***“Some of your clanmates tried to engineer a nuclear war, or global plague, for the reason of keeping their havens safe, but none of their efforts worked out. The Courts of Blood authorized the destruction of all involved: you may not purchase your safe haven at the cost of everyone else’s.”
Clan Lasombra is fraught with contradictions. A Clan of social Darwinists, ruthless power-grabbers and Machiavellian masterminds, it has always been a thorn in the side of the other High Clans, such as the Ventrue, and then a resolute foe of the Camarilla, as one of the two Sabbat Clans.
Defectors, such as the Lasombra Antitribu, are hunted, staked, and then killed or diablerized: their weakness shown by the fact they could not prevent their own deaths.
So, why are so many defecting to the Ivory Tower?
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Anything below is Lasombra content that can be spoilers. Read at your own peril.
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Symbol of the Lasombra, used since the Dark Ages
The defections, growing night by night, of so, so many Lasombra was both an opportunity, and a risk for infiltration, in the eyes of the Camarilla. So, while Milan, and DC and the wider Eastern Seaboard up to Virginia allows for Lasombra to join the Camarilla openly, the situation is not as clear-cut elsewhere. Many Princes bar the Lasombra from their domains, mistrustful of the erstwhile enemies coming to their gates asking for a truce. After all, wasn’t Prince Michaela of New York beheaded by the Archbishop Francisco Domingo da Polonia, a Sabbat Lasombra, while pretending they wished for a parley, and made a Cardinal, because of his ploy?
About half of the Clan of Shadows remained staunchly loyal to the Sword of Caine. In Spain, the cabals and shadowy organizations of Ambrosio Luis Monçada keep the Iberian and European Lasombra entrenched behind the Sabbat, and Cardinal da Polonia is keeping a close eye on his clanmates in the Americas. Still, defections by “weaker” Lasombra, tired of watching their back constantly from the rest of their packmates, do happen. Obviously, the Sabbat has promised many things to those who slay, or diablerize Giangaleazzo or Vitel, the thorns in the Sabbat’s side and a black mark and bad example for the rest of the Clan.
Elsewhere, it is not unheard of Lasombra destroying their packmates, and bringing bodies in torpor, or a bag of heads, to the local Prince. With the secret backing of the more Camarilla-minded Friends of the Night, the Lasombra strengthen their networks inside the new Sect, with the antitribu and the defectors working side by side to advance the cause of the Clan.
In 2007, with the Summit of Prague, disaster almost struck during the seven nights when the Sabbat, Anarchs and Camarilla delegates tried to put down some rules to the slaughter, as the BSI came incredibly close to open war with the race of the Vampires. As Sabbat Lasombra tried to kill “defectors” on the other side of the aisle, the Summit was almost cut short, but it also brought the Camarilla together on one matter: the need to entrench the Lasombra Antitribu in the Sect.
The Inner Circle made a provision, in during the Summit, declaring that the Lasombra may dwell in the East Coast and Italy, with the promise that no harm will be done to them for their past trespasses and actions, provided they follow the Traditions. While some places welcomed them, others closed their doors shut: some wounds do not heal with a simple flick of a quill.
In some places, the price of entrance is steep. Prince Jackson of Chicago has allowed the Lasombra entry from 2018 onwards, provided they have a letter from another Prince. Those that do not, however, are asked to deliver the staked body of a Sabbat (preferably) or their head. Though, while more despotic Princes have used such means to avoid angering the Inner Circle while keeping the Lasombra out (and there’s nothing a Lasombra loves more than a challenge), more and more domains are opening their doors to the Clan of Shadows.
The Lasombra did not relent in their plan to become a respected Clan: they haven’t survived by giving up. Funnelling their goodwill and contacts across the Ashirra, they managed to rope in the Assamites and plan, somehow, a wedding. A Vermillion Wedding, to be exact. Securing the Camarilla’s alliance with the other Sect has garnered them quite a lot of goodwill.
The Friends of the Night has always had both regular and Antitribu members, but the proportion has always been skewed towards the Sabbat wing. As such, the Antitribu struggled, especially from 1997 and until 2007. It was inconceivable for the group to accept that the Clan was split in two, and this culminated in **the attempt to kill the Lasombra Antitribu delegates in Prague, by the Sabbat wing of the Friends of the Night.**
Afterwards, especially with the results achieved by the Camarilla Lasombra, the assassination attempts are markedly less frequent now: as of the last five years, the Courts of Blood have decided that “Sect issues are not enough to warrant execution anymore”, likely because the Courts were tired of continuous appeals. More pressing matters, such as Lasombra behaviour and actions in the wake of the future of the Cainite race, were to be judged.
With the Ashirra and Camarilla bloc of the Friends of the Night allying after 2021, the situation was reversed. As such, the group decided to enforce a simple rule: no killing on meetings, for no reason whatsoever, though afterwards it is “fair game for everyone.” The Lasombra have a wicked sense of humour and propriety, but that’s what centuries in the Sabbat does to one’s psyche.
After troubling news of an accident in Sicily, however, the Friends of the Night have been avoiding meetings, and warnings reached all their members: “something is waking up in the dark”; the Abyss Mystics are less and less willing to wade through the Abyss, as more and more of them go missing.
While not a symbol, it is the first thing that it comes to mind to any Lasombra, when thinking of the Courts of Blood: “three Judges, cloaked by the night, with uneven scales, judging all of the Keepers”
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The name of the Lasombra network has changed with time, and the current lingua franca*.*** Before Rome, it was the Brether Nokw and Phíloi tēs Nyktós. During Rome and the Middle Ages, it was the Amici Noctis, and during the Renaissance and Modern Ages, it was Amigos de la Noche, Les Amis Noirs and Amici della Notte, and for a short time, in Prussian-dominated Europe, it was the Freunde der Nachtzeit.
Today, the lingua franca is English, though Eastern Lasombra would use Yèyǒu Zhī Tú, or “fellowship of the night”, across the Far East… ****
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One of the classic Vampire questions, and here more than ever, is: who is the anti-tribu?
The symbol of the Lasombra, the crown, has been co-opted by the Sabbat Lasombra. However, the spiked circle with the crown has been used by the Lasombra Antitribu since Thorns. Which is awful since the spiked circle has always been a Sabbat Antitribu “thing”.
What to do? Digging deeper, and to one’s shadowy roots, is always the solution. In the Dark Ages, the Lasombra of the High Clans had always used the most royal of the birds of pray, an eagle with a crown, to reveal themselves. Some Lasombra have reverted to that symbol, if they are in the Ivory Tower, or the Movement.
Some make it a lineage matter: ****the Gratiano and pro-Sabbat Keepers use the crown, the Montano and anti-Sabbat Keepers use the spiked crown, or the crowned eagle.
Finally, some simply don’t care. A Lasombra would be a Lasombra, even with another name or symbol, would say a Toreador in a poetic estrus, and that is not far from the truth.
The Lasombra crown and “antitribu” crown, used since the Convention of Thorns