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THE SHRIKES

Or how to keep three people (2 non Gamers and the guy who taught me how to my roleplay) entertained for seven years.

SHRIKES
(1) family name Laniidae, any of about 64 species of medium-sized predatory birds (order Passeriformes); in particular, any of the 25 species of the genus Lanius, constituting the subfamily of true shrikes, Laniinae. With their bills they can kill large insects, lizards, mice, and small birds. A shrike may impale its prey on a thorn, as on a meat hook; hence another name, butcherbird.
- Copyright © 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
(2) a Coterie of Autarkis Kindred in opposition to the Prince and Primogen of Chicago. While the core group travels together and are never far from thier Leader, the Setite Teya, an extended force of outcasts, Anarchs and exiles seems to take its lead from them. Suspected of the Final death of Prince Maxwell, of Infernalism and of alliances with the Sabbat and with Lupines, the Shrikes skirt close to being declared Anathema by the Council of the Camarilla.
- Copyright © Encyclopædia Spikeyverse, Inc.

"'Tis now the witching time of night,
When churchyards yaws
and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to the world:
now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look upon."
--Shakespear, Hamilet, ActIII, Scene II

Growing from a Small Coterie of independents in New Orleans, the Shrikes went on to become the underground Heroes of the Vampiric street level movement in Chicago. From the outside the Shrikes appear to me little more than a coterie of anarchic and blood thirsty felons consisting of a devastatingly beautiful corrupter, a Ravnos archaeologist and tomb robber and a Brujah elder who found fame in Dracula's Axes and infamy as a leader of the West coast Anarch's. Other suspected members are the Anathema Dylan Bruce, the Anarch Phoenix and the Lupine outcast Damien Carter.

Until recently no one had ever managed to prove their accusations but the Shrikes are suspected of Crimes including diablerie, consorting with the Sabbat, harbouring an enemy of the Camarilla, allegiance with Lupines, funding of Anarch activities, the murder of a justicar, the destruction of a Prince, Infernalism and breaches of the masquerade.

Betrayal from within and predation from without almost destroyed the Coterie, but through a cunning mix of strong leadership and mindless violence the Shrikes survived to prove the proverb of sound bite Nietzscheism, they have indeed become stronger.

EGYPT: or WHAT WAS THE FACE YOU WORE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN?:
Unlike the Shrikes, those reading this deserve to hear the story in some sort of chronological order. The Destiny of the Shrikes was set in motion long before any of them were born, let alone embraced. An important premise in the Spikeyverse that has to be accepted to understand this tale is the concept of reincarnation. Way back in man's earliest endeavours the land of Khem was home to a motley collection of characters whose fate was cruelly interrupted and left unfulfilled by the hand of the Dark God Sutekh.

Nebt-Het (Nephthys), Princess of the Neteru and Childe of Sutekh fell out of Love with her Husband and Sire and into love with Anpw (Anubis), a Wandering Hero of the Urshu Lupines. Together with Auset (Isis), the Queen of Khem, they worked to thwart Sutekh's growing evil and made alliances amongst the disparate tribes beside the Nile. By the time they faced their nemesis directly, und ultimately failed, they had collected a small Coterie of their very own. Included among this group was a Shapeshifting Mage called Khonshu Xeper, the son of Sobek and Hathor, Tanis the kin of Anubis, A Darkly aspected boy called Seker and a Priestess called Hen Taui.

This Group managed to rescue the peoples of Bubastis, but eventually paid the ultimate price for crossing Sutekh and were killed. Only The Vampire Queen Isis and Anubis, now one of the Undying (Mummies) escaped the wrath of the Antediluvian. Over the millennia each of the lost souls has managed to return at times to the physical world, reincarnated in different forms, but never managing to reform into the same group. Various legends about these lost souls filtered down to those beings who knew of the supernatural world, and the most complete record of the myth was carried by the Romany in their legend of the Seeds of Knowledge, but time has eroded the true meaning of that secret.

The path Destiny had planned for the Coterie had to wait over 14,000 years until all the souls were once more reincarnated in the same place and managed to find each other again. With the final night fast approaching and the Antediluvians waking from their slumber, only time will tell if the seeds planted in ancient Egypt can grow to fruition in time to prevent the end of the world.

The story of the Shrikes is nothing if not epic. ;-)

BIG EASY to the WINDY CITY.

"Save us, but leave the Ravnos tied up here for the sun. No? well can we at least gag him?"
- Teya, Setite Antetribu Harlot

Meeting in the After Dark club, a seedy back street dive in New Orleans the original members of the Shrikes were the newly embraced Setite Teya, owner of the bar, the Ravnos Couron Lazarus and the Tremere Klaus Barbi. Following the successful investigation of a group of rouge Tremere in New England the coterie gained a powerful sponsor among the Toreador and from there the Shrikes managed to make themselves useful to several key players in the Camarilla. Under the Patronage of the toreador Archon Ashlar St Clair the Shrikes became an extension of the Camarillas organisation in the Windy city. Taking over the management of a Ravnos nightclub, a move helped by Couron's family ties, the Shrikes settled into the lowest rung of Chicago's hierarchy.

Filling the vacuum left by the closure of the Succubus club, the Chaste Dragon attracted many of Chicago's Anarch's and low powered Kindred, gaining a reputation as the place to be seen. Already an experienced entrepreneur of the New Orleans club scene, one time exotic dancer Teya moulded the Chaste Dragon and the Bar that stood within its grounds into her ideal. With the help of a matriarchal Ravnos vampire and her network of underworld contacts the Dragon grew in reputation as an Elysium. As a refuge from the harsh pogrom of Chicago's Elders the club saw more than its fair share of conflict, requiring several extensive refits in its illustrious history. Security was increased and alliances made with other supernatural courts. A treaty with the Unseelie Fae of Chicago brought the Glamour of the Changelings into the mix and the patronage of a young Mage called Panic assured the more daring members of the awakened community came to see what was worth seeing. Eventually even the local toreador had to put aside their jealousy in favour of the attraction of the Chaste Dragon and to rub shoulders with the Anarchs.

THE TRICKSTER
(Stolen without shame from a book by Muriel Grey. Read it, it rocks!)
Deep beneath Chicago city a malevolent entity slept within the earth, imprisoned by the Native shaman centuries before the White men came. An Avatar of the Trickster Spirit driven mad by the temptations of the physical world and its separation from its spiritual whole, the Trickster had been a plague on the Native tribes of the lakes and on one family in particular. Its physiological and psychopathic reign of terror was eventually brought to an end when a coalition of Uktena and Wendigo Kinfolk imprisoned the spirit within a natural cavern whose geological make up worked to neutralise its powers in the years that first saw the Wyrm comers reach the great lakes. The world might have been safe from the Trickster had it not been for the awakening of a Torporous Methuselah who freed it while she herself broke free from her subterranean haven.

The Trickster sought immediately to re-establish its parasitical link with the Garou Kinfolk and spread its senses wide to find their medicine. Unfortunately the world had changed and where before the Gnosis of the local skin shifters stood out among the mundane humans, now Chicago thronged with magical beings and the effect they had on the environment. Drawn to the unmistakably supernatural Aura of the Chaste Dragon, the Trickster was enraged to discover not its prey, but instead unclean Vampires.

The mysterious and seemingly impossible murders began as guests and staff of the Chaste Dragon began to die. The Shrikes, hardly settled into their new haven, were forced to track down the clues and eventually confront the malign spirit that dwelt in the sewers beneath the Club. Lacking any skills with which to fight a non corporeal being, the Shrikes fled to lick their wounds. The way to defeat the Trickster came to them in the shape of a young Mage of the Hollow Ones called Tempany Hunt, a last descendant of the original bloodline bound to the Trickster. Research and Spirit quests finally revealed that the trickster sought the Girl's death in order to cross completely into our world and should it succeed it would be unbeatable. Knowing they couldn't hope to keep the suicidal Tempany alive forever with both her own despair and the malevolent trickster seeking to end her life the Shrikes took a drastic course of action to save the city. Teya embraced the teenager into Clan Setite, creating the Anarch known as Phoenix and destroying her Avatar and ensuring it would never be released upon her death to serve the Trickster.

THE SABBATOIR: SABBAT INCURSIONS

"So this Vampire owns the local abattoir and now he's joined the Sabbat? Does that mean his haven is now a Sabbattoir?"
- Teya, Setite Antetribu Harlot

THE CHAOS FACTOR: TROUBLE IN MEXICO

"What is that smell? "
"Jack Fletcher at your service Ma'am!"
"Eeeew, well I suppose it can accompany us, but have it stand downwind and kill it if it tries to touch my lovely new dress!"
- Teya and Jack meet in Mexico

After being joined by an elder of Clan Brujah the Shrikes were present, and barely survived, the awakening of an ancient and terrible Methuselah in Mexico, granting them information the rest of the Undead nation would desire. Following a tip from their Lupine ally Damien, the Shrikes headed down to Mexico and on the outskirts of the city ran into Jack Fletcher who was also tracking the rogue Werewolf Mage Samuel Haight. They spent the week that led up to the awakening of the Ba'ali Methuselah hunting this pariah and when he died and Shaitan burst from its crypt the destined Coterie became the only survivors to know the Evil that now stalked the earth.

THE CHASTE DRAGON: Asylum Vs Elysium
Once the Shrikes returned to Chicago, each of the core members managed to parlay their influence for increasing power. The Charismatic manipulations of the Setite Teya and the grass roots support fielded by the Brujah Jack Fletcher translated into a broad powerbase and a means to success. Chicago, long destabilised by the lack of a successor to Lodin's throne, became a political hotbed and the rising influence of the street gangs, the Independents and the Anarch's became as pivotal to ascension as the camarilla big wigs and the Primogen. The Shrikes were courted as the voice of the Neonate generation and the wavering support of the Anarch's and all contenders for the crown recognised the influence of Teya, Jack, Klaus and Couron. Eventually when the smoke cleared and the Throne was once again filled, Maxwell, the new Prince of Chicago owed his position to these neonates as much as he did to the back stabbing Harpies and the Clan elders on the Primogen council. The Shrikes made sure he didn't forget their part as King makers and peace keepers.

THE CHICAGO SKINNER

CALIBRI GREEN: THE SETITE WARS
With Maxwell on the Throne of Chicago the remaining power mongers fought for the scraps of his table. The Ventrue Childer of Lodin squabbled for pieces of the pie and the Calibri green broke into a violent war between Mortal gangs run the Setites and those in thrall to the Ventrue Jackson. This gang warfare spread outside of the Projects and lit a fire of violence amidst the Gangs which masked the Anarch's. Individuals within the Setites used this trouble to recruit new members for their own gangs and the Shrikes had to take steps to avoid a fully fledged gang war on their doorstep. While members of the Shrikes attempted to bring the battles to a peaceful conclusion, the more direct actions of other members ended the conflict by beheading the two primary beasts of war.

ORDRES DRACONIS: THE RETURN OF DRACULA

KATHERINE MAYFAIR: OPEN SEASON THE TREMERE
(inspired by information in the Book: Kindred most wanted.)

"Sure I know them, we even worked together for a while to catch a diabolist Tremere I was sent to destroy. Was a shit load of fun and that's a fact. Outside of my pack there is no one I would rather have watching my back than that fucking loony Brujah Jack the Bastard and if I had to spend anytime watching someone else's arse, that Teya has to be top of anybodies wish list!! He he.
Put that gun away you Muppet, before I have to reach down your throat and pull your heart out. I am a Dominion and if I see fit to join up with a bunch of independents so I can hunt down and butcher a traitor who wanted to sell out the Sabbat then that's not anything you need to bitch about! Unless of course your itchin' for a good old fashioned kicking? Do you want to challenge me …"
- Dylan Bruce, Ventrue Antetribu and Black hand Dominion

The final act that brought the Shrikes to the attention of the powers that be was the defection, or attempted defection, of the Tremere Antetribu Katherine Mayfair. When the Sabbat Sorceress made her final move and broke away from her sect to join the Camarilla she asked for the Shrikes by name to be the independent go-between for the transaction. The Shrikes were themselves no less shocked than the Justicar and Archons of the Camarilla by the request because they had never heard of the Sabbat turncoat.

The secretive meeting on the docks of Chicago had all the hallmarks of a good movie, mist, subterfuge, intrigue and suspense, but it was the arrival of a Sabbat Assassin that really set the scene. The Black hand Templer Dylan had followed his one time mentor and Lover Katherine from New York and as soon as she revealed herself to the Shrikes he struck. The intervention of the Shrikes prevented his success but when Katherine attempted to sacrifice her would be saviours to Dylan while she escaped the tables turned. Once Katherine had fled, Dylan attempted to leave the field without further bloodshed and finding his path blocked agreed to tell the shrikes the full story. He explained that Katherine was an Infernalist and that she had manipulated him into acts the sect sought to punish by death. He had, by dint of a fearsome and loyal reputation, managed to bargain her destruction in return for a stay of execution for himself and set out to hunt the Traitor. He also showed them evidence of her plans to escape the camarilla also and that the reason she had chosen the shrikes, with the aid of her Tarot cards and Voodoo rituals, was because she believed she would have little trouble killing them and making it look as if the Sabbat had succeeded in killing her along with them.

Unknown to the Camarilla the Shrikes agreed a tentative truce with Dylan and with the information he supplied them they proved Katherine's duplicity. Recognising the danger the Shrikes posed her, Katherine sought to destroy them, making several failed attempts to end their unlives before fleeing to her family seat in New Orleans. By now bitter rivalry existed between the turncoat and the shrikes and, led by Dylan, they followed her to the Big easy. On the journey one of the Shrikes, the Tremere Klaus, defected and joined his Clan mate in return for the promise of unnatural powers. Not even Klaus, Katherine's army of risen corpses and her Infernal powers could keep the Shrikes at bay for long and with the aid of one of her acolytes, Epiphany Proudfoot, they eventually defeated her. Klaus managed to escape in the confusion and the Shrikes and their new Sabbat ally returned to Chicago.

PORTIA and the PRINCE

After the death of Maxwell, rumoured to have been at the hands of Jack Fletcher himself, the Shrikes gathered further support from the neonates and Ancillae of the Windy City. As Chicago floundered for strong leadership for the second time in the same decade an Alliance of the Anarch gangs and dissatisfied Neonates of Chicago centred on the rising star of the Chaste Dragon and the Coterie who made it their Haven.

CHICAGO: the Autarkis throne

PRINCE HELENA
"The Prince? Didn't we kill him once already?"
- Jack 'the Bastars' Fletcher, Brujah Autarkis and Hero of the Anarch wars

Finally revealed for who she really was the Toreador Methuselah Helena gave up ruling Chicago through puppets and took the Throne herself. Unlike her predecessors Helena is a creature of decisive and direct actions and she saw the Clanless and the Higher Generations as a threat to her power. Within weeks of declaring herself prince of Chicago she strengthened the positions of scourge and began systematically destroying the unaligned and the Caitiff and 'those to whom they cleave'. That final clause basically meant the Anarch's or anyone else who didn't tow the party line.

Suddenly the Anarch's and the caitiff were being hunted and destroyed and the Shrikes found themselves uniquely placed as the most powerful supporters of the underdog generations and unwilling to allow the Elders their Genocidal way opened the doors of their haven to the hunted. With an open declaration the Shrikes had officially arrayed themselves against Prince Helena and her powerful supporters. Lost pawns are replaced and lines are drawn for what may be one of the deciding battles of the final nights. The Shrikes, protectors of the unaligned against Helena, the woman who brought destruction to Carthage and Pompeii.

As her first direct move against the Shrikes, Helena and her web of allies, thralls and pawns petitioned and succeeded in having Jack Fletchers name added to the Red List. By having the Anarch declared Anathema Helena can now count on the support of the Justicars and their Archons in combating her main rivals. Should she also manage to prove that the Sabbat Paladin Dylan Bruce is also among their number, she would have almost unlimited resources to call upon in her Genocidal campaign.

THE SEEDS OF KNOWLEDGE
KOOSEREN, THE SEED OF EARTHLY AWAKENING: Hen-taui of the Urshu and Tawney (Ezmerelda) adopted daughter of the Zingaresche

RUZLEKIN, THE SEED OF BURNING TEARS: Seker the Alu and Dylan Bruce of the Sabbat Ventrue

JALOSMASIN, THE SEED OF STARS: Tanis of the Urshu, Morir Danesti of Clan Tzimisce and Couron Lazarus, Brahman of Clan Ravnos

BONNERIN, THE SEED OF BALANCED SCALE: Anpw (Damien 'belovved-of-twilight' Carter) of the Silent Strider Urshu

EIAVELAN, THE SEED OF BRIGHTEST WATERS: Isis, later passed to Teya (Nephthys) of the Followers of Set

SIMARGL, THE GUARDIAN OF THE SEEDS: Khonshu Xeper and Jack 'the Bastard' Fletcher of Clan Brujah

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