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IC History: Deep Background
The most common myth regarding the origin of vampires (that vampires themselves believe) is that Caine, the older brother of Abel, the Third Mortal ever to ever ever be, when he bashed in Abel's head, was cursed by God. That curse took the form of vampirism and condemned Caine to eternal existence as a vampire.
If this sounds like bullshit, remember A. Nobody really really really knows if this is true, and B. You ain't heard nothing yet.
The Third Generation, rather than duke it out directly with their nearly god-like sires, decided to create some pawns to fight the battles for them. And, ever since, the strategy of getting someone else to fight your fight has been a staple of vampiric society.
Of course, "like sire, like childe", and these pawns also decided that rather than fight each other, that they'd get some pawns of their own. And, ever since, the strategy of stealing other people's strategies and making them work for you has been (yawn) a staple of vampiric society.
As the extremely potent blood of the Third Generation was passed on, the powers and identities of the Third Generation were also, to a certain degree, passed on. The "families" that they spawned started to have certain common traits, and the "clans" were born.
There are also "bloodlines", which are simply smaller or less influential clans, possibly started by a founder not of the Third Generation. There were supposedly "thirteen original clans", but that information is nearly useless, (even if it is true, which it probably isn't) since one of the most powerful modern-day clans (the Tremere) wasn't an "original clan", and two or three of the "original clans" have disappeared entirely in the intervening years.
Does this sound like bullshit? Wait! We're only hip-deep! Just wait until you hear about...
Suddenly it was the 14th Century. It wasn't anyone's fault, it just happened. The Tremere had just appeared, but that doesn't have anything to do with what I was about to talk about: I just wanted to keep things in historical perspective.
Elder vampires controlled vast reaches of territory and used mortals and neonates in vicious battle against each other. Some even ruled openly, and it's from this time period that many of the legends of vampire lords like Count Choc...er...Dracula originate.
Some neonates didn't take too kindly to being pushed around by elders, and they said "I'm really cheesed off and I'm not going to hang around until this gets better." and started the anarch movement, the basic tenet of which is that since Kindred live forever, they are subject to no law outside their own, meaning in essence, that unless you can force another Kindred to do something, they have no obligation to obey you, no matter how old you are and no matter how vast the difference in Generation or power. A vicious little virus of revolution started spreading. Elder vampires consolidated their power and struck back. Things were heating up. And then...
Ready for some more bullshit?
The mortals struck back. This took the vampires almost completely by surprise. They were used to being the most powerful beings around, to controlling the mortals with barely a thought: their chief rivals were other vampires, not cattle like Kine, most of whom died before they were 40 years old anyway.
The Inquisition didn't really care about what the vampires thought: they were mostly concerned with what God told them to do. God (allegedly) had told them to kick vampire butt and take vampire names, and if you couldn't get their names, that was okay, kicking butt without taking names was also all right. As one after another of the Kindred went up in flames, (some of whom were powerful elders previously thought "untouchable"), the vampires decided that they were in deep, deep trouble.
Of course, the first thing they did was blame each other (another staple, natch). The elders blamed the anarchs, the anarchs blamed the elders, the Ventrue blamed the Toreador, the Toreador blamed the Tremere, the Tremere blamed the Malkavians, the Malkavians blamed Christopher Columbus, everyone was just sure the Lupines and the Mages had something to do with it, and everybody secretly harbored some suspicion that maybe, just maybe, they really had taken things too far, and blamed themselves.
The second thing they did was to get organized. This was the formation of the Camarilla and the establishment of the Traditions.
The second branch of the Camarilla is the Justicars. There is one Justicar from each clan, empowered to enforce the Traditions. Justicars can choose assistants, called Archons, to act in their stead, or to perform certain responsibilities for them. The Justicars are technically under the control of the Inner Council, but their busy schedule guarantees that they'll be pretty much autonomous.
The remainder of the Camarilla is individualized power structures, usually based around a city or geographic area. Since it's often difficult for vampires to travel (for a number of reasons), power often must be localized. The most common form of local vampiric government in the Camarilla is the Princedom. The second most common is a joint Princedom and council (usually consisting of various elders from the city.) The Camarilla as a whole isn't interested in the government of a city as long as the Traditions are upheld and the interests of the Camarilla are advanced.
Some of the anarchs were swayed by the Camarilla arguments. Some weren't. Some vampires were so violently opposed to the Camarilla that they split off and created an entire new sect...wait for it....
Very little is known about the Sabbat. And that's just the way the Sabbat seems to like it.
The anarchs themselves (still a force in Kindred politics, to be sure) continued their "freedom fighting", and while they were stymied at every turn by the Camarilla and the Sabbat, in the 1950s, they quite unexpectedly won a tremendous victory, wresting control of Southern California from the Camarilla and defending it against all comers ever since. The Anarch Free States extend from San Diego to Northern Los Angeles.
Hey, I can hear you saying, you mentioned "Lupines" and "Mages" up above! Are those real?
Yessiree Bob. Lupines, also known as loup-garou, Garou, werewolves, and "scoobies" (1 of those is considered derogatory...we'll let you guess.) have been around just as long as vampires have (pretty much). They seem to harbor an almost religious grudge against vampires, and will generally axe any of them they see out of what appears to be plain old-fashioned hatred. The good news about the Garou is that they generally keep to the rural areas: there might be a few in an urban area, but they are much less rabid (or much more dead.) The bad news about them is that they are themselves bad news: they're tougher than a Ventrue on a bad day, faster than a Brujah on speed, and crazier than a Malkavian sitting in a corner being very quiet.
The Gangrel seem to be able to get along with the werewolves a little better than the other clans, possibly because of their common ties to the natural world.
Mages also exist, although they're so rare that all but a handful of vampires know nothing about them. The Tremere used to be mortal mages before they decided (?) to come over to the vampire side of things. The mortal mages are out there, though, and are not "of the blood", and are therefore considered part of the Masquerade. If they find you, you might be in big trouble. Nobody knows for sure.
Ghosts exist, too, although the vast majority of "knowledge" about them is anecdotal and very suspect. The Giovanni seem to know more about them than other vampires, although if you believe what a Giovanni tells you, you'll get everything you deserve.
A few vampires might claim that other supernatural creatures, such as the fae folk, Bigfoot, aliens, Cthulhu, and Nessies also exist. You'll have to decide for yourself on those claims. Vox pop says, simultaneously, "What, are you crazy?" and "Well, on the other hand, I used to think there were no vampires..."
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