The Followers of Seth
The Cradle of Chaos, "Evil is what you make it."
It was in the time of Akhenaten, the Witch-Pharaoh, that the Cult of the Phoenix died out, and the Cult of Seth became compromised, falling prey to the dead. Even so, the Sethites continued beyond death in their sacred duty to bring about their half of the cosmic balance (the “Mekhet”), even if the upholders of order no longer – to their knowledge – existed.
The Followers of Seth (properly, the Followers of Typhon Seth) make strange agents of chaos, since it’s only a very specific kind of chaos that they’re really interested in. The god Typhon Seth mandated that things collapse, but that depended on spiritual powers not gaining the upper hand in the material realm. True entropy can only be achieved if no spiritual power takes control. Beings escaped from the spirit worlds and Hells of the Sethite cosmology may seem to cause collapse and trouble, but really, they bring a kind of tyranny. They are the keepers of oaths, the possessors of bodies, the eaters of souls. They bring evil to the world without freedom.
The Sethites believe that true chaos depends on there being no conscious agency maintaining it or controlling it beyond Typhon Seth and his agents, who only set the ball rolling, or push that first domino.
The Followers of Seth (properly, the Followers of Typhon Seth) make strange agents of chaos, since it’s only a very specific kind of chaos that they’re really interested in. The god Typhon Seth mandated that things collapse, but that depended on spiritual powers not gaining the upper hand in the material realm. True entropy can only be achieved if no spiritual power takes control. Beings escaped from the spirit worlds and Hells of the Sethite cosmology may seem to cause collapse and trouble, but really, they bring a kind of tyranny. They are the keepers of oaths, the possessors of bodies, the eaters of souls. They bring evil to the world without freedom.
The Sethites believe that true chaos depends on there being no conscious agency maintaining it or controlling it beyond Typhon Seth and his agents, who only set the ball rolling, or push that first domino.
Public Agenda
Praxis: Typhon Seth demands that chaos come to the earth. The power structures of living man and dead man alike must be destabilized. Their rituals happen when the priests of the Cult (those members with three dots or more of Initiation who are trusted with leading their cult cell) say so. The cultists could go a month or even years without a ceremony, or have three gatherings in the space of a week.
Sethite leaders reserve the right to contact their followers any time and command them to do the cult’s work. A train signalman just outside of London messes up some signals and causes congestion on the line, making a train one hour and 45 minutes late. Because of the late train, a certain businessman fails to get into the City in time to make a deal, an international corporation goes bankrupt, several developing nations fall further into debt and two civil wars start, far away. The signalman doesn’t know about all that — he just knows that he has to make a train late.
The street lights at one end of Washington DC go out. Every sewage main in Queens backs up, and the whole district stinks. A man slips an hallucinogen in some communion wine, and while a sip isn’t enough, the priest who must consume it all at the end goes mad and says and does some things that will, through a succession of events, tear apart a community.
A Los Angeles police detective’s car breaks down as he’s on his way to make the biggest arrest of his career. He’s stuck in a tunnel. All the phones are vandalized or engaged. He’s late getting to LAX. The criminal he had bang to rights gets on the plane and is well on his way to Malaga. The detective never makes his arrest. And the criminal is still at large. Later, the man sells arms to terrorists who mount an attack on a great European city. Hundreds die.
The Sethites prefer their cultists to do small, specific things that could cause greater chaos. Small acts work towards greater ones. For want of a nail, a shoe was lost...
The vampires, too, work secretly to destabilize the Prince and the Covenants alike. They trade information, perform pranks and act like they’re everyone’s friends, offering curses that seem like gifts and help that never seems to work out right (although it’s never a Sethite’s fault that things don’t work out like folks expect them to). Beware the Sethite who tells you who she is. She’s up to something.
But at the same time, the Sethites, mortal and undead, collect information about ghosts and spirits, and always seem to be there when these things need destroying. The Sethites know the truth about what happened to the Dead Julii, and some know exactly what to do should the destroyers of that long-gone clan ever rise again. Ghosts and spirits are not part of the Typhonian system of balance, and must be driven back, lest they upset the perfect chaos and freedom that Seth represents.
Sethite leaders reserve the right to contact their followers any time and command them to do the cult’s work. A train signalman just outside of London messes up some signals and causes congestion on the line, making a train one hour and 45 minutes late. Because of the late train, a certain businessman fails to get into the City in time to make a deal, an international corporation goes bankrupt, several developing nations fall further into debt and two civil wars start, far away. The signalman doesn’t know about all that — he just knows that he has to make a train late.
The street lights at one end of Washington DC go out. Every sewage main in Queens backs up, and the whole district stinks. A man slips an hallucinogen in some communion wine, and while a sip isn’t enough, the priest who must consume it all at the end goes mad and says and does some things that will, through a succession of events, tear apart a community.
A Los Angeles police detective’s car breaks down as he’s on his way to make the biggest arrest of his career. He’s stuck in a tunnel. All the phones are vandalized or engaged. He’s late getting to LAX. The criminal he had bang to rights gets on the plane and is well on his way to Malaga. The detective never makes his arrest. And the criminal is still at large. Later, the man sells arms to terrorists who mount an attack on a great European city. Hundreds die.
The Sethites prefer their cultists to do small, specific things that could cause greater chaos. Small acts work towards greater ones. For want of a nail, a shoe was lost...
The vampires, too, work secretly to destabilize the Prince and the Covenants alike. They trade information, perform pranks and act like they’re everyone’s friends, offering curses that seem like gifts and help that never seems to work out right (although it’s never a Sethite’s fault that things don’t work out like folks expect them to). Beware the Sethite who tells you who she is. She’s up to something.
But at the same time, the Sethites, mortal and undead, collect information about ghosts and spirits, and always seem to be there when these things need destroying. The Sethites know the truth about what happened to the Dead Julii, and some know exactly what to do should the destroyers of that long-gone clan ever rise again. Ghosts and spirits are not part of the Typhonian system of balance, and must be driven back, lest they upset the perfect chaos and freedom that Seth represents.
Demography and Population
Cultists: The Sethites recruit their mortal members from many walks of life. If an outsider could see their recruiting policy, he’d probably be a bit surprised that the Sethites don’t target openly powerful people. The Sethites are quite a large conspiracy, but they prefer to recruit their human members from those who are less in the right position, and more in the right place: technicians, postal workers, mechanics, drivers, and so on. Vampires who join the Sethites vary: a barely-Carthian anarchist uses his powers to foment unrest. A beautiful, pale girl starts fights in nightclubs. Nitokris has adopted the airs of a priestess and the role of a ghost-hunter, but for what purpose? A coterie of ghost hunters with shadowy powers permits no other vampire to see their books. A Kindred historian uses hints gleaned from musty documents to get dirt on the city’s elders. An Invictus Harpy drops simple friendly hints to a half a dozen neonates, and a week later, Elysium dissolves into violence.
Foreign Relations
Covenants: The Followers of Seth are the Cradle of Chaos, and disorder is their goal above all, although their brand of disorder is peculiarly ordered, since its purpose is cosmic harmony, part of a cosmology in which chaos is one of many vital factors.
While the Acolytes can understand that, and the Dragons find the idea of promoting chaos – that a greater cosmic order can result – fascinating, most members of The Invictus and the Carthians find it a difficult concept to get their heads around. As a result, the Sethites mainly look for members among The Ordo Dracul and the Circle of the Crone. While it doesn’t take much for members of The Lancea Sanctum to see the worth in doing the Devil’s work in God’s name, it’s quite another thing for them to do it in the name of a pagan god, and the Sanctified would be frankly less than accepting of the creed of Typhon Seth if the Sethites ever approached them with it... which they don’t. The Sanctified’s ignorance of the Sethites is better for everyone, as far as the Followers are concerned.
While the Acolytes can understand that, and the Dragons find the idea of promoting chaos – that a greater cosmic order can result – fascinating, most members of The Invictus and the Carthians find it a difficult concept to get their heads around. As a result, the Sethites mainly look for members among The Ordo Dracul and the Circle of the Crone. While it doesn’t take much for members of The Lancea Sanctum to see the worth in doing the Devil’s work in God’s name, it’s quite another thing for them to do it in the name of a pagan god, and the Sanctified would be frankly less than accepting of the creed of Typhon Seth if the Sethites ever approached them with it... which they don’t. The Sanctified’s ignorance of the Sethites is better for everyone, as far as the Followers are concerned.
Worship
Ceremonies: The Sethites’ ceremonies are formal and alien. The members wear robes and chant magical incantations in New Kingdom Egyptian and Classical Greek while ceremonial presidents (each wearing the mask of the Typhon animal) perform strange, abstract actions over an altar or a sacrificial animal involving knives, smoke and sand. The vampiric presidents sometime perform Crúac rituals in the full view of their mortal followers, knowing that the people in the room will never say anything.
The Sethites’ Crúac rituals often involve the killing of cats, dogs and birds (particularly owls and hawks). Very, very rarely the sacrificial animal is a living human being, either a mortal member of the cult, drugged and brainwashed to accept the sacrifice meekly and willingly, or an enemy of the cult, tied, gagged and painfully conscious. It depends on the ritual.
• The Sethites steep themselves in occult lore, and knowledge of the spirits and demons that plague the world is something of a prerequisite for advancement in the cult. The character gains one free specialty in the Occult skill.
••• The Sethite gains the right to use the blood magic of Typhon Seth, meaning that he has access to some (but not all) Crúac rituals. The character can buy dots in Crúac at a cost of (new dots x7) experience points and new rituals at (new dots x2) experience points, even if he isn’t a member of the Circle of the Crone. A Sethite who is not an Acolyte should take care to whom he shows his power. Acolytes react with extreme violence towards anyone outside their Covenant displaying knowledge of their blood magic.
••••• The Sethite has, by this point, studied a phenomenal amount of lore concerning the demons and gods of dozens of cultures. The character has the equivalent of the Merit: Encyclopedic Knowledge, limited to knowledge about ghosts, demons, spirits, black magic and esoteric religion.
The Sethites’ Crúac rituals often involve the killing of cats, dogs and birds (particularly owls and hawks). Very, very rarely the sacrificial animal is a living human being, either a mortal member of the cult, drugged and brainwashed to accept the sacrifice meekly and willingly, or an enemy of the cult, tied, gagged and painfully conscious. It depends on the ritual.
Initiations
Generally speaking, Sethite initiations involve the taking of long ceremonial oaths and the naming of strangely formal threats against one who would divulge the secrets of the order. Failing the Sethites, even in seemingly simple tasks like putting unleaded into the diesel engine of one particular white Mustang on one particular day, is never good for a cultist’s health.• The Sethites steep themselves in occult lore, and knowledge of the spirits and demons that plague the world is something of a prerequisite for advancement in the cult. The character gains one free specialty in the Occult skill.
••• The Sethite gains the right to use the blood magic of Typhon Seth, meaning that he has access to some (but not all) Crúac rituals. The character can buy dots in Crúac at a cost of (new dots x7) experience points and new rituals at (new dots x2) experience points, even if he isn’t a member of the Circle of the Crone. A Sethite who is not an Acolyte should take care to whom he shows his power. Acolytes react with extreme violence towards anyone outside their Covenant displaying knowledge of their blood magic.
••••• The Sethite has, by this point, studied a phenomenal amount of lore concerning the demons and gods of dozens of cultures. The character has the equivalent of the Merit: Encyclopedic Knowledge, limited to knowledge about ghosts, demons, spirits, black magic and esoteric religion.
Granted Divine Powers
The Followers of Seth have worked blood magic for some four thousand years, and if the formal Egyptian rituals they perform are similar to the Acolytes’, one has to ask: who learned their magic from whom?
Sethite rituals often involve complicated symbolic formulae, vestments, masks, braziers issuing odd-colored smoke, altars and the like, and imprecations to the powers of Ancient Egypt, particularly to the demon Amemet the Devourer and, of course, to the Lord of Entropy himself, Typhon Seth.
Although the paraphernalia helps (it offers a +2 equipment bonus to the dice pool), the only thing that the Sethites’ rituals really require is a blood sacrifice. Having obtained some blood from the sacrifice, the caster mixes it with some of his own, and either burns the concoction in a brazier or uses it in some other way as part of the ritual. One to three-dot rituals require the death of a mouse or similar small animal. Four-dot rituals require a more substantial sacrifice, such as a dog, a cat, a sheep, a bull or a goat. Five-dot rituals require a human sacrifice (and require degeneration rolls if the character performing the ritual has Humanity 3 or above, since it’s premeditated murder by any definition except the Sethites’).
Sethites can learn Crúac rituals if they have three or more dots in the Merit: Initiation (Followers of Seth). They have access to the following Crúac rituals through their Shadow Cult: Pangs of Proserpina, Rigor Mortis, Cheval, The Hydra’s Vitae, Touch of the Morrigan, and Blood Blight.
They can also learn these unique rituals: Genius Loci, Amemet’s Pursuit, The Hand of Seth, The Thrashing of Apep’s Coils, Blade of Tu’at, The Rite of Going Forth By Day.
Sethite rituals often involve complicated symbolic formulae, vestments, masks, braziers issuing odd-colored smoke, altars and the like, and imprecations to the powers of Ancient Egypt, particularly to the demon Amemet the Devourer and, of course, to the Lord of Entropy himself, Typhon Seth.
Although the paraphernalia helps (it offers a +2 equipment bonus to the dice pool), the only thing that the Sethites’ rituals really require is a blood sacrifice. Having obtained some blood from the sacrifice, the caster mixes it with some of his own, and either burns the concoction in a brazier or uses it in some other way as part of the ritual. One to three-dot rituals require the death of a mouse or similar small animal. Four-dot rituals require a more substantial sacrifice, such as a dog, a cat, a sheep, a bull or a goat. Five-dot rituals require a human sacrifice (and require degeneration rolls if the character performing the ritual has Humanity 3 or above, since it’s premeditated murder by any definition except the Sethites’).
Sethites can learn Crúac rituals if they have three or more dots in the Merit: Initiation (Followers of Seth). They have access to the following Crúac rituals through their Shadow Cult: Pangs of Proserpina, Rigor Mortis, Cheval, The Hydra’s Vitae, Touch of the Morrigan, and Blood Blight.
They can also learn these unique rituals: Genius Loci, Amemet’s Pursuit, The Hand of Seth, The Thrashing of Apep’s Coils, Blade of Tu’at, The Rite of Going Forth By Day.
Type
Religious, Cult
Alternative Names
Followers of Typhon Seth
Demonym
Sethites
Related Ethnicities