Chronicles of Blood

- Antonin Artaud

It's a common misconception that the Sabbat is an organization of "bad guys." It's also a common fallacy that a Storyteller can't use the sect as the central focus of a long-term chronicle. Why are these beliefs so strong and so pervasive? Why do they persist and gain momentum? They persist because many of Vampire: The Masquerade's players believe that the Sabbat are the black-and-white villains of the world. Period.

After all, aren't they alien, inhumane monsters from Hell who walk the night; psychotics and murderers who view humankind as game pieces to be used as playthings in their kinky and malicious sport? Come on, don't they use mortals as objects of detached, if amused, study, to further twisted experiments into the dark and alien recesses of their vampire nature? Don't their actions prove that they relegate humans to the status of mere animals under a microscope, equating us with a bovine herd meant for their use - a herd that they can, without guilt or mercy, kill, feed from wantonly, rape, torture, debase and terrorize? Moreover, aren't they simply infernally aligned diablerists who break the largest laws of vampire society by drinking their elders dry? We know that they are, don't we? They are vicious, brutal thugs; mindless killers with no reason and no motivation for what they do or how they act. Right?

Well sure they are - from any other perspective but their own. In a world where most vampires can go decades without ever even seeing another Cainite of their own sect, this is what the violence and extremism of the Sabbat leads ignorant onlookers to observe.

Obviously, that's not all the sect is about. The Sabbat, to its way of thinking, is superior to mortals. The vampires of the sect don't believe these beings are worth notice or mention. Vampires, they believe, shouldn't be bothered with the society of humans, viewing mankind contemptuously and derisively, but more often with disinterest and boredom. Members of the sect make little pretense of holding onto the husk of their Humanity, because they don't believe that the human state of being applies to them in the least. For the most part, Sabbat believe that humanity's narrow sense of morality is limiting and beneath their worry. While some vampires within the ranks of the Sabbat become involved in Satanism and many other deviant practices - either as a joke or to show their contempt for the narrow institutions of human faith, that stand against the undead, most specifically the Catholic Church - the more "mature" Sabbat don't, though they do see the value in using depravity as a tool of war (and sometimes, amusement). They see themselves as monsters, not humans, and they fill that role dutifully.

Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the sect views vampires who try to hold onto the remains of their human essence as weak fools hiding from their true natures. For the most part, Sabbat believe that vampires who don't accept the fact that they're fiends - those who hide behind a cultivated illusion of mortality - are delusional. More seriously, the Sabbat believes that these delusional dupes place the whole of vampiric existence in grave danger.

So they are monsters, yes, but do they have to be villains?

Not at all.

Sabbat aren't simply psychotics who walk the World of Darkness. Troupe members can play a Sabbat character as well and enjoyably as any other Vampire character. A Storyteller can lead a Sabbat-focused chronicle with the same ease. Sabbat chronicles can be surprisingly satisfying, poignant and resonant, as long as the Storyteller challenges herself to rethink the misconception that the sect is nothing more than a mob of badly motivated, cardboard thugs. A deep, thoughtful examination of the sect should bring her to the realization that it needn't be relegated to such a static, one-dimensional role within her story. And she'll realize that, if she learns to use the Sabbat effectively, individually and as a group, the sect offers great possibilities to her players and her chronicle for rich, exhilarating drama.

This chapter examines various Storytelling techniques intended to help Storytellers use the Sabbat as the focus of a chronicle. It is written to teach the ways of using the unique qualities, devices and internal dynamics of the sect to color and define a Sabbat story.

The Ethics of the Sabbat

Would any well-adjusted, mature troupe member find playing a mindless killer attractive? As a Storyteller, have you asked your players how they feel about participating as characters in a Sabbat-focused chronicle ? You probably have, or you wouldn't be interested in this book. But, even if you are just thinking about telling a Sabbat story, do you believe that some members of your troupe might be hesitant about participating in it, because they believe that Sabbat characters are unpalatable? Have a few of them told you, wholeheartedly and in a loud, disdainful voice, that Sabbat characters can and should only be used as villains?

Well, maybe, because it's a common prejudice.

If you want this endeavor to work - if you want to tell a Sabbat-focused story and tell it well-you'll have to change their minds. You'll have to guide your players through an understanding of the sect and help them to accept it on its own terms, or (if they can't) to at least give it a chance while skewing their characters to be Sabbat of a different color, those who see the sect from inside it's ranks. Most importantly, you'll have to help them understand that Sabbat characters can be motivated and viable, and that your chronicle about them will be motivated and viable, too. After all, troupe members and Storytellers alike invest a lot of time in a shared vision of the World of Darkness, and if a chronicle is going to work well, it should be enjoyable for everyone involved.

How do you do this? Simple. You help your troupe understand the Sabbat, its teachings, its methods, its unique characteristics and its motivations.

The sect is like any other group of like-minded individuals. Its members have their own ethics, creeds, codes of behavior, joys, wants and hates. The sect and its members have flaws and weaknesses. They just have a different outlook than other groups of vampires do, and this outlook helps to define their behavior.

Logically, all groups and individuals have light and dark aspects. For the most part, stereotyping anyone as "hero" or "villain" doesn't work in Vampire: The Masquerade (though sometimes "antihero" fits), and most specifically, it doesn't work for the Sabbat. The World of Darkness is a grand drawing in shades of gray. Show your troupe those nuances by presenting them with difficult story situations, tough choices and scoundrels of ambiguous character.

You'll need to show your troupe, through the plot dimensions presented to them, that the Sabbat is different-brutal, cruel, zealous and yes, even deviant - but that it's not necessarily worse than its antithesis, the Camarilla. All vampires are inhuman by nature, sect notwithstanding. Most do morally questionable things, by human standards. Most vampires can have loyalties to their own kind and to their own ideals, they can all have their own predispositions and their own ways of acting on those predispositions. They can be intractable in their beliefs. Unwavering faith is the mark of any zealot, even if that characteristic proves to be detrimental, even if it causes her to commit acts that are arguably atrocious and horrific. Are these atrocities excusable by standard human ethics? Of course not, but then, your players are not playing humans; they're playing vampires, and the Sabbat believes that applying human mores to anything vampiric is akin to giving the cows in a slaughterhouse sledgehammers and hanging the butchers upside down. The situations and story hooks you present to your troupe should keep these Sabbat viewpoints at the forefront, but shouldn't rest solely on them. It should show the players how the sect and its ideologies work as a whole through the actions and perceptions of its fanatically loyal and borderline-sociopathic members, its supporters, its detractors, its allies and its enemies.

This is the hardest task any Storyteller has to face when she decides to run with the Sabbat. She may hear loudly and often, "I don't want to play the bad guy! I want to fight the bad guy! I want to believe that I'm affecting something positive in this shit-hole of a world you've presented to me!" (Not everyone in her troupe may say this, but those who do may be adamant.) She may hear, "Sweet! I wanna play an Assamite antitribu on the Path of Kill Every Fucking Person I Meet! I get to be the bad guy!" The Storyteller's answer to these statements should be more questions. "Well, who are the bad guys? Are there really any bad guys? What makes for a good guy in the World of Darkness?" She'll have to change her troupe's collective mind about the roles of villains and heroes, alike. She can accomplish this goal by showing that the sect, while inhuman, callous and bestial, is not ill-motivated or totally wrong in its suppositions, and that its outlook is perfectly logical to its genesis and environment.

Which is difficult, without a doubt, but no one ever promised that Story telling would be a joyride on the back of a Malkavian antitribu's panhead Harley.

The Veracity of Outlook

Many World of Darkness enthusiasts tend to believe that the Sabbat is wrong and the Camarilla is right. Largely, this view stems from the principle that the other vampires try to hold onto their human ethics, and the Sabbat doesn't. Let's examine that.

It's an axiom of Sabbat behavior and teaching that Sabbat do not attempt to suborn the Beast. They embrace it and liberate it. Sabbat philosophy holds that any attempt to hide a vampire's monstrous nature is hypocritical and wrong. The Sabbat wholeheartedly believes that Caine was cursed with vampirism, but that he was cursed for a purpose. Sect dogma - a dogma fostered through study of Cainite wisdom - attempts to teach individual Sabbat that ignoring the fact that vampirism is a curse is a betrayal of vampiric nature. Maybe ignoring this fact and reining in the Beast is a betrayal of the divine reasoning for which Caine was created in the first place. Therefore, dodging the Curse and its characteristic monstrousness is hedging, and the sect rarely hedges about anything.

How did the sect arrive at this belief? Many scholars and philosophers of the Sabbat - and they do exist - studied the legends, mythology and lore of the first acknowledged vampire, Caine. The subsequent interpretations of Caine's legends have been used to support the sect's structure and it's dictates for the behavior of its membership. The most striking feature of Caine's mythology that supports the sect's outlook shows him killing his brother Abel and being punished by God for it, then it underlines the fact that he didn't become a vampire directly due to that act of murder. He became a vampire because he refused God's forgiveness (several times in fact), and chose to answer only to himself, abiding away from God and outside the protection of Eden. Caine's catechism reinforces the idea that his curse was a punishment for pride, not murder. He chose freedom over servitude to God, and he paid the ultimate price for it.

Sabbat vampires view this choice and its subsequent curse as inescapable fact, as a truism that can't be wished away by pretending to be something that they are not - merely human. And the sect, for the most part, defends its progenitor's choice. The Sabbat's zealousness in defending this choice causes them to redefine the Curse of Caine by characterizing it as a glorious curse, one meted out for the affront of choosing freedom over safety and subservience.

Is the sect's outlook evil? By human standards, perhaps.

But by vampiric standards? In comparison to what? The Camarilla has evil aspects and outlooks, too. Evil, in practice - faith and metaphysics notwithstanding - could be defined as the practice of putting the good of the few before the good of everyone else. Storytellers, ask yourselves if the Sabbat puts the good of the many - the many vampires within its ranks, that is - before the good of the few by acting as soldiers in a war against the eventual dominance of the Antediluvians, the vampires of the Third Generation who will one night rise from torpor and destroy all their childer in a rain of blood and fire ? Now, ask yourself if the Camarilla, so often cast as tragic heroes, with its princes and its edicts and its blood bonds, does this ? The Sabbat doesn't believe so. The Sabbat believes that its rival sect betrays the whole of vampires, because they believe that the Camarilla has been duped into servitude (knowing or unknowing) to the Antediluvian's cause. And servitude is something that Caine, their father, would never have allowed to happen to himself. So, isn't it an ultimately misinterpreted and pedestrian to view to see the Sabbat simply as the "evil force" in this particular corner of the World of Darkness? In reality, couldn't it be argued that the Sabbat puts the good of the many before the good of the few much more often than the Camarilla does?

So, again, what's evil and what's good?

Vampire: The Masquerade isn't a game that forces ethics into round or square holes like pegs. Defining evil, good and every shade of the median within her chronicle, is up to the individual Storyteller to decide. Still, the exploration of Caine's curse and the ethical questions that surround it, provide an excellent and resonant resource both for story seeds and for background material, because they give the sect a strong raison d'etre. How can the Storyteller communicate this tenet to the troupe? She can use the catechism of the Curse of Caine to help her Sabbat troupe understand why the sect believes what it does. Then, she can make it's exploration a vehicle for helping them to make sense of how the sect behaves by integrating the choices the Curse creates into the choices the plot presents them.

"Well, that was a mouthful, wasn't it?" you're probably saying. "Okay, then smartass, let's see it in action." Consider:

Pick a plot idea that's appropriate to the Sabbat; say, a skirmish with the Camarilla, and then pick an aspect of the Curse, like "we are not human; we shouldn't try to be." Your troupe is playing a Sabbat pack that's involved in the final aspect of a city siege and is in direct conflict with the Camarilla entrenched therein. The Sabbat have chosen to lay siege because the Camarilla, in its strict adherence to a rigid Masquerade and its belief that vampires should try to hold onto their Humanity, have been lax and inattentive about the threat of mortal hunters in the city and haven't done much to try to curtail their action. Mortal hunters, therefore, have become much more successful in the city's boundaries. The Camarilla prince and her underlings have been too busy using the mortals in their sway, mixing with them, playing with them, vainly courting them even, to protect their own kind from these hunters. In truth, the prince's inattentiveness has left her totally unprepared for any threat against her "Kindred." The Sabbat, in defense of vampiric existence and through its understanding of the Cainite axiom that vampires are inhuman, have carefully executed the siege, which is successful because they've used their inhumanity to fight brutally and well. Then, at the culmination of the siege, the Sabbat victors are left with the decision of having to choose if they will allow the city's leftover anarchs, those who weren't killed in the siege, to remain unmolested, whether they'll drive them off or whether they'll summarily kill them.

Situation, axiom of Caine, application of the axiom through plot, then difficult plot/character choice that conflicts with another axiom. It's really not so difficult after all.

Now, how does a Storyteller make the more inhuman methods and outlooks of the Sabbat enticing to her troupe? After all, most roleplayers aren't social malcontents. Gamers, as a whole, are well-adjusted people who hold down good jobs, share in the community and wish to live positive lives. Doesn't playing a monster fly in the face of that? Absolutely not. Not if the monster has dramatic conflict, flaws and motivations. Not if the monster adheres to its own code of ethics. Not if that monster is presented as an "antihero." Not, for that matter, if the story is presented well and in a mature manner.

Concept: The Sabbat is Right and Those Other Vampires are Wrong.

The Storyteller can make her troupe believe (in the context of the game) that the sect has the absolute right idea. This doesn't even have to be true in her grand scheme or concept, but it's important that she makes the troupe believe it's true! She can show her troupe that, by indulging the bestial aspect of Caine's curse in all its monstrousness, their characters fulfill a role, and at times they may have no other choice than to fulfill it monstrously, because every other possible choice is worse than the one before.

Example: Jackson rarely, if ever, had walked slowly before meeting Jim. His movements were lightning-quick by nature, and his step was quicker. But Jim had never moved quickly, what with his twisted leg - though Jackson never found out how it got twisted or why - but, he liked Jim, so he made the adjustment in his step with only marginal annoyance. Packmates watched each other's backs, after all, and, more than that, Jim had never pissed him off.

The two vampires had been walking the streets, not really looking for anything, and had turned down a silent alley when, suddenly, Jack felt vulnerable, and the slowness of their progress felt even slower than before. The shadows on the bricks of the rundown row of warehouses they'd passed became longer and more alive. "Too alive, too slow, too vulnerable. We're too vulnerable," Jack thought, and then the shit all rained down in slow motion, like a chain saw smiling in a lightning flash. The shadows became two distinct bas-relief shapes which detached themselves from the walls, dropping to the pavement around them with a tiny thud and a flutter of cloth. Their faces were horrible, and as they moved to surround them, close enough so that Jack could smell them, he sucked in an odor like a dog left floating in a sewer drain.

Before Jackson knew it, Jim was on the ground, buried by writhing bodies. They ripped at his chest, his face, his throat with their claws and fangs, and Jackson knew he couldn't to take them both.

But then it stirred. The thing inside Jackson woke, it came out of its cave hungry. And he loosed it. By the time its hunger was sated, a leaf-dead husk lay on the pavement, its bony parchment claws reaching to the sky. He stood in the midst of the other, and nearly unrecognizable shreds of something soaked with vitae clung to his hands and the comers of his mouth. He kicked what was left of it aside with vicious contempt, and looked over to Jim, who slowly climbed to his feet. Jackson watched as Jim moved painstakingly to him, and suddenly, he noticed, in the pool of blood gathered at his feet, the glint of a tiny golden ring. "Pretty," Jackson said to himself, and he picked it up, slipping it onto his smallest finger. He waited, patiently, for Jim to reach him, and they walked out of the other end of the alley, as slowly as before.

Interesting, huh? Jackson, who is a monster, has used a monstrous aspect of his vampiric nature to protect Jim. Wasn't Jim weaker than his attackers? What other choice did Jackson have, if any? Within the context of the example, wasn't the attack against Jackson and Jim unmotivated? Sure it was, and perhaps Jackson did the right thing by using his "gifts" to help his packmate.

Plot proofs for the "tightness" of Sabbat action and teaching certainly shouldn't stop at explaining the Beast. The reasons behind the sect's hatred of the Antediluvian threat and its actions against this threat are great plot hooks. The story hooks that arise out the sect's practice of diablerie and why/how they use it as a weapon of war against the Camarilla achieves this end, also, for, aren't the Camarilla vampires just tools used by the Antediluvians, to the Sabbat way of thinking? Any plot device that constrains an individual choice - remember, freedom is a central catechism of Caine - is rife with possibilities for plot twists, danger and conflicts of choice. There are many possibilities. It's up to the individual Storyteller to choose them, define them and incorporate them into the action of her chronicle.

Concept: Antiheroes Have Canons and Follow Them

Most antiheroes follow a code of behavior. The Paths of Enlightenment provide Sabbat characters with these codes, as do the larger laws of the Code of Milan and the auctoritas and ignoble ritae. Still, not all Sabbat follow these rules mindlessly. Some do, but others think them through. That's what separates the leaders from the followers, the chiefs from the braves. Some question these codes and refine or redefine them. Some merely go with the flow.

The chronicle best satisfies its players' emotional attachment to ethics - not their true ethics, just their emotional need for a sense of ethical congruity - if it presents the Sabbat as being true to an ideal or a group of them. It needs to illustrate for the troupe that members of the sect are willing to die and kill in defense of these ideals. Storytellers need to show, within story action, how other points of view act in counterpoint to the workings and teachings of the Sabbat, and they should then guide the troupe members in seeing the greater evil in those who have chosen this other path.

Storytellers can create such dichotomy by having troupe members encounter Camarilla rank-and-file who are choking under the yoke of constraint that this sect places on its youngest childer, how these vampires die as front-line soldiers simply to keep a prince and his favorite pets in power. She can show how they are destroyed at a prince's whim, and then contrast it with the freedom of choice and action that the Sabbat offers. She can show how the characters' contacts and allies have been slaughtered by the opposition for mere rules violations that seem arbitrary and senseless to them. She can illustrate the mindless serfdom of the blood bond, and how it basically robs the vampire under it of self-determined choice and direction. She can even illustrate that the concept of Camarilla vampires clinging to their Humanity is a hypocritical absurdity by showing that they don't treat humans any better than the Sabbat does.

Concept: Beliefs Motivate What Antiheroes Do

Within the structure of their belief system, Sabbat are not all unthinking thugs, bullies and sadists. While there are thugs within the sect, and the sect has coarse tactics, many Sabbat truly believe that they are soldiers for their way of thinking. They have definite reasons for following the course of existence that they have chosen. Within the chronicle, it's emotionally resonant and works well if the Storyteller shows her troupe that unmotivated actions have consequences and that those consequences are usually much harsher than the initiating action.

Let's say the troupe decides to slaughter a random group of individuals, yet it doesn't have any real reason to do so. Consider that these actions aren't as the result of a city siege, or they're not committed as the result of any of ritae, such as a Blood Feast or a peculiar Creation Rite. The characters are just leaving a body count, and they don't care who finds it. Any number of consequences could come out of such actions. Other vampires could take note and come after them. The city's prince - if it's Camarilla held - could call a blood hunt against them. Mortal hunters could come upon the results of the packmates' actions and start hunting them. Their own pack members could punish them for breaking rank and opening the pack up to direct danger and sanctions from higher up within the sect. Bishops, archbishops and other packs may look disfavorably on this kind of blatant violence, which tends to alert police and other parties to the monsters in their midst. There are many possible reprisals.

Storytellers can really drive this point home to the troupe, if they go further and - through their chronicles' interpretation of the teachings of Caine - lead the troupe through an understanding that the mindless actions of Sabbat who are merely thugs and bullies are distasteful and no better than the sect's enemies. Even though some members of the Sabbat may be disinterested and unmotivated by the tenets of the sect - because they are thugs and bullies, or because they're associated only by lineage or shovelhead origins - a Storyteller's presentation of the chronicle's ethics will be the most effective if she shows that the sect, as a whole, does have ideals, and that wavering from those ideals will bring punishment.

Concept: Actions Have Consequences, Even for the Faithful

Taking the "don't let the mindless go unpunished" proverb one step further, it's an inescapable fact that ail actions have reactions. If the troupe chooses a course of action, it's not only appropriate but necessary for the Storyteller to follow the evolution of that action to it's natural conclusion, even if the consequences of the characters' choices are detrimental to the continuance of their existence. This is "The Sabbat Storyteller's Rule of Dramatic Relativity." If the she doesn't stay true to it, the chronicle feels arbitrary and falls into unmotivated action faster than she can think of ways to try and stop the descent. It's a good idea for her to try and make these contextual reactions proportionate to the initial troupe action, unless the chronicle, as a whole will be better served by the Storyteller using the contextual reaction as a vehicle for illustrating a larger theme.

Concept: Antiheroes Have Flaws

The central postulate of any dramatic literature - and roleplaying is an interactive form of dramatic literature - is that antiheroes have flaws that ultimately become the catalyst of their failure if they don't wise up and do something about them. Remember, flaws are the source of rich dramatic conflict, and an element necessary to a believable and exciting chronicle. Further, flaws are what defines an antihero in the first place.

What are sect's flaws? Does the Sabbat, wholly and individually, want to overcome these flaws? Do Sabbat have tragic flaws, those harbingers of dark destiny that dramatic literature puts forth as the final force in an antihero's undoing? Yes, the sect has several exploitable flaws.

Overall, like other groups with strong ideology, the sect can be intractable in its beliefs, and it can be stagnant in its methods of supporting them. Intractability fosters errors in judgment; Sabbat sometimes make poor choices and poor bargains in defense of their belief system. The disorganized "freedom above all else" structure of the sect makes it difficult for the Sabbat to be effective on a large scale and makes it easy for them to be without direction. And they do have tragic flaws. They can have any tragic flaws that exists in the nature of emotion, like greed, anger, envy, laziness, pride, obsession, lust for blood, paranoia-the list is endless. Finally, their monstrous natures and the fact that they have embraced the Glorious Curse of Caine with a religious fervor undo them; they know all the while that they can never be fully with God. Understanding that concept provides the Storyteller with a natural illustration for helping the troupe comprehend the sect's rage and brutality.

How does can the Storyteller show this tragic aspect of Sabbat existence ? Communicating emotional and structural flaws will be an easy task for her - she simply shows the flaw and the consequences that result from the flaw. Take pride, for instance.

Epiphany knew that Ashton would be an easy double-cross. He was too pretty, too vain, too stupid, too ignorant of anything but Us own importance and his higher rank. He was so proud, in fact, that when she staked his worthless carcass out on the cool, silent earth - after she'd broken most of his bones by driving over him in her pickup; after she had cracked his skull open for the flies; after she'd removed his eyelids with a razor to ensure his active welcome of the coming sun - he'd been honestly surprised that only laughter answered his beseeching screams....

Communicating metaphysical concepts is a little harder, but can be illustrated with the same scene. The Storyteller just adds the metaphysical reference and it's subsequent resonance.

The pack's laughter grew fainter, less distinct as Ashton's screams became whimpers, then became moans. Precious vitae leaking from dead tear-ducts poured down through his hair pooling on the ground around his head. He could see it now, the hints of pink and purple rising over the hilltops - Epiphany had given him a horrifically attractive view - that heralded his coming extinction, creeping overhead in the colors of a beautiful shroud that she'd sewn for him out of treachery. His fractured skull buzzed with lies and mistakes, and for an instant, through the pain, he thought he saw Caine in the shroud. Caine, his father - no, was this death delirium? And, who was that with him? A man, maybe a woman, but someone with whom Caine was talking, and his father wore a peaceful countenance. For an instant, it seemed as though Caine regarded, him with vast regret, turning away, and the irony of his existence struck him like a blow from Epiphany's truck. "Hell awaits; why didn't anyone tell me?" he thought, as his laughter turned to hysteria and the sun's full intensity struck him. His fingertips started to curl and smoke...

Concept: Antiheroes Often Have Enemies of Equal or Surpassing Evil

It's a dirty trick, but it works. There's always another force out there in the World of Darkness that is even nastier, more heartless and less merciful, which uses tactics much more evil than any Sabbat pack can come up with.

A good embodiment of this concept is a vampire who falls to infernal influence and corruption. The attractive Storytelling shtick of the infernal is that it really isn't just a threat that captures the souls of the Sabbat's renegade elements alone. Any vampire can make a bargain with the Devil and travel down the road of lies and temptations. But, any plot trick of "they're worse than we are" allows reluctant troupe members who are bothered personally by the brutality and callousness of the Sabbat a chance to enjoy the action-heavy and intrigue-heavy Sabbat chronicle and still feel that their characters are fighting for something positive. It may be a hedge, it might be a gimmick, but it's a gimmick that works to allow a Storyteller to be sensitive to the feelings and wants of all her troupe members, not just those who accept the sect's brutality without being bothered by it.

Other good antagonists that fulfill this role can be drawn from the ranks of the Setites and the Giovanni. Further, those clans that are only loyal to the Camarilla, like the mystical Tremere and the "mainstream" versions of some of the more menacing clans, like the crazily prophetic Malkavians, the secretive and lethal Nosferatu and the regal Ventrue, can offer sound and freakish opponents. So, while Vampire: The Masquerade isn't a game that can be slotted into "good guy" and "bad guy," as previously observed, it is a game that can explore darker and lighter shades of gray.

Okay, but how do you communicate this construct in story terms? You construct it through careful choice of chronicle antagonists, and you communicate it by coloring the actions of those antagonists in an interesting manner that's consistent with your chronicle's theme. This characterization can be either a subtle or broad picture -a snap-shot or a Rembrandt-but it should always be thought-provoking and show the troupe that it serves a purpose that is better motivated than that of the antagonist. Let's take a look at this at work, using the dual chronicle themes of the threat of infernal corruption and the shifting sands of power:

Our scene is set in a city currently held by the Camarilla. An ambitious Tremere, one who wanted to rule, but who didn't want to have to deal with the night-to-night administrative humdrum of doing so, has allied with a few Malkavians and Nosferatu. They have effectively put a puppet-prince in charge. The Tremere is a subtle and careful gamesman, one who trucks with a demon and foolishly believes that he controls the fiend, not vice versa. The Malkavians and Nosferatu influence the mortal crime element that abounds in the city. The puppet-prince is a wanton psychotic who applies his own arbitrary vision of the Masquerade to the vampires who use his city as a haven, one who changes the rules arbitrarily, either leaving his subjects alone or slaughtering them as the mood hits him. Recently, a group of anarchs have tried to shift the balance of power, only to be uncovered and exposed by the Tremere through infernal means. The prince has "disposed" of the traitors via a means that is abhorrent to the troupe. He's blood bound them to him and is using the bond to cause them to either act as their own tormentors or not to resist when the prince orders his mortal ghouls to "play " with the captives. What a lesson this will teach those vampires who try to oppose him! Through exposing the anarchs, the Tremere has strengthened the infernal entity's power in the vampiric world.

The Storyteller's troupe enters this situation to act as spies in the early phases of a city siege. The intelligence the sect has gathered so far has brought some of the more salient dynamics of the situation - the presence of Tremere, the murderously arbitrary nature of the prince, and possibly, the taint of infernalism. They now believe that the city is not only ripe for siege, but a necessary target for it because of the Tremere manipulator, his infernal helpmate and, most importantly, the threat to continued vampiric existence the prince poses. The Tremere takes actions that are subtle, malicious and treacherous; the Malkavians and Nosferatu show a self-interested willingness to play all ends against the middle, whatever the cost; the prince gives the characters a glimpse of his twisted nature in broad, alarmingly charismatic brush strokes. The elements of the Tremere's tie to the infernal, the increasing influence of that tie on the city and the tenuous, dangerous power games played by the vampires in question show the chronicle's theme through plot action and situation background.

Can the Sabbat be used in an existing Camarilla chronicle as the antagonists? Can they be further used in such a chronicle as reluctant allies? Sure they can, but the viewpoint of a Storyteller's presentation of the Sabbat shouldn't really be any different than outlined above. Antagonists are best effective when they have sound motivations. Reluctant allies are such because they're completely different in outlook from the protagonists, but they're working with the protagonists because they share a common goal, thus having motivations, too. Neither side fully understands the other's viewpoint, nor should it.

Stereotypically, the Sabbat as antagonists believe that the Camarilla protagonists are simply tools of their own vampiric demise. To borrow the True Sabbat voice for an instant, they define their enemy as "Antediluvian puppets, slaves who don't have the wisdom or the courage to understand our methods, our rites or our purpose." As allies of the moment, Sabbat Storyteller characters might work with a Camarilla coterie under the axiom of, "Well, we need them for now, and we can always double-cross them later." And remember, sect is not really an easily recognizable attribute. Any recognition of sect is up to the Storyteller to make apparent or shadowy, and the two sects may work together much more often than they think they do. Storytellers of Camarilla chronicles can use the Sabbat as warriors of siege to their city, as spies against their sect, as ideological zealots. She can color them as brutal bastards who, through their adherence to freedom above all else and their contempt for the Masquerade, open the Camarilla to the unwanted eyes of mortal hunters. She can make her players see them as enemies motivated by the Beast, a Beast that the Camarilla tries so hard to repress. As reluctant allies, the Sabbat should have a common purpose for working with a Storyteller's troupe, such as a threat that serves to affect both sects - blood plagues, mortal hunters, Lupines, equally threatening clans like the Tremere, infernal taint and corruption - or a purpose that would be mutually beneficial on either a personal or sect level - like ridding a city a of certain prince or ruling council. But, again, the sect of an ally isn't always (hell, or even nearly always) obvious, so she can use them to help her troupe for a while and then use the Sabbat as a vehicle of treachery later on. The most important attribute is consistency. Camarilla-chronicle Storytellers need to approach presenting the Sabbat in their chronicles in much the same way that Sabbat-chronicle Storytellers do, with the greatest storytelling emphasis on keping the actions of the sect proportionate and consistent with its ideology.

Mixed chronicles can work with careful planning and even more careful execution, as well. Chronicles in which the Storyteller runs with a set of troupe members playing mixed Sabbat/Camarilla characters are a real challenge - it's like trying to carry on two chronicles for the price of one. However, they are by no means unworkable, and they do offer an opportunity for the Storyteller to add direct dimensions of paranoia, treachery, distrust and (heavens forfend!) maybe even hesitant understanding, grudging mutual respect and re-examination of each sect's own dogma to her game.

To accomplish this end, the Storyteller may find that the most effective plots are interesting and resonant to both sets of characters. Then, mechanically, she has distinct choices that she must make about whether she'll run the groups simultaneously and let them react directly to each other, or if she'll run them separately, and let the actions of each group come as a surprise without direct intervention from either side. Lastly, she must decide if she wants to tell stories that put the mixed characters in conflict with each other, if she wants them to have to work together, if she even wants them to be aware of each other's sect or if she believes that any of these elements will work best for her chronicle's theme.

That said, let's put away ethics with one final exploration. What does a Storyteller do when her players just don't "get" the Sabbat, or if they are bothered by the sect's heartlessness?

Sure, there will come a time when a Storyteller finds that she's unable to come up with any good explanation, much less a congruently ethical one, for some of the more evil acts of the Sabbat, like the kidnapping and torture of mortals for fun and games. Some players react negatively to this, some don't, but remember, the players who react negatively do so more loudly than the others. At this point, the Storyteller just has to allow her players to make up their own minds as to how their characters will react to the evil, and let the presented act stand on its own. If this action takes a particular player (or a group of them) in a different direction from "True Sabbat" ideology, she needs to let that happen, because fighting it is fruitless and detrimental to her story and the dynamics of her group. Players have a real distaste for any Storyteller action that they interpret as being deus ex machina.

So, we've now come full circle to this beginning question: Is the Sabbat a viable central point for a chronicle? Yes. The Sabbat characterizes another viewpoint, a different one to be sure, an alien and ghastly one for certain, but a viewpoint that is not unmotivated or necessarily more evil than any other Vampire: The Masquerade character.

Using and Transcending Sabbat Nastiness

Sabbat are heartless and brutal in their tactics. Therefore, any Sabbat chronicle could, and usually does, move naturally toward showcasing action that is brutal and heartless. The unmerciful violence and the depravity of the sect are elements that the Storyteller shouldn't be afraid to use; she can and should keep these elements at the front of her presentation of the sect. They are an absolute characteristic of a large number of Sabbat, from the rank-and-file to the highest sect echelons. While these ingredients are not all that make up the whole of a Sabbat vampire or a Sabbat chronicle - Sabbat can be logical, efficient, intelligent, practical and even courteous-heartless brutality is present in their actions to whatever degree the Storyteller chooses to use them. We might as well accept it, Sabbat are a study in Social Darwinism, and Sabbat troupe members may, more likely than not, find themselves in situations that tempt or require them to loose their instincts, their brutality and their depravity, because such a loosing is consistent with their freedom, adherence to the tenets of Caine and their genesis as monsters.

Why are most Sabbat so... inhumane? Well, they're not human, are they? They understand that fact, they embrace it and they foster it. They don't believe that human values apply to them. While Storytellers need to give them motivations for what they do, how they do it and consequences that arise naturally from their actions, it's not logical for them confuse Sabbat motivations and logical consequences with human morality. Such a confusion will only drive a Storyteller crazy; it serves only to make her presentation of the sect skewed in a manner that's not consistent with its outlook.

What causes some Sabbat to choose the death of opponents over discourse with them? What causes them to play with their mortal prey, like a cat tortures a mouse before it devours it? First, the Sabbat sees itself as a nation of zealots fighting a war, a pitched battle of Armageddon with the Antediluvians. Wars are violent, and the zealots who fight them commit all manner of horrible and atrocious acts against their enemies. Next, they accept the fact that they're monsters, and they don't hold back on proving it. They simply have no guilt about doing whatever it takes to win the war and about doing what it takes to serve their own natures. Therefore, any vehicle of siege and any act that to displays their heinous superiority is okay - none are really verboten, unless they're handled sloppily. Many members of the sect enjoy violence, outright cruelty, torture and malicious sport. They take pleasure in vitae sprayed and consumed by the bucketful, rape and sexual depravity. They toy with human conventions (Church and state alike), and they make mockeries of them, using sacrilegious malice, outright blasphemy against human faith, truck with infernal entities, ruthless treachery, insidious corruption and any other fiendish tactic they believe is true to their purpose and their nature. And they do it with a superior smirk on their faces.

All these plot elements are decidedly mature themes (in that they're not appropriate to the young or underdeveloped. Certainly, more mature ways exist for dealing with problems than shooting a cop in the face and skull-fucking his wife, but it happens, especially in the World of Darkness, and particularly in Sabbat cities), which present a minefield to the Storyteller if they're not handled carefully. Gratuitousness might not be a concept that can easily be applied to the Sabbat, but it can be applied to an audience, and the troupe is that audience. And players have their boundaries.

How much extreme content is too much? Is there such a thing? Yep, there is and one misstep in this area can derail a chronicle faster than a Toreador antitribu can gut a kine for paint. Determining boundaries depends largely on the Storyteller's knowledge of the troupe members involved in her chronicle. We all get hung up in this area, we all believe we're being too graphic or too offensive if we incorporate mature elements heavily, or conversely, that they're "wimping out" if we go light on their inclusion. Going too far jeopardizes the credibility of the story, or turns it into simple splatter, neither of which is truly "mature." Do you, as a Storyteller, believe that your troupe might be offended, shocked, disturbed, scared (well, scared is good), or outright angry if you choose to incorporate mature themes into your chronicle? If you do, the only way around that little hole in the road is to ask the players about it. You should come to an understanding about their limits and tailor your chronicle to these parameters.

It's entirely likely that the troupe might wish to forgo some of the more adult-oriented themes of the Sabbat and, focus instead on other things like their intellectual pursuits into the nature of vampires or their sectarian political machinations. If that's what best fits the interests of her troupe, she should run with those elements. No Storyteller should feel guilty about going light or heavy on graphic story content. These things are merely characteristics of the Sabbat, and they are there for the her to use, suggest or ignore, dependent upon the focus of her story.

Effective acknowledgment to mature subject matter includes a mixture of styles, that makes use of all the characteristics of the sect. This inclusion can combine plot catalysts, in a horrifically striking (or terribly subtle) manner that give the troupe members a taste of all the elements of Sabbat unlife. Warcraft, wickedness, intrigue (both political and personal), intellectual exploration and investigation are all story elements that the Storyteller colors with the unique Sabbat perspective. She can do so with as much (or as little) disturbing subtlety as she believes her troupe will enjoy.

For example, Storytellers can take the same plot element and color its presentation differently, giving it either an implied R-rated menace or an adult-oriented clarity. (It's a little difficult to see anything that has to do with the Sabbat as being rated PG-13!)

"On your knees."

Troy twisted his hands through the mortal's hair, watching her face contort with pain and hatred. She squirms like a wolf in a claw trap chewing off its own foot, he thought, and he smiled at the thought, glancing around at the circled pack watching the ordeal to see if any of them noticed its presumption. With contempt and a vicious twist of his wrist, Troy commanded the mortal to face him bodily, positioning her open mouth within a breath's proximity of his. Her eyes grew more warier, but she wouldn't scream. Not yet, anyway, Troy thought. But fear comes with discovery, and before the night's revels ended, she would sob out its torment in broken, hollow tears.

Troy smiled into her face with affected sweetness-after all, shouldn't you calm the animal a bit before you brought about its transcendence? Troy then violated her mouth with a kiss that tasted of vitae and Came, of deceit and hideous rebirth. She struggled, but futilely. He ended the kiss when he knew the time was right, and she stared straight ahead as he pushed her to her knees on the cold, earth in front of him. With a movement of his hand and a rustle of clothing, he removed the obvious obstacles impeding the progress of the woman's lesson in the acceptance of brutality, drawing a pistol and placing the muzzle against her temple. Placidly, he motioned for the circled pack to come closer and hold her head steady. He smiled when he saw the realization come to her eyes. "Grace be/ore dinner is only polite, but then I don't necessarily expect manners from you, human." Then he proceeded with the lesson, smugly vindicated in the knowledge that a well-placed directive of blood and flesh had strangled off the beginnings of the woman's screams....

Okay, well that wasn't too graphic, was it? Now, let's show how we can take the same scene and the same action, and slap the troupe in the face with the imagery.

"On your knees, bitch."

Troy grubbed a fistful of Hayden's copper-colored hair, and twisted, watching with obvious fascination as the mortal's face contorted in sharp pain and sharper hatred. Jesus, how it squirms, it's like a wolf chewing off its own foot because it's caught in a trap, he thought, and he laughed out loud at the simile, shortly and dismissifely. Fucking animal - she was still insolent enough, still presumptuous enough to meet his eyes with hard contempt, so, twisting even tighter, Troy pulled her bodily to him, jerking her face around with a vicious tug, and positioned her mouth within a breath's proximity of his. Her eyes grew warier, but she wouldn' t scream. Not yet, anyway, Troy thought, but, oh, later it would. It would scream until its lungs were hollow and its throat was raw and bleeding.

He smiled into her face sweetly - after all, shouldn' t you calm the animal a bit before you slaughtered it and brought about its transcendence? Then, with brutal efficiency, Troy violated her mouth with his own, pushing his tongue down her throat until she gagged, tearing at her lips with his fangs in a forceful kiss that tasted of vitae and Caine, of deceit and hideous rebirth. The stupid cow struggled futilely. Then, breaking off the kiss when he'd had enough of it, Troy shoved her brutally to her knees on the cold, hard ground in front of him. As she coughed in release and spat blood onto the earth, Troy reached for the zipper of his jeans and drew his pistol, motioning with it for those packmates watching in amusement to hold her head steady. He smiled when he saw the realization come to her eyes, and placed the pistol to her temple as he opened his/Iy ail the way, forcing blood into his lifeless member.

"What's the matter, honey, haven't you gone down on a dead guy before? Maybe you should start saying the Lord's prayer, now. My momma always made sure that we said Grace before dinner." Troy entered her mouth, smugly vindicated in the knowledge that a well-placed directive of blood had allowed this decades-old edifice of dead flesh to strangle off the beginnings of the bitch's screaming....

So, you see, gentle or pummeling, the same idea can be presented and delivered in two different ways, with two different degrees of extremity, and still get the same disturbing idea across to the troupe.

The next step in using explicit content is deciding where it best happens and what situations/devices it best fits. Certain plot situations and Sabbat characteristics (devices) suggest more of a Storytelling opportunity for any of the mature content discussed. The observance of sect ritae works. Political maneuvers can be efficient coups with scads of bloodletting, or they can be decades longs machinations that culminate in formal, baroque duels to the death with all manner of perverted and piquantly cancerous celebrations to herald them. War Parties can be bloodbaths brought down against an elder and Wild Hunts can be subtly disturbing games of cat-and-mouse against a traitor. Packs can, and do, fight others and amongst themselves with impunity and gore. Again, Storytellers need to make them logical, and tailor them to the tastes of their troupe and dictates of their story lines. Finally, where these conventions happen will naturally effect the intensity or overt nature of their presentation. There are a few natural factors to include - namely the setting where the content occurs and the situation that results in its inclusion. If a Storyteller learns to ask herself "when" and "where", finding a logical and generic place to use mature content appropriately is easy.

Let's take "where" first. The ease of carrying out wicked practices, from violence, to subtly malignant torture on through perverted ritual, necessitates some kind of control over the setting. This doesn't mean they can't ever happen in unusual settings, but they logically occur only in these places under a sparse or deserted set of circumstances.

Logical Settings: Abandoned, crumbling warehouses in deserted industrial sections of the city. Old, forsaken graveyards. Desiccated farmhouses. Deserted stretches of highway. Rotting viaducts and overpasses. Isolated city parks. Sewers. Sparse subway tunnels and platforms. Amusement parks/ carnivals left to rot where they last played. Desecrated vacant churches. Train yards. Specialty sex shops. Pornography factories. Whorehouses. Nightclubs (especially those of ill repute). Abandoned churches.

Illogical Settings: Macy's One Day Sale. The main headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department. Corporate boardrooms (due to size, ease of entrance and availability). The White House. The Capitol Rotunda. St. Patrick's Cathedral at Midnight Mass. A tent revival meeting.

Settings So Illogical They Have a Twisted Appeal: Chuck E. Cheese. Walt Disney World. The Mall of America. New York Public Library. Carnegie-Mellon Museum. The Rockefeller Center Skating Rink at Christmas. A casino in Atlantic City. Bronner's Christmas Store and Bavarian Village. A tent revival meeting.

As an example of setting logic for mature themes, take packs in general. Nomadic packs suggest a different group of circumstances than their founded counterparts do. Neither group necessarily participates in more or less of these vile practices, but their overt nature is different, because each group has different constraints and conditions that naturally govern their behavior.

For instance, nomads don't have a specific territory loyalty to worry about and no real respect for territories they pass through, but founded packs do have a vested interest in their domains. Nomads can thumb their noses at the problems associated with mortal detection more often than founded city packs can because they don't stay in one place. They can get on their motorcycles and drag the lifeless bodies behind them down the highway for fun and easy clean-up. Founded packs are simply sneakier about disguising their antics and depravity as street crime, gang warfare, serial killings and Mafia-style murders, using these human conditions to hide their activity. They attend their affairs in basements of burned-out tenement buildings, abandoned warehouses and the recesses of kinky S&M specialty salons, for example. Detection is something a founded pack thinks about more often than a nomadic one, because, after all, don't cities have police, mortal military, SWAT teams and reporters? And while both groups are less worried about breaking the loose concept of the Masquerade that the Sabbat employs, they do employ the concept at times. So, even in times of all-out war, a tactic they can sometimes disguise as rioting and civil unrest, they pick their timing and the places where they conduct their ceremonies, rituals and mayhem carefully.

But why? Why should the Sabbat care about the prying eyes of mortals? Why should they try to hide their body count? The Sabbat isn't necessarily afraid of a conflict with mortals they could control, but they're not stupid enough to believe that would always happen. They realize the military advantage of cleaning up their messes. Wanton disregard of mortal discovery is a tool to use against the Camarilla, not against themselves (see Chapter Seven). While breaking the Masquerade might be enjoyable, they won't let the body count lead hunters to their own havens.

Simply put, as a Storyteller, think your settings for mature content through. Does this mean, then, that there should never be a Blood Feast in the Ed Sullivan Theater at midnight? What, no Games of Instinct at the State Fair? Of course not. Turning logic upside down, if its planned and delivered carefully, can be even more effective than the more "logical" settings, because they have macabre, black credibility and a straight horrific potential. But the optimum word governing a storyteller's choice of setting is careful. Define what a logic and setting is, thereby giving yourself a framework for knowing what conventions can tossed on their asses, then, let your troupes be as wild as they wanna be... and slap them upside the head with the consequences of their actions.

What about the conventions of the Sabbat that have violent or perverted potential for story content ? What are they?

The conventions of the Sabbat that delve into mature content include War Parties, dangerous Lupine hunts, the practice of Diablerie, crusades against Camarilla-held cities, as well as nightly hunts for vitae and any Sabbat interaction with "an enemy." Color them with terror, mystery and kinky detachment. Give your players a real sense of the horrific nature of the sect by showing them the things that Sabbat do that make them so widely reviled. Butcher kine with impunity. Find what scares your players and punch those buttons often. For example, if Rob is afraid of serial killers, but prefers subtle content, focus on the innocuous aspects of brutality and death that would make Rob jump; make the horror personal to him. If Fred trembles at the thought of losing control, place Fred's character in a role of subservience to a bishop or ductus. Simply put, find out what scares the hell out of them, what makes them edgy, then use it against them.

(Note that these techniques are useful for building tension, horror and gut-level reaction. Vampire shouldn't always be comfortable, but its should never be a vehicle for a maladjusted Storyteller to bully her players psychologically.)

Other methods for using adult content within the Sabbat chronicle come from many of the auctoritas and ignoblis ritae. Ritae such as the Blood Feast and the Vaulderie are steeped in mystery. Monomacy and the Fire Dance are tests of prowess. All ritae are best colored by the Storyteller with an almost metaphysical, erotic frenzy. Make them violent. Make them subtle or make them overt. Tease your players with ordinary things that you make extraordinarily frightening. Think about it: One of the most disturbing and outright terrifying images in the movie Poltergeist was an ordinary clown doll. The director made it frightening by gradually changing its appearance, then hitting the audience between the eyes with its menace.

The Storyteller has a real chance to shine by remembering that ritae (as well as other aspects of the Sabbat and its actions), have the accompanying pomp and circumstance of ceremony to them, as well as a terrible beauty that is effective on an almost cinematic scale.

These Sabbat encounters are violent, some extremely so. Is that all there is to the Sabbat? Is the sect merely a purveyor of total slaughter and kinky torture? No. They play all manner of cruel and wicked games. The Storyteller can best show the world the impact of the Sabbat if she does so with greater depth and texture. Acknowledge the violence, show it, make your troupe members touch it, and take them beyond it. Violence for violence's sake quickly becomes boring and pedestrian. The troupe becomes desensitized to it, and it loses its impact. Brutality doesn't retain it's effectiveness as a storytelling device if it's not meted out thoughtfully and with internal consistency to the chronicle as a whole.

So, then, where does The Sabbat play when they aren't playing at warcraft and when they're not mowing down mortals with the greatest of ease? They play at statesmanship, diplomacy and politics, vampire-style.

The Sabbat Political Machine

The politics of the Sabbat is a unique mix of ideological styles. While it values freedom and individuality, the sect also has to deal with the necessity of putting the good of the group before the good of its individuals. (Or, at least appear to care. Come on. Do you really think a four-century-old Sabbat cares about the lowly rank-and-file?) Sect leaders make a big deal about creating a sense of unity in purpose and loyalty through action for their soldiers. The powers that be within the Sabbat realize this fact and use it as a rallying cry against their enemies.

How does a Storyteller do the same? The Sabbat is a perfect example of Social Darwinism in action. The fittest survive, and natural selection of those best fit continues without any assistance from outside forces. The Sabbat applies this ethic to its attitude on mortals and other vampires alike. Those best suited to continue to exist, will continue to exist. Their leaders become leaders because of their bravery, combat prowess, strategy, backbiting, bribery, treachery, murder and, almost ironically, honor.

Sabbat claw their way up through the ranks with treacherous precision. They gut friends in the way and stroke powerful rivals with a delicate and terrible effectiveness. They prove themselves in battle and discourse, through actions that are monstrous and subtle or simply overt and brutal.

Think as a Sabbat for a moment. You're roughly equal to your pack brothers, because you all serve the same function and purpose - you serve Caine, seek freedom from subservience to elders and strive to accept your own horrific nature. You share in a ritus that ensures your unswerving loyalty to the sect and its goals, the Vaulderie. You want to advance past your brothers, so you learn to play with their fears, exceed the expectations those higher in station have of you, be in the right place at the right time and step on everyone in your way with such precision that it points the finger of blame at someone else's foot. Then, when they least expect it, you drive a stake through your closest rival's heart, douse her with gasoline, set her on fire and walk away whistling a Nine Inch Nails tune (or a Bach sonata, depending on your tastes).

The Sabbat also believes the Camarilla is a useless and antiquated oligarchy. With its ruling caste and petty princes, all in service to the corrupt and rotting Antediluvians, it squelches freedom and individual choice among "Kindred" like it bears the divine right of kings. According to the Sabbat, the Camarilla may make the pretense of honoring the needs of its smallest member, but it doesn't act on them at all. Its princes are in no way bound to follow or honor these ideas. Sabbat whisper, as they are piquantly slaughtering kine and hanging them up as food, that the Camarilla princes slaughter their young and hang them up. Rumors persist that the Camarilla blithely courts and competes for the Antediluvians' favor, by offering up its young and its captives as sacrifices. Some Sabbat also believe that members of the Camarilla are in league with certain Lupines and other unspeakable things.

The Sabbat's hierarchy is modeled loosely on Catholic Church rank - mockingly at first, then, with surprising evolution toward mirroring those ranks. The earliest seeds of the Sabbat were sown during the mortal Inquisition, and although the sect wasn't a "sect" until the middle of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was prominent and powerful. The Church had a strong ideology and a xenophobic sense of purity. It burned heretics, and, like the Camarilla, it artificially limited freedom. So the Sabbat, out of contempt, derision and mockery, named it's offices after the mortal institution that caused its birth.

Gaining Political Status

Attaining Status within the sect, and within the pack is easy. Backbite, spy, use propaganda, be loyal to your allies, deal harshly with your enemies, deal harshly with your allies, be loyal to yourself, feign loyalty to your enemies, show sound reasoning and judgment in leadership, be an effective warrior and watch your back.

A Storyteller's stories should show the sect's political ruthlessness as well as its physical monstrousness. Put your players' characters in situations where they believe they act for the good of the sect and their leader, then change the conditions. Insert a spy in their midst. Let them spread rumors and false information on an enemy (because doing so is easy and even respected within the sect,) then spread false rumors and information about them. Have them spy on their enemies, then catch them and make the discovery hurt. Find ways to showcase their loyalty to each other - when it suits their purpose - and reward them for it with a favor from their leaders. Then, make them realize (when they least expect it) that a favor given now must be repaid later. Finally, all Sabbat watch each other's backs. So let them try. Remember, treachery is the nature of the game they play.

How The Sabbat Chooses A Leader

What reasons and supporting deeds help Sabbat rise through the ranks?

On a pack level, individual Sabbat rise in pack stature through direct actions. Actions include their deeds, their bravery, their battle prowess, their cunning and their fidelity to Sabbat and pack ideals. This concept applies not only to packs, but to individuals within them, including the rank-and-file Sabbat and lower-level lieutenants. In a game, rising within the pack should sometimes be meted out after a particularly successful raid, War Party, et cetera. Doing so is a really good chance to showcase the troupe's successes, and it works well if punctuated with observances of other unique Sabbat devices, like the ritae. Further, this rise in Sabbat stature, if done formally, is a perfect setting by which to introduce new antagonists and allies.

Among the sub-strata of the Sabbat, ranging from footsoldier through ductus, Sabbat rise because of recognized deeds, as well as how well-known and respected they are. More than individual pack recognition (which arises out of direct action), rising through the lower echelons of the Sabbat includes factors that make their subordinates like them, trust them and want to follow them. Remember, Sabbat are devious and double-crossing, like any politician.

Political maneuvering-namely, how an individual Sabbat schmoozes, uses bribery, propaganda and duels (though this last is rare) - dictates how far and how quickly an individual Sabbat may rise. Add to this mix spying, blackmail, boasting of personal accomplishments (sometimes through another's lips), assassination and the intellectual ability to argue Sabbat theology and principle through debate, and you'll have a nasty political picture.

Rising this way provides the same opportunity that a rise in pack status does for the Storyteller, but it adds another element, too. It gives the players a chance to attach their wagon to a rising star within Sabbat politics, or to become stars themselves, and it gives the Storyteller all the potential plot that such an attachment would naturally provide. Attach them to a particularly charismatic leader (one who looks promising at the beginning, and proves flawed in the middle game), then let them figure out how to handle the situation. Let them be ambitious enough to try to rise to this level themselves. Make them realize then, that power is a double-edged sword - with power comes enemies, fallacious deals, compromise (now, isn't that a kick in the ass?) and ambitious underlings waiting to commit the same treachery against them.

Finally, rising through the higher levels of Sabbat hierarchy, from archbishop through cardinal, incorporates all of the previous tactics, but adds to them a new element, either blaming the treachery that got you there on someone else, or convincing the leading scions of the Sabbat that it was in the sect's best interest for you to do so. It's a bit far-fetched for a Sabbat luminary to choose someone to fill these posts whose only claim to fame was treachery. Still, Storytellers can put their troupe's characters in situations where they're not directly involved with the power-players, but they are being manipulated by them. Put them on the outer spokes of the wheel, then turn it far enough to grind them.

Again, the Storyteller finds opportunity for plot in such a high rise in status in some of the same ways as she does with the lower echelons, but much less often. Changes this high up in the Sabbat, as a plot tactic, is best used as a backdrop for another story, unless you want your players' characters to be part of the Sabbat's guiding body - which is best left to those who can handle it. If you decide to drop your troupe in at this level directly, play it as an elders chronicle and cloud the plot with intrigue and treachery more base than at any other level. Maturity dictates that the player characters try to stay within a reasonable level within the structure of the Sabbat.

Adding Individual Sabbat to the Political Mix

The factions within Sabbat political culture don't often agree on the best course of action for the sect. They include the Status Quo, the Moderates, the Ultra-Conservatives, the Loyalist Movement, the Black Hand and the Inquisition (and, to some degree, the Panders). Each faction has its unique vision for Sabbat advancement, and its own ideas about attaining that advancement. Like two Malkavian antitribu comparing body counts, no two are quite the same.

The Status Quo of the Sabbat generally includes individual Lasombra, Tzimisce and members of the Black Hand. These Sabbat are on top of the political heap, so they have a vested interest in keeping things they way they are. These Sabbat don't want to see an increase in Sabbat authoritarianism, and they surely don't want to acquiesce in ideology (and therefore power) to the Moderate Sabbat or the Loyalists. The Status Quo typically wants to keep the Lasombra in the forefront of the sect.

Place the Status Quo of your story in positions of leadership and authority. Don't necessarily define its membership along clan lines-remember, the current regent is a Toreador antitribu. Use them as a focused voice on sect principles. Tell chronicles about factional squabbles - squabbles punctuated with hidden bodies. Show what happens when an individual Sabbat stands up to the Status Quo. Show that the Status Quo, because it upholds Sabbat freedom above all, may issue orders to subordinates, but the orders are always worded as "requests." Make clear how faction members value the subtly manipulative technique of playing on impropriety of refusal, rather than on taking direct reprisal. That way, the leaders can look clean and be dirty.

The Sabbat has Moderates, a category into which most of the Sabbat tends to fall politically. The Moderate faction attracts the Gangrel, Malkavian, Toreador and Nosferatu antitribu and the Serpents of the Light, but it doesn't automatically include them. It's a growing faction, one that sees the sect becoming more structured and wishes to keep this from happening. The Moderates believe that crusades should be called only when absolutely necessary, usually because crusades call for following orders. The Moderates acquiesce to orders, but they question their leaders if they disagree with them. The Status Quo doesn't like this (and the Moderates know it), so they follow orders mostly to remain in good standing.

Place the Moderates roughly in the middle. Give them conflicting political stances. Push them to the left, push them to the right, then shove them to the left again. Use them as the voice of political reason. Use them as fence-sitters, play on their apathy, then when the troupe least expects it, have them suddenly come down hardline and immovable.

The Ultra-Conservatives include the elders from all clans, and they favor centralization of undead power and authoritarian rule. "Gehenna is coming, Sons and Daughters," they say, "and if we're going to win, we have to get organized. The time for total freedom is over, unless the thought of falling before the fangs of an old Methuselah is high on your list of priorities." The Ultra-Conservatives think that if they are going to have a chance in the war with the Antediluvians, they'd better wise up and take on some structure. Because of its obvious precision of military thought, this faction seems to be gaining in support among the Black Hand. It wants to put the Panders on an equal footing with the rest of the Sabbat clans and antitribu. After all, the Ultra-Conservatives realize that the sect needs all the help it can get if it is going to forestall Gehenna, which creeps ever closer. The faction favors strong leaders, seeks to remove the weak ones and agrees with a Sabbat questioning a leader's dictates. But, if the order stands as a sound one, or if they're overmatched in their arguments against an order, the Ultra-Conservatives never support a failure to carry an order to its conclusion. Their motto could be described as, "Stability above all else, that's why we follow when we don't agree."

The Ultra-Conservatives are the perfect tool to crush too much chaos in the sect. Stand them in direct opposition to characters who act on their vampiric freedom so much that the faction would see them as a liability.

The Sabbat Loyalist Movement wants to stay true to the dictates of why the Sabbat was established in the first place: total, complete, undeniable freedom. Loyalists are labeled such because they follow Sabbat ideology first, to the exclusion of all else. They are mostly Ravnos and Brujah antitribu, and they believe that they should disobey their leaders' orders if those orders conflict with the tenets of True Sabbat. After all, the Sabbat was founded out of resentment for elder rule, and Loyalist believe that the sect's true strength arises out of formlessness. They are often stereotyped for their disobedience, they support all actions to regain territory lost to the Camarilla and they never imagine that anything they do could be construed as "harmful" to the sect. While they aren't disobedient for the sake of it, Loyalists openly criticize leaders, and through this criticism, they force other Sabbat to consider why they commit to certain actions.

Slap your troupe with a Loyalist antagonist that accuses the characters of being deficient in the tenets of True Sabbat. Use Loyalists as the voice of monstrousness. Play them as the devil's advocate of any other viewpoint.

The Panders technically make up the final political faction within the Sabbat, though this position is hardly a formal one. Simply put, Panders are total political whores. They support any faction that supports them or anyone who helps them increase their "legitimacy." They have no specific political agenda other than the acquisition of power and recognition. They follow orders that they don't find degrading or overtly dangerous, and they take almost any mission to increase their faction's - or their own - prestige.

The Panders are the underdogs, and underdogs can be the basis for a great story. Have the troupe work with them, get to know them, and then let the Panders use them for their own ends. Underdogs are dogs, after all, and dogs bite.

The Black Hand should be construed to be a political faction within the Sabbat, as well as a military arm that protects it. Separate from their adherence to the Status Quo, the Black Hand has its own agenda, and that agenda is shadowy. The specific motivations of the subsect are unknown, so let it suffice to say that its up for playing the other factions against each other for the best possible benefit.

Finally, the Inquisition, the subsect of the Sabbat that roots out heretics, has a political agenda of its own- keeping the Sabbat clean of corruption from the denizens of Hell. Sabbat hierarchy believes that it must root out infernal influences, lest the Sabbat become slaves of Hell, much like the Camarilla weaklings are slaves to the Antediluvians. The Inquisition moves outside and among the other factions, overriding them and keeping them in line if they cross too far over into thought and practice that leads away from this precept. After all, servitude to the Devil is still servitude.

Accuse the characters of being infernalists (but do it with reason!). Plant evidence that condemns them. Let them see, through the eyes of others, the noose of suspicion tightening around their necks. Let them see what happens to Sabbat convicted of infernal heresy. Make them rat on their friends, point fingers at their enemies and do anything to keep the Inquisition away from their door. Cloud the faction with secrecy, mistruth, and subtly-implied menace, then show the results in glorious Technicolor detail.

The political factions of the Sabbat work extremely well as vehicles for chronicle plot. They give backstory and texture to the whole chronicle, and they can provide a basis for inter- and intra-pack rivalries, thereby creating dramatic conflict. They add another dimension to a "rise through the ranks" storyline because every Sabbat has a unique political outlook, and that outlook will provide automatic antagonists that wish to stop such a rise through the ranks. Mix them up - use several factions together at once, alternately vilifying and accusing the pack of heresy against their particular school of thought.

Dirty Dealings-Political Propaganda Against the Camarilla

The Sabbat doesn't believe what the Camarilla thinks it believes. The sects hate each other like poison, but they're equally ignorant of each other's secrets. The Sabbat has strong ideas of what it thinks of the Camarilla and how it operates, but neither side really understands what the other is all about. The Sabbat knows that there is some antagonistic force out there, but the information about it might always be shadowy. Sometimes, it's just plain wrong. If the Sabbat knows so little about its archenemy, it has some inkling that it's archenemy knows just as little about it. The sect has a vested interest in keeping it that way.

So how do the two main sects of the Vampire milieu overmatch each other when they're not being openly combative? They use propaganda and misinformation to showcase each other's flaws.

It's a logical supposition that the elders of both sects are behind the propaganda machine. On the Sabbat side, most propaganda is spread among priests and the younger leaders because they're the first into the fray when trouble comes knocking. Also, scouts are indoctrinated to be the most fanatical and zealous of all the sects members because they must be kept free of the possible taint of conversion to the Camarilla's cause, lest the sect be exposed. So, the Sabbat uses propaganda within its own ranks to maintain the status quo in much the same way that the Camarilla uses it.

To the outside world as a whole, the Sabbat may use propaganda in wartime against the Camarilla by leaving clues to its existence to the mortal world. While the sect does what's necessary to expose an enemy, however, exposure is a double-edged sword. This specific break of the Camarilla's Masquerade is designed to lead mortals to the Camarilla's doorstep and away from the Sabbat. When given a sterling opportunity, one that won't expose her, the clever Sabbat drops knowledge of a Camarilla vampire's haven to mortal hunters and others alike if she believes it might help bring about the Camarilla's destruction.

The most common story coming from both sects is that they wish to wipe out all vampires who don't adhere to their way of thinking. The Sabbat is sure that the Camarilla poses such threats of destruction at Sabbat hands to its young and anarchs as: "The Sabbat are all alike. They want to suck out all your blood so they can lower their generation through diablerie. They are nuts. They are insane. They're millennium cultists. They're vampire cannibals! They set each other on fire and consume snakes! They will be your undoing! Follow us."

The Sabbat's answer to that rhetoric is, "Those Camarilla bastards protect the Antediluvians, and we are at war with them. Camarilla pussies are all weak, naive and stupid threats to vampiric existence. Through their misguided adherence to the tragically tender idea that they must retain humanity, they are a threat to us. They must be stopped at all costs, because if they aren't, you'll be the first to fall. They kill their youngest through servitude, then sacrifice them to their masters. They'll put you at the front of their battles, and they won't fight alongside you. They care about those stinking mortal pigs more than they do about you."

The propaganda machine provides the Storyteller with the chance to allow the troupe to play with it. Let them spread their own rumors, then let those rumors come back to haunt them. Also, propaganda affords the Storyteller a way to incorporate her own vision about what the opposition is doing, thinking and plotting, and it can kick the chronicle into the direction in which the Storyteller wishes to see it move.

Rumors are powerful tools. They can make us react in ways we normally wouldn't if they didn't exist. Therefore, it stands to reason that they can be used well as a way of disseminating information (be it true or untrue). Spread them through ritae-especially the Sermons of Caine - that call for ritualized discourse. Spread rumors through the words of angry captives who are about to meet Final Death at the sect's hands. Never miss a chance to use an enemy pack member as a rumor-mill.

Unique Opportunities

No other denizens of the World of Darkness give a Storyteller quite the same opportunity for dressing up her chronicle with the reverence, the mystery of ritual, and the ideological clarity that the Sabbat does. Within the storytelling fabric of the Sabbat, the Storyteller has auctoritas and ignoblis ritae, War Parties, crusades and the Great Jyhad at her disposal. All these devices provide wide and varied chances for any Storyteller to center a chronicle around them, or to paint the backdrop of a chronicle with them.

Ritae

Have you seen a wedding, a funeral, a baptism or a confirmation? Have you witnessed austere inaugurations or installation ceremonies? They're formal, often majestic, and they signify that something important is happening to the participants. Have you been to festivals or a party? Had fun, didn't you? Well, take all these mundane things, then put a twist on them that's part Catholic ritual, part hard-core porn/ horror movie (all of which is meant to honor the genesis of a monster), and you'll have the Sabbat's observance of the auctoritas and ignoblis ritae. The sect uses them because they honor the history, lore and beliefs of the Sabbat and the father of vampires, Caine. They are all rife with majesty, grandeur, solemnity, punk bravado, torture, twisted sexuality, reverence to Sabbat credo, terror and horrible loveliness. Ritae, after all, are Sabbat sacraments. Sacraments have form and liturgical paraphernalia designed with the specific ritual in mind. Oh, and there's one other thing, ritae are very, very frightening to the uninitiated observer. That's where the fun part comes in - for the Sabbat, that is.

You've read Chapter Five, so you know what the ritae are and why they're used. But how should they work as part of a chronicle? How should a Storyteller use them? She uses them as either a reason for the chronicle installment or the backdrop of the chronicle installment. She illustrates them using story context and consistency, and she uses them to illustrate story subtext. She expands on the list where it suits her, and she glosses over said list when it doesn't. And she uses the characteristic violence and depravity of the sect to give them that special taste of diseased and mocking grandeur that defines the it.

Huh?

Think about it. In a movie, a book or a play, a scene is never about only what it presents. Good love scenes and effective scenes of violence are always about love, sex or death and something else. The love, the sex and the death are just illustrations of larger concepts within the text of the plot.

For instance...

[Our Storyteller, Allison, is speaking in the voice of Epiphany, the recently consecrated Bishop of Fulton County. Lisa, a player within the troupe, is playing Flatline, a newly initiated Sabbat recruit within the pack. Chuck, is playing Elaine, a longer-standing member of the same pack. James is playing K-Dog, another new recruit. These characters have all been sired by one of Epiphany's favorite lieutenants, a twisted, urbane and strangely lovely Tzimisce plotter.]

Allison: The pack has laid wood on the ground in preparation for the Fire Dance. It's dry and old, and as dead and decayed as your attachment to the human cattle. The gnarled, old branches remind you of Death; your death, the deaths of your family members, all the deaths you've caused and have yet to bring, the death of Summer and of the futility of innocence. Two of your brothers, Jacob and Elijah, lay more dead branches on top of the pile with feverish conviction. One lone growth from the final branch laid upon the pile still holds a withered leaf, and a closed, dried bud of something destined never to open. Your pack brothers finish their task, and, turning to Epiphany, say, "Your Reverence, it is done. From death comes rebirth, the broken branches of humanity, the shell of our former selves, of our weak mortal vessels, lay at our feet. The shell must be conquered, reborn of True Sabbat and in Fire." As the words leave their lips, Jacob sprinkles the pile with gasoline, poured out of a stolen aspergillum - the pitiable mortals' vessel of the Christ's sacred water - onto the barren pile of wood. "For flame is the enemy of Caine and his childer, fire is fear, and fear must be vanquished." Jacob sprinkles the last of the gasoline, while Elijah lights a match. The pack is delirious with anticipation, with apprehension and with battle lust as Jacob drops the match and ignites the kindling. Suddenly, there's music, loud and thudding. The music pushes you, entices you. It gets into your head, and you feel it pushing your toward the front of the gathered circle. Flatline, Elaine and K-Dog, your sire, Jordan, is sitting back on the hood of a burned-out car, waiting for the dance to begin, holding a burning cigarette and watching with amusement the heady cadence of revelry and wickedness going on around him. Placidly, he watches, and his gaze directs you to watch as well, as two screaming, sobbing mortals are dragged toward the trees in preparation for feasting. They are beaten and broken and bleeding and you can smell their vitae even from where you're standing. It's sweet and it calls to you. But the eye of your sire is upon you and it would be weak to fall on them before they've been properly garnished.

"Oh, good, dinner's here," Jordan calls to their captors. "Hang them up, but don't eviscerate them just yet. Vitae should be fresh, should pop on the tongue like caviar. I do so miss caviar, my friends." Their screaming intensifies as they are dragged off, and he laughs quietly to himself. "So young, so expendable, like lambs bleating be/ore the butcher guts them." He jumps down off the car in one fluid movement, and begins to move toward the three of you, until he is suddenly standing in your midst, waiting for something, but not necessarily from you. What do you the three of you do?"

Chuck: I begin to dance. K-Dog is in my way, so I knock his punk ass over and move closer to the fire.

James: "Fucking bitch.1" Did she push me close to the fire? Do I fall into it?

Allison: Well, you are a bit close....

James: "Shit!" I back up as quickly as I can, passing by Elaine and shoving her back, hard.

Allison has Chuck make a Skill check to see if K-Dog's push is successful and if Elaine stays on her feet. It is, and she does (just barely, though).

Chuck: "Presumptuous little maggot!" I pull back my fist to knock him out... but, wait a minute, where's Jordan. He's watching this, isn't he? I hold my action then. I don't want to presume to discipline K-Dog while Jordan is around. That's his job, not mine. I want his favor. So, I get back to dancing again. And I'll dance close to the flames to please Jordan as well. Isn't Epiphany watching? Maybe I can win her favor, too. The drums are starting to beat and I feel their pulse thudding through my body.

Allison: Jordan smiles as he sees you rethink the situation, Elaine. K-Dog, he moves to face you and pulls a pistol out from under his coat. He aims it at your forehead. "Dance, you little fuck. And be polite to your sister. You're making me sorry that I didn't just give you a headache."

James: The old fucker's trying to wax me! Well, K-Dog knows martial arts! I'm going to break his pretty fucking face. I'm going to put my foot through it!

Allison: So you're going to attack your sire?

James: Yeah, he's no better than me. I'm Sabbat, why should I worry?

Lisa: Wait a minute. I see what's going on, and I move to act. Elaine's not moving - lazy little bitch-and I see a chance to win Jordan's favor. I grab the obnoxious thug by the throat and throw him into the flames.

Allison: Now you're going to attack K-Dog? Oh, this is getting good...

Allison has Flatline and K-Dog make the appropriate rolls. Flatline is successful; K-Dog is not.

Allison: K-Dog, you land squarely in the flames. You have a few moments of consciousness, enough to scream your torment out to Caine, enough to be fully aware of what the fire does to your vampiric flesh. First, your clothing catches fire, then your hands and. hair. If you could breathe, you would choke on the stench. Now you know what the fires of Hell feel like -just before you black out. The pack laughs uproariously, and Jordan motions to one of the other Cainites to fish your sorry ass out of the flames.

Lisa: Now that I'm done with K-Dog, I can think about Elaine!

Chuck: Oh, you think so, huh?

Lisa: I don't acknowledge Elaine overtly, but I make it a point to get closer to the blaze than she is.

Chuck: That doesn't matter in the least to me. I'm concentrating on Jordan and Epiphany. The recruit is an upstart, a baby, and my Sire recognizes that. I move closer to the flames, letting the heat warm me. If I happen to slam into Flatline in the dance, I'll do it a little harder than I should.

Allison: The heat intensifies. You both feel its power. Epiphany jumps gracefully onto the scorched hood of the abandoned car. The pack has dragged it out of the woods and back to the grounds of the deserted farm that the pack has consecrated for the esbat. The flames rise, and Epiphany is silhouetted against the light it casts; the illumination thrown by the flame shines across her stark and lovely face.

"Sabbat, true Children of Caine, the flames await you. Born into darkness, Caine knew the destruction in flame's light. Unafraid, he taught it to dance with us, his childer. Who will be the first to follow Caine, our father, and dance with our ruin?"

Lisa: I push anyone in my way to be first. 1 answer Epiphany, "I will, Your Reverence."

Chuck: I must be first. But, Jordan values learning and intellect, too, not just bravery. He likes the poetry of Coleridge, doesn't he?

Allison: Yes he does.

Chuck: I thought so! Remembering this, I move quickly to Jordan. When I reach him, I caress his cheek and stage whisper sensually, "About, about, reel and rout, the death fires danced at night..."

Lisa: Hey! She stole my idea! That pisses me off. So while she's wasting time spouting doggerel, I jump over the/lames. But I do it with style - I find where there is an opening in the flames and jump through it.

Lisa roils dice for her Fire Dance attempt. Flatline is successful.

Allison: Epiphany notices that Flatline was the first to act, and she nods approvingly. Jordan shoulders Elaine aside and walks over to Flatline, offering his wrist.

Lisa: I take his wrist and drink from him.

Allison: Flatline and Jordan begin to walk away together. How does Elaine react?

Chuck: I run after them and try to interpose myself.

Allison: Jordan viciously strikes Elaine in the face with the butt o/his pistol. As she falls, he kicks her in the ribs with contempt. Flatline, you are tempted to join him as he laughs derisively.

Lisa: I don't laugh. Elaine's too pitiful to laugh at. I just turn back to look at her in mock sympathy and smile.

Allison: You look at each other poisonously, your gaze as hot as the roaring flames. The others join in the dance, and Elaine, you are swept up in it before you can rip your eyes away from Flatline's.

So, you see? The Storyteller has used the device of ritae as a way to incorporate a larger story point, namely that Flatline, K-Dog and Elaine are Jordan's childer and that there's a brewing rivalry between them. Also, she's shown that Elaine doesn't particularly like or approve of Flatline outside of their built-in rivalry. In fact, Elaine doesn't really believe that Flatline was worthy of the Creation Rites in the first place, calling him an "upstart" and a "baby." K-Dog's hasty actions bring about his downfall. The Storyteller sets the scene with horrific imagery, coloring it like a kinky ballet. The Storyteller's objective has been fulfilled, and she has let the beginnings of the situation play out to a natural, if temporary, conclusion against the backdrop of the Fire Dance.

In the construction phase of the chronicle, ritae provide very startling visual, descriptive imagery to kick off a story, and they provide a natural reason for the pack to come together. Further, when they're incorporated into the body of the chronicle, they're very effective if the Storyteller finds a good balance, or mix, of them, using them as reasons for the plot action and backgrounds for it. Finally, at the climax of the story or installment, they are extremely effective for punching up a dramatic ending. In all these instances, ritae work best if they're described cinematically, and if the Storyteller's dialogue is formal.

Open your story with writhing silhouettes playing against the wall of a burned-out farmhouse, punctuating the flames of a Fire Dance. Rip into your troupe members' darkest fears with the tortured screams of kine waiting to be slaughtered for the Blood Feast. Make them taste the blood of the Vaulderie, heady vitae swallowed in streams of orgasmic ecstasy. End a particularly frightening ordeal with an eerily quiet observance of the Sermons of Caine. Use your imagination, fit it to a ritus, then communicate it.

If, as Storyteller, you envision a chronicle in which the players' characters are all members of the same pack, make them stick to the auctoritas ritae (with visits from rival priests and ducti who would not fail to report a pack that sees no need for the ritae, if necessary) and suggest that they should come up with different ideas for ignoblis ritae. Doing so gives them input into the construction of the ritae and makes participation more attractive, because they'll feel it's theirs.

Ritae can (and should) also be combined in many ways. The possibilities are too numerous to try and combine them all, so let's just take one example.

Caitlyn walked toward Jacob and Elijah. They stood outside the copse of trees, darting their eyes from rock to path to tree and back again. Caitlyn approached them, her step purposeful. They recognized her, and Elijah curled up the comer of his lip in smug greeting. "Hiya, Kate. Party's through there."

The esbat had already started. As she stepped through the tangle of dead foliage, Caitlyn could hear the screaming of the pack, the howling of the captives and the ceaseless drumming. She passed already-butchered kine, but they were too cold and desiccated to be enticing. Then she saw Scout. He moved to intercept her, clothed in a cassock and surplice stained with blood. In a voice of gentle authority and menace, he said, "Daughter of Caine, what is your purpose here?"

Caitlyn answered in the form of the liturgy, causing him to smile indulgently at her Southern-style difficulty with the Latin. Satisfied, Scout allowed her to pass. On through the night it went. The tales of brothers and sisters who had performed deeds of honor and glory, punctuated by drumbeats and screams. Scout stepped forward, spreading his arms in praise of Caine, invoking him to guide the pack in the coming assault against the city of Madison.

All bowed their heads in the benediction. It was Festa Luna, one of the pack's ignoblis ritae, and Scout showed its significance to the pack through the ritual sacrifice of a white German Shepherd, an animal moved by the moon, yet loyal to the kine.

Festivals are often ways to distinguish a Sabbat's observance of the ritae, and they can vary as much as the individual ritae. In our world, different geographical areas often have their own unique festivals; in the World of Darkness, the Sabbat mirrors this variety. Plus, festivals are a great background for Games of Instinct and other ritae. In fact, they often serve as a reason for them. It's really up to the individual Storyteller to create festivals relevant to her chronicle, and they should always have some greater significance to the whole story. Finally, festivals are great places for the Storyteller to make up some of her own new ignoblis ritae.

The Inquisition

The Sabbat carries out its own Inquisition. Like the Inquisition under which it was born, the Sabbat uses the techniques of torture and terror to root out heretics to Sabbat ideology, most specifically those beings who follow the Path of Evil Revelations.

The Sabbat Inquisition provides the Storyteller with the chance to present an eldritch, baroque chronicle, because the Inquisition is, always right, it never falsely accuses a Sabbat of being a heretic and it always carries the accusation out to a natural conclusion in foreboding style. The Storyteller can use the Inquisition to best advantage in intrigue/discovery based plotlines and he can punch up such a story's climax with a combat-oriented conclusion. Further, the auto dafe (the sentence passed on a heretic Sabbat which brings about Final Death) is most effective when the Storyteller makes it a backdrop or setting for the conclusion of a chronicle installment.

Put the characters on trial. Bring out every questionable motive and wicked act that they've ever committed. Twist each to show how it "proves" that the characters are in service to a demon, then bring on witnesses to support the Inquisition. Build the tension slowly; build proof upon proof.

Shade the trial with outright lies and twisted half-truths. Open the story with an auto da fe, and then, just possibly, close it with one.

City Crusades and the Great Jyhad

Crusades present Storytelling opportunities that are particularly dramatic. They give the Storyteller a chance to play out a long-term chronicle, they allow her to let the troupe advance in status and recognition in the sect as a whole, they are vehicles for the troupe to affect the whole World of Darkness and they let the Storyteller change the setting and theme of the chronicle. Crusades also provide great transition devices for changing styles (combat to intrigue and vice versa), and they allow the troupe to see the World of Darkness on a global scale, outside the confines of the pack's individual city or area.

Crusades, or the Sabbat sieges of Camarilla-held cities, call for all manner of mature content and presentation. Crusades are righteous, devilish endeavors, and they happen over an extended period of time, so use the opportunity to mix violent and subtle styles which will satisfy the largest groups of players. Color crusades (their spying phase through their culminating coup) with paranoia, intrigue, investigation, deceit and double-cross. Show the troupe what happens to the vampires who get caught up in this - the deaths of the traitors who get caught spying in a Camarilla prince's city, for instance-let them participate in the Final Deaths of traitors to their own cause. Mix these deaths with torturous observance of the auctoritas and ignoblis ritae of the sect. Paint the mystery, danger and unholy majesty of the culmination of a city crusade with broad strokes and the intrigue and investigation phases with insidious lies, treachery and even internal conflict for individual troupe members.

Play city crusades out over the long term. Taking over a Camarilla city takes time. It can't be done (believably) in a short number of game sessions; therefore, it's probably best for a Storyteller to tell a crusade story as a sweeping epic that incorporates many different themes and styles. It adds to the troupe's enjoyment by giving the players the chance to play the same characters for a long period of time, to develop their motivations and their place within the World of Darkness. Further, establishing the city as a Sabbat stronghold takes a long time. It allows the players to participate in Sabbat politics by their involvement in the birth and implementation of the city's new political structure.

War on the Antediluvians is a much trickier plot prospect. It's highly unlikely that the pack will be able to defeat an ancient vampire. So, use that, and encourage players to participate in the intrigue and investigation that arises around the rumors of where Antediluvians and Methuselahs dwell in torpor. Give them half-truths, secrets garbled from mouth to mouth and mystery. Sprinkle the tension with terrible tales of fallen Sabbat, mere piles of ash and bone, then let the troupe find remains that just possibly fit that profile.

Other Devices: Lupines and Diablerie

Sabbat vampires sometimes try to hunt Lupines. Vampires are wary of werewolves with good reason; they know little about them. The Sabbat sometimes hunt them, and while many question the sanity of this practice, it happens. Some Sabbat taunt new recruits, telling them that this is a "rite of passage" among the pack. Other lore has sprung up about powerful Sabbat who have made deals with twisted Lupine terrors, "dancers" who ride a dark and infernal mist of corruption and decay, and that these monsters welcome contact. But investigation of these claims is rare, and pack fun and games that involve Lupines are usually recounted by the few Sabbat involved who actually come back. If your characters are daring enough to try it, present the hunt with an air of murderous danger, and make the endeavor hurt. Show them the feral natures of the enemy they face with lonely, elusive settings and ambushes. Show them the ferocious unity of these creatures and the ultimate singular superiority of their combat skills. Use the supernatural nature of Lupines in counterpoint to the twisted depravity of the Sabbat involved as a scare-tactic. After all, shouldn't a "monster" come to be afraid of another monster who could kick the unliving shit out of it with faith and a cause?

Diablerie is a device unique to the Sabbat because the Camarilla so abhors it. Almost for that very reason, diablerie (the draining of an elder vampire to advance in bloodline generation and abilities) is a principle that the Sabbat employs in its war with the Antediluvians. It has become an accepted Sabbat practice.

As a Storytelling device, diablerie frequently comes into play during War Parties and crusades. It could come into the chronicle in inter-pack and intra-Sabbat machinations, but it must be used wisely by the Storyteller to be viable in this way. The Storyteller can use diablerie to punctuate the actions of allies, antagonists and neutrals of the troupe by making it one of the methods that's used against them if their generation/powers warrant it.

Diablerie is a terrible tool of advancement, and it carries a grave price. It is not simply the murder of one vampire by another-the vampire who does the killing steals everything from the victim, including his vampiric soul. This theft stains the murderer with threads that weave the deed around her aura inextricably. It changes her behavior even as it advances her power. Tempt the troupe with the power of it. Place potential victims with enticing qualities in the troupe's past, and make the characters hate these enemies enough to want to commit the sin in spades. Show them hungry neonates, planning to do the same thing to them.

These plot devices, unique to the Sabbat, offer more than just chances to shoot things with your guns or bite things with your fangs. They provide drama and conflict. They can advance the Storyteller's chronicle or alter it completely. As such, they establish, advance and distinguish a Sabbat chronicle.

Packs

Packs are the Sabbat's answer to the nuclear family, and as such, they fight. They fight with each other, they're loyal to each other, they like, dislike, love and hate each other. Sometimes the loyalties to each other get strained, and these strained loyalties provide dramatic conflict.

The pack, the smallest unit of Sabbat organization, is led by a ductus, and it always includes a priest and a variable number of True Sabbat. Each member has different skills. Each Sabbat has his own place in the pack structure, and members don't always agree with each other. Sabbat have individual allegiances to specific packmates, and different ideas on what it means to be a True Sabbat. Some ways for the Storyteller to use these differences include inter- and intra-pack rivalries, allies and philosophical agreements and disagreements.

Pack interactions vaguely mirror normal life. Some Sabbat like each other, some Sabbat dislike each other. While they're bound to each other by the Vinculum, the effect of the Vinculum varies between individual Sabbat. Sometimes it's stronger; sometimes less so. Those who don't "play nice in the sandbox" may try to one-up each other or backstab each other (rivals may even try to cause the other to lose face within the pack). This tension provides the Storyteller with a chance to play out some of the more interpersonal aspects of the Sabbat pack. Such rivalries allow the troupe members to give voice to their characters' personalities by providing them with an antagonist in the plot with which to butt heads.

Further, just like rival political factions, packs of Sabbat often have problems relating to each other. While they all follow the same precepts, they don't always see eye to eye on the way to achieve their larger goals, and each of the factions always wants to be right. Sabbat inter-pack rivalries provide the basic necessary element for Storytelling - dramatic conflict.

Pack members and packs have allies, just as they have rivals and enemies. This dynamic provides Storytellers with a chance to allow the characters to form and nurture allegiances and achieve their objectives through these allegiances. They also provide unique dramatic conflict, because, as the proverb goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Sabbat packs stay true to that proverb in spades.

Differing Philosophies

No two people view the same concept in exactly the same manner. Neither do any two members of the Sabbat, which causes problems for them, as Sabbat are expected to function with unity.

Sabbat ideology, while treasuring freedom, espouses various schools of thought just like mortal ideology does. The Sabbat often argues amongst itself, even down to the least important member, about what that ideology means. If that friction is characterized in plot development, the Storyteller can use it to introduce doctrinal conflict (and the offshoot of doctrinal conflict, armed opposition).

Throw any of the political factions into the stew. Show how friends disagree and how enemies support each other's viewpoints now and then. Punctuate the dialogue with finger-pointing and name-calling. Use imagery that underscores the differences in mundane things, then twist it to be significant to the underlying meaning of the action. Think of Jung's theory of Synchronicity: An elder's timepiece moves too slowly; a neonate's Rolex is way too fast. Then make things happen that use that imagery as foreshadowing.

Theme

Like all chronicles, Sabbat chronicles are guided by themes - the overarching principles that the chronicle illustrates - which give a framework for how alien and terrifying the sect is. These themes can be simple or complex; they can be as easily recognized as the callous power games of a pack priest on the rise, or as subtle as Inquisition informants in the troupe's midst. Themes reveal themselves as subtly as the intrigue surrounding lengthy espionage against the Camarilla, or as overt as the hideous acknowledgment of individual freedom played out in the Games of Instinct. Within every chronicle, theme steers a Storyteller's choice for plot and the actions of supporting cast within that plot.

No chronicle can really survive, or be satisfying dramatically, without a strong theme. If a theme isn't present from the beginning of a chronicle, the action within the story will just occur haphazardly without really saying anything at all, which makes for stagnant drama.

What themes work well for the Sabbat? Every story has an endless list of possible themes, but the Sabbat does suggest a few, because of its structure and way of thinking.

Damnation

Vampires are ruthless creatures, but are they truly Damned? Is there any hope for their metaphysical souls? Can they ever attain grace? Chronicles use this existential question as a central theme and showcase the possibility that vampires are or are not inherently doomed to stand outside conventional spirituality. Demonstrate the hopelessness of the characters' vampiric state by showing them mortal faith. Illustrate how effective such faith really is. Present its beauty and power through the actions of the people that wield it. Force them through this glimpse at the light they believe they can never touch, and make them want it.

Existence

Vampirism is an unnatural means of existence, and continuance of vampiric existence is full of nightly dangers. Further, the warlike nature of the Sabbat (with its crusades and War Parties) poses a real challenge to Sabbat vampires. They have martial skills, yes. They have cunning, surely, but do those attributes always win out? Of course they don't, and a theme on the difficulty of surviving as a Sabbat vampire should be full of those dangers, just waiting for the characters to relax before they strike. Hit your troupe with the dangers of nightly survival. Pack enemies just as fierce, just as ruthless, just as cunning as the pack members themselves lurk in every corner. Show them the bodies or ashes of those Sabbat who don't make it through the night early and often. Take them to a mausoleum full of Sabbat still waiting to crawl out into the night after decades of hunger.

Freedom

Freedom is a central precept to the Sabbat. What threatens that freedom, and what would happen should it be curtailed? What kinds of conflict does the Sabbat meet because of this belief? If a Storyteller chooses freedom and the threats to it as her theme, stories center around facing challenges that serve to diminish it in favor of conformity. Tell stories in which the characters wants to be free of the constraints placed upon it from higher up within the sect, but can't, because the higher-ups are too powerful. Let them act rashly in some endeavor, thinking they are acting for the advancement of the sect by observing such freedom, then slap them down for it. Change the conditions midstream, so that, instead of freedom, they served conformity.

Individualism and the Struggle for Self

Every Sabbat is an individual who personally struggles to identify her own boundaries and choices. Sometimes, these boundaries are antithetical to the group to which she belongs. Any group moves naturally toward conformity, no matter how much it claims to value individualism. Finding her own place within the sect causes a Sabbat vampire to grapple with what is expected of her as a member of a whole. Stories that revolve around this theme put the characters in opposition with their own natures, wants, loves, dreams and ambitions for the good of the Sabbat. Tell a story in which your troupe's characters are forced to uphold an idea that they don't necessarily support, like changing a pack ritus, or a city siege that they believe isn't particularly necessary or well-planned. Then, show them the fruits of their labors when the endeavor fails or succeeds.

Infernal Corruption

The Sabbat stands against interference from and allegiance to the infernal, largely because this interference and allegiance constrains freedom. Chronicles use this central theme by involving the characters in story lines that put them face to face with the possibility of that corruption. By allowing the characters to be tempted by corruption, and by then letting them see the ultimate failure that it brings about, infernal corruption and the fight against it becomes a compelling chronicle focus. Place your characters in situations where the infernal comes creeping in. Tease and torment them with promises and lies and dreams of the impossible fulfilled easily. Let them bargain, then tangle them up in their own promises by showing how deceitful the entities they bargain with really are. Conversely, give them good reasons to stand against infernal corruption, such as the threat of the Inquisition, and stories and rumors of the auto-da-fe.

Intrigue

Unlife in the Sabbat and in its dealings with its enemies, is full of potential intrigue. It's full of paranoia and danger. Sabbat politics twist and turn like a web woven by thousands of drunken spiders, and all have the spiders have their own ambitions. Worse, they all have fangs poised at your neck. Players in the political game will smile in an opponent's face while sharpening the stake destined for his heart. The theme of intrigue puts the characters right in the center of all these machinations and brings the innate distrust, fear and suspicion of such an endeavor into sharp focus.

Mercy

Sabbat ideology believes that it's weak to show mercy. Do any of the Sabbat ever stand against this idea? Can they survive within the sect if they do believe that its not only right but necessary to be merciful at times? Show how the Sabbat is inhumane, and let your troupe decide how inhumane its characters will be. Counterpoint this decision with the actions of an individual Sabbat who is merciful to a mortal victim, putting it out of its misery quickly, so another can't torture it further. Let the players see the consequences of this action, and let them decide if they want to be merciful, too. Give them good reasons to be merciful - victims that were their friends in life, struggling against their ropes as they are hoisted into the trees, and then put the knife of their friend's intended destruction in their hands.

Power

Power is a corrupting force. Sabbat vampires, being powerful creatures, are always at risk from the temptations that arise out of a wish to be in control of something. Cainites are corrupted through their adherence to ideas that are no longer relevant to their existence - for instance, failing to recognize that they are no longer human - or conversely, by using this fact to further their own gain at all costs, without any thought to how their actions affect the whole of the Sabbat. Sabbat vampires play politics, an activity fraught with compromise and shaky alliances. How does the Cainite traverse the halls of Sabbat power without having some of its inherent taint rub off on her?

Storytellers can play all sorts of power games. Stand the characters as allies of a political up-and-comer. Make her a formidable upstart, one who has risen through deeds and Monomacy. Put the Status Quo faction soundly in her way; make other factions think she is useful to their causes. Make it evident that her problems are the characters' problems. Then, make it evident that she is using the pack for her own ends; that she cares about it and its ideas as much as she cares about kine.

Mood

Mood denotes atmosphere. A Storyteller needs to pick a mood, or series of them, that underscores her theme. Doing so allows the players to employ as many of their five senses as possible, and goes a long way toward aiding the Storyteller in fostering the troupe's understanding of her theme, and it makes the chronicle much more resonant by presenting it viscerally.

Matching the atmosphere to the action is important. For instance, a meeting of Sabbat spies who have infiltrated a Camarilla city for the purposes of siege will be tense and paranoid. An esbat throbs with an overwhelming feeling of mystery, excitement and anticipation. Games of Instinct are playfully macabre, and the emotions derived from the mood should bring this dark fun to the foreground. Mood should be relevant to the plot, and it should showcase what is happening.

Remember those short ideas, and you've got mood down cold.

But what sort of moods are appropriate to a Sabbat chronicle? Here's a sampling:

Fear

Fear is what the Sabbat is about. Use it to motivate the troupe by playing on their character's fears, then contrast it with the fear they evoke in their prey. Fear of the infernal, fear of reprisal for mistakes, fear of Gehenna - all of these concepts are good mood motivators.

Lust

Erotic hunger for vitae, lust for power, perverse cravings for excitement are also good motivators, because they are so deeply tied to how abominable Sabbat Cainites truly are.

Paranoia

Running with the Sabbat is rife with danger. Enemies lurk everywhere, and many situations are fraught with tension. Remember this tension and display it in your chronicle by showing the knife in the hands of an enemy or friend (literally or figuratively) that's poised for the small of your players' characters' backs.

Anger

Sabbat vampires have an edge of anger because of how they were created. Wouldn't you be pissed if someone tortured you, drained you of your blood, then buried you, all on the slim chance that you might claw your way out of the grave?

Black Comedy

The Storyteller can use comedic subtext to drive home the violence and depravity of what her players' characters do, and their actions became doubly horrific because of the joke. Give some of the nastier deeds of the Sabbat black comedic touches - witty comments made during torture of kine, victims killed in ironic ways (remember the clerk and her mishap with Slurpee machine, mentioned earlier?) and other odd and quirky imagery.

Wrapping It Up

So now it's done. The planning is over, the kine are drained and the Sabbat slumber in their havens, smug in the knowledge that they'll get up tomorrow night and do it all again. Likewise, we're done discussing how a Storyteller can use the sect to scare her troupe out of their collective minds. So have, fun, sleep well, and remember: Where the Sabbat is concerned, sleeping well is sleeping lightly.