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Vampire: The Masquerade Clanbooks
Clanbook: Followers of Set Revised
Descended from the God of the Underworld
The sands of Egypt conceal a frightening menace a cult of vampires dedicated to their fallen lord. The Followers of Set are scattered all over the world, seducing mortals into cults and enslaving other Kindred through their own vices. Yet the Setites do not exist for excess alone: They gather secrets from the darkness that spawned them, secrets that can be yours for a price.
Blasphemies and Debasement
As the next entry in the revised lineup of clanbooks, Setite takes one of the classic Vampire sourcebooks and brings it into a modern context. All-new information accompanies revised material, inviting you to add as much depth to your character as you like. The sheer volume of information contained in the new clanbooks (each with 32 more pages than the first-edition books) permits Storytellers to round out their chronicles.
The sands of Egypt conceal a frightening menace a cult of vampires dedicated to their fallen lord. The Followers of Set are scattered all over the world, seducing mortals into cults and enslaving other Kindred through their own vices. Yet the Setites do not exist for excess alone: They gather secrets from the darkness that spawned them, secrets that can be yours for a price.
Blasphemies and Debasement
As the next entry in the revised lineup of clanbooks, Setite takes one of the classic Vampire sourcebooks and brings it into a modern context. All-new information accompanies revised material, inviting you to add as much depth to your character as you like. The sheer volume of information contained in the new clanbooks (each with 32 more pages than the first-edition books) permits Storytellers to round out their chronicles.
104 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2001
71 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 10, 2017
As independent Clans go, the Followers of Set have it pretty good. The other three independent Clans are all based on offensively racist stereotypes that require a lot of conceptual shift before they become remotely acceptable, but the Setites are just a bizarre non sequitur--Stygian priests of Set the serpent god from the Conan the Barbarian stories, except vampires. The challenge is to explain why they tempt people and what's the deal with Set, anyway, not to somehow extract gold from garbage like with the Ravnos.
And honestly, Clanbook: Followers of Set Revised does a pretty good job. It provides an actual reason for why the Setites do the things they do that isn't just because the serpent is looked down on as a liar in modern culture--they're Gnostics. The Mesu Bedshet ("Children of Rebellion"), as they call themselves, believe that reality is a prison created by beings known as Aeons, which are traditionally the other Egyptian gods, but nowadays include basically every god from every culture. The Aeons want to stultify human potential through the prison of maat, where everything is perfectly in order, all desires are controlled, everyone knows their place, and there is no room for growth. Set is the one god that stood against the others, and the Followers of Set are dedicated to fulfilling his vision of ultimate freedom. That is the purpose of their temptations, to reveal hidden truths to those they tempt about their own souls, or about how guilt is not as strong as they believed, or about the freedom that comes from casting off the shackles of society.
Of course, that's the ideal. Another aspect of the book I liked is that it repeatedly points out this doesn't always work. There are large factions of Setite who disagree with this core methodology. Some of them simply like the power that being a vice-broker brings and don't bother with the weird snake religion, and some try to induct followers into cults of the Dark God but are just really bad at it. There's an example of a feminist neopagan religion devoted to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet that's secretly a Setite front, and they keep trying to introduce Set as Sekhmet's consort to real devotees in the religion. But almost none of the practitioners care, and groups of Sekhmet-worshippers that aren't directly led by a Setite never even mention Set at all. There's a line about how the Setite religion is more of a framework for creating cults than an actual modern religion that I particularly liked.
Much like Clanbook: Assamite Revised, the book also introduces a bunch of other Setite groups to expand the Clan beyond the usual snake-worshipping Egyptians. My favorite are the Tlacique, ancient vampires of Mesoamerica and worshippers of Tezcatlipoca, who don't have Serpentis but who did set up a lot of the human sacrifice among cultures there and ruled as blood gods until the Spanish arrived and, well, history happened. There's even a note that they might have joined the Camarilla as an eighth Clan if things had gone differently. There's an alterate World of Darkness history for you. There's also the Daitya, Indian Setites who demand recognition as a separate Clan from the main body of the Followers, who are part of the Brahmin caste and thus are simultaneously demons who must fight to defeat the gods and upholders of local rules who make sure other vampires uphold their caste-dictated responsibilities. And the Serpents of the Light, of course, first mentioned in the Guide to the Sabbat.
All these groups have their own form of blood magic as well, which seems a little like overt proliferation, but I actually approve of it. Thaumaturgy is so broadly useful that restricting it to just the Tremere is bad for the game, and after two Clanbooks giving it to other Clans and the publication of Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy, I get the sense the designers thought that as well.
Much to my surprise, the history section was actually fun to read. It was written from the point of view of a slightly cynical, world-weary Setite, so there was a lot of debunking and mentioning multiple viewpoints. No, the Setites did not bring down the Byzantine Empire. No, they did not bring down the Roman Empire or Carthage. No, they aren't behind the destruction of every major world power, but thank you for thinking so. They did tell the Tremere where Alamut was, though, and rejected an invitation to the Camarilla because they didn't want to take sides. Also, they claim that the other Antediluvians are the disciples of Set, the real first vampire, and Caine is a myth of desert tribespeople that the other Clans all believe for some strange reason. Or maybe the other Clans are the creations of the Aeons, each tied to an aspect of the Zodiac, whereas the Setites are ruled by Ophiuchus, the hidden thirteenth sign. Or maybe it's all just stories? It's not like Set is around anymore to explain things. The Caine mythology is fun, but it works best when there's just enough doubt that other mythologies could be true. Maybe it's a synthesis, and Set and Osiris were members of the second generation? Maybe it's all just deluded religion fanatics; pushers who started dipping into their own supply. In an RPG background, the doubt is the important part.
Clanbook: Followers of Set Revised accomplishes the most important task that a clanbook can, which is to make me go from "Why would anyone play one of these?" to "You know, maybe I could play one of these..." The Gnostic basis for the faith also does a lot to rescue them from my initial befuddlement over how their inspiration fits into a storytelling game of personal horror. This definitely continues the Revised tradition of taking the most problematic Clans and making them worthwhile to play. Hopefully it continues from here.
And honestly, Clanbook: Followers of Set Revised does a pretty good job. It provides an actual reason for why the Setites do the things they do that isn't just because the serpent is looked down on as a liar in modern culture--they're Gnostics. The Mesu Bedshet ("Children of Rebellion"), as they call themselves, believe that reality is a prison created by beings known as Aeons, which are traditionally the other Egyptian gods, but nowadays include basically every god from every culture. The Aeons want to stultify human potential through the prison of maat, where everything is perfectly in order, all desires are controlled, everyone knows their place, and there is no room for growth. Set is the one god that stood against the others, and the Followers of Set are dedicated to fulfilling his vision of ultimate freedom. That is the purpose of their temptations, to reveal hidden truths to those they tempt about their own souls, or about how guilt is not as strong as they believed, or about the freedom that comes from casting off the shackles of society.
Of course, that's the ideal. Another aspect of the book I liked is that it repeatedly points out this doesn't always work. There are large factions of Setite who disagree with this core methodology. Some of them simply like the power that being a vice-broker brings and don't bother with the weird snake religion, and some try to induct followers into cults of the Dark God but are just really bad at it. There's an example of a feminist neopagan religion devoted to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet that's secretly a Setite front, and they keep trying to introduce Set as Sekhmet's consort to real devotees in the religion. But almost none of the practitioners care, and groups of Sekhmet-worshippers that aren't directly led by a Setite never even mention Set at all. There's a line about how the Setite religion is more of a framework for creating cults than an actual modern religion that I particularly liked.
Much like Clanbook: Assamite Revised, the book also introduces a bunch of other Setite groups to expand the Clan beyond the usual snake-worshipping Egyptians. My favorite are the Tlacique, ancient vampires of Mesoamerica and worshippers of Tezcatlipoca, who don't have Serpentis but who did set up a lot of the human sacrifice among cultures there and ruled as blood gods until the Spanish arrived and, well, history happened. There's even a note that they might have joined the Camarilla as an eighth Clan if things had gone differently. There's an alterate World of Darkness history for you. There's also the Daitya, Indian Setites who demand recognition as a separate Clan from the main body of the Followers, who are part of the Brahmin caste and thus are simultaneously demons who must fight to defeat the gods and upholders of local rules who make sure other vampires uphold their caste-dictated responsibilities. And the Serpents of the Light, of course, first mentioned in the Guide to the Sabbat.
All these groups have their own form of blood magic as well, which seems a little like overt proliferation, but I actually approve of it. Thaumaturgy is so broadly useful that restricting it to just the Tremere is bad for the game, and after two Clanbooks giving it to other Clans and the publication of Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy, I get the sense the designers thought that as well.
Much to my surprise, the history section was actually fun to read. It was written from the point of view of a slightly cynical, world-weary Setite, so there was a lot of debunking and mentioning multiple viewpoints. No, the Setites did not bring down the Byzantine Empire. No, they did not bring down the Roman Empire or Carthage. No, they aren't behind the destruction of every major world power, but thank you for thinking so. They did tell the Tremere where Alamut was, though, and rejected an invitation to the Camarilla because they didn't want to take sides. Also, they claim that the other Antediluvians are the disciples of Set, the real first vampire, and Caine is a myth of desert tribespeople that the other Clans all believe for some strange reason. Or maybe the other Clans are the creations of the Aeons, each tied to an aspect of the Zodiac, whereas the Setites are ruled by Ophiuchus, the hidden thirteenth sign. Or maybe it's all just stories? It's not like Set is around anymore to explain things. The Caine mythology is fun, but it works best when there's just enough doubt that other mythologies could be true. Maybe it's a synthesis, and Set and Osiris were members of the second generation? Maybe it's all just deluded religion fanatics; pushers who started dipping into their own supply. In an RPG background, the doubt is the important part.
Clanbook: Followers of Set Revised accomplishes the most important task that a clanbook can, which is to make me go from "Why would anyone play one of these?" to "You know, maybe I could play one of these..." The Gnostic basis for the faith also does a lot to rescue them from my initial befuddlement over how their inspiration fits into a storytelling game of personal horror. This definitely continues the Revised tradition of taking the most problematic Clans and making them worthwhile to play. Hopefully it continues from here.
November 17, 2020
Gotta be in the running for best clan, right? Ancient Egyptian vampires eternally devoted to the corruption of humanity in order to "liberate" them and honour their Dark God Sutekh... what's not to love?
As always the flavour text/mini-story at the beginning was some of the best in the book, and actually really well written I thought - it really captured the corrupting horrifying cultic atmosphere! Some sections in the middle were a bit dense and tough to get through, but persisting was worth it. I do find these older clanbooks tend to be strangely laid out (like how there are only 4 chapters in the whole book, yet hey could easily be split into about 10, and would make it read and navigate), but hopefully these can be rectified in upcoming books.
It's just a shame a fair bit of it is being rewritten for the V5 canon!
As always the flavour text/mini-story at the beginning was some of the best in the book, and actually really well written I thought - it really captured the corrupting horrifying cultic atmosphere! Some sections in the middle were a bit dense and tough to get through, but persisting was worth it. I do find these older clanbooks tend to be strangely laid out (like how there are only 4 chapters in the whole book, yet hey could easily be split into about 10, and would make it read and navigate), but hopefully these can be rectified in upcoming books.
It's just a shame a fair bit of it is being rewritten for the V5 canon!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews