Wraith/History
Fulcrum Wraith Timeline:
1819: Construction of Fort Snelling begins.
1825: Construction of Fort Snelling ends and it becomes the major military presence for the United States in the area.
Fort Snelling 1850.
1862: The Dakota War of 1862 ends with the Dakota defeated, and results in the mass hanging of 38 people named as the main instigators.
1865: The last two Dakota leaders involved in the Dakota War are hanged at Fort Snelling, causing a byway to the River Styx to open up at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers.
1865: The Hierarchy claims Fort Snelling, building a Citadel on the site that is overseen and controlled by the Grim Legion.
1873: A Saint Paul man by the name of Burton Tate goes crazy and kills his wife and children with a Bowie knife. Before dying, Samuel, Burt’s eldest son, gains control of the knife and kills his father with it.
1874 - 1880: Over the next eight years the old Tate home gets a reputation for being haunted. There are multiple sightings of both Burt and Sam, as they get nicknamed, and it is common for children living in the house to be plagued with nightmares. Around Saint Paul, Ol’ Burt Tate becomes something of an urban legend, and a boogie man to scare naughty children into being good lest they incur his wrath.
On the evening of May 2, 1878, the Washburn A Mill explodes, hurling debris hundreds of feet into the air. In a matter of seconds a series of thunderous explosions, heard ten miles away in St. Paul, destroy what is Minneapolis' largest industrial building, and the largest mill in the world, along with several adjacent flour mills. This opens up a Nihil in the Shadowlands and large numbers of Spectres flood into the area.
Washburn A Mill Explosion.
1885: Minneapolis is officially claimed as the Necropolis for the Hierarchy, while Saint Paul’s population is mostly made up of Heretics and Renegades.
1916: July 1st, the Fourth Great Maelstrom begins.
1928: "Dapper" Danny Hogan, the smiling peacemaker of the Twin Cities, is killed by a car bomb. It is one of the first known instances in the United States of a Mafia boss being assassinated in such a manner.
1929: The Fourth Great Maelstrom ends.
1930: The rebuilding and repairs of Stygia and Necropoli across the Shadowlands begins.
1935: A growing group of Renegades take control of the Washaba Street Caves and make it their base of operations.
1945: The Fifth Great Maelstrom begins, but unlike the previous Maelstrom only lasts a few months. The Iron Hills are cut off from Stygia when the Sea Gates are closed and all the Wraiths on the islands are presumed lost. Charon rows out to meet Gorool alone in Weeping Bay, while most of the Deathlords ride out the Maelstrom in their Citadels. Circles of Doomslayers bolster the defenses of Stygia, and are responsible for saving the Great Library from waves of attacks. Many Renegades and Heretics in the Saint Paul area, who would have been lost to Oblivion, were saved when the Washaba Street Racketeers allowed those in need to shelter within their caves.
1946: The rebuilding and repairs of Stygia and Necropoli across the Shadowlands begins. A scouting party is sent to the Iron Hills and they report back that the islands are now covered in a dense, white fog.
1948: Five hundred Legionnaires are sent to the Iron Hills to retake control of the islands, none return.
1950: On March 7, a Renegade known as Jeremy Watson takes control of Northwest-Orient Airlines Flight 307 and tries to crash it into Fort Snelling. The attack is prevented but one of the wings strikes the flagpole at Fort Snelling. Damaged, the plane circles back around and smashes into a home off Minnehaha Parkway. Two children on the ground are killed, as are all ten passengers and three crewmembers. The Hierarchy use this attack as an excuse to send Legionnaires into Saint Paul.
1951 - 1954: The Wraiths of Saint Paul do not appreciate the Hierarchy’s Legions coming into their neck of the Shadowlands and conflict breaks out. There are losses on both sides, either through the forges or harrowings, which only escalate the violence. To complicate things even further, bands of Spectres begin to appear to harass both sides led by none other than Ol’ Burt Tate himself.
1955: On the 10th anniversary of Charon's fight with Gorool in Weeping Bay, horses begin to reappear along the banks of the River Styx and in Horse-Noose Canyon.
1956: On June 5, 1956, Jeremy Watson takes over a Northrop F-89 Scorpion with the intent of doing as much damage as possible. He is stopped by a Circle of Doomslayers but unfortunately the plane crashes into a car on the highway near the airport, killing a mother and child bound for the new Metropolitan Stadium. Four days later, Watson steals a Grumman F9F Panther, fully loaded with ordnance and sets course for Fort Snelling. He is again stopped by the Doomslayers, but not before he manages to crash the aircraft across three houses on 46th Avenue, causing an enormous explosion and killing the pilot and six people, including three children, on the ground.
1957: A third military aviation disaster occurred less than a year later, on Memorial Day in Northeast Minneapolis. Two Navy planes collide in midair, killing one pilot and setting four houses ablaze near Sunset Memorial Cemetery. This time the Doomslayers are finally able to capture Watson and confirm he is shadow-eaten. After they have finished interrogating Watson, the Doomslayers turn over all the evidence they have to Danny Hogan, leader of the Washaba Street Racketeers.
1958: Hogan and leaders of other Renegade factions meet with the Anacreons of Minneapolis to discuss a ceasefire, and he lives up to the reputation that he earned during his breathing days as the “Smiling Peacemaker.” During the negotiations, the Doomslayers reveal that the Anacreon of the Grim Legion is also shadow-eaten and has been helping Watson evade capture. There is initial resistance by the legionnaires of the Grim Legion, but when it becomes obvious what the truth is the Hierarchy has no choice but to capitulate and agree to peace. All present also agree to the Washaba Street Caves being designated as neutral ground, a place where violence is not tolerated by anyone, and where Wraiths can socialize unmolested.
1959: With the fall of the Grim Legion’s Anacreon, Stygia decrees that the Necropolis of Minneapolis will now fall under the purview of the Emerald Legion.
1960: The neutrality of the Washaba Street Caves is put to the test when a Renegade the Hierarchy considers a criminal, Eric Croft, takes refuge there. True to its word, the Hierarchy does not move in to arrest him and leaves him alone.
1963: The Smiling Lord sends an entire Legion to the Iron Hills to reclaim the islands for Stygia, and as before not one legionnaire returns.
1980: The Tate home is named as a property of historical significance by the Heritage Preservation Commission of Saint Paul, and turned into a “haunted house” tourist attraction for the city.
2001: The fall of the Twin Towers, and resulting emotional international reaction, sparks off a storm that spawns in the Shadowlands of New York and then blows its way across the entire continent. While no Maelstrom, the storm is still strong enough to cause immense problems for the Wraiths of North America for the week that it rages. In the Twin Cities, Ol’ Burt is spotted running with swarms of Spectres through the area, committing atrocities wherever they go.
2006: Eric Croft wears out his welcome with the Washaba Street Racketeers and Hogan throws him out of the Caves. Waiting outside is a squad of Legionnaires who take Croft into custody for trial and eventual soulforging.
2010: The Skeletal Lord and Ashen Lady send a combined scouting force to the Iron Hills to solve the mystery surrounding their fate. The expedition is given strict instructions to flee rather than fight, but even with those orders none are ever heard from again.
2013: The Emerald Legion sends a ship to within two miles of the Iron Hills and places eight marker buoys in a circle around the islands with a warning not to pass over the threshold. To date the Emerald Legion ship is the only vessel to return. They report that the islands still look to be covered in an impenetrably dense, white fog.
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