Antediluvian

The Antediluvians are the precursors to the vampire clans in Vampire: The Masquerade.

According to Noddist lore, Caine sired three childer, who in turn collectively sired thirteen more. Caine left the First City, leaving his childer unattended, and the thirteen slew them, prompting Caine to lay curses upon each of them. When God attempted to cleanse the world with the Great Flood, the thirteen managed to survive and sire new childer, founding the Kindred Clans. Those thirteen are considered the Antediluvians, from the Latin phrase "Before the Flood."

Although the canon of the Book of Nod identifies thirteen distinct Antediluvians, other sources have other claims. The Erciyes Fragments identify six childer of Caine. Vlad Tepes came across four different counts in his research, including zero. Ravnos lore has the gods create Zapathasura. A Setite legend has Set become a vampire on his own and the gods created the other twelve to oppose him.

In the modern nights, the Camarilla denies that the Antediluvians still exist, claiming that they must have been destroyed in one way or another long ago, while the Sabbat seeks to consume their power. Either way, everyone agrees that an Antediluvian walking about openly is an Extremely Bad Sign (except for some vampires that want just their ancestors to return), and more than one active Antediluvian is probably the sign of the Apocalypse. Millennia of paranoia with godlike powers makes these figures worse than Caine himself, since there's a good chance Caine might consider the PCs to be beneath his notice.

Antediluvians serve the same purpose as the "precursor" trope in sci-fi settings, with a healthy dose of "ancient evil" on the side.

Clan Founders

All of the clan founders are Antediluvians, whether they were originally Embraced into the third generation or achieved it through diablerie:

• Haqim the Hunter: Assamite, last seen in 121 CE speaking with Mithras of the Ventrue in the British Isles.
• Troile: Brujah, diablerized his/her sire and was trapped under Carthage when the ground was sown with salt.
• Set: Followers of Set, last seen battling his blood brother Osiris in 33 BCE.
• Ennoia: Gangrel, believed to still be in torpor following the destruction of Enoch.
• Augustus Giovanni: Giovanni, still active behind the scenes of his clan's activities.
• Malkav: Malkavian, believed destroyed while journeying to Petra after the fall of the Second City.
• Absimiliard: Nosferatu, using the Nictuku to hunt down his descendants in an attempt to gain Caine's forgiveness.
• Arikel/Ishtar: Toreador, believed to still be active somewhere in Greece.
• Tremere: Tremere, currently occupying the body of his disciple/childe Goratrix.
• Ventru: Ventrue, slain outside the Second City, possibly by Troile.

The following clan founders are presumed dead:

• Cappadocius: Cappadocian, diablerized by Augustus Giovanni in 1444. The few Cappadocians who returned from the underworld are known as the Harbingers of Skulls.
• Lucien: Lasombra, believed diablerized by its childe Gratinao de Veronese in 1413; currently residing in/merged with the Abyss.
• Zapathasura: Ravnos, awakened in 1999 and fought three powerful Kuei-jin in Bangladesh before the Technocracy destroyed him with orbital mirrors.
• Saulot: Salubri, also the sire of the Wu-Zao, Baali, and Nkulu Zao, possessed Tremere during his diablerie attempt in 1133.
• Ilyes: True Brujah, diablerized by Troile; in the "Fair is Foul" Gehenna scenario, used Temporis to hurtle forward in time to Lilith's garden in the Dark Ages at the moment of diablerie.
• [Tzimisce]: Tzimisce, presumed diablerized in the late 15th century, currently a fuckhuge mass of slime underneath New York under the protection of the Zantosa revenant family.