Like the chill unnerving winds that always blow through the valley and the strange black waters flowing in the river to the sea, the strong supernatural tides of beings and forces rise and ebb through the small city in that valley. Even in it's natural privacy and long cycle of decline (or maybe because of it, Una Negra had and has a Awakened presence in its small city limits that can be found only in cities ten fold it's size and twenty score it's years. It's location naturally private and it's history very obscure, Una Negra stands as a great enigma to all Awakened kind, who can't even explain truly what draws them to this place. From the shadow history and veiled present Awakened influence can the answer to Una Negra's power to gather the supernatural be found.

The first known Awakened kind to come to the Una Negra river valley were the werewolves, or the Garou as they call themselves. Northern American Garou lore speaks of a strange sept that came to what is now Central California, centuries before the first nomadic humans began to settle formally along the Pacific Coast. These Garou were said to belong to a combined society of three native wolf tribes, the Wendigo, the Ukenta, and the enigmatic Croatan tribes. They followed their shaman leader to the Una Negra River as it came into the coastal plains to find a very powerful caern. This natural caern, a gathering of Earth-mother Gaia's energies, called to them. They settled there to delve deep into the Spirit world, to further their battles against the Wyrm, the great spirit of corruption. Not long after, or so the lore says, these Garou broke off from their respective tribes, following some new secret path. It was known that they became truly advanced in their mystical knowledges, becoming more private and withdrawn into their own clan as they grew.

The local lore on them becomes sketchy after this period. Becoming more vague and more rumor as this now renegade group limited their outside contact. Stories were told still of members of the clan appearing mysteriously surrounded by powerful spirits to help those in need, but they always vanished right after their help was done. The strongest line of stories talk about using great magic to breathe more "life" into the caern, and making it so that the caern would call out over waters and land to those who Gaia wished to join this new society. Other lore does back this up as occasional contact with this clan include descriptions of Garou and other kinds of shape-changers that fit tribes and societies that were not supposed to be in the New World until many years later. This included several kinds of Bastet, the were-felines, (not including the breeds that where already present) and strangely garbed fox beings from the East.

Generations passed, and to the Una Negra valley came the first human nomads. They settles along the beaches, and were said to live in total harmony with the Shape-changers. One of the few remnants of those Native Americans' lore speaks of how their mighty shaman heard the call of Gaia and led them to live there. The Dreamspeakers, the primordial Mages, have come to claim this shaman as one of their own. The human tribe grew strong and prosperous, and became itself heavy in mystical power and knowledge. And just like the Garou clan, they avoided outside contact. Due to this self-induced seclusion (and the later tragedy that would wipe them out), even the tribe's name is still unknown.

The legend of this human-Garou tribe grew easily as the years passed, because it could be years between contact for outsiders. The stories of one Indian brave being saved from occult horror by the strange powers of the Una Negra clan still exist as part of local folklore, although these stories that haven't been lost, are so esoteric and jumbled, they serve as little help as a source.

Then suddenly, the strange shapechanger mystics vanished. No more was heard from them, and no more contact made. More Garou native lore-keepers hold to the line that they gave up their lives, along with the entire Croatan tribe, to stop some great Wyrm minion from taking North America. The problem is that the Una Negra clan seemed to dissapear long before the event that wiped out the Croatan occurred. This still stands as yet another of the great enigmas of this area, and if the human tribe knew, then they took it with them to their own extinction.

The fragmented oral histories of the human tribe are even more vague following the disappearance of the Garou clan. Their great Shaman, whose long life seems to attest to the Dreamspeakers' claims, also vanished with the Garou, and the tribe fell into internal chaos without their leader. They fell into hard times of famine and dissent. Then, it is said, they "pale-skinned spirit folk" came from the sea and offered them a bargain. The Indians would get their prosperity back, in exchange for letting this spirits do unknown rituals on the mound where the abandoned caern now sat over. This agreement last for many years, leading to even greater seclusion for the humans. The tribe even began to worship this "sea people". Some Mage anthropologists studying this tribe have come to theorize these "sea people" were actually Fae. The faerie folk may have been using the caern as a Fae circle, as many were now crossing over from the New World seeking escape from the loss of their Dreaming to the new rationalism in Europe.This is still conjecture.

The Old World then caught up with the New World. The Spanish came to the Pacific Coast. A Spanish monk, now known to be a Celestial Chorister (the meta-religious Mage Tradition), "heard" of the legends of a strange source of power in the Una Negra Valley, and used his pull to go there. Finding the "sea folk" using this Node (as Mages call mystical power places) he vanquished them, and set up a small mission not far from the Node. With the loss of the spirits they worshipped, the local Indians were easily swayed by the Spanish priest. This is really all that can be found on this mission, since the Chorister records are scant.

Local Indian folklore says that the Spanish monk used the great natural energies to try to set up a ideal colony. The results seem to show it was a dismal failure. One after another natural and unnatural disaster struck the Una Negra Valley. Some regional natives, those who can recall any of the old stories, say the monk went mad from his plans failing, and withdrew into seclusion. Then, the now small native tribe was struck with a "plague" which wiped them all out. Chorister archives simply record that the priest was then "recalled to Spain."

The small colony eked out a decent existence, becoming a small town, and it became known for the amazing horses the local rancheros bred and raised. The Spanish control became more distant, the rise of Mexican independence forcing their attention elsewhere. Unfortunately this period of instability made Una Negra a ripe pick for a small but powerful Mexican Bandit. He swept up from Mexico, and took over the small town to use his stronghold. His time in Una Negra was marked with terror and fear. He gained a near legendary status as "a devil" and the mythic folklore is still told about him in the resident Hispanic community. From a few loose added shadow stories, in addition to what is attributed him in the local folklore, the bandit lord comes across a possible Pumonca, one of the tribes of the Bastet and found in the lower Americas. Joining Una Negra's trend for the past, the truth of this is still not proven. It was only with the consolidation of Mexican control of California that he was forced to move off as his band was killed off. His legacy was the town around his stronghold was now greater in population, as his band left their families behind.

As Mexican rule changed to American rule, Una Negra saw a very quiet prosperous time as a small city. The Mission stood abandoned, except for the church which was till in use, and the Node slipped out of memory. The Node still had some kind of influence on the town, as even the older residents shared stories of weird and unexplainable events, like the heavy amount of local haunted places.

The only marked Awakened event in this period was the arrival of one elder Kindred, as the vampires call themselves. In 1910 or so, a Kindred belonging to the Toreador clan, bought Green City, a small township on South Hill, lock, stock, and barrel and began turning in into his own private exclusive artist colony. He gained permission from the Ventrue regional control and lives in relative obscurity, and has yet to ever explain why he picked Una Negra. As his artist colony still serves as the mortal herd he feeds from, his presence is quiet.

Una Negra continued in private static existence until the Great Depression. As the city suffered great economic hardship, it became a way station for drifters of all kinds, including Awakened beings. The local newspapers show a heavy amount of supernatural sounding occurrences, and it is believed that the Node went through a period of some natural reawakening.

Then the Quake of '32 hit, and why and what happened to cause it is yet another great enigma. What is known is that the earthquake and the chasm that opened were caused by some metaphysical force of some kind. Mage scientists studying the Chasm have picked up still existent traces of energies from the event, showing the amount of power that was present to stil have signs today. The major problem in explaining this quake, and the problem as a while in recounting all of Una Negra's history, is that this disaster literally wiped out the town's records. Fire gutted the small Hall of Records, the newspaper office was demolished, and the last preserved Mission records went down into the Chasm with the rest of the structure.

Falling back on the memories of the last few elders who were alive at the time of the earthquake, and the few newspaper records, does show some starling ideas. The money-strapped city government actually sold the Mission to some small group of people, using a lawyer as the intermediary, and these people moved into the Mission only a month before the disaster. The group was extremely secretive, older townsfolk said they heard it was some kind of obscure religious cult, but the newspapers of the time recorded the function of the group as a historical preservation scientist team. No Awakened group has owned alliance or membership to this group, but considering the nature of the disaster it seems clear they had to be some kinda of Awakened. Who they truly were may always remain a mystery, since even though they were believes to have perished when the Mission fell into the Chasm, no bodies were ever found in the rubble. It is still possible this could have been a naturally caused metaphysical occurrence. The answer is out there, somewhere.

With the town virtually flattened now economically and physically, the time was right for someone to step in. And someone did. A Ventrue, rich and old, whose speculations in the oil fields of the West made him incredibly wealthy. He came into town, bought a huge ranchero just outside of town, and started playing the mighty philanthropist. The oil baron had ulterior motives of course to explain his sudden interest in Una Negra. He had a long-running enmity with another Ventrue, who ran most of the region and several towns further north. Seeing Una Negra vulnerable, and ready to exploit, he came into the city throwing cash around for reconstruction and renewal.

His plan was to turn Una Negra into a thriving Central Californian city of size, cutting his rival from power as more cam to Una Negra, and he's be in total control as the Prince. And for a while, the Oil Baron's plans were working. He had the whole town in his pocket, and for trouble, he had made the Sheriff one of his ghouls. Using favors and some less ethical practices, he got outside investments and outside industry to the city. Una Negra was on the Upswing, and with the second World War coming closer to America, the Oil Baron pulled some heavy federal strings to get a small Naval weapons depot to be built on the beach off Una Negra. He figured the base would grow in size, business would flourish along side, and his big bright city was only a Kindred eye blink away. Unfortunately, his rival caught wind of the scheme and fought back.

The outside money dried up, the Naval base was closed without much warning, and the Oil baron discovered no-one would do business with him. His plan fell through and Una Negra started sliding back in economic hardship. The city renewal stopped, having only made a dent in the bucket and the industries slowly one by one left for cheaper locations. The Oil Baron went deeply insane, given to what the Kindred call the Beast, and wandering the city naked and feeding indiscriminately. Last seen, he was, and some suppose still is, locked up in the new decrepit ranchero outside of town.

With the Oil baron's rival now longer concerned and Una Negra slipping into obscurity, the city slipped into being a small crime stopover point. The most believed rumor is that the town Sheriff sold out to a small group of the Followers of Set, a Kindred clan known for using crime to further their own need for corruption, and the Setites wanted a good foothold in the growing California narcotics and contraband trade. They brought in several gangs, and were even said to have ties to the Syndicate. The city was left to them, and the very few staunch Sleeper residents who would not move from their homes in the mass migration after the fall of the Oil Baron.

Una Negra existed for some time in this shadowy corrupt obscurity. It continued even as the Setite ring and their cohorts began pulling out of town. This migration, some Kindred believe, was forced, when the Toreador of Green City was made the official Prince, after being one by unofficial default. The Node may have undergone a brief period of activity, bringing in many less savory or accepted Awakened to the city. Street rumors and stories hold that some of these migrants survived the later "cleanings." What is known here is that certain still demolished areas of older city are avoided by all, including the police. Haunted locales still abound in the crumbling sections of residential Old Town.

This node awakening may have led to what would bring rebirth to Una Negra. The unlikely (and still unexplained) birth of five Mage adepts, who all later joined the Virtual Adepts, the Cyber-Tradition of the Mages. These five boys, all related in some manner, (All by some even unlikelier situation, born to the tiny Jewish minority in the city) grew up in the Westside area, and showed incredible natural aptitude in anything electronic or computerized. After graduating the only high school in town, they all won scholarships to the prestigious CalTech, and there supposedly Awakened under the guidance of their now late mentor. They returned, laden with degrees, to Una Negra and opened a small storefront company making what would become some of the hottest mental-based computer games in the exploding computer industry.

The official rumor is that this cabal/company was part of the Virtual Adept's Game Project. This project's goal is supposedly to use computer games to subtly enhance Sleeper awareness and thought, while those who could solve the games had to be close to Awakening and could be recruited before taken by other Mage sub-societies. Whatever the case, this one company made the cabal multimillionaires several times over, and the company became the main industry in town. This naturally, (and with work by the VA cabal) brought other independent micro-electronic and computer companies to Una Negra, and the city became a tiny growing Silicon Valley of the Central Coast.

Calling in assistance from other Mage Traditions (and some believe in the Garou tribe known as the Glass Walkers and even some Kindred) the VA cabal began cleaning up the city of the left-over corruption, while the mundane renewal was in the upswing. The Glass Walkers opened their own small telecommunications company in one of the new glass towers built in the new Downtown. The Toreador prince used his own money to fund the rebuilding of the Brick House District into a new center for the arts (in return for his help in cleaning up the city, the rumors state) and created a permanent Elysium in the small city museum and several art galleries he owns. One of the VA cabal used his own funds to open a high quality city college, and it is well known that he sent out an open notice for all Awakened scholars and teachers to come and work there.

Although the "new" Una Negra is touted as a idealistic shining city, the "old" city, mostly sections still left in ruins from the Quake now a half-century ago, holds it's own dangerous sanctuaries. The older residential districts, like Star Garden Heights, Westside, and some Old Town, are left to the lower classes of the city. Many street gangs, some with Awakened backers or leadership, who moved in during the Setite control, still work and war on each other. Part of Old Town that was on the north side of the Chasm is full of rubble and dangerously unstable structures, earned it the local title of Risky Center. It is a very good place to hide out for transient or unwanted Awakened, along with the human homeless, and even the police have an unwritten policy of never going into that area. The only possibly known Awakened element there is a small pack of Bonegnawers, members of scavenger Garou tribe, but all reports on them are unsubstantiated.

But there is an unlikely new Awakened sanctuary in the ruined Old City, actually sitting on the infamous Caern/Circle/Node. In the Old Downtown, an cross-Awakened safe zone was recently founded, centering on a coffee bar and tea house. The owners, an independent Mage street detective and a Garou Dreamspeaker Kinfolk, were said to have found the Node not long after the first wave of Una Negra's rebirth. Or as the Dreamspeaker is quoted as saying, "Gaia's source found us." They protect and study the amazing Node, since they have now said that the Node does and has been through the past, "calling" to Awakened. Luckily, they established this sanctuary, loosely qualifying a haven place the Mages call a chantry, before anyone else got their hands on it, and street talk is that other forces have been trying.

The Node has apparently "awakened" fully. The new Una Negra Node guardians have shown that the source of power acts like a low level magnet constantly, but it surges in attraction once every season for a short period of time. The Node is said to be returning to full strength, and the fact that is was apparently active only a low levels of energy is what saved it from discovery. (The new guardians both claim the node has a form of limited sentience, but that stands unlikely and unproved formally.) But the Node is still a relative secret, and the Awakened "called" to the city usually can't explain their arrival.

Currently, Una Negra's shadow society is undergoing times of crisis as the certain unwanted and less than benign forces are starting to focus on the growing city. There have been several major engagements between the current Awakened residents and agents and agencies of the Technocratic Union, a large Mage faction using Science and technology to enforce a more static ideal on the world. Their presence is now at a d�tente, held at bay with small friction points, as they attempt to take control of Una Negra and enforce the hard reality that doesn't include most other Awakened. Many of the Conventions, as the Technocracy calls their internal subgroups, are setting up offices and industrial fronts inside the city. The largest and most dangerous base of their operations is the Wassleman Institute and School for the Gifted, located outside city limits and on the side of South Hill not facing the city. What the full extent of the Technocrat's workings at this large institute are still unknown.

Smaller belligerent groups are also eyeing Una Negra. Packs from a sept of Red Talons, the Garou tribe known for being feral, fierce, and full of hatred for any humans, have been tangling with the Virtual Adepts. The enmity between these two are growing, as the Talons make destructive raids on VA businesses, and the VA set up harder technological security. One particularly nasty rumor is that the Talons wish to "reclaim" the caern, but their involvement with the VA are holding them off from this plan. The only other supposedly active group is several Ventrue clan Kindred who have opened a law office in New Downtown, and have been noted for trying to gain local power. As expected, the rumor is that they are looking to regain Una Negra under their control again, but they aren�t saying much.

The Chasm, the rift left over from the original quake, still exists as a great enigma to the Awakened. The nature of the Chasm, in mood and energy, are deeply unsettling to even the slightest sensitive people. The Chasm is especially avoided on the night of strongest chill winds, when those wind rush through the chasm, and the sounds produced are unearthly. The most popular theory is the one left by a wandering Euthanatos, the Mage Tradition heavy in death and its workings, that somewhere in the Chasm is a hole to the Shadowlands, the spirit world reserved for the dead who won�t move on. A few unsupported reports of Wraiths, the shades of the dead, seen in the Chasm back this up loosely. But any study of the Chasm is usually impossible or inconclusive. Most Awakened stick to the simple policy of avoiding the Chasm.

More Awakened beings and forces are coming to Una Negra, so the shadow picture of the city is changing more and more each day. Research into the city�s past is slowly uncovering facts that can affect the present and future of Una Negra. And no one is sure how big this city will get, or the shadows working behind the mundane life inside the city.

Note that this Shadow history ends in 1997 when the original Channel of Shamus And Shaman was formed. This will not be updated for quite sometime, at least not here, as anything else would be in the recent history. There is a record being kept, offline, that will eventually make it up here once enough time has passed.

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