The Embrace
Vampires
are created through a process called the Embrace. The Embrace is similar
to normal vampiric feeding - the vampire drains her chosen prey of blood.
However, upon complete exsanguination, the vampire returns a bit of her
own immortal blood to the drained mortal. Only a tiny bit - a drop or two
- is necessary to turn the mortal into an undead. This process can even
be performed on a dead human, provided the body is still warm.
Once the blood
is returned, the mortal "awakens" and begins drinking of his own
accord. But, though animate, the mortal is still dead; his heart does not
beat, nor does he breathe. Over the next week or two, the mortal's body
undergoes a series of subtle transformations; he learns to use the Blood
in his body, and he is taught the special powers of his clan. He is now
a vampire.
Some vampire
clans Embrace more casually than others, but the Embrace is almost never
given lightly. After all, any new vampire is a potential competitor for
food and power. A potential childe is often stalked for weeks or even years
by a watchful sire, who greedily evaluates whether the mortal would indeed
make a good addition to the clan and the line.
History
Vampires - or
Kindred, as they call themselves - exist for centuries and often seem
unchanging to mortal eyes. Even Kindred society, however, has undergone
evolution, upheaval and strife. Let us look at history as the Kindred view
it, that we might better understand their actions tonight.
Caine and the First Nights
According
to Kindred myth, the first of their kind was Caine, the first murderer.
For his crime, Caine was cursed by God and thereby transformed into a vampire.
Exiled from his people, Caine was forced to stalk the fringes of civilization,
fearful of the sun and ravenous for blood.
In his loneliness,
Caine came upon a mighty witch named Lilith, who had been Adam's first wife.
Lilith taught Caine how to use his blood for mighty magic (indeed, a few
heretics claim that Lilith, not Caine, was the First Vampire). Lilith taught
Caine many things, including how to use his blood to evoke mystic powers
- and how to create others of his kind.
The Second Generation and the First City
At first
Caine refused to beget, believing it wrong to curse the world with others
of his kind. But eventually he grew lonely and brought three others into
the vampiric fold. These three in turn begat 13 more, and these voracious
monsters went among the early peoples of the world, carelessly feeding and
using mortals as puppets in their sibling feuds. Caine, outraged by this
behavior, forbade the creation of any more progeny. Gathering his childer
and grandchilder to him, Caine built a great city - the First City in the
world - and here vampires and mortals coexisted in peace.
The Antediluvians and the Clans
It could
not last. Caine's childer squabbled for their sire's affections, and once
again the mortals were used as pawns in the feud. Finally the city was thrown
down - some say a natural disaster was the cause; others, that a spurned
childe's vengeful sorcery precipitated the cataclysm. Caine vanished into
the wastes, never to be heard from again. The three vampires of the Second
Generation likewise disappeared into the mists of legend. But Caine's 13
grandchilder, free from restraint, began breeding new vampires with abandon.
The 13 vampires became known as Antediluvians, and their childer, created
in their images, inherited the Antediluvians' magical gifts and curses.
Thus were the clans formed.
The Dark Ages
The clans
spread across the world, sowing discord and misery. Though each successive
generation of vampires proved weaker than the last, they made up for it
with greater numbers. In the ziggurats of Babylon, in the palaces of Crete,
in the tribunals of Rome, vampires ruled as shadowy tyrants, forever using
mortals as food and unwitting soldiers. Vampire warred with vampire, clan
with clan, and thus - from the ancient rivalries of the First City - was
born the great Jyhad, which is still fought today.
The Kindred
reached their worst excesses during the early Middle Ages. During this period,
many vampires ruled openly, smothering peasant and lord alike beneath their
nocturnal grip. The vampiric population reached unhealthy numbers, and it
seemed that the Earth would belong to the Kindred forever.
The Anarch Revolt
Again,
it could not last. The Children of Caine, in their hubris, began to flaunt
their power flagrantly. Terrified peasants whispered of the monsters in
their midst - and the Church began to listen. The reports of a few horrified
priests spawned a frenzied Inquisition, and vengeful mortals rose up in
a tide of fire and blood. Though individually much more powerful than mortals,
even the mightiest vampires could not stand against the humans' sheer numbers;
vampire after vampire was dragged from its lair and hurled into fire or
sunlight.
In the throes
of the Inquisition, a current of revolt gripped the Children of Caine. Younger
vampires, who were being deployed as sacrificial lambs by terrified elders,
began to rise up against their sires and masters. In Eastern Europe, a group
of vampires learned how to sever the mystic bonds through which sires controlled
their childer. Soon all of Europe seethed beneath a nocturnal revolt, as
rebellious childer threw off the yoke of their masters. Between the Inquisition
and the revolt of the vampire "anarchs," it seemed as though the
Kindred would not survive.
And so, in
the 15th century, a council was called. Seven of the 13 clans united in
an organization called the Camarilla. With its advantage of numbers, the
Camarilla suppressed the anarchs and agreed to exist behind a great Masquerade.
