Assamite

Assamites, also known as the Children of Haqim, originated in the ancient Middle East. Skilled assassins and swift warriors, the majority of the clan resides in a mountain fortress known as Alamut. These warriors will readily agree to dangerous missions, if paid a high enough blood-price. Their thirst for blood is legendary, as is their desire to judge vampires according to their founder's laws. Those who are found wanting must be destroyed. The Assamite clan has no sect allegiance. Although a few scattered individuals have joined either the Camarilla or the Sabbat, the clan as a whole refuses to bow to any vampiric hierarchy. To that end, its members never agree to long-term contracts, remaining staunchly independent in the great Jyhad. This causes the clan to be both feared and mistrusted, as vampires know that Assamite loyalty belongs to the highest bidder. Some Assamites follow a religious-themed Path of Enlightenment that codifies the clan's fanatic devotion to the Mountain. Known as the Path of Blood, it venerates diablerie and insists on a fanatic reverence to the clan's founder, Haqim. In the past, the Assamites were rampant diablerists, forced to stop only because the Tremere levied a powerful curse upon them at the behest of the Camarilla's Inner Circle. This curse caused vampiric vitae to become poisonous to Assamites, burning their veins. Because of this, Assamites (particularly ancient ones) hate the Tremere above all else. When the Eldest of their clan rose and took control, he broke the curse with his own sorcery, throwing off the shackles of the Tremere and swearing the clan to vengeance. Older Assamites tend to come from Middle Eastern and North African cultures, though young Assamites are Embraced from a more global demographic. An Assamite's skin grows darker with age, as opposed to other vampires, whose skin gets paler. Because of this, particularly ancient Assamites appear unnaturally onyx-skinned, as though carved from darkest ebony. The majority of the Children of Haqim are warriors, trained as killers, spies, and covert operatives. They take contracts and return to Alamut with the spoils of victory when they are successful. The rest of the clan – a significant minority – are of the two other castes: the Sorcerers and the Viziers. The Sorcerers remain hidden in the mountain of Alamut, tending to the clan's powerful leader, a vampire known as the Eldest. The Viziers, once trusted by their clan, defected from the Mountain over an ideological schism, refusing to bow to the will of the Eldest. For that crime, they are hunted by their fellows. The Mountain will not stop pursuing them until all of the treasonous Viziers are destroyed.