Mage/History

1886: The Knights of Labor, the Northern Alliance, The Grange and the trades assemblies hold a joint convention in St. Paul. The convention calls for creation of a Bureau of Labor Statistics, arbitration of disputes, no child labor in factories or mines and no convict labor contracts.

Representatives of two Chorister cabals, a Verbena cabal, a Dreamspeaker cabal and an Akashic Brother of significant reputation (she came with Chinese railroad laborers) meet at the convention and decided to form a chantry dedicated to securing the dignity and freedom of the working. They will become the Chantry of the Apostle s of Labor.

1887: The opening of a Pinkerton Detective Agency in St. Paul arouses strong protests from the St. Paul Trades & Labor Assembly. The governor and mayors of both Twin Cities declare themselves opposed to the use of Pinkerton men, who often are used to spy on workers and break strikes. The Pinkerton Detective Agency branch is the first construct of the Order of Reason, soon to become the Technocratic Union, in the area, designed to insure that the rise of labor organizations does not inhibit the industrialization demands of the Timetable and to counter the influence of the Apostles.

1890: Edward P. Bassford, secretly a member of the Order of Hermes, constructs what is now called the Guardian Building across the street from the meeting area of the local labor organizations. Completed in 1892, the building houses the Merchant’s National Bank, but it also houses a ghost floor for the Tradition chantry. It is due to this chantry’s influence that the Guardian Building remains today. https://www.buildingrestoration.com/projects/guardian-building-st-paul/

1917: The Minnesota Commission on Public Safety, created during World War I by the state Legislature, assumes near unlimited power and is hostile to organized labor. The Commission’s members are protected from supernatural influence by very aggressive members of the New World Order, while its mission is guided by the Syndicate.

1917: Thousands of people rally in support of workers employed by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company, but the workers’ strike is crushed with the help of the St. Paul Civilian Auxiliary and units of the State Home Guard. With the United States involved in the First World War, the strikers are condemned as unpatriotic.

1934: The Minneapolis Teamsters’ Strike, the most significant single labor struggle in state history, is a showdown between Minneapolis employers and workers that divides the city and forces Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor governor, Floyd B. Olson, to step in. The strikers use a new tactic — roving pickets — and publish their own daily newspaper to counter the corporate-dominated press. They enlist the support of farmers and the community as they ultimately break the back of the fiercely anti-labor Citizens Alliance. The victory comes at the cost of four lives — two strikers and two strikebreakers. In the shadows, the Apostles of Labor wipe out half of the construct with guerilla tactics.

1942: World War II finds the balance shifting the other way. The presence of a wealthy member of the Shi-Ren faction of the Akashics is used against the chantry and one of the Chorister cabals works publically to help men obtain Conscientious Objector status.

1992: Mall of America is opened and becomes a major node dedicated to the Syndicate.

1993: The Apostles of Labor, at their strongest since 1934, begin a systematic battle to destroy the Mall of America and counter the Syndicate’s thrust to commercialize free time.

1999: The advent of the Avatar Storm not only crippled the Apostles’ resources but destroyed their leadership as they were caught in a highly-secretive mission to an umbral realm.

2005: The Tradition presence in the Twin Cities era is all but eradicated. The Union reigns supreme.