History Main / CouncilOfVampires

* In ''ComicBook/AmericanVampire'', the Carpathian bloodline is organized into several covens composed of bankers, rich tycoons, and Hollywood actors and they pretty much control all the rest of the vampirekind since they drove all other subspecies to near extinction. They don't have an absolute leader since their progenitor {{Dracula}} was locked up by the [[VampireHunter Vassals of the Morning Sun]] and they tend to rule themselves in separate mobs with each having their different agendas.
* The Vampire Nation in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse is governed by [[ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula Count Dracula]] and they are composed of several sects that once in a century gather in a meeting to discuss. This concept is relatively new as vampires have been part of Marvel for decades and have even fought with superheroes such as the X-Men and Captain America, but they never established a society of their own. This was retconned in 2010, which showed Dracula had ruled over a secret vampire kingdom with its own laws and customs that were heavily influenced by the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''. In ''ComicBook/TheAvengersJasonAaron'', there is a Vampire Nation in Chernobyl.

* ComicBook/{{Vampirella}} occasionally features groups like these that usually conspired to unleash HellOnEarth. In the Harris Publication, a very large vampire organization used the mob as cover and they were seated in Vatican, their leader being the elusive Black Pope, who worshiped the MadGod [[GreaterScopeVillain Chaos]] and sought to summon him on Earth so as to enslave mankind.

May also overlap with OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. If space is made for creatures that aren't vampires but are adjacent to them (like werewolves, ghouls, or mummies), you've got a MonsterMash.

* The Vampire Nation in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse is governed by [[ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula Count Dracula]] and they are composed of several sects that once in a century gather in a meeting to discuss. This concept is relatively new as vampires have been part of Marvel for decades and have even fought with superheroes such as the X-Men and Captain America, but they never established a society of their own. This was retconned in 2010, which showed Dracula had ruled over a secret vampire kingdom with its own laws and customs that were heavily influenced by the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''. In ''Comicbook/JasonAaronsAvengers'', there is a Vampire Nation in Chernobyl.

* Y. Nabokova's series of vampire novels (think Russian mash-up of anything vampire and urban from Creator/AnneRice to ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'') -- same idea.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': The Volturi are especially zealous and have adopted a [[LeaveNoSurvivors salt-the-earth]] approach to maintaining secrecy. They often send agents to destroy renegade covens and eradicate ''all'' vampires and humans on the scene.

* Website/CollegeHumor spoofs this trope in a video where {{Dracula}} calls a meeting between all the fictional vampires. Because [[OurVampiresAreDifferent they all operate on different rules]], they quickly get into a dispute about what they should do as vampires, like [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Edward harping about his love for Bella]] and being a VegetarianVampire, and [[Series/TrueBlood Bill being confused about the point of the meeting]] because he thought they had already discontinued TheMasquerade.

* The Vampiric Council in ''Series/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' consists of high-level vampire aristocracy and [[LivingADoubleLife celebrity actors who play vampires in media]], each of whom are actually vampires, including Creator/DannyTrejo from ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' and Creator/WesleySnipes of the ''Film/BladeTrilogy'' series.

* The rulers of the vampire nation in ''Literature/TheTomeOfBill'' series are the First Coven, and all of the eldest members are implied to be HistoricalDomainCharacters, including Alexander [[spoiler:as in, Alexander the Great]] and The Khan (actually [[spoiler: Ogedei Khan, UsefulNotes/{{Genghis|Khan}}'s son]])

By the end of the 20th Century, the standard horror tropes of lone, disorganized vampires didn't make much sense. The rise of telecommunications and computers also coincided with the vampires getting their act together and forming tight-knit societies, often European in origin. They serve as a kind of a ruling organ which operates mostly behind the scenes, sometimes in conjunction with human agents or other vampire clans. With so many vampires cooperating with one another, the likelihood of [[TakeOverTheWorld world domination]] is increasingly obligatory; yet Vampire councils are uniformly against taking such action. As a consequence, there is often ''one'' council member who objects to all the secrecy, only to be swiftly slapped down.

Very common in settings with a VampireVarietyPack, as a way for the different vampiric clans to discuss events that impact all of them. The end result is usually kind of undead CosmopolitanCouncil, where the Slavic ClassicalMovieVampire rubs elbows with the ChineseVampire or similiar bloodsuckers from other cultural traditions. FeralVampires usually aren't invited, though.

* The Vampire Nation in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse is governed by [[ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula Count Dracula]] and they are composed by several sects that once in a century gather in a meeting to discuss. This concept is relatively new as vampires have been part of Marvel for decades and having even fought with superheroes such as the X-Men and Captain America, but they never established a society of their own. This was retconned in 2010, which showed Dracula had ruled over a secret vampire kingdom with its own laws and customs that was heavily influenced by the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''. In ''Comicbook/JasonAaronsAvengers'', there is a Vampire Nation in Chernobyl.
* ''ComicBook/{{Raptors}}'': The vampire council are running humanity behind the scenes, and are all European [[AristocratsAreEvil aristocrats]] who have settled in New York City. Pretty democratically too, since their leader has became an OrcusOnHisThrone obsessed with hunting new victims over the centuries and doesn't really care enough to micromanage the council.

** In ''Film/BladeTrinity'', another coven finds and awakens the original vampire, [[IHaveManyNames Dagon/Dracula/Drake]] in order to get an edge over Blade; he proceeds to reduce their leading council to his lackies. Meanwhile, this coven (and possibly others, though it's unclear) has started rounding up humans to put them in medically-induced comas and farm them for blood, as a more efficient means of feeding.
* In ''Film/Underworld2003'', vampires are ruled by an elite council formed by the [[VampireMonarch Elders]], who presides over them and are responsible for deciding laws and political matters, as well as passing judgement on Vampires who have broken the Coven's laws. The Elders are the most powerful members of their race, and by their law, only one of them can rule for a period of time while the other two are asleep. Over the course of the series, [[spoiler:the Elders are killed off, but the council manage to reorganize themselves without them. By the end of the fifth movie, Selene and her allies David and Lena have become the newest Elders]].

* Whitley Streiber's ''Literature/TheHunger'' and its sequels has the concept of a Vampire Parliament, where the world's vamps get together to discuss things like territories and breeding rights (breeding humans, that is).

* The Vampiric Council in ''Series/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' consists of high-level vampire aristocracy and [[LivingADoubleLife celebrity actors who play vampires in media,]] each of whom are actually vampires, including Creator/DannyTrejo from ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' and Creator/WesleySnipes of the ''Film/BladeTrilogy'' series.

* ''Literature/TheStrain'' and its sequels have The Ancients, a council of the very first vampires. The main villain, TheMaster, is an Ancient who has gone rogue.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': The Volturi are especially zealous and have adopted a [[LeaveNoSurvivors salt the earth]] approach to maintaining secrecy. They often send agents to destroy renegade covens and eradicate ''all'' vampires and humans on the scene.

* V. Panov's ''Secret City'': Since his Masan are an almost literal {{Expy}} of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', their Camarilla fits the idea.

* The Vampire Nation in ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' is governed by [[ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula Count Dracula]] and they are composed by several sects that once in a century gather in a meeting to discuss. This concept is relatively new as vampires have been part of Marvel for decades and having even fought with superheroes such as the X-Men and Captain America, but they never established a society of their own. This was retconned in 2010, which showed Dracula had ruled over a secret vampire kingdom with its own laws and customs that was heavily influenced by the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''. In ''Comicbook/JasonAaronsAvengers'', there is a Vampire Nation in Chernobyl.
* In ''ComicBook/AmericanVampire'', the Carpathian bloodline is organized into several covens composed by bankers, rich tycoons and Hollywood actors and they pretty much control all the rest of the vampirekind since they drove all other subspecies to near extinction. They don't have an absolute leader since their progenitor {{Dracula}} was locked up by the [[VampireHunter Vassals of the Morning Sun]] and they tend to rule themselves in separate mobs with each having their different agendas.

* ''ComicBook/{{Raptors}}'': The vampire council are running humanity behind the scenes, and are all European [[AristocratsAreEvil aristocrats]] who have settled in New York City. Pretty democratically too, since their leader has became an OrcusOnHisThrone obsessed with hunting new victims over the centuries and doesn't really care enough to micromanage the council.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': The Volturi are especially zealous and have adopted a [[LeaveNoSurvivors salt the earth]] approach to maintaining secrecy. They often send agents to destroy renegade covens and eradicate ''all'' vampires and humans on the scene.

* V. Panov's ''Secret City'': Since his Masan are an almost literal {{Expy}} of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', their Camarilla fits the idea.

* Whitley Streiber's ''Literature/TheHunger'' and its sequels has the concept of a Vampire Parliament, where the world's vamps get together to discuss things like territories and breeding rights (breeding humans, that is).
* One rules the Vampire Nation in ''Literature/StraightOuttaFangton.'' The Council of Ancients is full of all vampires over a thousand years or more and dominates all other members of their race. Notably, no one is particularly happy about this since they do nothing but leech (pun intended) off others of their kind but they're too powerful to defy.

* This ''probably'' doesn't exist in the ''Literature/AnnoDracula'' universe, although there used to be rumours about it. It was said that if a vampire ever went public, they would be KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade by a mysterious council of powerful Elders (generally referred to as "the Number", because conflicting rumours called them "the Six" or "the Seven" or whatever). Since the ''Anno Dracula'' setting as we know it is firmly TheUnmasquedWorld, this turned out not to be the case.

* The Vampire Authority in ''Series/TrueBlood'' is the ultimate authority over all vampires and has spent many centuries working to monitor the whole race. Using [[StateSec state-of-the-art technology and a secret police]], the Authority controls every aspect of vampire society by setting law and settling disputes. Defying the Authority is punishable by death; most vampires fear it, though Russell Edgington mocks the idea.
* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' has The Enforcers. We don't see too much of them, but they keep tabs on the other vampires and do what it takes to keep the Masquerade intact. The gentlest means they employ is hypnotizing humans to forget. Enforcers aren't as soft on other vampires, who face death for breaking the code of silence.

* The Vampire Nation in ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' is governed by [[ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula Count Dracula]] and they are composed by several sects that once in a century gather in a meeting to discuss. This concept is relatively new as vampires have been part of Marvel for decades and having even fought with superheroes such as the X-Men and Captain America, but they never established a society of their own. This was retconned in 2010, which showed Dracula had ruled over a secret vampire kingdom with its own laws and customs that was heavily influenced by the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''. In ''Comicbook/AvengersJasonAaron'', there is a Vampire Nation in Chernobyl.

* The Vampire Nation in ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' is governed by [[ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula Count Dracula]] and they are composed by several sects that once in a century gather in a meeting to discuss. This concept is relatively new as vampires have been part of Marvel for decades and having even fought with superheroes such as the X-Men and Captain America, but they never established a society of their own. This was retconned in 2010, which showed Dracula had ruled over a secret vampire kingdom with its own laws and customs that was heavily influenced by the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''.

* ComicBook/{{Vampirella}} occasionally features groups like these that usually conspired to unleash HellOnEarth. In the Harris Publication, a very large vampire organization used the mob as cover and they were seated in Vatican, their leader being the illusive Black Pope who worshiped the MadGod [[GreaterScopeVillain Chaos]] and sought to summon him on Earth with the intent of enslaving mankind to vampires.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* V. Panov's ''Secret City'' - since his Masan are an almost literal {{Expy}} of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', their Camarilla fits the idea.

* The Nine Lords of Night in ''Series/FromDuskTillDawn'' are the elite of vampire hierarchy and the first of their kind. For centuries they ruled over the ''culebras'' (Mexican vampires) and Season 1's BigBad Santanico Pandemonium served as their underling until she decided to break away from their control. When any vampire goes rogue, their leader Lord Amancio Malvado unleashes his Regulators - superpowered vampire warriors - to hunt down and bring them back for punishment.

* In the world of ''Wiki/TaerelSetting'': The pioneer clan’s council rules the Ashat nation that contains the Av Vara Kin'toni Clan and the Av Vara Kin'toni Clan, among others. The Ashat nation is the nation that rules the Seegor Blanket Bog, Lyeolor Alpine Tundra, Puvesir Autumn Hills, along with other places. The members of the Ashat nations include Tal Ranoth Kin'toni Clan and the Falang Kin'toni Clan. The kin'toni are a race of vampires made by a super-soldier experiment gone wrong.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'': ''Dawnguard'', the first DLC expansion, has the Volkihar Clan of Vampire Lords as a faction you can join (for the vampire path) or fight against (for the Dawnguard path), who are organized as a [[MonsterLord noble council]] with Lord Harkon as their leader.

** The various vampire "Houses". The antagonist of the first ''Film/{{Blade}}'', Deacon Frost, clashes with the House of Erebus over its allegiances with mankind. Frost suspects he's not the first vampire to question the status quo, just the loudest. He's overruled by the other members, who look down on him for not being pure-blood vampire.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'': ''Dawnguard'', the first DLC expansion, has the Volikhar Clan of Vampire Lords as a faction you can join or fight against, who are organized as a [[MonsterLord noble council]] with Lord Harkon as their leader.

* In the world of ''Wiki/TaerelSetting'', the pioneer clans’ council of Ashat rule the nation, two of the clans in the Ashat Nation are the Av Vara Kin'toni Clan and the Av Vara Kin'toni Clan.

* In ''Film/Underworld2003'', vampires are ruled by an elite council formed by the [[VampireMonarch Elders]], who presides over them and are responsible for deciding laws and political matters, as well as passing judgement on Vampires who have broken the Coven's laws. The Elders are the most powerful members of their race, and by their law, only one of them can rule for a period of time while the other two are asleep. Over the course of the series, [[spoiler:the Elders are killed off, but the council manage to reorganize themselves without them. By the latest movie, Selene and her allies David and Lena have become the newest Elders]].

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':
** The Volturi are especially zealous and have adopted a [[LeaveNoSurvivors salt the earth]] approach to maintaining secrecy. They often send agents to destroy renegade covens and eradicate ''all'' vampires and humans on the scene.

* ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'': In Season 2, Dracula assembles a war council with vampire generals from all over the world. Unusually, he places [[TokenHuman two humans]] of trust in charge of the council as his [[CoDragons most trusted followers]].

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* In S. Lukyanenko's ''Literature/NightWatch'' series, Watches also keep the vampires in check (by means of EquivalentExchange, though).

** The Camarilla (particularly the Elders among them). They're the ones responsible for the Six Traditions (especially the Masquerade), have quite the established hierarchy stretching back centuries, and deal harshly with those that break the Masquerade and the other Traditions.