Where to begin? So much ink has been spilled down the centuries. I am constantly amazed by the regularity with which you mortals stumble across truths and half-truths- some haphazard and fallacious thinking; and then, unaware of what you have uncovered, proceed to expound generalities of entirely the wrong order.We are monsters to thee, yet heroes as well. We are the incarnations of dark metaphors and suppressed desires, yet we are also the nobility of fairy tales, beloved of children. We are a baseless superstition, an artistic genre, a psychological condition, a yearning made flesh, and externalization of a guilt-lust-violence complex, and many other things beside.
Some two and a half centuries ago, a French churchman named Calment sought to collect all information extant on the nature of vampires. It is not surprising, then, that his treatise contains many contradictions and areas of uncertainty. Quoting from the reports of Papal Commissions sent out to deal with 'plagues' of vampires in Austria, Hungary, Moravia, and Silesia, he reports that a vampire may be destroyed by being transfixed with a wooden stake, followed by decapitation and the burning of the remains. This will indeed destroy a vampire, just certainly as it would destroy a mortal. Such a clever man, Calmet.Motion pictures have abbreviated this treatment somewhat, creating a fallacy that the stake is sufficient. Do not believe such tales. Transfixing its heart on a stake will immobilize a vampire, but some further treatment is necessary. Whether this be burning or sunlight, but trust not the stake alone. Neither should you place your faith in weapons of metal, as did your American friend. Such things injure, but the wounds heal quickly- else I should not be writing now. Furthermore Crosses, holy water, and other trappings of religion may be ignored- the Church is the first refuge of mortals faced by things beyond their comprehension, especially in former times.
To live as a vampire is to live with horror. Always squatting on one's shoulder like a warlock's fiend is the knowledge of the Hunger. And always, always, does it approach- sometimes slowly and surreptitiously, sometimes with great haste, but always ravenously. The hunger can never fully be satiated. Hunger, we call it, but the term is woefully inadequate. Mortals know hunger, even starvation, but this is nothing. The Hunger replaces almost every need, every drive known to the living- food, drink, reproduction, ambition, security- and it is more compelling than all of them combined.
To be a vampire is to be trapped by the Hunger. The Beast may only be kept subdued by the greatest effort of will; to deny the Hunger enrages the Beast, until nothing may keep it in check. Thus we must commit monstrous acts to stop ourselves from becoming monsters- that is the Riddle, Monsters we are, lest monsters we become. That is the paradox of our life.
In 1453, there was founded an organization, a cause, an obsession, a war. Call it what you will; history knows it as the Inquisition. Besides burning harmless old women and excommunication French field mice for eating farmer's wheat, this Inquisition did betimes achieve its aim, and cleansed the world of a few true witches, warlocks and monsters. Many such monster were Kindred, and the diligent Inquisitors traced whole bloodline and put all to the flame. For the first time, our kind stood in real danger of extinction. Superstitious belief coupled with scientific thoroughness placed in mortal hands the wherewithal to rid the world of monsters forever. It was a terrifying time- as insane to us as the Holocaust which mortals visited on one another earlier in this century. Those Kindred who survived bear the mental scars of the Inquisition to this day, and may live a life of paranoid seclusion, dealing with the breathing world as little as possible. The Survivors quickly learned the wisdom of stealth and secrecy, and networks sprang up as they do among mortals in times of crisis, conveying information and individuals for safety of all. This was the birth of Vampiric society. This was the birth of the Camarilla. The first global convocation took place in 1486. Many chose to absent themselves, but this meeting gave itself the power to speak for all Kindred existing or yet to be made, and to pass laws governing all. The founders of the Camarilla made themselves its lawmakers. The first such law, and most sacred, is that of the Masquerade. It is that law which I willingly violate by laying these pages before you.The Clans of the Camarilla
Brujah clan. The anarchists of vampires!
Gangrel clan. The vampires of nature.
Malkavian clan. These vampires are insane.
Nosferatu clan. Twisted and hideous, but helpful!
Tremere clan. Vampires with the powers of wizards!
Toreador clan. This clan is involved with the arts and beauty.
Ventrue clan. They are aristocratic and are very wealthy vampires.
Go to Glossary of termspage.
Last up date 05-11-98 Please send comments to doc@docs-world.net
Go to Doc's Music Page
All clan names are trade marks of White Wolf Game Studio. Clan Graphics are also trade marks of White Wolf Game Studio so is the name Vampire:The Masquerade. The Story Teller game system is a TM of Whit Wolf. Most of this page is a TM owned by White Wolf Game Studio. ohh World of Darkness is a TM of White Wolf.