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The Fall of Shaitain by: Mark Beeley
To Justine of the Inquisition,

My Lord, the following was discovered in a temple in Southern Asia, originally written on human flesh. I believe it to be the work of the foe, Shaitain.
Although he is not an infernalist in our sense, the following may be of some use to you.

Petra of the Inquisition and the Sabbat.

'Mark well the Children of the One Below,
the Serpent's Kin,
for their touch will burn you as well,
and their tongues will delude and deceive you.'
- The Book of Nod

To live in Tanis? How can I begin to express the world as it was then? The horror of being a mortal, the luxury of living forever. It is like trying to describe a summer night or the ecstasy of the Kiss. No matter how you try the entire image is never really conveyed.

Imagine, if you will, a huge stone city, built around an oasis. The desert stretches for miles in every direction. To the South lie the lands that will become the Kingdom of Osiris. Somewhere to the north lies the ruins of Enoch. All is new and fresh. The world has yet to be drained of its magic by the Enlightened, the air tingles with power to those who are sensitive to such things. To be a mortal was to be treated as cattle. The days of Caine's powers of Domination are over and the Kine are kept inline by fear. Not of Cainites but of strange overlords, who walk only in the dark.
These strange pale skinned beings are masters of our every moment. We exist only to serve them.

The lucky few who catch a Lord's eye move into their households and act as personal servants - they are known as the Servants. They exist apart from us and treat us as though they are the Masters. Occasionally a Servant may suddenly become a Master - no reason or rhyme for this is apparent. Life is hard, but if you have never known any better you do not know enough to complain.

There are many unusual details about the Master's but these are overlooked. It must be remembered that that age was different from this one.
There was no Masquerade or Veil to hide the supernatural from the mundane. Due to the huge mental aura being projected by the Masters, Sorceress and Mentalists were common occurrences. They were known in those days as Witches, but the word was more a title of respect than the dark brand it is today. Unusual strength or quickness was not a rare event either. Due to the high Potence of the Master's Vitae the creation of Revenants was very easy, and their blood spread through the populace over the centuries. Ah yes, there is another point impossible to convey - the timelessness. The Masters ruled forever while the Kine came and went. The City stood for well over a thousand years. Mortal life spans varied greatly in those days. For many they had but forty years. Those with Revenant blood in their veins might last two hundred years, and the Servants may well live forever.

Imagine, if you will a slave, of above average intelligence, with a power to reach out and move objects with his mind. A useful asset for a slave you might think, would certainly make escape easier. But where would he go? All he can see from the city walls are endless sands. He has no idea that there may be other cities. There is only Tanis and the Masters. The slave gets lucky, one of the Masters, a hooded figure, spots him one day in his labors. He is intrigued by the slave's power and takes him into his household. Imagine the slave's shock when he is forced to drink from the Master's wrist. Imagine the slave's horror when he sees that beneath the hood there is a third eye.

So the slave becomes a Servant to the Master, who he now knows to be called Saulot. The slave is put to work in the Library while he is himself studied. The written Sumer language is taught to him and he reads of wonders. Of a God and two brothers, of a demoness and the curse placed on the Masters. He becomes the friend of the mysterious Saulot and they spend many an evening engaged in argument over the 'Curse' of the Cainites. Eventually (after several decades) the Servant is brought across the barrier into the life-in-death, into the Hell and Heaven that is Vampire.

Perhaps at this point I should say a word about what it was to be a vampire in those times. Even a fledgling was more powerful than today's elders.
The blood of Caine was only slightly diluted both by generation and by time. There are few in this world from that time left now and they will remain to the day of Gehenna. The Thirst was and remains terrible, the Hunger immense. The Beast permanently straining at the bars of its cage.
Wherever you go you could smell the blood of the Kine. Hell and Heaven.

As a Master life was easy. Your victims were brought to you by the Servants, you feasted until they died, perhaps taking as many as five a night.
As long as you had proper respect for the Elders who called themselves Second Brood you were left alone. Their whispers of the First Brood seemed little more than children's tales. The only distractions from my studies were the petty maneuvering of my brothers. The Jyhad existed even then, though it was far more subtle (if you can believe that) in those days.

With my experience of life as a Cainite my arguments with Saulot grew more extreme. He argued that we should except the Curse of our Sire's Sire and seek the deliverance offered by Gabriel. I said we should fight against our unjust punishment and turn the Curse to our own ends. All others of Saulot's brood agreed with him, though his brother Ba'al seemed interested in my views. The longer the rows continued the less I felt welcome amongst the others, and I began to lose the ability to enact the healing gaze of my third eye. I felt a great loneliness descend onto my soul. I was an outcast in Mind if not in Body.

Then my Sire left us. He went out into the desert traveling northeast into the Lands of Nod. I began to neglect my studies, feeling a newfound sense of freedom. Then, one night, Ba'al came to me. Perhaps he dominated me into accompanying him, or perhaps I went of my own will, I'll never know. Although we had power the Third were infinitely greater. He took me out of the city, into the desert. How many hours we flew as he held me in his arms I know not, but eventually we arrived at a mountain range. We settled down beside a chasm of such depth that even my Immortal eyes couldn't see its bottom. Ba'al spoke a Word and the chasm spoke back. As the echo faded a light became visible in the darkness of the Abyss. It was if a primordial fire was dancing, expanding and drawing closer.

'He threw him into the Abyss,
and locked and sealed it over him,
to keep him from deceiving the nations'
- Revelations 20:2

The fire grew and grew, and from its center something was emerging. A wind struck up, a gale, pulling at all, sucking down into the Abyss. And then IT was here. A horrid creature, words could not possibly describe it. Not even the greatest of mortal poets and scholars have ever expressed the horror of the beast. It was the Face of Hell. IT spoke. A dreadful canticle of darkness rolled forth from its swollen lips. Such a cacophony I have never again experienced. Although the words were completely unintelligible they were being burned on my brain. Like fire they danced before my eyes. My brain overloaded by them. All I could think about was the dark litany. And then it was gone.

The beast had vanished, the wind stopped, the chasm returned to its brooding silence.

The first rays of the dawn crested the age of the mountains. We used Ennouia's trick and fled its hatred.

My rest was disturbed by strange dreams. I saw a huge firey abyss, populated by horrors from my worse mortal nightmares. I saw a huge beast ruling over all. I saw myself stood at the top of the Abyss, reciting the words burned into my brain. I saw myself forcing the great beast to do my bidding. The disgust and horror I felt vied with the need I had for that power. I woke at dusk unsure of my path.

'Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.' ('No one ever became thoroughly bad in one step.')
- Juvenal (A.D. 60-130?), Satires, 2, 83

Ba'al was no where to be found. I could find no trace of his presence anyway in the reach of my mind. I was alone with the Chasm. I saw myself once more summoning the Beast. I felt a strange longing but my stomach twisted in disgust. I was no fool. I realized what these creatures were. My studies of the One Who Cursed Us had led me to these agents of evil. I knew the danger I was in. But in some ways I didn't care. Ba'al obviously had dealing's with these creatures yet he carried on a normal life. Demons seduced and enslaved mortal souls. I had passed beyond that. I had already lost my soul. I was no weak willed mortal. I was a Vampire!!

But I remembered the old tales of those who had thought as I had, and had become one with the dark. My Master's teaching sounded in my mind. I resolved not to give into temptation, I would seek a different, less dangerous, path to power. I retreated a few yards from the Abyss and awaited the return of Ba'al.

He came two hours before dawn, not saying a word and ignoring my questions. He simply picked me up and we began the journey back to Tanis. He then left me alone in my quarters and vanished back into the night sky.

None of my brood-mates had even realized I had been gone. They had properly been glad of a relief from my incessant arguments.
They were still carrying on their little researches into the lie of Golconda. They couldn't begin to imagine the other paths open to them. Fools. Or perhaps wise men?

A week passed, and I tried to blot what Ba'al had revealed to me out of my mind. But it was all to tempting; the power beckoned me with its seductive fingers. I started to read all I could of Demonology, and gathered the learning of over a hundred scholars to my library. After another two weeks I was sure I had found a way to safely summon a fiend. Just to see whether I had the power or not. And as soon as I had satisfied myself I would dismiss it. No harm could come of it. I was determined not to engage it in conversation or acknowledge it in any way. There would be no risk.

I was wrong.

On the night of the New Moon I drew the hexagram from my own potent vitae. I enclosed myself in a protective circle. Then at Midnight I began the chant. The fell words rolled easily of my tongue. I felt the power grow in the air, my third eye opened and began to shine a soft blue light. A flame appeared inside the hexagram. It flickered and grew until it was the size of a small child, and then with a pop the flame solidified into an imp.
The light from my eye grew stronger and the fiend cowered back.

So I had done it. I had summoned the beast. But only a small one. Where had I gone wrong? In my dream I had summoned a full demon. Perhaps the Imp could provide me with a solution...

I ordered it to tell me how to summon a full fiend. It threw back its head an uttered an evil cackle.
'Nothing for Nothing', it spoke in a harsh voice.
'What do you mean?' I responded.
'All things have their price...'
'What do you want?'
In my mind an image of the Imp drinking the blood from the fallen body of one of my fellows appeared in my mind.
'Never!', I exclaimed, but even in my own ears the cry ringed false. The light from my eye began to flicker uncertainly.

I crept down the hall, using my powers of preternatural silence. I stopped outside Javrin's room. Silently I opened the door. His back was to me, engaged in deep study. For a moment I faltered, I had never killed another Master, yet alone one of my brothers. For a second I decided to stop my course of action. The moment passed. Calling on another of Ennouia's gifts to us I slashed out at him with my beastly claws. Surprised he fell easily.
He lay there, staring up at me, shocked, horrified. The emotions were mirrored in my eyes. The third eye burned bright for a second, painfully so, and then it shut... forever.

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