Earth-9: Terror, Corruption and Oblivion

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Terror, Corruption and Oblivion: The Wyrm Rises

As the Victorian Era began, the Wyrm's agents struck. As far as the Masquerade knew, its enemies among the Traditions had gone mad, calling themselves the Lodge and beginning a campaign of ruthless terror against science and humanity. They were not only responsible for the resurgence in spiritualism but in horrific sacrifices and mass murder. Meanwhile, the Traditions were informed by double-agents that the Order had abandoned all pretense of aiding humanity and called itself the Technocracy, devoting itself to the supremacy of a great clanking world-machine over all other concerns.

Both had been tricked. Communication was so rare and so difficult between the two great rivals that this deception was easy enough to implement. The Exalted were assailed with the Wyrm's ever-expanding army of monstrosities, and the Industrial Era left the weakened fae on the brink of oblivion. The Kindred were far more easily controlled by their corruption-born nature than the vampires suspected, and the Eternals were kept at each others' throats by an increasingly contentious division between those who still supported the Society of Aeons and those who felt the Masquerade had gone too far. These fractures became increasingly apparent as Paragon Carter brought an entire Eternal Pride over to the side of the Exalted and the Sons of Ether abandoned the Order of Reason, coming to believe the "Technocracy" lie was closer to the truth than the Order was willing to admit.

World War II would, ironically enough, provide a brief respite for the supernaturals. The previous ten years were an era of a quiet renaissance of Awakened heroes. From the mysterious Shadow to the mighty Superman in fiction, humanity dreamed of these living wonders, while Doc Eon and the Blue Sapphire lived these adventures in hidden corners of the real world. The monsters of Malfeas (the Wyrm's horrific stronghold) had moved too quickly, and in too great of numbers, to go unnoticed. And when the Nazi machine made its move, the various factions realized (after a few false starts and some painful defections) that the little Austrian painter with no power other than his ability to sway his people was the greatest threat to the world in many generations. Hitler was interested in the occult, however, and the Malfeans were all too eager to ally with him. As many wars were fought in the shadows as on the battlefield, and though the outcome was in doubt for a time, too many forces eventually allied against the Nazis for them to win by sunlight or shadow.

After the War, this alliance shattered. The era had seen too many dreams of wonder and power, from pulp wizards to space-faring serial swashbucklers to comic-book superheroes, to allow it to continue. The Masquerade turned against its rivals with unparalleled ferocity, and the genie went back into the bottle.

Except that it didn't.

The 1950s are often remembered through a haze of nostalgia and selective memory, but for a time of "peace and prosperity" it was an unquiet decade. Beatniks, minority rebellion and rock 'n roll all began to shake the prison, and when Camelot fell the explosion shook the secret world like an atom bomb. The Age of Aquarius brought mysticism, martial arts, and a new dream of enlightenment to the modern age, social consciousness joined the mainstream, and speculative fiction exploded in every medium, from the Justice League of America and Fantastic Four to Lord of the Rings and Stranger in a Strange Land to Twilight Zone and Star Trek to Fahrenheit 451 and 2001: A Space Odyssey. As the decade ended, Woodstock and the lunar landing created such a surge of wonder and glory that the fae were revitalized.

At the same time, the Wyrm makes its final move. (No, not disco. <g>) Environmental disasters poison the very spirit of the world, and they move to increase their infiltration of rival factions and world governments. As the 70s fade and the revolution doesn't come, however, their greatest weapon becomes apathy. Their enemies become even more splintered and factionalized. As the millennium approaches, they unleash powerful ancient Exalted that wipe out Kindred society, leaving only a handful of "normal" vampires.

However, many are rescued, becoming Eternals. One of the most important figures in this operation is the rebel Eternal Roland Phoenix...

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