To say that people on both sides of the living/dead divide reacted poorly would be an understatement deeper than the Marianas Trench. It isn't as if there was some kind of orgiastic freak-out one night and then the fight turned to more conventional warfare. It started, as many things do, small.
It started with random vampires being pulled out of buildings in broad daylight. Not police or military groups. That all came later. No, for the most part, it started with people noticing, "Hey…You know, I've known Tony from down the block for years, but I don't think I've ever seen him in the daylight hours." Certainly, there were a number of third shift workers that also got dragged out into the sun, but none of them burst into flames…
Hunter groups sprang up overnight. Task Force Valkyrie got a HUGE bump in resources and manpower because it was apparent that the American military had never conceived of having to create military solutions for a war with creatures that didn't exist…
Hundreds of cold cases were reopened and reexamined. The DCA chip making the review of video evidence into a very different story. A number of kindred were caught in these sweeps and in many cases, destroyed. Princes far and wide reacted in the ways they've always reacted, and to little effect. Widespread human belief in vampires effectively crippled most Masquerade strategies in a way no one had ever seen. Anyone in a position of power who decried the very idea of vampires publicly got subjected to a good deal of private scrutiny. and if the scrutiny lead to an unprepared vampire, it usually resulted in ashes on the wind
As Pinky "Came out of the Coffin", So too did additional young kindred with a hunger for fame and not much sense. Sometimes this ended badly. The destruction of Tommy Devore on live TV was something of a cause celebre. He'd gotten a package deal to do a reality show with 6 humans and 4 episodes in he'd gotten slain in a nightclub by a couple of dudes who hadn't noticed the cameras. The very first Human on Vampire crime was dismissed at arraignment, because as Judge Weber stated. "How exactly do I put two fine young men in prison for killing a man who is already dead?"
Weirdly, Lara X managed to keep writing her Vampire Blog in the height of the war. After it was over, she revealed that she had been posing as a sex advice columnist. Lara's blog managed to put a more human face on the "Vampire Situation" for a lot of humans.
The Religious angle was, of course, swift denunciation of Vampires and the threat they represent, with a side order of indoctrination into "Church Security Outreach Programs". The only groups that seemed to abstain from the fervor were Unitarian and Quakers organizations. Certain Wiccan people looked up and realized suddenly that they were in pagan vampire cults and in many cases it was now too late to leave. Atheists split denouncing the whole thing as crazy or in trying to deal with a slew of all new questions. Scientologists issued no formal statement and struggled to go on as always. Many assumed vampire control at the top levels. The truth may never be known on that one.
The Vampires struggled to fight back but they were somewhat hamstrung. The Carthian Movement had chosen to completely distance themselves from mainstream kindred society. This was wise, as most kindred wanted to destroy them on sight. Many cities adopted a "Kill Carthians on Sight" policy, and in the case of Carthian run cities there were uprisings, refugees, and occasionally sorties from neighboring cities. The Carthians lost a lot in those nights and some of them are still bitter about not being told what was happening in their own covenant.
Many Kindred died in low-level conflicts all across the world, touching off a series of retaliatory strikes and a rash of suicides from their ghouls. Whole Ghoul families have been lost. A number of other Kindred went into voluntary torpor causing similar problems. In any case, the controls of society that kindred had had in places for centuries had suddenly been prized off and things got ugly quickly.
The whole thing probably would have stayed at the level of a cold war if it hadn't been for 2 factors.
On December 7th of 2002, a group of Belial's Brood went on a city-wide goon binge in the city of Chicago. Using Joliet penitentiary as a staging area/Buffet, They struck with utter impunity for 8 nights, creating a reign of terror not seen since the fire. They also Embraced over 50 new vampires in those eight nights and turned them loose to hunt the city. The incursion was only abated when a fuel-air explosive was dropped on the place by the Air Force.
The VII took this as a cue, They began a see-saw strategy of attacking Kindred enclaves and as the kindred tried to pick the pieces, turning around and attacking American military and police targets. This had the double advantage of keeping the kindred off balance and upsetting the mortals around them.
All of the above is not to say that the Vampires didn't hit back in the war. They did. Just as the humans had a lock on things in the day time, the Vampires owned the night. They had all of the gifts that enabled them to put control structures at their fingertips very quickly. Their blood is addictive, and even the least martially inclined among them can spend blood to become temporarily faster or stronger. A vampire alone, surprised and outnumbered is hosed. Take away any of those and the shoe is on the other foot. The Lance asked to lead the charge against the humans and it was given to them to do so.
Another serious factor in the war was fatigue. Vampires don't get it. Vampires are patient and willing to wait. Once the vampires realized that the longer they strung out the conflict, the worse the humans responded, It turned the tide. Also, Vampires had the option of capturing people and turning them into vampires themselves. In many cases, this caused horrible tragic betrayals from people who just one night ago, were thought to be friends.
Measures were instituted. Unless a business was an absolute necessity and heavily fortified (Like a hospital) curfew was set at sundown. This lasted for about 3 weeks. It did create a hunger problem for the kindred at the time, but the economy, already in rotten shape, simply could not sustain it. Gun sales and stake sales skyrocketed as second and third shift workers took their lives in their hands each night
Every major American city supports a number of kindred, so the cities were the big battlegrounds in the war. Gangrel could go from city to city easily and avoid the werewolves better than any of the rest of them. So battle groups of young to ancillae Gangrel made their way from place to place carving swaths of destruction as they went. Secure facilities discovered how unsecured they actually were in the face of an enemy who could assume mist form.
During the last year of the war, the Kindred attempted to take and hold the city of Cleveland Ohio. They did this through brilliant tactics and by making the city a place you'd want to flee if you had any sense. The endgame in the scenario was to use a (Chemical Weapons) that had been bought on the black market. The plan went flawlessly. The bomb slew every living thing in the city and the vampires moved in en masse to take and hold the city. At which point the bulk of the American military showed up and blockaded the city. The gangrel escaped just fine of course, but the rest fell to eating one another within a week and were easily mopped up. Pissed off people who still hold a grudge or who had family there often say "Remember Cleveland" before pulling a pin or a trigger.
Politically, behind the scenes, it was an utter clusterfuck. The Carthians had disappeared more or less, and the longer things dragged on, the Ordo Dracul became less and less interested in vampire politics. Granted survival had become a huge thing in the years of the war, but the Ordo was taking the long view. Sooner or later the war would end, and then where would be? "Fuck these Reindeer games" became a common refrain from the Ordo Dracul contingent. The Crone were never powerful enough as a large entity to really move and direct policy, and the Lance had fallen so far into zealotry and a belief that the war was "God's LAST test" that they march to damn near the bloody last. The Invictus, like the Lance, had as much trouble adapting to the new world and the new order of things. This was borne out during a meeting of formal court in Des Moines, Iowa, where an Invictus Prince lost his mind because of a report of a battle gone badly, He ordered the messenger destroyed, and was quite surprised when his entire court rose up against him and slew him, And then went after any other Invictus that even looked like they would say some shit.
Childer were created fast in those days. Many treated like Fire-And-Forget missiles aimed at the vast horde of humanity. Some survived and others thrived. Vampires became battle-hardened very quickly in those nights. Between the vampires gone to rest and those gone to ash, the median average age of vampire became around 14 years undead. Whole swaths of vampire history were lost or no longer available. Nobody noticed at the time.
Crazy but tolerated elders also became something that fell by the wayside. There was simply no time to cater to their baggage. A number of Ventrue were either destroyed or driven into sleep. No one could afford to allow the crazy people call the shots anymore. A number of young and intelligent Ventrue devised a system that could help them check their fellow classmates and it got around on the net. Ventrue now work very hard to keep the crazy at bay.
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