The Prongs of Fear and Wrath
After a strangely clinical inquiry as to how I was feeling, Hodge beckoned me toward a dark corner of the sub-basement and pulled down hard on a black metal lever that opened a utility door into a hot, dry boiler room. In the room there was a boiler that could have easily dated back to the 19th century and a roaring furnace that looked even older. The doctor then produced a mersham pipe from his coat pocket along with a brushed steel lighter. I stepped back a little and narrowed my eyes as he lit the pipe, cautious of the blaze that I instinctively feared. Hodge then opened the grate on the boiler, exposing its fiery innards, and walked to the back of the room and jerked free the metal latches that held the furnace door closed. With a grinding slam, the door fell open, and I suddenly felt as if I were in extreme danger despite what risks I had taken up until that moment. As my terror kicked inside of me, held in place by nothing more than my own will, I pressed myself against the farthest wall and turned my eyes from Hodge’s silhouette, outlined by flames and a terrible orange glow. As I stood there, I wondered why Hodge, blood of my clan, was not equally terrified by the presence of such gratuitous and open flames.
Hodge asked me, “Can you feel that? The voice of your spirit?” while all I could feel was a compulsion to tear through the walls and make my escape from the burning cell. As I turned and pressed against the wall, my back to the furnace, doing everything in my power to silence the voice of which Hodge spoke, I heard the same grating sounds as before, and the orange of the room dimmed to a less intense pulse. When I heard the door to the room unlatch, I pushed past the doctor and headed to the stairs of the place to make my exit. That is when Hodge asked me if I made a habit of fleeing the teachings of all my greatest teachers. Perplexed by this statement, I turned around, and asked him what exactly did he mean by such a seemingly inappropriate question. What Hodge then explained to me further transformed my understanding of Belial’s Brood. Up until that point, I had assumed that nearly all of the rituals performed by the Forsworn were Vaulderie in one form or another or some empty ceremony used as an excuse for base violence. I had not begun to fathom the other levels of Brood religion and to what extent the dreadful nature of it went.
The clawing instinctual panic that I had felt in the boiler room was, in the view of the Forsworn, the very voice of a kind of God. To this ripping sense of peril, the vampires of Belial’s Brood pay spiritual homage. They feel that this terrified and awakened Beast is the expression of the endpoint of their evolution as beings of flesh, body and spirit. So, it is with odd and terrible methods that they seek to achieve full knowledge and conversation of this thrashing and furious instinct. These rites, called by many names (but generally called Trials of Provocation), are the foundation of another of the Forsworn Archonte. With these rites, one carefully formulates the death of the Man and the rebirth, ascension and enlightenment of the great Beast.
The Trials of Provocation are divided into three primary categories and numerous sub-categories. The trappings of each of the rite’s variations largely depend on the covey performing it. The three major types of trial are those of fear, fury and hunger. By agitating the Beast on a full spectrum, the Forsworn can achieve a full understanding of the Beast’s nature, learning its Language by fully embracing its most extreme instincts. In turn, this gives a greater knowledge of the Beast’s power, state and Language. Through these rites, a mystic of the Brood can learn the syllables and gestures of the strange Tongue of the Beast — the glossolalia and growls that are the speech of the Demiurge itself.
Hodge asked me, “Can you feel that? The voice of your spirit?” while all I could feel was a compulsion to tear through the walls and make my escape from the burning cell. As I turned and pressed against the wall, my back to the furnace, doing everything in my power to silence the voice of which Hodge spoke, I heard the same grating sounds as before, and the orange of the room dimmed to a less intense pulse. When I heard the door to the room unlatch, I pushed past the doctor and headed to the stairs of the place to make my exit. That is when Hodge asked me if I made a habit of fleeing the teachings of all my greatest teachers. Perplexed by this statement, I turned around, and asked him what exactly did he mean by such a seemingly inappropriate question. What Hodge then explained to me further transformed my understanding of Belial’s Brood. Up until that point, I had assumed that nearly all of the rituals performed by the Forsworn were Vaulderie in one form or another or some empty ceremony used as an excuse for base violence. I had not begun to fathom the other levels of Brood religion and to what extent the dreadful nature of it went.
The clawing instinctual panic that I had felt in the boiler room was, in the view of the Forsworn, the very voice of a kind of God. To this ripping sense of peril, the vampires of Belial’s Brood pay spiritual homage. They feel that this terrified and awakened Beast is the expression of the endpoint of their evolution as beings of flesh, body and spirit. So, it is with odd and terrible methods that they seek to achieve full knowledge and conversation of this thrashing and furious instinct. These rites, called by many names (but generally called Trials of Provocation), are the foundation of another of the Forsworn Archonte. With these rites, one carefully formulates the death of the Man and the rebirth, ascension and enlightenment of the great Beast.
The Trials of Provocation are divided into three primary categories and numerous sub-categories. The trappings of each of the rite’s variations largely depend on the covey performing it. The three major types of trial are those of fear, fury and hunger. By agitating the Beast on a full spectrum, the Forsworn can achieve a full understanding of the Beast’s nature, learning its Language by fully embracing its most extreme instincts. In turn, this gives a greater knowledge of the Beast’s power, state and Language. Through these rites, a mystic of the Brood can learn the syllables and gestures of the strange Tongue of the Beast — the glossolalia and growls that are the speech of the Demiurge itself.
Execution
The Trials
Trials of fear are the most often employed as they include the fewest risks under normal circumstances. Ultimately, a failed trial of fear results in nothing more than embarrassment and inconvenience unless the covey performing the rite decides to implement a more severe penalty for failure (which is not uncommon). In addition, the ability to control the unfolding of one’s fear nourishes the pneuma — the pillar of spirit in the Forsworn trinity of being. Through the guided unleashing of one’s fear, the soul develops in reaction to the fear and is defined, providing exquisite nectar that empowers the mystical capacities of the devotee. These rites are performed to create the seed understanding required to learn the Tongue of the Beast.The methods used to evoke the most violent outward thrashings of the Beast are the basis for the trails of fury. These rituals seek to stoke the Beast in way that will call forth its lust for domination. These rituals are often deadly for at least one of the participants. Under the most ideal circumstances, the Forsworn releases her rage upon a ritual victim, in some cases an effigy of meat and blood, in more grim performances a human, and in particularly auspicious times, another vampire. The primary operant of the rite is generally humiliated and insulted while being physically beaten in a way that is meant to incite more than harm. At the ritual’s climax, the frenzied vampire loses all control and allows her Beast full rein, destroying everything within reach. At the end of the frenzy, the seeker collapses, and swims in the visions brought on by her sated aggression. It is believed that these rites of aggressive frenzy give the Forsworn insight into the soma — the pillar of the body according to Forsworn lore. By means of a total immersion in the most primal and destructive wrath, the disciple of Belial strengthens the force of her will and her capacity to Dominate others. In addition, those who pursue knowledge of the Tongue of the Beast learn the syllables and words of the holiest madness by antagonizing their souls in such a way.
The practices that the Forsworn use to call for the hunger of the Beast are the most risky and potentially disastrous of the Trials of Provocation. Although the wild destruction wrought by a vampire in a wrathful frenzy is great, it is the unbridled hunger of the Beast that can result in a loss of control that ends in the devouring of another vampire’s soul. Though the risk is great, the spiritual harvest reaped from such a ceremony not only feeds the Forsworn on the most rudimentary level; the harvest also evokes the purest understanding of the instincts of Demiurge itself. Through repeated performances of these ordeals, the initiate gains a devotional understanding of the sarx — the raw flesh of the Trinity of Being. By cultivating and learning the pangs and thrust of their desires, the initiate fills his physical form with an actualized yearning that lifts him up. In these fluctuating states of satiation and thirst Belial’s Brood acquires the gestures and subtleties required to fluently communicate in the Tongue of the Beast.
Though these basic frameworks are used throughout Forsworn society, each covey expresses the Archontes called the Trials of Provocation through cultic dynamei that illustrate the way in which that group understands what is happening to the subject of the rite. Among the Antinomians, a lengthy evocation of barbarous names will be chanted as the aspirant barks and slurs the names of demons as his grasp on his human mind slips into frenzy. However, among the Nameless, the ritual is performed in perfect darkness with nothing but muffled whimpers and the bestial sounds of flesh being ripped from the sacrament. It is important to remember that these variations are essential to these factions and are not merely extraneous details. That is to say, the ritual must be framed in a fashion that the participants understand it in accordance with their own mythos and experience. The truth of these rites is not one of formality, but of a deep and total immersion for those involved.
Related Organizations
System: Trials of Provocation
Those Forsworn who undergo the Trials of Provocation experience a lasting reward for their perseverance and conviction. After the completion of the rite, the primary operant receives a bonus that represents the achievement.In the case of fear trials, the vampire is granted a two-dice bonus for resisting fear-related frenzy until the next evening. After unleashing one’s Beast in a Fury rite, the vampire does one additional die of damage when fighting unarmed (including tooth and claw) until the next night. If a vampire undertakes the Hunger trials successfully, she receives the nourishment of three blood points for every two blood points consumed (rounded down) until the next sunset.
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