With respect to the other clans, the Setites are carefully neutral. During the formation of the Camarilla, it is said, the Setites were invited to

join, but few deigned to do so — much to the secret relief of that sect’s elders. As far as the Serpents are concerned, the Jyhad is just a petty struggle between the upstart children of Set’s inferiors. The Setites thus broker their influence carefully, trading in commodities and vices that make them valuable, if covert, suppliers for many Kindred. Where a particular vampire has a weakness or desire, the Setites quickly move in to fill the vacuum, indebting the buyer to them and sometimes exacting favors through blackmail and addiction. Such tactics

naturally don’t endear the Setites to the other clans, so most Serpents make a great show of dissembling and an outward display of friendship. Of all the clans, the Setites reserve their greatest hate for their own kind: The Serpents of the Light, a small cult of Haitian Setites who broke away from the clan to join the Sabbat, are viewed as heretics and wiped out ruthlessly.

Setites tend to Embrace from among people who share an understanding of dark appetites and forbidden desire. Scholarship is highly prized in the clan, for only with the ancient lore of the earliest days can Set be found and awakened. Secrets of all manner are their stock in trade, and the vices that humiliate others are their best weapon. Those who partake of desire are naturally inclined to understand it, and so they form the basis of the clan’s recruits. With time and education, Setites learn to weave webs of subtle deceit, drawing in ever more unwitting servants while plucking out the dirty secrets and lies that others try so carefully to bury.

 

Roleplaying Hints:

You are a disciple of a dark god, and you must do your best to uphold that faith. None outside your clan will serve Set willingly, so it is

your duty to ensnare them with their own weaknesses. By plying the illicit trades to support the hungers of others, you can gather their support and force them to pay for their needs — in deeds, in secrets or simply in “a few favors later.” With such secrets and assistance, you can gather the knowledge necessary to raise Set, to enshroud the world in the darkness of your clan’s grip and to cause all others, vampire or mortal, to bow before you

 

 

Disciplines:

 

Obfuscate, Presence, Serpentis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advantage:

The Followers of Set choose recruits with connections in the underworld, crime and politics. By preying on the weaknesses of influential and important individuals, the Setites turn them into allies, willing or otherwise. Every Setite thus has one bonus Streetwise Ability Trait and a level of Political, Street or Underworld Influence. The rare Followers who eschew such connections can still gather a modicum of aid from their clanmates, equivalent to the same Traits. The Setite philosophy, though Darwinian, stresses the need for the clan to cooperate in raising Set, so resources are shared (albeit begrudgingly).

 

Disadvantage:

Just as Set was banished from Egypt into the darkness, so too do his followers hide in the shadows and the night. Setites are particularly

sensitive to light, especially sunlight. Exposure to sunlight always inflicts an extra health level of damage on Setites. Even bright spotlights, flares or floodlights are uncomfortable, causing the Setite to suffer a one-Trait penalty on all challenges

 

Bloodlines:

Among the Followers, different philosophies divide the clan into sects that practice disparate methods of serving Set. Most Setites espouse

the Path of Typhon, seeking occult knowledge to raise Set from his age-long sleep. A few work as martial students in Set’s army; these “Serpent Warriors” study Potence instead of Obfuscate. Some Ecstatics indulge themselves in the pleasures of debauchery, and a small, heretical splinter sect affiliated more with voudoun than Egyptology, called the Serpents of the Light, claims allegiance with the Sabbat.

 

History:

In the first Nights, the Clan was fairly centered around its Antediluvian and, not surprisingly, Egypt. Many different tales are told about his divinity and how he was cursed by Ra in his struggle against his rival Osiris, whom he eventually managed to kill, and his abandonment by his disciples and fellow Antediluvians. In the manner of the Path of Typhon, all these accounts are taken for true, because limitation to just one version is just another sign of the influence of Ra and Osiris in this world.

It can be said that Set's get had a fairly great influence on Egypt as a whole during the days of pharaonic Egypt, although his efforts were always undermined by the Osirian League under the leadership of his eternal enemy Horus. Set himself guided his Clan from his great temple in Ombos and sometimes got involved personally with dethroning pharaohs who were to entrenched by Ma'at and the schemes of theAeons. In this way, the Followers of Set established their hold on the lands of Egypt on several times: First during the reign of the Hyksos (in an alliance with the Lasombra), then during the 19th dynasty under Ramesses and during the hellenestic Age under Alexander the Great. During the reign of Rome, the Setites flourished in countless cults among the children of Seth and ofCaine, promising ancient secrets and shaping the mindset of their cultists to resist the snares of Ma'at.

All these efforts were delivered a serious blow when Set himself disappeared in 33 CE (the alleged year of Christ's crucification, as some Setites notice). After the departure of the founder, earthquakes shattered Egypt and many of the old temples sunk and became lost, often taking many of the slumbering methuselahs of the clan with them. However, Nakhthorheb and the remaining Hierophants took the reins of the clan, ruling the progeny of Set in his absence.

Dark Ages

Setites were rare in Dark Medieval Europe, spending most of their time in Egypt. Islamic Setites were known as Walid Set in the lands of Arabia and North Africa, and spent much of their time fighting to keep the influence of Europe out of their lands. Although they claimed to dominate Egypt, they actually only had a few holdings that could rightfully be called theirs; the rest belonged to the other bay't and theGarou of the Sahara. The clan they struggled against the most was the one with the greatest power over the Islamic regions and theAshirra: the Banu Haqim. A temporary treaty was reached, but relations remained uneasy between the two for years afterward. The Clan had an deep emnity with the Ashirra, who viewed their idolatrous religion as blasphemy, while the Setites saw the faith that the islamic vampires endorsed as a stifling of the natural order Set had sought to restore. The advent of learning during the Renaissance only increased the Setites possibilities to subvert the european vampires. Gaining advantage from the trade with goods from the orient and the New World, as well as the new "leisure class" that arose in the cities, the customers for Set's teachings. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire also provided cover for them to travel into Europe and slave trade remained one of the most profitable business from the clan.

Victorian Age:

The Setites reveled in the Victorian Age: As ancient knowledge was demanded more and more in kindred society, the Setites' clientele rose more and more, as many kindred discovered the usefulness of their bargains. The Setite presence in Camarilla cities during this time was increasingly high and some princes allowed them even in their retinue. And within the strict puritan taboos of society, the increasing interest in occultism and the rising opium trade, corrupting mortals to the service of Set was easier than ever.

Despite the occupation of their ancestral homeland, the Setites were able to maintain a great deal of their influence in Egypt and some, like Izzat al-Khunzir, were actively opposing the foreign princes that occupied their ancient cities. Also, the clan expanded heavily into America in this time in order to corrupt and influence the young government of the States.

Final Nights:

In the modern nights many Setites see the signs of Gehenna as portents that Set will soon arise, and indeed many Gehenna scenarios involve his return. They remain staunchly independent, but since they must still acquire power and wealth to ease the return of their god, they have ventured far from Egypt. Modern Setites frequently live in Camarilla (or, less often, Sabbat) cities, seducing and corrupting other Kindred, staying outside sect politics except to serve their own ends. Few among the other clans trust them, but they have many secrets and are often able to infiltrate aPrince's court by trading information or promising favours. Such deals generally work out in the Setite's favour.

 

Organization:

Setite organization is mostly local, with a single temple or network of cults representing a city’s Serpent presence. Setites in the cities rarely scheme among each other, preferring to face outward threats in unity rather than the schismatic self-interest of the Sects. However, whispers persist among outsiders about a massive temple devoted to Set located somewhere in Africa, ruled by terrible Methuselahs who claim to be the childer of Set himself.

The Hierophants or Eternals are the leaders of the Followers of Set in the absence of theirfounder. They are the oldest of their clan, who have known Set personally and acted as his stewards in the temples dedicated to the god.

 

Cultures:

The mission of the Followers of Set can be stated in a single word: corruption. They seek to subvert and destroy whatever is good, noble, safe or beautiful within both Kindred and mortalsociety. They are plotters without peer, with an unequalled genius for misdirection and temptation. Their favourite weapons include drugs, sex, money, power and vice in all its aspects.

But for most of the Followers of Set, this corruption is just a means to an end. They believe in a radical split between the divine, eternal soul and the corrupt, transitory world and body. The laws of their faith say that deep down, the soul knows it does not belong in a prison of matter. Anything that distracts the soul from this knowledge and ties it to the world must be a trap - and if the world is a prison, then the gods must be its jailers. To achieve liberation, a soul must shed all the false doctrines, cravings and habits that bind it and blind it. Such self-awareness cannot come from mere argument or faith. Only direct experience of the most extreme sort can break the hold of the gods over the soul and allow liberation. Through these experiences, the Setites believe they can achieve truly divine power over the world and liberate themselves from every physical and spiritual constraint, as they already have taken the first steps out of the prison when they received the Embrace.

It took the Setites some time to accept that they and other vampires are indeed a related, if not the same, species, and some Elders are still not wholly convinced. Vampires of other Clans were originally seen as pawns of other egyptian gods, arranged against Set, or the work of evil spirits from the Underworld, who shared nothing with them but the fact that they too existed in both the material world and the afterlife. The Setites believed that their akh, their essence, has already descended to Duat, but that their bodies, through the waters of death (vitae), were still inhabited by their ba (personality) and ka (life essence).[10]Other systems, mainly used in Akhu, prescribed a detailed system centered around the nine-fold soul, with the khat as the body, the ba as one component of vitae, the ab as Humanity, the khaibit as the Beast, and the sekhem as another part of vitae, along with the other ka (the astral self), ren (the true name), khu (the aura) and sahu(the indestructible part of the soul, rumored by some Setites to later serve Set as a Sebau) 

As the oldest of the four independent clans, with a lineage directly traceable to a mightyAntediluvian (though there are those who dispute the clan’s account of its own history), the Followers of Set are not without respect among the Kindred. At one point, after long and divisive debate, they were invited to join the Camarilla. This invitation was, by and large, ignored by the Setites (to the great relief of many in the Camarilla). Nonetheless, the Camarilla, and sometimes even the Sabbat, often seek out the Followers of Set in an effort to secure their aid in some complex intrigue or another. For this reason, the Setites are generally regarded as a necessary evil within Cainite society. In recent centuries, the Setites have achieved notable success in the Caribbean, where they are in direct control of many of the most feared and powerful Haitian secret societies and Jamaican posses. These organizations, in turn, control much of the international drug trade. The Setites are also rumored to have absolute control over at least one Near Eastern terrorist group.

Cults

The Followers of Set’s emphasis on personal revelation generates dozens of little cults. Setite groups also emerge through interactions with the local culture. Put simply, Setites are not all a bunch of Egyptian migrants. Since their doctrine is flexible to begin with, Setites easily compromise with local cultures, adding still more diversity to the clan. A typical cult consists of a “Founding Temple” and several lesser temples scattered hither and yon. Egypt holds most of the really old and prestigious Founding Temples. A powerful cult’s Hierophant, or senior priest, oversees the Founding Temple. The chief priests of important daughter temples are simply called High Priests. A priest who manages a small temple by herself bears no special title that the rest of the clan will honor.

Known cults are:

• The Cult of Typhon Trismegistus

• The Children of Damballah

• The Cult of Taweret

• The Cohort of Wepwawet

• The Children of Judas

• The Hall of Jormungandr

• The House of Eclipse

• The Abd'al-Sobek

• The Sisterhood of Sekhmet

• The Church of the Black Magdalene

 

 

The Serpents of Light

The Serpents of the Light are another heretical Setite bloodline — essentially "Setite antitribu" — who practice voodoun. The Serpents of the Light began as a Caribbean branch of the West AfricanSetites. According to the Cobras’oral tradition, the first Setites came to the West Indies more than 300 years ago, in the heyday of the slave trade. They say that a mortal cultist, captured and sold as a slave, became a sailor and returned to Africa. He pleaded with his undead masters to succor his fellow tribesmen who were suffering and dying on the sugar plantations and mills. The elders of the cult agreed that the cause was just. One vampire-priest smuggled himself across the Atlantic on a slave ship; it arrived in Hispaniola with the slaves freed and the white men in chains. The great priest led a furious slave revolt. The Europeans crushed the revolt - but not the cult that led the revolt, nor the vampire priest. The great priest now sleeps in the earth, but when he awakens he will lead all the faithful back to Africa. His lineage preserves the cult until that night. Their modern incarnation originated in the 1960s when a group of independent Setites in Haiti formed an alliance with the newly-arrived Sabbat, ignoring orders from senior Setites to have nothing to do with the Sect. The Serpents (or "Cobras") are committed to combating the Antediluvians, and believe Set to be among their enemies; they are considered traitors by other Setites. Apart from their ideological and spiritual beliefs, however, there are no significant differences between Cobras and their parent clan: they learn the same Disciplines, and share the same weakness to light.

The Serpents of the Light believe in a supreme Creator deity, but (like other African and Voodoo faiths) also believe that the Supreme Deity does not interact with the world in any way. The bloodline-cult’s leaders have no problem with the myth of Caine. They recognize him as the king from their own origin myth, in a strange syncretism with the Book of Nod and other santeria elements. The Cobras interpret other Antediluvians as brothers and sisters of the king, who persuaded him to share his stolen power but now seek his death and fight amongst themselves. The Cobras accept that the Antediluvians really exist and will devour all their descendants when they awaken. Since they do notwant tobecome an ancient vampire’s dinner, they help the Sabbat hunt the Antediluvians and their presumed minions, including their parent clan.

The four elders who hold the highest initiation within the bloodline are called the empereurs; the last three initiations within the line come only with the consent of all the empereurs together. The leader of a Cobra cell is called the president, while a member in good standing is called a bête sereine or “Serene Beast.” A single cell is called a shanpwel. When a new cell forms, an empereur sends a miniature coffin emblazoned with a silver serpent encircling a golden star, the madouk d’estoile, for their shrine. Often, Sabbat packs with vampires of other lineages under Cobra guidance come to accept their branch of Noddism as doctrine.