The Red Question is a secret organization apparently affiliated with the Anarch Movement. They operate almost exclusively online, so their exact identities are a mystery.
The group was named by the Camarilla for the red font of the recurring question "WHY DO YOU OBEY?" found within their texts.
Overview
In 2004, the Red Question first issued a political tractate online named Anarchs Unbound, a New Manifesto for the Digital Age. The tractate was intended as a response to the Anarch Manifesto of Salvador Garcia, using a great variety of mortal theories ranging from Rousseau to Descartes, from Marx to Adam Smith, from Saul Alinsky to Ayn Rand, in order to apply them to the Kindred condition. The text was sendt to Anarchs known for dissatisfaction with their Elders, with computer acumen or personal charisma. One of these groups were the Digital Draculas, a Tremere coterie that were great contributors to the development of Anarch Sorcery. Together, the two groups created thaumaturgical rituals like "Fangbook", "Bloodspot" and similar devices that would allow vampires to maintain an online presence without violating the Masquerade. The results were blogs like "The Book of Don" which mocked the Book of Nod, Gehenna and the apocalyptic fear that had gripped vampire society, or spam-mails that mocked Garcia and other influential heads of the Anarch Free States. Other movements, like the Anarch Free Press, also gained steam and became more popular thanks to support from the Red Question.
In 2006, the Elders of the Camarilla began to react to the more and more widespread activity of the Red Question in exact the manner the group had anticipated: They announced that anyone who would be found "consorting" with the Red Question or who even possessed Anarchs Unbound would be punished, while two Justicars began to research the Red Question in hope of finding a hidden mastermind. The results were an outrage among the Nosferatu, when Lucinde demanded that administration rights of SchreckNet should be turned over to the Ventrue for "security purposes", many threats of Blood Hunts against various supporters of the Red Question and the execution of several neonates. Several Barons and Archbishops, who were also the victim of ridicule by the Red Question, began to follow suit. Several young vampires began to sympathize with the Red Question and its ideals and in 2007, the group addressed the Justicars of the Camarilla directly. In response to the persecution, they would exact retribution. Only one night later, the Great Recession had begun.
To mortals, the crisis was the foreseeable consequence of greed, lack of regulation and simple stupidity. The Camarilla, however, apparently discovered traces of hacking in several of the concerned banks, as well as evidence of Dominate and other disciplines used against CEOs. The Camarilla investigators believe that the Red Question must have spent years prepping for the financial panic they triggered, but to the elder Camarilla leaders who are largely ignorant of the processes involved, it appears as though the Red Question simply flipped a switch and incinerated most of their stock portfolios.
The Camarilla reacted by issuing that the right to judge individual anarchs would be the matter of the local prince, but that Anarchs Unbound was no greater threat for the sect, merely the work of a coterie of malcontent troublemakers. Several Elders acquired a superstitious dread of the Red Question and the Internet in general, which opened this particular avenue for the exploration of neonates and ancillae that discovered the use of cyber-warfare against both the Red Question and techno-savvy Sabbat that had the same idea.
The Red Question has, so far, not announced any ambitions to lead the Anarch Movement. Instead, they seek to spread into the territories of the Ashirra, the jatis of India, the Ebony Kingdom and even the mysterious Kuei-jin. They have also attacked the current leadership of the Movement, decrying Jeremy MacNeil, Salvador Garcia and Tara for their leadership within the Anarch Free State.
References
- VTM: Anarchs Unbound, p. 21-25, 66-78
