Assamite

Assamites
Pseudonyms	Assassins; Banu Haquim; Saracens
Sect	Ashirra Independents
Disciplines	Celerity Obfuscate Quietus
Bloodlines	Courtiers Magi Nomads Viziers
Rarity	Uncommon

Assamites are scholars and warriors, a deeply philosophical clan dedicated to learning historical and religious truths and safeguarding a world that they fear might be easily thrown out of balance by the misbehavior of the Kindred. Historically Islamic, with folklore that claims their founder met Mohammad and learned the truths of the universe from him, the clan is traditionally very religious but has suffered several schisms and changes of popular opinion over the centuries, and members may be of any faith or belief that allows them to continue to seek justice and balance. Many Assamites consider that they only need to remind their fellow vampires to behave themselves to help keep balance in the world, but others, more radical, believe that all non-Assamite Kindred are blights on the earth, and that removing them is the only sure way to make the world safe.

Like their fellow Independent clan, the Ravnos, the Assamites have an unsavory reputation with the other clans; they are considered dangerous, mysterious barbarians by most of the other western vampries, and chiefly considered important as assassins for hire, with a reputation for being able to carry out almost any hit they are contracted for and a code of honor that will not allow them to turn on or give away information about those who purchase their services. Of course, it is illegal in the Camarilla to hire any Assamites to dispose of any other Kindred... but then again, a lot of things are illegal in the Camarilla, and they still end up happening anyway.

History

Clan Assamite claims to descend from Haqim, the ancient Antediluvian who, when the world was young, became a peerless hunter among his fellows. Recognizing that the clan would need a mix of skills to survive, he began to teach his descendants various paths and abilities, which in the modern nights have resolved into several of the bloodlines that developed from the clan, particularly the Courtiers, Magi, Nomads, and Viziers. This divide-into-specialties strategy allowed the Assamites to become largely self-sufficient even before the beginning of recorded history and allowed them to withdraw from the other clans, which, being highly specialized and extremely fractious, needed one another to survive. Haqim himself was in favor of this plan, seeing in the turmoil of the other clans' descendants warnings about future infighting and calamity.

The clan remained largely isolated by choice until the rise of the Greek city-states in the Mediterranean, and with them the Baali Wars, the siege of Carthage, and the powerful Toreador and Ventrue squabbles over the nascent Roman Empire. While the Assamites intentionally refused to participate in these events as a whole, the inevitable rise of the Camarilla forced them to move from their traditional power bases, spreading out into the Parthian Empire and becoming a power, along with the native Akhud, behind the rise of the Persian Empire for centuries to come.

The Middle Ages

With the arrival of the Crusades, the Assamites became split, with many faithfully opposing the invading Crusaders (themselves being spurred on by European vampires, especially the Ventrue, seeking to wipe out rivals and gain new territory in the Middle East) while others decided to integrate into European societies to try to affect them from within. The European clans were only too glad to use them as assassins for hire or dangerous errand-runners, but continued to keep them at arm's length, considering them too "impure" to be considered for serious association. The Assamites were instrumental in the founding of the Ashirra partly to counteract this ongoing imperial discrimination, giving them a secure power bloc in their ancestral lands.

The Anarch Revolt

By the time of the Anarch Revolt, the Assamites were well-established as a clan on par with any European one; they might not have liked them, but there was little they could do to remove their influence. The spark of war that eventually led to the entrenched conflict between Camarilla and Sabbat was less than important to the Assamites, but they were instrumental in the conflict, laying waste to enemies on both sides as they were hired as free agents and shared their commitment to escaping the control of their elders. When the new Anarchs decided to side with the Camarilla for safety, however, the Assamites turned on the Camarilla itself, furious with what they perceived as a betrayal of the movement that could have improved society for all of the undead.

In retaliation, the Camarilla worked tirelessly and, through a combination of supernatural powers and spies, managed to discover the hidden fortress of the Assamites and levy the Blood Curse upon them through the powers of Clan Tremere, weakening the clan so badly that they were forced to agree to the Treaty of Tyre, which promised to cease hostilities against the Camarilla and also prohibited them from selling assassination services to anyone within it.

The Schism

The Schism occurred in fairly recent history when Ur-Shulgi, an ancient childe of Haqim himself, awoke from an extended torpor. He promised to break the curse, but argued that he would only be able to do so if the entire clan were united with him spiritually, leading to his demand to reinterpret the clan's sacred traditions and force all members to convert to his particular religion, a worship of Haqim that he claimed predated Islam by many millennia. Outraged and horrified by the idea that they should be forced to convert to another religion to break their curse, the clan fractured into numerous small factions, none of them happy but very few capable of deciding what to do.

Ur-Shulgi remains active, and those loyal to him are not a small part of the clan, but he is by no means the authority over the entire group. Many Assamites chose to move to Camarilla cities, preferring to live as free Independents rather than bow to an elder gone mad; others remained in the Ashirra territories, reasoning that they should remain unmolested as long as they continued their traditional ways; still others defected to the Sabbat, intending to finish the work they started so long ago in the Anarch Revolt. Meanwhile, large numbers of Assamite Antitribu, especially elders, have actually left the Sabbat to return to Independent status, perhaps signalling either a recognition that they are needed to deal with Ur-Shulgi, or a political shift that may see the clan as a whole choosing to make a major change in their sect loyalties.

Strongholds

The traditional stronghold of Clan Assamite is Alamut, more properly referred to as Alah amut, meaning "the eagle's nest." It is a mountain fortress situated in secrecy somewhere in the Middle East; only a very few elders know its location, which is a zealously guarded secret for the Assamites and a nuclear weapon in the hands of those few outsiders who possess the knowledge. It is rumored that spies discovering Alamut's location is one of the main reasons that the Assamites agreed to the Treaty of Tyre, as they did not want to risk their home base being attacked by outsiders.

Alamut is a large citadel fortress, with nigh-impregnable walls and a rumored endless maze of tunnels leading into the mountain itself, from which Assamites could flee danger easily and in which enemies might find themselves permanently trapped. While large numbers of residents, all vampires or ghouls with occasional human herds, all live in Alamut year-round, its inner chambers are visited only by the most powerful of elders. They include the Central Vault, a huge underground vault that uses mirrors to allow an observer to watch the night sky from safely beneath tons of rock, and the Black Throne of Haqim, said to have risen from the ground when the Antediluvian stabbed a spear into the ground, and around which alamut itself is said to be built.

The most important feature of Alamut is Heartsblood, a magical well maintained by the Magi that contains at least a drop of blood from every Assamite that has ever visited the fortress. This not only creates an base from which the clan's sorcerers can perform powerful magical spells to aid their comrades even from across the planet, but also a deterrant for traitors, who know that they can be targeted from anywhere should they break faith with their clanmates. Younger Assamites, when they are aware of the well at all, tend to assume it is an insurance against siege, giving Alamut's dwellers a source of rich and powerful vitae should they ever be trapped inside, but such a use would signal a truly catastrophic level of destabilization if it ever came to pass.

Advantages and Weaknesses

Advantages

Because of the famous hidden armories of their clan and the clan's overall dedication to acting as guardians of whatever territory they spend time in, Assamites always have access to specialized equipment and weapons through their clan; they have only to ask and, if the reasoning they give is deemed appropriate, receive whatever tools would be most useful for them. This might include weapons of various types, surveillance equipment, protective measures, or electronics. Those who are especially well-connected can even sometimes call up clanmates to aid them, although they try to avoid such coordinated maneuvers except in times of necessity.

Disadvantages

Assamites, even if they don't believe in the extermination of other Kindred, nevertheless share a hunger for Kindred blood that they have great difficulty overcoming. They often can't help but take vampire blood when it is offered to them, making them very susceptible to the Blood Bond, and any time they do imbibe must exert considerable force of will or lose control and attack the Kindred the blood came from in an attempt to consume more of it. This makes Assamites dangerous to be around, and Kindred who are aware of their addiction problems usually take care not to tempt them lest they become victims of the blood-fueled compulsion.

The Blood Curse, in turn, builds upon this first struggle; it causes all vampiric vitae to become mildly poisonous to all Assamites, making them severely ill and weakened whenever they give in to the raging hunger within them. While this normally does not kill them (although it has been known to happen in rare cases when an Assamite was already badly injured before feeding or gorged themself on a vampire's entire blood supply at once), it is intensely painful and disorienting, making every moment an exercise in very necessary self-control.

The Assamites in DC

The Assamites have no official voice in DC, since they are Independents, but the Prince regards them as a reasonable clan and might occasionally extend them the courtesy of allowing them to sit in on proceedings for their information, although they aren't allowed to affect the outcome much. Like the Gangrel, they are considered "pseudo-Camarilla", with a tentative claim to a say in the city but no official power. They mostly keep to themselves, watching the power struggles of the other Kindred from afar; they prefer not to interfere, but several of their younger members do accept assassination contracts now and then (only if they believe the target deserves to die, of course).

Assamite Player Characters

Andrew Carley	Davium	Hayder	Mason Devereaux

Midori	Serenity Quinn	Seth Armis	Vanessa Keasley	WuJay

See Also

Assamite Antitribu
Courtiers
Magi
Nomads
Viziers

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