation. Martyrs follow suit and use much of their immortal existence to research mysteries and to master as many fields of study as possible. To a vampire, this dedication can mean the practice of Disciplines, the honing of skills or the study of occult or scientific lore.

Some see the Curse of Caine as a challenge, a penance handed down. Others perceive it as a tool to examine the nature of sin itself. Adherents choose progeny depending on a prospective childe’s beliefs. Some Embrace only those who are faithful (and only those who are faithful Catholics), while others select sinners, but those who have some spark of divinity burning inside them. Either way, Martyrs believe themselves tested, like Job, by God and His enemy.

Many Martyrs espouse that mortal sin is inherent to the vampiric form. To be a vampire is to be a sinner beyond any mortal. The Beast is a temptation to mortal sin, which not even confession can fully purge. Followers, however, strive to deny these sins. God poses a greater challenge to His vampiric servants than He does to His human ones.

All Path members agree that Caine was the first sinner, and though worse sins have been committed since his transgression, it was Caine’s prideful disobedience that was most grievous to God. Caine did not ask for forgiveness. It’s therefore up to Caine’s childer to seek redemption for the Dark Father and themselves.

History

The First City was Enoch’s and was named after him. Enoch who became Metatron. Enoch that was cursed, everything all at once, the man and the city. It was such a beautiful place, they say, built as a reflection of the great city in Heaven. But the Children of Caine dwelled there. The vampires corrupted the population and promiscuous mortals lured the very angels down from Heaven and offered them pleasures of the flesh in return for knowledge. And all the while, the vampires looked on, pampered and grotesque. Even in those nights of the First City, some vampires sought to placate God, to find peace for their souls and perhaps a respite from the judgments of the four archangels. Adherents of this Path say that Enoch was a holy man, Embraced by Caine, who pleaded for deliverance from God’s impending wrath. Enoch gave himself to Heaven, the curse was burned from him and thus the vampires were spared the fury of God’s wrath.

The Path of Redemption, however it is pursued, is an attempt to walk Enoch’s road, to be purged of the curse and to walk with God.

In the Middle Ages, such vampires followed the tenets of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. They turned to Heaven and prayed as mortals. Those undead sought to save their souls and save themselves from the Beast through faith. They said they walked the Via Caeli, the Road of Heaven.

The Path itself is a more recent development. It was born in the town of Ville Marie, on the Island of Mount Royal, in New France in the late 17th century. Jesuit priests, Embraced by the Sabbat, kept their faith after their transformation. This human True Faith in God, infused with a vampire’s insight, searing passion and visions of the blood, conflicted and eventually synthesized into a new philosophy.

These early Jesuit converts to the Sabbat provided a spiritual focus for the sect in New France and codified their beliefs. Under the guidance of Father Ignace, discussions became the basis for a new Path of Enlightenment. Ignace, like many who would follow, was both ambitious and pious. He was fascinated by the essential contradiction between being a monstrous vampire and the potential for great service to God. He saw the Sabbat as a tool of God to both challenge the Antediluvians — who must have been offered the same opportunities as later Cainites — and to challenge humanity’s weakness.

While primarily a Sabbat path, this philosophical system has found favor among some Autarkis and Camarilla elders in Europe. Those few elders who have learned the strictures and doctrine hear echoes of the ancient Road of Heaven. The modern Path is more unified, however, and does not suffer from the endless fragmentation or schisms of the “Via Caeli.”

Enoch is a key figure of the Path of Redemption. Noddist lore names him as the Prince of the City of Enoch. (Perhaps the city was named for him. More likely though, his name is a historical anachronism, adopting the European notion of naming a Prince for his domain.) Enoch is also said to have been one of the second generation, those first vampires Embraced by Caine. The Bible says that Enoch “walked with God,” however, and apocryphal books go further to say he was “translated” into Heaven and became an angel. Later lists of angels name Enoch as the angel Metatron, God’s chief messenger. Somewhere in this contradictory story, scholars of this Path believe, lies the key to redemption for all vampires. The legends contradict each other. The holy patriarch was a righteous man who was God’s messenger to His fallen, or he was the unholy patriarch of a corrupt city, a vampire Prince of the night.

Followers of this Path suggest that both stories are true. What if Enoch’s life story is a metaphor for the vampiric condition? What if Enoch was the patriarch of the First City and was taken by Caine, later to become God’s voice to warn the angels, and finally translated into Heaven? What if such a destiny could await other vampires? If that was all true, then salvation might be available to all Cainites.

Current Practices

Sabbat followers of this Path form part of the Inquisition and take their role as God’s servants among Cainites seriously. Non-Sabbat disciples organize into small “churches” of adherents, gathering to pray and discuss their plans and purpose under God.

Many Martyrs of all sects are scholars and spend time studying non-canon biblical works and religious texts that might shed light on the actual events at Enoch. Followers of this path say that the Flood was not caused by the vampires of the First City, but by the corruption of God’s angels. These scholars frequently work in conjunction with various Noddists, but they eschew the latter’s obsessions and seek to find a correct means to return to God’s grace.

Description of Followers

Followers of this Path tend to have been believers in life, from a Christian, Judaic or Muslim faith. Elders promote unity by focusing on the teachings of the commonly accepted Old Testament, with a veneer of Roman Catholic ritualism. The Path has also inherited the Jesuit commitment to scholarship and learning. Martyrs attempt to study all potential source materials, including Islamic texts, Mesopotamian carvings, Hebraic rabbinical texts and Kabballistic records. They seek both a clear understanding of God’s works and a more complete view of the events surrounding the Flood and the destruction of the city of Enoch.

Less scholarly Martyrs simply seek to gain a little respite from the despair and horror of being undead. These adherents may not even have been believers in life, but with the obvious exposure to the supernatural that the Embrace brings, they seek a higher path and deeper answers.

An initiate is baptized with holy water and swears before an altar to reject Satan, control the Beast Within and to do God’s work. The vampire is then led to zir first penitential rite (see The Divine Tide, below). When the penance is over and the first frenzy has passed, the vampire is said to have set foot on the Path of Redemption.

Sabbat adherents support the work of the Inquisition, rooting out infernalists. Some Path followers are Inquisition members.

Redemption is organized in mockery of the Catholic Church. Priests minister to followers and lead the faithful in prayer. Outside of the Sabbat, “ashen priests” are vampires who have progressed roughly to a Path rating of 6 or more. Amongst the Sabbat, priests are those who have both progressed on the Path and have been appointed by the sect. Some in Europe have even revived the tradition of sanctuary for the faithful. Vampires make their domains in active churches, sleeping by day in the rafters or catacombs. Martyrs claim these churches for their ceremonies. Inside the Church, followers say, politics has no place. Most take this prohibition to apply to sectarian loyalties — Camarilla Primogen and Sabbat Bishops could sit side by side and pray.

The most important priesthood of the Path is the Shepherds of Caine in Montreal, although another Montreal-based pack, the Scholars, includes an important philosopher, Father Juan Carlos. In Paris, the Camarilla coterie of the Order of Ste. Joan conducts High Mass for Kindred seeking penance.

Following the Path

To answer this calling, a vampire must accept that ze is a monster in search of God’s grace. God knows liars, fools and dissemblers for what they are. Vampires must accept their nature and admit their sins before Him. They must accept the heavy burden of God’s judgment and mercy. If one is found wanting, there is already a place for zir in Hell — perhaps a worse place (betrayers are damned more so than mere murderers, after all).

Followers of this Path are nicknamed Martyrs and suffer for their sins and for those of the Children of Caine. Temptation lures each of them through the hungers of the Beast. Those who overcome understand that the old saw, “A beast I am lest a beast I become,” is meaningless. The Beast must be denied, as Christ denied Satan. Yes, the Beast must be explored and understood and its ways mastered, but ultimately it must be defeated, utterly.

Despite their overtly Christian or holy ways, followers care little for humanity. Mortals may be God’s children, but martyrs suspect that humanity has offended and disappointed God far more so than vampires have. The undead are God’s curse on humanity, after all. Testing, tormenting and killing people is not merely accepted, it’s a Martyr’s destiny. Some of the High Masses spoken in “cathedrals” such as the tunnels of the Underground City in Montreal or the Catacombs of Paris have been the scene of vast “sinner” bloodlettings, all in the name of God.

The Divine Tide

The redeemers of Montreal maintain a ritualistic practice that allows adherents to experience both blasphemy and devoutness. This sacrament, the Divine Tide, traps the Beast in a cycle of indulgence and purging, by which the entity is allowed free reign over time, and then slowly trapped inside and denied. The duration of this cycle varies depending on the vampire in question. Some are based on the lunar month, others the lunar year and still others are based on obscure calculations. Martyrs who wish to advance on the Path are expected to experience at least one full cycle.

The Divine Tide is meant to be a daily experience. By carrying out some seemingly arbitrary pattern, Martyrs follow timetables of piety and indulgence. This approach has proved too artificial for many vampires, however. Over the years, an alternative version of the Divine Tide has been developed. Adherents of this practice are either staked and submerged in a river or chained to the keel of a boat on the open sea and left floating below the waves, where sunlight cannot reach them. The subject is left there for three nights. In this time of isolation and darkness, the Beast is indulged and purged, and its limits are explored. As the Beast rages, driven by fear, loneliness and despair, the Martyr prays and struggles with the darkness inside. When released, ze is allowed to frenzy, releasing zir pent up anger and violence. The fury eventually subsides, the Beast is lulled to sleep and the follower can proceed about zir nightly existence. But this alternative cycle of penance must be repeated, be it in a cellar, the sea or some other place, and must occur frequently.

Many vampires have been lost in the Divine Tide and have moved to other Paths or been destroyed.

The Sainting

A practice peculiar to the Montreal-based Martyrs, the Sainting is a process whereby an adherent who has reached the apex of faith is ritually bound and mummified so that ze may be freed of the Curse and made one with God. No other followers of this Path have ever attempted to imitate this practice and the rite seems to have fallen out of favor, even in Montreal. Mummified saints, however, are still on display in the Montreal communal haven.

High Mass

High Mass is a nocturnal version of the Catholic Mass. Held in Latin, it occurs on the eve of certain feast days (Candlemas, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, St. Swithins, the Annunciation and Christmas). The ceremony lasts three hours and Martyrs from far and wide are expected to attend.

Vampires drink holy wine brimming with blood of “sinners” kidnapped for the event. Being vampires, they do not take a bread communion, but some ritually consume a sanctified piece of bread, expelling it before allowing themselves to be overcome by convulsions.

Other Practices

Certain rituals are followed only in particular parts of the world or have fallen into general disuse. Many surround feast days. Some Cainites flagellate themselves unto unconsciousness as a means of mortifying their undead forms and punishing the Beast. Others go on a “wild hunt” before Mass is performed, stalking and killing infernalists or sinners. Still others observe Lent and Advent as times of privation, drinking as little as three “cups” (blood points) of cold blood a night so they may survive, stay awake and be functional enough to pray.

Basic Beliefs: Emotion is a flaw that sullies perception and clouds judgment. Facts and hard data earned first-hand are what one can trust. The Unforgiving prize the faculty of reason, objectivity, logic, and observation over all else. The Path originates from a True Brujah whose unique perspective on vampiric existence led him to the conclusion that, since the Beast exercises its control through emotion, all emotion must therefore be tainted by the Beast.

With certainty, the actions of any Cainite not in command of their emotions would surely be governed by their emotions, and therefore the Beast. In order to tame the Beast and find respite, one must first eradicate all traces of emotion by cutting off the mind and “scorching the heart.” If a Caintie can resist the Beast, they must resist it, and succumbing to frenzy or Rötschreck is an abject failure on the Path. Few Cainites recall events when in the grips of the Beast, ergo no knowledge, save secondhand, may be gleaned from the experience

Unforgiving are superb listeners who vigilantly pay close attention to their surroundings, absorbing minutiae and details their peers overlook, which the Unforgiving store away and compartmentalize for later use. Meticulously thorough, they tend to have remarkably long and exact near-perfect memories, bordering on eidetic. As champions of openness and honesty who abhor secrets, the Unforgiving are guaranteed to deliver literal truth, in all things, to any who deal with them.

Though lies are not tolerated, truth itself can be a deceit. Followers of this Path know that perceptions of what constitute wrong or immoral action are not definite. Opinions change with new information — right or wrong conclusions by an observer in a situation are malleable and mutable to the extent of the data used to arrive at a decision. Before undertaking any action that does not require immediate attention, they investigate, learn, and then act on their analysis only when secure enough in the knowledge acquired to do so.

The Unforgiving reveal only what is necessary to achieve their ends; the less an enemy knows, the more likely they are to make a mistake. Threats against oneself, however veiled, must be treated as real until proven otherwise. Loose ends and subtle hints cannot be trusted. The Unforgiving are dauntless and persistent in pursuit of a foe, not because of any petty emotional grudge or fear, but that the simple logic of self-preservation demands that one avoids any opportunity for an enemy to return and exact unexpected harm.

History

The True Brujah Rathmonicus first conceived the Path in the 14th century. Rathmonicus sought to catalogue and collect every philosophy and stricture made available to him on the topic of quieting the Beast. He compiled and recorded his findings in a codex called the Book of the Empty Heart. Though Rathmonicus himself fell to the tumult of the Anarch Revolt, copies of his work saw translations from his native Greek into Arabic, French, Latin, and eventually English. Despite only three verifiable copies of the original book surviving to the present age, unconfirmed English copies are somewhat common in scholarly circles. Path adherents diligently search for any texts to destroy inaccurate or inauthentic translations.

Current Practices

Students of Rathmonicus’ work have always been a rare breed, as those on the Path do not actively pursue converts. Teachers prefer to tutor those who discover the work on their own, see the merit in it, and seize the initiative to seek guidance by finding a mentor to direct them. Practitioners are inclined to organization and open communication with each other. Congregations of those on the Path are not unheard of, as they tend to contact one another when a copy of the Book of the Empty Heart appears in a newly opened collection, or on the market. When two or more Unforgiving meet, discourse usually steers to the philosophical and academic observances related to the subject of Rathmonicus’ book.

Description of Followers

Regardless of the Path’s inception with the True Brujah, they tend to be fickle in their disposition when it comes to Paths of Enlightenment. Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, and Toreador — those clans most prone to wild emotion and needing to alleviate themselves of the Beast’s burden — tend to make up the bulk of the Path’s followers. Technology invokes a curiosity in adherents of the Path; even Elders take the time to study and comprehend new devices to serve them. The Unforgiving are unobtrusive, observant, quiet, and passive, but always alert. When they do speak, they ask clarifying questions and give simple, obvious statements on things that others have overlooked.

Following the Path

Withdrawn and non-confrontational, the Unforgiving repress emotion utterly and see little benefit in argument — the truth is not up for debate and blatant emotion clouds reasoning. When presented with contrary (false) viewpoints, followers deliver the factual position, ignoring opinion and those who stubbornly refuse to believe otherwise. Killing comes easily and without guilt. They typically have little compunction on the matter; evaluating and analyzing every potential outcome for a situation and striking where and when it proves necessary or advantageous for them to do so.

Basic Beliefs: Purpose is an illusion; the universe is a stream proceeding of its own accord and the rock that stands opposed is swallowed. Attempting to change a thing will only change you. Conscious inaction and acceptance of all things is the Path of Self-Focus. Where there is no conflict, the Beast is quiet. To be free of the Beast, one must welcome it or invite misery and failure.

Answers are irrelevant; they are an end and the universe is a way. Questions point to the way. The universe must work through each being. By interfering, one rejects the universe and assumes responsibility. Saving a being from pain robs the universe of a lesson and the being of a teacher. Actions align with the universe only when spontaneous, natural and the result of the moment.

Planning for the future is foolish, and acting for the past is wasteful. The work is done and then forgotten. And so it lasts forever. Only the ever-present holds the way of things. Focused, undistracted attention leaves no room for angst, passion, or consideration for anything other than the moment.

History

Dating back to the 6th century CE, the Path of Self-Focus emerged out of cultural appropriation between Asian and Middle Eastern vampires trading in goods and ideas. Muslim Cainites learned the secrets of manufacturing paper and the philosophies of the Far East, and Zen Buddhism and the mortal teacher Laozi’s concept of “Wu Wei” spread amongst the Ashirra courts. However, the foreign precepts were never fully adopted. Were it not for the attention of the Nagaraja, who then nurtured the basic concepts within the Tal’Mahe’Ra, the Path may not have materialized at all. While the Path never gained popularity with the Western Hand’s European Cainites, it has a small but dedicated following in the Eastern Hand and a growing interest in the Americas.

Current Practices

Followers of the Path are renowned for their intelligent introspection and tranquil, balanced nature. The Internalists’ ethical doctrine does not promote evangelizing or a desire to increase their influence inorganically by intention. The Path’s pursuits tend to be solitary; outside of mentor-student relationships path adherents rarely have any contact. Age, clan, or sect normally do not factor in determining who an Internalist will teach. Internalists commonly spend their time making observations on the “way” and discussions with prospective students who grasp the basic ideas.

Description of Followers

Many Kindred encountering Internalists dismiss them as slow and passive, but understand all too quickly that the Path’s followers are more than capable (and willing) to defend themselves if pressed — a stream, after all, does not have to destroy a rock to engulf it and uses as much or as little force as needed to do so. Patient and perceptive, all seek out new sensations to glimpse the unfolding “way” of the universe in action and would never reject or insult someone based on beliefs or words. Unlike the Unforgiving, Internalists are pure subjectivists — how circumstance relates to them as a whole is what captures their interest, not the minute details therein. Whereas the Unforgiving absorb whatever knowledge they can, Internalists learn skills that complement or contrast their inherent strengths and weaknesses.

Following the Path

Internalists are introspective in the extreme. New sensations (such as a different method of feeding or suffering a wound from a different source) are always fresh soil for contemplation. Existence is a series of spontaneous and perpetual changes, and to resist will only sow failure. Things must flow forward in whatever way they choose. To Internalists, dichotomies such as life and death, or the Beast and Cainite, are a single thread viewed from different sides.

Basic Beliefs: Vampires who follow the Path of Typhon have a truly sinister purpose in mind. Theophidians seek the resurrection of their patron and father, Set. Though most vampires view Set simply as a mythical member of the Third Generation, Theophidian doctrine teaches that Set was, in fact, a divine being even before his Embrace. Indeed, Theophidians view Caine as a lesser being than Set, and claim that Set in fact allowed Caine to Embrace him so that he might use the descendants of Caine to strike at his divine counterparts, such as the mythical Gaia and Lilith. In this manner Set and the Setites fulfill their place in the universe, acting as agents of entropy and breaking down the old so that the new may blossom.

Accordingly, this Path preaches the importance of influence and control. Many Setites on the surface appear to be little more than pimps, pushers, and fixers; in truth, they are much more. Setites commonly view other individuals as tools or resources to be used. By gaining control over others, the Setites may exploit them to fulfill their own ends. Thus, rather than owing those who provide them with information or services, the Setites reverse the role, and instead have their marks come to them first.

Followers of this Path revere Set as something more than a vampire — Set is attributed a deified status, almost a literal translation of the Egyptian god of the Underworld. Ways to achieve this reincarnation differ, and for this reason, the Followers of Set extend their influence in hopes of finding information wherever it resides.

History

Theophidians claim a history dating back to nights before the First City. Whether or not this is true is a matter of much debate, especially among detractors. Nevertheless, the widespread presence of human myths that mimic the relationship between Set and Osiris lends credence to its longevity. For millennia, the Theophidians have plied their degenerate trade from back alleys to holy temples and everywhere in between. Many leaders among the Kindred and kine alike owe their acquisition of power to the followers of this Path, though the prices they have paid are high.

Current Practices

Theophidians support no sect other than their own clan, though some Setites have forsaken the resurrection of Set and actually oppose his quest from the ranks of the Sabbat. Many followers of this Path cultivate blood cults of devout followers and indenture legions of desperate individuals to themselves. While the Theophidians are not averse to doing “dirty work” themselves — quite the contrary — they reason that, with others serving their purposes, they can accomplish much more. Thus, followers of this Path play many roles: seekers, fixers, scholars, courtesans, and harvesters of souls.

Description of Followers

The Theophidians are frequently social chameleons, given their need to move through many different circles. They are smooth, ingratiating, and wholly inspired by their greater cause. Followers of this Path rarely ask favors of others; they prefer to help satisfy the desires of others and then call in favors. It is this side that non-Setite Kindred see most frequently and despise; they publicly decry the vice-peddling and corruption of the Followers of Set as breaches of the Masquerade or the puppetry of the Ancients. The Setites know the truth, however: other Kindred are loath to acknowledge the desires that a canny Theophidian can satisfy. Clever Setites have even managed to convince non-Setite Kindred to follow this Path after long periods of corruption, dependency, and debasement.

Following the Path

Followers of the Path of Typhon are first and foremost seekers of arcane lore, though their keen social graces also make them silver-tongued diplomats. These Kindred are also insidious, working their way into existing vampire societies with serpentine façades of false identities and cadres of loyal followers. The eldest Theophidian in a given locale often erects a temple to Set in some out-of-the-way place to better serve the slumbering god.

Basic Beliefs: Those who follow this path believe they honor the true ideal of Set — not a skulking corruptor, but a warrior and hunter, a god of war and storms. They are the Wraths of Set. They know that words like “masochist” and “fanatic” are synonymous with “worthy.” To be worthy, they must hone themselves, body and soul. The testing of martial prowess is a holy sacrament, and every kill is a prayer sent floating down the River of Duat.

The Wraths fight a war both external and internal. They believe that the Beast is a creation of the mind, and that by training the body until it is stronger than the mind, they can subjugate the Beast. They purify their sinful flesh with pain and punishment. Agony is a sacrament. Scars are the illumined text written upon the holy book of the warrior’s body. With every self-flagellation, the Wrath chants the mantra, “Until my Beast is afraid of me.”

The Wraths of Set are his shock troops in the Jyhad. Kine, Kindred, Lupines, and demons all serve as prey; all serve as tests. The warriors must be prepared for the night Set rises to gather his army. Every Wrath greets another by praying, “And the storm shall be His hands.”

History

After the Roman Empire crushed Egypt, disillusion took root among the Followers of Set. In the still hearts of the truly devout, that disillusion transformed into righteous rage. These wrathful Setites believed that the personal weakness of the Theophidian priests was the direct cause of Egypt’s downfall. Never again, vowed the wrathful. Never again would they be so unworthy of Set’s favor. Never again would their enemies know a peaceful night. The wrathful developed a Path that would remake them into that terrible promise.

Current Practices

The Path of the Warrior has seen a resurgence in recent decades. Something in the mortal zeitgeist has formed a generation eager for what the Wraths have to offer. Perhaps Set is stirring and calling out to the dreams of the worthy. Practitioners of the Path, the world over, are reinvigorated. Their razor tongues taste something on the wind. Their actions grow bolder. Many Wraths join the Cohort of Wepwawet, though most of the factions have use for them, particularly the Cult of Typhon Trismegistus. The Wraths tend to despise the languid indulgence of the Ecstatics. They would have set about purging them from the Setite religion if the Theophidians had not intervened.

Description of Followers

Wraths are disciplined, zealous, and vicious. They take holy joy in the suffering of an enemy. The singular focus of their unlives is on becoming the ultimate urban predators. They often sport wounds that they refuse to heal for several nights as a test of will. Though they focus on a martial interpretation of Set, followers of the Path are not necessarily dull or inarticulate. Their power inspires awe in their cultists, and the terrible piety of their words inspires devotion.

Following the Path

The Path is not an idle one. When not doing, a Wrath is preparing. The warrior must constantly test themself. A warrior conditions their body and hones their combat skills. A warrior masters their vampire nature. Self-mutilation and torture tempers the Beast and strips away any useable fear a would-be enemy could make use of. What can anyone else do to you if you have already put yourself through hell? A Wrath must test zirself constantly. A follower of the Path may be called on to serve as protection (or retribution) for a local temple, or ze may start z Wrathir own devoted solely to the warrior ideal.

In modern nights, Kindred subscribe to various Paths of Enlightenment. In the Dark Ages, they were known as Roads, and some few Cainites remain on Roads that have not evolved into the Paths known tonight.

Each of the five major Roads boasted additional Paths that added an additional set of virtues to that Road. Paths themselves varied greatly; some only kept the most basic tenents of the Road in mind while taking it in a slightly different direction than originally intended. Others pulled a traveler even deeper into the virtues championed by the rules of that Road. Some Paths were considered to have darker intent than the Road was intended for, while others had the opposite effect of making that traveler more “approachable” by those who followed other Roads.

Note: The descriptions of the Roads are taken from V20 Dark Ages, when Roads were in effect. As such, the descriptions for them are in present-tense, despite these Roads seldom being in use in modern nights. They largely function with the same rules as Paths of Enlightenment. In the Hierarchy of Sins for the Paths, replace the equivalent sin from the main Road.

Basic Beliefs: Society determines who lives and who dies. Human culture is a structure by which human beings decide what is murder, what is justice, and what is just an unfortunate but necessary evil. Society decides who starves in the winter, who doesn’t have the medicine to have a healthy baby, and who gets to spend all day playing chess and reading books while others struggle to make ends meet. By being a part of society, you become an explicit co-conspirator to murder and slavery, and potentially consent to your own death if society deems you somehow unworthy.

Cainites on the Road of Beast dismiss the most basic premise of society: the culture, the people, and those living among each other do not have inherent right, as a group, to judge each other. Or perhaps this manifests most selfishly in that society can do what it wants, but for the Apostate, society can make no claims of authority. To the Apostate, each monster creates zir own rule and zir own rights, and exists on zir own terms. Any attempts to tie zir down or force zir to acknowledge an authority greater than zir own is tantamount to attempting to murder zir soul.

Initiation

It is a common (if mistaken) assumption that those wild and alien vampires who drift from place to place come very naturally to the Road of the Beast. While this happens, it is rare. Most often, those vampires who come to the Road of the Beast come to it by manipulation or education. Often, the difference between those two ways onto the Road is hard to distinguish.

Sometimes, out of a sense of kinship from one outsider to another, a vampire on the Road will provide wisdom or guidance onto the Road. More frequently, a vampire on the Road will spot a vampire who otherwise cannot hang on to society and drags xem into the metaphorical woods. Ze might sabotage the vampire’s life, driving xem further and further from the comforts of civilian life until xe has no choice but to embrace the Apostate life. From the outside, these lessons might appear cruel, as the Apostate destroys everything in the young vampire’s life. To the Apostate, though, this is the greatest act of kindness. Liberating anyone from the yoke of society and freeing them to be the predator that’s in their nature, no matter what it takes, is never cruel. It is for a blessed purpose.

Organization

It is antithetical to the Apostate to acknowledge any structure or authority beyond what ze has created zirself. There is nothing above the Apostate. Neither god nor vampire can tell zir the best way to live. Ze exists only on zir own terms and any compromises ze makes are out of enlightened self-interest, not in pursuit of dogma or prestige. Still, at times, a group of Apostates may work and live together via a series of endless challenges for leadership or some kind of grudging neutral balance where no one is technically in charge. Some Apostates allow for a tense respect between teacher and student on the Road, though no one is likely to call the relationship out in such a way.

Rituals and Observances

Ritual suggests dogma, and in general, the Apostate rejects both holistically. There is at least one exception though, and that is in a sort of ritualistic relationship to the hunt. No matter how the Apostate comes to the Road, it is universally understood that the Beast sees the hunt as sacred, and in this, there is no questioning the Beast. There are uniform rules in which the hunt most be honored and treated as sacrosanct, but it should be clear that the hunt is separate from any other activity. Some Apostates prepare in silent prayer or meditation before going to hunt. Some wear personally precious fetishes or adornments to hunt. For some, a complicated series of songs, dance, physical demonstrations, and physical or metaphorical sacrifices precedes the hunt. To some Apostates, ritual to separate the hunt from zir nightly activities is not just proper, but necessary. Some Apostates believe that hunting belongs to the Beast, and a liminal space where the Beast takes over without a full frenzy is necessary to hunt correctly.

Path of the Hunter

If the Road of the Beast is about survival, a Cainite on the Path of the Hunter has honed zir desire for survival to one single focus.

The Hunt is life.

The Hunter begins to think of zir next hunt the second ze rises at night. Ze falls asleep planning hunts to come. Ze might socialize with other monsters; ze might even mingle with the kine in zir periphery. Ze may find solace in the mental stillness of the animals ze keeps as companions. But no matter what else ze may do, ze is always planning the next hunt.

The definition and methodology of planning varies from hunter to hunter and is a topic of hot debate when hunters cross paths. Some see the night as an endless opportunity to set traps and let prey come to them. Some see the ideal planning to involve absurd levels of physical prowess and talent. Some see the wisdom in playing some Cainite social games, if only because they can be leveraged to make zir hunts go that much smoother and prevent poachers from invading zir territory. Those hunters who do involve themselves with Cainite society tend to excel at it, because they have such clear focus of purpose.

Path of Journeys

What is the point of survival if you have only an eternity of playing it safe and no real stories to tell? Those on the Path of Journeys do not allow their unique condition to limit their existence to feeding and fighting. Instead, they see immortality as one endless adventure. Those who stay in one place, clinging to one way of existence and one faith might as well be dead. The vampire on Path of Journeys is an explorer who can’t help but turn the next corner, open another door, or crest just one more hill.

Most on the Path express it by abandoning one city, one region, and one culture after another in an endless quest to see what else is out there, and importantly, what else she can endure. Some vampires on this Path find smaller ways to express the endless journey. In ancient cities like Rome, for example, it’s possible to spend centuries exploring the ancient tunnels and catacombs.

Path of Liberation

Civilization isn’t just a lie. It’s a trap. Humanity, and more importantly, all of Caine’s get should be free as they were in Nod, not tied up and trapped in endless cities built on lies and suffocating tyranny. If you have a leader, you have a murder, and anything short of regicide is simply slow suicide.

But seeing the cities and Princes for what they are, simply isn’t enough. To be truly righteous, to feed the Beast and return the world to a state that makes sense, it is going to take violence, destruction, and liberation of all hearts and minds.

Sometimes this means ingenious plans to overthrow and murder Princes. Sometimes that means kidnapping every whelp in the city to “liberate” them from the shackles of the cities of lies in which they live. Sometimes it means mass and illegal Embraces or shattering the Silence of Blood. The city is built on falsehoods. The vampire on this Path must pull down the city brick by brick, if necessary.

Basic Beliefs: Many Cainites feel the mark of Caine as a curse and rail against fate and the injustice. However, others cling to the belief that divine purpose guides the hand of fate, and that even great evil can serve a greater purpose. Vampires who walk the Road of Heaven devote themselves to understanding that purpose through subservience to a higher power.

Known as the Faithful, most Cainites on the Road of Heaven cling to the faiths that they held in mortal life. Outwardly, the Road of Heaven appears as the most fragmented and chaotic of roads; medieval Europe teems with religions, and many older Cainites retain faiths that no longer have mortal adherents. Differences between Faithful tend to be entrenched, with different Paths often representing distinct religious traditions.

These differing religious traditions inform how Cainites on the Road of Heaven make sense of their Embrace. Christian Cainites liken themselves to Job, seeing themselves as subjects of a cosmic test of character. Muslim Cainites see the Embrace as a call to destroy the servants of Shaitan. Jewish Cainites find the Embrace an invigorating call to scholarship, a new avenue for insight into the nature of God. Druidic Cainites reason that serving the Great Balance requires darkness as well as light. And a servant of the old Roman Gods believes that ze had somehow offended one of them and must strive to regain that god’s favor.

However they practice their faith, every Cainite on the Road of Heaven believes in the existence of a higher power and its dominion over all things. The mark of Caine is part of a divine plan, and only through submission to divine will can the Beast be contained.

The Road of Heaven is a bit different from other Roads in that there is no base Road. Adherents of the Road agree to a core set of beliefs:

Organization

The organization of the Faithful breaks down largely along the lines of Path and faith traditions. Many Faithful prefer to gather for worship in communities of like faith, particularly followers of the Abrahamic faiths. Jewish Cainites place great importance on forming and maintaining communities of faith and tend to limit unnecessary contact with Cainites of other faiths. Muslim and Christian Cainites also tend to form large local congregations of faith. Christian communities tend to be more fragmented, as disagreements over doctrine and appropriate practice cause frequent rifts among some congregations.

Some Cainites, however, feel their faith is best practiced in secret, in sacred groves and caves, out in nature where faith is between oneself and the spirits of nature. A few even prefer to gather with groups of Cainites of mixed faith, discussing and debating the merits and flaws of the different faiths.

Paths

The Abrahamic religions — Christianity, Judaism, and Islam — are nominally the most similar in their approaches to using the Road of Heaven to master the Beast. However, despite a core common set of ethics and common commitment to the monotheistic worship of the God of Abraham, each faith chooses to emphasize very different practices in their daily worship practices.

Medieval Christians are very focused on maintaining sexual purity and spreading the Gospel of Christ through proselytizing. Medieval Islam is focused on care for the weak and vulnerable and commitment to practicing humility and piety. And medieval Judaism is committed to maintaining and protecting communities of Jewish faithful, submitting to God as interpreted by rabbinical authority, and maintaining ritual purity. As such, the Paths for each faith are very different.

Basic Beliefs: It is only natural, followers of the Road of Humanity believe, for a Cainite to remain who ze was before ze died. Cainite are creatures not so very different from the people they once were, and trying to reinvent ourselves is either a lie or a dangerous folly. The Cainite may either pretend that the evil ze does does not bother zir, which is a lie, or ze can truly reject what ze was and become the Beast. To those on the Road of Humanity, there is no worse end than falling to the Beast. In this way of thinking, all Roads are, in fact, just aspects of the Road of Humanity. They are all lies or descent away from the peace that is holding onto humanity and possibly (on some Paths) exceeding it. This, they claim, is the truth, because without outside intervention, all Cainites naturally start on this Road, and it takes serious teaching or serious abuse in order to get a Cainite onto another Road. To be human, they argue, is to be naturally on the Road of Humanity, and to be anything but human is to lose yourself. This is the true death of the soul, since we cannot know what happens to a Cainite when they die, but we can see that ze, or who ze was, is gone just as soon as ze finally falls to the Beast entirely.

The ethics that we knew in life are vital to remain who we are because, those on the Road believe, they are universal. They are things that any person simply understands regardless of race, creed, or social standing. We all know that killing is wrong. We all know that when you steal, you are asserting your wants over someone else’s needs, and have therefore violated their boundaries and liberties. We all, inherently, understand that when we abuse others, we are depleting our own souls on some level, and that way lies soul-death. It is the simplest premise, they say, the most universal, the most important. There is the human and there is the Beast, and to be one is the only way to avoid become the other, and becomings the other comes from abandoning the one.

Initiation

Most Cainites come to the Road on their own soon after the Embrace, dreading what they have become. In taking stock of who and what they are, those on this Road settle that more than enough of their human self remains to know it is the right way to be. When they can hold steady in their morality, they can force the Beast back down, and through grief and forgiveness for what sins they have already committed, they can resist future sins. Humanity can be taught, either to those who lacked moral fiber in life or those who have lost their way since the Embrace. Those who come to the Road through teachers still tend to suggest that it feels the most natural to them, even though it can be extremely difficult to hold on to.

Organization

In a world of monsters who have embraced their monstrosity, remaining human and humane can be a lonely path. Prodigals tend to be rejected or else driven off by those who have taken to much more monstrous Roads. Generally, the strongest relations a Cainite on this Road has are to the sire or teacher who guided them to it, at least so long as that mentor remains on the Road. Rarely, a particularly compassionate or stalwart Cainite who has endured many challenges to zir humanity may draw a small cult around zir. Others on the Road look to zir to strengthen their resolve against the Beast or some secret or wisdom to get them through the long nights.

Rituals and Observances

Because remaining human is such a personal journey, there are very few universally practiced traditions for the Prodigals. Those things done to honor this journey tend to be passed from teacher to student without a lot of attention drawn to them as rituals. For some, acts of charity and humble giving of the self are rituals, though not named as such. Many Prodigals celebrate their birthday as well as the night of their death, but only rarely do so openly or publicly. Fasting is a common response to penitent Prodigals after a transgression, though there is hot debate over the wisdom of tempting the Beast.

Path of Breath

To be human is to act human. This is the simplest philosophy that any Cainite or kine has ever come across when they first began to reflect on what humanity means and what it is. To be a human you must do as a human does, be among those who are human, think and breathe and do as those around you do. For the Cainite, though, this simple idea must be taken a step further. In fact, to be human may mean to be better than man, or at least, be more mindful of those casual cruelties humanity might be forgiven for, but causes a Cainite to suffer due to the Beast.

To do this, a Cainite cannot extract zirself from humanity and leave a cloistered, thoughtful existence. Philosophizing, those on this path believe, is not the same thing as doing, and so to breathe as humankind does, you must do and be and see.

To take it a necessary step forward, Cainites on this Path believe that they must honor humanity’s foibles while abstaining from them, and shoulder humanity’s burdens with their terrible strength to make their existence valid. Simply not stealing is not enough to these Cainite. Instead, you must enrich a downtrodden child’s life to give your Embrace purpose. Simply not killing is not enough on the Path of Breath. Instead, you must save a life and show that you are more than just a monster. Sin is unforgivable, but it is just as unforgivable to not act when you have the strength to do so. Other Cainites may see those on this Path as self-righteous meddlers who impose their ethics on imperfect humans who cannot possibly resist Cainite might. To the Cainites on the Path, while that may be a balance to be struck, it is not a conflict. If a Cainite was not meant to better the kine (according to their understanding of “better”), why would they be able to do it? Why would they feel such a profound sense of peace and hope in the act if it was a wrong thing to do? Being selfless without becoming self-righteous is the struggle of many on the Path of Breath, but not all.

Path of Community

On your own, you are a monster, and only when you surround yourself with humanity can you retain your humanity. Society is a Cainite’s natural habitat, and the herd is their natural responsibility. While some Cainites would squander the herd, or treat their keep like animals in cages, that is no way to remain the noble being you were born to be.

With the need that the Cainite has, it is natural for any creed to see the wisdom of cultivating a herd of kine they can feed from, be that a series of lovers, a cult, and so on. The Cainite on the Path of Community take this a step further, however, and see a wisdom and purpose in not just creating a herd, but raising it up. The betterment of the kine around zir becomes the betterment of the Cainite, and this responsibility is a sacred trust inherent to the Cainite’s blood and ability. Why have the abilities ze does if ze wasn’t meant to guide humanity at large to a better way of being? Selfishly, one could assume that a Cainite on this Path keeps zir kine healthy to assure ze has a regular supply of clean blood or a good stock for drawing ghouls and childer from. While those things may be true, they hardly remain the main motivation for those who walk this Path for very long. The act of building something has many rewards, and for these Cainites, those rewards become spiritual.

Among any of the Paths a Cainite might follow, the Path of Community often becomes a coterie-wide philosophy, as having such a Cainite in your midst shows obvious rewards to the rest of the brood. As a result, a small coterie can quickly become the secret guardians of a larger community than a single Cainite might think possible.

While few Cainites on this Path throw what they do in their kine’s faces, it isn’t uncommon for their wards to be dedicated and loyal to their benefactor, even without knowing exactly who she might be. This group loyalty may manifest as a loyalty to the built community, to some traditions tied to the Cainite, to the Cainite’s human retainers, or the site where the Cainite sleeps without any of the members truly understanding the significance of these spots. A smart Cainite takes advantage of this, and seeds these expressions of gratitude to zir benefit. After all, to keep the Cainite safe is to keep the community safe, and vice versa.

Path of Illumination

It is not often that a vampire devotes zirself entirely to seeking not just balance with the Beast, but zir own inner light. Seeking out the goodness and spiritual brilliance in the vampire soul seems to many, a fool’s errand. To say that a vampire has the potential for light, for brilliance, then you must reject the very concept that vampires are Damned entirely. And that is just what those on the Path of Illumination have done.

They are few and far between, and not just because their preaching is heretical in most cities. More importantly, those on the Path of Illumination believe that the end to vampiric suffering cannot be found in any one specific place. Travel and communion with many different places and people is necessary to gather a holistic and complete image of what real holiness looks like. No one dogma has all the answers, and so those on this Path travel with an understanding that the journey itself is the destination.

Members of this Path know, of course, that their teachings are antithetical to what is taught sire to childe in Christendom, and many a member has lost a mentor or student to the tyranny of fear. When found, they are often driven out of the city or region, or killed outright, which is why members of the Path are very careful about who they share their ideals with. On occasion, though, the Path draws in more iconoclastic vampires who believe that surrendering to the light is the only way to effectively battle the darkness inherent in the War of Princes and that a full understanding of the Path’s doctrine will rob the old Princes of their power.

Basic Beliefs: Followers of the Road of Kings trace their origins back to the days of Caine, believing that they spring from his oath to God that it is “better to rule in darkness than to humble [himself] falsely in the light.” As such, some believe they are mandated by God to rule over mankind. Others do not see their origin as such a clear mandate by God, but rather a power granted by their vampiric state which they must clearly use to take control of the lesser beings around them.

Most Cainites can see very clearly that they are naturally capable of bending the will of mortals to their own. Luminaries, those who follow the Road of Kings, see this as not only a capability, but as their right as Cainites. Beyond that, those who follow this Road believe that they are kings, rulers of not only mortal society, but of themselves and those around them. Luminaries are concerned with nobility, chivalry, and seizing holdings just as any mortal nobility would. In fact, the Luminaries often war with each other over Cainite domains using lesser vampires and mortals as pawns in their games.

Many people believe that the followers of the Road of Kings are simply grasping for temporal power, using whatever means necessary to gain their goals. This could not be further from the truth. Luminaries understand that the true height of leadership is not only control over material wealth, but also the minds and hearts of those they rule. They hold themselves to a strict code of honor and ethics, and practice diplomacy and patience to gain their just rewards.

The first lesson a Luminary learns is how to control zir own Beast, knowing that this is the greatest weakness as a vampire. For if one cannot be zir own master, how can ze hope to be a master of others? An uncontrolled Beast could tempt a ruler down a dark path that leads to betrayal and ruin. Control over those passions could give one the edge needed to crush zir enemies and defend zir lands. As such, Luminaries strive to bring their Beasts to heel, thereby learning the bitter truths for dealing with the most difficult of subordinates.

This initial tenet leads to a more complicated code in which Luminaries learn to master lesser beings while respecting those that follow them. In addition, they are expected to defer to those of higher station while aspiring to move up within the ranks. They must exhibit extreme control over a delicate balance of command, aspiration, and respect. Luminaries know that a leader is only as powerful as the constituency under zir and as stable as zir allies and those above zir.

Initiation

Initiates of the Road are chosen by their mentors, serving as apprentices and training until they earn the right to follow the Road on their own. Some are chosen specifically to be groomed for the Road, even Embraced by their liege for the purpose. Others work to join, striving to impress a possible patron with outstanding deeds. Either way, the initiate serves zir mentor for some time, training in the beginning stages of the Road. Some remain in service, working their way up, and others leave quickly, their own aspirations driving them to greater heights.

Organization

The Road of Kings boasts a highly organized structure with each Luminary being sworn to the service of those above zir, and zir lesser sworn to zir in turn in an elaborate chain of vassal and lord. The highest ranked Luminary is called a Lord, and in most domains is the Prince, provided the Prince walks the Road of Kings. Below zir comes an entire structure of lesser nobles, such as dukes, barons, marquesses, knights and the like, followed by lesser followers of the Road to the basic initiates. The names and structures of the Luminary’s noble lines vary by geographical location, but all follow the vassalage chain faithfully.

Rituals and Observances

One of the most sacred rituals to the adherents on the Road of Kings is oath swearing. From start to finish, oaths rule the life of a Luminary, and all other observances revolve around the oath. Oath ceremonies can be elaborate functions with Luminaries from all over coming to witness the oath, or they can be simple affairs between a new initiate and zir mentor. Any time a Luminary changes gains a new liege, gains a new rank through promotion or conquest, or renews zir vows to zir current liege is call for an oath swearing ceremony. Few other rituals are as widely practiced beyond the oath swearing. Some Luminaries practice courtly affairs common to their region and others observe religious rites as a form of leading by example, though these practices are not widely adopted.

Path of Chivalry

In many European countries, the code of chivalry has spread quickly, and has captured the imagination of many young vampires, unless they are the Mongols. These Paladins honor the code of chivalry, placing their sworn oath and duty above everything, including their own personal goals. They strive to be honorable in all acts, deferring to their betters and showing courtesy to their inferiors.

This is a newer Path of the Road of Kings which emphasizes loyalty, service, and duty over personal power and gain. While the Paladins may be Cainites, they have a personal responsibility to protect and nurture those weaker than themselves. Many Paladins go so far as to take their role as leader of mankind to the point of self-sacrifice for the good of humanity. Despite their seeming weakness of heart, Paladins are quick to point out that controlling those who love you is easier than controlling those who revile you. Not all Paladins are so ruthless, but they are all so completely devoted to their code that their followers can’t help but to love them. Woe to the vampire that tries to take advantage of this supposed weakness, though. All Paladins are quick to protect their flock with brutal force if necessary.

Path of Devaraja

In southeast India and Malaysia, several religions believe their king is not just mandated by God, but is himself a god, infused with the divine upon taking the throne. This divinity is not bestowed lightly, or always through blood inheritance, but instead the divine infuses power into its chosen upon ascendancy. The idea of godhood appeals to all Cainites.

Followers of this Path do not believe in some divine ability to rule. Instead, they believe that they must earn the right to rule and rise to divinity in the eyes their people. The Divines do not create subjects and inferiors, but instead followers and worshipers. Most Divines on the Path of Devaraja feel they must earn the power to rule, walking among the people and rising up above them as their gods when the time comes. For a Divine, the highest station is to become a god-king ruling zir land with benevolence towards zir worshippers and granting them miracles.

Path of Daena

Though Islam spread to the Middle Eastern countries several centuries ago, many people still hold to Zoroastrian beliefs. Several older, powerful vampires resisted Islamic conversion and hold to the older faith. Of these, many follow the Path of Daena, a very rare branching of the Road of Kings that teaches virtuous acts and adhering to law and duty brings great personal power. The Behdin believe they must be active participants in the world to get anything done, and by acting in accordance with law and duty, they will reap just rewards.

Followers of this Path take the code of law very seriously. Laws provide structure for a civil society; break the law, and society itself breaks down. A leader cannot expect productivity without law. The Behdin often attempt to take the higher road and act as goodly as possible, though the law is much more important in their eyes. They will uphold the law to the best of their ability, going so far as to sacrifice themselves in the process. Other Cainites are wary of the Behdin, knowing that their loyalty to the law is dangerous to cross.

Of course, the ultimate goal of the Behdin is to not only uphold the law, but to become the law. Ultimately, those who rule make the laws, and in the end the Behdin feel they know best which laws create a civil society. While they will fulfill the laws they live under while rising in the ranks, they seek to change the laws to better serve society when they have the power to do so.

Basic Beliefs: Lilith is a complicated figure with a questionable history that may or may not predate Judaism, Christianity, the Book of Nod, and Caine himself, even according to Noddist lore. She speaks to the universal concepts of woman-as-mother, mother-as-survivor, and woman-as-catalyst both for all life as well as all evil. What’s more, she is probably real, though what she is and what that means is difficult to fathom. She is (or was) real, but that reality and the many faces attached to her name are impossible to fully reconcile.

The oldest and most dedicated worshipers of Lilith claim their lineage traces back to her and her potent demonic magics stolen from the gods and brought to Earth. They reject the influence or the importance of Caine as the All-Father and point to historical texts as well as folktale cycles that suggest a pre-Abrahamic time when not all vampires were thought to be from one same progenitor. Alternatively, they look to times when there was something like the Caine myth, but Caine was a woman, or a pair of divine twins, or an angel, and so on. Many claim that their blood is the blood of demons, and that they were never totally human, even before the Embrace. Some even claim to have spontaneously become vampires without need of a sire, though none have proven (or attempted to prove) this to be true.

Because her history (and how it coincides with Cainite history) is so conflicted, many of her worshipers have distilled these various stories down to core concepts that seem to apply universally to the many faces of the Dark Mother. They teach that the children of Lilith are forces of raw creation. Creation hurts, and any pain survived is a lesson that must be studied and celebrated. Those who create with pure abandon and celebrate the wet and fleshy acts of creation will invariably be betrayed by those too afraid or otherwise unable to create. This last point is especially important to the growing cult among the Bahari who converted from Cainite beliefs and feel a need to connect the Lilith of the Road to the Lilith mentioned in Noddist apocrypha.

Initiation

There are two ways to become a part of the Road of Lilith: by blood or by bleeding. Some souls, the Bahari claim, are marked as “other” by ancient demonic or celestial heritage. The Bahari claim that the auras of these special people possess small marks that only certain Bahari rites can reveal. The Bahari watch these people throughout their lives to see if they should ever enter a state of such intense suffering that they begin to see the truth, or create something so powerful that their ability to create should be preserved forever. Those without these marks are often called to Lilith’s faith by personal tragedy, shattering suffering, or a deep intellectual curiosity for the lessons only pain can teach. These people are marked by similar Bahari rites so that any Bahari can see these marks and observe them for the right time to approach.

Organization

As a rule, there is no formal organization among the Bahari. Limitations, like the binding of Lilith’s hair, chafe members of this Road, and few are willing to create overarching hierarchies. Cults form, share myths and lessons they have earned, hurt each other, love each other, then break apart and reform elsewhere with other Bahari. Some cults with slightly variant philosophies are growing in popularity, but this is not widespread yet. People who are recognized as having learned great lessons (at great expense) or created great wonders may be greeted as “mother,” “grandmother,” “father,” and so on, but this is not a universally accepted practice.

Rituals and Observances

The Bahari recognize planting and harvest time as significant, and they will often align acts of creation (and the occasionally necessary act of destruction) with these seasons. Further, Bahari will gather and ritually make love and physically wound and test each other’s limits. These ritualized sadistic acts are pale microcosms of the ultimate tests that life deals the celebrants, and is never meant to replace real learning.

Path of Thorns

To those on the Path of Thorns, Lilith is a fantastic philosophical concept and her dogma makes sense on a purely academic level. She may be real, but that matters less than the grand experiment her philosophy suggests. The take their study of the faith very seriously, but ground it in the real world. Emotional hardships are fine and good, but the practical expression of physical pain can be studied and quantified, and that is far more interesting than subjective concepts of growth and torment. Hidden in the flesh is wisdom. Hidden in the mud is wisdom. Wisdom can be written down and taught as well as it can be tattooed on bare sensitive skin.

The strangeness in the Path comes from its relationship with alchemy. From alchemical research, the Path rejects the idea that Caine or Lilith alone created vampires (and the truth), but rather were a unified force of creation. They also see the Second and Third Generations are a completely failed experiment, and that the Antediluvians should be destroyed simply to encourage the Mother/Father to start again from scratch.

The Path is one of the more organized cults among the Bahari. They gather in secret once or twice a year in as great a number as they can manage. These meetings, or Sabbaths, are opportunities for the practitioners to test their physical and intellectual limits by exposing themselves to suffering, fire, and even sunlight to test their theories and prove their force of will.

Path of Veils

Lilith may have many faces, but none are so important in these dark nights as the face of the rebellious mother of monsters. The woman who toppled God’s bedchamber because she would be his equal. The one betrayed by Caine, who had her garden destroyed by the wretched offspring of the betrayer.

These followers, often Embraced first into Cainite society, reject Caine and all that he stood for. They reject the heavy Judeo-Christian influences in the common Book of Nod and seek to slowly disrupt the entire system built on these lies. Lilith is a symbol of defiance and liberty, and those who follow the Path of Veils demand the same.

Path of Making

For those on the Path of Making, none of the stories of Lilith are as interesting or important as those stories where she stole the seed of angels (or was given it) and made a flood of monsters and demons over the vastness of Nod. They are fascinated by the incubi and succubi and how they blended with the children of Seth and the children of Caine. These Bahari seek out the lineages of Lilith to study what can be proven unique about these resilient humans with divine heritage. More than that, they seek to make monsters, as their Mother did.

How they make monsters is a highly personal expression, and while they may exchange rotes and share religious rituals, each follower keeps zir monster-making personal and unique. It is possible some practice Infernalism to make their children, while others carefully breed the lineages of humans with the most potential for the divine offspring, and still others steal the traditions of necromancers and witches in the hopes of using those to create their own beasts by magical means.

Basic Beliefs: The appellation of Sinner is a deeply ironic one, for Cainites on the Road of Sin see no power as above themselves. How can one sin against God, when one does not acknowledge His authority? Sinners, those who walk the Via Peccati, claim this rebellious spirit began with Caine’s rejection of forgiveness and acceptance of his curse, but the Road truly began in a decadent Rome in the days before the Third Punic War. It was forged in the fires of Grecian and Zoroastrian wisdom, the ideas of a soul’s inner liberty that cannot be abrogated by any force, internal or external. The keys to unlocking this freedom were found not in denying the soul’s myriad pleasures, but in embracing them. Some believe a visionary Brujah or Ravnos was responsible for first articulating the labyrinthian paths of desire; others claim it was a Baali, the Damned amongst the Damned, who pieced together the whispered temptations of demons but ended up freeing himself.

Other Cainites look at the Sinners and see slaves to the Beast and gluttonous hedonists, dulling their super-human senses with glorious arrays of tastes, sights and smells. They see wicked tempters, corrupting individuals of virtue and drawing victims to lives of excess and ignominy. They see rank neonates so far lost that they refuse to submit to the Blood Oath.

Sinners dispute none of these charges save one: they would die before they called themselves slaves. Sinners can take orders, cooperate and aid others; they are selfish, not solipsistic. Indeed, a true Sinner is mastered by only zirself. In turn, they master the Beast by indulging it, feeding it, and acknowledging monstrous urges as part of themselves. More than that, they ruthlessly pursue self-mastery, walking a Road of self-definition outside of external strictures or morals. While Scions try to become kings and Faithful try to become holy, Sinners never try to become anything other than themselves. And they are Damned. Whatever else the world thinks of them, Via Peccati’s temptations of pleasure and power cannot be denied.

It doesn’t truly matter what the chosen indulgence is. Some inundate the senses with music and art, others practice the ephemeral hunt of seduction, while still others lead unlives of endlessly cruel amusements exploring the limits of pain - for themselves and for others. Yet all Sinners find that cooperating with the Beast is the best method to quiet it. The Road is not innately evil; indeed, cannot an urge for charity be sated, even amongst vampires? Is not altruism a pursuit of pleasure in kindness? However, Via Peccati is fundamentally self-centered, ever selfish, never selfless. Nothing may be permitted to lessen the self.

Initiation

Much of Sin is taught from an elder Sinner, called the Tempter, to a student, called the Novice, in a deeply personal relationship mirroring that of sire to childe. The first steps on the Road often come before the Novice is even a vampire, and involve breaking the strictures and confines of foreign moralities. The Embrace is the next step, dark hunger and primal urges uncoiling from the neonate’s tattered soul. Tempters teach the nascent Novice not to shy from urges, but to follow and satisfy every desire. This learning process is also reciprocal, as a Novice’s reaction to Sin’s teachings can deeply inflame the desires of the Tempter. Though the earliest steps can see deep cruelties applied to the Sinner, these pains are never needless. The relationship between Tempter and Novice oft becomes perversely warm and caring as the adherent walks further along the Road. Even after they’ve been acknowledged as full travelers of the Road, Novices tend to travel with their Tempters, having long since come to desire their company.

Organization

With a heavy emphasis on personal freedom and individual desire, a regimented Road would be antithetical to the needs of Sinners. Loosely organized at best, what little structure the Road does possess is built around facilitating the teacher-student relationship that best spreads the teachings of Sin. The ashen priests of Via Peccati are known as praeceptors, gathering students and cults around them and unleashing souls with their truths. Great Sinners are granted respect, but never more than they’ve earned.

Rituals and Observances

Treasuring individuality and personal freedom, the Road observes few formal observances and rituals aside from the mentor-student relationship. The festival of Saturnalia is the exception; the December liberties, where free speech is common and accepted, are too intoxicating to ignore. The association with the ancient Roman sun god also tickles Sinners who appreciate irony. No pleasures are denied groups of Sinners who meet during the day, and the most advanced Sinner takes on the title of Lord of Misrule, directing his lessers in exquisite temptation.

Path of Pleasure

The Path of Pleasure hearkens back to the original Via Desideratio, the Road as codified in Rome by Tanitbaal-Sahar. The Cainite visionary’s work, On Hunger and Its Satisfaction, laid out the tenets of the Road later deemed Sinful. The discovery of a complete early draft in 10th-century Tyre led to the development of this Path, a refocusing of the Road entire to pure hedonism. Sinners walking the Path of Pleasure do not seek to define themselves by desires so much as inundate the Beast in sensation that they may remain untroubled. The Path of Pleasure emphasizes physical and mental pleasures over the self-mastery (and ultimately, emotional pleasure) of the mainline Road.

While main Road Sinners are capable of delaying their lusts, Voluptuaries believe a Beast delayed is a Beast denied. They toil only to array themselves in an endless stream of engorgement, so that their Beast may be eternally glutted on blood and satisfaction. Other Cainites and even other Sinners look down on the Voluptuaries, seeing them as nothing more than fools frittering away eternity.

Path of the Devil

In al-Andalus, Islam’s particular insistence of submission to Allah sat poorly with those who had followed the Road of Sin. Indeed, the idea of submission to any deity sat poorly with them, but the emphasis of Path of the Devil is a newly articulated one, with a doubly ironic name atop the original Road. Codified by a long dialogue between English Brujah and Gangrel residing in the taifas, the Path of the Devil is growing increasingly popular amongst neonates and those of higher Generations. The Adversaries hold that the very concept of submission and enslavement is anathema to them, and that none possess the right to condemn another. To compel obedience, to brandish the lie of torment, is to deprive another of the little pleasures they may eke out while their hearts still beat. The Adversaries stalk the slave markets of Caffa and the cathedrals of Acre alike, seeking to annihilate institutions which enslave others body and soul. They value introspection and long-term thinking; the ultimate pleasure of freedom is hollow unless it’s enjoyed by all.

Path of Screams

The Path of Screams is an ancient one; so ancient, in fact, that its precursor long predates the Road of Sin. The hereditary morality of the Baali bloodline arose from subservience to their dark masters — some of the Pit, others bound to the earth, and still others in the depths of the Abyss. The temptations and subservience espoused by Via Hyron, the Road of the Hive, held little influence over Tanitbaal-Sahur when the tenets of the Road were whipped and smashed into his soul in Carthage. Failing to follow the Road and desperate to find a way to quell his raging Beast, the Baali ancillae ventured to Rome, where he read the works of the greatest Stoics and shared company and philosophy with the Persians who inhabited the slums of the city. When he eventually walked the road the temptations promised, he found that it led back into himself, and wrote the text that would become the foundation for the Road of Sin.

The Baali who came to reeducate him found themselves seduced by their broodmate’s newfound radiant attitude of calm and temptation. Rather than free themselves, they took the idea of pleasure in subservience and fused their philosophies into a crooked and winding Path that twists against the Road that spawned it. In these nights, more Baali and infernalists are Screamers than not, replacing the repetitive and ultimately redundant codes that came before. In order to satisfy their darkest desires, the Screamers have turned against the very core of the Road: that of self-determination. They have chosen to serve in Hell rather than reign over only themselves.

Other Paths

The Path of the Eightfold Wheel takes its name from Druidic paganism and its focus on honoring the gods and spirits of nature through devotion to nature and the spirits, serving balance in all things, and a rotating calendar of astronomically based festivals. While many Cainites who walk this path are of the Druidic faith, other Cainites who follow shamanistic pagan traditions walk this path as well.

The Path of Watchful Gods is less practiced than it used to be. Its adherents mainly consist of followers of the old Greek and Roman faiths, though practitioners of more modern pagan traditions walk this path as well. Vampires on this path devote themselves to serving the gods through making regular sacrifices, honoring and protecting that which the gods deem sacred, and adhering to strict codes of honor.