The Gangrel have always believed they were the first Kindred in the area now known as Middle Tennessee. The Gangrel are wrong. Centuries before white men set eyes on the New World, Kindred were already there. Svadjek, a Nosferatu antidiluvian, was one of those. Arriving in Vinland with Leif Erikson in the 11th Century, Svadjek, a Kindred of Norse legend, set out to stake a claim in the New World. Erikson's discovery of Nova Scotia would not do. The climate was too harsh for a new colony.
Svadjek took two of Erikson's ships and sailed southwest. They landed in what is now Rhode Island, but it was not to the ancient's liking neither. They sailed further, ending up in present day Virginia. Remaining there until Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke settlement centuries later, Svadjek and the four remaining Norsemen, who he had Embraced, happily feasted on the unsuspecting Englishmen.
Soon after the arrival of more permanent residents in the 17th and 18th Centuries, the Scandinavians set up shop in their cities, feeding off the settlers. Svadjek and his favorite childe Hrefleg moved west over the Appalachians, perhaps a decade or two before the first permanent Gangrel arrived. They fed off the local Native Americans as well as the first white settlers.
These Nosferatu were instrumental in helping to found Nashville. They began construction of what is now the Great Hall. Svadjek disappeared before the turn of the 19th Century. In 1930, Hrefleg Embraced One-Arm and left the city in his care. Ten years later, the Viking fell into torpor, and he is believed to be somewhere deep beneath the city. Since that time, One-Arm has built a strong underground network. William R. Huntley, once Embraced out of spite, has become One-Arm's acting Primogen, taking care of all matters on the surface. |
