History of San Francisco

San Francisco

A rich and at times tragic history precedes the current state of affairs in San Francisco, though many of the vampires embroiled in the conflict are unaware of it (and perhaps doomed to repeat it). What both Kindred and Kuei-jin know is that history has picked up its pace in the Bay Area as well as the rest of the world for some time now. It is a pendulum racing on the downward swing , a prisoner of both gravity and momentum and subject to forces and paths not of its choosing. Aware of this, both sides fear there may be no stopping the events they set in motion within the city.

The Earliest Days

While San Francisco’s history only covers a two- century span, the history of the Bay area extends back much farther than that. Native American tribes like the Ohlone and the Miwok inhabited the region long before the arrival of the first Europeans or Asians landed on the shores of North America. These people knew nothing of t he Curse of Caine or the Fall of the Wan Xian, although they understood the creatures haunting the world’s dark and wild places. For the most part, the tribes remained small, warding off undue attention from their preternatural predators. They lived in relative peace with the Changing Folk of the wilds, never dreaming their fellow mortals from across the Atlantic would prove the greatest threat to their existence.

Exploration & Settlement

The first European visitors to curse the shores of California came in 1542, when Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo circumnavigated the tip of South America and sailed as far north as the Russian River, mapping the western coast of South and North America along his route. In 1579, famed English sailor Sir Francis Drake landed on California’ s northern coast, pausing briefly to claim the land for Queen Elizabeth before repairing his ships and setting sail once again. Sebastian Cermeno, another Portuguese explorer, “discovered” Punta de los Reyes (King’ s Point) in the 1590s. All the visiting Europeans missed the narrow entrance to San Francisco Bay, however, shrouded as it was by mist and nearly invisible from the sea. It would be centuries more before a European discovered the site of what would become the city of San Francisco.

In 1769, a Spanish soldier named Gaspar de Protola accidentally stumbled upon the bay’s entrance while sailing to Monterey Bay in the south. Six years later, Juan Ayala actually sailed into San Francisco Bay on a mapping expedition for the Spanish crown. It did not take the Spanish long to realize the value of their new discovery, given its strategic and economic potential.

In 1776, about a week before the thirteen English colonies on the other side of the continent declared their independence, Juan Bautista de Anza and some thirty Spanish-speaking families made their way from Sonora, Mexico to San Francisco Bay. They claimed the land for Spain and settled there. Their headquarters was an adobe fort they named the Presidio.

The settlers established a mission about a mile away from the fort. The priests officially named the mission Nuestra Senora de Dolores or Mission Delores, and dedicated the church to St. Francis of Assisi; it was known as “San Francisco,” the name later applied to the bay itself. The mission’ s priests took an interest in the spiritual welfare of the local Indian tribes, ensuring they were baptized and converted to Christianity; for the most part, the natives welcomed trade with the new settlers.

Independence & Growth

In 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain, secularizing the Spanish missions and abandoning interest in the spiritual well being of the natives — or anyone else, for that matter. Freed from European rule, California’s ports opened for trade and shipped a wealth of goods (mostly hides, furs, wood and tallow) by sea around Cape Horn to the burgeoning factories in New England and New York. Trappers and hunters told tall tales about the strange beasts they encountered in the California hills, but few paid them any heed so long as the goods continued to flow.

The area’s growing prosperity was enough to convince English sailor William Richardson to jump ship in 1822 and settle there. He fell in love with the daughter of the Presidio’ s commandant and converted to Catholicism to marry her. He established a trading post that he named Yerba Buena (or “good herb”) for the wild mint growing in the area. The aptly chosen name later became a source of great humor to the people of San Francisco in the 1960s. Richardson’ s enterprise was wildly successful, and Yerba Buena grew from a trading post to a small town, with a saloon of ill repute frequented by English-speaking hunters and trappers.

Even though Yerba Buena and Mission Dolores grew, their population remained a few hundred at best, comprised of mostly farmers, trappers and a handful of soldiers stationed at the Presidio. During the war between the United States and Mexico in 1847, U.S. Marines from the warship Portsmouth seized the Presidio and the main plaza of Yerba Buena. The dozen or so Mexican soldiers at the Presidio surrendered without firing a single shot. Commander John Montgomery raised the U.S. flag and declared California an American territory. Among the first acts of the new territorial government was to change the settlement’s name to that of the bay: San Francisco.

Such small political victories were certainly of no interest to either the Kindred hunting in the nighttime streets of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, or to those sleeping by day in the mansions of Louisiana, Georgia or Carolina. The events in San Francisco were of even less interest to the Kuei-jin, who barely knew of California at all and remained far more concerned with the Opium Wars brought on by European (and Kindred) incursion into the Middle Kingdom. That, however, was about to change with a single word....

Gum San: The Golden Mountain

“Gold! Gold in the American River!” Mormon preacher Sam Brannan shouted that memorable statement while running through San Francisco’s streets in 1848. Although Brannan was a notorious charlatan, in this case he shouted the truth. Gold was found in the riverbed at a sawmill owned by Swiss-born John Augustus Sutter. Despite Sutter’s best efforts to keep the discovery quiet, the news spread like wildfire. Sam Brannan, incidentally, purchased large tracts of coastal land in San Francisco, as well as cornering the market on shovels, pickaxes and canned goods before making his fateful announcement. He became fabulously wealthy without turning over a single spade of dirt.

It seemed the world was primed for the news from San Francisco. The “Year of Revolutions” swept through Europe, with political and social unrest in many of her major cities. The Potato Famine stalked Ireland, driving people from their homes in hope of a new life elsewhere. The United States caught its breath following the war with Mexico while the conflicts leading to the Civil War simmered beneath the surface. China reeled from the Opium Wars and the abdication of Hong Kong to the British, while reforms swept through Japan. All this was dry tinder for the spark of hope ignited by the discovery of riches in California.

People from around the world flocked to San Francisco in droves. Ships departed from docks in Europe and America groaning from the weight of passengers and mining equipment. Ship-crews immediately deserted upon reaching California’s shores, leaving boats abandoned and turning Yerba Buena Cove into a “forest of masts.” Townspeople in America’ s heartland headed west in wagon trains, leaving behind empty homes and shops with signs in their windows reading, “GONE TO THE DIGGINGS.”

In 1849, San Francisco’s population soared from 900 to 26,000. Another 100,000 people drifted through the area on their way into the California hills and hinterlands in search of their fortune. San Francisco crushed the equivalent of fifty years of growth and development into the course of a single year.

The effects of San Francisco’ s sudden gold boom did not escape the Kindred. While their elders continued their affairs in Europe and the Eastern Seaboard, the promise of wealth and blood offered by an overcrowded boomtown drew young vampires from across the nation. Ambitious Camarilla neonates saw the potential to create domains of their own, away from the stifling grip of their elders. Meanwhile, Sabbat packs and anarchs anticipated a new, unspoiled frontier where they could do as they pleased. The Kindred certainly found opportunities in San Francisco, where the arrival of a ship laden with heavy crates was commonplace. In a place where so many new people intermingled, hardly anyone noticed one or two strangers among thousands... or cared if a few of those new arrivals mysteriously vanished.

Although there was no gold in San Francisco itself, it was the largest port community near the gold fields, making it the destination of choice for disembarking prospectors. Although a few of them actually found gold, most didn’t. Instead, most of the money in the area was made in a more traditional fashion. It didn’t take long for the locals to discover that it was far more profitable catering to the miners and prospectors than searching for gold themselves. Shops, saloons and all manner of businesses sprang up in San Francisco, looking to serve the needs of the burgeoning population.

The abandoned ships in Yerba Buena Cove were put to good use in helping the city grow. The city fathers handled the problem by hauling the ships up onto the shore, where they were either broken up and used to construct new buildings and furniture or simply turned into buildings themselves. Cut a door or two in the hull of an overturned ship and you had a saloon. Many such structures sprang up along the harbor.

In the shadows between these new buildings and in the tent cities of the newcomers, the Kindred hunted with near abandon. Prospectors in the San Francisco Bay area fell victim to accidents, the elements, starvation and despair. They committed suicide at the rate of over 1,000 a year. It was not uncommon to stumble across a dried-up corpse bearing a pickaxe and shovel in the hills; common enough, in fact, that inquiry into the deaths were unheard of. Nobody cared how the poor wretch died.

The hunting was plentiful and good, so much so that vampires all but ignored the traditional conflicts between Camarilla and Sabbat while glutting themselves on the bounty of blood. Naturally, vampires fought over certain watering holes, but the conflicts simply demonstrated how easily they fell to their baser needs. Kindred and Cainite were all too similar in their bestial tendencies — except when the Sabbat and Camarilla sects stepped in to enforce opinion and policy. Regardless of allegiance, however, all vampires quickly learned to confine their hunting to the new city. The Lupines stalked the wilds outside San Francisco as guards encircling a prison. They shredded the first vampires to stray into their domain as a warning to the rest.

A Land of New Promise

Of course, new arrivals to San Francisco came not only from Europe, Mexico and the United States, but also from the Middle Kingdom. China’s Opium Wars against England and the ongoing encroachment of gweilo — white barbarians — everywhere strained the situation in the Far East. To many Chinese, California was Gum San, the “Golden Mountain,” a land of promise and opportunity away from war and starvation. Around the time of the Gold Rush, the first ship laden with some three hundred Chinese arrived in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, these immigrants discovered their “golden land of promise” was a rough frontier following the Golden Rule: Those with the gold make the rules. The Chinese remained a close-knit community even after their arrival, laying the foundations for San Francisco’ s modern Chinatown. Rather than becoming prospectors and miners (though some of them did), many Chinese found employment either serving the needs of San Francisco’s more fortunate inhabitants or working for the powerful railroad companies, who sought cheap labor to complete the transcontinental railroad.

Of course, with the Chinese and other Middle Kingdom immigrants came the Wan Kuei, the Ten Thousand Demons. It was not that the August Courts had any interest in a frontier city in a barbaric land, but the presence of some Kuei-jin was inevitable. A few, disgraced in shadow wars or fallen from favor in the August Courts, chose self-imposed exile over facing the Eye of Heaven and Final Death. Some found the freedom of the frontier exhilarating while others suffered in silence, hoping to redeem themselves and return to civilization. There were also those mortals who crossed the ocean only to die in their new land, fight their way free of torture in Yomi and take the Second Breath. More experienced Kuei-jin usually dealt with the resulting chih-mei.

Regardless of their reasons for coming to the Golden Mountain, though, the Wan Kuei who made the ocean crossing quickly discovered they were not alone in San Francisco’s nights.

The Kanbujian

In Chinatown’s early years, the Kuei-jin learned that leaving the Middle Kingdom behind did not necessarily free a soul from the weight dragging it down to Yomi after death. On occasion, a mortal of Chinese descent would take the Second Breath outside the bounds of civilization and away from the watchful eyes of the Kuei-jin jina and elders. With no aid from others of their kind and no knowledge of their nature, most of these poor unfortunates succumbed to their Demons, becoming ravening flesh-eaters that the Kuei-jin were forced to hunt down and destroy. On rare occasions, the Kin-jin discovered one of these chih-mei and destroyed it as a threat to the Masquerade, unaware of what it really was or where it originated.

The Wan Kuei called these poor wretches kànbujiàn — “unable to see” — because they were blind to Dharma and the path to the Hundred Clouds. If found soon enough, they were often able to master their P’o nature and join Kuei-jin society; if they failed or were not found in time, the Wan Kuei “mercifully” gave them Final Death. What the Kuei-jin did not know at first — and later refused to acknowledge — was that some rare kànbujiàn mastered their Demon nature on their own. Most did so by surrendering to the Yama Kings and becoming akuma, but a few struggled to find their own way, even discovering some Dharma principles through trial and error. Their Way was flawed and fraught with peril, but their determination was great.

East Meets West

The first encounters between Kuei-jin and San Francisco’s Kindred were brief and fleeting. The Kindred quickly discovered the clannish Chinese immigrants were better left alone. While most Europeans and Americans had abandoned such “childish” notions as vampires, the Chinese still maintained their old ways. The Kindred were surprised that Asians knew enough to take precautions against creatures of the night. Some of them — paper charms, rice scattered across thresholds and the like — were laughable. Others, such as prayer beads, charms backed by a true and abiding faith or the simple wisdom to huddle close to the light in groups, made the Chinese more difficult prey.

Of course, most Kindred created excuses not to bother rather than admit difficulty. “Chinese blood is thin and not as satisfying,” some said. “They’re not as vigorous, and less lively than other mortals.” “It’s a small loss, since there is so much already available.” Still, it vexed some Kindred to be denied anything. Some accepted the challenge by hunting more “interesting” prey in Chinatown... only to vanish and never be seen again.

Rumors circulated among the city’s vampires. They said the Chinese knew far more than they let on, luring Kindred into some kind of trap. Another whisper claimed that their numbers included mysterious magi or vampire- hunters. Yet others said that they had forged a pact with the Lupines, or they were host to a hitherto-unknown clan of Cainites . This last fiction was the closest to the truth.

The Wan Kuei needed the Chinese community to build Scarlet Screens in this new and alien land. To protect their interests, they destroyed any threat to Chinatown. In the process, the Demon People learned more about the White Demons dwelling among the Western mortals, the ones who came with the gweilo to the Middle Kingdom.

The first thing the Kuei-jin realized was that the Westerners were too numerous; they were too few to risk open confrontations. So the Wan Kuei remained in Chinatown’ s shadows and kept to their own affairs and council. They gave the gweilo vampires good reason to avoid their domain, but did not venture too far outside of it either. Those who disobeyed or threatened this version of the Kindred’ s Masquerade paid with their unlives.

Shadow Plays

Lawlessness ruled San Francisco’s streets in the years immediately following the Gold Rush. The population surge overtaxed the city’ s limited law enforcement, and bribery helped ensure the law looked the other way for almost anything. Along the waterfront rested saloons and whorehouses where miners spent their money, with roving gangs of criminals more than willing to help lighten their pockets.

One of the most notorious gangs was the Sydney Ducks, comprised of criminals who had escaped exile in Australia and made their way to California. They would waylay passers-by, throwing a bag over their heads and relieving them of their money and valuables (often leaving the victim dead or merely stunned with a strike from a sap or fist). The practice became known as “hooding” and the criminals who did it as “hoodlums.” The Australian gangsters also operated protection rackets in and along the Barbary Coast. The Sydney Ducks set fire to parts of the city five times for denying them tribute. It happened so often that Chinatown and Barbary Coast residents built exclusively with brick and stone rather than wood, so their homes and businesses would not burn so easily.

Some Kindred thought it too convenient that the depredations of the Sydney Ducks hurt businesses influenced by the Camarilla as well as burning out portions of Chinatown. Rumors claimed the gang was under the influence of a Sabbat pack or anarchs. Some even believed that its roster might have included vampires, though no proof of these conjectures ever manifested. The fires, however, did convince many local Kindred and Kuei-jin to find fireproof havens — a precaution that would prove vital a few decades later.

By the mid-1850s, miners had panned or mined out most of California’s surface gold, leaving only the deeper underground veins to be tapped. Those wise enough to invest their money carefully (including the Ventrue and other Camarilla vampires) funded large mining operations to dig out the gold that remained beyond the means and reach of individual miners. The continually expanding waterfront also became the mouth by which to feed the hungry factories of the East Coast and Europe. During that period, trading companies shipped every product workers could dig, drag, chop or tear from the mountains, fields and forests. The city became the premier center for commerce along the Pacific Ocean, finally drawing the attention of the elders and Princes that their childer had left behind years before. The unspoken truce between Camarilla, Sabbat and anarch vampires in San Francisco was over.

Of course, “peace” was a relative term. Kindred from all three factions struggled against each other previously, but mostly over territory and mortals. When the Transcontinental Railway became a reality, the Camarilla mentality reasserted itself. It was decided that San Francisco should be brought under the Camarilla’s aegis, to that ensure the Sabbat and anarchs would not control the city.

Public Vigilance

As usual, the Camarilla operated behind the scenes, using mortal proxies to carry out their plans. The Sabbat Cainites in 1850s San Francisco were wealthy and powerful. In very un-sect-like machinations, they influenced mortals — usually criminals — who in turn assumed positions of power locally during the Gold Rush and held them through graft, corruption and influence peddling. Ballot stuffing was practiced openly and an honest man’s vote counted for little. The common people , however, grew tired of this lawless state of affairs. Their desire to see justice was the Camarilla’s weapon against the Sabbat.

On June 9, 1851 in Sydney Cove, a man named John Jenkins simply walked into a merchant’s store, picked up the safe and walked away. He loaded the safe into a boat and calmly rowed out into the bay. Several of the merchant’s friends and associates pursued Jenkins and caught him easily, though he dumped the safe overboard. The public outcry was considerable.

Local citizens formed the Committee for Public Vigilance, which tried and executed Jenkins on its own authority. The Committee was very loosely organized at first, but its presence did give San Francisco’s criminals pause, at least for a short while. Jenkins’ boldness and the relative ease of his capture sent rumors among the Sabbat of a Camarilla plot, but local corruption ran deep. The Sabbat knew it would take more than a few outraged vigilantes to mobilize San Francisco’s citizens against its mortal power base.

It wasn’t long, however, before matters worsened. In 1855, there were nearly 500 murders in California but only 6 legal executions. Corrupt politicians maintained a tight hold on the government. Municipal spending was through the roof — much of it went into graft, bribes and embezzlement, lining the pockets of the city’s “civil servants.”

James King was a prominent San Francisco banker who had lost his fortune when local financial panic closed his bank. Outspoken against local corruption, he used his remaining money and the encouragement of his friends to found a newspaper voicing his opinions. In October of 1855, King began publication of the Evening Bulletin, a four-page paper. In it, he denounced criminals and political figures alike in fearless editorials that had people all over the city talking.

When notorious gambler Charles Cora shot and killed U.S. Marshal Richardson, he was “formally arrested” by friends of his who held public office. It was considered likely that he would walk away a free man. Following the incident, King ran an editorial saying that that if Cora wasn’t hanged, Sheriff David Scannell should take his place on the gallows.

King also took on city supervisor James Casey, revealing that Casey was a felon who had served time in Sing-Sing Prison in New York. In retribution, Casey shot King outside the Bulletin office on Montgomery Street. Witnesses rushed the wounded reporter to a doctor while Casey’s cronies in law-enforcement “took him into custody.”

In response to the shooting, over a thousand people turned out at the Montgomery Block in a show of support for James King. The crowd later made its way to the Plaza, where word circulated that the Committee for Public Vigilance was reforming. The following morning, members of the 1851 Committee met and created a new, more organized group. They penned an oath of fealty and assigned each member a number by which he would be known within the organization, to maintain anonymity. A few days later, the Committee consisted of some 3,500 members. In the meantime, however, James King died from his gunshot wound at home.

The Committee for Public Vigilance marched on the jail guarded by hundreds of local militia and law officers loyal to James Casey. Using a cannon to batter down the door, the Committee took Casey with little protest from his protectors. They also took gambler Charles Cora into custody. Both men received advocates and stood trial before a jury of Committee members, who summarily convicted the two men and sentenced them to a public hanging. An immense crowd filled Sacramento Street to watch the double execution, cementing the Committee for Public Vigilance’s power in the minds of San Franciscans.

Meanwhile, the Camarilla encouraged the Committee’s vigilantes to attack the Sabbat’s mortal proxies in the name of justice. They eliminated many of the Sabbat’s pawns from positions of power. The so-called revolution also hid the nightly movement of Camarilla scourges eliminating Sabbat targets and consigning vampires to ash. As far as the Camarilla was concerned, the strikes were clean and precise. They believed that they were the cause of the Sabbat’s fall in San Francisco. What they did not realize was the extent of the Sabbat’s internal dissent and scattered resources. The Sabbat were defeated as much by their own lack of foresight as the Camarilla’s attacks.

After the Committee’s cleanup of the city’s political echelons, legitimate businesses thrived — with the Camarilla riding their coattails. San Francisco formally incorporated as a city of some 30,000 people. The City by the Bay became reality, and the Inner Circle recognized the rule of Prince Jebediah Hawthorne in the Domain of San Francisco.

Emperor Norton

"At the preemptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States." — Joshua Norton, September 19, 1859

The first and only Emperor of the United States was born in London, England in 1819. He arrived in San Francisco by way of South Africa at the age of 30, with the sum of $40,000 to his name. Within five years, he’d lost that considerable fortune by speculating in real estate and attempting to corner the local market on rice. Living in poverty, Norton wrote a proclamation declaring himself Emperor of the United States. It was published in a local newspaper, at least in part due to the sheer novelty of the idea. He wore a uniform that he obtained from a second-hand store and walked the streets, administering to the daily needs of his “ domain.”

Emperor Norton issued various proclamations during his “reign,” including the abolition of the Democratic and Republican parties and a decree against using “the abominable word ‘Frisco,’ which has no linguistic or other warrant.” That alone carried a $25.00 fine. He also proposed the idea of a “League of Nations,” where the international community could settle its disputes (many years before the actual League of Nations signed its charter in San Francisco). He issued his own money, which he traded for legal tender; many stores came to accept Norton’ s currency as payment. He even mediated public disputes, defusing one anti-Chinese demonstration by quietly standing and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. His example shamed the demonstrators so greatly that they returned to their own affairs.

Idle speculation about Emperor Norton circulated among San Francisco’s Kindred. One account said he was the victim (or, perhaps, beneficiary) of Malkavian manipulation. Others suggested he was a puppet of one faction or another, or that he provided a useful spectacle for the mortal herd. Some even believed he was fey-touched. Whatever the case, vampires considered Norton inviolate because of his fame and public standing. He was left as a purely mortal phenomenon.

Norton died on January 8, 1880 on California Street. He was buried in the Masonic Cemetery, and his funeral procession ran two miles long. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people attended his funeral to bid farewell to America’ s first and only Emperor.

Paths of Iron

San Francisco continued to grow steadily through the next decade, remaining a key center of commerce for North America’ s entire West Coast. As gold mining dwindled, the discovery of the Comstock Silver Lode in Nevada sent a new infusion of wealth into San Francisco’s coffers. Many of the city’s most powerful mining magnates owned either the Nevada mines or the machines to properly drill them, setting up a continuous circle of wealth. The newfound prosperity further cemented the Camarilla’ s hold over the city, their only real victory of any substance in California. It was a bastion of influence amid a sea of Sabbat and anarch power.

San Francisco’s only limitation was its isolation from the rest of the United States. Out on the edge of the continent’s westernmost frontier, travel to and from the City by the Bay required East Coast ships to circumnavigate Cape Horn. The building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s rectified that problem by connecting the Pacific and Central rail lines.

Chinese immigrant workers did much of the hard labor required to extend the Pacific Line through the harsh Utah desert. This elicited jealousy from Caucasian workers, who grumbled that the Chinamen stole their jobs. The government responded by passing “coolie laws” that penalized the Chinese workers and made it hard for them to earn a living. It was only part of a prejudice against Chinese people that simmered and festered beneath the surface — occasionally erupting into accusations or even violence.

San Francisco’s Chinatown remained a city-within- a-city; people mostly kept to themselves, running their own schools and businesses and generally catering to the area’s inhabitants. In turn, the city government passed laws limiting “foreign” ownership of property. It also enacted laws taxing foreign (mainly Asian) workers more heavily, thus protecting jobs for “good Americans.” The situation suited Chinatown’s few Kuei-jin and shen, since it kept their havens secure from foreign devils and prevented expatriated Chinese from intermingling with local Westerners.

Black Bart, the Plundering PO8

One of the most notorious criminal figures of late 19th century San Francisco made his debut in August of 1877. The man who later became known as Black Bart stopped a Wells-Fargo stagecoach, leveled a double-barreled shotgun at the driver and uttered his famous command: “Throw down the box.” The driver surrendered the wooden strongbox, after which the robber allowed him to leave unharmed. The box turned up later, empty except for a poem scrawled on the back of a waybill:

“I’ve labored long and hard for bread —"
“For honor and for riches —"
“But on my corns too long you’ve tread,"
“You fine-haired sons of bitches."

It was signed: “Black Bart, the PO8.”

News of the mysterious Black Bart and his “po8try” spread quickly, though the robber himself remained out of sight for roughly a year afterward. When he finally resurfaced, he robbed another stagecoach, followed by several more. He always worked alone, apparently traveling on foot through the rough hills outside San Francisco. Wells- Fargo and the city placed a considerable reward of $800 on his head, but Black Bart remained at large.

Authorities didn’t capture Black Bart until 1883, when he was wounded in a stagecoach robbery. Although he escaped, he left his possessions behind. Investigators tracked him through the San Francisco laundry that cleaned his clothes, leading them to Charles Bolton, AKA “Black Bart.” Bolton confessed to the robbery, but the courts sentenced him to only six years in prison. He served a little over four.

At his release, reporters mobbed Bolton, looking to interview the infamous Black Bart. When asked if he planned to rob any more stagecoaches, he replied that he would not commit any further crimes. The questions continued, until one young reporter asked, ”One final question. Do you plan to write any more poetry?”

Bolton smiled and said, “Young man, didn’t you just hear me say I would commit no more crimes?”

Charles “Black Bart” Bolton left San Francisco heading south. He disappeared shortly thereafter and was never heard from again.

The Dragon Thrashes its Tail

"Fire has reclaimed to civilization and cleanliness the"
"Chinese ghetto, and no Chinatown will be permitted in the"
"borders of the city... it seems as though a divine wisdom"
"directed the range of the seismic horror and the range of the fire"
"god. Wisely, the worst was cleared away with the best."
— The Overland Monthly, 1906

On April 18, 1906 at 5:12 AM , Kuei-jin geomancers sensed a shift in the dragon-lines, a stirring of powerful forces — the Earth Dragon was restless, and a tremendous earthquake struck San Francisco in response . The quake itself lasted for less than a minute, but it toppled buildings and buckled streets. Broken gas mains and fallen lamps ignited fires that swept through the city.

The local fire department mobilized almost immediately, but the earthquake had ruptured all the water mains, leaving them to fight the fires with buckets instead of hoses. They retreated, hoping to contain the inferno and allow it to burn itself out. That, unfortunately, did not happen. The fires raged and spread, burning all of one day and into the next. They consumed some 28,000 buildings, including all of Chinatown.

Despite both the Kuei-jin’s and Kindred’s best precautions, the fires caught them all by surprise. A few vampires perished in the blaze, unable to flee without facing sunlight and frenzied by Rötschreck or wave soul. Retainers helped some Kindred escape from mansions on Nobility Hill, while other vampires sought refuge in the earth that had seemingly turned against the city. A handful remained underground for several nights, fearful of the heat they felt above their heads. The horror of being burned to kindling frightened one or two Kindred so greatly that they waited too long and sank into Torpor, where they lay to this night. Some sires tell their neonate progeny that on still nights, you can hear them, scratching at the underside of sidewalks and roads.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finally created a firebreak by dynamiting entire city blocks in the western districts. The blaze lasted for three days, as did the quake’s aftershocks. When it was all over, reporter Jack London wrote in a newspaper dispatch, “the City of San Francisco is no more.” The city was devastated, with some 3,000 people dead, 225,000 injured, vast numbers homeless and $400 million in damage (valued in 1906).

San Francisco’s vampire enclaves were in great disarray. Worse yet, with the mortal survivors huddled together for protection and comfort, hunting and feeding became exceedingly difficult. Forced to pick on lone stragglers and looters, many vampires turned on one another for vitae, sect be damned. The following weeks endured nightly destructions, with the strongest eliminating the weak . During the inevitable reconstruction, however, the Camarilla sent scourges into San Francisco to halt the indiscriminate feeding and make examples of Kindred who committed diablerie. The scourges caught and destroyed three Kindred, including one member of the primogen, but any other culprits either fled the region or hid their crime expertly.

The surviving Kuei-jin suffered the loss of their havens as well, and they would have to struggle against gweilo opposition (both mortal and Kin-jin) to regain it. Bereft of their sanctuaries , they hid among the mortal refugees of Chinatown as best they could, taking advantage of the deaths caused by the disaster to conceal their own feeding.

Some heralded Chinatown’s destruction as a blessing of sorts, and publicly hoped it would not be rebuilt.

Chinese and Western businessmen, however, planned to turn Chinatown into a tourist attraction — a unique part of San Francisco’s heritage that would draw people from around the world. The plan received the quiet support of Chinatown’s shen, including Father Li T’ien.

The city could not ignore the potential for prestige and income. Even Kindred who bothered concerning themselves with the “Chinatown problem” believed a tourist-town would eliminate the barriers the Asian enclave presented before. What they did not know was that the Kuei-jin chose to sacrifice their previous security for the opportunity to hide in plain sight.

In some ways, the fire and reconstruction following the Great Quake benefited both Cainites and Kuei-jin. With decades of influence among the wealthiest and most powerful mortals, the vampires subtly directed the reconstruction to suit their own needs. The rebuilt mansions on Nob Hill and the new Chinatown’s maze-like urban topography took shape under the watchful eyes of the city’ s oldest residents, with few people the wiser. The destruction of so many important papers and public records in the fire facilitated the flood of forged identities and birth certificates. In fact, a new wave of Chinese citizens known as “paper sons” gained their citizenship through such fake documents, swelling the local Asian population. Vampires “reset the clock” and established new, “legitimate” identities that withstood official scrutiny. The earthquake was a setback, but it would not keep San Francisco down.

Of cardinal importance to the Kuei-jin was that the earthquake revealed the shifting dragon lines in and around San Francisco. The shaking of the Earth Dragon’s tail released reservoirs of Chi that the Demon People tapped for their own purposes. They ensured that the new Chinatown controlled one such Dragon Nest. This life- force filled an invigorated San Francisco, thinned the Wall between worlds and drew the attention of other shen as well, who migrated to the city over the years. The Kin-jin remained largely ignorant of the geomantic implications of the quake, as the Kuei-jin hoped. Let the barbarians play at their petty struggles... the Demon People controlled San Francisco’s true power.

WHERE THE DEAD OUTNUMBER THE LIVING

"Such room to roam in after death!" — Joaquin Miller, speaking of the new graveyards in Colma

In 1901, San Francisco passed an ordinance banning any burials within the city. Land on the peninsula was simply too precious to waste on cemeteries. In fact, the city fathers encouraged the relocation of existing graveyards to outside the city, so that land currently allocated for cemeteries would be open for development. This need only increased following the 1906 earthquake and the city’ s reconstruction. Many landowners found it lucrative to move bodies to other plots and sell the land at a considerable profit (or, sometimes, to leave the interred bodies and sell the land anyway).

Between re-interring the previously deceased and the number of quake-related fatalities, it was a simple matter for a cart laden with caskets to move through San Francisco’s streets unnoticed. This allowed the city’s Kindred to go about the business of rebuilding and relocating with minimum duplicity during the years immediately before and after the reconstruction. Disturbing the graveyards also stirred the occasional ghost, drawing more psychics and mediums to the area.

Several new graveyards opened in the small town of Colma. In fact, the “town” consists mostly of cemeteries, with only a few homes and businesses for the cemetery attendants and other support services. Even tonight, Colma’s deceased far outnumber the living, a situation that draws the occasional Bone Flower, Giovanni or Samedi.

For Their Own Protection

After rebuilding, San Francisco settled into a seemingly quiet existence for the local Kindred and Kuei-jin. Anarchists found the City by the Bay less appealing than Los Angeles, but this was mostly thanks to the reconstruction process. Camarilla and Kuei-jin alike helped fund or support the city’ s restoration, thus claiming territory and businesses from the ground up. The Sabbat and anarchs, however, contributed little. Thus, they found themselves with no grip on the city whatsoever, be it socially, politically or financially.

Conflict between Kindred and Cainite in San Francisco was tame by comparison to domains like New York or Mexico City. Resultantly, the Camarilla’s reign over the region grew weak and decadent, raising concerns over Sabbat and anarch activities that local Kindred largely dismissed. San Francisco’s inhabitants were confident in their mastery of the night — confidence perhaps justified in the years following the quake, but that turned to unsupported arrogance as the years passed.

The city’s Kuei-jin, on the other hand, saw considerable activity in the first decades of the 20th century. Unrest in China sent thousands of rebellion- weary refugees across the sea, filling Chinatown’s already crowded streets. Occasionally, this deluge of mortals hid survivors from shadow wars and conflicts within the August Courts, fleeing the Middle Kingdom and seeking shelter in the West. These Kuei-jin — taught the formal manners and precise discipline of the Quincunx — were shocked by the laxity of North America’s kànbujiàn. The friction between traditionalists and Chinatown’ s undead inhabitants inevitably degenerated; shadow wars spilled over into conflicts between the city’s Tongs and associated criminals during the 1920s and ‘30s.

In December of 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into World War II. In response, the American government displaced over a hundred thousand Japanese (two-thirds of them American citizens) from their homes to detainment camps in California, Utah and Idaho “for their own protection.” Many San Francisco gaki hid initially, while the army spirited their mortal screens and protection elsewhere. Eventually, however, the gaki realized that they were imprisoned as well. They possessed no freedom of movement, since no individuals of Japanese descent were supposed to be left behind.

When war workers and low-income families moved into the housing vacated by Japanese families, the gaki were forced to relocate. One or two gaki returned to Japan through the Yellow Springs, but most sought refuge in Chinatown. This latter lot suffered at the hands of their Chinese Kuei-jin hosts, who treated the gaki like slaves in retribution for Japan’ s invasion of the Middle Kingdom. Eventually, a few gaki escaped into the countryside, waiting for the matter to resolve. When the displaced Japanese returned, they found their homes and neighborhood occupied. Most resettled elsewhere. Japantown shrank from 30 blocks to a mere six.

Kuei-jin of Chinese descent capitalized on the Japanese deportations to eliminate or subjugate many of the gaki in San Francisco, deliberately ignoring the shadow war rules and requirements detailed under the Precepts of the War. What was the point, after all, since the August Courts were across the sea and thus could not appoint a ganshezhe (mediator) to oversee the conflict.

San Francisco was a pale reflection of the struggles transpiring in Nanking and Shanghai, but it was traumatic nonetheless. The city’s gaki population never truly recovered from the experience. Any Kuei-jin of Japanese extraction faces a difficult existence under the watchful eyes of San Francisco’s New Promise Mandarinate. Conversely, the Kuei-jin’s actions taught the gaki they could effectively play dirty pool in shadow wars, a trick they use to their advantage against the tradition-bound Mandarinate.

THE GREAT LEAP OUTWARD

As the 20th century drew to a close, signs and portents of an impending storm grew. In San Francisco, the status quo changed in ways few people anticipated, making the city a pivotal location in coming events.

The Dragon Wakes

In October of 1989, a powerful earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area incurring billions of dollars in damages and resulting in 63 deaths and numerous injuries. It thankfully did not spark the same terrible fires of 1906. In addition, most of the city’s buildings were constructed to resist earthquakes (although some “quake-proof” structures failed miserably). The event damaged portions of the city, however, including the Marina District and sections of the freeway and Bay Bridge.

To the citizens of San Francisco, the earthquake was a disaster. To local Kindred it was a nuisance, but also an opportunity to hide their activities in the resulting chaos and gain influence reconstruction. To the Kuei-jin, it was something far more. The regional dragon lines shifted once more. The city’ s presence and continued growth polluted the wells of Chi in the area, sending out poison arrows that disturbed the slumbering Earth Dragon. The city’s life force waned, and the Kin-jin were bloated parasites feeding on its weakening Chi.

The Two-Fang Serpent Plan

The first stirrings of San Francisco’s current woes began far from California’ s shores, in the August Courts of the Quincunx. In 1997, two of the five regional capitols of the August Courts were in foreign hands, with Hong Kong controlled by the Kin-jin and Shanghai under the gaki akuma of Japan. The “bamboo curtain” of Maoist China grew increasingly tattered. Western influences reverberated throughout the Middle Kingdom, carrying with them the influence of the Kin-jin. Elders and jina alike pointed to the impending Sixth Age and demanded something be done, while the Running Monkeys lived up to their names and strayed even further from tradition. The Bamboo Princes, in turn, demanded modernization and an abandonment of the ancient ways, practically courting the Demon Emperor’s arrival.

Two factions formed within the August Courts, each advocating their own plan of action. The Righteous Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders followed Mandarin Hao Wei-Liang, a cunning Resplendent Crane politician. It consisted of Resplendent Cranes, Devil-Tiger extremists and Thrashing Dragon hotheads. They called for a crusade to sweep the foreign devils from the shores of the Middle Kingdom and carry the battle to the unrighteous in their own lands. They proposed the Ash Plan as a means of accomplishing just that, which found support among Wan Kuei opportunists and those frustrated with the August Courts’ apparent weakness.

The Harmonious Menders of Broken Fences, led by Bone Flower elder Jiejie Li, proved more moderate. They claimed the Middle Kingdom needed to put its own house in order before beginning any crusades against the unrighteous. Corruption and evidence of the Yama Kings were rife in their own domains, yet the Foreigner- Vanquishing Crusaders would charge off to other lands, leaving their homes to rot from within. This was foolishness, the Fence-Menders said. The Crusaders countered by accusing their opponents of being cowards unwilling to take action while the world slid screaming into Hell.

The Menders of Broken Fences offered a compromise they called the Two-Fang Serpent Plan, which dealt with both the threats facing the Quincunx at home and abroad. The Kuei-jin directed the first “fang” toward securing the borders of the August Courts and dealing with dangers close at hand, like the occupations of Shanghai and Hong Kong. The plan’s second “fang” proposed taking and holding a western city to probe the Kin-jin’s strengths and abilities while establishing a foothold for a later time.

Shadow wars erupted between the two factions, each struggling to win the support of the August Courts. Finally, the Elders decided Hao Wei-Liang presented the greatest danger to their power and the Quincunx’s traditional ways. They chose the moderates’ plan, with some slight revisions. The August Courts created the Extraordinary Commission on the Rectification of Borders and appointed Jiejie Li its Ancestor, with experienced Devil Tiger General Chiu Bao as her lieutenant and First Oni. The Courts placed Hao Wei-Liang in command of a force known as the Glorious Ocean-Crossing Warriors, and charged him with capturing and pacifying Los Angeles, under the watchful eye of his rivals. The Ancestors would see whose approach proved more successful.

In the first days of 1998, scouts for the Ocean- Crossing Warriors entered Los Angeles, launching the Kuei-jin’s invasion. Initially things went smoothly. Kuei-jin warriors struck the Kin-jin like a hurricane, sweeping away loners and small, independent gangs of anarchs, while leaving the other Kindred scrambling for information and protection. By contrast, the Fence-Menders’ efforts in Shanghai and Hong Kong were slow and costly, both in terms of resources and the number of Kuei-jin who met Final Death. Hao Wei-Liang’s star was rising, to the concern of the August Courts’ Ancestors.

In 1999, however, a new star arose and changed everything. The red star known as the Eye of the Demon Emperor appeared in the heavens; it was believed an omen of the impending Sixth Age. Organized resistance spread among Los Angeles’ anarchs, sending Running Monkeys and war-wu to their Final Deaths in greater numbers. The Righteous Crusaders allied themselves with the spirits of the Yin World and the Yellow Springs, preparing a final, massive assault on Los Angeles from the Spirit Realms. In the midst of the attack, however, a storm of unprecedented fury struck the Yin World, smashing Kuei-jin and spectral forces alike. The Kin-jin pressed their advantage until, by summer, both sides were too exhausted to continue fighting.

Meanwhile, the Fence-Menders made considerable progress in Shanghai while maintaining a stalemate in Hong Kong. Jiejie Li also secured the defection of high-ranking Tremere Oliver Thrace, providing the August Courts with valuable information. Meanwhile, Hao Wei-Liang’ s troops were decimated and demoralized, his assault a failure in the eyes of his superiors. Ancestor Ch’ang of the Blood Court sent Hao an inkstone and calligraphic brush as a sign of his judgment. In late 1999, the Resplendent Crane Mandarin Hao met the Eye of Heaven with honor, leaving the Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders greatly weakened.

The invasion of Los Angeles sent shock-waves through the Anarch Free State and the Camarilla, which quickly moved to secure San Diego and San Francisco. Refugees from the fighting in LA sought shelter in Prince Vannevar Thomas’ domain. He generously granted it, swelling the number of local anarchs. The Camarilla’s western princes strengthened their borders, looking to the Inner Circle for aid and waiting to see what the Cathayans would do next.

THE NEW PROMISE MANDARINATE

With the Final Death of Hao Wei-Liang, the Ancestors of the August Courts turned their attentions on Jiejie Li. Although the Fence-Menders won a considerable victory, Li knew full well she must now succeed where Hao failed, or she would follow him into the mouth of Yomi. If she were killed, the Ancestors could eliminate two powerful rivals and still reclaim Shanghai in the bargain. She didn’ t intend to allow them that opportunity.

As Li studied the situation, it became clear that a direct assault was no longer viable. The ranks of the Glorious Ocean-Crossing Warriors were severely thinned and morale was just as depleted. Elements loyal to the Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders also needed to be weeded out and replaced with jina and mandarins loyal to Li and the Fence-Menders. Li appointed Monkey Trip Wu ancestor of Los Angeles, with Mandarin Fun Toy of the Flatbush and Stockton Posse as his seconds-in-command. With that accomplished, she and Chiu Bao went to Los Angeles to oversee matters directly.

The new Kuei-jin strategy used a weapon from the arsenal of Western colonialism: divide and conquer. The Cathayans approached some of the prominent surviving anarch leaders and offered them a deal: their cooperation in exchange for aid in wiping out their closest rivals. It only took the agreement of a few to break the back of the anarch resistance and drive most of the surviving rebels out of the city. The Kuei-jin dubbed their alliance the “New Promise Mandarinate” and created a power structure that included both Wan Kuei and Kin-jin.

Jiejie Li presented this as a victory to the August Courts. Not only were the Kin-jin under control, but the Kuei-jin could civilize and teach them proper behavior, making them a useful resource in the coming struggle against the Sixth Age rather than chaff thrown to the winds.

To the Kindred of Los Angeles, the Mandarinate presented itself not as another process towards “enlightenment” or an egalitarian society, but as the fruition of those pursuits. It promised to upend the Camarilla’s status quo and offer advancement based on merit and ability rather than generation or diablerie. This strategy worked, leaving The Kuei-jin and their allies in control of Los Angeles. The Camarilla knew it would be a matter of time before the New Promise Mandarinate turned its attention elsewhere along North America’s Pacific Coast.

AN HONORABLE AGREEMENT

To forestall the Mandarinate’s expansion, the Inner Circle appointed Justicar Madame Guil to deal with “the Cathayan problem.” Of course the Camarilla’ s idea of confronting the situation was to sue for peace with the Cathayan invaders and cede Los Angeles to them. Hopefully this would keep them contained while the Camarilla dealt with a more pressing threat in the Sabbat. Theoretically, the justicar’s presence would also remind the western princes where their loyalties lay and help keep other cities from defecting to the New Promise Mandarinate.

Madame Guil and her entourage traveled across North America from Boston to San Francisco, dealing with several minor matters along the way and “marching out the flag” to rally the Camarilla’ s western holdings. Unfortunately, the local princes realized the Camarilla was essentially leaving them to the mercy of not just the Sabbat but also the Cathayans.

Once Guil established herself in San Francisco with Vannevar Thomas unable to do anything save cooperate, negotiations with the New Promise Mandarinate began in earnest. To the Camarilla’ s surprise, the Cathayans eagerly discussed terms and welcomed the offer of a settlement. Negotiations took place throughout 2000, with meetings alternating between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Negotiators sent flurries of messages back to their superiors in the Camarilla and the Quincunx every step of the way, finally resulting in an acceptable agreement for both sides. The Kindred saved face by recognizing Kuei-jin authority in Asian matters and “approving” their recovery of the renegade domain of Los Angeles, allowing them to retain it so long as they kept “good and reasonable order” in the city. The Camarilla also agreed to compensate the Cathayans for the costs they incurred in “recovering” Los Angeles from the anarchs.

In short, the Camarilla capitulated, agreed to let the Cathayans keep what they’ d stolen and offered them a bribe in hopes they wouldn’t plunder any more territory. The Kuei-jin willingly allowed the Kin-jin to ascribe whatever face they wanted on the compromise, since it provided the Quincunx with significant gains — and even Western barbarians should be allowed to save face. The deal was set, but there was something on which neither side had counted.

THE WHEEL TURNS

Regardless of the Camarilla’s intentions, the western princes were not about to accept the Inner Circle’ s betrayal to Cathayans. Neither were the surviving anarchs driven from Los Angeles by the invaders. In the anarchs, the princes found the perfect tool. They would use one problem to solve another and, regardless the outcome, they would come out ahead. The plan called for the anarchs to execute a coup in San Francisco as the Camarilla’s delicate negotiations came to a close, eliminating both the Eastern and Western envoys. Once in control of the city, the anarchs could raise a force to move south and re-take Los Angeles with the backing of the western princes.

If the anarchs succeeded, they would eliminate or at least weaken the Cathayan threat and owe their success to their former political enemies. If they failed, the anarchs would be eliminated and the Camarilla would be forced into conflict with the so-called New Promise Mandarinate instead of suing for peace. Even if the Inner Circle discovered the culprits behind the coup, they would still need support to deal with the Cathayans (as well as the Sabbat). Any retribution would be minor at best and long in coming, even in the worst case scenario.

The details of the meeting between Kindred and Kuei-jin representatives on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill are hazy, but what remains clear is that a well-armed force of anarchs attacked the meeting site. Many vampires met their Final Death that night with many more destroyed in the following hours. Accusations of betrayal and collaboration with the anarchs flew on both sides, as Prince Vannavar Thomas watched his hopes of becoming the Camarilla’s peacemaker crumble.

THE TAKING OF SAN FRANCISCO

The August Courts graciously accepted the Camarilla’s tribute, then sent “envoys” and “peacekeepers” to San Francisco to ensure the safety of their own kind. In short order, the city’s eldest including the prince and primogen met their Final Deaths at the hands of Kuei-jin assassins. The Wan Kuei swept into San Francisco like a black wind. It seemed nothing could stand before them. They seized control of the city’s prime areas, then opened “negotiations” with the surviving Ancilla.

Although couched in diplomacy, the Kuei-jin made it clear that the Kindred would be relocated to specific areas of San Francisco and allowed to exist under the watchful eye of the New Promise Mandarinate. Those who showed “merit” (i.e., loyalty to the new order) had the potential for advancement, while any threats would meet with swift retribution. The local Kindred had little choice; most complied with the invaders’ terms and moved their havens and strongholds to Cathayan-appointed areas.

After the Camarilla's failure to hold the city, the Inner Circle stated they needed specialized diplomatic skills to “continue negotiations” with the Cathayans. They conferring that authority on Sara Anne Winder, an ambitious and cunning Ventrue tactician charged with eventually re-taking the city.

In turn, the New Promise Mandarinate named Sara Anne Winder Minister of the Office of Western Affairs, making her their official representative and mouthpiece for dealing with San Francisco’ s Kin-jin population. In their view, this placed Sara Anne Winder relatively high in the city’s hierarchy, even if many within the Camarilla don’t see it that way.

Having taken the city, of course, the Fence-Menders now face the challenge of holding both Los Angeles and San Francisco while dealing with affairs at home. To worsen matters, the Quincunx expects them to expand their holdings in North America — against the better judgement of Jiejie Li and her advisors. The Two-Fang Serpent Plan is something of a victim of its own success, leaving the Kuei-jin stretched thin across California’s coast. The Kindred have regrouped from their early defeats, and the Camarilla now makes the Cathayans a greater priority than before. Robbed of the chance to gather intelligence while maintaining the element of surprise, the New Promise Mandarinate faces the prospect of organized resistance and an inevitable Camarilla counterattack while they fortify their holdings.

In San Francisco, these two powerful factions dance a delicate and dangerous diplomatic tango, each carefully hiding its weaknesses while ferreting out the enemy’s vulnerabilities and making plans for the future. On the city’ s fog-shrouded streets, Kuei-jin and Kindred encounter each other almost nightly, sometimes slipping past one another in the mist with the barest acknowledgment, other times exploding into violence that may eventually consume the city. As the pressure grows, each side can’ t help but reflect upon the prophecies of the End Times, watching the signs manifest all around them and wondering if hope still exists.

FROM THE ASHES A NEW ORDER

In 2002 the Ancestors of the August Courts of the Quincunx appointed one of their own over the newly minted Court of the Golden Mountain. The appointment of Xiao Yijun, an ancient disciple of the Path of a Thousand Whispers, outraged both the Harmonious Menders of Broken Fences and the remnants of the Righteous Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders alike. Neither leader, Jiejie Li of the Menders nor Qiu Ng of the Crusaders were pleased with with an appointment made thousands of miles away and without their consent, but Xiao Yijun had made the crossing from the Middle Kingdom via the Yellow Springs and was announced and enthroned in San Francisco before either had been notified.

To the Kindred of San Francisco the New Promise Mandarinate was simply another kind of iron-fist sheathed in eastern silk and the appointment of a city-ancestor by a foreign power generated both apathy and silent rage in equal measure. During this time the New Promise Mandarinate sped up the process of Kindred relocation to five specified reserves or districts which in effect created five separate small Kindred enclaves within the greater bulk of the confines of San Francisco. This tactic allowed the Kuei-jin to limit the movements of the Kin-jin, minimized the security needed to patrol those sectors and limited the potential growth of a hostile native species by shrinking the likely pool of serviceable progeny and the blood necessary to feed them.

But unknown to the Kuei-jin invaders this strategy would also serve to insulate and protect the Kindred from outside threats like the Sabbat.

The Week of Bitter Harvests

The mistakes of the Kuei-jin were not errors in judgement, rather they were gaps in the eastern vampires' knowledge of western supernatural threats.

An Uneasy Peace

For two years, a tentative peace held based upon the the Kuei-jin and Kindred joint awareness that war is bad for business and immortality. However, public peace, simply gave way to clandestine struggles in the shadows of skyscrapers and in the all concealing fog. Despite the regular, low-level internecine conflicts that consumed lesser domains within the city, the two primary powers kept the official peace. In 2003 a third party decided to shift the balance of power. Suddenly business fronts and havens were burning, peripheral Kuei-jin met the final death while prominent Kindred were diablerized and feral neonates were everywhere creating chaos enough to shatter the Masquerade - the Sabbat had returned with a vengeance. The Camarilla under Ambassador Winder and the New Promise Mandarinate under Jiejie Li were able to mount a counter offensive that while effective left both the Kindred and the Kuei-jin dangerously weak. In the aftermath, the surviving lords of the night cobbled together San Francisco by establishing five domains belonging to five theoretically equal barons. This political amalgam was never meant to last, but to the exhausted vampires of East and West, it was a welcome respite from the hell of war.

FIVE YEARS GONE

The city was preparing for another assault on the city by the Sabbat. Members of the Kindred and the Kuai-jin both ready to defend the city. The attack was expected at any time, but the attack did not come from the Sabbat but a completely unexpected enemy. In one day a great deal of the elders of the city were destroyed by a Government controlled group of hunters, including Jiejie Li and Sara Winder. In one 10 hour period the city was thrown into a desperate fight for survival. Most of the Kindred and Kuei-jin who lived stayed in hiding over several weeks.

When all was said and done, very few elders survived and the population of the city was cut in half. A rebuilding period slowly took place, Ancilla of the city were now the most powerful members of the city. The Sabbat had all but disappeared, their cities empty and notable figures gone. Members of the city found that if they were not careful with technology the hidden government organization would find and try to destroy them.

The balance of power changed again five years after the attack. Information was discovered that would give the person that had it enough power to rule the city. A young coterie of kindred decided to help the Brujah Baron, Sebastian Toc, get the information and rise to the princedom. The most powerful Kuei-jin, Cho of the Thrashing Dragons, became senechal. No one is saying what information gave Toc the power he needed.

THE EVOLUTION OF SAN FRANCISCO

The city settled into an uneasy balance, and in the year of the pig, month of the snake, hour of the rat, the Sabbat struck it's first decisive blow. Na Ng was captured and tortured by the Sabbat. After holder her for 48 hours, the Sabbat enacted the Ritual of the Bitter Rose and drained her. The Sabbat pack had also placed explosives at the haven of the Three Joyous Relations. Chang and Big Mama were fatally wounded, sending them back to Hell. Green Tea Girl was injured, but managed to get free of the damaged building and begin healing herself.

The Custodians of Social Harmony found Na Ng, and began to systematically question the Kin Jin in the area. When the explosion happened they went forth and tried to save the Three Joyous Relations. The confusion of the explosion allowed the Sabbat to escape the city, leaving the Sutodians furious but impotent. It became clear that someone had dropped the wards that the Kuie-Jin had put up to keep the western vampires out. Only a select Kin Jin in the city had the information available to do that.

In the next week or so, the Kuie-jin made small adjustments to the layout of wards, and took a hard look at the security of the city. There was intense politicking among the Kuie-jin, and out of the meetings it was decided by Yijun Xiao the Ancestor of the city that Zan Lim should be the Mandarin in charge of the new South Eastern Zone. His Custodians of Social Harmony were given broader powers, and a consolidation of responsibility ensued.

Zan Lims first order of business was to have a party allowing all the Kin Jin in the City meet him at a festival party. The Toreador were tasked with providing a suitable venue, and setting up festivities for his assuming power.

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Princes of San Francisco

In the last one hundred and sixty years there have been five princes of San Francisco. All five have overseen times both turbulent and prosperous. Changes in reign have often mirrored the greatest upheaval in mortal society. And a case might be made for believing that Princedom of the Kindred and the success of San Francisco are tied together in some mysterious way.

The City's first prince, Diego Don Delfonso, may have arrived in the area as early as 1822. According to the few Kindred old enough to remember the First Prince it is generally agreed that he hailed from Spain originally and resided in Mexico until the Sabbat drove him from that country and he settled in the Presidio behind thick limestone walled and deep beneath the earth. Therein Don Delfonso crouched like a spider establishing unseen control over the fort and the port that lay at its feet. Little is actually known of Don Diego as he preferred to be called. He was quite influential within the mortal population and quickly amassed a significant fortune, regrettably he had a taste for virgin blood and occasionally hosted orgies at which he would reward his faithful retainers with the flesh of the local youth. This predilection for unholy debauchery became something of a frontier legend drawing depraved mortals and witch-hunters in significant numbers. This state of affairs could not have lasted as long as it did save for the Gold Rush of 1849 which dramatically swelled the mortal population. The U.S. census of 1848 noted that the population of San Francisco was roughly one thousand people, but just one year later it had grown to twenty-five thousand souls. But with a river of gold and blood coming down out of the mountains it was not long before other Kindred found their way to San Francisco, and the undead population swelled well beyond the accepted Camarilla norms and by the winter of 1849-1850 the number of vampires in San Francisco stood at twenty-five.

• Diego Don Delfonso - (Reign: 1849-1859) [Clan: Unknown]
• Hercule Montelaine - (Reign: 1859-1877) [Clan: Tremere]
• Tabassum al-Nagi - (Reign: 1877-1906) [Clan: Tremere]
• Vannevar Thomas - (Reign: 1906-2000) [Clan: Ventrue]
• Sara Anne Winder - (Reign: 2000-2001) [Clan: Ventrue]

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Secret Histories of the Tremere: Alta California

The Historiae Secretae or the Secret Histories of Clan Tremere are to most rank and file Tremere a myth. But, the Historiae Secretae is real, not so much a organized chronicle by a leading authority - no, within the Pyramid such a thing would become a tool of clan propaganda. Rather the Secret Histories are an amalgam of clan lore passed from one regent to the next. Not every regent holds a copy of the Historiae Secretae, but enough do hold bastardized versions of the work to suspect something like the truth behind their clan's rise to power. One such copy was held in the prime chantry of San Francisco the First Masonic Lodge of San Francisco located at #1 Montgomery street and established in 1860. There it remained safe until the fire of 1906 which destroyed the building and necessitated the relocation of the chantry to a safer building established in 1911 and dedicated in 1913 at #25 Van Ness - the Second Masonic Lodge.

The Spanish Warlock

• Alejandro Rendón -- {AKA: Onirio} First Warlock of Alta California

Tremere of San Francisco

• Honerius - Tremere Primogen
• Hercule Montelaine - First Regent of San Francisco
• Tabassum al-Nagi - Second Regent of San Francisco
• Don Benedict - Third Regent and Magister of the Chantry
• Selena Ambrose -- Childe of Don Benedict

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Sources

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_den#:~:text=San%20Francisco,-Opium%20den%20in&text=Opium%20smoking%20arrived%20in%20North,first%20Chinese%20arrived%2C%20around%201850.

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Princes_(VTM)#google_vignette

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