When the mortals go to bed, the true rulers of the city come out to play…
(Back to Cities in Darkness)
Recent Events:
In addition to the annoyance of a Trickster Demon harrassing the court, a recent gathering was attacked by a lobotomised kine strapped up with explosives. The Kine played a recorded message to the Court demanding the return of Colonel Max Von Roht, stating that failure to comply would result in the City of Darlington Burning, to prove their point, the Kine exploded wounding several Kindred and causing damage to the courtroom itself. In addition to their knowledge of explosives, they also appear to have the ability to Dominate other kindred, or perhaps it is some advanced form of telepathic ability. Either way, it would seem even our minds aren't safe!
After extensive searching, former Prince Integra managed to locate the body of Max Von Roht but is currently keeping him as some form of insurance policy to ensure that his followers remain compliant. Upon revealing this information, Prince Integra fled the city, but not before forcing a member of the court to perform a demon banishing ritual that was drastically wrong and caused an earthquake as a result.
Hopefully the new Prince, Mister Grayson, will last longer than his predecessors.
Personalities
List of Kindred
Officers of the City:
Prince: Mister Grayson
Seneschal: Yeron Hara
Reeve (Sheriff): Benicio Antonio Del Castillo De La Cruz
Archon (Scourge): Lord Voss
Other Kindred Residents:
James Smith - Some kind of Ventrue scientist? Hasn't meen seen for a long time.
Garibaldi - Bit shady, looks like some kind of gangster. Also Ventrue. Also missing.
Lexi - She seems new, can't have been a vampire long. Yet another Darlo Gangrel. She also appears to have gone AWOL.
Seph Condie - a rather charming yet eccentric old man. Of the Ordo Dracul.
Graevan - a past resident of the city involved with the Shadow Empire. Recently returned.
Allies of the City:
- The Darlington Wolves - Now believed dead.
- Mab - Former Queen of the city - sacrificed herself to help the kindred defeat the giant spider, but set up a ritual to allow the kindred to restore her on the solstice. Unfortunately, she neglected to inform the kindred of her plans and therefore they did not perform the ritual. It is believed she is trapped in some version of purgatory.
Enemies of the City:
- Julia's Bureau - A mysterious group of psychics. Usually men wearing suits handcuffed to explosive briefcases. The Darlington branch now lies in ruins, although the kindred still intend to do what they can to rescue Julia.
- Mr Wolfe - Former Sheriff of the city, now an annoying ghost trapped in a computer chip.
- 'The Darlo Crew' - A gang of neonate kindred - Declared Illegal Childer and several of their number were exterminated. A tentative peace agreement has been struck with the remaining kindred, who have been extensively observed and currently pose no threat to the masquerade.
- Eris - A beautiful elder kindred, presents herself as some kind of goddess to her mortal accolytes, whom she helps to "ascend" when they have proven themselves. She sent one of her accolytes to prevent the kindred from performing Mab's ritual. Why she was so interested remains to be seen.
Rumours
- Colonel Max Von Rohts Blood Farm has been dismantled by his loyal Ghoul Sargent Otto Schenk, is this however the last we have seen of Sargent Otto and the vile Abominations created in Colonel Max's lab?
- The sewer system under Darlington is infested with giant crocodiles.
- Only sexy gangrels are allowed to live in Darlington! The rest can be found under bridges, it's where they hide.
- The residents of Durham city recently called an armed response unit to the Darlington Elysium. It's rumoured that the residents are not too happy about this!
History of Darlington
Darlington is first mentioned in early English literature in 1003AD, when it was a small Saxon village on Viking held lands called Dearthingtun (the estate belonging to Deaornoth). King Canute or one of his lords gifted the land to the Bishop of Durham after his barefoot pilgrimage to the shrine of St Cuthbert from Garmondsway.
Darlington remained the property of the Bishops of Durham until well into the late medieval period, indeed the Bishops of Durham had a manor house built in Darlington opposite the church. In the 12th century the bishop turned part of the settlement into a market town.
However Darlington was a very small town, even by the standards of the time. It probably only had a population of several hundred. It was also largely an agricultural settlement. Many of the inhabitants of Darlington made their living from farming with the main industries of the area being the weaving and dyeing of wool and leather.
According to the Sanctified legend the first permanent kindred resident was a Sanctified penitent who was exiled to the town by Bishop Odo, although his original sin has been lost to the ages he supposedly charged with keeping a haven for visiting sanctified under St Cuthbert’s church.
In the Middle Ages most men were villeins or bondmen, halfway between slaves and freemen. They were tied to the land and had to spend some of their time working on the Lord's land. When the Bishop created a market town he probably freed some of his villeins but some remained bondmen and lived in bond gata or bond street.
In 1179 a ‘ferocious tremor’ shook the land and three great pits opened in the earth near Oxen-le-Hall to the south of Darlington, these apparently bottomless pits called the hells kettles by the locals spawned numerous legends about the boiling green waters.
Mab arrived in Darlington at roughly this time and drove off or killed the small group of sanctified inhabitants dwelling in the town. This began the hostilities between the lady of the lakes and the sanctified that has continued to the present day.
Through the centuries Darlington grew slowly into thriving market town. But it was not without its times of hardship. In the 16th century the rebellion of the northern earls led to ‘a great many men’ being executed for treason in the town square. Then only a few years later a great fire ravaged the town during a period of drought destroying hundreds of houses, there was such a lack of water that desperate people used milk and beer to try to douse the flames that consumed the town.
And of course the ever present threat of the black death struck repeatedly through the 16th and early 17th centuries with three serious outbreaks in the town that claimed hundreds of lives.
In 1825 George Stephenson and Edward Pease the local Quaker industrialist finished construction on the Stockton and Darlington railway, linking inland collieries to the port at Stockton with steam powered locomotives and the first commercial railway line was born.
The flood of new industry and jobs to the area brought with it a wave younger kindred looking to make their fortunes, as kindred numbers grew higher there was a brief but bloody war over territory before Mab interceded causing a bloody masacre that would come to be known as the 'Great Culling'.
One night the kindred of Darlington awoke to find that half their number was simply gone, havens were found torn apart and piles of ash were all that remained of over a dozen of the new arrivals.
The industrial revolution transformed Darlington with the linen industry giving way to foundries and vast factories pumping out materials for the ever-growing railway industry. Much of the growing industrialization of the town was due to the Quaker movement who numbered many of the more successful businessmen and industrialists of the era in Darlington and the northeast.
By the time the statue of John Pease was erected in 1875 the once sleepy town had been modernized with sewers, running water and a population approaching fifty thousand.
Around 1900 Mab began to retreat from a town that was moving ever further from the myths and superstitions of its rural past, her visits became more and more infrequent until she retreated entirely to her personal territory around the kettles sometime around 1935.
OOC Details:
- The Darlington game run on the third Tuesday of the month.
- They are held at The Voodoo Cafe (84 Skinnergate) on the Second floor of the 'In Arcadia' alternative shop
- Time-in starts at 7pm, but STs and GS officers are present from 6pm.
- To contact the Darlington officers, visit the forum or email the ST at moc.liamg|ssenkradninotgnilrad#moc.liamg|ssenkradninotgnilrad or moc.oohay|suykaerF_sucihtoG#moc.oohay|suykaerF_sucihtoG
