Sahib of Flesh of the Covenant of Shadows's blog: "Vampires"

Assamite From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Assamites, in a role-playing-game context, are a clan of fictional vampires, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games, based on a historical group, by the same name. The Assamites are a group of skilled, select assassins who often commit contract killings in exchange for the blood of other vampires. Even when compared to other vampires, the Assamite appear overly obsessed with blood, due to a clan weakness which causes an addiction to the blood of other vampires. Much of the Assamite symbology is Arabic in origin. Even the clan stronghold, Alamut, is based in a mountain range in the Middle Eastern region. The Hashshashin cult that once occupied this fortress are what inspired the first version of the Assamites. Aside from warriors/assassins, the Assamites also have among them scholars, known as Viziers, and sorcerers. Effectively the clan consists of three bloodlines, known as castes, each with slightly different disciplines and weaknesses. Even though most Assamites claim independence from the sects, they still collaborate with both the Camarilla and the Sabbat whenever such an alliance suits their purposes. A few Assamite factions have permanently defected to the sects, however, notably the antitribu (who joined the Sabbat) and the smaller group of Schismatics that sought protection under the Camarilla. The Assamite clan Discipline is Quietus, which alters the internal chemistry and alchemical balance of the vitae (or blood) of the practitioner or his/her victims. The Discipline was developed as a tool for carrying out the Clan's purpose as judges and police to their fellow Cainites during the age of the First City of Enoch. The effects range from the novice ability to use one's blood as a potent poison, to causing an entire Cainite bloodline to "weep" blood. Another trait which differentiates the Assamites from the other original Clans is that they were never cursed by Caine, the first vampire. Despite this, they were still subject to two powerful curses from other sources. The first such curse originated with the Baali bloodline during the Assamite Clan's attempted destruction of that family. The results of this curse was that the entire warrior caste of the Assamite Clan became afflicted with a tremendous blood-lust for the vitae of other vampires, even to the extent of addiction after only one taste of such another Cainite's blood. The second curse occurred around the time of the Anarch Revolt, at the hands of the Tremere. This curse, intended as a punishment for the clan's addiction to vampire blood as a result of the first curse, caused the entire Assamite Clan to have a severe allergic reaction to vitae from any other Cainite clan. Only the Assamites that joined the Sabbat and thus became antitribu and a few disobedient loners who refused to succumb to the curse were spared this fate. Recently, however, the Assamites have managed to shrug free of the Tremere curse due to the awakening of one of their most ancient and powerful methuselahs, named Ur-Shulgi, and have resumed feeding on other vampires. This caused a great many elder Assamite Antitribu to rejoin the original clan, leading to a leadership crisis in the Sabbat's Black Hand subsect. Unlike the other lines of vampires, who become paler as they age, Assamites grow darker - their eldest members being the shade of obsidian. There is one notable exception to this; Al Ashrad, former Amr of the clan, has pure white skin and no one has been able or willing to explain this. The Beborn Beton song Hemoglobin (Assamite) is about vampirism. References * Vampire: The Masquerade (3rd Edition) by White Wolf Game Studio|White Wolf (1998)