Definition: Elysium is any place declared neutral ground by a Prince or elder.
Rule: No violence, no feeding, no powers used openly. The Masquerade is absolute.
Purpose: To allow Kindred to meet, scheme, and politick without constant fear of frenzy.
Tradition: Often held in art galleries, theaters, museums, opera houses — places of beauty, culture, and permanence.
Enforcement: Breaking Elysium’s peace is political suicide; the entire city will turn on the violator.
Role: The sovereign ruler of a city/domain.
Power: Controls feeding rights, the Embrace, domain assignments, punishments.
Style: Some are tyrants, others caretakers, all are dictators in the end.
Legitimacy: Claimed by Tradition, enforced by fear and alliances.
Role: A council of elders from major clans.
Function: Advise the Prince, but also check their power.
Reality: Primogen councils are nests of rivalry and betrayal.
Role: The Prince’s deputy, second-in-command.
Function: Runs nightly affairs when the Prince cannot.
Danger: Seneschals often plot succession or usurpation.
Sheriff: Enforcer of the Prince’s will. Executes hunts, punishes breaches.
Hounds: Deputies or packs under the Sheriff, muscle of the city.
Role: Social accountants. Track status, enforce etiquette, spread gossip.
Power: Destroy reputations, enforce boons, humiliate rivals.
Theme: Steel kills bodies, but Harpies kill names.
Role: Custodians of neutral grounds.
Duty: Ensure Elysium’s sanctity, maintain cultural spaces, often Toreador.
Authority: Violation of their peace is an insult to the city itself.
Formal: Structured like feudal courts. Princes as lords, Primogen as vassals, others as petitioners.
Informal: Backroom deals, whispered alliances, Harpy feuds.
Style: Some cities run with rigid ceremony, others with anarchic chaos. But all rely on hierarchy.
Anarchs reject Princes, but not structure.
Many Barons still hold councils, enforce turf, and gather in “free Elysiums” (often bars, warehouses, or clubs).
Rules are looser, violence more tolerated, but even Anarchs need neutral ground.
The Sabbat reject Elysium.
Their “court” is ritual and war, not diplomacy.
Packs answer to bishops or archbishops, but their gatherings are more sermon than salon.
Elysium = stage: A theater where masks are worn, lies are currency, and every word is a dagger.
Court = hierarchy: No matter the city, Kindred form structures to dominate one another.
Neutrality = illusion: Even in Elysium, alliances shift, insults are traded, and wars are planned.