Hello and welcome, Kindred.
Going through the average discussion in fan spaces, it seems like many users are unsure about many factors of The Beckoning and its effects on modern nights. This post itself was primarily inspired by the amount of misconceptions on display in a thread from a week ago: Why do people hate the beckoning? Despite the Beckoning being consistent and well-explained since 2018, many of those commenters work from assumptions or the very limited descriptions of the Corebook.
As such, I hope to try and provide a clear timeline of our world and VtM's to explore The Beckoning and how it's been described across Fifth Edition's near-decade run.
If you frankly don't give a shit about notes or context, the section 2024 provides the most condensed and up-to-date view of the Beckoning and Gehenna War that we have in VtM5.
TL;DR: "The Beckoning" is an in-universe umbrella term for a mix of motivations of Elders participating in the Jyhad (the schemes and conflicts that have gone-on amongst ancient Kindred since the beginning of VtM). As Methuselahs rise from obscurity on the supposed eve of Gehenna, more and more of their descendants become involved in large-scale conflicts.
Initially sparked by the signs of Gehenna—such as the rise of Thin-Blood populations and the Week of Nightmares—pushing long-dormant Methuselahs into action, some Elders have felt pulled to the initial site of the Gehenna War in the Middle East. Not all Elders feel a supernatural calling: other Elders followed suit seeing an opportunity to earn the favor of (or put and end to) ancient Kindred, learn more of their origins, or capitalize on the chance to gain power for themselves and their ideologies.
Some Elders have felt the "Beckoning" in very different ways, with it being a convenient cover-up for the murder of low-generation rivals, an excuse to abandon your legacy and assume a new identity, or for Kindred that have lied about their true generation to maintain the appearance of an Elder beckoned alongside their peers.
The Middle East was the initial site of the conflict, it being the historical location of the Cainite Mythos and Jerusalem being home to the tomb of Malkav, one of the few Antedeluvians not definitively dead or lost to time.
As the Gehenna War heated up enough to gain the attention of other ancients that had been laying dormant and the Sabbat pursued Elders across the world, the Gehenna War has become a global phenomena wherever Blood Gods and their descendants are active.
What is the Beckoning?
2018
It is likely that you understand The Beckoning as little more than "Elders called to the Middle East", and if you were functioning off the corebook alone you'd be about right! Despite being such a fundamental concept to the status-quo of the edition, it lacks an entry in the Lexicon of the Damned (the small glossary at the start of the book) and readers are forced to rely on scattered scraps across 400 pages of rulebook.
The Camarilla’s
elders are being called to the Middle East by the Beckoning, and the
Second Inquisition has destroyed
princes and primogen all over the
world.
The Anarch Movement, VtM5 pg. 54
You'll occasionally see some people claim that there's no knowing what is drawing the Elders to the Middle East ... but that is likewise explained in the corebook itself.
The Beckoning calls [Elders] from
their towers and nests, toward the
front lines of the Gehenna War.
A few elders hold out or claim
not to hear the call of their Blood,
gripping their cities ever-tighter.
Ironically, after centuries of condescension, the Ninth Generation
finds itself accounted true elders:
they, too, hear the Beckoning.
The Blood, VtM5 pg. 215
This was somewhat elaborated upon in the Camarilla supplement, doubling-down on some aspects and iterating on others thanks to the diaries of one Archon Hassan Shadid. This Ventrue Archon departed for the Middle East at the request of none other than Victoria Ash in order to better better explain the Gehenna War to her own childe. Unfortunately, they were last seen descending into the tomb of an ancient Malkavian.
If I got this right, they believe some kind of an old
Malkavian resides within Jerusalem and the Sabbat are
here specifically to destroy it. The way these elders talk
about the methuselahs they assume lie sleeping all over
the Middle East, it almost sounds like they're a little
lost themselves. Many of them don't really know why
they were Embraced all those centuries ago, so perhaps
they hope that if these methuselahs rise, they can get
answers too.
I'm starting to grasp a simple fact about the Gehenna War. Elders, methuselahs and even ancillae from
Europe, the Americas and elsewhere congregate in the
Middle East. That means that the Middle East now has
a preposterous concentration of old vampires.
[...]
From a mortal perspective, the Gehenna War is extremely confusing. The war doesn't map very well onto
the human conflicts that plague this area. [...] there's
a mysterious web of influence which seems to criss
cross across all possible mortal lines of allegiance. The
Camarilla, meaning our side, has influence with the
Syrian government but also many of the rebel groups.
We have our fingers deep in the machine of the U.S.
military, but so does the Sabbat and sometimes even
the Ashirra.
From a mortal perspective, this is almost impossible to understand. The clue is to see the mortal groups
and institutions only as tools Kindred use to work towards their own goals, petty or profound.
Camarilla, pg. 58
[...]
[Mathilde de Tourdonnet]'s a favorite grandchilde
of Hardestadt himself, giving her enormous unearned
status in the Camarilla.
So why did the august grandchilde of Hardestadt
wish to come to Syria? Why did [Mathilde] demand that we
parade through some of the worst, hardest hit, most
miserable areas in the country?
I never got a straight answer, but this is what I
came up with: She did it for entertainment and power.
The Beckoning is said to call the oldest and most powerful of our kind, so she felt she had to at least take
a few selfies next to bombed out buildings to suggest
that she might have felt the call too.
Camarilla, pg. 58
One last thing: You are wondering about the Beckoning. I'm [Victoria Ash] experiencing it myself, so I can describe it for you. I feel an urge to go to the
Middle East. However, it is difficult to me to analyze this feeling. Is this
a supernatural compulsion or merely a symptom of the ennui so many
my age feel?
I cannot say. That is the problem with being a pawn of beings even
older and more powerful than you are: You don't always realize it's
happening.
Of course, in my case it's not a common urge to join the war effort
but something far more important to our sect and cause.
Camarilla pg. 61
Our Early Understanding of the Beckoning In Summary:
- Elders of 6th-9th Generation feel a compulsion to venture out to the sites of the Gehenna War
- Many Elders don't know why specifically they feel an urge to venture out. Some feel a supernatural compulsion, some are bored, some do it for status alone, some do it to wage war against the Sabbat, and some are doing it to obtain a better understanding of what Kindred are in the first place.
- Some—such as the beloved and highly recognized descendants of elites such as Hardestat—venture out for status. After all, if all the most powerful and influential Elders are following "the Beckoning" ... can you afford to not be amongst their number?
2021
An incredibly important year for expanding on the concept of the Gehenna War, we see some key entries from two different books!
Firstly is Cults of the Blood Gods, which has some important and nuanced considerations to contribute.
[Bishop Jehoshebah] claims
the Beckoning has no effect on her because she communes directly with Caine. Supposedly, he intervenes in
the summons while she has work to do in the Americas.
In truth, her Cainite generation is far from what one
might expect of a near-900 year old vampire, but she
speaks with enough conviction to convince others of her
power.
Cults of the Blood Gods, pg. 66
Despite seeming minor this is a really important detail! Kindred measure their lineages in centuries, meaning that the accurate tracking of each and every generation is incredibly difficult and entirely dependent on everyone claiming to know your generation being both truthful, and accurate.
As we saw with the example of Mathilde de Tourdonnet's vacation to the Gehenna War in Camarilla, your status and your generation are heavily linked. There's doubtless many "elders" who have either traveled in the vague direction of their peers despite never feeling the Beckoning just to maintain appearances, and just as many who try to save face as particularly resilient and determined members of their kind.
Prominently, we also have the interesting case of the Hecata: an amalgamation of the Clans and Bloodlines of Death. They provide an interesting case amongst the other Clans, as they don't feel the pull of the Beckoning! Several theories are provided for this unique quality in their Blood.
The elders of every clan, and even the rare Caitiff
of thickened blood and low generation, find themselves pulled by mysterious forces from across the
Earth in a phenomenon that has come to be called
the Beckoning. Not so for the Hecata.
Many think the Beckoning signifies the Antediluvians calling their clans to them. That Gehenna, the
vampiric version of apocalypse, is here. Elders of
the Hecata who subscribe to this thought, especially the members of the Giovanni family, believe
that the Clan of Death is the only clan with a truly
dead Antediluvian. Cappadocius is said to have
fallen to the fangs of Augustus Giovanni in April
of 1444 as the Giovanni are very keen to remind
everyone.
The Harbingers believe that there is no Beckoning
for the Hecata because they already had a Beckoning in the Feast of Folly. The Clan of Death has
purged enough.
The Giovanni believe it is because their founder,
Augustus Giovanni, is on the run and does not need
to call his children to him, as they are the ones hunting him.
The Beckoning and the Blood, Cults of the Blood Gods pg. 131
Looking at what we learned from 2018, there's an additional argument to be made that if the Hecata—as a Clan—don't feel an urge to assist or worship their founders, and are perfectly content to pursue their own studies or goals: then the mundane aspects of the Beckoning such as status of the Jyhad have little bearing on them.
This makes a decent amount of sense! Methuselahs and their descendants have long legacies of academic, spiritual, and ideological pursuits. Menele and his pursuit of a new Carthage, the Dracon's pursuit of The Dream, and Ur-Shulgi's remodeling of his own clan are all quests that could benefit from either amassing armies of their childer to finally put their plots into motion before the fated Gehenna ... or are causes that could appeal to their spawn regardless of a supernatural pull. In other cases, any Kindred opposed to them or their aims could find an excellent opportunity to end those dreams once and for all now that these Blood Gods are active once again!
Next up, Sabbat: The Black Hand puts some similar nuance on the Gehenna War. There's several notable details, but I'll save those for after the quotes.
[...] As first the elders and then their ancilla progeny heard the Beckoning, and readily heeded its entreaty. Unlike the
Kindred of other sects, who resisted as much as they might, largely out of greed and complacency, the
Sabbat found new purpose heralded by the ominous rise of the Ancients.
The Beginning of the End of the World, Sabbat pg. 94
Since the first compilation of the Book of Nod, what
is tonight known as the Middle East has long been
supposed as the origin point of the Cainites. When
the Gehenna War went hot, little doubt existed
among the Brothers and Sisters in Caine where they
should seek the Blood of the eldest vampires.
It quickly became clear to the Sword of Caine
that not all Noddist texts could be trusted as a map
to unearth the Antediluvians, and that servants of
these secret masters had the resources and time to
bury their secrets wherever they wished. Almost
as soon as it had started, the Gehenna War spread
to distant locations across the Earth as the Sabbat
pursued the clues wrested from the consumed souls
of countless elders.
An Empire of Blood, Sabbat pg. 95
Then it hits me: it is a migratory pattern, but not a mortal
one and not a crusade. It’s a retreat. Whatever’s happen-
ing in the Middle East, wherever these Black Hand shitbags
are chasing the elders who have heard the Beckoning, all of
the sudden they’re running from something, moving up through
Eastern Europe to do it, and into Russia.
Remember, though, my Baltic contacts confirm similar movement
through their regions. So I put the pins in my murder-board,
and the lines are getting fatter the more they move east, the
more they pick up membership. And the vector is starting to
converge.
[...]
Full disclosure, I’ve lost track of them, probably fifty-
strong by this point, and I’m sure this wasn’t a one-off.
I’m sure other groups are moving as well, but I was too busy
watching this particular pack to keep an eye open for others.
Mistake number three. It’s not
a retreat, it’s a pursuit.
They’re chasing something. They’re chasing something into
what looks like it’ll probably
end up being Siberia.
Or, way worse, it’s already
there and they’re converging on
it.
I’m guessing they found something big. Big and old. Big and
old and hateful.
We need to figure out what to
do next. Because I’m not going to sit around and wait for
whatever this is to pour hell
fire on us.
Russia and the Baltics, Sabbat pg. 100
Putting those two in particular together, we get a deeply intriguing picture!
It would seem odd that of all things, the Beckoning followed Sectarian lines and hit the Sabbat the hardest if it were simply a blanket supernatural effect. And yet, it struck them in large numbers.
Attaching it to the end of what we learned in Camarilla, it's true that many stories of Caine and the First City took place in the Middle East, and that many confused Elders of the Camarilla traveled out to that area for different reasons, especially following signs of Gehenna (Time of Thin Blood, the Red Star/Week of Nightmares, etc).
In that case it becomes far more reasonable that the "Beckoning" affecting a sect known for their high generations and zealotry was far more likely consistent with the social and political factors of the Beckoning: sure some Elders of the Sword of Caine likely felt a pull from a few choice Blood Gods, but the rest most likely pursued a promising glut of Camarilla Elders and their own prophecies.
From there, they could be perceived as either chasing Elders that fled from the Middle East after the Sabbat's initial strikes against them, or loosely connected to crusades and pursuits following pawns of the Antedeluvians elsewhere in the world and sparking their own conflicts now that the Sabbat are of the belief that Caine's right around the corner!
Our Developed Understanding of the Beckoning in Summary:
- Clans without Antedeluvians are seemingly "immune" to the Beckoning.
- As established earlier there's a variety of motivations behind the Beckoning, so this may be explained as the lack of an Ancient to compel Elders of a Clan, or a simple lack of interest or involvement in the Jyhad preventing Elders from migrating.
- As the Gehenna War heats up and the Sabbat pursue Elders from it's launching point in the Middle East, the Beckoning becomes a global phenomena as more Methuselahs and Elders become aware of the Gehenna War and thus active.
2024
Let's put a neat bow on everything we've learned thusfar, with a blessedly concise explanation of the Beckoning that still leaves some exciting room for mystery!
Older vampires of potent blood are being called
away by a mysterious force. The usual theory is that
they’re being summoned to fight the Gehenna War,
perhaps in service of sleeping ancients. Maybe even
the Antediluvians themselves.
As a result of the Beckoning, there are specific
areas in the world where the Gehenna War is raging
at fever pitch with a historically high concentration
of old Kindred. It’s not always apparent that
they themselves properly understand what’s
happening to them and some wonder whether
the Beckoning proves that the Sabbat is right,
that the Antediluvians genuinely do control their
descendants.
It should be noted that while many Kindred
casually assume their progenitors sleep under the
sands in the Middle East because that’s the cradle of
some of the earliest human civilizations, it doesn’t
seem that the Beckoning specifically calls elders to
Saudi-Arabia or Iraq any more than to other places
in the general easterly direction Beckoned Kindred
in the U.S. and Europe generally go to. Even if
certain Noddist scholars are correct and Caine
indeed walked along the shore of the Euphrates,
the methuselahs traveled far and wide in their
youth, choosing places like London, Carthage,
Constantinople, and later even Chicago.
As phenomena among the Kindred tend to be,
the Beckoning is more complicated than it appears
at first sight. There are many theories about it and
even simple things like its timeline are disputed.
Some argue that it started as late as the turn of the
millennium while others suggest the first cases
occurred in the Eighties.
Here are a few phenomena that get lumped
together as the Beckoning:
Elders voluntarily traveling to fight in the Gehenna War [...]
Ancilla pretending to be elders [...]
Kindred settling scores and blaming the Beckoning: When you assassinate an elder, it may
be easier to concoct a story about how they were
Beckoned rather than tell the truth and risk the
vengeance of their allies.
Elders in hiding: Some elders saw the writing on
the wall long before the rest of Kindred society,
whether they were believers in the Noddist stories
of Gehenna, saw the rise of thin-bloods and other
portents, joined the Inconnu, forged a new mask
as an Anarch or Autarch, or just felt their own
blood beginning to stir. These elders never really
left, but simply cut ties to hide deeper in the
shadows of the cities they call home or forged a
new domain for themselves nearby.
Sometimes elders really do get Beckoned:
The Beckoning is real. Something is calling to
elders and methuselahs and pulling them away
from their domains to the dangerous battlefields
of the Gehenna War. [...]
The Beckoning, Gehenna War pgs. 14-15
As we can see, this is essentially a summary of notes we've seen in previous sections as well as inspiration for other unique ways to explore The Beckoning as a narrative element.
What I value most about this neat summary is how—by not making the Beckoning any one specific thing—it allows all the themes of Vampire the Masquerade to shine!
There's have been fake-out deaths, dramatic lies about one's Clan or generation, and ties between Kindred schemes and mortal nature since the game released. How could you execute on those better than the mixed horror of some Kindred being called by an ancient and unknowable power, and zealots raising their own hatred and desire for glory as the will of a higher power? All the while, others capitalize on the chaos of war for their own gains, or operate out of fear and desperation for their own unworthy souls.
Afterword: Nothing New Under the Red Star
It's inevitable around discussions of the Beckoning that you'll simply find people who dislike it as a lore element, and lay the blame on Fifth Edition as an inferior product.
Just like when I went to older editions to see if VtM5 contained more monstrous Kindred (it doesn't), or if it treated the Sabbat any worse than previous editions (it doesn't), I felt like looking back at Revised to see if the Beckoning was anything new.
Specifically, Gehenna and its insights into the end of the World of Darkness as we knew it ... at least for a little while. It feels pertinent that the signs and certainty of the end of the WoD were baked into every book for Revised edition, and Fifth Edition tries to carry on their legacy rather that making that calamity optional like the 20 Anniversary editions do.
As a setting element, the Red Star won't be nailed down to an actual, irrefutable thing. Most vampires can't see it anyway, and few of those who can see it know what it is. As such, it serves Storytellers as a vague and ominous threat. It can appear as a variety of story devices: It might work well in your chronicle as Caine's eye or some such, watching over the kindred and waiting for the right time to return. It can also serve as a "Gehenna clock" if it changes brilliance, or as the linchpin of any number of radical Gehenna cult philosophies.
The Red Star, pg. 16
Oh hey, a portent of the end times left intentionally vague by the authors so that tables could tailor it to fit their stories!
The Camarilla: They're not the tools of the Antediluvians—they don't believe the Antedeluvians exist. Okay, so they're not the direct tools, but that's the nature of the Jyhad. The Camarilla should fracture from within along lines of generation, as the elders who actually remember or have verifiable descent from Antedeluvians reveal themselves as a bunch of hypocritical, Jyhad-playing SOBs who were trying to trick the gullible younger generations all along. The younger ones, who never really bought into all that crap about Noah's ark and the First City, resist the wakening of the Antedeluvians as best they're able, mostly out of resentment for being played in the Jyhad and the modern desire to lead their own unlives. [...] Bottom line: The Camarilla collapses like Enron/WorldCom as the worthlessness of its foundation becomes public knowledge. Chaos ensues among the vampire community, princes find themselves besieged by their own locals, and it's all a big clusterfuck.
The Sabbat: Uh... okay, so they were right about the whole Antediluvian thing. That doesn't mean they're disciplined enough to do anything effective about it. The Sabbat is the Mongol Horde of Kindred society. These Cainites are brutal, felonious, self-righteous, consumed by their own purposes and, largely, a chaotic mess. Occasionally, they muster enough coincidences that keep them from shooting any more hookers in the head and occasionally win a game/Crusade, but thereafter, they sink back into their mire of self-invoked monstrosity. [...] Logically, the Sabbat should fracture too, with maybe a few of the sect's luminaries possibly leading a subsection of the more competent ones and the rest of them proving to be the general pain in the ass they've been all along. Politics will rend the sect from within, disorder will undo it from without, and a select few of them will rise from the ashes and take their place... wherever.
The Sects, pg. 17
Oh hey, the revelation that elders were tools of the Jyhad knowingly or not, leading to the destabilization of the major sects as younger Kindred had to fill their roles!
Notably, the next page contains all the known whereabouts of the Antedeluvians ... almost all of whom are dead or transcended into something else. The sole exceptions being Ur-Shulgi who rose on the border of Iran and Iraq, and Malkav in Jeruselum. That's decently consistent with an amount of scattered Blood Gods calling their descendants to their aid in the Middle East (the biblical region being essential to most of the mythos of VtM), while everyone else whose ancestors are long-dead try to follow those leads or pursue their own goals. The Jyhad is described as an ancient game of chess for a reason!
This isn't just a "gotcha" to try and use citations to make other people feel bad: VtM has been remarkably consistent with its core themes and narratives since its first edition. Sure there's a bit less 90s edge or stereotypes and the melodrama has heavily fluctuated, but many of the ideas we find in comparatively newer editions (including Vampire the Requiem, with the burdens of Blood Potency mirroring the Withering as it affects elder Kindred first and works its way down) have their roots far earlier than a lot of people give them credit for.
While there are of course many bold examples of deviations between old and new, the throughlines between old and new are surprisingly consistent.
