Path of the Sun

The Path of the Sun
Nickname	Prometheans, Kindling
Faction	Sabbat

The Path of the Sun is a Path of Enlightenment, created by thin-blooded vampires of the Sabbat. It is a very new path, having been created after the beginning of the Gehenna Crusade.

Overview

In the evolving orthodoxy of the Path of the Sun, thin-blooded Cainites (and Caitiff) are the only vampires truly free from the taint of the Antediluvians. Followers of the Path see themselves as potentially on the cusp of being demigods, and the Path is as transformative as any of the more established Paths of Enlightenment. Noddist literature makes no small reference to the thin-blooded, plainly stating that, when thin-bloods are present, “in this time [...] Gehenna will soon be upon you.” And with the Gehenna War raging nightly, few Sabbat would argue that event has yet to come.

With no discernible clan lineage, thin-bloods endure none of the overt influence of the Damned’s hated progenitors. As fervent early adopters of this emerging Path, they see themselves as the true heralds of the Sabbat, the “new dawn” of a “race of Cainites” who have inherited no mark of the Third Generation’s treachery. To that end, the traditional anathema of the undead, sunlight, has a diminished effect on thin-blooded Cainites. Followers of this Path see it as part of their mandate to turn this to their advantage, as they are able to meet the Dark Father’s threats during hours that normally see Cainites as having succumbed to the daysleep. Its followers are often easily recognized by the burn-scars and disfigurements they wear as badges of defiance and sufferance in Caine’s name.

The Path of the Sun is an imperfect Path. It is very much unproven, more of an emergent outlook among those fighting at the forefront of the Gehenna War, and practiced almost exclusively among the very youngest Sabbat. Indeed, it has only very recently come into being with enough rigor for certain Priests to consider it an actual Path at all. Since the Beast is less inchoate among thin-blooded Cainites, it likely won’t serve well for more potent-Blooded vampires in the long term, but that’s not the point. As yet, it has no codified tenets; the thin-bloods of the Sabbat are still defining what it means to be a harbinger of the Sabbat’s future rather than eidolons of its past. Some even forgo the Sabbat-venerated practice of diablerie, unwilling to sully themselves with the tainted blood of Antediluvian lineages, a radical new perspective for the Sword of Caine.

While Priests of the more established Paths may deride the Path of the Sun as “not a real Path,” they would very likely be shocked to see the rate at which the Path has spread among those they consider lesser, the by-blows and collateral shovelhead damage the Black Hand leaves in its wake. And not every adherent is a thin-blood: Some would be considered Caitiff in other sects, while yet others are of more potent vitae who see the Path of the Sun as a way to violently atone for the foulness in their own sires’ Blood.

The Path of the Sun makes especially frequent use of the Alchemy with which the duskborn have affinity. As such, the redworking Affiliation known as the Sunburners comprises a substantial fraction of the Path's practitioners.

Ethics

• Let neither one’s mortal nor Cainite heritage limit one’s potential.
• Destroy Cainites but never consume them, leaving oneself untainted.
• Do not allow other would-be Prometheans to serve the polluted bloodlines of the Antediluvians

The ethics of the Path of the Sun are evolving, changing nightly. Unlike the other, more established Paths, the Path of the Sun strays closer to being a quasi-religion than a true frame of mind. As it stands, the Paths’ ethics are inadequate to sustain a Cainite’s relationship with the Beast for an extended period of time, which is the second-greatest threat to the Path’s long-term viability. The first threat, of course, is the fact that the final death rate for thin-blooded vampires in the Sabbat is critically high.

Gallery

References

• VTM: Sabbat: The Black Hand, p. 28-30