Path of Cruelty

The Roads

A Path on the Road of Sin

Sobrequiet: The Heartless

The Beast hates. It ravens in the breast of even the most civilized Cainites, urging them to commit crimes born on the blackest human passions. why resist that siren call of hatred? The world is a loathsome place. the wealthy and the "noble" oppress the poor and the "common," the allegedly holy engage in acts that would make a demon blanch in revulsion, and everywhere, there are sickening perversions of the soul twisting the world into a shadow play of horrors. What is there to love about the world? Hate it, and set your soul free.

The followers of the Path of Cruelty know their Beasts to be creatures of malice and spite, filled with loathing not only for all things righteous and pure, but all things base and profane as well. The Beast looks upon the world with eyes hot with disgust for both its fellow men and its fellow monsters, seeing nothing in either extreme, or in anything that falls between, so perfect or so virtuous that it does not deserve to suffer. To feed the tame such a Beast, the followers of this path provide it a feast of torments perpetrated against those it most despises.

Of all the Paths of Sin, the Path of Cruelty is the most bluntly inhumane in its opinions and its dealing with others. While the adherents of the Path of Pleasure, the Path of the Devil and even the Path of Screams can have deliberate or incidental positive effects on others, the Heartless are frankly and intentionally concerned only with causing others physical, emotional and mental pain. They themselves are gourmands of misery and the relentless pursuit of personal satisfaction by means of excruciation. Mercy is a vice they have long since excised from their souls. To the adherents of this path, humans (and even most other Cainites) are little more than objects to be used, abused and, more often than not, consumed.

Practices: The Heartless are disturbing in their religious devotions even to other Sinners, constantly engaged in the refinement and understanding of physical suffering, spiritual agony and mental anguish. They practice their arts on mortals and Cainites alike, preferring to devour the weak and prey on the strong, whom they consider more worthy of their extended, creative attentions. At a practical level, many followers of this path exist at the fringes of Cainite society, mercenary and friendless, or serve the Cainite social order in such capacities that require the imaginative infliction of "justice." Heartless scourges and sheriffs are disturbingly common, since the jobs already require the Cainite who hold them to be functionally devoid of conscience and human empathy from the start.

Heartless Virtues: Conviction and Self-Control.

Additional Ethics of Cruelty.

• The Beast is a creature of the senses, hungry to please itself with both ecstasy and agony. Give its pleasure to yourself and its torment to others.
• Serve your own need first, for no one in this world will serve them for you.
• Mercy and pity are for the weak. Excise them from your soul, and come into your true strength.

Hierarchy of Sins Against Cruelty

Score	Minimum Wrongdoing	Rationale
10	Acknowledging any moral restraint	You are beyond such weakness
9	Failing to indulge in pleasure	Your pleasure soothes the Beast as much as others' pain.
8	Failing to indulge in pain	Personal excruciation enhances your understanding of the Beast's hate and pain.
7	Refusing to bring harm to the virtuous	The agents of "virtue" deserve your utmost care and attention.
6	Avoiding injury to others for any reason	Agony is your primary instrument for taming the Beast.
5	Turning down a chance for material gain	Your own needs outweigh all others.
4	Failing to study pain in all its guises	Your own anguish can teach you as much as the pain you inflict on others; do not coddle yourself.
3	Killing too quickly or without necessity	Death is the ultimate surcease from pain; refrain from dealing it out lightly.
2	Refusing to feed when necessary	Meet your physical needs without guilt or overindulgence.
1	Displaying mercy for any reason	Mercy and pity are for the weak.