Sabbat

The Sabbat are the nightmare of humanity: every blood-soaked horror film, every terrifying post-apocalyptic future tale, and every story about the dark side of human nature is made manifest in them. Technically, the Sabbat (founded by the Lasombra and Tzimisce, although members of any clan can join) don't set out to be evil, although their goal of killing all elder vampires in order to ensure that they can never again control their progeny is a radical one; they just want to ensure that they remain free of any secret overlords that might seek to own them. In practice, however, their additional philosophies, mostly centered around embracing their bestial natures and refusing to conform to human moral standards, lead them to be highly dangerous and without remorse when it comes to any and all other living things (and each other, more often than not). When most of the sect considers humans the rightful cattle of the vampires, to be used and abused as they see fit, it's difficult for any members to remain even morally neutral for long.

Sabbat do not refer to vampires as "Kindred", finding the word trite, and instead refer to their race as "Cainites", referring to an ancient apocryphal legend that all vampires are descended from the Biblical Cain, perpetrator of the first murder. They hate above all things the elders of past generations, envisioning them as part of a vast, shadowy illuminati that enslaves and destroys their descendants at will. They may not be entirely wrong, but their response - to slaughter mortals in order to erode their own consciences and to attempt to destroy anything and everything that might get in their way - is, to say the least, extreme.

Organization & Enforcement

The Sabbat is largely organized around packs, which are small local groups of Sabbat that are accountable to only their own group members and often do not cooperate or communicate very effectively when it comes to strategy. At the higher echelons, a carefully organized system akin to a religious order gives the more powerful Cainites of the sect the ability to direct larger plans and directives and impose a general system of control over the unruly packs. Most Sabbat vampires know very little outside of their packs and any other packs that might share territory with them, and many would be actively hostile to any "higher authority" in their sect unless they personally saw evidence of those leaders' fitness to command them.

The Regent & Enforcers

The Regent is the ultimate authority of the Sabbat, although they do not (in theory) have the same absolute power that the Inner Circle of the Camarilla does. The Regent is considered to direct the Sabbat in lieu of the original ancient first vampire, whom older Sabbat maintain will at some point return and take over control of his many childer again; younger Sabbat tend not to believe in this legend, and to treat the Regent as more of a reigning monarch in their own right rather than a steward for another power. In either case, the Regent oversees Sabbat strategy and conquest, decides on any questions that cannot be resolved at the pack level, controls all positions in the Sabbat, and may declare enemies or allies of the sect as they see fit.

The Regent's commands are enforced by the Black Hand, an elite military group of specially selected Cainites who carry out assassinations, speed strikes against the Camarilla, or any other mission both too dangerous and too sensitive to be entrusted to the inconsistent talents of a pack. The Black Hand is made up of members embedded in other packs, and the majority of the Sabbat considers them something of an urban legend, since a Cainite could easily go a century without ever being involved in anything that drew the Hand's attention.

The Consistory

The Consistory is the advisory political body of the Sabbat, debating issues of the sect's philosophies and future actions in order to advise the Regent. Although they technically need to obey the Regent's directives, together they represent influence sufficient to massively affect politics at both global and local levels.

The Consistory is made up at the highest level of the thirteen Cardinals, each of whom oversees a large geographical area in Europe or the Americas. Cardinals are charged with ensuring that all cities within their domains are conquered and converted to the Sabbat cause, and they generally lead the charge when it comes to organizing and directing local packs to destroy any Camarilla or Anarch powers in the area. They seldom answer to anyone, even the Regent, unless their territory undergoes massive destabilization or an embarrassing loss to another sect; Cardinals tend to remain in their home city for the most part and travel only for specific Consistory business, and most Sabbat within their territories are too far beneath their notice to worry about so much as seeing them in action.

Below the Cardinals are the Archbishops, who oversee cities within a Cardinal's domain and function similarly to Camarilla Princes, although their subjects tend to be far more fractious and less than unified. Archbishops administer enough order to prevent their local packs from killing one another and ensure that no Camarilla or Anarch invaders take the city in the name of their sects, and they are served by lesser Bishops, who provide advising services and directly liaise with the pack officials.

Also serving in the Consistory and reporting to the Regent are the Prisci, who primarily provide military intelligence and leadership in the Sabbat's endless quest to destroy the elders and conquer the known world. Ironically, most of the Prisci are elders themselves, or ancillae on their way to becoming elders; they claim that they agree ideologically with the Sabbat, and of course, they're not "old enough" elders to be a threat. Of course, their ability to substantially shape the Sabbat and direct its Cainites to do their bidding argues against them being nearly as harmless as they claim.

Pack Structure

The core unit of the Sabbat, the pack, is usually made up of several somewhere between four to ten Cainites. Its members work together through loose connections of mutual usefulness and the loyalty engendered by the Vaulderie, although they do not necessarily always like or respect one another. Packs tend to form organically from whatever Cainites are drawn to or good at working with one another, although they can also be created peremptorily by Bishops, Archbishops, or even Cardinals that want to handpick a group for a specific purpose. Some packs are specialized to sneak into territories owned by other sects and gather information, and are referred to as Scout Packs; others are designed to invade, destroy, and lead forays into enemy territory, and are referred to as War Packs.

Packs have two major positions dedicated to keeping their structure and mission intact:

• The Ductus is the leader of an individual pack, something akin to a gang leader in mortal society, and is in charge of giving pack members assignments and ensuring that they obey their orders and follow through on any commands from on high. Ducti are technically in charge, but the Sabbat is a difficult sect to hold absolute power in, and any pack leader that overexerts their authority may find that their pack revolts and makes an example of them with little warning.
• The Priest is the Ductus' second-in-command, and in charge of the pack's spiritual life, which includes leading and administering any of the Auctoritas Ritae the pack needs to participate in. Priests don't wield much power outside of pack rituals unless something happens to the Ductus, in which case they take over until the pack's political structure can be stabilized.

The Auctoritas Ritae

Practiced by the vast majority of the sect's Cainites (although in many cases intermittently), the Auctoritas Ritae are the sacred rituals of the Sabbat, considered important methods of joining packs together and designed to reinforce the sect's most important values. While the Ritae aren't strictly required and the Sabbat authorities do not enforce them or punish anyone who fails to participate, other members of the Sabbat are likely to view anyone who fails to enact the rites as pathetic at best, or possibly a potential traitor at worst.

The Blood Feast

A ghastly social gathering as much as a ritual, the Blood Feast is designed to encourage all Sabbat members in the area to come together and sate their hunger, rendering them at least somewhat friendly and capable of diplomacy. Various mortals are rounded up and slightly injured to cause them to bleed before being placed strategically around a communal gathering hall; popular arrangements include hanging people from the ceiling, strapping them to statues or chaining them to walls, or serving them on platters around a shared banquet table. Cainites at the Feast can travel the room and drink from any victim they wish at their leisure, and are encouraged to do so while the hapless mortals thus restrained are still alive and "fresh".

Occasionally, vampires might be captured as victims for a Blood Feast, especially if the Feast is being held in the presence of an important personage such as a Cardinal. Such Cainites are usually being punished for something, such as suspected treachery against the Sabbat or failure to succeed in a mission handed down from on high, but given the capricious nature of the sect as a whole, some vampires used as fodder might just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Vaulderie

The Vaulderie is possibly the most important of all the Ritae, representing coherence for the Sabbat as a whole. Since the elders whose power the Sabbat reject so often use the Blood Bond as a means of controlling their descendants, the Vaulderie was developed in order to render them immune from such subtle control.

A Sabbat pack performs the Vaulderie by contributing some blood from each member to a central chalice or cauldron, combining it into a potent mixture, after which each of them drinks in turn. This makes each and every member of a pack bloodbound to all of the other members, giving them a strong connection and ensuring that they work together, and making certain that, since they are already bloodbound, they cannot be bound by any other elder and are immune to all outside blood sources. Bonds created by the Vaulderie are referred to as vinculum, and while they do make those who partake at least a little bit loyal and likely to support one another, they do not have the strength or violent emotional side effects of a normal blood bond.

The only case in which the Vaulderie does not provide protection from a blood bond is if a member has already been fully bound to someone else before participating in it; it cannot break an existing bond, although the vinculum to the other members of the pack still takes effect.

Status

Status among the Sabbat is a fluid thing, representing the esteem of peers and fellow warriors; it gives members a little more pull when it comes to ordering Cainites of lower Status around or killing in their territory with impunity, although it cannot truly take the place of actual skill and cunning in a crunch situation. Status is considered a representation of the merits of a given Cainite - the Status is there because a vampire is themself more worthy than others, rather than Status making a vampire more worthy.

The Sabbat claim that Status is always earned among their ranks, with none of the nepotism and favoritism so rampant in the ranks of the Camarilla, but in practice this is not always true.

Positive Status

Positive Status among the Sabbat is sometimes granted by other Sabbat Cainites with more Status than themself, although it's more common for a Cainite to receive Status as a result of particularly important achievements and conquests, bestowed by a Ductus, Priest, Bishop, or Archbishop. Most Sabbat do not have Status one way or the other, but those that do generally sport Status of an aggressive nature, with some of the most common being Initiated, Proven, and Blooded. Positive Status is easily lost among the Sabbat, and is often revoked as a punishment rather than because the Cainite in question has ceased to be skilled or notable; all a Priest needs is a vaguely reasonable excuse to demote any member of the pack that has displeased them.

Negative Status

Sabbat with Negative Status are in a dangerous position; it is usually levied as a punishment, and is very difficult to get rid of, especially since other Cainites are likely to be brutal and vicious toward the negative Status carrier and disinclined to lose out on their fun by giving them back any respect. Negative Status among the Sabbat generally refers to qualities that they consider undesirable, especially ones that are associated with the humans that they are so disdainful toward, and might be along the lines of Soft, Weak, or Inferior.