Lilith is a complicated figure with a mysterious history that may or may not predate Judaism, the Book of Nod, and Caine himself, even according to Noddist lore. She speaks to the universal concepts of woman-as-mother, mother-as-survivor, and woman-as-catalyst both for all life as well as all evil. What’s more, she is (or was) real, but that reality and the many faces attached to her name are impossible to fully reconcile.
The oldest and most dedicated worshipers of Lilith claim their lineage traces back to her and her potent demonic magics stolen from the gods and brought to Earth. They reject the influence or the importance of Caine as the All-Father and point to historical texts as well as folktale cycles that suggest a pre-Abrahamic time when not all vampires were thought to be from one single progenitor. Alternatively, they look to times when there was something like the myth of Caine, but Caine was a woman, or a pair of divine twins, or an angel, and so on. Many claim their blood is the blood of demons, and that they were never totally human, even before the Embrace. Some even claim to have spontaneously become vampires without need of a sire, though none have proven (or attempted to prove) this to be true.
Because her history (and how it coincides with Cainite history) is so conflicted, many of her worshipers have distilled these various stories down to core concepts that seem to apply universally to the many faces of the Dark Mother. They teach that the children of Lilith are forces of raw creation. Creation hurts, and any pain survived is a lesson that must be studied and celebrated. Those who create with pure abandon and celebrate the wet and fleshy acts of creation will invariably be betrayed by those too afraid or otherwise unable to create. This last point is especially important to the growing cult among the Bahari who converted from Cainite beliefs and feel a need to connect the Lilith of the Road to the Lilith mentioned in Noddist apocrypha.
Sobriquet
Witches, Bahari, Lilins, Ki-sikil-lil-la-ke
Ethics
- Creation is vital, the act of creation is sacred, and like our Mother you must create often and with daring and cunning
- Seduce Angels
- Creation is suffering, and the greater the creations, the greater the suffering. That suffering is valuable.
- Life teaches through suffering; be a teacher
- Creation is always an act of love and devotion; be a lover
- Rather than learn, some will seek to destroy you and take what you have created for their own; be a torturer
- Draw in the needy, those who have suffered enough to understand. Welcome them with passion and wisdom.
- Cultivate a garden. Plant seeds and feed them with your blood and milk.
| Level of Sin | Description |
| 1* | Feeding immediately when hungry; joining a system created by those with no wisdom |
| 1 | Ignoring one of Lilith’s faces |
| 2 | Rejecting or dismissing the suffering of others; cruelty for its own sake |
| 3 | Stealing great learning and claiming it as your own; destroying a thinking being |
| 4 | Not seeking out the teachings of Lilith |
| 5 | Shunning pain; getting between someone and a valuable lesson |
*: only for someone with Road rating of 6
Preferred by
- Bloodlines: Ádísur, Gargoyles (Path of Veils only), Telyavelic Tremere
Initiation
There are two ways to become a part of the Road of Lilith: by blood or by bleeding. Some souls, the Bahari claim, are marked as “other” by ancient demonic or celestial heritage. The Bahari claim that the auras of these special people possess small marks that only certain Bahari rites can reveal. The Bahari watch these people throughout their lives to see if they should ever enter a state of such intense suffering that they begin to see the truth, or create something so powerful that their ability to create should be preserved forever. Those without these marks are often called to Lilith’s faith by personal tragedy, shattering suffering, or a deep intellectual curiosity for the lessons only pain can teach. These people are marked by similar Bahari rites so that any Bahari can see these marks and observe them for the right time to approach.
Organisation
As a rule, there is no formal organization among the Bahari. Limitations, like the binding of Lilith’s hair, chafe members of this Road, and few are willing to create overarching hierarchies. Cults form, share myths and lessons they have earned, hurt each other, love each other, then break apart and reform elsewhere with other Bahari. Some cults with slightly variant philosophies are growing in popularity, but this is not widespread yet. People who are recognized as having learned great lessons (at great expense) or created great wonders may be greeted as “mother,” “grandmother,” “father,” and so on, but this is not a universally accepted practice.
Much like the Road of the Beast, followers of the Road of Lilith accept that the fight against the Laws of Caine as embodied by the European elders of the Camarilla necessitates some degree of working together. The wisest, those with the most to teach, and those who have suffered the most, speak for the Bahari of the Anarchs.
Rituals and Observances
The Bahari recognize planting and harvest time as significant, and they will often align acts of creation (and the occasionally necessary act of destruction) with these seasons. Further, Bahari will gather and ritually make love and physically wound and test each other’s limits. These ritualized sadistic acts are pale microcosms of the ultimate tests that life deals the celebrants, and is never meant to replace real learning.
Aura
Nurturing. A Bahari’s aura manifests as any other vampire’s might, though chunks and swirls may appear carved out of the whole. If one concentrates, they might think they see symbols in these shifting carvings, but can catch none of them. Further, the aura seems to bleed or drip, making the “carvings” appear more like wounds. Acts of creation and mentorship receive the character’s aura modifier.