In the Realm of the Kine
In 1847, the quiet town of San Francisco comprised a mere 1,000 souls. The discovery of gold brought boom times and statehood as part of the Great Compromise of 1850. By 1848, the city had grown to over 25,000 people. Its population would double annually for several years to follow. Our chronicle begins in 1850, during the height of the gold rush.
In the Realm of the Cainites
California is a realm of possibility, but one that lies beyond the Rocky Mountains and which remains mostly inaccessible to the hoary elders of the Camarilla in the eastern United States. But the Jyhad grinds on.
Samson Whittaker, an Ancillae, made it to San Francisco in the early days of the boom. He made a startling discovery - the newly-booming city was suddenly empty of supernatural beings. The werewolves whom, until recently, had occupied the city and the surrounding territory, were simply... gone.
Working fast, the Eastern Camarilla elders assembled a “mission to the Golden Gate,” to be led by Archon Jessica Steelheart. The eastern elders would rid themselves of their most troublesome problems - the disrespectful neonates and ancilla clogging their cities and certain elders who had caused their cities no end of embarrassment with their antics. These outcasts would meet Whittaker and Steelheart at the Missouri-Pacific Dirigible Line terminal in Kansas City, and from there, set out on the next chapter of their lives.
For the passengers, the “opportunity” was simple: Go west, start over, and make something of yourself. They would be required to send routine reports and a 50% of any gold found to their eastern puppeteers, but those who were successful would gain status, power, and wealth. Best of all, the eastern elders would be rid of them.