From SuspireWiki

Theme & Mood Story: Glass and Steel

Glass. Ribbons of steel belted to each other by undershined fasteners that glisten yellow under the night sky. Asphalt. The sticky stench of tar wafts from the city streets night in and night out, as the all-too-common construction crews work tirelessly into the night to futilely attempt to keep up with the explosive population of Carcosa. Spires. The tops of the buildings seem to tower above and loom as if they were competing with each other for a bird’s-eye view over the streets of Downtown.

For a city too busy to stop and marvel at it’s own ingenuity, Carcosa has become one of the premiere cities in the United States. Nestled on the Eastern Coast of the country, between the Megacity of New York and the large cities of the south and nestled directly east of Richmond in Virginia bordering the Chesapeake Bay, Carcosa has quietly been sapping the nearby metropolitan areas into an urbanized megalopolis.

The city itself had a population explosion since the late 1940’s; at first it catered to small families of four or less before amending a city-wide tax revenue ordinance to provide benefits, some cost of care and tax breaks for those who populate into large (four or more children) families. The highly lambasted gamble paid off, and the population of the city quickly grew to monolithic numbers. The politicians who supported the radical change quickly became millionaires, and their supports became the ruling elite class. They quickly set forth into attracting foreign (read: cheaper) aid in the spirit of “if you build it, they will come”. This act peppered the skyline with modernized buildings and sprawling headquarters... and nearly drove the city to bankruptcy.

With the population explosion, there were also the poor and disenfranchised. Those who had small families but could not, for a multitude of reasons, keep a large family to the legal limits found that their attempts at procreation for benefit quickly forced them into destitution. While the news media and bureaucratic channel transmissions all lauded the ballsy and successful move, the poorest of the poor became even more voiceless. While those of the ruling elite cheered and patted themselves on the back, the poor suffered and the middle class slowly disappeared. The underworld began to flourish.

When the skyline began to fill with vacant masses of glass and steel buildings, those in political office chided their critics, saying that the population’s explosion would quickly fill the holes (though they never admitted the sheer amount of them) with hordes of eager corporate buy-ins. These politicians were even so bold as to call Carcosa the next New York or Tokyo. This... did not manifest as they so desired. Companies, worried about the untested market of Carcosa, were wary to move their headquarters, branches and other parts of their expansive companies into the city. And in the late 1970’s and no amount of political bribery, tax breaks and kickbacks could fill all of those paid and unused buildings. As the city spiraled towards bankruptcy, the growing legion of homeless and lower class grew angry, malcontent and most importantly... sickly.

An epidemic, they called it. An epidemic of disease. The lower class saw it for what they believed it to be: a way to rid the city of it’s overwhelming payouts to city welfare and healthcare. The riots quickly followed.

The news media called them riots caused by unions and criminal elements who unfairly wanted to capitalize on the state of the city. The people called them returning the city to sanity. The national guard was called in after three nights, but the damage was already done. People will dispersed from their places, and criminals found themselves with empires full of people who believed they were, in fact, the best people for the job. But as anyone with an outside, birds-eye-view could see: they were not. The greedy city had made greedy men. The ruling elite of the city realized that they had to change their methods, and many criminal gangs were “legalized” into unions and hired “security”.

These legalized “carpetbaggers” infiltrated every single level of the governmental structure and, for those who paid their dues, protected their real people. The politicians and new money millionaires were backed into a position of their own making, taking heavy losses every day and night that passed. Even the legalization and breaking bread with the criminal element only seemed to tourniquet the bleeding for a time. The riots’ cause was forgotten by the poor when they were pacified by the gangsters and organized crime as part of their deal with the politicians. The first mayor who came forward with a plan to correct the mistakes of the past did so like a mouthy fledgling Herald: he picked a fight with the powerful and connected wrong people. After a bullet was put between his eyes at a charity auction, the city seemed to offer no resistance to it’s inevitable utter corruption.

That sort of situation was prime rib for Kindred – the most ripe plucking for even the most socially inept – but yet they could, and some say would not, not capitalize as a race. They were fat, almost all entirely wealthy from the strife of years past, and they couldn’t be bothered to care about a few dead, diseased mortals. This attitude lead them to their own problems – unavoidable problems. Severe problems that they couldn’t apathetically ignore. Others – stronger and less sympathizing when their friends (not food) grew sick with a drug-resistant tuberculosis strain – took the initiative to create what would become known to all Kindred of Carcosa as the 4th tradition by brute force.

The written word of the “4th Tradition”:

Those vampires that live within the boundaries of the Consilium of the Carcosa shall provide census date concerning their demographics and population upon demand by one who bears the right and proper emblem of the Consilium. The Consilium has the authority and the mandate to mediate vampire disputes, investigate vampire disturbances and create and enforce laws that directly affect those vampires under the jurisdiction of the Consilium. The Consilium may demand service from the vampires of Carcosa as it sees fit following a majority vote of the Councilors concerning the same.

Mercilessly, Kindred were slaughtered by a joint effort of supernaturals in Carcosa, while they sought to track down the disease carriers in their midst. Kindred sires, childer, lovers, and even those only recently arriving from other areas of the sprawling metropolitan megalopolis that Carcosa had become were staked, interrogated and then brutally massacred by creatures which were only referred to as the “interfectors”. The silhouette of a dark robed, bloody-stained hands and iron-masked figure still can bring fear to even the most staunch and staid undead hearts for those who survived.

The Lancea Sanctum quickly organized a coalition of Kindred to fight against this threat to the Kindred-kind, and had at least marginal (if not fearful) support. No known interfectors were destroyed by the Kindred, and no one actually believes that any were harmed. Whether that’s true or not is a matter of quiet debate amongst some Kindred. Even if one was harmed, the end result was the same: The Circle of the Crone and Invictus formed an alliance against the power-hungry (and suicidal, they said) Sanctified support base. Within weeks, the Sanctified found their havens desecrated during the day – and night – by these interfectors. The reasoning behind it was clear: the Circle of the Crone and Invictus had sold them all out and made an agreement with the controllers of those merciless hounds of the Mage order.

The Invictus and Crone alliance solidified and quickly took praxis from the lost Lancea Sanctum group. Initially, the remnants of the Sanctified and their Kindred and mortal allies as well as their retainers changed their target of aggression. Several Invictus were slaughtered – the youngest ones, Paiges – while several Crone also were drug out into the sun. Worried by the guerrilla warfare that continued until 2002, the Invictus and Crone countered with their own sort: they pushed a known street-king to act as Prince because of his knowledge in handling dissenting factions. After a couple of examples were made, the move worked, and the Kindred who wished no more violence and bloodshed (for their own selfish purposes) settled down.

Kindred expected the Magi to interfere at any time in their conflict, but they did not – in fact, no supernatural entities did, leading most Kindred to believe that the Mages just wished to inflate their own ego by “leashing” a group of Kindred. That being said, Kindred still avoided going too far out of their chunk of the city, if not because of it being territory for other kinds, but because Carcosa’s stretches of barrens are just flat out dangerous. Since the “4th tradition” was instilled, there has been little contact with the other supernaturals of the city, except for the monthly requirement that the Kindred send a liaison from their race to a “court” function. The Prince has sent a different individual each month, though some older Kindred have gone a couple times, but it seems almost like it’s become more ceremonial than any requirement.

Since that time, Kindred have been almost completely free to sink their talons into the massive vacuum left behind by all of the torpored and destroyed Kindred, and for the most part, there haven’t been any major problems...

1750

Richard Rowley buys a large track of uncultivated land north of Williamsburg and moves his family out of the capitol to a newly built plantation house. He starts farming tobacco.

1755

Richard Rowley’s oldest son marries and as a wedding present he’s gifted with a third of Richard Rowley’s land for his own family.

1758

The tobacco crop is ruined by late-season frosts and Richard Rowley is forced to sell most of his land to recoup from loss of profit and additional debt. Several other men swoop in to pick up the pieces, each taking advantage of the rich soil to begin their own farms.

1760

With five large plantations now in the area the town of Carcosa is finally named. It consists of a general store, a saloon, a boarding house, and a church. The general store supplies the entire area and turns a brisk profit. Once a month slave and animal traders come to the town.

1764

The town continues to grow with more families moving in to take advantage of the trade. Enterprising pair of brothers start a quay which will eventually become the ports of Oceanfront. They encourage ship builders from Williamsburg to move up.

1770

Ship building and shipping in general become a necessary part of the Carcosa economy. While the richest people in town remain the plantation owners, they’re out numbered five to one by the poorer ship tradesmen.

1771

A flood strikes Richmond and many people lose their homes, businesses and livelihoods. Carcosa gets a small influx of citizens.

1776

Virginia adopts a constitution and declares independence from England. News doesn’t reach Carcosa until two months later. The town takes a break from working to celebrate and a fire breaks out in a hay loft, half of one street is burned. No one admits to starting it.

1777

Several troops land just north of Carcosa in Chesapeake Bay. Several young men of the city go north to fight with the small militias standing against Gen. Howe. None of them return.

1779

The British start burning harbors up and down the Atlantic coastline, more than half of Carcosa fear the loss of their own livelihoods at this maneuver. The city forms its own militia to combat the threat. They never see combat.

1782

After the surrender of the British troops and a tentative peace being discussed, the Carcosa citizens disband their militia and continue the outward spread of their city.

1788

Richmond, west of Carcosa, is established as the first permanent Capitol of the newly free America. Several people begin to flock to Virginia. In anticipation of new population, several new boarding houses open up on the main streets of Carcosa.

1813

Shipping slowly edges out farming as the primary trade in Carcosa. The town now supports several general stores, boarding houses, saloons and even two hotels. It remains smaller than both Richmond to the west and Baltimore to the north however.

1831

There’s a minor slave revolt on one of the plantations in Carcosa after the slaves there hear of the revolt lead by Nat Turner further south. A good portion of the slaves are slaughtered, the other half resentfully learn a lesson.

1861

Virginia secedes and joins the Confederacy. While the lower classes of Carcosa (read: the ship builders and fishermen) sympathize with the slaves to a small degree even they support the institution if only due to the fact that without the slaves as the lowest caste, they would be.

1862

Several plantations seem to be decline due to the loss of sons and the occurrence of runaway slaves. The plantation owners try to keep it quiet but it becomes known that large tracks of land are being sold to investors.

1865

The earliest record of Kindred in Carcosa arrive, a coterie of four Lancea Sanctum: Johnson Colbin, a Daeva, Sebastien Youngstown, a Gangrel, Edna Whitewater, a Ventrue, and her childe, Randall Calhoun. They establish feeding areas for themselves and keep an eye about their surroundings for other Kindred.

1865

By the end of the civil war only two plantations remain in Carcosa, neither of which is led by a Rowley family. The Rowley family has entered politics and currently holds the mayoral position in an almost hereditary nature.

1870

Virginia finally rejoins the union, the last of the plantations are parceled off due to the lack of ability to run without slaves and the pressure from the politicians to fold and abandon the practice. Only one manages to remain and only due to the fact that it always ran more on poor white labor than free black labor.

1877

Richmond experiences another flood and several more families move east to Carcosa. The city is bursting at the seams with people and several have to room with other families. The city council starts planning expansion.

With the influx of people came an influx of Kindred. Invictus and Ordo Dracul members began to fill in between this time and 1883. A small coterie of three Crone trickle in, but with the stong ties of the Lancea Sanctum already in place, the trio stay the hell away, except for occasional visits at the singular Elysium in the city: a backroom of the Lazy Dog Saloon in North Carcosa (what would become Old Town).

1883

Marigold Botanical Gardens are established first as a small garden as a way for Reginald DeWitt to impress Beatrice McIntyre. It’s said that Reginald proposed by stating the garden full of marigolds could never compare to her beauty. Whether the story is true or not, it’s gone down as a bit of romantic whimsy in a city hard up for it.

1885

Carcosa continues to steadily build as several textile and steel mills to the south and north move to Carcosa due to lightened regulations and tax incentives for the companies. Along with them comes a steady stream of unskilled laborers.

1886

More Carthians pepper the city, coming along with the blue collar workers. The amount of Kindred is getting to be slightly large, and occasionally, conversations come up about organizing into a formal city, under a Prince. The Sanctified are all for the idea, with themselves as the holding power, but the others aren’t exactly so keen on the idea, so it stalls.

1890

Several of the new members of Carcosa are forced to live in what amounts to tent towns west of the main area of town; for the most part the criminal element migrated with them. Over years it would spread back to it's previous roots as well, as the main town of Carcosa begins to become the Old Town of Carcosa.

1901

The Jim Crow laws are passed but they exist mostly as a formality in the already heavily segregated Carcosa. The city has already formed several ethnic regions due to the influx of workers from larger cities. Chinatown is the first established followed quickly after by Cabbagetown.

1905

Four Lancea Sanctum arrive into Carcosa by way of ship. They were fleeing an unagreeable regime, they said, and it bolsters the Lancea Sanctum’s numbers well into the teens. This scares just about everyone with a lick of sense, and they secretly hope that the Sanctified will have an internal power struggle.

1907

The Sanctified don’t. Their first Bishop is Sebastien Youngstown, a fiery sort who believed in the strictest form of the Testament imaginable. They start to reassess their positioning on desiring Prince, and the other Kindred, without numbers to back it up, embrace quickly before – they say – the Sanctified take control and people can’t embrace forever.

1908

Calmon Park is the name given to the former-tent town as real houses start to out number tents and shanties.

1909

The Lancea Sanctum organize the first true Court. Members from every covenant arrive at least to see what all the hub-bub is about. Johnson Colbin, an exceedingly charismatic Daeva, claims Praxis for the Sanctified. The Crone present dissent, as expected, and leave the Court before it ends. The large group of Invictus, who had already been worked over by the Sanctified, as well as the few Carthians and the few Ordo Dracul present give the mass of Sanctified present the head-nod of agreement. The reign of the Monachals begins.

1910

Kindred are treated to the first laws of Carcosa. Among some of the choice ones were: a requirement to be present at Midnight Mass or be staked until the next one, the disallowment of Final Death under any circumstances and the complete and utter ban of Lacrima in addition to laws taken from the Testament. Kindred are mostly unhappy about the ban on Lacrima rather than the rest. For awhile, the Daeva make it fashionable to “shirk” the system by feigning as if they were connected in prohibition to the mortals, and would have “Speakeasy” get-togethers. The Sanctified start threatening punishment, though, and they dwindle out.

1914

World War One begins. The politicians of Carcosa establish Hawthorne University for the sole purpose of allowing their sons a legitimate reason to dodge the draft they expect is coming.

1915

A permanent military base is established in what would become Running Creek for the single purpose of training soldiers on how to best fight chemical and biological warfare. It’s one of the first of it’s kind in America.

1917

The United States joins the war. Several of the lower class men of Carcosa are drafted; almost to a one the upper class sons avoid the draft. This creates even further social tension in the city.

1918

The war ends and life in Carcosa returns to normal, however the lower classes don’t forget what they see as lack of patriotism from their city leaders. There are small outbreaks of violence near the docks and in the ethnic neighborhoods but the discontent quickly gets swamped in the drag of day to day life.

1924

A group of Belial's Brood traverses in from the sea; they wreak havoc through the dock areas before being bloodhunted. Prince Colbin, ever the glory hound, rushes into battle with others and personally slays one of the Kindred. Other Kindred, upon hearing this news, ask (quietly) about the law that says no Final Death under any circumstances. The general agreement is this: it’s not worth it to pick a fight over Belial’s Brood, but it’s important to remember for the future.

1930

The last of the Carcosa plantations are closed after the stock market collapses. The entire area, West Reach, is declared a historical district to preserve “a sense of history.”

1936

In the middle of the Great Depression, when people were already having hard times, Richmond floods again. This time flocks of people move to the coastal Carcosa. The depression starts to lift early from the city as the moneyed classes pump money back into the economy by hiring builders. The city expands at a previously uncharted rate. Shanty houses and other likewise structures are built by the wealthy to house and occupy the poor.

While most of the Kindred are hurting from the Depression, the Invictus manages to keep afloat by sticking to the old, traditional systems. Even in a Depression, there are areas in which money can be made, and the Invictus as a whole, mercilessly exploit them. Carthians, having been on the short stick of the boat, also gain leaps and bounds in their influence with mortals. By performing small favors, working through soup kitchens and ground-pounding, they quickly begin to siphon away influences around the city as a whole and get stronger with each passing month – and more organized. The Ordo Dracul arguably suffers the worst of all the Covenants, with no financial backbone to speak of, they quickly learn that books don’t pay the rent, and come dangerously close to actually losing their own Chapterhouse to foreclosure. The covenant makes some deals with other Kindred and saves themselves the embarrassment.

1941

The city of Carcosa is awarded a bid for a plant to manufacture planes just before Pearl Harbor is bombed. Almost every one in Carcosa had a job, either in construction, manufacturing, shipping or fishing.

1942

The entertainment district of Ecclesia starts to build to provide a place for military ships in port to seek amusement.

1943

The wealthy of Carcosa start to complain about the rowdy sailors moving from the docks closer to town. With the plantations dead, many had moved from West Reach closer to Ecclesia and they did not appreciate the lower classes mixing with their own.

1944

A pack of six Unaligned divebomb into the city. Calling themselves Bloody Fist of the KKK, they track down and accost any non-white Kindred they can find, seemingly just for fun. After about two weeks of this, the other Kindred get annoyed at the interruptions of their nightly routine. They request that Prince Colbin find a Hound, which had not been appointed, to track down and solve the problem. Colbin agrees and appoints Vincent Pesco, a Nosferatu Carthian of particularly foul temperament, to the position. Pesco arranges up a posse and goes “sheet hunting”.

The first major Masquerade breach occurs under the Lancea Sanctum regime. Pesco and his posse locate part of the group of Unaligned in one of the developing bars in Ecclesia. One of the Unaligned hits a posse member with a chair and a brawl breaks out. Everything was fine and dandy until Pesco picked up a thousand pound ship anchor being used as decor from one of the walls and used it like a baseball bat. Unsurprisingly, the Media had a field day about the most curious thing... Pesco was fired and then punished for breaking the laws. The Unaligned, however, were not seen again.

Ties

1945

The war ends completely and the revenue from sailors on leave in Ecclesia is completely supplanted by that of wealthy classes seeking amusement. The area begins to reflect this change.

1948

City politicians take a proactive view towards population and instead of just waiting for Richmond to flood again they start encouraging families to expand by offering tax breaks to larger families.

Ties

1952

Carcosa’s politician’s gamble paid off and the city’s population is once again bursting at the seams. The politicians start coaxing in builders by accepting ridiculously high bids and offering tax breaks to any one who wishes to build. At the same time they start seducing in investors with the dream of a new city of metal and glass that reaches all the way to heaven.

1953

The Unaligned re-emerge from their holed up position in one of the developing barrens and seek out Pesco. He fights them off and flees, then asks the Prince to reinstate him, or at least give him temporary power to deal with it. Colbin denies his request and instead selects a young, up and coming Gangrel from the Invictus, Willy Frezan, to do the job. Frezan is arrogant, though. Seen by one of the Crone who had cast Cheval on him the night prior, Frezan took on three of the Unaligned the first time he saw them and he never survives to see day. Pesco is reinstated and he sets out after the Unaligned again. This time, he catches them a more clever way: he uses his covenant and their influence, then systematically sets it up so their haven is dismantled during the daytime, then paved over for one of those fancy new skyscrapers they’re building. The Unaligned stick around, this time, in the foundation of the Nabisco Building. Pesco is awarded the position permanently, while Yaris Stahl – a Mekhet from the Sanctified – is promoted to Sheriff.

1954

Seeing the slow decline of the historic West Reach neighborhood, the city passes a law to enable government discretion in land appropriation attached to a wide-spread city decision to expand. Few people actually realize what this means (although the ones who do are the displeased minority) until the city begins evicting without compensation the residents. Original plans for the area included more industrial expansion however it never came to pass.

1957

With the tax breaks, the richer families continue to grow larger and richer while the poor families seem to always strive to make it work for them but only continue to grow larger and poorer.

1963

Steel and glass stretch as far as the eye can see if you stand in the center of Carcosa, however most of those buildings are empty and construction on new ones has stopped. Without their investments paying off, many cut out of the Carcosa economy mid project leaving half finished monoliths.

1966

Kindred are scattered all over Carcosa, but return for Midnight Masses in general. The Sanctified find it hard to track all of the Kindred in such a large city, so many Kindred can stay below the radar and avoid the oppressive hierarchy – not most, though. While the Sanctified frowns on the Embrace, severely, it also allows them so long as the right price is paid. Thus, Kindred are allowed to embrace, sparingly, and it is kept a close watch on by the powers-that-be.

1969

The politicians of Carcosa continue to try to coax legitimate companies into Carcosa however despite the incentives offered most stay away. With the building boom over, many people find themselves without jobs. They turn to illegal activities to support their families.

1972

Ties

1974

The underworld flourishes as a class in and of itself while the large wealthy families start to sweat as their own investments start to decline. The lower classes rumble with discontent but by this point most of those in Carcosa government are related either by blood or marriage and elections are all but rigged.

1976

Old Town tries to fight back against the practically hereditary city titles and moves to become unincorporated. The city refuses to grant it and files suit against the Old Town movement leaders. The movement for unincorporation was crushed and the citizens of Old Town never forgot it.

Ties

1977

It’s hard to determine what happened first, the disease or the riots. People flood the streets; they burn buildings, overturn cars, loot stores and generally cause trouble. Several of these people are sick and being in large groups only spreads the sickness quicker. The hospitals are filled to the brim with the dying and the mortuaries can’t keep up with the dead. The National Guard was called in and the riots were dispersed but the body count was unfathomable.

Some Kindred express concern to the Prince about the growing sickness within the wheat. Colbin waves it off, and tells them to just take care of whom they feed from. He, and several other Sanctified, exclaim it is the price the city must pay to God for their continued descent away from His wishes. Certain members of the Crone and Invictus quietly work together to arrange safe herds for each other, just in case, which becomes the groundwork for their later alliance. When the riots hit, the Kindred avoid the north and south parts of Carcosa like the plague and all funnel into Oceanfront, Ecclesia and the northern parts of Hanover Wards. Once they arrange how they’re going to hunt, things go smoothly.

Ties

1978

Unable to ignore criminal demands, the politicians justify giving into them by offering “legitimate” contracts to the known gang bosses and mafia heads. The wealthy classes realize that to retain their comfortable positions, they must mingle with the underworld.

Johnson Colbin and two other Kindred of the Lancea Sanctum, Yosef and Yaris Stahl, receive a polite letter at the Running Creek Elysium. As the Elysium is not one of the more popular ones, the letters sit for four nights until discovered. When they’re finally delivered to the appropriate parties, Colbin initially ignored the letter and informed his hound at the time, Vincent Pesco, to question any skulking about mortal. Outside of those three Kindred, the population of vampires in Carcosa have no idea they were just given an ultimatum: find those responsible for plague-bearing, or else.

One full month passes, to the date (and some believe to the hour and minute), that the letters were initially labeled, then, the Running Creek Elysium catches fire and burns to the ground. Pesco, tasked with investigating since Faris Stahl, the Sheriff, was unable to be reached, took two Kindred with him. Upon arrival, they find that not only is the place burned, but there’s an inscription that only one of his young deputies, who is utilizing the Sight, can make out. “You were warned.” The young deputy flees after Pesco explains how they were warned, leaving Pesco and his other deputy, Timothy Evans, to investigate the scene alone. Pesco and Evans are never heard from again. The Mekhet deputy tells everyone he could find about what he saw. Colbin has him staked immediately for breaking secrecy, and being a coward.

All through the rest of the year, Kindred start going missing, and trickles of words like “black robed” “bloody hands” and “iron mask” start to make their way around the city, via the Daeva word-of-mouth train. By the end of the year, Kindred have worked themselves up into a panic. Finally, the Ordo Dracul come forward and say that they at least know what’s causing the disease and sickness exploding around – Morbus. Most Kindred haven’t the slightest idea what that is, but some do. Prince Colbin, under intense fire now, begins to organize two separate militias out of the hundred or so Kindred remaining: Saint Elizabeth’s Crusaders and Saint Jude’s Light. Kindred were clunkily placed into each group just as they appeared, and those who did not participate or wished to refuse were “encouraged” by sword point (and worse) to do so. The Crusaders were to fight against the combine Supernatural threat against them – which was composed of the majority of the Sanctified, including Colbin himself, while the Light were to locate the Morbus and stake them so that they might be held for judgment.

Ties

1979

Shortly after the new year begins, a quartet of Crusaders encounter a black robed, red-handed and iron-masked individual in a public tram station. The Kindred all draw weapons, but the figure doesn’t flee. Two Kindred, Quentin Tallon and Jack Callopes, collapse within a few seconds of each other without the figure doing much more than making two hand gestures from across the station, and start convulsing before the other pair flees, leaving their Kindred associates to their fate. This time, the Kindred only tell certain people, and the gossip travels like wildfire. The Light, meanwhile, have about as much luck as finding a needle in a haystack eight-million people strong. The Master of Elysium, Keith Goldman and his unreleased childe Harper Sloane, are the next high profile Kindred to go missing. The tourniquet to try and stop Kindred disappearances fails, terribly, and Kindred themselves are starting to quickly turn mutinous against their Lancea Sanctum leaders.

With the mainland riddled by the remnants of disease and violence, the wealthy start to move to the island. They turn vacation homes into main homes and build up the area around Hawthorne University.

Ties

1980

The Kindred have had enough. With their numbers having dwindled down to staggeringly low numbers, the Invictus and Crone leadership organize an alliance, and, using Ordo Dracul proxies, arrange for a meeting with “The Consilium”. In exchange for the slayings to stop, they agree to give over numerous locations of Kindred residences with the understanding they’d likely never see those Kindred again. Colbin’s name and address is at the top of the list and circled. In exchange for the Kindred’s submission, the Consilium requires that they adopt what would later become widespread-known as the “4th Tradition”. The Kindred, desperate for their own to stop dying (for fear they might be next), agree to the stipulation without considering the consequences. By two weeks later, every Kindred on the list given to The Consilium had disappeared. Kindred numbers are so drastically low, that they are at half what they were just the year prior. Lancea Sanctum remnants scream bloody murder and swear they will get revenge. Those that side with the Sanctified swear the same.

Alexander Drake becomes Prefect to the Carthian Movement and institutes a Dictatorial Meritocracy. The Carthians eventually splinter into 2 factions, Drake's and the Tan Di Hui.

Ties

1981

The Hawthorne Point voluntary police force is organized. Notably, none of the “legalized security firms” are represented on the voluntary police force.

The Invictus and Crone quickly decide to allow Ethan Jurgens, one of the Crone and Daeva elders take Praxis. That could not have been a more terrible move. Not only do the Lancea Sanctum now have righteous indignation on their side, but those they’d been whispering in the ear of, saying that the Crone would take control and it’d become even worse half-came true. Many Unaligned and some Carthians signed up on the side of the Lancea Sanctum. The Ordo Dracul, as a whole, aided both sides, but mostly sided with the Crone, and via that, the Invictus – they were not neutral entities.

1983

Hawthorne Island is all but a small fully-working city of its own. Many conjecture that the wealthy need never leave their small enclave to deal with the real people of Carcosa, or to see what their greed has wrought.

The disease spread has been stopped for over two years, and there was no outbreak of violence. A ruling council of remaining Elders held the city at least marginally functional while they expected attack. Finally, the “revenge” came, and it came from a way that the Invictus and Crone did and did not expect. Jurgens was massacred on his way to his own court. Those who had embraced to try and start the replenishing efforts almost universally had their childer slaughtered in a short time span. They didn’t go after the stronger Kindred, they went after those who could not by any stretch of the word, defend themselves. This continuously happens over the span of the next 19 years, with brief interludes of what people believe will be peace, but just turns out to be a lull of a year or two.

Ties

1986

Pleasure Point, long known as a high school party and make-out spot is closed to water traffic indefinitely due to the double-homicide of Carson Smith and Jennifer Youngblood and the influence of their moderately wealthy parents.

Ties

1987

The first demand from the Consilium comes in the form of a letter left at the makeshift new Elysium located in Oceanfront. The Consilium voted upon and required all Kindred under the purvey of their agreement (that is, all Kindred in Carcosa) to immediately move into their new, designated area. Kindred freak the fuck out. Initially, they refuse as a (small) legion, but at a gathering, a simple black robe and iron mask appears from nowhere on one of the chairs. Afterwards, Kindred move to their new area and into one of the six districts allotted to them: Starkhorn Heights, Amptons, Oceanfront, Pappelbon Row, Ecclesia (East Side) and Hanover Wards. Initially, there’s quite a bit of tension, as one would expect, as all of the warring parties were suddenly condensed into a much smaller space.

1988

After ten years of mingling with the underworld, it becomes difficult to tell the difference between legitimate and illegitimate businessmen. The wealthy of Carcosa is made up of both mafia kingpins and society mavens.

1989

Still afraid to entrench themselves back into the city for fear it might be traced back to them, the vacuum of influence remains unclaimed for the most part, while everyone worries about their own safety. Many “capable” individuals, if they’re embraced at all, are embraced during this time, as their sires foolishly thought they might have more of a fighting chance. The Circle of the Crone embraces as freely as their will allows – claiming this as the ultimate form of tribulation.

The overgrown fields of West Reach are sold to an unnamed corporation however few blink an eye at the event, being wound up in their own lives.

1990

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1993

The city tries to expand once again, into Martin Causeway. Several contractors are hired to complete the work but every time a little progress is made the entire thing just sinks deeper into the swampy ground. The city pours several million dollars into the effort before giving up.

Ties

1999

Once again the guerrilla fighting breaks out, and several of the childer embraced during the tentative re-embrace cycle are slain. Kindred try their hardest to appease the Sanctified remnants and their supporters, but the Sanctified will not recant, they consider what the Invictus and Crone did to be the worst form of heresy. Kindred, starting to get tired of the fighting, begin to look towards the Invictus and Crone leadership to try and put an end to the stream of fighting – which has become older than some of the still surviving Kindred.

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2001

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2002

The Invictus and Crone, tired of being picked off one by one starting with their childer first and worried about the future, concoct a better laid plan to handle the problem. They elect Kien Zhao, a self-made street king, to take the mantle during the tumultuous time. While not particularly of high standing within the Invictus just by virtue of modernism and youth, he demonstrated a legitimate knack for handling rowdy parties and coming to agreements. He had also dealt with many similar situations as a mortal. He agrees, albeit begrudgingly, but says that he doesn’t intend to be constrained if he has to do what must be done. The groups agree. Zhao quickly arranges an amicable personal agreement with the Ordo Dracul for the future, then seizes praxis.

Ties

2003

Examples are made of the North Docks coterie comprised of an Unaligned Nosferatu named Jasper Robbins, two of the remaining Sanctified – a Ventrue named Peter Faulkner and his childe Rhonda Scarborough and a singular Invictus named Lloyd Sanford. All four are staked out on top of a skyscraper in Ecclesia with their eyes forced open to greet the sun. The Invictus, displeased at Sanford’s death, initially make noises of dissension but when the city finally calms to a peaceful state later in the year, so too do the Invictus. At the urging of the Invictus and Crone alliance, which still hold his strings to some degree, Zhao codifies laws for the city.

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2004

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2005

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2006

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2007

As part of the agreement with The Consilium, Zhao finally feels confident enough that an assload of violence isn’t going to break out again, and begins to send one Kindred per month to their “Court”. Zhao seems indifferent to the arrangement, but he also never misses sending someone; he also tends to send different Kindred each month.

Ties