The first thing to understand about the anarchs is that there is no such   
thing as an "Anarch" sect, there are only vampire characters who are  
unwelcome or hunted by the powers that be. "Anarch" is not a term     
describing a unified group of vampires, it is a title -- a generalization --    
that the elders use to describe those who refuse to obey. Anarchs are outlaws   
who are neither bound nor protected by the Traditions. Think anarch with a small
"a".

 Many a vampire lives in a small town in solitude,        
beholden to no Prince. If that vampire were to begin breaking the Masquerade,   
they would soon find out that the Princes' reach can be long, indeed. But to    
live in a city is to accept the presence of other vampires, which is to accept  
the presence and influence of the Prince, or Princes in the case of Los Angeles.
All who live within the city are subject to the rule of one Prince or another,  
and the powers those Princes wield are considerable and should not be tested    
lightly.
                                                                    

 It can be tempting to view the anarchs as "heroes," champions of 
democracy fighting against the elders' tyranny. Some of those labeled 'anarch'  
do view themselves this way, but do not be fooled: they are vampires, monsters  
struggling for their humanity every bit as much as the elders. Many who struggle
against the elders' rule are wise, smart, sophisticated. Many are violent street
toughs, fiercely proud and territorial. But very few openly oppose the powers.  
Some simply try to stay out of the way and out of trouble; some are subversive. 
They suffer loss of status, true, but so long as they cleave to the Traditions, 
their lives and havens are not in jeopardy.

 That said, Los Angeles does 
have true 'anarchs,' vampires who violently oppose the powers of the Princes.   
But even those few brave creatures do not force the elders to tip their hand. It
is a fine line, the line between fighting and destruction, between struggle and 
Lextalionis. On this MUSH, all IC actions have IC consequences. If your         
character wishes to fight against the power of the Princes, he or she may do so.
He or she may earn the label 'anarch.' But if the character is clever, they will
play the Princes off against each other, seeking favor from one, fighting       
another. It's a dangerous game. Are you ready to play it?
                   

 Several of the clans and bloodlines set forth by White Wolf frankly do not 
exist in the world of this Los Angeles. Others still do. Only seven are commonly
understood to exist in Los Angeles: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu,     
Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue. Our theme here is focused upon them. In other   
words, excepting only the availability of Caitiff, no other Clan or Bloodline is
available to player characters (so don't ask). What characters know of the      
existence of other Clans and Bloodlines will be limited to the +news lores files
locked to their lore levels.

 As to the clans in play in Los Angeles,    
each has a dominant theme, a 'tone' to its structure and history. These themes  
are particular facets of the overall themes of the game. Not every single       
character in a clan needs to reinforce the clan's theme, but all players should 
keep it in mind when creating characters. Each and every 'tone' will be (and    
should be) present, to one degree or another, in every character on the MUSH.   
Clan themes are not meant to encourage stereotyping, but to give guidelines as  
to what the "feel" of each consanguineous line is within the city of  
Los Angeles. These themes do not necessarily hold true outside the city.
    

 The Brujah in Los Angeles face a question of trust and conflicting ideals: 
who are one's allies, and who are one's secret enemies? What is the purpose that
drives your eternal existence? It is not enough merely to maintain your humanity
in the face of the Beast. What will you do with it? Who will you be? The        
division between the anarchs and the elders is most strongly felt within the    
members of this clan, as they struggle to decide who they are, and what they    
want.

 See also +Explain Brujah.
                                     

 The Gangrel embody the raw struggle of a vampire's humanity against the    
Beast - the conflict itself rather than one side or another. Also involved with 
the clan's theme is the role of the city. As outlanders, they know what it is to
be apart from the mortal world, to feel the call of the wild. The cities of     
mortals are at once a salve and an irritant. Should a vampire remove themselves 
to safety from temptation, seeking the solitude of the wild? Or should they     
plunge into the seething masses of humanity and attempt to rediscover what it   
means to be human? Venture not too far in either direction: it is a balance. The
Gangrel more than any other clan represent the basic, uncomplicated struggle to 
maintain that wedge of consciousness holding back the primal rage               
within.

 See also +Explain Gangrel.
                                  

 If the Gangrel struggle against the power of the Beast, the Malkavians     
struggle against its amoral depravity. Sliding into madness, the Malkavians     
represent the desensitization of even the conscious undead. They are the        
eccentric seers and wise men found in many games but they are also vampires that
blur the distinction between the human in control and the Beast within. They are
all the beast has to offer, but coupled with insanity and intelligence. They are
the answer to the Riddle, writ into the soul. Their insight could be useful, but
do you really want to see what they see? This is by far the darkest clan in the 
city, and players should keep in mind their Role-Playing preferences when       
considering whether to play one of these monsters.

 See also +Explain    
Malkavian.
                                                                  

 The Nosferatu clan personifies the dilemma of the good man in a bad        
situation. When everyone around you is a monster, how do you survive? How far   
are you willing to go to stop the evil in the world, even if only for a little  
while? They wear their curse on their face, and it is enough. The Nosferatu     
represent the dying sense of morality - scheming blood-drinkers who are given to
moments of compassion and humanity. If such a thing were possible, they would be
the "heroes" of the vampiric world. But such a thing is not possible, 
for vampires are monsters, and none can see that more plainly than the hideous  
Nosferatu.

 See also +Explain Nosferatu.
                             

 The Toreador theme is a lonely one: lost vitality. No clan is closer to    
humanity, and no clan feels more poignantly the absence of the creative spark,  
destroyed in becoming one of the walking dead. Some vampires try to fan the     
dying embers of their own vitality, drowning themselves in the world of         
decadence and excess, others try to touch the pulse of life by nurturing mortal 
talent, acting as patrons, or inspirational shadows. The Toreador represent what
was lost in the Embrace, but Los Angeles is a superficial city. In their        
desperation to recover what was lost, to fill the void, the Toreador are at once
the most social of vampires, but can often become the most spiteful, petty, and 
jealous as well.

 See also +Explain Toreador.
                        

 The Tremere theme is one of one-upsmanship, of rivalries and the race for  
position. They compete within their chantries, and they compete within the      
larger realm of vampire politics. They can never get high enough, and there will
always be someone above them, dancing, just out of reach, and working to keep   
them down. How high do you reach, and how far can you fall? It is not just the  
hunger that drives vampires to do the things that they do. The Beast influences 
the vampire on all levels, driving them to dominate and control.

 See    
also +Explain Tremere.
                                                      

 The Ventrue theme is closely tied to one of the general themes of the MUSH:
control and futility. These vampires crave order and obedience, and the clan    
seeks to rule this city as they rule so many others. But this city is not like  
the others, and they find that it refuses to conform beneath their will. The    
times are changing as well, leaving the elders -- especially the traditional    
Ventrue -- behind. To what measures will they go to accomplish their goals, and 
what effect will this have? The answers are not always clear. Kings they may    
have been, and kings they yet might be, but of what and at what cost?

   
See also +Explain Ventrue.
                                                  

Vampires are inhuman. They are dead people who survive based upon how well they 
can drink blood from the bodies of the living. Thus vampires are perpetual      
predators while humans are relegated to the role of prey. As farmers generally  
become callous toward the pigs they might slaughter daily for meat, the same    
invariably holds true for the vampires who must prey upon the living. This      
unavoidable dichotomy between predator and prey marks vampires as more and more 
inhuman over time. Even for the most empathetic of vampires, the nature of      
vampiric existence slides them inevitably toward being something distinctly     
inhuman. This slide from humanity is marked by Inhumanity Traits. (See +News    
Systems/Inhumanity Traits.)

Vampires are also beasts. More precisely,    
each vampire has a Beast within them. The Beast hungers for blood. It fears fire
and sunlight. It hates anything that impedes its immortality. The Beast exists  
inside each vampire, and it can never be ignored. It can only be fought. For    
some, this fight can last for centuries. For others, it can last but a night.   
However, when this fight ends, it can only mean that the Beast has won. This    
battle with the Beast is marked by Beast Traits. (See +News Systems/Beast       
Traits.)                                                                        

 Learn the golden rule now: IC Actions have IC Consequences. Unless you are 
playing a Feature PC, no one is going to tell you that you can't do something   
that is within your character's power (please keep in mind +news                
policies/Cooperative RP). You want to attack a Prince in Elysium? Go ahead.     
Maybe you can really do it with your suped-up Gangrel War Machine.

 Maybe
not.

 Your character should have his or her own goals and plans. Execute 
those plans, pursue those goals - whatever they are. Make good RP out of them.  
There is no over-arching story arc at this MUSH, and any vampire can become     
Prince or ash through the proper application of scheming, roleplay, and cunning.
But remember that your character lives in a city with over one hundred other    
vampires, and that the elders are powerful; they do not brook threats to that   
power lightly. One way or another, for everything your character does, he or she
will eventually face the music.
                                             

At the turn of the millennium, Los Angeles has become a city spiraling out of   
control. Freeways are packed to capacity far beyond rush hour and into the      
night. Masses of humanity stream into the city, hoping to acquire some of the   
vast wealth flowing in and out of its electronic channels every day. Hollywood  
and the Recording Industry strain to satisfy the nation's need for the          
titillating and perverse while numbing any sense of individuality or initiative.
Crime runs rampant through the poorer neighborhoods, as the smallest urban      
police force in the nation tries to patrol an ever-expanding urban sprawl.      
Politicians, criminal syndicates, corporations, and the undead all vie for      
control of this conglomerate megalopolis.

 Desperately, the undead pour  
more and more energy into the city, and with every squeeze, the city boils and  
rolls and becomes more and more unstable, oscillating this way and that. Wealth 
is polarized, as the enclaves of Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes, Malibu, and       
Brentwood retreat from the unmanageable terror of Compton and Inglewood. But    
it's all one city -- linked by L.A.'s legendary freeways, by the Internet, and  
by the threads of influence which spread through the city like a virus.         

One Prince could not control it, but there were others waiting in the shadows.  
In the wake of chaos, eight princes emerged, sanctioned by the Camarilla, and   
determined to bring their own brand of order and control to the city. They fight
each other, they fight their enemies, and they fight the city itself. Each night
is a struggle in a sprawling world going mad. Los Angeles continues to spread   
and grow unchecked, guided by a hundred different minds. Power is there to be   
had. But who understands it well enough to control it all? Is it even possible, 
and will it be in time to save the city from itself?

 The primary theme  
of Los Angeles: A House Divided is one of control. Who controls the city? Who   
can? Will the elders control the anarchs? Will the anarchs control the streets? 
Will the Princes manage to even keep control of their domains? The World of     
Darkness is scarier than our world, but no less confusing. Power structures,    
politics, everything is complex, and interconnected. Vampires live forever, so  
how much more connected are they?                                               

 Vampires are also creatures apart from mortals and their humanity.

 
The secondary theme of the MUSH is the fine balance between humanity and the    
Beast that vampires face every night. The Beast is inside, and it claws to get  
out. You fight it, every night, but the true horror is that the Beast never     
consumes you - it overpowers you. Should the Beast reign ascendant, you will    
forever be trapped inside, unable to act. The Riddle is the only answer: Beasts 
we are lest beasts we become. What role do the masses of humanity play in this? 
Los Angeles is an excellent place to find out.
                              

Ah, to be a ghoul in Los Angeles. Eternal life, power, and you don't have   
any of those problems like having to drink blood to survive, or coping with the 
Beast, or never getting to see the sun again. Best of all, you can still have   
sex! What a great deal!

Welcome to reality.

As a ghoul (also known
as a retainer, or thrall) in vampire society, you are little more than a slave, 
bound to the vampire who feeds you. From the moment that first gush of vitae is 
swallowed, your will ceases to be entirely your own. Once a full blood bond is  
established, you will do nearly anything your master or mistress (also known as 
a regnant) asks of you, and although you may dally with others, perhaps even    
carnally, you will never, ever, know true love, except as the twisted and       
perverse version that the bond enforces (see +news systems/blood bonds).        

Most ghouls become little more than extensions of their regnant's will,     
seeing to their affairs in mortal society, guarding them from harm, and running 
daylight errands and operations that the vampire cannot. Then there are those   
rare few who stand out and maintain some form of free will and initiative       
despite the bond. These are our ghoul PC's, who manage to keep a certain amount 
of their own lives and identities intact. They may even occasionally have the   
resolve to tell their regnant, "No". Or work in a way they think would
best benefit their masters, even if the master may think                        
otherwise.

However, just because you have an identity outside your       
master's, it does not change that ghouls are considered second-class citizens at
best by vampire society as a whole. In fact, such willful behavior is often     
looked down upon, especially by elders. You are considered property, and it     
should be borne in mind that while breaking another's property is bad form, most
vampires feel it is nothing to get truly worked up about, so long as it was     
provoked and adequate compensation or apology is given. It's not like a vampire 
died, after all. Unfair? Perhaps. But something to think about before telling   
that Primogen where he can stick his rules. You may be able to still tread      
beneath both sun and moon, but always remember to tread carefully.

See   
+news Undead L.A./ghouls for more details (you must have Vampire Lore 1 or      
Camarilla Lore 1 to read).                                                      

 Los Angeles is many things to many people, but it is Hollywood to everyone.
Hollywood is the cult of celebrity, the promise of fame, and the realization of 
dreams. It is also futility, manipulation, and vice. For every starlet who      
crawls off a bus and strikes it big, dozens are tossed off the casting couch,   
used and forgotten. Hollywood is a massive and grotesque magnification of       
humanity's promise and peril; it's just the sort of place where someone like a  
vampire might feel at home.

 No vampire in the city can be completely    
unaware of the influence of the media and the movie industry on Los Angeles.    
Movie shoots clog the streets, stars walk the promenades and sit in the         
restaurants, and movie advertisements adorn entire sides of buildings. The      
allure of the power and influence that mass media can give is too much for many 
vampires to resist, and those that have it guard it jealously.
              

 Los Angeles is home to 15 million mortals, masses of humanity clogging the 
roads, welfare offices, jails, prisons, schools, parking lots, and stores -     
virtually everything save sidewalks. Every race, creed, and nationality exists, 
a microcosm of the larger world, thrown often times too close together. These   
milling masses are the energy fueling the city, the source of its vitality and  
power.

 Humanity is, in the modern age of Los Angeles, crawling out from 
years and years of undead domination. At last, through technology and sheer     
recklessness, humanity is once again on the rise. Vampires ruled the industrial 
age because of its hierarchical structures, and by most accounts they manage to 
cling to that rule. But the modern nights are decentralized, and the undead feel
the tethers slipping out of control. Now, more than ever, the Masquerade is of  
vital importance.
                                                           

 What other supernaturals?
                                              

 It's the dawn of the twenty-first century, and Los Angeles is a center of  
technological consumerism, if not research or development. Computer networks    
carry millions of dollars in and out of the city every hour. Cell phone networks
are jammed with tens of thousands of users. Only a nobody walks in L.A., but    
anyone who is anyone has a PDA in their pocket and a broadband internet         
connection at home. Functions combine in increasingly smaller packages - though 
perfect portable wireless internet is still experimental -- and things become   
more and more automated.

 In many ways, vampires appreciate the          
anonymity, the ability to act from behind an email address. But at the same time
it empowers vampires, it empowers each and every human in the city. Dominate    
doesn't work through email, or through a cell phone. Technology is ripping      
vampires away from their traditional power structures. Technology advances      
quickly, and many vampires find that they simply cannot keep up - they are too  
old, too set in their ways. Remember that vampires are not as adaptable as      
mortals, they do not paradigm shift as quickly as humans do.
                

 Technology has brought terrible new weapons into the world as well. The    
military is equipped to kill efficiently as never before. Assault rifles are    
smaller, lighter, more powerful than they were just thirty years ago. Portable  
rockets, bombs, and grenades are all very real threats to the vampire as much as
to the mortal. Although such weapons are occasionally found on the streets of   
Los Angeles, however, their appearance is rare. The elders and the police alike 
work to keep such armament off the street, in the hands of the army and other   
institutional sources of power where they can be controlled.

 Guns are,  
by and large, illegal in the city of Los Angeles. Only movie stars and their    
bodyguards have permits to carry. Carrying a gun means accepting a risk, for    
even arrest itself can be a threat to the Masquerade. Carrying heavy weaponry   
such as grenades or full machine guns, although such things can be acquired with
the proper influence, is sure to draw the wrath of both the mortal and undead   
authorities. Few people actually walk the streets of Los Angeles, however, and  
it is easy enough to hide something in your car, provided you don't get pulled  
over. . .
                                                                   

 Thematically, vampires are first and foremost *dead*. They are cut off from
the vitality of life, a cancer on the face of Humanity. Although younger        
vampires may feel strong emotional bonds to mortals, it is but a shadow of the  
yearning, living love with which mortals are blessed. Given the predatorial     
nature of the undead, it is quite rare for any vampire who has survived their   
first few weeks to feel love, save for that mockery of love that is the Blood   
Bond. To fill the void of feeling, they find themselves becoming manic,         
declaring their love with all their heart. But in the end only rage and hate    
truly resonate, for they fuel the Beast. As time goes on, vampires withdraw from
others, for it is near-impossible after a time to truly care for those who serve
you primarily as food.

 That said, there is a duality to vampiric nature:
what was once human competes with the combined forces of Time, Hunger, and the  
Beast. Goodness can hold out for a time, and a vampire can hold on to their     
fading humanity for decades, even centuries. Vampires are intensely political   
creatures, constantly plotting and scheming. This intense conspiratorial        
behavior is a defense against the Beast - if you are plotting, if you are       
manipulating, then you are not raging. But it is always a struggle, a struggle  
that must be fought, not avoided. A vampire cannot wall up the Beast and forgo  
feeding from mortals forever -- a certain amount of indulgence is needed.
   

 Central to the theme of vampirism at Los Angeles: A House Divided is the   
Riddle, passed on from sire to childe: Monsters we are lest monsters we become. 
But what does that mean and where is the line? How much run do you let the Beast
have so that it is sated? The answer is unfortunate: the Beast will never be    
sated. But perhaps you can fight it off for a time. Perhaps a long time. Those  
with powerful wills may survive to see centuries. But in the end, for the       
vampire, there is only the horror of being outside of the mortal coil, of       
feeling your personality, your loves and dreams, swallowed up one by one into   
the growing night. There is no hope.
                                        

Or is there?

                                                    

 People can be brutally violent. Spouses assault their spouses, gangs shoot 
each other and innocents in the street, and police occasionally beat suspects   
down into bloody pulps. Still, it is a universally recognized rule among modern 
humans living in the United States that unjustified violence is wrong, something
to be scorned and punished. Humanity is, generally speaking, given to working   
out their problems socially. Vampires aren't quite as nice.

 Vampires    
make a great show of working out their differences politically. Image is        
everything, particularly in a city like Los Angeles. Civilized creatures don't  
brawl, and violence can hurt or destroy your status. When you live forever, the 
last thing you want to do is have a bad reputation. But vampires are also       
bestial creatures, monsters given to great passion and anger. Their tempers are 
quick, and their very natures are attuned to violence.
                      

 Fights happen, and it can even be a sanctioned way to settle differences.  
The Princes tend to look mostly aside at casual violence so long as it does not 
infringe the Traditions, for the undead will recover from many wounds that would
kill a mortal. Do you wish something from an Elder who refuses to speak with    
you? Challenge him or his champion. You may be beaten, torpored, crushed to a   
pulp, but unless your insolence is a threat to the Traditions, you are unlikely 
to be killed. And if you win, and do not succumb to the Beast in the process,   
you may find you've gained more than talking could ever get you.

        
Vampires are, however, extremely hard to kill. It is virtually impossible to    
kill a vampire accidentally, and the Princes hold their power of Destruction    
dear and will call down the Lextalionis on any who would seek to usurp it: kill 
at your own peril. As violent as the vampire's existence may be, vampires rarely
fear ritual combat or border skirmishes over territory. No, vampires fear       
carelessness: being caught in the sun in a traffic jam, or leaving a telltale   
sign for hunters. They fear falling afoul of a vengeful Prince. They fear       
assassination. On this MUSH, players should not need to worry about their       
character dying in a random combat. They should fear their character dying      
because their character did something ICly stupid.
                          

 Who knows what lurks in the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Angeles National
Forest? Stories have surfaced from time to time of terrifying creatures - wolves
that walk on two legs. Some rumors hold that these are vampires that the Beast  
has finally conquered, completely. Others whisper that it is a disease, or a    
family curse. Whatever the origin of these stories, rest assured that it is not 
the story writ out in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. This is a Vampire MUSH. Just    
forget what you know about werewolves, and pray that you never have a chance to 
learn.
                                                                      

 We have taken a great deal of material from the White Wolf books, including
the clans, disciplines, and a lot of the background information for vampires.   
However, this MUSH is entirely self-contained. If something doesn't appear in   
the news files or elsewhere in the system, it may not have happened and it may  
not exist. Things may not work the way seasoned Vampire: The Masquerade players 
remember them. Please pay attention to the news files and bulletin boards, for  
White Wolf's printed materials do not bind this place.

SPECIAL NOTE: One 
important side effect of this theme policy is that certain pieces of the White  
Wolf lexicon are not used on this MUSH. Chief among these is the term           
"Kindred." For more information see +news FAQ/Kindred.