THE CAINITES OF LONDON

London's Cainite population is in a continual state of flux. While there is a "core group" of vampires (mostly powerful elders and their favored childer), who dwell in the city for most of the time, it also has a far larger-than-average transient population. London is a major trading hub, capital of the mortal kingdom, and "capital" of a Cainite power bloc which not only dominates southern England and some parts of northern France, but has significant influence in northern England, Scotland and south Wales as well. Vampires across a broad swathe of northern Europe have ties, interests, and representatives there.

The Clans

Unsurprisingly, the Ventrue are the most numerous and politically powerful clan in London, influencing both the nobility and the increasingly powerful merchant class. They never showed a great deal of interest in the Church, perhaps because of Mithras' visceral prejudice against Christianity. Before the Avalon War, the Lasombra preoccupied themselves largely with influencing the clergy, but during the War, the Inquisition managed to purge almost all Cainite influence from the Church.

The Toreador, by contrast, tend to be less interested in the political and spiritual affairs of the church than with its architecture, and survived the Inquistion's efforts much better. The London Toreador are disproportionately artisans, usually stonemasons, with a great involvement in church and cathedral building. Many of Clan Nosferatu share this interest, and the members of the two clans have formed an unusual alliance. Most of the remainder of the Nosferatu are allied with Richard de Worde, the Prince's spymaster, which gives the clan an unusually strong political voice. There is also a small but growing band of pious Nosferatu who look upon the Cappadocian Adam Bell as their spiritual leader, and use St. Giles leper hospice outside the city walls as their meeting-place and sometimes, haven.

Adam, a devout follower of the Road of Heaven, makes his own haven at St. Giles and is one of only two members of Clan Cappodician presently in the city. The other, Roger de Camden, is the Prince's Chamberlain.

Clan Assamite has no long-term residents of the city, although Mithras occasionally receives their emissaries - with something approaching warmth, for reasons no vampire in London will admit to knowing. The Setite presence is likewise confined to a few itinerant merchants

The Brujah were led, until recently, by Lord Magnus, a reputed survivor of Carthage. Magnus and several of his most powerful followers fell to the Mages in the Avalon War, leaving the Brujah disorganized and largely leaderless. The clan's two most prominent London members are Edgar of York, a scholar-warrior and demon hunter, and Ancelin of Lincoln, a neonate Sinner with a cerebral outlook on existence.

After the Avalon War, Mithras grudgingly allowed the Tremere to establish a small chantry on London Bridge, largely so that he could keep an eye on them, but their numbers are limited and their activities carefully monitored.

The Ravnos and Tzimisce have almost no presence in the city, apart from individuals such as the Ravnos mercenary Reynard de Beziers or the exiled Tzimisce Lord Raguel. Clan Gangrel, by contrast, is quite numerous and unusually powerful. The Gangrel are disproportionately represented amongst the Saxon faction, and their leader, the elder Chalice of Mercia, enjoys as much trust as Mithras ever gives to anyone.

As for Clan Malkavian, they are as diverse and unpredictable in London as they are anywhere else. The city's pre-eminent Cainite crime lord is the Jackdaw, a Malkavian Embraced as a child in the second century A.D. The Lady Rhiannon, an immensely powerful fifth-generation ancient acknowledged by Mithras as a peer, is an occasional visitor to the city, but she rarely stays long. As a clan they have no real organization or common position on any issue.

The Factions

As with any group of Cainites, there are a number of different factions and interest groups vying for influence within the city. None of them is openly antagonistic to the Prince (although some are more loyal than others), and fear of Mithras' wrath keeps their rivalries simmering at a fairly low level, but their subtle manoeuvering against each other is a constant of unlife within the city.

The Saxons

When William the Conqueror took the throne of England in 1066, his Norman-French followers displaced much of the nobility of the old Saxon kingdom of England. This was a disaster for the native, largely Saxon vampires, whose wealth and influence relied on that same Saxon nobility. A triumvirate of three powerful elders - Baron Geoffrey of Calais, Countess Liseult de Taine, and Roald Snakeeyes - accompanied the Conqueror, and their supporters swiftly eclipsed the Saxons as their pawns replaced those of the native vampire population.

Setting aside their personal rivalries - for the time being - the Saxons rallied. For a time, it looked as though they were on the way to regaining power through their unwitting ally, King William Rufus, the Conqueror's son. But the presumed assassination of Rufus sounded the death-knell for those hopes. A little later, Mithras approached the weakened Saxon faction and offered them an alliance.

Under Mithras, the remaining Saxons have regained a good measure of their influence. They are generally considered Mithras loyalists by default, since their numbers are now too few for them to rule in their own right, and their alliance with the Prince is their best way to retain power.

The Lasombra - Pious and Worldly

Before the Avalon War, the Lasombra of London were spilt into two main groups, both of which have one central preoccupation - the Church. The "Pious" Lasombra, followers of the Road of Heaven, saw it as a source of redemption, while the "Worldly" Lasombra saw it mostly as a source of power and wealth. The Worldly constantly sought to place pawns of their own into senior ecclesiastical positions, while the Pious worked to frustrate them and advance genuinely Godly men in authority.

The ironic result was to leave London's churches largely free of Cainite influence, as the Lasombra's efforts tended to cancel each other out. The Worldly Lasombra were kept on a tight reign by Mithras, who had a visceral dislike for Christianity's usurpation (as he sees it) of his own cult, and set strict limits on the amount of power which he would allow any one faction to wield over the Church. In this, the Pious Lasombra were often his instruments - wittingly or otherwise.

During the Avalon War, the Lasombra's connection to the Church was their undoing. It made them too visible, too easy for the Red Order to target. Very few members of either faction survived the war, and the Church is now almost well and truly purged of Cainite influence. The Inquisition mean to see that it stays that way

The Guild of Stone-Masons

An ironic appellation which has stuck, the Masons, as they are most commonly known, are something very unusual - an alliance between the Toreador and the Nosferatu, mostly followers of the Road of Heaven, whose goal is to promote the construction of beautiful churches and monasteries as a visible expression of their faith. Though apolitical, they wield a surprising amount of influence, because the Cainite population of London is constantly threatened by fires and, as a result, tries to encourage the use of stone construction wherever possible. The Masons, though their connections with the mortal stone-workers, are an important part of this effort.

The Loyalists

The Prince's lieutenants are generally grouped together under this heading by London's vampires, although they are a diverse lot. Lord Roger de Camden of Clan Cappadocian and the Nosferatu spymaster Richard de Worde are their most well-known members, but there are several others. Olaf Sigurdsson, one of the very few members of the Clan of Shadows not preoccupied with the church, is a sort of general factotum for the Prince, keeping an eye on all the city's Cainites and making sure none grow too powerful. Lady Giselle d'Anjou of Clan Toreador is the Prince's unofficial "Ambassador" to the other fiefs of Britain.

The Lady Isobel of Gloucester, Ralph FitzMortimer, and Henry Brewer are sometimes ironically referred to as the "Triumvirate". Former members of the old Norman faction, they saw which way the wind was blowing, and switched sides. Each now serves as a sort of "envoy" to the outlying regions of Mithras' realm. Henry Brewer has extensive connections to the wool trade and the west, Ralph FitzMortimer occupies himself with the port cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, and the Lady Isobel retains connections in the northern part of Mithras' domain through her mortal family, which survived the upheavals of the Avalon War.