Mage History
From Gothpoodle
Contents |
Native Period (pre-1776)
No formal cabals existed, but individual shamans among the Yeluma practiced magic.
Spanish Period (1776-1822)
Several of the Yeluma shaman formed a cabal to fight the oppression of their people as two groups of foreign mages arrived in the area. The first was a small loosely allied group of Seers of the Throne lurking within the Catholic Missions and the second was a cabal of Banishers whom they would quietly support in their fight against the native shamans. Between these two groups, the Yeluma were routed and then hunted down and killed.
Mexican Period (1822-1847)
The dismantling of the Mission system undermines the power base of the Seers of the Throne and they were forced to concentrate their efforts on reorganization. The Banishers continue to hunt indigenous mages but also quickly dispose of outsiders who come to the Bay Area.
Barbary Coast (1847-1906)
The Gold Rush brings a flood of immigrants to the explosively growing new city and with them come mages of various sorts. For the next sixty years, the city's occult population is a chaotic struggle over hallows and mystical and mundane influence. The Seers of the Throne, still reeling from the undermining of their power structure, are unable to stem the tide of foreigners and lose control of the area. The Banishers become more independent and ramps up their efforts against the more unsavory new practitioners but are overwhelmed by the sin of the Barbary Coast. Among the stronger cabals at this time were: The Chosen of Ti-Tsang, Chinese alchemists drawn by the proximity of death and material greed who claimed Chinatown's powerful hallow; The Sin Eaters, a quasi-Catholic sect of Goetic mages who haunted the Barbary Coast, capturing the embodied sins of its inhabitants to serve their own occult purposes.
Reconstruction (1906-1950)
The disaster of 1906 shattered the occult underground by causing some hallows to go dormant and others to awaken, in addition to the deaths, destruction of sanctums, and general chaos. In the days following, the strongest of the remaining practitioners gathered and hammered out what became known as the Barbary Compact, a set of laws to govern the magical practitioners within the city. Those among the occult population that did not agree to adhere to the agreement were driven out of the city or killed. The strongest representatives of the five traditions of magic were chosen to lead a High Council to oversee the enforcement of the Compact. One disgruntled group of Rosicrucians eventually left San Francisco over disagreements with the High Council to set up shop in San Jose. The Seers of the Throne quietly supports the Compact while making their own inroads during the city's rebuilding, infiltrating mundane and mystical organizations alike. By the end of the Second World War, they have agents within the High Council and top levels of city government.
Counterculture (1950-1980)
The settled occult community was again disrupted with a new influx of mages that occurred after World War II, particularly during the 60s and 70s. Many of these young practitioners subscribed to altered versions of Eastern beliefs or new age ideologies and were drawn to San Francisco by its counterculture movement and strong Asian influence. Changes in immigrant law also allowed more Asians to enter the city, bolstering the dwindling population of Chinatown considerably. The formation of new cabals and the increase in individual practitioners led to frequent clashes that required the invention of the High Council, which only exacerbated the already prevalent anti-authority attitudes of many of the newcomers. Tensions also increased when some of the new arrivals pushes the boundaries of the law by experimenting with radical techniques like the ability of psychedelic drugs to cause Awakenings, increased interaction with the spirit world, attempts to liaison with other social supernatural creatures, and extensive dealing with the dead. Many were high profile and didn't believe in hiding their abilities. This led to clashes and violence similar to what was being experienced in the mundane world.
Decline (1980-1990)
Finally, in 1980, the High Council began a massive crackdown. It appointed full-time Sentinels to acts as investigators, spies, and police and began to prosecute minor or borderline violations of the laws of the Compact as vigorously as serious indiscretions. Many behaviors once overlooked as harmless were criminalized, including any public claims of supernatural ability like fortune-telling or mediumship. Much of this was due to the influence of the Seers of the Throne, who began flexing their muscles in both mundane and mystical circles. The appearance of new Banisher cults, mostly absent since the Barbary Coast days, led to an increased sense of paranoia. These, too, were subtly manipulated by the Seers, who would often use contacts to leak information on the existence of troublesome mages.
Dot-Com Boom (1990-2000)
Early in 1990, one of the Sentinels went rogue, convinced that there was corruption within the High Council while investigating the deaths of an entire cabal at the hands of Banishers. Unwilling to abandon his investigation, he gathered supporters within the Sentinels and even from two members of the High Council, and was finally able to prove his case amidst a near revolution among the occult underground. The resulting pogrom left the High Seer dead, Dexter Green Chief Sentinel, and several disgraced or banished members of the support staff replaced with young, new mages of a more liberal thinking. The new High Seer, a reformist, convinced the other members to roll back many of the draconian policies of the previous decade and the rest of the century passed relatively peacefully, with the Council fading into the background of most mages' lives, only to send their agents to investigate gross indiscretions and violations of the law.
Present (post-2000)
Things have been relatively quiet since the turn of the century. The Seers have been trying, without success, to infiltrate the High Council again. There are still Banishers in the city, but no sizable groups and they rarely last long.
