“ | Do you dream? Do you dare to dream? In this place, our dreams may take form, but the ravages of time and endless march of reality render them to nothing. I can show you a way to end the suffering of hope. The pain of dreams. | ” |
— Apolleon the Traveler, founder of the Cult of Shalim |
The Cult of Shalim is a recent cult that preaches entropy and the end of everything. Most, if not all, of their followers are Lasombra.
Overview[]
Its cultists like to uncover what makes a person's life happy and worth living. And then they start to call those things into question, forcing the subject to accept the central doctrine of their faith: that reality is suffering. While they resemble the Ministry in many ways, the difference is while the Church of Set wants to replace a person's void with faith, the Cult of Shalim only cares about the void.
Few of its rites have been written down - their practices and methods vary from cell to cell. Only through correspondence do their priests share their stories of success and failure, refining their methods.
As novel cult, the Shalimites maintain a fairly overt presence in many cities throughout the world. Apolleon’s priests have been mainly recruited from around coastal Mediterranean cities, where his trek takes him, but they have subsequently branched out to various areas of the world - the most well-known of his followers is Michalis Basaras. However, cells of Shalimites can be found in the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa, and Egypt where they silently exploit the schism within the Ministry and seek to twist their zeal to Shalim’s purposes.
Artifacts and Symbology[]
The cult’s symbol is of a hollow person, often portrayed as a simple human figure with a hole cut out from the center. While this may seem a quite morbid symbol the cultist would tell you that it is the hollow they revere above all. Take away the human shape around it and the sadness of the symbol is gone.
It is rare for cultists to identify themselves by such outward signs. Instead, they speak the phrase “Shin-lamed-mem” to identify themselves to each other. This simple greeting is unusual enough for cultists to recognize it without being suspicious to outsiders, since it is the root of the traditional Hebrew greeting, “shalom,” and of their cult’s eternal master.
Cult priests carry with them small books, normally bound in black leather, containing lists of dates, places and names. These indicate sightings of Apolleon by their brotherhood and list the names of targets of his predations for induction into the priesthood.
Enemies[]
The cult has no known apostates, or at least any who may have tried to leave the cult haven’t been willing or able to speak of their experience. But there are many critics: failed conversions; investigators and Kindred who tend toward cynicism, etc...
Many Princes are aware of the cult’s presence but see them as little more than an esoteric distraction for the Kindred of their city.
Malkavians, however, often feel nervous in the presence of Shalimites; they recognize madness when they see it, regardless of the veneer of civility it is hidden behind.
Gallery[]
References[]
- VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods, p. 86-90