Proselytizers

The Messengers of Longinus

Vampire the Requiem - Covenant - Lancea
The Lancea Sanctum is not known for putting outsiders at ease. Left to their own devices, many Sanctified alienate more potential converts than they recruit, particularly in this modern, more secular age. As none of the Anointed are content to let the ranks of the faithful dwindle away, the Messengers of Longinus are allowed a great deal of latitude in their work in many parishes.
The Messengers are a faction of like-minded evangelists who spread the word of the Dark Prophet to those who have not heard it and visit it again upon those who have not taken it to heart. Their persistence can be disturbing — some Messengers resort to stalking their subjects, appearing out of the dark when the target’s teeth are bloody to deliver a predator’s sermon — but it’s what makes them a force to be reckoned with.
Messengers have a great deal in common with mortal missionaries. They market The Testament of Longinus using techniques first pioneered by mortal evangelists, luring the timid with carefully disguised pamphlets and rallying the spirited with lively religious speeches performed in Elysium. Unlike mortal missionaries, the Messengers promulgate the Sanctified belief that the predatory role of the Kindred must be revered.
The Lancea Sanctum has always had an evangelical attitude, especially in the United States, where evangelism is louder. For Messengers, however, the hunt for new blood for the covenant is what gives purpose to the Requiem. Finding the weak, the uncertain and the needy and promising them the edifying answers they seek (and preparing them for the answers they’ll actually get) is the core of the Messengers’ mission. That their work contributes to the covenant’s size and power, and therefore the faction’s freedom to evangelize, is almost seen as a welcome side effect. Almost.
The Messengers’ zeal does not come solely from a desire to enlighten others with the words of Longinus and God. Converting others has its own inherent appeal to the members of this faction. Recruitment is akin to feeding to these predators; making a convert after a long courtship is like scoring good prey after a long chase. To Messengers, conversion elicits the same thrill and satisfaction as hunting blood in the name of Longinus — which, in a way, is exactly what they do.
While Messengers may deliver praiseworthy results, the methods they use aren’t so respected by most Sanctified. Messengers are sometimes called “the Whores of Longinus” for to the lengths they’ll go to bring converts into the fold. Messengers don’t consider Seduction, fear-mongering, browbeating and strategic misrepresentation of the facts to be excessive short-term tactics so long as the targeted convert ultimately chooses to join the Sanctified. There’s very little a Messenger won’t promise, however vaguely, to bring a well-connected or much sought-after vampire to The Lancea Sanctum.
In addition to high-pressure evangelism techniques, Messengers have been known to soft-pedal Sanctified ideals to such a degree that they flirt with accusations of heresy. A Messenger might revise passages from the Testament to make them more palatable to Carthians or promote a Creed of the faith as a symbol of Sanctified diversity, without revealing that it has been banned by the local Bishop. In domains without quality historical records, Messengers even pass off invented, covenant-aggrandizing stories as “secret histories of the city, known only to the Sanctified.”
The fact remains, however, that the Messengers have not only stemmed the attrition of the covenant in modern nights but have, in recent decades, been making its numbers grow in certain domains. While the Bishops wonder such victories are worth it, the Messengers press on.

Philosophy

The Messengers truly believe that the Kindred condition has no point without the word of Longinus. They take it upon themselves to provide the unlives of other Kindred with meaning by spreading the evangel as far and as aggressively as possible. Audiences should not just hear the gospel — they should feel it grab a hold of them.
The Messengers follow an unwritten, unspoken law: “Anything that results in a legitimate conversion is just fine.” Unsound methods are unsound only until they yield fruit, at which point they become “innovative.” When objectionable tactics — bribery, lies, Dominate — fail to win a convert, or attract the attention of the Sheriff, a Messenger may be loudly excoriated by the faction’s elders as “misguided,” “unethical” or “shameful,” even though the same methods may have been used, and overlooked, countless times in the past.
In modern nights, the Messengers have become a kind of Sanctified marketing force — independent sales reps for the church of the Damned. Messenger culture and ideology is all about the next target, the next convert. Some employ insights gleaned from business guides to “Customer Psychology,” while others regard themselves as the product being sold. “If a target buys into you,” the Messengers say, “he’ll buy into the dogma.”

Structure

Titles and Duties

The Messengers may employ many different tactics to close a conversion on a target, but they have only one title and only one duty. All Messengers are converters for Longinus, expected to regularly, if not quickly, deliver new Sanctified to the covenant. Proselytizers of several different sub-factions, including the Messengers, use the title of Shepherd to identify and respect other Proselytizers. “Good evening, Shepherd Burke,” one might say. Among especially formal groups, such as the Messengers, it is considered rude to refer to another Proselytizer without his title. When Proselytizers meet at the Gathering of Shepherds, this custom is seen by some to reveal cultishness of fanatical Proselytizers. (“Shepherd Lowe and Shepherd Winifred and I are going to see Shepherd DuBois. Did you want to join us?”)
The title of Shepherd was chosen for its soothing impression. Some Messengers introduce themselves using the title, but others disregard as a show of casual comraderie. “We don’t always use titles,” a Messenger might tell his target, ”You hear the covenant is nothing but formality all the time, but I’ve never known that to be true.” Other Messengers never use the title around targets, believing it gets in the way of the Proselytizer’s image as just a friendly, well-informed member of the Sanctified congregation.
A mentoring Messenger is just another Shepherd showing a younger associate the ropes. He is expected to continue working his “open accounts” at the same time, and gets no additional title other than “Mentor.” The Mentor’s duty is to The Lancea Sanctum and, some say, to his potential converts. What he provides his pupil is a service, and it must always come second to the Mentor’s holy duties.
Organization: In his early nights in the faction, a Messenger is paired with a mentor (represented with the Mentor Merit). That mentor teaches him the guidelines of the Messengers, gives him a crash course in sales psychology and explains the basics of ”reading and writing body language.” This short-term relationship seldom lasts more than a few weeks.
Messengers, following their training, operate largely independently. Outside of the Gathering of Shepherds, many Messengers go years without seeing others of their unique ilk. Many Messengers do love to talk shop, however, and so may meet regularly with one or two other Proselytizers between those larger gatherings.
When Messengers do work together, they are well-rehearsed, coordinated, orderly and careful. In such partnerships, one Messenger may act as the “driver,” pushing the target towards a need for advice or sanctuary. The other then acts as the “receiver,” who is there to counsel and assist the target for however long is necessary. One is provides power, the other finesse. Most targets never realize they’ve been steered by two vampires working in tandem.
Whether working alone or together, Messenger operations are all about maximizing effectiveness, about achieving that one goal: the next convert.

Culture

Appearance: In principle, Messengers should dress to fit in with a target. In practice, Messengers focus on targets that dress like they do. Messengers come from all walks of life, but quickly develop an appreciation for a clean, sharp-looking appearance — something that would put a stranger at ease. For some, this means a modest but handsome three-button suit coat and ironed khakis, or a complete suit. Others wear the jacket of some local team and a pair of jeans. The goal is to seem approachable, even average, and to reflect the target’s culture and personal interests. If the target had to pick someone out of the crowd to ask for directions, it should be the Messenger.

Assets

Haven: Messengers maintain very private havens in much the same manner as any other modern Kindred. Like many other Sanctified, a Messenger’s Haven is likely decorated with symbols of The Lancea Sanctum.
Unlike other Kindred, Messengers keep records on the city’s other vampires. Blurred photos of converts may be taped to the walls or pinned to a map of the city. Yellow sticky notes, arranged in a line near the map, record the timeline of a target’s average night. Quotes, from a target’s mouth to the Messenger’s wall, have been transcripted from tapes made at the last meeting. Banker’s boxes loaded with copies of The Catechism and Sanctified primers printed at Kinko’s line two walls of the place.
A Messenger’s Haven is more than a sleeping area. It’s a field office.

History

Proselytizers have always been a part of the Sanctified. It is one of the Sanctified duties, put forth in the Testament, to share the word with all other Kindred. The Messengers of Longinus, it seems, have been a part of the covenant since the eighteenth century, when they were thought to have first organized in Charleston as recruiters for a local parish. Over several decades, roving Messenger missionaries inspired followers in other domains, and the faction spread throughout the American South. The Messengers have never been a large group, but their reputation has traveled far.
In the last fifty years, the Messengers’ task has grown steadily more difficult. Religion has lost its cachet in much of the country, and faith is seen as a shortcoming of the naïve or the ignorant. While mortal trends generally require years to make themselves meaningfully felt among the Kindred, the Sanctified feel this trend swept all too quickly into Kindred culture. The task of the Proselytizer factions is harder and more important than it once was, but the Sanctified know that the need for faith can be stirred up in almost any Kindred.
In the 1950s, a Sanctified minister from Baton Rouge, Louisiana changed the Messengers forever. This modest-seeming vampire, known as Brother Glen, brought modern American sales techniques and psychology to the faction. Brother Glen devised a series of simple guidelines for Messengers to remember and inspired Messengers to Mentor new members on the tactics of good salesmanship.
Background: While they’re happy to draw members of any clan into The Lancea Sanctum, when it comes to inducting members into their own faction, Messengers suddenly become very particular. Messengers favor Kindred from the Daeva and Ventrue clans for membership in the faction, for they have the subtlety and the poise the Proselytizer’s work requires. Popular wisdom (and the Proselytizer stereotype) considers the Mekhet to be too secretive and judgmental, the Gangrel to be too bestial and unpredictble, and the Nosferatu to be too unsettling and socially awkward to make good recruiters. The Messengers like clean, pretty people to spread the word of Longinus; those who do not fit the description need not apply. Kindred of the unfavored clans who do join the Messngers have typically presented themselves to existing Messengers as personable, respectable agents of the Testament.
When Messengers Embrace new members, they tend to choose beautiful, charismatic charmers. Kindred and kine alike make the unconscious assumption that what is beautiful is good, and the Messengers want others to see the Sanctified as very, very good. Consequently, actors, lawyers, public relations executives, models, televangelists and marketing managers are all sensible childer for members of this faction. Anyone who looks good, sounds good, makes others feel good — and who can make a sale — may be considered a choice worth the shame and pain of the Embrace and Creation Rite.

Tenets of Faith

Commandments and Traditions

Modern Messengers have developed a list of short-hand, easy-to-remember guidelines to follow when making a convert. These are passed on to new Messengers by experienced mentors or at Gatherings of Shepherds, as discussed later on. Some Messengers add their own buzz-phrases and personal rules to these, and a few disregard one or two they don’t think “will play in my parish,” but in general these are the tenets of the modern Messenger.
Cultivate Endurance
Courting converts is not easy, but it is the responsibility of the Messengers to spur the souls of the doubtful, the frightened, the misguided and the confused towards their destined service of God and The Lancea Sanctum. If it means wading knee-deep through a swamp to take the Word to a Nosferatu, the Messenger does it. If it means sitting through hours of idle speculation on the inner workings of the Princely court, she does it. If it means being there for a distraught neonate as he tells the pitiable story of his last mortal day, she dos it.
Messengers should remember what Longinus said: “This was just one night among many, one drop in a rush of blood. This minute is past.” The work of a Proselyte can take years, but if it is the work the Sanctified has vowed to do, then no second spent with a potential convert can be considered wasted. One year of hand-holding and reaffirment is lost in the face of an eternity of service.
Know Your Target
Without knowing what motivates her target, a Messenger may never convince him to see the Requiem as the Sanctified see it. To that end, a Messenger studies a target’s habits to find out what’s important to him before she ever brings up Longinus in conversation. A Messenger can’t plot out a suitable conversion strategy without knowing, for example, how a target regards himself, what mortals he may be close to or where his moral compass points. The Messenger must be able to “read” a Kindred within just a few minutes of meeting him, to avoid tainting a relationship early on.
Some Messengers rely on an intuitive understanding of emotional displays and responses to read targets (using the Empathy Skill). Others use psychology (a specialty of the Science Skill) to analyze a subject’s words and behaviors. Perhaps the majority of Messengers use their conversational Skills (such as Socialize and Persuasion) to draw more information out of a target.
Isolate Your Target
Just as a vampire doesn’t feed from mortals openly in the streets, neither is it sensible to preach the word of the Sanctified to targets surrounded by their peers and Allies. Proselytizers are taught to get their targets alone and as free from their social networks as possible. A potential convert can’t truly hear even the wisest message if he’s attuned to the secular words of his coterie. If the Messenger can seclude her prey, the target will undoubtedly be more open to her message.
Place Empowers Role, So Choose Your Place Wisely
Messengers are discouraged from pursuing or accepting roles in the city or covenant hierarchy, as they only distract from the Proselytizer’s mission. Still, some fill available roles to take advantage of the access they afford to otherwise unreachable targets. By far the favorite role of most Messengers is that of Harpy. Being in a position to make or break an individual socially gives a Proselytizer access to ears that would normally not hear his pious message. Many Messengers, however, have found that such influence is often most potent when it is expressly, obviously not used. “You made a fool out of yourself tonight, son,” the amiable Harpy says, “Do that at court, and you’d be finished. I know how it is, though. Let’s see if we can’t get you better prepared for your next big night out, huh?”
On the other hand, a Proselytizer Harpy can use her influence to pressure her targets, as well. With nothing but innuendo and a disapproving tone of voice, a beloved Harpy can cast another Kindred as a second class citizen. In domains where The Lancea Sanctum is strong, a Sanctified Harpy might make it so that the only way to achieve real esteem is to be Sanctified. The only way for a target socialite to escape the scorn and dismissal of a Proselytizer Harpy, then, is to convert — after which the Harpy has only good things to say about the individual in question.
That said, a Proselytizer Harpy who overplays his hand loses everything. If his blatantly partisan agenda is exposed he may lose all credibility among non-Sanctified Kindred at court. A Messenger who falls from such a visible position loses his ability to walk anonymously among the wider flock as “the everyman vampire.” There may be no choice left but to seek out a new domain.
Sit With Your Target
Messengers do not proselytize from on high. They deal with Kindred personally, face to face, to cultivate trust and comfortability. Messengers walk their targets to the cathedral doors, one at a time.
A wise Messenger knows that social Status is only a barrier between her and those she must educate. If she wants to be a successful evangelist for the word of Longinus, she must convince her target that she is like him — or, that if she is better off than he is, it is thanks to her relationship with the Testament. If portraying herself as her target’s equal means hobnobbing with Princes and Primogen, then she should welcome the opportunity to make a convert from someone so highly placed and enjoy the experience. If it means portraying herself as an equal to the broken, the deranged and the deformed, that too is part of the Messenger’s calling. It’s a given that any Proselytizer who values social standing over her service Longinus should not become a Messenger.
Don’t Preach to Prey
There may be times when a Messenger believes he can best secure a convert by approaching a suseptible mortal and grooming her for a Sanctified Requiem, but Proselytizers are expressly forbidden from mentioning the covenant to mortals — even if it is somehow disguised as a mortal institution (as a coterie of Messengers attempted to do throughout Indiana in 1932). Not only is it an egregious breach of the Masquerade, but mortals aren’t seen as being worthy of the effort and can’t appreciate what the Messenger is doing for them. In keeping with the scripture of the Testament, it is not a vampire’s role to nourish the souls of mortals; it is, instead, the task of the mortals to nourish the bodies of the Kindred.

Worship

Rituals and Observances

Periodically, Messengers assemble in what are called Gatherings of Shephers to discuss The Testament of Longinus the state of the covenant in the local domain and recent experiences with new converts and new methods. These assemblies, despite the name, are typically open to like-minded Proselytizers of other factions, provided they can be discreet. In populous domains housing many resident Messengers, a Gathering of Shepherds may be an annual affair. More often, a Gathering is organized by pro-active local Messengers whenever it feels as though “it’s been a while” since the previous Gathering. (To the Kindred social clock, “a while” might be several years or even a decade.) On occassion, a spontaneous Gathering might be called — as best it can be — if the domain is host to a number of visiting Proselytizer missionaries.
The Gathering of Shephers is one part church picnic, one part sales seminar. For small groups of Messengers and other Proselytizers, the Gathering might simply require a private room, perhaps in the basement of a local church, where Shepherds can exchange tales of tough or touching targets and commiserate on the state of the modern, impious laity. Missionary Proselytizers sometimes attempt to call their own Gatherings, inviting local Messengers and Proselytizers to a hotel suite, perhaps, to sup on captured kine and swap stories.
Larger groups organize more formal exchanges of information. The largest Gatherings see a dozen Proselytizers gathered around an overhead projector in a dark room, delivering speeches on psychology and Sermons on the sad perils of stray sheep.
The part of these congregations that many Kindred would find disturbing, were they to find out about them, is when a potential target becomes the topic of discussion for every Proselytizer in attendance. They exchange information on him, on his habits, his affiliations, his coterie, his whereabouts and his perceived degree of piety (or impiety, as the case may be). Hearsay flows alongside personal testimonials on the subject’s character and activities. A vampire deemed an especially desirable candidate for conversion — due to his personal training, his Resources, or simply his reputation — can even inspire multiple Messengers to work in tandem to Herd him into The Lancea Sanctum.
Quote:I know exactly how you feel. Felt that way for decades, it feels like, until Father Martinez helped me out. I don’t know where I’d be tonight without the Testament.”
Type
Religious, Sect
Ruling Organization
Parent Organization
Concepts: Charming televangelist, cold-call broker, doorto-door evangelist, Mormon missionary, paid public speaker, suave saleswoman.
Proselytizers in General
Proselytizer factions are like the fangs that thrust out from the face of The Lancea Sanctum. Every faction has its proselytizers intent on promoting their particular take on the gospel, but dedicated Proselytizer factions have no other motives than the proliferation of Sanctified faith in all its forms. These are the Sanctified out in front, amid the heathens and the ignorant, guiding lost Kindred into the churchyard and the waiting arms of the Anointed. What happens afterward isn’t the purview of a Proselytizer — once a potential convert as stepped inside, these holy marketers move on to the next target.
Some Proselytizer factions roam the World of Darkness as missionaries. Others stay in their domain, pursuing the same unaligned and undecided vampires night after night. Some Proselytizers seek out recruits because they truly want all Kindred to feel the grace and empowerment of pious service. Others are simply serving the covenant the only way they know how. Some Proselytizers are overactive zealots, driving off as many Kindred as they bring in. Others are casual emissaries of the Sanctified, hanging around the city’s social scenes to keep the covenant visible and accessible.

Proselytizers: Dogmatic and uncompromising.
Hardliners: Noble efforts and low standards.

Proselytizers: Same principle, different application.
Mendicants: They fear to truly spread the word.

Proselytizers: No respect for tradtion.
Neo-Reformists: Let's fix the roof before we invite anyone else inside.

Proselytizers: Steadfast allies.
Unifiers: Admirable, but overzealous.