There are stories that are still whispered, told here and there, of the time of Camarilla and Rome.  Of a Senate that took care of the needs of all Kindred, of ancient pagan rites and magic, of an insanity that had burrowed deep into the minds and souls of all the ruling classes.  There are stories of a world connected by a network of roads, fed by aqueducts, lit by evenings of poetry, and eventually destroyed by decadence, corruption, and greed.

But those are just stories, scattered bits of memory lost to the fog of time.  The Kindred who saw Rome at its height are long gone.  Those who survived its fall found themselves victims of the claws of Moor, Viking, and Magyer raiders.   Long lost are the notions of Kindred as immortal rulers of the night.  These nights for young Kindred are as brutal as they are brief.  The embrace may extend ones existence, but not by much, and it brings with it an entirely different sort of horror then anything Kine can imagine.

And horror is something that Kindred know.  There are dark things that haunt the night, things that even Kindred fear.  One of those things, it is said, destroyed the Christian Kindred who claimed Jerusalem on the First Crusade.  From across Europe, Kindred united behind a common cause, fought for five years under near impossible conditions, and won the Holy City from the Arabs who ruled it.  And on the eve of that victory, a darkness spread across the city that spared no one. 

However, these nights, the notions of a feudal court, of a Kindred society based on something other then whim and power, is beginning to take hold.  The Princes of the Holy Roman Empire have built their own system of fidelity known as the Holy Night Empire.  Elsewhere,, the rise of the Knightly class has lead to the ideals of chivalry and the Courtly Love.  Palace intrigue has become as much entertainment as the tournaments and troubadours, and Kindred are unique monsters made for such sport.  In few places is this more true then in London.

There have been Kindred haunting London, it is said, since the nights when Lludd Llaw Eraint fortified the city and make it central to his rule.  Those were the days of legends, when  King Lludd fought dragons and bested magicians.  The old religion had a place in it for monsters who haunted the night, and some of those monsters lived openly as gods of the land. 

The Romans brought with them a different sort of vampire.  The Roman Kindred may have also believed in blood thirsty gods, but he kept himself hidden and influenced the Kine around him indirectly.  They built collaseum and roads, held Elysiums and feats.  However, many of those old Roman Kindred fled when Roman was unable to defend her under the crush of Saxon assults.  Those that remained parished.  For many years there wasn't much of a city left, much less a Kindred population to live there. 

Once the Saxons settled and began to rebuild the city, the Kindred returned.  They were largely influenced by the Gangrel who had arrived with the Saxon hordes, with some Deava influences.  The city attracted merchants and artists, soliders and monks.  While a Gangrel Prince ruled over the city, he did so loosely, without any formal structure or Court.  The actual night to night organization of the city he left to the Lancea et Sanctum.

When the Lancea first came to London, they found a Kindred population as much influenced by the old religions and beliefs as it was by Christ.  Indeed, many of the older inhabitants of the city seemed able to hold both pagan and Christian beliefs simultaneously, without seeming to either recognize or care about the contradictions between the two.  This was certanily true for the Gangrel Prince. 

It was not until after the Vikings had been somewhat pacified that the Lancea et Sanctum were able to establish themselves in earnest in the city.  They made sure they were part of the rebuilding of London, dedicating churches to their cause and converting rebellious Danes to their teachings.  The Archbishop of London became a very powerful man, able to hold his own against the old Saxon nobility of the city.

When William the Conqueror set out for London, the Kindred in his guard were lead by a Norman Ventrue named Aschur Fecamp.  Aschur entered the city in 1067 with a dozen Norman knights, and within two years managed to orchestrate a Praxis upon the old Saxon guard. In order to cement his power, Aschur named a Saxon, Edmund, as his Lord Chancellor.  He also divided up the city into four baronies that he gave grants of domain to.  An unofficial fifth Barony was created for the Nosferatu who lived in London's "undercity."  Prince Aschur also won the support of the cities Lancea.  The Ventrue brought with him the notions that the nobility of the city, and the church, working hand in hand.  He talked about the ideals of the First and Second estates as two sides of the same coin.  When Aschur claimed his crown, he did so with the anointment of the Arshbishop.

The Prince and his Lord Chancellor were whispered to be more then simply allies - some rumored that they were also paramours.  Perhaps it was true, perhaps it was a bit of propaganda issued forth by the Prince's enemies.  Either way, the two were extremely close and their alliance between Saxon and Norman kept the peace in London.  That peace was occasionally strained as Ashur slowly shifted power in the city away from the historical Saxon power base.  Two of the Baronies eventually were granted to his immediate progeny, thus shoring up his own position.  He also intertwined his own Kindred family into that of the Plantagenet dynasty, embracing those on the outskirts of royal rule.

When the call came out for the First Crusade, the Lord Chancellor Edmund was one of over a dozen of Kindred from London who went on the holy mission.  In the spring of 1102, a Keeper to the Prince's family, a young Mekhet named Rohesia, returned with the news that Edmund and the rest of the Kindred who had gone on Crusade had perished.  Rohesia claimed to have been in Antioch at the time, and had spent several months trying to determine what had happened to the Kindred of Jerusalem.  However, rumors of the Mekhet having let loose a demonic force onto Jerusalem in a last ditch effort to drive off the Christian Crusaders had already reached the Lancea et Sanctum.  The Archbishop accused Rohesia of having been part of this plot.  The Prince's judgment was swift, driven by his own anger and grief, and Rohesia was executed before the assembled Court.  In doing so, Price Aschur cursed the entirety of the Clan, and while he never specifically ordered the Mekhet Hunted, over the next several nights many of the cities prominent Shadows were either destroyed or driven from the city.  The alliance between the Prince and the Archbishop also began to crack, as the Prince never again attended a Lancea mass.

Without the Lord Chancellor, tensions between the Norman and Saxon Kindred began to simmer.  In June of 1141 an assassination attempt on the Prince by unknown parities failed, but since then the Prince has remained in a state of careful seclusion, only emerging on the odd occasion to hold his Court.  In the meantime, effective power has passed to his Barons, his Progeny, and anyone able to carve for themselves a piece of the city.