“When something’s right, then something is worth to die for. When I feel that something is wrong, then something is worth to fight for.”
–The Sounds, “Something to Die For”
(Bottom line at the top: <Click here for the working draft of the Lancea et Sanctum>.)
A vampire always, always has something to do.
But the problem is that this one thing a vampire can always do is hunt. And the vampire who only hunts, who times his existence based upon how long it is until he can next feed, becomes a hollowed-out monster at a truly terrifying rate.
The dead need to find their occupations. And the best way to do that is in some sort of social enterprise. Vampires don’t make friends easily. Sometimes they fall in love, granted, hideous co-dependent gnawing love, but they don’t like each other. But in corporate action, the vampire might be able, through behaving like a living human being surrounded by other living human beings, to exist without falling prey to the monster inside him. And what’s more, maybe in the process of working out these things night by night in company with others, the vampire might even find meaning. Some practice magic; some do religion. Some play at politics, either to preserve things or change them. Others try to investigate what they are and their place in the world.
Of course it doesn’t always work out. Vampires fight. Their governments collapse. Their religions fall into corruption. Their magic rarely gives back what its practitioners put in. But since the days of the Roman Republic, vampires have organised themselves into what they now call covenants, groups with roughly unified internal ideologies, and, crucially, complex praxes and codes of behaviour. It’s both the best and worst thing they can do, the best because it keeps them civilized, because it keeps them from descending into howling packs of mindless ravening corpses, and at the same time organizes them into conspiracies and factions that pose a danger to the world, to human society, that a slavering blood-drinking monster could never be alone.
Although other covenants have risen and fallen over the centuries, the five that exist in some form and with some equivalent name in most nations are called in English:
- The Invictus, or the First Estate, who keep safe the Masquerade, and who often oppose the Carthian Movement. Powerful, secretive, determined.
- The Lancea et Sanctum, the Chapel and Spear, who practice an organised religion, and who often oppose the Circle of the Crone. Morality and understanding in the cruelest way.
- The Circle of the Crone, the Mother’s Army, who follow the magic within through the carnage without, and who often oppose the Lancea Sanctum. Knowing, reckless, liberated.<Click here for their draft.>
- The Carthian Movement, the Revolution, who see vampire society as broken and seek to change it, often violently, and who often oppose the Invictus. United, disparate, the future.
- The Ordo Dracul, the Dragons, who seek to escape the curse of the vampire. They sometimes come into conflict with all of the other covenants. Looking, finding, using.
Other covenants exist, some small and temporary, some outlawed, some mythical. Most notably, vampires whisper stories of another faction, known only as VII (as in the Roman numeral, seven), of Kindred who hunt their own, vampire against vampire.
We don’t start out like this
Vampires are still in some way people. They exist in continuity with their previous lives. The ungodly hungers that drive them are internal, but their behaviors are learned, and their beliefs alter through their environment.
The housewife and loving mother of three can (and shall) become the near-emotionless zealot of the Dragons who experiments on humans as if they were insects. The sophomore team’s star quarterback may yet become a shaven-headed monk whose communions transubstantiate in unusual ways. The lonely old widower who saw his grandchildren all move away will indeed rise to be the ruthless Prince, utterly convinced of the Invictus way. The potential is there in everyone, even the most gentle of us – ask any student of twentieth-century history. But it takes time.
A vampire who joins a covenant doesn’t immediately buy into the beliefs and behaviors of the group. In fact, it would be utterly bizarre if she did. And even those who have been in a covenant for a long time may not truly be in step with their group’s beliefs. As we describe the covenants, one by one, we’re presenting a sort of orthodoxy, but no one vampire wholly conforms to the stereotype. Vampires can be terribly predictable in some ways, but the Beast that lurks inside each one means that sometimes they can do utterly unpredictable things.
Let’s Start Tonight
With the <working draft of the Lancea et Sanctum>.
(If you link to this post or preview elsewhere, please don’t copy and paste it wholesale, as I sometimes make small tweaks.)
Thanks for posting!
Outstanding stuff.
MAJOR Improvement!!!!
Nothing on Belial’s Brood?
Seriously, I love the Brood but it seems like they and the VII have been getting less attention in the ‘recent’ books. Ah well, I still use them.
The Brood does not appear this time, but VII gets a writeup in this book the same size as any other covenant.
Thank you for clearing that up. I’m glad the strix aren’t the only antagonist (if they are antagonists), though I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out too.
The first and second paragraph has a slightly confusing syntax. Can the Cenobite’s use direct quotes and the scripture be italicized? Also can we use “The Cenobite usually does one of these sermons when she needs something.” I really like the motivation of faith in being the Mephistopheles tempter to the faithful and the scourge of the faithless. This focused writing helps make the faith a bit more real.
One thing I always wonder about is what the reward of faith and devotion is for the Lancea sanctum? Is the rapture of the kiss held as divine mandate for their actions? Is the reward and Miracles of Thebian Sorcery a major part of it? My biggest question is what hope does the Sanctum offer for the Kindred? Christianity holds a message of clemency and universal salvation. I am wondering if the Lancea Sanctum have a darker interpretation of that salvation in damnation on earth? I would particularly think there could be some liberal reinterpretations (or later writings of Longinus) of Revelations that could give some hope. If vampires are to last to the end of times what part would Longinus have them take?
Overall I have always been a fan of the Jobian modus operendi but I think by and large to maintain a larger lay congregation they need a little more carrot.
I’ve always seen the LS as divinely ordained monsters, as realised in the form of the infamous Solomon Birch. I think this take would nicely re-invoke the monstrous religiosity of the the Sabbat and that this angle should be played up somewhat in the new material. The last thing you want is for the LS to become vampire society’s version of the Church of England. A hideous cult whose members believe themselves to be a divinely appointed form of ‘natural evil’, unleashed by God upon the world is a quite twisted concept; I think this new material holds true to this idea.
Can you open comments on the draft ?
great stuff. very useful, more than the corebook. it’s clear and there are a lot of informations about vampiric society (cities, books…)
how is the Muslim-like Lancea ?
Yet another example of how fantastic this project is going to be
😀
Without seeing the write-ups for the other covenants I feel like the Lancea Sanctum’s “cooperative agreement” with the Invictus is even less tenable than before in the new material.
The description of them as librarians and their search for knowledge made them sound more bookish than the Ordo Dracul. I never really saw them as seeking anything. An excerpt from Vampire: the Requiem, pg. 57:
“Perhaps one of the single most fundamental differences between the Lancea Sanctum and the Invictus is that members of the Invictus want to be the rulers of all Kindred while members of the Lancea Sanctum believe that their covenant already does rule in all ways that matter.”
While I’ve always seen the medieval monk/keeper-of-knowledge-in-a-dark-age aspect the above excerpt always struck me as the LS felt they had all the answers the Kindred will ever need and that everything else was just a distraction (or worse) and was at the root of any disagreements with the Dragons.
Overall, I like the new stuff. It just changes the feel of the covenant from my perspective (and that may well be the entire objective).
The Church and Monks have contributed a lot to the sciences. I’ll just let super source supreme, wikipedia, make the rest of my point for me:
“Following the Fall of Rome, monasteries and convents remained bastions of scholarship in Western Europe and clergymen were the leading scholars of the age – studying nature, mathematics and the motion of the stars (largely for religious purposes). During the Middle Ages, the Church founded Europe’s first universities, producing scholars like Robert Grosseteste, Albert the Great, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas who helped establish scientific method. During this period, the Church was also a great patron of engineering for the construction of elaborate cathedrals. Since the Renaissance, Catholic scientists have been credited as fathers of a diverse range of scientific fields: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) prefigured the theory of evolution with Lamarkism; Friar Gregor Mendel (1822-84) pioneered genetics and Fr Georges Lemaitre (1894-1966) proposed the Big Bang cosmological model. The Jesuits have been particularly active, particularly in astronomy. Church patronage of sciences continues through elite institutions like the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Vatican Observatory.”
It’s easy to demonize Christianity/Churches/Religions (inquisition, pedos, teh crazy). But to do so without also acknowledging the good they’ve done (priest as healer stereotype came from somewhere, after all) throughout the ages is merely biased zealotry of a different sort. But yeah, I can totally see, given the current state of the Abrahamic faiths, why one would have that gut reaction.
But vampires AREN’T current. In fact, many of the current leaders of the L&S (or their predecessors) come from those earlier times. Ergo, I can totally see this ‘search for knowledge’ stereotype being perpetuated. An obsession with genealogies seems particularly fitting, who knows what other experiments an embraced ‘natural philosopher’ may have carried with them into eternity. (In fact I can totally see the Ordo Dracul being an off-shoot of sanctified heretics and some Invictus patrons.)
While the odd hate-mongerer might be embraced as punishment for their hubris and vile acts in the name of the Divine, you can be their L&S mentor is going to extract penance and repentance.
Thematically, however, I think the difference is that the Ordo Dracul are typically seeking to CREATE knowledge, whereas the archivist/scholar preserves/uncovers lost knowledge.
—-
On the topic of Faith and motivation, most incarnations of the L&S should believe that they will be granted redemption for performing these atrocities/their role ‘in good faith.’ Claims that vampires traded eternal salvation for sovereignty over the Earth until Dooms Day, or that a vampire can only be redeemed if they make it to Judgment Day should only be espoused by a minority of fringe or severe sects.
Why? Because that is the promise of religion: No matter how bad it is now, things WILL get better, if you live right. The Invictus offers sovereignty over Earth until ashes, Carthians and OD offer the ideal of transmuting lemons into lemonade by working to establish change in the here and now. The Crones offer a clean conscience (It’s natural to feel that way, vampires are just part of the broader super-nature). But only the Church offers salvation.
This is a line that a neonate or guilty conscience can easily get behind: Not only is that terrible thing you you did okay, but it’s your PURPOSE. Remorse is slowly soothed by the knowledge that if you stay faithful, you’ll go to heaven. And, for those without remorseful … well it isn’t a problem anyway, it’s just their job. And if you happen to like what you do… well, the good book doth proclaim satisfaction is the reward for virtuous works.
Some people might think Christianity with Fangs is lame or not ‘dark’ enough, and tastes vary. But I feel that If the L&S’s ‘dark religion’ centers around a variation of the theme ‘evil blood monks reigning in hell and being terrible people because they’re their soul is unforgivably damned,’ then they’re just Belial’s Brood for Jesus.
I’m not sure how I feel about the L&S’s fervor for the Masquerade, though. More than anything else, the existence of vampires might be the best way to scare people back into a virtuous lifestyle.
tl;dr: Salvation is a powerful, understandable and valid, motivation – even for Vampires. The faith should have some morally ambiguous, if not repugnant tenets. But if it’s sin to not make your weekly baby killing quota, then you’re doing it wrong (imo, of course).
—
Finally, on a broader note, I’m uncertain if the whole ‘covenant’ setup works, particularly with the faiths. But, this draft suggests strides in the right direction.
Huge disappointment. Theban Sorcery’s going to be humanity dependent, despite that the Lancea Sanctum torment the innocent and drive nuns to suicide, and there isn’t even the slightest acknowledgment anywhere in this document that NPC vampires have to acknowledge humanity rules.
Is it too much to ask for a section with each covenant on how their behavior squares with humanity? Because theban sorcery requiring high humanity and Sanctified being eternal plagues on the innocent is pretty schizophrenic. Or is driving a nun to suicide not a breaking point, just things like watching a human eat a hamburger?
All I want is a consistent take on humanity for once in Requiem.
The paragraphs about having mortal links, maintaining your connection to the living church so you can travel and get what you want from them? That’s how you maintain a mid-level Humanity. Get a touchstone, pick up a bane for punishing a sinner, and you’ll stabilise.
Only the most dedicated sorcerers need to maintain Humanity 5. Oddly, the chapel and spear don’t then send their best ritualists to commit mass murder. That’s what lay members are for.
By those rules, humans will lose Integrity faster than vampires lose Humanity.
The pacing is different, yes, just like the causes and meaning.
Whoa, I got ninja’d BEFORE I EVEN STARTED WRITING MY ANSWER! After finishing my other comment, I was gonna say something about how they’re not really meant to work the same way. Not to mention that your average human will lose Integrity slower than vampires loses Humanity. It’s only a small subset (player characters) who are in a situation to be confronted with freaky stuff and rapidly lose it. It’s tough on the sanity when you’re a normal human confronted with the horrible and the supernatural. Any glimpses of the hidden World of Darkness might be enough to shatter your mind further. Meanwhile, vampire ARE the supernatural. They still have to deal with their new nature, but the whole thing has a different context.
But the effect is the same. One of the fundamental themes of V:tM and V:tR has been the struggle of the Man vs. Beast and the inevitable degeneration towards the latter. In contrast, humans in V:tM couldn’t lose their last point of Humanity and those in nWoD regained Morality by acting according to the appropriate level. By making vampires more stable than humans, you lose the drama of “A Beast I am, Lest a Beast I Become” and turn it into what someone snarkily described V:tM as, “a game of hipper-than-thou immortals who get to kill people because they’re cool”. To be honest, it seems like you’re backtracking from the strict rules in God-Machine to avoid complaints from the players of your most popular game.
(In response to Oliver) Mechanically, they’re the same. A “small subset” doesn’t make sense, since the same rules apply to all humans and they include mundane things like “revealing a secret” as breaking points. A large fraction of the military and police in the WoD should be zero Integrity monsters. Even with supernatural things, as mentioned above, vampires are supposed to have the struggle of the Man vs. the Beast. If “freaky stuff” is supposed cause regular humans to degenerate, shouldn’t it affect the Man too, like seeing your obituary? And does it really make a good story? If I’m playing a human, I want to be one of the Winchester boys, not someone constantly freaking out.
“A small subset” DOES make sense. I’m saying that even though all humans use Integrity, not all humans are in situations to constantly be confronted with violence, gore, the supernatural and other such breaking point causing stuff like PCs are, and thus won’t actually degenerate much at all. And even if, occasionally, something happens that shocks you, you should have some time to recuperate.
And you seem to be forgetting that just because they don’t have a more structured table like vampires with certain levels of Integrity for certain situations doesn’t mean that one breaking point will remain one forever.
I mean, seeing violence or gore can really mess you up. When I did a first aid class, once, there was a whole section of it for the only subject of what happens after you’ve helped at an accident scene. “You might have trouble sleeping and stuff. Take a vacation if you can. Talk to your family/friends/suppert system. Etc.” But an EMT who’s seen dozens of mangled bodies won’t make a check for degeneration every time there’s an accident on the highway.
So the system is meant to be customized to your character. Literally the ONLY thing they *recommend* should always be a breaking point is straight up killing people. You’ll notice that cops always get sent to the shrink and get leave and such if they end up killing someone. As for soldiers, well… Note that it’s only a recommendation. The default experience in a World of Darkness game isn’t an action movie, it’s a horror movie. You might decide to ignore that particular sidebar. But that would be ignoring the fact that some soldiers DO come home messed up after being sent shooting other human beings, or the fact that the whole military experience is meant to reduce the impact of the violence (dehumanizing the enemy, etc.). I figure that if you’re doing it for God and Country, everybody knows you’re doing it and support you, all your friends are doing it, that’s enough for a not insignificant positive modifier to your degeneration roll. It’s not really the same as randomly murdering a dude for his wallet.
So, really, if anything the vampires have it worse. Mortals can toughen up and become less sensible to certain things with repeated exposure (if they don’t become insane before). But for vampires, you need to take a bane, and you end up with an additional vampiric weakness and a penalty to *all* your other detachment rolls.
You’re saying it’s okay because it only affects PCs? By definition, PCs are what players are concerned with and investing their time in. Not to mention there’s an entire line devoted to human PCs, Hunter the Vigil. Vampires themselves are an even smaller subset of intelligent creatures. The question is, how does it make for an enjoyable experience for a player’s character to degenerate faster than vampires or even Call of Cthulhu characters? That’s a u-turn from 20 years of game design. Vampire players certainly wouldn’t think so if their degeneration had increased instead of getting things like touchstones and Banes. . And humans don’t get time to recuperate. The only way now for mortals to regain Integrity is to spend xp. No psychoanalysis, unlike CoC.
Concrete beats vague. It’s hard not to imagine that’s why the hierarchy of sins still exists for vampires. Imagine the screaming if vampires could lose Humanity at any level by using a supernatural power on a human, but there was the unstated possibility that at some undetermined point they might not anymore. (Anyone remember Vicissitude and Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand?) An EMT might get used to blood, but unlike CoC, there’s no mechanism for it. The possibility isn’t even mentioned. You’re actually pointing out a weakness in the rules.
As for customization, the rules seem to imply that the table there is universal. The example in the Integrity section has all three players making a roll for seeing a lot of blood. One example even has the character getting a breaking point for threatening someone with a gun, making no mention of it related to her history.
My point about police and soldiers stands. (Police get sent to a shrink to avoid singling out questionable cases, and killing the enemy doesn’t cause PTSD in soldiers, it’s seeing friends killed and being helpless.) It’s not being messed up, it’s turning into an irredeemable monster fit only for NPC status. The situations you describe aren’t really reflected in the Integrity rules. They’ve moved away from derangements with decreasing Humanity/Morality. Unless your Resolve + Composure is so low that you botch the roll, you get a Condition like Guilty or Shaken (removed by confessing or doing something stupid) and lose a point of Integrity.
A horror story doesn’t mean the protagonist is constantly freaking out. In virtually all stories, the opposite is true to keep the story moving. Supernatural is a horror series. In Halloween, Laurie fights back and stabs Myers with his own knife. I reject the sidebar because it ignores the fight or flight response. A species that experiences trauma when defending itself would go extinct. Clearcut self-defense is treated as little better (-4) than killing someone for his wallet (-5), let alone being a soldier.
And you seem to be forgetting that just because they don’t have a more structured table like vampires with certain levels of Integrity for certain situations doesn’t mean that one breaking point will remain one forever.
I mean, seeing violence or gore can really mess you up. When I did a first aid class, once, there was a whole section of it for the only subject of what happens after you’ve helped at an accident scene. “You might have trouble sleeping and stuff. Take a vacation if you can. Talk to your family/friends/suppert system. Etc.” But an EMT who’s seen dozens of mangled bodies won’t make a check for degeneration every time there’s an accident on the highway.
So the system is meant to be customized to your character. Literally the ONLY thing they *recommend* should always be a breaking point is straight up killing people. You’ll notice that cops always get sent to the shrink and get leave and such if they end up killing someone. As for soldiers, well… Note that it’s only a recommendation. The default experience in a World of Darkness game isn’t an action movie, it’s a horror movie. You might decide to ignore that particular sidebar. But that would be ignoring the fact that some soldiers DO come home messed up after being sent shooting other human beings, or the fact that the whole military experience is meant to reduce the impact of the violence (dehumanizing the enemy, etc.). I figure that if you’re doing it for God and Country, everybody knows you’re doing it and support you, all your friends are doing it, that’s enough for a not insignificant positive modifier to your degeneration roll. It’s not really the same as randomly murdering a dude for his wallet.
So, really, if anything the vampires have it worse. Mortals can toughen up and become less sensible to certain things with repeated exposure (if they don’t become insane before). But for vampires, you need to take a bane, and you end up with an additional vampiric weakness and a penalty to *all* your other detachment rolls.
“Imagine the screaming if vampires could lose Humanity at any level by using a supernatural power on a human, but there was the unstated possibility that at some undetermined point they might not anymore.”
Do you remember how the discussion started with comments about how Integrity and Humanity don’t actually work the same way, and aren’t meant to? Because they don’t represent the same thing?
“Clearcut self-defense is treated as little better (-4) than killing someone for his wallet (-5), let alone being a soldier.”
What do you mean, “let alone being a soldier”? There IS no modifier for “Killing someone in a military operation with the full support of the army and society in general”. So MAKE one. I posit that this situation is, in fact, less damaging to your mental well-being than stabbing a burglar in sell-defense or whatever and thus would have a better modifier than -4. In fact, it doesn’t even technically count as one of the three categories on page 155, so, with the rules as written, you actually have a pretty good case to argue that it shouldn’t be a breaking point at all. (As you yourself point out, it isn’t particularly traumatic or terrifying until your friends start dying, there is no supernatural aspect, and it is not, in fact, considered unacceptable by society. There’s nothing unless your character is specifically pacifistic and disagrees with killing at all times, in which case what is he doing in the army?)
I urge you to pay special attention to the vocabulary used. The killing side-bar is presented as a “recommendation”. The table, far from being universal as you say, is stated as “giving some suggestions”. Not to mention “If a player feels that a given event should not count as a breaking point, he is free to argue the matter with the Storyteller.” They completely realize that not everybody wants the same thing out of the system. Some people are pretty OK with rolling as soon as they see blood. Some want to start as normal people but become more used to the supernatural. Some want to be the Winchester boys. I mean, if I’m being honest here, I myself prefer not degenerating every time my character sees something kinda-sorta spooky. I prefer being cool in my fantasy escapism, thank you very much. I’m still arguing with you because I think that you can get a game that works for you while respecting both the letter and the spirit of the rules, because they are meant to be customized according to your character and desired playing experience,
Unless you really, really want something concrete and set in stone. Then you can’t use those rules, because they’re not built that way.
Although technically, those dudes in Supernatural are playing Hunter, not core WoD. You’ll notice Hunter has some guidelines to lessen the dangers of Morality, and if they update the line they will probably talk about Integrity. If nothing else, while killing as a Hunter, you should probably get a +1 or +2 from protecting loved ones or, you know, humanity in general. And if you ended up choosing that life, you probably have a Virtue like Righteous or Just, for another bonus, not to mention being generally strong-willed. I mean, I assume there are people with below average Resolve+Composure who try their hands at hunting the supernatural? But mostly those are the guys who end up going crazy, not the ones who actually succeed for any significant length of time.
As for horror stories… Well, I was thinking about horror of a more psychological bent when I made the comment, not gorefests, but, really? You don’t think people in Mr. Myers’ movies count as being Shaken? Because that’s pretty much the extent of “freaking out” in the Integrity rules, short of getting a critical glitch. And even then, I’ll admit I don’t really watch those movies, but I’m pretty sure I remember some characters who DO freak out. And then do something stupid and get killed, generally.
Good points, but in defense of Jer, it WOULD be very nice to see something like what you just said in the description of the Lancea Sanctum / Theban Sorcery to explain how they deal with the whole Humanity issue. It’s true the line hasn’t exactly been perfect in the past in keeping the fluff consistent with the crunch.
Heck, I’m the one who commented on the Moroi back in the Less Human than Human post, and how banes actually made the whole “bloodline of serial killers” concept possible. Because it just wasn’t before. Although my personal sore point was when some character’s stats were shown and their Morality was hilariously out of synch with their stated actions. “This character is a member of an organization of assassins! And their Morality equivalent is totally 5. Yeah.”
Anyway, all in the past! I’m sure you guys won’t do stuff like that, and you have shiny new banes and stuff to deal with it. Just, you know, be mindful of the issue.
As for Banes, they don’t make sense except as a sop for the players. The Beast is supposed to be mindless, so why is it making bargains for things it has no concern about, like being repelled by church bells? It’s like making a bargain with fire not to spread if you pour gasoline on it. Why can a vampire serial killer escape the consequences of his violence, but not a human defending herself against him?
The thing is, the core rules piously declare that violence is so bad that a human using lethal force to defend against those murderous laypeople must accept the consequences and is treated little better than a serial killer. Just witnessing one of them kill someone is a breaking point at -3. Why should being an accessory negate any consequences?
Their nickname from the Invictus should be “First Estate.” The clergy are the First Estate, the nobility are the Second, the commoners are the Third.
Here’s a link to the Wikipedia article about the estates. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estates_of_the_realm
(unless there was some elaborate switcheroo that I missed)
It’s been a conceit since the Vampire core that the Invictus refer to themselves as the “First Estate,” rather than using mortal terminology.
Got it
Oh well, my city is in the hands of the Lancea. And I am totally (not) surprised. It’s Rome, by the way. With all the recent scandals abouth the Church, the practices of the Lancea hit very close to home (literally).
PS: I hope it is one of the domains in the book! It’s not, like, we have a full book about the city.
A little off topic but does anyone know whether the khaibit will make an appearance in blood and smoke
When creating a supposedly successfu; and long-lived fantasy religion, I think it’s important to give it a clear sales point or three that show why it has survived. I thought the old Lancea Sanctum perhaps suffered from being such a parody that all redeeming features had been removed, which I believe is a mistake. If you take away all hope, all redemption, and leave only cold duty and tradition there isn’t much to sustain any humanity.
Also, connecting Theban Sorcery with high humanity is a serious problem, given the teachings of the church will tend to lower humanity, albeit not as far as the acolytes of the Circle.
In the write-up the Lancea Sanctum is referred to as “‘the Third Version of Judas’, the true betrayers who are too pious to be allowed the consolations of goodness.” If that’s a reference to Jorge Luis Borges’s “Three Versions of Judas”, the believer who denied goodness was the second version. The third version was the hidden identity of the Son of God.
Unless that’s supposed to mean the third of four versions where the first is the classic version. That would make sense. My bad.