History For Camarilla Guildford
Part One
The Early Years
Guildford is an old town. It was originally settled by the Saxons sometime in the early sixth century, and its location was ideal. This new village was situated at a nexus of road and river routes. At this time however, its only primary route was the road between Southampton and London. Even the land was rich, and fertile, and the flooding of the river Wey, depositing its rich black soil upon the fields, only increased the value of the area. Within a very short time Guildford became a prosperous market and farming community.
The Ventrue were the first of the clans to arrive at Guildford, drawn to the location by the rumors of the wealth that could be made. Jean Carlo De’Marqet, a traveler from the far away province of Italy, and his progeny, were largely responsible for the Ventrue’s rapid success and gain influence within Guildford. He and his progeny quickly capitalized on the network of roads, and began using Guildford as a trading and stop off point for their cargo, almost overnight it seemed as if the market doubled in size. Slowly, the other clans began to drift in, seduced by the thoughts of the profit that could be made here.
Guildford remained surprisingly peaceful, even with the clans that had now arrived. All of them vying for a part of the profits. Then, in the middle of the seventh century, Christianity arrived to this Pagan community. For a long while the peace was shattered as the horrified Christians soon found out the truth about the true powers that were behind the growth of Guildford. And so the priests began a pogrom of destruction, hunting down and destroying what they saw as abominations in the eyes of their God. The casualties on both sides esculated, until in 1050 the hostilities came to a rather abrupt halt. The cause of this rapid turnabout remains unknown, suspicions abound however, because at this time Guildford saw the building of it’s first stone church. St.Marys. The church was large and the inside was richly decorated, thick heavy tapestries lined the walls, and a large gold cross dominated the wall above the alter. Shortley after the construction of the church St.Catherines Chapel was built as well.
Again peace held sway, the town grew and flourished. The profits continued to pour into Ventrue coffers. The Toreador also began to grow wealthy, as they had began dying wool products, and as the word spread of this marvel, outside areas brought them their wool products for coloring. The Cappodocians were few in number and at this time were more interested in the early grave sites of ancient man, the Lasombra held sway within the political arena, and as for the Ravnos, they occasionally visited, and when they did the crime rate would soar to epic proportions. Valuables stored in vaults thought safe would disappear. The Tzimisce were just beginning to make a name for themselves, but they were continually being beaten back by the united front of the Lasombra and Ventrue.
In the ninth century Alfred the Great gave his royal residence at Guildford to his nephew. The reason for this was that the building remained unused and was falling into a state of disrepair. The Toreador, Ventrue and Cappodocians were pleased by this action, and political intrigue reached an all time high. The young man was eventually embraced by the Toreador leader Lady Sara Malcavea. For the vampires this was a golden era, and they were at the height of their power, and the town became more like a royal court. Dances and feasts were held on an almost daily basis, the Toreadors of course lapped this up. The kindred walked the streets at night and fed from whoever they pleased. Free from any form of legal intervention they had a field day, with the royal nephew being under their direct control, kindred influence rose to an all time high. The towns first playhouse was opened on the banks of the Wey, which was built and controlled by the Toreador. This was a large stone building full of opulent furniture and fittings. A prime target for the ravages of the Ravnos. Still Guildford grew and became even more prosperous, the wealth flooding in to all those who had a piece, no matter how small, of this ever expanding town.
The Garou by this time had just began moving in, and Tailchaser, a Fianna, who was the leader of the Tribe Of The White Stag was pleased to discover not one, but two ancient caerns. The first was situated deep in the wilderness of the North Downs, and pack quickly settled here and named it Fernholm, the second was less accessible as it was hidden within the center of Guildford, and a Saxon fort had been built upon its surface. The Garou were aware of the large leech presence in the town, but they were too small in number to be able to confront these Wyrm tainted individuals, but as the leeches left them alone, they were only too pleased to do the same. Killing only those that stumbled across their Caern. The tribe waited, and slowly, they and their kinfolk began to build up their strength and influence.
By this time most of the clans had at least a handful of representatives within the town limits. And in the tenth century due to the Ventrue’s manipulation, Guildford, was by Royal Charter made a borough, and given permission to mint its own silver coins. The Ventrue, ever quick to act, were responsible for the construction and upkeep of the Royal mint. Over time the Ventrue grew complacent, and they thought themselves beyond the reach of all the other clans. A fact which sadly for them just wasn’t true. Then in 1036 there was a great uprising which caught the Ventrue completely off guard. The Brujah more than a little annoyed at the Ventrue’s amount of wealth and power did what they do best. Under the new leadership of San Quentin they rebelled. San Quentin himself was a brilliant tactician, and his people had gathered large amounts of information, within days the Ventrue found themselves under siege. Ghouls thought under Ventrue control turned against there former masters, and those that were loyal simply vanished, taken out in a single foul swoop. There newly embraced childer were either captured and diablerised, or just caught and put to flame. There havens and buildings were put to the torch and, several highly placed Ventrue were turned to ash, very few of the originals escaped destruction. Jean Carlo De’Marqet himself was caught, staked, and left to greet the morning sun. The Garou were quick and eager to take advantage of the situation, they themselves were also under new leadership, an Elder Ahroun, Get Of Fenris, named Silverback, having recently challenged, and beaten Tailchaser. So as the clans fought, plotted and manipulated their mortal servants against each other, the Garou hit the town like a whirlwind, destroying all who stood in their path. They may well have succeeded in wiping out all kindred existence from Guildford but for one mistake. They attacked and killed the Gangrel clan elder. The Gangrel enraged by the apparent disregard of the pact banded together and in turn enrolled the rest of the clans against this new threat.. And although this savage attack decimated all the clans presence, the combined clan forces dealt the Garou a blow from which they would only just recover, but not for several years. Again the clans fell to fighting amongst themselves, eager to fill positions left empty by the Garou attack. The Gangrel now also under the new leadership of Josephine Colleens fell back into the shadows once more. The Nosferatu and Malkavians who kept themselves also at a distance from the Garou/Kindred battle found themselves in these troubled times in a good position to increase the sphere of their own influence. They were however too late for the Tzimisce were already there. Eventually the protagonists fought themselves to a standstill, but before the clans again erupted into bloody confrontation, they had a visitor. Father Mc.Nally and he informed them that once again the church’s eyes were turning towards Guildford, as news of this supernatural battle reached them. The clans, at first distrustful of this self proclaimed ghoul, were only convinced once one of the Ventrue, Giano Carlo De’Marqet the new clan leader spoke with him and supported his claim. Quickly the clans went to work. They were fortunate to find that close by a minor issue was looking like it was going to explode into a big one, with a little help. Alfred The Atheling was arguing with the Earl Goodwin over land boundaries. With thanks to kindred manipulation this argument soon turned into bloody carnage, as Earl Goodwin and his men massacred Alfred the Atheling and his followers. Over two hundred men died that day to disguise the kindred’s indiscretion. Skeletons smashed and defiled are still being dug up to this day. Neither the few remaining men to Alfred or Earl Goodwin ever realized that they had been set up. And so the church was distracted by this new tragedy. For such a large amount of men dying in that period of time was an unmitigated disaster of almost epic proportions. But unfortunately for the Ventrue and Toreador, they although among the first to arrive would never again hold as much political influence as they did before.
The next thirty years or so were years of prosperity and peace. This gave the kindred time to lick their wounds and recover from the almost mortal blow that they had received. During this time father Mc.Nally slipped back into obscurity and he eventually passed on as in his twilight years he once again found his faith and refused to partake of vampire blood. The surprising thing being that during this time period he never informed the church of the kindred’s continued existence. The clan fighting became less physical and more politically orientated. And during this time the Tzimisce and Lasombra held sway within Guildford, so deeply enmeshed with the political side of things these two clans virtually controlled Guildford, dolling out trade to the clans that they favored. However a time of change was at hand, and in 1066 the Norman’s invaded. Guildford was placed under Norman control. The ancient Saxon fort was destroyed and a stone Norman castle was built in it’s place. The Garou worried by this turn of events, and at the possible discovery of the Caern sided with the Norman’s. And with this change of mortal leadership kindred influence waned. And the Garou’s grew strong. Although physical confrontation remained at a minimum. Garou kinfolk however were now also in positions of political influence. For nearly two hundred years peace once again reigned. Then in 1216 with thanks to Garou backing King John lost his castle at Guildford. As his age old enemy Dauphin Louis took control. This incident not only embarrassed the vampires but it caused them to loose a lot of their existing influence. And again a bloody war was the result of this action. This time however the Garou were in an excellent position, not only did they have more political power than the kindred, but they were inside of stone walls, on top a major Caern. Both immortals and mortals dashed themselves against the stone walls in an attempt to take back the stone fortifications. The clans rallied together once again but in this place of power the Garou held strong. This sparked off a violent sanguineous war of attrition and tit for tat battle actions. Unbeknownst to both sides this war was brought about by the Followers Of Set. And while all efforts and eyes were turned towards this war, the Setites slowly moved into Guildford. Bribing those that they could with either money or drugs and killing those who would accept neither. The deaths being thought accidents of war. Slowly the Setites worked on in secret, still undiscovered. For them Guildford was an excellent location for the storage and distribution of their opium. Also Guildford now lay between three ports, Southampton, and the ever growing Brighton, and Portsmouth, and they of course had the main roadway into London.
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