EPILOGUE - The Second Third Anarch Revolt

[Alex]

The Second Third Anarch Revolt

When the Third Anarch Revolt ignited in 2020, few even among the rebels believed it would come as far as it would. The Kindred of New York didn't fight with dreams of a great regional power in mind. They fought for their own unlives, for their Blood, and for their Fangs. They fought because they saw no alternative. Even as New York fell, they hoped for a new California Free State. A new haven in the cold night where Anarchs could hide from the Camrilla.

Nobody could have imagined that 100 years later, they would seize Chicago.

The Third Anarch Revolt which was trigged by the fall of New York in 2020 was chilled by the end of the Masquerade and the Blood Hunts of the 2030's. But the embers of the conflict never quite died. And 40 years later they caught in Houston. The Free City of New Orleans led months of campaigning in the city's blasted outskirts before a mole on the inside led them into the Havens of the powerful. On a single night in what would eventually be known as Red September, the Anarchs would slay the Court of Houston and lay waste to their forces in the city. The true spark, though, was the slaying of the Archon Reginald Cheshire III. The death of the right-hand man of the Ventrue Justicar Pieterzoon showed once again that the Camarilla were not impregnable. They could be slain just as the Anarchs could.

The Camarilla, shocked by the sudden loss of Houston, responded with its own offensive. The Domains of Atlanta, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, and El Paso all launched attacks on their nearest neighbors. The Anarchs bent under this strain, briefly losing ground in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and even suffered losses in the south of New York. But reinforcements from the southeast - largely left alone outside of Jacksonville - poured into the gap to stabilize the besieged cities. The Free City of Jacksonville itself, having been quietly preparing for war for the last 50 years, was able to quickly subdue the attack from Atlanta and retaliate. Led by Alexis Delacroix, who had once almost taken Atlanta at the head of an Anarch force, the Anarchs finished the job they had started decades ago. Atlanta would be the second city to throw off the Camarilla after Houston.

With Atlanta as an advanced staging point, the southeastern Anarchs would spend the next decade funneling resources to the North and fulfilling their obligations to relieve the city of Boston. Long just out of reach of the Empire Free State, Boston would finally fall in 2079 and be claimed by the Anarchs. From there it was a simple matter to root the Camarilla out of its hiding places in points north. The Camarilla's formerly Sabbat Canadian holdings were now surrounded to the east and the west by their former friends and former foes.

Despite this victory, though, tensions would continue to simmer in the Empire Free State between the predominantly former Sabbat Kindred of the western bits and the Movement Anarchs and defected Camarilla of New York. While the Anarchs' agreement to seize Boston had gone according to plan, the New York Kindred wanted to shift focus to the Camarilla bastion in Philadelphia. They argued that the offensive from Philadelphia had changed the situation. An attempt by the Kindred Assembly sitting in New York devolved into violence, failing to resolve the impasse. After months of bickering, representatives on both sides of the divide decided on a mutual separation of the two halves of the Empire Free State. The formerly Sabbat Anarchs from Cleveland west left the Assembly and declared their own Midwestern Free State. And likely based on the influence of Bonaparte Desrosiers, the Caribbean Free State cities primarily supplied the new Midwestern state in its goals in accordance with the agreement that had been struck in 2070.

While Anarch drama slowed the Eastern front in the early 2080's, the Western front saw greater success. The fall of Houston reverberated through all of Camarilla-held Texas. And the trial and execution of the Houston Scourge Conrad Chesterfield - and the revelation of his barbaric experiments on Caitiff and the thin-Blooded - provoked a revolt against the Camarilla from even its own ranks. Caitiff from Orlando led by Austin Spencer focused not on a faraway conflict in the Northeast but on carving out a safe haven in Texas. They received the assistance of the former Camarilla of Houston, the Anarchs Grace Ricardo and Ember Raze. The Clanless washed over the Domains of Dallas, San Antonio, and most notably Austin - which they joked was named for their hero. The Anarchs of Texas pushed west as those of the Pacific Free State pushed east. They would meet at El Paso and Albuquerque, drawing the border between the Pacific and Lone Star Free State and hunkering down for a counterattack from the Camarilla in Mexico.

With tensions having calmed by the mid-2080's, the Anarch states of the Northeast opened their long-sought new fronts in Canada and Philadelphia. In Canada the remnants of the Sabbat's elite fell on Toronto and Montreal with unrivaled viciousness - eager to punish the traitor-Archbishops who had come to call themselves Princes. In the east, a network of Blood Sorcerers based in Boston and supported by a web which was begun by Catherine Chevalier in New Orleans, supported a charge led by Alain Jeannet, his sire Louis, and the Serious Business Gang. Both fronts faced brutal warfare, with many losses among the Anarchs. The closest thing the former Sabbat had to a leader, Joker, would perish in an ambush in Montreal. Louis, as well, would fall diverting a ravening Elder away from his childe and other Anarchs. These losses only galvanized the Movement, though. And by 2090 the cities had fallen.

With the fall of Eastern Canada and Philadelphia, a call came from New Orleans to coordinate once more. Despite some misgivings, Kindred from each Free State arrived in the city for another Mardi Gras Summit and came to a new agreement. The Southern Anarchs would press their advantage from Atlanta, now firmly in their grasp, and fan out across the south. The Northeast would seek to meet them on a push past DC and into the heart of Piedmont. The Pacific and Lone Star Free States would begin a push into Camarilla Mexico. And the Midwestern Free State would seek to strike into the heart of the Camarilla in Chicago. Reeling from its previous losses, the Camarilla began to falter under a newly concerted attack by the Anarchs. The South rose up against the Tower within only a few years. And while the Northeast's efforts to claim DC were thwarted by the Camarilla and an active federal presence, detachments sent south with Alain Jeannet managed to bypass the nation's capital entirely. They advanced as far south as Raleigh and Durham, stopping only when Alain and Alexis Delacroix met in the Raleigh-Durham area.

With the southern advance exceeding even the most optimistic expectations, both the Caribbean and the Northeast were free to push elsewhere. The Caribbean split its resources, sending its Atlanta forces and Alexis up to Chicago while the Archbaron Mateo Dominguez made a daring push into the Yucatan Peninsula. The Yucatan would eventually join the Caribbean Free State. The Southeast, at the urging of Alexis DeLaCroix, though, neglected to form any sort of "official" organization. These Free Cities remained loosely organized, but did not take on any sort of regional apparatus. They were even joined by Jacksonville, which withdrew from the Caribbean Free State to make its own way with Atlanta and the Southeastern Anarchs. The Northeast Free State committed everything to the siege of Chicago. Working together once again, the Midwestern and Northeastern Free States pushed bit by bit into the heart of the Camarilla. The same happened in Mexico, where the Pacific Free State and a force made up mostly of Texas Caitiff pierced across the United States' southern border and made deep incursions to seize Monterey and Hermosillo. By the end of the 2090's the full force of the Anarchs in North America was brought to bear against the Camarilla's western headquarters. And just after New Year's Day in 2100 the city's Elysium was breached and its Prince was slain.

With the Midwestern Free State now holding Chicago, the Camarilla in the United States is on its last legs. St. Louis, Nashville, Kansas City, and Minneapolis hold up their easternmost front while Denver and Salt Lake City are all that stands between the Anarchs and the weaker Domains of the Great Plains. These cities have had time to prepare, and seizing them will be no easy feat. Outside of these receding battle lines the Camarilla holds Washington DC by hiding behind its federal protectors. Stranger things have happened in Mexico, where the Ventrue Polonius - an Elder freshly awakened from slumber - has arrived in Central America and declared himself Prince of Mexico. The Domains have united behind him, and the Anarchs' advanced into the heart of former Sabbat territory has been halted. Attempts to spark rebellion in Europe have met with defeat. The Camarilla of the continent have held power despite several uprisings, most recently one among Paris' neonates inspired by Alain Jeannet. These will certainly be the next fronts of the Third Anarch Revolt. And though it may be some time before they move again, one thing is clear. There will be no Fourth Anarch Revolt. Because the Third will likely never be snuffed out.

North America in 2100