BACKMy tables- meet it is I set it down
that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet
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I see that you’re healing nicely. I think it is time that you learned where we come from. You already know that we are hated and cursed by all other races of the Kindred for what we are. The ignorant always hate and fear what is greater then they.
In the Ancient Times, the Baali had their place, along with all the lesser other brethren of Blood. Baal was a great and powerful Lord, more powerful than any other of the Children of Cain. Through his studies of magic and treating with the forces Below, Baal accumulated knowledge of many hidden and secret things. He generously offered to share this knowledge with the others of the Second City, but they superstitiously feared what they could not understand.
Afraid of his ascendancy, the other clans of the Second City attacked Baal. With Ventrue in the lead, they set out murdering Baal’s children. Only when all of them had been exterminated or driven into the rising sun did cowardly Ventrue dare to lead the attack on Baal’s own bastion. Afraid to face him directly, Ventrue and his brothers set fire to Baal’s grand house. But our forefather’s power was even greater then the attackers had believed. Even as his own home burned, Baal treated with two demon lords. Utilizing magics greater than the Lords could comprehend, Baal bound them into himself, and became the center of the triplicate entity Jah-Bul-On, a single entity greater then the three had been separately. Utilizing the tremendous power they had gained from the transformation, Jah-Bul-On withstood the terrible flames of his burning demesne. He allowed the timbers to fall on him, and was buried in the hot coals, protected from the sun.
He then chose to leave the Second City. Jah-Bul-On knew the deadly envy of his brothers, and cast himself out into the outer darkness like Caine before him. Thus it was that they did not discover that he had survived. Jah-Bul-On grieved for his childer, for he believed all had fallen before the betrayers of our line.
Before the Betrayal, the Baali walked the night as any other Kindred. We were rightly respected and feared by the other clans for our knowledge, but we taught what we knew to whomever would listen. For all our generosity, we were used very poorly.
And so we went into hiding. We quickly passed into legend, becoming a monster’s monster: that which stalks the night stalkers, something to frighten new childer with. As these things happen, we became more terrible and repulsive with each retelling, until we were all but unrecognizable, even to ourselves.
Yet all the while, we were in the shadows, watching them. The Tzimisce created their aeries in the Carpathians, and we watched them lay the foundations. Set and Osiris played their petty games on the Nile, and we laughed at the slaughter. The Children of Saulot were driven to extinction by the Tremere, but they would not stoop to accepting our help. And all the while, Jah-Bul-On made his children, and we grew in shadow.
We have spent more than eight thousand years covering our tracks, lying about who we are, and being given to the sun by our enemies. Yet we survive. The Path of the Baali is not an easy one, but it holds the greatest rewards at the end. Where even the greatest of Methuselahs will be mere foot soldiers in the Netherworld, we are given the opportunity to gain status in Jah-Bul-On’s glorious train.
At the time that Caesar was assassinated, there was great unrest in the Nether Realm. Jah-Bul-On moved himself to Hell and mustered his forces. Other jealous Demon Lords had encroached on his territory, and it was necessary for his to oversee the defense of his demesne personally. He returns to Earth only infrequently now, for the fires of infernal war grow ever brighter, and his personal attention is frequently needed.
We did not fear the coming of the Inquisition. We were already being hunted by our own so-called "Kindred", and what were the pokings and proddings of a few mortals compared to that?
Perhaps more than we anticipated. Many of us were destroyed with the fall of the Knights Templar. Rumors of our works were discovered by mortals and rooted out with a fierce efficiency that our Kindred betrayers had never shown. No vampire would have thought to look for us in the midst of a group of Holy Warriors. It took the squeaking of mortals to alert our treacherous brethren that we did still exist. But we again took our opportunity, and most believe that we died out in the Middle Ages. More fools they.
But The Inquisition also served to greatly strengthen our forces in Hell. And that, dear childe, you must never forget. All that we do but sets the stage for the truly important struggle. This life is nothing but a gathering of tools for the Glorious Hereafter. You shall be a hero in Jah-Bul-On’s struggles in Hell. You shall be in the forefront of that glorious battle. And the more powerful you are here, the greater you shall be in the Jah-Bul-On’s forces.
As the New World was colonized, the we saw a chance to sew deep our seeds in a new society. To spread their influence over the emerging civilization could score a major coup for the Great Master.
Imagine our surprise when we found a whole civilization built around those who appeared to be our brothers! But they were the misguided children of Shaitan, and had not the True Blood of Jah-Bul-On. We tried to welcome out brothers back to us, but they did not accept us as the true Children of Baal. They worked for the aggrandizement of Huzicheptopl, not for the glorious One Who is Three. The Spanish needed little encouragement to destroy the Azteca, and kept our secret safe.
Some of Baal’s illegitimate children still survive, and Central and South America are dangerous places for true Baali. Nothing is more able to ferret us out than our misguided brothers and sisters.
Baali influence has grown slowly since our nadir after the destruction of the Templars. Perhaps we raised them too high. But no matter; now, as ever, we are hard at work. Many recent deaths at the hands of exorcists are the work of our hands. Rumors say that our brothers and sisters have set up vast clinics for the ‘rehabilitation’ of victims of demonic possession, and then carefully expose them. We understand that not only is conversion of individuals necessary, but also the weakening of the faith of the population at large.
In all things we always serve Baal. For even in his triplicate form of Jah-Bul-On, Baal ever dominates, and he is always the center. In him shall we gain eternal power, and through us shall he gain true ascendancy over all of the Inferno.
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