Baali



The Baali are a bloodline of vampires who are associated with demon worship. Some versions present the true purpose of the Baali as keeping demons sleeping by feeding them with carnage and destruction. Most presentations show them as infernalists, using demon worship to gain additional power. They have a somewhat complex heritage, appearing at times as a bloodline and at times as a clan. There is some indication that they may be a bloodline of the Salubri, Cappadocians, or Lasombra, although one earlier source suggested they may instead be descendants or even predecessors of the Gangrel line. They also recruit vampires from other clans to become Baali via a dark thaumaturgic initiation, further confusing the issue.

Historically, the Assamites, Followers of Set, and Salubri have fought wars against the Baali. The Salubri and Assamites in particular have a deep seated hatred for the Baali. The Assamite warriors current blood addiction can be traced to a curse leveled by the Baali.

Clan weakness: Affected by religious symbols. Double damage from faith.

History
The origins of the Baali are shrouded in mystery and deceit; who are detailed in the Version Differences section below. What is certain is that the Baali are among the few things that caused the thirteen Clans to put away their differences and unite against them in various Baali Wars.

The Baali are rumored to had a strong hold in ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Phoenicia, masquerading as one of the myriads of city gods to gain blood sacrifices for their dark masters. Baali-influence in Carthage, which rose to a peak once Troile and Moloch did become lovers and resulted in massive sacrifice ceremonies and bloody abominations, was what spurred the Ventrue of Rome to action against the Brujah and led them to salt even the earth around the city in order to bind whatever horrors the Baali had awoken. Many of the Baali, however, dispersed into the Roman society, practicing their vile craft in various mystery cults

Dark Ages


The advent of the monotheistic religions as major powerplayers put the Baali in serious danger, given that most of these religions disbanded their cults and other covers for their infernal rites and exposed their depravity to the world. Baali in the Medieval age were constantly on the run, hiding their practices and origin from other Cainites and dedicated on spreading corruption and disease (many Baali prospered in the times of the Black death, as many desperate victims turned to infernal powers in order to survive) to further the services to their dark masters. The growing rise of scriptures over their practices, however, slowly took the powers to invoke demons out of the hands from the Baali, something many of the younger Baali encouraged, while the Elders regarded it as foolish and dangerous.

The Baali were prominent in the Islamic world at this time. They faced a serie of attacks and counteroffensives from the Assamites, who raided their lairs and destroyed numerous Baali by exposing them to the sun. In the organ pit of Damascus, however, the Baali met to gainr evenge on the Assassins fro their persecution. With the aid of the demonic Decani, they placed a curse on the Warrior Caste of the Clan that filled them with a murderous hunger that could only be sated via Diablerie, thus tarnishing the Clan's image from its previous position of Warrior-scholars into a bunch of cannibalistic murderers for hire. Although their numbers were diminished by the Al-Amin, and many kindred were strengthened by Islam and the Ashirra, they managed to keep a corrupt hold in the area.

Victorian Age
The Inquisition nearly annibilated the bloodline, leading the surviving members to hide themselves within the newly formed sects and pose as other vampires, practicing their infernal arts in secrecy. In the Victorian age, the Baali had faded to a historical oddity, used to scare young Kindred and hold as a part fo the dangers of Infernalism.

Final Nights
In the Final Nights, the Baali have proven that they are still around. The capture and destruction of a cabal of North American infernalists (and subsequent recovery of their blasphemous grimoires) has brought to Kindred attention a looming shadowy truth: The Children of Baal were not wholly extinguished by the Inquisition, as was previously believed. And as Gehenna draws close, many

Organization
All Baali have at least two identities, if not more. Among their own kind, they organize into small, tightly-knit groups called covens, usually in three or six. These covens meet only rarely, gathering only to perform some dark ritual or discuss matters of dire consequence. They prefer to meet under the new moon, though lunar eclipses hold great meaning for them and major rituals are performed at that time. Covens meet in secret places where their activities will not be disturbed, yet still within the city they wish to prepare. They frequently ally with Black Spiral Dancers and make use of their tainted caerns. A grand ritual involving both Baali and Black Spirals usually portends some great and awful occurrence.

These meetings are few and far between, however. In the interim, Baali usually pose as upstanding members of either the Camarilla, Sabbat, or both, depending on who controls the city. Contrary to popular belief, they do not pose as Caitiff -- Caitiff are distrusted enough on general principle alone. Instead, they are far more devious, hiding behind a mask of blood passed down through millennia: they pose as Tremere.

The blood of Saulot runs through Tremere's veins since his diablerie close to a thousand years ago. Now, almost all Tremere are descended from their founder, and therefore from Saulot himself. Only those with a high proficiency in Thaumaturgy can detect even a slight difference (Thau 5+, diff 9) and even then it is usually dismissed as a minor change in blood chemistry -- perhaps the vampire's sire was of House Bonisagus or Flambeaux. Reports of corruption deep within the Tremere hierarchy are scoffed at. Surely the Tremere, the masters of deception and manipulation, would know of a conspiracy within their ranks! But this conventional wisdom is wrong. With the immense occult resources of the Tremere, the Baali are gaining strength like never before. They have access to supplies, knowledge, and potential recruits. They have even started two secret orders within the clan: the Order of the Wyrm and the Illuminated Brotherhood.

The Order of the Wyrm is the more mainstream of the two, the conservative front for the more radical Brotherhood. Through the Order, the Baali hope to attract Tremere who share some of their beliefs, who have the potential to be recruited, corrupted, or both. Once an applicant has progressed high enough in the Order, they are inducted into the Illuminated Brotherhood. Only after their corruption is complete, their turn to evil assured, do the Tremere meet their Baali masters -- and their masters' Masters.

Sabbat Baali have an easier task in some ways, harder in others. While the vampires of the Sabbat have forsaken their Humanity, the Inquisition within the sect limits their activities. Whatever sect they belong to, however, the Baali are united in their cause. Their eventual goal is to turn both the Camarilla and the Sabbat to their infernal masters -- and if that doesn't work, to destroy them. Indeed, many Sabbat-Camarilla conflicts can be attributed to the machinations of Baali on both sides, destroying those who oppose them while garnering greater influence and power. After all, power is the name of the game.

Culture
The Baali are explorers, first and foremost – students of the unknown, the unknowable, the unspeakable. They will do almost anything and sacrifice almost anyone to gain access to occult mysteries. They squander the wealth they have accumulated, they make deals they cannot possible hope to live up to, and they do so with no apology and no attempt at excuse. They are, however, not Faustian bargainers, although many neonates fall into that trap. They believe -- they know -- that the world is doomed. The End Times are here, and every sacrifice they make, every murder they incite, is one more chink in the dam holding back the deluge of blood called Gehenna. If they have to die to break that dam, so be it.

Embraces
The Baali only embrace those who are intelligent and driven. Most who are embraced will even had interest in the occult during their mortal lives.

The embracing ritual of the Baali is one of their most disturbing rituals. A Baali will capture his prey and bring him to a site he has prepared. There will be a large pit, filled with dozens of decomposing bodies. The Baali drains it’s victim to near death, and tosses them into the pit. In just one of the corpses they hid their blood inside a heart. If the prey manages to find the heart before they die and drink the blood, they are considered worthy of becoming Baali. Ironically, this makes the Baali the only clan that regularly gives their victim the choice of becoming a vampire or choosing to die.

The most infamous organ pit was founded in Damascus, where it was tended by the Methuselah Annazir.

Apostates
The Baali recruit vampires from other clans into their ranks; such a successfully recruited vampire is called an Apostate. The Baali even have a dark thaumaturgic ritual commonly called the Rite of Apostasy which proves the recruit's loyalty to the Baali and grants the recruit the demonic Discipline of Daimoinon in place of one of their former Clan Disciplines. Effectively, there is a unique Baali bloodline for every Clan or bloodline who has had a former member undergo the Rite of Apostasy. This dark thaumaturgic ritual grants the Baali bloodline a "viral" property to laterally grow their ranks that no other Clan or bloodline is known to possess. The most populous bloodline of Apostates are the Lasombra Apostates known as the Angellis Ater.

Azaneali
The Azaneali (also sometimes referred to, perhaps confusingly, as the Black Angels) are a bloodline that has branched off of the Baali bloodline. Descended from the Baali Methuselah Azaneal, the Azaneali are dead-hearted, spiritually compromised diabolists even by the standards of the Baali. The Azaneali serve powers of shadow, and often work with the Angellis Ater ("Black Angels") of the Lasombra in pursuit of their goals.

As masters of darkness, the Azaneali use the Discipline of Obtenebration in lieu of Daimoinon or Presence. However, Azaneali have surrendered much of themselves to the shadows that they serve: many of them have effectively lost their free will to their masters' desires.

The Azaneali are extremely similar to the Angellis Ater bloodline of the Lasombra, and so the two groups are often confused for each other. (The "V20" sourcebook opted to try rectifying this by attempting to merge them into a single bloodline.)

Version Differences
In their first appearance, in the original Vampire Storytellers Handbook, the Baali were given no particular origin or motivation beyond demon worship. Later, the crossover chronicle The Chaos Factor introduced the Methuselah Shaitan, who had supposedly founded the Baali bloodline. According to that book, Shaitan was Embraced in the Second City sometime around 4500 BC by Ashur. The history of Shaitan presented in that book implies that all of Ashur's childer in the Second City were ultimately outcast and became the progenitors of the Baali bloodline, with Ashur's childe Gangrel being the only one who was not corrupted (implying the Gangrel "clan" was actually a bloodline that branched off of the "Ashurians", as opposed to their having a direct Antediluvian ancestor). The backstory also implies that the entirety of the Baali bloodline descends from 13 separate Methuselahs, each of whom sold their souls to the demon Ba'al. However, many elements of 'The Chaos Factor' were retconned in later editions of the game, since it was considered by fans to be an unpopular sourcebook that promoted thematically inappropriate crossovers and munchkinism, like Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand.

Subsequent Vampire: The Dark Ages books presented a more complex and ambiguous history for the Baali. In several books, "Ashur" is considered to be another name for Cappadocius, although it remains unclear if "Ashur" was in fact the original sire of the Baali. The Dark Ages Companion presents a history for the Baali in which Shaitan was the most beautiful member of the Fourth Generation, but was not Embraced as a Baali; instead, he became the first Baali when he made a pact with Ba'al out of jealousy towards Toreador. Although this tale of the origin of Shaitan is contradicted by later books (mainly Clanbook: Baali), the other parts of this account, which describe the Baali War between the Baali and the thirteen clans (particularly the Salubri), are reinforced or clarified by later sources.

Clanbook: Baali repeats the rumor of Cappadocius-called-Ashur siring the Baali, but alters the details of who the first Baali actually were. Here, "Shaitan" is the name that the Baali know their Antediluvian progenitor by. The first three Baali were the childer of "Shaitan"; they were Nergal, Moloch, and an unnamed and mysterious female, who some Baali variously believe may have been Zillah, Lilith, or the Crone, and who may have been the founder of the inhuman Path of the Hive (Via Hyron). The "Shaitan" who appears in the Baali War and in The Chaos Factor is actually Nergal, masquerading as Shaitan. Clanbook: Baali ultimately confirms that the "Ashur"/"Shaitan" who Embraced these first three Baali was in fact Saulot, the Salubri Antediluvian, although this is far from common knowledge.

As detailed in Clanbook Baali, the Baali acted to placate "The Children" (slumbering demons, who were likely Earthbound if considered in the context of Demon: The Fallen) by appeasing them with sacrifices and chaos. The Gehenna sourcebook hints that the Baali might have been guarding Antediluvians, who are hardly distinguishable from chthonic deities or demons, and Clanbook Baali describes how one of these so-called 'Children' was excavated by accident and perished from the sunlight. Clanbook: Baali also clarifies that "Baal" is not the name of any particular demon, but is a title meaning "lord" that is applied to the demons who the Baali serve, although more ignorant Baali childer sometimes fall prey to their own propaganda and actually believe that the bloodline venerates a singular demonic master named Baal.

Later Vampire: The Masquerade supplements shy away from firm details; for example, the Vampire Storytellers Handbook Revised presents an enigmatic origin involving a 'dalliance with a low-born singing slaveboy'. However, the Gehenna sourcebook treats Saulot's creation of the Baali as fact in at least one scenario, as does the Gehenna novel.

Speculation
The Baali and the Lasombra both share an obsession with the Abyss and the shadowy demons therein, so the notion of the Lasombra Antediluvian being the true progenitor of the Baali bloodline requires the least amount of conceptual manipulation to make plausible. Having the Baali be a bloodline of the Lasombra also makes the Azaneali bloodline more plausible, as they could simply be a vestige of their Lasombra roots.