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        Though Cainites trace their origins back through Biblical histories and documents, a striking minority of the Ancients are actually Christian themselves. Most of them acknowledge the Christian God, but place themselves either outside religion or above it, believing faith to be a contrivance of mortal men. This creates an interesting relationship between vampires and the world: Do they aspire to Heaven, or do they revel in their damnation? How does their agnosticism explain their origin from Caine, who killed his brother Abel as an offering to God?
        Cappadocius does not suffer these doubts. Even during his mortal life, the founder was a priest, and quite aware of the workings of God above, though he was not Christian at the time. (The nights when Enoch stood long predate the emergence of faith.) What matters is Cappadocius' total conversion to the faith, the product of a miracle sent directly from God.
        While traveling through the lands he called home, Cappadocius found himself committing the sin of despair. For hundreds of years he had searched for some new insight into the mystery of death. Those searches proved fruitless, and the weight of his quest bore greatly on his shoulders. One night, he decided to give up.
        He lay down on a cone of volcanic rock and closed his eyes. Using his mastery of the Protean Discipline, Cappadocius sank into the Earth. He remained there for untold nights, some say for as many as 33 years. Each night he awoke, more feeble than the night before, but refused to rise and return to his empty pursuit.
        Finally, after unknown years had passed, he saw a vision of an angel. It seemed that he would remain forever, or perhaps fall beneath the fangs of a lesser Cainite, but the angel said that was not to be. Cappadocius was destined to quest for the answer, the angel said, and God wished that the quest be fulfilled.
        "I cannot," protested the founder pitifully, "For I am too weak."
        "Then I shall make you strong," said the angel, and cut his own wrist with a sword of holy light. The blood trickled down the angel's arm, and a few drops spattered across the lips of the Antediluvian, reinvigorating him and burning him with the power of faith at the same time.
        "God wills that you succeed; pray do not disappoint him." With that, the angel ascended back into Heaven.
        Cappadocius burst from the ground, casting a spray of broken rock in all directions. Slaking the rest of his fiery thirst on a passing Arab caravan, Cappadocius walked the Earth again. From that point onward, he embraced the Christian faith, knowing that God had chosen him for greatness.

Dread Egypt

        Cainite commentators seem surprised that Clan Cappadocian has historically scorned Egypt as an areas of concentration. Long acknowledged as the land of the dead, Egypt seems a prime choice for a clan of scholars who wish to reveal the nature of death and its mysteries. Thus, Egypt would be an excellent choice.
        Unfortunately, Egypt harbors the scourge of Serpents, vile followers of the undead demigod Set. Of Set himself, Cappadocians know little other than what is presented in the lore of the region. They know, in addition, what the Book of Nod tells them; Set was one of the 13 Antediluvians from whom the clans originated. Very few Cappadocians have met Set, due to his great age and inhumane secrecy. This is not strange in and of itself, as very few Cappadocians have met any of the third generation.
        The Cappadocians are familiar with the Followers of Set, however. The relationship is not a pleasant one, highlighted by the clash between the Cappadocian urge to study unmolested and the Setite urge to befoul everything they touch. Sojourns to Egypt have almost invariable proved fruitless, their merits offset by the high price of dealing with the Serpents.
        During the spread of Christianity under the Roman emperor Nero, Saint Mark brought with him into Egypt what would become the Coptic faith. Cappadocians, following under the banner of Christianity, hid among the flocks, hoping to establish secret outposts in this long-tainted land. Setites had only to hear of a vampire in a monastery, however, and they would flood the Coptic churches with their unholy tanks and overturn every stone until the Cainite was discovered. Cappadocians (and other vampires -- the Setites were hardly discriminating) then became the targets of corruptive practices designed to lead them from their course. As some Graverobbers could attest, a Cappadocian enticed to the Via Serpentis was a hideous sight to behold.

The Feast of Folly

        The underground hallways and chambers of Kaymakli could accommodate up to 15,000 citizens. On the night of the convocation, 12,000 vampires of our clan attended. We were aghast. How could a group known as the Clan of Death have such fertile vitae? How could we possess such prodigious numbers?
        In an absurd and motley congregation, the Cappadocians displaced the citizens of Kaymakli, forcing them from their homes for nights on end while the convocation progressed. Innocuously, and with the help of Caias and Japheth, Cappadocius subtly culled the ranks of his clan.
        "Who among you has not helped build or plan a church or temple?" asked the founder, directing those who responded to follow Caias deeper into the city.
        "Who among you cannot read or write? Who does not follow Via Caeli? Who has not begun the search for answers to the great riddle?" Slowly but inevitably, the ranks of the assembled Cainites dwindled, as ever greater numbers of them descended into the city. Surely the founder had a plan for them. He was undoubtedly making the most accomplished among them leaders in some sort of new order.
        When he had asked his last questions and sent the last Cappadocians selected into the depths of Kaymakli, the founder ordered Cais and Japheth to seal forever the portal into the city. As the millstone mechanism slid shut over the howling pit of condemned Cainites, Cappadocius lay his ward over the portal: "Let no child of Caine ever leave through this passage; let no son of Seth enter."
        The founder wept hot tears of blood as he turned from the mass tomb. His carelessness and shortsighted obsession had condemned thousands of his innocent, if poorly sired, childer. Only his hypocrisy and lingering humanity had saved him and the select few still outside from the same fate.
        "Go from here. This place is cursed," Cappadocius said to the mortal residents of Kaymakli. "Go and do not ever return."
        To this night, the ward holds, though all of the occupants have surely fallen to torpor of the fangs of their brothers. None can say for certain, however, as none wishes to test the ward of Cappadocius which prevents Cainites from leaving once they enter.

        As Cappadocius placed the ward upon Kaymakli, Japheth stole a private word with Caias. Neither had seen their brother Lazarus at the convocation, and Japheth felt that the childe's absence was an insult to their father. Though somewhat reluctant, Caias agreed to visit their brother's home and discern why Lazarus thought himself above the founder's edict.
        Lazarus had long made his home in the fiery lands of Egypt. Undaunted by the curse of Set, Lazarus took a select few bold Cappadocians and made his haven near the banks of the Nile. To this night, dark whispers accuse Lazarus of compliance with the wishes of Set; some even attribute a Blood Oath to the lost Cappadocian.
        Whatever the case, Caias' visit was ill-received. Lazarus and his fellows had, of course, heard the founder's call, but the prescient among them had foreseen the dire consequence of heeding it. Some suspect Lazarus feared that Cappadocius would see the curse of Set upon his soul.
        "My brother," said Caias, "surely you heard our father's call?"
        "That I did, Caias," replied Lazarus.
        "And surely you intended to heed. What great woe prevented you?" asked Caias, his ire rising at the insolence of his blood-sibling.
        "No woe of my own contrivance, brother. We were prevented by the woe bestowed by our father."
        Caias flew into a rage. Who was Lazarus to question the will of Cappadocius? Caias leapt at Lazarus with murderous intent while the latter's childer looked on in terror. Two ancient vampires clashed in a battle of such epic proportions it is said that the Nile flowed backward during the year that followed. In the end, however, even the skill and wile of Caias proved futile; Lazarus resorted to the use of the vile... Caias fell, but not without catastrophically wounding the traitorous Lazarus, who sank into the sandy earth and has not been seen since.
        Without the guidance of their leader the Egyptian Cappadocians scattered into the winds. Some returned to Erciyes and begged forgiveness from Cappadocius. Others merely traveled aimlessly, going where their fates took them.