You knock on a door in the back of the first library, and a panel opens, a man on the other side seems to peer through you ##Aura Percept## and lets you in when he sees that you are indeed permitted into this section. You enter the room to see another library, even larger than the first, each stack has a label. One reads �General� each of the rest are marked with a Clan name. The man who lets you in moves to a desk, typing into a computer, glancing at you from time to time as if to be certain you aren�t harming the precious books.

Caine and the First Nights

According to Kindred myth, the first of our kind was Caine, the first murderer. For his crime, Caine was cursed by God and thereby transformed into a vampire. Exiled from his people, Caine was forced to stalk the fringes of civilization, fearful of the sun and ravenous for blood. In his loneliness, Caine came upon a mighty witch named Lilith, who had been Adam�s first wife. Lilith taught Caine how to use his blood for mighty magic (indeed, a few heretics claim that Lilith, not Caine, was the First Vampire). Lilith taught Caine many things, including how to use his blood to evoke mystic powers � and how to create others of his kind.

The Second Generation and the First City

At first Caine refused to beget, believing it wrong to curse the world with others of his kind. But eventually he grew lonely and brought three others into the vampiric fold. These three in turn begat 13 more, and these voracious monsters went among the early peoples of the world, carelessly feeding and using mortals as puppets in their sibling of any more progeny. Gathering his childer and grandchilder to him, Caine built a great city � the First City in the world � and here vampires and mortals coexisted in peace.

The Antediluvians and the Clans

It could not last. Caine�s childer squabbled for their sire�s affections, and once again the mortals were used as pawns in the feud. Finally the city was thrown down � some say a natural disaster was the cause; others, that a spurned childe�s vengeful sorcery precipitated the cataclysm. Caine vanished, never to be heard from again. The three vampires of the Second Generation likewise disappeared into the mists of legend. But Caine�s 13 grandchilder, free from restraint, began breeding new vampires with abandon. The 13 vampires became known as Antediluvians, and their childer, created in their images, inherited the Antediluvians� magical gifts and curses. Thus were the clans formed.

The Dark Ages

The clans spread across the world, sowing discord and misery. Though each successive generation of vampires proved weaker than the last, they made up for it with greater numbers. In the ziggurats of Babylon, in the palaces of Crete, in the tribunals of Rome, vampires ruled as shadowy tyrants, forever using mortals as food and unwitting soldiers. Vampire warred with vampire, clan with clan, and thus � from the ancient rivalries of the First City � was born the great Jyhad, which is still fought today. The Kindred reached their worst excesses during the early Middle Ages. During this period, many vampires ruled openly, smothering peasant and lord alike beneath their nocturnal grip. The vampiric population reached unhealthy numbers, and it seemed that the Earth would belong to the Kindred forever.

The Anarch Revolt and the Making of the Camarilla

Again, it could not last. The Children of Caine, in their hubris, began to flaunt their power flagrantly. Terrified peasants whispered of the monsters in their midst � and the Church began to listen. The reports of a few horrified priests spawned a frenzied Inquisition, and vengeful mortals rose up in a tide of fire and blood. Though individually much more powerful than mortals, even the mightiest vampires could not stand against the humans� sheer numbers; vampire after vampire was dragged from its lair and hurled into fire or sunlight. In the throes of the Inquisition, a current of revolt gripped the Children of Caine. Younger vampires, who were being deployed as sacrificial lambs by terrified elders, began to rise up against their sires and masters. In Eastern Europe, a group of vampires learned how to sever the mystic bonds through which sires controlled their childer. Soon all of Europe seethed beneath a nocturnal revolt, as rebellious childer threw off the yoke of their masters. Between the Inquisition and the revolt of the vampire "anarchs," it seemed as though the Kindred would not survive. And so, in the 15th century, a council was called. Seven of the 13 clans united in an organization called the Camarilla. With its advantage of numbers, the Camarilla suppressed the anarchs and agreed to exist behind a great Masquerade. 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.

Gehenna

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.

The Six Traditions:

The First Tradition:The Masquerade

Thou shall not reveal thy nature to those not of the Blood. Doing so shall renounce thy claims of Blood.

Thanks to the Masquerade, 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 Sabbat. 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.

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.