Timeline
Timeline
A player-friendly history of Madtown by Night, from the beginning of Creation to the supernatural crises of 2025.
Madison looks like an ordinary Midwestern city. Beneath its streets, ancient powers have fought over sacred places, hidden realms, and the shape of reality itself.
This timeline introduces events that characters might uncover through rumor, research, supernatural lore, inherited memory, or personal experience. Some accounts remain incomplete, contradictory, or deliberately altered.
| Current Setting | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Defining Historical Crisis | 1985 |
| Current Chronicles | Awakened of Madtown and Kindred of Madtown |
| Intended Audience | Player-facing, with major Storyteller secrets omitted |
Using This Timeline
The history of the World of Darkness is not perfectly recorded.
Mages alter memories. Kindred destroy evidence. Spirits remember promises differently from mortals. The Digital Web sometimes preserves events that never occurred, while forgetting events witnessed by hundreds.
This page presents the broad history of Madison and the supernatural powers surrounding it. Follow the links beneath each period for a deeper account of that era.
Dates assigned to prehistoric and mythic events should be treated as approximations. Different supernatural traditions preserve incompatible creation stories, and none can be accepted as a complete account of Creation.
Prehistoric and Mythic Eras
Long before Madison existed, supernatural powers fought over Creation, humanity, and the spirit world.
- 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
Around 6000 BCE, according to surviving occult accounts, a supernatural alliance imprisoned an entity now remembered as the Nameless.
The prison weakened several times over the following millennia. Later generations were forced to defend, renew, or reconstruct its anchors, often without understanding what earlier guardians had created.
- 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 Modern History
The land surrounding the Four Lakes remained spiritually important through the rise and fall of nations, religions, and supernatural societies.
The surviving accounts disagree about who guarded the region, what they were guarding, and whether each renewal preserved the original prison or replaced part of it with something new.
- 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
Madison Is Founded
Madison was built upon land already inhabited, protected, and contested by Indigenous peoples, spirits, and supernatural factions.
As the city grew, construction disturbed ancient spiritual paths beneath the Four Lakes. Mortal government rose beside the Capitol Node, one of the most powerful and dangerous places in the region.
During this period, New Avalon developed in stages. Its earliest hidden threshold appeared during the 1830s. From the 1840s through the 1860s, it grew into an experimental sanctuary. It would not become a mature Horizon Realm until the following century.
- 1836 – Madison Founded atop the Third Anchor
- 1860s – Civil War, Camp Randall Necromantic Spillover
- 1883 – Baali Capitol Collapse
- 1890s – Technocratic Assaults, Gahara Pact Forms
The Twentieth Century
1900 to 1919: Fire and Accord
The 1904 Wisconsin State Capitol fire concealed a major supernatural confrontation.
Preliminary alliances had already formed during the closing years of the nineteenth century. In the aftermath of the fire, Madison's supernatural factions formalized those arrangements as the Gahara Pact, an accord intended to prevent open war and protect the city's most dangerous spiritual sites.
During the same period, New Avalon expanded from an experimental sanctuary into a true Horizon Realm for the Awakened.
- 1900–1915 – Capitol Fire, Fall of the Lords of Madison
- 1914–1920 – WWI, New Avalon Echo, Sabbat Probes
1920 to 1949: Hidden Empires
Prohibition, organized crime, war, occult smuggling, and Technocratic operations changed Madison.
Truax Field and other wartime projects left supernatural scars beneath the modern city. The Gahara Pact prevented open conflict, but it did not end espionage, betrayal, or secret violence between its signatories.
- 1920–1939 – Prohibition, Syndicate Rise, Madtown Mage Cabal Forms
- 1940–1949 – WWII, Truax Field Founded, Nephandi Rituals
1950 to 1969: War and Awakening
Conflict between Madison's Kindred and Garou turned sacred places into battlegrounds.
Later, civil rights activism, student protest, new religious movements, and cultural rebellion changed the city's supernatural balance. Young supernatural inhabitants rejected arrangements made by elders who had ruled Madison for generations.
- 1950–1959 – Kindred–Garou War, Cold War Occult Espionage
- 1960–1969 – Civil Rights Awakening, Hollow One Expansion, Malkavian Prophecy
1970 to 1979: Anarch Madison
A new alliance between Madison's Kindred and Garou brought an unstable peace.
Madison became an Anarch-controlled city. Its Kindred rejected direct Camarilla rule while continuing to use traditional offices such as Prince, Sheriff, Seneschal, and Primogen.
Tori Redford became Prince in 1975 after helping negotiate peace with the Garou. The resulting government was a compromise, part Anarch experiment and part inherited Camarilla structure.
1980 to 1985: The Old Order Breaks
Conflict spread through the Digital Web. Madison's alliances weakened, and ancient supernatural protections began to fail.
New Avalon showed signs of metaphysical instability. Records changed without explanation. People remembered conversations that had never occurred. The Gahara Pact survived on paper, but distrust had already hollowed it out from within.
Collapse and Reconstruction
1985: The First Collapse
On February 9, 1985, Prince Tori Redford and Garou elder William Burke were found murdered.
Their deaths threatened the alliance between Madison's Kindred and Garou, weakened the Gahara Pact, and pushed several factions toward war. The surviving public evidence did not provide a trustworthy account of where the victims died, who killed them, or why their remains were brought together.
At the same time, Madison, New Avalon, and New Eden became entangled in a confrontation involving the Nameless.
The city survived, but the old order did not. Leaders died or disappeared, alliances fractured, and New Avalon became inaccessible. Much of the truth was lost, hidden, rewritten, or deliberately buried.
1986 to 1996: Reconstruction and Attrition
Jessica Woodfield became Prince and held Madison's Anarch domain together after the disasters of 1985.
Madison's Awakened were less fortunate. Their council weakened, the chantries became increasingly isolated, and irreplaceable knowledge disappeared with each death.
The city remained peaceful on the surface, but that peace depended upon a shrinking number of exhausted survivors.
1997 to 1998: The Web Breaks
On November 10, 1997, a supernatural catastrophe struck the Digital Web.
New Eden survived, but entire sectors disappeared. Records contradicted one another, and some digital inhabitants remembered places that apparently never existed.
After the disaster, New Eden began to change. What had once been a refuge now carried the promise, or threat, of becoming something much larger.
The Avatar Storm Era
1999: The Avatar Storm
During the Week of Nightmares, supernatural catastrophes erupted across the world.
The Avatar Storm made travel between the physical and spiritual worlds extraordinarily dangerous. Madison lost many of its remaining Awakened teachers, guardians, and leaders.
Several chantries were cut off from their allies. Others passed into the hands of students who had never expected to become their Tradition's last defenders.
New Avalon suffered another catastrophic collapse. Whatever had survived the events of 1985 was scattered, stranded, transformed, or sealed beyond reach.
Madison survived its second supernatural collapse, but the Age of Masters was over.
2000 to 2005: The Failed Rescues
Madison's surviving mages attempted to rescue those trapped beyond the Avatar Storm.
Some expeditions vanished. Others returned with missing memories, spiritual wounds, or years of their lives unaccounted for.
By 2005, organized rescue efforts had ended. Too few experienced mages remained to risk another expedition.
2006 to 2014: The Closed Doors
Madison's surviving chantries stopped functioning as a unified magical society.
Some became isolated households. Others stood empty behind wards their inhabitants no longer understood. Libraries remained locked, and old spirits continued waiting for promises nobody remembered making.
Meanwhile, Jessica Woodfield preserved Madison's fragile political peace while the Camarilla quietly expanded its influence.
2015 to 2019: The Untrained Generation
New mages continued to Awaken, but few teachers remained to guide them.
Many understood their experiences as psychic powers, religious visions, strange technology, witchcraft, artistic inspiration, extraordinary luck, or signs that something was wrong with them.
The Traditions still existed in Madison, but often as empty buildings, broken lineages, and stories inherited without explanation.
The Returning Paths
2020 to 2024: The Storm Ends
The Avatar Storm weakened and eventually ended.
Travel into the spirit world became possible again, but the old paths had changed. Some remained broken. Others led somewhere new.
Messages began arriving through channels that had been silent since 1999. New Awakenings increased, but Madison's supernatural institutions were not prepared for them.
The city appeared peaceful. Beneath the surface, old agreements were beginning to fail.
2025: The Woodfield Succession
Prince Jessica Woodfield is dead.
Her death ends forty years of relative political stability. Madison's Anarch establishment is vulnerable, and the Camarilla sees an opportunity to claim the city.
At the same time, newly Awakened mages enter a city whose magical institutions have already failed. The old masters are dead, missing, damaged, isolated, or pursuing private agendas. The chantries hold more secrets than living members.
Madison's future now rests with those who inherit what the old order left behind.
Current Chronicles
Awakened of Madtown
Newly Awakened mages must discover what they have become while the city's old supernatural protections begin failing around them.
They inherit abandoned chantries, damaged alliances, unfinished promises, and enemies who have spent decades preparing for this moment.
Kindred of Madtown
Madison's Prince is dead, and every faction has its own vision for what should happen next.
The city's Kindred must investigate the crisis, contain political violence, protect the Masquerade, and decide who has the right to rule an Anarch city that still calls its leader Prince.
Gen Con 2026
The 2025 crisis provides the shared setting for two Gen Con 2026 chronicles:
- Awakened of Madtown, using Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition
- Kindred of Madtown, using Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition
No previous experience with Madtown by Night or the World of Darkness is required.
See Pre Generated Characters for current character information.
Timeline at a Glance
| Period | What Changed |
|---|---|
| Before 1836 | Ancient supernatural powers struggled over the land surrounding the Four Lakes. |
| 1836 to 1903 | Madison was founded, and New Avalon grew in stages as a hidden Awakened sanctuary. |
| 1904 to 1974 | The Gahara Pact was formalized and maintained an unstable peace between supernatural factions. |
| 1975 to 1984 | Madison became an Anarch-controlled city under Prince Tori Redford. |
| 1985 | The Capitol murders and Nameless crisis destroyed the old supernatural order. |
| 1986 to 1998 | Madison rebuilt while its Awakened institutions slowly collapsed. |
| 1999 | The Avatar Storm killed, stranded, or isolated most of Madison's remaining masters. |
| 2000 to 2019 | Exhausted and isolated survivors failed to rebuild the city's magical society. |
| 2020 to 2024 | The Avatar Storm ended, but the old paths and institutions did not return unchanged. |
| 2025 | Jessica Woodfield's death shattered the city's fragile political balance. |
Historical Reliability
This timeline presents the current player-facing continuity for the 2025 setting.
Dates before recorded history are approximations drawn from supernatural traditions, damaged archives, and later interpretations. Even recent events may have been altered by supernatural interference.
Several linked articles contain older accounts that remain under review. When those accounts conflict with this timeline, this page represents the current player-facing version unless a later canon decision states otherwise.
Information known only to the Storyteller has been deliberately omitted.