Supernatural Timeline

This is a look by personalities around the Praxis into what has, or may have happened correlating to the mortal history of Azilum. The Mortal History will come first, followed by a 'What We Know Happened.' Remember, this is all from the Kindred and Ghouls of the Praxis, meaning it may not be fully accurate. Enjoy.

1931 to 1935: The Westmoreland County  War.
The Westmoreland County War was a series of coal mining-related
skirmishes, executions, bombings, and strikes (both attempted and realized)
that took place in Westmoreland, Azilum, and the surrounding area during the
1930s. The incidents involved coal miners and union organizers on one side and
coal firms and law enforcement officials on the other with the city's criminal
gangs alternately taking advantage of the conflict and aiding one side or the
other in the war.

1932:  The
Westmoreland County Sheriff, the infamous J.T. DuBois, declares his allegiance
to the mining companies famously saying, " I did all in my power to aid
the operators… there was no compromise when labor troubles swept the county and
the 'Reds' invaded the Lenape Valley."

1933: There are more than 15 bombings, six murders and five
incidences of arson in Azilum. The National Guard is called in to occupy the
city. The strikers expected protection, but upon replacing deputized mine
guards, the National Guard broke the picket lines instead. On May 24, a union
rally was tear-gassed, and Sheriff DuBois rescinded county members' right to
assemble. By June 17, the last mine had been returned to work by force. No
concessions were given by the mine operators.

1934: The Labor Violence continues with the battles between
Coal and Rail police and union miners raging.
The Westmoreland County district attorney is killed by a car bomb.
Sheriff Dubois bulldozes several miner's camps and many of the miners are run
off at gunpoint.The Travailleurs Rouges are driven underground and the UMW
returns.  The election of a Democratic
Governor causes a change. The National Guard stops assaulting workers.

1935:  The National
Guard is now deployed to protect the workers and the governor declared the
behavior of the Coal and Rail Police "The worst reign of terror in the
history of the Commonwealth."

What We Know Happened: “This was years of street
and back-alley brawls between the Sabbat and our hallowed Tower. Some say that
even the Wolves and Willworkers did their part in these battles, but who could
believe they stepped foot outside their forests and shadowy laboratories. For
over fifty years past this, the Sabbat were silent. Not nearly long enough.”

1936: The river floods in early June and the remainder of
the summer is plagued with record heat. Disease is rampant in the city,
prompting the city to utilize CCC money to improve and modernize it's sewers,
expanding to the French District and points on the West Bank.

**What We Know Happened:** “Strange. No matter how
much digging we do into this, we just can’t seem to find any useful
information. How strange. Oh well.”

June 1956- The Riviera, the first Casino in Azilum opens
with The Rat Pack as the headlining act.
Within two years the Sands and the Cleopatra are also erected.

**What We Know Happened**: “I remember meeting Dean
and Frank. Before that day, I thought the most pompous and self-loving people
were the Toreador. Clearly, I was wrong.”

1959:  The River Slope
Mine disaster occurs. 39 miners are killed as the river collapses into the
mine. The disaster seems to cripple the Anthracite industry in Northeastern
Pennsylvania.

**What We Know Happened:** “I don’t care to point
fingers or make assumptions without any proof, but the river that day ran like
a demon was at its heels, destroying homes and lives. It was calm as can be on
the shores of City Island, though, and anyone in the city that night heard the
howling of wolves cutting through the frozen air of Azilum.”

1974:  William Parker
Powell, serial killer is slain after killing 9 people from the summer of 73 to
74.   Experts believe he may be
responsible for as many as 26 deaths.

**What We Know Happened**: “ He got his nick name as
the ‘Lonely Hearts Killer,’ due to his victims hearts being torn from their
body. The Wolves had their hackles up at this killer, and they get very, very
upset about it. Where I do not know why, I equally do not give a damn.”

May 1983: - **What We Know Happened:** “This is the Spring where
the traitor Primogen Cyrus murdered Prince Maximilian. Few of us expected it,
but the prick got what he deserved.”

1984:  The Emerald
City Gang War comes to a violent close when 7 members of the Blanco Drug Cartel
are violently murdered.  The major drug
suppliers in Azilum now come primarily from sources in Hong Kong and Corsica.

**What We Know Happened:** “And the streets are ours
once again.”

1985: April- The Centenial Celebration of the incorporation
of Azilum is celebrated in the city.

November 15 - Local Real Estate Magnate and business
magnate  Maximilian Buridan is slain in a
car bombing. Later that same night four Azilum City Police officers are slain
in a violent shoot out with known members of black streets gangs.

November 17- The Westmoreland County Sheriff's Dept. issues
an arrest warrant for the Universalist Liberation Front Leader Abdulla Mifumo
in connection to the gangland slaying of Buridan and the police officers.
Mifumo refuses to surrender and the ULF holes itself up in the tenement  their group has taken over.  Police surround the location and the Federal
Authorities are called in to deal with the situation.

Nov 17 through 22- A wave of violence sweeps through Azilum,
with murders, arsons and  racially
motivated attacks throughout the city. It becomes known as The Terror and it
ends with the National Guard being deployed to keep order.

Nov 23- Westmoreland County Sheriff Gerard Boulanger ordered
an end to the stand off and two police helicopters drop incendiary devices on
the ULF Headquarters.  The devices cause
a massive fire, which destroys the tenament. The Fire Dept. refuses to act out
fear for their own safety.  The fire
spreads and 63 residences are destroyed 11 ULF members and 14 other people are
killed.

**What We Know Happened:** “Tsk, tsk, tsk. My, how
the mighty have fallen further and further. Our wayward Rabble decided it was
time to ‘seize the means of production,’ or some such nonsense. It’s alright.
Just another dark stain on their black histories.”

1989:  Meteor strike
in the mountains to the Northeast of Azilum creates an explosion that ca be
heard as far away as Philadelphia and New York City.  There are various reports of UFOs, Black
Helicopters, Russian agents and reports of strange series of lights and noises
coming from the Arrowhead Facility.

**What We Know Happened:** “Hell if I know. If you
can figure out what in the nine hells is happening inside the Arrowhead
company, I’m sure the Prince will boon you to high heavens. Just don’t let it
lead back here; we don’t need Willworkers or whoever it is breathing down our
necks.”

May 1995- A copycat terrorist of the Oklahoma City Bomber is
intercepted on its way to deliver a truckload of explosives to the Commodities
Exchange; there is a running gun battle with police with three white
separatists slain when their vehicle explodes.

**What We Know Happened:** “Years ago, a certain
Clan of ours realized that it’s much easier to use the Extremists and
Psychopaths of the world to do their dirty work rather than regular, average
citizens. You don’t have to go far to keep the Masquerade safe, or explain a
situation away when you put ‘Terrorist’ or ‘Supremacist’ in front of it.”

1997: School shooting of 14 students and 3 teachers at the
John T. Banks Memorial High School.

**What We Know Happened**: “Shit, son, some things
don’t got nothing to do with us. The mortals are monsters of their own.”

2003: The Great Black Out.
A bizarre electromagnetic pulse is generated from a power substation in
the Financial District struck by lightning. The Power Outage is exasperated by
a terrorist attack that is launched by an obscure group of techno-fetishists
called the Panther Moderns using a powerful hallucinogen to cause a false panic
about the SARS outbreak.  Using this as
cover, the group attempts a break-in at the Arrowhead facility.  There is violence and a cordon of federal
agencies descends on the Arrowhead site and an air-tight media blackout shrouds
the incident in mystery. IT has been fuel for conspiracy theorists since.

**What We Know Happened:**  “We aren’t certain of who the Willworkers,
the Mages, were opposing, but there’s no doubt they were involved. Almost every
one of them in the city that we’re aware of were out and about that night. I
feel bad for whoever it was they were fighting that night. There were still
plenty of Government suits out after they left, though, so it must have been
important.”

2005: There is a new outburst of violence as the
Solntsevskaya Bratva becomes one of the dominant criminal Outfits in
Azilum.  There is fierce conflict between
the corsican,  Brise de Mer, the chinese
Son On Yi and the Russians for primary control of the underworld activity.

**What We Know Happened**: “Praxis business. Don’t
worry about it. Let’s just say one of our Clans did well in gaining some more
power.”

2008: The Global Financial Crisis.  With the burst of the housing bubble, Stock
Markets crashed The Commodities exchange drops a record 20,000 points over the
course of three days. There is widespread distress that is felt throughout the
economy. In the wake of the Financial Collapse the AIC Azilum Investment
Consortium  outrages the world by
spending out 100s of millions dollars in executive bonuses in advance of the
Group's bailout.  The home of Jean-Robert
Guillard  is firebombed in Breton
Heights.

**What We Know Happened**: “They swear up and down
they didn’t do anything ‘unseemly’ while they were here, but it’s funny that
the Italian Corpsefucker’s have a bit of a pow-wow in the city the weekend this
happened.”

2011:  Occupy Azilum. The global protest in Azilum
is centered in King George Square. It gathers about 2000 protestors  and after the first month the protesters
divest themselves to a new strategy. Groups of protesters move to unoccupied
and foreclosed homes in one of the city's now defunct gated communities, called
Brookline Downs.

          On December 29, the Battle of
Brookline occurs when the police, with backup resources from the County and
other cities in the Commonwealth bulldozes the housing development. Within a
few hours the entirety of Occupy is buried/scattered arrested.

**What We Know Happened:** “That month gave us all
something to worry about. First time in a quarter of a century we had any
significant presence of the Sabbat. Tried to stir up some shit in town with the
streets to distract us while they put their shovelheads into hiding, ducking
down into basements and sewers like the rats they are. We don’t have to worry
about them anymore; The Tremere did what they do best.”