Lexicon

Below is a list of common terms used exclusively by the Cam to explain and define their nightly existence; not every Cam vamp knows or uses all these terms

Allthing: A gathering of Gangrel, often called by the eldest of clan member in a particular region. A smaller gathering is called a thing.

Anarch: A vamp who has rejected the Cam to exist as an independent. The vast majority of anarchs are under a century old.

Archon: A vamp in the services of a justicar. Archons are rarely of the same clan as the justicar they serve so as to avoid the appearance of favoritism, and are deputized with a wide array of powers. Most archons are blood bound to the justicar they serve.

Ball: A gathering of Torries and invited guests.

Barrens: The areas outside a city proper that are uninhabitable by Kindred. Generally the Barrens start in the near suburbs and extend outward from a city.

Blood Bond: The supernatural love created by the act of ingesting a Kindred’s vitae three times. Bonds can rarely be broken, especially if they are periodically reinforced with more vitae.

Blood Hunt: The process by which a prince declares another vamp to be outlawed, and the prosecution (in the form of an actual hunt) that follows.

Breach: A violation of the Masquerade, usually punishable by death.

Camarilla: The sect of vamps, theoretically universal, that defines itself by the Traditions & the Masquerade.

Chantry: A communal haven-cum-workshop for a city’s Tremere.

Conclave: A gathering of the entire sect, usually called by a justicar.

Convention of Thorns: The treaty that ended the Anarch Revolt.

Coterie: A group of Kindred who work more or less in concert. Most coteries are made up of members of multiple clans, and few endure for more than a few decades.

Court: The formal audience granted by the prince and his subjects, often given at Elysium. When a prince holds court, in theory any of the city’s Kindred may approach him to present themselves, request boons or otherwise make requests for favor or action.

Domain: A territory assigned to a single vamp, who then has primary rights to feeding, industry and whatnot within her domain.

Destruction: The power of life and death over other Kindred. Possessed by a city’s prince and occasionally bestowed on others within his dominion.

Embrace: The act of turning a mortal into a vamp.

Elysium: A haven of art and culture within a Cam city. Elysiums are, by long tradition, zones wherein combat or the use of Disciplines is strictly forbidden. Much of the harpies’ work is done in Elysium.

Final Death: The ultimate destruction of a vamp.

Founders: The legendary group of Kindred who established the Camarilla.

Ghoul: 1) a mortal (usually, but not always, human) who has been fed vitae & acquired a hint of vampiric power as a result. 2) the act of making someone a ghoul.

Harpy: A de facto title given to the Kindred who sit in judgment on the rest of a city’s social statue. The harpies mandate the social pecking order through innuendo, rumors, favoritism and other such tools.

Inner Circle: The council of elders that controls the Cam and its policies. No one knows how many Kindred sit on the Inner Circle, let alone the clans and names of those who do so.

Justicar: A roving representative of the Inner Circle charged with upholding the Traditions and laws of the Camarilla. There is one justicar from each clan, elected to a 13-yr term by the Inner Circle and subject to replacement at the end of that term. Justicars have sweeping powers, including the right of destruction, to enforce the laws and Traditions.

Keeper of Elysium: The vamp charged with upholding the sanctity and quality of a city’s Elysium.

Malkavian Madness Network: The poorly understood connection that links all Malks by means of their shared altered perceptions. Outside theorists postulate that the network has developed some sort of link to the Net, but details are understandably hard to come by.

Masquerade: The Cam’s strict policy of concealing the existence of vamps from the mortal world.

Ordeal: A form of trial among the Kindred, wherein the accused undergoes some sort of test (combat, sunlight, etc.) in order to prove her innocence.

Pioneer: The first Kindred into a city or area. Pioneers often set themselves up as princes, and call for reinforcements to help them maintain their holdings. Few pioneer princes last long; once they’ve stabilized their domains, most are rudely shoved aside by usurpers less inclined to take risks.

Primogen: A member of the council of elders who putatively advise the prince of a city. The primogen council’s actual power varies from city to city.

Prince: The ruler of a city or its equivalent in the Cam; the supreme authority in local Cam affairs. The title applies to both male and female Kindred.

Pyramid: Slang term for the formal structure of Clan Tremere.

Rack: the prime feeding grounds in a given city. Often composed of clubs, bars and shopping districts.

Rant: A formal (in some sense of the word) gathering of Brujah.

Red List: The listing of those Kindred whom the Cam most ardently desires to see purged from the face of the earth. Vamps on the Red List are considered under continual blood hunt.

Retainer: A mortal or ghoul who serves a Cainite directly.

Scourge: Title given to a Kindred charged by the prince with cleansing the city of unwanted, unauthorized vampiric rabble.

Seneschal: A prince’s right-hand vamp. The seneschal handles many of the night-to-night operations of a city.

Sheriff: Kindred charged by a prince with the duty of upholding the laws and Traditions of the city.

Spawning Pools: Breeding chambers for ghouls used by the Nos. The water of the pool is tainted with Nos vitae, making ghouls of any and every living creature therein. Over centuries, these creatures can grow to monstrous size and power.

Traditions: The most sacred and basic laws of the Cam, established at the same time as the sect.

Vitae: Blood. More specifically, Kindred blood, but the definition is not an absolute one.

Vulgar Argot - used mostly by younger members of the Cam, but as slang knows no borders, they have cropped up in the most unlikely places

Angstburger: Over-the-top moping about one’s vamp condition.

Apeshit: Frenzy

Ash: A vamp who’s been destroyed; sometimes used as a verb meaning “to kill”.

Bloat: Taking more blood than one needs, resulting in reddened eyes, a ruddy complexion and the continual shedding of tears of blood.

Blooded: A vampire

Boojum: Any other supernatural creature, usually non-vamp

‘Bot’: Someone clearly acting under the influence of Dominate. Often reserved for mortals reduced to automaton status.

Brightening Sunsets: Another term for a destroyed Kindred. It refers to the way in which excess dust and ash produce particularly brilliant coloration.

Cannibal: A vamp who indulges in diablerie

Cleanup: Repairing an Oops, or otherwise working to protect the Masquerade

Clockwatcher: A vamp who worries excessively about the approach of dawn

Collar: Blood Bond

Cub Scouts: Archons

Dessert: Feeding for pleasure, not need.

Doornail: As in “dead as a”. Used to refer to a corpse left behind.

Do Over: The process of erasing memories from a mortal’s mind. Often used to cover up evidence of feeding.

Fossil: Derisive term for a vamp who is stuck, stylistically, in an anachronistic mode of behavior. Often used to refer to elders.

Futon: a coffin

Fuzzy: Lupine

Grandpa: a member of a vamps lineage more distant than her sire

Half-Breed: A ghoul. Sometimes phrased as “Half-Blood”.

Happy Meal: The process of drinking from a mortal who is intoxicated or otherwise under the influence of some sort of controlled substance

Inky: A hunter, specifically a member of the Inquisition.

John Law: The sheriff; less frequently, the scourge.

Juice: Vitae

Leftovers: Blood taken from a corpse

Laid: Fed

Lunch: Vitae or the mortal from whom the vitae is obtained.

Lupine Alley: Travel arteries that run through Lupine territory and are notoriously dangerous for vamps to traverse.

Monster: A vamp who terrorizes younger, weaker Kindred. Sometimes spelled Monsta, usually by poseurs.

Munchies: Hunger for vitae after heavy use of Disciplines

Nibs: The prince or any other important vamp. Not intended as a compliment.

Oops: breach of the Masquerade

Perv: a vamp who insists on indulging in mortal sexuality to mask the process of feeding.

PF: Short for ‘pity fuck’ A kindred who receives the Embrace because of guilt or pity on the part of his sire.

Prefrosh: A mortal who is a candidate for the Embrace

Princeling: A derisive term for the leader of a coterie.

Rabbit: A vamp who only feeds on animals. Animal blood is sometimes known as rabbit food.

Rag: The weakest vamp in a coterie.

Recruiting: Breaking the Masquerade so as to prepare a mortal for the embrace.

Renfield: A long-time ghoul, usually one who has far exceeded normal mortal lifespan.

Rug: A dead Lupine, alternately, a dead Gangrel

Sabbot: A derisive term for the Sabbat. Pronounced “S-A-A-bet,” usually in some form of ridiculous accent.

Sand Castle: An unsafe haven or vulnerable domain.

Scoutmaster: Justicar

Shovelhead: Sabbat Vamp

Snap: a broken collar

Soy: Vitae taken from an animal; less filling and tasteless substitute for the real thing.

Speed Bumps: Mortals or inexperienced ghouls pressed into combat against vamps.

Teardrop: A Kindred who kills mortals on a regular basis. Possibly derived from certain mortal gangs’ custom of tattooing teardrops on the cheek of gang members who have committed murder.

Tentacle: A hideously deformed vamp, usually a Tzimisce.

T F B S: Bela Lugosi’s Dead by Bauhas. Nearly universally loathed by all Kindred, who have simply heard it too damn many times for the joke to be funny anymore.

Trashman: A vamp who feeds on the homeless and other detritus. The term derives from such Kindred’s tendency to pick up supper from alleyways or curbsides.

Uncle: An elder who takes an interest in or who patronizes a younger Kindred. Sort of a vampiric sugar daddy.

Valentine: 1) a Kindred who uses his powers to achieve mortal celebrity, often in violation of the Masquerade 2) The mortal lover of a Kindred, usually the source of much angst.

Vector: Vamp who spreads mortal diseases; so called because the CDC has taken an interest in the way in which blood-based diseases have been spreading.

Vlad: A Kindred who acts in stereotypically ‘vampiric’ fashion. Vlads usually wear capes, flaunt their powers and speak in strained Eastern European accents. Few last very long.

Whack Job: Malk or a victim of Dementation

Wolfie: A vamp, often a Gangrel, who prefers spending time in a non-human shape

Yawp: The claims of a prince or other Kindred who can’t hold his own territory.

Old Form:

many of the older members of the Cam refuse to learn new terms to replace ones they’ve been comfortable with for hundreds of years. While old-form terminology is incomprehensible to many young Kindred - the elders insist on using it as a way of maintaining the dignity of the sect. Of course, the fact that the use of such archaisms also renders conversations between elders unintelligible to many inexperienced Kindred has nothing to do with the matter.

Autarkis: An anarch of other lawless vamp. Specifically used by elders to refer to those rebels who took part in the Anarch Revolt.

The Becoming: The Embrace

Blood: Not vitae but rather a Kindred’s lineage and heritage. Many Kindred refer to themselves as being “of the Blood” of a particularly notable ancestor.

Carthagos: Archaic form of Carthage. Any city that a vamp considers to be an exalted or special place.

Diaspora: The dispersal of elders from their lands in Europe, remembered bitterly by many American elders. Also used to describe the exile of vamps from the Second City.

The Fall: The Anarch Revolt, considered by many elders to be the first step on the road to Gehenna.

Fealty: Another name for Blood Bond.

Jus Noctis: Literally, “the law of the night.” In practice, the authority a Kindred has over her childer until she grants them their freedom as responsible members of the Cam. Under the Jus Noctis, a sire is totally responsible for her childer’s actions until she releases them.

Jyhad: The great game played by the Antediluvians amongst themselves, in which all younger Kindred fear they are merely pawns to be moved about the board.

The Kiss: The act of taking blood from a mortal. In some cases the term has also grown to mean the Embrace.

Labyrinth: A particularly well-fortified or ancient haven.

Nemesis: The Sabbat. More generically, a vamp with whom another Kindred has had a rivalry extending across centuries.

Noddist: Of or relating to vampiric legend. Also, a vamp who studies such lore.

Pax: A formal truce between two elders or clans. Often the name of the Kindred who brokered the peace is attached to the term.

Praxis: The right of a prince to rule. Often extended to mean legitimate authority.

Pueri: A derisive term for childer.

Promethean: A thief or other undesirable. Often used to refer to elders of the Sabbat, as opposed to the street-level rabble.

Siren: A vamp who seduces mortals in order to feed on them, but who does not kill his prey.

Somnus: Antediluvian. More generally, any ancient and powerful Kindred rumored to be asleep beneath a city.

Vessel: A mortal, often one intended for feeding.

Whelp: A neonate or young vamp. In practice, any Kindred younger than the speaker.