Road of Lilith
Nickname: Bahari or Lilin (These are both singular and plural.)
The first woman was not Eve. Eve was a submissive, pure, behaved creation, designed to satisfy Adam's arrogance and to indulge his foolishness. The first woman was Lilith. She demanded knowledge and equality and was cast from the Garden of Eden for that sin.
It was in her long years of wandering that she found Samael, the Lightbringer Angel. He too was fallen. Lilith gave him her flesh and her love and he gave her knowledge. At least, that's how some tell it. Others say he raped her and she stole magic from him in revenge. The details do not matter, only the result: Lilith was pregnant and she had learned the power of angels.
God sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semaneloff (Snvi, Snsvi and Smnglv) to subdue Lilith and drag her back to servitude in the Garden. Her first children claimed that the three angels raped and abused her and put a curse upon her. If anyone carved the names of those three angels on an amulet and held it to her or her children and shouted, "Out Lilith," she (and her children) would be powerless and would have to flee. Lilith, betrayed again, bleeding and wounded, gave birth to the angels' children.
In later years, she met Caine, the son of Adam, wandering in the Land of Nod. She took him in, clothed him and taught him the secrets she had gathered from Samael, from the angels, from the demons that she had taken as her lovers, and from the wild ones who had sheltered her when she gave birth. Perhaps she loved Caine. He too bore a curse, an exile from God akin to her own. Caine, too, betrayed her.
Eventually, elder succubae and incubi offered their allegiance to Hell, or traveled away from the Earth. Lilith went into hiding, disappeared or died. Others say she walked the Earth, stalking the tribes of man as they spread. "The Dark Mother," they called her, giving her names such as kali, Morrigan, hel and Tiamat. But where she went, her children followed. Their blood mingled with all the races of man so that in each tribe there lay the potential for the dark, beautiful, demonic and immoral Lilin to be born.
Before the Flood, the Lilin ruled huge kingdoms in defiance of heaven and the sons of Caine. Then three of them, grandchildren of Lilith herself, entered Enoch to offer themselves to the dark gods who ruled there. In the Sons of Caine's lust for the children's blood, beauty and knowledge, the vampires gave the Lilin the Dark Gift. And in time, the Children of Lilith bade their siblings rise up and slay the sons of Caine.
The Bahari say they were the first to walk the Path of Lilith, and the first vampires to know Lilith's truths.
Basic Beliefs: The Bahari (or Lilin as they sometimes refer to themselves) are a large, diverse group of worshipers of the Dark Mother. Many Cainites worship Lilith, but only a few of those use such worship as the focus for a Path of Enlightenment.
Lilith worshippers do not follow any one canonical theology. Rather, they each follow one of a number of apocryphal and contradictory beliefs, oral traditions and fragments of ancient texts. All agree, however, that Lilith is the Dark Mother, Caine's lover and the explorer of hidden things. To find her truths, one must suffer her thorns.
A common concept discussed by the Bahari is the notion of "the Torture Garden" or "Lilith's Garden" - a perfumed oasis of pain, suffering, dark sensuality and enlightenment. The garden is both a mythological place - spoken of in several stories about her - and a metaphorical thing. To be a true Lilin, one must dwell in the lair amongst the sharp, barbed flowers and the sweet moans of the seekers as they enjoy the Dark Mother's torments. For a vampire, one of Lilith's thorns is the hunger of the Beast.
To progress on this path, one must move deep into the garden, wherever darker pleasures and sharper agonies await. At the center of the place lives the Tree of Enlightenment, which by legend Lilith grew from the stolen seed of God's tree, and which in metaphorical terms is the final initiation that balances Beast and intellect, pleasure and pain, intellect and sensurality. by opening one's self to true experience, suffering and ecstasy, enlightenment and madness, one can comprehend the truth of reality.
This following has no place for insincere compassion or false conscience. The Mother suffered for her children's joys and died for their sins. Those who chose to follow her ways must suffer and endure as she did. Those who do not follow her ways are fools. Those who try to follow and fail her tests are chaff to be cast aside. compassion is indulging other's weakness. Conscience is giving free rein to one's own hypocrisy. Only the strong can follow Lilith's ways. Only those brave enough to defy God and petty civilized "mortality" can ever strive to enter her garden.
Vampires who follow Lilith's teachings must lust - no, have a need far beyond lust - for her secrets and experiences. A postulant must prove that need. She must demand agonies - be it the torments of the whip and fire, or the rages and depredations of the Beast - before the Bahari accept her. Only then, when the initiate has taken the first tenuous steps into the exquisite agonies of the Dark Mother's love, do the hierophants - the vmapire-priests - come to her and challenge her.
The Hierophants, the torturer priests of Lilith, become the student's lovers, and their ministrations are merciless. From the beginning, an acolyte experiences pain beyond comprehension. If the student's need is sufficient, the pain draws her deeper into that metaphorical garden and the Hierophants show her the Mother's thorns.
In the end, when the postulant has proven herself, when she has demonstrated her pure, reavenous need, the Hierophants put away their knives, hang up their whips, remove the barbs, sheath their instruments, take her as a disciple and whisper the first secrets of Lilith's way.
The Path of Lilith is not an infernalist path. One of its sub-paths strays close to infernalism, but Lilith is no mere demon.
Some Bahari hold that Lilith is the creator of all vampires - that the Caine myth is some form of revisionism - but most feel that Lilith's status as "mother to demons" is only allegorical. Some argue that vampirism is an ancient expression of god's displeasure, that all who are cast from His light are doomed to darkness and eternal bloodlust. If that theory is correct, the hierarchies and genealogies so lovingly compiled by the Children of Caine are false.
The Lilin coven known as the Silent Rose, a group of six female vampires lead by the Gangrel Yasamhain and based in Croatia, has studied the so-called "Cathayans." they not that the vampires of the East describe their progenitors as a man and a woman, a dark father and a dark mother. The Silent Rose has traveled extensively and seeks to understand Lilith by unearthing as many secrets of the undead as possible. Unlike other Lilin, Yasamhain and her coven also seek Noddist lore. By understanding the lies and half-truths of Caine worshippers, they hope to hone the truth of Lilith.
The Bahari rever the archaic written records of their faith. Texts such as the Guarded ubrics, Revalations of the Dark Mother and others are treasured, copied and compared to one another in order to find hidden meaning in their intersections. many Lilin temples are also home to extensive research libraries.
Destinies: The path's catechisms hold that Lilith will return on the Night of Gehenna, after Caine has awakened, exacting revenge on him before taking revenge on Lucifer and God and all others who have used and hurt her. Lilith - the true mother of humanity and the true mother of monsters - will then ascend into Heaven and make it her own.
Description of Followers: The Lilin - no matter which road they walk - are chosen for their intellectual courage, emotional vibrancy and craving to experience the Dark Mother's truths. converts are typically young, rarely older than ancillae. Unlike adherents of other paths, the Bahari are willing to adopt vampires with high Humanity scores as future path followers. Coven members do not actively pursue recruits, however. A prospective mentor may watch several potential students from afar. She marks these subjects by using a minor rite to add a tiny, barely noticeable colorations to their auras. Only a master of Auspex would notice it, and only Lilin know the mark's significance. Of those touched, the Bahari approach a mere handful as part of a long seduction. An elder might pass a candidate timely information that has nothing ot do with Lilith, or make herself known in a casual manner. After a few years of interaction, the elder might set small challenges for the student to see if the subject is a valid choice. In that time, the Bahari - any in the area - watch over the prospect and evaluate him. The Bahari look for intelligence, strength and a willingness to explore. Only after at least another year does the elder invite the student to take his first steps onto the path. This approach to indoctrination has worked for centuries. there have always been exceptions, though - vampires who are guided to the way by some other force, be it fate, destiny or curiosity. These vampires are never turned away. Members prefer to know such candidates in advance, but they believe taht those who come unbidden have been sent by Lilith herself.
Despite their obvious love or pain, the Lilin have no interest in assocating with truly depraved monsters. Debased vampires are not enlightened. Creatures that have lost all humanity and sanity - wights - have been snagged by thorns on the road to enlightenment and have been destroyed as a result.
Lilin dress in comfortable clothes, casual yet stylish. When performing rituals, they wear scarlet robes inlaid with black briar patterns. they do not decorate themselves beyond this Lilin often dress revealingly, however, so that others may see the scars they have received in honoring the Mother's ways.
Following the Path: Bahari reject their ties to Caine and claim descent from the Dark Mother alone. her vampiric powers and curses are taints that must be purified by privation, suffering and study.
The Lilin consider their vampiric form to be a pale shell of what will come after Lilith's destiny has been fulfilled. They will be remade into pure, immortal spirits of sense and experience. When Caine has been cast down and God has been humbled at last, Lilith will gather her children and this dead flesh will be stripped away.
Each of Lilith's followers seeks to flout the "acceptable" and "moral" and create a new order, whether it be the heavens-shattering plans of the Path of Awakening (see below), the hedonism of the Path of the Flesh or the plans of the Lilith cults. Bahari transgressions can be made against the simple rules of polite society or against the oldest moral strictures of Caine's vampires. God exiled Lilith. His laws in particular derserve no respect. Adam spurned Lilith. The laws of his weak children must not be obeyed. Caine tormented Lilith. He is her enemy and his laws must be undone. Children can be kidnapped or tortured to death. Neonate vampires can be diablerized. The most forbidden of secrets can be read, all in Lilith's name. Obedience ot others' moral codes represents weakness.
The Sabbat Inquisiton considers the path heretical. The Camarilla is largely ignorant of it. Bahari have, on occasion, been forced to defend their practices before Sabbat councils. More than a few have fallen to the Inquisition. Path members must practice in secret and they confide only in other path members.
Lilin Hierophants eschew the Sabbat. They do not forbid other members to join that sect, but they understand that the Sabbat worships Caine and Caine is an enemy of the Dark Mother. Sabbat members chosen as Heirophants often fake their own Final Deaths and abandon the sect. Existing hierophants find a new priest a place and attempt to waylay any investigators. Because the Sabbat has such a high turnorver rate, few such investigations occur.
Lilith's followers must prove themselves constantly and challenge others on the path. Her temples are established in torture chambers and morgues, where initiates are forced to confront the limits of their existence. Although Bahari see pain and pleasure as teh two constants of unlife, they are not mere "leather sluts" and rarely indulge in mortal sadomasochistic practices. They occasionally draw converts from such communities, but fron on the vanity of such pursuits. Pain without enlightenment is a mere fact of biology. Titillation does not enlighten. Enlightenment must burn. Enlightenment must tear down all illuisons and flay away mortality. Enlightenment is nothing if it's easy.
The Path of Lilith is upheld by vampires. There are, however, other churches of Lilith amongst the other races of the night. From what little the Bahari truly know, different creatures have their own catechisms, their own scriptures and their own cults dedicated to the Dark Mother. Adherents of the path have little time for these foreign groups, though. Lilith may deliver truths and revelations upon other races, but those she whispers to the undead are obviously the most important. This arrogance has brought the Bahari into conflict with other followers of Lilith in the past, and may well do so again. The Lilin are particularly interested in finding out if other offspring of the mother - the people of Arikel's tribe - still survive. The search was never a priority, but as the Final Nights draw close the coven wonders if it has unknown allies. These humans may bear knowledge denied to vampires. If the tribe still exists, the Bahari must know on whose side it stands. If the humans are enemies, the Bahari whisper, they must be killed before the Dark Mother awakens.
