Black Hand Rises
The Tal'mahe'Ra, the Lost Tribe, "True Black Hand" or Manus Nigrum, was a conspiratorial sect composed mainly of vampires in the World of Darkness that supposedly provides order and structure to the outer cult. The True Black Hand had its greatest influence over the Sabbat through the Black Hand sub-sect. The concept was developed in VTM: Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand 
, a sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade developed during the Second Edition of the game.
History
The Tal'mahe'Ra was an ancient organization formed by an unlikely alliance between Chakravanti mages and several vampire clans (notably Assamites), though its members also include other supernatural creatures besides vampires and mages. The Tal'mahe'Ra parted during the first millennium A.D. because of different ideas regarding the future of the sect; and though the two factions, the Western and Eastern Manus Nigrum, were not at war with each other, they did not communicate.
During the Dark Ages, the Eastern faction concerned itself mainly with hell and purgatory, where the souls of the unholy supposedly reside after death. The Western faction, however, mainly involved itself in vampire politics and were rumoured to plan the obliteration of the Baali.
The Manus Nigrum believed the existence of that many vampires during the Dark Ages was not desirable and wished to decimate their numbers, which is why they started collecting information about every kindred they came across. They aspired to compile a book with the name and haven of every Kindred and wished to show it to the Antediluvians during Gehenna, so that they knew where to find their childer. They were also rumored to have something to do with the death of some Antediluvians. [1] The True Black Hand was eliminated during the events in Ends of Empire when they were the subject of a nuclear attack by Stygia and a second nuke launched in the heart of the Labyrinth. Enoch was annihilated as were the vast majority of the leadership. Most of the Nagaraja returned to their cultural homeland in India where they found refuge among the Daitya there, and one small cabal found refuge among the Green Court in Korea. A small number of True Brujah who had not already infiltrated the Sabbat supposedly bartered knowledge regarding the Underworld in exchange for shelter among the Followers of Set.
Structure and ideology
The Tal'Mahe'Ra was a society of vampires dedicated to supporting the Antediluvians in their crusade to destroy other vampires, hoping to be spared by the Antediluvians during Gehenna. They also aspired to eliminte supposedly impure bloodlines including the Tremere and Tzimisce.
The Tal'mahe'Ra was a super-conspiracy and allegedly the oldest sect of vampires still active. In addition, the Tal'mahe'Ra membership included several bloodlines who were more or less exclusive to it. The Tal'Mahe'Ra also employed several revenant families and specifically trained kidnapped children, known as chatterlings, to become vampires. Chatterlings typicaly were embraced when they are 23 years old.
The Tal'mahe'Ra's seat of power was located in the fortress-city of Enoch in the Underworld; members of the sect had means to regularly pass between the underworld and the living world. The leader of the True Black Hand, the Del'Roh, resided exclusively in the Underworld.
The True Black Hand was concerned with two major events: the first is the eventual return of the Antediluvians and the coming age when Vampiric taint will be eliminated from the earth.
Members and influence
The True Black Hand had less than 200 members, but claimed to wield considerable power and influence in Kindred affairs in all major sects.
- Sabbat: The False Black Hand is a front for the True Black Hand. Around 60 vampires in the False Black Hand, mainly older members, are members of the True Black Hand as well. In addition, a small number of True Black Hand members have risen through the ranks of the Sabbat without ever being part of the False Hand. These include cardinals, archbishops and prisci, but no Regents have ever been members of the Hand.
- Camarilla: Almost a dozen Princes are members of the True Hand, as well as at least 40 primogen and a Justicar.
- Another 50 Hand members have havens in the Middle East, among the Followers of Set, the Assamites and the Kuei-jin.
There were unconfirmed reports that the Hand had operatives within the Inconnu (just as the Inconnu likely has operatives within the Hand), and the Hand also claims to have had several non-vampire members, including a Mummy, an Abomination, a small number of mages and wraiths. They controled three ghoul families.
Aralu
Enoch was reportedly home to four Antediluvians in torpor. Their exact identities were not known, but they were collectively called the Aralu. The names listed on three of the crypts were Nergal (thought to be Ventrue), Ninmug (thought to be Nosferatu), and Loz (thought to be Toreador); the fourth was unknown, and was thought to be Caine. This fourth one was later named Al-Mahri in the Gehenna supplement; this name, as well as the names "Arikel" and "Ventru", appeared on an inscription on the tombs of the Aralu as detailed in Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand.
Their auras were visible with Auspex but still they were impossible to find. It was said that Loz had already awakened though and was just waiting for the right moment to rise.
Bloodlines
The following bloodlines were rare, and almost to a man belonged to the Manus Nigrum. Their numbers and organization were greatly diminished following the destruction of Enoch.
Shadow Crusader - Old Clan Tzimisce
Revisions
The True Black Hand was created in Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand one of the major books to come out of Andrew Greenberg's editorial era at WW. It is one of the most controversial supplements for the line because it contains an enormous amount of "spoiler" information that massively revises the entire Vampire theme and mood. It has a reputation as the apotheosis of the "Vampions" concept: Vampires as superheroes in some kind of dimension-spanning alien-invaders game.
While the bulk of Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand is nominally canon, as the events discussing Ends of Empire indicate, the Tal'mahe'Ra was exterminated without mercy. The Vampire Storytellers Handbook Revised details the remnants of the True Black Hand in some detail and establishes that they were almost entirely wrong about everything. The True Brujah have continued to appear in Vampire supplements, but everything else is either ignored or supplanted (such as the Old Clan Tzimisce being a somewhat different bloodline of the clan, and Vicissitude being an integral part of Tzimisce culture from the start).
References
- ^ VTDA: Vampire: The Dark Ages Rulebook, p. 41
