Vampires

The Modern Shape of the Jyhad:

The Sabbat has fallen, receding almost completely from the territories that it once held, its energy now wholly poured into unholy war rather than holding domain and playing political games.  In the territories it once possessed, new domains have opened up ripe for the taking.  That this might well be a trap is at the forefront of everyone's thinking, but even as paranoia compels caution, greed for new hunting grounds and domains compels haste.

The Camarilla once claimed hegemony over all Kindred, but now the Shuttered Room has kicked away the ladder - those who are in, are in, and those who are out, are out - subject to its power in the domains where it rules but unable to claim benefit from the Ivory Tower's protections unless they earn an invitation inside.  The Camarilla has ordered that the Masquerade extends to the use of technology.  The business of the Kindred is to be conducted face-to-face or by ways that the modern security state cannot easily crack - hand-delivered letters, animal messengers, couriers, and discipline powers.  Some prognosticate that the end of the Masquerade - and with it the Camarilla - is nigh.  But the Camarilla is still strong, still possibly the deepest-entrenched secret conspiracy in the world.  After all, it's made up of creatures that infiltrated nation-states from day zero, who got in on the ground floor of civilization when it was still a new idea.  More and more, the deluded Kine assume they are victims of conspiracies - but the Kindred of the Camarilla really can get to their victims anywhere, they can stage any ruse to cover their tracks, and they can literally rewrite memories to befuddle and silence witnesses.  No echelon of human society is beyond the reach of the Ivory Tower.  If the QAnon loons only knew...

Outside of the Camarilla, a surging Anarch Movement builds a society of rejects, revolutionaries, and castoffs, but lacks the unity to truly challenge the Camarilla except when competing for individual domains.  Just the same the Anarchs beat at the doors of the Ivory Tower, demanding that which has been withheld from them, and the doors are shuddering on their hinges.

In a society of the un-dead, nothing is ever truly dead, and things long thought gone have begun to emerge out of the dark.  Old blood cults - the Church of Caine, the Houses of Lilith, the Cults of Mithras - re-appear, offering Kindred spiritual purpose in the faithless society of the Camarilla and the Anarchs.  The Clan of Death has risen once more, absorbing the Giovanni Family into the greater body of itself - it stands apart from the sects as the last truly Independent Clan, as cryptic and dangerous as ever.

Where once other lands seemed like empty and alien places to the Kindred, shrinking global borders and the simple need to know have revealed sects of Kindred with customs and cultures all their own.  In Eastern Europe, the voivodes of the Oradea League rule their domains with an iron grip.  In North Africa and West Asia, the Ashirra holds court.  In Africa, the Laibon rule.  In India, Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the courts of the Rakshasa, ancient and wicked, own the night.  And beyond, throughout Asia, the Ten Thousand Demons hold sway.  In South America, the Drowned Legacies emerge, having hidden themselves among the colonizers for centuries.  These are all sects of Kindred, with cultures and customs of their own.  To bolster its own power and to crush the Sabbat's Gehenna Crusade in the Middle East, the Camarilla has forged an alliance with the Ashirra via the Banu Haqim, and it seeks to ally with the Oradea League in the same way.

And the Sabbat - clandestine, cunning, mad with bloodlust - waits in the shadows to undermine all that the Kindred build, for if this is the final Gehenna, why build anything at all?

Humanity fights back - the so-called Second Inquisition is more organized and dangerous than ever, and its targeted strikes have depleted entire domains.  But rumors of inhumane experiments, forced ghouling of agents to create stronger hunters, and other weirder things - have begun to follow humanity's would-be saviors.  Some remember what Nietzsche said - "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

Emphasized Loresheets:

While you can select any Loresheet, the following list is particularly relevant to the unfolding story of Second City by Night with suggested clans and linked interests noted with each Loresheet:

From Chicago by Night:

• Annabelle (Toreador, Art, Camarilla)

• Ballard Industries (Ventrue, Corporate, Camarilla)

• Blacksite 24 (Security, Intrigue, Intelligence)

• The Blue Velvet (Music, High Society, Circulatory System, Baby Chorus)

• The Book of Nod (Church of Caine, Independent, Lasombra, Tzimisce)

• Capone Gang (Ventrue, Crime, Camarilla)

• The Cobweb (Malkavian only)

• Cultivar (The Blood Disco, Bahari)

• Cult of Shalim (Lasombra, Hecata)

• Descendant of Lodin (Ventrue only)

• Descendant of Montano (Lasombra only)

• Fires and Floods and Devil's Night (Chicago Natives)

• Firstlight (Security, Intrigue, Intelligence)

• Kevin Jackson (Ventrue, Camarilla)

• Kindred Iconography (Toreador, Tzimisce)

• The Labyrinth (Nosferatu, Caitiff, Thin-Bloods)

• Lupine Expert (Gangrel, Security, Combat)

• Nathaniel Bordruff (Nosferatu, Camarilla)

• The Painted Lady (Nosferatu, Art)

• Revenant Family: Ducheski (Tremere Only)

• The Society of St. Leopold (Security, Religion, Intrigue)

• Talley (Lasombra)

• Wauneka (Intrigue, Intelligence, Nosferatu)

From The Chicago Folios:

• Archons (Camarilla)

• Convention of Chicago (Anarch, Camarilla)

• Descendant of Menele (Brujah only)

• Goblin Roads (Gangrel, Courier, Travel)

• Justicar Lucinde (Camarilla, Ventrue, Alastor)

• Khalid el-Rashid (Any, Combat, Against the Ancients)

• Kindred Dueling (Combat)

• Malkavian Family (Malkavian only)

• Occult Artifacts (Tremere or Banu Haqim only)

• The Pony Express (Courier, Travel)

• Sheriff Damien (Baby Chorus, Security, Camarilla, Brujah, Music)

• The Wolf Pack (Travel, Gangrel, Camarilla, Security, Biker)

From the Corebook:

• The Bahari (Bahari, the Blood Disco, Witches of Echidna)

• Theo Bell (Anarchs, Brujah)

• Cainite Heresy (Independents, Noddists, ex-Sabbat)

• Carna (Tremere, Occult)

• The Circulatory System (Camarilla, the Circulatory System)

• Convention of Thorns (Camarilla, History, Kindred Law)

• The First Inquisition (History, Intrigue, Against the Hunters)

• Golconda (Salubri, Golconda Cultist)

• Descendant of Hardestadt (Ventrue only, any)

• Descendant of Helena (Toreador only, any)

• Sect War Veteran (Sect War, ex-Sabbat)

• The Trinity (Tzimisce, Vampire Utopians, Politics)

• Jeanette/Therese Voerman (Anarch, Malkavian, Social)

• The Week of Nightmares (Ravnos, History, Occult)

• Rudi (Anarch, Gangrel, Combat, Politics)

• Descendant of Tyler (Brujah only, Anarch)

• Descendant of Zelios (Nosferatu only, Architecture, Occult)

• Descendant of Vasantasena (Malkavian only, ex-Sabbat, Philosophy, Occult)

• High Clan (Lasombra, Toreador, Tzimisce, Ventrue, Banu Haqim, Harbingers of Ashur Hecata)

• Low Clan (Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Ministry, Nosferatu, Ravnos, all Hecata bloodlines other than Harbingers, Tremere)

• Ambrus Maropis (Nosferatu, Technology, Security, Social)

• Carmelita Neillson (Toreador, History, Elders)

• Fiorenza Savona (Ventrue, Camarilla, Politics)

• Descendant of Karl Schrekt (Tremere only, Supernatural beings)

• Descendant of Xaviar (Gangrel only, Antediluvians)

From Let the Streets Run Red:

• The Anubi (Security, Combat, Werewolves)

• Eletria (Toreador, Social, the Elders, Art)

• Kindred Social Media Influencer (Technology, Social, Influence)

• Juggler (Anarchs)

• Lost Secrets of the Milwaukee Chantry (Tremere, Banu Haqim, Occult)

• Mark Decker (Gangrel, Camarilla)

• Maxwell (Camarilla, Brujah, Politics)

• The Milwaukee "Null Zone" (Other supernaturals, occult, combat)

• Modius (Camarilla, Politics)

From Cults of the Blood Gods:

• Bankers of Dunsirn (Hecata only, Dunsirn family)

• Children of Tenochtitlan (Hecata only, Pisanob family)

• Descendants of the Baron (Hecata only, Samedi)

• Flesh-Eaters (Hecata only, Nagaraja)

• Harbingers of Ashur (Hecata only, Cappadocians/Harbingers of Skulls)

• La Famiglia Giovanni (Hecata only, Giovanni Family)

• The Criminal Puttanesca (Hecata only, Puttanesca Family)

• The Gorgons (Hecata only, Lamiae)

• Calling the Family Reunion (Hecata only)

• Child of the Angel Michael (Unavailable to Nosferatu)

• Servitor of Irad

• The Promise of 1528

Lexicon

Anarchs: Vampires who have declared rebellion against the Camarilla or otherwise been expelled from it, an extremely loose sect of Kindred dominated by the Brujah and Gangrel clans.  While attempts have been made to create a unifying Anarch ideology such as in the Anarch Free States, in most cases the Anarchs are fractious cults of personality dominated by whims of those who rise to the position of Baron in a domain.

Antediluvian: "Before the Deluge."  The Third Generation, the founders of the modern Clans.  Vampire demigods, revered and feared by their descendants.  Their schemes supposedly sit at the the apex of the Jyhad.  Though some vampires of the Third Generation, such as Lord Tremere and Augustus Giovanni attained the apex of vampiric power through diablerie and are not truly Antediluvian, they are colloquially referred to as such.

Antitribu: "Against one's tribe."  Kindred who have declared themselves enemies of their clan.  A term used mostly by the Sabbat as a statement of rebellion against the very concept of the clans.

Anathema: That which cannot be allowed to exist, a danger to Kindred and Kine alike.  Those on the Camarilla's Red List, the Sabbat, Infernalists, certain other cults and factions.

Ashirra: The dominant Kindred sect of West Asia and Northern Africa.  Damaged by the Gehenna Crusade, it has allied itself to the Camarilla to destroy the Sabbat.

Beast: The pronounced atavistic impulse all vampires possess to hunt, kill, and destroy.  See Wight and Wassail.

Bloodline: A smaller lineage, usually within a clan but possibly unclaimed by any.  Major clans have fallen to the status of bloodlines, such as the Ravnos and Salubri - but disparate bloodlines with a common interest can also coalesce and claim the status of a major clan, like what is now the Hecata.

Caine: Believed by many to be "The First Vampire" who received his curse from God - the inspiration for the Biblical Cain.  See also Noddist.  Laibon speak of a similar progenitor they call Kagn, though their legends about him are different.

Camarilla: Also called "The Small Debating Chamber" "The Shuttered Room" and "The Ivory Tower."  The largest and most powerful Kindred alliance in the world, dominating most of Europe and the Americas.

Circulatory System: A human trafficking network that specializes in the acquisition and transportation of the most desirable blood and blood dolls.  Technically illegal as a risk to the Masquerade, though almost all Kindred look the other way in regards to its activities.

Clans: The acknowledged major Vampiric lineages, each with their own distinctive traits, affectations, affinities and afflictions.  Lineages of vampires which stretch back to a third-generation progenitor.  Also called "The Clans of Caine."  See also High Clans and Low Clans.

Caitiff: "Contemptible" or "Beneath Notice."  Those without clan.  Kindred who do not imprint a clan after their Embrace.  Viewed with unease and distaste by many Kindred, though some groups revere them.  See Antitribu and Thin-Blood.

Carthage: The so-called "Third City" founded by the Brujah, the last city where Kindred ruled the Kine openly.  Destroyed by the Roman Empire under the guidance of the Ventrue, Malkavians, Toreador, and others.  Some Brujah swear Carthage was a vampiric paradise where Kindred and Kine lived in harmony; other scholars point to evidence of rampant human sacrifice to the Canaanite god Ba'al, specifically child-sacrifice, and cast what can only be called "mad shade" on that claim.

Changeling: Faeries.  Beings of gossamer dream and bitter nightmare whose nature is almost completely alien to the earthy, bloody Kindred.

Diablerie: Also called Amaranth.  The Great Crime, the ultimate taboo, the consumption of one Kindred's essence by another.  The greatest crime laid at the feet of the Sabbat is that they are rampant, unrepentant diablerists.

The Drowned: The Kindred lineages of South and Central America.  Unlike the Laibon and Rakshasa, there was comparatively little strife between the Kindred and the Drowned, with most of the Drowned seeming to cede territory and vanish without a struggle.  Only now are the Kindred realizing this is because many of the Drowned simply assimilated into colonizer lineages - or pretended to.

Elysium: A "sanctuary" where Kindred are forbidden from engaging in violence by the ruling authority in a domain.

Enoch: A Hebrew name for one of their pre-deluge patriarchs, believed by religious Kindred to be the first of the Second Generation (also called Ynosh or Enosh).  To Kindred, "The First City" - the city founded by Enoch and then ruled by Caine.  Purportedly destroyed by the biblical deluge.

Frenzy: The emergence of the Beast in response to stimulus: anger, hunger, or terror.  See Rötschreck.    

Gehenna: "Valley of Hinnom" - a valley that establishes part of the bounds of ancient Jerusalem.  To some Kindred, "Gehenna" is the reckoning for their kind, though there is also a belief that a "Gehenna" is a term for when the activity cycles of numerous Methuselahs synchronize - which usually portends death and disaster for humans and younger Kindred.  For instance, the collapse of the Bronze Age cultures is believed by some Noddists to have been a Gehenna.  See also the Gehenna Crusade.

Generation: A genealogical accounting for the number of steps a vampire is removed from Caine.  Vampires of lower generation tend to have more potent blood but this may just be because they tend to be older.

Gehenna Crusade: The Sabbat's term for their attempt to destroy the sleeping Methuselahs of the Middle East, where they believe the Kindred originated and which does have a higher than average number of torpid elder vampires.  Ironically some believe that if the Sabbat wakes up the wrong Methuselah or an Antediluvian, their Gehenna Crusade will cause a Gehenna rather than prevent one.

Golconda: A ruined fortress-city in Hyderabad, India.  A (now) archaic term used by English speakers for a source of great wealth. Derived from Golla Konda, Telugu for "Shepherd's Hill."  To some Noddists, a state of "forgiveness" or moral enlightenment a Kindred can achieve that holds the Beast in total abeyance. 

High Clan: Clans considered to be "noble" "aristocratic" or "of quality." Officially considered an archaic and outmoded distinction though many aristocratic Kindred still keep track.  The current noted "High Clans" among the nobs are Banu Haqim (elevated from a Low standing thanks to their alliance with the Toreador), Lasombra, Toreador, Tzimisce, and the Ventrue.  The Harbingers of Ashur among the Hecata are considered to have High Clan lineage.  See Low Clan.

Hunter: Those who hunt supernatural beings, especially vampires.  Slang, "van Helsings" among other terms.

Infernalist or Diabolist: Those Kindred who have conjured demonic forces and sworn allegiance to them for power.  Rarer than some would claim, but not nonexistent.  See Anathema.

Jyhad: Also called "The War of Ages" "The Great Game" or "The Eternal Struggle" - the schemes and plots of the Kindred against one another, sometimes to advance their own goals, sometimes just out of boredom.  

Laibon: The term the Kindred of Africa use for themselves.  The Laibon are overall neutral-to-hostile to the Camarilla and the Ashirra due to attempts to exterminate their indigenous courts during the colonial Era, though some clans such as the Banu Haqim and the Ministry maintain ties to their members in the so-called "Ebony Kingdoms".

Liga Oradea (Oradea League): A smaller sect that exists as a sort of rump state of the old Tzimisce Voivodate.  Rules domains in Eastern Europe (particularly in Romania), around the Black Sea, and into Russia.  Dominated by the Tzimisce, the Oradea League is a loose alliance of fiercely independent voivodes.

Low Clan: Clans considered to be "ignoble" or to have "bad blood."  Brujah (fallen from a High status), Gangrel, Malkavian, the Ministry, Nosferatu, and Tremere.  Vampire aristos are divided on whether the Hecata are High or Low - the Cappadocians were High Clan, but the Giovanni were the lowest of the Low.  See High Clan.

Lupine: Werewolves, rivals and enemies of the Kindred since the beginning of history.

Magi: Mortal sorcerers that gather in their own secret societies and have tremendous occult power.  The Tremere were part of an order of Magi before they became vampires.

Masquerade: The conspiracy of silence the Kindred maintain in order to keep their presence hidden from the masses of humanity.  Also the First Tradition.

Nod: Also called "The Land of Nod" or "East of Eden."  Purportedly the kingdom Caine formed after becoming the first Vampire, though "Nod" is also root Hebrew for "To Wander" - so some Noddists believe that there was no land of Nod and that the name is an ancient pun.  See Enoch.

Noddist: A scholar of ancient Kindred history.  Stems from the purported site of origin of the Kindred.  See Nod.

Prestation: A very, very old system of "one hand washes the other" favor-trading among the Kindred.  An official registry of favors that can be bought, sold, traded, and used for political leverage.  Come in degrees of severity based on the favor for which they were minted: Trivial, Minor, Major, Life (or Blood), and Extremis.

Rakshasa: The Kindred of Central Asia.  Relations between the Rakshasa, the Camarilla and Ashirra are strained due to the Mughal Yoke and the Raj, though some lineages such as the Ministry's Daitya and the Ventrue Danava are resuming ties with their western brethren through the Indian Diaspora.

Rötschreck: German, "Red fright."  The specific quality of ultra-panicked Frenzy a vampire experiences when confronted by fire or sunlight.  See Frenzy.

Sabbat: "The Sword of Caine" - formed from the remains of the Kindred Second Estate after the Anarch Revolt, dominated by the Lasombra and Tzimisce clans.  A violent, inhumane eschatonic death cult of a sect that recently underwent a near complete collapse and re-emerged as a smaller but even more violent, inhumane, eschatonic death cult.  Waging the Gehenna Crusade in the Middle East.

Second City: The purported city founded by the Third Generation after the ancient deluge that wiped out the first.  Its name has been lost to history.  See Carthage.  Chicago is sometimes ironically called the New Second City by the Kindred.

Second Generation: The Childer of Caine and sires of the Antediluvians, believed completely exterminated by their childer.

Thin-Blood: Kindred of the 14th and 15th generation, those whose blood is so impotent their powers - and weaknesses - are less pronounced, but who also exhibit great mutability of powers.  Viewed with a religious unease by many Kindred who believe a proliferation of Thin-Blooded presages Gehenna.

Traditions, The: The six fundamental precepts of Kindred law - the traditions of Masquerade, Domain, Progeny, Accounting, Hospitality, and Destruction.  The Sabbat historically renounced all the traditions.  The Anarchs protest that the Camarilla's implementation of the Traditions favors only the elite and so they only maintain the First Tradition of the Masquerade as rule, though they implement many of the others de facto.

Wan Kuei: "The Ten Thousand Demons."  The Vampire courts of East Asia, the most hostile and least understood court of Kindred by vampires of the West.  Hostile to all other vampiric sects.  Some believe the Wan Kuei aren't Kindred at all, but rather some other strain of vampire with a different point of origin.  The Wan Kuei have attempted incursions into the West Coast domains of North America, with mixed results.  Sometimes called Kuei-Jin by western Kindred, though this is a pidgin mashup of Cantonese and Japanese words and regarded as an ignorant slur by the Ten Thousand Demons.

Wassail: Ironic - "To Revel."  The "Final Frenzy" that means a Kindred has become a Wight.

Wight: A commonly-used term for a Kindred who has fallen to their Beast.  Other names for this include Draugr, Wendigo, Uhlanya lufile and countless other names.  See Wassail.