| Who Wrote This? In order for my words to have meaning, you should know and trust where they come from. I�m not your typical Unbound. In fact, I�m what many of you would consider, in the words of modern culture, �the Man.� I�m several hundred years old and of lower generation than most � but yet I am still Clanless. I once had a clan, a learned group of scholars deluded by our eldest masters into searching for the key to divinity, when really we were searching for new ways to bring them power. It�s a long story, but suffice it to say my clan was destroyed by a group of Kindred whose ambitions, while immense, are much more worldly. I do not mourn my clan, though I will forever feel the loss of my learned and accomplished clanmates. Since that time, I have been on the run from my clan�s usurpers, constantly in fear of my life, such as it is. I have traveled the world, held status in both the Sabbat and, most recently, the Camarilla. But in every instance, in every affiliation with Kindred, I�ve found myself treated most unfairly. Most recently, my aid in the Camarilla siege of New York was rewarded by betrayal to my old persecutors. I barely was able to escape alive, though the ashes of Ventrue �elder� who gave me up brightened my last sunrise in that wonderful city. I find myself here, among the so-called Caitiff and Unbound of Seattle, because I had no where else to go. But as I have walked among you, sharing my knowledge gleaned from centuries of survival and scholarship, I have seen something here that throughout the world and down through the ages, I haven�t seen anywhere else. And for the first time in decades, it has awakened something good and humane within me. I see cooperation. I see a genuine care for the mass of humanity of which we may still be a part. I see respect for individuals� rights, no matter their age, generation, or ability. I see a desire for the freedoms of the Sabbat coupled with the order of the Camarilla, and colored not with the jaded desires of the Kindred, but painted with a fresh outlook born of close ties to the living. For years, I laughed right along with my Camarilla compatriots as they laughed at the angry and disorganized Anarchs. But I see the error now, on both sides. The Anarchs� anger at the stifling Camarilla was so great, they refused all regulation, all ties of kinship and society. They never thought of what they stood for, simply what they fought against. And the Camarilla dismissed them as mindless rabble, knowing that they would never organize. Well, they�re wrong. We, the Clanless, the disenfranchised, the young and humane among the vampires, can form a more perfect union. We can rule ourselves, with each being among us receiving equal parts freedom and responsibility. We can protect and shepherd the mortal population from which we were so cruelly plucked. While we must take from our fellow humans to survive, we can give back, secretly, and thus protect the masses until, perhaps one day, they can look at us and not be afraid. In my many years of sorrow, I have been many things: knight, monk, scholar, occultist, physician, professor. I�ve even been an EMT and, on one memorable occasion, filled in for an U.S. State Department translator. I have never been a politician, and I do not intend to start now. Nevertheless, I have taken it upon myself, in consultation with several Unbound and Anarch compatriots, to draft this manifesto. I pray that it can serve as a rough draft for a better society � one based on respect for each other and for humanity. The Beliefs of the Unbound Back to Kindred of the World, Unite! Return home |