Nearly 40 years ago, on February 24th, 1979, the Seattle Consilium fell to the rising influence of the Ministry of Panopticon. Always boasting a large and active Assembly, the predominately Mysterium and Free Council dominated city had never had an especial problem with the Seers of the Throne in the past, not until the arrival of Microsoft and the Pantechnic/Panoptic Pylons that accompanied the corporation as it settled into its new Headquarters in Bellevue. The Free Council engaged in some probing assaults aimed at dislodging the nascent Seer presence, largely thinking themselves successful in their efforts until the massive counterattack neatly decapitated the Pentacle in a single night.
The cities Hierarch and four of its five Councilors perished in that initial attack, and for the next four years the Pentacle was under siege. The remnants of the Assembly organized under a Strategos, fighting futilely to establish some breathing room for the survivors, the Wise who did not flee quickly finding themselves in the middle of a desperate and failing shadow war. Finally, in 1983, the Convocation of Vancouver ordered the withdrawal of those Wise still fighting in the city and the establishment of sanctuaries by the Consilium's of Vancouver and Portland.
In the words of Khagan, Strategos of the Free Council:
Stryck Wiki⚠ <br> This is an acknowledgement of Defeat, for we have been brought low but we will lick our wounds and we will return to our home again.⚠ <br> We will never forget, we will never forgive these crimes against us, and one day we will again be strong.⚠ <br> We will destroy the Servants of the Lie."
The Free Council struck at the entrenched Seer's for the next 16 years, winning no few victories but finding that fulfilling the promise that Khagan had made eluded them. Though they inflicted punitive damage on the various Pylons that now ran the city, they were no closer to taking it back, except in one particular. Namely, at the cost of no few Councilor's lives, the Free Council managed to learn the identity of the Architect of Seattle's fall to the Seers of the Throne: the all-seeing Tetrarch of the Ministry of Panopticon. Argos.
Though the Free Council's success at their mandate to Destroy the Followers of the Lie was mixed at best, their efforts in other arenas was considerably more successful. A mixed Guardian/Council cabal known as the Broken Cage made it their mandate to guard over those who sleep fitfully in the Seer-dominated city of Seattle. The Cabal rescued dozens of newly-Awakened Wise from the Iron Pyramid, even taking effort to prevent the awakenings of those who they believed would aid the Seers, all while setting the framework for what would eventually be Seattle's liberation. In 1999, a joint Ladder/Arrow effort was organized behind the man who would one day take his position as Seattle's Hierarch.
The Silver Ladder united the various cabals that would see to the Liberation of Seattle under the aegis of the Star. Claiming to have been guided by divine omen and prophecy, Balthasar, along with his Lieutenants Gaspar and Melchior, began the campaign to retake the city for the Pentacle on December 31st, 1999, having arranged the cooperation of no fewer than 13-cabals from in and around the region and a number of Pentacle Mages from as far afield as Asia and the Europe. (The war effort even benefited from the heroic attention of a strange astralled-touched Draconic creature, of uncertain origin, whose mastery of potent Astral Portals was instrumental to a number of the early efforts. Nor was this notable the only unique asset brought to bear in the war to retake Seattle.) The fighting was brutal, especially in Bellevue, and dragged on for most of the year but the Pentacle managed to reclaim the city before the dawn of the new Millennium.
Hostilities never ended, instead gradually dying down over time, until reaching a vague kind of status quo.
In the modern day, the Pentacle is largely entrenched in Seattle itself while the Seers of the Throne maintain absolute control over Bellevue. Both sides keep a watchful eye for the activities of their counterpart across Lake Washington, a cunning shadow war that is fought as much through information and lies as it is via killing spells and gunfire in the dark.