The Devil's Doorknob BBS Capture (1996-2003)/devilsdoorknobbbscapture1996-2003.iso/Dloads/TEXTFILE/VAMPIRES.ZIP/VAMPIRE2.TXT

Text File | 1993-09-23 | 5KB | 85 lines

2The Masquerade

     In 1435 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 excommunicating Frenchfield mice for eating farmers'
wheat, this Inquisition did betimes achieve it's aim, and cleansed the world of
no few true witches, warlocks and monsters. Many such monsters were Kindred,
and the diligent Inquisitors traced whole bloodlines and put all to the flame.

     For the first time, Vampires 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 fearful as the great Holocaust which mortal visited on one
another earlier this century.  Those Kindred who survived bear the mental scars
of the Inquisition to this day, and many live a life of paranoid seclusion,
dealing with the breathing world as little as possible.

     Before this time, Vampires lived more - or - less openly, relying on their
power and position to preserve themselves.  Though they did not announce their
presence, they did not struggle to hide it either.  They had grown proud in
their strength, and the fall which followed was terrible indeed.

     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 7sub rosa 0for the safety of all.  This was the birth
of what may be called a Vampiric society.

     The name 3Camarilla 0arouse for these organizations, reflecting the small,
secret rooms used for meeting and concealment.  Groups made contact with one
another, united for the first time by this adversity.

     The first global convocation took place in 1486.  Many chose to absent
themselves, but this meeting gave itslef the power to speak for all Kindred
existing or yet to be made, and to pass laws governing all.  The first such
law - and only one to stand to this day - is that of the Masquerade. It is this
law - the first and most sacred - that is being broken by the writing of this
document.

     The horrors of the preceding decades had taught the Vampires the need for
secrecy and shown them that, after all.  They were vulnerable. It was vital,
therefore, that the breathing world be convinced it had killed the last of
them, or better yet, that they had never existed at all.  They must match
organization with organization and cause with cause, if they hoped to survive.

     The Masquerade had two faces, each with a number of contingencies and
lesser objectives.  7Imprimis simplicissimusque, 0reasonable secrecy and care was
required of all Kindred.  Nothing must bebetray their continued existance, and
any individual who broke this secrecy would be outcast and hunted down as a
danger to all.

     7Secundus, 0active steps must be taken to change the character of mortal
society, and direct minds away from superstitious thoughts.  Many of the
Kindred had turned to scholarship to beguile the lonely decades, and certain
matters were made available to the 3Taggänger 0in the fields of alchemy,
literature, art, geography, cosmology 7und so weiter.  0Many mortals were
already turning their steps in this direction, so the task was not unduly
arduous. Names spring to mindsuch as Bacon, Dee, Galileo, Copernicus, Ariosto,
Michelangelo, da Vinci, Cellini, and Columbus.  It was a brave Age they made.

     With so many fresh discoveries clamouring for attention, the mortals lost
their single-mindedness in chasing monsters.  A little later - principally
thanks to an alliance of French Clans - material and political philosophies
were influenced.  Science had bred reason, reason denied monsters. Over the
following centuries, they were able to crush superstition completely. No one of
any education seriously believed vampires had ever existed.

     Not long ago, mortal minds turned once towards the mystical and
superstition briefly took the ascendant.  The knoweledge of certain chemical
substances was made available, and many inquiring minds were distracted or
forever silenced.  And throughout this last century, steps have been taken to
preserve this image of the Vampire in popular entertainments, for thus it may
be seen more clearly as a fiction.  The Masquerade is unraveling, as the
mysticism of the mortals increases.  The Camarilla is at war to turn back the
tide - the evidence of that is all around us.




                 7L E S T A T
                  3PRINCE OF DARKNESS