The Dire Manor, and her associated node is, and has been one of LATMA's most coveted prizes, and remains to this day one of Palos Verdes' best kept secrets.
The Dire Castle itself was first constructed in the Bavarian Alps in 1232AD, but was deconstructed and moved stone by stone to its present location overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the late 1800s. It was reconstructed, and modified to suit the Victorian style of the times on the commission of a mysterious aristocrat named Feralastus Dire, who had somehow displaced the local tribe of bear worshipping Indians from their sacred tribal grounds before claiming them as his own.
The Nosferatu, Feralastus Dire , was a monster of a man in his life, and in his unlife served the Del Roh as the Black Hand's representative in LATMA for nearly a century. In 2024 though, times had changed, and to protect his nocturnal secrets, Dire made a deal with a local man, familiar with the tribal lore of the area named Samuel Morris . In what would prove to be Dire's most catastrophic lapse in judgment, Mr. Morris would become the owner on paper of the property, and was to oversee the property by day. This arrangement did not last long, as the Dreamspeaker, sought revenge for the slaughter of his ancestors only a month after taking ownership of the property and destroyed the ancient vampire as he slumbered.
Shortly after, the Manor became home to its first Cabal , consisting of Morris, and 3 Verbena who reawakened the sleeping Node for their own use. Morris never told his cabalmates how he had come to acquire the property, which would ultimately lead to the manor changing hands again, shortly after the Dreamspeaker's death. The newest member of the cabal, an orphan named Stephanie would fall victim to the whims of the local Camarilla prince, a Gangrel called Vol . Vol was a man of indomitable Presence, and was ultimately permitted to preside over the manor provided that he did not disband the mages who dwelt within her walls. This arrangement lasted for several years to the benefit of the vampire, and to the cabal which now included a young Cultist named David Sparger.. called Moonbeam.
Shortly after the vampire was killed in combat with the Sabbat of Lynwood, ownership of the manor fell once more to the mages of the Dire Cabal . Unfortunately, without a true leader to guide them, the cabal fell into disarray and prior to disappearing from public life, the eldest Verbena named Melissa signed the manor over to Moonbeam , who had at that time expanded his affiliations to include the Digital Anarchy Chantry in Pasadena. For a time Moonbeam turned the Manor over to the Chantry, and it was used by the Sons of Ether Dr. Emmet Brown and Dr. March Kilgour as a laboratory for their research.
As the needs of Moonbeam's spin-off cabal of Dreamspeakers and Cultists grew, they took the house and grounds back for their own use a short time later. The Dire Manor chantry was born. Boasting at one point the membership of 9 Tradition Mages, and 8 Orphans including 4 sphere masters, this Chantry presided over the brightest and darkest days of Dire. The Chantry has since split into 2 cabals, Moonbeam's Velvet Shadow, and Nadia Nakyrischov's Hermetic Pymander House.
Possibly sensing weakness after the split, both the Nephandi and more recently, the Technocratic Union have made unsuccessful attempts to either destroy or capture the Dire node. The grounds, and resident node however, remain in the hands of Master Moonbeam, and it is his intent that the storied manse will soon become a place of learning for LATMA's newly awakened.