The Anarchs

Brujah

Gangrel

The Ministry

Caitiff

Duskborn

Unlife among the Chi-Town Anarchs:

It's all about who you know.  Alone, you're meat.  But your colors, your gang?  They're the ones that have your back.  Find a gang.  Don't go it alone.

The Anarch Center (Open to Anarch PCs): 

They've got money, they've got clout.  They dress flashy, they're polished, they're the biggest and most powerful Anarch gang in the city.  But why'm I reminded of the pigs from Animal Farm whenever Anita opens her mouth or people start groveling before Maldavis?  If they were to drive out the Camarilla, how long until Maldavis does what Cecily Bain did and declare herself Prince?  ...I know, Bain defected long before she made it to the top, the treacherous bitch.  But Maldavis has gunned for the Princedom before, and you know what they say about Kindred - we never really change.  ...But Maldavis and Anita haven't sold us out yet, and without the Anarch Center we'd all be getting tetanus in Gary, so four legs good, two legs still bad, I guess.

The Nihilists (Open to Anarch PCs):  

Do you remember the Hateocracy from The Boondocks?  "Now we hated each other right away.  But we hated everyone else even more."  That's the Nihilists.  The running bet is that one of these guys is secretly Sabbat and whipping the others up, but that'd be too obvious.  The Nihilists are a filter that catches disgraced former Camarilla, true lunatics who don't care about The Night After, and Anarchs who want to be the Baron of Barons and know that won't happen unless the Camarilla is out of the way - but what binds them together into a coterie is they fucking hate Prince Jackson's court.  That they haven't all been blood hunted or turned on each other yet is just a testimony to their lack of success.

The Church of the God-Self (Open to Anarch PCs):

 A pleasant New-Age Religion that just wants to help lost neonates orient themselves and make some spiritual sense out of their existence by evoking "the divinity within the blood."  And monkeys will fly out of my butt.  This is the local Ministry cult, and I don't know what's more annoying, that it's obvious there's Setite shit behind it or that the Chicago Anarchs have seriously benefited from their help.  If an Anarch needs anything, anything at all - a safe place to rest, help hunting, an advocate when they have problems with the Powers That Be - the Church will help.  ... All they ask is that you have an open mind.  The Church of the God-Self is also one of the Anarch roads to diplomacy with the Camarilla, through Marcel.

The Voivodate (Open to Tzimisce or Anarch PCs): 

The Old Clan doesn't fuck around.  Where most Anarchs gather in gangs, the Voivode is building an army, a Voivodate, and she's slowly growing her power block by block, securing her domain and defending it from all comers.  This is some old-school Slavic shit and it is terrifying.  But there's an honesty to it.  The Voivode doesn't offer platitudes and she doesn't promise you spiritual revelations.  There's only one law - "When the Voivode commands, the boyars obey."  And that's why this Anarch gang is small but growing every night.  The Voivodate does it the Chicago way - you pull a knife, they'll pull a gun.  You send one of theirs into torpor, they'll send one of yours to the morgue.  That's a movie quote.  Have you ever seen The Untouchables?   Anyway, the Voivodate hasn't drawn Prince Jackson's attention yet because their turf is far-flung out in the Collar - they're in the heart of the old Sabbat territories in Joliet, where they're working on digging out the War Ghouls and other fuglies and nasties the Sabbat left behind when they bailed.  Some Anarchs worry that the Voivode's taking them for herself, but she seems to be putting a lot of energy into exterminating them - she wants nothing to do with the "shoddy self-indulgent work of the Asakku."  Whatever those are.

Blackjack's Gang (Open to Anarch PCs):

"Blackjack" Tarnopolski's gang claims the largest amount of Turf out of any one Anarch gang but he isn't nearly as influential as the Anarch Center or as well-organized as the Rust Devils.  His Turf "officially" stretches over a big part of Joliet, Schaumberg and Naperville, but it's more than he can effectively hold and his Anarchs, while mostly loyal, like to do their own thing.  Some of the more influential members of Blackjack's Gang are getting real uncomfortable with how cozy the Baron and some of his followers are getting with the Church of Caine.  They're also watching the Voivodate slowly grab more turf in Joliet and wondering how long it's going to be before the bitch decides to start seizing Tarnopolski's territory by force.  But their territory covers a lot of ground, which gives them a lot of hunting opportunities, and they'll fight like hell to protect that from all comers.

The Rust Devils (Open to Anarch PCs):

The Rust Devils are the Anarchs of Gary, Indiana - to give you an idea of how close the Devils are to Jackson's domain, they are separated from East Chicago by a very large airport.  That's it.  The Baron of the Rust Devils is Evelyn Stevens, Childe of Juggler, and she's shown more ability to get the Gary Anarchs organized and pointed in the same direction than he ever did.  Right now the Rust Devils are running a scheme where they cause chaos in the Chicago domains by selling weapons to Chi-town gang-bangers, and by launching raids on the Circulatory System as it passes through Gary - they keep some of that rarefied blood for themselves, and then trade/sell the rest to other Anarchs for clout and beaucoup bucks.  Their plan is to keep right on stinging Maxwell's court as Stevens does what Juggler never could and actually builds the Gary domain into something respectable.  

Domains:

Prince Jackson has pushed the Anarchs out of the heart of Chicago; Brujah proliferate on the East Side, Thin-Bloods and Caitiff roam the wilder parts of the South Side, the Gangrel claim turf on the West Side, but Prince Jackson doesn't acknowledge any claims of Anarch turf.  The sheer size of Chicago means that nobody's being squeezed for space... yet.  But it's only a matter of time.

Anarch dominance is stronger in parts of the Collar.  "Blackjack" Tarnopolski rules as the Baron of much of Joliet, Schaumberg and Naperville and has been drinking the Cainite Kool-Aid served up by Arden Canty in Joliet.  Ol' Blackjack was having a devil of a time dealing with the mess left by  the Tzimisce that reigned there before Blackjack ran the Sabbat out - until he struck a deal with a Dracul.  The Voivode's not like Sabbat fiends that used to roam the place - she's old-school, she likes her streets neat and clean, her Kine fat and docile, and her enemies terrified.  She's got an intimate knowledge of Tzimisce war ghouls and other fuck-ups, freaks, and monstrosities, and she's working on digging the leftover boogiemen out of the Will County Courthouse area while she grows her gang's domain one block at a time. 

Gary is the other city dominated by Anarchs but that's mostly because the place is such a fuckin' dump that the joke is it'd be easier to just bulldoze the place and build a new city there.  Ha ha ha.  Evelyn Stephens is the Baron of Gary, and she's way more popular than either Juggler or Modius ever were.  Her second-in-command is Modius's childe Allicia.  Most of the old names have died, left, or been called off by the Beckoning.  Stephens runs a racket skimming off the Circulatory System before it reaches Chicago and running guns to Chicago gangbangers so they can take them back to the city and raise hell in Jackson's domain. Justicar Carfax was leaning on Prince Jackson to mop up Stephens and her Barony and install a new Prince of Gary but now that Tremere motherfucker's dead and it's been shuffled back down to the bottom of Prince Jackson's to-do list.  Some say Jackson's got a soft spot - or maybe a hard spot - for Evelyn, which is why he's let her racket go on for so long without seriously cracking down on it.

The Anarchs and the Traditions:

It's said as part of their rejection of Camarilla authority that the Anarchs have renounced the Traditions, maintaining only the first.  This is true... sort of.  Anarchs don't like it when another Kindred poaches in their domain, same as any other vampire - so the tradition of Domain tends to be enforced de facto.  Hunting in another Anarch's domain without permission isn't illegal, but it is bad etiquette, and if you get your ass beat for doing it that's on your head, undead.  Anarchs completely reject the tradition of the Progeny as a rule, though they also experience the concurrent problems of being awash in neonates, Caitiff and thin-bloods that come with unrestricted siring.  A Kindred who takes advantage of their liberty to sire too often and too casually will end up dragged in front of an Anarch Council or a Baron to be "educated" on being a responsible citizen.  The Accounting isn't scrupulously kept, but siring a childe and then conspicuously abandoning it is a real bad look - deadbeat dad beat dead bad.  The tradition of Hospitality is again kept de facto by most Anarchs, unless you're dealing with the Old Clan, who just keep it facto.  Don't just roll into town and disrespect the Kindred who live there.  The Tradition of Destruction is not officially kept, but the Anarchs consider murder of one of their own a high crime, and if they find out who did it and the reasons why don't pass muster, there will be hell to pay.  Diablerie is still the ultimate taboo, 'cause if you get addicted to suckin' souls, I don't want you hanging off my wrist.

Anarch Unlife: 

Hunt.  Party.  Defend your turf, cultivate your individual interests, whatever they might be.  The night-to-night existence of an Anarch kindred isn't that much different than a vampire in the warm confines of the Camarilla.  Culturally speaking there's always a party or a debate or a fire that needs being put out somewhere, so if you can't find something to do that's really on your head.

Though they're technically affiliated with the Camarilla, it's not hard to snag a ticket to the Blood Disco or the Succubus Club, if you like drag shows or 90s style Techno-Goth, and as a vampire you probably do.  Admit it.  You love it.  You know you do.  We generally avoid Baby Chorus shows because Damien's a gutless traitor who needs someone to slap the Court's collective dick out of his mouth, but if you must, I know people who can get you tickets.

Things tend to be busiest in the fall and winter.  Longer nights mean more time to party, more time to plan, and more time to start shit, so that's when vampires really tend to come alive, as it were.  When the sun goes down before 9 and comes up at 5:30 there just isn't time for more than the bare necessities, you know?  Anyway, things really start to rise to a fever pitch in October, since pretty much all of us come into undeath with a deep-rooted cultural love of Halloween, and if you don't you'll probably acquire a taste for it before long.  There isn't any sort of organized social calendar like the Camarilla keeps, but you'll find a Rave or a Bash pretty much every night of October.  On Halloween the Anarch Center throws their big blowout, a fucking rager the likes of which you've never seen.  The official location of the party isn't spread until the 30th, because we don't want FIRSTLIGHT or any other Hunters to have time to gear up and try to crash our party.  

After that, party season pretty much continues unabated through the rest of winter.  We drink, we fuck, we fight, we agitate to ruin the Camarilla's fun and run them out of Chicago on a rail - you know, Anarch stuff.  Groups like the Church of Caine and the Ministry will usually hold religious ceremonies and stuff on Midwinter's Night.  I'm not into that, though I hear the Ministry party's an Eyes Wide Shut style bacchanal, and Anarchs have an open invitation - try the kool-aid, I hear it's delicious.

Lexicon:

Baron: A common term for an Anarch who rises to a leadership position in an Anarch domain, with authority that ranges from "Spokesman" to "Absolute Warlord" depending on the domain and the Baron.  Some domains have multiple claimants to the title of Baron, each with their own fiefdom and gang.

Barony: An Anarch domain under the rule of a Baron.

Emissary: An Anarch tasked with being a diplomat to the Camarilla or other factions.

Council: A gathering of Anarchs meant to "equitably" run a domain.  Vary in their cohesion and effectiveness.  See Councilor.

Councilor: Anarchs who do not claim the title of Baron but who have the clout to sit on a Council.

Free State: Any domain where the Anarchs are the dominant sect.

Gang: An alternate Anarch term for a Coterie.

Status Perfectus: "The Perfected State" - the Anarch ideal of a society where the Masquerade is dispensed with and Kindred and Kine exist in a harmonious arrangement - usually with the Kindred as "benificent masters."  Also a famous document that led to the founding of the Los Angeles Free State.

Sweeper: An Anarch charged with keeping tabs on other Kindred within an Anarch domain.  Often handles Prestation among Anarchs.

Turf: Anarch term for Domain.