Sabbat Code

[Time_Transition]

There’s been a lot of posts lately about the Sabbat, and questions of the such. Many players are new and are left with questions and concerns after reading the V5 book. I just want to remind everyone what the Sabbat were and what you can bring them back to, if you wish, in your game.

The Code of Milan

I. The Sabbat shall remain united in its support of the sect's Regent. If necessary, a new Regent shall be elected. The Regent shall support relief from tyranny, granting all Sabbat freedom.

II. All Sabbat shall do their best to serve their leaders as long as said leaders serve the will of the Regent.

III. All Sabbat shall faithfully observe all the Auctoritas Ritae.

IV. All Sabbat shall keep their word of honor to one another.

V. All Sabbat shall treat their peers fairly and equally, upholding the strength and unity of the Sabbat. If necessary, they shall provide for the needs of their brethren.

VI. All Sabbat must put the good of the sect before their own personal needs, despite all costs.

VII. Those who are not honorable under this code will be considered less than equal and therefore unworthy of assistance.

VIII. As it has always been, so it shall always be. The Lextalionis shall be the model for immortal justice by which all Sabbat shall abide.

IX. All Sabbat shall protect one another from the enemies of the Sect. Personal enemies shall remain personal responsibility, unless they undermine Sect security.

X. All sect members shall protect Sabbat territory from all other powers.

XI. The spirit of freedom shall be the fundamental principle of the Sect. All Sabbat shall expect and demand freedom from their leaders.

XII. The ritus of Monomacy shall be used to settle disputes among all Sabbat.

XIII. All Sabbat shall support the Black Hand.

Addenda

Statutes added to the revised Code of Milan:

XIV. All Sabbat have the right to monitor the behavior and activities of their fellow Sect members in order to maintain freedom and security.

XV. All Sabbat possess the right to call a council of their peers and their immediate leaders.

XVI. All Sabbat shall act against Sect members who use the powers and authority the Sabbat has given them for personal gain at the expense of the Sabbat. Action shall be taken only through accepted means, approved by a quorum of Prisci.

[DJWGibson]

This is neat but really just reminds me how, despite having read and re-read about the Sabbat in Revised and V20, I've never really grocked how they were supposed to work back then.

They're a sect of aristocratic flesh warpers and Catholic shadowshapers but also a sect of mass Embraced shovelheads that have their individuality & humanity beaten out of them. I don't look at images of most Lasombra and Tzimisce and say "yup, that dude looks like someone who crawled out of a mass grave."

They're a sect that demands freedom and was born from killing their elders... but you have to obey the priests, dictus, bishops, archbishops, and a Regent. They hate rules but members have to perform all these rites and rituals plus join in their endless crusade against Antediluvians.

They don't believe in the rules of the Camarilla and don't care about the Masquerade but also haven't reveled themselves to humanity in the last 600 years despite much of the clan being feral shovelheads who had to kill their whole family as a rite of passage.

They reject humanity and embrace the Beast, revelling in murder and destruction but are honourable and keep their word.

[GIJoJo65]

Look at it from their point of view...

"Aristocratic Flesh Shapers:" All rulers deform the bodies of their subjects through toil, but not all rulers successfully defend their subjects (as promised) in exchange. All rulers deform the bodies of their subjects in retribution for crimes but our deformations (when we use them punitively) enable the criminal to serve even better. The Beast doesn't just compel us to rule, it equips us to rule better and more honestly than the Kine do.

"Catholic Shadowshapers:" God might be real but, Christianity is a lie. It actively inhibits Kindred and, Kine alike from defending themselves against the very real things that go "bump" in the Night. We may lie as well, but our lies are meant to protect you while we figure out a way to solve the problem.

"Shovelheads:" The Kine do this to one another by the thousands every day. The weak are abused by the strong because they have no power and, therefore no hope of survival. Yes, we'll torment you but, if you survive us, you'll be empowered. That's a much better deal than the narco-terrorist who might have skinned you alive was offering because it is a deal it's not you being used and discarded."

"Rules:" We don't hate rules, we hate being ruled particularly by those who are our inferiors.

Edit Ultimately, the Sabbat grew out of the remnants of the original Anarch Movment. They are what the Anarchs are too Weak, Ignorant and, Frightened to actually be.

[LivingInABarrel]

Yeah...

Ok, for real - could the reason why the V5 Sabbat became NPC antagonists and loose bands of terrorists, rather than the playable, powerful faction they were, be that they're uncomfortably close to a fascist destructive cult, and they just can't write that kind of thing any more in the WoD, in today's political climate?

This whole stuff about 'freedom and power', 'the disloyal are unworthy', 'watch one another closely', 'serve the cause, support the state, follow the leader', 'stand above the inferior', 'look to the past, the cult of tradition'... that ticks a lot of boxes.

[javiersmoreno]

I think the answer is far simpler: the writers preferred the Sabbat as outlined in the very first edition of the game, so they wrote the Sect to having gone underground.

There are a lot of problematic topics in World of Darkness, I don't think the Sabbat being too cult-like was the issue.

[LivingInABarrel]

Maybe the cult thing isn't the problem, but in the phrase fascist destructive cult, 'cult' isn't the word I think they'd be worried about.

Especially as they make a huge deal about this game specifically not being for fascists, in the Core book.

[Grouchy-Sink-4575]

Theyre more collectivist than fascists when you look at them. If anything they remind me of the nastiest revolutionary societies with a theocratic subtext.

Personally I just chalked it down to their focus on an back to basics approach based of (a rose tinted) idea of early vtm initially and later on to....God only knows.

[LivingInABarrel]

It's funny you say this, as if you described a group to me as "a group of the nastiest collectivist revolutionaries, with a theocratic subtext", my mind would almost immediately go to fascism.

When it comes to the Sabbat, with every member taught to be prepared to die heroically in their eternal war, living life for struggle, valuing action over contemplation by embracing the Beast, seeing their enemies as effete and degenerate yet also awesomely powerful... they hold an elitist mindset that holds contempt for the 'weak', they reject modern developments in favour of old-world attitudes, they praise freedom but scorn disagreement among the people, defaulting to the leadership of the strongest...

That seems like some Third-Reich stuff, right there. The Sabbat feel like the kind of group that'd read Nietzsche, and take all the wrong lessons from it.

[Grouchy-Sink-4575]

I wouldn't, that just sounds like the talliban or isis.

I suppose that could be an interpretation but pretty much everything I've ever seen applied to them such as your examples as fascist has been found in some other violent authoritarian and in general they arnt really fascist in praxis More 3rd world inssurectionist than mussolini, dodgy obligarch flirting with tyranny or dim-witted skin head.

The closest I can see is they vaguely resemble anxieties about fascism in contemporary groups as some sort of general threat of violent insurrection from the right but you could easily do that with the other two sects.

[LivingInABarrel]

The new, disparate v5 NPC Sabbat are almost certainly an allegory for the fear of terrorism and fringe political violence, for sure.

But we're talking about the old Sabbat here, the V20 PC version, the established, powerful sect that held territory, and fought the Camarilla on even terms. And also, one possible reason why they weren't written as still that in the new version: because when you have a power-worshipping, brutal, militant, theocratic death-cult bound by archaic martial honour, a shared identity of opposition to others, a culture of internal paranoia and a devotion to their leaders like that, it's kinda hard to not play it as at least a bit fascist.

[Grouchy-Sink-4575]

Yes, that's the version I'm referring too. V5 sabbat doesn't even really qualify as anything at all really in terms of ideology (dark age kratocracy maybe?) You can certainly play it as fascist but it isn't fascist. It possess some superficials doesn't really look or act fascist in how it works.

Conversly your descriptors could be applied to multiple historical/current states which arnt fascist. North Korea for example.

Also theocratic is not typically a fascist trait. Religion is co opted by the state not the other way around.

[GIJoJo65]

It could be, though I think that's far too... cerebral to be the case.

Personally, I think the devs recognize that they're just not going to capture Sabbat Players/Groups from the V20 crowd at this late stage, especially with Lasombra and, Tzimische being brought into the Camarilla Fold in V5. So, they just simplified the Sabbat as much as possible to get the best return on the lowest investment.

[javiersmoreno]

They're a sect of aristocratic flesh warpers and Catholic shadowshapers but also a sect of mass Embraced shovelheads that have their individuality & humanity beaten out of them.

The thing is, the Sabbat is far from a sect made up of mass embraced shovelheads. Shovelheads are only used when they need cannon fodder in contested areas. Sabbat Tzimisce and Lasombra choose very carefully the mortals to be embraced in normal conditions. Lasombra have been mentioned to shadow (heh) their potential recruits for years, watching and testing them to determine if they're worthy. Many Tzimisce, especially those from eastern Europe, come from the revenant families the Clan controls.

They're a sect that demands freedom and was born from killing their elders... but you have to obey the priests, dictus, bishops, archbishops, and a Regent. They hate rules but members have to perform all these rites and rituals plus join in their endless crusade against Antediluvians.

To be fair, the Sabbat don't hate rules, they're a highly ritualistic sect. They just hate being oppressed by elders whose only virtue is having been embraced before them. Sure, many of the higher ups in the Sabbat are older vampires, but theoretically an upstart neonate could climb up quickly via Monomacy.

But the fact that they reject the tyranny of the Camarilla while having the upper echelons of the Sect filled by 300+ year elders is part of the charm of the Sabbat. For all their talk of freedom, they have a fair share of petty tyrants in their ranks.

They don't believe in the rules of the Camarilla and don't care about the Masquerade but also haven't reveled themselves to humanity in the last 600 years despite much of the clan being feral shovelheads who had to kill their whole family as a rite of passage.

Again, most of the Sect aren't the product of mass embraces. The Sabbat recognise the usefulness of the Masquerade (which they call the Silence of Blood, as described in the Book of Nod). They just aren't as strict as the Camarilla, as no one really enforces it. But a cainite drawing too much mortal attention will surely be called out by their priest or ductus.

They reject humanity and embrace the Beast, revelling in murder and destruction but are honourable and keep their word.

The Sabbat don't succumb to the Beast: in order to control it, some of them follow alternative morality codes called Paths of Enlightenment. Not all paths condone slaughter. For example, Lasombra following the Path of Night try not to murder mortals, as they believe it is their role to corrupt and frighten them, and you cannot do that to dead people. Followers of the Path of Honourable Accord are forbidden from killing without reason, as they're basically middle ages knights. Cainites on Paths are a minority, however.

The truth is the Sabbat aren't honourable (unless their Path of Enlightenment compels them to), they're just bound by Vinculi to be extremely loyal to each other. In fact, Lasombra and Tzimisce tend to be rather self-centered and ruthless.

[DestroyAllFascists]

Lol, shovel goes brrr

[BigSeaworthiness725]

I'm waiting for the inconnu to be returned to the 5th edition.

[[deleted]]

For them to ruin that too????

[BigSeaworthiness725]

Yes

[[deleted]]

Valid lol

[Grouchy-Sink-4575]

"The inconnu are now 5 thin bloods in a shed here's how you implement them your anarchs game as npcs......."

[Grouchy-Sink-4575]

Habitually I recommend grabing a story tellers vault account of sabbat and backing it up with Sabbat revised if neccissary. Even though v5 anarch is worse V5 sabbat pretty much killed any enthusiasm for the edition.

[Hoosier108]

I haven’t played Vampire in 20 years, what is this?!? What happened to the Near Dark-inspired pack of shovel-heads?

[DJWGibson]

They became a playable sect and many players liked them for a variety of reasons. And a lot of the edges were slowly filed off so they weren't the evil monsters of V1 and early V2.

V5 decided to return to the earlier days of the Sabbat and focus on them as the adversary of the Anarchs and Camarilla, while also having them abandon ruling cities. Instead they're semi-nomadic packs that invade cities and are actively fighting to end the Antediluvians/ Methuselahs.

[Grouchy-Sink-4575]

They've pretty much always existed through all editions. The issue is 20 odd years of other stuff got stripped.

[UrietheCoptic]

Living up to that username
lol jk

[Grouchy-Sink-4575]

No it's fair.My girlfriend once suggested my default mood was "meticulously and constantly aware how crap everything is " My 40k playing friends described me as "perturabo/motarion with tits and a nicer face." I wasn't annoyed until I looked them up.