[@pugbutter] Essentially; The current in-game year would be in the early 2000's. Characters from an earlier time would be the result of a specific Prince deciding to stake a bunch of licks to use as a personal back-up army in the event some foreign power ever came to blows with him. With that Prince recently losing power, the current Prince decides the local vampire population needs to be increased after the events that lost the last Prince their throne. So, the reserve-licks get awakened, coming off of ice and getting tossed into the modern world.