Kindred Society

The Requiem

 * Taken from Vampire: The Requiem, page 20 and 21 

It is curious, if not unfitting, that the most common name for unlife among the Kindred is a musical reference, the Requiem.The word itself means a mass or musical composition for the dead. In some cases, a requiem is a dirge. In other cases it is a chant intended for the dead’s repose. In still others, it is a gesture of respect. No surprise, then, that the word has taken on its own meaning among the Kindred. The word has connotations of its own, suggesting that the Kindred must have adopted it in a more enlightened or sophisticated time. Tonight, however, all but the most cloistered Kindred knows that the word bears its own specialized meaning. The Requiem is the Kindred’s unlife, the grand, doomed waltz through which every one of their kind dances every night, urged on by metaphorical strains of music that represent the hidden powers that guide, manipulate

The Danse Macabre
​If an individual vampire’s existence is the Requiem, the way she interacts with her fellow Kindred is the Danse Macabre, through which any number of individual Requiems play, conflict, resolve and end.
 * Taken from Vampire: The Requiem, page 21

To many Kindred, the Danse Macabre has negative connotations. Relationships between Kindred are forced, at best, as vampires are seemingly designed to be solitary predators. The Embrace doesn’t completely deny the urges the individual knew as a mortal, however. Inevitably over the course of undeath, all but the most withdrawn yearn for contact among those who might be able to understand them. Is it so unnatural to seek fellowship among others who have experienced the same pains and sorrows inflicted upon them (and inflicted by them) throughout the Requiem?

Indeed, the notion has undeniable risks. Although the Embrace doesn’t strip the Man from the individual, it leaves its own mark, that of the Beast, the urges and wiles of the facet of personality inside all Kindred that requires blood to survive and doesn’t care who it hurts to fulfill that goal. When Kindred come in contact, they innately fear or see each other as a challenge. Indeed, all Kindred vie for limited resources and secrecy, and other Kindred threaten both. In a world where Kindred must skulk and kill to survive, how trustworthy is any other vampire?

The Requiem weighs on the Kindred soul. When one knows he will never truly die, he has no sense of urgency. Over the course of forever, what can sustain a vampire’s interest, or even a Kindred of a hundred years’ unlife? In the interests of fighting off their own timeless malaise, the Kindred plot and scheme against each other. Once they’ve exhausted all of the sources that legitimately brought joy or interest to their unlives, many turn to treachery in hopes of provoking any response at all from their jaded emotions.

This last, then, is the true Danse Macabre, the “dance of death” orchestrated by vampires to elevate themselves above their peers socially, politically or even physically. It is a dangerous dance, punctuated by vampiric traps, scheming elders, ambitious neonates and ruses that can take decades, centuries or even millennia to come to fruition. The Kindred potentially have forever to concoct their master plans and hatch their vendettas — they have no need to rush. For many vampires, revenge is best when left to grow cold, prompting another turn in the Danse Macabre in response. Thus the cycle continues indefinitely. The Danse Macabre is at once a saving grace and a resignation to damnation, for it distracts the Kindred from their nihilistic, introspective Requiems, but only by causing conflict that jeopardizes those very Requiems.

The Gilded Cage
Perhaps the single greatest reason vampire society has developed as it has is the Kindred’s unbreakable tie to the city. The undead are bound to the cities of the kine as tightly as they are to the Blood itself. For them, the city is really a cage, gilded though it might be, and the Kindred could no more abandon it than they could become vegetarians.
 * Taken from Vampire: The Requiem, page 25

It would be foolish, of course, to suggest that Kindred never travel. If they did not, they could never have spread as humanity has, and they would still be restricted to select areas ofthe Old World. Despite all the reasons not to, reasons that have literally shaped Kindred society as it’s known tonight, travel is sometimes necessary (or simply the best of a list of bad options). It’s not that Kindred don’t travel, it’s that they don’t travel casually.

Praxis
A praxis is, for all intents and purpose, a Prince's kingdom or domain. It is the area of land controlled by a Prince, with responsibilities doled out in regards to certain tasks to a court, or those beneath him such as the Seneschal etc.

The Traditions
The Traditions serve as the primary laws in Kindred Society, from city to city, domain to domain. They are the paramount edicts for all kindred, those that can be punishable by death if broken. Do not reveal your true nature to those not of the Blood. Doing so forfeits you your claim to the Blood.
 * I: The Masquerade

Sire another at the peril of both yourself and your progeny. If you create a childe, the weight is your own to bear.
 * II: Progeny

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

Clans
Clans are the most basic social structure in Vampire: The Requiem. As currently understood, all Kindred belong to one of the five acknowledged clans: Daeva, Gangrel, Mekhet, Nosferatu or Ventrue. Members of each clan inherit a clan-specific array of abilities and weaknesses, from a propensity to excel at certain Disciplines to a weakness or weaknesses inherent to all members the lineage. A clan is, in a manner of speaking, a vampire's blood relations. And much like any family, not everyone gets along. As many vampires spend their requiem avoiding or opposing their "family" as spend their un-lives following and supporting their clan precepts and goals.

The Five Clans

 * Daeva: Passionate, charming and sophisticated.


 * Gangrel : Savage and primal, yet noble.


 * Mekhet : Mysterious, silent and deadly.


 * Nosferatu : Rejected, outcast and disturbing.


 * Ventrue : Lordly, commanding and corrupt.

Each clan covers a broad range of vampiric archetypes. The Daeva, for instance, are both seductive and predatorial, evoking the image of vampires who glide through society as debonair hunters, much like Lestat in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. The Gangrel encompass the theme of the lone, savage and brutal hunters, much like the vampires of the Blade series. The Mekhet are conspiratorial occultists, vampires who hide in the shadows gathering lore and knowledge while manipulating others from afar. Nosferatu vampires are the alienated or disfigured monsters of legend (such as Count Orlok of their movie namesake), while the Ventrue represent vampires possessed of an aristocratic, 'lords of the night' sensibility, like Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Covenants
Over the course of vampire history, five major political factions known as Covenants have emerged. Most vampires choose to associate with one of these, as it grants them both social and supernatural power, but Kindred have the option of remaining Unaligned.
 * The Carthian Movement works towards finding the best form of government for the Kindred, basing its experiments on mortal systems like Democracy, Fascism and the like. It is by far the youngest Covenant, and many of its members are young by vampire standards.
 * The Circle of the Crone is a collection of many faiths, pagan cults of every stripe who worship a goddess that can be equated with the eponymous Crone. They practice the dark magic of Crúac, and call their largest meetings during major pagan holidays.
 * The Invictus believe themselves heirs to the Camarilla, an ancient organization of vampires thought to be the greatest union in their long history. They are the most influential of the Covenants, and hold a large percentage of Kindred power positions.
 * The Lancea Sanctum believe they have been put on the earth by God deliberately as a curse, to prey upon the sinful and test the faith of the pious. Their sorcerous practice, Theban Sorcery, is the invocation of dark miracles upon the world.
 * The Ordo Dracul claim to be Dracula's descendants, and study what it means to be a vampire, with the aim to transcend its limitations. Following in the footsteps of Dracula himself, they have developed Coils of the Dragon that remove certain weaknesses of their state. Many other Covenants currently exist or have existed in the past; many of these Covenants revolve around regional identity or around very esoteric concepts, preventing them from expanding to the size of the five great Covenants.
 * The Unaligned are those, who for whatever reason, be it a taste for freedom, a refusal to involve themselves in politics, have chosen to remain independent of Covenants.

Status
Status is both the blessing and the curse placed on all kindred in a given Praxis. It is equal parts the measure of  Kindred's worth, their reputation, and their place in the social pecking order. It's used as a tool in determining guilt or innocence, as means for getting ahead, grabbing the coveted positions, or scandalizing an enemy. More than anything though, it is a tradition that has become tantamount to law.

Kindred law is based upon the simple statement and perhaps the only TRUE statement you will ever hear in the world of the Requiem...

You can't win.

But! You can sometimes...skate by unscathed...for awhile.

Inside each Domain, the Prince has final say. The end. There are no take backs or going over the royal head...or is there? We will discuss that tricky subject later.

But first, some basics:

Seeking justice within the Requiem is...well...there IS no justice. Things are not decided in a trial by jury, or the use of disciplines or mumbo-jumbo spells. There is one thing alone that you can hope you have in your favor if you find yourself in trouble...and that is Status and Station. Status and Station wins. Always. Well, most times.

Forget investigations. Kindred will tell you "honestly" that due to the nature of things such as mortals, the weather...the alignment of the moon and stars...or that there is just something far more important going on, that investigating crimes or concerns would be difficult at best...so we just aren't going to bother.

It is much easier to find a scapegoat...I mean the -likely- perpetrator...like...That Carthian over there or that new guy to the Praxis...he looks suspicious...or maybe that reclusive Mekhet no one ever sees. Find them, kill them...and if the crime happens again, well, -obviously- they had accomplices. I mean, after all, they had no status, no station, and no position of respect...they -have- to be guilty of -everything-.

Of course, all this does depend upon the Prince. If you are lucky you draw a Prince who actually will, on -occasion- act benevolently. But in the majority of cases, to quote Billie Holiday -- "Them thats got shall get, Them thats not shall lose"...and for very good reason.

Many criminal acts can be carried out and ignored if you remember one thing: while murder and Diablerie are terrible crimes, heinous crimes even...and there will be calls for justice and vengeance...the Princes, Primogen, and Covenants want one thing...and that is to maintain the society. That is it...and you do this through station and status... Which means that THE biggest crime in the Requiem is:  Disregarding Status and station.

 An Example of Status In Action