The Lancea et Sanctum is, quite simply, the organized church of the Kindred. God cursed vampires to be hungry and dead, and in their damnation they are called to do God’s work. In the Book of Job, Satan is God’s agent in the torment of an innocent man, tempting him to blasphemy. The Sanctified see themselves as doing the same: They torment the innocent, and root out those whose faith is weak. The Lancea et Sanctum is to the Church Universal what the individual vampire is to a living believer: a parasite; a monster that feeds, and corrupts, and mimics. But in so doing, the Sanctified do the will of God Himself. They produce the trials and persecutions that refine the faithful and weed out the unbeliever. They send the faithful to the right hand of Jesus, a place forever denied to the Damned. A Lancea et Sanctum theologian once called the organization “the Third Version of Judas,” the true betrayers who are too pious to be allowed the consolations of goodness. The ambivalent relationship of the Sanctified to their living flocks is a case in point. While they have for centuries maintained a strict rule that they do not worship alongside the living, vampiric shepherds do everything they can to make sure these churches survive, pursuing those who would persecute or otherwise harm the living church with terrifying viciousness. On the other hand, the Sanctified believe that they must keep their flocks strong. With fear, a Sanctified monster keeps the wayward children of Mother Church on the straight and narrow: teenagers are terrified into maintaining their virginity by the monsters who hunt at Lovers’ Leap; an abusive priest is fed on, and then driven to suicide; a family is frightened into staying with the church by nightmares and supernatural portents. With temptations, the monsters weed out the weak: A vampire plays on the deep-seated doubts of a nun, driving her to experimentation and addiction, then to prostitution and finally to homelessness and death; a televangelist is given the opportunity to embezzle funds from the Rwandan Orphanage Appeal; a student Bible-group leader is lured to his doom by a beautiful, dark woman. All too often those whom the Sanctified tempt and are found wanting become the next generation of the Sanctified themselves, rising from the grave to atone for the unforgivable. The Lancea et Sanctum’s divine monsters are the archivists and librarians of the Kindred. Just as medieval monks were the keepers of knowledge, the Sanctified maintain some of the oldest records of the Kindred, and most cities with a significant Lancea et Sanctum presence have a Black Collection of histories, diaries and sacred texts. A small Lancea et Sanctum printing press even exists — the Society for the Promulgation of Longinian Doctrine — producing printed on-demand texts for dissemination among the dead (and only among the dead). The most significant of these texts is The Testament of Longinus, the vampires’ Bible. Of course, just like their medieval daylight predecessors, the Lancea et Sanctum’s librarians suppress or destroy as many books as they keep. The Sanctified just as often keep artifacts and texts far away from the prying eyes and grasping fingers of the curious, both living and dead. ---- The Sanctified are angry at the Invictus. Shunned, pushed aside by the pretender Prince whom they allow to sit on the throne, in favor of heathens and pagans. The snub hasn't passed unnoticed by any of the Sanctified. In a place like Paradi City, one wouldn't expect to find the presence of God in a meaningful way, but the vampires of the Lancea Sanctum are nearly zealots in their devotion. It's not hard to understand, from their worldview. The world and city are fallen ones. Paradi City is a monument to excess and worship of the dollar. Thousands of people die in it every day and tens of thousands are born. Life is a dull, monotonous dredge for most, with no prospect of retirement save for death. Then you do die, but you return as one of the Damned. Suddenly, everything makes much more sense. Why the world is like this. Why you have the purpose you do. Why God has turned his back on humanity in favor of his Damned servants. The Sanctified have a noble calling; there are so many souls out there, lost and needing direction. Their temptations work all too well on many mortals, but every so often, they find one soul that resists them. It didn't take long for members of the Carthian Movement to begin approaching the Church. Like the Sanctified, they too were outcast and trodden upon by the First. //The Invictus has shown you how much it really valued you, all those years// they whisper into receptive ears. Now the revolutionaries take Midnight Mass in preparation for the day they'll bring the old order to heel and the Sanctified embrace their wisdom. The Sanctified are in a unique position between the Invictus and the Carthian Movement. There are those elders of the First Estate who disagree with how the Sanctified were treated and who still come to Midnight Services. There, they interact with the firebrands, but despite their differences of opinions, they both agree that the High Prince is an imposter to the throne. The Lancea Et Sanctum helps facilitate talks which few other cities would believe possible; an alliance of Carthians and Invictus to bring down a common tyrant.