Prologue - The Order of the Serjeants

[Alex]

On the Order of the Serjeants
What We Know of the Camarilla's Field Marshals

By Salvador Garcia

Abstract: In this paper I write on the Order of the Serjeants, a new sort of Camarilla Court Officer found with increasing regularity in Free Cities. After initial contact with one of these officials in Los Angeles in 2062, I have spent the last 9 years working with my colleagues in the field and across the Free States to understand these Serjeant - their purpose, their powers, and what kind of Camarilla Kindred tends to fall into this role. The goal of this writing is to foster a greater understanding of the Serjeants so that Anarchs can combat evolving threats in these modern nights.

Sources: My assertions in this article are made primarily based on coerced interviews with captured Camarilla, especially those identifying themselves as Serjeants, recent Camarilla defectors, and Anarchs in the field. I must give special thanks to my friend Horace Badgley, who assisted me in obtaining several Serjeants - and their cooperation - for these interviews.

The Leadup to the Serjeants

Most evidence I have obtained places the Serjeants as a recent creation, even by the standards of the undead. After the initial nights of the Third Anarch Revolt and the creation of the borders that confine the modern Anarch Movement, the Camarilla's attention and our own was consumed by the fall of the Masquerade and human aggression against Vampires. This was a period of chaos for Kindred, but not between them. The danger posed by humanity necessitated an undeclared ceasefire between Tower and Rabble. It was only in the 2050's and 2060's, as mortals themselves were distracted by crises of climate and economics, that both nocturnal factions have turned their attention back towards each other.

As their gazes turned back upon the Rabble, the Camarilla faced two core problems. The first was the changing nature of their enemy. It had been centuries since the Camarilla faced a united and potent Anarch Movement. Early forays and offensives utilizing tactics deployed effectively against the Sabbat found little success in Anarch Free Cities. Changing times, as well, frustrated the Camarilla's efforts. With the damned widely spoken of, the untouched institutions of most Anarch Free Cities proved more resilient to attempts of outsiders to curry influence than in the past.

The second problem was one of attention. Unlike in the nights of the late 20th century, there are no Sabbat holdings in Europe to call the attention of the Tower's Eldest to the Sect Wars. In the minds of these ancient monsters, North America was and always had been a backwater. A provincial outlier of the Camarilla meant only to prevent Mexico City or Montreal from flooding the Old World with Cainites and provisions. Now both of those great Cultist cities pledge loyalty to the Camarilla, and the Justicariate and its Archons have found affairs closer to home to trouble themselves with. The Camarilla of North America found itself left to fight a war on its own. And the Serjeants are how they have begun to adapt to the new political realities of the late 21st century.

What is a "Serjeant?"

This backdrop brings us to the order of the Serjeants - the North American Camarilla's response to their perilous position. The Order of the Serjeants began with the appointment of their first members in 2059 by Prince Nikolaj Kaminski of Chicago, and the position has since become more commonplace across of North America and especially in Camarilla border Domains. The charge of the Serjeants was, and remains, "to enforce the Traditions of the Camarilla in Domains beyond the grasp of the Princes." In effect, the Serjeants wield the power - but not the title - of Princes when they are deployed to an Anarch city. This provides the Serjeants, and the Princes who appoint them, with a few key advantages which the Camarilla's warleaders facing the Sabbat did not possess.

1. Tactical Freedom - As a hierarchical society, the Camarilla takes to its strictures with deadly seriousness. Any crime against the Traditions may be punished with death, and the enforcement of those Traditions falls entirely to one tyrant. In previous offensives, it was the implication that Camarilla sent to battle the Sabbat would be forced to continue to abide by the orders of their Prince. The tactics necessary to prosecute war successfully often violated the Traditions, driving war leaders to behave conservatively or risk opening themselves to blackmail by Court rivals. While Serjeants report to their Princes and may be held accountable for their actions in the field, in wielding the powers of a Prince in Anarch Domains they have explicitly greater power to act as they see fit and implicitly greater standing and authority to justify their actions.

2. Political Autonomy - Related to the Serjeant's tactical freedom is their political freedom. As demi-Princes in their own rights, the Serjeants have broad authority to authorize the creation of new Camarilla Kindred, to pardon or welcome defectors or unaligned Vampires, and to otherwise conduct their "Court" as they see fit. The Camarilla has long suffered compared to the Movement and even the Sabbat for the difficulty defectors faced in actually crossing the line. Paranoia of infiltration and the reliance of Camarilla politics on shows of "strength" reduced dramatically the political incentives for Princes to openly accept defectors, and would-be defectors in turn to trust that a Prince would honor their word once they had what they wanted. Where Princes are answerable to a Court, Serjeants are only answerable to a Prince - a Prince who may simply choose not to solicit or ignore the Serjeant's actions if they wish. This leaves the Serjeant as a Court official better suited to taking risks and making compromises necessary to prosecute war.

3. Stability at Court - Even in fighting the Anarchs, individual Camarilla Kindred act only in their own self-interest. If the Order of the Serjeants did not benefit the Princes who would appoint them, it would not exist. While the Serjeant is officially a position at Court, the nature of the Serjeant's duty necessitates their absence from it. The Camarilla rejects modern innovations in long-distance communication, which means that to be absent from Court is to be absent from politics entirely. This provides Princes with a unique means to solve disputes between ambitious childer, to send enemies both real and imagined elsewhere, and to lure pretenders away from their throne with the promise of another one. The Order of the Serjeants is an outlet for Princes who feel their power challenged to focus that challenge away from their throne and against their enemies.

These factors makes the Serjeants more dangerous than the war leaders the Anarch Movement has faced in the past. In the past, Camarilla offensives often shared the traits of being small forays by outsiders into Anarch and Sabbat cities. Anarch and Sabbat Vampires could count on those advanced guards abiding by the Traditions for fear of reprisal and the Camarilla's own byzantine politics making betrayal and defection a risky and difficult process. The appointment of a Serjeant to a city shifts the war to a local level. Serjeants may Embrace themselves or authorize other Camarilla to Embrace from locals who know their cities. They may ease the process of defection to the Camarilla and provide financial and political incentives for Camarilla seeking glory and Anarchs less than totally committed to our cause. And they may ignore the Traditions, even the First, at their leisure - the Prince need only blame the Anarchs for violations of the Masquerade to give the Serjeants a free strategic hand of building the tower in Camarilla cities.

Who are the Serjeants?

So then, what kind of Camarilla Kindred becomes a Serjeant? That profile is dictated by the third unique characteristic of the Serjeants in the prior section - Stability at Court. The Prince and their allies maximize benefit by appointing their most likely competitors for power and rivals to the role. And as Elders think in terms of decades and centuries rather than years, they are likely to assess those threats and address them well before they find themselves politically besieged.

The median Serjeant, then, is a Kindred of 100 to 200 years undead. Old enough that they have proven themselves unlikely to meet their end by carelessness or stupidity, but young enough that they have yet to attain a Court office beyond that of a Deputy to a true Court Official (Deputies to the Sheriff, the Scourge, the Keeper, etcetera). The Prince is unlikely to see any Kindred younger than this as a potential threat, or even worthy of execution - many of the most troublesome of the Camarilla's would-be scions see themselves destroyed on their own accord.

The median Serjeant, then, is also a Kindred in good Standing and one whom the Prince is not confident they will find cause to marginalize, suborn, or execute in the immediate future. Princes do not elevate any Kindred into a position whom they do not feel it necessary to do so. Rivals to the Prince who are not lethally foolish, but are controversial or find themselves too often in violation of the Traditions are unlikely to be granted a position as Serjeant.

The median Serjeant, then, is loyal to the Camarilla. They are Kindred who have, if not thrived, achieved success and comfort in the Tower and at Court. The defection of a Serjeant could prove a disaster for the home Domain, and so the Prince cannot risk sending into Anarch territory a warleader who resents the Camarilla or sympathizes with Anarchs. The position itself also weeds out those who are not devoted enough to their sect to abandon their holdings in their home city and take up residence in hostile territory.

The median Serjeant, then by consequence of these two factors, tends to be an unusually competent Court official. In a perverse way, the incentives which drive a Prince to appoint a Serjeant impose a sort of demi-meritocracy within the position. The Prince gains nothing from sending the inexperienced, the foolish, or the treacherous to meet the Anarchs in our home turf. They are, by sheer accident, sending us their very best. And this should be a cause for concern.

What do Serjeants Mean for the Movement?

In almost a decade of study since the first Serjeant was apprehended, I have reached several conclusions about what Serjeants will mean for the Movement. I will go into detail below, but if you read no further then please read this. The Serjeants will challenge the Movement - both its security and its values - in ways we have not experienced since the Convention of Prague. They are not a cause for crisis, but they are a threat to be taken seriously. Judicious Anarchs should be thinking about the possibility of a Serjeant incursion into their city before it happens, not after it comes to pass. With that said, there are a few areas where I believe Anarchs must change their mindsets going forward.

1. We Can No Longer Count on Camarilla Inaction - Over the past few decades, Anarchs have had more to fear from Hunters and rioters than they have from the Camarilla. Even at war, the Camarilla has always been slow to act. Court politics were the great gears through which any Camarilla action had to be pushed through. This is no longer the case. A Serjeant may be appointed by the a single word, and may act autonomously and without the explicit approval of the Court. As Serjeants become more widespread in the coming nights, we can expect the tempo of Camarilla offensives against Anarch Free Cities to increase.

2. We Can No Longer Consider Our Mortals Beyond Reach - The end of the Masquerade has temporarily hampered the Camarilla in its ability to turn human institutions to their whims in Anarch Cities. With most Anarchs not inclined to dabble in political influence and boardroom dealings, these arenas have largely remained free of Vampires. This is no longer the case. The ability of the Serjeant to freely Embrace within our cities and cultivate influence locally puts our cities themselves at unprecedent risk. Anarchs must become more active in mortal institutions and be wary of blind spots and openings that a Serjeant may exploit.

3. We Can No Longer Take Loyalty for Granted - The Anarchs' greatest defense against the Camarilla is that they often had little to offer us, and what offers they made were rarely upheld. We must consider the unpleasant possibilities that Serjeants empowered to make good on promises of wealth, power, and influence will be able to tempt those of weak spirit to join the Tower and betray our ranks. Anarch Free Cities must find a way to balance the freedom of Anarchs with the need to protect our Movement, and that is likely a decision each Free City must make for itself.

While this treatise may sound bitter and pessimistic, it is not meant to be such. Rather, through my investigations and writing I intend to provide Anarch Kindred with the tools and the knowledge they need to succeed against this new threat from our ancient enemies. The Third Anarch Revolt was not the end of our struggle. It was the beginning, and that struggle is likely to continue to demand more - not less - of our unlives. Our war against the Elders has entered a new phase, and we must enter it with open eyes and clear minds if we are to succeed.