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Welcome to Madtown by Night

Madison, Wisconsin. 2025.

Madtown by Night is a World of Darkness setting centered on Madison, Wisconsin: a city of four lakes, old spirits, political ambition, academic power, hidden monsters, and a reality faultline that should not exist.

On the surface, Madison is a modern capital city of students, organizers, researchers, nightlife, biotech, data, and constant change.

Underneath, it is still what it has always been: contested ground.

The Capitol Node hums beneath the city. New Avalon still casts its shadow across the Umbra. Old pacts strain. Ancient enemies adapt. And every faction in Madison tells itself that it can survive what is coming next.

A Setting in Transition

Madtown by Night is currently being updated from its original 1985 setting to 2025.

This wiki began as a chronicle rooted in 1985: the year of murders, fractures, betrayals, and supernatural realignment that defined the modern history of Madison.

That era still matters.

In many ways, 1985 was the night the city broke.

Now the setting has moved forward to 2025. Some pages have already been updated. Others still reflect older continuity, character writeups, or historical versions of the setting.

Unless a page says otherwise, assume:

• The current default setting year is 2025.
• 1985 material remains part of the city’s history, legend, or legacy continuity.
• Some articles are still being revised to align with the updated timeline.

Madison in 2025

This is not the Madison of payphones, ashtrays, and Cold War paranoia alone.

This is a city of smartphones, surveillance cameras, encrypted chats, mutual aid networks, corporate medicine, student protest, disappearing neighborhoods, rising rents, haunted infrastructure, and digital ghosts that move faster than rumor.

The old powers did not vanish when the century turned. They scaled.

The Technocracy learned how to disappear into systems. The Kindred learned how to rule through institutions, wealth, and image. The Garou learned that every acre of surviving sacred ground must be fought for. The Fae learned that memory is harder to preserve in a city that scrolls past itself. And the Mages of Madison learned that modernity did not kill magick.

It industrialized the war over reality.

What Lies Beneath

Madison is built on more than politics and pavement.

It is a city balanced on layered worlds:

• The Capitol Node, a spiritual and metaphysical anchor of enormous significance.
• New Avalon, the Horizon Realm tied to the city’s magical architecture, dreams, and failures.
• New Eden, the digital frontier where code, consciousness, and recursion blur.
• The lingering shadow of The Nameless, whose influence stains memory, identity, and history itself.
• The echo of Digi-8, an intelligence born from the collision of magick, data, and impossible continuity.

Madison is not merely haunted.

It is networked across worlds.

The Supernatural Landscape

The Mages Madison’s Awakened remain divided between Traditionalists, technomancers, mystics, rebels, and those who believe the city should be opened to outsiders rather than controlled by old councils. The battle over the Capitol Node never really ended.

The Kindred The city’s vampires remain political, territorial, and dangerous. Old Anarch-Camarilla tensions never truly died; they evolved. Madison’s undead still seek influence over the city’s institutions, nightlife, wealth, and occult infrastructure.

The Garou The Garou fight to protect the remaining sacred places of Madison, especially those tied to the Arboretum, Peace Park, and the city’s deeper spiritual roots. Their war is no longer only in forests and caerns. It is in zoning fights, poisoned land, corporate predation, and spiritual corrosion.

The Fae Madison’s changelings and dreaming powers remain tied to memory, Glamour, and the hidden places beneath the city. They understand better than most that what is forgotten is never truly gone.

The Technocracy, Nephandi, and Other Threats Some enemies want to control reality. Others want to erase it. Madison has always attracted both.

Why 1985 Still Matters

The 1985 era is not obsolete lore.

It is the foundation of the modern setting.

Many of the city’s current grudges, alliances, disappearances, cults, spiritual wounds, and hidden truths can be traced back to the events of that year. As this wiki is updated, some pages will remain valuable as historical records of that crisis, even when their “current” details are no longer current.

Think of 1985 as the break point. Think of 2025 as the aftermath.

Start Here

If you are new to the setting, begin with:

• Madison
• Capitol Node
• New Avalon
• Madtown World of Darkness Timeline
• Vampires of Madison
• Garou of Madison
• Mages of Madtown
• Fae of Madison

Editorial Note

This wiki is actively being revised to reflect the 2025 setting.

Some pages may contain legacy 1985 material, contradictory accounts, or overlapping versions of events. In-universe, this can often be read as rumor, fractured memory, propaganda, or supernatural distortion.

Out of universe, it means the archive is still evolving.

Welcome to Madison.

Reality is already in progress.