Table of Contents

The story of Arnulf “Jörmungandrsson” is infamous among Setites. A Norse merchant turned cultist, ghoul, and ultimately a vampire, Jörmungandrsson was Embraced in Egypt with great pomp and ceremony. His return to the Kingdom of Norway was predicted by the Witches of Echidna to spawn a new front in Typhon’s battle against the Aeons. Instead, Jörmungandrsson formed a new cult dedicated to the Midgard Serpent as an aspect of Apep; antithetical to the majority of Setites, but far enough away to not be immediately destroyed by the Theophidians. The Jörmungandrsson imbroglio is a sore point among Orthodox Setites, who swiftly erased record of Arnulf’s Embrace, but could do little to remove the widespread word of the prodigal son who abandoned his clan.

For centuries the Hall operated its cults in pleasurable isolation from other members of their clan, their philosophers following a version of the Path of Apep they call the Path of Jörmungandr. In recent years, members of the cult traveled beyond Scania and encountered the Witches of Echidna in the Courts of Love and Fiefdoms of the Black Cross, suffering persecution from the clan’s Orthodoxy. In solidarity, the Hall granted the Witches alms, and in turn were taught the principles of a sorcery they call The Revelations of Midgard. The Gorgons were impressed by the Hall’s devotions to its cultists, seeing in the Norse vampires a devotion to family once shared by the Setites of the Nile.

The Revelations of Midgard allow members of the Hall of Jörmungandr to draw on their inner faith, and with it bolster their ghouls, beasts, and mortal servants. While their faith is inarguably debased, the powers gifted to them by the Gorgons reinforce followers’ devotion to the cult.

Perhaps more than any clan, the Followers of Set value the worth of their cultists. Many see little difference between the status of a mortal, ghoul, or vampire, in service to their god. This is a belief permeating the clan in all its varied forms. For the love of their cultists, practitioners of Bestowment of Scales may absorb harm dealt to their favored servants, who gain patches of serpent scales on the flesh that would have otherwise been harmed. These scales never disappear, evidencing the grace of Set and the Midgard Serpent. Bestowment of Scales affects any living creature or ghoul from whom the Cainite has fed, no matter the distance. When such a cultist incurs harm, the sorcerer can reflexively apply her undead endurance to the cultist’s body, the damage being transferred to the vampire. The Cainite can soak this damage in the normal way, though any damage not soaked by the vampire is suffered by the cultist. The cultist develops scales in the place they would have suffered harm. Depending on the location, this can reduce the cultist’s Appearance rating, though Setites acknowledge the deformity as a blessing. A botch on this power allows the vampire to absorb the damage, but prevents her from soaking any of it. Above all else, the Followers of Set are a clan of faith. Belief inspires its bearers with the ability to perform great deeds, both noble and destructive. The Hall of Jörmungandr teaches all its cultists to suffer for their beliefs; with sacrifice comes reward. Those who give of themselves for faith will surely receive spiritual recompense. Vampires who use Suffer for Jörmungandr put this belief to the test, as for their own survival, they bestow heinous wounds on their cultists. The cultists suffering in this way gain serpentine features — a narrowing of eyes, flattening of a nose, webbed fingers, and loss of hair. When a Cainite schooled in Suffer for Jörmungandr receives physical harm, she may apply that harm to a mortal servant from whom she has taken blood, and to whom she has given vitae. The cultist must be within eyeshot of the sorcerer. Suffer for Jörmungandr is activated reflexively unless the vampire chooses not to use it. For each success accrued beyond the first, the vampire may inflict an additional level of the damage that she has incurred on her chosen cultist. Damage acquired in a single turn may not be distributed among multiple cultists, and any damage exceeding the cultist’s health track will return to the vampire to soak or incur. The manifestation of this power reduces the cultist’s Appearance rating gradually, at Storyteller discretion. A botch on the roll for this power still transfers all damage to a cultist, but each point is converted to aggravated if it’s not already so. The Hall of Jörmungandr believes in the pre-eminence of the Midgard Serpent, fated to ingest its own tail until it rears and devours the world. This strange power’s symbolically similar to the myth, allowing the vampire to replenish any blood spilt in battle. Whether pouring from a lesion, staining clothes, or pooled on the ground — sorcerers are able to draw the blood to them in dancing rivulets. Setites are known to take grievous injuries, their vitae scattering around them, before locking their foes in a hypnotic gaze as the blood upon the earth crawls its way back into their mouths like tiny snakes. Any cultists in the presence of the Setite practicing this Discipline find the blood in their veins bulging to escape. It does not, but forever after the cultists bear snakelike blood vessels prominently marking their skin. This power is always activated as the final action of a turn, after Celerity actions. Blood within eye - shot of the vampire slithers towards her, taking a turn to reach her mouth and replenish lost blood points. It is the Storyteller’s discretion how many blood points are in the surrounding area, but each success rolled allows one blood point to slink towards the sorcerer. On a botch, the power forces the vampire to disgorge ten blood points minus her Road rating. This power cannot be used to drain blood from a living or undead vessel. The Hall of Jörmungandr places family upon a high pedestal. Sorcerers know the importance of mortals and ghouls; cultists sustain their efforts. As they drain blood from the kine, the sorcerers return terrible, poignant gifts to the cult as proof of their god’s pleasure. Setites who learn Cycle of the Midgard Serpent impose one of the greatest gifts of blood magic possible on their cultists — the ability to draw on their masters’ Disciplines. Cycle of the Midgard Serpent allows sorcerers to vicariously act through their followers, though they have no control over how their cultists use the powers imparted. A Setite using this power may impart points in Disciplines to a ghoul who’s consumed at least one point of her blood. The number of Discipline points bestowed is equal to the number of successes rolled. The power remains until the sun next sets. Some powers are dangerous or actually self-destructive if a mortal uses them. The Storyteller has the final ruling on whether a ghoul can use a given Discipline.

For the purposes of Disciplines that require the expen - diture of blood points to activate, the ghoul possesses an equal number of blood points to those consumed from the regnant on the night the power is activated. A botch on this roll results in the ghoul gaining the points in Disciplines until the next sunset, but the blood bond to his domitor breaks. The breaking of this bond is not known to the vampire.

To some carrying Set’s blood, their epithet as Followers of Set is inaccurate. The Witches of Echidna did, in recent years, come to the suspicion that while their founder may be a monstrous 67 Witchcraft demigod of capricious and devastating power, the name Set is incorrect. Whatever their founder was, it posed as Set, Typhon, Apep, and even the Midgard Serpent in efforts to achieve worship and slavish adherents. Something in the blood of this Mother of Monsters manifests through Setites using high levels of Serpentis to change form. Apep’s Transfiguration allows a Setite to inflict this change — one the Gorgons claim is Set’s true form — on a loyal follower. The change is wracking, and painful, but the glorious physique achieved quickly converts or consumes non-believers. This power only affects a mortal or ghoul cultist who’s imbibed the blood of the vampire sorcerer. On a successful roll, the cultist’s body spends ten turns — minus the number of successes rolled — contorting and shifting into a limbless serpent, its arms and legs sloughing off as an amalgamation of dead skin, tissue, and bone. The Apep cultist bulges into a serpent form approximately the size of a warhorse. It cannot speak, but can understand its creator’s language. The change into an Apep cultist is permanent. The serpent remains loyal to the vampire as a bestial ghoul, still requiring regular doses of vitae. Any Revelations of Midgard powers usable on followers remain usable on the Apep cultist. A botch on the roll to perform this power kills the cultist and provokes a frenzy test for the sorcerer, as she’s presented with a humiliating failure of faith.