Paris Timeline
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Paris
Real World Paris History
Please be careful when adding real-world information to this wiki page. The Dark Places Wiki is designed mostly as a resource for IC information. The brief history below is included primarily to give players inspiration for their characters.
Founded in prehistory by a tribe of Celts called the Parisii, it was eventually conquered by the Romans in 52 B.C. and called Lutece. Lutece prospered under Roman rule, but the city declined along with the empire it was a part of, becoming little more than a garrison by 400 A.D. In AD 500, it became the seat of the Frankish king Clovis I, who built the first cathedral dedicated to the city's patron saint, St. Genevieve. During the next several centuries, Paris was little more than an outpost, falling prey to numerous Viking raids.
A wall was finally constructed in 1190, and the University of Paris was founded ten years later. The city divided geographically - the island became the center for government, the right bank was used for commerce while the left bank became a haven for scholars and artists. By and large, these divisions still persist. Paris changed hands many times and her influence waxed and waned throughout the Medieval Period and the Renaissance. It became the central staging ground for the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror in the latter part of the 18th century.
Post-Industrial Revolution, Paris experienced what is now referred to as the Belle Epoque. Many of the cramped alleyways were razed and repaved, creating the famous wide boulevards (with the added benefit that it was now much harder for Parisians to throw their furniture into the street and create a barricade when they were displeased with the government). Spared invasion during the First World War, Paris surrendered in the Second rather than risk the destruction of their beautiful city - a move which has haunted the French ever since.
Paris in the World of Darkness
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Who's Who
Customs and Rules
Prehistory & Roman Rule, to approx 600 c.e.
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(Feel free to customize this section according to the specific history of the city in question. This section is primarily intended to chart how PCs have interacted with the city)
Medieval Era, 600 c.e. to 1500 c.e.
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- 1348: The Black Plague sweeps through most of the French countryside; Marie, the young daughter of an apothecary and one of the few survivors in her village, receives the Embrace. [R]
The Renaissance, 1500 c.e. to 1700 c.e.
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- 1645: Armand de Sillègue d'Athos d'Autevielle is Embraced in Paris and introduced at Court in the 1650s. He becomes a regular at the Parisian court, attending from 1662 to 1690. [R]
Age of Enlightenment, 1700 c.e. to 1830 c.e.
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- 1743: Armand de Sillègue d'Athos d'Autevielle and the Viscount de Valoisalle fight a duel. [R]
- 1750: The elder Mekhet and former Acolyte Javier Raymundo al-Herrara de Cordoba, a.k.a. "The Moor" arrives in Paris. He begins work on fostering a mortal project that is the rage of the academic world, the Encyclopedie endeavor. He travels extensively between Paris and his estates in Nice. [R]
- 1769 : The noted scholar Randolph Xavier Ellison, formerly known as Javier Raymundo al-Herrara de Cordoba, becomes one of the leading European members of the newly formalized covenant the Ordo Dracul. [R]
- 1780: Lucien Sutter serves as the Royal Harpy of the Court of Paris, France. Serves obediently and well until the end of the French Revolution (which begins in 1789), when he is exiled from France for an attempted coup to seize praxis. He is exiled, amicably. [R]
- 1783 Randolph Xavier Ellison embraces an American Colonial dignitary Thomas A. Kent. [R]
- 1789: Emilie Frost and Markus Frost, after having Embraced Emilie (then Emilie Darieux) flee Paris before the peasantry can remove her head. Keeping as low a profile as possible, they soon abandon the city. [R]
- 1790: Parisian Kindred Society is caught off guard by the sudden turmoil. The Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum suffer heavily. Rival factions use the chaos to settle old scores. [R]
- 1791: Caught in the turbulence of civil war, Randolph Xavier Ellison vanishes and is believed to have been destroyed in an explosion. [R]
- 1793: The rivals of the Invictus Prince of Paris arrange his arrest at the hands of the Committee of Public Safety, and he is sentenced to death. Though the Prince could use his vampiric powers to escape, he does not, fearing that doing so before the mob would provoke a new Inquisition. Rather than violate the Masquerade, the Prince goes peaceably to the guillotine, and is beheaded. [R]
- 1794: Decimus, an ancient Daeva of the Lancea Sanctum, arrives from Switzerland and begins to marshal the remaining Kindred. Throughout the Reign of Terror, Decimus encourages his allies to support a return to relative stability by throwing their support behind the dictatorial rule of General Napoleon Bonaparte. [R]
- 1796: Athos arrives in Paris following the Revolution. He takes part in various political debates over the aims and results of the Revolution. He begins work on his earliest leaflets at this time. [R]
- 1799: Decimus is made the Prince of Paris, and becomes Archbishop. [R]
- 1814: Led by Thomas Kent, a small group of kindred follow leads to discern the location and unearth the elder Mekhet, Randolph Xavier Ellison. They soon leave the city. [R]
- 1830: Invictus Ventrue Jean-Ives Lucien becomes Seneschal of Paris. [R]
La Belle Epoque, 1830 c.e. to 1915 c.e.
- 1834 - 48: Athos is in Paris taking part in the social life of the city again. He corresponds with Dumas as he writes and publishes the novel of the Three Musketeers and later on becomes involved with several underground political movements leading up to the revolution in 1848. [R]
- 1854: Archbishop Decimus becomes Cardinal of France. [R]
- 1870: Athos is present at the Paris Commune and fights to defend it from the French Army. [R]
- 1881: Jacob Tanner becomes a regular face at the Le Chat Noir (French for "The Black Cat") a 19th-century cabaret in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris. It was there that the Salon des Arts Incohérents (Salon of Incoherent Arts), the "shadow plays" and the comic monologues got their start. Tanner's presence lasts up until approximately 1897. [R]
- 1886: Raymond Alexander Isaacs, formerly Randolph Xavier Ellison, returns to Paris to attend the World's Fair; during his time there he holds several private lectures on matters relating to the growing connectivity and scope of the Requiem across the globe. [R]
- 1890: Anisé Vitelion is Embraced and joins the Parisian Court. [R]
The Great War and World War II, 1915 c.e. to 1945 c.e.
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- 1920: Decimus, Cardinal of France asks Sister Giovanna to carry messages from him to other Lancea Sanctum in Europe; she does so on and off to this day. [R]
- 1928: Popular local jazz vocalist, Nate "Easy" Daniels is Embraced by the Ventrue Acolyte Felipe Saunier. He joins the Carthian Movement ten years later, after his Accounting is completed. [R]
Modern Day, 1945 c.e. to Present
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- 1953: Marak Ashpool resides here after visiting the United Kingdom for the past two and a half years. He takes the time to learn the French language and experience the culture and beauty of this historic city before continuing on his journey in 1954.
- 1968: Jacob Tanner is involved in the May '68 with Tarlach Doherty, organised by Situationist International within Paris. Together they explore the excesses of the time, partaking in kine on LSD and the energy of the political movements. [R]
- 1989: Rumors abound that the recent suicide, Sassette, childe of Jean-Ives Lucien - Seneschal of Paris, was driven to such height of self-destruction by her relationship with the Carthians Nate "Easy" Daniels. This rumor is compounded by Lucien's animosity towards Daniels and his leaving Paris soon after. [R]
- 1998: Nate "Easy" Daniels returns to Paris quietly. While there becomes an Acolyte of the Circle of the Crone; however pressures from the Seneschal cause him to leave not one year later. [R]
- 1999: On December 31, Sir Nicholas Crane throws an exclusive New Millennium Party in the City of Lights. Among the entertainment performing is Histrio Thespis. [R]
- 1999 - 2003: Anabasis, newly-Awakened, resides in the city. He works as an "Arrow for Hire" while attending the University of Paris. [A]
- 2004-2007: Quiet Trevor Arrives in the city in 2004 and over the next three years insinuates himself into the world of Paris street crime. He soon gains a small measure of fame among the Parisian Changelings as a master pick pocket and con man. [L]
Rumors
Please use common sense when adding to this section or determining what your character knows or believes
