There is a place where souls go after death, a realm called the Underworld. In this spirit realm, the dead take form and spend an eternity living shadows of their former lives. In its Shadowlands, in those places where the Underworld come closest to the Earth, the undead of the Black Hand make their home. Far away from all earthly threats, they watch over their Antediluvians and await Gehenna in a place of eternal night -- a place they call Enoch.

Obsidian Walls: An Introduction to the First City

"I looked upon the scene before me -- upon the mere house, and"

"the simple landscape features of the domain -- upon the bleak walls"

"upon the vacant eye-like windows -- upon a few rank sedges -- and"

"upon a few white trunks of decayed trees -- with an utter depression"

"of the soul, which I can compare to no earthly sensation..."

-- Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher

Enoch is a Realm unto itself. Wraiths rarely go there, for even in the Underworld, it is surrounded by the limitless Sea of Shadows. Those who do visit, never leave. Vampires who attempt to find its parallel location on Earth end up sailing around the world, never finding the land that might be Enoch.

Within the Underworld, however, Enoch rests behind mammoth walls, its palaces restored to their former glory. While the halls of this fabled city do not ring out with the voices of living souls, the undead and their wraithly servants call this Enoch home.

The Hatif: Another Form of Undeath

Guarded Rubrics: The History of the First City

The fabled Book of Nod describes the known history of the First City, but no version make mention of it existing in the Underworld. The Black Hand originally believed it discovered a means of passage into the Underworld on its own, and that it was merely luck or the providence of Caine that they found the Island of Enoch. However, most now believe the Antediluvians led their minions to the city they had re-formed from their memories.

For ages, the City of Enoch remained under the dominion of the sect. Then, as the mortal Inquisition created havoc on Earth, the Hand came under assault in Enoch. A large force of Specters and Doomshades, perhaps under the direction of a wraith-lord, arose from the Tempest and swarmed Enoch during one of the worst Maelstroms ever recorded. Many members of the Hand were lost that night, for some were in Enoch when the city fell.

The Del'Roh and the more powerful Children of Caine escaped to Earth, where they remained for centuries, leaving the Aralu to the dead. They did not return to Enoch until the Eastern and Western Hand reunited. The first force they sent to Enoch found the city deserted, though there were signs of a great struggle. Some claim the city's conquerors were attacked by other Doomshades or Underworld beings, others say a great Maelstrom destroyed them, and a few fear the Aralu may have awoken and destroyed the infiltrators themselves. Should the last be true, surely the lack of courage shown by the Black Hand angered the clan sires.

The Hand has restored Enoch to its former splendor and guards the holding with all its might. The tombs of the Aralu remain unopened, and the imprisoned and insane Cainites outside the sealed tomb chamber doors, who await the Antediluvians as food, have yet to be consumed. But there is hope the clan sires will return soon.

The Prophesies of Singularity

Preamble: One Shall be the Number of the First Prophesies to come to pass for like the firmament they are inscrutable and indivisible.

One Shall be the Turning of the Age when a mighty drum sounds in the deeps and the battlements of the First City are set ablaze for the second time. Then the battle-hosts of the thirteen will arise not once, not twice, but thrice and their legions shall sow a bounty of blood and enumerate the Harvest to Come.

One Shall be the Unity of the Houses of Divinity in Triumph, for the House of Caine is divided in thirteen, a house divided against itself in doom and yet only the first part of Caine's Blood shall be as a sacrifice upon the fiery alter.

One Shall be the number of Lilith's Last Childe, born into Seth's House beneath the Moon, baptized with the blood of Caine, both Herald and Hope.

One Shall be a House of Slayers and Usurpers brought low by stolen blood, ground down like a millstone into dust, swept away by an Ill-Wind from the East and the least part of this House shall survive, reviled and despised, upon their bellies amidst the earth and it is from there that they shall be as a thorn to the Hands of Darkness.

One Shall be the Number of the Thirteenth House reborn, the Prodigal Childer of Caine, who will sup upon the blood and ashes of another house through the auspices of their Dark Father. He who will build a city for them with five gates and five walls, a city that will become the foundation of an Empire of Blood and it shall last for a thousand years.

Daru el-Bawar: The Isle of the Black Citadel

Introduction: Daru el-Bawar is what the Childer of Caine call the otherwise nameless isle upon which Enoch rests. Sometimes referred to as the Isle of the Damned. The Isle of the Damned is roughly 60 miles in radius and covers an estimated 4200 square miles of area, slightly smaller than the North American state of Connecticut or Southern European nation of Montenegro; the island is much larger than most vampires realize. Daru el-Bawar possesses 400 miles of coastline, but only 25 miles of that constitutes a littoral shore, where as the remainder consists of jagged vertical escarpment of up to a hundred feet.

-- The Head of the Beast: is a promontory upon which the City of Enoch is constructed and which points eastward into the uncharted Shadow Sea.
-- The Neck: is a peninsula of land jutting out into the Sea of Shadows. Its easternmost promontory is sometimes called the Head of the Beast and the City of Enoch lies at its eastern end. The neck is about 15 miles long from east to west and about 6.5 miles wide upon average.
-- Jetsam Sands: are located several miles to the north of the city and forms a littoral beach. The beach is made up of fine black volcanic sands scattered with pale bones of those Spectres that washed ashore. The Jetsam Sands littoral and the promontory called the Neck form a large section of the eastern portion of Daru el-Bawar. As such, they share much in common, including a much lower elevation than the rest of the island which consists of mesa-like tableland. More modern vampires of a scientific bent believe that the promontory and the adjacent littoral were once perched upon a large lake or inland sea. Given the vertical escarpment which forms the remainder of the island shoreline, it is possible that the City of Enoch was once a port town. Naturally enough, as the island's only littoral area, the Jetsam Sands are where the storms of the Underworld are most keenly felt and is location where spiritual jetsam tends to wash ashore, including the occasional Specter.

Enoch: The Black Citadel

Hell is the place of those who have denied;
They find there what they planted and what dug,
A Lake of Spaces, and a Wood of Nothing,
And wander there and drift , and never cease
Wailing for substance.
-- W.B. Yeats, "The Hour Glass"

A few Kindred make their havens in Enoch, but all members of the Black Hand have visited. They are guaranteed protection from one another by the Del'Roh, and should they break this peace, they would pay with their unlives. The city is usually free from violence, but the intrigue here is unsurpassed. Some compare it to ancient Persia, where many of the same Kindred once gathered to play their political games.

Two dozen members of the sect, 10 revenants, 20 chatterlings, and at least 1OO wraiths call Enoch home. While most sect membecs maintain private havens in the Living Lands, they also have their own private set of apartments in Enoch. All are expected to spend at least sometime in the city, meeting with the Del'Roh and other leaders, studying in its library and celebrating its rituals.

Many festivals are held in the city, and most sect members attend these celebrations unless they have a very good excuse. The old holidays of the great thanksgiving after an eclipse, Midsummer's Eve and All hallow's Eve are kept, as well as special events declared by the Del'Roh.

The wraiths of Enoch act primarily as servants. Most no longer enter the Shadowlands, but they prefer the protection of the Del'Roh, anyway. They find the lifestyle they have in Enoch preferable to the one they would have in Stygia. There are wraiths who serve as professional entertainers, craftspeople, librarians, housekeepers, guards and messengers. The Nagaraja help keep them in line.