THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS, PLEASE TELL ME.<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 2em;">HISTORY OF BLACKTHORNE</span></span></strong><br/>Founded in about the early 1700s, Blackthorne has always been a strange city. It started as one of many fishing towns along the Atlantic coast, between what would soon be known as the north and south. While in and of itself, Blackthorne had no real distinguishing features, it drew in people all over. The people did join the fight during the Revolutionary war, although they stayed close to home, and always kept to themselves.<br/><br/>Before the city itself was founded, a small community of Puritans lived there in the late 1690s. Like the people of Massachusetts, they had their own witch hunts, although the news never really spread to the other communities. The city itself, along with the three closes fishing towns, seemed completely cut off from the rest of the world.<br/><br/>The main reason has to do with the city's supernatural founding. At the heart of Blackthorne lies a source of energy, one unique from all the rest. It was so potent, that the pack of Garou that guarded it did everything in their power to keep the community itself isolated, so as not to draw in unnecessary attention. No one really knows why (some say that one of the pack members betrayed the pack), but secrets have a way of getting out. Before long, Mages, Garou, Changelings, and even Vampires were all flooding the area to try and get a piece of this power.As whenever large amounts of supernatural gather together in groups, the fighting started. Between the end of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, there was endless fighting.<br/><br/>However, with everyone fighting each other, they overlooked one larger problem. Their enemies had noticed the power as well, and came into the city to take it by any means necessary. Fomori, the Technocracy, the Sabbat, Hunters, and even rumored (but never confirmed) a True Fae. The Civil War provided the perfect backdrop for the war going on right beneath humanity's eyes. No one knew who to trust, and old friends became bitter enemies, and the city itself felt like it would shatter under the weight.<br/><br/>Surprisingly enough, it was the new vampire Prince who thought of the solution. No one has ever been exactly sure why the vampires choose to involved themselves in this mess in the first place. With the exception of the Tremere, they had nothing to gain from a source of energy that wasn't blood. Though for whatever reason, it was them who found a way to save the city.<br/><br/>In 1867, the Sept leader, the Prince, the Kings and Queens of the Changeling Courts, and the leaders of the Traditions of the area all gathered together. From those long, tense talks, the Alliance was born. The question of who owned the power would be set aside, and the four groups banded together to drive out the mass of their supernatural enemies. Twelve years of hard fighting, but they finally retook the city for their own.<br/><br/>Now, such things in the world don't last very long once the enemy has been defeated, right? Well, the Alliance remained, although it had become more of a mediator between the groups to keep things from getting out of hand ever again. They split the city into territories, each holding a little piece of the power, and choose representatives for when they were too busy dealing with their own problems to deal with the others.<br/><br/>From 1879 on, the Alliance held, although there were many stable times, there were just as many unstable times when everyone was sure it would fall apart. This was no perfect union, but a convenient deal to keep the masses happy and their enemies out.<br/><br/>By the 1990s, things are deteriorating quickly. The once proudly touted "unshakable" Alliance is once again on the brink of falling apart. Trust and tempers are thin on all sides, and as their enemies take more and more of their territory, time will only tell if the war will begin anew.