"Do what though wilt, shall be the whole of the law."
The Sabbat in L.A., as in any city, have their own history and traditions. They fall basically into two camps: the mainstream Sabbat, and the Loyalists. All PCs in this chronicle are Loyalists.
Loyalists refer to non-Loyalists as paramilitaries. They indeed have something very like a military command structure, and are all associated with the gang known as the Crypt's Sons. Led by the Lasombra, Mohammed al Muthlim, they pose as one of the factions of Anarchs who divide L.A. among themselves. Few mortals, and not even all vampires, in the gang know of al Muthlim's true allegiance.
In theory, the Crypts are allies to the PCs. In practice, they don't like you very much. In a real crisis, they may come to your assistance. Maybe. But don't count on it.
Loyalists believe in freedom above all, in so far as they have any common beliefs. In Los Angeles, the de facto head of the Loyalists is The Count, a Tzimisce who keeps a decrepit mansion in Beverly Hills. Although he has no authority, all Loyalists try to keep him apprised of their activities, and generally go to him first for information.
Vaulderie is extremely common; L.A. Loyalists offer each other Vaulderie the way mortals might offer each other tea or coffee.
After the Spanish Inquisition a great schism opened among vampires. Many had only survived the inquisition by going among mortals and passing for human; these were known as the Masquerade. Some ambitious vampires realised that they could play on the fear of others to gain control, and certain clans took upon themselves the responsibility of maintaining the Masquerade. After the danger of the inquisistion was past, most vampires abandoned the practice of hiding, seeing it as unduly restrictive. However, the ruling clans were enraged to see their grip on power slipping away, and started to hunt those who had abandoned them. After a few easy victories, they grew over-confident, and decided they could bring all vampires into the Masquerade by force. This was their undoing. Many of the independent vampires banded together to resist the authority of the Masquerade. This alliance became known as the Sabbat, from a word in some ancient language meaning the self. Those who pledge loyalty to the Sabbat are thus merely pledging to follow their own conscience; the Loyalist faction does so even to the point of refusing to recognise the Sabbat heirarchy's authority.
The conflict between the Masquerade and the Sabbat has slowly ground to a stalemate. Unable to push their sphere of influence any further, the Masquerade have had to be content with maintaining and consolidating power over their own neonates, mostly by brainwashing them with tales of the dire consequences to all vampires should mortals realise their existence.
The Masquerade is ruled over by self-styled "Princes" who each rule over a city where the Masquerade has managed to hold ground. They justify their existence by asserting that if mortals should ever realise vampires are real, they would hunt down and destroy them all. Successive generations of the Masquerade have been kept in line with increasingly dire tales of the consequences for all vampires if the Masquerade is breached, and the dangers of venturing outside the cities {and hence out of reach of the Masquerade}. The Masquerade seeks to extend its control over all vampires, although fortunately they spend too much time fighting among themselves to ever make this possible. Those kindred involved with the Masquerade are known as Masques, or Masks. The most typical Masks are those of the Tremere clan, whose rigid hierarchical structure and belief in the "blood bonding" of all its initiates is the model for all the other clans.
The Masquerade has no formal initiation, which means the members have no psychological marker to distinguish their life from their undeath. This, coupled with the imperative to live among mortals and imitate them, and yet separate themselves from them emotionally, drives many of the Masquerade insane. Often they develop split personalities, attempting to separate their human side from their vampiric side, calling the latter "the beast" as if it were a distinct entity. Even the ones who don't develop this problem are insane in one way or another. Their rigid and compartmentalised existence led some Sabbat early in the renaissance to coin the term "camarilla", a derogatory reference to the narrow cubicles that were popular in European taverns of the time. Some Masks have somehow picked up this term, and it is amusing to hear them use it to describe themselves, with clearly no idea of its meaning.
Masks apparently divide themselves into "Camarillae" and "Anarchs"; the distinction means nothing to the Sabbat, who tend to use the terms interchangeably.
The Sabbat initiates new members through an extremely tortuous ritual, consisting of two essential components. First, the initiate is buried alive, and must dig their way back up to the surface. Second, on emerging or soon thereafter, the initiate drinks blood from other Sabbat.
There are many different versions of the ritual. In some versions, the initiate is first bound and beaten to the point of torpor, and once buried must heal himself before attempting to return to the surface. In others, the initiate drinks from a vessel containing mixed blood from all the vampires present, usually restoring them to full blood points. Traditionally, among Loyalists, the initiate must agree to the initiation freely and of their own will, although in more recent times this requirement has been seen as optional.
A full formal initiation might go as follows: the Sire, having revealed themselves to a prospective mortal neonate, offers the mortal immortality. If the mortal agrees, {or in the case of a defector from the Masquerade}, they are asked, "Do you receive this freely and of your own will?", and respond, "I do". They are then drained, given a single blood point, and buried alive while still unconscious. When {or if} they dig themselves out, they will find themselves in the middle of a circle of Sabbat {if necessary, they will be Dominated to keep them from Frenzying}. An ornate chalice is passed around the circle, and each member of the circle drops some blood into it. Finally, it is held before the initiate by their Sire, who again asks, "Do you receive this freely and of your own will?". The initiate responds, "I do", and is then allowed to drink. Over that night and the next two, the initiate is held in chains, and taught the ways and customs of the Sabbat, and of vampires generally. They drink twice more from the circle, and on the third night, their Sire takes their chains in hand. They are offered freedom, and asked, "Do you receive this freely and of your own will?". When the initiate responds, "I do", their Sire breaks the chains, and they are free to take their place in Sabbat society.
All initiates will, sooner or later, be taught how to create and initiate new members {or simply create disposable vampires to be used as cannon fodder}; how to decrease their generation by slaying and drinking the blood of elders {Diablerising ones' own Sire is frowned on, but everyone else is fair game; this is how the Sabbat keeps its blood strong}; and the custom of Haven.
Loyalists stand for individuality and independence, and implicit in this is respect for each other's privacy. No Loyalist will knowingly enter the resting place of another vampire unless freely invited. Some even extend this courtesy to mortals. Although the precise interpretation of this rule differs, all agree to it in principle. Loyalists who enter cities owned by the Masquerade have developed the quaint custom of carrying with them brochures from the local board of tourism or commerce, the kind that say, "Come to ...", or "Welcome!". They rationalise that this counts as an open invitation, especially as their business is typically with the mortals of the city.
A point of controversy is whether churches or other holy ground count as Haven. To those Loyalists who don't believe in God {most of them}, it is just another building, and being public space may be entered without restriction. To those who do believe, their right to enter depends on whether they consider themselves as still having religion, or as being damned. An old and now little-known custom among the Sabbat is that of Sanctuary, that is, while any may enter holy ground, it is forbidden to hunt or otherwise perpetrate violence there.
After centuries of universal Vaulderie, many of the Sabbat have forgotten that the blood bond ever held them, and Loyalists in L.A. have become certain that there is no such thing as blood bonding. The apparent control some non-Sabbat hold over others, they conclude, must all be in their heads.
Captured Masks are often taunted mercilessly over this irrational superstition {"What happens, like, if you're drinking someone's blood in a plane, right, and you fly over the international date line? Does that count twice? Or, what if you're in the Antarctic, do you have to space the drinks six months apart?"}, but the Masks still vigorously insist that blood bonding is real. It is possible to gain control over a Mask this way; if a Sabbat can coerce or trick them into drinking her blood three times, or merely convince them that they have done so, they will believe they must follow her around and obey her every command.
As with blood bonding, the Sabbat have developed their own beliefs about the effect of a stake through the heart. For as long as it is there, it has an effect on a kindred's life force that has the outward result of immobilising a vampire, if it meets the following conditions.
First, it need not actually be wood, but it must be some unprocessed living or formerly living material {bone would suffice}. Second, it must be inserted by a mortal: the different aura around kindred and other supernatural beings does not produce the same effect. Third, the mortal must be physically touching either the vampire or the stake as it goes in {effectively, they must be in melee}, ruling out devices such as machine guns that fire wooden stakes, or automatic traps that launch stakes at the kindred.
This explanation seems to fit most of the observations made by Sabbat regarding stakes, but does not account for certain effects. For example, at least one vampire has been permanently destroyed by a single stake through the heart. Sometimes, ghouls can stake vampires, sometimes they attempt it with no effect, with no variable yet isolated to account for the difference. Also, Masks seem to stake each other regularly, seemingly unaware of the conditions required to invoke the mystic forces involved.
These are the most notable subcultures adhered to by Loyalists, although most individual Loyalists do not align themselves with a particular lifestyle. Just as Brujah {or anyone else} may be Anarchs, and Toreadors may be artistes or poseurs, Sabbat may be any of the following.
Sabbat may enter a permanent state of frenzy, known as The Hunt {as opposed to small "h" hunt, which refers to anyone in a temporary state of frenzy, or merely looking for blood}. The Sabbat will take no action to limit the freedom of any individual, but those on The Hunt who cut swathes of bloodshed across suburbia and generally run rampant can count on sooner or later being destroyed, either by mortals or by the Masquerade. Sabbat may go on The Hunt voluntarily, by willing themselves into frenzy. This may be to attain some specific goal, eg. a suicide mission to assassinate a Mask elder or destroy some installation of value to the Masquerade, or the vampire may merely have wearied of unlife and decided to go out spectacularly. The Hunt always ends in the vampire's death.
Some Sabbat enjoy going toe-to-toe with mortal vampire hunters, stalking them and taunting them perhaps for years before either killing them, driving them mad, seeing them incarcerated by other mortals, or Embracing them. Of course, sometimes the vampire hunter wins the contest, but that risk is part of the thrill. The Hunted are increasingly having to go over the top to attract the attention of hunters; acts that a century ago would have had half the population out with sharpened stakes, now get only three column-inches in the tabloid press, and genuine vampire hunters are increasingly rare. The Hunted are encouraged to cut their ties with other Sabbat, so that if they are destroyed or captured, the hunter will think he has dealt with the threat in that area and move on, rather than tracing the vampire's connections to the rest of the Sabbat.
"And God placed a mark upon Cain, so that whosoever should harm Cain, vengeance shall be visited upon him tenfold"
The Mark is based in the Vatican, and headed by Cardinal Woolley, an independent ghoul. During the Inquisition, a number of vampires fled to the then Bishop Woolley, seeking sanctuary, and pointing out the relevant passaged in Genesis. Woolley felt that he had no choice but to shelter them, and seeing a valuable ally, they saw to it that he would live forever. While he refused to be embraced, he has since then fed regularly on his charges. The Mark has been in constant rivalry with the Brotherhood of Saint Leopold, each lobbying successive popes to order the hunting of vampires, or leave them be, respectively. The current pope has yielded to The Mark, so that the Leopolds currently hunt without papal consent, but this could change with the next pope. The Mark comprises a cadre of vampires travelling throughout the world, doing conspicuous good works for the church, so that Woolley always has some political ammunition for his lobbying. His original cadre went on to help found the Sabbat, which he is still on good terms with. Since then he has recruited other good Catholics and arranged for their Embrace by the Sabbat, including a number of modern-day saints and many Bishops who have agreed to become kindred {though often they are approached at the point of martyrdom}. Even during hostile papacies, Woolley has sheltered kindred in deep basements beneath the Vatican, where the Leopolds were forbidden to hunt. Only vampires so sheltered are under his direct control, other Marks being guided only by their own conscience and papal law. In the church hierarchy, even those kindred who retain their priest- or Bishophood from life will not be promoted, and Woolley himself has given up all hope of gaining further status within the church; although he has the Bible on his side and centuries of experience, others see him as tainted by the company he keeps. Marks are sired by whoever Woolley can contact at short notice, usually Panders, and place more value on their church ties than their clan ties.