Other Major Creeds
The Monachal, Westminster and Tollison Creeds collectively Dominate The Lancea Sanctum in both Europe and the United States. However, a number of smaller creeds have made an impact on the covenant and remain vital denominations even tonight. The Iblic Creed, drafted in 1420 during the Reconquista, governs the faith of the sect known as the Banu Shaitan, and seeks to reconcile traditional Lancea Sanctum dogma with with Islamic theology. Individual Ibn-Shaitan must follow an inverted interpretation of the Five Pillars of Islam, which claims that Allah chose all vampires to challenge the faith of mortal man. The denomination as a whole finally made peace with its Christianized rivals in the nineteenth century, and was fully, if reluctantly, accepted into the greater Lancea Sanctum in most domains where it existed. Understandably, most members remain in Islamic-controlled areas and have a minimal presence in Europe and the Americas. This is beginning to change, however, as Muslims continue to develop significant populations in the Western world. These are exceptions, though, and most of the denomination can be found in predominantly Islamic nations from North Africa and the Middle East to as far as Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Dammitic Creed, whose name is derived from the joining of two Hebrew characters that mean “life” and “death” and symbolizes the vampire’s existence between the two states, was founded in the 18th century. The Dammitic Creed rejects sweeping portions of The Testament of Longinus, including those portions pertaining to the divinity of Christ, and the faction might have been condemned as a heresy if The Lancea Sanctum itself had a formal or centralized body politic. Indeed, in exceptionally conservative parishes, the Dammitic Creed is heresy in all practical applications. On the other hand, followers of the Dammitic Creed include some of the best Theban Sorcerers in the world, and they are often willing to teach their secrets to members of other denominations in exchange for favors or consideration. The theological focus of the group lies in studying both numerologies and The Book of Eschaton for clues to future events, and those truly familiar with the sect claim that it has very strong apocalyptic beliefs. Likely the smallest of the major denominations, the radical Acharit Hayami (Hebrew for “The End of Days”) is a Judaic subfaction of Dammitic Sanctified that limits its membership to male Jewish vampires who were both Hasidic Jews and students of the Kabbalah in life. As a result of this extreme selectivity, the sect has few members worldwide, most of whom probably reside in the modern borders of the Holy Land. In fact, the Acharit Hayami is not necessarily opposed to the Apocalypse; its members just want to make sure that it happens in a time and manner of their choosing.
Finally, the Exotheists represent a highly modern denomination, though they would almost certainly object to the words “denomination,” “creed,” or even “religion.” According to the Exotheist Manifesto, the earliest incarnation of which is suspected to have been written in Paris in 1924 by an unidentified Kindred using the pseudonym “Maladeus,” vampires err in attempting to follow religious strictures of any sort. The Testament of Longinus, to the Exotheists, is not a religious tract, but a philosophical treatise, and by using it as a roadmap for applying mortal superstition to vampiric existence, The Lancea Sanctum brings the world’s ultimate predator down to the level of his food. That is not to say that Exotheism is the vampiric equivalent to atheism or agnosticism; many Exotheists are quite devout, or at least were prior to the Embrace. The point of the Creed is that vampires, if they wish to establish a religion based on the writings of Longinus and the Monachus, should create one with its own unique rituals instead of bastardizations of Catholic or other services. Thus, all Exotheists establish their own unique rites, and even when an Exotheist “assembly” performs sacrament, it is usually unrecognizable to members of more traditional Creeds. These unique ritae also vary from parish to parish, and in practice, Exothesism is often less an organized Creed than a catch-all term for all Sanctified who invent their own dogma from scratch. To the extent that the Exotheists hold any political power as a Creed, it is often within domains dominated by the Carthians, who sometimes view Exotheists as the religious wing of their own movement. Needless to say, Exotheists frequently face opposition from Inquisitors in traditional domains, charged with everything from heterodoxy to actual heresy.
The Dammitic Creed, whose name is derived from the joining of two Hebrew characters that mean “life” and “death” and symbolizes the vampire’s existence between the two states, was founded in the 18th century. The Dammitic Creed rejects sweeping portions of The Testament of Longinus, including those portions pertaining to the divinity of Christ, and the faction might have been condemned as a heresy if The Lancea Sanctum itself had a formal or centralized body politic. Indeed, in exceptionally conservative parishes, the Dammitic Creed is heresy in all practical applications. On the other hand, followers of the Dammitic Creed include some of the best Theban Sorcerers in the world, and they are often willing to teach their secrets to members of other denominations in exchange for favors or consideration. The theological focus of the group lies in studying both numerologies and The Book of Eschaton for clues to future events, and those truly familiar with the sect claim that it has very strong apocalyptic beliefs. Likely the smallest of the major denominations, the radical Acharit Hayami (Hebrew for “The End of Days”) is a Judaic subfaction of Dammitic Sanctified that limits its membership to male Jewish vampires who were both Hasidic Jews and students of the Kabbalah in life. As a result of this extreme selectivity, the sect has few members worldwide, most of whom probably reside in the modern borders of the Holy Land. In fact, the Acharit Hayami is not necessarily opposed to the Apocalypse; its members just want to make sure that it happens in a time and manner of their choosing.
Finally, the Exotheists represent a highly modern denomination, though they would almost certainly object to the words “denomination,” “creed,” or even “religion.” According to the Exotheist Manifesto, the earliest incarnation of which is suspected to have been written in Paris in 1924 by an unidentified Kindred using the pseudonym “Maladeus,” vampires err in attempting to follow religious strictures of any sort. The Testament of Longinus, to the Exotheists, is not a religious tract, but a philosophical treatise, and by using it as a roadmap for applying mortal superstition to vampiric existence, The Lancea Sanctum brings the world’s ultimate predator down to the level of his food. That is not to say that Exotheism is the vampiric equivalent to atheism or agnosticism; many Exotheists are quite devout, or at least were prior to the Embrace. The point of the Creed is that vampires, if they wish to establish a religion based on the writings of Longinus and the Monachus, should create one with its own unique rituals instead of bastardizations of Catholic or other services. Thus, all Exotheists establish their own unique rites, and even when an Exotheist “assembly” performs sacrament, it is usually unrecognizable to members of more traditional Creeds. These unique ritae also vary from parish to parish, and in practice, Exothesism is often less an organized Creed than a catch-all term for all Sanctified who invent their own dogma from scratch. To the extent that the Exotheists hold any political power as a Creed, it is often within domains dominated by the Carthians, who sometimes view Exotheists as the religious wing of their own movement. Needless to say, Exotheists frequently face opposition from Inquisitors in traditional domains, charged with everything from heterodoxy to actual heresy.