The Battle of New York refers to the Camarilla conquest of New York City in 1999.
History[]
New York had been controlled principally by the Sabbat since the 1600s, under the leadership of Bishop Ecaterina the Wise.[1] After the stock market crash of 1929, the Ventrue Michaela established a foothold in the city and attracted a small nucleus of Camarilla Kindred to her, though they were confined to a few neighborhoods of Manhattan.[2] Michaela declared herself Prince of Manhattan in 1980, and sired a large brood of neonates to defend her claim from both the Sabbat and other Camarilla. Other key points of Camarilla power were the Tremere Chantry of the Five Boroughs and the Nosferatu SchreckNET (though this was used by their antitribu as well).[3]
Michaela was murdered by Francisco Domingo de Polonia, a Sabbat Archbishop, in late 1998, under the guise of diplomatic talks. The incident assured the Sabbat that the Camarilla would not challenge their dominion over New York any time soon.[4] Calebros was named Prince pro tem and dux bellorum of Manhattan, but he was largely a front for more powerful Camarilla agents, a state of affairs he accepted with equinamity.[5]
In the summer of 1999, the Sabbat launched a major offensive up the Eastern seaborn, beginning with an attack on Atlanta on June 21.[6] This motivated the Camarilla to go on the counter-offensive.
Preparation[]
Operations in New York were largely financed by outside Ventrue such as Queen Anne Bowesley of London. Fabrizio Ulfila, meanwhile, manipulated the Society of Leopold and the Arcanum into stepping up activity in the city, which pressured key members of the Sabbat power structure into hiding. [7] Jan Pieterzoon worked with the local Giovanni power structure to smuggle Camarilla Kindred into the city, organizing almost 400 fighters under Theo Bell, Cock Robin and Lucinde.[8] The Giovanni were paid off with both money and the souls of dead Sabbat, bound by Lithrac and interrogated for intelligence.[9]
In addition, Pieterzoon had the Followers of Set in the city distribute "Methuselah blood" among lower-level Sabbat; this blood was laced with radioactive markers that allowed Camarilla agents to track users across the city.[10] They also received unexpected help from New York's Ravnos, who invoked "The Treatment" against Polonia roughly six weeks before the offensive was planned to begin. This provided additional cover for the Camarilla's preparations, and stretched Polonia's resources especially thin.[11]
Offensive[]
The first stage of the coup occurred during daylight hours. Fires and chemical spills were used to destroy as many Sabbat havens as possible, forcing the laired vampires to choose between fire or the sun. The Camarilla also engineered the arrest of many Sabbat ghouls, and used their own ghouls to harass and kill vulnerable packs before sundown.[12] With intelligence provided by the Tremere and Lithrac's captive souls, Camarilla forces were able to inflict heavy losses on the Sabbat over the next two nights, including Bishop Simon Orozco.[13]
On the third night of the offensive, Sabbat forces successfully regrouped in the Bronx and staged a counter-attack with the help of Lambach Ruthven, but the victory was Pyrrhic. By night four, Ruthven had fled from New York after an encounter with the Tzimisce Antedilluvian below the city, and Polonia was driven out with only a handful of his surviving backers. The battle raged for another two days, but this was mostly dedicated to purging a few lingering packs.[14]
Aftermath[]
Calebros of the Nosferatu was appointed Prince by a temporary council, a title he took only reluctantly, and gave up as soon as he felt the situation in the city had stabilized. One of his few decrees was a blanket ban on the Embrace, and he empowered scourges to eliminate illicit childer, particularly thin-bloods.[15]
Place in the Metaplot[]
Although New York by Night is deliberately vague about the timing of the coup, the Clan Novel Saga establishes it as taking place in November — well after the Week of Nightmares.[16] This would seem to retcon out the Ravnos involvement in the coup, though since their contribution was minimal, this doesn't affect the coherence of the overall timeline.
Reference[]
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 17
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 22
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 23-24
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 25
- ↑ VTM: New York by Night, p. 72
- ↑ VTM: Clan Novel Saga 1: The Fall of Atlanta, p. 272
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 30-31
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 30-31, 33
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 35
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 32
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 32
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 32-34
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 35-36
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 36-37
- ↑ VTM: New York By Night, p. 38-39
- ↑ VTM: Clan Novel Saga Volume 4: End Games