Long did Enoch First-Ruler wander in the hellish wasteland of the Land of Nod, hiding at day from the piercing Rays of Raphael, the Arch-angel, the Driver of the Sun, the Ward of the East and at night feeding on the creatures of Lillith, the Wife of his Father Caine. Disgusted by the crimes he and his brethren had committed to drink Vitae, Enoch had sworn never again to take nourishment from the Children of Seth's House.
But for each drop of animal Vitae Enoch drank, his Hunger grew. Each time he denied the Curse of Uriel, the Angel of Death, Enoch's desire grew. The Beast rose in the First-born and drove him through the sands of the desert in search of prey. He came upon an oasis where a mortal man was sitting, allowing himself a rest and his camels water before the travel continued. Enoch came rushing from the darkness like a Beast of Legend, and the man only had brief moments to wonder why his camels were fleeing into the desert in a panic. Then Enoch was upon him and his life's Vitae was rushing from his body at the pace of a Great Desert Storm. Only when the last of the mortal's Vitae passed the stony lips of Enoch, did his Hunger release its grip on his soul and he looked at the face of his victim.
The man had a gentle face, on which was visible a compassion and a gentleness which rivalled the divine light which shone from the eyes of Gentle Gabriel, the Lord of Mercy. Enoch wept tears of deep red for the breaking of his own oath, and for the shame he felt at having ended the existence of such a gentle creature.
He was weak from the years of wandering, and this weakness combined with a desire to talk with another thinking creature, made Enoch share his Vitae with the man and thus Saulot became the Childe of Enoch First-Ruler. Saulot was a philosopher and a gentle soul. Enoch spend an age with his Childe, feeling a measure of happiness for the first time in what felt like an eternity. He treated his Childe with the respect of a brother and spoke with him like he would with an equal man. Saulot was a great comfort to Enoch, and just as Enoch did learn Saulot many secret things, so did Saulot possess wisdom which was a Sweet Vitae to the First-born.
But even the gentle manner of Saulot was no match for the Beast which lies ever waiting within the breast of the Ancients and their Childer alike, a Beast seemingly more powerful the closer the Cainite is to the Great Father. Enoch watched helplessly as Saulot began to display the same behaviour which had driven Enoch to search for his Father. He watched as the morals of Saulot began to crumble like a poorly constructed house during a storm. He watched as Saulot the Healer became Saulot the Beast. Finally he could stand no more, and fled into the Land of Nod, and out of the Chronicles of the Cainites, forever.
Saulot created Childer of his own, and like Enoch his Beast loosened its claws from his soul and he watched in shame the actions of his Childer. He saw his own first-born Shaitan, a philosopher like himself, turn ever more vile and corrupt. He saw how the debate war he and Shaitan had waged upon each other for centuries began to evolve into something more. Saulot had claimed that the Curse was merely an obstacle on the path towards perfection. Shaitan had argued that while his Sire and all other Cainites accepted the Curse, he would not! He would not have a powerful curse upon him for something Caine had done, nor would he let the power which came with it be unused. If the One Above had put Shaitan and his fellow Cainites above all other creatures in Creation, then surely that position should be used to attain absolute power and thus exact vengeance upon the One Above. Shaitan seduced many of Saulot's Childer to his way of thinking, and they build a city in the lands of Kala-At-Shergat which they turned into a Hell on Earth.
At this Saulot, like his Father, and his Father before him, he cried crimson tears over the crimes of the Cainites and walked East, into the Land of Nod and away from the hell he had been partly responsible of creating. In the wastelands of the Land of Nod, Saulot freed himself of his Beast. He regretted his actions and those of his Childer, and wanted to right what was wrong. He desired forgiveness, and to rid his soul of the Beast. In his sleep the Archangel Gabriel appeared before him, as he had before Caine, and he said unto Saulot:
"Grand-son in Darkness of Caine, the Son of Adam and Eve, you alone of all your brethren has asked for forgiveness. The mercy of the Father is greater than any of your kind will ever know, for he has laid open a path for you, a road of Mercy which is known as Golconda. For those of you who desire it, they may walk on that road into the Light once more. But only those who truly seek forgiveness and salvation may find it, only those who are willing to deny the Anger of Caine. You must be the prophet for this truth! You must return to your kind and tell them of the Mercy of God. Let them know that those who seek salvation and Golconda shall find it."With these words, Gabriel kissed the brow of Saulot and returned to the Heavens.
Saulot spend a long time meditating over the words of Gabriel. He turned his gaze inwards and travelled through the darkness of his own mind, like he had long travelled through the darkness of the wasteland of Nod. He confronted his own daemons, and those send to him by the Archdaemons of Hell who had told Caine the secret of the Embrace, and who wanted to corrupt his Childer. Saulot made a tidal-wave of tranquility and serenity flood his mind, and silence the voices of Those Below. He cast them out, and allowed only the gentle, yet piercing, flame of Golconda to burn within him. When Saulot opened once again his eyes to the world, a third eye opened in his forehead where Gentle Gabriel had kissed him, an eye from which shone the light of wisdom and forgiveness.
Saulot walked the East for many years before he returned to his brethren. On that journey he sought out the philosophers and enlightened of the lands which he passed through, and based on what he knew, and what he learned, Saulot came to master the Discipline of Obeah.
He returned to the Second City to witness its fall _ he was horrorfied at the corruption which had spread throughout the Great City. Saulot sought out those of his Childer who had fallen from grace, and attempted to redeem them. Those he could not save, he destroyed!
Not willing to allow his own mistakes to spread more evil in the world, Saulot would rather risk his own tranquility than turn the other cheek.
Saulot began to spread the Word of Golconda, but it was drowned in the bloody War between the Second Generation and their Childer.
The Second City destroyed and the Cainite society in ruins, Saulot and his Childer followed the streams of people to the city of Shaitan, and saw how depraved and evil his Childer had become. He was there, when the Cainites lay siege to the city, broke through its walls killed its inhabitants _ mortal and immortal alike. Saulot also heard the whispering which bagan even then. Whispers which blamed Saulot and the Salubri for the fall of the Second City. If one of his Childer could create such a hell in Kala-At-Shergat, it should prove a minor matter to lay waste to a Great Cainite City. But Saulot dismissed such talk as the repercussions from the loss of their home. He made Kala-At- Shergat his new home, and began to heal the battered souls of the Cainites.
Those whom Saulot Embraced after having reached Golconda, and those whom his Childer Embraced, were all believers in his visions, and all were taught the Words of Saulot, which are still preserved in the Book of Nod, and in the Eight Scrolls:
Know you are made to be unmade
You are the white lamb
The gentle sacrifice
You are the greatest part of the bounty of Caine
And on your shoulders shall be his greatest Sin,
for alone among the children of Caine I have asked the One Above for forgiveness,
and I have been visited by the worst of the One Below's daemons
Those snakes, which bit me in my sleeping,
Those foul wyrms who suck my blood,
I learned from them to take the blackness from the blood
the wounds from the flesh
the evil from the soul.
And though I may die, you, my Childer will live on
Open they Eye, and see the world truly,
and know that what you do now
goes on to heal another generation.
But the Ba'ali, the brothers and sisters of Saulot's Childer and Grandchilder feared the teachings of their Father. They feared it because it would bring light where they were creating darkness, it would bring forgiveness where they were sowing hate, it would bring the peace from Above where they were igniting the flames of Below. Thus they began to commit crimes in Saulot's name, crimes which made Shaitan below his daemonic laughter from across the Oceans. Although a few of the Elders knew the truth, they were unable to prove anything and soon all the Salubri were branded as Outcasts, and hunted in every city, every land where the Cainites held any power.
Thus it came to be, that the healers became afraid of using their powers, and many could only weep in silence and secrecy as their Brothers and Sisters tore themselves apart in the War of the Ages. Saulot despaired at the ignorance of his Brothers and Sisters, despaired at the way he was prevented from healing the schism between the Generations. He saw how the Evil which the Cainites committed grew and grew in proportions as the Damned grew more and more in numbers, and foresaw that as just as the Third Generation had rebelled against the Second, and the Fourth against the Third, so would the Childer of the Fourth Generation, and the Childer of many Generations after that rise against their Sires. Rebellion would become their only possibility if they wanted freedom, as the Elders grabbed more and more power, leaving the Young with less and less influence on their own lives. The frustration grew stronger in each new Generation, as they saw the power flow away to fill the cups of the ever-thirsty Elders. Saulot foresaw a time where the rebellious Young would be so great in number, that the God-like strength of the Antediluvians would matter little _ the world would drown in blood when that happened.
Saulot thought long and carefully about this, his mind darkened by the
horrible future he saw lurking. He spoke with the most intelligent and sharp
members of both the Living and the Undead world, he exchanged opinions,
shared experiences and finally came up with a possible solution. The problem
essentially had its basis in the power-lust of the True Elders of the Cainites,
Methuselahs and the Antediluvians. He recognised that Shaitan had permanently
destroyed his chances of preaching openly of Golconda _ the Elders believed
Saulot and his Childer to be responsible for the crimes of the Ba'ali, and
their Childer believed them and needed look no further than the smoking ruins
of the Second City, and the horror of Kala-At-Shergat, to see that the
accusations were true. Saulot believed he could remove the fears of the
Cainites, by spreading the Truth from the Elders to their Childer. He knew,
he had time on his side. Eventually, the Beast would gnaw away the reason of
both the Methuselahs and their Childer. Eventually, they too would become
Beasts and destroy with abandon. Eventually, they too would despair at an
existence which they would have to spend drenched in the blood of the innocent.
Like Caine, Enoch and Saulot had before them. Eventually, they would seek a
way out of their own personal hell. Eventually, they would hear of Golconda and
desire the lore of Saulot. Saulot saw all this in an instant, and decided to
become the soothing voice which would speak to the Damned from the darkness.
He would be there when the time was right. Saulot became obsessed with the
idea of how he could save his kind from the Beast. He did not for a long time,
see the pain of his Childer. He did not see that they suffered like he did,
at the fact that they could not speak their mind, or try to bring peace to
the raging minds of the Kindred, without risking Final Death. They needed a
mountain of strength, on which they could rest and heal their own wounds, but
Saulot was too occupied with his pet project to notice this. He did not see
that his Childer began to divide into the fractions which would later become
the Three Philosophies. The Salubri needed Saulot to interpret his prophecies
and his teaching, but he was not there, and thus the fractions continued to
believe that they held the One Truth.
Saulot was wandering the world, and observed the Cainites from the shadows. He searched for those who would have their souls destroyed and their minds broken if they continued to participate in the petty wars of their siblings. Those who despaired, heard the gentle voice of Saulot and welcomed his teachings of Golconda. As Saulot's teachings entered the hearts of more and more Cainites, he saw a possibility to employ them against the Evil the Ba'ali had let loose. He began to articulate ideas of a group of Elders who could spread the vision of Golconda through the ranks of the Young, and he began to introduce the Golconda-questers to each other. While Saulot pushed gently on, these students of his ways began to talk of and plan the structure of the organisation which would later become the Inconnu. Some moved to the threshold of Golconda very quickly, others fell many times alongside the road, but all did they move towards the Path of Mercy. Many released some of their iron-grip on the world, and gave more room to the other Cainites, and a few began to discuss a new structure of the Cainite society. Apparently, salvation had once again moved within reach and the machinations of Shaitan and his foul brethren could be undone.
Saulot rejoiced that his plans were finally beginning to bear fruit, and saw the end of the pogrom against all Salubri. But then he had a terrible vision, in which he saw Cret the Ventrue Sorcerer plan a permanent base for the Inconnu, and he also saw how his own ideals for the group and his beliefs of Golconda were drowned in blood and sacrifices. Saulot was cast from his throne of ideals and directly into the pit of despair. In his disappointment, Saulot decided that he wanted nothing more of the world, and entered Torpor.
His Clan and his students of the newly created Inconnu were left to fend for themselves, but for most there were no question of what they had to do: the teachings of Saulot and the Path to Golconda had to be made known to the Cainites, lest they all become like the foul Ba'ali.
The Salubri began to crack under the strain of suddenly having their Founder disappear from their world, and the Philosophies began to crystallise. Some Salubri believed they had earned the hate of the Clans, by inheriting all the sins of Caine, and they went to perfect their spirit and destroying themselves upon achieving perfection, by Embracing a new Childe and making it drink all their Vitae. Others became the prophets of the Cainites, spreading the word of Golconda and the teachings of Saulot, until they were extinguished by Ba'ali or members of the Clans, who still blamed them for the destruction the Ba'ali wracked in Kala-At-Shergat. Finally, there were those who saw it as a sin to await the fangs and claws of the Clans, thus letting Evil gain even more power. Why, when they knew who were pulling the strings? Why, when they could destroy them and lead the Cainites into the light?
These three types of beliefs became The Three Philosophies, and were all based on the Words of Saulot. These Philosophies are not as structured as the Paths of Enlightenment, which some Cainites follow, but merely gave rough guidelines for the Path to Golconda. The belief for all three Philosophies was, that the Path to Enlightenment was far to personal and individual to be confined within a framework of words. If that happened, one would come to seek the perfection of the words and not the perfection of one's deeds and soul.
