Antediluvians
These ancient vampires, if they exists at all, are likely the most powerful creatures in the world. Members of the Third Generations, the Antediluvians are only two steps removed from the First Vampire, Caine. Antediluvians, when they choose to rise from their long sleep, affect all with whom they come in contact; according to the few fractured accounts of their doings, they possess virtually godlike power. According to Kindred legend, there were 13 original Antediluvians, though some ahve allegedly been destroyed. Their eternal struggle, the Jyhad, touches all Kindred, and innumerable layers of manipulation and deception make the plots of these Ancients almose imperceptible.
Methusaluhs
4th-5th Generations
If the Antediluvians are the Kindred's gods, the terrible Methuselahs are demigods and avatars. At a point between a vampire's thousandth and two thousandth year, a grave change overtakes the Kindred. Sometimes the change is physical, while at other times it is mental or emotional. Whatever the nature of th change, the end result ids that the vampire no longer bears any semblance of humanity. Having truly moved from the earthly realm of the supernatural, the Methuselahs often retire into the earth, where they may avoid attempts of diablerie by lesser Kindred. Kindred greatly fear the Methuselahs, who are accorded any number of horrifying characteristics. Rumres speak of Methuselahs whose skin has become stone, of everything from hideous disfigurement to unearthly beauty that cannot be looked upon. Some are believed to drink only vampire blood, while others control the fates of entire nations from their cold tombs.
Elders
6th-8th Generations
Elders are Kindred that have existed for hundreds of years, and typically range from sixth to eighth generation. With centuries of accumulated cunning and terrible thirst for power, elder Kindred are the most physically active participants in the Jyhad - they do not suffer the long fits od torpor that the Methuselahs and Antediluvians, but they are not so powerless or easily manipulated as the younger Kindred are. Princes, powerful primogen and justicars tend to hail from these generations, though it should be noted that European holders of these titles tend to be lower generation and greater power the their American counterparts. The Eighth Generation is certainly the lowest generation to which one may be considered an elder, though this seems largely arbitrary.
Ancillae
9th-10th Generations
Ancillae are relatively young vampires (between one and two hundred years of unlife) who have proved themselves as valuable memebers of the Kindred society. Ancillae are the lackeys to greater Kindred, and - if they're clever or lucky - tomorrow's elders. Ancillae is the rank between neonate and elder, signifying that the Kindred has cut her teeth (so to speak), but lacks the age and experience to become a true master of the Jyhad. Because the world's population has grown so in the last two centuries, the vast majority of vampires are ancillae or neonates.
Neonates
11th-13th Generations
Neonates vary from newly released fledglings to indolent Kindred of a hundred years or more. Marked by the stigma of not yet having proved themselves to the elders, neonates are inexperienced vampires who might one night make something of themselves - but, more likely, will fall as pawns in the schemes of the other undead.
Fledgings
Also known more loosely as "childer" (although every vampire except Caine is someone's childe), fledglings are newly reborn vampires still under the tutelage and protection of their sires, the vampires who created them. Fledglings are not considered full members of Kindred society and are often treated disrespectfully or as the sire's property. When her sire decides her childe is ready, the fledgling may become a neonate, subject to the prince's approval.
(Vampire: the Masquerade 3rd edition. Page 30-31, 56)