Mother's Army

"In the world I see, you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty carpool lane of an abandoned superhighway."

Nicknames: Wakeners, Luddites (derogatory)

History:

The origin of the Mother's Army is uncertain. Though the Army itself claims to have been around since the dawn of civilization, older members of the Circle of the Crone insist that the Mother's Army is an extremist splinter of theirs that emerged in direct reaction to the rise of the modern era.

Whatever the truth, the Mother's Army is a dangerous Kindred conspiracy with cells spread worldwide, pursuing their esoteric and apocalyptic goals, smashing or subverting other Covenants when they try to get in their way. Though all the other major Covenants make efforts to stamp them out, for they see them as little better than the Belial's Brood, the Mother's Army keeps popping back like an itch that refuses to go away.

Ethos and Goals:

The Mother’s Army knows that the Crone is real, and that she birthed vampires. They know she’s not human, she’s not vampire, and she’s something altogether weirder and worse. They know all this because she’s out there. Somewhere. Sleeping beneath the earth—maybe in a glacier, maybe beneath the seared desert sands, maybe at the tippy-top of some impossible mountain. And from her earthen barrow she whispers. She whispers to anybody and everybody that’s taken a taste of her blood. Which, by the way, is every vampire within this covenant. The Mother will only awaken and lead her people through the long dark night when conditions are right, and the Mother's Army works to pursue these conditions, to see them realized.

So many vampires believe so many silly things: they believe in God, they believe in democracy, in royalty and transcendence. It’s all a precious waste of time. The only thing that matters to the vampires of the Mother’s Army is the Beast and the Blood, for those two things are the gifts the Crone has given them. The things that make them special.

Every goal the Mother’s Army keeps supports the ultimate uber-goal, which is to awaken the Crone Mother herself. She is their foul and glorious progenitor, and when she arises she will tear the curses afflicting the Damned asunder and change the world by destroying it, ending civilization and ushering in a new age of primitivism.

Two goals support this end result.

The first is, ''awaken the Mother’s children. The Mother created the Kindred from her own monstrous flesh and blood, and those children, like her, are sleeping. They must first be roused from torpor. These children—often called the Igigi, or the “second gods”—are sometimes thought to be the clan founders, though nobody really has any evidence for that (and the Mother’s whispers indicate that at least thirteen such children lay slumbering, which obviously outnumbers the extant clans by more than double).

The second is, ''learn all the Mother’s secrets''. Nobody knows exactly what this means, though the Crone delights whenever the conspiracy discovers a new Crúac rite. (How can they tell she’s delighted? Because she screams and howls and gibbers in what could only be described as a “frenzied paroxysm of ecstasy.” And yes, every member of the conspiracy hears this in their minds and in their Blood.) So, it’s easy to assume that once the conspiracy learns all her lost rites, then that is the second piece of the puzzle. Of course, you know what happens when one assumes...

Weakness:

The Mother's Army suffers from two severe deficiencies. First is, because of their overt monstrousness and Brood-esque disregard for their own humanity, as well as they are fanatical zeal, they often lack the ability to act in a subtle fashion. Many of their cells are discovered and destroyed by other Kindred or even Hunters because they could just not lie low when necessary.

Secondly, because each member of the Army hears the Crone, they view organization and structure as unnecessary. This makes it very difficult for cells to coordinate, and many of the Mother's Army's defeats can be attributed to their chaotic disorganization.

Organization and structure:

While the Mother's Army lacks cohesiveness, they have three universally recognised roles within cells.

Persephone

The Persephone—or “maiden”—is meant to be equal parts “recruitment tool” and “sacrificial lamb.” This is how the Persephone works: the conspiracy selects a vampire (often a female, though not necessarily) to go amongst the other vampires and convert them. She is meant to be non-violent, beautiful, even seductive. She walks among the other Kindred and seeks to bring them over to the other side—always with honey, never with vinegar. It rarely works out. Someone usually takes advantage of her. Often enough she ends up on the wrong end of a beam of sunlight. And that’s okay. Because when the carrot fails, it’s time for the stick; the maiden perishes, then the conspiracy has full license to send in its howling throngs to tear out the throats of the obstinate. What’s fascinating is, wise vampires know the deal with the Persephone and thus choose to treat her well and not provoke the “stick” reaction. But that means the Persephone has time to work her magic and seduce other vampires over to the Mother’s side. So, by not dispatching her, they’re potentially allowing the Trojan horse to open.

Unearther

If you were to think of these vampires as “psycho-pagan ecstatic archaeologists,” you’d not be far from the mark. These Damned of the Mother’s Army have a single purpose: to find the secrets of the Mother and the slumbering Igigi and unearth them. They are equal part “globetrotting academic” and “frenzied vampire clawing at the earth with callused fingers.”

Anakim

The Anakim are the “children of the Igigi,” or more easily thought of as the grandchildren of the Crone herself. Obviously, a lot of these vampires remain in torpor, too (and most of them are over a thousand years old, though from time to time the Igigi have awakened over the years and sired younger childer), but a great number are awake and serve the Mother’s Army in various forms. Some are wild siroccos of violence, where others are mad oracles.

Role in Princedoms:

The Mother's Army is almost never tolerated. There are a few instances when a cell has decided to play the long con and the local rulers are too dismissive of them to stamp them out, but this is highly unusual. The Mother's Army does not really care about conquering or holding cities in the normal Kindred fashion, and thus, there are no Mother's Army Princedoms.