B&B Setting

1. Historical Summary
This is an alternative timeline Earth where vampires exist. They existed as long as human kind, every emergent culture having their own origin story for the vampire race. Among ancient vampires of legend are Isis of the Eygptians, Ziusudra of the Sumerians, Caine of the Hebrews. A vampiric lifespan can last for roughly a thousand years before their bodies completely calcify, their minds unravel and they will eventually turn to dust unless preserved. By 1700 CE, the most ancient vampires left in Europe/Asia are Ptolemy I Soter, Pharoah of Egypt (who will pass before 1770), Seleucus I Nicator of Antioch (who will pass before 1770), Nedunjcheliyan I and Kopperundevi of the Pandya Empire (South India) and Yu the Great of China. Most European/Asian/African nations are ruled by vampires at least 500 years old. So are the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs. These civilizations did not fall to conquest.

Henry II has ruled the Angevin Empire since 1154 when was a still a human servitor to Honorius, childe to Theodosius I. When  Theodosius I passed into slumber in the early 1300s, Henry II successfully killed Honorius and declared the Angevin Empire independent, warring and negotiating with his neighbors over the next few centuries. By the time his servitor, explorer John Cabot (Zuan Chabotto) was able to lay claim to coastal north America for the empire in 1496-1498. the Angevin Empire was very well established and in treaty with Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) and his contemporary, King Alfonso of Aragon.

Another powerful ruler with an interest in American colonization is Queen Margaret of the Klamar Union (Denmark, Norway and Sweden.  She already controlled Vinland which had been settled by Leif Ericson, vassal of her predecessor, Harald Fairhair.  Vinland is a thriving colony which trades extensively with a number of coastal native American tribes.  By long-standing treaty, the Klamar Union has kept from any large scale settlements in North America beyond Vinland (though some Vin-First Nation polyethnic people dwell in both, especially among the Wabanaki, Algonquin, and Menominee nations.

In 1534, Jacques Cartier claimed the Gaspésie Peninsula for the Empire. The first Imperial attempt to colonize what eventually becomes Quebec City in 1541 ended in failure after two years. So too did Roanoke Colony which was founded in 1585 but abandoned by 1590 under "mysterious" circumstances.

The Jamestown Settlement on 1607 was nearly decimated in the winter of 1609 but friendly First Nation neighbors took pity on them and a decade later, it is thriving. The marriage of the daughter of Powhatan chief to a settler in 1614 serves as part of a treaty where the Powhatan Nation and its allies, including Vinland, agreed to recognize the colonial borders between Cape Fear and Long Island Sound.

As part of the overall peace treaty, Queen Margaret was allowed to purchase the territory between the Delmarva Peninsula and southwestern Cape Cod in 1614 with colonization fully underway by 1621. The Wampanoag First Nation was successfully negotiated with by ambassadors from the Empire to allow for the founding of the Plymouth Colony in 1620. Not to be outdone, the Union successfully purchased Manhattan Island from the Lenape-Delaware Nation in 1626.

The Empire successfully negotiated with the Pequot-Niantic Nation (and its neighbors) for founding the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1629 but things began to go badly in the entire region in the 1630s. The Pequot were traditional enemies of the Mohegan Nation. The Pequots aggressively extended their area of control at the expense of the Wampanoags to the north, the Narragansetts to the east, the Connecticut River Valley Algonquians and Mohegans to the west, and the Lenape Algonquian people of Long Island to the south. By 1636, Union had fortified their trading posts, and the Empire had built a trading fort at Saybrook. Angevins from the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies settled at the four recently established river towns of Windsor (1632), Wethersfield (1633), Hartford (1635), and Springfield (1636). War between the Pequots and virtually everyone else took place between 1336-1368 with the Pequot Nation crushed and over 700 prisoners given as "gifts" to various vampiric colonial governors to serve as slaves or food.

By then, the Yaocomaco branch of the Piscataway Indian Nation had welcomed the founding of the Imperial Maryland colony by Lord Baltimore within their tribal homelands in 1632. The Treaty of Eight Nations om 1368 (signed in what would later become Hartford) created out of the conquered Peguot lands the Connecticut territory which would allow for both Imperial and Union settlement so long as First Nation interests were not denied. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut written in 1639 to describe the democratic government of Connecticut was the first written constitution within the Western tradition. But the six First Nations which signed the treaty warned that there would be a limit to any future colonies or western expansion beyond lands currently possessed by the two vying European nations. They did, however, agree to allow for the land of what would have been

2. Central Location & Geographical Landmarks 3. Cultural Institutions & Conflicts 4. Support Cast roster 5. List of Protagonists