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Arguably the most pivotal - and invisible - supernatural conflicts in Massachusetts history, the Na'Goth war started in April 2001 when Na'Goth, a powerful idigam,1) was freed from its ancient prison when contractors started tearing down the Northampton asylum. Na'Goth ravaged the Hisil2) as it expanded and conquered, forcing the Smith's Daughters pack to fall back continuously.
By April 2002 Na'Goth's spirit-forces had conquered much of the I-91 corridor, including Springfield. By June, Na'Goth's advance splits the state in half. August saw the war spill out of the Hisil and into the physical world when Na'Goth creates vampire-Ridden,3) bringing the state's Kindred into a conflict they don't understand in the slightest. By December 2002, almost all of western Massachusetts had fallen and Na'Goth started spreading into New York, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
2003 sees Na'Goth split its forces in northern and southern flank assaults. Multiple Uratha packs are either destroyed or forced to continually retreat east, and open war between Uratha and Kindred breaks out as many werewolf packs attack local vampires to deny Na'Goth the resource. Much of central Massachusetts is conquered, and by the end of the year Na'Goth's spirit-forces spread deeper into the surrounding states.
The beginning of 2004 sees the eastern packs finally acknowledging Na'Goth's threat. Valentine's Day sees a massive gathering of pack representatives at Harvard Square at the behest of Rebecca Masters of the Pit-Stompers pack. She proposes a clutch,4) but that doesn't go over well. The packs meet again in March, and Rebecca Masters wins enough challenges that the assembled packs submit to an alliance, but not a formal clutch, while Na'Goth's forces press into eastern Massachusetts. The packs pool resources and knowledge to try and find Na'Goth's ban.5)
On July 1, 2004, Rebecca Masters enters Cambridge's Hisil alone in a quest to find Na'Goth's ban. Her absence nearly causes the alliance to collapse, until Na'Goth's ultimate goal becomes obvious to everyone. Another idigam sleeps in Massachusetts Bay, and is kept quiescent by wards maintained by the Sirens pack of Gloucester and the Wardens pack of Provincetown. The two-pronged assault that has continued since January 2003 is aimed squarely at the two towns, and if Na'Goth succeeds, it will awaken a second hostile spirit-god that sees humanity only as meat-vessels and the werewolves - Forsake and Pure - as half-spirit bastards to be obliterated.
Rebecca Masters returns from the spirit world on August 17th, bearing an ancient fetish6) of unknown design that she claims is key to destroying Na'Goth. The clutch is formally born. Na'Goth's forces go berserk and abandon all their territory to retreat to Northampton. The clutch pursues, and the final battle occurs on September 22nd, the autumnal equinox. Twelve packs and a few lone wolves attack Na'Goth in the Hisil of Northampton, and Rebecca Masters successfully banishes Na'Goth with the fetish, although half of the werewolves do not survive. Unfortunately, with the threat of Na'Goth ended, the clutch falls apart and the packs return to their respective territories, formally ending the Na'Goth War.
As much of the war happened in the spirit world, the overwhelming majority of people never knew anything was amiss, but that doesn't mean the war did not affect them. Na'Goth ripped apart the Hisil of each city, town, and village it conquered, throwing the Shadow out of balance. In the physical world, violent crime rose dramatically in conquered territory, as did suicides. State and federal officials struggled to contain the inexplicable crime wave that choked Massachusetts and neighboring states, and a few hunter conspiracies, such as Task Force: VALKYRIE, realized something massive was occurring in the supernatural world. Had Na'Goth succeeded in freeing the second idigam, it is likely the two spirit-gods would have ripped open the Gauntlet that separates the physical and spirit worlds, an event that could politely be called 'fucking apocalyptic.'
The war left four major consequences.
The idigam Na'Goth is an incredibly ancient spirit of civilization, roads, and boundaries, birthed when there was no Gauntlet separating the flesh and the spirit. This meant Na'Goth's assault was incongruously methodical; starting with Northampton the invasion went strictly town by town, each location falling utterly before the spirit-armies moved to the next town. Na'Goth and its forces could only travel by the reflections of man-made roads in the Shadow. Unfortunately, its motives are incomprehensible, and Na'Goth considered flesh-creatures to be future vassals and/or playthings. Na'Goth views human/spirit hybrids (such as Ridden or Claimed) to be abominations, and every spirit it consumed and spat back out was unable to possess a human forever more. However, the dead flesh and withered souls of the vampires proved a loophole, leading to the creation of its undead shock troops.
Rebecca Masters claims that the fetish banished Na'Goth to the deepest Shadow, preventing its return. However, no one knows where that fetish came from, what its powers were, or where it is now - and if Rebecca Masters is indeed telling the truth. Recent events in the Shadow and other realms hint that Na'Goth may not in fact be dead and gone - and it may be searching for a way back to the physical world.