Werewolf History
From Gothpoodle
Contents |
Native Period (pre-1776)
The entire peninsula was originally the territory of a Yelamu pack of Predator Kings called the Mist-Walkers, an extension of the Mountain Kings pack in the Santa Clara Mountains and part of a larger confederacy of Pure in the Bay Area centered on the powerful locus on Mount Diablo.
Spanish Period (1776-1822)
The arrival of the Spanish also brought a small pack of Storm Lords who belonged to the Brotherhood of the Crossed Swords, who settled near to the new Mission and named themselves Caballeros de los Dolores, after the lake there. They fought an uphill battle against the Pure, outnumbered and surrounded, but managed to survive mostly by helping take part in the decimation and enslavement of the local indigenous population.
Mexican Period (1822-1847)
The Mexican War of Independence cut the Mission pack off from its allies and resources, but the damage done to the Pure wolf-blooded in the area had taken their toll on the Predator Kings. In retaliation, they began to abduct members of the Aguirre family for breeding purposes. The fighting between both sides almost led to the extinction of both packs but for the onset of the Gold Rush in 1847.
Barbary Coast (1847-1906)
The Gold Rush brought three new wolf-blooded families and their packs to the newly minted city: the MacLellans, Scottish Ivory Claws with money who settled on the fashionable Nob Hill; the Phelans, poor Irish Iron Masters who claimed territory in the rough and tumble Barbary Coast; and the Jins, Chinese Bone Shadows who established themselves in the rapidly forming Chinatown. The three packs fought viciously for control of the heart of the new city, Pure and Forsaken alike, and also managed to establish themselves through their kin as financial powers. The MacLellans bought up vast swaths of real estate in the heart of the city, the Phelans took up banking and made a fortune off of prospectors, and the Jins established close ties to the Six Companies. Towards the end of the century, the Phelan family split with a contingent moving out to the Great Sand Waste in order to use the new park as a foothold to taking the territory from the Pure. Bloody conflict continued until the Predator Kings decided to end the whole matter by waking the spirit of earthquakes that slumbers beneath the city.
Reconstruction (1906-1950)
The Great Earthquake of 1906 and the resultant fire razed the city, killing several Uratha either directly or through the spiritual turmoil that accompanied it. When the dust settled, the MacLellans and Phelans both tried to use their influence to push the Jins out of Chinatown, but the powerful spirit of that community assisted them and they retained their home, though they were being increasingly hurt by the Chinese Exclusion Act. The newly reborn spirit of the city established a strong alliance with the Phelans, blaming the MacLellans for the destruction of the city and being soured on the Jin by their alliance with its rival, Chinatown. During the rebuilding, a Fire-Touched family called the Hellstroms claimed Little Scandanavia and brought with them Church of the Lighthouse, which used charity and welfare to insinuate itself into the mortal population below the radar of the resident packs. The Predator Kings were driven back into the mountains and ceased to have a presence in the city.
Counterculture (1950-1980)
The three decades following the end of the Second World War represented a boom in the werewolf population of San Francisco. Several new packs established themselves in the growing city and a few allied themselves with the existing ones. The Montillos settled in the Mission and swore fealty to the old Aguirre pack, the Sangre de Reyes line of Ivory Claws settled in Little Manila, and several new Chinese packs settled throughout the Bay Area joined the new Protectorate of the Golden Mountain, led by the Jins and solidified through several arranged marriages. Also during this period, the urban Shadow saw significant disruption as a flood of new spirits formed and the turmoil of the 60s and 70s caused the formation of new loci and wounds throughout the city.
Decline (1980-1990)
The relative peace between Pure and Forsaken began to strain as the city entered a period of decline and AIDS, poverty, and homelessness darkened the spiritual landscape. As the decade wore on, the Tribes of the Moon began to catch wind of a scheme being perpetrated by the subtle Fire-Touched of the city. In 1989, war broke out abruptly when a series of events clued the Forsaken in to the full extent of these plans: the waking of the Big One and the unleashing of the Great Fire. The Castro war consisted of three battles. The first was the Battle of Glen Canyon, when the Forsaken war party was ambushed and routed by Predator Kings from the mountains due to the betrayel of Jesus Zappetillo. The second was the Battle of the Burning Night which consisted of three parts: another Predator King ambush of the Sons of Heaven pack in Sunset, an attack on the Fire-Touched locus in the Castro by the Phelans, and the summoning and binding of The Great Fire by the Mission pack with the assistance of Grandfather Jiang. In the end, the Tribes of the Moon prevailed but sustained massive losses and the Shadow of the Castro was razed to dust by the Fire-Touched ritemaster, Phillip Hellstrom. The third battle was Tess' Descent, when Aunt Tess descended into the Beshilu nest beneath the Castro alone to kill the Plague King.
Castro War Death Toll
Referred to as "The Twelve", all were awarded postmortem renown and are honored on the anniversary of the earthquake.
- Ignacio Aguirre - Alpha of the Caballeros, killed during the Battle of Glen Canyon
- Victor McShane - Beta of the Silver Kings, killed during the Battle of Glen Canyon
- Kim Keegan - Member of the Tree-Speakers, killed during the Battle of Glen Canyon
- Wu Jin - Beta of the Golden Mountain, killed during the Battle of Glen Canyon
- Jiang Jin - Member of the Golden Mountain, killed during the Battle of Glen Canyon
- Eduardo Montillo - Ritemaster of the Caballeros, killed by the Great Fire during the shackling ritual
- Liam Keegan - Beta of the Tree-Speakers, killed during the Battle of the Burning Night
- Miles Keegan - Member of the Tree-Speakers, killed during the Battle of the Burning Night
- Robin Keegan - Member of the Tree-Speakers, killed during the Battle of the Burning Night
- Wenfu Li - Member of the Sons of Heaven, killed during the Battle of the Burning Night
- Xianyi Li - Member of the Sons of Heaven, killed during the Battle of the Burning Night
- Ruyu Wang - Member of the Sons of Heaven, killed during the Battle of the Burning Night
Dot-Com Boom (1990-2000)
The Castro War took a heavy toll on both sides and the next ten years were a period of recovery. Most of the wolf-blooded families were forced into arranged marriages with the surviving Uratha in order to replenish the packs, leading to strain and dissent. Many packs were also stretched thin, particularly given the spiritual damage done by the previous decade, and many wounds festered due to lack of attention. Unattended loci allowed many dark spirits to cross and new ridden were formed. Also, the rise of the internet saw the formation of a new spirit court whose meteoric rise to power and influence worried spirit and Uratha alike. On the bright side, the city began to pull out of its economic slump and its problems began to see some improvement.
Present (post-2000)
Since the bursting of the dot-com bubble, some of the problems have begun to creep back in, though even more ominous to the Tribes of the Moon is the fact that its strong leadership is aging and the blood of the old families is thinning as its leaders find they have less and less influence over their descendants, particularly given the heavy-handed way they dealt with them after the Castro War. Less children with weaker blood threatens some lines with extinction.
