Places

In the mid-19th century, the city of London under­ took an effort to open a number of cemeteries around

what was then the outer circle of London. The inner-city cemeteries and church graveyards that had until then served as the last resting places of the deceased had become a danger to public health, so perilously overpopulated were they.

A beautiful wonder that captivated the Romantic sentiments of the time, Highgate Cemetery is ar­ ranged like a sprawling garden or park, with cedar trees and animal havens. Visitors to the cemetery — mortal visitors, that is — may see the grounds only as part of a tour group.

Highgate Cemetery has always had a relationship with the supernatural, however. In the 1970s and 1980s, speculation that the “Vampire of Highgate” haunted the graves, and a century before, in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, the character Lucy Westenra skulked among the headstones, preying on children. Burned and headless corpses have been found there, and covens of self-professed Satanists have prowled the grounds during their craven rites.

Lost Prince Mithras had declared Highgate Cem­ etery Elysium for all Kindred of London and the Bar­ onies of Avalon, a status which exists unchallenged to this night. Indeed, some say that Mithras extended the terms of Elysium to include denizens of the World of Darkness beyond the Kindred themselves. More than one London Kindred has admitted to traffic with those of the Mages’ orders in Highgate, and the set­ ting is an unsurprising haven to any number of restless ghosts. A few vampires have seen what they describe as “demons” prowling the grounds as well, and wheth­ er these statements are true has yet to be determined. Certainly, something has encouraged the Damned and other supernatural entities to visit, but who (or what) is it, and to what end?