Belial's Brood
“Every instinct will scream for you to turn away. To survive as you are today. Ignore that instinct. That is your old life clinging to the known. Step into that scream and realize what it means to actually live.”
You want to join Belial’s Brood because:
You believe in freedom. You have passed through the looking glass, survived the journey, and given the Beast a big, sloppy kiss. You have surrendered your mortal self and evolved into something primal. Where once a wall separated man from Beast, now the two exist in harmony, and you walk, hunt, and kill with purpose, unshackled by conscience.
The big picture:
Belial’s Brood are less of a covenant and more of a state of mind. Those who call themselves Brood, at one point or another, had been lost to the Beast. With their humanity stripped, they had become draugr — mindless predators fueled by pure instinct and unable to control their urges. While the vast majority do not survive this state, a precious few evolve in their wild state, which is when they become something altogether different.
Many Kindred have learned how to ride the wave. They know how to grab the Beast by the reins and wield its monstrous power. Claimed, however, are the unshackled Beast which has learned to ride the man. In this permanent hybrid state, the Beast and the mortal exist synergistically.
The Brood is able to speak, reason, and deceive, mimicking the skills of a human. But the ethics or morality of humanity is literally only skin deep. The body of the person is only sheep’s clothing worn by a predator. A Brood is a vampire that has cast aside their Masks, Dirges, and Touchstones, and fully embraced the Bestial Triad.
Where we came from:
The name Belial is most often associated with the devil, courtesy of Hebrew and Christian texts. Belial in Hebrew means “worthless,” and has been used to describe nefarious people, calamitous circumstances, and even the devil himself. Other sources picture Belial as a separate fallen angel that Lucifer’s service has corrupted into something as malignant as they are malicious. In Kindred society, the Sons of Belial, known in modern nights as Belial’s Brood, are the perfect scapegoat and a common cautionary tale passed down from sire to childe. The origins of how the Brood came to be vary depending on who tells the tale, though most credit a single Kindred named Belial. The Circle of the Crone believe Belial was the first to commit diablerie, the proverbial Kindred Eve, who sought knowledge in the drinking of souls. According to Crone legend, early pagan cults deemed Belial an unhinged witch after perverting her vampire nature. These judges declared that she had changed beyond what was acceptable. They cast her out and forced her to wander the earth for millennia with no home, friends, or family to call her own.
Meanwhile, the Invictus say that Belial was one of the founders of the Camarilla. According to their records, his fellow Invictus assassinated him for building a secret army of draugr and for threatening to declare himself emperor if they did not concede to his wishes. While they take credit for destroying Belial, they insist that there was no way to determine how large his army of draugr had become and perhaps some fled before burning to ash. It is via these few that the infection of Belial has spread.
The Lancea et Sanctum, on the other hand, claim a simpler theory. They believe that Belial was a Sanctified priestess during the second century after Christ who was possessed by a wild demon of gluttony. They, too, allege to have destroyed her despite the assertions of the Invictus. As proof, they present a silver urn filled with ash, though they do not allow anyone outside the Sanctum to study it.
The Ordo Dracul hypothesize that Belial was a prized protégé of Dracula with a keen understanding of the Beast. They state it was Belial’s experiments that led the Order to discover the ability to ride the wave. Believing that Dracula had taken credit for stolen work, Belial rejected him as his mentor and exiled himself from Kindred society. While existing in exile, Belial perverted the lessons of the coils and used them to create the Triadic Evolution. The Ordo Dracul has since made a policy of capturing instead of destroying members of Belial’s Brood for further investigation and experimentation. A number of Ordo Dracul have died as a result, which continues to be a point of contention within the covenant.
Finally, the Carthian Movement has no origin story for the Brood, but they do have various opinions regarding them. Some have formed intrepid hunting clubs devoted entirely to the eradication of the Claimed. Others, who have never encountered one of Belial’s Brood, maintain that they are merely an urban legend created by the Invictus. They insist that the stories are a cover for Invictus assassins and mercenaries to murder members of the Movement.
Irrespective of covenant affiliation, a few of the more paranoid lore masters insist that Belial continues to roam the Earth, controlling those who have taken up the philosophy through the language of the Beast. They insist that until someone silences Belial’s Beast, there will always be Brood with which to contend. Regardless of what is and is not the truth to Belial’s origins, they first began to gather in small numbers sometime shortly after the fall of the Camarilla and have existed as a pervasive threat — real or imagined — to Kindred society ever since.
Our practices:
Members of Belial’s Brood can think, reason, and decide a course of action. They can cover their tracks, blend in with society, and uphold the Masquerade when they must, because all Claimed have a talent for survival. Most often, this is expressed through the Bestial Triad: through destroying threats, through instant gratification, and through control and dominance. In this regard, most Brood practice some form of diablerie as Amaranth remains the ultimate expression of dominance among Kindred. Many Brood adhere to the notion of survival of the fittest and devour the souls of weaker Kindred as mercy killings.
Very few Kindred actively seek to become Claimed, but many are drawn to them by circumstance. As a Kindred experiences loss, violence, or trauma, and as they slide further down the bestial rabbit hole — losing more and more of their humanity — many find reasons and means to expedite the process. Many choose to end their lives before becoming draugr. Others, believing that redemption is impossible but not wanting to exist as draugr, actively chase the legends and philosophies of the Brood in a desperate attempt to survive with their psyche intact. The Beast roars in their ears, yearning for freedom, until one day the Kindred gives in and the draugr is unleashed. All Brood were once draugr, but not all draugr become Brood. Most don’t, in fact. Only when a powerfulenough Beast takes hold of the conscious, does the draugr evolve in a process the Brood call the Claiming.
There is some debate within Kindred society if the Claiming is a forced process or an emerging evolutionary step within all Kindred. For many, this is a terrifying prospect because it suggests the Beast can take over even the most noble and pious of Kindred. And for those who believe Belial still exists, it means a single voice can corrupt Kindred society. Those who adhere to the latter suggest that Belial, whatever their gender or origin, is forcing a dark vision and twisted philosophy upon the most vulnerable within Kindred society.
Beyond the Claiming, Brood do not often attempt to Embrace another because when they do the results are always disastrous. The Brood Embraces either fail or result in mindless draugr. Indeed, Invictus sires tell their childer of what occurred during the nights of the Camarilla wherein Belial, the First Brood, attempted to Embrace an army of ghouls only to accidently create an army of draugr. Those who seek to become Claimed follow a dangerous path. This path becomes even more treacherous once the Claiming is successful, as all of Kindred society universally despises the Brood. The Brood claim this hate comes from those who fear what they do not understand. Nevertheless, they do what they must to survive and sometimes congregate with others of like mind. These groups are called clutches. An Apex commands each clutch. Apexes usually have the highest Blood Potency, and they have proven their ability to both kill as well as command. While there are no formal customs or codified written laws that govern Claimed society, all follow three very simple precepts:
Whenever two Brood disagree over important courses of action, a retelling of events, or even petty things like who gets to ride shotgun, the weaker acquiesces to the stronger.
Any Brood may challenge an Apex for leadership of the clutch. That challenge cannot be ignored. Challenges are always to the death once declared. The only requirement is that no one beyond the two challengers can be involved, assist, or otherwise affect the outcome. Not only is outside tampering easily discovered through the language of the Beast, any attempt to rig the challenge by someone not involved directly is foolish when strength is what ensures survival. As a result, when they discover the saboteur, they hunt him down.
Mortals are too easy of a challenge, and thus Kindred or their own kind make standard targets for Brood hunts. Because of their primal desire to hunt and kill, no Brood can refuse a call to hunt.
Nicknames: The Brood, the Claimed, the Worthless (derogatory)
When we are in power:
Brood-controlled cities are extremely rare. They exist only when a Brood clutch has wiped out all other Kindred presence. Once secure, the Claimed reinforce either their position or branch out, seeking to remove any potential threats from neighboring areas. A Brood city is one that exists via survival of the fittest. They are chaotic domains, wrought with violence, hedonism, and conflict.
When we are in trouble:
This is, by and large, the default position for most Claimed, as they tend to live solitary lives separate from others of their kind. They exist on the fringes of society, having carved out small, private kingdoms to rule. The more sporting types actively hunt Kindred either in the open or via infiltration. And sometimes, on a long-enough timeline, Brood occasionally find each other forming clutches that operate out of collective survival. Seeing an active threat, the Brood mobilize, using the skills and resources at their disposal to carve out and maintain their territory.
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