the tale so far
"As you can see, my head is heavy with these questions. I wish I could just go back to being Damned again. But I never will be able to do that. I’ve stained my hands with too much blood. I hope that my successor does not."
- Calebros, ex-Prince Pro Tempore, early 2010 -
While New York was under Sabbat control, and had been for well over a century, there was always some Camarilla presence nearby. In particular, the borough of Manhattan had been precariously held as Camarilla territory following the Great Depression and the precedence of the Ventrue Michaela making herself a fortune on the stock market. The Tremere followed the Ventrue's stead into Wall Street. Nosferatu found the city's slums and sewers hospitable. And Brujah and Toreador settled in, inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and the beat community of Greenwich Village.
By 1980, the sect had turned upon itself, with childer striking down sires, elders diablerizing upstart fledglings, and vendettas were settled in havens, boardrooms, salons, and alleyways. Michaela, in an effort to stabilize the Camarilla presence, proclaimed herself Prince – before Michaela, a succession of petty princes had claimed the title almost nightly, it seemed.
Thereafter, unlife was a constant vigil for Michaela. The Black Hand tested the strength of her domain’s borders nightly, and her own brood (once estimated as a full third of the Manhattan Kindred population) tested her wits. Not long after, Michaela was put to Final Death by the Archbishop Polonia in her own haven.
The Secret War was already underway, though, and gaining speed as Justicars and Archons made deals with the long-settled New York Independent clans, whether it was the Giovanni quietly moving Camarilla troops in or the Setites moving tainted blood to infect the rotten Sabbat shovelheads. The war proper lasted six days, thanks to the years and leading-up-to months of careful planning and slow movement.
The first couple nights in particular were guerilla terror tactics - ghouls setting the havens ablaze or crashing in the windows during the day took out nearly a tenth of the Sabbat. At night, Theo Bell led the fights in the streets. Cock Robin, the Nosferatu, other Gangrel, and some Brujah and Malkavians went underground.
The following four nights were much of the same, but the initial attacks took out such a large number of Sabbat, that by day five it was merely sweeps of the city to clean out the last few cockroaches who didn't manage to flee. In the aftermath, Justicar Pieterzoon urged the elder Nosferatu Calebros to take the position of Prince Pro Tempore until a proper court could be settled. Calebros agreed to take the position for two years, after which he would abdicate.
Shortly after Calebros's abdication, the power players settled into their roles within the Ivory Tower. Our story begins six years later, just before the new year of 2017, following five neonates as they they learn about Kindred society and their place within it.