The Haven is a seemingly innocent San Francisco nightclub owned by Lillie Langtry (Stacy Haiduk). Beneath the surface, however, it is a gathering place for modern-day vampires (known as “Kindreds”).
San Francisco is infested by several disparate Kindred clans. Julian Luna (British actor Mark Frankel) is the undead prince of the vampire world, and his struggles to keep the peace among the clans is the series’ focal point.
Amongst the clans, the “Ventrue” are vampire aristocrats, wealthy and born to rule. Exhibit 1: Julian Luna.
The “Toreador” are artistic types – musicians, painters and suchlike (Lillie Langtry is a Toreador).
The “Nosferatu” clan are the closest to classic vampires. They are sneaky, prefer subterranean haunts, and make great assassins like Luna’s chief enforcer, Daedalus (Jeff Kober).
“Gangrels” are hip and young rebels, bikers and rockers. They party hard but make loyal friends – like leather-clad biker, Cash (Channon Roe).
The “Brujah” clan are vampire scum. Mean, corrupt and Mafia-like, they control illicit drugs and gambling rackets. Finally, the “Assamite” clan are deceitful, Ninjalike shape-changers.
In an interesting twist on traditional vampire folklore, humans are not bitten to become vampire members of the clans (for a vampire to bite a human means death to the vampire). Instead, humans volunteer for transformation into a clan and must be “embraced”.
The Kindred protect themselves by maintaining “the Masquerade” in which they pretend to live and work as humans. The penalty for breaking the Masquerade is execution (usually via a long, lethal Nosferatu fingernail to the neck).
To complicate matters further for Prince Julian Luna, he falls in love with human reporter, Caitlin Byrne (Kelly Rutherford) and must maintain a tightrope-walking truce with vampire-stalking homicide detective Frank Kohanek (a terribly over-the-top C. Thomas Howell).
FOX cancelled the series after just eight episodes. Tragically, star Mark Frankel died in September 1996 from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident in London. He was just 34.
Kindred: The Embraced was loosely based on a role-playing game named Vampire: The Masquerade.
Lillie Langtry
Stacy Haiduk Julian Luna
Mark Frankel Archon Raine
Patrick Bauchau Sasha
Brigid Brannagh Detective Frank Kohanek
C. Thomas Howell Sonny Toussaint
Erik King Daedalus
Jeff Kober Eddie Fiori
Brian Thompson Caitlin Byrne
Kelly Rutherford Cash
Channon Roe
Episodes
The Original Saga | Prince of the City | Nightstalker | Romeo and Juliet | Live Hard, Die Young, and Leave a Good-Looking Corpse | The Rise and Fall of Eddie Fiori | Bad Moon Rising | Cabin in the Woods
Amongst the clans, the “Ventrue” are vampire aristocrats, wealthy and born to rule. Exhibit 1: Julian Luna.
The Kindred protect themselves by maintaining “the Masquerade” in which they pretend to live and work as humans. The penalty for breaking the Masquerade is execution (usually via a long, lethal Nosferatu fingernail to the neck).
Lillie Langtry
Sonny Toussaint
