Article
Published by Marcel Curiel on the 24th of December 2017The Final Note On the Gotham Halo (Finally)
For quite some time, I struggled and endlessly struggled with this article, and although it received a warm reception from many groups from the Vampire Network to J.P. Vanir’s Vampyrian Temple UVUP, I was personally so displeased with it that I moved to delete it, only leaving a small interpolation that was not so popular with Sanguinarium and Clan Sabretooth remnants because I gave my personal opinion on their term, "rōnin."
With a title like, “The Final Note On the Gotham Halo,” it may not immediately be clear to outsiders exactly what it is I’m leveling my grievance against. This was, as I previously admitted, due to a lack of foresight on my part. And again, my articles are written primarily for those who are already familiar with post-Todd Sanguinarium/Sabretooth Ω terminology, politics and culture, most of which came from the Sanguinarium Second Age. There is a rare book, nigh-impossible to find called V: The Anthology that is essentially a compendium of the Second Age of the Sanguinarium, a Vampyre Belle Epoque if I could ever say there was one.
The term Gotham Halo, within New York City, has a handful of contradictory meanings, although the accurate definition of the term itself means the geographical borders of the New York City metro area. In recent years, the term has come to be used to refer to the Gotham Sanctuary, a monthly political gathering first held in early 2015 that later became the resurrected Court of Gotham, assembled by the remnants and descendants of the fallen Sanguinarium nation-state and intended to be a middle ground for political discussions between Gotham’s other two Courts, the Court of Lazarus and the Society Nocturnus of Gotham. Due to either illiteracy or laziness (or both), references to “the Halo” or “the Halo meetings” typically refer to the original Gotham Sanctuary “town hall” meetings held between early 2015 and summer 2017 and the terms are still often used incorrectly to refer to the resurrected Court of Gotham.
"The Final Note On the Gotham Halo" is my personal opinion based on my experiences within the community itself, including but not limited to its Elders, Tribes and Houses, its politics and its culture. Nothing more, nothing less. I’m quite sure that there might be some group, somewhere within New York City limits, that still conducts itself with some kind of self-respect—a group that isn’t all sex, drugs and rolling dice, that isn’t all cosplay, promoted parties and unhealthy vampire fiction fetishes. I don’t mean to imply that New York City is a totally hopeless case—even though it sure as hell looks that way right now. It only means that for a true Vampyre, Nephilim, Strigoi Vii, Akhkharun, or whatever you choose to call yourself, if you live in New York City, perhaps now isn’t the best time to seek out others like yourself, as you will only find pretenders, frauds and imposters. If you are seeking a legitimate esoteric community, you will only find Michael Alig’s Party Monster. If you are seeking transcendence, you will only find sexually confused paedomorphs playing dress-up and Masquerading as something they can never even hope to be.
At this point in time, unless you are fortunate enough to live in places like Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; Paris, France; Tokyo, Japan or Montgomery, Alabama, or if you are in New York and you have been fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of the handful of True Vampyres left here—and they are very, very few left—it may be more appropriate for you to focus on Self, focus on your own personal evolution and leave the LARPs to White Wolf.
I come from an unusual background. Fleeing a household rife with such physical, spiritual and psychological abuse that it nearly claimed my life, I returned to the city of my birth afflicted with a mysterious metaphysical condition that would trigger such a spiritual transformation as to render me unrecognizable.
After months of seeking and studying, and after failing to piece together the fragments of my shattered past, I would stumble upon a community of people who claimed to hold the answers I needed—and they called themselves Vampyres.
I was involved with Merticus’ Vampire Community News Facebook group after having searched for quite some time for online resources for Vampyres, and quickly began sending and receiving friend requests without giving it a second thought. I happened across a man there whose profile indicated he lived close to me, and I ecstatically sent out a friend request in the hopes that this individual could educate me and help me come to terms with what I had gone through before and during my Awakening. I was shocked to later discover that this man was none other than Lord Prince Shaolin Asura-MacPhee, ambassador to the Gotham Halo and lead author of the Gotham Vampyre Archives. It was he who had arranged for me to attend one of the earliest Gotham Sanctuary gatherings.
Yet, I would soon learn that this presumed posthuman utopia was not what it seemed. By this time, however, I’d already come to learn much about myself and my condition, having pieced together a philosophical and spiritual path that suited my newly founded principles, and even assembled my own adopted Family. Still, I would come to discover that this community was largely comprised of vampire “lifestylers”—individuals who dressed in Gothic attire and wore custom fangs but did not practice any form of Vampyric spirituality—and vampire role-players, who adopted names and built makeshift covens based on a popular role-playing game. It was quite obviously not a place for students of the occult like myself.
Although it had occurred to me early on that not every individual within this community was authentic, I was surprised to find that the number of role-playing “lifestylers” outnumbered the number of true Vampyres with a ratio of almost ten to one. And though, yes, I myself make use of custom-made acrylic fangs and dress in black with heavy combat boots and long, flowing trenchcoats, I at least back up my “vampire lifestyle” with a legitimate spiritual, philosophical and metaphysical framework. I would soon learn that the vampire scene in New York City was originally created by a role-player, who designed the community and its aspects to cater primarily to a rave and fetish club scene. And while that didn’t mean that every individual associated with the community was fraudulent, it certainly made me take several steps back from a community that I once respected and held in very high regard.
Additionally, I’d been used, played with and manipulated by a handful of people within the community, and I’ve even found myself physically threatened a number of times—once even by a so-called “Elder.” The community, structured to resemble a monarchical oligarchy claiming to be run by responsible and level-headed individuals, turned out to be nothing more than a kakistocratic perpetuation of the rave and fetish scene it sprouted from.
I can briefly interject with two altercations I had gotten into with two different Houses that are great examples of the degenerate mindset that many in the Gotham Halo hold. Many years ago, when I had first entered the Gotham Halo and had no knowledge of its history or reputation, I received an invitation to prospect for a House hailing from the Mt. Eden section of the Bronx. Keep in mind, I was nowhere near as educated and informed as I am now, so it was not immediately apparent why this House would have wanted me. My prospective Sire from this House—a character with an abysmal reputation who is alleged to have cheated on his wife with another so-called “Elder” for power and status—used one of his Chylders as a romantic and sexual pawn to coerce me to accept the invitation, which I had refused after a rather tumultuous affair. Another rumor stated he sought me out because he was sexually attracted to me, with other versions of the same rumor stating this man was attempting to build a harem of fairy-faced twinks. But take that version with a grain of salt the whole damned salt shaker.
The next time I would receive an invitation to prospect was from a House with a much more respectable reputation, but it did not end well that time, either, as my prospective Sire was attempting to take too much control over my public persona, and there are allegations that he was forced to bend a knee to another member of the House who had apparently had been badmouthing me for quite some time.
I am on good terms with the House and its Elders now, though.
Stories abounded of everything from runaway drug use and criminal activity, embezzlement, relationship drama and stolen spouses to even exchanging sexual favors for political gain—not to mention the controversy generated by the disappearance of an amateur journalist during the heyday of the vampire scene (though, in reality, they were innocent), a subsequent investigation by the Occult Crimes Task Force unit of the NYPD, and a handful of documentaries that may not have always cast the scene in a flattering light.
The truth of the matter was readily apparent—this dystopian society was nothing more than a fetish scene for vampire role-players perverting the visions of the few remaining true Vampyre Elders seeking to hold the farce together.
I ended up doing what any self-respecting individual would do at this point—I left. I wanted little to do with their little Masquerade anymore.
I realize now that there’s a reason that term keeps coming up, “Masquerade.” The true Masquerade can be seen quite easily—the myriad humans Masquerading as “vampires,” and all the Vampyres Masquerading as human. It’s actually quite interesting.
Add to this that now there are individuals within the Gotham Halo, grown men playing teenage Facebook games, who are not fond of my constant bashing of the Masquerade game, who have taken to spamming my Facebook posts, claiming that my rhetoric stems from “not being accepted” by the community at large or the Houses that sought me out. Now, firstly, the Houses sought me out, not the other way around. And secondly, why would I, a true-born Strigoi Vii, seek to be accepted by a disjointed community of cosplayers?
Should not throw stones when you run a glass House.
Now, if you take a second to think on it, you begin to see how silly this aspect of Vampyre culture can be, and why individuals like Sebastiaan Sabretooth treat the idea of Vampyre politics—the "Vampyre Game of Thrones," as he calls it, a grotesque and bastardized perversion of his fallen Sanguinarium—with such disdain.
You see, I don’t know what kind of Vampyre Sebastiaan is, and heaven knows he’s had a worse public identity crisis than I. But the idea of a human in drag assuming control over me, a true Vampyre, simply because they’ve got a nice hunk of silver hanging from their neck or a pretty jewel set within it is quite silly, wouldn’t you agree? I’d even say the mere thought of it is disrespectful.
No other Nightside or esoteric organization has ever been simultaneously uniting yet dividing, controlling yet undisciplined, loose but rigid—Cosplaying Elders who attempt to order around the less intelligent yet falter on the rules they are meant to enforce. Titles like “Elder” and “Bloodline” handed out like Eucharist wafers. Political infighting. Petty rivalries. Keyboard warriors. All this mess, all at the hands of an orgy of Goths, cosplayers and LARPers that Masquerade as their favorite film characters.
These issues and more are what shattered my pride in the Gotham Halo, this Mongoloid clusterfuck of political silliness. And though I hold much respect for certain particular individuals within this scene, I no longer hold any love in my heart for the community as it stands. The true Vampyre Elders who attempt to maintain control of this delusional twenty-four hour Mind’s Eye LARP and its costumed, cosplaying “monsters” are nothing more than babysitters over screeching, developmentally delayed children. Some of them assure me that they’ll do their best to maintain control, restore the Old Ways, bring Gotham back to its former glory. How many years will pass, though?
At this point, the most important thing I realized is that I learned more outside the Halo nation-state—more about myself, more about Our Ways, more about Our Magick. I didn’t learn from a House, I learned independently from a select few true Vampyre Elders who, for whatever reason, choose to run behind the cosplayers. Involvement in these types of large, overwhelmingly unregulated political movements causes more stress than release and raises more questions than answers. Furthermore, what can one learn about metaphysics, Vampyrism, transcendence or magick getting hammered at promoted parties? In truth, the most productive thing I’ve seen come out of this scene is their monthly Courts, and even that’s being generous.
On a side-note, as a sort of “Sanguinarium fundamentalist,” I feel it’s important to note that the original definition of a Court was, “a… geographically based gathering of [Vampyres],” that included, “ceremonies and rituals… [and] live performances…” These modern “Courts” have done no such thing, partly due to Gotham being overrun by role-players, cosplayers and lifestylers with absolutely no occult or magickal knowledge or interest, and partly due to the Council of Gotham no longer having its own Haven to host in. These modern “Courts” very rarely discuss any relevant politics; announcements made there typically revolve around promoted parties and little else, although occasionally there might be a punishment handed down such as temporary exiles or permanent banishments, as well as siring announcements. Recently, a House of great renown (and one of the few I actually respect) has begun holding toy and coat drives around the winter season as well as other community-oriented ventures.
Always remember the power is inside you.
I suppose that leaves the final question—why bother with these social fetish scenes at all? Especially the handful of Elders who are True Vampyres and not just lowly cosplayers?
Hell, even my ex-fiancée can answer that—It’s fun to play with your food.
Credits
This article is the property of
Marcel Curiel (2017)
