The Carthian Movement (Vampire: The Requiem) (OCC)

It's one thing to know, intellectually, that there will be a backlash. That having done something serious, that there will be people who will not like it, and will seek to punish you. It's one thing to know that going in, and yet another to experience hate and distrust every single night since, even from kindred who have benefitted from the change you've wrought.

    One would have hoped that the several years that Carthians spent hidden would have allowed things to cool off, and to a degree that was true. But frankly most other kindred treat Carthians, even Carthians embraced after the fact, as if they were personally responsible for the loss of every kindred life during the war.  The Sanctified certainly think and act so.

It's made them stronger in many ways. It forced them together and to realize that the reason why they had floundered so long was that they never had a singular vision before. It gave them a reason to get rid of some dead weight too. Certain groups of carthians never really got the memo that Operation Prom Dress was coming down the pipe. Many of those carthian groups got caught flat-footed and lots of them disappeared overnight. The most famous example was, of course, the Nazi Skinhead Carthians.  "Nazis?  Are you fucking kidding me? Next, you'll be telling me we got Klan Carthians too.",  opined Pinky Berkowitz during one of the study group meetings. 

The Carthians were careful to the point of paranoia.  They sought out intelligent members of the movement, untainted by madness, unswayed by blood oath and capable of keeping a secret.  They established cell structures and backed up operational security with sophisticated uses of dominate. In the end, it meant many carthians out in the cold, died horribly. Some were saved last minute, but even these were few. They were uniformly angry and resentful until they realized what was at stake.

The Carthians went into hiding. They had some help from the Ordo Dracul, and in a few instances, the Ordo picked up a few recruits.  It's not now uncommon to find Carthians with status in both covenants. The Movement was willing to pay for its room and board and helped with many projects during the war.  In other cases, The movement leaders were moved around from place to place. Some took short duration torpors with a single kindred remaining active and living off the land.  Some Carthians took to the undercities and impersonated Nosferatu of other covenants.  In many cases, these ruses worked.  But in some case, the kindred in question were not so lucky.

In other cases, the Carthians went all out to disappear into ordinary human lives as much as possible. Lone-Wolfing it, could work in large cities especially in places where you were unlikely to know your neighbors at all. But if you went too long without feeding, or went too long without real contact, it was dangerous.  You could never tell what was more dangerous, a feeding frenzy, or stir craziness.

In at least a few cases, Carthians attempted to live openly among the humans. This, as has already been pointed out, seldom worked. Vampires, being dead, soon discovered that they did not enjoy equal protection under the law.  Once a person found out you were a vampire, they could pretty much do anything to you that they wanted. This lead to some incidents of assault, sexual assault, and in at least a couple of cases, being hunted for sport.

As the war pressed on, Carthians began to take secret meetings to try and determine whether or not to return to the world or stay locked in the shadows.  As per usual, this led to long stentorious arguments long into the night. but as certain factors presented themselves over the course of the war, It became obvious that if someone didn't do something, the vampires and the humans would wipe each other out.

The Carthians were always careful to approach lone vampires and do so in numbers so that if someone decided to get violent, then they could at least beat him down and scatter. But the oddest thing happened…

Some of them listened.

Fast forward to tonight:

The Carthian Movement is now one of the largest covenants in many places. They have worked tirelessly to forge human and vampire community bonds. They have busted their undead asses to create as much equality under the law as they can for all kindred. They have worked, and worked, and worked, to make a world where humans and vampires can live in relative harmony and relative peace. They enjoy more political power than they ever have in previous centuries, which they have tirelessly turned into useful capital to create the changes in this brand new world.

And they are still loathed and despised for it.

Oh sure, a lot of it is hidden behind smiles and the occasional barbed comment. But it's still unwise for Carthians to go many places in groups of less than 5. Even the Ordo tend to look down their noses at their Carthian allies and the Revelation has perhaps benefitted them more than any other. 

Many carthians are unsure these days as to whether the experiment succeeded or not.

Regardless of this, Carthians find themselves holding many of the major offices within what used to be the Vampiric Court. This makes them a point of contact for many kindred within the cities and also a public relations contact for the humans and their human government. A lot of Carthians got crash courses in PR as a direct result, and some take to it like a duck to water. Others…Not so much.

Formal Courts Tonight (Vampire: The Requiem) (OCC)

Formal Court:

Things are very different in terms of the way that formal courts are conducted these nights. For one thing, they tend to be much larger affairs than they used to be. With all the new vampires and their ghouls and attendant hangers-on attending. While there are always going to be people who will want to attend private meetings of the vampires, they tend to get discouraged by the number of people willing to bare their actual fangs at them. Some people disappear at these gatherings.  At times, it causes a stink. someone might get arrested for it. Other times, well…Law enforcement professionals tend to look at those sorts of situations as self-correcting problems. It usually depends on how rich the idiot was.

Because there are so many people at these gatherings, little of import is generally discussed.  There are still some secrets that the kindred must play close to the vest. Talking about such things in open court could be a death sentence.

As a result, much of the real business of the kindred community takes place at meetings between the higher-ups and are merely disseminated during court functions. "Court" is more of a social gathering. An opportunity to practice diplomacy and meet with visitors and new fledges and ghouls.

A word about Ghouls: One of the few things that has NOT changed in kindred society is that Ghouls are expected to keep their damned mouths shut during formal court. Modern-minded ghouls often discover that the penalties for speaking out of turn might have them end up in the hospital…or the morgue.  It may not necessarily befall them during an open court or in a public place, but you can be sure that sooner or later, that ghoul is going to be taken to the woodshed.

Also: It has become an element of kindred etiquette that if you bring a ghoul to a formal court, then you are effectively announcing that you are the ghouls domitor, which comes with protection under the customs of the kindred. If anyone messes with your ghoul, you can seek redress of such grievances.  If however, you keep your ghouls a secret, then they are not recognized as being part of the kindred community, and if they are maimed or killed, no stigma attaches to the kindred who committed the act.  If you can prove they did it in a Mortal court of law…well. That's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

In any case,  Kindred politics has taken a bit of change. the term "Prince" is no longer considered a default term for the ostensible leader of the kindred community. While some have always held alternative titles, the most common title found in North America these days is Chairman, Alder, or Community Leader. As if the Kindred were some exclusive club or a minority group.

Under Mortal law, the power that a Prince once enjoyed has been sharply curtailed. They can no longer execute kindred for crimes real or imagined. As a result, they cannot call blood hunts, they cannot punish kindred for embracing foolishly, they can't even destroy Brood, VII, or serial diablerists openly.  Scourges see a lot more action these nights than they used to.

Princes can no longer even acknowledge a visiting kindred or deny them entry legally, although many princes get around this by requiring SERIOUS boons to enter a city and stay.

The one open power left to a prince is the ability to name his court as he pleases. Although powerful factions within the primogen and/or the priscus tend to nibble away at that privilege as well.

The Role of the Seneschal has changed as well.  Since the Prince finds much of his time freed up to see to the management of the resources of the realm, Many times, the role of head of the intelligence apparatus of the kindred community falls to the Seneschal. 

The Sheriff and the Keeper of Elysium have been largely melded into a single position. Often, this person is a duly deputized member of the law enforcement community as well. They provide security for kindred functions and see to the security of kindred gathering places. In many places, they are the only kindred who are legally allowed to bear arms at kindred gatherings. While the two positions have been melded together, a number of things that the sheriff USED to do are no longer serious problems. For the most part, wars between kindred of various cities have either ground to a standstill or morphed into extremely subtle cold wars.  Brood attacks have lessened, and on the rare occasions that they occur, find themselves faced with pissed off kindred AND mortal police.  Internal problems within a city that come to the Sheriff's attention, either involve mortal law enforcement or working closely with the Scourges.  Rarely, does a situation require both.

Yes, I said Scourges, as in plural.  There are many things that must be dealt with in the kindred world, and in some aspects, there is a still a Masquerade of sorts, and secrets that must be kept.  The Princes personal goon squad sees to it that these things get done, and hopefully, done quietly. While the identities of those who serve the prince are usually a secret, it varies from place to place as to HOW secret it is. One thing is certain, If the sheriff asks for assistance, he receives it from the Scourges.

The office of Harpy has undergone significant changes in recent nights.  Under the old system, they were snotty social arbiters and enforcers of the social order in an extremely closed and elite society. When the war came, Harpies became about as superfluous as a third nipple. What was needed in those times were diplomats and the sort of old school kindred who understand that politeness was the grease that enabled kindred society to function at all. Petty, snotty, prickish behavior had no place in a society on the brink of destruction and had even less of a place in a society that would somehow have to find a way to live in harmony with itself and the humans surrounding them.

     The Invictus title of Speaker has been largely adopted for the office.  Such kindred, and usually there is a whole staff of them, handle diplomacy with other cities, help instruct new kindred and old kindred fresh out of torpor.  They often serve as a point of contact with the mortal communities as de facto spin doctors and PR consultants. And in matters that involve the gathering of information, often report directly to the Seneschal. While a Speaker, might not be the sort of kindred who used to rule the roost with bitchy comments and social shunning, they ARE the sort of kindred who pay close attention to who does what and how. If your sanity is slipping, odds are good that the Speakers will notice first.

People who find themselves in the positions of Priscus and Primogen are often old or in lieu of actual elders, kindred who have amassed a discernable power-base of some sort.  Such people are named to the positions for the sole and express purposes of putting that power at the disposal of the community. The prince normally is the final arbiter of who and what will be used in times of crisis, he's also usually the arbiter of how the Kindred in question will be compensated. Such compensation usually takes the form of status, better hunting ground, and domain. Political access is also a common function of the office.  In most cases, if a kindred has a problem or a concern that he thinks ought to be brought to the attention of the prince or the surrounding community, then he is best served by taking it to either his Priscus or his Primogen.  Turning up at formal court and then trying to brace the prince personally is a good way to get yourself stomped.

The position of Herald has not essentially changed, but often the methods of the Herald have changed. In some places, they run protected servers for handling encrypted mail service for the kindred community. In at least a few places, Heralds have acquired Mail Drop services.  In many cases, the Herald is in charge of creating means for Kindred to communicate between one another and doing so in a discrete manner. In some cases, this has even led to them being the primary creators of tags and codes and slang.  Often, when a herald has serious pronouncements directly from the inner council, he disseminates them via the Clan Whips. (Some clans are traditionally harder to communicate with than others. I.e. the Gangrel and the Nosferatu.) 

The Boom (Vampire: The Requiem) (OCC)

These nights after the war are perilous.  

There are certainly still issues with various groups of humans. And there are certainly still things about Kindred life that are still a secret (Like just HOW addictive vampire blood is.) but modern nights aren't as perilous for those reasons at all.

It's all the goddamn vampires.

There aren't a lot of actual elders around anymore. Many have gone to earth. Many have been destroyed.  A statistically significant number were driven into torpor because they were too crazy to deal and too crazy to simply get out of the way. 

The usual brake on kindred behavior is the certain knowledge that there are powerful elders who don't know you and don't care a whit about you until you step out of line. But with many cities, most of the elders are gone, and the Ancillae have been going from crisis to crisis so long, that they aren't really able to step on developing problems until they become a crisis too.

Add to this, a media that has saturated the public with the idea that vampirism is both cool and sexy and you begin to understand that there are many people who want to become vampires.  And in some cases, if those people have enough money…they can.

Add to this, a number of people embraced in recent years who don't seem to understand the old system of doing things, or why it was a good idea for so long. Most of these vampires don't really understand the whole concept of "Eternity" yet, and so they go about embracing girlfriends or ailing family members, not realizing that there is a huge downside to all of that.

Add to this, that while there are many matters that are quietly dealt with, a "Prince" can no longer order a blood hunt or execute a vampire for embracing another vampire. Murdering a vampire is as serious a crime as murdering a person under the law.  The only way that a vampire gets punished for embracing someone, is if the embraced vampire accuses his sire of doing so non-consensually.  Which is then treated like a murder…or a sexual assault.   The precedent in law isn't really clear yet.

As a result, The Vampire population has been increasing. The Crone and the Ordo see the problem to come quite clearly. The Sanctified cannot, under their own doctrine, allow a vampire to be slain, and miss his judgment by god. But they also struggle with the fact that the godless carthians and Crone have the greatest numbers.  The Invictus, don't WANT a number of fledges in their ranks and are watching the Carthians become the same sort of moribund edifice that they used to be.

This problem is compounded by the fact that a lot of these new vampires don't really hunt. The synthetic blood supplement that most of them buy, means most of them don't have to hunt quite so much, still accidents happen.  A youngish vampire might be strapped for cash in a particular week and then freak out in a nightclub. Such things make the papers. Such vampires go to jail...Unless of course law enforcement, either kindred or mortal "Accidentally" destroys them.

Another problem that is slowly but surely taking shape is that there a number of young vampires with vitae addiction, and a few, that have become interested in Diablerie.  And there isn't much that can stop them at present.