World of Darkness: The Metaplot
Vampire: The Masquerade
Camarilla & Sabbat
The two sects exist as 2nd edition has thus far portrayed them, including key hot spots for the Camarilla: Prince Michaela holding down the fort in Manhattan (the rest of the city under the Sabbat), Prince Lodin in Chicago still dead after inciting war against the Lupines, and San Francisco still an oasis of the Seven Traditions in the heart of the Anarch Freestates. The primary metaplot change is in the Freestates, in fact: Los Angeles was snatched from the Anarchs by the Avatars of Fate (see below).
Black Hand
The Tal’mahe’Ra exists essentially as described in the Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand. However, the entire Souleater/Vicissitude corruption metaplot is rejected. (Consequently, most Old Clan Tzimisce still practice that Discipline.)
Inconnu
The Inconnu exists. It is a loosely formed sect of ancients (always Elders or older) that occasionally and informally meets. Most members pursue their own individual agendas, though all members agree that certain concerns should be opposed: the Baali, Followers of Set, Antediluvian cannibalism, Infernalists. The Inconnu also shelter and protect certain threatened clans, bloodlines, and minor sects, like the Salubri and Children of Osiris. Most pursue especially esoteric or arcane goals, ideas, and scholastic pursuits. The following roles accord to the Status Background though command little actual influence or authority beyond the age and power the role implies: Lesser Monitor (* Status), Monitor (** Status), Assayer (*** Status), Advocate (*** Status), Grand Monitor (**** Status), Grand Assayer (***** Status), and Grand Advocate (***** Status).
There are no Tremere or Giovanni in the Inconnu. Any who tried to join would likely be destroyed, quite possibly by one of the few Salubri or Cappadocian ancients sheltering among them.
Lore
The Lore Knowledge remains rare for all supernatural species of the Hidden World. Lore that does not pertain to vampires is especially and exceedingly uncommon among the Kindred. Even the Tremere have next to no useful “Mage Lore”, considering their current relationship with their former mage brethren and how much has changed over the past 800 years. Generally speaking, Kindred are ignorant of the world beyond their own noses, knowing little beyond what their mortal herd knows.
Diablerie
Regarding diablerie, the ability for elders to persist by somehow taking over a diabolist’s soul is rejected. When a vampire commits diablerie upon another vampire of any age (even younger and higher Generation), the diabolist makes a Willpower check (difficulty 8). Failing the roll means the diabolist gains a new personality trait (reflected possibly in a change in Demeanor or a new Flaw), but that is the limit of it. Saulot does not control the Tremere from within or any of that nonsense, nor is there a Mithras clone from Jamaica running around going "Hey mon, be stoic, mon!"
Caine
The Book of Nod, not unlike the Bible, is best taken as an allegory. The notion that Caine is the literal Second Man because his father, Adam, was the literal first, is rejected. This Creationist narrative does not fit an interesting World of Darkness. That does not mean Caine does not exist. In fact, it means the vampire known as Caine is far older and more powerful than realized. In my metaplot, the first vampire rose as a curse brought on by the commingling between Caine and Lilith. Lilith was an angel who rejected God’s commands (to satisfy the mortal patriarch of a Levantian tribe) and so became a true demon (see below). However, she never devolved into a mindless monster, and she certainly rejected the would-be rule of other fallen angels (like Lucifer). She encouraged Caine, who was not the Second Man or even the 2,000th Man, but rather a human from the Levant who offended their god (“the” God?) through his crimes and was cast out of the tribe. She took pity on him and taught him how to survive, and then she moved on (see below).
Caine was turned to the darkness by Lilith around the time of the incipient Agricultural Revolution, circa 15,000 BCE (he was a Natufian). (Some sources date him as 200,000 years old to the emergence of the first homo sapien. Firstly, this is incorrect per contemporary science, which has discovered evidence for modern humans as far as 300,000 years back. Secondly, the entire narrative, if is to be taken even remotely as truth, depends upon both Caine and Abel participating in a sedentary farming lifestyle that did not even begin to exist until the Natufian Culture at the very earliest.) However, it remains true that Caine wandered in solitude for several thousand years before settling down and Embracing anyone.
The Antediluvians
The Antediluvians exist. Only the thirteen clans have or had an ancient progenitor, all of whom date their Embrace back to between 8,000-9,000 BCE. All other lineages are considered bloodlines who have 4th-Generation progenitors at the earliest. Of course, some of those bloodline founders were among the few who survived the era of the Great Flood (the Baali founders, for example), and thus are quite powerful and frightening in their own rights. Other bloodlines have shrouded their true history in mystery or deception. For example, the Daughters of Cacophony, associated so closely with opera singers, are assumed to be a modern bloodline, but aria-chanters were known in the earliest of Kindred cities.
As for some of the "expanded" bloodlines from Revised: the Laibon exist...as presented in the 2nd edition Dark Ages. There is no sub-species of vampires carving out fiefdoms of blood throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the continent is "Lupine" turf, as is South America. Only a few Laibon exist, scattered and hidden. Conversely, the Jita are rejected. Kuei-jin dominate Asia as far as India. Only once past India and into Central Asia do the Children of Caine hold sway. The only clan that frequents India is the Ravnos, and they are unwelcome.
The following is a list of the most common name by which the thirteen Antediluvians are known. These are not “true names”, of course, but the alias they did, do, or would prefer. Additionally, their current status and location (metaplot secret!) is included here: Absimiliard (Nosferatu, male, Antarctica/torpor), Arikel (Toreador, male, Paris/torpor), Adoniya (Lasombra, female, believed diablerized but survived, New York City/torpor), Ashur (Cappadocians, male, diablerized by Augustus Giovanni but survived, Enoch/torpor), Ennoia (Gangrel, female, Canadian Northwest Territory/awake—in fact, has never been in torpor), Haqim (Assamites, male, Alamut/torpor), Inanna (True Brujah, female, diablerized by Troile after the fall of the Second City), Lucien (Malkavian, male, all over the place/awake), Mekhet (Ventrue, male, slain but not diablerized after the fall of the Second City), Prototokos (Tzimisce, male, believed diablerized but survived, Carpathian Mountains/torpor), Saulot (Salubri, male, diablerized by Tremere), Sutekh (Followers of Set, male, Egypt/torpor).
Reiteration: Saulot (Salubri, male, diablerized by Tremere). That’s it. Period. All other Saulot metaplot, even those threads introduced in 2nd edition (mostly in Dark Ages, which bordered on Revised) are rejected. As for the Salubri, the clan itself does not actually limit its numbers to six, nor do siring Salubri require their childer to diablerize them. Furthermore, a few brave followers of the Path of Sammiel still exist (mostly Inconnu). The Salubri are nevertheless a rare and persecuted lineage, thanks to the influence and rabid hatred of the Tremere.
Note also that torpor does not mean “inactive”, not when it comes to the Antediluvians…
Blood Magic
All forms of Thaumaturgy (limited to the generic 2nd edition approach that is personalized by Path and Ritual choices, as well as stylistic methodology of those Rituals) are potent. And yet, there are profound limits to what vampires can do even with blood magic. The Tremere desperately investigate and test these limits. They’ve discovered that the ley lines and nexuses (upon which they seek to build their chantryhouses) are not responsive to vampiric Disciplines. It’s not just a matter of blood magic’s relative rigidity (like hedge magic) but rather due to the inherent corruption that Disciplines pose by their very nature. Vampiric powers are not neutral in resonating force but rather deeply tainted, regardless of how pure a soul or humane the vampire may be. The natural flow of magical energy (ley lines/nexuses) resists this sort of befouled sorcery. This explains the limitations (so noted in the house rules).
Kuei-jin and the Spirit Worlds
As presented in the Kindred of the East series, Kuei-jin spend as much time in the Yang and Yin Worlds as they do in the Middle Kingdom. They cross the Wall (Gauntlet/Shroud) frequently and with relative ease (mid-level Rites or Disciplines). I reject this approach to Vampire, even for the Kuei-jin. This does not mean those powers cease to exist but rather that vampires find it harder to act in the spirit realms: they add +2 to all Physical actions’ difficulties rather than just +1 (like shapeshifters). Because of that difficulty, most avoid traversing the spirit realms as much as possible. However, they are still skilled shamans and mediums (especially the Bone Flowers, Celestial Devils, and Laughing Rainbows).
Great Leap Outward
The Quincunx Courts of Zhungguo has been hampered in recent years not by any efforts of the Kin-jin but domestic disturbances at home. Regional discord (especially between the Quincunx, umi, Green Courts, and Golden Courts) has made worrying about expanding into the West a thing of lesser concern. The Wu and small Courts already established in the Americas and Europe have not been abandoned, but neither are they receiving additional resources. They’re on their own for now.
Origins of the Damned
As noted before, Caine is neither 10,000 years old nor 200,000, but rather the son of Natufian peoples (so, he’s about 15,000 years old). This is also the period of the Late Glacial Interstadial: when the ice sheets began to melt and the climate warmed enough for humankind to consider expanding and settling. The Agricultural Revolution began to shape the future of the species during this time. As society slowly shifted from subsistence living to surplus civilization, both the positive and negative aspects of the human psyche increased. For every artistic breakthrough, a new and vile crime was inflicted. Whatever the truth of the biblical narrative, Caine was among those criminals and exiled from the Natufian lands. Lilith, a demon of princely power, took pity on this lost mortal (though she no doubt had other plans). Perhaps she saw in him the same rebellious spirit she once held against her maker. So, she cursed and blessed him, turning him into one of the first vampires in history.
Origins of the Hungry Dead
Xianren, an ancient Paleolithic site located near the modern city of Jingxi in southern China, was named after the legendary Wan Xian. Unfortunately, mortal archaeologists do not realize that while this Paleolithic culture was one of many arising in East Asia, this particular site was home to Xue. Xue was the leader of Xianren people, one of many petty kings of ancient Stone Age China. But he guided his people well and the August Personage sent him back as Wan Xian upon his mortal death. As an immortal hero, he sought his kind and helped battle the Yama Kings.
Then the Yama Queen Lilissu (actually a True Demon) visited Xue and whispered rebellion into his ears. He deserved to be king, she whispered, of all the land. Heaven unjustly held him back from his sacred duty and reward. Had he not already earned it? Through dark wisdom, visions of Yomi Wan, she dragged Xue through evil and back until his appetite grew to match her whispers. Xue became the first Wan Xian to then suffer the curse and become Wan Kuei. This turned the Wheel from the 3rd Age to the 4th, not in the second millennia BCE as most Kuei-jin historians teach today, but in approximately 13,000 BCE.
Xue would seemingly redeem himself many eons later, however. For the first 12,000 years, a great secret pervaded Wan Kuei society: the ancients avoided the madness of their hunger by Dharmic paths now considered heretical: Spirit of the Living Earth, Face of the Gods, Flame of the Rising Phoenix, and the Tempest of Inward Focus. Xue himself was a Godling for the better part of his long existence.
Then something happened that exposed the Wan Kuei society as a lie. Perhaps Xue had a glimmer of remembrance for conscience and decency, or he uncovered a dark truth about the Yama Kings (or about Lilissu…). Regardless, he abandoned his ancient power base among mortals and immortals alike. He pursued a spirit quest, wandering the Middle Kingdom and beyond, and began to have a series of visionary insights that would give birth to the five classical Dharmic roads. He returned this wisdom to his people who, after millennia of stagnation, embraced the new learning. Xue himself soon vanished and it was presumed he obtained Enlightenment. Wan Kuei society was utterly overturned. Despite the desire for something new, such a monumental transition could not occur peacefully. In the process, the true history of the Wan Kuei was deliberately destroyed and re-written by the Five August Courts. To prevent further discord, the ancient Dharmic paths were declared heretical and the Fivefold Way instituted.
The Fourth Age could very well be separated into two distinct parts, since the greater earlier part predates recorded human history by nearly ten thousand years, while the second part dominates most of human history up until the Modern Period (approximately 1500).
Xue and Caine are not the same being. They are the first two vampires in the World of Darkness and are roughly the same age. However, Xue really did transcend the Middle Kingdom and will never be seen again. He sits in Heaven at the side of the August Personage, enlightened and redeemed. Caine still has a reckoning with his many wayward childer to attend…
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