City History

Toronto History: The Europeans Arrive
When Europeans first arrived at the site of present-day Toronto, the vicinity was inhabited by the Huron tribes, who by then had displaced the Iroquois tribes that occupied the region for centuries before c. 1500. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto, meaning "place where trees stand in the water". It refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point led to widespread use of the name.

French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the unsettled lands north of Lake Ontario.

It is believed the first European Kindred settled about this time. Unknown is if there were native vampires who hunted on the traders before. If so, they hadn’t been seen in numbers more than one or two, and only every few years would they make an appearance. Reports circulate of one unnamed woman, young with hair the colour of a starless night, who never strayed far from the lakeshore. Occasionally, her siren song could be heard in the middle of the night, and often the following morning it was found someone has gone missing, only to turn up days later, drowned and naked.


Toronto History: The Toronto Purchase
In 1787, the British negotiated the Toronto Purchase with the Mississaugas of New Credit, thereby securing more than a quarter million acres of land in the Toronto area.

In 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the existing settlement, naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe chose the town to replace Newark as the capital of Upper Canada, believing the new site would be less vulnerable to attack by the Americans. Fort York was constructed at the entrance of the town's natural harbour, sheltered by a long sand-bar peninsula. The town's settlement formed at the eastern end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day Parliament Street.


Toronto History: a Kindred Prince
In that same year, the first Prince of York is crowned. Invictus, as was the majority of his Court – seconded by the Second Estate, the Lancea Sanctum, who resided steadfast beside their oldest allies. Daeva Prince Thomas Schaffer would orchestrate a tyrannical reign, keeping a stranglehold on the city for just over one century. He was part of a strong Dynastic House, consisting of one other Daeva, and a Nosferatu; the House Wilhemina.

In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the town's capture and plunder by American forces. The surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. American soldiers destroyed much of Fort York and set fire on the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation.

York was incorporated as the City of Toronto on March 6, 1834, reverting to its original native name. Reformist politician William Lyon Mackenzie became the first Mayor of Toronto, and led the unsuccessful Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 against the British colonial government. The city grew rapidly through the remainder of the 19th century, as a major destination for immigrants to Canada. The Irish potato famine between 1846 and 1849 brought a large number of Irish diaspora into the city, most of them Catholic. By 1851, the Irish-born population had become the largest single ethnic group in the city. Smaller numbers of Protestant Irish immigrants were welcomed by the existing Scottish and English population, giving the Orange Order significant influence over Toronto society.

When Lorelei Kelly came over from Ireland via NY - at the call of her sire, as a loyal servant to the First Estate, in particular one dynastic House…. The Prince’s House. This is also said to be when the majority of Kindred immigrated who call the city home tonight.

Toronto was twice for brief periods the capital of the united Province of Canada first from 1849-1852, following unrest in Montreal and later 1856-1858 after which Quebec became capital until just a year prior to Confederation, since then it has been Ottawa. As it had been for Upper Canada from 1793, Toronto became the capital of the province of Ontario after its official creation in 1867 and has remained so since with the Ontario Legislature located at Queen's Park. Because of its capital status, the city has also always been the location of Government House, the residence of the vice-regal representative of the Crown.

The city began to rapidly industrialize in the middle of the 19th century. An extensive sewage system was built, and streets became illuminated with gas lighting as a regular service. Long-distance railway lines were constructed, including a route completed in 1854 linking Toronto with the Upper Great Lakes. The Grand Trunk Railway and the Great Northern Railway joined in the building of the first Union Station in downtown.

The Toronto Islands were actually a landspit until a storm in 1858 severed its connection to the mainland.

This is told to be the doings of the Circle – the culumnation of a cataclysmic underground war waged by the Acolytes internally. Two major sects had grown and fought for the same power. Ultimately, there could be only one victor. The Circle from that time forth was divided into two camps: One led by Raven Hill and delving into consorting with ghosts and demons, who claimed the Islands as their undisputed domain -- the other led by a mysterious androgynous creature, Phalip LaNon, who wore the bloody crown of the Hierophant for a Circle devoted to the bloody Goddess Cybele; the only officially sanctioned following of the Crone in Toronto ‘til this night.

The advent of the railway dramatically increased the numbers of immigrants arriving and commerce, as had the Lake Ontario steamers and schooners entering the port. Horse-drawn streetcars gave way to electric streetcars in 1891, when the city granted the operation of the transit franchise to the Toronto Railway Company later re-named the current Toronto Transit Commission, now with the third highest ridership of any city public transportation system in North America.

Seraphim is Embraced in 1903, though she survives in secrecy for nearly sixty years through a black deal between Lord Urquhart and her sire, a well-known member of the Ordo Dracul.


Toronto History: The Great Fire
The Great Toronto Fire of 1904 destroyed a large section of downtown Toronto, but the city was quickly rebuilt. The fire had cost more than $10 million in damage, and led to more stringent fire safety laws and the expansion of the city's fire department.

With the fire, the Prince's House was partially destroyed: the Prince himself perished and a majority of the House's assets were lost. Lorelei was grudgingly accepted into the Dynasty as a replacement for Prince Schaeffer. The other Daeva, a business-minded woman named Ursula, was woken prematurely from her eclipse to rule Toronto, and Lorelei's sire took his turn in the hallowed halls of torpor, as was proper; 1 asleep, two awake. Lorelei was to be Ursula's apprentice for the next one-hundred and eleven years.

The city received new immigrant groups beginning in the late 19th century into early 20th century, particularly Germans, Italians, and Jews from various parts of Eastern Europe. They were soon followed by Chinese, Russians, Poles and immigrants from other Eastern European nations, as the Irish before them, many of these new migrants lived in overcrowded shanty type slums, such as the "the Ward" which was between Bay Street, now the heart of the country finances and the Discovery District, considered one of the world's most advanced medical research zones. Despite its fast paced growth, by the 1920s, Toronto's population and economic importance in Canada remained second to the much longer established Montreal, and by 1934, the Toronto Stock Exchange had become the largest in the country.

Following the Second World War, refugees from war-torn Europe arrived as did construction labourers particularly from Italy and Portugal. Following elimination of racially based immigration policies by the late 1960s, immigration began from all parts of the world. Toronto's population grew to more than one million in 1951 when large-scale suburbanization began, and doubled to two million by 1971. By the 1980s, Toronto had surpassed Montreal as Canada's most populous city and the chief economic hub. During this time, many national and multinational corporations moved their head offices from Montreal to Toronto and other western Canadian cities.

Spring, 1961. Lord Urquhart sent Seraphim to aid the Princess as a messenger, a play-thing and gift for the Crown, she posed as nothing more than an unfortunate ghouled child, and was often seen for years sitting quietly at Ursula's feet, the Princess occassionally stroking the girl on the head; yet keeping Urquhart informed of movements of the uprising and was in the court of Princess Ursula when the final hammer fell and she was challenged to step down or be destroyed. Ursula, needless to say, declined and fell under a torrent of blows before her supporters managed to come to her side and all hell broke loose in the halls of the Court itself.

Lorelei Kelly becomes Prince of Toronto, effectively keeping the Crown within her House dispite arguments that the Ancilla did not "have what it took" to rule the city. Lorelei showed great foresight and brought to the table a pair of mortal twins: One Nosferatu, one Mekhet. The Nosferatu was set to become the Master of Elysium within the halls of the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, her blood flowing with the innate understanding of institutions that comes with the Morotrophian line. Her twin sister, now an Shadow but truly the more gregarious of the pair, was something of a Pr specialist, the strength of her own blood ties and understanding of relations underlined by the First Estates' bloodweb, the Lynx. Impressed with this set-up, the Invictus conceeded and did not strip the Wilhemina House of their Crown (much to the upset of Lord Xavier Urqhart, who had for decades been working to tear down the House so he could rise from its smouldering ashes).

Lorelei then established Bishop Samuel Aquinas as her Seneschel, and the child-Dragon Seraphim as her Herald, surprising and outraging many.


Metropolitan Toronto: In 1954, the City of Toronto was federated into a regional government known as Metropolitan Toronto. The postwar boom had resulted in rapid suburban development, and it was believed that a coordinated land use strategy and shared services would provide greater efficiency for the region. The metropolitan government began to manage services that crossed municipal boundaries, including highways, water and public transit. In 1967, the seven smallest municipalities of the region were merged into their larger neighbours, resulting in a six-city configuration that included the old City of Toronto and the surrounding municipalities of East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough and York. In 1998, the metropolitan government was dissolved and the six municipalities were amalgamated into a single municipality, creating the current City of Toronto.

Toronto, for all its boasted multiculturalism, has been an Invictus stronghold since its fledgling nights.



source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto
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