Ashur is an ambiguous term that can refer to a vampire, a place, or a state of being. In some stories Ashur is a Cainite reputed to be an Antediluvian. He is depicted in many legends and myths, however, Noddists and occult scholars cannot agree on his identity, mainly because he is rumored to be the founder of the infernal Baali bloodline. It may be the case that multiple Antediluvians have used this alias, one of whom was the progenitor of the Baali.
Members of Clan Hecata borrowed his name to establish a new bloodline, called Harbingers of Ashur. It's comprised of Cappadocian remnants and Harbingers of Skulls.
Possible explanations[]
The identity of the founder of the Baali is most often said to be Saulot, the founder of the Salubri. However, the claims that Ashur had a third eye, and therefore may have been Saulot, are often dismissed as Tremere propaganda against the Salubri by many scholars.
Some believe that Ashur is Cappadocius, founder of the Cappadocians. However, it is worth noting that at no time has anyone heard Cappadocius himself make use of that name, as it has always been ascribed to him in writing by others.
In the Clanbook Baali Ashur was not just the name given to an Antediluvian, but the name of the place where the three Baali founders were Embraced – a place known as Ashur, which is presumably the same site that came to be the capital city of the Assyrian empire. The Black Hand: A Guide to the Tal’Mahe’Ra also reinforce the idea through the perspective of the Molochim, who explain that Ashur is not a person but a place—more specifically,the Order believes, and teaches among its own ranks, that Ashur was a place, not a being. A great and ancient city, Ashur the Fallen, was built atop the tomb of an inhuman creature of im mense, unholy power, whose siblings were worshiped by the nameless First Tribe that called that city their home. The Old Clan Tzimisce believe that the Tzimisce Antediluvian traveled to the Orient before the Deluge, to a city of demon-worshippers that he struck down; they shared this legend among the Tal'Mahe'Ra. In one account of Gehenna, the ruins of Ashur served as the home of Rayzeel – possibly the last remaining childe of Saulot – who watched over the pit during the Final Nights.
Beckett’s Jyhad Diary offers a further explanation given by Serenna, one of the last Salubri, according to whom Ashur is not a specific Antediluvian, but rather a state of being, opposed to Golconda, in which Antediluvians fully surrender to the Beast. Every Antediluvian has been in "Ashur" at some point, and during one of these moments, the Baali were created.
Trivia[]
- "Ashur", from the old Assyrian Aššur, was the name of main deity of the Assyrians and the namesake of their capital city. The name of the modern state of Syria is a cognate of Aššur.
- Already in Chaos Factory it was said that Shaitan came from Khel-et-Sherkat , a transliteration of Qal'at Shirqat, one of the names of the ancient city known as Assur
References[]
- VTM: Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy Vol.1: Bloodwar, p. 90, 92-93
- VTM: Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy Vol.3: The Unbeholden, p. 157, 242
- VTM: Encyclopaedia Vampirica, p. 23-24
- VTM: Gehenna: The Final Night, p. 263, 283
- VTM: Clanbook: Baali
- VTM: Beckett's Jyhad Diary, p. 412
- VTM: The Black Hand: A Guide to the Tal'Mahe'Ra, p. 94