The Six Traditions
Camarilla vampires swear to uphold
the legendary Six Traditions of Caine, the laws which Caine supposedly
passed to his progeny. Like any other laws, the Traditions are
commonly ignored, bent or violated outright. (Ignore the bad
Oldee Englisheee. Sigh. RH)
The First Tradition:
The Masquerade
Thou shalt not reveal thy nature to those not of the Blood. By
doing so shall ye renounce thy claims of Blood.
The Second Tradition:
The Domain|
Thy domain is thine own concern. All others owe thee respect
while in it. None may challenge thy word while in thy domain.
The Third Tradition:
The Progeny
Thou shall sire another only with the permission of thine elder.
If thou createst another without thine elder's leave, both thee
and thy progeny shall be slain.
The Fourth Tradition:
The Accounting
Those thou create are thine own childer. Until thy progeny shall
be released, thou shall command them in all things. Their sins
are thine to endure.
The Fifth Tradition:
Hospitality
Honor one another's domain. When thou comest to a foreign city,
thou shall present thyself to the one who ruleth there. Without
the word of acceptance, thou art nothing.
The Sixth Tradition:
Destruction
Thou art forbidden to destroy another of thy kind. The right
of destruction belongeth only to thine elder. Only the eldest
among thee shall call the blood hunt.
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____Never
more shall vampires rule openly, the lords of the Camarilla decreed.
We shall hide among the mortals, and conceal our natures from
our prey, and in a few decades the mortals will know vampires
only as myths.
Thus, the Masquerade was born, and the Inquisition gradually
forgot its original target. Those anarchs who would not join
the Camarilla were driven into the wastes, from which they would
later emerge as the dread Sabbat cult. With the discovery of
the New World and the dawn of science, humanity gradually forgot
about the Kindred, relegating them to the status of childhood
legends.
____But,
though hidden, vampires were still quite real. The wars of the
Jyhad raged on, though the nights of open battle were replaced
by sudden ambushes and maneuvering of human pawns. Weaving their
webs throughout the ever-expanding cities, the Kindred eschewed
their previous games for more methodical but no less deadly ones.
The Modern Nights and Gehenna
____And
the wars continued down the centuries, and continue still. The
Jyhad rages as it always has - though skyscrapers take the place
of castles, machine-guns and missiles replace swords and torches,
and stock portfolios substitute for vaults of gold, the game
remains the same. Kindred battles Kindred, clan battles clan,
Camarilla battles Sabbat, as they have for eons. Vampiric feuds
begun during the nights of Charlemagne play themselves out on
the streets of New York City; an insult whispered in the court
of the Sun King may find itself answered by a corporate takeover
in Sao Paolo. The ever-swelling cities provide countless opportunities
for feeding, powermongering - and war.
____Increasingly,
vampires speak of Gehenna - the long-prophesied night of apocalypse
when the most ancient vampires, the mythical Antediluvians, will
rise from their hidden lairs to devour all the younger vampires.
This Gehenna, so the Kindred say, will presage the end of the
world, as vampires and mortals alike are consumed in an inexorable
tide of blood. Some vampires strive to prevent Gehenna, some
fatalistically await it, and still others consider it a myth.
Those who believe in Gehenna, however, say that the end time
comes very soon - perhaps in a matter of years.
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