White Wolf Online

The Long Night
July 27 Preview (long just because of Origins)
Posted: 2008-06-27

The Long Night
The Tribulation Militia
If you don't watch, it'll come, like a thief in the night.
The world is going to end soon. God is going to snatch away all the True Christians, and the unworthy are going to suffer under the rule of the Antichrist until Jesus comes back and ends it all in blood and fire. Because Jesus loves you. Right? Wrong.

Well, some of it is wrong, at least. That part about the Rapture, where God will pluck all his righteous children from the earth and carry them to the cradle of Heaven, well, that’s not going to happen (though some fear that this has already happened, and the still-significant population remaining are those too wicked to be allowed entry into the Kingdom). No, this is the Tribulation. This is the war. It’s the battle of righteousness, Armageddon. It’s between the righteous and the wicked, between the forces of God and the armies of Satan. One cannot rely on the Rapture to come and claim him. He can only rely on his Bible, his voice, his fist and his gun.

This world is mired in sin, and Christ cannot – will not – return until mankind proves itself worthy. In the meantime, that means war, famine, plague, and horrors beyond horrors. And many know that these horrors aren’t metaphorical: they’re real, they’re out there walking around and feeding from the innocent and exploiting iniquity. It’d be great if God took the worthy ones away from the horror, but that’s not the case. So it’s time to do something about it. They spread the Good News to families and friends. They try to live good lives. And they hunt the monsters.

The Long Night began some time in the 1970s, but as far as its members are concerned, it's always been around. This self-styled Tribulation Militia has no record of its founder; aside from a few websites maintained by individuals, it has little in the way of structure.

Its members have included Branch Davidian-style militarized gun-cults, Family Values campaigners, paranoid survivalists, affluent Southern fundamentalists, and middle-class conservative evangelicals. They've sprung up in the Southern USA, the cities of Australia, and the South-East of England. They have many different takes on what constitutes the correct response to the imminent, self-evident end of the world.

Individual members exist in a hundred fundamentalist churches. Some attend more liberal churches, looking for the troubled believers they consider — somewhat ironically — to be a True Remnant among the godless liberals. They form small cliques. They keep their eyes peeled for those fellow believers who can't seem to be at peace with the things they believe, take them to one side, ask them a few questions, sound them out, and when they know enough, they take them on hunts. Usually, the thrill and danger of the hunt is enough for the newly-minted member of the Long Night to understand.

The hunters of the Long Night say the signs are there, that Armageddon is on its way. But what if the apocalypse depends upon those signs, the wars and the rumors of wars, the fall of the Wormwood Star, the rise of the Great Beast and the Whore of Babylon? What if the devil's agents do the work of the Deceiver by ensuring those signs will come to pass? What if God cannot come until the devil’s agents are dealt with?

Abstractly, they recognize that the Tribulation is a necessity. But it cannot resolve without work on the part of the faithful. The world exists in eternal night, but the Second Coming will bring morning (Revelation 22: 5, 16), if only we persevere. And so this is the Long Night, and these are the warriors who know the world must endure great horror before it can witness the glorious unveiling.

The Enemy

Beings of magic and fear exist because they are the iniquitous servitors of evil. There have always been demons and magicians — Jesus banished countless demons, Peter faced off against Simon Magus — but now there seem to be more than ever before.

No, they must be stopped. The members of the Long Night can certainly show mercy: the whole creed comes, after all, from the love of a merciful God. A group of the Militia might, for example, kidnap a magician and keep him tied and gagged in a room, where they preach to him and try to bring him to repent. If he doesn't, they'll burn all his books. If that isn't enough, they may regretfully have to cut out his tongue. And if that isn't good enough, they'll just have to shoot him. Judgment comes one way or another.

They're not fools, though. They're aware that any idiot can say he's turned away from his sins. A warlock says he's given it all in and the Long Night let him go with rejoicing. Of course, he returns to his conspiracy anew and carry on with the Devil's work. But they're watching, and the moment they see him sin again, that's the end of it. The Long Night expects no second chances; they offer none.

Less human creatures expect no mercy at all. Werewolves sold their souls to get their skins. Vampires are the damned; if they weren't, they wouldn't be vampires. Demons: they're from Hell. They've all got to be destroyed. Only if they cease to be, only if they're sent screaming back down to the Devil’s lap will the Tribulation end and the Revelation begin.