Narodnaia Volia
I know what is to be done.
Georgi Gregorivitch Herzen never met his Final Death. He dwells under St. Petersburg, still bearing scars gained in the burning of the Palace of Justice, back in 1917. During that night of fire, Herzen’s eyeballs burst and dried out. He had to gnaw his right leg off to escape from blazing timbers that had fallen across him. His remaining leg is a blackened, footless stump, stick-thin and brittle. The few faithfulvampires whom he chose to be his attendants claim that he decided not to heal the burns as a mark of his dedication to the great Proletarian Struggle: he earned those scars. He shall keep them. Each night, Herzen sits in a chair in a sewer-side room and in a seared rasp of a voice dictates the tracts and discourse of Narodnaia Volia, the People’s Will, to blood-bound acolytes who absorb his every word.
A handful of century-old Ghouls carry his missives across Russia, and from there across the world. And the followers of Narodnaia Volia, living men and women gathered in anarcho-socialist cells, hear The Message: capitalism extends beyond death. Just as the capitalist sucks the life of the proletariat through the constant exploitation of the means of production, so too do the undead treat the living as a means of production, a food source. The people must rise, and the undead must be destroyed.
Of course, the general public — even many revolutionary brothers and sisters — cannot believe these truths, and so must never know until such time as they are ready to lead the people in revolution. And in the meantime, secretly, the true Champions of the Proletariat show the People’s unknowing Will by wiping out the undead capitalist Scourge. Straddling the line between radical politics andmystical religion, the followers of the People’s Will cannot know that all the while they are slaves to the very thing they seek to wipe out. Blinded by blood, they destroy vampires at the behest of vampires.
A handful of century-old Ghouls carry his missives across Russia, and from there across the world. And the followers of Narodnaia Volia, living men and women gathered in anarcho-socialist cells, hear The Message: capitalism extends beyond death. Just as the capitalist sucks the life of the proletariat through the constant exploitation of the means of production, so too do the undead treat the living as a means of production, a food source. The people must rise, and the undead must be destroyed.
Of course, the general public — even many revolutionary brothers and sisters — cannot believe these truths, and so must never know until such time as they are ready to lead the people in revolution. And in the meantime, secretly, the true Champions of the Proletariat show the People’s unknowing Will by wiping out the undead capitalist Scourge. Straddling the line between radical politics andmystical religion, the followers of the People’s Will cannot know that all the while they are slaves to the very thing they seek to wipe out. Blinded by blood, they destroy vampires at the behest of vampires.
Public Agenda
Praxis: The cult’s members are all active affiliates of the kind of left-wing groups that still exist, in some form or another, in most countries in the world. Operating in small cells of four or five, they work more or less in exactly the same way as grass-roots vampire hunters — only some of their members seem to be preternaturally good at finding targets and suggesting tactics for dealing with them.
The vampires who control the cult, meanwhile, take care to lead their members to the right vampires. The choice of target is almost always ideologically based — one important thing to realize is that while to an outsider the use of mortal vampire hunters as a tool used to destroy rival vampires is more than a little cynical, the vampires of Narodnaia Volia consider it a worthwhile expedient. The benefits of their ideology are for the undead, and not the living. The humans are simply tools for the purpose of completing the violent ideological changes necessary to affect a revolution among the Kindred. Pawns are a necessary expedient in this: they are not the means of production, they are a source of food and a method of gaining power. The vampires of Narodnaia Volia are wholly sincere in this: they do what they do for the revolution.
Cells of the People’s Will don’t tend to last very long. The human vampire hunters all too often make mistakes and gain the attention of the vampires or their agents, and on more than one occasion, Narodnaia Volia cells have been mown down in shoot-outs with armed response units or government groups who have been tipped off by the vampire leader’s enemies. But they always seem to crop up again, months or years later.
The vampires who control the cult, meanwhile, take care to lead their members to the right vampires. The choice of target is almost always ideologically based — one important thing to realize is that while to an outsider the use of mortal vampire hunters as a tool used to destroy rival vampires is more than a little cynical, the vampires of Narodnaia Volia consider it a worthwhile expedient. The benefits of their ideology are for the undead, and not the living. The humans are simply tools for the purpose of completing the violent ideological changes necessary to affect a revolution among the Kindred. Pawns are a necessary expedient in this: they are not the means of production, they are a source of food and a method of gaining power. The vampires of Narodnaia Volia are wholly sincere in this: they do what they do for the revolution.
Cells of the People’s Will don’t tend to last very long. The human vampire hunters all too often make mistakes and gain the attention of the vampires or their agents, and on more than one occasion, Narodnaia Volia cells have been mown down in shoot-outs with armed response units or government groups who have been tipped off by the vampire leader’s enemies. But they always seem to crop up again, months or years later.
History
During the beginnings of the Russian Civil War, a coterie of Carthians with Bolshevik sympathies led by Herzen co-opted the remains of Narodnaia Volia. The group had existed as anarchist-terrorists since about 1879, and had been responsible for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, a deed which had apparently led to the execution of its leaders and the dispersal of the group.
In fact, they went underground, and it was here, in the revolutionary underground, that Herzen met the paranoid second-generation inheritors of the People’s Will. He masqueraded as a sympathizer, and began to manipulate the secretive, violent group towards discovering and combating his own ideological enemies.
By the time they found out the truth about him, he had either bound the members with Vinculi, given them the Embrace, or both. The group, hopelessly compromised, reformed into what amounted to a vampire-hunting wing among the Bolsheviks, steered towards destroying the Kindred who opposed Herzen and his cronies.
Within a few years, the People’s Will became as much a cult as an ideologically based militant group. They developed symbolic rituals dedicated to strengthening members’ zeal and warping their perceptions. And this is the way the cult stayed. During the Stalinist era, the cult often waged its hidden war within Stalin’s secret police. In the Cold War, it spread to Cuba, Vietnam, Korea and then to the West, reaching a peak in membership in the English-speaking world in the late 1960s. As the Cold War ended, the group declined somewhat, but in recent years, the hard left has met with a resurgence, particularly in a Russia where many have begun to pine for the Communist days. The living members of Narodnaia Volia still seek out and destroy the capitalist oppressors of the living worker, never really knowing that they only deal with some of the living dead.
In fact, they went underground, and it was here, in the revolutionary underground, that Herzen met the paranoid second-generation inheritors of the People’s Will. He masqueraded as a sympathizer, and began to manipulate the secretive, violent group towards discovering and combating his own ideological enemies.
By the time they found out the truth about him, he had either bound the members with Vinculi, given them the Embrace, or both. The group, hopelessly compromised, reformed into what amounted to a vampire-hunting wing among the Bolsheviks, steered towards destroying the Kindred who opposed Herzen and his cronies.
Within a few years, the People’s Will became as much a cult as an ideologically based militant group. They developed symbolic rituals dedicated to strengthening members’ zeal and warping their perceptions. And this is the way the cult stayed. During the Stalinist era, the cult often waged its hidden war within Stalin’s secret police. In the Cold War, it spread to Cuba, Vietnam, Korea and then to the West, reaching a peak in membership in the English-speaking world in the late 1960s. As the Cold War ended, the group declined somewhat, but in recent years, the hard left has met with a resurgence, particularly in a Russia where many have begun to pine for the Communist days. The living members of Narodnaia Volia still seek out and destroy the capitalist oppressors of the living worker, never really knowing that they only deal with some of the living dead.
Foreign Relations
Covenants and Clans: While the vampires of Narodnaia Volia consider many Carthians not to be true revolutionaries — just like living socialists, radical Carthians split into rival factions like crazy — most of the vampires in the cult who are not unbound prefer to be part of The Carthian Movement. The Circle of the Crone and The Ordo Dracul are not wholly apolitical, as such, but since politics are not strictly their concern, Kindred of Narodnaia Volia can and do join them, at least at the lower levels.
As an extremist movement opposed to the establishment, members of Narodnaia Volia find it hard to imagine Joining the Invictus and the Sanctified — at least genuinely. One or two have joined the two great ruling covenants while hiding their allegiance to the People’s Will, the better to destabilize them from within.
Although, like most Shadow Cults, Narodnaia Volia was initially a Mekhet cult, the group early on allowed several members of Clan Daeva to join. Demagoguery comes easily to the Daeva, and during the time of the Russian Civil War, when the dead had their own revolutions, many of the most strident revolutionaries were Daeva.
As an extremist movement opposed to the establishment, members of Narodnaia Volia find it hard to imagine Joining the Invictus and the Sanctified — at least genuinely. One or two have joined the two great ruling covenants while hiding their allegiance to the People’s Will, the better to destabilize them from within.
Although, like most Shadow Cults, Narodnaia Volia was initially a Mekhet cult, the group early on allowed several members of Clan Daeva to join. Demagoguery comes easily to the Daeva, and during the time of the Russian Civil War, when the dead had their own revolutions, many of the most strident revolutionaries were Daeva.
Worship
Ceremonies: Cells of Narodnaia Volia meet irregularly. Human cultists can go about their lives without being called on for months or years at a time. When they do come together, it’s usually because one of the vampires in the cell has found a target.
In a typical meeting, a cell reads one of the increasingly radical circular missives sent around by Georgi Gregorivitch Herzen (always signed “GGH”) and takes part in a very simple, silent ceremony where each member cuts his wrist and lets some drops fall in a mundane cup — an ordinary coffee mug or glass is enough. Everyone takes a drink. It’s supposed to be a sign of unity. It’s also a means of guaranteeing that living members of the cult fall very quickly into Vinculi.
After business is over, the cult goes out hunting.
The vampires in the group maintain what they call a Temporary Council. Technically, when their Revolution arrives, the Council will disperse, because it will be, they maintain, obsolete. No one in the Temporary Council is under any illusions about that stance being anything other than a fiction, however. The Temporary Council’s Representatives are aware that they must control the human Champions. Right from the beginning, then, a character initiated into Narodnaia Volia takes part in the cult’s same blood-sharing ritual. To join the cult is to drink the cult’s blood — and to become, within three nights, a slave of those who told their followers they cannot be slaves.
Technically, no higher levels of Narodnaia Volia exist beyond the Temporary Council. Narodnaia Volia is a true anarcho-socialist vampire social construct. But vampires depend on the need to control and master one another. In practice, this means that the eldest and most respected of the cult’s Representatives form circles of Secret Representatives. Recognizing that Narodnaia Volia’s cells are often short-lived, they justify the way they ensure their own safety above that of the Champions of the Proletariat as necessary for the survival of the cult’s doctrine. Someone must endure for the sake of the Proletariat, they think — and it is better for all, if it is we who escape.
• The cult has members who belong to dozens of far-left splinter groups, and all Champions of the Proletariat, human, ghoul and vampire alike, benefit from the knowledge that this brings to the table. With the first dot in Initiation (Narodnaia Volia), the character gains a free specialty in Politics (Hard Left), and two free dots in Contacts, each of which is connected to a revolutionary group. The down side of this is that any mortal character who joins Narodnaia Volia has shared in the blood of the Kindred on many occasions. The character is two steps towards being unknowingly bound by a Vinculum to three different Representatives of the Temporary Council, any of whom can make her take that third drink at any time. Kindred who join the cult do not have to suffer this indignity.
••• A vampire who learns the truth about the Temporary Council becomes a Representative. He benefits from the socialist/democratic sharing of knowledge, both arcane and political. A member of Narodnaia Volia who joins the Temporary Council can learn either Auspex or Majesty as an in-clan Discipline, meaning that acquiring new powers costs new dots x5 experience points, rather than new dots x7. A Mekhet vampire can learn Majesty, and a Daeva can learn Auspex. The rare vampire of another clan, who might somehow be permitted to join, can choose to learn one or the other, but not both.
••••• The Secret Representatives have access to hidden bunkers and hideaways they keep in common, the better to withdraw when the forces of oppressive power close in — as they invariably seem to. The character either has the equivalent of a four-dot Haven (with dots assigned between Location, Security, and Size any way the player wishes) or four dots in a shared Haven belonging to the other Secret Representatives in the region.
In a typical meeting, a cell reads one of the increasingly radical circular missives sent around by Georgi Gregorivitch Herzen (always signed “GGH”) and takes part in a very simple, silent ceremony where each member cuts his wrist and lets some drops fall in a mundane cup — an ordinary coffee mug or glass is enough. Everyone takes a drink. It’s supposed to be a sign of unity. It’s also a means of guaranteeing that living members of the cult fall very quickly into Vinculi.
After business is over, the cult goes out hunting.
Initiations
Narodnaia Volia’s leaders describe their most junior members as the Champions of the Proletariat. These Champions, all of whom are active members of other revolutionary socialist, Marxist-Leninist, anarcho-socialist or communist groups, are always on the look out for potential new recruits into the True Proletarian Struggle, against the oppression of the dead. Champions of the Proletariat don’t know that any other degree of initiation exists. As far as they know, all the members of Narodnaia Volia are human, and all of them are Champions of the Proletariat, just like them.The vampires in the group maintain what they call a Temporary Council. Technically, when their Revolution arrives, the Council will disperse, because it will be, they maintain, obsolete. No one in the Temporary Council is under any illusions about that stance being anything other than a fiction, however. The Temporary Council’s Representatives are aware that they must control the human Champions. Right from the beginning, then, a character initiated into Narodnaia Volia takes part in the cult’s same blood-sharing ritual. To join the cult is to drink the cult’s blood — and to become, within three nights, a slave of those who told their followers they cannot be slaves.
Technically, no higher levels of Narodnaia Volia exist beyond the Temporary Council. Narodnaia Volia is a true anarcho-socialist vampire social construct. But vampires depend on the need to control and master one another. In practice, this means that the eldest and most respected of the cult’s Representatives form circles of Secret Representatives. Recognizing that Narodnaia Volia’s cells are often short-lived, they justify the way they ensure their own safety above that of the Champions of the Proletariat as necessary for the survival of the cult’s doctrine. Someone must endure for the sake of the Proletariat, they think — and it is better for all, if it is we who escape.
• The cult has members who belong to dozens of far-left splinter groups, and all Champions of the Proletariat, human, ghoul and vampire alike, benefit from the knowledge that this brings to the table. With the first dot in Initiation (Narodnaia Volia), the character gains a free specialty in Politics (Hard Left), and two free dots in Contacts, each of which is connected to a revolutionary group. The down side of this is that any mortal character who joins Narodnaia Volia has shared in the blood of the Kindred on many occasions. The character is two steps towards being unknowingly bound by a Vinculum to three different Representatives of the Temporary Council, any of whom can make her take that third drink at any time. Kindred who join the cult do not have to suffer this indignity.
••• A vampire who learns the truth about the Temporary Council becomes a Representative. He benefits from the socialist/democratic sharing of knowledge, both arcane and political. A member of Narodnaia Volia who joins the Temporary Council can learn either Auspex or Majesty as an in-clan Discipline, meaning that acquiring new powers costs new dots x5 experience points, rather than new dots x7. A Mekhet vampire can learn Majesty, and a Daeva can learn Auspex. The rare vampire of another clan, who might somehow be permitted to join, can choose to learn one or the other, but not both.
••••• The Secret Representatives have access to hidden bunkers and hideaways they keep in common, the better to withdraw when the forces of oppressive power close in — as they invariably seem to. The character either has the equivalent of a four-dot Haven (with dots assigned between Location, Security, and Size any way the player wishes) or four dots in a shared Haven belonging to the other Secret Representatives in the region.
Type
Secret, Occult