Politics

Politics - because that's what everyone wants to read about!

General speaking, all political differences and conflicts in the society come down to one of two major issues: the first being what is the proper role of a vampire in relationship to human beings, and the second being, who is in charge of getting to tell other vampires what to do.

For the vast majority of the existence of 'vampires,' or, as they refer to themselves, 'the blooded', the second question had one very simple answer: Azaes. The progenitor of all other vampires, he was an absolute monarch. While his rule was challenged on many occasions with attempted coups and overthrowals, Azaes was always able to maintain his power in the end.. until his disappearance in the year 1229 CE, which kicked off what might be seen as the 'modern' political situation of vampires-- an eight-century period of time that a reasonably significant number of older vampires can class as being 'within living memory'. The History page breaks down further the exact developments that led to the current situation, but a simplified version is as follows:

Following Azaes's death, his queen, Tialis, assumed global control of the blooded. She ruled for approximately a century, while fending off the encroachment of the heads of the seven 'great bloodlines' for her authority. However, the bloodlines banded together, and managed to violently overthrow her around the year 1347. In turn, this alliance fell apart shortly thereafter as each faction battled for supremacy. The ensuing war, called the Fifth Catastrophe, was extremely bloody and led to enormous casualties across the globe, but especially in Europe, where the fighting is fiercest. (Human death toll was also high due to fall-out from the battles.) After five decades of war, about half of the vampiric population had been decimated, and the exhausted combatants were willing to consider a brokered peace. The individuals who stepped forward to arrange this peace were the jadim-- vampires who had renounced family ties in order serve as civil servants of the society. As impartiality was a large function of their role, they were able to present themselves as unbiased when deciding the terms of the peace. The population as a whole, as represented by the surviving heads of the great families, reluctantly agreed to allow the jadim an unprecedented level of authority to stop the bloodshed.

The most senior of the jadim formed a council to lay out conditions. The primary condition was that the great bloodlines would be broken up, since it was their ability to each call upon tens of thousands of 'their' lineage, and allied subordinates, that had made the conflict so global and so deadly. The jadim imposed limitations on how large a family could be and how many subordinate branches they could claim. Now, an individual bloodline would be allowed control over no more than a hundred vampires, at most. The jadim felt that conflicts would still happen-- but at least be smaller and more contained.

With the reluctant agreement of the families to this proposal, the jadim also set to creating other terms to govern vampiric behavior. Part of the conflict among the seven bloodlines had revolved around the treatment of humans, with two of the seven taking a more 'hardline' approach to humans and feeling that vampires ought rule overtly rather than be content to hide their nature. The attempts of the jadim 's Council to mediate this dispute led to another schism, as not even all of the Council could agree. After several years' worth of tense negotiations, with most people dreading a renewed outbreak of actual violent warfare, a compromise was reached: certain sections of the globe would be ceded to the anti-secrecy minority, with the understanding that they would not overtly completely destroy secrecy, but that otherwise, they would be able to operate as they chose without the Council's oversight within that territory. One of the jadim essentially 'defected' to assume a leadership position within that faction. The majority of vampires, however, committed to an agreement that secrecy was to be the agreed-upon norm, with various rules in play to ensure that, and that they would continue to operate under the accepted rule of the jadim. This may be considered 'mainstream' vampiric society, and the dominant political faction.

Until quite recently, there were several groups that could reasonably be considered 'factions' of vampiric society, as follows:


 * The 'ordinary' vampires-- 80% of the global population, some 100,000 vampires, who by collective agreement agree to abide by the dictates of the Council of the Jadim; who hunt humans but who prioritize keeping vampiric existence secret and who do engage in a certain level of symbiotic existence with some humans, albeit one that still favors the vampire
 * The faction known as Chain, comprised of the minority who split off approximately six hundred years ago, and who believe that humans exist to be subordinate entirely to vampires, and that vampires should not operate in secret but openly claim position as rulers of the planet. Due to the terms of the compromise, they never openly "blew the secret" in an inarguable, global way, but they exerted pressure in various ways to bring this about as a reality. About 20,000 vampires worldwide, mostly concentrated in Africa and South America
 * The faction known as Rue, who existed before the schism and chaos of the 1200s - 1400s, and remained neutral during it. In numbers alone they are quite small, being at most about 100 vampires, but they are still important. They argue that humans and vampires should co-exist peacefully and that vampires should not hunt humans. They are led by the vampire (?) Joshua.
 * 'Australia.' Don't ask. They do not involve themselves in the mainstream political landscape or battles, and split off from regular vampiric society several thousand years ago.
 * The Azaim: Like Rue, in absolute numbers they are relatively small, a mere percentage of a percentage of a percent of the global population. They remained neutral in the war of the 1200s-1400s. Their only interest is solving the mystery of Azaes's disappearance and bringing about his return; they do not care about humans one way or another.

The primary conflict and tension was between the mainstream vampires and the Chain faction, though this mostly manifested as skirmishes and cold war maneuvering rather than outright war. As of a few years ago, however, all of this changed. The conflict between the two came to an overt head when it was discovered that the Chain faction had been deliberately creating feral vampires within their enemy's territory, en masse, as a long-term sabotage and disruption tactic. The Jadim responded to this by declaring outright war; the Azaim shocked everyone by choosing to enter said war on the side of the Jadim, an essential endorsement that they were legitimate heirs to Azaes's authority.

In the space of several months, nearly all of Chain was either destroyed or forced to surrender. Some five percent of the general population died; as many as half of Chain died. It remains to be seen if this will be classed as the Sixth Catastrophe or not. Vampiric society is still reeling and adjusting to the fact that their major enemy for the last five centuries has, essentially, been defeated, and what that means for things like expansion into previously off-limits territories.

Currently, the 'mainstream' vampires have an essential hegemonic rule over the globe, with the exception of Seattle (the territory of Rue), and Australia, where everything wants to eat you.

That does not mean that all is peace and unity. Even within the vampires that accept the rule of the jadim, there are many differences of opinion over precisely how much authority the jadim should have, how one should hunt, and whether or not increasing levels of human technology necessitate a revisit of fundamental assumptions. But for the moment, everyone is managing to confine these differences to mere grumbling.