Salubri - Warrior Caste - [Bloodline]

Remember the words of Samiel: be like the lion, not like the lamb.
Woe to the conquered: we are fire incarnate, destroying corruption to let healing take hold.

Wanderers. Kin-slayers. Souleaters. Since Enoch, the Warriors have fought the enemies of Caine, slaying those they found wanting.

Three eyes gaze from their furious countenances to match the three bloodlines of the clan. Warriors deal with those who cannot be saved: demon-worshippers, degenerate vampires, and those who seek to disturb the delicate symbiosis engendered by the childer of Saulot. Until the sundering of the bloodline, Healers and Warriors walked the night together, eradicating corruption so that health could flourish once more.

Their fury lies with their bloodline’s founder. Salubri myths are in agreement: a childe of Saulot and mortal twin to Rayzeel, the vampire who would become Samiel was intemperate and stubborn, drawn always to conflict. He preferred the company of Brujah and Gangrel to his Healer brethren, traveling Nod’s wastes to test himself against demons and primordial beasts. Only when the Baali emerged in the vale of Gehenna did Samiel embody his purpose, renaming himself after a warrior angel and working a change in his bloodline. He founded a Code and the Ritual of Blooding, so that Warriors could awaken the steel in the blood of a placid clan. Warriors carry the banner of fury to those they deem anathema, even if they feel the clan has abandoned their bloodline and methods.

The wanderlust of Samiel — called his Precept, even when it manifests in the other castes — touches nearly every Warrior. Cyclopes study the myriad ways of war in dozens of different lands and cultures, either in dusty military libraries or in the gore-muddied fields. They move alongside mortal armies, ensconce themselves in Western Christian military orders, and brood quietly in castles like Limassol. They root out Baali and Setites, contesting their waning strength against the waxing power of Clan Tremere. They wander, and they war.

Like the main clan, the caste’s refusal to tolerate weakness or moral imperfection has won them few friends, and the usefulness of their sword arms and Valeren is nothing against the versatility of Thaumaturgy. The Warriors are bloodied but unbowed. The secret to reunifying their clan and defeating the blood sorcerers exists somewhere, and they’ll battle the world entire until they find it.

Sobriquets: Cyclopes, Kin-slayers, Souleaters



Appearance: No Warrior is granted the Embrace without having first seen battle. Without exception, Warriors are ready for war. They carry weapons and keep well-maintained armor close at hand as well as bandanas and scarves at the ready to hide the third eye of their clan. So bound are they with the Knights Templar that many young Cyclopes wear the red cross, even if they do not share the Christian faith.

Havens: The battlefield with sword in hand, the saddle, the training yard — these places are home to the Warrior. Their tendency towards wanderlust leads Soul-eaters to prefer mobile havens and traveling caravans.

Character Creation: Physical Attributes are invariably primary, especially Strength and Stamina.

Swordsmanship is prized amongst the Salubri, and no deliberately-Embraced Warrior has less than two dots in a Combat Ability. Multiple Languages are strikingly common. Retainers act as squires and fighting men. Enough belong to the Knights Templar that high Resources isn’t uncommon, allowing the Salubri to provide interest-free loans to cash-poor Cainites of righteous disposition. Warriors walk the Path of Chivalry or the Road of Vengeance, following their Code. In these decadent nights, however, some Warriors have turned to the Path of the Devil, raging against the system that has doomed them.

Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Valeren.
Warriors are capable of enduring terrific amounts of punishment, and those who spent time as ghouled squires often have a knowledge of Potence as well.

Weakness: If a Salubri learns but one dot of Valeren, she manifests the Discipline’s signature third eye. Salubri Warriors must test their strength and establish martial dominance; they must succeed on a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) if they attempt to feed on someone whom they have not vanquished in a fight, or suffer a two-die penalty on all rolls for the rest of the night. This may be defined as a duel to the death, or a simple brawl to Incapacitated. A few Warrior Herds comprise of companions who’ve been beaten down in the training yard.

Organization: Every Salubri sire mentors and trains the fledgling Warrior — tradition holds for a period of seven years, but in these nights they’re lucky to see seven months. When not traveling with their sires or a reconciled Healer, many Warriors eke out an unlife stalking from domain to domain, battlefield to battlefield, functioning as ad hoc scourges. Other Cainite knightly orders readily accept Salubri Warriors as members, and it’s whispered that the enigmatic Order of the Bitter Ashes was founded by the last childe of Samiel and her Knights Templar childe.

Stereotypes
Assamite: Our kin in blood and battle, and strong sword arms against the Baali. Their mandate is as ours, yet I see the same hunger as the Usurpers in their eyes.
Brujah: You’d think our shared love of strength would earn us more respect.
Gangrel: We’re both fighters. We hunt the wolves. They run with them. Remember the difference.
Lamiae: Warriors who stem from scholars. Am I wrong to see us as companions born and boon? If only they would accept our mandate...
Setite: The black snakes of our family. Trample them underfoot and never eat their fruit.
Tremere: Our path back to clanhood is clear. The bloodstained mantle must be ripped from an ashen corpse. Deus vult!
True Brujah: Their passions are not tempered, but deadened. There are lessons to be learned in this, but not from them.
Ventrue: Stoic soldiers, honorable yet inflexible. Righteousness lies in intent and action both, not one or the other.
Healers: Our elder siblings are brave enough when saving lives, but not enough in staving off death. We cannot be Salubri and let a wound fester.
Watchers: I’ve never met one of our cousins, myself. Now, where did I put those maps?