Rites & Rituals

To hear vampires outside the Sect talk, all Sabbat are created on the fly, with recruits being drained, fed, bashed over the head with a shovel, buried, and left to claw their way to the surface in a starving frenzy. This is not always the case. Most Sabbat use the “shovelhead method” only in times of war. This infamous method consists of collecting a number of victims, Embracing them with the tiniest quantity of blood possible, bashing them over the head with a shovel (to knock them unconscious before they frenzy), and burying them in a mass grave. The newly Embraced Cainites rouse quickly, and they must dig themselves out of the grave to sate their frenzy, often at the expense of the weaker vampires entombed with them. This method is simple, relatively quick, and quite effective at stripping victims of their Humanity. In any event, vampires created this way have not actually received their Creation Rites. In fact, the Sabbat does not even consider them vampires yet, and it has little reservation against throwing legions of these frenzied horrors against their foes.

The Creation Rites themselves are much more serious, marking the passage from nonentity into True Sabbat. After the Embrace, the new vampire is eligible for the Creation Rites only after he has demonstrated his worth to the Sect — perhaps the very night of his Embrace, perhaps years afterward. The ritus itself is quite simple — the priest merely touches a flaming brand to the initiate’s head and leads him in an oath of allegiance. The ceremony that precedes the Creation Rites, however, varies widely, and it is wholly in the hands of the Cainite’s sire. Some Panders and Brujah antitribu have ceremonies not unlike gang initiations, which involve pummeling the vampire in question until the sire decides he’s had enough. Tzimisce ceremonies are much more civil and formal affairs, often involving recitations of one’s lineage and praise of one’s sire. Some vampires require no ceremony at all, deciding that they have all the proof that they need from a given vampire’s performance, while still others require Byzantine trials or bizarre acts like bestiality, kidnapping, murder, self-mutilation, or other depravity.

The Rites serve several purposes, both practical and symbolic. The flames help reduce the new Sabbat’s fear of fire, while the ceremony teaches him what is expected of a Sabbat member like himself. Immediately following the Creation Rites comes a Vaulderie, which binds the Cainite to the pack — his new, immortal family.

System

Without the Creation Rites, a vampire is not truly a vampire in the eyes of Sabbat. Such an unfortunate may not participate in Sabbat ritae or functions until he has received the Creation Rites, and is often kicked about, abused, and ordered around at any of the “real” vampires’ whims.