Bombay by Night

Bombay by Night

Bombay by Night is a Camarilla Chronicle set in Bombay (Modern-day Mumbai, India) at the end of the 17th Century. It is the time of ambitious mercantile expansion and the parasitic Kindred that follow them into the uncharted corners of the map, the chronicle is about claiming new and mysterious lands and how the Kindred fight to defend their claims from the locals who dislike your arrival.

The year is 1668 and the Seven Islands of Bombay have just been sold to the East India Company a few months after the British crown “gained” the islands from the Portuguese Empire in a political wedding, the characters are a coterie of Kindred from the newly-formed Camarilla who have been sent to the distant lands of the Far East to secure the Sect’s position in hostile oriental lands. Will the characters use the brute force of muskets or the velvet glove of diplomacy to secure their place in the world and whose loyalty will they cling to while they climb the ladder of power?

It is the Age of Discovery. Spain and Portugal are losing their dominating monopoly over the New World and the Orient, while the British and Dutch East India Companies are just beginning their rise to power. The Thirteen Colonies won’t have their Independence for another hundred years and flintlocks are being introduced in large numbers to armies despite their terrible rate of misfires.

History, both Kindred and Kine

• 1486: The leaders of each of the major European clans sends a representative to a formal meeting in Vienna at the request of a Kindred called ''Hardestadt''. Their they would agree to form a group called the ''Camarilla'', which would unite to crush the anarch movement forever.
• 1493, 23rd of October: The Anarch leaders gather with Hardestadt and the leaders of the Camarilla in ''The Abbey of the Sacred Crown'' near the English village of Thorns, in what would later be called the ''Convention of Thorns''. All bar the Lasombra and Tzimisce anarchs agree to give up their rebellion, and the Assamites would receive a terrible curse placed on them by the Tremere.
• 1534, 23rd of December: Growing apprehensive of the power of the Mughal Emperor Humayan and having suffered several defeats at the hands of the Portuguese, Sultan Bahadur Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate was obliged to sign ''the seven islands of Bombay and Bassein'' over to the Portuguese Empire in the Treaty of Bassein. Initially this was a rent agreement but nearly a full year later Sultan Bahadur had lost complete control of the islands, and an Islamic ruler would never again rule the seven islands.
• 1534 - 1535: The Portuguese, who have gone from the dominant traders of the islands to owners of the lands, purchase and acquire the lands from its inhabitants. Many manor-houses, castles, warehouses and churches were built. The Portuguese aggressively attempt to convert everyone to Catholicism, this causes a great deal of friction with the population despite supposedly converting nearly 10,000 people.
• 1600, 31st of December: The British East India Company is founded by Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I under the name ''Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies''.
• 1612, November: The East India Company, led by Captain Thomas Best, defeat the Portuguese at the Battle of Swally. While this was a minor naval skirmish of small numbers, it greatly impressed the Emperor of the Mughal Empire Jahangir who was much more favourable towards the British from then on. Portuguese harassment of Mecca-bound ships on the West coast of India also help lower the Emperor's opinion of the Portuguese. The Portuguese monopoly of trade on the west coast of India begins to fade.
• 1652: The British East India Company urges Oliver Cromwell to purchase Bombay from the Portuguese, the growing power of the Dutch Empire is a good incentive, but Oliver Cromwell has other more local concerns.
• 1658: Aurangzeb with machiavellian cunning, deposes his father and defeats his three brothers to becomes the new Emperor of the Mughal Empire. It is the single largest Empire that the Europeans have to deal with on the sub-continent.
• 1661, 11th of May: King Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of King John IV of Portugal, places Bombay in possession of the British Empire as part of the dowry.
• 1661: Bombay's population is registered to be 10,000. This figure would mean that the Portuguese have successfully converted the entire population. Any form of travel through Bombay disproves that they are entirely Catholic and many religions co-exist together on the islands.
• 1662, October: Abraham Shipman, the first British Governor arrives at Bombay to take over the city. The Portuguese Governor refuses, citing irregularities in the paperwork, promising only to give over the seven islands and its dependencies. Shipman refuses this deal and is subsequently refused entry to the port. He is forced to retired to the island of Anjediva in North Canara where he dies in October 1664.
• 1664, November: Shipman's successor, Humphrey Cooke, agrees to the Portuguese deal on the condition that the Portuguese citizens are given special treatment and that the British do not interfere in the Catholic's conversion attempts.
• 1665 - 1666: Governor Cooke ''acquires'' about half of the dependencies from the Portuguese for the British Empire.
• 1668, 21st of September: Bombay is transferred to the English East India Company for the annual rent of £10. Sir George Oxenden becomes the first Governor of Bombay.
• 1668, late November: The ship ''The Bounties Might'' arrives in Bombay and delivers its shadowy passengers...