Caine, and the Antediluvians
 

The Second Generation

The basic legend : Caine is said to have three progeny, two male and a female, named Enoch the Wise, Irad the Strong and Zillah the Beautiful, and these three progeny created the Antediluvians (the 3rd generation). The three first generations lived together in the so called First City. But the truth may be much more complicated and some other children of Caine are heard of...

The Book of Nod gives a complete but not necessary true story [BoN]. A fourth child of Caine is mentioned there : The Crone (aka. Lillith).
 

The Third Generation

The basic legend : there were 13 Antediluvians, who are the founders of all 13 clans. There are also some bloodlines not founded by a 3rd generation vampire.

We find in [BoN,p53] a one word description characterizing the 13 original clans: Kingship (Ventrue), Beast (Gangrel), Moon (Malkav), Rose (Toreador), Night (Lasombra), Snake (Set), Death (Cappodocians), Healers (Salubri), Learned (Brujah), Wanderer (Ravnos), Hunt (Nosferatu), Hidden (Assamites) and Shapers (Tzimisce).
* Enoch sired Arikel, Malkav and Saulot. All of Enoch's childer have Auspex. They are of the SEER lineage.
* Zillah sired Absimilliard and probably Haquim and Set. All of Zillah's childer have Obfuscate. They are of the HUNTER lineage.
* Irad probably sired Brujah, Cappadocius, Lasombra and Veddartha. They are of the PHILOSOPHER-KING lineage
* Lillith sired Ennoia, Ravnos, and probably Tzimisce. All of Lillith's childer have Animalism. They are of the SHIFTER lineage.
[VtM2,p52] says that Lucian (Cappadocius) and Mekhet (Tzimisce) are widely known Antediluvians.
Hassan I Sabbah, also Assam-Hashshan al-Safa or Hashsan ibn Canan. Still alive and controlling his clan, the Assamites, at the mountain fortress, Alamut.
Brujah* Diablerized by his Childer, Troile.
Troile Diablerized her sire, Brujah. In torpor, or dead, underneath New Carthage.
Ashur*, also Cappadocius. Diablerized by his Childer, Augustus Giovanni.
Ennoia, Daughter of Lilith; her mortal descendant are Rom (Gypsies)
Lasombra*, Killed by members of his own clan, athough that "death", like Tzimsce, is under question.
Malkav (Arikel's twin brother). Although his body is in Torpor, his mind wanders the Astral plane. His body is hidden in either; Petra Jordan, Jerusalem, or the North Pole.
Absimilliard, also Ninmug. Childer of Irad. Lover of Arikel. Founder of the Nictuku, but not the Nosferatu, though is responsible for them. The Nosferatu was actually founded by his Childer, Baba Yaga. In torpor at Enoch, or awake in Eastern European mountains.
Baba Yaga, Childer of Absmilliard, but not blood bound to him and therefore not a Nictuku. Recently awoke from torpor in Russia.
Dannae Originally of Gypsy descent.
Saulot* Diablerized by Tremere.
Set, also Sutekh, Seketh or Seth. Disappeared in Egypt in 33 B.C. Probably not awake, or else the Setites wouldn't be doing what they are doing.
Arikel (Malkav's twin sister), also Loz. In torpor at Enoch with Veddartha.
Tremere Diablerized Saulot. In Torpor in Vienna, guarded by Ghouls and Etrius, one of the council of Seven.
Mekhet* Is generally thought to be dead.
Veddartha, also Nergal. Torpor, guarded by the Black Hand in Enoch.
 

Detailed History

Vampires - or Kindred, as they call themselves - exist for centuries and often seem unchanging to mortal eyes. Even Kindred society, however, has undergone evolution, upheaval and strife. Let us look at history as the Kindred view it, that we might better understand their actions tonight.
 

Caine and the First Nights
 

According to Kindred myth, the first of their kind was Caine, the first murderer. For his crime, Caine was cursed by God and thereby transformed into a vampire. Exiled from his people, Caine was forced to stalk the fringes of civilization, fearful of the sun and ravenous for blood.

In his loneliness, Caine came upon a mighty witch named Lilith, who had been Adam's first wife. Lilith taught Caine how to use his blood for mighty magic (indeed, a few heretics claim that Lilith, not Caine, was the First Vampire). Lilith taught Caine many things, including how to use his blood to evoke mystic powers - and how to create others of his kind.

 

The Second Generation and the First City
 

At first Caine refused to beget, believing it wrong to curse the world with others of his kind. But eventually he grew lonely and brought three others into the vampiric fold. These three in turn begat 13 more, and these voracious monsters went among the early peoples of the world, carelessly feeding and using mortals as puppets in their sibling feuds. Caine, outraged by this behavior, forbade the creation of any more progeny. Gathering his childer and grandchilder to him, Caine built a great city - the First City in the world - and here vampires and mortals coexisted in peace.
 

The Antediluvians and the Clans

It could not last. Caine's childer squabbled for their sire's affections, and once again the mortals were used as pawns in the feud. Finally the city was thrown down - some say a natural disaster was the cause; others, that a spurned childe's vengeful sorcery precipitated the cataclysm. Caine vanished into the wastes, never to be heard from again. The three vampires of the Second Generation likewise disappeared into the mists of legend. But Caine's 13 grandchilder, free from restraint, began breeding new vampires with abandon. The 13 vampires became known as Antediluvians, and their childer, created in their images, inherited the Antediluvians' magical gifts and curses. Thus were the clans formed.

 

The Dark Ages

The clans spread across the world, sowing discord and misery. Though each successive generation of vampires proved weaker than the last, they made up for it with greater numbers. In the ziggurats of Babylon, in the palaces of Crete, in the tribunals of Rome, vampires ruled as shadowy tyrants, forever using mortals as food and unwitting soldiers. Vampire warred with vampire, clan with clan, and thus - from the ancient rivalries of the First City - was born the great Jyhad, which is still fought today.

The Kindred reached their worst excesses during the early Middle Ages. During this period, many vampires ruled openly, smothering peasant and lord alike beneath their nocturnal grip. The vampiric population reached unhealthy numbers, and it seemed that the Earth would belong to the Kindred forever.