How my Setite survived using the most unSetite tactics possible

[nothri]

So let me be blunt. I make a terrible Setite. At least, compared to what the 20th anniversary books say (haven't found an opportunity to play 5th edition). I have two really big problems. Morality in vampire is of course super gray, but I definitely lean more to being the nice, friendly bloodsucking monster (heh) than not. I'm not especially great at manipulation or playing the long game that other vampire players excel at. Worst of all...I'm a bad liar. So yeah. More like a Setite antitribu than anything. I basically played a warrior setite, the type that venerates Set's militant status as a protector of Ra in his journey through the Underworld. In other worlds, while Set rebels against cosmic laws when he deems it appropriate, he will also protect those cosmic forces he deems important to the functioning of creation (for instance, the Sun is his greatest enemy, but he will defend it, since its kinda important to the balance of life and death and more pragmatically no sun means no mortals means no blood). Basically, I don't lie so much as preach a kinder version of Set to those who know what I am and otherwise just shadow conduct business on a few acres of land as a private beer brewery built over my "tomb".

So.....table topping ensued, and a blood magician of some power cursed a high level toreador with sterility based on my blood (I had a merit that prevented me from creating progeny). So essentially the blood magic spell tied my fate to a powerful toreador desperate to continue his bloodline and the only way to end the curse was to kill me. This was later used as a method to have leverage over me to basically insert the Blood Mage as a key figure in the local domain. Sooooooo...I did the absolute last thing a Setite is supposed to do. I told the truth. Specifically I marched straight to the Toreador, explained the situation (obviously in a way the portrayed myself in the most favorable light- just because I'm being honest doesn't mean I need to be neutral about my facts), laid out the mage's ambitions, and then asked for his support in taking the Mage down to end our mutual curse. And it pretty much worked. Caught in a trap, the Blood Mage was essentially forced to undo the magic, I made a enormously powerful ally in Clan Toreador, and got some sweet status in the city to boot.

Just thought I'd share that. If you use it well, it turns out simple truth can be the deadliest weapon in the Masquerade when you swing it without fear.

[PazuzuAxelf]

That's a pretty clever idea that your storyteller come up with, having a blood Sorcerer use your character flaw in that way. I might have to take that for my own Chronicle.

[MyWifeIsScary]

For some reason a lot of people like to play dishonest people as really very untrustworthy, like a Settite should seem sketchy the moment you meet her. The real way to play a setite is to be as honest and friendly as possible, to offer help whenever needed. Then act all starry-eyed when you talk about Set. You're not an evil snake, you're doing god's work.

[AnubisXy]

Yeah, Setites have always been in kind of a weird place. They're a religious cult as much as a they are a vampire clan. In fact they'll even recruit outsiders from other clans into the Followers of Set (which is a huge event for the clan when that happens), and those people aren't treated as second class kindred or anything but are viewed as sisters and equals. So as a result, recruiting people to join the Setities is a big thing for them. And lying, tricking, and stabbing people in the back isn't exactly a great way to convince them to join your cool religious group.

Even reading the clanbooks, flat out lying and tricking people isn't something Setites do very often. They're mostly on the level with people because they frequently as fixers, getting people what they want. And trust is incredibly important in that line of work. There is some deception, but that's mostly with mortals and as their mortal cultists get more and more in the know they start being more and more honest with them. For the most part though when dealing with other vampires, Setites are going to be fairly honest and use temptation rather than deception and trickery.

But they're still pretty known for being lying, backstabbing tricksters. I think that mainly stems from how they were intitially envisioned and then slowly reshaped and retconned and reimagined through later editions and it pushed them to be more than just the Thulsa Doom expys they originally were.