The Prima Invicta are a third-tier conspiracy among vampires. They seek to control the world, both Kindred and kine.
Overview[]
The Prima Invicta use favors and blackmail as often as they use ghouling or Disciplines to exert their control over mortal and immortal society alike. Their goals are relatively simple: with great power comes the freedom to do whatever the hell you'd like. And they'd like to do a lot of things. By keeping government, business and media institutions under their thumb, the leaders of the Prima Invicta can indulge in whatever vices they have with impunity--after all, who's going to stop them?
The only flaw in this plan is that the lower-echelon members do most of the work for a far smaller reward. Nearly everyone involved in the Prima Invicta is a grasping, paranoid, compulsive back-stabber that would make Machiavelli queasy, so infighting, treachery and the odd revolution are part of the usual modus operandi. The important thing is that the new boss is always pretty much the same as the old boss (and just as likely to piss off their subordinates, too, eventually).
Structure[]
Above the level of the urban Prince, the Prima Invicta select Kings and Queens to control vast swaths of territory. Like Princes, individual monarchs have wildly different ruling styles, from the bloodthirsty autocrat to the absent-minded figurehead.
Kings and Queens select a council of elites from their realms, who then choose the global Emperor or Empress. This position isn't a reward--it's a punishment, a puppet ruler controlled by their elite council through threats and mind-control. Occasionally, an emperor has been strong-willed enough to turn the tables on their captors, but nobody actually wants to be responsible for this bag of homicidal cats. They'd all rather someone do the dirty work while they can reap the rewards from the shadows.