With its gothic architecture, cemeteries, and romantic history, this city was always thought as vampire territory. What most don't see are the wild places beyond, the swamps with their muddy waters and secrets that are infinitely older than the French Quarter and the people who had settled it. New Orleans and its surrounding areas are lycanthrope territory and proudly so. While the local weres have been known to fight amongst themselves, they are all fiercely loyal to keeping the city vampire-free. You will find no master here, and that has made the place both infinitely more safe and dangerous.
The largest concentration of lycanthropes in New Orleans are the rats, followed by the wolves, whom they outnumber two to one. There is a small pard of thirty leopards in the city and rumor has it that there are ravens and even a few hyenas about. The wolves are divided into two packs of nearly equal size and so far they have co-existed in a respectful, albeit uneasy alliance. Ultimately, the city is the rat king's, but it's the wolves' Ulfrics who are more likely to make themselves seen and heard in local politics.
Vampires are to get permission before visiting and even then, their time is limited to a few scant weeks. Any vampire caught traveling in pack or Horde territory without the King's mark is subject to execution on sight. After years of testing this rule, vampire interest in New Orleans had been temporarily stalled. That was, until Hurricane Katrina.
While New Orleans is still suffering in the hurricane's wake, the abandoned neighborhoods and encroaching swamp have given the local lycanthrope population a unique freedom to openly roam. There are, however, more holes in their territory to keep an eye on, and with people continuing to come and go in droves, the ruling caste has had trouble keeping an eye on things. Vampires seem to be coming out of the woodwork, and there are strange rumors and sightings of huge reptiles.
The foundation that the lycanthropes have laid out remains strong but is currently being chipped away at the edges. Scuffles and disagreements are becoming commonplace, while outside factors continue to move in sight unseen. There is change coming on the wind, and only the strongest will survive.