Moving Out of the Shadow of Clan Sabretooth

What does the vampyre community look like without the influence of Clan Sabretooth? Whether you praise him or despise him, Father Sebastiaan's influence on the greater vampyre community is undeniable. Even for those of us that were never active in the in-person communities, we have nonetheless adopted a lot of terminology and structure from those early days of the 1990s New York scene. Given how controversial Sebastiaan has been and continues to be, maybe it's time to take a look at what the community is beyond the influence of Sabretooth and the early days of the Sanguinarium and the Gotham Halo.

The online community of the 2000s adopted a lot of terminology from the in-person communities, in my opinion, because that was what was already available and there was no reason not to use it. A lot of those same terms and concepts have their origin in fiction and roleplaying games, something that is now admitted to but in decades past was not something a lot of people openly acknowledged. Much like how the real vampyre community came together around fiction, fan clubs, and roleplaying games, now the contemporary vampyre community that came from the influence of those early Houses and Clans is moving away from them.

The vast majority of vampyres that I interact with today are active primarily in online spaces and they are solitary. Vampyres today are much more likely to explore their own path and I think that is primarily because of the availability of information that came with the proliferation of the Internet. There are a variety of sources and perspectives available to the new vampyre now beyond the Black Veils and the Psychic Vampire Codex. Given all of this information, I've seen much less focus on the practical aspects of vampyrism and more focus on simply being social and building support networks. At least in the case of Project V there seems to be more of a focus on community building for the betterment of all involved than simply creating a space for people to gather and mope around or argue with one another. I think that in itself is a huge evolution.

There is now also more emphasis on inclusion in the community rather than exclusion. Aside from the old categories of psi and sang we now have many more identities that are now included under the vampyre umbrella, identities that were previously excluded such as lifestylers and magick practitioners using vampiric techniques. This could be a consequence of there being more places for vampyres to gather so there is a lot less friction between people with different beliefs being stuffed into a handful of online forums. Maybe some of the reduction in conflict is because everyone can have their own corner to call their own. I think that a lot of it is because no one really feels the need to fight over what a vampyre is anymore in order to validate their own identity or experiences. Vampyre is something we are, not who we are.

Ultimately, I think that the vast majority of self-identified vampyres moved beyond Clan Sabretooth and Father Sebastiaan a long time ago, if they were ever even aware of them in the first place. The only people still putting Sebastiaan and Sabretooth on a pedestal are the people that were brought into that fold long ago or people that value the clout that comes with associating with a big name. I think that Sebastiaan's material has historical value but it definitely requires a critical eye given some of the fresh allegations against him. I don't think we should let one man color our entire community regardless of contributions or moral character.

We should remember where we came from but also remember that we are not trapped by the past or subject to paying for the sins of our forefathers. We are free to develop our own hierarchies, or none at all. We can create our own terminology and that has already happened with the changing of certain terms like "tantric" to "eros". We can continue forward with things that serve us like the Black Veil and Donor Bill of Rights and we can discard what is no longer useful such as theatrical titles.

To my mind we have already moved out of the shadow of Clan Sabretooth and have begun to craft something wholly our own.