Back

As with any World of Darkness venue the "Hartford, Connecticut" that we use is larger, darker, and more dangerous than the city we actually live and play in.

This page is not intended to be the end all resource for the city of Hartford. The city as it exists in real-life is far too rich in history to encapsulate it in a snapshot and to imply otherwise would do a disservice to the city and to you, the player. This page is intended to provide a primer of the city, as it exists within the World of Darkness, inside of which your characters will interact.

There are several materials available on the history of Hartford. We have attempted to list the resources we used to gather this information in addition to some other materials for those who might wish to do a bit more research into the city:

Hartford: Volumes I - III, by Wilson H. Faude are all books that contain pictures of Hartford throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Three great resources that give an abridged glimpse into the events of the city.

Victorian Hartford, by Tomas J Nenortas is another postcard book focused on the Victorian era of the city.

In and about Hartford: tours and tales, by Marion H. Grant contains a quick history of Connecticut and Hartford along with details of specific locations throughout the city. It also includes several self-guided tours that highlight the locales.

The city of Hartford, 1784-1984: an illustrated history, by Ellsworth S. Grant.

The circus fire: a true story, by Stewart O'Nan is one of many books on the Hartford circus fire of 1944.

The inordinate amount of flux surrounding affairs of the Kindred in Hartford has always been considered by many to be an anomaly compared to the stability of other domains across the globe; however, for those who have studied the history of Connecticut it should come as no surprise.

Few Covenants have been able to maintain hold over the domain for more than a century, most reigns lasting less than 50 years. Several Kindred historians local to the area have surmised that the nature by which the Kine of Connecticut have governed themselves has influenced Kindred politics to a much greater degree than other parts of the world. Others have speculated that the area has never truly been tamed, that the influence of denizens who have called the area their home since before the colonies has never been marginalized sufficiently to allow the Kindred to put a solid foothold in the area.

In the end, for the average Kindred it doesn't matter why Hartford has retained its instability; only that there is opportunity here for those who choose to venture out into its streets, ready to meet whatever challenges the city decides to throw at them.

Hartford, Connecticut was originally settled in 1623 as a Dutch trading post called House of Hope.

In 1636, a group of English settlers led by the Reverend Thomas Hooker founded the new colony with the intent of establishing a Biblical utopia, a truly Christian community amongst the virgin wilderness. The Lancea Sanctum, under the Bishop Sebastian Lawrence, was encouraged with the endeavor and followed Hooker's colonists the following year, hoping to provide a base from which they could bring the word of Longinus.

What they didn't expect was to meet significant resistance from members of the Circle of the Crone who had already established a relationship with the indigenous peoples of the area. The Lancea Sanctum was outnumbered and unprepared for other Kindred in an area that was, until now, considered barren of vampiric influence. In order to gain any advantage they used the colonists against the primary source of Crone influence, the Pequots, in small skirmishes.

Neither the Lancea Sanctum nor the Circle of the Crone had sufficient influence to control the situation. What began as minor altercations between raiding parties escalated into the Pequot War of 1637. Both the Lancea Sanctum and the Circle of the Crone lost significant numbers before the English ultimately defeated the Pequots, weakening both Covenants to near-extinction in the region.

The victory was not any easy one, but allowed the the Lancea Sanctum to grow in influence over the policies of the fledgling Puritan community. Over the next decade they secured their dominance in the region, actively hunting members of the Crone and whoever might be seen as aiding them. In 1647, Alse Young was hung in Hartford on the charge of being a witch. She was the first person in the colonies so charged, convicted, and put to death. The witch hunts of Hartford never grew to the extent of other New England cities, which testifies to resourcefulness the of the remaining Circle members in the area.

As the colony evolved from a purely agricultural economy Hartford grew into an important trading center on the Connecticut River. Molasses, spices, coffee and rum were distributed from warehouses in the city's thriving merchant district. Ships set sail from Hartford to England, the West Indies and the Far East. With this new trade and increased commerce the Invictus' influence over the region was on the rise.

Under the leadership of a young Ventrue rumored to have ties to the East India Trading Company, Ichabod Smith, the Invictus established an tenuous understanding with Bishop Lawrence and in doing so solidified their position in the region, eventually matching the Lancea Sanctum in standing within the domain. Smith ascended to the princedom in the early 1700's lasting until the early years of the Industrial Revolution, when he was assumed to have entered torpor. His childe, Evan Stebbings, assumed the princedom.

With the growth of Boston and New York City as the focal trading centers of the east coast, Kindred influence has hit hard in Hartford. The trade routes prized for their inland passages to New England and Canada were no longer as valuable as they once were. Bigger ships with larger cargos could be shipped out of the larger ports and the strategic value of the area was overlooked by more metropolitan-minded Kindred.

In response to the decline in trade, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Hartford became a major manufacturing and publishing city. During this era, manufacturers like Samuel Colt called Hartford home. Colt's experiments with interchangeable parts created the basis for today's assembly line manufacturing methods. New techniques employed in his firearms factory made mass production possible and laid the groundwork for Hartford's pre-eminence in the area of precision manufacturing.

The insurance industry in Hartford was created when groups of merchants began to share risks. The practice was formalized with the creation of the Hartford Fire Insurance Group in 1810. Hartford became the home of many of the nation's largest insurance companies, such as Aetna and Travelers, and is known today as the Insurance Capital of the World.

The Industrial Revolution left many dissatisfied with their treatment at the hands of the Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum and in the 1920s the ideals of the Carthian Movement first started to take hold in the hearts and minds of Hartford's Kindred. In order to stem the tide of revolution, propaganda against the Carthian Movement was spoken in every Elysium and from the pulpit at every Sanctum Mass.

As a result, the Carthian Movement went underground, their message heard in back alleys and during secret meetings until, in 1936 when the Great Depression had reached critical mass in Hartford, the princedom was wrested out of the hands of the Invictus in a dramatic coup led by a young, passionate Gangrel, Susan Evangeline. The police and fire brigades found their resources strained to the limit as they wrestled with the warehouses of certain businesses that were engulfed in a series of inexplicable fires and several soup kitchens needing crowd control as hundreds, tired of standing in the breadlines, began to riot.

Both World Wars turned into a "boom" period for Hartford, as its floundering manufacturing efforts were once again in demand to support the war effort. While rationing may have impacted the average citizen of Hartford, it had little impact to the run-of-the-mill Vampire. The increases in manufacturing opportunities lead to a corresponding increase in number of people choosing to move into the city. For the Kindred of Hartford, this was almost a golden era and the Carthian leadership took credit for much of what occurred.

Two natural disasters did impact the Kindred of the city in a very direct way. In 1936 the Connecticut River flooded much of the city and in 1938 a hurricane caused the river to swell, flooding the city a second time. It was during the second flood in which the Nosferatu Prince, a Carthian named Samuel Richmond, was killed. How the Prince died is uncertain as his body was never recovered, assumed to be washed away with the river.

Another incident, the Hartford circus fire, left an indelible impact on the city. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus caught fire in the city's north end in July 1944, leaving 167 dead, many of which were children. To date, it has never been proven that any of the Covenants had anything to do with the fire itself; however, it is rumored that the Ordo Dracul has extensive records.

In the 1950s, Hartford once again began to stagnate, both culturally and economically. Many of the baby-boomers who had made their homes in the city proper moved out to the surrounding suburbs, leeching away the source of both influence and sustenance from the city.

It was during this period of malaise that the last Prince of Hartford, a Mekhet of the Lancea Sanctum, Mathias Whetstone, arose to wrest control from the now complacent Carthian Movement. He maintained the stability of the domain with a firm hand, a student under Bishop Lawrence himself. Having survived the violence that weakened the domain in the past he tempered his policies with a publicly tolerant attitude towards all Covenants, so long as they accepted the teachings and wisdom of Longinus. He was masterful in his manipulations of the Covenants, avoiding the same the mistake his mentor made in the late-1600's, preventing any single Covenant to gain a significant advantage over another.

In retrospect, Whetstone's policies were considered pivotal when it came to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. Because of his leadership the unrest so prevalent in human society had minimal impact on Kindred politics, all but removing a potential base that the Carthain Movement could use to gain traction and dominance in the domain.

As a result of this delicate balancing act the Covenants were able to securely entrench themselves within the domain. None wished to be the one who lost ground and standing to another so the Requiem has since been waged in small, minor victories and defeats.

The modern nights of Hartford have shown promise of rejuvenation as civic leaders have gathered support for reconstruction of the city, including many new high-end apartments and condominiums and the construction of the new Adrean's Landing project and in return, more and more affluent Kine are beginning to see Hartford as a place where things happen.

Many are moving out of the Boston area and into Hartford in order to take advantage of the mass transit between Boston-Hartford-New York City. A tangible sign that Hartford has begun to regain stature in the trade industry is new businesses using the Connecticut River for commerce requiring new docks to be built in order to accommodate the growth.

Whetstone finally succumbed to torpor in the late 1980's with no clear heir, leaving the Covenants to decide amongst themselves who the next prince should be. Tonight, the Kindred of the city are governed by council of Elders who have maintained a tenuous balance. However, as new Kindred migrate with the Kine and once again flow into the city that balance will likely be tipped.

The city is full of opportunity for those Kindred bold enough to take the chances and cunning enough to dance the Requiem gracefully.