The piercing laugh before a devastating explosion, the rebel finds their art in destruction just the same as the aerosol on a wall. Red paint might well be blood on a moonless night, eyes flashing with mischief or something deeper; eyes that find the beauty in a riot, the dancing flames that would consume, the mortality of the immortal. A swift boot crushing the face of the status quo is as poetic to the rebel as a master's brush stroke upon a broad canvas. Finding and creating beauty in the world is its own reward, and there's nothing more beautiful that chaotic disorder; a blood splatter upon the floor when the bloodlust is too enthusiastic, the scorchmarks upon an ivory tower, voices chanting their justice in the light of a burning car. Insurrectionist, the order whispers; anarchist, the status quo spits. The potential they placed upon the rebel was never what was meant to be.
TURNED › chicago — 1965
i'm a picture perfect face with that wild in my veins, you can
hear it in my growl, growl, growl, growl
CONNECTIONS ›
ZAKI 「tentative」
› He definitely has more screws loose than they care for, but handles it in way too calm a manner.
GUERRA 「partner-in-crime」
› Any idea, good or bad, is endorsed by Guerra, and that just emboldens them.
JAZIRI 「replacement pet」
› So the first sister didn't pan out, so let's try a new puppy who will love them (or else).
DIZZY 「betrayal」
› Peach doesn't know what they ever did wrong to her, but they were sure she would've come to the Anarchs with them. But then she didn't.
Unmovable, solid, the seer is a quiet fixture, the death of lies, faint light on the darkest of nights. The corpse that houses them has a beating heart still and it refuses to let go of what once was, hiding from the light, recoiling from the dark. Their greatest strength and their deepest downfall. Stuck between the dead of night and the light of day, the seer finds themself at the crossroads of an eternity, not one nor the other. Unable to let go of either, disacceptance breeds insecurity; daywalker, they snarl. Bloodsucker, they gasp. Paralysed between two cruel worlds; triturating, shattering, crushed. The seer needs no eyes, penetrating the lies of the world, flashes in the mind; monsters wearing grinning faces, wounded animals behind a dangerous glare — a hawk in the branches, seeing the true nature of the snakes writhing below. These creatures reach, meaning to tear their eyes from their head, to keep them from seeing, from piercing so easily beyond the veil. When politics is an armour, the seer is sees where the knife goes in.
TURNED › new york city — 2014
help me find a way; no pulse inside of me, stone cold lips and
heresy — all lies and, to a degree, losing who i wanna be
CONNECTIONS ›
ZAKI 「kindred spirit maybe」
› He's violent and just grunts most of the time, but there's moments of softness, so maybe it's all just bluster to hide his humanity?
PEACH 「tentative admiration」
› Peach seems trustworthy enough, if a bit impulsive, but they're confident in their abilities, and that's worthy of admiration.
GUERRA 「suspicion」
› Whatever Guerra is selling, they're not buying, no matter how charismatic they might come across.
ANGEL 「curiosity」
› They were never given a choice between sects, and Angel seems nice (and oddly interested) enough, so perhaps there's something to build upon there.
DANIELO 'GUERRA' MORENO › ANARCH SETITE
cis man & he + him ∕ ∕ serpentis ∙ presence ∙ auspex
The great sands hid a snake yet unborn; but gleaming eyes complemented a devious grin, and the becoming only sought to exacerbate the seed ready to bloom. Nurtured by the blood, it slithers, twisting words and people alike. Sharp words for a deadly mind, the snake curls around your neck; the whisper in your ear to step beyond the rules, gently encouraging to take what always belonged. Bite into the Apple and know all there is to know, against all consequences; there's no price steep enough for freedom. A master of chaotic corruption, the harbinger of deceit and your deepest desires, they seek not to pull your strings for control, but to help you see the chains of prepotency that keep you in place.
TURNED › cairo, egypt — 1932
no te confundas, que no soy nada de bueno,
en mis ojos ves maldad
CONNECTIONS ›
ZAKI 「amusement」
› Zaki's proven himself incorruptible thus far in that... he's already unchained and not beholden to mortal morals. But it's still fun to push.
PEACH 「enabler」
› The perfect subject, Peach doesn't need a lot of convincing to give themself over to temptation, and that makes the job so much easier.
JAZIRI 「useful tool」
› Can survive in sunlight for short periods of time? Check. Can pass as human? Check. Useful as hell. Who cares what their name is?
HAREL 「cool resentment」
› Fuck this one, right? There's not even a point to try. Best thing for everyone is to just beat them into the ground.
ZAKI ZAHER › ANARCH CAITIFF
cis man & he + him ∕ ∕ protean ∙ celerity ∙ fortitude
When shadow is all you've known, you'll find your eyes adjusting to the dark. A made demon, writhing within the skin of the dead, the subsister is the unmovable force of stubborn persistence; hope has no meaning in the dark, and when the light cannot reach you, you tear it from your heart and use it as guidance. There's no goal but to consistently remain, to push forward, not around but through; consequence the blood and guts, if the path leads the subsister through a field of corpses. Wild, they call him, but beat a creature long and hard enough, and he'll tear off the next leg he'll see. The key is not to be faster, or smarter, or stronger; survival in this dark and bloody world comes from how far you're willing to go. And the subsister would see the sky unleash a torrent of blood, not to claw and paw at chains but to wrap them around the necks of their masters until the breaking, the crushing of bones. A cage holds him only for as long as he allows it to hold him.
TURNED › banha, egypt — 1930
i'm a runaway son of a nuclear a-bomb, i am the world's
forgotten boy, the one who's searching to destroy
CONNECTIONS ›
PEACH 「exasperation」
› Too loud, too obnoxious, too everything. They're marginally useful, and that's it.
GUERRA 「deep irritation」
› You know what's more annoying than Guerra's entire existence? They're actually good at what they do. Infuriating.
JAZIRI 「begrudging protectiveness」
› He looks at Jaziri and sees people he once dared to care about. It makes him protective, but certainly not happy about it.
DIVYA 「distaste」
› He'd love to rip them out of those shoes that're way too big for them.
𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐇! Don’t let the years grind you down. Don’t give in to hopelessness and fear. Look in the mirror and say these words aloud: “I deserve to be happy. And diablerie is happiness.”
UNDERSIGNED,
1. Agata “your revolutionary dream girl” Starek
2. You. This manifesto doesn’t need any more names. Go enjoy the revolution and suck some Camarilla fuckboys dry.
The Anarch Movement didn’t come into being by itself. It took hard work and organising to make it happen. This is not the sexy side of being an Anarch. Everybody wants to drive a stake into the heart of a Prince, but if you really want to succeed, you need to follow the old slogan: “Educate, agitate, organise.”
EDUCATE means explaining to other licks, especially young ones, that there are options out there. They don’t know the history of the Anarch Movement. They don’t know about the First Anarch Revolt, the birth of the Free States, or anything else. It’s not like they can read this stuff in a book. Somebody has to tell them an alternative history to the one the Camarilla peddles. If someone believes that God has cursed them to serve the elders, they’re not going to rebel. Give them the facts and they can start thinking for themselves.
AGITATE means talking to people, convincing them to fight. You can’t just sit around waiting for the oppressed to throw away their shackles. You need to be there, amidst the people you want on your side. For some, this is difficult because it also requires you to listen. You can’t just whack people on the head with your philosophy. You need to listen to their concerns, see how you can help them and they can help you. This way, you can achieve justice for all and build a broad revolutionary front.
ORGANISE means turning a mob of angry licks into a motivated movement with real lasting power. Through focus and structure, anger can be channelled effectively into real change. This is especially important when facing an active enemy. If we respond as individuals instead of as a community, it’s easy to fall into paranoia and division.
a few preliminary thoughts
– 1. 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐍𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄 of a successful unlife is to nest among mortals. Exist as one of them. Look like them, behave like them, talk like them. Don’t let yourself be separated from humanity. Don’t give in to the idea that we somehow live apart from human culture and civilisation. The closer you are to humanity, the more successful you’ll be as a hunter and harder to detect for your enemies.
– 2. 𝐓𝐑𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐄 alone is a fool’s errand. A lot of us descend into pointless paranoia, fearing everyone and assuming ill intent behind friendly gestures. Learn to hunt in a pack. You’ll find it’s easier, safer, and, if you fuck up, someone’s there to save your ass. And another thing: We get lonely too. Just because you’re undead doesn’t mean you can’t use someone to talk to.
– 3. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀 𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐒, but they have one good idea: the Masquerade. If you think about their Traditions, you’ll realise that most of them are geared for preserving elite power. The Masquerade is an exception. It’s designed to protect all of our kind, and that’s why everybody should follow it. The reality is that you might think yourself as the apex predator on a moonlit night, but at high noon you’re just another fool getting burnt to a crisp.
– 4. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐒 to define what being a lick is all about. They want to tell you about Caine, the Traditions, the Prince and all that bullshit. If you’re not careful, you’ll start believing them. You’ll think their way is the only way for our kind to exist. But it isn’t. There’s a simple remedy to their lies: Eat the rich. Once you have a taste of a Camarilla vampire, there’s no going back.
monsters of the recent past
𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎 single history of the Anarch Movement or the Unbound. History is always political, after all, interpreted and reinterpreted to suit the needs of the moment. Vampire society may play host to those who remember ancient times from the Roman Empire to New York in the Eighties, but only a fool would trust the version of events told by an immortal bloodsucker.
The truth is that vampires lie. They lie to serve their own interests, stroke their egos, and spite their enemies. In this they’re no different from ordinary mortals, but the Masquerade makes it even harder to write an objective history. Reliable written sources of information on the history of the undead are scarce.
What does this mean for a young Anarch seeking to make sense of the world? How can they know where they came from and what it means to be a vampire?
You have to choose which lies you like the best.
Consider one of the most famous moments of recent Anarch history, the death of the Prince of Los Angeles, Don Sebastian, in 1944. Anarch legends tells of how the Spanish anarchist Salvador Garcia fought his way into Don Sebastian’s haven and killed him after a desperate, bloody battle.
For this and for writing the Anarch Manifesto Salvador Garcia became on of the legends of the Anarch Movement.
Did he really kill Don Sebastian all by himself?
Maybe, maybe not. Nevertheless, when he was alive Don Sebastian was nothing but the Camarilla Prince of a young, new city. In death, he became the symbol of everything wrong with the Camarilla, from autocratic practices to sheer cruelty. Even the Camarilla bought into the myth, abandoning his legacy and refusing to try to salvage the rule of a Prince who seemed so degenerate and useless.
Was Don Sebastian really worse than so many other Camarilla Princes? Probably not. But he was weak, and that was enough.
When you listen to stories about Anarch history, apply the same basic rules you should follow when you read the newspaper. Who’s telling the story and what’s their agenda? How is the issue being framed? Who benefits from this narrative? And of course, we always tend to believe those with power and distrust those without power. If you’re a young vampire, try to keep this impulse in check. Power is never on your side.
Even by the standards of immortal beings hopelessly stuck in their ways, Douglas Callihan is behind the times. His style of leadership and outlook on the modern world both obviously belong in the 19th century, when the Anarch Baron of NYC was Embraced. It took the NYC Anarchs many decades, but the 21st century seems to be the time when their discontent with the current (supposed) torchbearer of their cause is finally boiling over. Callihan himself is no fool, either — ever concerned about his own continued survival, he realises that his grasp on the local sect members has grown unstable. A firm grasp will have to become a stranglehold if the old Boss is to maintain his position in the city.
Mia is Torque’s right hand. Another member of the Anarchs who previously led her unlife in the shadow of Boss Callihan, and was trying to maintain a level of independence from the old Baron. Naturally, this made her gravitate more and more toward Torque, thus beginning their long-term cooperation. Mia sees in Torque everything an Anarch Baron should be, and she’s eager to recruit new Kindred to their cause. However, she’s painfully aware that spies – both Callihan’s and the Camarilla’s – may be waiting for an opportune moment to uproot all of what the two Anarchs have spent so many years buildings.
