Swallowing Up the Weak
Long ago, we were painted as abominations— the boogeymen who lived in the woods, snatching up children and summoning demons to slaughter those Cainites who would dare track us down. To the Greeks, we were creatures from Hades, and when the monotheistic religions took root, we became followers of the Devil. Rumors aside, we were at the fall of Rome. We saw the fires of Pompeii, and we’ ve witnessed genocides from Cambodia to Germany. The fact that we are there whenever something cataclysmic has occurred could just be coincidence, but the Baali believe our very presence brings with it the end of the world and a possible return of the First People. Holy symbols work on us because we are not like other Cainites. We are worlds apart.
Now, I’ ve been talking about God, but the truth is that no one really knows where vampires are from. Caine could have been one of the First People for all we know, and the Embrace is but one of a thousand possible versions. History is written by the victors, after all. All of that illustrates my point: the Baali have never been the devils that everyone thinks we are. Our bloodline is a lot more anti-God than it is pro-Devil, especially since the idea of the Devil is preposterous. We control demons and devils, and never have we even heard of one like what has been described in the Bible.
But I know more than your average Baali, since I’ ve heard voices from beyond the veil. Only a few of us have. The ignorant say there was a third original Baali besides Nergal and Moloch, and that the fall of our bloodline had to do with sibling rivalry instead of Moloch’ s cowardice. Some say God personally reached down and cursed the Baali twice what other Cainites suffer. I believe it is what makes us truly unique. We suffer the most, and still reject God’ s authority.
Swallowing Up the Weak
I’ d be remiss if I didn’ t mention our revenant family, the D’ Habi. They were instrumental to the Baali’ s continued existence through much of the Dark Ages. Turns out, it becomes even harder to survive when the world blames you for causing the Black Plague. The D’ Habi aren’ t really one family, but are instead scattered from shore to shore and cultivated by individual Baali circles to serve in whatever manner they choose. It is said that some of them were originally fed droplets of Nergal’ s blood, making them intensely loyal to the Baali bloodline. Nergal’ s vitae was so potent that even the humans’ offspring were willing to serve before taking they own taste. Coupled with the fact that the families have instituted their own measures to keep each other in line and loyal to the Baali, we know the D’ Habi won’ t stray any time soon.
Of course, what were once humans that helped us to blend into the world are now just as corrupted as we are. Stand a D’ Habi next to your average everyday person and you can instantly tell the difference. Our revenants are often sniveling, crawling beings. That is as we like it, since we do not make any illusions to keeping those close to us away from our darkness or the truth about the world’ s utter spiral into chaos and destruction. You can imagine what that can do to a weak mind, right? This makes them less useful for espionage, since cracking under pressure doesn’ t make one a great spy. However, we have many, many other spies.
The Baali eventually gained fellow infernalists among the rest of the Cainites. Azaneal was a powerful Baali who infiltrated the intricacies of the Catholic Church, eventually gaining the highest authority he could without becoming the pope himself. Along the way he corrupted and converted several with the Baali bloodline into his own heresy, believing that vampires were the tools of Satan against the world. It became his responsibility to play out his role until judgement day arrived, and he brought hundreds of Baali( called Azaneali) and Lasombra( called Angellis Ater) together under one banner. These half-Baali, these Angellis Ater, manipulated the shadows, as obsessed with the idea of darkness and the abyss as they were with the infernal.
When the Baali rose recently from their hiding( just as Moloch said they would), their first order was to absorb this group into the bloodline once more. It took a number of calculated strikes against the Inquisition to do so, but only a handful of anything but pure Baali exist now.
You seem confused. How do we re-Embrace other vampires, you ask? Well, unlike other Clans, our blood runs with the power of the First People, allowing us to Embrace with our own vitae which can override another’ s weak blood. The process is the same, however; we drain the initiate of their blood, cut our wrists, and feed them our own. Our vitae rewrites their supernatural makeup, thus re-Embracing them into our bloodline. It is rumored that lower Generation Baali actually have pieces of the First People’ s flesh they can feed to an initiate that causes the change instantly without the exchange of fluids. This is the real reason other vampires fear us. Because they know, with little more than a choice, they can be us.
Modern Devils
For the longest time, the Baali stayed hidden in the shadows, hiding from the likes of other Kindred looking to take us out. To them, we’ re irredeemable beings who are out to destroy the world with demonic legions we have at our beck and call. Let me tell you how it really is.
12 BAALI