Children of the Devourer

Children of the Devourer is a Gangrel blood cult, based in the Canadian wilderness.

Description

In the Canadian wilderness, a four-hour drive north from Saskatoon into the middle of nowhere, there's a small town called Ironwood. It has the only gas station and motel for miles, and the food they serve at the greasy spoon diner is nearly edible. If the locals are cold and unfriendly toward outsiders, perhaps they can be forgiven when the unwary learn the truth: there are monsters in Ironwood, and only the steady flow of transient blood keeps them at bay.

Beneath Ironwood, the claw-dug caves of the Children of the Devourer dwarf the town above, home to a horde of ravening Gangrel. When they hunt, they’re a rampaging band of marauders attacking all local life. At the center of their buried temple is an ancient wooden casket and the torpid corpse of a methuselah named Angrboda. Her Children bring her strength, blood dripped directly from the town's sacrifices into her waiting, open maw.

Some night, she will open that maw wide enough to devour the whole world. If her priesthood is to be believed, that night is not far off.

Convictions of the Children of the Devourer

• Protect Ironwood with your life. Many of the Children grew up in Ironwood, while others helped it grow from a tiny settlement into a prosperous town. Protecting Ironwood from crime and degradation comes naturally to Angrboda’s children and ensures a healthy and obedient herd.
• Always eschew material wealth.Money and possessions mean little to the Children, who live most of their lives in the cult’s underground caves. Newer members sometimes take pride in living the life of an ascetic, in devotion to their apocalyptic god.
• Support your family in all things. The Children are a family by the Blood of Angrboda and often a kinder family than the ones from which new members are Embraced. Many members share a profound loyalty to one another, aided by their shared obedience to the methuselah they serve.

History

According to her followers, Angrboda was born and Embraced in Iceland and went to sleep before the humans around her had begun to record history. In the 10th century CE, her youngest three childer were seized by visions, compelled to take her casket from its resting place in the ice and transport it across the ocean to a vast and untouched forest, from which they foretold she would one day rise to devour the world.

The details of Angrboda's life have been lost to time and confused with tales of the mythological monster the kine remember by her name. Her followers don’t particularly care; they were never much for bookkeeping anyway. They sustain the torpid corpse at the heart of their caves because she is their Great Mother, because they are called to feed her, and because to do so is their nature and purpose.

The kine of Ironwood have lived among monsters for generations. The survivors aren't stupid, though they lean toward the paranoid. They know that there's something living just outside of town, something murderous, clever, and beyond the natural world.

It's not all bad for the people of Ironwood; the farming is good, crime is low, and land is cheap. The big-city executive who came in to close the local manufacturing plant was torn apart by wild dogs. The rules of living with the town’s demons aren’t written down, but residents understand the gist of them: keep the monsters fed, and they’ll keep the town safe and prosperous enough to survive. Deny the existence of the monsters to each other and especially to outsiders, or you’ll be the next one to disappear. Leave if you want, but if you do, stay quiet and never, ever come back.

For the Children of the Devourer, Ironwood is a convenient herd, easily maintained by a handful of well-placed ghouls, but hardly their main concern. Human fears interest them even less than the irrelevant and impermanent bickering of Kindred politics that means nothing before the jaws of their devouring mother.

Descendants of Angrboda living near her are not affected by the Beckoning, but they have felt their own compulsions increase since the dawn of the Second Inquisition. Ottar has announced to the compound that he has received a new vision from their Great Mother, the first direct contact with her in centuries.

Ragnarok is coming within one human lifetime, and procuring blood is now more important than long-term secrecy. Furthermore, she demands the Blood of Kindred, especially those not descended from her own line. The cult has yet to decide how to fulfill this demand. Ottar has contemplated rounding up the entire town of Ironwood and bleeding them dry into Angrboda's mouth. Ellifu wants to keep the town as cover and focus on hunting Kindred, luring them to Ironwood from other domains by requesting aid or promising power.

Among the youngest cultists, the demand has caused some secret doubts. Certainly, they all serve Angrboda and her apocalypse on principle, but a theoretical someday-apocalypse and one that will happen within a century or less are very different beasts.

Members

• Angrboda (founder)
• Ottar
• Ellifu

References

• VTM: Forbidden Religions, p. 71-74