Montreal History

Montreal has been home to kindreds for a long time, almost as long as the city's existence. Once the population was barely large enough to support a single Vampire, one came from the old world to spread his web of death and deception.

The first vampire that called Montreal home, in New France at that time, was Sir Jason Stafford from England . Stafford came to Montreal when he learned of the new world. He arrived in 1705, after the wars with the Iroquois seemed to really be done with, and as soon as he considered that the city of Montreal was large enough to support a single kindred.

When he came here he was ill prepared for the kind of infrastructure he would have to deal with, the city had no sewers, no large buildings and the population was well bellow the 50 thousand souls. At first, Jason had a very difficult time finding a place to hide at day that would be safe enough and that would sustain him. Jason soon found a parish, dedicated to Saint-François de Sales, on the island called Isle Jesus and made ghouls of the entire community. The Jesuits included approximately 12 members. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on the point of view, it was barely enough to sustain the Vampire. Sir Stafford had to go to town once in a while to make sure that his adopted family would not start dying on him from lack of blood.

For 10 to 15 years, Jason's life was not something that could be considered holidays, he had to work very hard to maintain a low profile and make sure that the parish would not start talking about him. After the Jesuits were well indoctrinated and that the period of observation and analysis of his new surrounding was completed, he started to move and act more confidently. He went to Montreal regularly and started to make contacts, since he was Ventrue, the power to command and influence others was very handy in making a sizable amount of friends and allies.

In a period of 5 years, he was already well established in the Montreal's fledgling high society and was now feeling at home in this colonial city. In 1730 he moved his primary haven to Montreal in a more secure area and started to build a new herd there. He kept the Jesuits where they were and used them for emergencies, since they were deeply indoctrinated and loyal to him, it would be careless to throw them away. Though, no other kindred arrived for the first decades of his unlife in Montreal, he continued to live by the precept of the Invictus, which he believes would permit him to correctly welcome and command the future kindred that would inevitably arrive in Montreal. The first arrival occurred in 1743. A new kindred arrived in town, Laurent Cartier, a French man Mekhet. Laurence was not expecting to see other vampires here and quickly started to make his moves to secure this new environment and have it under his control as soon as possible. In the first month of Laurent's arrival, he clashed with Jason and the encounter was not diplomatic in the least, they were both highly astonished to see another vampire and the surprise was so complete that they gave in to their inner beasts and a frenzied battle erupted between the 2 kindreds in the middle of the night. Jason painfully bested Laurent but did not kill him in the end. He took the Mekhet prisoner with a stake in his hearth and pondered the situation. He later considered that this was something that was bound to happen and he would like to make it up to the Cartier.

Jason brought Laurence to a secondary haven, removed the stake and discussed with him after Laurent was calm enough. Jason discovered that the French man was part of the young Ordo Dracul covenant and that he simply wanted to discover arcane hidden sites, new lay lines and nexuses. Jason offered Laurent to be able to live here as long as he respected all the dictates of Longinius and made sure that no other associate kindreds would follow him since the city was already too small for 2 vampires. Laurent promised reluctantly and he was offered the chance to settle in Montreal .

Although Laurent had promised to make sure that no other kindred would follow him, he nevertheless sent news of this to his masters in the old world and they were mot pleased to learn that their first incursion in the new world was already opposed by the cursed First estate. So, against Laurent's wishes, they sent a couple more kindred to support Laurent.

Jason, not thrusting Laurent in the very least and, expecting more arrivals, decided to disobey the word of the Lancea Sanctum and embraced a woman which he had befriended and transformed in a ghoul in the near past. He had discovered that she would not feel bad about the possibility to gain power even thought she would be damned by god forever. After this, Jason felt nervous with this new situation, knowing full well that the city had a population too small to support the 3 kindred already in place in Montreal , but reluctantly went forward with his plan and started securing the city more thoroughly. This new kindred was quickly trained by Jason in the traditional disciplines of the Ventrues. In less than 4 months, this new addition became precious help in Jason's power consolidation and control of Montreal . Furthermore, Jason made 10 more ghouls that would be his personal protection and brought 2 strong men from the Jesuits.

This is when two more Ordo Dracul members arrived, a Daeva and a Nosferatu. Since Laurent accepted to live by the Invictus precept he was enraged to see them arrive and already undermine his promises, he brought these two new kindred before Jason. Jason was displeased to already see new kindreds that would not be immediate allies. On the spur of the moment, he presented himself as prince of Montreal and ordered the new arrivals to live by the rules that he would set forth. Basically, he decided to rule Montreal as any old world town directed by the First Estate would be ruled. He quickly ordered all the Ordo Dracul to go on the countryside and make exactly like what he did decades ago and live in small congregations that would be barely sufficient to sustain them, the city could not support them all inside its walls.

The Ordo Dracul members were very frustrated by this situation but dared not oppose the current vampire immediately until they studied the situation thoroughly and evaluated the outcome of actions against the prince. The prince seemed to have very strong support in Montreal and the Dragons were not very familiar with the political situation of this colony. For the coming year, the Invictus and the Ordo Dracul met occasionally and it constantly ended in verbal fights since the Dragons wanted access to the city to feed. Prince Stafford decided that the situation was more complicated than he anticipated and prepared a plan to eliminate the Ordo Dracul members before they became too strong. Jason briefed his ghouls extensively and made them attack the dragons by day. The ghouls had to fight some farmer families but since they attacked by surprise, they overcame their opponents very quickly and then went down to destroy the vampires. Unfortunately for Jason, Laurent was not sleeping where Jason thought he would be. When the French man learned about his allies' destruction he was enraged and vowed vengeance. Laurent went to Montreal and sought out Jason's kindred child. He found her and destroyed her in a fight the neonate Invictus could not hope to win. Laurent then tried to find Jason to seek vengeance but ended up finding out that Jason was already seeking him out with his ghoul lackeys. The French Mekhet finally decided to flee and, with incredible difficulties, reached Quebec City a few weeks later and settled there since no vampires had called Quebec home yet.

In 1760, Montreal fell to the hand of the British when Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, under vinculum to Sir Stafford, surrendered to First Baron Jeffrey Amherst. Jason was more than happy to be in a city controlled by the English crown and not the French. In 1765 a fire broke out in Montreal that destroyed a quarter of the city and obliterated Jason's secondary haven as well as multiple interests he had. Furthermore, 5 of his ghouls were killed in this event.

In 1775 Montreal was assaulted by Americans Revolutionists and was occupied by them for a few months. Jason had embraced another child 2 years prior to this invasion but the neonate was destroyed by the skimishes that erupted in town between the English and the Americans. Furthermore some Americans noticed the strange effect of the vampire's destruction and started searching for witches. Jason had to hide for the rest of the occupation until the Americans left Montreal later the same year.

From 1760 to 1820, Stafford enjoyed a generally eventless requiem. He used that time to increase his control of this city. He also used this period to have countless havens built here and there around the island of Montreal in building foundations with secret accesses. These places were much secured and would provide very safe torpor housing later in his requiem.

In 1820, Charles A. Canfield arrived in Montreal and quickly met with Jason. Canfield was already a strong Anciliea and was pleased to meet with an Invictus that had already set acceptable foundations for the command of this city. Prince Stafford quickly granted territories to Canfield. Jason and Charles started working in Tandem to prepare for the future arrivals. To make sure that they would be well prepared for this, Canfield also created 10 ghouls. With those commanded by Stafford they had a very strong force of loyal ghouls that they introduced in virtually all the important aspects, industries and power groups of Montreal .

In 1824, Alhana Nelson arrived in Montreal. The Acolyte didn't learn about the presence of Invictus members here but nevertheless went out of the way and found a small village on the northern shore of the Ile Jesus Island to live in. The same year Bones, another Dragon, arrived in Montreal , at that time he was called Maximilian "Max" Broady.  He was also part of the Ordo Dracul and was sent to try a second time to represent the Ordo Dracul in Montreal . So he presented himself to Prince Stafford and said that he would like to find a place to live in. Since Stafford did not want another conflict with the Order of the Dragon, he decided to tell him to settle on the southern shore of Montreal , in the future city of Longueil . This way, Stafford has him out of the way and the Island of Montreal is still in complete command of the Invictus.

In 1826, Pearl Chastain arrived in Montreal . The Daeva already knew of the presence of Stafford and Canfield, so she went to meet both of them and they were very pleased to see another Invictus arriving in this city. Though the city was getting crowded for 3 vampires, both male vampires left a place for Pearl to live in and hunt. When she learned that another vampire was living in the south of the City, Miss Chastain decided to go pay him a visit. The encounter almost degenerated to Frenzy as both of them never met before but they succeeded at keeping their cool and were able to discuss politely. Pearl quickly learned that Max seemed to be happy with the current situation and having the southern shore for himself seemed to be satisfactory. Happy with this, Pearl left and reported this information to Prince Stafford which was also pleased with this but asked Pearl to continue frequenting Max and try to learn more information on this Ordo Dracul covenant and if they intended to come to Montreal in greater number.

Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832. The city's growth was spurred by the opening of the Lachine Canal , which permitted ships to pass by the unnavigable Lachine Rapids south of the island. By this time, the English speakers were roughly equals in size to the French speakers. The English build the first Canadian University , called McGill University . Canfield quickly invested time and efforts in this university. He made sure that some secret chambers were built in the underground of the university to serve as possible meeting place in the future.

In 1848, A Nosferatu by the name of Miss Opal became the first representative of the Carthian Movement of Montreal. She arrived from New York in search of a territory ripe for the Carthian message. She was a very young Neonate when she arrived in Montreal and she hoped to find a place safe for her to live. Unfortunately, she discovered the Invictus here and decided to hide and observe. Her quick mastery of obfuscate was enough for her to live without being discovered by the other vampires. She settled a little bit out of the way to see what was happening in this city,

In 1851, seeing that the situation seemed less risky than in the past, Max Broady sent words to the old continent and they sent Miles Eisenlord to Montreal . Miles was a good friend and superior to Max in the Ordo Dracul. They both started investigating for the presence of Lay Lines and other magical sites.

In 1852, Montreal's population reaches 58,000, one of the largest English city in North America . The city was at an official minimal to sustain a single kindred. But since the vampires of Montreal learned quickly to live on minimal sustenance, this was not a dramatic situation. As an addition to this population, the Island of Montreal also contained other villages here and there where a single vampire could thrive in relative peace and safety.

1901, Montreal now counts 267,000 inhabitants. A large part of which are from, in order of importance, British, French and Irish immigration. By this time, Montreal and the environs, supports slightly more than 15 Vampires.

From 1902 to 1999 the population of vampires steadilly increased up the point where it reached the critical mass of 300 vampires. At this point, the city was on the verge of war and tension was at it's maximum.

1999 - 2000 Prince Stafford, due to many unfortunate events in the past, had degenerated to the point of being absolutelly megalomaniac and paranoid to the extreme. He was manipulated, by some Invictus and Sanctified, in a situation where he ended up deciding to lash out against the Carthian Movement in hope of eradicating the trouble makers and thus free the city of nearly 50 vampires. This erupted in a full scale secret war in Montreal where fights were constant every night between the creatures of the night. The population reached as low as 170 at it's worse and this is when the Vampires of Montreal started massively embracing humans. This period has seen the largest amount of new introduction to vampirism that a north american city has ever experienced. This massive embrassing period only degenerated in more and more chaos around town. Some elders only worked to maintain the cover on the masquerade and vampires from other town were sent to help clean up messes here and there. These vampires were flaged as no target for the war as they were not taking part in any battles and only cleaned up messes. They wore spacial badges that differentiated them from others and were thus spared the deaths and stakes.

2001 - Steven Hubbard....

Note that Stafford is currently in Torpor and has been in this situation for 75 years. Most who knows about him expects that he might rise very soon, possibly in the coming months.