By Robert Rodgers (the_comp_demon@hotmail.com)
The Sameji's members come from all regions, nationalities, and even religions. Working for the Sameji may be an extremist Jew alongside an extremist Moslem, and not a single murmur of disapproval shall be raised. In the face of the supernatural, the Sameji believe all mortal qualms of religion must be put aside until the day when the mortal race is free of supernatural hate.
Across the world, for reasons not clearly understood, children are born with a special "ability" which never surfaces in any obvious manner. The Sameji all have an innate ability to "sense" children with this nature to some degree. This ability is referred to the Sameji as "Veritas", or truth. With Veritas, a Sameji can literally ignore the mind disciplines of a vampire, laugh in the face of the mind-rotes of a mage, and the most powerful of Sameji can even, with concentration, cause supernatural forces to lose their powers within their presence. Needless to say, the Sameji are the bane to all things supernatural.
Sameji almost always carry swords of oriental make. To wield a katana, they automatically lower their difficulty to 6; in fact, almost all Sameji are extremely well versed in swords. The only exception to this are the marksmen, who in days of old used crossbows and arrows, and now use sniper-rifles and hand-guns. These men should be extremely skilled in the art of gun-fighting, and when using any type of gun, usually get only a difficulty of 6, and no more. This is more up to the ST's discretion, of course.
Sameji have all dedicated their lives since being inducted into the ranks of the Holy Sword to the eradication of all things supernatural. They will spare nothing in their mission to save humanity from the plague of vampires, mages, garou, wraiths, and risen all guiding it to what they see as the ancient "Armageddon" which awaits the world. Rarely, Sameji will join with the Garou, and even have a few loose alliances with them -- the Sameji's councils still debate whether the Garou should be considered supernatural and a plague, or part of the world and its natural order. There is, however, no question about vampires and mages -- they must be eradicated.
Despite the Sameji credo against the supernatural, the Sameji have been known to use magically enhanced weaponry. Their reply to claims of hypocrisy is usually something akin to "It takes a diamond to cut a diamond" or "One who has purified his soul in fire fears not corruption." Sometimes, they wield swords that are emblazoned with the symbol of their God (Sameji, obviously) which allows the blade to literally nullify supernatural energy it is in contact with. (If it is in the path of a Tremere fireball, the fireball will poof.) When hitting a mobile target, roll to swing against a difficulty depending on the situation. (It's doubtful you'd hit a lightning bolt with your sword, making it a difficulty of 9 or 10.)
The Sameji automatically possess the trait "Fearless" at no cost, and almost always have either the Demeanor, Nature, or both of Fanatic. "What can you do to me? Kill me? Kill me and three more men shall take my place, filled with more resolve and more hatred for you in their hearts then I now hold...go ahead, kill me. You make us more powerful; you strengthen our resolve."
"To those who would slay us, how can you truly slay a man who has given his life to mortality? To those who would torture us, how can you take our sanity, when it is forfeit to the common man? Surrender, for our homelands will be purged, and you will be destroyed."
Creating a Sameji takes a bit of thought. Sameji automatically have a primary in physical. All Sameji undergo heavy physical training throughout their time, and are forced to apply themselves to rigid and high standards. Unlike normal mortals, Sameji gain a 7/5/4 stat boost for attributes. Sameji children are almost always extremely bright and extremely apt candidates to make Sameji. Also, automatically, Sameji gain 2 points in Intelligence for free. A Sameji must have at least four dots in Intelligence. Sameji usually have mental as a secondary trait, and social, which they hardly engage in, as a tertiary trait.
All Sameji automatically have two dots in the Occult. Also, they gain two dots in Werewolf Lore, two dots in vampire Lore, two dots in Mage lore, and two dots in Wraith Lore automatically, for no cost. Almost always, they have a primary in Knowledges, secondary in Talents, and tertiary in Skills. Swordsmen Sameji will gain two extra dots in Melee, while marksmen will gain two extra dosts in fire-arms. Sameji get 18/13/8 for their Abilities.
Sameji all follow Path of Sameji. Their virtues change. Conscience becomes Truth, Self-Control becomes Discipline, and Courage becomes Spite. (This is used when attacking supernaturals). Sameji with high Spite will have difficulty restraining themselves in the presence of a supernatural, although in battle, they can literally almost ignore fearsome appearances, etcetera. Also, for every point in Spite, they gain two Willpower.
| 10 | Harming a mortal with intent. |
| 9 | Not helping a woman in need. (Non-Supernatural) |
| 8 | Failing to protect a mortal from a supernatural. |
| 7 | Failing to kill a Supernatural when it is relatively easy. |
| 6 | Helping a Supernatural. |
| 5 | Failing to kill a Supernatural when it is slightly difficult. |
| 4 | Not going out of your way to be courteous to a woman. |
| 3 | Failing to kill a Supernatural when it is difficult. |
| 2 | Failing to kill a Supernatural when it may put your life in serious risk. |
| 1 | Hesitating to kill a Supernatural. |
For every point in Path of Sameji, consider the Sameji to have a point of Veritas. Veritas represents mostly the focused inner self of the person in question. For every point of Veritas, a Sameji may resist a discipline of the same amount of dots, if its effect is non-vulgar. (In other words, non-visible) Also, the effect must be direct. An example of this is as follows.
Jonny Debit, the Ventrue, has a 4 in Dominate. Brian Galahad, the Sameji, has 8 points in "Path of the Sameji". When Jonny Debit attempts to use Dominate on Brian, it automatically fails. When Jonny uses Celerity to smack Brian around 8 times, it cannot be resisted and does work.
If a disagreement arises between direct and indirect effects, all final words lie in the hands of the Storyteller. Veritas also allows Sameji to detect one another within each other's radius.
| * | You can scantily get an odd oggly feeling in your stomach when a Sameji is somewhere within fifty feet. |
| ** | You get an oggly feeling when a Sameji is somewhere within 200 feet, which gets progressively stronger as he draws closer. |
| *** | You just kind of "know" when a Sameji is close, and approximately how close. The range for this is something like 1,000 feet. |
| **** | When a Sameji comes within a kilometer of you, you know, and you have a general idea where he is. |
| ***** | You can feel in a radius of two kilometers where the nearest Sameji is, and you can pin-point correctly what street he's on, if you're in a city. |
| ****** | You can detect what building any Sameji is in within a four kilometer radius. |
| ******* | You pretty much can instantly detect any Sameji and his location in the county. |
| ******** | You can sense all Sameji within this state, and their current locations. Usually you block this out for fear of an over-flood of information. |
| ********* | You know where all the Sameji are in the country you currently reside in. |
| ********** | The location of all the Sameji of the world is known to you. |
Sameji, before they are realized, are merely extremely empathic mortals: they gain a higher resistance against vampire disciplines of the mind, adding 3 dice to their pool when resisting any of them. All Sameji get to add their Veritas to their dice pool when resisting any discipline of higher level then their path. This almost always insures a Sameji is unaffected. The same goes for Mages. However, instead of comparing the "discipline" of the Mages and the Sameji's Veritas, you compare the Mage's Arete/Genius and the Sameji's path.
Because of this nature, the Sameji know quite a few things. They know about one of the third generation vampires who walks the earth, using an Obfuscate of level 10 to cloak his presence to all but the most powerful beings. They also know of the various "incidents" where the paranormal has occurred in full view of the public and proven its existence, and how the Technocracy along with other mages affected a massive group of people's minds to nullify this. This information has made them dangerous and hunted. But the very immunity that protects them also identifies them -- within a crowd, any vampire can distinctly see the Sameji as the person who his powers of telepathy are "just not working on."
Sameji are totally fanatic to their order, and will gladly die. Although they do not actively seek death, if they are brought with a choice between letting any supernatural live, or themselves live, they will always chose to kill the supernatural (save in special cases). The only time this is put aside is for the protection of mortals. Sameji hold mortals in the highest esteem, and protect them at all costs. To harm a mortal is considered a grave sin by the Sameji. Also, harming a woman mortal is the equivalent of the original sin, and usually punishable by death. The Sameji are extremely strict on their codes of conduct when it comes to protecting and treating women with special care. Although it could be seen as sexism (it is not) there is no Sameji that is female. Female Sameji have never been encountered, for no Sameji born is female.
All Sameji who are born feel odd senses within their mind. They tend to be perfectionists, intelligent and bright, but finding no interest in the studies they take. They are chivalrous, kind, and good-natured inside. They will always do what they feel is right. However, they feel as if something is missing from their life, a cause they do not understand. Once found by the Sameji, they are taken from their homes (Forcefully, but giving no harm to them or those around them) and inducted in training immediately. They are allowed to leave once kidnapped, but very very few ever have.
Usually, when tracking down a high powered vampire, the Sameji will travel in large numbers. They will find the vampire, using the fact they are unaffected by the vampire's abilities to detect (he can not sense their minds) and their connections to corner and slay the beast. This has worked various times, despite the vampire's abilities for Celerity and Potence, although casualties are usually high. Also, sometimes, a Sameji will work alone to track down and kill a vampire or mage. Usually, their targets are those with the Wyrm taint. Currently, the Sameji are engaged in a massive all-out war against Pentex, the Technocracy, the Sabbat, and parts of the Camarilla. The Gangrel seem to be relatively unharmed by the Sameji, and they have yet to decide what to do about the "Garou problem."
Because of their ability to literally resist supernatural forces, the Sameji are extremely hard to detect. When they collect in one place, their Veritas gathers and strengthens, as all of them bind together. In this state, their belief and strength over the supernatural may extend even into the physical world, as vampires find themselves unable to use Celerity, mages find their spells fizzling and the backlashing Paradox so strong as to destroy them for a mere entropy spell to make a coin come up heads. Hence, the nodes and places of Sameji gathering are extremely feared by the supernatural, and avoided at all costs. As a second bonus, Sameji "houses" are almost impossible to detect by supernatural means, being masked from all detections.
The Technocracy, however, has hit them with a few hard blows. After the Gulf War, in which many Sameji bases were hit by US jets and tanks, the Sameji retreated farther into the middle-east and regrouped. They now are fending off a war with the Assamites, who find fighting the Sameji not only a pain but taxing their reserves.
Dealing with mages has been proven a problem, but the Sameji have their own trick -- they count as witnesses for vulgar magic. Hence, a common trick of the Sameji is to literally flood a Mage with hordes of themselves and let the Mage, thinking that the "non-sleeping" Sameji do not count as witnesses, cast his lightning bolt spell - and be destroyed in a horrible massive Paradox backlash.
Every time a Sameji is killed, another Sameji, somewhere in the world, is born. The exact number of Sameji is believed to be something akin to 6,000, although this number could be off a bit.
This is another reason you shouldn't play a Sameji. They're notoriously short-lived. You probably will charge that 4th generation Tremere who has a special fireball powered up just for you. And you probably will die. The other eight Sameji charging, and the nine in the rooftop, however, probably will get him. This is how the Sameji operate, through raw numbers.