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The Shadow Crusade is the True Black Hand's war against the users of Vicissitude.

Overview[]

According to the True Black Hand, one of their own, Andeleon, was first infected with Vicissitude after a trip to the Deep Umbra. He in turn spread it to his clanmates and ghouls before the Tal'Mahe'Ra realized something was amiss. They endeavored to contain the infection and kill anyone who had been consumed by a Souleater, leading to Old Clan Tzimisce quarantining themselves away from the others. However, the formation of the Sabbat and their use of the Vaulderie encouraged the disease to spread. In the 1980s, the Black Hand uncovered proof that the Souleaters had spread much farther and amassed far more power than previously realized, and they announced the Shadow Crusade to stamp them out. High-ranking members of both the Camarilla and the Sabbat are potentially infected, and some even fear the current Del'Roh is one of the Souleaters.[1]

The Shadow Crusade call themselves the Elioud, after the children of the Nephilim in Christian mythology, and they keep much of their knowledge about the Asakku to themselves. It is not clear if the current Del'Roh is ignoring their activity or if she has granted them autonomy in case she or other high-ranking Black Hand are infected.[2] The Camarilla believe the idea of "infectious Vicissitude" is a propaganda ploy the Black Hand use to radicalize new members and weaken the Tzimisce,[3] or a conflict internal to the Tzimisce of no importance to other Kindred.[4]

After the Week of Nightmares and the destruction of Enoch, the Shadow Crusade essentially became a separate organization from the remaining Black Hand. They pursued any vampires they believed to be "not really vampires," including users of Vicissitude and sometimes Protean as well. While they uncovered some lupine infiltrators or clever ghosts, their stab-first-ask-questions-never attitude left little room for verification of most of their victims.[5] The details of the Souleaters were now dismissed as a conspiracy theory from the "lunatic fringe" of Old Clan Tzimisce.[6]

Version Differences[]

The Shadow Crusade and the Souleaters were introduced in Second Edition's Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, but reaction to the idea was mixed at best. Revised Edition distanced itself from the "Vicissitude as alien parasite" idea, and re-imagined the Shadow Crusade as a rogue element indiscriminately hunting real or imagined infiltrators among the Kindred.

In V20, the Asakku revive the idea of Vicissitude as a pernicious influence and once again explicitly ties the Shadow Crusade to it, though The Black Hand emphasizes that what the Shadow Crusade believes to be true is not necessarily the objective truth; a sidebar suggests the Shadow Crusade could be a catspaw of the Ventrue or some other force trying to destabilize the Sabbat by attacking one of its founding clans.[7]

References[]

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