Page 335 - Hunter - The Vigil

Philadelphia is the Washington, DC, that should have been, the
New York City that could have been. It was once the most important
city on the North American continent, the “Athens of America,”
the incubator for the American Revolution and the fi rst capital of
the nation that followed. Seated at the confluence of the Delaware

and Schuylkill Rivers, the city was the principal port of entry for
new arrivals to the New World, the geographical center of the 13

colonies, and the first social, commercial and political center of the
United States of America. But as the nation grew, Philly became
overshadowed by other East Coast municipalities, leavening a
trace of resentment into its citizens’ notoriously crusty attitudes
toward outsiders who don’t give their town its due respect. A city
of immigrants, tradesmen and merchants from its very beginning,
Philadelphia has a storied history of innovation and corruption,
racial tension and religious diversity, artistic expression and
demoralized self-loathing.
And mystery. A blue-collar ’burg tightly tied to the country’s origins
and host to architecture and relics from every era since, Philadelphia
is a city with more than its share of mean streets and deep shadows.
Its most telling quality may be its fragmented anatomy; like the
13 colonies themselves, from its earliest days, Philadelphia’s various
neighborhoods have stubbornly maintained their distinct identities. Some
have invisible borders that have been honored for 100 years or more, with
long-term residents who guard their secrets carefully. Layered over these
homegrown mysteries are customs and traditions brought by wave after
wave of immigrants from all over the planet. In the World of Darkness,
Philadelphia is a place where supernatural factions hold tight to their
territories and distrust even their own kind — especially their own kind.
Mirroring the mortal population’s contempt for central authority, the
inhuman denizens of Philadelphia have proved consistently diffi cult
for their would-be leaders to govern. And complicating the attempts of
any vampire lord or witch queen to establish dominance is the X-factor
represented by the city’s active hunter cells, whose unexpected offensives
tend to upset the balance of power at critical moments.

Theme: The Revolution
Will Be Compromised
Philadelphia is a place where every change comes with an unexpected
price, where every success contains the seeds of a future disaster. Lead a
group of colonies in the overthrow of a far stronger nation, and watch
your city decline into corruption and irrelevance. Establish a thriving,
tourist-friendly center city, and see other parts of town suffer from a
spiking murder rate. Vote out a crooked politician and find a replacement

“There is a general air of
“There is a general air of
who turns out worse. For hunters, too, victory is never total and almost
somberness about it, increased
somberness about it, increased always requires the sacrifice of something considered untouchable. A

perhaps by the…weeping willows hunter in Philadelphia should be prepared to make tough choices, and
perhaps by the…weeping willows

you meet at every turn.” must hold tight to his ideals or see them sacrificed in a rush of blood
you meet at every turn.”
and adrenaline.
— Lt. Col. A.M. Maxwell,
— Lt. Col. A.M. Maxwell,
describing Philadelphia in his Mood: NIMBY
describing Philadelphia in his
travel narrative A Run through
travel narrative A Run through
NIMBY: Not in My Backyard. Territoriality is a central conceit
the United States, 1841.
the United States, 1841.
in Philadelphia; both hunters and their adversaries look to their own
neighborhoods first. Sometimes this works to a hunter’s advantage

— a monster caught outside its own borders may be unable to access
its resources or allies, and its peers may leave it to its fate rather than
step out of their comfort zones to help. More often, though, a NIMBY