Kindred

There is nothing like the Kindred - nothing so gracefully monstrous, perfectly horrific as they. These creatures, husks of the humans they once were, are now filled with unholy, terrible magic - magic that makes them thirst for blood, makes them the perfect unnatural predator.

So romanticized in modern nights, Kindred can feign to be the sensuous, sexual, poised creatures of fiction – but their truth is not one of love, or connection; they are become monsters, Beasts, and no amount of poetic (or trashy) fictionalized portrayal will ever be able to change that. Their truth has become the blessedly cold night, the same cold that seeps into their soul sooner or later no matter how hard they should deny or fight. Pleasures and petty trifles though they may seek, the things, material and immaterial joys of the world of Men lose their lustre one thing at a time, until all that is left is an emptiness filled only by the search for power.

And in this Curse is power unbound - a set of Disciplines held together by the unholy power that lets the vampire become one of the most powerful creatures in the supernatural world. Though the power of the Disciplines may vary by age and action, one thing is for sure: The vampire, even at its weakest, is a formidable foe.

Naturally, though, so too are other Kindred – the world’s most apex predator finds itself at odds with others of its kind, and not just in conflicts of the physical variety. In a constant vie for the power in a civilized society, the Kindred engage in the Danse Macabre – centuries of maneuvering carefully their assets and contacts, in the effort to gain whatever footing against their enemies as they might. From this comes the organization of coups of the grandest variety, usurping Princes or slaying Sheriffs, or using the global economy to garner influence and power among Kine to flex their fists on a world stage. To be vampire is to be fear itself. To be undead is to own the night.

To be Kindred is to enter the Requiem of Eternal Night.

= Biology =

Requiem
The state of being a vampire is not immortality – immortality implies positivity, and that is not what the Embrace of undeath does for the individual. Rather, it corrupts, destroys their soul, reversing in a way the natural process of death – where the usual corpse will send their soul on to Heaven, or wherever it might be that souls go, and have their body slowly rot away in the ground, the Kindred retain their body for a theoretical eternity, and watch as their soul slowly rots away. The state of being a vampire is a cold eternity of emptiness, referred to often as the Requiem.

By rights, the dead deserve a funeral. Humans are put to rest to a great deal of mourning by their friends and family, with ritual and ceremony – lowered into the ground, wished to rest in peace and ascend to whatever awaits them in the afterlife. Kindred do not have a funeral; there is no remembrance for those whose corpses cannot be lain in a coffin and sent into their resting place – because theirs are corpses that move, continue to thrive in a sick and twisted mockery of the way they did as humans. No send-off is made, no last dirge is played for them.

A funeral is not held for the dying soul; none lament the eternally Damned.

Instead, the Kindred find their existence to be a lament in and of itself; called the Requiem in honor of the mournful songs that epitomize their existence: long and haunting, the Requiem evokes pain and regret, terror and fear. Their dirge plays on for ever, and ever, laying waste to the mortal coil that plagues many and replacing it with the noose of eternal life, that is forever choking the Kindred and threatening to squeeze the life out of them if only they had it.

Undeath
So what does it mean, when one says ‘undead’? A concise and literal definition is as follows: the reanimation, by any means, of an organism formerly regarded as biologically deceased. Many creatures, such as Kindred and Prometheans, considered undead are animated corpses in the most literal sense – unlike hospital ‘miracles’ that are alive and breathing, these creatures are still technically deceased. They have no real pulse, no need to breathe, and no vital functions in the sense that their bodies once had – they might have requirements, but it is to support whatever unholy force fuels them.

For the Kindred, life in undeath is predicated on Vitae – the Blood of the Kindred, what replaces human blood in their veins. In it lies the entirety of their power, the singularity of their state – without it, they are nothing. Vitae, even to the most learned of scholars, is a mystery. That its presence is needed to create a new vampire is known – so is that it does not fill them until after the first time they feed. But the process by which Vitae becomes more potent, more dangerous, is unknown – only that it is a process done in one of two ways: aging, and Diablerie. More on those later.

Vitae also has another particularly useful attribute: it allows vampires to sense one another even from some distance apart, and allows them to feel out how powerful the other is - as the Vitae in one Kindred calls to another, it learns in whom the power is stronger, and makes that known to both parties. It is for this reason that Kindred almost always know who in a conversation is stronger, and those who have been around a while and know the differences can approximate another Kindred's age based on the aura of their Vitae almost perfectly.

The state of undeath introduces a whole new world of affectations, afflictions, and affluences – and while absolutely everything changes, there is very little that does not stay the same. Kindred hold a convoluted hierarchy, and yet just like humans they all want for power. They have cults, religions, inner demons aplenty – and just like men, the Damned have their secrets.

Undeath relieves one of the mortal coil – the ‘human condition’, as it were, that plagues all men – mortality. Kindred are functionally immortal, never aging, never changing. Bodily functions, that which keeps men alive, are useless to them – they do not need to breathe, they do not need to blink; they have no need for cellular respiration, as it is not what keeps them alive, and subsequently have no cellular breakdown – ever. Food and drink sit as dead weight in their stomach, tasting of acid and ash, until it is forcibly purged from their body later – blood and blood alone satiates the vampire, and not the blood of lowly animals - it must be that of humans. True to legend, Kindred have little reflection - their image in a mirror, camera, or video is blurred beyond recognition, unless they should choose to make themselves concrete to it.

Their former peers either immediately or eventually, but certainly inevitably, become less of a society to them and more of a herd - so much so that the Kindred colloquialism for humans is kine, a term used by humans for cattle. Their own kind now are other monsters, and this society into which they are reborn is horrifically complex - a dance with creatures their predatorial instincts drive them to hate as rivals, but their sentient nature claws at them to interact with, to maintain some form of connection with something. In time, only other vampires can understand the vampire's psyche, and he can no longer connect with humans - this is the full disconnect, the ultimate separation from who they once were.

This eternal state of existence, however, becomes a coil all its own – where the living fear death, the dead dread eternity.

Embrace
Kindred are, by their very nature, the apex predator anywhere they go - and those who study food chains know that an overpopulation at the apex leads to troubles for all of them, as well as the entire ecosystem. On top of this, as discussed here, Kindred are natural adversaries one to another - despite working together at times, they inevitably turn against their fellows. So why on earth would one want to create another, if it were only going to become a problem for the sire at a later time? This is a result of one of the greatest paradoxes of Kindred existence: They are solitary hunters, and yet they crave companionship - which can only be found in those that understand them as they are, and for all but the youngest of neonates this is found solely in other Kindred. However, with the disagreements many older Kindred find in one another, reaching out does not seem a terribly tempting idea - and so they opt often to simply create a companion of their own, who lacks the centuries of maniacal warping and stepped depravity of their peers.

An Embrace, done right, is planned well before even the first contact between future sire (the referential pronoun applied to one Kindred who has embraced and is now charged with the raising, containment, and education of another) and the childe (the neonate that the sire has Embraced, and is in their charge until such time as they are considered ready to be let loose into the world). The sire will, or at least should, have a careful set of three or four specifications that their childe absolutely needs to abide - based usually on either the sire's desires for what they want, or the Clan's general basis for what a Kindred should be.

After careful selection of the prospective childe, preparations must be made - Embracing is almost always done in a secluded, private area with no one around to hear it, as even those initially consenting may change their minds and struggle against the sire, even going so far as to scream for help. As such, large estate houses are a prime location - lacking that, basements and soundproofed rooms are also excellent. The next thing taken into account ought to be the First Hunt - a time when the new vampire is ravenous just after their Embrace, and goes into a frenzy to satiate this new and overpowering thirst. To provide for them and keep them from becoming a problem to their sire by attacking him or going after the general public while enraged and therefore unruly, risking the Masquerade, the sire procures a human upon which the neonate may feed - and nearly without exception, this first meal is drained completely of their blood.

The process itself is deceptively simple: the childe, readied in the place in which they are to be Embraced, are drained by their sire of all the blood in their body. From there the sire slits her own vein, and allows the Vitae that comes forth from their body to drop through the lips of their childe - this must be done very quickly, lest the childe rise with a half-dead brain or not rise at all. When this blood seeps into their lips, their mouth and throat, it wreaks it unholy magic, reviving her corpse into a state of unlife. This seed, as it were, of Vitae, blossoms out into any and all blood that should come into the new childe's system for the rest of her unlife - and while her own body warps it into a vitae unique and all her own, the sire's taint will always remain. It is from this that clans and bloodlines are borne - no matter how many sire-to-childe exchanges occur, the ultimate progenitor's taint will pass on to any and all of their extended progeny, regardless how diluted it may become.

For some Kindred, such as the Abhartach of Ireland, Embracing is about establishing a legacy - and so while childer are Embraced for their quality, several are Embraced at a time. Being a Prince, he cannot raise them all himself - and so the concept of the simulare was born. A simulare is a Kindred who accepts the role of caretaker to a childe, but is not their blooded sire. Because Kindred are rarely so generous as to care for the childer of anyone but themselves, simulare are few and incredibly far between; usually either owing the true sire a massive debt, or for whatever reason unable to sire a childe on their own.

Predation
The Embrace transforms a person - taking their weak, frail human form and making it into the perfect instrument of terror and death. The Vitae that stagnates in their system, suffuses their entire body and reinforces it to be capable of tremendous and, to the uneducated on such matters, impossible things. Cuspids extend horrifically, out into the proper fangs associated with vampires in all of their media - and are, in fact, used for the very familiar purpose of piercing skin and veins to get at their prey. As such, it is intensely important that the teeth remain sharp - and true to form, the Vitae somehow keeps them focused to a perfect point, ready and able to feast from any. They, above everything else, are the feature that often marks the Kindred as strange to those who look upon them, as they are not as easily hidden as their other facets of their undeath as they cannot be retracted.

Lack of life also brings on a number of other changes - the loss of blood flow to the skin makes them incredibly pale, as well as cold to the touch. Because they do not have pumping hearts, they do not need to breathe - a Kindred, could, theoretically, spend their unlifetime at the bottom of the ocean. The only time they would breathe is to speak, or to mimic humanity. Similarly, Kindred eyes do not dry out, and as such they do not need to blink save to blend in among the kine. To complete the illusion of humanity, they can consciously force blood back into their skin to rid it of its ghastly pallor, and return it to a nearly-living flush.

Mimicry of humans, however, is not the point of their transformation. The Kindred becomes a hunter of men, and develops a superior form to them - with senses threefold, and even the frailest possessing strength and speed equivalent to the most powerful among men, they are made perfect in the image of a predator. Once, Kindred did not have to be afraid to show their true face to their prey - what someone cowering and scrunched into an alley, alone and afraid, thought of the experience meant nothing. After all, what would their fellows think, when they came spouting tales of fictional creatures that go bump in the night? These were the nights of strength and revelry. In modern nights, discretion has become them - with nearly every human having a device that can record them for all to see (despite being unclear in appearance, a Kindred in attack is very distinctly unnatural) and that can call in help with the flick of their thumb. With the potential for their exposure higher than ever, the Hunt is now a more delicate process than ever. But it cannot be avoided - and none want to avoid it, either.

While the Kindred's hunger, left of all outside influence, only afflicts them around every three days, many Kindred feed a great deal more often. The general reasoning behind this is twofold: Kindred desire to be able to use their Disciplines, which are considered to be 'blood magic' as they cause the blood to dissipate from the vampire's system with their use with varying magnitude based on how powerful the effect being achieved is, and for the mere purpose of having something to do every night, something to fill their time. Feeding is by far the most constructive and pleasurable way to do this - in fact, feeding is by far the most pleasurable thing Kindred can do. It instills a euphoria in both predator and victim, beyond that of anything either party could ever experience otherwise - the human orgasm, for example, is pittance in comparison to the Kiss.

Between two Kindred, it is most often a replacement for intercourse, as physical intercourse has been reduced to a troublesome and awkward manipulation of blood, and application of lubrication (as there are no natural secretions in the vampire's new form) for nothing more than an average pleasure. As the Kiss induces a haze to the memory of the victim, leaving them permanently unable to recall the event and nearly half an hour preceding, it can also be used to mimic intercourse between a Kindred and a particularly favoured human.

When the Kindred is done feeding, they need only lick the spot from which they have fed, and the wound heals. As such, feeding is an operation that tidies itself - leaving the Kindred full, and the victim in a hazed, amnesic bliss, completely unaware and unable to find a trace that anything untoward has happened; they do not remember the primal fear of the Hunter, nor the icy touch of its fangs.

Banes
There is no being without its weaknesses - even the brutal vampire is no exception. However, real aces against the Kindred are hard to come by; many of those purported in myth, such as garlic and running water, are of no power at all - while off-putting in intensity to those whose nostrils can smell blood from across the room, garlic is powerless, and the Kindred very often shower, so running water is more of an ally than anything.

To the nigh-unkillable Kindred, the most Resilient among whom could be impacted by a freight train and not so much as bruise, few things are of much consequence. Of those that are consequential, two are enough to sear their bodies to the point of taking months to recover - sunlight, and fire. Vampires have a deep, primal fear of the sun - they are monsters strictly of night, and moving about during the day takes not only a great act of will but a great deal of preparation to ensure that not so much as a millimetre of skin remains exposed. Should they be touched by it, the skin begins to burn immediately, and as time passes it seeps further into their body, through the skin, into the dead muscle beneath.

By the time the burns from the sun begin to burn into the bone, the skin above them turns to ash - and as the bone itself burns, the ash overtakes the muscle above it. Left in the sun long enough, a vampire is nothing more than a pile of ash. Ultra-violet lights have a similar effect to the sun, but theirs is limited to a searing pain without any actual physical impact; left out under them it becomes a throbbing, terrible pain, and then it feels as if their entire person is on fire. As, even at its height, the ultraviolet artificial light causes no actual harm, it is used as a tool of torture by many.

Fire has a very similar effect to the sun - save that it turns what is comes into contact with into ash immediately. Unlike the sun, it cannot harm from afar, and does not seep - even within inches, it does nothing but trigger a monumental inner fear. It takes willful application of the fire to the vampire's person to turn them to ash, and is a very precise tool of disintegrating them.

Other exploitable weaknesses include the Kindred inability to enter a home uninvited, stabbing through the vampire's heart - something that paralyses them, but upon removal of the stake they are very much alive; depending on how long they have been in stasis they may be hungry, and will be exceedingly angry - and holy items. Holy items, though, have a very large caveat - they must be used by those people who hold a deep and true religious belief, and intend it to defend or rebuke the Kindred, for religious items to have any effect at all.

Haven
For the Kindred, the Haven is more vital than anything but blood. It is their personal sanctum, built (or renovated) specifically to suit the needs of the undead. It is where they spend their days in the irrepressible slumber their state brings, and often where they bring their prey if their gambit is seduction. For many, their first Haven is built for them by their sire, or their sanctum is shared until the childe is considered able to see to all of the specifications to build their own. It is worth mentioning early that rarely do Kindred sleep in coffins; most often they adopt lavish beds and bedrooms.

A haven must, foremost, be secure against the light of the daytime sun. In the endeavour to block it out, many Kindred have multiple layers of to cover the windows if their haven is above ground - outside shutters, then thick, full blinds, followed by equally thick curtains - as well as the cracks around doors. Skylights are removed from purchased houses, as well as all windows considered unnecessary or unessential to maintaining a look or normalcy. Havens established underground or in basements do not have this problem to such a degree, usually only needing to block the sunlight coming from whatever entrances exist. Likewise, sources of fire - fireplaces, gas stoves, anything of the like - are removed. They are replaced with electric stoves, space heaters, whatever it takes to make the haven seem as presentable as possible in its public places, and comfortable in the private ones.

After security against their inanimate enemies, the security against other creatures - be they human thugs, Changeling thieves, Promethean snoopers, or Urathan hunters, even agents of enemy Kindred - is prevalent in the paranoid Kindred's mind. Their Havens are therefore veritable (or, for the old and powerful, even literal) fortresses against their enemies, outfitted with the best security measures their fortunes afford them. Locks on doors are sometimes dozens in number, windows may lock thrice - or perhaps not even open at all. There is no limit to the potential paranoia that haunts their mind, and its application to their reality - especially with regard to their Haven.

Vitae
Vitae. It is the essence of the Kindred; the vile, unholy mockery of blood that beats in their veins. Given to their forms by their sire, it determines everything about the Kindred: what Disciplines they practice, at what level they might practice them, how they are perceived by other vampires. In reverse, they determine everything about it: how it is used, how potent it is, whether or not it is built beyond their age. It is the source of some of their magic, both Discipline and not. It is also the source, indirectly, of their madness.

For the first hundred years of a Kindred's existence, vitae grows in potency faster than it will at any other point, nearly doubling  in the first half-century and then again in the second half. Past that, it grows at half that pace for the nearly the next millennium, and past that, for the extremely elder, a third. (For the not officially in-character "points" system, see the guide on making Kindred.) The more potent they become, though, the more the VItae corrupts their mind, stripping away their sanity bit by bit - making them less human, more monster. Some of the oldest, the very few that have existed since before the days of Rome, truly believe themselves to be gods - and have the amazing potency and power to back their claims up.

There are, of course, both neonates and elders who wish to reach beyond their age-granted potencies; those who would have power that they might not be ready for. Such a goal is achievable through the process of Diablerie (an archaic term used to denote sorcery assisted by Satan). In simple terms, it is feeding from another Kindred as one would a kine, until they are completely drained - and in doing so, adding three-quarters of the victim's potency to one's own. This violates the third of the Three Traditions, however - and is treated far more harshly than a containable break in Masquerade, or a trangressing childe, ending invariably in the execution of the perpetrator should they be caught.

Other than fueling new Disciplines, and making those in practice more powerful, Vitae has other uses. The most common use is on humans, a process called ghouling. This is when a group of vampires in an area, most typically a coterie involved in a hunting ground, will force into a human's mouth their collective Vitae. This gives the human not only an intense rush akin to the finest drug, but a degree of the increased physical state of the Kindred (since they do not live on Vitae, of course, they are limited; no matter how much they should drink). Their addiction is crippling and immediate, putting them at the mercy of their hosts so long as they are fed monthly; this is used to create human slaves. Such vassals are frowned upon, being breaches of the Masquerade by creating knowledge among humans of the existence of the Kindred, but is generally tolerated as ghouls are loyal. It is the least of the binding states.

A step up from the ghouling is the Vinculum - the practice through which either a human or another Kindred is fed the Vitae of a single Kindred three times within a short period. This creates an intense, obsessive devotion by the thrall, to whom the Vitae was given, to the regnant, from whom the Vitae came. It is the closest thing Kindred may feel to love, and thus is practiced by those who wish to consider themselves lovers, despite being artificial and overly-intense. While a thrall may simultaneously hate their regnant, they are powerless against the devotion and overwhelming affection and devotion. So long as the thrall tastes the Vitae of their regnant yearly, the Vinculum goes on.

Discipline
Disciplines are the practical application of the Vitae's power into the Kindred's reality. Its influence is twofold: Vitae increases the level of complexity that the Kindred can achieve in a given Discipline, as well as the amount of raw, reinforcing power that is put into said Discipline. In fact, as Kindred become powerful enough to reach the upper echelons in a Discipline, their execution of the lower levels has often become so practiced, and so reinforced by utter power, they are nearly infallible. Disciplines have to be mastered in an order, as each 'level' builds upon the one after.

Disciplines, when used, expend blood - that is the price equal trade demands, and the greater the power a Discipline skill demands, the more blood is spent in executing it. Using too much blood, by extending a too great a power too long, can cause the vampire to spiral into a hunger frenzy. The more potent a vampire's Vitae, though, the less blood is spent on a mastered Discipline's use; therefore this is a largely negligible thing for the young, or those that have their Vitae's power spread into the use of many Disciplines. Such is part of the reason the extremely old are so feared; their immense power is so readily available to them with a greater ease of use than that of their lessers.

(The Discipline page contains explainations and levels for all eleven available Disciplines; five clan-only, six open.)

Torpor
Vitae is the Kindred's greatest asset - but can also be their most challenging obstacle. The human form, even changed by undeath, is a poor vessel for the power contained in the Vitae - and as the Vitae becomes more potent, its use becomes more volatile and can be outright painful. This heralds the nearing of torpor - the state of nigh-unbreakable stasis that overtakes them in both body and mind, and forces them to go through a kind of hibernation and metamorphosis that lasts for decades, and as they get older only increases in duration each occurence. It occurs for the first time for roughly a decade around the end of their first century of unlife, and then again each time their potency doubles (three-hundred, seven-hundred, one thousand five hundred, ad infinitum) for roughly a tenth of the time of the Kindred's life to that point. (It is worth noting that because potency from Diablerie is unabsorbed by the Kindred's body, though it is therefore much more volatile, it does not trigger torpor.)

Their body does not change much - if anything, it becomes more resilient, tougher. It does pale considerably (especially old Kindred may come out of torpor with skin that can nearly be seen through), however, and the body becomes ever-colder; therefore more conscious effort must be put in to maintaining the guise of humanity. Likewise, colour in the iris fades and hair pales, things that have only recently been made a fix for by men, such as coloured eye contacts and hair dyes - things the extremely elder are rarely like to use, even though they need such things the most.

What truly scars the Kindred, however, are the dreams. Subject to nightmares most foul, the Kindred in their paralysis are helpless to stop the wretched visions that dance in their heads. Asked to compare, the Kindred educated on such things will liken the visions to hallucinations from the strongest of drugs, increased in intensity a hundred-fold - these are overlapped onto their memories. Forced to relive their countless years time and again, each time through a new and ever-changing lens of horror, Kindred's memories are warped, made unsure and invalied; corrupted beyond all recognition for what they once were.

Such dreams wear away further at their shattered humanity, as well. To call the Kindred human would be to see their forms from afar, but even the worst among younglings retain some measure of their former human nature; an understanding if not a practice of what it was to be decent, to be moral. This understanding is chipped away at through the first few instances of torpor; by the time Kindred are millennial, it has been reduced to ash, to nothing more than the vaguest concept viewed from the outside in the interactions of kine; beneath all but those who make a study of how to blend in.

Because they are rendered so helpless, paralysed and unable to defend themselves, while they are in torpor is the most common time for a vampire to be diablerized by a greedy, determined, or perhaps simply lucky member of his kin that should find him. As a result, most of the Damned that know they are approaching torpor will spend their final few years in the resting place they intend to use. This resting place will not only be as hidden as they can manage, but the security precautions that defend it will be so tight and redundant that it puts their haven to shame.

Clan
A clan represents a pedigree - those of a clan are expected only to Embrace those kine that embody the values and characteristics of their clan. This is, however, not always the case - especially with the explosion of the populace in modern nights, there are many Kindred who Embrace those who embody traits they themselves likes, rather than those that embody their clan. Clans are protection, backing - one does rarely challenge one Kindred alone, without the rest of the clan in the vicinity coming down against them.

While clan is a biological thing, it is more largely a social construct - and often, that is the context for which it is used. Members of clans are expected to support one another to the greatest degree that Kindred can be expected to do so - that is, not very much - against members of other clans. The heads of the clans, known as the Greater Lords, are creatures of not only incredible personal power and age, but those of extreme political power as well. When the Lord calls, the clan answers.

Those who violate the sanctity of clan are Outcast - considered the lowest of the low, below even those slave kine to the least prestigious Kindred - and find no shelter, anywhere, unless they might keep their secret. The Outcast are also called the Marked, as they are often branded across lower the back with an empty circle, to broadcast their shame to all those who might look for it. Rarely are the Outcast forced to bear the Mark anywhere visible, as they still must maintain the Masquerade.

All clans have a Discipline unique to their Vitae - a powerful, intense set of powers that only they can practice. These are not required to be used, but are used by nearly every member of the clan because they are so suited to the nature of those within the clan. These are listed in italics below the clan summary.

Clan Daeva - These are the most cultured of the Kindred clans; more often than not they are poets, artists, or patricians who support the arts. Many of the earlier generations are from Italy and France, and still maintain very social aspect to their lives, often participating in coteries with the Ventrue and the more civilized members of the other clans. They are often chose because they share an appreciation for the arts or knowledge, and have produced some of the most inspired painters, sculptors, and musicians, as well as some of the greatest thinkers, in the world’s history.

Clan Discipline: Majesty

Clan Gangrel - Gangrel are the gypsies of the Kindred world - loners, often chosen to be Embraced because one has grown tired of being alone, but detests the thought of living with a large clan. The Gangrel are barbaric and savage to most other Kindred - they live in the wild, communing with animals, rejecting the common and accepted ways of life. They largely ignore the Danse Macabre in favor of living for themselves and the few others they may be close to. Having shed the confines of society, they tend to come and go from the lands of different Princes as they see fit, and only congregate for massive clan-meetings.

Clan Discipline: Protean

Clan Mekhet - Even among those who only come out at night, some are more hidden than others. These are the Mekhet, the hunters among hunters. Known for being spies, assassins, knowers and keepers of great and terrible secrets, the Mekhet are among the most porrly-documented and subversively influential of all clans. Members of clan Mekhet are often brought in as spies for the leaders of covens, to ensure nothing foul is afoot - though they are known to be masters of gently guiding any situation to a path they may find fortitious, and often use positions gained to dig out secrets to add to their collection; no Mekhet is trusted beyond his action. Mekhet are chosen for their wit, wile, and skill as combatants.

Clan Discipline: Auspex

Clan Nosferatu - These sickening creatures are the only Kindred who typically make their homes in terrible places - sewers, graveyards, abandoned warehouses, the like - as they are, in some form or another, absolutely revolting. Despite their disgusting nature, however, the Nosferatu are among the most hospitable of Kindred - chosen for their negative attributes, they were then made better by their sire in order to be accepted as part of the Kindred general populous. The Nosferatu are also a very closely-knit clan, and as such, news travels among them quickly; to this end, many Princes keep one in their back pocket in order to find out what is happening in their territory and in territories nearby.

Clan Discipline: Nightmare

Clan Ventrue - Here are the true nobility among the Kindred, those classic souls who refuse to part with the idealistic times of Lords, Ladies, fiefs, and vassals. They were the Kindred who in mortal lives were Barons, CEOs, Dukes, and even Kings - and they loathe parting with that kind of life. They are socialites, like the Daeva, with culture, class, and time for sophisticated activities the more barbaric clans deem idle. These are the political powerhouses of the Kindred world, as well; they lead the vast majority of covens, and lacking that, they fill the role of Senechal. The Ventrue keep a very stiff, Elder-lead hierarchy that tends to shut out the younger generations; as of late, there have been whispers among the dissatisfied, young Ventrue of a coup in the making.

Clan Discipline: Domination

= Psychology =

Mental State
Kindred, as stated previously, do not age physically - when they are Embraced, their cellular reproduction ceases, rendering them in an immortal state of youth, middle age, whatever they were before death. This is true also of their mental aging - the Kindred remain the same within their mind; wisdom, maturity, intelligence do not grow, do not change. What a Kindred knows may increase, and allow them to learn over the course of their existence, but how they handle things both intellectual and 'emotional' (see below) does not change in any large way from when they were Embraced. This is not to say that Kindred cannot learn from their experience, only that things too intricate for them to understand will always be this way, and Kindred that are volatile in the face of disrespect will always be such - though the facade may thicken, and actions become revised, what lies beneath will always be the same.

Kindred, because of this, tend to become stagnant - they treat problems in the modern world, perhaps six hundred years into their Requiem, the same way they would have reacted when they were young - the idea of changing tactics, surrendering or changing a way of life, is either disliked or impossible. This is why Kindred aristocracy will not change - because they refuse to, they do not know how; Kindred in the eyes of kine are often anachronistic, doing things they way they would have centuries ago instead of the way they are done, be it solving a problem or writing a letter. This inability to change their ways is actually one of the least of the things a vampires struggles a vampire faces; two others far eclipse it.

The first is the issue of vampirism itself - many neonates, while sure of themselves at first, cannot quite bring themselves to cotton to the idea of being a purely predatory creature. Often they consider humans to be equal to themselves still, as this is what they have been taught all their lives, and hesitate to assault them out of fear for repercussions. These are issues that must be reconciled very early in a Requiem, either before the Kindred begins feeding, or shortly thereafter - and usually, through the guilty's justification or the cruel's natural supposition, it is in the knowledge that they have become a predator and are therefore irrevocably superior to the humans upon which they feed. Over time, the human becomes the kine, and former companions become things from which they vampire is to feed and nothing more.

The second is the undeniable truth that human mind is not meant to be immortal - this is a fact agreed upon by those who have lived for millennia. It is a mind meant to achieve, and mortality limits how long one has for that achievement - thus, it stops the living from achieving past their goals, and into territory where they have to reach beyond what they have hoped for, what they know. The Kindred, however, have forever, and therefore no limit on their goals; they may achieve everything they ever wanted in mortal life and well beyond. When they have everything they've ever wanted, however, what are they to do? Their mind still longs for and craves that accomplishment, the impetus of their action, a reason to get up every night - but what is there left to accomplish, for those who have everything? Nothing. There is nothing of our the human world they need that they cannot take with ease, nothing among human society they want that is beyond their patience, and so they crave more'''. '''This 'more' is found in their Fetish, and the Danse Macabre.

These activities are not 'appropriate' to the human mind - it must adjust, in a way, to concepts beyond the scope of what they have known. This, of course, directly clashes with their inability to change - it is another paradox in an existence which is ultimately a fabric woven of them. Over time, while their mentality does not change, the very essence of their thoughts warps, and becomes something altogether unwholesome - they must adjust to the idea of feasting on their former brethren, and of their new brethren directly opposing the goals they have in mind. Because of this change in thought patterns, compounded with the fact that they do not truly feel, the Kindred begin to lose their humanity - they develop vicious, malevolent tendencies; complexes of superiority, acquisitiveness, and paranoia; callous disregard for the pain of humans and other Kindred alike in fulfilling their desires. It is of course a slow process, taking centuries to reach a full capacity in any form, but the Damned do in time slip into an insanity - by human standards. To Kindred, it is simply normalization.

Emotion
True emotion is a bodily process - it is tied into the release of chemicals into the brain, the body, in various degrees and combinations to reinforce in a physical sense the mental processes that lead to that emotion. Yet again, Kindred are eternally undead - they cannot produce these chemicals, and therefore cannot feel in the full capacity of the mortal. In fact, their combined physical inability and changing mentality mean that Kindred do not truly feel at all. Instead, they experience what are very much akin to 'echoes' of their former emotions - their mind brings up remembrances of emotions felt in mortal life, that it thinks appropriate to the situation, and it is that remembrance that serves as their emotional state. This means that if a Kindred did not experience an emotion in life, they will not remember it in death. In a situation that calls for an emotion they do not know, they will often become confused, and possibly irritated or aggravated.

As time goes, on, though, remembrances of mortal life - not just memories of events, but eventually memories of feelings - fade. They warp, at first, and then through decades of passing time and torpor they are slowly torn apart; cast into the black abyss that is the end of all things. The Damned become unfeeling, or at the very best choose not to feel for anything they do not want to - they care not for that which is not themselves, or their goals, as these are all that matters because they are all Kindred have.

The only reasonable recourse the Kindred have, trying to attain to attachment to someone, is the Vinculum - the drinking of a vampire's Vitae. A very frowned-upon practice, the artificial emotion (which is in truth little more than an obsession) creates a bond between the person who drinks the Vitae to the person who supplied it - but only in this direction, and not the other. This is why 'relationships' between humans and vampires will not work - because there is no attachment on the part of the Kindred to the human, they will eventually realise such a relation to their food for the mistake it was and move on, leaving their thrall (for that is what the human will have become) crushed.

Mutual Vinculum between two Kindred usually ends little better. Because they are secretive and solitary creatures, two bound Kindred may be devoted to one another, but they will inevitably keep their secrets - and these secrets will become doubts, doubts will become competitions, which becomes a rivalry, through which genuine hate festers through false adoration. Diffucult though it may be, it becomes possible with growing hateful passions to overcome Vinculum, and slay the partner that was once so valued - and so do an overwhelming majority of ties between 'lovers' end. Thus, most if not all aging Kindred have given up the ghost for relationships - and the young eventually learn.

Fetish
For Kindred, eternity is a genuine prospect - existence becomes less a frantic effort to accomplish their desires, and more an art in whiling away at their infinite lives between the steps of the Danse. To fill this time, many Kindred develop a fetish - a goal, preoccupation, or project through which they hope to accomplish something of personal gratification. Most fetishes are developed independently of their human life - many of the human 'pinnacle' goals become obsolete to Kindred, and so they are passed over for something else; being a millionaire has lost its lustre, while collecting coins has become essential.

A fetish is rarely power-related; the Danse is the quest in that regard - though some individuals, like Emperor Tarquin, have a fetish for a particular area (in his case, his obsession with ruling Rome). Many fetishes seem impossible to execute, or infinite in scope - solving the problem of cold fusion, or accumulation of the world's knowledge; many are designed to take as long as possible or never be accomplished, that they may take up a maximum amount of time. They may be intensely obscure, or infuriatingly general - but most often, they are somewhere in between.

= Sociology =

Traditions
There are laws among Kindred - laws laid down by the Princes in their domain, others by the Clans for their descendants, and still more for those among the Covenants to abide their beliefs. Yet even for all of the laws, differing opinions, and squabbling over values, three laws - so ingrained into Kindred society they are known as the Traditions - are enforced the world-over.

The First Tradition: Masquerade


 * "Do not reveal your nature to those not of the Blood. Doing so forfeits your right to the Blood."

The First Tradition is, by far, the most constantly enforced. Originally codified by the Camarilla of Ancient Rome, Masquerade is a sacred barrier of mystique and mystery against the kine - though it is, most often, played out by acting perfectly un-noteworthy. Revealing oneself to a human is an atrocious break of this rule, and has potential to compromise the entire race of Kindred to the kine in times that consistently become more dangerous for them to be found out in. It may be punished however the Prince of the domain in which the crime was commited sees fit.

The Second Tradition: Progeny


 * "Sire another at the peril of both yourself and your progeny. If you sire a childe, the weight is your own to bear."

To sire a childe is to bring into the world a creature that, regardless of how experienced they may be in the world of men, is brand new to the world of the Kindred, of undeath. As such, they are unfamiliar with the ways of things, such as how to maintain the Masquerade and use their powers properly, as well as more applied skills, such as those related to hunting - breaking into houses (for, say, the Nosferatu) or seducing another (such as the Daeva) - or extending their social circles to include contacts, and how to behave around other Kindred, what gambits to watch for and which to play. As a result of usually being the sole influence in their lives for some time after their Embrace, sires are held completely responsible for every action their childe undertakes.

The Third Tradition: Amaranth


 * "You are forbidden from devouring the heartsblood of another of your kind. If you violate this commandment, the Beast calls to your own Blood."

Diablerie is not merely frowned upon, it is explicitly forbidden and feared. Vampires who Diablerize become powerful beyond their years - and beyond their limits. This puts other vampires, especially those in power, on edge, and so they will often call down a Blood Hunt for the perpetrator - something which every Kindred is expected to participate in, and does not end until the Diablerist is found and executed.

Danse Macabre
There are two ways a vampire occupies their time – after all, eternity is not just a lot of time, it is time – and the lesser of these, the Fetish, has been previously discussed. As mentioned, while many Kindred have a Fetish preoccupying their time, it pales in comparison to a much greater facet of unlife: the Danse Macabre. There is no human equivalent to which the Danse may be accurately compared, and any attempt to understand it in its full scale by a human leaves them grasping at straws. It brings the Kindred their greatest achievements, and is perhaps their greatest ruin.

The Danse Macabre has a very simple basis – it is the sociopolitical maneuverings of Kindred among either their own kin or simple humans. However, such a simple statement completely understates the massive complexity, the utter scale upon which the Danse is, well, danced. It is very much akin to a game of chess, with tenfold more pieces, a twentyfold larger board, all covered in a dense fog in the pitch black, and played by a hundred opponents over the course of millennia rather than a day. Given this poorly-enlightened understanding, it is little wonder so few childer know which methods, which moves will bring them gain, and are left hobbled to the wills and protections of their sires.

It is a considered a ‘game’ by many – but make no mistake, it is much more serious than any game of men, and has led to the death of countless Kindred and humans alike. With its roots firmly planted in the societies of men, holding power there and controlling domains of kine, the Danse is as intricately woven into human society as it is drastically separated. Because the Kindred are tied to cities, tied to humans, it is here that the Kindred must make their moves, take their shadow steps to gain contacts, gain footholds, gain position, gain power. And as time goes on, the Danse only becomes more complex. Its moves are unknowable to mortal races, as they may take decades or even centuries to play out in their full scope - after all, what is fifty years to a creature that will exist for eternity? Patience, above all, is what makes the Kindred so capable of maintaining such a grand and epic struggle one against another.

When it started with the rise of the Roman Republic, the Danse amounted to civilized Kindred amassing small armies of their kin, and larger armies of men, and leading them in battle one against another, claiming territory through raw shows of power, and the more feral Kindred simply going and doing as they pleased, taking what they wanted from whom. Make no mistake, this was still a time of intricate politics – Kindred of the same clan would often make alliances of convenience, only to betray each other as soon as the alliance had lost its usefulness and return to being uneasy acquaintances, weaving more contracts with others, contorting social mechanisms into a great web of lies and deceit for power.

Even more convoluted than wars between individuals were wars between clans and covenants, each espousing their superiority and beliefs to all that would listen, and each striking down the others to solidify whatever ends their particular establishment clawed for. When all is said and done, though, each Kindred acts for herself and herself alone, as it is only she that may be relied upon completely. This is inevitable, as it is the nature of Kindred.

The concepts of ceasing expansion, losing independence and settling down during these times were unimaginable. To some in the lesser civilized areas of the world, they still are – and indeed, these concepts, these remnants of times past, still linger in the minds of many even as the minds of new human generations defy them at every turn.

It was during the Industrial Revolution, when men rushed to cities by droves, which was beginning of the end for the nights of expansion. The Revolution localized the powers of man – factories, industries, concentrated into the cities – these things became the central powers of the world, not land and territories. Each and every city became a hub of power, and it was to here that the Kindred flocked, and in these small spaces where each contact was leverage, each viable resources was worth tenfold what it had been on the former scales – the old ways of kings and castles, where a noble ruled so many men by right of birth, began to fade, and the middle class rose. This power shift begat the volatilization of the former steady structure, usurping the inflexible elders in their countryside manors, from which their traditions would not let them stray, and began the rise of the younger and/or more ready among their number.

This era also saw an explosion in the general population – and, blamed on the indiscretion of some neonates among the new equalist Carthian Movement, the great swell in the numbers of the Kindred. So now more populous than ever and crammed into their gilded cages, the Childer of Blood find themselves ever more entrenched in an evolving struggle played out by unchanging masters, Princes of Domains among humanity.

Coteries
In tonight's world of centralized power and incessant need for contact networks to achieve anything on the grand scale, the neonate tends to find that they are lost. After all, unless they are to rely on their sire for eternity (and make no mistake, some remain amicable with their sire for extended periods after their tutelage), the neonate has to find a way to garner their own network of human and non-human acquaintances to manage in their Requiem. This is the purpose of the coterie - a small group of young, interdependent Kindred that provide an initial kernel of a social structure for one another, using each other and each other's contacts as support and backing.

Often, neonates are deluded into thinking that these relatively young structures will last for an extended period, or even their entire unlife - but their sires know better. Inevitably their goals will cross, and they will find themselves in competition with one another for something or another - and this competition will split them apart, driving an unconquerable wedge into the group and force them to either choose sides or go their own way. This, it is known, is the nature of the Kindred, especially as they grow older and lose the intensity in their desire for such human things as friendship; there is only power.

To combat this, coteries have begun taking greater measures to secure their ties. Some have even begun binding each to the rest through Vinculum, a dangerous and scandalous process that can often have severe backlash. Should one Kindred, for example, develop a particularly strong obsession with another, only to see it violated by the object in their affection to a coterie-mate, driving them into a rage of jealousy until the problem is destroyed.

And so it remains that their sires were right; no matter what measures were taken or how honest their relations are, Kindred will inevitably reach a point at which their nature and paranoia drive them apart. That said, coteries are an excellent and nearly essential construct in the neonate's introduction to the Danse, and gives them a chance at establishing themselves before they are washed away into the tide of the elder and more powerful denizens of the night.

Domain
The concept of Domain is one very feudal in basis - one Kindred, known as the Prince (which, as all titles, remains the same regardless of gender, though they and their honorifics may vary by domain) claims ownership of a given area, then known as the Prince's domain. Most often, the Prince is either a ruler appointed through traditional value such as being eldest, as a figurehead for others, or through their own sheer intelligence and power. The Prince is then the supreme ruler of the domain - though they are supported by various other Kindred who form the Court, they are the final say in the allottment of hunting grounds, who may chose to sire childer, and who is granted a stay within their domain and for how long. All guests to a domain are expected to present themselves before the Prince, unless they are passing through.

Acting as the Prince's counsel and council, the Primogen (usually three to five in number) are intended to ensure the Prince has a balancing force by the various clans represented in an area - or even, for domains dominated by one clan, subdivisions within clans. This council is, as all other positions in Court, appointed by the Prince, usually with strong considerations from the Prince's allies or those generally regarded as Clan leaders in an area. They may also be the group of Kindred that put a Prince into power, and therefore treat said Prince like a puppet for their oligarchy - or in reverse, be a circle of stand-ins completely controlled by the Prince.

While the Prince and Primogen debate matters that dicate the fate of the entire domain, night-to-night matters must be handled by someone. That role is held by the Seneschal, who holds his own office separate from the Prince's and handles public business a deal more regularly. All problems, great and small, are expected to be brought before the Seneschal; neglecting or overstepping this part of the process and taking things is, at best, a direct insult to the Seneschal and the Prince who appointed them, and at worst an offense worth banishment or being Outcast. To the civilized Kindred, order is everything - and with everything the Prince knows, and every audience he might have, going through the Seneschal, the figurative right-hand weilds quite a bit of influence and power.

Princes often make decrees that need to be spread as quickly as possible - as much for the Prince's sake as the denizens of the domain, as decrees are usually expected to be followed the moment they are made. As such, the duty of the Herald is to spread the word through his customized network of contacts - or, conversely, hold the decrees back from those who are not supposed to hear or he does not want to hear. Heralds often are, or at least know, one of the Nosferatu, as their tight communities are excellent channels to spread the word through. During formal Court, it is the Herald's job to announce the Prince and other Court members, as well as those who bring problems before them.

Courts need ways to enforce their laws - this is found in the appointment of one or more Sheriffs and Hounds. The Sheriff is the enforcer role that is "on the level," as it is said, and acts much like an official policing force in their investigation, trial, and sentencing. Kindred are not the kind to put offenders in prison - miscreants are corporally punished, in such ways as removal of hunting rights, lashings, nailings, mutilations, expulsions from the domain, or executions. There is no kindness or mercy in the justice of the Damned. The unofficial and less formally structured counterpart to the Sheriff is the Hound. They are the knee-breakers, collectors of 'rent', and masters of all things under-the-table. The Hound is delicately and rarely used by the dignified Prince - but the tyrant makes frequent use of them. In small domains, Sheriff and Hound may be one and the same.

There are more unofficial, but no less well-defined and fought over, Court positions relating to the Clans - the Priscus and the ''Whip. ''They both function within a single clan, but in different ways - the Priscus is regarded as both the leader of a Clan in a domain, and one who works for the Clan to the Prince, attempting to pressure him into seeing things the Clan's way. The whip works for the Prince in attempting to whip the members of their clan into seeing thing's the Prince's way. They both complete and make more complex the delicate balance of general powers to powers within clans.

The single most important part of domain is the hunting ground. Kindred are hunters, feeding on prey; they need a place within the domain to do this hunting. Because they are so competitive, though, Kindred are rarely willing to settle for a piece of land without wanting to expand - and this is where the Prince comes in. The Prince assigns a certain area of land to Kindred to hunt in - or, more likely, will give more respected Kindred regency, or ownership on behalf of another, over a large chunk of land that the regent will then micro-manage by giving out hunting grounds themselves. This process, known as subinfeudation, gives a regent much independence with their area, and the Prince more time to focus on the area they like most that they do not subinfeudate - though the regent will always answer to the Prince.

Elysium
An Elysium is a place officially declared by a Prince in their domain to be a place of peace and gathering. Elysiums are host to Kindred of all walks and all kinds, designed for them to socialize in as controlled an environment as possible. While in Elysium, violence in any form is strictly prohibited words - but the mistake many neonates make is thinking this makes Elysium ''safe. ''While a forum of communication, Elysium is not a place for ill-placed words. Many of the Kindred world's feuds and revenge plots begin with an untoward word, an unappreciated action, in Elysium. Any slight, imagined or otherwise, can lead to retribution a year or ten down the road - which, in turn, results in a reply, and is met in kind, ad infinitum.

Elysium can be anything from a park to a restaurant - so long as it is declared so by the Prince, it is sacred. Every Elysium has a designated Master of Elysium, whose charge it is to maintain the Elysium and keep the peace - and if a situation such as a violation of sanctity occurs, the Master alone has right to violate the rule of peace and become violent against the transgressor. In fact, in matters where the Elysium they are Master of is concerned, their word supercedes all but the Prince's.

One Elysium is exceptional among the rest - the Elysium of Court. It is the place where, as the name implies, Court is held, and the Prince and Primogen gather to make decisions, construct law, and hear out the lessers whose problems have been deemed important enough to merit the grace of their presence. It is also where the Seneschal does their work, dealing with the more pedestrian problems. Court is often held on a set schedule, such as every other Tuesday night, unless there are events that merit an immediate and expedited meeting, such as the possibilty for a Blood Hunt.

Covenants
Carthian Movement - By far the most revolutionary and youngest of the covenants, the Carthian Movement rose around the same time as the American and French Revolutions, just before the population explosion of the Industrial Revolution. Touting anarchist sentiments of popular vote and fair representation, the Carthians seem to be gaining steam with the newest generations of Kindred, especially those in the new world. In Europe and most of the old worlds of monarchy, the Camarilla remains in power - but the Carthian Movements seeks equality for its members and all others, in theory. That their elected officials turn into tyrants to hold on to the power they gain is merely a matter of nature - and in cases thus far, the social experiment is crumbling. Still, there are those who hold out hope - even as they are laughed at by those in the steadier Camarilla and religious covenants.

Circle of the Crone - Regarded as pagans by many, the Circle venerates a variety of mythical female creatures - at the center and foremost of which is the Crone, mother of all monsters and who they regard to be the most superior of creatures. While they are religious vampires, theirs are holistic ceremonies of enlightenment and empowerment, quite different from the penitence and guilt of the Lancea Sanctum. Their belief is that the vampire was not damned by anyone, but instead a natural creature born of the dark places of the world, through the influence of many different monsters of legend but ultimately conceived by the Mother. They see Kindred as only being as damned as they should choose to be, unlife or no - that there is more to see, to be, if they should work. They are also among the oldest of covenants, and most varied in belief.

Invictus - One half of the ancient Camarilla, the Invictus rose with Rome. Espousing the rule of the weak by the iron fist of the strong, the Invictus upholds the Camarilla's strict laws and hierarchy above all else. These are the staunch aristocrats, especially among the Ventrue, who cling to the ways of the feudal era. The Invictus is led by those with the greatest skill, ambition, and claim to leadership who rise above those that formerly ruled them - or so they say. While this is very much a possibility, those currently in power often take measures of alliance to trap those below them in their current positions, keeping them low and powerless.

Lancea Sanctum - These are the followers of Longinus, Damned mutilator of Christ - once a Roman Legionnaire, who claims to have stabbed Christ's side at his Crucifixion and become a vampire when the Lord's blood fell upon his lips. The Sanctum believes that theirs is a superiority given by divine right - that God Himself passes down will to the Sanctified, and they in turn pass it to their brethren. Forming the second half of the Camarilla - the faction most if not all of the Damned in the Old World belong to - the Sanctum is equal parts voice and sword of God, in the hand of the Invictus' iron fist. Many members of the Invictus are obedient followers of the Sanctum, and those higher in the Sanctified closely work with the leaders of the Invictus.

Ordo Dracul - That which stands between the Kindred and ultimate power is the lack of knowledge; for with knowledge any obstacle, no matter how immense or seemingly impossible, may be conquered. This is a belief that has been passed down by Order of the Dragon, the Ordo Dracul, since the turning of their founder Vlad Tepes - Dracula. Dracula acknowledges no sire, instead claiming that he was turned into one of the Damned when God turned his back upon the legendary Prince of Wallachia - and insists that he can transcend his Cursed state through knowledge. As such, the Ordo Dracul adapts with a changing, modern world, and even their Elders are expected to embrace technology if they are to keep with modern knowledge. Of course, those loyal to the Order but not willing to adapt are not cast out - they are simply left to themselves, to pursue the research they have likely been at for centuries, with tools just as old.

Exaltum - There are those who seek to instill order in undeath. There are those who seek redemption from it. Then, there are those who revel in it - those who would cast off the cloak of Masquerade and dominate the lesser humans, were there a way to keep such a volatile exposure from spelling their certain doom at the hands of men. These are the Exalted. Observing no rule other than their own, they are a looser confederation than the other covenants - there is a general hierarchy, but it is largely not enforced except in times of covenant meetings or observances of domain. The Exaltum finds no purchase or allies in cities held by the Camarilla or the Carthians, who dominate Europe and the Americas respectively - and the other covenants are too small to support them even if they wanted to. Largely existing in rural areas as nomads or in third-world countries, the Exaltum exist in a state of balanced animalistic revelry and intelligent planning.

= History =

Timeline
c. 10,000 - 5,000 BCE - Foundations of Clans Mekhet and Gangrel

c. 3100 BCE - Embrace of Lucien into Clan Mekhet; oldest known extant Kindred

c. 2900 BCE - Embrace of Haelid by Lucien into Clan Mekhet

c. 2600 BCE - Embrace of Nosferatu into Clan Gangrel

c. 1230 BCE - Foundation of Clan Daeva, Lucien differentiating himself and his progeny with their practice of Majesty

c. 760 BCE - Foundation of Clan Nosferatu, Nosferatu differentiating himself and his progeny with their practice of Nightmare

495 BCE - Embrace of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, last King of Rome, into Clan Daeva

272 BCE - Noticing its rapid expansion in both size and technology, Kindred flock to Rome to stake a claim in the new world superpower

231 BCE - The Invictus is founded, with Lucien at its apex, to control the kindred of Rome

176 BCE - Tarquinius diablerizes Haelid; Lucien is made Outcast; Keluin is named Great Lord of the Daeva, Tarquinius is named Emperor of the Invictus

132 BCE - Embrace of Octavian Romulosa by Tarquinius into Clan Daeva

37 BCE - Foundation of Clan Ventrue, Tarquinius differentiating himself and his progeny with their practice of Domination

1 CE - Longinus is "transformed by the Blood of Christ" and founds the Lancea Sanctum

23 CE - The Invictus and Sanctum are combined as "separate but equal; church and state of the Damned" in the form of the Camarilla, which still governs and contains the vast majority of Kindred

260 CE - The Roman Empire begins to shrink; Kindred of the Camarilla begin branching out for new land

532 CE - The Exaltum springs from seemingly no where to make their first raid on Camarilla lands

1523 CE - Ordo Dracul founded by Prince Vlad III of Wallachia

1674 CE - The Carthian Movement begins to gain followers at an exponential rate

Origin
There are no known Kindred dating back to before the rise of civilized society - even if there were, they would be so unfathomably powerful and feared that none would dare come within leagues of where they lived, and be so mad from millennia of torpor that even if one could convince them to sit down peacefully, any words they spoke would be utter nonsense. This being the case, Kindred scholars from across the world can only take what they know to be unequivocable fact and apply it to the various accounts given or left behind by elders when they still had functioning memories and sanity - what they are left with is a broken set of concurrent and disagreeing accounts up until roughly the first civilizations. From the dawn of civilized man onward accounts become only slightly clearer, but they are extant and agree with one another.

What is known is that if there were Kindred before the civilized ages of men, they were most likely Gangrel or Mekhet - these are the oldest among clans. Specifically when they were founded is unknown, but depictions of (caricatured) vampire-like creatures as shadow-hidden monsters or outright, direct hunters have been found as drawings on cave walls - but whether these accounts are of real events, fables, fears, or falsified to scare away enemies is unknown.

If there were vampires before civilization, then it would mean that the hunter is nearly as old as the hunted. However, it is largely suspected that they were few in number; volatile singular hunters with little to no established society.

Dawn of Civilization to the Rise of Rome
With the rise of the first civilizations - true civilizations, not those of nomads - in Egypt, Israel, and Eastern Asia came written language, which began the first traceable accounts of monsters, though these often become fused or confused with myth. By then, though, the legend of monsters stalking the night were labeled as terrors wrought by angry gods. As often called the chimera as vampire, the subjects and stories were indistinguishable in their fact from their fiction. The only known, sure evidence of Kindred from this period is the accounts written by the Kindred themselves. Many of these are nonsense, but one - a rather interesting treatise on philosoph - roughly translated includes the line, "I am the greatest among Men because I am not a Man; I am the greatest among Beasts because I am not a Beast. Rather, I am both."

Roughly three quarters of a millenium before the rise of the Roman Republic, the Daeva were born under their Founder, Lucien - his accounts (recorded over hundreds of journals, scrolls, and loose papers) demonstrate a full understanding of the spectrum of what is knowable about the state of the Damned. This includes his own creation of an entire Discipline nearly two millennia into his life, later known as Majesty, where he states, "I have become as a god... and I have made the people kneel". Those among his childer - and only his childer, or their own childer - that drank of his Vitae after he had incepted Majesty gained the ability to begin practicing it, and were stripped of the ability of their former forefathers, Clan Mekhet. It seems the account was written as both a memoir for himself of his own knowledge and a guide of sorts for childer of his own, as it includes almost no historical information on the Kindred - of their general state among their own kin or among humans. However, it is the only one of its kind for the era, and therefore is the only usable authority - and as Lucien has lost his memories and much of his mind over his many years, and become an exiled pariah in the time between, he is no longer a reliable font of the times, either.

During this time, the number of Kindred stayed relatively low to the number of humans - from the time of society's founding to the Account of Lucien, he writes, "we have always been few in number, but... great in power", and then his childer's childer, to the best of their understanding and memory of their sire's teaching of their own sire's teachings (thus reaching through the memory of three generations of Kindred, rendering the information speculative at best and horrifically deluded at worst), reported the numbers to have changed little before the rise of the Rome.

Lucien's journals also record the rise of one of the Gangrel, Nosferatu, in a similar fashion to his own - including the inception of the Discipline Nightmare, and thus breakaway of him and his childer from their ancestors.

Rome and the Camarilla
With the rise of the Roman Republic came the first of the the major expansions of the Kindred population - and with it, the first major development in their sociological structure. To this point, the Kindred had been largely separated one from another - with a Prince keeping those that followed him, or were forced to bend the knee, in a specific area; separated from other Princes by borders changed by war. The Roman republic's massive expansion (beginning around 270 BCE) across much of the known world changed that, breaking boundaries down into one massive empire and seeing hundreds of Kindred flock to the capital city to stake a claim in the mightiest, most advanced nation the world had ever known.

This great influx, however, brought with it a danger - the humans were beginning to discover the signs of the vampires among them, as they were careless, disorganized creatures; each individual accountable to none but himself. On top of this, because of the proximity, the number of younglings in such a small area rose dramatically; some not even overseen by their sires. The more foresightful among them saw the danger in this - that if they were to continue this exposure among such a populace, surely the humans would band together and feel enough strength in their numbers to rise against them. While the Kindred were powerful, they were none so powerful to overcome the entirety of Rome. In the interest of preserving the vampire's existence, the first governing body outside of individual leaders was born - the Invictus.

At the head of the Invictus was Lucien the Daeva, Founder and former Great Lord of the Clan that bears his title. Oldest of the Kindred, he was mighty enough to force the respect and servitude of nearly all Kindred - with the still-nameless Founders of Mekhet and Gangrel believed dead by this time and both Nosferatu (founder of his clan) and Tarquinius Superbus (the last, bitterly exiled King of Rome and Founder of the Ventrue) less than a millenium old, none were influential enough to oppose his rise. His Invictus was preceded only by the ambiguous Circle of the Crone as original, non-clan governing body for the Kindred, and unlike the Circle its membership was compulsory to all those within the Roman Republic, and then the Empire.

Rome also saw one of the greatest power-plays known to history: the (re)ascension of Tarquinius Superbus. Embraced in 495, Tarquinius struggled with both the smouldering bitterness of his overthrow, and the unyielding rigidity of the Kindred hierarchy; frustrated was he that he was unable to reclaim the position of sovereignty he felt was rightfully his, for the fact that he was now a neonate in a world of elder-rule. A formerly premiere player of the public arena, Tarquin began to turn Lucien's puppet-Senate against him one by one, controlling what they knew by convincing them that other senators were against them and thereby separating them from one another over the course of two long, delicate centuries. When the time was right, he implemented the final step of his coup - he revived the taboo act of Diablerie - unknown to those of his generation given their elders had buried it - and drank from the veins of Lucien's eldest childe, Haelid, absorbing a frightening amount of power that put him very nearly on-par with his sire.

Enacting the carefully-laid plot, Tarquin deposed Lucien entirely - Lucien being replaced by his son Keluin as Great Lord of the Daeva, and by Tarquin himself as Emperor of the Invictus. Tarquin then subinfeudated the Roman Empire to those in the Senate, supporting their overthrow of those Princes within the borders who were not Invictus, solidifying their support and their preoccupation with running their domain rather than rising against their new Emperor. Shortly thereafter he began the creation of Domination, the Discipline that would make him the Founder of Clan Ventrue. Of course, Lucien's deposition and exile, making him one of the Outcast from a society and clan he had ruled, made the great Eldest bitter - his followers were hunted and killed as they attempted to flee from Rome, and it was only his age and power that barely allowed him to escape the same fate. He has been working in the shadows, waiting and corrupting, for the night when he may reclaim his empire.

With the death of Jesus of Nazareth came the quickest rise of any neonate to a position of extreme power the world has ever known - the Legionnaire Longinus, who established Christianity as the dominant religion of the Damned by garnering zealots in his Lancea Sanctum. His promises of redemption swayed many, and forced conversion under intense duress was what brought in many others. The intensity and rigid hierarchical structure of the rapidly-growing Sanctum attracted the attention of the leaders of the Invictus, and the two were then linked through a strong church-and-state relationship, one supporting the other, forming what is still the dominant force among Kindred to this night: the Camarilla.

Post-Rome and the Renaissance
With Tarquin at the helm of the Camarilla, the world of the Kindred fell into its focused and stable state of disorder - plans, feuds, overthrows on the level of domain, and rarely within the echelons of the true governing bodies. The Danse Macabre had begun in earnest beneath the eyes of the Great Lords, and to this very night they still have a hand in fueling it - for if there is so constant a worry over positions so far below them, with none able to garner the strength to stand as Priscus let alone Prince, how are they to challenge the Lords of the Clans?

At this time, feral Kindred still roamed the vast majority of the known world in nomadic packs, from and to wherever they pleased. In doing so, they exposed themselves to the peasantry, tearing the facade off of the fledgling Masquerade. This, the new Emperor reasoned, was a personal spit in the face - and it would be handled accordingly. Systematically, they were conquered and slain by the invading Camarilla - dismantled to their very core and scrubbed from nearly all of Europe, the western reaches of Asia, and northern Africa through religious assimilation or genocide. Over the next decades, the remaining bands were hunted down, crushed under the heel of the Holy Iron - and the Camarilla became the true Masters of the Night.

Through these Crusades, the teachings of Longinus spread, and were forced into the ears of many - the Church of the Night swelled in number, and became the premiere of the countless religions and interpretations among the Damned; dwarfing the multi-racial circle in the shadow cast by its purist light. The Camarilla did what no group before had - it sank its gnarled claws into an area that exceeded any other single domain, much less union thereof, and had secured the (however conditional) loyalty of more than a thousand Kindred. Commanding this power, from his seat still in Rome (though the Empire was fading), was (and still is) Highlord of the Invictus, Archbishop of the Sanctum, and Emperor of the Kindred, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus.

All the way into the 16th century, the Camarilla stood firmly at the forefront of the Kindred world, unopposed by the blaspheming Circle or any of the lesser groups too small to have a name. The great days of the Classical Italian Renaissance were upon them, and it was proverbially Golden - the Daeva revelled in their arts, the Ventrue basked in their power, the Nosferatu marvelled their new methods of news, and Gangrel and Mekhet enjoyed the peaceful truce they had with the younger clans due to their becoming members of the Camarilla. No bloodline, no domain, no Covenant could stand against the indefatigable grind that was the influence of the Camarilla, combined Orders of Worth and Word. Not until the foundation of Exaltum.

As a tide, they rose - violent rebels who cast off the yoke of the Camarilla, broke the Traditions set in place, and debauched their very existence in revelry. Of unknown but very much speculated origin, the Exalted, as they call themselves, are fierce vampire superiorists. Their claim is that Man only has two purposes in life: to feed Kindred, and to become them. Those that are worthy and become Kindred ought to be subjugating the unworthy, forcing them into servitude and obedience to those that are clearly better. Yet even the Exalted realise that this goal was and is impossible - to outrightly and openly control the humans, who have such large numbers and a schedule disagreeing with their would-be nocturnal masters, is folly. Instead, they command humanity on a more subtle, but no less violent and forceful level - and are not afraid to break the Camarilla's foolish Masquerade when they feel the need. After all, who's going to believe in the walking dead?

Almost on the opposite side of the scale is the scholarly, nearly monastic Ordo Dracul. Dracula - Vlad Tepes - created the legendary Order of the Dragon; himself legendary for purporting to have been made Damned by God himself rather than another Kindred. Dracula founded his order with a simple purpose in mind: Transcendence. Where the Sanctum focused on the penitence of being Damned, and the Circle living with it, the Dragons seek to overcome the Curse entirely, and become something even greater than Kindred. What this 'something' is, is an answer they do not yet have - and so they study, becoming relentless scholars in pursuit of the greater truths of existence that men could not dream to understand.

This new promise of power, of betterment beyond the Curse, swayed a massive portion of the younger Kindred to Dracula's cause - crippling the Camarilla as it stood. With their power base gone, the Invictus had to begin embracing new initiates to replace those that had become heretics - the traitors were pursued by the Lancea Sanctum and either ostracized or burned. This shift away from the Camarilla's power also allowed the Circle to spread its influence and grow - making it just a touch smaller than the Ordo Dracul, who in turn were roughly a fifth the size of the Camarilla.

New World and the Carthians
The late 17th century brought the brought with it the discovery of the new world, and the rise of the single most controversial group the Kindred have ever known - the Carthians. Regarded as a movement sweeping over the Kindred world by those who ascribed to it, and an experiment that has long overstayed its welcome by those who are watching it from without, the Carthians are nonetheless a very persistent body among the Kindred.

Originating in the bourgeois of France, the Carthians hold to a simple truth - the aristocracy has run its course. In their adoption of the various newer forms of government, they insulted the rulers of the Old World - and in doing so, became greater heretics than the Circle was to the Sanctum; a greater violation of propriety than ignorance in the eyes of the Dragons. They were cast out wherever they were found, and what domains they did manage to conquer among the olden cities were torn apart by constant fear leading to rule through tyranny. They were forced to act no better than the aristocrats they opposed - and they needed a new way to do things. A salvation from the clinging trap of the elder ways.

This salvation came in the form of the New World. Seeing a chance to found a world of their own ways, the Carthians comprised the largest number of Kindred that made the journey - few in number as they were, travel across ships being exceedingly difficult, and constricted one Kindred to a boat of usually thirty or more passengers lest the ratio be unable to support the vampire. Their journeys were few and far between, and numbers only slowly growing - yet as Carthians from Europe came to the Americas, they discovered more of their kind of the eldest clans already there. These Kindred were much like the feral groups of old - and had to be cleared out, for the establishment of the new governments of both Kindred and men.

As the New World has grown, so have the vampires within it - first the Kindred, and then a softer (but nonetheless vicious) branch of the Lancea Sanctum, followed quickly by the Circle and the Ordo Dracul. Only the Invictus have stayed largely out of this new place, and that only for the fact that the Carthians, once pushed out, now push back.

Industrial Revolution
Until the beginning of the Roman Republic, Kindred number only in the hundreds - less than 400 were Embraced to that point. With Rome's centralization of their number, and the need for others to support their causes, Kindred began embracing at a much more rapid rate; this was a trend that slowed, but continued, all the way into the 1700's, at the beginning of which the Kindred numbered some 8,000. With the slow collapse of the Roman and then Byzantine Empires, though, they began splitting. Kindred were then to take areas in which their was less competition, and therefore less need for more childer; only concentrated enough for companionship, and able to create a clear chain of command with little challenge, the small numbers still worked.

The Industrial Revolution, however, saw a shift in the populations of kine - they began to flock to cities, where factories promised jobs, easier work than their rural or town lives had offered to them. This caused the Kindred, who had lived near these towns and their surrounding farms in small groups while vying for land with others, to follow their food source into the cities. As the power among humans became so centralised, the power among Kindred followed suit, and the Danse developed as never before - it was now similar to the times of Rome, save that it had become more complex and delicate in a changed world with new technologies and ideas.

This new setting and its new strategies demanded more players to support the old, and so as the population of the world exploded, so did the number of Kindred - doubling, and then tripling, within the next century. This rate of expansion was unprecedented - and changed the face of the Danse entirely, rendering resources more valuable than raw power, and using the young to collect them for the old. Yet even as the neonates worked for their masters, they realized the folly of the elders - those who commanded them, mighty as they were, did not understand the world as those who were born in this generation; would not leave their old manor houses or thrones of night beneath the city to enter a world they did not understand. The young began to form coteries as a social crutch during these years, to gain their own edge in society. In combination with the fact that the older Kindred were not willing to break they ways they had known and go out into new nights themselves, the coteries were a vicious success.

This being the case, it was easy to slowly phase them out of things. The newer generation (those born, usually, after 1700 or slightly before) rose to power in what, to the untrained eye, seemed like a universal usurpment of their superiors; they became the Priscii, the Primogen, the Princes of domains, and the elders fell away from these powers. This view is wrong in two ways, due to complicating factors so often a part of the society of the night: cooperation was not held at a global scale, and the elders were not truly usurped. Elders, faced with a world they could not adjust to, buried themselves in court; not worrying the Court of a domain, instead letting the young do that, elders entrenched themselves further into this more intense Danse - they began to play it on the global scale, rather than the district or city.

Modern Nights
The Danse only becomes more complex with the passage of time and increase in technology. Now faced with a kine population that is more prepared than ever to capture their image, their truth, and share it with the world, Kindred have to be surreptitious in the extreme.

One great ally of the modern age to Kindred is science. Humans hide behind it, cherish it, love it - and use it to disprove the existence of the supernatural. Even outside of the Dragons, who naturally have a vested interest in it, vampires use science constantly to lead kine away from the truth of their existence, and back to the realisations that seem rational, and safe - by disproving themselves, the Masquerade is in a way stronger than ever. With this strength comes vulnerability: humans now carry about smart phones, use the internet, and have so many other ways to not only capture but spread evidence of the Kindred existence with very little effort on their part. The hunter must be careful with their prey - the element of surprise is very much theirs, but once it fades away they may cripple the Masquerade forever.

The ever expanding population of Kindred has begun to worry the elders - so many means that much more a risk of one breaking Tradition, of endangering the entire population with their reckless behaviour. They have begun to come back out into the open night to keep watch, managing the night from high seats that command great knowledge - and troubling things reach their ears. The Carthians fall apart, the Dragons reach no new progress, the Circle and the Sanctum are both filled with doubts, Invictus slips into antiquity and a lack of influence, those who bear no allegiance to a covenant are more and more common - and most troubling of all the Enemy, Lucien, has been seen, and it is believed he garners a following against the current powers that be.

Nights are much brighter now - and their shadows deeper. As the world by turns unites and crumbles, and the Danse's steps are only made murkier and harder to discern, how is it that your Requiem shall be sung?