Sabbat Factions

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Ultra-conservatives

The Ultra-Conservatives are the elders and the militarists of the Sabbat. Take the Status Quo respect for title and status, add a pound of military bearing, and cull vigorously through three Civil Wars and you too will get the Ultra-conservatives.

• Status is earned and can be lost, be effective or be removed.
• The Code of Milan is not strict enough.
• Bring on the centralization, one Regent, 13 Cardinals, 26 Prisci – this is fine as far as it goes, but maybe we should add a clearly delineated set of responsibilities and duties as well?
• Monomacy of weak leaders, sieges, crusades, and full-out assaults on the pawns of the antediluvians these tactics are kosher.
• Be efficient, be deadly, organize your pack and diocese, respect strong leaders, and remove weak leaders.
• Support the Inquisition, support the Black Hand.

The Ultra Conservative view is held by many Lasombra and Tzimisce elders and a strong scattering of Antitribu elders. Amazingly enough, the Black Hand has been publicly leaning more and more towards this Sabbat credo.

Status Quo

Imagine if the Camarilla was more violent and was called the Sabbat and you get the Status Quo vision. This group has strong roots in Ventrue Antitribu, Lasombra, Tzimisce, and stable political leaders throughout the Sabbat. Status Quo ideals:

• Support your local leader; your loyalty will be rewarded
• Status is fun, earn some today. Status is the pass card of the status quo, without it you will not get in
• Strongly supports sieges and crusades while deriding them as unnecessary wastes of resources that could be better put somewhere else
• Does not favor removal of officers of the Sabbat except for any but the most heinous crimes
• The Code of Milan will be the law of the land, follow it and be well
• Pecking order will be established and held to. If you wait long enough and put in your time doing all the fun stuff you too will eventually rise up
• Support the Inquisition and the Black Hand
• If the system ain't broke, don't fix it - as it has been so it should continue to be. Sabbat - the system works!

The Status Quo calls upon allies in the Moderates and the Ultra-conservatives to counter balance the upsetting influence of the Loyalist rabble. The worst threat to the Status Quo is not the Camarilla, Lupines, or the Kuei-jin, it is the Loyalists and their ideals of freedom from under the thumb of any, but a self- appointed hierarchy. This idea is anathema to the Status Quo as they believe that an officer of the Sabbat is inviolate, and must know what they are doing not because of any actual competence but simply by filling the spot of the office.

A Bishop who earned his title 50 years ago and has done nothing risky or worthy since yet still feels entitled to and expects respect for his past deeds is a good example of a status quo office holder.

Moderates

The Moderate creed is a balancing act between the Loyalists and the Status Quo. Where the Loyalists are obsessed with their "freedoms” and the Status Quo is the epitome of Cainite stasis. The Moderates take a bit of every creed, including the Ultra-conservatives and Black Hand militarism. Within the Moderate creed you will find the baseline to be a group of grown up Loyalists who are not yet ossified into Status Quo members. The moderates:

• Support the Code of Milan about 95% of the time
• Support leaders they may not have personally appointed so long as they are good leaders
• Fully support the Purchase Pact
• Recognize the utility of the Regent and Consistory even if they don't personally approve
• Support the use of status as recognition of the labors of individual Sabbat
• Support sieges and crusades, though they believe gains can be made other ways
• Support the Black Hand most of the time, maybe support the Inquisition

This creed is the distillation of the Sabbat ancillae ethos. We are grown up enough to no longer rail at our elders/leaders, but we do not necessarily like it, and we believe we can find our own methods that our elders/leaders may not have though up yet.

Loyalists

Loyalists are concerned with the issues of freedom the Sabbat espouses. The Code of Milan is a guide, not the last word in the law. The Purchase Pact has granted freedom and rights, the Code is a double edged sword for further freedom and further restrictions. The loyalist creed can be a healthy thing that battles the stagnation of certain Camarilla-like elders who are into "playing the jyhad." The dangers of this creed is that they are the most likely to strike at other groups of Sabbat with accusations of "oppression" or other similar revolutionary cries. The problem with this is that the Sabbat can ill afford the level of factional in-fighting this provokes. With three Civil Wars under their belt the Sabbat are masters of teetering on the edge, the Loyalists may just prove to be the force to push them over it. The Loyalist view:

• Freedom or Death
• Leaders ask us, no... suggest a course of action, but we only accept if it we would have thought it was a good idea to begin with
• Down with Rulership

Pander Movement

So how do you get a Pander to go away? You throw them some shiny favor and they run and chase it. A large part of the movement can be so motivated. When the Ultra-conservatives condoned the creation of Clan Pander as a placation to the rabble after the Third Civil War in the 1957, the Panders were no better off really. Since then, they have proven what mercenaries they can be.

The movement is composed of Panders and sympathetic Antitribu who are basically political whores. One week they will support the Ultras, the next the Moderates. With a continual sense of bouncing around the political arena these Sabbat have a single goal: gain respect and status from their alliances.

• The Code of Milan can be both a hindrance and an ally
• Freedom is what you make of it; the Loyalists are a bunch of Pander wannabees without the balls to accept a paymaster
• Sieges, Crusades, the Black Hand, Inquisition - We support all if you tell us to!
• Status: we live on it, we desire it. Status and office are like drugs to the Pander movement

Old World Sabbat (Neo-feudalists)

The old world Sabbat might as well be Autarkis with the lip service some of them give to the Sabbat. If you were a two thousand year old powerhouse, would you want to deal with packs of Neonates bothering you nightly about felling the evil elders? No, so you calmly join the local Sabbat and get left alone by them as you are on their side.

• Old domains, old vamps, lots of power little Sabbat maneuvering
• Code of Milan, Purchase Pact, we have no need of these petty assurances from our children; we hold the reigns but remain remote
• Sieges, crusades - these things do not happen for the most part in Europe
• The Black Hand and the Inquisition are not very active at all in these areas; they receive little assistance and are granted little respect
• Primarily ancient Tzimisce and some Lasombra, a smattering of Antitribu are within these ranks

In the new world Neo-feudalists keep a low profile and their opinions to themselves or gather in enclaves of their own kind for support and insulation.

Manus Nigrum (Black Hand)

The Manus Nigrum is the old name for the "Black Hand." You know that crazy group of guys you are repeatedly told to support in the Code of Milan? The Black Hand (hereafter referred to as the Hand) is a paramilitary organization based on pack level units (called "cells") reporting to Overseers who in turn report to the Dominions who then report to the Seraph and then to the Regent.

Well mostly, the last part about the Regent is one of those amusing legal fictions that shows that the Hand is loyal to the Sabbat hierarchy and is not just working within it for its own reasons. And to a point they are, your average Hander is a devout Sabbat with admirable goals (in the eyes of other Sabbat at least).

Purposes of the Black Hand in the Sabbat:

• Stability, the Hand has guided the safety of the sect through three Civil Wars and kept them from collapsing of these internal conflicts.
• Functionality, the Hand is a organized group of Cainites, no other group with the possible exceptions of the neo-feudalists (due to the tight reign they hold on their subjects) or the Ultra-conservatives (the militarists) have such a sense of purpose. Now the purposes of the Hand are many and varied: war, intelligence, internal security, counter intelligence, and many other uses are what keep the Hand busy themselves with in their daily war against the pawns of the Antediluvians.
• The Hand prepares for battle with the ancients; while the rest of the Sabbat feuds with itself the Black Hand is preparing to face off with the big boys.

Weapons of the Hand

• The Code of Milan, the addendum to the Purchase Pact, that most holy of documents that assures our safety. In the addenda of the Code, there are some words that say we need to support the Hand.
• Military training and precision
• Clearly delineated centralized authority
• Purpose and brotherhood

In short, the Black Hand is the organization that for the most part gives the Sabbat its real teeth. The missions they perform are performed with tenacity and skill. The recruitment of the Hand is done through invitation, those who demonstrate a great level of skill or maybe posses a rare discipline or ability, these are asked first. The Hand is primarily composed of Antitribu (most numerous are Assamite Antitribu), the percentage of Lasombra or Tzimisce who join the hand is usually a much smaller percentage. There is a rivalry between the Lasombra secret society, Les Amies, and the Black Hand as each consider themselves to be the real controlling factor in the sect.

The Inquisition

Taking in hand the forces of Infernalism and Heresy, the Inquisition has devoted itself to rooting out these twin forces of dogmatic failure. With the recent growth to 30 members the Inquisitors are about to step into Sabbat politics with a bang. This group has the power to depose anyone below the Consistory (archbishop or lower) due to the edict of authority granted them by a quorum of Prisci.