Five Islands Conflict Tales
Camarilla
The Camarilla have ruled that losing New York City to the Sabbat or any other sect is completely unacceptable. Therefore, the Justicars have given the Prince of New York City carte blanche. She must do whatever it takes without sacrificing the Masquerade to keep a hold of Manhattan if nothing else, and to try and beat the vile Sabbat out of town altogether. To that end, she has spawned a massive brood of Ventrue enforcers, who have proven more than capable of repelling Sabbat advances time and again, albeit in a ruthless manner. The other clans are indeed reliant on the Ventrue’s fortitude (ha!).
Key Locations
The Five Spot Club is a high-class nightclub in Manhattan’s southern Soho District. Here the Prince holds court on nights that the club is privately chartered, and the jazzy club is considered Elysium. The Prince and her clan hold their own Directorate Assemblies at the towering building of International Stock Investments & Trade, Inc., located in the southern Financial District of Manhattan. (Note that Little Italy is under control of the Giovanni; the Ventrue recruit their mobsters from the families in Hell’s Kitchen, found Midtown on the west side.) Clan Toreador runs its own Affairs out of the Open Eye Playhouse on Broadway in west central Manhattan. The Tremere maintain a chantry out of Pace University near the Brooklyn Bridge, found on southeastern Manhattan.
Clan Structure
Ventrue run the show, and most that have survived the Jyhad so far are the Prince’s brood of 8th-Generation bad asses, mostly former mobsters and cops. The Toreador are quite powerful, too, and it is likely they would run New York City if it wasn’t on the brink of Sabbat conquest. They are deeply involved in the arts and all cultural elements of the city. The Nosferatu are more powerful than the Prince realizes. Not only do they have control over much of the daily city machine, but the sewers beneath are home to the clan’s global SchreckNET schemes. The Tremere are indispensable assets in the Jyhad against the Camarilla’s many strange foes, but they are also severely tested. The Sabbat knows the clan’s morale is low, and takes pains to assassinate the Regents as frequently as possible.
Rules
The Six Traditions are inviolable. Manhattan is not a town for weak Camarilla vampires. “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen”. Breakers of the rules are at best banished from Manhattan, forced to brave Sabbat-controlled methods of transportation. Breaking the Masquerade is usually punishable by the Blood Hunt, but the Prince has been known to give leeway in extenuating circumstances. This conveniently happens to favor her childer more often than not, but then again they are on the front lines of this war.
Sabbat
The Camarilla controls Manhattan. The Sabbat has everything else. And that gives them an immense tool of diversity and demographics. They can keep endless hordes of shock troops ready to hurl at the Camarilla. They can also keep the island of Manhattan well surrounded. They keep patrols on every highway, bridge, tunnel, airport, subway, and train station. Only the docks of Manhattan escape their notice, and that is the only way the Camarilla have been able to smuggle in reinforcements so far. To date, the Sabbat is focused solely on the conquest of Manhattan. It is not an easy job; the Camarilla are well entrenched and more able combatants than Sabbat whelp lore suggests. But time will tell in the Sabbat’s favor, as they wear the enemy down and probe for weak spots in territorial control. Something tremendous must happen to stop the siege and inevitable victory at this point. Something or somethings ancient…and those somethings feed a fear that is beginning to wrinkle the Bishops’ confidence as they scheme and strategize.
Key Locations
Overlooking the Harlem River and his goal of conquest just beyond, the Lasombra Archbishop of New York City maintains he and his huge pack’s haven in the plush interior of an old, sooty brick tower called Vega & Dawson Law Offices. It is found on the southern border of the Bronx. With some amusement, the Sabbat watch as die-hard Yankee fans of the Camarilla try to get past the sect’s security and subway harassers just to catch the games. (The Camarilla was behind the vastly unpopular suggestion of building a new stadium for the Yankees.) On Staten Island, the Sabbat run a number of communal havens for roving packs out of cabins in the Gateway National Recreational Area on the eastern edge of the island. In Queens, in the central Jamaica District not far from Flushing Meadows Park, the local chapter of the Black Hand makes its secret bunker bases. Assamite antitribu mix in with local Arab-American immigrants. In Brooklyn, the central Flatbush District is overrun by Brujah antitribu and other more rebellious clans. These contrast with the Tzimisce Bishop who lives in Brighton Beach on southern Coney Island, who runs families of the Russian Mafiya. But they all get along after a diocese-wide Vaulderie rite or two…more or less.
Clan Structure
Lasombra are the dominant clan in New York City. There are an unusual number of Tzimisce gathered in this town, too, and as usual seem willing to play second tit to the Keepers. Serpents of Light and Tremere antitribu help counter the blood magics of their Manhattan-bound enemies. Brujah antitribu, along with Panders, Ravnos antitribu, and Ventrue antitribu, tend to run the more poverty-stricken parts of town, recruiting the strong and drinking dry the weak.
Malkavian, Gangrel, and Nosferatu antitribu are as they always are: they are more twisted than their Camarilla counterparts, yet one can barely tell them apart at times. Their loyalty is always questioned, but often proved. Toreador antitribu yearn for access to the mainstream artistic venues of Manhattan, but there are plenty of opportunities in the other boroughs, and they make use of them. And as usual, the Assamite antitribu “are” the Black Hand, and are hell-bent on planning their next crusades of bloodshed, assassination, and general havoc. They are especially focused on eliminating non-vampiric enemies, but have met with very limited success.
Rules
The Code of Milan is strictly observed in New York City, as the Sabbat here are intent on showing the rest of the sect that they are the best of the best. Of course, breaking a rule is only breaking a rule if you get caught… They care little for the Masquerade, of course, but do not want to draw undue attention from humans and other enemies. So blatant and idiotic flauntings of undead power are considered breaches of sect secrecy and security, and can be punished quite stiffly. During a recent and spectacular clash with Camarilla Tremere, a team of especially dangerous human hunters ruined the party. Ridiculous tales of cyborgs and heat rays made the Bishops laugh aloud, but got them thinking…
Anarchs & Autarkis
In New York City, with two titans like the Camarilla and Sabbat in all-out war, there isn’t much space for the little guys. Independent clans, lone Autarkis, and ragged Anarchs are outclassed and outnumbered in the Big Apple. Nonetheless, they manage to survive, staking their claims in one part of town or another.
Key Locations
The Anarchs run Coney Island. The old amusement park has since fallen into disarray. The Anarch gangs staked the place out and set up numerous booby-traps to dissuade their enemies (namely the Sabbat that surround them). They are trapped and know it, and more Anarchs heed the rants and promises of the Brujah antitribu recruiters all the time.
Meanwhile, in Manhattan two major independent clans were able to claim districts for their own. They insinuated themselves so well into the city that the Camarilla could not eject them. And because of how demanding the war against the Sabbat remains, no plans to try and toss either independent clan out exist. Yet. Besides, once in awhile these two clans help the Camarilla, on purpose or inadvertently.
The Giovanni acquired Little Italy, basing their operations out of the Messini Gentlemen’s Club. The Setites control much of Harlem meanwhile, mingling with the poorer and mostly African-American residents, who have recently had an in-flux of Caribbean immigrants. They transformed and corrupted the Church of the Abyssinian Baptist, making it their dark chapel of Sutekh-worship.
Clan Structure
The Setites and Giovanni number only at most a half-dozen to a dozen Kindred each. The Anarchs number no more than 50, and are mostly Brujah and Caitiff, with a sprinkling of Gangrel and other clans. There are also Ravnos scattered about the area, some traveling with their mortal Gypsy relatives.
Kuei-jin
Five boroughs. Five Wu. Five Dharmic paths. It sounds perfect. Based out of Manhattan’s southerly located Chinatown District, the Court of the Five Islands is a loose collection of five semi-autonomous Wu that operate in each of the city’s five main boroughs. Together they work to off-balance the Kin-jin sects and prepare the City That Never Sleeps for the Quincux’s Great Step Outward.
Key Locations
The Kuei-jin gather at their Court’s home base in Chinatown, where a small (Level 1) dragon nest is maintained in a nameless warehouse full of festival supplies and floats. The dragon nest is only “awake” during festivals, charging up between such events. But such events are frequent in Chinatown: at least one per month. The Wu led by a Bone Flower dwells here. The Wu run by a Devil Tiger runs out of Brooklyn from the eastern Bay Ridge District. The Wu that a 1000 Whisper manages operates from Queens, from the northeastern Bayside District. The Wu that a Resplendent Crane directs works from Staten Island, from the western Chelsea District. And a Thrashing Dragon leads her Wu out of the Bronx, from the central Bedford Park District.
Dharmic Structure
All five classic Dharma paths are represented in the approximately twenty Wan Kuei that are based in New York City. Each Wu boasts a leader of the five different Dharmas as mentioned above, for auspicious purposes. The heretical Dharmas would be hard-pressed to survive in this dangerous city, as they would be eschewed by the Court of the Five Islands and forced to exist on their own. Each Wu also has its own Nushi, but the Court at whole has appealed to an avatar of the Imperial Mandator of Heaven. This powerful Nushi oversees the Court’s expanding activities and largely offers wise advice in affairs of intrigue and subterfuge.
Rules
The Fivefold Way is observed, but generally on a small familial scale. True, the five Wu gather at the Court’s warehouse base in Chinatown on a monthly basis. But guanxi binds the Gui Ren only to one another. To date, their success depends especially on their secrecy, and they’ve been able to work so subtly that the Camarilla and Sabbat have barely even noticed their presence.
