Madtown by Night
Madtown by Night is a living, evolving chronicle set in Madison, Wisconsin—a city of 77 square miles, surrounded not just by water, but by reality itself. Here, the boundaries between the mundane and the supernatural are as thin as mist over the lakes. Every shadow hides a secret, and every echo might be a warning from a world that failed to survive.
This wiki is your gateway to a city where mages, vampires, werewolves, fae, wraiths, and dreamers all vie for survival, meaning, and a chance to shape what comes next.
Here, consensus is fraying. Here, every legend and every dreamer matter.
🌌 Setting
Year:
1985 CE (Primary Chronicle), but the city’s secrets and wars span from prehistory to countless possible futures.
Population:
Officially 242,313.
Number who know the truth? Fewer than 42.
Supernatural Factions:
- Mages – Defenders and destabilizers of reality’s edge.
- Vampires (Kindred) – Rulers of the night, locked in a fragile peace, haunted by past wars and new murders.
- Werewolves (Garou & Fera) – Guardians of the caerns and the wild, battling entropy and old wounds.
- Fae – Dream-walkers and keepers of memory, torn between survival and the collapse of glamour.
- Wraiths – Echoes of the dead, haunted by unfinished business and drawn to the city’s paradox.
- Others: Spirits, gods, AI, and the unspeakable Nameless.
🌀 Core Themes
- Reality is Breaking: Consensus is fragile. Mirrors glitch, signs change, and memories loop. The city is the eye of a metaphysical storm known as the Capitol Node.
- The Rewrite Wars: Every night is a new battle for who gets to shape what’s real—through ritual, violence, alliance, or dream.
- The Nameless: A force of erasure, corruption, and recursive doom is stirring. What happens to erased people and failed stories? They gather here, whispering for a second chance—or a final ending.
- Dreams Hold the Line: The Sandman, the dreams of humanity, and legendary figures across time stand as bulwarks against total collapse.
🗺️ Notable Locations
- The Capitol Node: The city’s spiritual faultline. Where paradox erupts, and the Nameless stirs.
- New Avalon: A horizon realm built above Madison—once a sanctuary for mages, now flickering and unstable.
- New Eden (Digital Web Construct): A digital sanctuary, now a battleground for emergent AI (Digi-8) and the dreams of the Wired.
- Peace Park Caern: Sacred werewolf ground, site of ancient pacts and recent murders.
- Dreaming Echoes Freehold: A memory vault for the Fae, haunted by what should have been.
- The Wreck: Anarch Kindred bar—where the past isn’t dead, just encrypted.
- Bascom Hill: A seat of Hermetic and Tremere power; here, memories distort and the rules glitch.
🩸🧠🌕🌫️🌿 Supernatural Factions (1985)
See dedicated pages for full details.
| Faction | Status 1985 | Key Figures |
|---|---|---|
| Vampires | Fragile peace, Prince murdered | Tori Redford (Prince, Gangrel), Brandy Madison (exiled), Primogen Council |
| Werewolves | Caern threatened, war brewing | William Burke (Elder, slain), Alexander Carver, Wendigo & Glass Walkers |
| Mages | Council divided, reality glitches | Jay Dee (Architect), Selene Vargas, Abel Washington, Tradition Primii |
| Fae | Freehold destabilized | Lacy Z. Rivere, Dreaming Echoes Council |
| Wraiths | Paradox surges, red silence | Gahara, Wraith circles |
| Technocracy | Manipulating events | Malakai Bellamy, Phaedra Bennett |
| Others | AI, gods, ghosts, and the Nameless | Digi-8, Sol, Sandman, legendary figures |
📻 The Rewrite Wars: Meta-Narrative
Every session, every retelling, every player decision echoes through the city and its future.
- Nameless Echoes Radio (Book/Setting): The book is an echo of the chronicle—one in which most realities have failed, and only scattered memories remain.
- Player Impact: Characters aren’t just caught in history—they’re fighting to decide what version of Madison survives, and what stories are erased, remixed, or reborn.
- Legendary Allies: The Sandman (Dream), Sol (the writer’s avatar), Lilith, Lucifer, Krishna, Odin, Gaia, “Future Timepolice,” and more stand with humanity and the Awakened against oblivion.
💡 Why Madison?
Madison is a city of liminality:
- Four lakes, four seasons, four roads out.
- A crossroads of history, rebellion, academia, and the unknown.
- A place where “what was” and “what could be” are always in tension.
If the world can be remade, it might begin here.
If the Nameless is unleashed, it might end here.
🧙♂️ Getting Started
- New to Madtown by Night? Start with the Chronicle Overview, Key Factions, and Notable Locations.
- Ready to Play? Dive into the Player Guide, choose a character, and embrace the echo.
📚 Related Pages
- [[Nameless Echoes Radio]]
- [[Rewrite Wars]]
- [[Jay Dee]]
- [[Digi-8]]
- [[Sandman (Dream)]]
- [[Supernatural Factions]]
- [[The Nameless]]
- [[Capitol Node]]
- [[New Avalon]]
- [[Chronicle Timeline]]
- [[Legendary Figures]]
- [[Echo Tokens]]
📝 Meta Note
Madtown by Night is a living chronicle—its canon is never fixed, and every player, GM, and reader leaves their own mark on the city.
If you remember something that never happened, or see a glitch in the page…
…it’s not a bug. It’s part of the story.
Welcome to Madtown by Night. The echo is yours.
📜 Chronological Timeline Index A master list of all major events in Madtown by Night history, from the beginning of Creation to the present day.
Due to uncertainties in the timeline, as well as the fact that the original layout of Creation was at one unspecified point in prehistory fundamentally altered, multiple variants of prehistory exist. This can be explained through Resonance and the Fractured Cosmos cosmology. All interpretations will be presented alongside one another, including the specific events shaped by the Madtown by Night lore. Reality exists in "layers" or "facets," and while Creation is said to have taken seven days, it simultaneously unfolded over billions of years. Some of humanity evolved through a prolonged process, and some were guided by subtly angelic powers.
Events according to the Fallen & Madtown by Night Lore:
🔮 Prehistoric & Mythic Eras
10–20 Billion BCE – The Big Bang and the Triat Begins
3.5–4 Billion BCE – Emergence of Life and Spirits on Earth
400 Million BCE – Ananasa Diversifies Insects
360 Million BCE – The Spider Spirit is Born
150 Million BCE – Age of Kings and Mokole Civilization
65 Million BCE – Fall of the Drachid Form and Age of Kings
2.5–1.75 Million BCE – Humanity Adopted by Weaver, Creation of Garou
100,000–10,000 BCE – Diaspora, Banestorm, War of Shame
🏺 Ancient History
6000 BCE – Sealing of the Nameless (First Binding)
5000 BCE – Fracture of the First Seal
4000 BCE – Rise of Babylon, Druidic Magick, First Shadow Tensions
3000 BCE – First Breach Attempt, Wounded Anchors
2000 BCE – Nephandi Almost Free the Nameless
1000 BCE – Third Fire Renewal by Croatan
🏛️ Classical to Early Medieval
1 CE – Dream of the Hollow Mask, Sentinel Appears
1000 CE – Silent Confluence and Renewal of the Third Seal
1634–1836 CE – Indigenous Stewardship, Colonial Spiritual War
🏙️ Modern Madison Founded
1836 – Madison Founded atop the Third Anchor
1860s – Civil War, Camp Randall Necromantic Spillover
1890s – Technocratic Assaults, Gahara Pact Forms
🔥 20th Century Events
1900–1915 – Capitol Fire, Fall of the Lords of Madison
1914–1920 – WWI, New Avalon Echo, Sabbat Probes
1920–1939 – Prohibition, Syndicate Rise, Madtown Mage Cabal Forms
1940–1949 – WWII, Truax Field Founded, Nephandi Rituals
1950–1959 – Kindred–Garou War, Cold War Occult Espionage
1960–1969 – Civil Rights Awakening, Hollow One Expansion, Malkavian Prophecy
1970–1979 – Olbrich Alliance, Sabbat Incursion, Eclipse Ritual
1980–1985 – Digital Web War, Capitol Murders, Nameless Awakens
🎭 Current Campaign Start
February 1985 – Opening Night: Madtown by Night Begins