The Embrace, also called the Becoming, is the process by which Vampires reproduce. When a Sire embraces a Childe, he creates a new creature cursed by God to haunt the night as a nocturnal blood drinker.

When a Vampire desires a childe, due to loneliness, regret at an accidental feeding, a need for a pawn, or any other reason, the first step is to drain a chosen victim dry. Once the victim is drained of blood, the sire gives the candidate a small amount of his own blood, and this instantly transforms the candidate into a new childe.

The degree of power that the Vampiric  sire bestows upon a victim may increase depending largely on the age, experience and diablerie of the sire

Diablerie is the heinous act of consuming a fellow Vampire completely, down to the victim's very soul. this act of diablerie can increase a victim's Blood Potency and grant them access to powers and Disciplines known to the Vampire victim, but at a terrible cost to the character's Humanity. Diablerie leaves characteristic black veins on the aura of a Kindred.

This potent Vampiric act grants the victim superlative sensory capabilities, including reading auras and even telepathy.

The first reaction most childer have after an embrace is raw hunger. With less than a blood point available and no experience dealing with a fully raging Beast, the childe will most likely enter a hunger Frenzy at the first sight of blood. For most Vampires, this means that the Embrace is followed immediately by a moment of degredation.

After the Embrace, the fledgling may take several days before the full impact of the curse is apparent. Ventrue preferences take several weeks to define, and the Nosferatu change can take up to a month as the body re-forms to accept the curse.

In the episode "Thats Why The Lady Is A Vamp" my imagination got tantilized with the concept of who could have created the Vampires in the Mansbridge Experiment. Just looking at Patsy LaRue and her "childe" Merrill makes me wonder what kind of "makers" they could be.

Ascension is the name given to the ceremony wherein a person is formally accepted into a Vampire pack. The ceremony begins with the fledgling approaching an altar in the company of one or two pack members. There, the Alpha Vampire reads a series of vows in Latin, which the fledgling repeats. The ceremony culminates with the Alpha biting the fledgling, usually on the wrist, and drinking some blood. The fledgling is then taken to a private chamber, where transformation takes place over the next 24 hours.

Ascension is a way to formally reward fledglings, those humans who serve a variety of functions to the pack. Fledglings paid bills, ran errands, provided shelter and procured victims for the pack. Most fledglings provided these services with the hopes of eventually being invited into the pack, and the Ascension ceremony was a way to formalize the process.

The classic Ascension texts were written in Latin and were taken from the Black Mass and the writings of Quadilla, the 9th Century vampire general who nearly overran Rome. The vows included declarations of fealty to the pack and Satan, along with some aspersions at Jesus.

Unholy satan, bringer of enlightenment,

Lend us thy power, now and throughout our lives.

Endless glory shall be given.

Lord of hell, show us thy way.

In the old days, Ascension ceremonies took place in private churches or crypts on the estates of the wealthy. The Marquise de Carnavalet, a courtier to the French King Louis XIV, was turned in a ceremony at Versailles in 1680. However, most packs did not have palaces at their disposal and had to make do with decidedly less glamorous sites, such as sewers, caves and abandoned buildings.

Ascension