Mexico City by Night
Since I am a Mexican, I can do anything I want.
Built into the caldera of a volcano, Mexico City ("Ciudad de Mexico" in Spanish) is the third largest city on the planet and clearly the secret base of some kind of supervillain. However, despite its vast size, Mexico City is virtually paralyzed by crime, rampant poverty, and mismanagement. These crippling problems push the city down to being merely the 8th largest metropolitan economy on Earth. All told, the city has roughly the population and GDP of Saudi Arabia. The people of Mexico see themselves as a vibrant "peasant" culture and practice a syncretic faith that is nominally Roman Catholic, but which nevertheless embraces witchcraft, honors Queztlcoatl, and includes men dressing up as jaguars fighting each other to encourage rain.
Something that jumps right out at supernatural creatures from other parts of the world is that the Archbishop of Mexico City does not enforce or even acknowledge The Vow of Silence as such. The rules here are that creatures not allowed to tell the world at large how magic actually works or how to get to the other worlds or the actual organizations of the damned. But they're perfectly allowed to curse people in public or even announce on national television that they're a Witch. And they do. You can turn on the TV and seriously watch an actual Leviathan sitting in a chair explaining that he mutated into a monster and now he has these awesome claws. The Mexican people are sufficiently credulous about this sort of thing that other countries are convinced that these creatures are laughable charlatans.
It's not just the giant parades of skull-puppets every Dia de los Muertos or the fact that people consult with Cultists and Seers before conducting major business moves. It's that you can seriously call yourself a vampire in public and neither the Covenant Inquisitors nor the Federal Police will even take interest. The part that is hardest to understand about the situation is that luchadores - literally people in Mexican wrestling outfits will take an interest in supernatural creatures that operate "without honor". And if a supernatural creature just guns them down, then the Covenant Inquisition will get super pissed.
City Statistics
Mexico City has over twenty million people in it and over 5,000 members of the Covenant alone. The Makhzen has a presence with about 200 at any given time, but they are more associated with the major Makhzen cities of Houston and Los Angeles. Their presence in Mexico City is demanded by the amount of trade between those regions, but it's always kind of strained. The World Crime League has a task force here of 300 members, and many members of the Covenant flock neither know nor care that it is there. For much of their shared history, the Communes were "kill on sight" in Mexico City, what with the war and all. But with the peace treaty, Cauchemar can nominally come and go as they please, so long as they don't stir up trouble. What with the Communes having taken over Havana and Caracas, they have gotten bolder and have been making some inroads in Mexico City as well. While their numbers are scarcely a hundred, nearly half of those are converts.
The city as a whole is nominally 89 different municipalities, only one of which is technically Mexico City. Some of them aren't even in the State of Mexico (not to be confused with the Federal District of Mexico that contains "only" about 8 million residents). And by some of them, we mean 29 of them are across the border into Hidalgo. The metropolis is about 8,000 square kilometers, and it is about 100 kilometers across the long way. There are over twenty million humans here, and while poverty is off the hook, the people of this city are enough richer than the national average to cause some resentment elsewhere.
City History
The Aztec people were unspeakably brutal, and they set up shop in Tenochtitlan because their practice of kidnapping princesses of neighboring kingdoms, skinning them, and then wearing the skins as suits offended their neighbors. It offended them so much, that the Aztecs lost war after war, and had to move their entire civilization several times before setting up shop in the middle of Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico in 1325. This was a turning point for them, because by connecting their city to the mainland only by causeways and retractable bridges, they were pretty much immune to external assault. And they were still under external assault a lot, because they kept kidnapping people and cutting their skin off.
The Aztecs developed their fortress in a swamp in a volcano into not only the coolest temple of death ever, but also a military powerhouse. With constant training and the sponsorship of their magical Rain Kings, Aztec warriors were able to repeatedly humiliate the kingdoms surrounding them, and add them to the Empire. Soon, the people of all neighboring cities were forced into tributary status and were compelled to send thousands of people a year to be sacrificed on the top of the giant pyramid, powering the magics of death and demonic malevolence that kept the Kings of Rain strong and kept everyone else afraid. At it's height, the metropolis of Tenochtitlan had about a quarter million people in it, and controlled an empire with more than 8 times that many people. Which isn't that much by today's standards, but in the 16th century that was crazy talk.
In 1521 that all changed, when Nahuatl armies led by Malintzin and backed up by her consort Hernán Cortés and a team of Spanish hardasses crushed the city, looted its riches, and murdered its leaders. Malintzin's victory was short lived, as subsequent forces of Spaniards came and put both Aztec and Mayatec to the sword. The place was quickly renamed New Spain, and Spanish forces fought many wars over what is now Mexico (and surrounding countries, for a time they owned everything out to Venezuela and California). And through this period, the Spanish did their best to replace the brutal blood drinking and torture worship of Azteca with Christianity (and its own brutal blood drinking and torture worship).
And while these wars between men were burning the countryside, wars between monsters raged in the dark. The Covenant had declared war on both the Empire and the False Face, and they sent magical beasts by the hundreds into the New World to conquer and convert. And they had iron weapons that the New World Syndicates had no answer for. And it was during this period that the native supernatural creatures began to join the Covenant. At first at the point of the steel saber or the silver lance, but within a hundred years or so it was simply because the Archbishop was simply the supernatural authority to be had.
In the early 19th century, the rapidly growing movement of the Cauchemar Communes began taking power in sections of Spain, and the French people actually conquered the place. Mexico City became the go-to place for Covenant flock who wished to flee the Covenant-Communes wars, and a major rallying point for Covenant members on a global scale. Mexico became an independent empire in 1821 and grudgingly became a republic a few years later.
The republic was... rocky... and was overthrown many times. Santa Anna himself became President of it eleven times. And through this period there was a sharp divide within the Covenant between the Conservativos and the Liberales. These groups had only the barest of connection with the human political movements of the time (although they several times allied on the field of battle). The Conservativos argued that supernatural creatures should rule as lords of their own haciendas - similar to the feudal system employed by the Bumin Horde. The Liberales held that supernatural creatures should disappear into society like the Communes. Much intrigue, dueling, and even battles were had over this dispute throughout the 19th century, and the title of Archbishop changed several times from Conservativo to Liberale Padre and back again. The really worldshaking event, as far as the Covenant globally is concerned - is that through these conflicts the Territory of Mexico just sort of forgot to ask for anti-papal approval for these Archbishop appointments. To this night, it is the Padres of Mexico City who select the Archbishop when the old Archbishop dies or steps down.
Mexico City has been occupied by armies dozens of times. And supernatural society has pretty much rolled with it. Sometimes those armies are peasant armies from the hinterlands, sometimes they are mercenary armies purchased by landholders. Sometimes they are foreign powers like the French or the United States. But the effect on the supernatural residents has always been pretty minor. Mexico City is so vast that even modern home-grown governments lack the reach to really control it, how much did conquering armies really think they could accomplish past putting up their favorite flag? The harsh truth is that even the Covenant hasn't been able to really control the supernatural creatures of Mexico City. The Syndicate here is not very much like it is in other places.
The modern Republic of Mexico has existed since the Diaz dictatorship was overthrown in 1911. Yes, the entire country is going to have its 100th anniversary of existence just before the Mayan calendar runs out. And numerologists frickin love that shit. The 20th century has seen the population of Mexico City swell beyond recognition. At the turn of the century it was a thriving metropolis of half a million. As the century progressed, and people moved in and the city burst its limits and absorbed other cities like a hungry amoeba, it grew to forty times that. And so it was that at the end of the night, the position of the Liberales won out basically by default. The city had simply grown so large that supernatural creatures cannot help but fade into the background. La Llorona kills a child every Sunday and the government of man hasn't even noticed, because it has seriously faded into the background static of violence.
Mexico was pretty much run by a single party almost all the way through its existence. The PRI (literally: institutional revolution party) lost a lot of credibility in their Katrina-like inaction to an earthquake in 1985 that destroyed a lot of buildings and killed over ten thousand people. To this night there are still crevasses, collapsed buildings, and vacant lots around - especially in poorer districts. But the stunning ambivalence of the national government brought real political reform and at this point you can actually vote for different candidates and you don't know who is going to end up stealing the election.
And it is this reality that Archbishop Nochhuetl presides over. He's a Troglodyte of essentially pure Aztec stock, and looks kind of like a hairless wrinkled rodent. And he represents an ambitious, even nationalistic faction within the Covenant. Mexico treats itself as if it were the capital of the Covenant. And when you compare the real power of Mexico City and Rome, that may really be true. Conflict between the Heresiarchs and the Padres of Mexico seems inevitable.
Power
The chief of police of the city makes less than a thousand dollars a month. Nevertheless, more than one of them has managed to retire a billionaire (with a B). Those who refuse to take bribes on that scale are literally gunned down in the street and quickly replaced by those who will. The police literally kidnap people and hold them for ransom or simply execute them in the desert away from the city. The narcotics shipments (and transshipments) to the United States comprise an industry that makes over $40 billion per year (roughly the economy of Lithuania), and if someone could unite that criminal enterprise under a single banner, it would come in at roughly 200th on the Fortune 500 (roughly the rank of Motorola's worldwide holdings). As it is, it's split about seven ways, which would barely get the criminal syndicates into the Fortune 500 at all. Several of the cartels have made an alliance which is called "The Federation" that is making pretty compelling progress towards creating a syndicate of syndicates. And this Federation is sponsored by the World Crime League. This has mostly squeezed Covenant flock out of the drug cartel business in the city, which has largely pushed them into other kinds of crime. And while you'd think that a drug business worth tens of billions of dollars (not Pesos) would be enough to send the Covenant into a panic spin, the fact is that it's less than 10% of the city's legal GDP and the Covenant flock have bigger things to chase like corruption in construction and oil shipments.
The Covenant itself has about 500 Priests and Monks (collectively called Padres in Mexico City), and it does not recognize the sovereignty of Orders Contemplative nor Militant. There are no less than two Military Ordinals and four Prelates, but the Archbishop claims - and enforces - his commands over all of them. The military orders are the Caballeros Rojos and the Familia de la Cisne. They differ politically drastically, but compete to provide the most visibly successful defense of the city from enemies. There are three Glossators, and they have a flock of their own who are collectively La Investigación. These days, Padres fall into roughly five political factions.
The Nativos are mostly anti-Rome and have a tendency to support a return to native traditions as they remember them (which according to the actual immortals seems to have little bearing on the actual history). Archbishop Nochhuetl is an unapologetic member of them, and was made Archbishop during their ascendancy in the 1940s. The Conservativos want to increase the power and visibility of supernatural creatures. The Liberales want to integrate further into mortal society and blend further into the background. The Ocultamientos hold that supernatural creatures have exposed themselves too much already and need to withdraw from the world of men. And the Católicos want to mend things with the Anti-pope and have the Anti-pope go back to appointing Archbishops.
There are lots of police organizations in Mexico, and most of them are corrupt and underfunded. A policeman gets outright killed in just the federal district once a week on average. And the police really have learned to not see things that they don't know how to deal with. And the supernatural falls under that umbrella completely. As soon as the popos find out that there are vampires involved they throw their hands up and say "to hell with this!" Policing of the supernatural is mostly down by luchadores. Yes, really. The Covenant in Mexico has convinced human luminaries to dress up in capes and masks to literally wrestle supernatural creatures that cross "the line" (whatever that is, it's perhaps deliberately unclear). And the supernatural creatures have rules of their own when dealing with them. No matter what they do or say to normal people, they are not allowed to deliberately kill luchadores and if challenged to unarmed combat they have to either run away or engage in unarmed combat. La Investigación doesn't care about much, but behaving with dishonor towards a Luchador is grounds for final death.
There are fifteen hundred street gangs in Mexico City. And really only 12 of them are based around an actual Covenant Padre.
Places to Go
While there are places that you can drive around ruthlessly, clear in the knowledge that you are desperately unlikely to be stopped by traffic police, the mere fact that this is true leads traffic to be an unconscionable mess. Figuring out a way to not drive in Mexico City is probably the best way to start enjoying the place. After all, it's not like you were going to be able to park anywhere. Mexico City boasts an impressive subway system, the cars run on rubber tires and are amazingly quiet for subway trains.
The Zócalo is one of the largest city squares in the world. It's seriously a quarter of a kilometer on a side. And if you go at the right time, it still fills up with people. It's where the people of Mexico go for major celebrations and protests. In Aztec days, this is where the really really big sacrifice ceremonies went down, and when the Spanish took over this is where the mass inquisitions took their place. The middle of the square is actually aspected quite strongly to Mictlan and it is in serious danger of world-shifting to The Gloom. Covenant Monks spend a considerable amount of time making sure that does not happen. Major buildings surround the square of course, but of special note is the Metropolitan Cathedral - the largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas. It actually has a bunch of secret rooms and such in it, and the Covenant used to run their rituals right out of the building, but that became too much of a hassle and in modern nights they only use it like an attic to store stuff in.
Chapultepec Park is fairly nice as parks go, and is the largest park in the city. It is here that the more feral and nature-loving monsters go when they need to be near trees. There are several rather nice museums in the area, including Chapultepec Castle, which is in fact the Halls of Montezuma that was successfully stormed by both the Spanish against the Aztecs and the United States Marines. Tonight it is a history museum and there are a set of residences prepared for supernatural creatures that want to live in the park itself and still have a bed to sleep in.
El Ángel is probably the most recognizable landmark in Mexico City. A large victory column topped with a golden winged victorious angel, it's a pretty inspiring edifice. The statues of lions and stuff around the outside are pretty cool too. And it sits in the middle of a roundabout smack dab in Paseo de la Reforma, the city's most important street. It's a very important place. Not because of any magical effects, but simply because a whole bunch of embassies and corporate headquarters are within spitting distance of the thing. The HSBC building is literally just a crosswalk away. Look both ways before crossing though, because cars take the roundabout too fast and in weird directions all the time.
The "Floating Gardens" of Xochimilco are not actually floating. They are a series of canals where the areas between the canals are gardens and restaurants and such. You can paddle around in brightly colored boats, watch birds, and get serenaded by floating mariachi bands. It's kind of like the quainter parts of Venice with mariachi bands. The fact that many of the garden areas are only accessible by water creates an incredible form of natural privacy, and that is used extensively by the Covenant. The main chapel of the Covenant is simply a boat house with no other obvious entrances than the water. The fact that it's a beautiful spot and there are live axolotls in the water is gravy.
The tianguis of Tepito is a barrio that is essentially a giant flea market. There are about a hundred thousand people who live in the market, and there are tens of thousands of people who come and go every day to buy and sell. A seemingly endless array of shops and tents hawk wares of every conceivable type. The local saying is "en Tepito todo se vende menos la dignidad" which means "In Tepito, everything but dignity is for sale." It is considered totally normal to go to sorcerers (or "curanderas" as they are called) here for aid, and there is even an alley given over to their works, which in the local vernacular is called "el camino de las brujas" or simply "campo bruja". It's kind of a maze to get there, as there are at least 12 streets worth of unmanaged market in every direction before you get to something that people would consider driving on. There's a hellmouth somewhere in there, and there is a thriving trade in Limbo artifacts as well as a bustling smuggling business through the Dark Reflection.
Ampliación is a Michoacana neighborhood known for high crime, crappy and unlicensed construction, and a lack of car-traversable roads. Basically, it's a good old fashioned shanty town. But it's an important place for Troglodytes, because this is where La Carniceria is. It's an unlicensed, unrefrigerated meat market. And while that may sound wholly unappetizing, the truth is that they are even less appetizing and associated ragpickers collect corpses for those who are willing to eat the other other white meat. Which is great news for the Troglodytes, many of whom make their homes in tunnels beneath this neighborhood for that reason.
Mexico City in Horror
After watching a few Rodriguez movies like Once Upon A Time in Mexico or From Dusk til Dawn you might be disappointed to find out that in fact Mexico City is not a non-stop action movie with bullets flying everywhere, things exploding, and a body count you need to take off your shoes to tabulate. This is because the city is a big place. Nevertheless, there are about twenty murders every day in the city, which means that some balls to the wall action extravaganza is going most of the time. Something explodes every couple of minutes in the sprawl, and police are powerless to do anything about it. Which means that if you come to Mexico City, the question you need to ask yourself is: are you a bad enough dude?
All kidding aside, Mexican film has an entire set of horror classics using Lycanthropes, Vampires, Witches, Animates, Leviathan, and Transhumans. And... the heroes of these films are Luchadors. Seriously, Lucha Libre wrestlers, in masks, fighting robots and Aztec mummies. That's not a joke, and people in Mexico City take it pretty seriously. Men will seriously dress up like a man-jaguar and fight supernatural crime. These guys are often Luminaries or even Transhuman, meaning that actual werewolves will take the guy in the rainbow mask and yellow cape more seriously than police officers with guns. Outsiders find the whole thing kind of surreal.
And yet, it's demonstrably not all about explosions, car chases, and piles of corpses. That stuff happens every day and all, but not everyone runs into it. Indeed, even among supernatural society, most creatures manage to not be in the areas with flaming trucks spinning out of control while Colombian assassins jump motorcycles over cars while shooting automatic weapons into crowds long enough to miss that pulse pounding action. Remember also that this is the place that brought us Guillermo del Toro - and while Pan's Labyrinth is set in Spain, that's a thoroughly Mexican feeling to the cinema. When it's not throwing over-the-top havoc at the audience, it gets pretty disturbing. 21st century life doesn't adapt to being in constant war without some serious psychological issues. And when things elevate themselves over the essentially medieval cultural expositions of overacting and brightly colored outfits, the Mexican stories of Ghosts and Fey are as complex as any After Sundown source material you're likely to find.