Sabbat Hierarchy

THE SMOKING DOG

Each act of man is the twist and double of an hare.
Love and Death are the greyhounds that course him.
God bred the hounds and taketh His pleasure in the
sport.
This is the Comedy of Pan, that man should think
he hunteth, while those hounds hunt him.
This is the Tragedy of Man when facing Love and
Death he turns to bay. He is no more hare, but
boar.
There are no other comedies or tragedies.
Cease then to be the mockery of God; in savagery of
love and death live thou and die!
Thus shall His laughter be thrilled through with
Ecstasy.

—Aleister Crowley, The Book of Lies

The Sabbat Hierarchy

The Sabbat of “New York by Night” differs from the official White Wolf version of the sect. In my campaign milieu, the Sabbat is divided into two distinct factions.

The Barcelona Sabbat
The first is the Old World Sabbat, generally known as the “Barcelona Sabbat.” Guided by the Regent, Prince Gratiano, this faction is based in Spain, and represents the traditional Sabbat. Although they don’t share the beliefs of the Camarilla, the Barcelona Sabbat is orderly, essentially reasonable, and ideologically coherent. The vast majority of Sabbat packs in the United States and Canada are nominally under control of Barcelona. The exception to this is Montreal. Secretly charting their own course since the 1960s, the Montreal Sabbat has begun to openly challenge the Sabbat hierarchy, and is rapidly approaching a state of near-rebellion in the so-called “French Colonies.” Most of the Sabbat covens in Latin America are also under control of Barcelona, with the notable exception of Mexico and its neighbors.

The Mexican Sabbat
The second faction is simply called the “Mexican Sabbat,” and is centered in Mexico City, with additional enclaves in the Yucatán Peninsula, Quetzaltenango, Tegucigalpa, and Managua. Significantly more lawless than the Barcelona Sabbat, the Mexican Sabbat engages in open war against the Camarilla, and seems to have rejected traditional Sabbat organizational structures. No one is sure who leads this faction, but there is much troubling talk of the “Ancient Ones.” Working through Sabbat enclaves in Los Angeles, New York, Cartagena, and Buenos Ares, the Barcelona Sabbat has dispatched numerous Inquisitors to investigate the situation in Mexico, but none have returned alive. Barcelona is on the verge of declaring the Mexican Sabbat a corrupted faction, heretics in need of mass extermination.

Organizational Variations

Keeping with the Sabbat’s tendency to hold a warped mirror to the Catholic church, I have added four new terms to their hierarchical lexicon: Syncelli, canon, sexton, and nuncio.

Syncelli
In the same way a Camarilla prince is advised by a council of Primogen, a Sabbat cardinal or archbishop is advised by the Syncelli, a council of high-ranking Cainites. These Syncelli may include the territorial bishops as well as inquisitors, oracles, Templars, and advisors known as “canons.”

Canon
A canon is a member of a Syncelli Council who serves as an advisor or legate, and has no territorial responsibilities. Unlike a priscus, a canon is bound to a particular Syncelli Council and its ruler. An archbishop may elevate a canon to the status of “praelatus,” a senior advisor who has the equivalent rank of a bishop.

Nuncio
Every Sabbat coven must include a “nuncio,” a Cainite trained in the Auctoritas Ritae and responsible for maintaining discipline and loyalty to the ideals of the Sabbat. Because these ideals may be interpreted differently by various priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals, the position of nuncio is overtly political. It is not unusual for tensions to develop between a coven’s nuncio and its priest or ductus; much the same way a Soviet political officer might run afoul of Russian military commanders. Some covens do not have nuncios, especially feral packs, or those with Anarch tendencies. As such packs rarely hold political power, they may be granted more freedom by the local Sabbat ruler—provided their actions do not undermine broader Sabbat goals.

Sexton
In my campaign milieu, the title of “abbot” has been replaced with “sexton.” The position of sexton is less fraught with complications, and most covens appoint a sexton from their own ranks—a Cainite responsible for carrying out the mundane Ignoblis Ritae, maintaining the communal haven, and keeping tabs on coven activity. Covens generally get along with their sexton, who occupies a position somewhere between manager and historian.

Additional Variations
I’ve made a few other revisions to Sabbat culture.

Relationship to the Camarilla
In New York by Night, the Sabbat and the Camarilla work together more often than they care to admit. While both sects officially deny such a relationship, harsh political realities may occasionally demand secret treaties, sub rosa arrangements, or unholy bargains.

The Black Hand
Templars are free to join the Black Hand—in fact, Templars of the Black Hand are considered the elite among the Sabbat warriors, and are the only Templars that can bear the title “Paladin.”

Factions
The “official” Sabbat factions of Loyalist, Moderate, Status Quo and Ultra-Conservative do not exist as named. The Barcelona Sabbat does not formally recognize political parties. While individuals may have different or even competing political beliefs, and frequently form alliances or ideological blocs, they eschew partisan terminology, and usually refer to themselves as “following” a particular Cainite. The term “faction” is used to describe Sabbat enclaves that exist increasingly independent of Barcelona, such as Mexico, and lately Montreal. Once a faction is declared “in heresy,” they are no longer recognized as Sabbat.

Infernalism
Although Infernalism is rife among the Sabbat, it only concerns the Inquisition if the Cainite is perceived to be under the control of a demon. This makes Infernalists universally distrusted, but not openly reviled or hunted as per the official White Wolf rules.

Sabbat Organization in New York

New York is critically important to Barcelona, and is buttressed by a complex and occasionally redundant power structure. Naturally, the ultimate leader is the Regent, Prince Gratiano of Barcelona.

The Northern Colonies
Prince Gratiano ensures the loyalty of New York through his trusted progeny Lilitu, the Cardinal of the Northern Colonies. An ancient Lasombra with arcane powers, “Sister Lilith” rules from an edifice known as La Cathedral Envuelta, a labyrinthine structure hidden beyond time and space, with several contact points coexisting at key points in Boston, New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Montreal, Bogotá, São Paulo, Buenos Ares, and Barcelona. Hidden deep with La Catedral Envuelta are a collection of strange prisci who guide Sabbat ideology, but rarely appear outside the cathedral’s walls.

The Latrocinium
As these prisci are rarely invoked, Lilitu is advised by a ten-member Syncelli Council consisting of three personal canons, an Inquisitor, and the six archbishops who govern the Sabbat strongholds in the Northern Colonies—New York, Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Baltimore. This Syncelli Council is known as the Latrocinium, and is the most important body of Sabbat rulers in North America.

The Gotham Syncelli
As Lilitu has the entire Northern Colonies to govern, securing New York City requires a more direct hand, which is amply provided by Archbishop Malachi Voordebrax. Malachi is advised by his own Syncelli Council, a body that includes a praelatus, four canons, and four bishops, each responsible for governing a different borough, with Malachi serving as Bishop of Manhattan. Although Malachi is a step below Lilitu in the Sabbat hierarchy, he has considerably more power and influence than any other archbishop in the Latrocinium. This creates some friction between the Lasombra Cardinal and the Tzimisce Archbishop; a tension which is heightened by recent clandestine maneuvers by both parties, with Lilitu quietly reaching out to Montreal and Malachi making furtive trips to Mexico City.

The Covens of New York City
Each of the city’s five boroughs is overseen by a Syncelli bishop, who additionally serves as the priest of that borough’s most important coven. In practice, a bishop is too busy to effectively discharge the duties of a coven priest, so each of these five covens is truly led by its ductus. In recognition for this increased responsibility, the ductus of a bishop’s coven is granted the additional title of “vicar.”

The Bishop of Manhattan is Malachi Voordebrax, but his “Sarnath Coven” is led by his vicar, Spiral. Manhattan’s second-largest coven is the “Byzantium Coven.” Led by Venus and Orchid, this coven is more loyal to Lilitu than to Malachi. The complicated borough of Brooklyn, bastion of Prince Immanuel St. James and playground of Anarchs, is governed by Bishop William Pynchon III and the “Green-Wood Coven.” Queens is maintained by Bishop Archimedes Mercer, whose “Smugglers Pack” is situated along the College Point waterfront. Bishop Mercer is also responsible for overseeing several small nomadic packs, who combat the Anarch threat at the fringes of the borough. The untamed Bronx is patrolled by Virgil Crowley and his pack of bikers. Officially enrolled as the “N.O.X. Coven,” they are more commonly called by the name of their motorcycle club, “The Crow Magnums.” Staten Island has been assigned to Bishop Lucy Astaroth, whose “Alabaster Madonna Coven” works to loosen Midori’s grip on so-called “Pavonia.”

Sources & Notes

This document was first uploaded on 20 February 2000. The banner image incorporates an illustration by John Bolton. I would like to thank my friend “Dagon” from the Netherlands, who loaned me a few notions about Sabbat hierarchy.

Author: Great Quail
Original Upload: 20 February 2000
Last Modified: 29 June 2018
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
PDF Version: Sabbat Hierarchy