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.
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