Salubri



Rare throughout history, in the Final Nights, the Salubri are barely a bloodline. Composed of seven vampires at any time, the Salubri search for Golconda, enacting a bloody ritual of cannibalism when they achieve that state or despair of ever doing so.

Early History
The Salubri are the childer of Saulot, most beloved of Caine and the healer of the Kindred. Saulot was a mystic uncomfortable with his awakened beast and constantly questing to squelch it. In the interests of furthering this quest, and to tame the pains of the living and dead, Saulot embraced the wise and the gentle to tend the pains of Caine and Seth's get. These childer, the Salubri, were revered as healers and peacemakers, unusually selfless for creatures more often defined by their greed.

Sometime in the era of the Second City, Saulot despaired of conquering his beast and fled to the unknown east. When he returned, he bore a third eye and new insight into the vampiric condition; his beast was quieted and he described his new condition as being in Golconda, named for the town where he finally achieved inner peace. The clan, revitalized by their ancestor's return, embraced the new discipline of Obeah and enhanced their abilities. It was at this time, with the adoption of Obeah, that the third eye became the mark of all Salubri, originally a sign of enlightenment, it eventually became a target.

Saulot's return was a joyous occasion, but what followed behind him was not - a hitherto unknown line of vampiric demon worshippers, the Baali, attacked the Second City. Saulot, normally relatively sedate, viewed the Baali as an abomination and encouraged active retaliation. To that end, one of his childer, named Samiel, discarded the path of healing and took up the sword. Samiel was the founder of a new Caste of Salubri, an order of warriors dedicated to overthrowing Baali and other forces of darkness.

Following the destruction of the Second City, the warriors continued their crusade, and the healers took to wandering, teaching the road to Golconda to any vampire willing to learn. At this point, the Salubri wander out of unrecorded history and into the middle ages.

Dark Ages


The Salubri were always rare. Saulot himself entered torpor sometime around the 1st century and only rarely resurfaced. Each caste was focused on its own particular purpose - hunting down demons or teaching Golconda, and given that the Salubri on the whole weren't fond of being vampires, they didn't embrace many childer. Those that were were usually exceptional in some fashion.

All of this changed in 1133, when the mage Tremere found and diablerized Saulot. The act, unheard of, was a desperate attempt by the new clan Tremere to acquire legitimacy by acquiring an Antediluvian of their own, but it nearly backfired. The Tremere, by committing the ultimate crime on the closest thing the damned had to a saint, only cemented their reputation as usurpers. The Tremere responded with a vicious propaganda campaign and cheap magic - the Salubri were never entirely trusted anyway, the price of being too nice. And now with the Tremere offering real magical power and less pangs of conscience, certain clans were too willing to believe that maybe that whole soul-sucking thing was a bit more true than they originally thought.

In less than a century, the Salubri were no longer the rare and precious Unicorns, but now feared soul-devouring horrors. An amazing feat, the Tremere campaign, as if another hand was behind it.

The Tremere coupled propaganda with terror; Tremere himself went into torpor shortly after draining Saulot, and the Council of Seven needed to boost their own power, preferably by diablerizing Salubri methuselahs. This continued throughout the 12th century, ending with the capture and diablerie of Mokur by Etrius. Mokur's death meant the death of the last of the Salubri elders, and the clan slowly withered on the vine.

Islamic Salubri, known as Al-Amin, were no less lucky than their European counterparts. For centuries, they kept watch on the Baali from North Africa to Asia, usually disguising themselves as members of other clans. When Saulot was diablorized, the Assamites, who were Al-Amin allies, worked to smuggle as many Salubri out of the reach of the Tremere as possible. How successful this effort was is debatable, as many were killed anyway helping others or in fights with the Baali.


 * VTDA: Veil of Night, p. 110

Final Nights
In the twentieth century, the Salubri have all but died out, with only seven active (as well as a few hidden ones, such as Mahtiel). The main clan is now exceeded by bloodlines, including the Wu Zao of Asia and Nkulu Zao of Africa. The Salubri, if they are known at all, are reviled for their strange and frightening soul-devouring powers.

And then something even stranger and more frightening happens. Salubri antitribu; the Sabbat accepts into its ranks the childer of Adonai. These warriors are consumed by the need for vengeance, and are creatures of rage, dubbed Furies by their Sabbat compatriots. They are honorable creatures of a type, but bitter knights driven to destroy the Tremere and seek vengeance for their founder's destruction.

Organization
The Salubri don't have an organization. There aren't enough of them for there to have one.

Things were different before Saulot's death. At that time, the Healers had a loose community of equals, largely distinguished by progress on the path to Golconda. The warriors, however, were distinguished by a ritual called the blooding; it was in this ritual that a warrior was truly consecrated and took an angelic name to indicate their purpose and path. The blooding also granted special powers; however, with the effective extermination of the warrior caste, the Code of Samiel was lost, and the antitribu show no knowledge of it.

Culture
Again, there aren't enough of them to have a culture. What little there is has mostly focused around Golconda lore. Salubri believe that vampiric existence is torment from which Golconda or death is the only escape. Consequently, the modern Salubri would embrace, teach a childe the basics of the route, leave clues for the childe to follow to achieve Golconda, and then have their childe diablerize them. One side effect of this is that Salubri are all relatively low generation. Normal Salubri start out as 8th generation by default. Even the antitribu usually have a couple of dots in the background.

Embraces
Salubri generally embrace noble souls; beyond that, there isn't much commonality.

Bloodline and Caste
Saulot was a famously prodigious sire, creating the Salubri, the Wu Zao (who have two castes), and the Nkulu Zao. However, within the clan itself, the major distinction is between the warrior and healer caste.

Classically, the Salubri discipline was called Valeren and was divided into two paths: healer and warrior. Both paths developed the third eye after learning the second level of the discipline (and any vampire who does learn Valeren or Obeah acquires that third eye). The two paths of Valeren mirror each other, with powers at equivalent levels have similar effect.

In the final nights, Obeah and Valeren are treated as different disciplines - the antitribu learn Valeren, and the Salubri learn Obeah.

Version Differences
The Salubri have gone through a variety of changes. The original Salubri were the tiny bloodline mentioned above, while Vampire: The Dark Ages introduced the concept of a warrior caste, as well as the Valeren discipline. The antitribu first appear in VtM:R.

The general implication of Salubri history is that Saulot has played them for fools - he seems to constantly tweak the clan for his own purposes, and the campaign of diablerie and defamation seems to have been orchestrated by Saulot as part of his own schemes. This is generally tied in with revisions to both Saulot and the concept of Golconda.