Disciplines

Prerequisites: Auspex •• and Thaumaturgy •

This power allows an Inquisitor to detect signs of deep attachments upon an individual’s aura. Vinculums, blood bonds, codes of honor, soul bargains, and sworn oaths are reflected as scarlet flares, burning brighter or dimmer to reflect the intensity of the bond. If these flares reflect ties of blood, the Inquisitor will receive a visual impression of the other individual in the link (though, obviously, no perception of how that second individual feels or if the bond is returned). If the flare reflects an oath or a code of honor, the Inquisitor will only have a sense that the target takes a promise, oath, or debt very seriously — not whether that attachment is infernal or to whom such a promise was made.

System

After the character stares at the subject for at least a few seconds, the player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 8). Failure indicates that the flares are too indistinct to be made out individually from the rest of the subject’s aura. This power does show infernal compacts, but in no way distinguishes them from any other oath or code of honor. The flares of blood bonds or Vinculum are clear, but it is entirely up to the Inquisitor to determine why any other flares exist in their subject’s aura.

This combination power costs 12 experience points.

“And He said to Josiah, ‘Tear their kingdom down. For they have forsaken me, and worshipped demons. They have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes.’”

Although the infernal has existed since before recorded history, the Sabbat did not establish an Inquisition until the nineteenth century. It took the Camarilla nearly as long to accept the genuine danger posed by diabolists. Named for the biblical king Josiah, who put an end to the sacrificial worship of the god Moloch in the Vale of Gehenna, the Josians are an order of archons that focus on rooting out the various Gehenna cults and infernalists within the Camarilla. Their purpose is to excise heresy, defend the Camarilla against demonic corruption, and to seize (and study) the texts and practices of Gehenna lore in the slim circumstance that those cults are right.

The history of the Josian archons begins in a strange place, during the rise of the city of Carthage. The Brujah speak of Carthage as glorious empire where mortals and vampires lived in peace, and that is true, though they omit the darker sides of that tale. In fact, Carthage was also home to a degenerate blood cult. Assamites resided there as well, serving as judges and keeping the peace. Baal and other infernal entities were worshipped in temples sculpted of obsidian and bathed in blood.

After the Second Punic War, the Malkavian seer, Tryphosa, had visions of infernalism and rot in Carthage. She went to the Ventrue of Rome and demanded that the city be struck down before the Baali evil spread further. The Ventrue, fierce rivals of the Brujah, rose to the challenge. In alliance with the Malkavians and the Toreador, the Ventrue forces assaulted the city, fighting against united forces of the Brujah, Assamites, and Baali.

Since that day, a small coterie of elders of the three Clans — Ventrue, Malkavian, and Toreador — have made

it their business to seek out, track down, and destroy infernalism and demon-worship wherever it is found. These groups were first organized by the Ventrue Lysander, a Toreador Methusulah from Africa named Adanaya, and the Malkavian Tryphosa (until her supposed destruction), along with support from many others who were involved in the fall of Carthage. They chose this course not out of a duty to holy faith, but out of their own motivations — personal vengeance, fear of infernalists, and hatred of the Baali. Like all Elders of the time, they did not fight personally, but worked secretly through their lineages and through other vampires bound to them by blood.

Since then, those who serve these powerful Elders have continued the eradication of diabolism wherever it was discovered. As Princes rose and fell, through the Anarch Revolt and the formation of the Camarilla, and into the Victorian and then the modern age, these lineages have continued their efforts in secret. They have maintained contact with one another through the centuries, working covertly to eradicate the corruption of the infernal.

In 1764, the Inner Circle of the Camarilla met for its twenty-second official gathering. The Hellfire Clubs of London were extremely popular in mortal society, and decadent occult fascination was influencing Kindred culture as well. The church’s control over Europe was lapsing, and mysticism and superstition warred with faith. The Camarilla was plagued by heretical doctrines, decadent coteries, and pseudo-religious cults. To counter this, the Inner Circle founded a group of archons entrusted with the duty of rooting out cults and heresy. It is whispered that it was the Tremere Meerlinda who coined the name “Josians” as a reference to biblical myth, and tasked them with this secret purpose.

The ancient anti-Carthage coterie discovered the Josians and their covert mission and took an interest, placing their servants and successors within this branch of archons so as to effectively utilize the Camarilla’s resources toward their own goals. They sired childer or moved pawns into service, quietly providing them with the education and abilities they would need to hunt the infernal as well as reveal Gehenna cults within the Sect.

The Industrial Revolution marked several upheavals within the Camarilla. The world was changing rapidly, and the stagnation of Elder vampires was becoming more and more apparent. Although the Josians performed admirably, support from the Inner Council wavered, and soon the Justicariate’s attention (and resources) moved to support other issues. As servants of the infernal proved

more and more difficult to find, the Josians lost focus and their numbers dwindled. Their effectiveness was often hampered by politics and internal Camarilla strife.

For more than a century, the Josians worked on their own, following the leadership of an Elder Ventrue, Archon Margause Devereaux, and her servire, Henri d’Acquitaine of Clan Malkavian. Devereaux was appointed Provost of the Josian Order, and formally took charge of the division. However, to keep the order’s task secret, their efforts were never lauded, and their successes are kept hidden from the majority of the Sect.

By the year 1999, the Josians and their secretive mission within the Sect had been all but forgotten, pushed aside by more pressing concerns. Those who were part of the order continued to perform their duties, though they were largely unsupervised and unsupported. Those Princes who even knew the term “Josians” considered them little more than misfit archons; crackpots and eccentrics, given no real regard by prominent members of society. If it hadn’t been for Archon Devereaux’s personal labors to keep the Josian Archons functional, the order might have fallen apart and been utterly forgotten.

Josian Archons work quietly and maintain their effectiveness as undercover operatives by altering their identities from time to time. They always work in pairs; one Archon, and one servire. Typically, both are trained in many different skills and work as jacks-of-all-trades. Each Josian must be prepared to infiltrate, investigate, and defend himself with minimal backup from his superiors or other archons. This may cause him to appear weaker than other Archons, but his knowledge of lore is far superior to his fellows’.

Recruitment as a Josian demands no prerequisite set of skills, though most new members are already familiar with a fair amount of Noddist and infernal lore. An individual discovered with a great deal of information on demonology has two options: serve as a Josian, or die as a heretic. Unfortunately, that decision is made by the Josian in charge of the investigation, and not by the individual being scrutinized. They are united by purpose, rather than by ability. The leaders of the Josians use the opportunity afforded by these operations to study the lore and the practices of these cults, making Archon Devereaux one of the Camarilla’s foremost scholars on the myths of Caine, Kindred lore, and occult theology.

Josians are allowed to collect and maintain personal knowledge of these heresies, though they are not to keep written records of their activities nor personal libraries

of such material. They are quietly authorized to work with “agents of despicable quality” in their investigations (including non-vampires, as well as Sabbat members and heretical Independents). During one such hunt for a Ventrue infernalist, the Josians are even known to have coordinated with a Sabbat war pack who recognized the magnitude of the creature’s threat.

Although the Camarilla Traditions do not explicitly forbid infernalism, the Inner Circle’s record is clear. Humanist vampires detest these practices, and all acts related to demonology. Such activities and investments are considered a breach of the Masquerade, and a threat to the security of the Sect. Practitioners of infernalism, like cults dedicated to the lore and knowledge of Gehenna, are to be eradicated with extreme prejudice. Princes found to have been harboring either are usually destroyed.

In a standard investigation, the Josian and her Servire work as a team, usually with one infiltrating and one maintaining a safehouse and support. When a cult is discovered or an infernalist located, the Josian has the authority to destroy that individual — although the politics of the Camarilla can make utilizing this authority somewhat complicated.

A Josian may, in these circumstances, request the local Prince’s assistance. If local forces are inadequate or compromised, the Josian may call in more Archons (usually other Josians, but not always). Technically, the tradition of Domain implies that a Prince is under no burden to assist the Josian. However, most Princes are savvy enough to realize that if they are anything less than immediately and enthusiastically compliant, they could be charged with sheltering heretics — or with being heretics themselves.

A Josian nominally has the authority to put an entire domain in lockdown, though to do so would certainly be pressing their luck. It is also within their authority to decree that all Kindred within that domain are now Profane. Profane vampires may not hold status or position, are stripped of all boons owed to them, and may be destroyed outside of the Traditions as though a Blood Hunt had been called upon them. If any vampire with the Profane status immediately presents themselves to the Justicars (or any Archon), they can be proven innocent, shrived, and their status restored. However, no one knows of an instance when this authority was enacted, and some Kindred even doubt the validity of such a heavy-handed policy. And yet, the Inner Circle has never refuted the Josians’ claim to this level of authority.

The Inner Circle knows full well that the Camarilla could collapse from the bottom up if word spread that the “myths” of Gehenna are discovered to be true. Although they must allow a certain amount of agreement that the Third Generation existed (some of those Ancients are their sires, after all), they maintain a tight control on the idea that the Antediluvians will awaken and slaughter all vampires, or that there is any apocalyptic “End Time” approaching. They support the Josians when these archons discover such information, and in their attempts to destroy Gehenna cults. They also support eradication of infernalists, and knowledge on that topic. However, if a Josian misuses their authority — or calls too much attention to their work — the Inner Circle may decide that archon is, in the end, expendable.

The Camarilla disdains Paths of Enlightenment as a threat to the Masquerade, though most are implicitly tolerated. However, there are some ethical beliefs which are abhorrent enough to have been declared heresy by the Inner Council. These include the Path of Night, the Path of Evil Revelations, the Path of Caine, and the Path of Lilith. Those who deal with demons or other infernal entities, or those who willingly allow themselves to be hosts for a spirit could also be deemed heretical (a ruling that chafes the Giovanni).

Those who participate in Gehenna cults are clearly heretical. This absolutely includes the Sabbat, as well as groups who seek to recreate Carthage, discover Enoch, or who believe in the End Times (whether they are trying to stop Gehenna or to bring it about). Individuals who seek Golconda, a state associated with the infamous infernalist Saulot, are also heretical, as is anyone plotting to find or awaken a progenitor of one of the Clans (which often includes Setites).

Recently, the Josians have heard rumor of a strange text circulating through the hands of mortal hunter groups. It’s called The Apostate Auguries, and there are claims it was written by a powerful Malkavian Seer who fell victim to such hunters. The Josians are doing all they can to track this volume down and determine what risk it represents to the Masquerade.