History
The
Early Nights
The
first Kindred and Cainites in Baltimore arrived in the late seventeenth century
- a Lasombra named Salvador Ortega and aa Toreador named Sebastiano
Garibaldi. Both vampires had ties in
the Catholic Church, and they both worked separately of one another for a few
decades, attempting to gain both personal strength and to shore up the strength
of the Church in Maryland. Ortega
supported the traditional Catholic Church, one of power and mystery, and
Garibaldi was more interested in the aesthetics of it all - as well as the
political influence afforded him amongst the mortals of Maryland. It was he who pushed to have Baltimore town
founded, and he and Ortega maintained an uneasy alliance over the years, though
they came from different sects. Both
Ortega and Garibaldi saw the new world and the ever-changing Church as
excellent chances for power and influence, not only in the New World, but in
Europe as well.
In
1706, a new vampire entered the city with Italian immigrants: Vincenzo
Giovanni, representative of the Giovanni clan.
Giovanni rapidly approached both Ortega and Garibaldi, and ended up
throwing in his lot with his fellow countryman, Garibaldi, forming a coalition
of sorts. At this point, both Ortega
and Garibaldi had embraced childer whose names have since been forgotten. The Toreador had grown more and more
powerful, and had begun a small blood-cult centered on himself specifically,
using his Presence to draw mortals to him.
When some Gangrel pioneers and reckless Brujah trailblazers came west
from Europe, Garibaldi was named Prince of Baltimore and Ortega become Bishop
of the same area, sewing the seeds of conflict between the two sects that would
last for another 250 years.
The
Fall of the Lasombra
In the
mid eighteenth century, Sebastiano Garibaldi decided to use his influence in
the growing Protestant Churches of Baltimore and his foothold in the Catholic
Church to oust his old rival Salvador Ortega.
In an action that caught the distracted Ortega entirely by surprise,
Garibaldi rallied his childer and the Brujah of the city against the Lasombra,
destroying his ghouls and childer, and severing Ortega's hold on his dominated
mortals. Garibaldi would have hunted
down Ortega and destroyed the Lasombra if he was not paranoid that Vincenzo
Giovanni would seize Baltimore in his absence.
Ortega managed to flee north into the night, vowing that he would return
and make Baltimore his again.
Ortega
went north to Pennsylvania, his ties to the Catholic Church broken, and licked
his wounds, building up strength for a chance to take revenge on
Garibaldi. The Toreador, however,
cautiously built up his support in Baltimore, allowing more and more concessions
to Vincenzo Giovanni, who controlled a large portion of trade in and out of
Baltimore at that point in exchange for his support of Garibaldi and the local
Camarilla (as small as it was).
Ortega
failed to strike during the American Revolution, and the combined influence of
Sebastiano Garibaldi and Vincenzo Giovanni managed to keep the war out of
Baltimore. Once the war ended,
Garibaldi found himself Prince of a more powerful city in an independent nation
- a city on the verge of real clout and influence, its trade booming and its
populace skyrocketing.
Immigration
and Consolidation
After
the American Revolution, Garibaldi watched his city grow in size at great
speed. The late eighteenth and early
nineteenth century saw the immigration of a great deal of Brujah, attracted by
the revolution and the intellectualism of the city; quite a few Toreador drawn
by a Toreador Prince and the promise for influence in the art world; and a
number of Ventrue wishing to stake a claim in the new nation. Of note were the Brujah Geoffrey Carroll,
once slave of the powerful Carroll family of Baltimore and soldier from the
revolutionary war; a Malkavian named Dr. Lucien Banes who traveled north from
the mental hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia; a German Ventrue named Viktor
Albrecht who had served with the Hessians in the American Revolution and grew
enamored with the new nation; and a Milanese Nosferatu named Nicodemus who had
a close relationship with Vincenzo Giovanni.
Sebastiano
Garibaldi rapidly set up alliances with the newcomers in the city, and
Garibaldi, Carroll, Banes, Albrecht, and Nicodemus became the first Primogen
council of Baltimore. Carroll and
Albrecht put aside their differences to create an excellent defense force for
Baltimore, fueled by Garibaldi's fear of retribution from the long-silent Salvador
Ortega. Dr. Banes, meanwhile, began the
psychological experimentation for which he would one night become infamous, and
Nicodemus began to work on his network of animal spies who scoured the city for
the nocturnal master, leaving no secret hidden.
Expansion
and Inattention
The
nineteenth century was a period of unfortunate change in Baltimore. Sebastiano Garibaldi felt his grip on the
Church slipping, and Viktor Albrecht managed to persuade him that his long
ally, the independent Vincenzo Giovanni, was behind the lapse in power, when it
was in fact due to some manipulation of the church by Albrecht himself. Garibaldi began to deny Giovanni some of his
normal trade routes, and handed them instead to Albrecht.
Although
this nominally brought more money to the Camarilla, Giovanni had personalized
much of the trade in Baltimore, and Albrecht lost a great deal of
business. At the same time, Dr. Banes
and Nicodemus became more private, and Geoffrey Carroll went abroad to study
Napoleonic tactics in France, leaving Albrecht to worry about trade and
Garibaldi to wallow in his own dementia.
The once-great Prince had become more and more obsessed with making his
city a thing of beauty to match Venice back in the homeland. He brought artisans and lured the rich into
his city, setting up endowments and museums, and entertaining guests at lavish
parties and exquisite salons. The once
strong defense force created by Albrecht and Carroll slipped into disrepair
with the absence of Carroll and the distraction of Albrecht.
And
perhaps most telling was the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the
Baltimore. Not merely an income or
class gap, but a culture gap with rich whites lording it over poor blacks, more
and more of the influential rich moved to the suburbs and the city became
poorer and poorer. The lower classes,
lead by the Brujah Lawrence Taylor, began to chafe against Garibaldi's yoke,
crying out for more concessions and less money and time spent on arts, museums,
and high society.
The
arrogant Toreador ignored the plight of the lower classes, and the acting
Brujah Primogen, Lawrence Taylor, headed north in disgust, secretly searching
for Bishop Salvador Ortega. A great
deal of the Brujah of the city went with Taylor, leave the city nearly
defenseless as the Nosferatu had retreated further and further into the shadows
and the Ventrue struggled to keep the trade going.
In
1903, Lawrence Taylor found Salvador Ortega in Pennsylvania. The Bishop had been harboring a grudge for a
long time, and Taylor was rapidly inducted into the Sabbat and made a
Templar. The two began to use their
extensive combined knowledge of Baltimore in order to organize an assault that
would crippled Prince Sebastiano Garibaldi and bring down the 250-year Camarilla
regime.
The
Great Baltimore Fire
It
wasn't until 1904 that Templar Taylor and Bishop Ortega struck. The two swept down from the north, each
leading a pack of Sabbat and accompanied by a third pack, totaling 36 berserk
Cainites. The attack was begun when a
fire was lit beneath the parlor of Prince Garibaldi and his harpy guests. It is said that Ortega strode through the
fire unharmed and drained every last drop of Garibaldi's blood from the
Toreador Prince's body before his terrified brethren, and then destroyed the
harpies as well. The packs of Sabbat
tore through the city under Taylor's guidance, and Ortega struck fear into the
hearts of elder and neonate alike, an instrument of vengeance.
The
assault would have been a one-sided massacre if not for the return of Geoffrey
Carroll after so many years, alerted by his old friend Viktor Albrecht. By the time the flames had died down, only
Viktor Albrecht, Dr. Lucien Banes, Nicodemus, and the long-absent Geoffrey
Carroll stood to defend the city against the Sabbat. Completely outnumbered, the four elders managed to hunt down and
destroy the vast majority of the Sabbat in the city, demoralizing the
rest. Ortega and Taylor retreated north
again, and the city was tenuously held by the Camarilla.
Revitalizing
the City
At
first the four Primogen worked as a council, not electing a single Prince. They shored up what resources remained, and
reaffirmed the damaged alliance with Vincenzo Giovanni, returning many of his
old businesses. Once trade was booming
again under the old Giovanni's watchful eye, the Four decided to open up the
doors to Baltimore, awarding unheard-of domains to young neonates and
sometimes-even fledgling simply to revitalize their city.
The
call for a new Kindred population brought some powerful movers and shakers,
notably the Haitian Tremere Camilla Delirou, who started the first Tremere
chantry and the Austrian Toreador Morgan Stadtler, who resumed her successors
position as patron of the arts in Baltimore.
With the influx of Kindred came also Setites and the occasional
Gangrel. Baltimore seemed poised to
overtake New York as the primary trade port on the East Coast, and things were
going quite well for the Kindred involved.
Unfortunately,
the prosperity was not to last forever.
New York surpassed Baltimore once more, and Vincenzo Giovanni left for
Venice in disgust, leaving his childe, Antonius Giovanni, to run the Baltimore
branch of the clan in his stead. Dr.
Banes' madness and obsession with psychological experimentation meant that he
arrived less and less to Primogen Council meetings, Nicodemus withdrew
underground to design a sprawling and intricate Undercity, and Delirou and
Stadtler cried out for representation at the Primogen Council. The pair was admitted with the condition
that Dr. Banes and Nicodemus still had their seats if they wished for them, and
that Viktor Albrecht was named Prince of Baltimore.
Shortly
after the Camarilla officially recognized Albrecht as Prince of Baltimore, a
strange newcomer arrived in the city - one Ryoma Minamoto, an Asian vampire of
unknown clan origin whose combat abilities were unparalleled. Minamoto was impressed with the majesty of
the city and the authority of its ruler, Prince Albrecht. He swore to serve Albrecht in whatever
capacity was required of him, and Albrecht used Minamoto to stabilize his power
and muscle the other Primogen into cowed submission.
The
Camarilla also sent a Ventrue named Michael Valentine to assist Albrecht in the
running of the city. Valentine took up
the responsibility for the businesses that Albrecht had overseen for over 200
years, as well as the nightly running of the city, while Albrecht concentrated
more on his administrative and judicial duties as Prince. Morgan Stadtler set up an architect named
Phillipe Horne as Keeper of Elysium, and things began to settle down into a
more normal routine.
The
Late Twentieth Century
Just
when circumstances were becoming smooth and conventional, the mid-seventies saw
additional complication of unlife for Baltimore's Kindred. A young punk named Lydia began to rally the
fledglings and neonates of the city under the banner of the Anarchs, and a
charming and enigmatic Setite named Naya Khaamet arrived in Baltimore.
Lydia's
Anarchs, though not powerful or potent individually began to bring a lot of
influence to bear amongst the youth of the city. She led or instigated demonstrations amongst the mortals and
started heated arguments with the Primogen.
Feeling that the elders had become out of touch with the modern era, Prince
Albrecht decide to react to Lydia's Anarchs with a Sheriff and deputies. A fresh but promising Gangrel named Quentin
Mullough was chosen to be Sheriff, and he handpicked his deputies. The Anarchs and Deputies clashed more than
once, the arguments frequently coming to blows, but the influence of the law
began to lower the intensity of the Anarch rebelliousness, and Lydia lost a
great deal of her support. After a
clash with the Prince and his mysterious Asian ally, Minamoto, Lydia backed
away into the slums of the city to lick her wounds and regroup.
However,
Naya Khaamet was a different story. For
some reason, the arrival of the Setite threw Camilla Delirou into a panic and
subsequently a rage. Prince Albrecht
awarded full usage of the city to the Setites, despite the adamant complaint of
the Tremere Primogen, and Albrecht and Delirou grew further and further apart
politically and personally, and Delirou tried at every turn to get Albrecht to
kick the Setites out of the city - or at least Naya Khaamet. Instead, Khaamet consistently grew in power,
and her snakes worked their way into many of the poor neighborhoods and a good
deal of the law enforcement of Baltimore.
And
thus we enter the modern nights. With
the recent collapse of Philadelphia to the oncoming Sabbat hordes and the
political upheaval within Baltimore, the Kindred population sit and wait as if
for some great, unblinking storm to tear through their city, bringing behind it
the destruction of all that they know and hold dear....