The Colonial Years

As the Spaniard army moved further into the continent, the Celestial Chorus worked to exterminate the local magi and appropriate their chantries; so it was that the Cathedral was built over the Great Temple, and the Celestial Chorists worked their magick from there.

Meanwhile, the Inquisition hunted every supernatural creature ever to walk the Aztec Empire. Clan Huitzilopochtli was exterminated save a few members and Huitzilopochtli himself. Though the Garou and the Nahual were happy for this, they didn't have time for celebration, for they were being hunted as well. The Wyld Runners, more used to nomadic life, survived easily, and managed to evade the Inquisition's efforts. The Ehecatl and the Tlaloque, as well as the Nahual and many Balam, lost many of their numbers before finding shelter in the most secluded villages.

But the Tlaloque and the Ehecatl, along with the Sorcerers of Quiet Gladness and the White Brotherhood, planned a counterstrike to the domination of the Celestial Chorus' paradigm. Not wanting to loose their magic-rich land, Garou and Mages summoned Gaia's Avatar and shaped her in the form of the Virgin of Guadalupe and invested her with the imagery of Tonantzin, the Mother. Her image was "miraculously" imprinted in the ayate (a sort of cape) of the young indian Juan Diego at mount Tepeyac, a once sacred place for Tonantzin. As it fell within their paradigm, the Celestial Chorus could do nothing but accept her, and since then, She has been Mexico's patron saint, performing miracles for her devout followers and keeping the populace half Awake to the nature of Magick.

From Europe began to come the other Traditions, as well as other Clans, who saw the New World as new cattle. The Order of Hermes was the first to arrive, followed by Clan Tremere.

Fulcanelli, an alchimist of the Order of Hermes, created what was to be known as the Cronos Device; as chronicled by modern moviemaker Guillermo del Toro, this Talisman bestowed immortality and a strange brand of vampirism, and was promptly hunted by the Kindred, though never found.

The streets of Mexico City were haunted by the Llorona, the Wraith of Malintzin, the Aztec wife of Hernan Cortes, who mourned the death of her children, planting fear in the hearts of Spaniards and indians alike.

Several Brujah had begun to stir the minds of the criollo population, sons of Spaniards born in the New World that were banned from administrative seats. This, in response to the recent domination of the government of the New Spain by the Ventrue. An uneasy alliance of Brujah, Gangrel and Nahual ignited the flame that was lit by the Cry at Dolores, by Kinfolk priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. The bell used to stir the populace was a Talisman crafted by knowing mages and placed there at the secret prompting of Tlacaelel. The Bell of Independence could Awaken people temporarily, so as to stir them into rebellion.

Part of the success of the rag-tag insurgent army is due to the involvement of the Eagle Knights, the Order had survived three centuries of Spaniard domination, though much of their spirituality was lost, they remained quite an effective group of mystical warriors, using their abilities in favor of the independentists as well as their superb discipline and strategy.

The Mictlan knew this war to be a step towards recovering the land, and helped with surgical strikes to the royal army. The Camarilla never noticed their intervention.

Tlacaelel, being at a severe political disadvantage for his indian stock, did his best to stiffle his fellow Ventrue's support to the Spaniards.

The war was joined by other Garou tribes that had followed their Kinfolk: Silent Striders mainly, but Stargazers could be found too, as well as a lone pack of Black Furies. The Ehecatl and Tlaloque pleaded for support to the Wendigo and Uktena, but they were busy enough by protecting their peoples from the white men, and didn't join.

In the cities, Glass Walkers and Shadow Lords foresaw the expeling of the Spaniards, and quickly changed sides, and urged their Kinfolk to do the same.

The Order of Hermes saw the war as an opportunity to influence greatly in a new government and began influencing the intellectuals, so as to have the ruling party to belong to a Masonic lodge. Dreamspeakers stayed out of it, though the Celestial Chorus tried to lessen the damage to Church proprerty.

The fledgling nation had achieved independence, but it didn't achieve stability, many alliances were broken as Shadow Lord Kinfolk Santa Anna named himself emperor. Nahual were outraged and forsook the alliance, as well as the other Garou. The Brujah lost interest and moved their efforts to the rest of Latin America.

The mexican government was torn in two factions: the Liberals and the Conservatives, these later being largely vampires of Clan Ventrue. It was this rip in the fabric of power that prevented Mexico from taking a united stand against the U.S. intervention, a carefuly conceived plan by the rising Technocracy.

The early Syndicate and Iteration X mages had known for long the richness in oil of the northern mexican territory and, considering that the unstable Mexico would not be able to exploit it properly, concocted the gradual colonization of Texas by northamerican citizens, who later revolted and gained support from the U.S. army. This led to ferocious enconters between the Get of Fenris and some Fianna with the Wyld Runners.

Finally, the U.S. army besieged and took Chapultepec Castle, and bought about half of the Mexican territory by gunpoint. Only the sacrifice of the young cadets prevented the nation's morale breakdown; their brave and unselfish deaths gained them the name of the Ni-os Heroes, the Children Heroes.

After the intervention, Mexico suffered from years of political turmoil, as Liberals and Conservatives traded the presidency by assasination.

The Technocracy had great plans for Mexico, and they used the supernatural actors in the struggle to further its goals. The New World Order allowed Benito Juarez, of the Balam's Pride, to ascend to the presidency. Juarez was a wise man, but unknowingly began to build the base of the Technocracy's power. His term is called the Reform, for many of the laws were changed, taking away many privileges from the Church and the rich. The Celestial Chorus suffered the final blow as president Juarez expropriated Church lands and sold them to more productive uses. These buyers were frequently rich Shadow Lords. The Ventrue, in a last attempt to have things their way, tried to appoint Maximiliano of Habsburg as emperor of Mexico, thus ushering a war with France, which Mexico won despite the odds.

One of the heroes of the war with France was general Porfirio Díaz, who became president for the second time in 1869, and never left power until 1910.

Díaz was a New World Order puppet, he brought 'civilization' and prosperity to the land, but only to the rich; the poor peasants became poorer as the few privileges and rights the Reform gave them were stripped away by new property laws. The Ventrue regained their wealth, but they were competing with not few Shadow Lord land owners.

The Porfiriat is known by the Garou as a black period, where the Weaver spun the Pattern Web tightly around the once Wyld dominated land, and the tendrils of the Wyrm began to coil as the Industrial Revolution fully arrived.

This encroachment of Weaver-Technocracy power led to the strangest of alliances known: the Celestial Chorus and the Aztec Mages Traditions. By keeping the populace of the smaller towns and villages continually exposed to small time miracles by minor saints and the existence of the Dreamspeaker shamans, as well as the Bete's spirit magic, they kept vast areas free of the Technocracy's Paradigm, and thus, diminishing the effects of Paradox.

Once again, unrest shook the base of political power, and civil war exploded in 1910. This time, the vampiric influence was of a larger scale; the Anarchs, tired of centuries of Camarilla rule, wanted to bring it down to turn Mexico into an Anarch State. The other supernaturals didn't become actively involved. The Garou and the Nahual distrusted each other and stayed out of the fight, though they didn't oppose their Kinfolk or Pride's wishes to join the "Bola" as it was called. The Aztec Traditions did participate, mostly the Sorcerers of Quiet Gladness, who went among the peasants-turned-soldiers with healing and confort, as the White Brotherhood served as the ideological base of many platoons. The Eagle Knights dispersed themselves among the revolutionary divisions, again providing advice and experience to their fellows' cause.

Wyld Runner Kinfolk Pancho Villa became the nightmare of both Federal army and U.S. population, as he committed acts of brigandry and escaped unharmed, though he did much towards the Revolution's goal. Meanwhile, in the south, Emiliano Zapata of Balam's Pride, rallied the peasants with his motto: "Land and Liberty".

Ten years later the Anarchs were defeated in their second revolution as the Sabbat struck mercilessly and took Mexico from both Anarchs and Camarilla alike. This suited the plans of the Technocracy, who were now resolved to keep Mexico from becoming the center of Awakening that so many mages thought it would be.

Tlacaelel made a deal with the Sabbat, estranging himself from the Camarilla. He declared his neutrality on the European Clans power game, though he had begun to build a base of support himself so as to weaken the Sabbat's hold on Mexico to allow for the other supernaturals to expel them. He hoped to gain the Mictlan's help by explaining himself, but he was nearly killed; so he began to nurture the image of shameless traitor so as to manipulate by hate instead of alliance.

Thinking to gain advantage of the unstability of the new revolutionary government, the Celestial Chorists backed the Cristero Uprising, a minor rebellious movement that supported the Chorus' pradigm. They were swiftly crushed.

The presidency was dominated by the military since 1917, making the New World Order the real managers of power, but they carefuly made plans were delayed by president Lazaro Cardenas, the last military president. He was a simple Sleeper, ignorant to the supernatural, but he managed to twarth unknowingly many a vampire's plans, as well as Technocracy maneuvers, such as in 1938, when, to the utter surprise and outrage of the Syndicate, he nationalized the oil companies.

The New World Order consolidated their power by strengthening the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), which later changed it's name to Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). From there, they dominated politics by altering the elections by magick in their favor. Since Cardenas' rule, however, the influence of the Sabbat became stronger, as all the branches of government began a spiral of corruption and infamy. The Garou were aware of this, but they could do very little against the encroaching forces of the Wyrm.

The Syndicate then proceeded to keep Mexico under it's stranglehold. It's rivalry with the NWO prevented the economy from sanitizing itself, and many of the blunders of the NWO and the Syndicate's strategies sank Mexico's economy.

Meanwhile, several discoveries where being made; two would shape the supernatural map in a manner that none could foresee. First, the discovery of the Great Temple ruins and the Coyolxauhqui stone, wich placed Mexico City under outsider Garou scrutiny, and strengthened the importance of the Glass Walker and Bone Gnawer Tribes within the mexican shapeshifters politics. Second, and most dangerous, the disappearance of certain mummies from the Guanajuato museum shortly after their unearthing; it was never mentioned in the media, but several bodies were discovered in an alley, completely drained of blood. Calpulli Huitzilopochlti was awake.

Also, the arrival of a young woman trained by the Akashic Brotherhood would begin an event of cosmic trascendence: the Awakening of Mexico and it's guardians, the ancient volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl

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