Tal'mahe'Ra

The Tal'mahe'Ra are a fictional sect of vampires, composed of several clans and bloodlines, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games. The sect is often confused with the Black Hand.

The so called True Black Hand is very secretive and mysterious, with infiltrators in many other sects. Dedicated to bringing about Gehenna and the return of the Antediluvians, these vampires hope to serve the ancients and gain positions as favoured servants.

The extent of Tal'mahe'Ra power and infiltration is debatable, due to the very nature of the sect. In any case the question may be considered academic as the heart of the Tal'mahe'Ra was eviserated at the start of the Sixth Maelstrom in the shadowlands. The surviving servants have quietly blended into the sects they once infiltrated.

The Clans composing this sect are the Old Clan Tzimisce who are on a neverending quest to eradicate the "evil entity Vicissitude," the True Brujah who wish to avenge their Antedeluvian Ilyes, who was diablerized by his childer Troile, who is the founder of the mainstream Brujah clain and finally the Nagaraja, necromancers who claim to have invented the Vaulderie long before the Tzimisce. The individual Clans are often scoffed at or shunned entirely, causing some to wonder if it was simply three freak bloodlines coming together in some pathetic attempt to validate themselves.

The Shadow Crusade of the Sect, a campaign against Vicissitude which they claim to be some horrid parasitic entity contracted by the Tzimisce Methusulah Andeleon while in plane of reality known as the Deep Umber, came to a halt when their base of operations, the shadow realm answer to the classic Enoch, was destroyed. They chose that place not only for its historic value, but also because a group of four Methusulah hide within it, in Torpor. While their spirits are visible through Auspex, they are impossible to find. It is later realized that it was not Enoch, but the illusion created by at least one of the Torpid ancients to better mask his presence. In the end, the Shadow Crusade was crushed, as Vicissitude was revealed to be an active piece of the Tzimisce's Antedeluvian, their holy Enoch was nothing and the revenge of the True Brujah was denied. The surviving members skulked away into obscurity.

In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, the player has a chance to pick up a fabled blade of the Tal'mahe'Ra in the Hallowbrook Hotel.

References

• Sarah Roark, C.A. Suleiman & Janet Trautvetter, Caine's Chosen: The Black Hand, (White Wolf Game Studio, 2003, ISBN 978-1-58846-236-7)
• White Wolf Publishing, Vampire Storytellers Handbook, (White Wolf Game Studio, 2000, ISBN 978-1-56504-264-3)1565042646
• Justin Achilliet al., Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised Edition) (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 978-1-56504-249-0)
• Steven C. Brown, Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, (White Wolf Game Studio, 1994, ISBN 978-1-56504-210-0)