Age

Age is one of the most important features of vampire society. While politics and social organizations may come and go over the centuries of their extended lives, their age is a constant that none of them can change, and because vampires become more powerful as they grow older, it also provides built-in levels of superiors and inferiors.

While not every sect or clan of vampires uses the same terminology to refer to different age echelons, they all correspond to largely the same ages and power levels. Political offices, famous deeds, and prestigious bloodlines can all add to a vampire's perceived importance and power, but nothing is as foundational and reliable as how long they have survived and what strength is in their blood as a result.

Many of the terms for age among vampires are interchangeable with those referring to their generation; for example, a vampire of sufficiently low generation might be considered an elder due to the potency of their blood, even if they have only been Embraced recently, because they have the potential to quickly become similarly powerful. Most of the time, young vampires of low generation are still considered neonates until they've had a few years to learn their disciplines and clan politics, at which point they are upgraded directly to whatever higher designation is appropriate to their generation.

Unreleased

Unreleased vampires are the lowest of the low in vampire society; in fact, they are generally considered not to be members of society at all. An unreleased vampire has only recently been Embraced and is considered an adjunct of their sire rather than an individual; in the Camarilla, anything such a vampire does is literally considered to have been done by their sire, requiring vampiric parents to do their best to not only choose their childer well but also ride herd on their behavior, while in the Sabbat, new vampires are referred to as False Sabbat until they have proven their worth to the sect. Members of the Laibon refer to their new childer as fledglings, and unlike several other sects consider them to be precious and important to protect until they are ready to join the rest of their fellow monsters.

The unreleased age category is largely important in the western world and is not universal to all sects. The Anarchs and most Independents consider newly-Embraced vampires to become neonates immediately, and the sects of Asia and the Americas tend to base their estimation of whether a new vampire is ready to enter society on more specific rules for each bloodline or House.

Neonates

Neonates are young vampires who have been released, but are still young, untested, and fairly low in power. Generally speaking, vampires are considered to be neonates when they are less than a hundred years old and of 10th or greater generation; lower generation vampires may be considered neonates for a shorter period of time, while higher ones may have trouble ever shaking the label off.

There are more neonates in almost any given vampire society than there are any other age range, vastly outnumbering their elders, but given that they tend to be less than powerful and completely lacking in the centuries of experience that can bring additional tactical wisdom, they are generally considered unimportant and unlikely to be threats. The vast majority of vampires in most interactions are neonates, unless the situation is specifically catered to older beings.

Ancillae

Ancillae are the next step up in the ranks of vampire age, not quite as powerful as the elders but no longer the rank-and-file of the neonates. An ancilla is typically between one and three hundred years old and of 9th generation or greater; much like neonates, ancillae with elder blood may be quickly promoted to being considered of a greater age and power level, while those who have high generation blood may be doomed never to make it past the ancilla stage no matter how long they live.

The ancillae are in many ways the movers and shakers of formal vampire society, agitating to become the elders of tomorrow while they work hard to keep the neonates below them from doing the same. Many coteries and conspiracies are largely driven by ancillae trying to gain power and live long enough to become elders themselves, and they often fill minor or even regular offices in their sect or clan.

Elders

Elders are vampires who have lived more than a few centuries and are of between 6th and 8th generation, and while there are fewer of them than any of the younger vampires, they wield a truly fearsome level of power and influence. Elders have had centuries to ingrain themselves in political and social systems, to hoard wealth and cultivate contacts, and to eliminate or defang rivals; their very existence is a testament to their intelligence, power, and ability to plan for the future. Additionally, they have not only had centuries during which to hone their supernatural powers, but they are capable of storing and using more blood than younger vampires and of accessing higher-level disciplines than any neonate could dream of wielding.

A single elder is formidable enough, but in numbers they become nearly impossible for younger vampires to even inconvenience, let alone defeat; only the fact that, like all vampires, they tend to be territorial and amoral prevents them from wielding completely uncontested power over everyone else. Positions of power are often held by elders, and the more powerful and large a city or domain, the more likely that it has elders running the place.

"Elder" is sometimes used as shorthand by younger vampires to mean "anyone older than an ancilla" or to mean any particularly powerful or ancient vampire regardless of whether they know their exact status.

Methuselahs

A Methuselah is a rare and terrifying creature: a vampire of 4th or 5th generation who has survived for a thousand years or more. Methuselahs are uncommon, as they are prone to falling into torpor for long stretches of time and have also had a lot more time in which they could be attacked by enemies or targeted for diablerie, but those that still survive are forces to be reckoned with.

Methuselahs have access to powers that begin to border on the mythic, and their advanced age and the horrors they have seen during that time combine with their supernatural skills to make them very difficult to recognize as human anymore. Even those who attempt to contine to associate with other vampires or even humans almost inevitably come off as incredibly strange and unnerving, as they have absolutely no physical movement other than the necessary anymore and are likely to use extremely antiquated concepts and philosophies when they speak (if they speak any modern languages at all, which many of them do not).

Because there are few Methuselahs and they tend to play poorly with others, most vampires are likely to go their entire existence without meeting one, and in many cases without even hearing about one. But Methuselahs are still, after all, vampires, with their predilection for long-range plans and shaping the world around them, and those that are still active often appear in positions of high-level leadership in various sects (many of which they probably helped found in the first place).

Antediluvians

The word Antediluvian means "from before the flood", a reference to the Biblical flood story that has been a part of European and Middle Eastern vampire lore since time immemorial, and it is intended to be accurate: the Antediluvians are vampires that have walked the earth since before the beginning of reliable recorded history. The Antediluvians are all of the 3rd generation and are all multiple millennia old (with the exception of the usurper Antediluvian Augustus Giovanni).

According to European vampire lore, there were only ever thirteen Antediluvians, each of whom founded one of the thirteen recognized European clans; however, this is almost certainly a cultural oversimplification and does not take into account the worldwide spread of different vampire clans and bloodlines. The Three Sisters of Quiet Nations lore are clearly also Antediluvians, and the clans of the Cradle of Civilization, Laibon, and many of the Teteoh claim descent from literal gods that are likely stand-ins for Antediluvian creatures as well.

However many of them there are, the number is extremely low, and for good reason: Antediluvians are so old and so powerful that they are capable of wiping out huge swaths of people or causing major and permanent upheavals in the supernatural world without even noticing, the mere fact of their presence causing major ripples through everything around them. Most Antediluvians are presumed to be either dead or in torpor at any given moment, largely because if they were awake and active it would be very noticeable to everyone.

Others

While there have theoretically been older echelons of vampires (most obviously Caine and his second-generation childer) they either no longer exist or are so rare and folkloric as to make no difference either way. There are no formal names for the vampires of the first and second generation.

The fairly recent rise of the Thin-Blooded has led some vampire to propose creating a new youngest age category for those of the 13th generation or higher, which would also include all dhampir and many of the Clanless. This idea has not seen widespread adoption yet; older vampires point out that the very high generation youngsters aren't much different from a classic neonate in terms of ability to influence or affect anything around them, but it's also possible that the slow-to-change undead don't want to address the problem of the Thin-Blooded in the hopes that it will at some point go away.