“It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.

”
— William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Miriam bowed respectfully to the new arrivals

and welcomed them in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish
leading them down the corridor to the conference before
room where Tegyrius and the other guests awa
the newcomers hesitated as they took in the asse ited . Inside,
mbly before quietly taking their seats. It was a
cross-section of the Children of Haqim. Indeed, remarkable
it was nearly unimaginable that some of these
would ever have sat in the same room, absent the Assamites
hospitality of the Vizier himself. An enormous circ
took up most of the room, with place settings for ular table
each
next to a Clan-mate whom he openly hated. A half guest meticulously arranged so that no one was sitting
-dozen small TV screens circled the table, situ
everyone could see. Only the most important gue ated so that
sts actually had seats at the table, with childer
sitting behind, representing all bloodlines and and lackeys
factions of the Children of Haqim. Well, all but
Miriam grimly. None of the Assamites present one, thought
belonged to the Web of Knives.
From the scholars came the Vizier Tegyrius, the
mad Russian doctor Dmitri Borodin, and the mat
assassin David Wendt. From the sorcerers cam hematician/
e Sarah Schneier, the Amr’s favorite, and Bad
the spymaster. From the warriors came the lege r Alkhaiwani,
ndary Fatima Al-Faqadi and Hilel al-Masaari,
the Sultan of Cordoba. Behind each of those lum who was once
inaries sat other, less infamous but still notable
Donya Tehreni of the Sisterhood of the Erin Assamites.
yes. Daniel Goldman of the Leopards of Zion.
incongruously present, a stocky crew-cut sold Perhaps most
ier who could only be Randy Hopkirk of the info
society” known as the Thousand-Meter Club. rmal
Miriam idly wondered what the pale boy from Ala “sniper
look like in a hundred years when his skin had bam
darkened. Tegyrius rose, his natural charisma mak a would
center of attention even among this collection of ing him the
luminaries.
“I thank you all for coming and hope your journey
s were not troublesome,” he began. “We have muc
and then much to plan for. I have spoken with h to discuss
many of you before now . About changes on the
future challenges for our Clan. Indeed, challen horizon. About
ges about what it meant to even be an Assami
here now because... because that future appear te. You are all
s to be closer than I had previously thought.”

LORE OF THE CLANS 11

 flickered on,
He turned to Miriam and nodded, and at the signal, she clicked her computer. Each of the TV screens
showing video footage of an elderly Arabic woman who seemed to be in the throes of a drug high.
s, she is —
“I was given this video by the Amr. The woman you see before you served the Amr as a seer. By all account
final prophecy.”
or rather was — a gifted prophetess whose visions have always been completely reliable. This is her
is coming. The
As the video continued, the old woman’s eyes rolled back up into her head and she began to speak. “He
Death culled his
Black Shepherd comes to cull the flock. The Hateful Spawn. The Herald of Destruction. As the Lord of
those same words
childer at Kaymakli, the Black Shepherd shall cull the Children at Alamut.” The old woman repeated
and then pour
over and over in mounting hysteria. She didn’t even seem to notice when blood started to drip from her eyes
dead.
from her nose and ears. After less than a minute, she began to convulse before falling over, apparently
. “The Amr
Tegyrius looked around at his peers within the Clan, whose expressions ranged from confused to horrified
in store for our
sent me this prophecy because he finds it credible, as do I. It appears that a ‘culling’ of some sort lies
Clan.” The Vizier’s face hardened. “I do not intend to be a part of it. Do any of you?”
With that question, a conspiracy was born.

12 THE ASSAMITES
A History of the
the warrior caste. Ask a warrior, and he will tell you that
Haqim created their caste to serve as judges of the conduct
of the other Cainites of the Second City. Rubbish. None

Children of Haqim of the other Clans would have ever tolerated a single Clan
having the power of judgment over them, let alone asking
As I look towards an uncertain future, I find myself for it, as some legends say. The warriors were to serve as elite
forced to consider and reconsider the past. There is much troops to fight in military campaigns against the enemies
of our Clan’s history for which I am one of the few extant of the Second City, primarily the thrice-damned Baali.
witnesses, but far more precedes even my venerable age. When the warriors proved no match for the demonically
Perhaps if we viziers had done more to educate the Children empowered Baali, Haqim created a third bloodline, the
of our history and legacy... but no, events happened as sorcerers. Of the sorcerers, the most powerful (and most
they did and could not have happened any other way. frightening) was the mysterious Ur-Shulgi, whose form
What matters is where we are tonight and what decisions was that of a horrific child whose skin had blackened as if
we make next. Still, history can still serve as our guide, burned. It took the combined prowess of all three castes,
and so I set my own history to paper for the benefit of and especially the terrifying might of Ur-Shulgi, to finally
my fellow Assamites. end the Baali menace, at least for a time. My grandsire
described an encounter with Ur-Shulgi once. I think it
As I have said, I am a vizier, and so my biases should be was the only time I ever saw him show fear.
obvious to any astute reader. For the record, my sire and
grandsire were... reticent about sharing the details of their From the beginning, there was friction between our
own unlives, and there are few older than them who would castes, bound together by shared blood, but little else.
speak at all about our collective past. Accordingly, much Over time, the greatest issue would be population growth.
of what I know of our origins is hearsay and conjecture, For selection as a vizier, a prospect needed to demonstrate
likely with a healthy dose of deliberate misrepresentation. intelligence, political acumen, and some degree of
As a childe, I was naive. It would be many centuries before education. In the Bronze Age, such qualities were rare.
I would countenance the possibility that my kin might lie To be a sorcerer, the prospect needed to demonstrate the
about our history. even rarer qualities of some degree of functional occult
knowledge and, ideally, be able to work some form of

The First Nights magic as a mortal. Selection as a warrior... required only

the ability to kill. Admittedly, the warriors only selected
There are two wildly contradictory tales surrounding those who were the absolute best at it, but even the most
Haqim’s own Embrace and early unlife. The version that accomplished fighters, soldiers, and assassins were far
I believe to be closest to the truth is as follows, though easier to find than suitable candidates were for Embrace
I acknowledge the alternative origin, well-established as a vizier or a sorcerer. Is it any wonder that by the time
amongst the extremist wing of the warrior caste before I our Clan relocated to Alamut, the warriors made up over
joined the Children. Though I find it unpersuasive, it is half our numbers?
not impossible that their version is correct.
In my preferred history, Haqim was a warrior and military The Eagle’s Nest
leader during the age of the First City who received the In the fullness of time, the Second City fell, its rulers
Embrace from a member of the Second Generation. There cursed by Caine himself. Our history is unclear on whether
is little textual evidence as to which one. Although his Haqim and his Clan were present at the time. Some of
background was as a warrior and hunter, he devoted his our legends say that he had already relocated to Alamut
early unlife to intellectual pursuits, making him learned by then, sickened as he was by the corruption of the other
for the time. It appears that he did not Embrace childer Antediluvians. Other less politically correct anecdotes say
of his own until the rise of the Second City. His first that Caine cursed us as well, that the peculiarities of the
childer were men and women of learning, and they laid viziers and the sorcerers stem from the displeasure of Haqim’s
the foundations of the vizier caste. As the eldest caste, we grand-sire, and the warriors also suffered punishment with
should have held dominion over the rest of our Clan to a blood-borne curse at that time. There are few records of
this very night. That we failed has been our gravest error. those nights, and no Children who observed them first
In time (and supposedly in response to pressure from his hand are around to tell the tale. Exactly why there are no
fellow Antediluvians), Haqim created a second bloodline, written records of the First Nights is a matter of some debate,

LORE OF THE CLANS 13

given the existence of an entire caste deeply concerned with Or perhaps, it merely gave them the opportunity they had
record keeping. The consensus is that records dating back been waiting for. Opinions differ. Since the nights of the
to that time were lost during the transition to Alamut, or Second City, Haqim had made a practice of leaving his
else deliberately destroyed when the Web of Knives came childer to their own devices for decades at a time, and
into prominence. However, there are persistent legends of in his absence, a policy arose whereby the leaders of the
a “secret library” that the elder viziers hid away from their three castes would choose an “Eldest” vampire to direct
enemies within the Clan. As for the Curse, if Caine did levy the Clan’s affairs in Haqim’s absence. With superior
one against us, he would not be the last to do so, and his numbers and fighting skills, the extremist warriors staged a
curse was not as debilitating as those that would come later. bloodless coup and established that henceforth, the Clan
Whatever the circumstances, Haqim eventually led the would always choose their Eldest from the warrior caste,
Children to a new communal haven — Alamut, the Eagle’s using claims that it had been the viziers who were solely
Nest. I will not commit its location to writing. Indeed, responsible for alienating the Clan’s founder.
I could not even if I wished, for that location remains Incensed but lacking the resources to fight back, the
occluded by the will of an Antediluvian who had mastered viziers and the sorcerers acquiesced, and for the next two
the ultimate expressions of Disciplines dedicated to stealth millennia, the warriors would be the face of the Assamite
and silence. Haqim’s power shielded Alamut from discovery Clan. To be fair, the warrior caste itself split evenly on
for millennia, and Alamut became the heart of the Assamite the matter, with many of those outside the coup leaders
Clan. Typically, no more than a few dozen of the Children indignant on our behalf. Ultimately, though, they chose
permanently resided in its labyrinthine tunnels at a time, to support their caste rather than allow the whole Clan
although they shared space with enough ghouls and mortals to fall into civil war. Those dissidents were instrumental
to serve and feed the Kindred inhabitants. All loyal members in protecting the viziers and sorcerers against hardliners
of the Clan from the moment of our Embrace instinctively who openly talked of our extermination.
know the way home, just as the will of our Ancestor binds Not all accepted the new status quo, though. There
us all against revealing that home to outsiders in the face had always been Assamites who chose independence
of the cruelest of tortures or the most seductive magic. over Clan loyalty and had elected to make their own way:
Betrayers of the Clan give themselves away by the fact that The Dispossessed. After the warriors seized control, the
they lose all memory of Alamut’s location. Only once did numbers of Dispossessed swelled with viziers, sorcerers
an outsider penetrate the veil that protects Alamut, and that and even many of the less doctrinaire warriors who felt
was enough to change the course of our history. unsafe within their own caste. All fled Alamut to pursue
While the elders of our Clan made Alamut the their fortunes elsewhere. During this era, two additional
center of our power, the rest of the Children spread bloodlines were born: the Shango, Assamite sorcerers who
out across Asia and North Africa, in some places turned their back on the Quietus discipline and became a
coexisting with other Kindred and in others dominating part of the African Laibon community, and the so-called
the region. Unfortunately, our founder Haqim took Bedouins, warrior nomads who wandered North Africa
an exceedingly dim view of our entanglement with with little concerns for the plans of the leaders of Alamut.
the Jyhad. While seemingly loath to outright forbid Those plans were ambitious indeed.
Assamites from involving themselves in Kindred politics, As the extremists consolidated their hold on the rest of
he communicated his unhappiness in increasingly the Clan, they followed the same course as other conquerors
obvious ways until, finally, he exploded after a fight by rewriting our past in order to exalt themselves over their
broke out within Alamut itself between Children on kin. In the newly approved history, the purpose of the
opposite sides of the Peloponnesian War. Denouncing Assamites was to judge and punish all other Cainites for
all sides for putting political machinations above Clan their sins, real or imagined. In time, they even developed
unity, Haqim left Alamut that night. He returned on a a new origin for Haqim himself. No longer had one of
few occasions but only briefly, and he offered no input Caine’s childer selected him for the Embrace. Instead, he
into the Clan’s affairs when he did. was a hero who fought against the evil Caine, murdering the
nameless king and queen who had been Caine’s first childer
The Rise of the Warriors and stealing their blood to make himself a vampire of the
When Haqim abandoned Alamut, it provoked the most Second Generation instead of the Third. Afterward, he led
extremist and elitist of the warriors into an impulsive action. his followers directly to Alamut where he commanded the

14 THE ASSAMITES
warriors to scourge the world of Caine’s other offspring. A when two of the three castes insisted that said blood-god
fanciful tale, to be sure, particularly when one considered was not at all as he’d been portrayed by his more energetic
the dearth of any evidence that Haqim had sired any Third worshipers. Although the majority of the Assamites were
Generation offspring of his own. never Muslim, Muslim Assamites did come to represent
Less fanciful and more troubling was the new philosophy a plurality of the Clan. Moreover, with the viziers, the
that accompanied the new and improved history: the sorcerers, and more than a few warriors united in preserving
Path of Blood. In its earlier iteration, the Road of Blood the Islamic Assamites’ right to worship Allah as they saw fit,
was a noble philosophy that asked its adherents to act Islam served as a vital bulwark against the Cult of Haqim.
honorably, to punish the wicked, protect the innocent, Such a bulwark was needed, for the birth of the Prophet
and resist passion in favor of reason. Over the ensuing was not the only major event of that era to impact our
centuries, the extremists twisted it into a ruthless and Clan. In 636 C.E., the Baali once more stretched forth
violent approach to unlife that commanded its followers their tainted hands in the Middle East. It would be the
to not only kill without moral hesitation, but to commit last time those dogs would dare to act so openly, but our
diablerie at every opportunity. We viziers were horrified victory was pyrrhic. Even as our warriors and sorcerers
at these developments, but lacked the power to curb our brought down the walls of the infamous hell-city of
brethren’s new ideas. Soon though, we would find a new Chorazin, the Baali smote their attackers with a terrible
philosophy of our own, while the warriors would reap the infernal curse. The warriors were the first and most heavily
consequences of their own bloodlust. affected. I like to think that the reliance of the viziers and
sorcerers upon reason and rationality was what protected
The Prophet, the Devil, us, and I cannot help but note that the extremist warriors
fell to the curse more easily than those who eschewed
and the Web emotionalism. Regardless, within a century, most of the
warriors and a sizeable percentage of the other castes
The seventh century C.E. saw two seismic changes among suffered, contaminated with a terrible lust for Cainite
the Children: the birth and growth of Islam and the Baali blood. In time, the other Clans would come to think of us
curse. Outsiders often fail to understand how these two as nothing but a depraved Clan who had always thirsted
events altered our Clan. Indeed, most outsiders don’t for their blood.
even know that the Baali curse happened, and incorrectly
assume that the Assamites, regardless of caste affinity, have Undaunted by these changes, the extremists fought
always had an insatiable lust for Kindred blood. back with an indoctrination campaign intended to fill the
Clan with new recruits who were free of the “weakness”
Many modern Children think that Islam inspired some imposed by Islam. They were ready to embrace the hunger
sort of mass conversion among the Assamites and that, imposed by the Baali Curse as just an obstacle on the
from the start, we were the vampiric wing of the Islamic path to godhood. Finally, the extremists had a name for
movement. On the contrary, the extremist leaders of the their movement: the Web of Knives, yet another thing we
emergent cult of Haqim loathe Islam because the principles would have stamped out in its infancy had we the means
of humility, mercy, and compassion found within the to have done so. Created as way of “building the perfect
Qur’an are incompatible with their vision. Allah was not, warriors for Haqim,” the Web of Knives eventually became
after all, a proponent of genocide, while those extremists the dominant political faction within our Clan and, in
seek nothing else but the annihilation of all other Cainites. many ways, the face the Assamites would present to the
It was for those reasons that those of us who stood other Kindred for centuries to come.
outside the extremist cult quietly undermined all efforts
to influence the growth of Islam into a form more to
their liking. In time, our efforts bore fruit. By the ninth
The Middle Ages
century C.E., it was increasingly difficult to find potential
recruits for our Clan in the lands where we traditionally
and the Tremere Curse
roamed who were not faithful to Allah in life. It was just It was against this backdrop that the Crusades came to
as difficult to persuade newly Embraced childer who had the Middle East. Despite our differences, the Children
been faithful all their lives to abandon that faith in favor united against the intruders. The Islamic Assamites, along
of blind devotion to a genocidal blood-god, particularly with the much smaller cadre of Jewish Assamites, wished to
protect the Holy Lands of their religions against Christian

LORE OF THE CLANS 15

domination. The viziers and sorcerers wished to defend sacrosanct. After bitter arguments (some violent), the Old
the territories that were our political domains from theft Man in the Mountain made his decree: protect Alamut.
by potential enemies. The Christian Assamites (and there We had to obtain peace with the Camarilla.
were indeed some) elected to defer to the will of a majority The leaders of the Web of Knives were furious, even more
that gravely outnumbered them and was suspicious of so when neither the Du’at nor the Old Man would reveal
their loyalty. The Web of Knives, for the most part, reveled precisely why it was so important to preserve the sanctity of
fattening themselves on the vitae of European Cainites. Alamut, which, despite its role in unifying our Clan, was
Once more, the Children fully immersed themselves in really just the most prominent of many secret Assamite
the Jyhad to the point that we would one night direct the lairs. The truth is a secret held only by those four: Alamut
heirs of the Prophet to sack fabled Constantinople itself. holds a significant quantity of the Heartblood, Haqim’s
How Haqim must have wept if he could see it. own blood, within a well deep within the Mountain.
Nor was the Jyhad limited to the Holy Lands. Warriors in Al-Ashrad believed that if the Tremere gained access to
and out of the Web of Knives used atrocities committed by Heartblood, they might be able to target Haqim himself
crusaders as pretext for their own forays into Europe, aided with a killing curse through his sympathetic link with the
by the social upheaval accompanying the Anarch Revolt. Mountain. Through him, they could enslave or even slay
Entire cities were denuded of their Cainite populations, the entirety of the Clan wherever we might hide.
elder and Anarch alike, consumed by our assassins. Our Therefore, it was our representatives that bound the
conflicts with the other Clans continued into the fifteenth entire Clan to the Treaty of Tyre, thereby providing the
century C.E., when the newly born Camarilla decided Tremere with a sympathetic link that let them target us
to flex its muscles and declare a Blood Hunt against all with a less destructive punishment. In the space of a
Assamites wherever they might find us. Even we viziers single night, the Tremere cursed every Assamite to suffer
laughed at this, until the Nosferatu spy was captured in pain and to risk Final Death upon the consumption of
the very heart of Alamut. The discovery sent a shockwave Kindred vitae. The Web of Knives raged. No longer could
through the Children. Since time immemorial, Alamut was

16 THE ASSAMITES
they pursue “Haqim’s command” that they devour their a certain degree of equilibrium that had been lacking for
way to apotheosis through the sacrament of diablerie. For centuries. Constantinople fell, but other predominantly
those who did not pursue the Path of Blood, the results of Muslim governments, empires, and caliphates rose in its
the Tremere Curse were more... ambiguous. It effectively place. The viziers shaped them as best they could, mainly
neutralized the much more debilitating Baali Curse, and with the goal of preventing the European vampires from
largely defanged those adherents of the Path of Blood encroaching into our domains. The sorcerers withdrew
who were openly genocidal in their aims. However, those to their researches into the deeper mysteries of Dur-An-
positive benefits were outweighed by the humiliation of Ki, our Clan’s answer to Thaumaturgy, making enough
our defeat at the hands of the Camarilla. token efforts towards breaking the Tremere Curse to
On the other hand, not all of the Children were victims satisfy the warriors.
of the Tremere Curse. Al-Ashrad counseled that undoing Paranoid Cainites frequently accuse the Assamites of
the curse would be the work of centuries, but some of the having masterminded the events known to the West as
Children, mainly the eldest leaders of the Web of Knives, “9/11.” Typical Western bigotry. We were as surprised
were impatient. They journeyed in secret to the forgotten and angry as anyone else was, mortal or Cainite, by
ruins of Chorazin and did... something. Al-Ashrad has that atrocity. The attack would have offended us just
advised me that I should not ask about the matter, and for its cowardly execution, but 9/11 also led to rampant
while I find that condescending, I also find the way he Islamophobia among Westerners unprecedented since
counseled me to be unnerving enough to acquiesce. Few the Crusades, to say nothing of the violence it reignited
things in this world frighten the Amr. Suffice it to say across the Middle East.
that a sizeable contingent of warriors freed themselves Within months of the attack, America and its allies
from the Tremere Curse, apparently killing the handful were dropping bombs. By seeming coincidence, a few of
of viziers and sorcerers who accompanied them in the the American bombing campaigns struck our holdings in
process. In doing so, they judged themselves superior to the affected areas with unusual accuracy. The first clue
the rest of the Children and washed their hands of us, we had that it was more than mere coincidence came
opting instead to join the nascent Sabbat as the Assamite when American forces in Baghdad, due to an apparent
antitribu. I am told that the most potent of them rule the communications error, failed to secure the National
Sabbat to this night from the shadows as lords of the so- Museum. As a result, a large number of antiquities were
called Black Hand. looted, some of which (unbeknownst to the kine) dated
The majority of the warriors remained among the back to the time of the Second City. While the theft was
Children. Lacking the ability to freely pursue the vitae an embarrassment to the American government, it would
of other Cainites, they petitioned the Amr for some be worse if they knew the truth. Our agents who had
way to do so indirectly, and, with some reluctance, he infiltrated the Americans brought back the bodies of the
complied. The result was a form of simple ritual magic last few guards to remain at the museum before the looting.
within the ability of any competent Assamite that allows They had been burned beyond recognition — not by any
one to “tithe” a quantity of vitae to a sorcerer who then conventional incendiary, but by a supernatural attack so
processes it into a form that a warrior can safely consume. obscure that our sorcerers could not identify its origin.
Enough vitae converted in this manner allows a devotee Two months later, Al-Ashrad sent me a video recording
of the Path of Blood to eventually bring himself closer to of a prophecy made by a mortal seer who was a part of his
Haqim in a manner similar to diablerie, but without the retinue, one he had never dared to make either a ghoul
soul-damaging side effects. Therefore, it came to pass that or a Kindred lest the Blood interfere with the mortal’s
the mighty warriors of Haqim, the scourge of all Cainites, remarkable insights. Her final prophecy was one so
became common hit men willing to murder any target in horrific that she died from its making. It predicts the rise
exchange for a dribble of their employer’s blood. of the Black Shepherd, one of the sobriquets used by the
slumbering Methuselah Ur-Shulgi. It predicts a culling
A Humbled Clan of our Clan. Combined with the mysterious enemy who
The most disruptive elements of the Web of Knives has used the fog of war to infiltrate our domains, I must
were gone altogether, having abandoned the Clan to assume the worst. The Assamites must prepare as best we
become antitribu. In this manner, the Children achieved can, even if it means doing the unthinkable.

LORE OF THE CLANS 17

Tonight’s Assassin
sorcerers worship the ancient Mesopotamian pantheon,
although “worship” is perhaps not the best term for a
system of beliefs adopted solely to facilitate certain magical
What does it mean to be an Assamite? A difficult practices.
question, for no other Clan is as diverse as the Assamites, The remainder of the Clan is either agnostic, irreligious
and we have never been as much in flux as we are right (including Children who consider themselves “damned”
now. Three distinct bloodlines united under a common according to the religion they once followed), or else still
identity, plus more bloodlines on the outside looking in. An attempt to follow whatever beliefs they held in life. Such
independent Clan with close ties to the Sabbat, but whose beliefs include Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism,
leaders are considering mass defection to the Camarilla Hinduism, and Buddhism. The latter two are especially
for protection from a rising Methuselah who may not even common among those Assamites who dwell in India, along
exist. Two deeply felt and completely incompatible religious with a smaller number of Sikh Assamites. Likewise, many
movements, plus a plethora of smaller religions chafing of the Shango bloodline in Central Africa still follow the
under their own lack of Clan influence. A dominant caste Yorùbá religion of their ancestors.
completely unsuited to lead the Clan in the modern era,
but which does so anyway just because it outnumbers the Muslim Assamites typically follow the Five Pillars of
other two combined. A universally recognized stereotype of Islam, albeit in a manner adapted to the vampiric condition.
“crazy Muslim assassin” that ignores alternative identities For example, they observe the custom of Salat, ritual prayer
ranging from Reconquista-era Spaniards to Zionist Jews in the direction of Mecca, but the Assamite prays five times
to American solders Embraced during the first Gulf during the night instead of the day. Likewise, Assamites
War. A rich tradition of blood sorcery about which the are generally unable to perform the Hajj (a pilgrimage to
Tremere know little, though the promise of sharing our Mecca) unless they have permission and assistance from
knowledge with our old enemies may yet earn us a place the mysterious vampires who have appointed themselves
at the Camarilla’s table. After millennia of evolution, who guardians of that holy city. For centuries, a mysterious
are the Assamites tonight? supernatural effect known as the Keening bars most
vampires from Mecca, but a ritual performed by the city’s
Religion and the Assamites custodians can alleviate it for specific vampires. As those
custodians are selective about whom they allow into Mecca,
Religion plays a greater role among the Children of most Muslim Assamites will instead make at least one
Haqim than in any other Clan save, perhaps, the Followers pilgrimage to Alamut to pray to Allah in the presence of
of Set (I have not bothered to learn of their ways). Among the Well of the Heartblood, a practice the Web of Knives
the main Clan, the vast majority of our new recruits who grudgingly tolerates. Instead of fasting during Ramadan,
joined within the last two centuries were Muslim at the the Assamite must reduce his blood intake to the minimum
time of their Embrace. A much smaller percentage was needed to avoid torpor and frenzy.
ethnically and religiously Jewish in life, and an even smaller
cohort is comprised of a wide cross-section of religious
views, ranging from Zoroastrianism and pre-Christian and
The Contract
pre-Islamic polytheism (among elders) to Catholicism, Anyone who wishes to contract with the Assamites
Protestant, and Evangelical Christianity. for assassinations must usually do so through the Silsila,
though in cities where an Assamite openly resides, she
While it is not unusual to cling to mortal beliefs will usually be willing to facilitate introductions for a fee.
for the first few years, most do not have a faith strong No Assamite loyal to the Clan will accept a contract that
enough to survive undeath without breaking or bending. has not gone through the Silsila. Assassinations of mortal
Among Assamites who have been among us long enough targets are usually paid in cash, although at exorbitant
to reconsider their faith, barely a plurality still follows rates: a quarter million U.S. dollars per hit is cheap for
the precepts of Islam, though this does include many an Assamite killer. If the target is supernatural or is under
influential elders. The next largest religious affiliation the protection of supernatural beings, the price goes up
effectively worships Haqim himself. More accurately, they accordingly. If the client is a vampire, blood is always the
worship the image of Haqim the Destroyer fashioned by price, which the client must bleed into a magically prepared
the Web of Knives as a focus for their beliefs — an image clay vessel while the Assamite watches. The vessel is not
at odds with Haqim as most of the elders who were his a storage medium but a transference device. The blood
contemporaries remember him. A sizeable number of

18 THE ASSAMITES
immediately materializes in a companion vessel in
the possession of a sorcerer, who then prepares it for
future use by the Clan.
The Silsila has a formula by which the relative
difficulty of the kill is balanced against a particular
quantity and quality of vitae to be paid. The assassin
must tithe ten percent of all payments to his sire, and
another ten percent to the Clan. The Vizier collects
any money or other material payments for appropriate
reinvestment. Occult artifacts go to the Amr, who
compensates the assassin as appropriate. The Caliph
receives any payment in vitae collected directly from
vampire clients, adding the Clan’s share to the Well of
Heartblood. Whatever vitae remains for the assassin
is held by the Amr in a special urn for the benefit of
the assassin until enough is accumulated to reduce
their Generation through the Dur-An-Ki ritual called
“From Marduk’s Throat.”

The Laws of Haqim

Most Assamites know of and at least attempt to
follow the laws laid down by Haqim when he founded
Alamut. The problems lie in differing interpretations
and in disagreement on which laws are most important.
For example, the Law of Destruction forbids Assamites
from slaying “those of the Blood.” The viziers, and to
a lesser extent the sorcerers, see this as a prescription
against genocide, while most of the warriors limit the
meaning of “those of the Blood” to fellow Assamites.
The most reactionary of the Web of Knives would go
further and say that only warriors are “of the Blood,”
and the other castes exist at their sufferance.

The Law of Leadership

Honor the Eldest among you, for he is to rule my House
when I am absent.
This law has been a basis of the Clan’s de facto
gerontocracy since antiquity. Most elders are afforded
respect by their juniors regardless of caste. The Web
of Knives is the exception; its members generally
scoff at the idea of acknowledging the Vizier and the
Amr as being in any way equal to the Caliph and the
Eldest. Warriors outside the Web of Knives are more
respectful to the elders of the other two castes, but
even they assume the primacy of the Caliph and the
Eldest. For their part, Tegyrius and Al-Ashrad both
recoil from the idea of submitting to an inhuman
blood-god like Ur-Shulgi should he arise, no matter
how old the Black Shepherd is.

LORE OF THE CLANS 19

The Law of Protection The leader of the warrior caste is the Caliph, usually
the oldest and most powerful of the warriors. Personal
Ward the mortals from Caine’s descendants and treat them power is more important to the office of Caliph than
with honor in all things. age or respect. Any warrior can theoretically challenge
Increasingly, those Assamites outside the Web of Knives a Caliph to a duel of honor for any perceived failure in
feel moved to protect mortals from those of us who look the performance of his duties. There is the expectation
upon humans as livestock rather than beings worthy of that a Caliph who loses such a duel will submit to ritual
consideration. diablerie by his opponent, assuming he wasn’t destroyed
outright before such diablerie could take place.
The Law of Destruction The current Caliph is Thetmes, a Fifth Generation
Slay not those of the Blood, for that judgment is for the elder Egyptian Embraced in 25 B.C.E. He is a devotee of the
alone. corrupt version of the Path of Blood, and since he predates
As noted, the Clan is divided on who is and is not of Islam by over six centuries, he has very little respect for
the Blood, with the Web of Knives openly espousing either its precepts or its practitioners, an attitude that is
genocide against the other Clans. the source of his antipathy towards the current Old Man.
Thetmes rose to the position of Caliph after personally
The Law of the Word slaying the prior Caliph in combat over his predecessor’s
Deceive not those of the Blood, for my House is founded on disastrous mishandling of the Siege of Vienna in 1529
Truth. C.E. In almost five centuries, no one has ever challenged
his authority over the warrior caste.
Truth is subjective. Assamites rarely lie to one another,
but neither do they feel compelled to keep those with They suffer from the Tremere Curse and the Baali Curse,
whom they disagree up to date on their plans. though the former negates the latter. Should anything ever
lift the Tremere Curse, the Baali Curse would immediately
The Law of Judgment affect all warriors.
Judge those of Caine’s blood and punish them should they be
found wanting.
The Viziers
The viziers represent about a third of the Children.
As with the Law of Destruction, a sharp division There are very few viziers found among the Sabbat,
exists within the Clan on the question of who deserves but a sizeable number are Dispossessed. Viziers fulfill a
punishment and what punishments are appropriate. The variety of roles within the Clan. They usually oversee the
Web of Knives demand the ultimate sanction against all Assamite’s political or financial interests, but may also
vampires outside the Clan for violations against their serve as researchers, diplomats, historians, or even artists.
interpretations of the Laws of Haqim. More humane In many ways, they are the Assamite answer to both the
Assamites look back to the lessons of the wars against Ventrue and the Toreador, and many Dispossessed viziers
the Baali and interpret this as a commandment to fight note with some sadness that they generally get along with
and punish vampires who prey indiscriminately, or those those Clans better than they do Assamites of the other
who truck with demons. two castes.

The Castes The leader of the viziers is, well, the Vizier. The fact
that the same name is used for both the caste and its
leader is sometimes confusing for outsiders, but the
The Warriors viziers themselves are pretty good at context and always
The warrior caste represents a majority of our Clan. Of seem to know who they’re talking about. In earlier eras,
those, about half joined the Clan through indoctrination some Viziers went by the archaic term “Fikri,” but it has
into the Web of Knives, while the rest were Embraced fallen out of use. Unlike the Caliph, a democratic vote
according to older traditions. In the latter case, the sire decides the position of Vizier, after a period of intense
typically chooses a suitable candidate, Embraces her, and politicking and influence peddling. Once elected, the
then largely leaves her to her own devices with minimal Vizier serves for a term of 63 years, unless he is removed
oversight beyond ensuring that she fulfills her tithing prematurely through whatever means. Viziers may serve
obligations to the Clan. multiple terms, but not consecutive ones.

20 THE ASSAMITES
 The current Vizier is Tegyrius, who is in his third term. The sorcerers suffer from the Tremere Curse and the
Tegyrius was a soldier in life, albeit a high-ranking soldier Curse of Prominence. A few sorcerers have contracted the
in Alexander’s armies — in other words, a politically adroit Baali Curse from their warrior kin. In such sorcerers, the
cosmopolite as well as a warrior. For much of the last two Baali Curse usually supplants the Curse of Prominence,
centuries, the declining influence of the viziers over the but some sorcerers suffer from both.
Children of Haqim has demoralized Tegyrius. However,
since the invasion of Iraq, he has become galvanized by
his firm conviction that the rise of Ur-Shulgi is imminent.
Politics Among
Certain that the Black Shepherd’s impending arrival means
nothing good for his caste or for the Clan as a whole, he
the Assamites
is the prime mover behind the Preservationist Conspiracy. The Du’at is the collective name for the Caliph, the
Vizier, and the Amr, and on paper, they all have equal
They suffer from the Tremere Curse and the Curse of power and equal status. In practice, the Caliph outranks
Obsession. A few viziers have contracted the Baali Curse the other two and isn’t afraid to let them know it, although
from their warrior kin. In such viziers, the Baali Curse the Old Man does what he can to restrain the Caliph,
often supplants the Curse of Obsession, to which these and regularly defers to the Amr and Vizier within their
viziers are usually (but not always) immune. areas of expertise.
The Sorcerers Below the Caliph is the Silsila, an informal court
consisting of Alamut’s permanent resident warriors. In
The remainder of our Clan belongs to the insular sorcerer
earlier nights, the Silsila consisted of equal numbers of
caste. Both the warriors and the viziers see great value in the
the three castes, but warriors have dominated it for the
power of the sorcerers, but neither group quite trusts them.
last millennium. As such, it has ceased to be an advisory
Clan legends pertaining to the Baali are just too ingrained
body and has instead become the Caliph’s private army
for the typical Assamite to be comfortable around someone
for ensuring the warriors’ dominance over the other two
who can command demons and djinn with a word. As
castes. The Web of Knives tends to view the Silsila as the
with the viziers, there are very few sorcerers among the
informal priesthood of the Cult of Haqim. Naturally,
Sabbat. There are a few sorcerers among the Dispossessed,
Assamites outside that faction are less respectful of the
but the rarity of the sorcerers and the loneliness of their
Silsila, though usually not to their faces. The Silsila also
lifestyle compels them to seek the company of others of
acts as point agency for outsiders who wish to contract with
their kind. Unfortunately, while the viziers can get along
Assamites for assassination purposes. If a Cainite finds
with their own counterparts among the Camarilla, most
that she needs an Assamite to kill for her and she is not
sorcerers can’t even sit in the same room with the jealous
incompetent, she will eventually make contact with the
and paranoid Tremere without a magical duel breaking
representative of one of the Silsila, who will then contact
out. A pity, since most members of the Camarilla would
her for negotiations.
be delighted to deal with thaumaturges who didn’t attach
as many strings as the Tremere did. Counterbalancing the Silsila is the Council of Scrolls,
an advisory body of fifteen Assamites consisting primarily
The leader of the sorcerer caste is the Amr, a position
of viziers and sorcerers, though no ban exists preventing
that has been synonymous with Al-Ashrad for nearly
warriors from membership. The Eldest and the Du’at are
two-thousand years. A mage himself for well over five
barred from membership in order to prevent conflicts of
centuries even before his Embrace, Al-Ashrad defines the
interest. Each member of the Council is considered the
post of Amr so completely there is only one Assamite of
Clan’s expert-in-residence when it comes to whatever
antiquity who is a match for his power. Unfortunately,
matter falls within that seat’s purview.
that Assamite — Ur-Shulgi — is the one Al-Ashrad most
fears will emerge to make that challenge, which is why
the Amr has joined Tegyrius’ conspiracy. Al-Ashrad is Major Factions
not alone in his origins, as a small but vital percentage
of the sorcerers were mortal mages prior to the Embrace. The Web of Knives
Some of them have even retained connections to their Founded at the dawn of the twelfth century C.E., the
prior occult affiliations, which can occasionally provide Web of Knives is a death cult. Its founders were all hardline
valuable intelligence to the Children. Assamite warriors who disapproved of the effect that Islam

LORE OF THE CLANS 21

had on their Clan in general. These founders sought to as well as fulfilling Haqim’s command that they exterminate
forge a technique for transitioning new recruits directly all other Cainites. All of them believe the Clan origin that
from mortal existence into the brutal, blood-soaked world states that Haqim seized the power of the Blood for himself
of their new religion, often choosing from young people in order to fight against Caine’s evil, that the warriors were
who have turned to radical antiquity because they don’t see Haqim’s first childer with the “lesser castes” coming later,
a future for themselves. When one of the Dervishes finds a and that godhood is obtainable through diablerie.
mortal who is exceptionally skilled at combat, he gives the
mortal the opportunity to join the Children. Sometimes, The Preservationist Conspiracy
he is even honest enough to say that the alternative is death. The Preservationist Conspiracy is a faction so new that
The new recruit spends the next several years at one of it barely has a name. The conspiracy is the brainchild of
the group’s secret training facilities where he learns every the Vizier Tegyrius and the Amr Al-Ashrad, both of whom
form of combat and every technique for assassination, have concluded that the Children of Haqim are doomed
as well as being brainwashed into the group’s religious so long as they remain on their present course. The Web
dogmas. Most don’t make it and end up tossed into of Knives is out of control, and their lust for violence has
unmarked graves dug by fellow recruits to show them turned much of the Middle East into a charnel house.
the price of failure. Those who survive long enough to They reject both Islam and modernity in favor of a debased
impress their masters become ghouls, and spend more ideology that calls for genocide against all Cainites.
years learning how to kill supernatural beings as easily as However, the Web of Knives alone would not be an
other mortals, all while becoming even more devoted to insurmountable obstacle. What tips the scales towards
the Web of Knives and the Path of Blood. Typically, this treason against the rest of the Clan are the clear signs
phase of the training lasts for seven years or so, at which of Baali moving behind the scenes, and the possibility
point survivors who have proven their loyalty have one of one of the most terrifying Methuselahs in the world
final test: the targeted assassination of a specific individual rising to purge the Clan. Neither Tegyrius nor Al-Ashrad
about whom the initiate has no information save a name has any illusions about which factions are likely targets for
and a picture. Those who succeed receive the reward of purging, nor which faction will lead the purge. Accordingly,
the Embrace. The penalty for failure is self-evident. desperate measures are necessary to preserve the true legacy
While the order was founded in the twelfth century C.E., of the Children of Haqim.
it did not recruit a single female until the eighteenth, and So was born the Preservationist Conspiracy. For the last
the number of females since then can be counted on one decade, the Vizier and the Amr have been recruiting and
hand. For most of its existence, the Web of Knives was laying the groundwork for a mass defection of Assamites who
a small organization, although its political influence was share their socio-political views to other sects, whether it’s to
wildly disproportionate to its size. Warrior Assamites who the Camarilla, the Sabbat, the Ashirra (a multi-Clan alliance
did not belong to the organization nevertheless admired of Muslim vampires active across the Middle East), or some
its dedication and intensity. During the first Gulf War, combination of the above. At present, the conspiracy includes
the Web of Knives sought to increase its size and stature a bare majority of the viziers and the sorcerers. The rest are
with a “recruitment drive” of military personnel (both warriors who don’t fit within the loyalist paradigm, either
Middle Eastern and Allied soldiers) who demonstrated because of extreme devotion to Islam or simply opposition
field competence. By the time the Americans invaded Iraq to the barbarism of the Path of Blood. Those who have
in 2003 C.E., those recruits had been vampires for five demonstrated the most loyalty to the conspiracy and the most
years and were completely devoted to the Web of Knives. political and social acumen have already been sent abroad
They, in turn, led the next round of recruitment, this time to form connections, gain allies, and pave the way for more
of soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as refugees if and when the Final Nights begin. Among such
particularly skilled terrorists and insurgents. The recruits forerunners, the viziers and the sorcerers gravitate towards
of that “class” have only just completed their training. Its Camarilla territories. The former have had good luck posing
sudden and precipitous growth is one of the main factors as Toreador. The latter must usually pose as Caitiff and hope
that led to the birth of Tegyrius’s plans for defection. that no one asks too many questions.
All members of the Web of Knives are devoted followers
of the Path of Blood (as reimagined by the group’s founders), The Assamite Antitribu
and most of them long for the night when the Tremere Curse Many Kindred mistakenly assume that the Assamite
is lifted and they can pursue apotheosis through diablerie, antitribu represent a separate bloodline. That is untrue.

22 THE ASSAMITES
The antitribu are simply Assamite warriors who are not a large group of “soon to be Dispossessed,” but it’s really
subject to the Tremere Curse. Among the Tremere, the more accurate to say that the Preservationists want an
conventional explanation for that oddity is that the antitribu Assamite Clan of their own, while the true Dispossessed
had already abandoned their Clan before the curse took merely wish to be left to their own devices.
hold, and thus they were not subject to the sympathetic
magic. Among the Assamite sorcerers, more sinister The Leopards of Zion
theories hold sway, theories suggesting that those who The Leopards of Zion have come and gone over the
became the antitribu somehow invoked the power of the centuries. As long as the Assamites have recruited from
Baali to overcome the magic of the Tremere. Regardless, the Middle East, they have recruited Jews. As long as there
the “Free Assamites” found that they had no place among have been Jewish Assamites, there have been Leopards ready
the Children, and so they offered their blades to the to defend their people against whoever would threaten
Sabbat, which was eager to accept. There, the Angels of them. The Leopards of Zion are an informal group of
Caine could sate their lust for vitae and their desire to loyal Jewish Assamites who invariably support the Jewish
lower their Generation via diablerie without sanction. people and the State of Israel wherever possible. This
Few outside the antitribu understand it, but there are often causes friction between Leopards and Palestinian
really two factions of Assamites in the Sabbat. The first Assamites, and so the Leopards must tread softly. Further
wave of Assamite antitribu consists primarily of elders complicating matters for the group is internal friction —
who clearly remember their time among the Children. To not all of the Leopards are convinced that Israel’s general
them, the Sabbat is a means to an end — the destruction attitudes towards Palestine are good for the nation in the
of the Camarilla and especially the Tremere so that the long run. Currently the group papers over such divisions.
rest of the Clan can be freed. In that capacity, those elders They are vastly outnumbered by Assamites who have little
became the backbone of the Black Hand, the military to no regard for Israel’s sanctity at all, and they cannot
generals of the Sabbat. afford any internal divisions.
However, as part of their duties, those Assamite The Thousand-Meter Club
elders were forced to Embrace haphazardly and without
Like the Leopards, the Thousand-Meter Club is a social
opportunity to teach their childer the ways of the Assamite
group. Instead of an alliance based on ethnicity, club
Clan. Further complicating matters is the fact that one of
members unite in their mutual respect for mastery of a
these “Assamite ways” is the Path of Blood, which would
single weapon: the sniper rifle. Membership is extended
be heretical to any Sabbat priests who learned of it, so the
to any Assamite who successfully assassinates a target
antitribu must walk a fine line. As a result, the younger
from a distance of 1,000 meters or more without the use
Assamites know nothing of the Clan’s history, of the
of any Disciplines. The unofficial founder is Sgt. Randy
legends of Haqim, or of the castes. They know only that
Hopkirk, a U.S. Marine sniper from Alabama who had
they hunger for the blood of Cainites. Moreover, to the
over fifty confirmed kills in World War II before his
extent that they have learned anything about Haqim, the
sire selected him for the Embrace. There are no official
younger antitribu have learned that he’s an Antediluvian
requirements for joining the Thousand-Meter Club other
who will someday rise to kill everyone. This does not endear
than a confirmed kill from at least 1,000 meters. As a
the antitribu to the Children of Haqim, and vice versa.
practical matter, however, that usually requires exceptional
skill with firearms.
Minor Factions
Kairouan Brotherhood
The Dispossessed A family of inbred ghouls, created by the Assamite
The Dispossessed are not really a faction. Indeed, they Sorcerers of Al-Qayrawan as a method of studying and
are arguably the antithesis of a faction, as historically, the experimenting after the Assamites encountered the
Assamites use the term to describe what other Kindred Tzimisce revenants in Europe. Rumors say that the
would refer to as “autarkis” — that is to say, Assamites warrior caste drove the mystics out of Alamut for their
who want nothing to do with other Assamites. The term “unnatural” experiments, but this family continues in the
is ancient, and reportedly used after the fall of the Second modern nights. Some are merchants and deal with the
City to describe Clan members who sought their own viziers more than other Assamites, while others still have
destinies instead of journeying with Haqim to Alamut. ties to the sorcerer caste.
Arguably, the Preservationist Conspiracy can be viewed as

LORE OF THE CLANS 23

Character and Traits
Concepts
Antitribu Shovelhead
You were an accountant before the Watts Riots. You think it’s
important to remember that for some reason. You don’t remember
what the trigger was (something racial maybe?), but you’re pretty
sure it was really cover for a Crusade. That’s what the Sabbat calls
it when they march into a city, grab some handy locals, hit them
with a shovel, and feed them some blood before burying
them alive. Well, not alive. You were definitely dead when
you dug yourself out of the grave.
They said you were an Assamite, and you were as surprised
as anyone was when you survived the Crusade. Once you
realized you were a goddamned vampire, you thought about
killing yourself. It was the right thing to do. But before you
had the chance, you got into a scrape with the one of the local
Camarilla vamps, and you drained the bitch dry. Goddamn. It was
better than coke, even better than sex. So you decided that you were
probably damned anyway. Might as well see if there’s any more of that
“vee-tay” for the taking.

Contract Assassin
You were 14 the first time you killed a man. Granted, it was your
own father and it was because you were tired of his disgusting touch
in the night. Unfortunately, the penalty for murder was harsh under
Moroccan law, even when the “victim” was a child molester. Luckily,
for you, someone thought your actions were both justified and skillful.
He visited you in jail and offered you freedom and power you’d never
dreamed of provided that you were willing to kill again... and again.
Your sire was not a part of the Web of Knives, which was why he was
even considering a female. You gathered that he wanted to prove a point
to his political rivals. Three years later, he was sufficiently satisfied with
your skills with a gun, a knife, a bottle of poison, or your bare hands to
bestow the Embrace. You’ve been proving his point ever since, usually for
one million USD per kill.

Crypto-Kabbalist
The Leopards have always defended Israel. Once that meant using swords,
then guns, and then jet airplanes. You used to do it with numbers and computer
programs as one of Mossad’s top computer analysts. Then, an Assamite sorcerer
recruited you to see if it was possible to do Kabbalah-based numerology rituals
with computers. You’re still working on that, but you’ve become a pretty good
sorcerer in your own right, and despite your ostensible loyalty to the Assamites,
you haven’t ignored the chance to use your powers on behalf of the Nation of
Israel when you can.

24 THE ASSAMITES
Demon Hunter glittering and somewhat vapid socialite while you look
for ways to ingratiate yourself to the Prince, ways that can
You were a little girl the first time you saw a djinni (well,
open doors for everyone else who’s looking to get out.
you thought it was a djinni). You had awoken to a strange
noise and crept into your parents’ room to see what it was. Ice Queen
You gasped as you saw the boy with bright red skin floating
The Thousand Meter Club doesn’t have many members
in mid-air over your parents’ bed. He looked at you and
to begin with, but unlike much of the Clan, it is surprisingly
giggled. Then he set your parents on fire. Everyone else
accepting of women. Of course, you’re used to competing
said it was a bomb, one of many that fell on Beirut during
against men successfully. You and women like you fought
Lebanon’s civil war. You knew differently and devoted
for Mother Russia and for the Revolution against the
yourself to learning everything you could about the djinn,
Nazis. Your specialty was the sniper rifle, and with over
the efrit, and the other evil spirits of the Middle East. Your
fifty confirmed kills, you were damned good at it. By
studies led you to the Children of Haqim and your devotion
the war’s end, you’d been recruited into a much better
(as well as your unusual ability to see dematerialized spirits)
fighting force by your sire, a woman with skin the color
eventually led to the Embrace. Now, you wander Lebanon
of midnight who watched you kill four Germans who
and Syria as you will, ignoring the violence of the kine in
never had a clue where you were. “Magnificent,” she said
your search for the evil spirits that fatten themselves on it,
as the last one’s head disintegrated. You’ve traveled with
spirits that you either bind into your service or destroy in
her ever since serving as her protégé, her bodyguard, and
the name of Allah and Haqim.
her occasional lover.
Dispossessed Anarch Mujahid
You never asked for the Embrace, and you certainly never
In life, you were a member of the Republican Guard
asked to be Embraced as an Assamite warrior. From the
who fought in the Iran-Iraq War during the 1980s. The
start, you wanted nothing to do with your weird Clan of
conflict between the governments bored you, as did the
crazy Islamist killers. Luckily, your sire wasn’t in the Web
conflict between Sunni and Shia. You were a soldier, you
of Knives, so he didn’t cart you off to be brainwashed. He
were paid to kill, and you were good at it. Sometimes, it
was just a warrior who thought he’d found a kindred spirit
bothered you when your fellow soldiers looked at you like
(so to speak) in a French Legionnaire serving in Algiers.
a monster, but that was their weakness, not yours. After
He taught you just enough to survive, and other Kindred
the war was over, you mustered out and were looking for
you encountered taught you where to go. A year later, you
work when a man showed up at your home. Without even
were in L.A... just in time for the Sabbat to attack. You
introducing himself, he spat in your face and then tossed
fought back and helped out as you could, and you even
you a knife. Even though you were armed and he was not,
saved the unlife of an important Anarch Baron. He repaid
he still beat you senseless. Despite that, he still smiled at
you by bringing you into his crew and by not asking any
you and said you had potential. Then he showed you his
questions about your occasional use of Quietus.
fangs and asked whether you wanted to be a killer or a
Envoy to the Camarilla victim. You never hesitated. You never will.
In life, you were a Jew whose work with the Danish Oil Company Executive
Resistance led to becoming an Israeli intelligence operative
In life, you were a minor relative of an Arab oil sheik,
after your post-war emigration. In death, you discovered
not connected enough to be wealthy in your own right,
that you had joined a Clan that was hostile towards women,
but close enough to get a good education, including a
towards Westerners, and increasingly towards Jews. Your
business degree from America. You graduated just in
fellow viziers were all right, but your parents had told you
time for the 1973 Oil Crisis, which briefly put OPEC on
stories about what it was like in the 1930s before everything
top of the world. It didn’t last — the 1980s saw a massive
went to hell, and you could see the writing on the wall.
collapse in oil prices — but by then your place in the Saudi
When one of Tegyrius’s people started to sound you out
Arabian national oil company, Saudi Aramco, was secure.
about joining their conspiracy, you interrupted him to tell
More importantly, your reputation as a savvy and ruthless
him quite a few things you’d already figured out that he
businessman preceded you; so much so, it attracted the
didn’t know. Then you asked what you could do to help.
attention of a vizier elder who was having some problems
That’s how you ended up here in a Camarilla stronghold, grasping the intricacies of the energy sector as it applied
posing as a Toreador neonate. You play the part of a to late twentieth century geopolitics. He needed your

LORE OF THE CLANS 25

expertise and offered immortality in exchange, a bargain Broken Antitribu (3pt. Flaw)
you found quite satisfactory. Tonight, you split your time
You are one of those most pitiful things — an Assamite
between the boardrooms of Riyadh and the pleasure
antitribu who still labors under the Tremere Curse. You
palaces of Dubai. There are deals to make in both venues.
have pledged yourself to the Sabbat, but you cannot
The Seer perform diablerie and can only partake of Kindred vitae
already transubstantiated through the Vaulderie. As a
You were nine when you first had a vision of the future.
result, the difficulty of all Social rolls against other Sabbat
You were fifteen when your vision told you how and where
members is at +2.
you would die. You were seventeen when your vision
told you that your death was not your end but your true Multiple Curses (3pt. Flaw)
beginning. You were eighteen and a woman when you
In addition to the normal curse imposed upon you by
left your home in the south of Morocco for Egypt, where
your caste or sect, you suffer one additional one associated
you wandered the nights until you found a particular
with the Assamite Clan. Most likely, you are a rare vizier
apartment that called out to you. You knocked on the
or sorcerer within the Sabbat who suffers the Baali Curse
door, and when a tall man with ebony skin opened the
in addition to your normal caste-imposed curse, but at the
door, you smiled and said, “I am ready to die, master.”
Storyteller’s discretion, other combinations may be possible.
You have not had any more visions since your Embrace,
but you took to Assamite Sorcery as though you were
destined for it... which, of course, you know that you were. Discipline Powers
The most common powers associated with the Quietus
Merits and Flaws Discipline are in V20, pp. 203-209. In general, the warriors
favor these powers for their combat applications. However,
Sectarian Ally (1pt. Merit) a vizier seldom has need to kill an enemy by spitting in his
You have a close friend in one of the Kindred sects. face and a sorcerer even less so. Accordingly, below are
Perhaps you are a warrior who is in touch with one alternate versions of the common Quietus powers available
of the antitribu, a vizier who shares common business to the vizier and sorcerer castes — only the modifications to
interests with some Camarilla Ventrue, or a sorcerer who the powers listed in V20 are presented here. The player of
corresponds with one of the rare blood magicians of the a vizier or sorcerer character must decide when purchasing
Anarch Movement. Your ally can help you navigate the the individual power whether to take the traditional version
currents of their sect, but they might want something in associated with the warriors or the caste-specific version.
exchange from time to time.
Sorcerer Quietus
Thousand Meter Killer (1pt. Merit) • Silence of Death
You have proven yourself worthy to join the Thousand
Despite no one being able to hear her, the sorcerer can
Meter Club through your remarkable skill with the sniper
still speak. While this may seem a meaningless distinction,
rifle. The difficulty of all rolls associated with sniping is
many applications of Assamite Sorcery require verbal
reduced by -1. You also double the normal range when
incantations, which this power allows the sorcerer to use
using a sniper rifle as a weapon.
without drawing attention to herself.
Outcast (2pt. Flaw) •• Scorpion’s Curse (Scorpion’s Touch)
Your have rejected the ethos of the caste into which you
The sorcerer version of Scorpion’s Touch is Scorpion’s
were Embraced. Perhaps you are one of the few viziers
Curse. It allows the sorcerer to place a ward on a solid
or sorcerers to support the Web of Knives or pursue the
surface such as a door, a section of floor, or even a small
Path of Blood. Perhaps you are a warrior who has little
object such as a box or a letter. The sorcerer may ward
stomach for combat, preferring instead to be a diplomat
any object or area up to her Intelligence dots in square
or a student of the occult. Perhaps you made some kind of
yards/meters. A few seconds after the power is activated,
public spectacle that revealed your disdain for your fellow
the blood ward fades and can only be spotted with a
caste members. Your sire now rejects you, as do the other
Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 9) or a Perception +
members of your caste. The difficulty of all Social rolls
Investigation roll (difficulty 7). The ward lasts for a number
against members of your caste is at +2.
of days equal to her Occult dots before dissipating, but

26 THE ASSAMITES