Rachel Dolium

Rachel Dolium was a Kindred who in modern nights compiled the Revelations of the Dark Mother, a collection of Bahari fragments she would self-publish as her own self-styled interpretation of the legendary "Cycle of Lilith" described by Aristotle de Laurent.

Rachel left very scant details about her own life, except to indicate that she was young for a Kindred, and that after being tasked by her sire to expose the Bahari, she instead became indoctrinated into the cult as she began to study their teachings. She found in them a subtext that reflected what she perceived to be the truth about Kindred life in modern nights. This gradually developed into seeing signs of Lilith everywhere else, including in advertisements and popular media. By her own account, Rachel wholeheartedly threw herself into the life of a Ba'ham, collecting knowledge and networking with fellow cultists, and enduring many agonizing rituals; such as submitting to being whipped with flaming straps, getting branded, dragged through broken glass, and head-first through ice floes.

Eventually tiring of unlife, Rachel decided to embrace a death wish by egregiously flaunting the Masquerade. She spent all her remaining resources on a 20,000-copy vanity pressing of the Revelations that would be distributed to mortal bookstores around the world. Details regarding her ultimate fate remain unknown.

Background Information[]

Rachel's name is likely a pseudonym. A dolium was a large earthenware vase for used in ancient Rome for the storage of transportation of goods, sort of like a barrel-sized amphora. In that sense, she is presenting herself as a "vessel" for Lilith's words.
Rachel was intentionally written as an unreliable narrator, praising Lilith's words in one moment, then performing actions opposing those words in the next. While she does claim that she does not consider herself a "formal Ba'ham,"^[1] her actions may be excused. However, her behaviour indicates she does consider herself Ba'ham, while her actions are counter to everything the Bahari stand for.
- Rachel styles herself a researcher akin to de Laurent and Beckett; and yet she kills her sources and destroys all evidence in her wake. She leaves no avenue for verification of claims or checking sources by later researchers.
- She demonstrates a surface-level understanding at best of the Ethics of the Path of Lilith: A Toreador sang the songs of a Bahari nun from 12th century Milan; the nun was burned for her beliefs. Rachel then burns the Toreador in the sun.^[2] While this agrees with the Ethic "Practice what you learn. Wisdom is meaningless unless it accompanies action," it's a child's understanding of wisdom: Rachel has only learned "a Bahari was burned for her beliefs" and acts accordingly.
- Another of the Ethics: "Gather with your brothers and sisters to share your learning and anguish." This "learning" only goes one-way, per Rachel's understanding: she gathers with other Bahari to learn what she can from them, and then kills them.
- Rachel includes the Inquisitorial notes on the Lamia^[3] presumably because she admired the way the Lamia stood strong for her beliefs against Inquisitorial torture. When a similar situation presents itself with a mortal Bahari priestess and her entourage^[4], she makes dubious claims of the approaching Sabbat Inquisition. Rather than allowing the cult the opportunity to test their faith against the alleged approaching Inquisitors, she kills them, denying them that chance.
- The above passage, which takes place immediately after the section covering the Rape of D'hainu^[5], in which Lilith's children and her garden D'hainu were burned by Caine's forces, one of the most tragic events in Bahari mythology, Rachel immediately burns the mortal cult's bodies and their garden. She is "saving" the cult by re-enacting the most profound sin upon them. These are not the actions of someone who truly understands and respects the Ba'ham.
- The Path of Lilith -- at level 4, so a fairly basic level for most adherents -- contains a stricture against killing, as death denies one the chance to transcend. Rachel happily flits through life killing anyone in her way, Bahari or not, with the seemingly facile understanding that pain is good, so death is better. It seems Rachel got to the part of the Oath of Lilith where she says "I swear to love myself above all," but failed to absorb the part where "I swore that day to nurture life as I had embraced death before."