ASSAMITE VAMPIRE CLAN

Assamites are identified with the medieval Order of Assassins. The Assamites claim to be the oldest of the various clans. According to legend, Haquin was the lord of the armies of the First City who observed Khayyin turn the king and queen of the city into vampires. With several colleagues, he slew the two during the day and drained their blood into a goblet. He then cut himself and allowed himself to almost die. His fellow conspirators then fed him the goblet of blood and laid him to rest. They also took him from the cityand eventually hid away in a fortified mountain fortress called Alamut or the Eagle's Nest.

When he recovered from his ordeal, he greeted his first progeny and set himself over against the other progeny of Khayyin which had multiplied. When opportunity allowed, they killed and drank the blood, thus gowing stronger. Eventually the Cananite children learned of what they named the Assamites. The Ventrue attempted to destroy them, but were unsuccessful. Eventually the Assamites made common cause with one group of the followers of Islam and helped them turn back the Roman allies of the Ventrue. The last threat came from the Knights Templar during the Crusades. However, as the European vampire clans fell victim to the Inquisition, they had amore immediate threat to their survival When, in the fifteenth century, the Camarilla was formed by seven of the vampire clans, the Assamites stayed aloof and supported the Islamic invasion of Europe that carried them through the Balkans into the very gates of Vienna.

In the meantime, the Assamites had problems of their own, as Muslims turned on them and attacked the Alamut. They made peace with the Camarilla in 1496, but the price was to submit to the magic of Tremere. As a result, the blood of the other clans became poisonous, and the Assamites could no longer operate as assassins who gathered to them the blood of the children of Khayyin.

Up to this time, all the Assamites were male. The first female was embraced in 1746. All new members were chosen by the clan as a whole from humans who are already skilled in personal combat (or another particular skill prized and needed by the clan). They must also be able to label enemies of the clan as their enemies and kill without remorse. They are intensely loyal individuals. After seven years of training, recruits found worthy are embraced in a cln ritual. At this time, each is given some of the hertblood, a mixture of the blood of the fallen heroes of the clan which has been collected and stored for this purpose. The heartblood is said to also contain some blood even of the clan founder.

After the embrace, the new clan members, called fida''i - "those who sacrifice themselves" - become full clan members, known as rafig. They clan is headed by the Silsila, the elders, and the three members of the Du'at, the senior most members of the clan. The Du'at is made up of the Caliph (head of military), the Vizier (senior scholar) and the Amr (chief magician). The Du'at advises the Master, the old man of the mountain. The clan as a whole lives by the Khabar, their code which emphasises the virtue of loyalty, brotherhood, honour, vengeance, secrecy, faith (in the Khabar) and the community. They follow the Path of Blood, their goal being to rid the world of the other children of Khayyin. Clan members learn to practice restraint and stay apart from the other clans. They value knowledge as a means of circumventing the treaty of 1496.