Autarkis

The Autarkis are not an organized sect, per se; rather, the term refers to any vampire that is not a member of any other sect. This means that they cannot claim membership in the Camarilla, Anarchs, or Sabbat, and are not a member of any of the Independent clans. Autarkis vampires generally don't communicate with another (unless they happen to be personal friends or colleagues), do not band together for any particular purpose, and have no organization or structure to speak of.

Autarkis vampires can be found in any random location that they might choose to make their homes, but they generally aren't seen around the other vampiric sects, since most of them have definitively cut ties with the sects or even all other vampires. Autarkis have literally no one to turn to but themselves - there are no laws protecting them in any of the sects, nor can they count on their clanmates to come to their aid if they get into trouble - and most of them are either extremely old and powerful enough to take care of themselves, or don't live to see too many more nights.

Declared Autarkis

A small portion of Autarkis have intentionally removed themselves from vampire politics, effectively burning all bridges with any vampire with whom they are not personally acquainted. The majority of these vampires are ancient and unfriendly, and prefer to keep their own counsel and avoid other supernatural creatures, much as they remember doing when they hid in mountain fortresses or underground crypts throughout the long, lonely centuries before these modern nights. Autarkis of this type usually consider other vampires to be dangerous competition, or at best liabilities, and they don't trust any artificial group of vampires nearly as much as they trust their own judgment.

A few self-declared Autarkis intentionally leave their sects or clans as a result of major disagreements or fallings-out with other vampires, but such creatures are rare, thanks to the heavy penalties involved in becoming Autarkis.

Excommunication

Most Autarkis are the result of excommunication - a vampire doing something that their sect and/or clan consider so heinous that they have been officially ejected from it. This is rare in the overall landscape of the sects, since it's much more common for a vampire who breaks the rules to be killed than exiled, but it sometimes happens when there are extenuating circumstances surrounding an infraction, vampires are punished as a result of something someone else did (such as all of a vampire's childer being excommunicated as a result of something their sire did), or figures in power have a soft spot for a vampire and don't wish to kill them in spite of needing to make sure they are punished.

In order for a vampire to be excommunicated and become Autarkis, they must be officially rejected by their sect (Camarilla, Anarch, or Sabbat) and unwilling or unable to join any of the others. If the vampire was Independent, they must be intentionally rejected by their clan, giving them a status equivalent to that of a Caitiff. The lines are occasionally blurry - for example, a Toreador who was kicked out of the Anarchs might not be considered Autarkis since the Camarilla always considers all Toreador to be default members of the sect - but any vampire who is officially identified as Autarkis can be accurately considered to have nowhere to go and no one to depend on.

Although vampires that were never officially exiled are not technically Autarkis, some vampires at the lowest levels of society, such as Caitiff, Dhampir, or fourteenth-generation vampires that are barely more than human, may be treated essentially the same and possibly referred to by the term from time to time.