The Chaos Cult
A vampire can follow Kindred society’s laws, uphold the Camarilla’s Traditions, cling onto their pillars of Humanity, and struggle nightly with the growling Beast in their heart. Or, a vampire can make their own laws, drive their heel into the Camarilla, divest themselves of their mortal shackles, and make their Beast a weapon.
The Church of Set favor the latter option. It is what they preach. It is what they believe. Possibly the oldest of all Kindred religions, stretching back in time across millennia, the Church of Set have always been present to “liberate” vampires from society’s strictures and encourage them to find their true calling.
Yes, many fall, become wights, and are used as valuable teaching lessons. But for those who survive? They become stronger, and praise be to Set for helping those vampires become everything they are meant to be.
Due to their attitudes toward liberation from rules, theoretically, many Kindred should oppose the Church’s very existence. They are servants of chaos, advocating that unlife only possesses meaning if vampires free themselves from the edicts of ancient masters such as Princes and Justicars. Yet, vampires see in the Church of Set wisdom that comes through age and experience, freedom through anarchy, and a chance to rebel against all the external tyrants and internal guilt trips that hold them down. Whenever a domain holds a temple of Set, the Kindred know there’s a place they can visit for a form of enlightenment, counsel, and hard, bitter truth. They also know that by attending this temple, they can find purpose in the meaningless nature of eternity.
The Church of Set is strong because it appeals to a Kindred’s base nature, while promising to eradicate the worst of those desires. It is chaos, storm, and promise of change. When the alternative seems like stagnation, it’s no wonder neonates of tonight increasingly flock to the temple doors.
Despite their message of freedom, however, the Church of Set is not some utopic faith to which all fledglings must cling. Even the Ministry — the clan most commonly associated with the Church, through their Blood, founder, and religious practices — urges caution to those seeking to follow Set’s path.
Church and State
In the nights following Gehenna, a curious — though not unprecedented — schism occurred within the flocks of Set, so the Serpents claim. Just as Set’s sarcophagus at Ombos was said to shatter many centuries ago, so too in these nights did the body of Set’s faith fracture into dangerous shards.
One such splinter group, shedding ties to its venerable history and even abandoning the name of the Red God himself, refers to itself as the Ministry. The Church of Set refers to them as heretics, and yet, it is the Ministry who dominate the clan tonight. To understand the Church of Set, one must first understand the Ministry.
The Ministry are the Clan of Faith, but they are not a single religion. The Ministry holds the keys to salvation and uses them to deface every surface around them. They are known to steal, reproduce, and even forge texts of orthodox doctrine, disseminating them among unbelievers, unworthies, and the otherwise unready. Doctrine is often twisted to fit their own needs, especially when it comes to the holy search for the mysteries of Set. Ministers have shown themselves eager to enshrine Set within or attribute to him anything that benefits their autocratic philosophies or actions, syncretizing him with tyrannical kings, chosen Antediluvians, or, among the radical fringe, Set’s inimical brother Osiris. The Ministry is content to use Allah, Catholic saints, Vishnu, or any other being of reverence as a mask for Set. They attract followers because the clan is made up from followers of every religion, every culture, and every background. The Ministry are a clan of chaos, but they are the body, the bureaucracy, and the society that ostensibly governs the realm of faith among Kindred.
The Ministry perverts doctrine of all religions to bring its members closer to Set. They are wreckers and despoilers to some, but liberators and counselors to others. Ministers might spread terrible lies about supposed abuses of power committed by the Church of Set, just as the Church of Set finds itself taking in Ministry survivors who have been subject to those same abuses. It is not unheard of for a temple of Set to offer shelter to kine or Kindred misused by the Ministry. To many, it appears the Ministry and Church are at war. To others, it is clear a cycle of abuse and manipulation in the form of nurture propels vampires between them.
The Ministry is devoted to the cause of individual Anarchs rather than the spirit of independence and freedom as a whole — that is, Ministers seem eager to rule Anarchs rather than convert them, in contradiction to the edicts laid down by the Red God. This is where the clan and the Church most widely differ. As infiltrators and warmongers, the Ministry makes itself a frequent target of the Camarilla, but while the Ministry take the flak and earn support from their downtrodden Anarch brethren, the Church maintains a distance. The Church does not involve itself in the sectarian wars. So committed is the Church to decrying these pretenders that they will justify a Contending — a trial more akin to a kangaroo court than a place to express one’s defense — against any adherent who abets a Minister outside the Church, to be called off only if the wayward child returns to the flock and sufficiently atones. Anyone shown the true path who still allows the silvery voices of the worldly to lead them astray has become useless in the eyes of the Red Pharaoh.
To the rest of the world, the Church and Ministry appear to occupy a shared history, but distinct spheres in these modern nights. They share some members, they share some ideals, but the two are opposed at a structural and philosophical level. The Church of Set’s leadership outwardly regards the Ministry as insignificant, incorrigible children at best. Ministers are not in the business of being ignored, and seem to delight in overt, ill-advised stunts that threaten scrutiny by the Second Inquisition. Such theatrics are to be smothered or undermined with any resources a temple, priest, or lay member has at hand. The Church even says honest cooperation with the Camarilla to suppress known Ministers is preferable to the Ministry operating unchecked.
The Clan of Lies
Of course, that’s what the Church of Set wants other Kindred to think. The damage from this so-called schism is difficult for any outsider to ascertain. The Church of Set maintains the fractures between Church and Ministry are dire heresies. Some Ministers, however, believe the front-facing aspect of the clan is just that: a carefully erected façade that allows the Church to continue its own practices and aims, deflecting all out-of-clan attentions toward the new kids on the block making such a noise within the Anarch Movement.
If this is true, the Church of Set is successfully playing the Anarch Movement and many of their own clanmates. The Serpents have, after all, served Set for millennia. An overnight reformation is unlikely. The danger to the clan from all this scheming, is the possibility of their new face growing in power and relevance over the ancient traditions and beliefs of the orthodoxy. If the Church of Set deliberately cultivated the Ministry, they may have lit the fuse for a bomb destined to collapse their foundations.