History of Septum Civis

8/7/2019 History of Septum Civis

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History of Septum Civis

Its somewhat difficult for me to put down how exactly Septum Civis was started.

I have lived in the area since I was a small child. I grew up here. I knew the politics, the

people, and the nightlife. I was a part of the Norfolk coffeehouse crowd since the age of16. I became a part of the alternative scene around the same time, since everything tended

to blend together here. Pagans and Wiccans rubbing shoulders with the Goth crowd, and

the occasional Vampire in the mix.In high school I had a close knit group of friends. Claudia was one of them. She

got the nickname from the fact that she was short and looked like she was eight when she

was 16. It was unclear if it was diabetes or genetics which caused her to be so short,

either way; me and the midget had some fun times.The Vampire community was something that was deep underground at the time. It

was not easy to find. To some extent you had the LARPs and Gamers, but what of the

real deal? You heard whispers, rumors, but we never found the people involved. More

than likely they were good at hiding in plain sight.Things stayed that way for a few years. We got out of high school and not soon

after, the shit hit the fan. It was around 96 or 97 when John C. Bush got busted forstatutory rape. This in and of itself wasnt newsworthy, however the fact that he was a

LARPer, who used The Masquerade as an excuse to form some sort of Vampyric

family and try to get underage girls in his bed. Well, that was news, especially in a small

minded, conservative area (televangelist Pat Robersons 700 club is within spittingdistance). The coffeehouse I frequented had become part of an investigation, and the

undercover cops stuck out like a sore thumb. The local press (or should I call them

tabloids) didnt bother to differentiate the difference between the Goth community andthe Vampyric community, lumping both together. This unfortunately caused a lot of bad

blood for many years. Anything and everything Vampyric went underground. It wasdifficult even for the Goths to get anywhere for a club night since no venue wanted theattention.

It took a couple of years for that to die down. I spent time in my college years

mining the internet for information on the Vampyre community. There wasnt much, butfinally I found some information on the Sanguinarium. I was skeptical, but decided to

read the teachings and make an informed decision when I was done.

In the meantime Claudia had died due to kidney failure. Her death was a great

loss to all of those in the coffeehouse culture. In many ways, she was our Kitra. She wasable to get many different groups to work together who otherwise wouldnt speak to each

other. She may have died, however it is said that her ghost haunted the coffeehouse and

some people. I know she haunted me, and my dreams.So I dont drag this out for a long time, a few years later, the Goth scene had

gown big enough for two club nights in the area. One on Tuesdays at The Wave, a gay

bar that welcomed our business, the other was at Jillians at Waterside. One of thosenights at Jillians, I was sitting on the balcony with a few of my friends. It was a warm

night and I had a sense that something was coming in on the wind. I wasnt sure what or

who it was. I just knew something or someone was coming.


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In walks a tall, skinny Puerto Rican wearing a set of fangs and a DDrennan ankh.

I had only seen it online, and from what I knew, the Sanguinarium was mostly centered in

NY. So I figured the worst I could do was ignore this person, why not talk to him? Findout if he is one of ours, or just some gamer who knows where to shop. He introduced

himself as Ryu, and we talked for a time. He spoke of Father Vincent, whose name I had

heard in passing (always in a good way). We spoke of other things, various people weknew, and what not.

We spent a couple of months gathering at local coffee shops having discussions

on various topics. Ryu spoke of his household Noctem Aeternus, and their teachings. Iwas able to send a friend of mine to him when he was seeking information and a teacher.

Ryu and I discussed a general respect for the Black Veil and the need for some local laws

to head off another John Bush problem. A lot of innocent people had been hurt, and the

Va. Beach police had been sued for civil rights violations as a result of the investigation.One cop in particular, Don Rimer, seemed determined to destroy anybody

involved in the Vampyric community. He was convinced that all vampires were devil

worshipping pedophiles who were going to come after your kids. A couple of years later

he was charged with 2 counts of assaulting a female officer. He retired and the chargeswere dropped. Virginia Beach was always known as a good old boys club, so I was not

surprised when one of their star detectives with 20 years on the force got a sweetheartdeal.

Since then Don has spent the last few years giving lectures and seminars on

Occult Crime, mostly to the fundy church crowd (which there is a lot of in Va), and

occasionally to law enforcement. Hes been debunked by members of the local Pagancommunity and other law enforcement officers (Google The Cycle Continues by Kerr

Cuhulain for more info on Dons shenanigans) . The Lanning Report is another resource

that completely contradicts Dons silliness. He makes grand statements with no facts toback them up, such as Occult Crime is growing and the Church of Satan is growing

faster than ever. Most of the time people dont question these statements and when

pressed, Don whips out a wild emotional statement such as have you ever had a dead kidin your arms? It would be easy to ignore this guy if it were not for the fact that innocent

people have been hurt by his actions. Don is a fanatic who spreads ignorance and fear and

makes no bones about it.Eventually the inevitable happened. Someone who claimed to be a vampire was

almost murdered by his household, at the behest of an ex lover. He survived, worked with

the police and testified against his attackers. Some of those who attacked him got a deal

to testify against the ringleader, Teresa Davidson. She is now serving 50 years in prison(she is appealing the case). The victim in this case, Jonathan Barron, continued to work

with Don Rimer, and I have reason to believe he was a paid informant (I have no

evidence to back that up, however I find it interesting what the police know about thecommunity when we dont speak with them).

Once I learned what happened, I had no choice but to shake my head. Im an elder

in this area, and because the crime itself happened not far from where I live, I shouldvestepped in. I was too wrapped up in my dayside life, paying bills and moving in to my

first home, to know what was going on in my own backyard. As an elder, I had a

responsibility to the others in my community to look out for it, to offer help to others


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when they were in need, and give guidance and advice when asked. I failed to do that,

and I was ashamed that I had let the community down.

I felt that the only way for me and the other elders in the community to make thisright was to come together as a group and set down some basic rules, structure, so that

when we had a problem or dispute in the community, it could be dealt with inside the

community. So I called together all the households and elders (including Lord Ryu andLord Ramirez) and after long talks, we came away with an agreement. We agreed that we

would follow the Veil, form a court, much like the rabbinical courts within the Jewish

community. The elders would hear various disputes, such as breaking the Veil or otherlocal traditions. We also made it clear that we would not tolerate breaking mundane law.

Doing so brought too much attention to us and endangered others. If we had reason to

believe that a serious breach of mundane law occurred, the court would contact law

enforcement and hand over the offender to them.Sometime later Jonathan was later exiled by the council for sexual harassment of

a female member of his house. It appears that later on he attempted to stab Ryu at a local

haven, and the establishment banned him from the premises. Rumor has it he might be

moving to Florida to establish a household there.Even with all of that, weve managed to show others that we have a system that

works. If someone has a grievance against another, and said issue cannot be worked outbetween the two, they are welcome to bring it to the council and be heard. Whereas there

have been a few minor disputes, most have been worked out on their own. Over the

years, word of this court and how we work has headed off a few issues before they

became a problem. This in and of itself is an accomplishment. Septum Civis is in an areathat has a lot of transient people, usually in the military. Its not hard for someone to

come in, claim to be the king of all vampires (or other such silliness), and try to get in

some girls pants. Now they know, if they drop names, we can usually call the people inquestion and find out if its true. Yes, we do background checks, namely to keep out

minors, sexual predators, and the media. Rumor has it that local law enforcement has

investigated us, and thus far not found anything to charge anyone with. Hopefully theywill know that we dont want problems, we want to fix them.

Lady Raven Cadwell (aka Darci)Co-Reagent of Septum Civis

Documents

History of Septum Civis