By Jenny Parr (j.l.parr@bradford.uk.ac)
The Sanatan are, by far, the least understood and the least trusted of the Hibakusha clans because of their weakness, their inability to drink the blood of kine. The blood of humans is both repulsive and unnourishing to them; the blood of other kindred, however, gave them the life they needed to survive. The Sanatan were therefore one of the weakest but one of the most feared clans on the face of the earth. The Sanatan were also feared because all of the Hibakushas' `magic' came from blood and the other Hibakusha clans thought that as the Sanatan fed off their kin they were tainted by the Sanatan `magic.'However the Sanatan grew to find the blood of animals unnourishing and the blood of Kindred hard to find and difficult to obtain so they desperately sought a solution to their ordeal. Help came from the one place they never expected to find it. The Salubri Saulot, who's childe had been diablerised by the first Sanatan took pity upon the killers of his son and took under his wing a Hindu priest who had been embraced by a Seventh generation Sanatan. As the priest journeyed along the road to Golconda (called Narayana in Sanskrit) he had visions of a future where Kindred no longer preyed on Kine to satisfy their need for blood. Out of that dream the discipline of Ahinsa was formed, the ability to survive without violence its goal.
The Elders of the Sanatan did not like the next turn of events. The "Patient One" who had developed Ahinsa travelled around India teaching it to the later generations, so the Elders decided to wage war on their own childer. Seeing a chance to be rid of the Sanatan once and for all the other Hibakusha clans entered the war on the side of the younger Kindred and proceeded to wipe out all Sanatan above seventh generation. Seeing the younger Sanatan as no threat, they thought that without Kine blood the disciples of the "Patient One" would die out. Eight hundred years later they are still around and mainly living in the crowded streets of Delhi and Calcutta.
Sabbat: "Although they acknowledge their true nature they have no other goal than to harm the mortals that the Kindred were placed upon this plane to protect. Are they really Vampires or are they something more sinister?"
Salubri: "The great Saulot taught us to throw off our constraints and live without fear again. We owe them more than our lives and are ready to help them fight against their enemies without hesitation"
Hibakusha: "Our brothers and sisters in arms who helped us fight against the oppression of our Elders, although with ulterior motives
Giovanni "Should not the dead be left to lie in peace? I believe that some day these dabblers will come across something they cannot control, then who will they run to for help?"