Post by iota on Apr 25, 2010 20:19:27 GMT
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The story so far...
Welcome, childe. So you wish to gain the knowledge of the past to the present, I hear? Very well, so be it. This is a world, mostly populated by Kine, also known as humans, for they were the first, by a short margin. Many moons ago, there was a man and a woman. You may know of them, for their names were Adam and Eve. Yes, the very same for who “God” made in his image, the very ones who plucked the fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. When cast out from their paradise, they had two sons, Caine and Able. After many a year had passed, Able had met a woman. A woman who Caine was madly in love with and, in jealousy, Caine slew his brother. His “punishment” for this act was to walk the earth forever more, as an immortal, drinking the blood of humanity as a constant reminder of his wrong doing. He was the first; he is our deity in a sense. Caine went on to sire a number of Kine, each with rather distinctive personality traits and abilities. These are the first generation of Kindred, the originators of the clans in existence, the strongest and most powerful, there are the Antidiluvians. It is unknown as to what happened to the first. It is believed they were either slain or in eternal slumber waiting for the apocalypse to arise. For if they, themselves, did rise. They would, literally, bring hell on earth.
As the centuries came and went. The clans grew and grew at quite a rate, for our brother’s hunger was quite unquenchable. These acts did not go unnoticed; however, The Catholic Church had kept a tab on “Pagan” activities and devised a plan to rid the land of “unchristian” hectics. The pope announced a Holy Crusade to rid the Holy lands of Jerusalem of the Jewish, Muslim and various other non-catholic religious sects, this was a cover story. The true nature of the crusades was to sweep through the known lands and slay our ancestors. It was a bloody war, whilst Kindred are far stronger than our human counterparts; we have one main weakness, day light. The crusaders knew this and they would hunt us in the day and barricade themselves in their fortresses at night. Both sides lost many men, most of the crusaders had been turned and most of the Kindred had been slain, it was a mess. This left a horde of Kindred roaming the lands with no master. This proved to be a thorn in the side of the leaders of the clans, for these Kindred would wreak havoc for both Kine and Kindred alike. So, a blood hunt was initiad, to rid the lands of these unsavoury Caitiff.
Shortly after the Crusades, it was agreed that there should be a set of laws for the Kindred clans to abide by, so they could survive and not be the victims of eternal torment and damnation from the ignorant human race. The laws were made and were the Kindred's version of the Christian’s “Ten Commandments” these laws were forever to be known as “The Masquerade”. The Major clans formed councils in every city known to man, these councils would consist of the leader of each clan who were to be known as "The Primogen" and one of the leaders would be voted in to be the “Prince” of the City, he would be the leader and the leadership usually ended up being a form of dictatorship. These princes held absolute authority in the city, his or her words, were golden; that is, of course if the Kindred were allied to the laws of The Masquerade.
The big market crash in the 1920’s was a blessing in disguise for us, it proved to be a pivotal point where we could get our fingers in all sorts of pies, be it governmental, business and/or social standing. Many of our kind who walk among us wee “turned” in this era. Due to the recession in the past couple of years, we have been able to up our numbers once again. The homeless, unemployed and those in high standing who had suffered in the recent economical crisis have proven to be a great asset.
As of the moment, you ask? The State of New York is my domain, it is my kingdom. I have been the prince of this glorious labyrinth of business enterprises, capitalism and greed for many years. The past century has been relatively quiet on the underworld side of the city. But, that could change at any moment, the smaller clans and independent factions of Kindred grow uneasy, kept at bay by the enforcers of the Masquerade and the Kindred Hunters who roam the streets at night. You are fairly new to this world, your mind’s eye has been opened, the relative tedium of the plague known as the Human existence is behind you now, and they are your food, your play things.
Do not get ahead of yourself though, fledgling. Whilst The Masquerade and the council hold sway over the city and we are immortal, do not believe yourself to be some kind of God. You can be “terminated” for good if you draw too much attention to yourself. Also, be wary of the Garou, what? You believed that it was only our kind? Garou or lycans, whatever they liked to be called these days are far stronger than you and have no qualms about ripping you to shreds. We have a rather “uneasy” alliance with these over grown pups. Stay out of their affairs and they’ll stay out of yours.
Break The Masquerade and you will be punished and, kill the Kine you feed off of will result in losing a part of your humanity. Lose all your humanity and the beast with in shall take over, to which there will be no going back for you.
Now, leave me be fledgling, I have more important things to do than sit around here all night talking to the likes of you, be gone.
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