 Though the Eastern shape-shifters mark the dawning of the Fifth Age a few hundred years earlier, it is the in the twentieth century that things really start to heat up. The Fifth Age is an age of reason. Reason at the expense of wonder.
During the twentieth century, the Order of Reason-now calling itself the Technocracy became so rigid that it forced the Sons of Ether into the arms of the Traditions. Years later, they would repeat that mistake with the Virtual Adepts.
Premium Oil was founded. It would become Pentex. A large, multinational corperation willingly serving the Wyrm. The corporation would eventually poison more land, kill more garou, and harm more people than anything else in history.
The Sabbat had secured the eastern portion of the United States. A new Anarch movement arose in the west. The Anarchs eventually controlled the western states, with the exception of Los Angelous-thanks to the shrewdness and liberalism of it's Prince, Modius.
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, Tremere began a long transformation. What slept in the catacombs no longer even looked human; what Tremere's Seven were frightfully guarding was a huge, white worm.
The Apocalypse drew nearer.
In 1994, the end times began in earnest. Two antedeluvians rose-Baba Yaga in Russia, and Mikel in Los Angelous. Yaga made short work of the kindred of Moscow. Soon any vampiric agents sent to find out why communication had been lost dissapeared without a trace.
In LA, chaos reigned. The Prince and several Primogen dissapeared. The garou from the nearbye Fire Tree caern chose this time to launch an all out attack on the city's kindred.
A Tremere Apprentice named Duncan Maceckny, began rallying the vampires. He tried to contact Vienna, but was ignored. He had few contacts among the Anarch terratories surrounding LA. And few friends in the Camarilla. When he contacted his Sire, Madylne Pryde, she told him that things were strange in France as well. She said she would start digging into it.
At this time, Duncan met a young Toreador named Selinda. He gave shelter to her and her ghoul, Jonas. The two became good friends with Duncan's grandaughter, Alexandria. This trio was destined to have a major impact on the world, but for now Alexanrdia simply became the financial manager for Selinda and her band.
Having no one else to turn to, Duncan did the unthinkable. Using his freindship with a Gangrel named Thomas, he contacted and mede peace with the Fire Tree caern. Eventually he was able to prove that Mikel was controlling the caern's leader. The remaining vampire's drove the antideluvian off with the help of the caern.
Duncan was then contacted by Pryde. She told him to lay low; that it was going to hell...the Tremere and the Camarilla. She told him she was going to New York. To the Sabbat. She had neglected to tell Duncan that she had already had her suspicians about her clan. That she had already made contacts amongst the Sabbat. She kept this from Duncan because years earlier he had been charged to hunt Sabbat infiltrators in his early days. She felt it would go against all his Camarilla training.
Duncan used his growing powerbase to set up a new Prince for LA. This gave him the time to spend with his new friend Lop Ear, an Uktena theurge. Lop Ear taught him about the coming Apocalypse. Lop Ear taught him about the Wyrm.
Over the next year, Duncan was contacted by many different people and organizations. MacNeil, the de facto leader of the Anarch States. The Giovanni Clan. Vlad Teppes(a Ventrue lord who had lived as a recluse since a certain book was published), who took a battalion of vampiric knights and put Mikel to final death. Jack Crow, an Orphan mage who introduced Duncan to the Traditions. With his outcast Sire's help he even made contact with the Sabbat, namely the legendary Vantessa and the Inquisitor Ellen Sabine. These groups began sharing information through LA, the city's isolation that had helped Mikels reign of terror now a boon for all of the various sects.
Duncan was also finally contacted by the Elders of Vienna. The Seven said they could not clearly remember the past years events, that they were afraid they had been dominated. They also told him Tremere was missing, and they had fleeting memeries of him being in some kind of cocoon. 
On November 22 1995, the League of Defense was formed. It held it's first meeting in Sebastion Melmoth's Vampire Club, in San Francisco. Duncan Maceckny, Vlad Teppes and the Malkavian Micheal Frances Luardey III nominally represented the Camarilla. The Anarchs sent Jeremy MacNeil, Crispis Attucs and Marguerite Foccart. The Traditions were represented by Beto, Drake, and Sasha Morgan from the San Francisco chantry Q'dosh. The Fire Tree Caern sent Lop Ear, Licks Flowers and Donald Bundy. The Sabbat sent Vantessa and Madelyn Pryde. Richard Goivanni rounded out the assembly. These were just the speakers. Hundreds of the world's awakened packed the Vampire Club that historic night.
That night the League struck a peace treaty between the vampiric sects, tradition mages, and the wolves of North America. Though it would be impossible to enforce, it was what was needed to start the ball rolling. Plans where made to take the war to Pentex, and take back garou caerns that had been blighted. In 1996, the war agaist the darkness began. Wrym caerns were taken and Pentex operations where sabatoged. The League began experimenting with ways to cure the blighted lands.
Garou began to arrive with prophecies of a special child who would save us from darkness. Their riddles coressponded with Noddist prophecy vampires had debated for centuries. An enigmatic Russian garou named Leoplold believed this child to be Selinda. Both he and the galliard Ekes Sara began to watch over her.
In Early October, Malkavians everywhere began to talk about doorways in the hole of donuts. Most people ignored them, yet the Malkavian curse carrys great power as well as madness. On october 27, Malkavians everywhere flocked to pastey shops. About a third of them dissapeared. They became known as Malkav's chosen. The ones that remained spoke in the voice of Malkav that night. They said to make way for the new Christ, The new Caine, the new Messiah. That life was going the way of the dinosaur. Only one of the Chosen remained behind: Vantessa said she could not abandon the Sabbat with Gehenna coming closer every day.
The door swung both ways. One that night an Arcadian arrived through the Iron Tunnel. Her name was Gwynno, a sidthe from the house of Gwyddion. She arrived at the Fire Tree caern and joined with the League, trying to rally the earth-born fae to fight the coming winter. They had their own leaders and squables, so Dame Gwynno's work was cut out for her.
Days later, on halloween, the first wyrm caern was successfully cleansed. A rote had been worked out by Duncan, the Ecstatic Beto, and a Dreamspeaker named Thadius. The toughest Ahrouns wept, and even the gloomy Ethanotoi Drake was seen to smile. There was hope for Gai.
In the ensueing panick of Gehenna, the League lost what little cohesive power it had managed to build. But isolated groups stuck together, fighting the Wyrm wherever they found it. Duncan stepped down as Chairman of the League. He became a general, leading the war against Pentex in South America and Africa.
Duncan also had to face the fact that his grandaughter wished to become a vampire. She was embraced by his friend Thomas. Alexandria took Selinda's former ghoul Jonas as her own, the two had fallen in love. Selinda, Alexandria and Jonas began to tour the world. One last gasp before the party ends, as Selinda would say.
In the middle of the year, Duncan paid a debt to Jack Crow. Crow had been searching for a vampiric legend, the Well of Arikel. This eventually led him to the mage Anna Brette-Maine.(see Movers and Shakers: pre-collapse for details)
At the Well Duncan met Arikel and Nosferatue. They told him there were a few others like them who would help fight the other antideluvians, but most were completely overidden by the beast.
By this time Gwynno had destroyed almost all of her rivals to lead the earth-born fae. The only one left was Duke Thomas. Both of them discovered the only way to truly unite their people was to retrieve the Sword of Kings, Caliburn.
Gwynno took with a her a trusted knocker named Georgia and the mage Anna Bret-Main to the Dreamlands. Though it cost Georgia her life, the group succeeded in its mission. However it took them over a year to find their way back from the Dreamlands, or Greylands as Gwynno called them.
During this time they achieved two other quest. They helped the Malkavian Sir Gerrick, one of Malkavs Chosen, find the Holy Grail.
They also encountered MacNeil, whether it was his shade or that he never really died is still not known. They journeyed to the center of the Tellurian, finding the ancient ruins of Tanelorn. When MacNeil walked into the city it sprung up into new life. MacNeil became Tanelorn. Malkav has since stated that if this hadn't happened-that if the Dreamland where not saved, the Wyrm would have destroyed reality.
Queen Gwynno and Bret-Main arrived back in San Franscisco on New Years day, 1999. By this time Maceckny's forces had cleared out most of the obvious Wyrm taint in North America and was engaged in the bloody conflicts in the Amazon.
Vantessa had revealed to Duncan that she had stayed here because she loved him, and the two had been married in September of 98.
Tremere had finally come through his metamophesis. He awoke in November of 98, immediately disbanding Pentex. He called them misguided, power hungry fools. He sent a message to the League saying that Gaia was on his side. That what we know as reality was a disease and he was doing the only noble thing. And that there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Sensing that Tremere was more powerful than anything they had ever encountered before, the League contacted the Technocracy. This was something Duncan had wished to do for some time, but the mages wouldn't here of it. A ceasefire was signed until the Nephandus could be dealt with.
With the garou and united magicians help, the vampires had a better chance agaist the antideluvians. It should be noted that by this time almost eighty percent of the vampires had been devoured.
Things settled into a rythm of sorts. Each side poured more and more forces into the zones. The Amazon, the Black Forest, anywhere the spirit of the wyld was strong. Anywhere aware from prying eyes. Into twisted Wyrm pits of the enemy.There were more defeats for the League at the beginnig, but it slowly began to gain ground.
The biggest problem were the antideluvians and there nephandus allies. But groups like the Politcos Pack emerged, an elite antideluvian hunting team supported by Jack Crow and Anna Brette-Mane. These small forces became instrumental in preserving the vampires. These groups in turn trained others, using the latest in New World Order teaching methods.
The Camarilla fell early. The Sabbat lost whatever claim to cohesion it pretended. Chantrys and caerns became santuary to the blood of Caine.
Tremere himself was absent during all of this. Seemingly willing to watch his minions battle. The League became convinced he was waiting for something. Most thought it was the arrival of the New Messiah that Malkav had spoke of.
Through augery and research, Duncan had learned that the savior was to be someone from his house. Leopold and Ekes Sarah thought it was Selinda, who Duncan had taken under his wing.
It was also at this time Madeleine Pryde and Drake set up prison camps. They instigated programs of torture and experimentation. The results were promising, so much that when Duncan found out about it, he helped them conceal it.
With all of her children dying around her, Vantessa began to fall victum to her malkavian blood. The League meetings she chaired for had become a joke. The newest argument was about whether or not to inform the masses, dropping the vale. It was not just the doom of the garou and vampires, after all. Most members found this idea appalling. Everyone remembered or had been taught about the Inquisition to well.
Her marriage to Duncan was falling apart at the seems. He was always away and when he was around they fought.
Everything spinning. She fell.
She resolved to pirate a cable news network and watch the sun come up. To warn them and to say goodbye. She inlisted bith the Crow and Brette-Mane for this. An altercation insued among the mages, and in typical fashion, turned deadly. The Crow slew Brette-Mane, who Vantessa had come to see as a daughter.
She fell further.
The first one she killed was Vlad Teppes. It has been said that he did not resist. He had seen more death in past few years than all of his life.
One by one League councilmen were slain. Ekes Sara met his end this way, as did Marguerite Foccart. In the spring of 1999, Atlantis was discovered off the coast of India. On the site was a shred of evidence that humanity was not alone. Also, there had been so many weird things taking place that the world of darkness was pretty hard to miss.
With millenium fever setting in, the Technocracy agreed now was the best time to drop the veil. Syndicate spin doctors would team up with Toreador manipulators and make a tidy profit. The League voted to drop the veil.
There was panick for a time, but humanity seemed to be more intrigued than repulsed by the wonders. Whether it was the Syndicates spin or the fact that the church had little power is still debateble, but the public wanted more. At least until their darlings told them the end of the world was coming.
In September, Technocratic methods were combined with Thaumatagury. Based on the writings of the seers and the best maps the Void Engineers had, a date for the Apocalypse was produced. October 27th. There was little the League could do but mop up the battles in the Amazon, and reassure the world that it was winning.
In October, Alexandria, Jonas and Selinda were traveling abroad in Eastern Europe. Alexandria and Selinda enjoyed the hospitality of the remaining ancient European Cainites, who like Vlad Teppes, offered sanctuary in troubled times.
On the night of the twenty third, they were attacked by Nephandus. Selinda found herself seperated, and running alone in the baltic hillside. She had hazy recollections of Leoplod pulling her from a burning car, but little else. Desperate and hungry, she found a den of a wolf and drained the beast.
The next night, she awoke to find a strange man in the den. He said the wolf was his friend, but he could not fault her for his own blood. And as it dawned on Selinda who this man was, Caine began his tale.
To the chagrin of historians, Selinda has never revealed all that was said that night. Only that Caine was not his real name, nor is he the fabled child of Adam. And that Caine had grown sick of the world, he had made the same decision as Tremere -he had simply chose no to act on it.
Selinda took it upon herself to show this man the beauty of the world. In this was revealed why certain garou seers and noddist had taken such an interest her.
The Next night, Alexandria and Jonas found them. When Alexandria's and Caine's eyes met, they became shockingly awre of their destiny. Alexandria was horrified at what she felt she must do, but she knew there was no way this man could slay the Enemy. She diablorized the First, he was glad to release the burden.
When it was over a cocoon began to form around Alexandria, and all over the world the sky filled with freakish storms. 
On October 27th, an extremely large meteorite crossed over from the umbra seconds away from earth. In impacted in the dead center of China. This set off disasters all around the globe. Both Tremere and Malkav had warned that humanity was to go the way of the dinosuars, no one thought they were being so literal.
The Guantlet shattered. Nephandus cut swathes threw the devestated cities. Tremere touched down in downtown Los Angeles.
Yet Malkav's Chosen returned, leading the mixed forces of Arcadia-riding steeds of photons. Multi-tradition chantries linked up through the finest IX virtual matrix and made sure the atmosphere didnt burn up. The Akashic Masters riding the Dragons back, drawing a line at the whirling vortex of China. Battle-crazed changing breeds rushing into mouth of the wyrm.
Duncan Maceckny was stuck in the madness of downtown L.A.
Tremere confronted Maceckny. He told him all this was for not, that no one could stop him. He destroyed skyscapers with a gesture. He slew Duncan's bodyguard, Melissa Jones.
Leoplod appeared next, rushing Tremere with the golden sword he always carried. Though he did manage to give Tremere a light wound, he was easily dispatched.
Then Tremere was whisked away by something moving to fast to be seen. The New Messiah battled the Enemy for over an hour. Finally Alexandria slew the Dragon.
The Apocalypse was over. It was the beginning of the Sixth Age.
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