Post by Admin on Apr 21, 2016 20:13:41 GMT
Taken by the Hand
A substantial number of recruits for the Tal’Mahe’Ra come from the False Hand, as the Sabbat indoctrinates its subjects with impressive fanaticism and loyalty. Only the best and brightest of the False Hand survive longer than half a dozen operations.
Tal’Mahe’Ra headhunters observe the False Hand at length, recording instances where potential candidates excel in the use of Disciplines, overcome adversity in inventive ways, and most importantly, learn to question. If the recruit does the latter, the time has arrived to ex-tend the olive branch leading to the Tal’Mahe’Ra, often by demolishing the rest of the newcomer’s pack to break any existing ties of Vinculum or unnatural feelings of devotion to the Sabbat.
Recruitment is not exclusive to members of the False Hand. Tal’Mahe’Ra agents exist within most Sects and Clans, looking out for potential individuals and collectives. More than a few kamut of the Hand existed as coteries before they were recruited.
Joining the Hand requires more than a simple R.S.V.P. The Sect has its own rituals, initiations, and tests of loyalty to perform, the conditions depending on whether the supplicant is Kindred or kine. The penalty for failing any of these ceremonies is death, although some failures have been blackmailed into remaining double-agents for the Sect or bloodline from which they originated. The rites are many, and the following among the most common.
Rite of Katabasis
During the katabasis, the recruit is shown an entrance to the Shadowlands and then made to step across the threshold. In the case of no necromancer being present to officiate, a more literal descent into deep caverns or catacombs is encouraged.
If the supplicant is a vampire, he is blinded before the rite is enacted, traditionally from a serrated blade being dragged across the eyes. Those undergoing the ritual are forbidden from using their vitae to heal such wounds until the rite is complete. Mortals are merely festooned with a ceremonial blindfold.
The descent into darkness does not have to be practiced in solitude; in fact, the Tal’Mahe’Ra favors supplicants receiving company from similarly blinded companions. The ritual leads the recruits into the unknown, with existing Hand agents and wraiths harrying their lessers with threats, superficial attacks, and ultimately, a terrifying hunt back to the surface.
The ritual typically lasts from dusk until shortly before dawn. Completion of the katabasis proves the recruit’s mental fortitude and ability to depend on more than his vision, hopefully showing trust in companions and Sect. Symbolically the rite represents the cycle of undeath, traveling to and from the Underworld.
Frenzy is permitted within the course of the rite, providing the supplicant recovers prior to its conclusion. Flight to the surface before the hunt begins results in failure, no matter the physical or emotional grievance the recruit may be suffering. The officials take pleasure in making this rite as torturous as possible for particularly arrogant recruits, including (but certainly not limited to) heating the dagger before the blinding.
Rite of Mortality
This rite emphasizes the protection of humanity as a pillar of the Tal’Mahe’Ra ideology. The rite is a true test of the com-mitment and willpower required by one of the Tal’Mahe’Ra.
The recruits choose a mortal before the rite officially commences. They are first tasked with stewardship of that mortal, ensuring that no ill befalls him or her. Such ills are orchestrated by Hand agents looking to test the recruit’s capacity in guardianship. The mortal’s life will be put in danger countless times, but he or she must never know they are under threat or protection.
After seven nights, the Hand will demonstrate the fra-gility of the kine by making a violent attack on the mortal. This attack must shed blood and be potentially fatal. The recruit will then be commanded to assist the mortal in their survival, but are forbidden from allowing vitae to enter the wounded innocent, feeding from the innocent, or tainting the innocent in any way with his vampirism.
The rite tests the recruit’s capacity to shepherd a dying mortal to somewhere they might receive medical aid, all the while restraining their accursed nature. The mortal represents exactly how the Tal’Mahe’Ra view humanity as a whole. If a supplicant can protect one human from grievous harm, then perhaps he can protect them all.
Rite of the Antediluvians
The most controversial rite, as some within the Hand consider it flouting the curses of Caine, this ritual sees the subject doubly cursed for the duration of a month. The recruit is forced to adopt the curse of the Clan of the Hand agent supervising him.
Clearly this ritual is subjective, as few deny that some Clans and bloodlines suffer curses of greater severity than others. As a result, most Hand recruiters who perform this rite are selected from Clans Malkavian, Nosferatu, and Ventrue, although others exist.
Malkavian recruiters constantly harass their supplicants and restrict them to feeding only from the drug-addled, which typically induces the required effect of madness. Nosferatu mentors will physically scar their supplicants, often with brands and typically upon visible features. Ventrue recruiters closely supervise their supplicants, ensuring they must only feed from one type of kine. They habitually pick obscure vintages.
The manner in which mentors of other Clans impose their weaknesses on recruits can range from the insane to the ingenious. Mentors never supervise Kindred from the same Clan as their own. Thaumaturges within the Hand toil on rituals to enforce Caine’s curses. Their cause is not a popular one. This rite forges relationships between recruiters and their supplicants that are invaluable to the Sect.
Rite of Sak Yant
This rite brands the skin and the soul of a supplicant with a yantra, marking them as a member of the Tal’Mahe’Ra. A grand ceremony involving the sacrifice of a treacherous Hand member or a powerful wraith accompanies the re-cruit’s introduction to the yamasattva, with the yantra tools tipped with the sacrifice’s internal fluids. Each recruit is then made to kneel and hold a hand aloft. Through magical means, a yamasattva carves the symbol onto the supplicant’s palm: a black crescent moon, spreading outward like the sun emerging from behind an eclipse. The supplicant cannot heal the wounds this mark creates with vitae alone.
The rite ensures that in the world of the living, the yantra is only visible to other members of the Hand. Unlike their Sabbat counterparts, the True Black Hand’s tattoo is only visible to others in the Shadowlands. The two tattoos have other differences for those in-the-know; the Sabbat version is simply a black crescent without the details of an eclipse. Some recipients of the marking are driven to frenzy during its application. The yamasattva claim this betrays an inherent weakness of spirit, and the recruit who loses control often becomes the next sacrifice.
The tattoo allows operatives to identify one another read-ily. However, specters target those who bear the tattoo, and legend holds that the mark renders its bearer susceptible to the yamasattva’ control. Neither the seraphim nor the Del’Roh have been seen to bear the marking.
The Hand Revealed
It’s only once initiations are completed that recruits begin to learn the Sect’s true aims. Even then, few learn the whole truth, being put to use as hands and feet in the field, as spies within other Sects or their own Clans, or sometimes as researchers and chroniclers of the arcane.
The Palm
The ruler of the Hand is the mysterious Del’Roh, who has commanded the Hand for over 250 years. As she spends most of her time in Enoch, her ten seraphim act as lieutenants. The seraphim hold high rank in the Hand due to their influential alternate identities in other Sects and Clans. When not consumed in studying the mysteries of the Underworld, three grossly powerful undead magi known as the yamasattva collaborate with the seraphim to form a tribunal of thirteen. The Del’Roh and this tribunal forms the Wazir, which codifies and disseminates Hand ideology to all members of the Tal’Mahe’Ra.
The Wazir’s commands trickle down to the dominions, who act as captains over certain purviews, such as missions against particular groups or infiltration in specific Clans or Sects. The dominions in turn oversee the Cult of the Erinyes, who train and mentor the chatterlings and act as guardians of Enoch. Alongside the Wazir, the Qadi manages Clan interests within the Sect, and the Rawi holds responsibility for securing and researching antiquities of interest to the Tal’Mahe’Ra.
Finally, the agents and shakari of the Hand make up the bulk of its membership. Ranging in age and experience, the meritocratic organization of the Sect encourages camaraderie among the rank and file. While political brinkmanship and informal ranks exist among shakari and other less lethal agents, an individual’s ability to fulfill the task at hand holds more weight than on Clan affiliations, Generation, or lineage. Due to the general lack of blood bonding within the Sect, relationships stem from earned trust and companionship.
The Tal’Mahe’Ra is just as much a Sect of uncompromis-ing extremists as it is an organization of the most rational Kindred existing tonight. Just as with the Camarilla, some elders serve for centuries without question or pause. Just as with the Sabbat, some neonates question and desire change from the status quo. The Hand’s hard line aims of service to the Antediluvians and destruction of their peers are just that; the hard line. You’re more likely to find compromise and active debate in the Hand tonight than at any other time.
Despite the rise in active discourse, the key tenets of the Hand’s ideology drive the Sect forward. The Hand doesn’t advertise these beliefs, but one of the first questions a new agent is asked is quite telling: ““Do you eschew all false progen-itors, the mutinous Sects, and their unworthy hegemony?”“
Revere the Fathers Primary among the ideological standpoints of the Sect is the Hand’s preservation, protection, and loyal service to the Antediluvians. This view alone separates the Sect from any other.
Love the Mother The Sect’s veneration of Lilith and Caine as mother to vampires has become increasingly prominent. The ya-masattva’ latest studies of the Guarded Rubrics resulted in their mooting that perhaps Lilith and Caine are one and the same being, dismissively referring to the Abrahamic interpretation as quite a regressive point of view.
Pity our Children Vampires are rarely seen as altruists, but since their founding, the Tal’Mahe’Ra has advocated a stance of guardianship when it comes to humanity. Where the other Sects use mortals without a care for the consequences, the Hand believes that humanity is worthy of conservation.
Dismay our Siblings The ideal the Tal’Mahe’Ra most fervently pursues is disruption for all vampires who do not conform to their views. If Kindred do not observe and acknowledge the truth as the Hand does, hunt the beings the Hand pursues, or share love for the kine, they are doomed to perish beneath the Hand’s collective weight.
Respect our Neighbors Infernalists and demons threaten to undo the work of the Hand, provoking the Sect to extreme measures in order to combat both.
A substantial number of recruits for the Tal’Mahe’Ra come from the False Hand, as the Sabbat indoctrinates its subjects with impressive fanaticism and loyalty. Only the best and brightest of the False Hand survive longer than half a dozen operations.
Tal’Mahe’Ra headhunters observe the False Hand at length, recording instances where potential candidates excel in the use of Disciplines, overcome adversity in inventive ways, and most importantly, learn to question. If the recruit does the latter, the time has arrived to ex-tend the olive branch leading to the Tal’Mahe’Ra, often by demolishing the rest of the newcomer’s pack to break any existing ties of Vinculum or unnatural feelings of devotion to the Sabbat.
Recruitment is not exclusive to members of the False Hand. Tal’Mahe’Ra agents exist within most Sects and Clans, looking out for potential individuals and collectives. More than a few kamut of the Hand existed as coteries before they were recruited.
Joining the Hand requires more than a simple R.S.V.P. The Sect has its own rituals, initiations, and tests of loyalty to perform, the conditions depending on whether the supplicant is Kindred or kine. The penalty for failing any of these ceremonies is death, although some failures have been blackmailed into remaining double-agents for the Sect or bloodline from which they originated. The rites are many, and the following among the most common.
Rite of Katabasis
During the katabasis, the recruit is shown an entrance to the Shadowlands and then made to step across the threshold. In the case of no necromancer being present to officiate, a more literal descent into deep caverns or catacombs is encouraged.
If the supplicant is a vampire, he is blinded before the rite is enacted, traditionally from a serrated blade being dragged across the eyes. Those undergoing the ritual are forbidden from using their vitae to heal such wounds until the rite is complete. Mortals are merely festooned with a ceremonial blindfold.
The descent into darkness does not have to be practiced in solitude; in fact, the Tal’Mahe’Ra favors supplicants receiving company from similarly blinded companions. The ritual leads the recruits into the unknown, with existing Hand agents and wraiths harrying their lessers with threats, superficial attacks, and ultimately, a terrifying hunt back to the surface.
The ritual typically lasts from dusk until shortly before dawn. Completion of the katabasis proves the recruit’s mental fortitude and ability to depend on more than his vision, hopefully showing trust in companions and Sect. Symbolically the rite represents the cycle of undeath, traveling to and from the Underworld.
Frenzy is permitted within the course of the rite, providing the supplicant recovers prior to its conclusion. Flight to the surface before the hunt begins results in failure, no matter the physical or emotional grievance the recruit may be suffering. The officials take pleasure in making this rite as torturous as possible for particularly arrogant recruits, including (but certainly not limited to) heating the dagger before the blinding.
Rite of Mortality
This rite emphasizes the protection of humanity as a pillar of the Tal’Mahe’Ra ideology. The rite is a true test of the com-mitment and willpower required by one of the Tal’Mahe’Ra.
The recruits choose a mortal before the rite officially commences. They are first tasked with stewardship of that mortal, ensuring that no ill befalls him or her. Such ills are orchestrated by Hand agents looking to test the recruit’s capacity in guardianship. The mortal’s life will be put in danger countless times, but he or she must never know they are under threat or protection.
After seven nights, the Hand will demonstrate the fra-gility of the kine by making a violent attack on the mortal. This attack must shed blood and be potentially fatal. The recruit will then be commanded to assist the mortal in their survival, but are forbidden from allowing vitae to enter the wounded innocent, feeding from the innocent, or tainting the innocent in any way with his vampirism.
The rite tests the recruit’s capacity to shepherd a dying mortal to somewhere they might receive medical aid, all the while restraining their accursed nature. The mortal represents exactly how the Tal’Mahe’Ra view humanity as a whole. If a supplicant can protect one human from grievous harm, then perhaps he can protect them all.
Rite of the Antediluvians
The most controversial rite, as some within the Hand consider it flouting the curses of Caine, this ritual sees the subject doubly cursed for the duration of a month. The recruit is forced to adopt the curse of the Clan of the Hand agent supervising him.
Clearly this ritual is subjective, as few deny that some Clans and bloodlines suffer curses of greater severity than others. As a result, most Hand recruiters who perform this rite are selected from Clans Malkavian, Nosferatu, and Ventrue, although others exist.
Malkavian recruiters constantly harass their supplicants and restrict them to feeding only from the drug-addled, which typically induces the required effect of madness. Nosferatu mentors will physically scar their supplicants, often with brands and typically upon visible features. Ventrue recruiters closely supervise their supplicants, ensuring they must only feed from one type of kine. They habitually pick obscure vintages.
The manner in which mentors of other Clans impose their weaknesses on recruits can range from the insane to the ingenious. Mentors never supervise Kindred from the same Clan as their own. Thaumaturges within the Hand toil on rituals to enforce Caine’s curses. Their cause is not a popular one. This rite forges relationships between recruiters and their supplicants that are invaluable to the Sect.
Rite of Sak Yant
This rite brands the skin and the soul of a supplicant with a yantra, marking them as a member of the Tal’Mahe’Ra. A grand ceremony involving the sacrifice of a treacherous Hand member or a powerful wraith accompanies the re-cruit’s introduction to the yamasattva, with the yantra tools tipped with the sacrifice’s internal fluids. Each recruit is then made to kneel and hold a hand aloft. Through magical means, a yamasattva carves the symbol onto the supplicant’s palm: a black crescent moon, spreading outward like the sun emerging from behind an eclipse. The supplicant cannot heal the wounds this mark creates with vitae alone.
The rite ensures that in the world of the living, the yantra is only visible to other members of the Hand. Unlike their Sabbat counterparts, the True Black Hand’s tattoo is only visible to others in the Shadowlands. The two tattoos have other differences for those in-the-know; the Sabbat version is simply a black crescent without the details of an eclipse. Some recipients of the marking are driven to frenzy during its application. The yamasattva claim this betrays an inherent weakness of spirit, and the recruit who loses control often becomes the next sacrifice.
The tattoo allows operatives to identify one another read-ily. However, specters target those who bear the tattoo, and legend holds that the mark renders its bearer susceptible to the yamasattva’ control. Neither the seraphim nor the Del’Roh have been seen to bear the marking.
The Hand Revealed
It’s only once initiations are completed that recruits begin to learn the Sect’s true aims. Even then, few learn the whole truth, being put to use as hands and feet in the field, as spies within other Sects or their own Clans, or sometimes as researchers and chroniclers of the arcane.
The Palm
The ruler of the Hand is the mysterious Del’Roh, who has commanded the Hand for over 250 years. As she spends most of her time in Enoch, her ten seraphim act as lieutenants. The seraphim hold high rank in the Hand due to their influential alternate identities in other Sects and Clans. When not consumed in studying the mysteries of the Underworld, three grossly powerful undead magi known as the yamasattva collaborate with the seraphim to form a tribunal of thirteen. The Del’Roh and this tribunal forms the Wazir, which codifies and disseminates Hand ideology to all members of the Tal’Mahe’Ra.
The Wazir’s commands trickle down to the dominions, who act as captains over certain purviews, such as missions against particular groups or infiltration in specific Clans or Sects. The dominions in turn oversee the Cult of the Erinyes, who train and mentor the chatterlings and act as guardians of Enoch. Alongside the Wazir, the Qadi manages Clan interests within the Sect, and the Rawi holds responsibility for securing and researching antiquities of interest to the Tal’Mahe’Ra.
Finally, the agents and shakari of the Hand make up the bulk of its membership. Ranging in age and experience, the meritocratic organization of the Sect encourages camaraderie among the rank and file. While political brinkmanship and informal ranks exist among shakari and other less lethal agents, an individual’s ability to fulfill the task at hand holds more weight than on Clan affiliations, Generation, or lineage. Due to the general lack of blood bonding within the Sect, relationships stem from earned trust and companionship.
The Tal’Mahe’Ra is just as much a Sect of uncompromis-ing extremists as it is an organization of the most rational Kindred existing tonight. Just as with the Camarilla, some elders serve for centuries without question or pause. Just as with the Sabbat, some neonates question and desire change from the status quo. The Hand’s hard line aims of service to the Antediluvians and destruction of their peers are just that; the hard line. You’re more likely to find compromise and active debate in the Hand tonight than at any other time.
Despite the rise in active discourse, the key tenets of the Hand’s ideology drive the Sect forward. The Hand doesn’t advertise these beliefs, but one of the first questions a new agent is asked is quite telling: ““Do you eschew all false progen-itors, the mutinous Sects, and their unworthy hegemony?”“
Revere the Fathers Primary among the ideological standpoints of the Sect is the Hand’s preservation, protection, and loyal service to the Antediluvians. This view alone separates the Sect from any other.
Love the Mother The Sect’s veneration of Lilith and Caine as mother to vampires has become increasingly prominent. The ya-masattva’ latest studies of the Guarded Rubrics resulted in their mooting that perhaps Lilith and Caine are one and the same being, dismissively referring to the Abrahamic interpretation as quite a regressive point of view.
Pity our Children Vampires are rarely seen as altruists, but since their founding, the Tal’Mahe’Ra has advocated a stance of guardianship when it comes to humanity. Where the other Sects use mortals without a care for the consequences, the Hand believes that humanity is worthy of conservation.
Dismay our Siblings The ideal the Tal’Mahe’Ra most fervently pursues is disruption for all vampires who do not conform to their views. If Kindred do not observe and acknowledge the truth as the Hand does, hunt the beings the Hand pursues, or share love for the kine, they are doomed to perish beneath the Hand’s collective weight.
Respect our Neighbors Infernalists and demons threaten to undo the work of the Hand, provoking the Sect to extreme measures in order to combat both.