Colombia officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country mostly in South America with insular regions in North America.
Overview[]
The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The Capital District of Bogotá is also the country's largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub
Locations[]
- Bogota
Vampire: the Masquerade[]
Colombia is connected to the Central American continent via the Panama Canal. It is also a major stumbling block for the U.S. and its Camarilla parasites. The region is a free zone for all manner of hostile vampires: Sabbat, Giovanni and Setites have all established outposts in the area, openly supporting Colombian drug traffickers such as the Medellin Cartel.
Colombia has been a mortal and Cainite battleground since the coming of the Spaniards in the 16th century. Battles between native vampires, Balam werejaguars, Camarilla Kindred and Sabbat Lasombra have stained the Colombian earth for hundreds of years. In 1819, the hero (and, some whisper, Ventrue ghoul) Simon Bolivar defeated the Spanish and won independence for the nation of Gran Colombia, a coalition of several areas that later dissolved into the countries of Colombia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador and Venezuela. During this brief unification, Camarilla Kindred held complete control. However, a subsequent influx of Sabbat and neutral Kindred (including several vengeful Lasombra) catalyzed a rapid and volatile blood war, which prompted the disintegration of Gran Colombia. The change happened so fast that even the Camarilla was caught off-guard. Gran Colombia dissolved in 1830, and in the tumultuous period that followed, many Camarilla vampires were destroyed or forced to flee. Even after the dissolution of Gran Colombia, Panama and Colombia remained as one nation. However, following the Panamanian War of Independence (1899-1903), Panama became a free nation with help from the Camarilla-held U.S. Violence in Colombia continued over the next decades, as strife between Kindred of all sorts spilled over into the mortal world. Finally an unexpected attack by the Setites, using General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla as their proxy and pawn, ended the conflicts.
From 1953 to 1957, the Followers of Set ruled Colombia with a dictatorial fist. Only the united forces of the Camarilla and the Giovanni managed to bring down the brutal army the Setites founded, just when the Camarilla was convinced that the "sand snake revolution" was over, however, the Giovanni and Setites came to a last-minute agreement that drove the Camarilla out of the country. The unexpected allegiance caught the powerful sect by surprise, and in a matter of weeks the vampiric fate of Colombia was sealed. Never one to take defeat lightly, the Camarilla began using its powerful influence in the U.S. to cause Colombia grief.
Embargoes and preposterously high export taxes almost brought the joined clans to their ruin. However, the Setite and Giovanni coalition retaliated by abetting Colombia's kine in their production of illegal and very cost-effective drugs, which, in cooperation with U.S. Setites, provided the neutral clans with ludicrous amounts of cash. Though the Setite-Giovanni coalition has since gone the way of most vampiric treaties, and Camarilla- and Sabbat-affiliated Kindred have crept back into the nation, the sects as a whole keep their distance.
Currently, Colombia is a violent and unstable land. Camarilla and Sabbat vampires (most of whom give only tenuous loyalty to their sect) jockey for control with Setites and Giovanni. Many of the conflicts stem around gaining control of the cocaine cartels that infest the nation. Indeed, Colombia's druglords often wield more power than the Colombian government, to the point of ordering assassinations against "uncooperative" (i.e., honest) officials. Though most of the cartels' evil is strictly human, such powerful and ruthless criminal organizations have certainly attracted their share of Leeches. Lasombra, Setites, Brujah, Giovanni, Ravnos and the occasional Gangrel have all infiltrated this or that cartel, using a mix of manipulation and muscle to turn the gangs to their ends. Recently, government officials have scored some successes against the cartels - but the swift escape from justice of Medellin Cartel leader Pablo Escobar Gaviria bears mute testimony to the fact that many Cainites desire the continued health of the drug rings.
Wraith: the Oblivion[]
The Colombian Dark Kingdoms of Emerald were legendary for their ability to forge spectacular Artifacts out of True Gold and soulfire Emeralds. Many Renegades and Heretics vanished under waves of viridian fire as the Emerald wraiths defended their homeland, but the Lands of Emerald were simply too disorganized to resist the Flaying. Rumors abound of strange wraiths who wander the Byways on rafts of purest gold.
By the 21st century Colombia was one of the four nation's with the most Kakos stromithicarum plantations. The resulting pigment drug accounted for 10 percent of Colombia's illicit exports. A criminal enterprise overseen by Federico Peralto, the country's pigment baron. Peralto in turn answers to Uriah Bishop. Colombia is also where Operation: Black Mercury runs much of its counter-drug operations.
References[]
- WOD: A World of Darkness Second Edition, p. 37
- WTO: The Book of Oblivion, p. 101
- Orpheus: Shades of Gray, p. 135, 141
- Orpheus: The Orphan-Grinders, p. 139
- VTM: Camarilla