Siddim

Moi, si je créais une dépravation nouvelle, je serais prêtresse, tandis que mes imitateurs se traîneraient, après mon règne, dans une fange abominable… Ne vous paraît-il point que les hommes orgueilleux, en copiant Satan, sont bien plus coupables que le Satan de l’Écriture qui invente l’orgueil? Satan n’est-il pas respectable par sa faute même, sans précédent et émanant d’une réflexion divine?
—Rachilde, Monsieur Vénus

Siddim

Siddim represents the worst side of the Sabbat, and indulges Cainites who believe that human beings are merely kine, playthings to be enjoyed and slaughtered at will. As a physical club, Siddim is a somewhat dreary affair whose location changes every few years—shuttered factories, deserted warehouses, condemned apartment buildings; for a spell in the eighties it was located inside a small cruise ship moored alongside a forgotten Brooklyn pier. For this reason, some Cainites refer to parties at Siddim as the “Moveable Feast,” and refer to each incarnation as a “season.” Currently, Siddim occupies an abandoned school on Roosevelt Island, but increasing gentrification has triggered its imminent relocation to a derelict power station in Queens.

Culture
Siddim does not apologize for what it is—a den of iniquity of the lowest order. Roger and Kitty Plant have no use for fancy euphemisms like “lupanarium” and “hetaerae,” and they staff the rooms of Siddim with old-fashioned whores, cheap and plentiful. Kitty in particular boasts an “intimate understanding” of human desire, and doesn’t concern herself with the nuances of gender theory or political correctness when catering to the dank imaginations of her clientele—she makes sure Siddim is stocked with obese whores for chubby chasers, underage boys for repressed Republicans, and gaudy she-males for sweaty, self-loathing homophobes. While most of the prostitutes working Siddim do so consensually, many are addicted to drugs, and the Plants are always ready to supply. Security is provided by Roger and Kitty Plant’s “family,” an extended network of pimps, madams, and thugs. There are no Templars at Siddim, and problems are dealt with swiftly and often violently.

Layout

No matter its location, Siddim remains unadvertised, its address circulated by word of mouth, and its entrance painted blue with the phrase “Why Not?” emblazoned in gold. The interior of the club is usually labyrinthine, but once aspects always holds true—the deeper one travels, the more sordid things become.

Upper Brothel
The first layer of Siddim is always a brothel, usually taking the form of a traditional whorehouse with a parlor and numerous private rooms. Depending on the location, this upper brothel may actually be several smaller bordellos catering to different tastes, but the rates are usually cheap and few questions are asked. Many of the men and women who work the upper brothel are blood dolls, available to Cainites for a “fuck & suck” at least twice per night. While killing is discouraged, for a hefty fee the Plants can make “special arrangements.”

Opium Den
Beneath the upper brothel is Siddim’s opium den, staffed by barely-dressed “geishas” and operated by a Tzimisce Mama-san named Suisei. Known for her graceful movements and her unreadably blank face, Suisei never speaks, issuing her commands from the mouths of her various human geishas. Security in the opium den is provided by Ramazan, a Nosferatu eunuch who defected from Radu’s court in the mid-1950s. Embraced in the Ottoman Empire, Ramazan is imposing but restrained, carries an antique kilij, and feeds only from animals.

Beyond the Black Curtain
The lowest levels of Siddim are accessible only through the Black Curtain. Located in a dark room and illuminated by cobalt blue light, the Black Curtain is guarded by one of Roger Plant’s armed thugs. Any guest passing through the Black Curtain surrenders $200 and enters a space where no questions are asked, no rules are enforced, and no mercy is quartered. Siddim regulars call this area the “Goblin Market,” and it invariably takes the form of a labyrinthine warren of depravity, luridly illuminated by red lights and filled with the dregs of society, both human and Cainite. The Goblin Market represents the “real” Siddim, and one can find all manner of vice, from underage runaways to Pasiphaë-like machines designed to support bestiality. Live sex shows, enslaved and defanged Lupines, carnival freaks transformed into ghouls, whores flesh-crafted into monstrous beings by El Murciélago—the offerings of the Goblin Market change with each season. It poses a distinct danger to guests as well as “employees,” as Cainites passing beyond the Black Curtain are granted permission to drink at will, and any human who enters this carnivalesque space is considered fair game. This having been said, the Plants are immoral, not stupid, and cases of actual murder are kept to a discreet—and expensive—minimum. Most of Siddim’s human regulars pay for transgression and the taste of danger, not suicide. Although, as we’ll see, that is also an option…

El Serrallo de Grotescos
One of the most features of the Goblin Market is El Serrallo de Grotescos. This surreal and terrible brothel is operated by a Tzimisce ghoul named Vamachara, fleshcrafted over the years by El Murciélago into a six-armed goddess with indigo skin and writhing serpents for hair. El Serrallo features a dozen or so humans transformed into monstrous new gárgolas by El Murciélago and occasional “guest artists,” a menagerie of coiled lamiae, blind hermaphrodites, human centipedes, mermaids and centaurs; every season of Siddim has its favorites. Some of these gárgolas approach the status of Tzimisce vozhd, such as the Priapus, or the nameless, multi-orificed monstrosity quivering in the center of the Serrallo’s orgy room. Unfortunately for these gárgolas, once they pass el punto de no retorno, El Murciélago drinks their blood and retains their bodies as mementos.

The Suicide Chamber
Every incarnation of Siddim features a long corridor that terminates in a black door with a human skull fastened to the wood. Patrons opening the door find themselves in a small vestibule, facing a ghoul sitting by a second black door. The ghoul asks a single question—“Are you ready to die?” If the answer is affirmative, he unlocks the second door, and the suicidal patron enters the chamber to find a comfortable bed and a willing Cainite. The arrangement is well-known throughout Siddim: death is certain, but is promised to be painless, even ecstatic. Patrons are expected to have a suicide letter on their person, along with instructions regarding the fate of their dead body—“Gunshot to the head in my bedroom.” “Drowned in the Hudson.” “Slit my wrists in my ex-wife’s bathtub.” And so on. The Sabbat does their best to honor the wishes of the deceased, and insures that police investigation will be minimal.

If I created a new depravity I would be a priestess, while my imitators would founder, after my reign, in abominable filth. Don’t you think that proud men, copying Satan, are more guilty than the Satan of the Bible, who invented pride? Is Satan not respectable because of his unprecedented and divinely inspired sin?
—Rachilde, Monsieur Vénus

Lupanaria of Byzantium
Club Byzantium | Viriconium | Siddim | The Hippodrome | Zoara Bela | Cabaret Tannhäuser | Empusa Theatre | Hellfire Club | Satrina

Sources & Notes

The core of the Gotham Sabbat was first uploaded on 31 October 2000, but the Byzantium Coven was extensively revised during the August 2018 update. Siddim is based on Under the Willow, a historic red-light district in 1860s Chicago run by Roger Plant and his wife; said to be one of the most wicked places in America. The banner for Siddim uses a piece called Lotus, by Anna Ignatieva, who goes by the name Anya Nya on Deviant Art and Maruhana-Bachi on Tumblr. The painting of the “Goblin Market” is by the British graffiti artist Xenz, who created a series of abstract paintings about Under the Willow.

Author: Great Quail
Original Upload: 29 September 2018
Last Modified: 29 September 2018
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
PDF Version: [Coming Soon]