EPILOGUE - The Future of New Orleans

[Alex]

The Future of the Big Easy

Throughout the thirty years following the fall of Houston, New Orleans has changed as much as any city has. It would be daunting to lay out every way the city has been transformed in, but there are some noteworthy developments that deserve recognition. New Orleans has never changed in a certain sense. It's always been the city on the bayou, an intersection of creed, culture, light and dark. But the stability of the last thirty years has altered its makeup. And the determination of its Kindred is behind that stability.

On the Record
With the departure of Alain and Serious Business, the Anarchs Bonaparte Desrosiers and Arthur Beauregard found themselves the most influential Kindred north of the River. Both were willing to share this influence, and neither deigned to become a king. But Arthur would confess that he was beginning to feel the pull of torpor in his advancing age. The Eldest Anarch of New Orleans offloaded his contacts and resources to Bonaparte with a good-natured warning that he would be keeping an eye out even at rest. Only Bonaparte and Austin Spencer know where Arthur slumbers in torpor, but Bonaparte has become the primary influence-broker and facilitates the safety of the Anarchs in the North. He is assisted in this by his childe, Jasmine, and other Kindred. Despite this power, Bonaparte would make no moves to consolidate or take power over the city. He has remained committed to the Anarchs of New Orleans remaining ungoverned into 2100 and being free to do as they wish.

The Arsenal of the Movement
In the West side of the city, the Bachelorettes Gang - made up of Luma Romano, Alicia Fairchild, and Michelle DuBois - filled in the gap left by the slaying of Alain's Ghoul Charlie and the Toreador's own departure from the city. At Luma's insistence, their efforts were focused on retaining the Kindred's influence over Obsidian Incorporated and turning it into the arsenal of the Movement as Alain had envisioned. Over the next decades, they worked with Bonaparte to gradually extract Obsidian from the city's police force and replace it with a professional, local force. This left Obsidian free to pursue military matters full time, and provide not only arms by manpower to the Movement. While Obsidian's stated purpose is to provide mercenaries to foreign conflicts, it still contracts its "special forces" team to local governments across America. With them come arms, armor, and expertise that has been instrumental in the success of the Movement's offensives.

The Great Southside Peace
South of the Mississippi River, the chaos and violence of Southside began to temper itself in the coming decades. East of the Harvey Canal, Andrew Romanov began to take a more active role in the Dark Carnival. Working with Damien Rocco in the Westbank Gang, Catherine Chevalier and her Children of the Loa, and Gabriella Rosario's Caimans, the gangs were able to neutralize the Choirboys - long a source of conflict East of the Canal. Their territory was assumed by the Westbank Gang and the Vipers, who had remained on the sidelines. The new arrangement proved more stable, ending the long-standing tension between the Loa and the Choirboys and allowing the gangs to settle into more cooperative postures. The same happened west of the Canal. The departure of Bailey Spencer from the Guardians to join her uncle fighting in Texas allowed for a reorganization of the territory under the Guardians and the Caimans. With Gabriella's prodding, the Caimans were able to become an effective - but civil - counterweight to Leon and his Big Cats. Their agreements were mediated by the newly christened Reds - the former August Revolt toppled in a mostly-bloodless coup. Alexis Delacroix moved into the gap, now backing her information network with arms and serving as a trusted mediator between Octavio and Leon in particular.

The greatest challenge to this peace came with Leon's death in 2090 - as far as anyone could tell, of illness, injury, or other natural causes. Upon his death, Leon's will had named Alexis Delacroix and Catherine Chevalier (as Belle LeBlanc) as the arbiters of the gang's next leader, a task he refused to take on in life ("who the fuck cares what a dead man thinks?"). The two came to an agreement on a new leader, and with help from the Reds, the Caimans, and the Guardians were able to contain the limited violence to Big Cats territory and relatively smoothly transition the gang. The Reds took the territory of the 14th Street Charges, Leon's Vassals, after it was revealed they were attempting to undermine the peace effort. Octavio's death, meanwhile, transitioned his leadership to an Inner Circle that had come to worship Gabriella Rosario as the Aztec or Warrior Queen. Both balances of power would hold into 2100, allowing Southside a reprieve from the violence that had engulfed it since its foundation.

Salon des Chercheurs
Elsewhere in Southside, Catherine Chevalier's LaVeaux Center expanded its operations to take over most of its city block by 2080. This was in part due to its humanitarian function, but also to accomplish its new goal. The LaVeaux Center would quietly become the location of the new Salon des Chercheurs - known simply as the Salon to most. The Salon was a loose academy intended to train new Anarch Tremere in both the magical arts and the values of the Movement. The Salon was secured by Catherine Chevalier, who used her extensive contacts to secure Blood and resources where needed. A steady stream of new Tremere from across every Free State drifted into the Salon, learning from Catherine, Michelle DuBois, and other Tremere of experience who would pass through. By 2100, a young Anarch Tremere is expected to learn much more than Blood Sorcery at the Salon.

The Sisterhood
With a new lease on her unlife, Beatrice Monet - the childe of Oliver Klein and killer of Alain's Ghoul - conspired with Sophia Anderson and Damien Rocco on a new project to give back and atone for her crimes. They would come together to form a Gang called the Sisterhood (Damien thought it was funny) with a single goal. The Sisterhood would free abused childer from their abusive sires. But controversially it did not differentiate between Anarch and Camarilla. While based in New Orleans, Beatrice traveled through Camarilla and Anarch Domains to find victimized childer and send for the resources she needed to free them. While most of her rescues have been from the Camarilla, some Anarchs have turned up in New Orleans furious at the kidnapping of their childer and the slaying of their allies. The Anarchs of New Orleans have sided firmly with the Sisterhood, though, and its mission to make the nights a bit brighter.