History, Local and Regional In the early 1700s, Cherokees and Chickasaws forced the native Shawnee to leave the Cumberland region, but did not settle here themselves. Why is still to some extent a mystery. The Wendigo have a prophecy regarding the area, but do not like to discuss it outside of theurge circles. The push may have had something to do with the uncontrolled Nodes in the area, which have since come under Fae control, both light and dark. Whatever the region, there were no native tribes in the Cumberland when the European settlers arrived. Forces had to be brought in to deal with the incursion, and that gave the settlers time to entrench. They proved impossible to dislodge. Original settlement 1750 Thomas Walker of Virginia discovered and named the Cumberland Gap. Within days, theurges of the Fianna held a moot to discuss visions they had had, of a new infestation of the Wyrm. The new territory held great power. Without a doubt, the Wyrm would try to take it for Its own. Any settlement attempt by Europeans, therefore, must include members of the tribe. Kinfolk began taking positions within the land development companies that would allow them to keep watch, and to notify the tribal leaders when an expedition was planned. Scouts were sent into the territory, but were met with hostile receptions from the Wendigo, already becoming fiercely isolationist. News of the visions never reached the Wendigo leaders. 1763 France ceded the Mississippi Valley, including Middle Tennessee, to Great Britain at the end of the French and Indian War. 1770 Daniel Boone and Kaspar Manskar arrived in Kentucky to plant a colony, acting as agents of Judge Richard Henderson of North Carolina, ostensibly a private land speculator. Boone and Manskar may not have known that they were acting as agents of the Syndicate. Manskar was a Sleeper. There is evidence, however, that Boone may have been either a Dreamspeaker or Garou Kinfolk, and may have been working on a hidden agenda of his own. 1771 The Transylvania Company lost its colony in Kentucky to the Virginia colonial government in a territorial dispute with New World Order. Plans were set in motion to take over neighboring undeveloped territory. 1779 Judge Henderson hired James Robertson to lead an expedition to the Cumberland Territory. Robertson in turn contacted John Donelson, and the two explorers made their plans. The Fianna, through kinfolk connections, added some of their number to the expedition. >From a historical marker on the banks of the Cumberland River: On Monday, April 24, 1780, two pioneers, James Robertson and John Donelson, shook hands upon the completion of a reunion at the site on which you now stand. Each man, one by land, the other by water, played out his part in a two-fold for a new settlement that grew into present day Nashville. Robertson, at the head of his mounted band of 226 frontiersmen, traversed the long, circuitous overland route through Kentucky and Tennessee down to the great salt lick. His group arrived on Christmas Day, 1779, about the time that Donelson's flotilla left Fort Patrick Henry, and at once set about preparing a place for the boatmen, women and children who were to join them later. Robertson, as one of the earliest and most resourceful frontiersmen of early Tennessee history, had long realized that the rolling country and rich bottom-land of Middle Tennessee would be an ideal location for a settlement, although much warfare and violence were inevitable. It was his ability to deal with the Indians and their mutual respect and admiration for him that made this venture possible. He said, "We are the advance guard; our way is westward across the continent." But civilization could only begin with the river-borne families that were to come in the spring. In four months, these families floated the entire extent of the Tennessee River, then turned north to the Ohio and came up the Cumberland to the Great Salt Lick -- a 1000 mile trip unequalled in the annals of American history. This flotilla was headed by the courageous Colonel John Donelson on his flagship Adventure. He triumphed over freezing weather, the treacheries of a river at the highest in its history, pestilence, and savage Indians to reach his April rendezvous. This achievement has immortalized his name, for he managed it so well that no man could have done it better. His responsibilities were great because he had in his charge a large percentage of noncombatants. 1780 5/13. The Cumberland Compact was signed, forming the first civil government in Tennessee. Secret provisions in the Compact formed a treaty between the Syndicate and New World Order for the development and exploitation of the Cumberland region. Fort Nashborough was named in memory of General Nash of North Carolina, who fell at Germantown, PA, 10/4/1777, in the War of the Revolution. Erected on the bluff near the location of the current tourist reconstruction, by the pioneers of the Cumberland settlement, in the year 1780, as a central fort of defense against Indian attacks, Fort Nashborough was the scene of many noted historical events, especially the Indian attack of 4/2/1781, known as the Battle of the Bluff. In a final effort to push the invaders out, the local natives, driven by the Wendigo, attacked Fort Nashborough with all the forces they could muster. Wave after wave charged the fort, volleyed arrows over its wals, set fire to the buildings within and contested with the Fianna in the Umbra. The tide of battle was turned when the Fianna abandoned their human forms and tactics, and plunged into the enemy lines in Crinos form. The Delerium scattered the natives, rendering the task of the snipers on the walls easier. In the face of the Fianna battle rage, its Pattern strengthened subtly by an influx of Quintessence from the Syndicate mages among the settlers, the Wendigo were overwhelmed, and chased from the field. Later, the Veil reasserted itself, and the incident was remembered as the fort's dogs being loosed on the attackers. Legend attributes the action to Mrs. John Donelson. 1784 The North Carolina legislature, under control of a NWO faction opposed to the Virginia policies, created Davidson County and chartered Nashville as a town. 1785 Thomas B. Craighead, a Presbyterian minister, arrived to take over as headmaster of Davidson Academy,, the first school of its level in the region. Rumors of Celestial Chorus involvement are quickly squashed when Reverend Craighead is identified as a Sleeper. Dr. John Sappington became 1st physician in area, as the Progenitors began to establish their dominance. The Syndicate was the only other Convention able to maintain a position of strength in the face of the competition. Vanderbilt University was founded in 18XX with a grant from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a noted rail baron and industrialist. Its original charter was to provide an institution of classical learning in the South (check this and insert actual text). It didn't take long for the college to come to the attention of the Kindred. Sheila O'Rourke, a Ventrue of the eighth generation and patron of higher education, became one of the Regents in 1905. This was a very quiet move, and hushed in the press at the time, as it was not considered proper for a woman to hold such a position. Ms. O'Rourke, however, was of Irish stock with a temper appropriate to her background, and would brook no opposition to her plans for the University. Those whom she could not meet privately with and Dominate into cooperation, she blackmailed or coerced through ruthless business practices. Vanderbilt would become a bastion of higher culture and a training ground for potential Ventrue, if she had to ride roughshod over every other Regent on the Board. Sheila disappeared in the Toreador Unification of 1935, but her influence is still felt. Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Business produces some of the finest executives in the world, shrewd, intuitive, ruthless, and focused entirely on the success of their careers, to the exclusion of all personal matters. Peabody School of Education is the alma mater of many of the South's better teachers. Vanderbilt also offers excellent programs in Fine Arts, Mathematics, Engineering, both the "hard" and "soft" sciences, and its medical school is considered one of the better in the country. Of course, the tuition for attending such a prestigious institution keeps out all but the right sort of people. There is only one Kindred known to make his home at Vanderbilt, the Nosferatu known only as the Reverend, a Frankweiler sort who resides in the steam tunnels underneath the Library. He is occasionally seen in the stacks late at night by students who have stayed past closing; they usually chalk it up to too many hours at their studies and too many Jolt colas. as i drive from your pearly gates i realize that i just can't stay all those mountains, they kept you locked inside and hid the truth from my slighted eyes i came to you with a half-open heart dreams upon my back, illusions of a brand new start nashville — can't i carry the load is it my fault i can't reap what i sow? nashville — did you give me half a chance with your southern style and your hidden dance? Away, you dance away, now you dance away Indigo Girls, "Nashville" And so it begins. The city is not what you expected. More plastic, less substance. More banks, fewer guitars. More broken promises, less depth. And over it all hangs a shadow, a dark, brooding presence that nags at your dreams, that makes you check that the doors are locked. Just an uneasy feeling, right? Who wouldn't be uneasy, having just moved to a new city? Except that Nashville isn't new. It's old, ancient, a current of antiquity running far below the gleaming steel and mirrored glass of the forcibly revitalized downtown area. Something is here, something older, that has had strange eons to brood upon its failures, its frustrations, the slow simmer of its anger rising like steam through the manhole covers, a smell that clings to the back of your throat on cold mornings. As you make your way in this city, try to stay to the light. It may not be safer, but at least you can see what's coming.