A number of riots and uprisings in the Skinlands on Christmas Day 2011 led many more to Joan's rule, her numbers growing into the hundreds, many times more than the small number of Restless that survived in early 2005.

However, having lost touch with their closest allies, the Corax, with the coming of the Maelstrom, the Restless of the City were unable to do anything as the walls of the Tower of London, more than a thousand years standing and once their shelter from the Maelstrom, were pulled down in rioting. Relations between the two became tense, and many Restless avoided contact with the Ravens entirely, leading to even greater isolation among the dead.

But Joan's supremacy even then was far from complete, and aside from the Independent gangs who fight and scratch an existence in the remaining unclaimed tunnels, there is another group who lay claim to London, a group who have something Joan Sutherland does not, and which as yet, she has been unable to wrest from them; a Haunt on the surface. 'The Unified Alliance of Death by Water' make their home in an old building just north of the river, which somehow, despite their lack of numbers, remains immune to the storm that seems to have overwhelmed all other Haunts. Run by the onetime Masquers Guildmaster, Autumn-Storm-Gathers, Death by Water are primarily a group of artists, poets, thugs and nihilists who have twisted the buildings reflection in the deadlands into something part garrison, part gallery, part nightclub, and if some would have you believe, part Labyrinth. Despite their dark reputation and seeming lack of organisation, Death by Water somehow remain a factor in London's politics, although it is anyone's guess as to how. However, the rising number of malcontents and suppressed artists in modern London continue to feed their numbers, and what's more, behind the facade of both the Confederacy and Death by Water, the Guilds and the Heretics still watch and wait.

In the present day London of 2013, massive levels of crime and disease, terrible health provisions, pollution, unemployment and unrest, mean that more are crossing the Shroud since than the end of the Second World War. Conditions are ripe for the Confederacy to swell with power, perhaps even to reclaim and rebuild the former Necropolis. Or for Death by Water to actively recruit more members and mount a challenge to Joan Sutherland's rule. In addition, the fragments of the Guilds, and growing number of Independent gangs mean that there are more factors and players for control of London now than ever before among the Restless of the Necropolis. Conversely, it also means that Fetters are harder to protect, and with the Shroud so tainted by Oblivion, that Passions are harder to feed. Harrowings are daily occurrences and Castigation is virtually unknown. The turnover among the dead is huge. When, and if, this will stabilise, and if it does, who will emerge in control, remains unknown.