Vampire: The Masquerade - Vampires in World of Darkness

Vampires in World of Darkness

"Kindred" is the term most vampires in this game use to refer to themselves and their race. Some vampires, namely those of the Sabbat, refer to themselves as "Cainites", as (according to the traditional Abrahamic creation myth) the curse that transforms them into vampires originated from the blood of Caine, which flows in the veins of all vampires and is the source of their strength. The term "Kine" (an archaic term for cattle) is the opposite of this, and refers to humans.

In general, vampiric societies consist of two levels: sects and clans. Characters within the Vampire setting are members of one of the clans or minor bloodlines offered, and usually belong to factions associated with these or that reflect a general ideological stance the characters happen to share. For example, a Brujah may belong to the Camarilla, the Sabbat, or the Anarchs, but very few Tremere would be found among the Sabbat and even more rarely among the Anarchs.

Some clans and most of the minor bloodlines declare themselves independent from any sects. A vampire who rejects all associations with any sect and clan is known as Autarkis. In addition, the Laibon, known as Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom by Western Kindred, are not so much a sect as a cultural group bound together loosely by a powerful spiritual bond to the land and the people of Africa. The Kindred of the East, while sharing some superficial similarity to the western Kindred, are actually an entirely different variety of supernatural being.