saber de clanes 344257123-V20-Lore-of-the-Bloodlines-11056187-pdf | Page 76

Immortal legendry picks up where archaeology leaves off.
What little mythos we’ve integrated from sources east of the
Indus describes Zao-lat as a trickster from the West, stealing
enlightenment from the greatest philosophers amongst the
Ten Thousand Demons. He was expelled for his arrogance,
leaving two of his followers behind, a scholar and a thief,
to eternally bedevil the Kindred there.
That’s the story, anyway, as it came back to us from
laughing Ravnos and our limited contact with the Wu
Zao, the Salubri the Progenitor left in the East. The Clan
only knew that Saulot returned to the City having found
what he sought, made manifest by the third eye upon his
brow. Every Salubri who beheld the Progenitor’s radiant
serenity felt that same eye erupt from their forehead, and
for every night hence, the Salubri have been so marked.
He had us redouble the path we’d been set upon: keep the
kine healthy that our kindred might prosper, and cull those
vampires who would endanger the herds.
The Baali Wars
In every historical record, the Salubri have held demon-
hunting to be our purview. Demons came in Saulot’s wake, an
infection that lingered and flared again and again. Alone among
the Thirteen, Saulot recognized the threat and demanded
action; his fury at the Damned who cherished Damnation stood
in stark contrast to the promise of Golconda embodied by his
Clan. His wrath was terrible to behold, unveiling a militant
aspect to our Progenitor that few had witnessed. His anger
was answered by his childe, Samiel, who was an exceptionally
poor Healer. It was Samiel who forged Saulot’s iron-rigid anger,
putting steel into the heart of our placid Clan.
How to reconcile our gentle nature with such fury? Looked
at another way, we all have the heart of the warrior; Saulot’s
rage is simply another aspect of ourselves. We kept kine
healthy, the better to be preyed upon. We kept Kindred
noble, that they would not prey upon the kine unduly .
Infernalism of any stripe threatens the lives and souls of all
whom it touches. When gentle herbs and pleasant music
fail to stave off infection, you must turn to fire and steel.
Sharing his blood with a number of other Salubri,
Samiel created the Warriors, swearing to bring judgment
to the demon-Kindred who plagued the Second City. The
Assamites shame-facedly brought their own Judges into the
fight, and the Baali were beaten back. The Warriors were
the same as the Healers, they just approached their duties
from another angle, and the two bloodlines of the Clan
embraced one other as brother and sister.
Samiel died in AD 636, during the final assault on some dusty
Baali Levantine stronghold. He was not the first of Saulot’s
childer to fall, but his loss was felt more keenly than any other,
LORE OF THE BLOODLINES
75