The Sects of Vampire Society

 Indianapolis is currently ruled by the Camarilla. The Camarilla was founded in the Fourteenth Century by an elder vampire of clan Ventrue named Hardestadt. The Anarch Rebellion had arisen among young vampires, demanding vengeance and justice for the oppression of the elders. A faction within the Rebellion had learned some rituals, which they called the Sabbat Ritae. Most important among those rituals was the Vaulderie, which could break a blood bond. Faced by young vampires determined to murder their sires and drink their souls, the elders were also faced by a group within the Church called the Society of Leopold. Using the Inquisition as a cover, the Society hunted the hunters and destroyed all the undead they could discover. Faced with these threats, Hardestadt brought together the eldest vampires of Clans Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue. They agreed upon six traditions to form the foundation of a new society, and they declared themselves the “Kindred” of the Camarilla. I explain them below using current language, not the older verbiage.

1. Masquerade – Hide the existence of vampires from humanity, conceal yourselves among them, and convince them that the supernatural does not exist.
2. Domain – Each city will be ruled by an elder, called the Prince. The rule of the Prince will be absolute and unquestioned.
3. Progeny – In order to maintain the Masquerade, vampire population must be limited. No one will create new vampires without the permission of the Prince.
4. Accounting – When a new vampire is created, that vampire’s sire will have total authority for them until they are presented to the Prince and released. During that time of training, the sire will bear responsibility for any crimes they commit.
5. Hospitality – A vampire will have no role within a city unless acknowledged, accepted, or tolerated by the Prince. Vampires without that status may be destroyed without repercussion.
6. Destruction – No Camarilla vampire will kill another unless the Prince specifically calls for that Kindred’s destruction, known as the blood hunt.

There is an unofficial seventh tradition, that of Elysium. Elysium is a place of truce and peace, designated as such. Many say that the tradition of Elysium predates the Camarilla by centuries. Some irreverent younger vampires in modern nights say the seventh tradition is “don’t get caught” and the eighth tradition is “if you can bribe or threaten the authorities, you didn’t get caught.” Regardless of how true those might be, saying them out loud is scandalous.  

The First Anarch Revolt is generally assumed to be an indirect consequence of elder vampires using younger vampires as cannon fodder during the First Inquisition.  The Brujah, Tyler, led a group of allies to attack the castle of Hardestadt. She committed Amaranth and drained his soul.  There are a surprising number of contradictions in the timeline.  For example, a literal reading of different accounts would have Hardestadt founding the Camarilla a century or more after he had been the victim of diablerie.  But there is agreement that the first Revolt ended in 1493 at the Convention of Thorns.

The Convention of Thorns formalized the Camarilla and provided amnesty for most of the crimes committed by Anarchs and called for them to return to their Sires.  Notably, the Lasombra, Tzimisce, Banu Haqim, and Ministry Anarchs declined to sign the Convention.  But the leaders of other groups did sign.  Modern Anarchs largely regard the Convention as a disaster.  Although it frees the Anarchs from following Camarilla Traditions other than the Masquerade, it opened the door for both subtle and blatant persecution from both the Camarilla and the newly formed Sabbat.  There was a Second Anarch Revolt using the French Revolution as cover.  It had mixed success. In the 1940s, Anarchs formed a Free State on the west coast of the United States.

The Third Anarch Revolt is happening... right now.  With the collapse of the Dread Sabbat and the fall of some of the mightiest Princes of Europe, a new Anarch Movement is contesting with the Camarilla for control of the cities of the world.

On October 24, 1493, the night after the Convention of Thorns was signed, Anarch Myca Vykos of Clan Tzimisce led an attack against the mortals in the city of Silchester, in an intentional affront to the Masquerade.  This event is known as the "Field of Blood" and the Church described the attack as being perpetrated by "sabbats of devils and witches."  Vykos and her allies took the moniker as a badge of honor and formed The Dread Sabbat.  The Sabbat's organizational structure is a parody of the Church, with Priests, Bishops, and Templars.  Its fundamental tenets are freedom and unity.

The Tzimisce had already brought the Vaulderie to the Kindred of Western Europe.  Its power was to break any blood bond inflicted by Sire on Childe and replace it with unity for the pack who participated.  This is the chief ritual of the Sabbat, and involves the whole group bleeding into a chalice, then each individual drinking.

At the same time as Vykos was leading the rebellion in England, Gratiano do Veronese led an attack on the Castle of Shadows in Sicily and destroyed the eldest Lasombra.  The Tzimisce likewise claim to have destroyed and feasted on the eldest Tzimisce.  In northern Italy, the rebels of the Sabbat agreed upon the Code of Milan, which has gone through multiple revisions, but remains the guiding document of the Free Sabbat.  It calls for unity, observance of the Auctoritas Ritae, and freedom as guiding principles.  Until recent nights, the Sabbat competed with the Camarilla for control of the world.

That changed with the rise of the Second Inquisition.  The Inquisitors had not forgotten the "Field of Blood" and had been keeping detailed notes about the rulers of the Sabbat: its Regents, Bishops and Archbishops, and Templars.  The Sabbat felt that by forsaking humanity and reveling in Games of Instinct and vampiric nature, that it had become supreme over human "blood bags."  The Inquisition proved it wrong, using their very monstrous nature to track them and burn them out by day.  Yet it would be foolish to assume that the Sabbat is truly gone.  The Ritae have not been lost, and packs still hunt the shadows for the blood of elders.  But the Sabbat no longer seeks to control cities, or directly contest with the Camarilla's leadership.  Instead, they have returned to their roots as secretive nomads, craving total freedom to indulge their vampiric natures.

The Inconnu are not a sect one can join.  They take the Masquerade to a different level, striving to be unknown to vampires as well as humans.  One does not see them, except so briefly that a Kindred wonders if it really happened.  Yet it is rumored that they are some of the oldest, wisest, and most powerful of all.  It is set that they know the secret of Golcanda, harmony with the Beast.  Yet they are feared by the power-hungry and to speak of them invites ridicule or worse.