Kindred History

The Origins of the Kindred

Like mortals, we have our own history and lore, by which we seek to explain our existence and understand our place in the world.  Just as the veracity of mortal legends is lost in the shrouding mists of history, so is the truth of our lore uncertain at best.  However, over the years I have unearthed a number of different sources, and by comparing and contrasting them I have arrived at some semblance of fact and truth.

Most of our lore is contained within an ancient text known as the Book of Nod.  Neither I nor any of my acquaintances has ever seen or heard of a complete copy, although fragments have been published over the centuries, multis linguis, multis causis.  There is much confusion and contradiction, and some versions appear to have been deliberately falsified.

Over the centuries, I have been fortunate to peruse fragments in Greek, Turkish, Aramaic, Latin and Hebraica Quabalistica, as well as translations from Old Kingdom hieroglyphics and Assyrian cuneiform.  Inconsistencies are rife, but the main burden of the tale is that our kind are descended from Caine, whom some call the Third Mortal.

Outcast from mortal society for the killing of his brother, Caine was cursed with eternal life and the horrid craving for blood we now call the Hunger.  We, his children, are the heirs to that curse, condemned to repeat his crime endlessly.

It is said that Caine wandered in the wilderness 'east of Eden' until his name was all but forgotten.  He then returned among mortals and was able to establish himself as the ruler of a city.  Called in some legends Enoch, in others Enkil, Uniech or Enklath, many Kindred refer to it simply as the First City.  Caine ruled in his loneliness until at last he created three progeny to share in his dark eternity - those whom we call the Second Generation.  They in turn begat the Third Generation, numbered at nine, twenty-seven, one hundred or not at all, depending on the source one reads.

All was tranquil in Caine's domain until a great flood destroyed the city.  Some legends say that this was the Flood of Biblical myth, although the truth of this will probably remain forever hidden.  Caine saw this as divine punishment for returning to the world of mortals and resumed his wanderings, leaving his Progeny to their own devices.  No more his heard of our ancestor, but it is said that Caine is rent with sorrow for having unleashed such misery and suffering upon the world.

The Second and Third Generations ruled together briefly, building another great city (some sources hint that it might have been Babylon, while others suggest that it rests somewhere beneath the drifting sands of Egypt), which we know only as the Second City.  A new generation of Progeny were created and were the public rulers of this city, but the truth was that for nearly two millennia (some say 23 centuries) the Fourth Generation ruled the city, the Third Generation ruled them from their hidden Havens and the even more secretive Second were the true masters of the realm.  Eventually, the culture grew decadent and the city died.  In a massive uprising, called in legend the Great Rebellion, the people rose up and sent all the Kindred they could find screaming into the True Death.

It is here that differing legends tell sharply differing tales of the history of our kind.  Some tales say the Second Generation were slain and the Third went into hiding, while a few others tell that the Great Rebellion was merely a plot by the Third Generation to hunt down and slay their Sires, and the Second destroyed their Childer and themselves disappeared into the mists of time.  Nevertheless, when the Second City fell, its public rulers fled.  Scattered far and wide, they were far too numerous and too widespread for their hidden Elders, known as the Ancient Ones, to threaten them.  Thus was beget the Fifth Generation, and the Kindred grew in numbers and settled in all parts of the world.

Mortal history records a time, starting over two thousand years ago, of burgeoning empires locked in combat with each other - the time of the Persians, the Greeks and the Tartars.  Thus did the Fifth Generation establish its own order.  Meanwhile, the Ancient Ones and their Fourth Generation Childer lay hidden and pursued their own dark schemes.  This age of wars may even have been of their making, the beginning of the great conflict for control of the Kindred and mortals known as the Jyhad.  Whatever the truth, there remain few who are willing to speak of it.

The Masquerade

In 1435, there was founded an organisation, a cause, an obsession, a war.  Call it what you will; history knows it as the Inquisition.  Besides burning harmless old women and excommunicating French field mice for eating farmers' wheat, this Inquisition did betimes achieve its aim and cleansed the world of no few true witches, warlocks and monsters.  Many such monsters were Kindred, and the diligent Inquisitors traced whole bloodlines and put all to the flame.

For the first time, our kind stood in real danger of extinction.  Superstitious belief coupled with scientific thoroughness placed in mortal hands the wherewithal to rid the world of monsters forever.  It was a terrifying time - as fearful as the great Holocaust visited by mortals on one another earlier in this century.  Those Kindred who survived bear the mental scars of the Inquisition to this day, and many lead a life of paranoid seclusion, dealing with the breathing world as little as possible.

Before this time we had lived more or less openly, relying on our power and position to preserve us.  Though we did not announce our presence, we did not struggle to hide it either.  We had grown proud in our strength, and the fall which followed was terrible indeed.

The survivors quickly learned the wisdom of stealth and secrecy, and networks sprang up, as they do among mortals in times of crisis, conveying information and individuals sub rosa for the safety of all.  This was the birth of what may be called a vampiric society.

Organisations met in small, secret rooms concealed from prying mortal eyes, and groups made contact with each other, united for the first time by this great adversity.  It was decided that our kind needed rules to survive, and for rules and laws to function there must be those who are willing to enforce them.  Those who enforce rules are the leaders, and thus the leaders of Kindred society were born out of our shared fear.

The first global convocation took place in 1486.  Many chose to absent themselves, but this meeting gave itself the power to speak for all the Childer of Caine existing or yet to be made, and to pass laws governing all.  The first such law - and the only one to stand to this day - is that of the Masquerade.

The horrors of the preceding decades had taught us the need for secrecy and shown us that, after all, we were vulnerable.  It was therefore vital that the breathing world be convinced that it had killed the last of us, or, better yet, that we had never existed at all.  We had to match organisation with organisation and cause with cause if we hoped to survive.

The Masquerade had two faces, each with a number of contingencies and lesser objectives.  Imprimis simplicissimusque, reasonable secrecy and care was required of all Kindred.  Nothing must betray our continued existence, and any individual who broke this secrecy would be outcast and hunted down as a danger to all.

Secundus, active steps had to be taken to change the character of mortal society and direct minds away from superstitious thoughts.  Many Kindred had turned to scholarship to beguile away the lonely decades, and certain matters were made available to mortals in the fields of alchemy, literature, art, geography, cosmology and so on.  The power possessed by all our kind to affect the minds of others allows us not only to control the conscious mind but also, it the controller is old and thus powerful enough, to influence subconscious thoughts and memories. Many mortals were already turning their steps in this direction, so the task was not unduly arduous.  Names spring to mind such as Bacon, Dee, Galileo, Copernicus, Michaelangelo, da Vinci, Cellini and Columbus.  It was a brave Age we made.

It was during this time that the second global meeting of Kindred was called in Vienna, and again many stayed away but many more chose to attend.  At this great convocation it was decided that having hundreds of fiefdoms ruled by vampire Princes with none to curb their excesses was also not in the best interests of our kind.  The world as it was then known was thus divided into Regions, and the Princes of each such area were required to form a Council to ensure that all was as it should be among the Kindred in their lands.  These Councils would meet as regularly as was possible, although emergency meetings could be called by any Prince if the need was great enough, and in addition it was decided that a Grand Council should be created to deal with those matters that affected all of our kind.  This would meet every ten years, but any member of this august group could also call a meeting if she felt the matter of extreme enough importance.

As all of our kind could tell you, it is the Blood of Caine, that which we call the Vitae, that sustains us and gives us our powers.  The strength of the Blood weakens as it is passed from Sire to Childe, so that each successive Generation possesses less potential power that the one that preceded it.  Although it is with age that we learn to control and focus our powers, or Disciplines as many call them, it is Generation that defines how great an individual Kindred can become; although two vampires Embraced in the reign of Charlemagne will both possess great powers of strength, speed and mind, it is the one of the lower Generation that will be the stronger.   However, it is age that brings control over the Disciplines and resistance to the weaknesses of our kind.  In addition, status among our kind comes from age, power and recognition by one's peers, much as with mortals.

This leads to the rulers of our kind tending to be similar in both age and Generation, although these vary from Region to Region.  For example, Princes in the 'Old Country' of Western and Eastern Europe tend to be of the Fifth and Sixth Generations, while those in America are often Sixth, Seventh or even lower.  The members of the Grand Council are made up of one vampire from each Region, numbered at seven since the Grand Conclave of 1866, and are traditionally the Prince who is oldest and possesses the least distance from our ancestor.  In practice, however, they tend to be the most politically astute vampire in that region.  That Prince passes over control of their personal fiefdom but even greater power is now theirs to control.

The most recent addition to the Grand Council is Rebecca Warren, the Prince of Sydney, representing Oceania, and since her admittance some twenty years ago the membership has been unchanged.  All the members of the Grand Council are believed to be members of the Fourth Generation, commonly known as Methuselahs, who have chosen to rule openly, and although rumors persist of manipulation by their elders or other members of their own Generation, their personal power is such that I think this unlikely.

However, it may be worth commenting that the oldest and greatest of our kind are believed to be able to plant a thought in the mind of another so subtly that the victim thinks they are indeed acting of their own free will, and if this is indeed the case it may well be true that all of us, no matter how unbeholden we may think ourselves, are nothing more than pawns in the Jyhad.

The Jyhad

So, what is the Jyhad?  The answer is that there is no answer that is anything more than conjecture, for the elders of our kind either cannot be found or say nothing of their ultimate aims.  Elder vampires possess near-godlike power and it is believed they fight their eternal battles for control of our kind using everything from the theft of a semi-precious artifact to a war between mortal nations.

Some believe, and I must consider myself among them, that the Jyhad is being fought for two reasons: the first, and perhaps the most astounding, is that beings so old and so powerful merely need something to occupy themselves over the long centuries.  Some elders have disappeared into torpor, the death-like sleep in which our kind can rest for millennia if need be, and others have slain themselves rather than exist for another moment, but those who remain fight the Jyhad merely to keep from going crazy.

The second is that there are prophecies in the Book of Nod, prophecies of a dark time in the future when Caine will return and slay our kind in their thousands for having dared to exist, let alone setting ourselves up as the secret masters of mankind.  Some say there is a passage in that section of the ancient text, an epilogue called the Apocrypha of the Damned, where it says that Caine will only allow our kind to survive if we have become something greater than a mass of eternal schemers plotting against each other and using mortals as our unwitting dupes.  I am sure each elder has his or her own idea of what that means, and thus we all plot and scheme in an effort to be the one who triumphs and imposes his or her will upon the rest.  

The tools available in the Jyhad are varied and cunning.  Elder vampires can use their powers of Domination to plant their desires deep in the unconscious minds of their lessers, so that most Kindred weave their plots and schemes, manipulating neonates and mortals, without ever realising that they themselves are moving at the hands of an unseen puppeteer.  What they think is an intricate plan of their own devising is in fact merely a part of an older being's far more complex scheme.

In addition, by tasting the blood of a vampire three times over three nights one is tied to that creature by what we call the Blood Bond.  Unlike Domination, the Bond is effective on Kindred of lower Generation, so even a Methuselah can find herself bound by ties of supernatural loyalty to one greatly beneath her.  The Blood Bond works even on humans and is how Kindred keep their ghouls loyal, but it adds yet another level of complexity to the Jyhad.

For those who read this wondering how any but the eldest and nearest to Caine can possibly triumph, know that among our kind a vampire who slays their elder by drinking their Vitae gains the Generation and thus the power of that elder.  It is the law of the Grand Council that this foul act, known as Diablerie, is cause for an immediate Blood Hunt to be called on the offending individual, but like many of our laws it is honoured more in the breach than in the observance.  The sad truth is that a Kindred who walks into a nightclub and boasts of how she drank the Vitae of an elder is often applauded rather than slain on the spot, although this too varies from fiefdom to fiefdom.  Thus, individual lowly Kindred scheme and manipulate, Princes plot against each other and members of the Grand Council attempt to discredit each other and gain more power for themselves.  Not only that, but if you believe the legends all of us are in turn being influenced by the Ancient Ones.

The Ancient Ones

Depending upon the teller, the identities of the Ancient Ones vary considerably.  Although there are some who believe the Second and Third Generations are no more, and others who believe the Third Generation are the shadowy figures who control our destinies, you asked for information on the other legend: that all Kindred from the immensely powerful Fourth Generation Methuselahs to the newly-Embraced Neonates of the Twelfth and Thirteenth are puppets of the Second Generation.

According to this tale, the rebellious Third Generation were slain by their Sires, who in turn disappeared into history and still fight among themselves for the ultimate destiny of Kindred and mortals.  They are the Second Generation, the first Childer of Caine, known to loreweavers as the Black Trinity.

First was Enoch, aka Mekhet, Emperor of the Night.  He was supposedly the greatest sorceror of Atlantis, said to have been taught Magick by one of the primal elemental forces that shaped the universe - perhaps even an Elder Darkness.  He was Embraced by Caine and given the dark gift of eternal life because when he visited the First City he apparently told the Third Mortal that he was needed to run the city efficiently and ensure a constant supply of mortal vitae.  Rather than obliterate him on the spot, Caine was amused at his effrontery and gave him his wish.  He even renamed his city in his Childe's honour.  The combination of his sorcerous abilities and the immense powers of being Kindred would make Enoch, if he still exists, one of the most powerful beings on the planet.

Next was Irad, of whom more in a moment, and the last of the Second Generation was Zillah, aka Lisse, the Dark Queen.  According to legend she was a princess, the daughter of the king of the city of Ur and High Priestess of the god of the same name.  It is said that she commanded rituals that called upon forces of primeval power and as a result could predict the future.  Supposedly one of the most beautiful women ever to exist, the tale goes that Caine saw her and was instantly captivated, Embracing her and making her his queen that very night.  The story also says that the Apocrypha of the Damned was penned by Caine after she taught him some of her spells of divination.

That leaves Irad, aka Lucien, the Prince of Shadows, who is, with the exception of the Third Mortal himself, the most mysterious and enigmatic figure in the history of our kind.  Unlike his fellow members of the Second Generation there are no tales of his life prior to his Embrace by Caine, and even after that nothing more than vague rumours.  In all the fragments of the Book of Nod I have seen, I have never found even a single reference to Irad, and I know no-one who knows any more than I.  It seems that the only ones who would know the truth are the Second Generation themselves, if they still walk the earth.

If the legends of the Black Trinity are indeed the truth behind the Jyhad, this greatest of wars is being fought between three of the most powerful beings on the planet.  It would seem that everything our kind has accomplished over the endless centuries, and all the plots and intrigues with which we occupy ourselves, are nothing more than poor shadows of the eternal conflict between Enoch, Irad and Zillah.

If the Second Generation yet exist, and are indeed the secret puppet masters of the Kindred, they would all be some nine thousand years old, perhaps even older.  They would possess vitae of strength lesser only than that of the Third Mortal himself.  The Second Generation would control powers even the greatest among us can only dream of, powers like those of the gods.  It has been determined by the more scholarly-inclined amongst our kind that each Generation is some four or five times stronger than the one below it.  I personally have met a member of the Fifth Generation, a being of power three levels of magnitude above myself, and if the Ancient Ones are twelve times more powerful than her then I am sure they could shake the earth with their merest thought.  Most importantly as far as the Jyhad is concerned, Kindred can only affect the thoughts of those vampires of higher Generation than themselves - their elders' minds are inviolate - and thus those of the Second could potentially control every other vampire on Earth.  This would make them more powerful than most of our kind could even begin to imagine - if these mighty figures ever brought their conflict out into the open, the whole world would tremble.

I pray this is not the case.

THE INCONNU

No treatise on our history would be complete without some reference to the Inconnu, despite the fact that most of the Kindred view them as nothing more than a myth.  According to legend, an ancient Kindred grew tired of the shadowy war that raged among his kind.  He (she?) stepped aside from the demands of the waking world, and called to his side those vampires who wished to escape the endless scheming of the Jyhad.  This appealed to many old ones tired of the incessant maneuvering of those younger than they, and those ancients chose to distance themselves from other vampires and their contemptible machinations.

This sect became known as the unknown, for their membership was as mysterious as their ultimate aims.  The Inconnu are rumoured to be of great age and potency, with many reportedly spending much of their time in torpor to better avoid the Jyhad.  Some believe they have grown away from the world and into a timeless, inhuman mindset.  Others that their founder (whose identity remains a mystery) managed to achieve the fabled state of transcendence called Golconda.  With this spiritual enlightenment came freedom from many of the curses that beset our kind - the incessant lust for blood, the bestial side we call the Darksoul, perhaps even the burning of the sun.  They say that the Inconnu all pursue or have attained Golconda themselves.

If it is more than a myth, then the Inconnu surely numbers among its members some of the oldest and most powerful Kindred in the world.  Rumours persist that they secretly watch their brethren through the long nights, only making themselves known to those vampires they believe worthy of guidance on the road to enlightenment.  Their agenda is unknown, their very existence unproven, but there can be little doubt that such vampires would wield phenomenal power if roused.

According to the Grand Council the Inconnu are nothing more than a fairytale, as is Golconda.  Personally, I would like to think that there exists some small glimmer of hope in the darkness, even for the Damned.

Gehenna

A final word to you, my dear Thomas, on the subject that has occupied most of my unlife.  Mortal legends speak of a great upheaval that will either bring about the end of the world or usher in a new age for our weary planet.  Christianity, Islam and Judaism, as well as many less popular mortal faiths, all have their own stories of the end of the world, whether called the Apocalypse, Armageddon or, to use the Navajo Amerindian term, the Dark Time.  So do we.  As stated above, the Apocrypha of the Damned is the final section of the Book of Nod, and according to the most ancient legends of our kind it contains information on the time when Caine will awaken, a time we call 'Gehenna'.  Since penning the above I have come into possession of a weathered stone tablet from the Middle Kingdom era that purports to contain some of the unrevealed secrets of that dark chapter of our most infamous text, and if the information chiselled upon it is accurate I fear that all our nightmares may be about to be realised.

I must stress that I am acting only upon the information from this one tablet, but certain clues hidden in the text lead me to believe that it is indeed a genuine fragment of the Book of Nod.  It has taken me some time to translate the hieroglyphics, but it apparently speaks of nine signs that precede the return of the Third Mortal.  Unfortunately, much of this section of the tablet has been eroded to illegibility, but I have been able to translate some of what it says and I am very much afraid that at least one sign has already come to pass.

The first sign mentioned in this fragment, and the one I believe is already upon us, is the Time of Weak Blood.  It is said that when our Vitae loses the strength to create more of our kind, then will Gehenna be but a short time away.  I have spoken to many, many Kindred, both elders and neonates, and all agree that the most recent Generation, the Thirteenth, seems to be the last.  There are no tales of vampires of that Generation creating Progeny, and the truth seems to be that to attempt the Embrace causes the death of the mortal in question.  If it is true that those of the Thirteenth Generation cannot Embrace, then I fear that the Dark Time is coming.

The other signs are more cryptic, due both to the nature of the translation and the erosion of several sections of the tablet.  The second is termed the Rise of the Dark Web, the third the Blood of the Firebringer, the fourth the Discovery of the Secret Book and the fifth the Gathering of the Iron-Willed.  Alas, but all details on these signs and everything of the next three, even their names, have been lost due to the eroded state of the text.

The final (in terms of the order I have addressed them; I know not the order in which these signs will supposedly manifest themselves) sign of the approaching Gehenna is, even more than the first, the one that holds the most interest for the Kindred.  Referred to as the Supremacy, it suggests that Caine will only return when the Jyhad is finally won and the whole Cainite race is under the sway of a final victor in that most ancient of wars.  However, in amidst the references to mass deaths, black suns and blood-red moons, something our dark and doomsaying prophecies seem to have in common with those of mortals, is a single intriguing line.  Below is a translation from the original Middle Kingdom hieroglyphics, for it has to be seen to be believed:

"The war for our kind is won, but not by one"

The Kindred being what they are, devious, scheming manipulators all, I find it hard to believe that any who possess the power to triumph in the Jyhad would be willing to share that victory.  Neonates are invariably untrustworthy and elders even more so, but if this is true then the Jyhad will be won by a number of our kind, presumably brought together by the influence of the Blood Bond.  

Then again, that is just one interpretation of a translation of a single line of a single unsubstantiated prophecy, and must therefore be taken with a great deal of caution.  Speaking as the scholar I have been throughout both my lives, if Gehenna does indeed come I hope that I survive long enough to learn the truth.

Farewell, Thomas, and for all our sakes I hope that you have just read the deranged musings of a vampire who has lived too long with only musty tomes for company.

Yours,

Cantus Maior