It would be ridiculous to have to remind anyone but a newly embraced childe about the importance of the First Tradition, The Masquerade. Yet here I am, issuing a decree on the very same subject to my Primogen and ancilla. Why? Six police reports on Kindred activities and the arrest of several blood-bound servants in just the last weeks. And this mere months before our glorious Convention.
“Do not reveal your existence to those not of the Blood.” This oath of secrecy is the one thing standing between us and destruction at the hands of militant mortals. The Camarilla and the Masquerade were created to survive the first age of inquisition, with its witch-burnings and systematic hunts. It took centuries, but at last, we managed to turn mankind away from superstition and lead them to a rational worldview that laughed at monsters.
“What does this have to do with me using my gifts or gun down those gangsters muscling in on my territory?” I hear you ask. The answer is simple: This world once again believes in monsters! They call them terrorists or serial killers, and whole agencies are looking for traces of them in data records and on the streets. You are a fool if you believe your blunders and your indiscretion will go unnoticed by these modern-day inquisitors.
Make no mistake, from tonight, not a single breach of the Masquerade will be tolerated in my domain. Not by any member of the Camarilla, nor by any Anarch. This includes revealing your gifts to mortals or any act that draws attention to our kind. A Bloodhunt will be called immediately and without trial against any infraction of the First Tradition. And the blood of the perpetrator shall belong to the executioner. This is my will, and my will is the law.
– Decree issued by Prince Markus, two months before the Second Convention of Prague
