All Nashville has is twangy musicians, right? Wrong. Dead wrong. Shifting balances of power. Unstable government. Politics that redefine Byzantine. Outraged Fae. Encroaching Mages. Garou who have learned to be subtle. Dark Nodes. More hauntings per square kilometer than any city north of Atlanta. And enough Kindred to strain the Lex Magna Mille. Twangtown my eye. Machiavelli would be challenged. And he's not here. You are. SHADOWS OVER NASHVILLE by Andrew W. Ragland An Expansion for White Wolf's Storyteller™ Gaming System: Vampire Werewolf Mage Wraith Changeling Author's Note: Nashville by Night is an expansion that is unlikely to see print any other way than online, as White Wolf has declared they are not buying any further city books. Also, Nashville encompasses all five of the Storyteller games, and crosses them over with abandon. As such, it's only fit for the Net. This is an incomplete work. I stopped writing it when I discovered I would be unable to sell it. As such, there are holes, flaws and inconsistencies. I can only hopoe that someone out there will take a liking to it, warts and all. If you find a use for the material, please let me know. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute freely and to post to FTP and Web sites all of the material distributed under the title Nashville By Night. I've been very glad to see such high quality material on this list as has been posted by its members. With luck, my work will measure up to the standard that has been set here. Introduction How to Use This Book A good deal of the information in this book is labelled Secret (X#). The number in the parentheses is the rank in the Nashville City Secrets Knowledge required to know the item, while the letter is the branch of secrets (K = Kindred, G = Garou, M = Mage, W = Wraith, C = Changeling). Each branch must be bought separately. City Secrets (Garou) is a separate Knowledge from City Secrets (Wraith). Any character with a City Secrets rating equal to or higher than the item rating knows the item, if it would be appropriate and not otherwise precluded by character description. For example, Sinclair has a Secrets rank of K4, but does not know about the existence of any of the City Gangrel antitribu. Bill Ritchie has a City Secrets of M3, but does not know any of the Kindred secrets. References Books Movies "Nashville", Robert Altman "Thing Called Love" Theme Business vs Art, Profit vs Creativity. The Syndicate and New World Order are working with the Ventrue, sometimes openly, sometimes covertly, to squash creative urges and shoehorn Nashville into the New Corporate South. Toreador power based on the music industry is passing. The Old Guard is giving way to new management. This means turbulence, change not necessarily in the best interest of the populace. Established orders are being dismantled. Traditions can no longer be relied upon. Favors are forgotten; the people owing them disappear. In this time of upheaval, the players must chart a course without maps, hoping not to be cast up on hidden reefs. The existing power structure will give way. What will replace it is anyone's guess. Mood Nashville is paranoid. The average citizen is convinced that Opryland is controlling the government. The high kindred population, plus the machinations of the Technocracy and the presence of an uncontrolled, possibly dark, Node leave the mortal population looking over their shoulders. Jobs are unstable, politics are no longer business as usual, the established order is crumbling and nothing really coherent seems to be taking its place. Mortals in Nashville are afraid of the future. Many long for the past. Business that specialize in nostalgia are doing quite well -- antique malls, movie poster stores, the new Harley Davidson store built to look like a 50's diner. Hunting is more difficult due to this rampant paranoia. The rate of violent crime among the Kine has been increasing geometrically over the last few years, making people much less likely to trust strangers. On the other hand, the Gauntlet is slightly less. Nashvillians are willing to believe pretty much anything. The stranger it is, the more likely they'll accept it. If the morning paper reported that the mayor was a robot being controlled by UFO aliens from Sirius, the common response would be "Yeah, I knew it all the time". Coincidental magick is a little easier. Vulgar effects can be explained away with truly outre' reasoning. Nashville tries very hard to maintain the expected Southern hospitality in its tourist industry and daily activities, but the smiles are a little too wide, the greetings plastic. Gratitude has a pathetic edge. Happiness is obviously shallow. Visitors to the city usually don't notice this until they've stayed for a week or so. Most tourists don't stick around that long, so the forced cheer goes largely unnoticed. Anyone staying for an extended period, however, will begin to feel uncomfortable, eventually succumbing to the city's rampant paranoia. Look Cast iron architecture from the 1800s giving way to glass and steel. In some areas, new buildings are being designed to halfway fit in, but it's obvious they're of modern construction, lacking the ornamentation of their neighbors. Much of Nashville's housing was built in the 1940s and early 50s, wooden frame houses of unimaginative design, lots of clapboard crackerboxes. The occasional Victorian, Tudor or steamboat southern relieves the monotony, but not by much. Apartment complexes tend toward standardized three-story buildings, most with balconies, all landscaped apparently by the same firm. British Woods on Murfreesboro Road stands out in its kitschy mock-Tudor tastelessness, as does White Oaks out at 24 and Harding, its buildings sheathed in wooden shingles that almost (but not quite) resemble a shake roof. Nashville's industry is uniformly square: square lots, square buildings, square deals and square owners. Practices and architecture haven't changed since the 1930s. Granted, manufacturing facilities don't normally lend themselves to artistic design, but the company offices tend to all be the same as well -- light wooden panelling, fishing calendars on the walls, secretaries with Tennessee Big Hair and furniture bought from a clearance house in 1962. Downtown has had some abortive attempts at modernization. A few tall buildings have been put up, the last several quickly gaining sarcastic nicknames. There's One Commerce Place, known as the Darth Vader Building, shaped like a pencil stub or an all too familiar 'droid, sheathed in mirrored glass. The reflections pose a hazard to travellers on the nearby interstates at both morning and evening. The latest addition to the skyline, South Central Bell's new regional headquarters, quickly became known as the Bat Building, due to its twin spires and blue lighting. Nashvillians seem to be fond of nicknames, using them to express opinions, especially when they disapprove or find someone else's misfortune amusing. Fountain Square, for example, an ill-fated outdoor mall with an artificial lake, fell into receivership after its first few months and was dubbed "The Mistake By The Lake". Generally, Nashville looks mass-produced. Architecture, cars, personal styles, all are cast from very few molds. The city reflects the slow obliteration of its creative spirit, with most of the original design work having been done decades ago, and the modern era copying the past. Travel Travelling To Nashville Travelling In Nashville Supernatural Population The mortal population is not quite balanced evenly by the number of supernatural entities in the region, but sometimes it may seem that way. The various forms of non-mortals exist in a complex web of alliances, enmities, dependencies and controls. A brief exploration is in order before tackling each of the major sorts in depth. Kindred The Kindred of Nashville have been under Toreador rule for the last hundred years or so. The Prince, however, is losing touch with reality, and the Ventrue have brought in an empire builder to insure their takeover. The Kindred population is way too high, a result of boons forced from the Prince after a Toreador purge of other bloodlines in the early part of the 1900s, as well as the Prince being less and less able to keep track of who he has authorized for Progeny. The Toreador are officially in alliance with the Syndicate to govern the music industry, although some of the younger licks of the clan have made friends in the Cult of Ecstasy and the Celestial Chorus. The Ventrue are also in alliance with the Syndicate, and silent partners to the Progenitors, invested heavily in the health-care industry and medical research labs of the city. Whichever clan wins the throne of Nashville, Toreador or Ventrue, the Syndicate will make a profit. Garou The Garou of Tennessee are largely Wendigo in the outlying regions, with Fianna being strongest in Nashville of the urban tribes. There are of course Glass Walkers and Bone Gnawers, and the occasional Silent Strider or Child of Gaia. The Wendigo are still nursing a grudge from two hundred years ago, when the newcomer tribes allowed the humans to break a treaty and settle in the area. The Wendigo were forced from their lands, but managed to hold on to part of the mountains in the eastern half of the state. They've since been regaining what was lost, and pressuring the city Garou to either withdraw permanently within urban boundaries or leave the region entirely. Lately, the political tides within the Wendigo have shifted to more moderate lines, but it may be too late for the urban Garou, as, deprived of wilderness access, they one by one succumb to the harano. Recent rumors of Black Spiral activity in the northeast of the state may help bring the tribes back together against a common enemy. Mages Nashville has its fair share of the Awakened. The Technocracy is strong in its less obvious forms -- Progenitors in the medical research and health care industries, Syndicate in the New South financial concerns and the music industry, and New World Order as prevalent here as anywhere else. Iteration X and the Void Engineers regard Nashville as a backwater, and less important than nearby Oak Ridge and Birmingham, important sites respectively of the two Conventions. The Cult of Ecstasy has dwindled, between competition with the Celestial Chorus for the music business and battles with the Syndicate over the same. Some time back, New World Order managed to put a severe cramp in CoX operations with a police chief who believed in the death penalty for drug dealing. This eventually led NWO into a clash with the Progenitors over Pharmacopoeist activities, though, and the plan had to be scrapped. A cabal of Virtual Adepts exists at Vanderbilt, hidden by a pair of disgruntled Void Engineers. The Akashic Brotherhood maintains an all-female chapter at a womens' fitness center in Green Hills. The Ascension War continues, sometimes more quietly than others. Wraiths Nashville is in the South, and thus severely haunted. The nearness of Atlanta may have something to do with the constant interventions by the Dead among the Quick. Then again, the presence of a Civil War battlefield and several other mass graves and sites of mass death may contribute to the population of the Necropolis. Fae The original settlers of the region were a mixture of German and Scotch-Irish, both well known for ties with those Underhill. Other Beings After the Korean War ended, a number of soldiers returned to Fort Campbell with war brides from the Orient -- not only Korean, but Japanese, Chinese, Thai and other nationalities. The war in Viet Nam had a similar effect. Of course, the women who came to America wanted their families with them, and so more and more people immigrated from the East into Clarksville, and from there to nearby Nashville. With the rise in Oriental population, there have been rumors of gaki, hengeyoki, kitsune and other less pleasant creatures making their homes in the region. There are no Mummies known to be making a home in Nashville, but then Mummies are a very secretive lot and hard to track. They are also known for an abiding patience in handling long-term planning, and great skill in manipulating bureaucracy to their own ends. After all, the Egyptians invented the civil service. It would be quite possible for a Mummy to have established a residency under such deep cover that even the New World Order would have trouble untangling the paper trail and revealing the truth. As far as other, less well known supernatural beings, a lack of recorded observance does not mean a lack of existence. Nashville is a much stranger city than most people, including its inhabitants, are aware. The odds of finding something previously undocumented are nearly as high as the chance of the encounter being unpleasant... Important Points and Major Conflicts For ease of reference, the primary power structures, troubles and conflicts are summarized here. Kindred: The Toreador are supporting the music industry. The Ventrue are supporting the New South financial industry, with economic control of the city being disputed. The accession is in serious doubt. The Toreador Prince has become incompetent and has to go, but the good candidates don't want the job. The Ventrue have brought in an empire builder, a takeover expert, to manage the acquisition of the city for their clan. The Brujah have been slowly expanding their numbers, but a rogue named Tyler may seriously jeopardize their plans. There's a Sabbat scout pack in town, checking out the possibility of a Sabbat takeover. Nashville has a couple of City Gangrel antitribu who know nothing of the Camarilla or the Sabbat, due to being Sired by a rogue antitribu. Garou: The primary conflict pits the Wendigo in the countryside against the Fianna in the city. The Black Spirals are working on planting a hive northwest of Knoxville, on the site of a long-burning coal smolder. The Wendigo are too few in number to stop them, and the Fianna are too far gone in harano to offer assistance. Pentex is involved in the music and printing industries, and in encouraging racial violence, partially through emulation of gang activities from larger cities, encouraged through the media. The Urge Wyrms of paranoia and hatred, Sykora and Abhorra, have found fertile ground for spreading their particular forms of corruption. Fighting this trend will require non-violent means of community intervention, to avoid feeding the corruption. Mages: The Syndicate is playing the Toreador against the Ventrue, furthering their ends through both. If the music industry booms again, fine, if the financial industry booms, that's fine too. The Progenitors are carving out their own kingdom at Vanderbilt, having established their presence in the area right after the Syndicate, who were the first Technocrats in Tennessee. NWO is of course involved in city and state government as usual, continuing with their plan regardless of Kindred machinations. A pair of disaffected Void Engineers, upset at being put out to pasture for political reasons, are hiding a cabal of Virtual Adepts out of pique with the Technocracy. Their deception cannot be expected to last forever. The nearest regional Void Engineer stronghold is in Birmingham, quite some distance away, which is why they've held out as long as they have. Iteration X is simply not terribly interested in Nashville at the moment, their agents in the region being too busy with projects at Oak Ridge. Two of the more well-entrenched Traditions are preoccupied. The Celestial Chorus and the Cult of Ecstasy are in conflict over control of the music industry, frequently becoming too involved in their internecine strife to notice what the Syndicate is doing in the same arena. The Akashics are represented by a women-only group, working through karate dojos and women's shelters to improve Sleeper society by bringing empowerment to women. The Dreamspeakers maintain a presence connected with an uncontrolled Node in Centennial Park, guarded by a greater Wyldling spirit. They are concerned about the situation with the Progenitor takeover and the Black Spiral presence. The town's Verbena coven is beseiged by a coven of Verbena barabbi who moved in from further South. They can use all the help they can get fighting off the Nephandi.