The Servitors of Irad is a Kindred cult that and aspiring servants of the Antediluvians during the Gehenna War. They were established during the Anarch Revolt in 1456.
According to Noddist history, Irad was the most bloodthirsty warmonger of his time. His prowess on the battlefield and in commanding men earned him the respect of the First Murderer, and Caine’s Embrace. Irad joined the ranks of the Second Generation and led Caine’s armies for an unrecorded number of centuries, always loyal to his sire and kin, as long as the battlefield could slake his unquenchable thirst.
Something changed in Irad when the Antediluvians rebelled against the Second Generation. The handful of accounts from vampires who claim to remember the war agree that Irad turned his armies to oppose Enoch, Zillah, and a controversially vague number of other Second Generation vampires. His motives for doing so are unclear to this night. Some posit he felt the Third Generation could bring him the blood he so craved in greater quantities than his sire and siblings, while others believe Caine snubbed him as nothing more than a killer, goading Irad into showing him what a killer he could be.
Whatever the case, Irad wasn’t exempt from the Third Generation’s attack on the Second, though some believe he fell last, his denouement coming as a surprise after everything he’d sacrificed for them.
The cult that emerged in the millennia that followed openly claims to serve the will of Antediluvians, which strikes Cainite scholars as odd, given their epithet as “Servitors of Irad.” The cultists respond that Irad is emblematic of all blood shed in glorious battle, crimes of passion, and subtle assassinations. The individual matters less than their service to the true warmongers — the Antediluvians — and just as Irad served them to drench the planet in blood, the Servitors shall do the same.
Goals[]
The Servitors of Irad have ever waxed and waned in power and popularity, drawing Kindred who see themselves as divine killers or who lack purpose beyond destruction. During times of great war between the kine, the Servitors emerge to ride the tide of battle and drive increasing numbers of mortals into the jaws of death. During times of peace, they attempt to provoke war or needle vampires into territorial disputes, sectarian conflicts, or religious crusades. They are ever on the lookout for the grandest buffet, which inevitably follows chaos and battle.
The Gehenna Crusade has revitalized the Servitors of Irad, who join the fight from every conceivable position, whether as manipulators pushing political buttons or as warriors in the field. The more philosophical branch of the cult wishes to consume a host of Methuselahs while summoning their Antediluvian masters. The more politically motivated Servitors want to deal a grievous blow to the Sabbat, who they feel are still rank amateurs at war when compared to the clan founders.
For obvious reasons, Servitors of Irad rarely declare their presence or openly recruit in peaceful domains. However, with the Sabbat’s absence in many of its former domains, they look to propel the Camarilla and Anarchs into a fresh conflict absent for so many centuries.
Description[]
According to the Book of Nod, Irad the Strong was the third childe of Caine, and he served as his sire’s enforcer and military leader in the First City. The Kindred of the Servitors of Irad seek to emulate that mythological vampire, who is said to have pledged to serve the Antediluvians in all things before his kin or his childer destroyed him. They hope that, if they spend their existence showing they serve the Antediluvians, they will be spared when the ancients rise. Irad believed it but received the revelation too late to preserve himself.
The cult doesn’t actually have any contact with the Third Generation, but they assume that the Antediluvians would want the elders of Kindred society to be weak and divided. As such, they infiltrate any vampiric organization they can find — Camarilla cities, Anarch gatherings, and even other cults — to sow dissension and shatter fragile alliances.
And now you’re one such deep-cover member. You’re cut off from the other members of your cult, trying to enact a hazily-understood plan set down by mythological figures with whom you have no direct contact, with the knowledge that if any other vampire ever found out, you’d be immediately and painfully killed. But you have faith, and that’s enough.
Loresheet[]
Shield of Irad: You can’t do the work of the Antediluvians if you get discovered by others. Luckily, you have a lot of experience shielding your true intentions from the gaze of outsiders. You gain an additional die on rolls involving lying to other Kindred.
Sword of Irad: Sometimes you must act decisively in the name of the Third Generation, and that conviction adds additional strength to your act. Once per story, you can add three dice to a roll that is integral to your cult’s plans.
Know the Will of the Ancients: You are firmly convinced you know the will of the Antediluvians. Perhaps you even hear their voices in your head or gain prophetic dreams from them. As long as you are a member of the cult, you can take an additional Conviction that is directly related to the goals of your infiltration (your membership in the cult acts as your “touchstone” for the purposes of this Conviction). If you infiltrate a new group, you can change your Conviction to reflect the new assignment.
Do the Will of the Ancients: All actions are in service to the Third Generation, the thirteen vampires that will someday rise and destroy the world. There is nothing you won’t do to fulfill that goal, and you have devoted your entire existence to it. The blood you have inherited from your clan founder is secondary to this higher purpose. Your clan Bane can be ignored once per story while you are a Servitor of Irad.
Kill Thy Brother: When the Third Generation eventually rise, you know that most of Caine’s errant childer will be destroyed. So, killing another vampire in the name of the Antediluvians just makes their job a little easier. Once per story, when using a weapon or power that inflicts Aggravated Health damage on a vampire, you gain two additional dice to your attack and don’t need to roll to resist frenzy if that weapon or power involves fire.
References[]
Vampire: The Masquerade blood cults | |
---|---|
Major | Ashfinders · Bahari · Church of Caine · Church of Set · Cult of Mithras · Cult of Shalim · Hecata · Nephilim · Sabbat |
Minor | Amaranthans · Bloodless Pilgrims · Butterflies · Children of Salvation · Cleopatrans · Cult of Isis · Eremites · Eyes of Malakai · Gorgo's Nest · Meneleans · One True Way · Orphans of Enoch · Praesidium · Servitors of Irad · Shattered Spear · Shepherds of Ur-Shulgi · Sons and Daughters of Helena · Whispers of the Dead · Withered Ones |
Regional | Children of the Devourer (Canada) · Cultivars (Chicago) · Hunters of the Golden Cicada (Chongqing) · Los Hijos de Si (Peru/Bolivia) · Mga Hari ng Ilog ni Magwayen (Philippines) · Penny Dining Club (England) · Third Day (Germany) · Throne's Keepers (Pristina) · Soldiers of the Adversary (Texas) · Wellspring (Denmark) |
Defunct | Brotherhood of the Ninth Circle · Cainite Heresy |