The Vaulderie
The covey is a Brood member’s pack, family and support structure, all rolled into one. Perhaps the most essential practice of unlife among the covey (aside from feeding, of course) is a ritual called the Vaulderie. By means of this rite, which involves the ritual pooling and sharing of Vitae among Forsworn, the members of a covey forge a powerful group bond among themselves, stronger even than a typical Vinculum but more tenuous. Through this bond, the covey does its work, and without the Vaulderie, the entire covenant would risk collapsing under its own weight, covey by covey.
While it is well-known that our kind can form a tie to another soul through the ingestion of our precious blood, it is a curious thing when several of our kind blend their blood together in order to be consumed for the sake of solidarity. In these instances, a bond will form among the participants, moving them to look after each others’ interests, and in cases of a full Vinculum, to lay down their unlives for the sake of another so bonded. While these ties may last for half a century without need for refreshment, the need for such things among our kind pale in importance to what this rite means to those of the Brood. Whereas those of the conventional covenants would form such ties on a whim to advance an emotional or political agenda, it is not an understatement to say that the Brood requires this ritual of shared blood to maintain its existence.
How did such a rite arise? Why would such a primal and destructive collective as the Brood of Belial weave a ritual, so formal, so precise, into the core workings of the Brood’s mad, bloody designs? Did the ritual manifest out of need for cohesion that would honor the ties among the brothers and sisters of Belial or did the bond arise from the performance of the ritual so crafted to safeguard the unity of the Forsworn? Do the souls of those initiated into those dark mysteries cry for a spiritual offering that can be nothing less than the Vitae that sustains them?
Before I expound the details of what the Vaulderie is, I will first give an overview of what the Vaulderie is not. The Vaulderie is, in both its effect and method, distinctly different from the ritual of several of our kind merely sharing each other’s blood. Whether this is caused by the ritual details and trappings, the fashion and regularity in which the blood is shared or if it is merely caused by mixing the blood of insane, blood-hungry monsters into a single elixir is a point of contention (even when dealing with the salvaged source Materials penned by members of Belial’s Brood itself). As I mentioned previously, even when I attempted to reconstruct the rites with the help of my coterie-mates, the results were merely that of sharing our blood in the conventional fashion, which resulted in my blood taking precedence to due its advanced age and power. On the other hand, recreating the rite did result in their continued compliance with my desires to experiment further with the rituals I was investigating.
However, these emotional and submissive ties that my coterie members had formed revealed to me that what I was reconstructing was a far cry from the sacred Vaulderie of the Forsworn. Melisande, a pillar of our circle and my first childe, developed a grasping, worshipful nature that spoke of an underlying passiveness that had been integrated into her normally cutting and aggressive manner. Carmine Ocone, a less than intellectual thug who had taken a fancy to Melisande, relinquished his protectiveness of her and developed a dog-like subservience to my every whim, not unlike the most wanton and abused of Ghouls. Archibald Bailey, the closest of my group to me in age and oft times insubordinate to my plans and agendas, became fully agreeable to my every suggestion and rebuked the others when he felt their plans or even feelings were in contest with my own.
Although some of the fragments I had deciphered suggested increasingly vile methods to enhance the Vaulderie ritual, I did not feel that such lines were to be crossed at this early stage in my experimentation. Although Archibald assured me that he would loyally assist me if I chose to make a lamb of my childe or of Carmine, I felt that some fundamental aspect was missing, something far less final than cutting out a heart or ritual decapitation. Among the codices that I had assembled, I had recovered a series of photographs on the backs of which were written notes in a rushed hand. Though they were not numbered or found in a specific order, they did denote a ritual process in a sequence that could be determined by the increasing number of bloodied hands among the participants depicted. On the back of the final photograph I found the phrase, “And the many heads become the One Beast.”
One Beast.
Certainly not the Language I would use to describe the hierarchical lattice of dependence that my coterie had forged through our pedestrian understanding of this distinct and terrifying rite.
So, it was with reluctance and excitement that I ended my explorations in the company of my coterie and began to seek elsewhere for uncorrupted company through which my search could continue. My pursuit began among The Unaligned, for whom tenets of covenant were no hindrance and of whom there are few in this city in which I live. Thus, it was without surprise that I made the acquaintance of one of my kind, formerly a physician, by the name of Ambrose Hodge. Hodge, previously a proponent of The Carthian Movement, had fallen into disfavor after an alleged incident of poaching in which the respected doctor took the life of another’s ghoul after succumbing to a unrepentant frenzy. Since that time, the doctor had kept company with those likewise estranged and had begun similar Research to that in which I was so engrossed and offered to meet me on the Lower East Side to discuss my dilemmas. When I arrived he was in the company of two others, a dark young man and an older but attractive woman, who, though well dressed, proved distant and difficult to address. Only Hodge offered for me to come to a place of privacy where the matter at hand could be readily discussed.
Upon arriving at the apartment building, I entered and found that the doors had been removed from all the units and that identical red curtains hung in their stead. The walls were a flat gray, and the entire complex was poorly illuminated. When we eventually reached the fourth floor, we came to a single door that opened into a well-appointed study, utterly out of place in this odd labyrinth. We took our seats, and I immediately began to expound my findings. As soon as I finished the details of the third performance of the rite, I was stopped, and, after giving a knowing nod to his two companions, he corrected me.
It seemed that it was my model of the rite that was flawed, and that I had taken a devotion to the philosophy for granted. The Vaulderie of Belial’s Brood is not an oath made to another of your kind. It is a commitment made to a center point — an axis that exists equidistantly between all participants. The ritual of Vaulderie does not become corrupted by particularly potent blood or by previous bonds. This is because The Crux is that which the oath is made to and not to another vampire. This Crux, as Doctor Hodge explained, was interpreted differently depending on which faction of the Brood you ask. To some, The Crux was an abstract concept, to some a spiritual contract and to others an invisible and ancient monstrosity in which the Brood itself found their unholy beginnings. It was apparent, after brief discourse, that the doctor understood this “Crux” as the latter, as did his two companions who listened and watched him in an alien, unblinking fashion for the entirety of his discourse.
It was at that point that we rose from our seats. As I began to thank the trio for their hospitality and such invaluable information, the woman, whose name I learned was Evelyn, intimately placed her forefinger over my lips and escorted me with a light touch back into the hall. From there, in the company of Hodge and the Haitian boy Gabriel, Evelyn escorted me down the same flights of stairs we had climbed upon arriving and down two flights more into a dry, clean sub-basement with not a hint of light. Adjusting my senses to penetrate the darkness, my efforts were eased by the lighting of candles. Next, I was met with a pungent, stinging smoke that could only be asafetida.
The doctor then began to explain to me where I had gone wrong. He did so in a way that rapidly confirmed my mounting suspicions that I, in fact, was standing in the company of fully awakened disciples of Belial’s Brood. The connections were made quickly, and all of my confusion quickly unraveled until I was confronted with the fact that so much of my unlife had lead up to this very moment. Whether it was they who tracked me down, or my own Beast that had lead me to them, I was going to participate in a true Vaulderie and learn much, much more about the rites of the Brood from my newfound company.
The philosophy of the Brood is such that one’s Pursuit is often rife with peril as one pursues the most damned of states. Sometimes, these cultivated horrors consume the Devoted as the pilgrim who, in the pitch of ecstasy, burns himself in the flame of God. In other instances, those of our kind who do not understand the nature of knowledge and sacrifice relentlessly hunt the faithful of Belial. And in rare cases, the devotee has reached the terminus of his long Pursuit, casting off entirely the shackles of his Humanity, and making his way into the endless night as a purely realized being. Though the devotee may do so literally or symbolically, the Vaulderie can also be implemented to mark this time of passing and release.
After a moment of consideration, I asked Hodge what happened if one of these brothers or sisters returned. At that point, he looked at me, square in the face and with great thrust of manner, and stated, “They do not return.” It was then explained that the rites for the fallen were only performed once, and at that point the released were forever cut off from The Crux and no longer existed. Hodge then carefully stated that if the shell of one who was so released were to return, such an abomination would be hunted and destroyed for its defiance of the covey’s will.
While it is well-known that our kind can form a tie to another soul through the ingestion of our precious blood, it is a curious thing when several of our kind blend their blood together in order to be consumed for the sake of solidarity. In these instances, a bond will form among the participants, moving them to look after each others’ interests, and in cases of a full Vinculum, to lay down their unlives for the sake of another so bonded. While these ties may last for half a century without need for refreshment, the need for such things among our kind pale in importance to what this rite means to those of the Brood. Whereas those of the conventional covenants would form such ties on a whim to advance an emotional or political agenda, it is not an understatement to say that the Brood requires this ritual of shared blood to maintain its existence.
How did such a rite arise? Why would such a primal and destructive collective as the Brood of Belial weave a ritual, so formal, so precise, into the core workings of the Brood’s mad, bloody designs? Did the ritual manifest out of need for cohesion that would honor the ties among the brothers and sisters of Belial or did the bond arise from the performance of the ritual so crafted to safeguard the unity of the Forsworn? Do the souls of those initiated into those dark mysteries cry for a spiritual offering that can be nothing less than the Vitae that sustains them?
Before I expound the details of what the Vaulderie is, I will first give an overview of what the Vaulderie is not. The Vaulderie is, in both its effect and method, distinctly different from the ritual of several of our kind merely sharing each other’s blood. Whether this is caused by the ritual details and trappings, the fashion and regularity in which the blood is shared or if it is merely caused by mixing the blood of insane, blood-hungry monsters into a single elixir is a point of contention (even when dealing with the salvaged source Materials penned by members of Belial’s Brood itself). As I mentioned previously, even when I attempted to reconstruct the rites with the help of my coterie-mates, the results were merely that of sharing our blood in the conventional fashion, which resulted in my blood taking precedence to due its advanced age and power. On the other hand, recreating the rite did result in their continued compliance with my desires to experiment further with the rituals I was investigating.
However, these emotional and submissive ties that my coterie members had formed revealed to me that what I was reconstructing was a far cry from the sacred Vaulderie of the Forsworn. Melisande, a pillar of our circle and my first childe, developed a grasping, worshipful nature that spoke of an underlying passiveness that had been integrated into her normally cutting and aggressive manner. Carmine Ocone, a less than intellectual thug who had taken a fancy to Melisande, relinquished his protectiveness of her and developed a dog-like subservience to my every whim, not unlike the most wanton and abused of Ghouls. Archibald Bailey, the closest of my group to me in age and oft times insubordinate to my plans and agendas, became fully agreeable to my every suggestion and rebuked the others when he felt their plans or even feelings were in contest with my own.
Although some of the fragments I had deciphered suggested increasingly vile methods to enhance the Vaulderie ritual, I did not feel that such lines were to be crossed at this early stage in my experimentation. Although Archibald assured me that he would loyally assist me if I chose to make a lamb of my childe or of Carmine, I felt that some fundamental aspect was missing, something far less final than cutting out a heart or ritual decapitation. Among the codices that I had assembled, I had recovered a series of photographs on the backs of which were written notes in a rushed hand. Though they were not numbered or found in a specific order, they did denote a ritual process in a sequence that could be determined by the increasing number of bloodied hands among the participants depicted. On the back of the final photograph I found the phrase, “And the many heads become the One Beast.”
One Beast.
Certainly not the Language I would use to describe the hierarchical lattice of dependence that my coterie had forged through our pedestrian understanding of this distinct and terrifying rite.
So, it was with reluctance and excitement that I ended my explorations in the company of my coterie and began to seek elsewhere for uncorrupted company through which my search could continue. My pursuit began among The Unaligned, for whom tenets of covenant were no hindrance and of whom there are few in this city in which I live. Thus, it was without surprise that I made the acquaintance of one of my kind, formerly a physician, by the name of Ambrose Hodge. Hodge, previously a proponent of The Carthian Movement, had fallen into disfavor after an alleged incident of poaching in which the respected doctor took the life of another’s ghoul after succumbing to a unrepentant frenzy. Since that time, the doctor had kept company with those likewise estranged and had begun similar Research to that in which I was so engrossed and offered to meet me on the Lower East Side to discuss my dilemmas. When I arrived he was in the company of two others, a dark young man and an older but attractive woman, who, though well dressed, proved distant and difficult to address. Only Hodge offered for me to come to a place of privacy where the matter at hand could be readily discussed.
Upon arriving at the apartment building, I entered and found that the doors had been removed from all the units and that identical red curtains hung in their stead. The walls were a flat gray, and the entire complex was poorly illuminated. When we eventually reached the fourth floor, we came to a single door that opened into a well-appointed study, utterly out of place in this odd labyrinth. We took our seats, and I immediately began to expound my findings. As soon as I finished the details of the third performance of the rite, I was stopped, and, after giving a knowing nod to his two companions, he corrected me.
It seemed that it was my model of the rite that was flawed, and that I had taken a devotion to the philosophy for granted. The Vaulderie of Belial’s Brood is not an oath made to another of your kind. It is a commitment made to a center point — an axis that exists equidistantly between all participants. The ritual of Vaulderie does not become corrupted by particularly potent blood or by previous bonds. This is because The Crux is that which the oath is made to and not to another vampire. This Crux, as Doctor Hodge explained, was interpreted differently depending on which faction of the Brood you ask. To some, The Crux was an abstract concept, to some a spiritual contract and to others an invisible and ancient monstrosity in which the Brood itself found their unholy beginnings. It was apparent, after brief discourse, that the doctor understood this “Crux” as the latter, as did his two companions who listened and watched him in an alien, unblinking fashion for the entirety of his discourse.
It was at that point that we rose from our seats. As I began to thank the trio for their hospitality and such invaluable information, the woman, whose name I learned was Evelyn, intimately placed her forefinger over my lips and escorted me with a light touch back into the hall. From there, in the company of Hodge and the Haitian boy Gabriel, Evelyn escorted me down the same flights of stairs we had climbed upon arriving and down two flights more into a dry, clean sub-basement with not a hint of light. Adjusting my senses to penetrate the darkness, my efforts were eased by the lighting of candles. Next, I was met with a pungent, stinging smoke that could only be asafetida.
The doctor then began to explain to me where I had gone wrong. He did so in a way that rapidly confirmed my mounting suspicions that I, in fact, was standing in the company of fully awakened disciples of Belial’s Brood. The connections were made quickly, and all of my confusion quickly unraveled until I was confronted with the fact that so much of my unlife had lead up to this very moment. Whether it was they who tracked me down, or my own Beast that had lead me to them, I was going to participate in a true Vaulderie and learn much, much more about the rites of the Brood from my newfound company.
Eulogy for the Beast
After the performance of the Vaulderie, I felt refreshed, almost sentimental. Not so much from the blood I shared with these curious strangers but from the nourishment something deep inside my core had experienced, almost a purr. As I stood in Meditation by a window looking out into a darkened ally, I felt Evelyn’s hand on the small of my back as she came forward to share my view of the shadows. Without looking at me, and without any real expression upon her face, she spoke to me about the last time they had performed the Vaulderie. She mentioned that at that time, only a month ago, there were four of them, and not three. As I knew the power of the rite took many months to fade, I turned to her and asked what had happened to their fourth. Evelyn continued to look ahead, and plainly stated that their fourth, whose name was Alice, had reached the end of her Pursuit and no longer existed. When I asked if she had died, Evelyn smiled slightly and said nothing more, turned and walked away. As I stood there perplexed as Gabriel and Evelyn left the room, Hodge approached and explained.The philosophy of the Brood is such that one’s Pursuit is often rife with peril as one pursues the most damned of states. Sometimes, these cultivated horrors consume the Devoted as the pilgrim who, in the pitch of ecstasy, burns himself in the flame of God. In other instances, those of our kind who do not understand the nature of knowledge and sacrifice relentlessly hunt the faithful of Belial. And in rare cases, the devotee has reached the terminus of his long Pursuit, casting off entirely the shackles of his Humanity, and making his way into the endless night as a purely realized being. Though the devotee may do so literally or symbolically, the Vaulderie can also be implemented to mark this time of passing and release.
After a moment of consideration, I asked Hodge what happened if one of these brothers or sisters returned. At that point, he looked at me, square in the face and with great thrust of manner, and stated, “They do not return.” It was then explained that the rites for the fallen were only performed once, and at that point the released were forever cut off from The Crux and no longer existed. Hodge then carefully stated that if the shell of one who was so released were to return, such an abomination would be hunted and destroyed for its defiance of the covey’s will.
Execution
The Heart of Vaulderie
The Rite of Vaulderie is the foremost of those ceremonies called Archontes, the central rites of the Forsworn. With the exception of those of Belial’s Brood who are utterly isolated, every cult, club, cell and order associated with the Brood performs this rite in one form or another. While the trappings and props of the ritual can range from minimal to excessive, the core aspects of Vaulderie are universal from covey to covey. These core aspects sustain the balance and operation of the Brood as a whole.First and foremost, the effects of the Vaulderie only manifest when performed by an experientially initiated member of the Forsworn. By that, I mean the participants must be true Brood members, those who have undergone at least the beginnings of what is called the Pursuit. At this point, the aspirant is capable of understanding that to which the oath of Blood is made, being what is called the Crux, or center point of Vaulderie (Hodge clarified to me that the Crux is, in fact, a daemonic spirit in itself, but also stated that this was not a view necessarily held by those outside of his faction). This is evidently why my experiments resulted in nothing more than a group Vinculum when I attempted the rite with my coterie. Although I had taken the essential philosophical steps toward this understanding, my coterie-mates had not, and thus the oath was made to the age of my blood, and not something between us.
Once we had performed the rite, the second aspect became evident to me. Namely, my feelings and emotional ties toward those with whom I had previously shared Vitae became deeply weakened. My desire to safeguard Carmine and Archibald became next to nothing, and my desire to safeguard my childe Melisande became a passing concern. Through this aspect, the Brood can liberate those who are tied to elders within their previous factions and assure their loyalty to the newfound covey. This is particularly important when dealing with mortal devotees of Belial’s way, as those bonds can be particularly difficult to shatter after they have been reinforced and fed for many decades.
Lastly, the ritual creates a mystical bond among all participants to the covey’s Crux. The effect, though similar to that of a Vinculum, is non-hierarchical as the Crux is that which holds the bond together. This creates a bond that is wholly unlike that of a group Vinculum, transforming the collected participants into a working unit that does not turn on itself except when in the throes of the most drastic and destructive of frenzies. The drawback of this abstract anchor, as opposed to using a vampire for this purpose, is that the duration of the bond is significantly shorter. While a Vinculum between two of our kind can persevere easily for a half-century without maintenance, the Vaulderie endures a mere year and a day. Due to the short span of the Vaulderie’s potency, it is not uncommon for the ritual to be performed at nearly every gathering of a covey — even nightly, among the most fanatical of the Forsworn.
Related Organizations
The Crux
System: Vaulderie
Just as the rituals of Vaulderie and group Vinculum differ, so do the in-game effects. Firstly, the Vaulderie will only have special effects on those who have changed their covenant affiliation to Belial’s Brood. This happens when one experiences Cathexis, most often by one’s discovery of a Resonant or by one’s participation in the Vaulderie with at least one established Brood member. Second, the duration of The Crux, the group bond the Vaulderie creates, is not as long-lasting as that of a full Vinculum. While a conventional blood bond can hold for as long as half a century, the Vaulderie must be replenished every year and a day (366 days). Lastly, the Vaulderie rites bestow all the advantages and disadvantages listed under the rules for Blood Ties and blood sympathy.For a more comprehensive outline of the Vaulderie’s effects and mechanics, refer to The Crux.
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments