Information and data collection

“Our kin within the Sabbat sadly obsess over reprisals. If you must pursue an agenda against the Giovanni, make it your hobby rather than your focus. Petty vengeance pales in comparison to the works of great import ahead of you in the Tal’Mahe’Ra.”

Unsettling is a kind word to use when describ-ing the Harbdescrib-ingers of Skulls, both in presence and practice. Clad in thin shrouds wrapped tightly around their skeletal bodies, rictus grins splitting their faces in two, and skin like paper, sallow and wan; the Harbingers do little to keep up appearances. Little pleases them more than the vivisection and study of a mortal, a wraith’s corpus, or a vampire’s undead shell.

They delight in educating guests with demonstrations of their nec-romancies, happily elucidating on the makeup of both souls and bodies.

They claim to be experts on both subjects.

They’ve had time to practice.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bloodline exists comfortably within the Shadowlands. The ma-jority of them were exiled to the Underworld realm they call Golgotha centuries ago, some unwillingly, but many for the purposes of self-preservation. The Methuselah named Lazarus advised the Harbingers to hide in the Shadowlands, to make alliances in the Underworld and, like Anubis, he would shep-herd them to their next destination when the time was right.

Time moves slowly in the lands of the dead.

The power of the Harbingers grew along with their impatience. Several among their number remained at the gateway to their prison, known as Kaymakli, while others traveled deeper into the darkness.

As they journeyed through Golgotha, Lazarus would occasionally appear in visions as a Capuchin friar. His messages were cryptic, but always urged the bloodline to move forward.

Traversing the Tempest was a grueling odyssey. Many Harbingers were consumed by the endless sea of tormented spirits, the weakest among them dragged beyond the reach of their companions. Eventually, the battered and broken bloodline

found Enoch, though the Nagaraja maintain that Enoch found them. Those who made the journey were treated as hallowed guests, greatly wronged by their Giovanni cousins. In truth, these Harbingers cared less for the fate of their Antediluvian and more for the great bastion of necromantic energy before

them. For centuries after, the Harbingers traded with the Tal’Mahe’Ra. For safe harbor and freedom to study the mysteries of the Labyrinth, they would devote both maintenance and defense to Enoch.

When the seal at Kaymakli was rent by the tri-umvirate of Lazarus, his brother Byzar, and the wraith known as Japheth, the few remaining Kaymakli Harbingers burst free and followed Japheth to the Sabbat. Byzar disappeared into darkness, an old score apparently now settled. Lazarus, however, strode deeply into the Shadowlands and ultimately discovered his lost brethren.

He was pleased with what he found, as these Lazarenes had a greater grasp of death and its lands than his destroyed sire or any Giovanni.

The Harbingers within the Tal’Mahe’Ra are not so drawn to the taste of ven-geance as their Sabbat kin. Above all

else, the Harbingers who serve the Hand remain focused on

explor-ing the land of the dead and the reflections of the world above,

de-veloping rituals to manipulate the Shadowlands around them. The Hand has utilized the Harbingers’

proficiency for doing so, setting the Lazarenes to act as spies. The Harbingers spend many nights peering through the Shroud and into the mortal world, voyeuristically observing secret meetings between Kindred and reporting back to the Hand with selective nuggets of information.

The Harbingers’ utility extends be-yond reconnaissance. While unable to return to the world above during the time Kaymakli’s seal stood, they were still capable of luring mortals into the Shadowlands thanks to the ritual of

Parting the Veil (see p.176).

Most kine stolen from the mortal world are taken for nourishment, but some few are targeted specifically for the Embrace. The Harbingers’ numbers are small, but growing quickly as they adjust to their now being able to return to the world above. Many Harbingers require childer or ghouls simply in order to function outside of the Shadowlands, resulting in the Embrace of an array of childer from multiple walks of life.

The relationship between the Hand and Lazarus is unclear, excepting his declaration of gratitude to the Tal’Mahe’Ra for the sanctuary provided to his kin. Rumors abound that Lazarus is either a consort of the Followers of Set or has been spying on them for centuries on behalf of the Hand. Since his appearance in the Shadowlands, the activities of the Harbingers have become ones of aggres-sion against targets set by Lazarus and the Tal’Mahe’Ra.

Using their extensive knowledge of the dark reflections of reality shown in the Shadowlands, the Methuselah and the Sect instruct the Lazarenes to despoil and corrupt locations and beings both. The Harbingers repeatedly use necromancies in certain regions, constantly haunting select locales and causing incidents of mass terror with their dark rituals. The results are swollen, rancid mirrors of entities from the mortal world, projected into the Shadowlands. This campaign has been world-wide, necromantic blisters like Enoch and Kaymakli forming in greater numbers. Gradually the Harbingers contribute to the construction of further shadow bastions for the Tal’Mahe’Ra.

Under the direction of the Sect and Lazarus, many of these are reflections of locations controlled by the Setites.

The Harbingers do not claim to be wholly in league with the Tal’Mahe’Ra, but they do recognize a debt that must be paid. For as long as the Sect and bloodline find common ground, the Lazarenes of Enoch are likely to stand by the True Black Hand.

Nagaraja

“Do not fear blood, for it is a holy river that purifies you.

Do not fear dying flesh, for it kindles the fires of immortality.”

Born to bolster the ranks of the True Hand, most Nagaraja remain out of a commitment to the Idran and its philosophies — but that number, while still the majority, is declining. As more renegades provide

necro-mantic services to clientele from other Sects, Nagaraja lose face. Some join the Bahari, closer to the Sect’s center of power, or refuse membership in any particular cult to serve the whole. However, loyal Idran members tend to be older, stronger, and privy to necromantic lore found nowhere else, so despite the cult’s diminished state, other Cainites respect their personal power.

The Nagaraja were born within the True Hand. Ancient Idran realized that even with the help of the yama-sattva and other Kindred, they could not safeguard Enoch from infernal-ists, Setites, and other corrupted beings without a cadre of vampire necromancers who answered to them alone. This makes defections especially painful to loyalists, but they refuse to condemn renegades to Final Death unless they share True Hand secrets. The Idran are mystics at heart and believe that preserving their lore is critically important. Even rogue Nagaraja practice the ancient ways. This is an obvious security concern for the Sect, however, so any “free”

Nagaraja should assume she’s being monitored.

Idran believe that Enoch is a representation of the Wheel of Life and Death, and the judg-ment the dead will soon impose upon the living. The ya-masattva claim that, according to the Guarded Rubrics, if evil claims the

Basalt Throne, Gehenna will change from a moment of liberation to the unleashing of

Naraka-hells on Earth. Thus, loyal Nagaraja fulfill the holy duty of guarding Enoch and researching its secrets, as part of a broader mission to study the cycles of life and death. They’ve have been entrusted with the city’s secrets, made aware of certain omens, and are sent forth with enigmatic tasks by elders and

yamasattva.

The bloodline claims no Clan as its founder, but its elders know that Setite blood was magically altered to produce them. This blood was

sup-posedly cleansed of Sutekh’s malign influence. Though the yamasattva are mighty sorcerers and Inauhaten himself helped design the rite that made them, Nagaraja are particularly knowledgeable in the occult and know that once broken, mystic sympathies can be remade. Thus, they fall on the Followers of Set as anonymous executioners, refusing to ever speak

to Snake-Charmers.

The eldest Nagaraja belong to the Sixth Generation. Some of them believe that through ritual diablerie, they might regain the standing they once held in

the True Hand, while further confusing attempts to trace their origins. The Tal’Mahe’Ra

forbids diablerie without the express permission of the Wazir council, and have thus

far refused to authorize the assassination of an

appro-priate target. Yet others have made bold moves that were blessed by

the Del’Roh after

The first Nagaraja were sorcerers, and rapidly devel-oped necromantic blood magic to compensate for the lost Atman. They invented the Vitreous Path (see V20, pp. 174-176) and primarily practice it, the Cenotaph Path, and the Sepulchre Path, though they have access to others. Nagaraja Necromancers may be unequaled in breadth of their knowledge, even if it is limited by the elders’ strength of blood.

Stereotypes

Bahari: Death has no gender, and life is dust with pretensions.

Idran: Keepers of the true way. We must remind the others of that before Gehenna’s pyres illuminate the truth for everyone.

Order of Moloch: Demons exist to punish an impure existence; yet calling upon them is the essence of self-deg-radation. This should be a self-correcting problem, but sometimes it’s a good idea to hurry karma along.

Tal’Mahe’Ra: Do you think a man will judge us? No, we have already been judged. Even if the Basalt Throne were to be cast into the Tempest, the Wheel abides.