In July of 1763, King Louis the Fifteenth of France granted an exclusive contract controlling the fur trade along the Missouri and upper Mississippi rivers to a trading company led by Pierre Laclède. In August of that year, Laclède and a small company, including his fourteen-year old clerk, René Chouteau, left New Orleans to explore the area granted to them by the King, selecting an area in December that was near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, but also removed from the rivers enough to be free from the flooding that periodically affected the area. In February of 1764, Chouteau and a group of workmen from the village of Fort Chartres began construction of a trading post according to the plan Laclède had drawn up. The small village that sprang up around the trading post was named St. Louis in honor of King Louis the Ninth (who had been canonized in 1297 and was, therefore, a saint).

From all accounts, the mainly French inhabitants of St. Louis had cordial relations with the Missoura and Osage peoples who lived in the area as the village was founded. The relatively isolated village quickly became the chief point of departure for fur trappers and explorers traveling on the Missouri and other westward-leading rivers. Unfortunately, the lands around the village were not very good agricultural land, forcing the citizens of St. Louis to frequently rely on imports for basic staples. In fact, the village acquired the nickname "Pain Court" ("short of bread" in French) during this time due to shortages. Several groups of Sabbat moved through the area as they were exploring the American Territories and moving out west, but no permanent vampiric settlements were made in St. Louis.

In 1765, the Spanish, who really controlled the area St. Louis was in (as the province of Louisiana had been given to them by the French in February of 1763 in a secret treaty) voided Laclède's exclusive fur contract; Laclède remained in the area, serving as the principal merchant of the fur trading company he had established. Further, he was viewed as the "first citizen" of the town by many of the settlers there, and was essentially treated as the Mayor of the small village of St. Louis. In 1770, the Spanish established the seat of the government for Upper Louisiana in St. Louis, and expanded the area significantly, destroying many native mounds (built by the peoples who had resided in the area before the Missoura and Osage peoples, known only as the "Mound Builders") as the village expanded. St. Louis quickly became the headquarters of the western fun trade, although the majority of the inhabitants were still French, not Spanish. It was around this time that the first vampiric settlers came to town -- a small pack of Sabbat led by Aureilo Julio de Chascarrillo (who named himself the Bishop of St. Louis in 1774). Pierre Laclède died in 1778 as he was returning to St. Louis, having gone to New Orleans on a business trip.

From 1770 to 1800, St. Louis prospered under Spanish rule, and the small enclave of Sabbat grew from a pack of six into three packs of Sabbat, totaling 17 Cainites. After Laclède's death, René Chouteau and his brother, Jean, took over the control of Laclède's trading company and developed the business further, becoming the primary economic power in St. Louis. In 1800, Napoleon forced Spain to return the Louisiana Territory to France (albeit in another secret treaty), and the Spanish slowly withdrew their officials from the area.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent the respected statesman James Monroe to France to assist in negotiations between the American Minister to France, Robert Livingston, and the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. These negotiations, which had been going on for a year, were an attempt to improve relations between the United States of America and France; they culminated on April 11th, 1803 when Minister Talleyrand offered to sell the Americans the entire Louisiana Territory. In the beginning of May, papers were officially signed (postdated to April 30th, 1803) and France sold America the Louisiana Territory for $15 million. According to legend, on the day of transfer of the territory to the United States, St. Louis flew under three flags in one day -- French, Spanish, and American, as no one was entirely certain which nation was ultimately "in control" of the territory. In June of 1803, President Jefferson authorized the exploration of the territory and lands further west, ultimately leading to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Meriweather Lewis and William Clark, both members of the United States military, gathered a sizable party of civilian hunters, army soldiers, French boatmen and so on, and selected St. Louis to serve as their launching point, creating a base camp at the Wood River just outside of the growing town. The expedition set out from St. Louis in May of 1804, and increased awareness of the fledgling village. More New Englanders and other East Coast emigrants came to St. Louis after 1804, but the population remained predominantly French at this time. René Chouteau became a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas at this time. In September of 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition returned to St. Louis and was given a hero's welcome. President Jefferson appointed Lewis at the Governor of the Louisiana Territory; the Governor chose St. Louis as his base of operations and attempted to rule the territory from there.

St. Louis was officially incorporated into a village in 1808 and formed a Board of Trustees shortly thereafter; René Chouteau was named its President. In September of 1809, Governor Lewis left St. Louis to head to Washington, DC to answer questions about the effectiveness of his rule; unfortunately, Lewis committed suicide on October 10th, 1809 during his journey to Washington. St. Louis slowly began growing into an important center of commerce and trade during this time, eventually attracting the attention of the Camarilla. In August of 1817, a small group of Kindred, led by a Ventrue named Jean de la Courcel, came to the village and engaged the Sabbat force there. The Camarilla were triumphant, and dispersed the handful of Sabbat in the village; de la Courcel personally captured Bishop de Chascarrillo, staked him and let the morning sun destroy him in front of ghouled witnesses. On September 1st, 1817, Jean de la Courcel named himself Prince of St. Louis. The first university in St. Louis, Saint Louis University, was founded in 1818.

In 1822, the village of St. Louis incorporated into a city, and the Camarilla presence there grew. The fur trade remained the city's major economic activity until about 1840, when fur trapping began to decline in the West. However, as settlement pushed westward across the plains, St. Louis developed as a major outfitting center for migrating settlers. Steamboats, flatboats, and keelboats crowded the city's waterfront. St. Louis grew into an important center of commerce and trade during this time, attracting thousands of immigrants eager to find a new life on the edge of the frontier. The population of the city exploded with new immigrants; Germans and Irish became the dominant ethnic groups settling in the city -- especially in the wake of the German Revolution and Irish Potato Famine. René Chouteau passed away in 1829.

Except for the warehouses and industries along the waterfront, the upland location of the city made it safe from floods of the Mississippi River. The great flood of 1830 threatened to shift the river course to the east and cut off the docks and wharves in St. Louis, a threat removed only after jetties were constructed to stabilize the river course. It was also during this time, in 1846, that a slave named Dred Scott sued to prove that he and his wife, Harriet, and their two daughters were legally entitled to freedom. Scott lost his case in St. Louis and appealed, beginning a long chain of events that culminated in 1857, when the United States Supreme Court concluded that blacks, even when free, could never become citizens of the United States of America -- in addition to declaring that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories.

In the meantime, back in St. Louis, the Kindred grew and prospered under the reign of Prince de la Courcel. The Ventrue primarily controlled the city, but large numbers of Gangrel and Brujah also thrived in the area. In 1849 fire visited the city; a fire broke out in the steamboat White Cloud at the levee, and some 20 steamboats were consumed. The fire spread to the shore and swept through 15 blocks of buildings, thankfully, only two Kindred -- a Malkavian named Christian Strauss and a Tremere named Raymond Davenport -- were killed in the fires. Rumor quickly spread that Davenport was somehow responsible for the fire, and while this rumor was never proven or dismissed, a small 'taint' hovered over the few Tremere of St. Louis for some years to come. That same year, an exceptionally virulent cholera epidemic killed over 4550 people in the city, or almost twenty percent of the city's population at the time. The city quickly recovered however, becoming one of the nation's leading centers for processing and shipping agricultural produce, as well as for the manufacture of farm equipment, following the development of agriculture on the fertile lands of the upper Mississippi and Missouri valleys. In addition, the city's economic growth was spurred by the coming of the railroads in the 1850s. By 1860 St. Louis was linked by railroad with Chicago and other large markets east of the Mississippi River. The city's economic growth was paralleled by a great increase in population. In 1840 St. Louis had 16,469 inhabitants; by 1860 its population had reached 160,773. At the same time, by 1860, there were twenty-three Kindred officially in the St. Louis area.

In 1861, the American Civil War began, an although Missouri was one of the so-called "border states," where economic and cultural loyalties split residents between the Union and Confederate causes, St. Louis ultimately supported the Union -- in large part due to the fiercely loyal German influences in town. St. Louis served as an important Union supply base and hospital center during the war. No major battle was fought in or near the city, however, despite St. Louis' strategic location. The Union's war needs also encouraged the development of industry in the city.

Between 1860 and 1870 the value of manufactured goods produced in St. Louis increased fourfold. In the same decade the city's population almost doubled, as even more immigrants -- including Italians, Serbians, Syrians, Greeks and Lebanese -- came to the city. The mortal population reached almost 311,000 in 1870, and the number of Kindred in St. Louis shot up to 43. Prince de la Courcel had several skirmishes with newly arrived Kindred during this time, and even defeated Nikolai Dušan, a Serbian Brujah who attempted to take over the city in 1868 with the backing of several dissatisfied Brujah and Gangrel who felt that Prince de la Courcel was not properly representing their needs. Several members of the Tremere Clan in the city assisted Prince de la Courcel in defending his Princedom; in return for their support, the Prince formally cleared the Tremere of any blame from the 1849 fires, officially ascribing the cause of the fire to human error.

During the postwar years, St. Louis became one of the leading railroad centers in the United States. In 1874 the Eads Bridge was completed across the Mississippi River, easing the delivery of coal from rich fields in Illinois to St. Louis industry. Considered an engineering marvel in its day, it was the longest span in the United States when completed and it made St. Louis an important link in the continuing growth of transcontinental rail travel. Unfortunately the bridge came too late to prevent Chicago from overtaking it as the largest rail hub in the nation.

In 1876, the formal boundaries of St. Louis were established when voters approved separation from St Louis County and establishment of a home rule charter. The separation formally severed the taxation of St. Louis City from St. Louis County, considered an excellent move at the time given that the city was significantly wealthier than the surrounding rural lands, and the separation of taxes prevented city funds from being squandered on the county level. The separation of St. Louis from the county also strengthened Prince de la Courcel's hold over the city and increased his own finances as well.

By the 1890s, St. Louis was the nation's fourth largest city, although its growth was slowing, partially in part due to political corruption. Unscrupulous members of the city assembly formed the Combine, a corrupt political machine, under the direction of political boss Colonel Edward Butler, a blacksmith who had risen to the position of a millionaire politician and had become a ghoul of Prince de la Courcel. The Combine would pass or defeat bills for bribes. The system led to other corrupt practices, such as blackmail, payroll padding, profiteering on public improvements, and profiteering on city contracts. By 1900 the city's population had reached approximately 575,00 mortals and 59 Kindred, and St. Louis ranked as the fourth largest city in the United States.

In 1904, two things occurred that changed the city of St. Louis dramatically. First, the city hosted a World's Fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In conjunction with the World's Fair, St. Louis hosted the 1904 Olympic Games. The fair lasted for seven months, and attracted over 20 million visitors to the city. Both of these events brought St. Louis to the attention of the world at large, benefited the city's business enterprises, and increased the city's industrial and commercial development.

The sudden growth of St. Louis, coupled with the influx of visitors, brought an increase in Kindred in the city as well. By the end of 1904, there were almost seventy Kindred in St. Louis, and Prince de la Courcel's resources were sometimes strained to the breaking point in ensuring that the Masquerade was kept safe. Matters came to a head in February of 1905 when Marcus Waterman, a Brujah, attempted to gain control over a high-ranking police official for his own purposes. Waterman's attempts at gaining control were crude and not well thought out, and ultimately threatened to play out in the city's papers, endangering the Masquerade greatly. When Prince de la Courcel learned about what Waterman was doing, he quickly responded with several draconian measures that resulted in the use of Dominate on several members of the police force, almost $5,000 in bribes being spent and, finally the Final Deaths of Waterman and a Nosferatu known as "Napoleon."

On March 15th, 1905, an unknown assailant killed Prince de la Courcel as he was going from his haven to Elysium in order to discuss the consequences of the Waterman affair with several esteemed members of the Camarilla of St. Louis. The Kindred of St. Louis essentially tore the city apart, searching for Prince de la Courcel's assassin, and on March 22nd, Shannon Robertson, a Brujah, presented a Malkavian who went by the name "Mister Pike" to an assemblage of St. Louis' Camarilla and claimed that Pike had killed Prince de la Courcel. Under questioning, Pike admitted to the act and his confession was verified to be truthful. Pike was ultimately destroyed in a pyre, and shortly afterwards Robertson became Prince of St. Louis.

Throughout the early twentieth century, the city of St. Louis continued to expand and increase in stature, continuing its industrialization and economic growth. Several automobile manufacturing plants were opened in the area, bringing with them thousands of African-Americans looking for jobs; the increasing popularity of the automobile caused traffic congestion in the downtown area of the city as early as 1919. As further indication of the impact of cars in the city, it should be noted that the first gasoline station in America and the first automobile accident occurred in St. Louis. The city prospered under the rule of Prince Robertson, and matters concerning the Masquerade and the population of Kindred in the city stabilized. When Prohibition began in the early 1920s, there was an increase in criminal activity in St. Louis as bootlegging and "gangsterism" sprang up in the city, but the actually amount of crime was minimal when compared to other cities in the area, such as Chicago.

Unfortunately, in 1929, the Great Depression began, signaled in part by the stock market crash in October of that year. As markets in rural Missouri and Illinois declined, it's industrial and commercial development faltered and began to stagnate. As jobs failed, unemployment soared, the economy failed and drought spread through the Great Plains states destroying farms, the population of St. Louis plummeted as people left the city. The majority of the Kindred in St. Louis left as well, searching for "greener pastures" and better times. Prince Robertson remained behind in St. Louis, bitterly decrying those Kindred who fled "at the first sign of troubles," and publicly vowed to make St. Louis strong again. The city virtually emptied of Kindred during this time, however, leaving behind only those few Kindred who refused to leave for one reason or another.

The entry of the United States into World War II in 1941 spurred the industrial recovery of St. Louis, as it did other U.S. cities. During the war, the St. Louis area became a major center for aircraft production, and more people filtered back into the city as jobs increased. By 1940, over 800,000 people lived in the city of St. Louis, although many Kindred did not return and the vampiric population of the city remained relatively small.

After World War II ended, industry in the city diversified and grew, but other businesses lagged and did not share in the post-war boom. The population continued to increase, and by in 1950, St. Louis peaked with 856,000 citizens. The city became exceptionally crowded and began running out of room to grow within its fixed boundaries. Additionally, most of the housing within the city itself had been neglected during the Great Depression and World War II, meaning that any new growth for St. Louis had to occur in the suburbs in St. Louis County, which the city could not annex or generate tax revenues from, thanks to the 1867 charter. Several attempts to modernize the city charter were proposed, but failed to win support from the public, despite Prince Robertson's manipulation of the media to sway opinion.

Although some African-Americans from the South, as well as Southeast Missourians continued to move into St. Louis, earlier immigrant generations gradually moved into suburbia, slowly causing the city's population to decline. In 1953, a number of far-reaching urban renewal projects were initiated, along with massive public housing development projects. These programs did not stem the tide of population loss, and in some cases contributed to it -- as when four interstate highways cut massive swaths through neighborhoods and actually helped to facilitate the exodus to the suburbs.

In the 1960s, millions of dollars were spent in an effort to convert blighted areas into modern-era residential, commercial and recreational centers, ultimately resulting in the complete rebuilding of one-fifth of the city's total area. The construction included such items as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (which includes the Gateway Arch), the Busch Memorial Stadium (which became the home of the Cardinals baseball team). The Gateway Arch, designed by famed Finnish-American architect Eero Saarien, was completed in 1965 (after Saarien's death in 1961), while the Stadium was finished in 1966. Rumors that the scant Tremere of St. Louis were involved in the construction of the Arch were repeated denied while it was being constructed and afterwards, despite rumors that Saarien was somehow involved in the occult or was using the Arch to create a magical effect of some sort. With the opening of the Jefferson Memorial and the Arch, tourism to St. Louis increased, and slowly became an important source of income for the city. The construction of the Arch and the Stadium began a thirty-year building boom in downtown St. Louis, slowly turning the tide against the decay of the city.

As the 1970s began, more and more construction occurred in St. Louis. The Cervantes Convention Center was built in downtown St. Louis and completed in 1978 and large tracts of commercial and residential real estate were successfully rehabilitated around that time as well. There was even an increase in the attempts to preserve some of the more historical neighborhoods of St. Louis -- although that preservation was partially fueled by federal tax credits. As the city began to slowly recover from the long economic problems that had been crippling it since the Great Depression, more and more Kindred began to return to the city, increasing its vampiric population. On the other hand, while the vampiric population grew, the city's population declined, as many of the city's African-Americans began to move out to the suburbs surrounding the city. Whites had already been fleeing to the suburbs ever since a 1972 court ruling had forced school integration in several mainly African-American district neighborhoods. By 1980, the city's population had fallen to about 450,000.

As more and more Kindred returned to St. Louis, Prince Robertson became more and more detached from the procedures of ruling the city, spending more and more time pursuing other interests and researching matters of "concern to all the Camarilla, not just those in St. Louis." In 1981, Prince Robertson officially turned over the control of the "night to night" matters of St. Louis to the Seneschal, and essentially retreated out of the public eye for large stretches of time. During this time, Prince Robertson received many visits from high-ranking members of the Camarilla, including an Archon or two, and the city gained a reputation for being neutral grounds of sorts. In fact, in 1985, when several Camarilla members of Minneapolis and St. Paul made a non-aggression pact with several werewolves in their cities, they asked for Prince Robertson's permission to meet in St. Louis and use it as an impartial and unbiased meeting place to hold their talks. The Prince granted permission, and in April of 1985, a small conclave between the werewolves and Camarilla of Minneapolis and St. Paul was held at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in the southwest of the city.

The growth of St. Louis slowed slightly in the late 1980s, thanks to the overall economic recession of the times and a tax reform bill passed in 1986. However, even during this slow growth period, several urban revitalization efforts were made. For example, the MetroLink light rail line, the Trans World Dome (which became the home of the Rams football team), the Kiel Civic Center (which became the homes of the Blues hockey team) and an expansion to the Cervantes Center were all completed during this time. In spite of this, the mortal population continued to decline, and in 1990 there were only around 397,000 people living in the city.

In 1993, the great Mississippi River flood further detracted from urban revitalization efforts; thankfully, most of the low-lying industrial areas of St. Louis were protected by a floodwall. Nevertheless, severe flooding damaged the western and southern parts of the city. Neighborhood renewal efforts continued however, with several local businesses (such as Anheuser-Busch, Ralston-Purina and Monsanto) sponsoring the labor to recover after the flooding. Automotive production also continued to increase in the city during this time, as the Ford Motor Company, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler all opened plants in the area, making it the second largest producer of automobiles in America (just after Detroit).

Despite the continuing departure of mortals from the city, the Kindred of St. Louis continued to grow and prosper. In 1996, several Anarch Kindred from the "Anarch Free State" in Madison, Wisconsin moved into the St. Louis metropolitan area. The Anarchs originally claimed territory in the mainly depressed, decaying and un-revitalized urban neighborhood of East St. Louis. East St. Louis, while technically a town in it's own right and just across the river in the state of Illinois, was considered to be part of the St. Louis area by almost everyone, mortal and Kindred alike. After a few skirmishes between the Camarilla and Anarch groups, Prince Robertson met with several of the key members of the Anarch groups in East St. Louis and offered them a deal of sorts. Prince Robertson decreed that as long as the Anarchs were willing to abide by the few rules and laws of St. Louis, respect the Elysiums and not endanger the Masquerade, they would be allowed to reside in the St. Louis area. Further, the Anarchs would be granted the autonomy to deal with their own internal issues and not have to worry about Camarilla forces intervening, provided that the Anarchs' issues did not cause problems for the Camarilla. The Anarchs agreed to this unofficial treaty, and have remained in St. Louis with out significant problems since.

The population of St. Louis continued to decline during this time, and by 1998, only 339,000 people officially lived within the city boundaries. In November of 1998, however, a situation arose that altered the Kindred politics of St. Louis. After a week or so in which many of the Malkavians of St. Louis became increasingly deranged and many of the more "psychically sensitive" members of the cities were plagued with nightmares and horrifying visions (giving the period of time its nickname, "The Week of Nightmares"), Leanne Rey, the Malkavian Primogen of St. Louis, attacked Prince Robertson while at a Court inside Elysium. Before the Keeper of Elysium could restrain Primogen Rey, Prince Robertson destroyed her. Immediately after Rey's ashes were scattered from the top of the Arch, Prince Robertson decreed that the Primogen Council of St. Louis would be disbanded for a period of time, and that the rule of the city would rest firmly in the hands of the Prince, the Seneschal, the Keeper and the Sheriff. Further, Prince Robertson granted the Right of Destruction to the Seneschal, Keeper and Sheriff to use as they saw fit. While there was some resistance to this decree from the other Primogen at the time, the Kindred of St. Louis agreed to it, provided that the Prince would reconsider and allow the Council to reform at some point in the future.

In 1999, a nomadic Sabbat pack in transit from New Jersey to Mexico passed through St. Louis, attempting to speed through the city undetected. Unfortunately, a small group of Anarchs intercepted the Sabbat pack, and a long car chase and gunfight ensued. Two members of the Sabbat pack managed to make it to Elysium, where they claimed the right of sanctuary provided by Elysium. The Keeper of Elysium agreed, and destroyed three of the Anarchs who argued otherwise and attempted to kill the Sabbat inside the grounds of Elysium. The Keeper formally declared that as long as the two Sabbat were inside Elysium, they would be granted all the protections and safeguards and social niceties that any other Kindred inside Elysium (or, indeed any other being inside Elysium) would be granted. The two Sabbat vampires have remained trapped inside Elysium since then.

For the most part, the 1990s were a period of rebuilding and renovation within St. Louis, as urban decay, the deterioration of inner-city housing, interracial tensions, homelessness, traffic congestion, and air and water pollution continued to be problems for the city. These problems were all exacerbated by a lack of civic funds, since many sources of tax revenue for the city were inaccessible and out of reach in suburban areas. Despite this, the Kindred of St. Louis managed to survive and become comfortable, as many important visitors came to the city to meet with Prince Robertson. Tensions between the Anarchs and Camarilla eased, and even the two Sabbat vampires trapped in Elysium essentially blended into the background and became fixtures and sources of amusement for many within St. Louis.

As the twenty-first century began in 2001, neighborhood revitalization efforts continued and big business grew within the city. The Kindred of St. Louis managed to survive, despite the shrinking population of the city itself. Prince Robertson began talking about re-establishing the Primogen Council at some point in the future, although no official date for such an event was ever really discussed.

In April of 2004, a splinter group of Assamite Kindred, fleeing the internal struggles that had recently consumed that Clan, came to St. Louis and met with the Seneschal, discussing the possibility of establishing some sort of territory within the city. The Seneschal reluctantly agreed to allow the Assamites entry into the city, noting that St. Louis had developed a reputation as being a "free zone." Prince Robertson, immediately contradicted the Seneschal, forcibly expulsing the Assamites from St. Louis and forbidding their presence there. In November of 2004, it was discovered that the Greater Harpy of the city, a Toreador named Ingrid Olfsdotter, had been in communication with the Assamites and was working on gaining them a territory in St. Louis. Infuriated by Olfsdotter's actions, Prince Robertson staked the Harpy and had two retainers videotape her death at the touch of the rising sun.

Prince Robertson had a meeting with the Seneschal, Keeper of Elysium and Sheriff after Olfsdotter's death and announced that shortly after 2005 began, a Primogen Council would be formed, and that they would be allowed to approve of the nomination of a new Greater Harpy for St. Louis.