Sunday, November 13, 2016

[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] Mystical History of San Diego

Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum


                 A History of San Diego
                                         Written and designed by Lucas Powell

Awakened Timeline

1867 Failed businessman and Thearch, Alonzo Horton, arrives in San Diego, CA. A trained Geomancer he is responsible for moving San Diego out of Old Town into its current downtown location.


1870 Alonzo Horton opens the first theater in San Diego, called Horton Hall. Then quickly opens the first bank in San Diego.

1882 San Diego Public Library system founded by George Marston. The project is backed by a Nameless Cabal.

1885 Horton connects San Diego to California railways. His interests are purchased by Seers of the Throne and he is financially ruined and his bank liquidates.

1885 The Benevolent Society arrive in San Diego and establish the Mission Chinese School.

1886 Horton oversees the writing of the Charter for the Consilium of the Gaslamp and is named the city’s first Hierarch. The Benevolent Society assist Hierarch Alonzo Horton in removing the Copperheads, Democtractic Confederates, from San Diego forcing them to relocate to Julian, CA where they establish the Consilium of the Red Apple, to spite Hierarch Horton.

1887 A feisty, red-haired call girl Ida Bailey takes up residence at a house of ill repute in the Stingaree and establishes the first Fae Court, Besheba still rules the Court of Disgust. In her heyday she had 350 whores working in 120 bordello in San Diego.

1894 Balboa Park is purchased by the city of San Diego from Alonzo Horton.

1907 George Marston (a known Tellurian), a pioneering Mystagogue, maps all the ley lines and magical nexuses that exist in San Diego.

1909 Hierarch Horton is assassinated and reputation ruined by an internal power struggle in the Silver Ladder. Thearch Heath Davis assumed leadership of the Consilium of the Gaslamp after a brief power struggle with John Spreckels. John Spreckels founds the Workmen. The Workmen are a Cabal of mostly Obrimos and Moros Thearchs focused on technology and the uplifting of Humanity through public works. They are partially responsible for the survival of the San Diego Trolley System which was being dismantled by agents of the Throne.

1910 Hierarch Heath Davis begins funneling aide to Pentacle mages in Mexico at the outset of the Mexican Civil War. In the shadows it is a struggle between the Seers of the Throne and the Diamond for control of Mexico’s National Destiny.

1912 A Mexican priest becomes a firebrand and manages to get the police to raid the bordellos of the redlamp district, he is later revealed to be Bujaba the Hound of Sin, Besheba’s foil.

1914 Ah Quin, the leader of the Benevolent Society, dies tragically on the eve of the ratification of the Consilium of the Cerulean Peace. It is assumed by many Awakened that Hierarch Davis had him assassinated.

1914 The Diamond Mages use the Panama-Pacific Fair to establish a new Consilium, calling it the Consilium of the Cerulean Peace, an expression of hope rather than the reality of the situation. The signing Cabals are: The City Fathers (San Diego’s moneyed rulers), The Ballast (Italian-Portuguese mages tied to the sea and organized crime), First and Last Chance, the Turf, the Copperheads, and Oasis. The Benevolent Society was forbidden from attending the Charter signing ceremony.

1914 The Ring of Fire Protocols are agreed to by Hierarch Davis and ratified by the Ruling Council. These proceedings of kept secret and immediately entered in the Archivum Censoreum. The Silver Ladder and the Guardians of the Veil enter into the Iron Compact, the two orders becoming closely allied and bound, heralding high levels of cooperation between the orders.

1920 The Mexican Civil War ends. San Diego sees a spike in Mexican Immigration. The Seers of the Throne are recognized to have established their own hegemony in Mexico.

1921 A “Scelestus” coming north out of Mexico is caught by the Guardians of the Veil. It is the first time the “Hijos de la Santisma Muerte” are mentioned, the Scelestus is executed before much more information is gained.

1926 Respected Thearch John Spreckels dies.

1927 The El Cortez is constructed in downtown San Diego.

1938 The first non-Founding Cabal, the Workmen, gains a seat on the Ruling Council of the Cerulean Peace. Hierarch Davis is forced to step down and Deacon Threnodies of the Silver Ladder and Councilor of the Copperheads is chosen as the new Hierarch.

1939 The Councilor of the Workmen successfully lobbies for the inclusion of the Benevolent Society, a Cabal of Chinese Acanthus and Thyrsus Mystagogues, to join the Ruling Council.

1940 Hierarch Threnodies signs the Concord of Exclusion with the Seers of the Throne with the tacit approval of the Guardians of the Veil. The Concord of Exclusion was designed to permanently block out “undesirables” from the Consilium.

1940 The Benevolent Society is round up by agents of the Seers of Throne, under the Concord of Exclusion, rather than being taken to Manzanar, they are simply murdered in the streets of San Diego. The Guardians of the Veil turn a blind eye.

1944 Open hostility breaks out when the Workmen discover the existence of the Concord of Exclusion. The Workmen declare right of Nemesis against the Hierarch, Deacon Threnodies, and his Cabal. The city begins to fracture.

1945 The Jusiticiars are recognized as Cabal. There is a quick purge of the old Guardians of the Veil by the White Lady and Morael. The Iron Compact is burned before the Ruling Council by Morael.

1945 Libertine Clara Breed wrests control of the Public Library System from the Seers of the Throne almost single-handedly. This earns her recognition as a Liegeman of San Diego.

1946 Tom Horn kills Deacon Threnodies and officially dissolves the Consilium of the Cerulean Peace and defects to the Free Council from the Silver Ladder. It proves to be a wildly unpopular move and the Charter is reinstated within a week. Gaspar of the City Father’s is appointed as the new Hierarch of San Diego.

1947 Tom Horn, now leader of the Libertine Workmen, begins an ambitious project to revitalize the Gaslamp District but is undermined at every turn by the Seers of the Throne.

1948 The Seers of the Throne take control of the Gaslamp Revitalization project and manage to force the squabbling Consilium out of all its holdings in historic San Diego. The City Fathers and the Copperheads defect en masse to the Seers of the Throne.

1949 Saul arrives in San Diego, as a Silver Inquisitor, to purge the ranks of the Silver Ladder of Followers of the Lie.

1949 The Mystagogues of San Diego found the University of San Diego, specifically the College of Alcala Park, under Hierophant Donald Shiley.

1949 After repeated losses to the Seers of the Throne the Libertine Workmen dissolve their Charter and most leave San Diego.

1951 Harry Handlery purchases the El Cortez. Although not Awakened he begins massive renovations of the building and it starts acting a spiritual magnet in San Diego. Over the years several people simply disappear from their rooms.

1967 The Coronado Bay Bridge is constructed. It quickly becomes known as a Suicide Bridge.

1973 Saul undermines the National Union Bank, a Seer of the Throne front, causing it to fail.

1973 Saul establishes the Scions of the Temple.

1974 As the Vietnam War ends with the Fall of Saigon, Vietnamese mages follow the exodus of their families across the Pacific arriving in San Diego. The Vietnamese mages with support from younger Mexican immigrant mages petition the Ruling Council for assistance with relocation and resettlement. The Ruling Council refuses to acknowledge their existence.

1974 AjA (Autosuficiencia Juntada con Apoyo) is formed as a means to to provide support to immigrant Mages and their families. AjA begins as a Cabal of Vietnamese and Mexican mages, but over following decades it provides services to all manner of immigrants slowly evolving into a Nameless Order.

1980 The Scions of the Temple become a recognized Cabal.

1989 The Symphony Towers are constructed by the Seers of the Throne to hold two vastly powerful Hallows.

1990 Stavros arrives in San Diego, purchasing the El Cortez through agents. It becomes the headquarters of the Fama Fraternitatas. Stavros uses the architecture of the building to begin siphoning power from the Symphony Towers.

1991 The Seers construct America One Plaza abandoning Symphony Towers after a series of mystic mishaps regarding the Hallows.

1992 Stavros challenges and defeats Hierarch Gaspar in Duel Arcane, earning the place of the Fama Fraternitatas on the Ruling Council by force. The Council elects Filipe of the Ballast as the new Hierarch.

1994 In the wake of the Northridge Earthquake Los Angeles’ Consilium is destroyed. Very few mages successfully flee the city.

2000 Hierarch Filipe and the Ruling Council step down after offering a penance of Spiritual Scourging, carried out my Morael, on the last living member of the Copperhead Cabal. The Fama Fraternitatas uses the Right of Intervention to remove Ballast from the Ruling Council.

2000 The ephemera in the Other Worlds begins to burn, but quickly abates. The Ruling Council makes a Declaration regarding the Ring of Fire Protocols, something no one had ever heard of, but life otherwise doesn’t change. After two weeks the Ruling Council declares that all knowledge of the Ring of Fire Protocol doesn’t exist.

2000 The Banishers begin making bold attacks on the Consilium’s holdings. It comes to be known that Fra Chavo, one of the Feared, arrived in San Diego. Fra Chavo and other banishers are successfully deflected towards Downtown San Diego and the Seers’ holdings.

2001 Stavros becomes the new Hierarch after defeating Morael in Duel Arcane. Immediately has the Council Recognize Scions of the Temple, Asymptote, and Edge. Stavros removes that last Founding Cabals from the Council over the following year. Despite some of his reforms Stavros still refuses to recognize AjA that exists, viewing it as a rival to already existent political structures.

2003 The Mysterium dedicates the Donald Shiley Center for Technology on the campus of USD.

2003 The Libertines open the New Central Library in Downtown San Diego.

2004 Parabola is recognized by the Ruling Council after assisting in critical confrontations with Banishers.
2009 Open hostilities begin between Stavros and David, plummeting San Diego into a Wizard March against the Seers of the Throne.

2011 San Diego is plunged into darkness (all of Southern California goes into a blackout) over a dispute between Stavros and the Guardians of the Veil in the Consilium of Eternal Sun in Phoenix.

2012 Battle of the El Cortez. The leader of the Seers is killed by Stavros, at an inhuman price.

2012 The Consilium recovers from the Wizard March cornering the remaining Seer Pylons in downtown San Diego where they end up fighting each other.

2013 Stavros steps down from Hierarch, the former Herald, Avenzoar, is ratified as the new Hierarch with little opposition.

2013 Stavros is named Magister of North America.

2014 The Consilium of the Cerulean Peace prepares a celebration for their Centennial.

The City Today:

There are no Seers of the Throne in San Diego, at least not sufficient to prove any threat to the Consilium of the Cerulean Peace. The cabals that did not disband after the Seer War entrenched themselves physically and politically. San Diego is viewed as a bastion of Diamond superiority throughout the world.

There are deep and unsettling problems though within the city. Problems that threaten to plunge it into eternal night.

Tone & Themes

Echoes of the Cold War

After decades of being a hub of the Cold War against the Soviets and being a front in a protracted Cold War against the Seers of the Throne, the culture of Cerulean Peace is belligerent and paranoid. Most of the city’s leadership has a hard time understanding what it means to rule in peace, and without enemies they have begun to look at each other, suspecting moles and seditionists in every corner.

Legacy of Mystic War

The Seer and Banisher Wars have left metaphysical scars not only on the culture of the Cerulean Peace, but also on the metaphysical fabric of the city. Old booby traps, set by any of the sides, are occasionally found and often with deadly consequence.


Old Wound
The relationship between the Silver Ladder and the Guardians of the Veil is irreparable. There is too much distrust and oozing hate on both sides. Each side is looking for reason to begin open hostilities, to open old wounds and end their struggle.

Scarcity of Resources

San Diego has a history that it struggles to preserve in the face of a rapidly expanding city. The infrastructure is failing and there isn’t enough water. Even the Awakened population is booming and mystic resources are stretched thin.

Festering Secrets

The Cerulean Peace has its share of dark secrets. The Exclusion Concord, the Iron Compact, the Ring of Fire Protocols, and the relationship between the leadership of the Silver Ladder with the leadership of the Seers of the Throne are all examples of secrets that have caused the city harm. 

Corruption

The political leadership of the city have grown accustomed to power. Stavros only stepped down as Hierarch to grasp higher on the Silver Ladder. Morael and the Guardians of the Veil see the power granted to them as carte blanche to enact their will against the social mores of the Cerulean Peace.  No one in the Cerulean Peace is willing to compromise nor give up what they view as rightfully theirs.

Collapse

Because of the corruption in the halls of power, the Cerulean Peace is on the verge of political collapse and open civil war. The fires are too easy to stoke, the Consilium of the Blinding Sun, channels influence and power to the Guardians with the explicit plan of toppling the current Ruling Council and putting in place a successor state that more closely adheres to Guardian ideology.

Racial Exclusion

San Diego is a melting pot of cultures, except when it isn’t. Migrants and refugees are excluded from the halls of power and routinely face police abuses. Each wave of immigrants to San Diego has faced scorn and open hostility from the locals (who themselves are immigrants). The Awakened of the Cerulean Peace are not so enlightened and often consider immigrant mages, especially powerful ones, as threats to their own power and intentionally exclude them from communion with the Consilium. Most of the Consilum’s leadership is old enough to remember when open racism was accepted and segregation the de facto law of the land.




Storyteller Notes
- Bujaba, the Hound of Sin, Besheba's foil was the Mexican Priest in 1912
- The Justicars were established in 1945 and the White Lady and Morael were its principle members... wow they must be old right?
- In 1990 Stavros used geomancy and architectural/mystical configuration to drain/redirect the leylines from Symphony Towers, a center of Seer power used as their power base.  This is perhaps the start of the fall of the Seers in San Diego.  Now the El Cortez hotel and the towers are both powerfully connected to the leylines of the city and are immensely powerful hallows.
- From 2009 to 2012 the Wizard's March was on, a period of shadow war between the concilium and the Seers for the heart of San Diego.
- The Exclusion Concord, the Iron Compact, the Ring of Fire Protocols... yeah

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