Eye of the Storm
The Prince of Peace
San Francisco and the Bay Area are an anomaly in California, a region known among the Kindred as the Anarch Freestates. San Francisco is not run by the Anarchs. The Camarilla rule here and have since Cainites dwelled in California at all. An accord was signed with the Anarchs decades ago, insuring no direct opposition to the Camarilla’s rule would take place. In view of the threat open warfare made to the Masquerade, even the Anarchs couldn’t disagree. The Prince, a wise Ventrue, kept the Anarchs in line by granting them certain freedoms and concessions in the Bay Area. The Anarch Movement festers in Oakland now, and that leaves the open to Sabbat infiltration… Meanwhile, the Kuei-jin set up their first vital stepping stone into America on the graces of this tolerant Prince. Still, for such a forbearing ruler, the Camarilla maintains its strong influence over much of the city, for the popular Prince has the support of all the clans. Regardless of allegiance, however, the undead of the Bay Area all feel it: the grip of despair, of isolation and desolation breeding desperation. Things are relatively calm now, but it’s just the calm before the storm.
Special Events
Special events are annual (or more frequent) holidays or special ritual days that the main group or groups observe as a whole community. Attendance and participation is often expected of all members, and sometimes required.
Grand Tasting
In a sea of Anarch Freestates sits the last bastion of Camarilla control, San Francisco. The Kindred, under a strong and wise Prince, have maintained their isolated rule for centuries. One of the ways they have done so is acting without pretense. However, the Ventrue and Toreador especially cannot subsist on humility. At least once a year, notably at a festival they call the Grand Tasting, held on the full moon of a September evening, the Kindred enjoy the privilege of wealth and power. Under the guise of a wine-tasting festival, wealthy and influential mortals are invited to one of the grand wineries of the area to sample the first wine of the harvest. The Kindred attend, too, and inconspiciously feed from the wine-touched kine, so that they may also enjoy a favorite drink.
Delights of the Far East
The “Delights of the Far East” is not so much an event as it is a campaign. The event it mirrors is Chinese New Year (which takes place over two weeks, starting on the new moon that falls in January or February), when the greatest advertising and marketing drive takes place, but the campaign carries on all year. Started in 2008 by enterprising immigrant shen of San Francisco’s traditional Chinatown district, the “Delights” effort hooks Americans by appealing to their ethnocentric expectations, and then bombards the tourists with cultural honesty. Nothing is watered down, not even the spicy food. Every country and culture of East Asia is represented, especially China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philipines, and India, and many more. Representation has been effected through a general clean-up of Chinatown’s appearance, modernizing some of the more rundown sections, as well as a clamping down of tong and other rougher elements of organized crime. (It’s still there, just more urbane now.) Advanced tourism hubs play up East Asia’s burgeoning technology revolution with even more talented tour guides. The purpose, of course, is to broaden acceptance of genuine East Asian immigrants and culture in America. For the Kuei-jin, this advantages Great Step Outward strategies beyond Chinatown while improving overall prosperity to their “home away from home”, which now is simply home.
“To respect and fear our Prince is to acknowledge his wisdom and forbearance. He is a modern knight in shining armor, and such a beautiful creature cannot be for long in this cynical world. I fear his nights are numbered.”
-- Daphne Perrin, 8th-Generation Toreador Primogen of San Francisco
