Clan: Followers of Set
Nicknames: The Ministry, Judasians, Liberators, Corrupters, Tempters, Serpents, Setites, The Clan of Faith, the Clan of Lies, Typhonists, Sand-Snakes, Vipers, Mesu Bedshet
Faction: Independent
Disciple: Abanaub
Antediluvian: Serapis
Methuselah: None
"The Followers of Set are a clan bound together not only by blood, but by ties of faith. Their priests have access to secrets that would break the minds of lesser vampires; even the youngest Setite childe has passed the Gates of Revelation. They claim descent from a god, and prophecy the time of his return – and who is to prove them wrong?"
The mission of the Followers of Set can be stated in a single word: corruption. They seek to subvert and destroy whatever is good, noble, safe or beautiful within both Kindred and mortal society. They are plotters without peer, with an unequalled genius for misdirection and temptation. Their favorite weapons include drugs, sex, money, power, and vice in all its aspects.
But for most of the Followers of Set, this corruption is just a means to an end. They believe in a radical split between the divine, eternal soul and the corrupt, transitory world and body. The laws of their faith say that deep down, the soul knows it does not belong in a prison of matter. Anything that distracts the soul from this knowledge and ties it to the world must be a trap – and if the world is a prison, then the gods must be its jailers. To achieve liberation, a soul must shed all the false doctrines, cravings and habits that bind it and blind it. Such self-awareness cannot come from mere argument or faith. Only direct experience of the most extreme sort can break the hold of the gods over the soul and allow liberation. Through these experiences, the Setites believe they can achieve truly divine power over the world and liberate themselves from every physical and spiritual constraint, as they already have taken the first steps out of the prison when they received the Embrace.
It took the Setites some time to accept that they and other vampires are indeed related, if not the same, species, and some Elders are still not wholly convinced. Vampires of other Clans were originally seen as pawns of other Egyptian gods, arranged against Set, or the work of evil spirits from the Underworld, who shared nothing with them but the fact that they too existed in both the material world and the afterlife. Befitting a Clan that holds truth as a tool of false gods, multiple explanations for their state were accepted. During the Dark Ages, common doctrine was that their akh, the "essence", has already descended to Duat, but that their bodies, through the waters of death (vitae), were still inhabited by their ba (personality) and ka (life essence).[5][6] Other systems, mainly used in Akhu, prescribed a detailed system centered around the nine-fold soul, with the khat as the body, the ba as one component of vitae, the ab as Humanity, the khaibit as the Beast, and the sekhem as another part of vitae, along with the other ka (the astral self), ren (the true name), khu (the aura) and sahu (the indestructible part of the soul, rumored by some Setites to later serve Set as a Sebau).
As the oldest of the four independent clans, with a lineage directly traceable to a mighty Antediluvian (though there are those who dispute the clan's account of its own history), the Followers of Set are not without respect among the Kindred. At one point, after long and divisive debate, they were invited to join the Camarilla. This invitation was, by and large, ignored by the Setites (to the great relief of many in the Camarilla). Nonetheless, the Camarilla, and sometimes even the Sabbat, often seek out the Followers of Set in an effort to secure their aid in some complex intrigue or another. For this reason, the Setites are generally regarded as a necessary evil within Cainite society.
The iconic serpent imagery used by the Clan is theorized by some scholars to be only prominent since the ascent of the Abrahamic religions, since Set is traditionally not associated with them. Older Setites are known to act irritated by the constant association with snakes, although several have wholeheartedly adopted the imagery for their own gain.
Setite organization is mostly local, with a single temple or network of cults representing a city's Serpent presence. Setites in the cities rarely scheme among each other, preferring to face outward threats in unity rather than the schismatic self-interest of the Sects. However, whispers persist among outsiders about a massive temple devoted to Set located somewhere in Africa, ruled by terrible methuselahs who claim to be the childer of Set himself.
The Hierophants or Eternals are the leaders of the Followers of Set in the absence of their founder. They are the oldest of their clan, who have known Set personally and acted as his stewards in the temples dedicated to the god.
Orthodox Setite belief dictates that Set will one day return to rule or consume the world, and devout Setites prepare the way for his resurrection. To this end, the clan remains independent of the sects of other Kindred, and practice with great skill the arts of corruption, deceit and ancient sorcery. They refer to themselves as the Mesu Bedshet, the "Children of Rebellion".
Prospective childer for the Followers of Set often spend some time involved with a Setite cult, so they are indoctrinated in the mysteries of the Clan before becoming one of its Kindred. They may come from any cultural origin, though many are outsiders, loners, or otherwise marginalized by society, which is often what led them to the forbidden fruits offered by the cult of Set in the first place. Interestingly, Setites count their generation from Set, so their generation is often stated to be two steps lower than the standard counting method that derives vampires from Caine (a fourth generation methuselah would be noted as a member of the Second Generation within the Clan).
Another facet is that some Followers of Set are not actually Embraced as Followers of Set. Rather, they are vampires from other Clans that have passed all their mysteries, accepted Set as their true god and have been formally inducted into the cult. While such vampires do not shed their original Clan or Clan Curse (a Ventrue converted to Set will still Embrace Ventrue childer and have a peculiar inclination towards his prey), they are taught Serpentis and Setite Sorcery, as well as their Paths of Enlightenment, freely. A convert from another Clan is not treated as a second-class citizen, but rather as a sibling of faith, which is a much more important distinction than blood. An outsider accepting the Dark God is a joyous event, even to the most conservative elder. There are even rumors of non-Kindred supernatural beings joining the cult.
Due to their inherent clan weakness, Followers of Set are extremely susceptible to sunlight (double damage) and have great difficulty acting while under bright light (spotlights, strobes, etc). On the other hand, Followers of Set are curiously immune to Basilisk's poison.
