Appendix C: Sample Ghoul Organizations
It’s far from uncommon for independent ghouls to seek out support from other discarded toys, unlikely survivors and ruthless opportunists like themselves.
Sanguinaries
The original Sanguinaries were those ghouls who first learned to make a living in supplying human blood to willing vampire buyers. This has always been a very fraught – though often profitable – existence that continues into the modern day. These same ghouls were often rogues or renegades, and they would exchange this human blood in return for the vitae they needed to sustain their own existence.
Though the Sanguinaries may seem like an extremely secretive society, the ghouls within this organization are not connected to one another by a set of beliefs or a common mission. Comprised of entrepreneurs and opportunists, the Sanguinaries is a loose circle of vitae merchants whose clientele primarily consists of independent ghouls. They are, for all intents and purposes, a vitae bank.
According to urban legend, the first Sanguinary in Los Angeles was set up by a mysterious Anarch vampire named Katerina some twenty-five years ago. Frustrated by the ghouls’ dependence on vitae, Katerina donated several vials of her own vitae to a pair of independent ghouls who, in turn, could sell them to other ghouls. Initially, the pair began selling vials of blood in exchange for favors, but quickly increased their prices when they realized the demand for vitae was so high they could not fulfill their orders. Katerina was appalled that she had unwittingly strengthened their dependence on vitae by offering it for sale. Thus, it is commonly believed that she reluctantly withdrew back into the shadows after learning a painful lesson. Some whisper more plausibly that Katerina hasn’t been seen since because she was brutally staked and exsanguinated for her very last drop of vitae by the very ghouls she had originally sought to help.
All the same, as word began to spread, the legend of the Sanguinary outgrew its usefulness, for there was more demand for vitae than one pair of ghouls could hope to fulfill. Where there is demand, however, there is opportunity. Other independent ghouls soon filled the void by whatever means necessary, even going so far as to involve fake pharmaceutical companies and marketing campaigns, billing vitae as a new sexual enhancement or performance drug. Typically, ghoul merchants make deals with vampires in exchange for vitae, and both parties generate a hefty profit. Sometimes, especially where very weak or naïve vampires are concerned, the exchange takes on a far more permanent nature.
Though all of the Sanguinaries sell blood, vitae, or both, that is where their similarities end. Each shop is run independently of one another, which makes it almost impossible for the Sects to shut them down. Soon after one cell is eliminated, another pops up in its place in a different part of the same city. Thus, it is impossible to tell how many Sanguinaries exist or how widespread they are. It is believed, however, that the Sanguinaries are primarily concentrated in the American Southwest where Sect authority is weak.
Talons of the Black Rage
Allegedly, the Talons of the Black Rage was a secret organization of ghouls trained by the Lasombra Clan to carry out daytime raids on strategic targets. They are thought to date back to the nineteenth century, and began as a small group of mercenaries and soldiers who had been taken under the Clan’s wing. Over time, the ghouls were trained to operate in peak, physical condition and master certain Disciplines, such as Obtenebration and Potence, that would give them an edge in combat. They were also taught how to guard themselves against vampiric manipulation, which prevents the Talons from being unduly used by the Clan’s enemies.
Among those Archons or Alastors who claim the Talons of the Black Talon (or elite paramilitary units like them) still exist, a few opinions are more common than others. They are almost entirely relegated to Mexico in the modern nights, where competing Lasombra elders have found cartel kill teams (often consisting of ex-Mexican special forces) a frighteningly effective daytime weapon – especially when dealing with Tzimisce rivals and uppity shovelheads. They are expected to train hard and are expected to live short, brutal lives, but they are not suicidal. They believe they have been chosen for a higher purpose, to bring terror and death to the Lasombra’s adversaries. All too often, these ruthless sicarios are sent after Sheriffs, Primogen, and other high-ranking Kindred whose death would weaken an enemy-held city’s power structure for the upcoming invasion.
The Unmastered
The first confirmed cell of independent ghouls referring to themselves as the Unmastered was founded by Gregory Winter, Ginerva Salamanca, Enrico Sagunto, and Philip Marshall to assist independent ghouls who have recently either escaped from or were abandoned by their domitors in the wake of the collapse of Camarilla authority in Southern California after the Second Anarch Revolt.
In recent decades, the Unmastered has splintered many times over, and new groups claiming that name have arisen wherever an inchoate desire for independent ghouls to to better utilize each other’s allies and resources, combined with a faint memory of what came before has combined. All of these different groups have wildly different agendas.
One group, which calls itself the Unchained, is actively trying to forge alliances with other ghouls and ghoul networks that might share similar interests, or even Thin Bloods and abandoned fledglings. The group tends to be more inclusive of other, often more standoffish ghoul organizations.
Due to the short-lived nature of ghoul organizations, other groups frequently rise and fall or fade into the background. One such group is the Young Bloods, a vampire hunting biker gang that preys primarily upon Anarchs and nomadic Sabbat packs in the southwestern United States.
While groups such as the Young Bloods tend to be chaotic and self-serving, other organizations tend to form around a specific need or belief. Sometimes, these groups might use a legitimate business as a front, such as The Acquired Taste Company, which legally specializes in fulfilling fetishes. By night, the Las Vegas-based company employs dommes and madames in a club-like atmosphere for the benefit of its guests. By day, however, the business matches prospective ghouls with vampires seeking a specific kind of servant in exchange for vitae.
Generally speaking, there is one type of ghoul organization most vampires would likely rally to destroy out of a desire for self-preservation. That would be any ghoulish cult that carries even a whiff of doomsday paranoia, apocalyptic prophecies or infernalist dogma. It’s something of a catechism among the Sect that nothing good has ever come from independent ghouls engaging in organized (or even semi-organized) religion away from the supervision of their benevolent domitors.
In truth, most nascent ghoul organizations never amount to more than a half dozen members at once. The fragile, transitory nature of their existence means they have often been treated as minor threats in the past. Thus, the Sects and Clans tend to deal with ghoul organizations only when necessary. That policy may no longer be tenable in the coming nights, given the explosive growth of wayward, abandoned and renegade ghouls in Los Angeles.