Camarilla
The Camarilla is the largest sect of Vampires, a rather loose organisation that tries to enforce the concept of "The Masquerade". Think more or less a Vampire government.
In Vampire: The Masquerade, it is composed of Six (Or seven, if you ignore the End Times books.) Clans. (Brujah, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and the Gangrel. Their main goal is to make sure the Masquerade is kept in-tact, and there's at least SOME semblance of law and order in Kindred society. Or at least, that's what they claim.
Culture
Overall, the Camarilla basically follow "Traditions". The laws/guidelines that were supposedly handed down from the Big C (Cain) himself. A Brief breakdown of said Traditions is as follows.
1. Masquerade - Keep the existence of Vampires a secret from mortals.
2. Domain - A kindred's hunting ground is his own territory, and he rules it 110% himself.
3. Progeny: Sire only with permission of one's elders. No going around making anyone and everyone you want a Childe.
4. Accounting: Until childer are released, their actions are the responsibility of their sire. Their fuck-ups are your fuck-ups.
5. Hospitality: Honor the domains of others, and present oneself to the ruler of any domain you visit. Don't just waltz in, make yourself known to the Big Cheese first.
6. Destruction: The right to kill Kindred is reserved for the Elder of a community. Only an elder may call a Blood Hunt. I'm sure you can work out what that is.
These traditions are more or less what form the backbone of Camerilla society, although in Modern Nights a Price more takes over the role of the Elder. They care deeply about keeping the whole Masquerade in place, making sure everyone isn't going around embracing every single person they see, making sure when someone IS embraced, their sire takes care of 'em. Camarilla aren't interested in deadbeat parents, basically. And finally, keeping vampire society more feudal. The last point is more taken to mean that the older the kindred, the more respect and authority they should have. This of course, has pissed off many a young babby Kindred, helping to drive plenty to the Anarch movement instead. Older vampires, of course, support these ideals as it far more benefits them. Especially if they find it harder to interact with the mortal world.
Humanity
The Camarilla's attitude towards humanity could probably be best described as 'Pragmatic'. More or less dealing with them as sensibly and practically as they physically can.In the Dark Ages the Inquisition and other mortal forces smoked untold countless numbers of Kindred. Now, humanity's numbers have grown from millions to billions, and created weapons that easily overpower vampire powers. If mortals were to find out about the existance of kindred, it wouldn't be a difficult task to wipe 'em out. Because of this, the Camarilla has opted for 'Let's not let them found out'. They also try to make sure humanity isn't harmed by Kindred business (So preferably no causalities between, say, them fighting the sabbat.) Not because they want to protect the fleshy little mortals, but to keep the Masquerade in-tact. Kindred are also encouraged to blend in as best they can, to basically hide in plain sight. Not to mention the added bonus of hanging on to their humanity, something the Camarilla, and most kindred, consider to be important.
History
The Camarilla was born out of growing threats from the Inquisition (Betcha weren't expecting that.) and the Anarch Revolt, both of which were causing trouble for Caniate domians in Europe. There had been some attempts at making an orgainised group of vampires in the past, but not much came of it. The idea of a league of vampires was only in fact taken more seriously in 1394, but a group of elders. However, a bold attack was made by the Anarchs on a castle belonging to a Ventrue named "Hardestadt". Fear is a helluva motivator, and as such, the Founders-To-Be of the Camarilla put together a task-force of their most trusted Childer and Servants to get the Anarchs to fuck right off.
The actual formation of the Camarilla was announced in 1435. The name chosen was as it meant it was a group of peers that met in secret, in this case, especially from mortals. The founders began rallying more openly for a coliation to protect fellow Kindred from the dangers of society. Including the Anarchs, Mortal Lynch Mobs, and invading kindred from the middle east, known as the Assamite. War continued to rage on in Kindred society for the next couple of decades. The Founders, now called 'Justicars' fought hard to keep their new organisation alive. In 1496, the first national conclave was created, during which the Justicars were given authority to punish vampires who violated the Traditions. (See above.) Also, a new body of agents was also was created to assist the Juticars, giving them more time to better develop the Camarilla. These would later be known as "Archons" and can more or less be thought of as a Right-Hand Man, or even a vice-president.
Finally, in 1493, a peace agreement was made between the still-new Camarilla, the Anarchs, and the Assamites. The agreement was known as the Convention of Thorns. In this peace agreement meeting, the Traditions were accepted as law by representatives of the clans Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue. They also joined the Camarilla. However, speakers for the Lasombra and Tzimisce, who were majority Anarchs, were offended by this. They refused to join and rebelled by creating the Sabbat to be a polar opposite to everything the Camarilla represented. In other words, the mother of all Kindred tantrums was thrown. This event is extremely important because it not only marks the beginning of the Camarilla was we know it tonight, it also was the end of the first Anarch revolt, and would set the stage for the next five centuries of conflict in kindred society.
A New World
Over the next couple of centuries, many anarchs refused to join the Camarilla, instead opting to join the Sabbat. The group continued to strike out at the Camarilla's power, still upset over the results of the last revolt. However, the larger numbers and proper organisation of the older sect gave the Camarilla a huge advantage over the Sabbat.
In the 17th century, with explorers and the like discovering the 'New World', many younger sabbat members fled there in large numbers. This left most of Europe to the Camarilla. For a while, there was a bit of debate over if they should chase after them in America. Instead, the idea of taking over new territories was decided as a great idea to start bringing in some new, younger kindred. For a short time it had seemed that the Sabbat would have/had taken over the entire New World. But they started falling into internal conflicts over dwindling resources. All the while the Camarilla was sliding and gaining power in English, Dutch, and French Colonies. (Hurrah for colonialism!).
Then came the War Of 1812. While Human society were fighting said war, the Kindred had their own. The Camarilla began to lose more and more of their cities throughout the first chunk of the 19th century. As the war (The Camarilla and the Sabbat, not 1812.) spread to the American Frontier, the Camarilla struggled to continue. (Cowboy Vampires?) In fact, they were only able to survive due to Civil War happening within the Sabbat, severely weakening themselves.
By the 20th century, the Camarilla themselves began greatly weakended by internal disputes, mostly due to Kindred picking different sides during Mort al Conflicts. Think WW1 and the like. When WW2: This Time It's Personal rocked around, it caused even more troubles. Many eldars, particularly among the Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue, supported the Axis Powers, the Inner Circle refused to pick a side, and many Justicars ended up working against each other. It was a huge clusterfuck, not unlike how WW1 was for Mortals. However, when the bombs were dropped on Japan, it became apparent how important preserving the masquerade really was. And World Peace, kind of. If mortals could do that kind of damage to themselves, then they could destroy Kindred just as easily. As such, everyone chilled the fuck out.
Antediluvians and Gehenna
The majority of Kindred in the Camarilla aren't older than a century or two, and as such, weren't alive when the Antediluvian were hanging 'round. Though they could have been educated in the story of Cain. and the creation of Vampires, many consider it to be a myth. Especially in the modern nights and its advances in science. The leaders of the Camarilla have long made it a strict rule to deny existance of the Antediluvian, or at least that they all died a looooong time ago. Similar to this, any talk of Gehenna (The Apocalypse, more or less.) is entirely discouraged and sometimes even punished. They take this shit super seriously. They do this out of the understandble concern such knowledge could result in making a Kindred become paranoid, scared, irrational, and maybe even join a Gehenna cult. While barely any Kindred would admit to believing stories 'bout The End Times, many also grow extremely nervous at the signs of it's coming. Funny enough, the Camarilla's stance on all this stuff is one of the reasons why the Sabbat hate them. They use it as proof to say the Camarilla are actually run BY the Antediluvians to serve their own interests.
Prestation
The Camarilla has this little thing they like to call Prestation. Basically, its a fancy word for meaning 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.' The premise is that if a Kindred recives an important gift or favor, he owes the vampire who gave them said favor/gift. When a fledgling is presented officially before their Prince and and allowed as a true member of the domain, they usually engage in their first act of prestation in the process, now owing their Prince. Some clans, however, such as the Toreadore and Ventrue have Presetation happen even earlier. Favours, boons and pledges of alliance get around a lot within the Camarilla. Basically to the point where's its just like currency in the mortal world. As there's no real rules or regulations on how they can be traded or used, they're traded around constantly, leading to lines between enemy and friend being blurred. The sanctity of the prestation system is very important to the Camarilla. Especially so to the elders who have spent centuries carefully gaining favors from other kindred and hoarding 'em.