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Ruby No One Cares
Member
Seen
7 days ago
Faction Name: Unknown
Allegiance: Unknown (Christopher Houghton)
Location: Malibu, Chateau Marmont
General Information:
For a group of immortal midnight runners, the Kindred in Los Angeles have always had short memories. Most vampires in the city have a history within LA that goes back a few decades. Maybe they were around for the riots mundane mortals blamed on racially charged conflict, likely they were around for the explosion of Camarilla and Anarch violence and mistrust. But the timeline of the City of Angels' history goes far past the recent conflicts, to the days when Los Angeles was no more than a far away outpost of the Spanish Empire. And for nearly as long as there's been a Los Angeles, there has been a shadowy group of Kindred in the shadows, using figureheads from the Anarch to the Camarilla to the Sabbat over it's long history to remain hidden from view.
'Led' by a mere child, this shadow group built Los Angeles, established the golden age of Hollywood, and built Los Angeles into a cultural epicenter for not just the New World, but the Old World as well, using beauty and art and careful planning to accomplish their goals. Recent events in Los Angeles have escalated to the point where the secret powers behind the city have lost direct control, leaving the group in a position to pick the next 'figurehead' to throw their immense and ancient power behind.
For so long as there is Los Angeles, those ancient few that crafted the city's growth and ensured the city's unusual balance of power will endure.
Name: Eva
Generation: 5th Generation (through Diablerie)
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality:
The woman known simply as 'Eva' is said to have more spirit and life than most of the living, let alone her fellow Kindred. Playful, charming, quick witted, yet typically reserved be it in public or private. Eva is a performer and storyteller, a founding figure in the behind-the-scenes power structure of Hollywood and the entertainment business based in the city.
If confronted, Eva is likely to work for compromise and mutual understanding, having what her sire calls "a diplomat's heart." If challenged or insulted, the response from the beautiful vampire is probably going to be swift and deadly. Though she seems ever certain of herself and in control of any situation she finds herself in, those close to Eva suspect the woman has finally begun to grow restless.
And none can say what she might do to sate her restless spirit.
Biography:
The early history of the woman now known simply as 'Eva' begun in the pre-history of the New World, when life revolved around the spirits of the seasons and tribal society. Exactly how and when has been lost to time, and Eva's memory, but it wasn't long after the Catholics began to spread in what they called the land of California, after a fictional paradise ruled by Amazons, that Eva began to have consistent interaction with the Europeans. Though Eva recalls the initial contact to be peaceful and explorative in nature, the Native admits it's hard to think back to first contact without thinking of the death that followed in the wake of the Europeans.
Eva lost her entire tribe to disease and fighting with other tribes, a great tragedy in her early mortal life that barely registers a pang in her heart anymore. Mostly due to her survival, Eva grew to learn much and more about the Europeans, their ways, and their languages. The pretty native girl became the explorer's go-to native for the area, both as guide and interpreter. It was in this role that the Ghoul of a powerful Old World vampire came across the native girl that would be perfect for the Ghoul's master.
Taken in the dead of night, the Native would awake on a ship bound for the Old World. Eva has said it would be improper to call the Old World vampire her sire, more "a donor of immortality and the blood of the undying." Her years in the Old World were lengthy, harsh, and desperate times during her captivity by her sire. Eva thinks of them little, and speaks of them even less. Her sire slain by an enemy, Eva was left to fend for herself, and would return to the New World after decades spent touring the great cities of the Old World, including Kindred society therein.
When Eva returned to her homeland, she found that the Europeans had been busy in chasing their imperial pursuits, a fledgling city named Los Angeles had been established by the Spanish Governor of the territory. It was there Eva would settle, beginning a long period of careful reconnaissance that would result in Eva knowing every face and name in the Valley, alive or undead. Or so she thought. Unknown to her, the Spanish leader of Los Angeles was under the influence of a vampire, a Toreador like her. A Toreador that Eva found herself connecting with quickly, both in terms of personality and their artistic visions.
Quickly, the two began to push Los Angeles from a backwater to a destination. Whereas the Spanish Missions forced Indians to labor without compensation, the self sustained farming economy of Los Angeles boomed--in large part because the city mandated Indians be paid for their labor, doubling and tripling Los Angeles' population and turning the city into the territory's largest. After the US military took the city after the Mexican American War, the new Military Governor was quickly taken in by the small secretive group of vampires.
When Los Angeles failed to live up to the grand ideas of that group, change followed. To drag Los Angeles into a greater class of city, the situation of clean water had to be fixed; resulting in one of the largest civic projects in North American History, the Los Angeles Aqueduct was Eva's first hands on project. She was seen speaking to organizers and engineers and labor leadership, though no recorded mention of the woman would survive. The success of the Aqueduct brought new kinds of industrial success to the city, and another spike of population.
With the success of their city, the secret group turned their attention to something that excited their Toreador artistic instincts: the new invention of moving pictures, of film movies. Through front companies and secret partnerships with mortals, the vampires would be behind the greatest early success of Hollywood, Eva herself said to have gotten a then unknown named Charlie Chaplin his opportunity to be a film star. From Silent Film Hollywood to the Golden Age of Big Studio Hollywood to the modern high-tech blockbuster driven Hollywood, Eva has had her finger on Hollywood's pressure points from it's inceptions. She has some measure of control over nearly every studio, agency, and Guild in town.
She even holds a vote with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
When the Camarilla lost their hold on Los Angeles, a hold they never truly had, Eva found her city entering a new, dangerous time. Though Eva refuses to make a drastic, overt, move she has begun making smaller moves--for the first time allowing herself to make waves in the open, despite the vulnerability in stepping away from the shadows.
Eva fears if she does not, their city will be lost to the cold authority of the Camarilla or the madness of the Anarch...or, worse, the invasion of LA by groups nearly as good as remaining a secret as Eva's own group.
Name: Etō Abe
Dharma Rank: 5
Dharma: The Dance of the Thrashing Dragon
Direction: East
Disciplines: Skin Shintai, Yang Prana, Cultivation
Personality:
Daring, bold, and utterly without fear--the exact opposite of the shy, timid, paranoid Abe that existed before he died and his spirit returned, with a new chance for Enlightenment that had escaped him during his life. Still as thoughtful as he ever was, and at base an introvert, the constant push and pull of his very nature is a fitting manifestation of the push and pull exerted upon his spirit by the forces of nature that go beyond mere nature to the supernatural. Though he is trying his best to drink and fuck his way through the unlife, in his current Coterie he has found an unlikely group of people with an aim for chaos and beauty that Abe finds himself drawn to, if not outright dedicated to.
Abe is cool enough to breeze into any Hollywood dance club or Malibu beach party, with charm and confidence in spades. A smooth operator, with the balls of a cat burglar.
Biography:
Born and raised in Tokyo, Eto was ever a kind, gentle, hearted boy. The kind of boy that was usually teased and bullied from the earliest grades to the completion of his education. Abe escaped into his studies and countless Mangas. After school he was hired as an accountant to a massive financial corporation based in Tokyo, where he had lived all his life in the shadow of it's crowds and towering skyscrapers. Even his co-workers mocked him for his push-over nature. Though even that was no match to the mocking he received from the few women in his life he ever dared to make a move on.
Abe's death was no more spectacular than his life: he died because a neighbor simply didn't notice him standing next to his car, and ran over him. But when Abe returned as a member of the undead, a Kuei-jin, he returned with an explosion of confidence and life. Instantly Abe knew what his path would be, and how he could achieve Enlightenment by exploring the passions of life that had always been denied to him, sometimes denied by his own then timid nature. Never again would that be the case.
The first thing that needed to happen, was a change in location. Abe would spend decades in Hong Kong before eventually leaving the city after watching the Matrix for the first time. All of a sudden Abe knew where he needed to be, where the stars never stopped shining and the sun never set on the glamorous life: he needed to go to Hollywood--the needed to go to Los Angeles!
It wasn't very long before Abe attached himself to a talent agency that specialized in Asian born actors and actresses. After fucking his way through the entire lineup of the agency's models and actresses, and some of the actors, Abe ran afoul when an actress he'd been with recently turned up dead; completely drained of chi. Though the local Camarilla Prince at the time was concerned of the event, it was the intervention of the prettiest woman Abe had ever seen that eventually kept his name from the Prince's inner circle.
In gratitude, and in large part in pursuit of the woman, Abe continued a pattern of getting into trouble with his hedonistic ways just so he might run into that woman, Eva, again. After the Camarilla Prince was taken down in murderous fashion, Abe leapt at the woman's suggestion that he might join her little band of undead. Mostly to get into her skirt, but also because he liked the live and let live attitude in which she approached the city of Los Angeles. An attitude he approved of much more for his new home, LA, than the attitudes held by the Camarilla or Sabbat.
Name: Ciel Leonie
Generation: 8th Generation
Clan: Caitiff
Disciplines: Temporis, Thaumaturgy, Auspex
Personality:
Ciel has the soul of a scientist. Her best personal assets are her abilities to wander at the natural (and later supernatural) world, to appreciate the cycles of nature and how everything and everyone has a part to play. Most of all, the width and breadth of her imagination. Outside of that, most consider Ciel to be a sociopath--even though she is not, even Ciel can understand why some people would think that. Little matters to her in the world outside her own personal fascinations and intellectual pursuits. She cares more of facts and logic than people and their (typically) flawed logic.
While this might normally make Ciel a perfect candidate for the ordered nature of the Camarilla, her Caitiff origins leaves her with a bitter distaste in her mouth over the Camarilla and their Princes. Nor does she have an overly favorable opinion of the Sabbat, and it's brutish mentalities. Ciel admires the Anarch movement in Los Angeles, but after meeting Christopher and Eva, Ciel sees just how Los Angeles has been able to execute Princes and primogens and keep on ticking without a hitch unlike any other city in the world's history.
Biography:
No one knows much about the Caitiff known as Ciel Leonie. Some believe she may have been a European aristocrat, others that she was once a Southern Belle at the height of the Antebellum period. No one can speak to the circumstances of her Embrace, and none have come forward claiming to be her sire. Ciel herself has always refused to comment on the matter of her origins, except for private wonderings that she has never shared with anyone. Trust has always been an issue for Ciel, not entirely surprising for someone who started her unlife abandoned and alone without an understanding.
Initially Ciel used her knowledge of popular culture and mythologies to guesstimate that she had been turned into a vampire. After all, the fangs seemed to be the final piece of evidence in which she simply could not dispute. After a fragile mental state that persisted throughout the traumatic events, Ciel eventually began to use her intuition and personal intelligence to gain stability and safety, including a move to Las Vegas during the boom of it's Mafioso golden age.
Eventually Ciel found her own lusts and desires distracting her from her studies and thinking, requiring her to go out and eventually run across other vampires--or Kindred, as she quickly learned from observation that they referred themselves. It was at a Rant that Ciel first encountered Kindred society, and at a Rant where she would meet a gorgeous Toreador with a connection to Frank Sinatra. For the first time in her unlife, Ciel felt safe around another Kindred, though her scientific soul kept her a distance from that Kindred for decades until an attack on her from minions of the Vegas Prince drove Ciel into the arms, and Coterie, of the Toreador she'd met so many decades before at an Anarch Rant in Las Vegas.
This is the first Coterie of her unlife, and Ciel believes she could not have picked a stranger one if God himself had intervened. But for someone driven by their curiosity and imagination, Ciel finds herself fascinated with her new Coterie, to say nothing of her Coterie's ability to sate every lust and desire she ever shares, keeping those distractions from interrupting her studies.
Name: Shaka Jonze
Generation: 9th Generation
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Dominate
Personality:
Shaka Jonze is, at his core, a chameleon that manages his various lives and multi-faceted personality with a desperate dexterity. He's made thuggery-as-resistance appealing, urging others to be loud and wild and reckless. He never tries "rise above" the way things are. He is not trying to "be better.", most comfortable when he knows people want to kill him, when he loves the thrill of not fearing anyone. He is free when he doesn't give a fuck about anything, including continuing his own life, when he feels like the world--for a change--is his.
There are few Shaka holds real loyalty to, only the loyalty of his thugs and the gang. Among the Kindred of LA there is only the loyalty of the Coterie to him.
Biography:
Born and raised in South Los Angeles, Compton, few know the streets of LA better than Shaka. His father and uncles were members of the Black Panthers, his cousins blood sworn members of the Crip massive street gang engaged in a bitter war with rival gang the Bloods. In a game, as Shaka has explained, "where you either dealt or used, I decided early on I'd be a dealer and not a user." By the time he was in high school Shaka was a well known rapper in the growing scene of LA's gangsta rap. When the King riots exploded in Los Angeles, Shaka was pulled into the Crip/Bloods conflict.
Though he would go on to become a leader in the Crip gang, his successful underground rap career turned Shaka into a figure that could talk to either side of the conflict. Seeing an opportunity, the gang of Kindred that secretly controlled many of the great street gangs of Los Angeles targetted Shaka for the unlife, assuming he would make an excellent mouth piece and pawn.
Instead within a few years of his unlife, Shaka was already beginning to win supporters from the older, more powerful Kindred in control of the vampiric gang. When he faced certain Final Death at the hands of powerful enemies, Shaka found his thug ass saved by a pretty woman that seemed to know way too much about way too many people. Hard to impress as Shaka has always been, the Kindred calling herself 'Eva' impressed him that day. Enough for Shaka to form an alliance with the woman; with her help, Shaka could take over the vampiric gang for once and for all. In return, Shaka would use the gangs (both Kindred and street types) as eyes and ears and foot soldiers for the woman's agenda. An agenda that focused on Los Angeles remaining the unique haven it had always been; the kind of shit Shaka Jonze could get behind.
Name: Miranda 'Mandy' West
Generation: 8th Generation
Clan: Lasombra
Disciplines: Dominate, Obtenebration, Potence
Personality:
Even tempered, intelligent, and measured: Mandy West is every bit the sweet Jewish girl in unlife as she was in life, although her warmth and girlish charms aren't always as genuine in the unlife as they had been in life. A melancholy persists deep within Mandy West, one never seen by anyone except for the very rare few that she lets that close. Despite this bittersweet mix, even those close to Mandy typically only see the positive attitude 'can-do' girl. Even inside the intimate, comfortable, protection of the Coterie Mandy can be shy; except with Eva, with whom she shares a connection so close even members of the Coterie joke they think Mandy and Eva share a blood bond and just don't tell anyone.
Outside her personal life, Mandy West is the Jewish girl that ran her father's company, heavily expanding it and turning it into a national force: she is cut throat, she is determined, and she is highly skilled in communications. Now she helps run several important corporate Boards in Hollywood. Like the rest of her Coterie, Mandy wants Los Angeles to remain as it is, and as it has always been: free. She genuinely considers Hollywood and it's movie industry to be so universally loved that Los Angeles should be left a neutral zone.
Biography:
Mandy likes to say not much of her life matters anymore, and generally speaking she means it quite a bit, although she still has a soft spot for the Jews of the world. She fondly recalls her parents and her life, but it's all become a happy dream that comes to her in clips and phrases. A memory born too long in the past to be fully remembered. Her only real tie to her life is her business portfolio, where she has managed to retained access to a presence in several industries she sees as key, maybe most important in Los Angeles being her Banks and her Import/Export buisness, with the most warehouse space on the entire west coast, and exclusive deals with the Port of Los Angeles--acquired only through Eva's help.
Though she is far from young, being Embraced at the end of the 18th century, Mandy is still new to the West Coast. She was able to avoid conflict in New York City, carving out a niche as an independent friendly to the Camarilla, and anyone else, for that matter--save for the Sabbat. Her sire has called Mandy's Embrace the best decision he ever made; admitting the girl is "a much finer quality person that I ever was or will be." Considering the difficulties and bad choices in her sire's life, this seems a sad but true statement. The only time Mandy has ever felt rage was after her Embrace, something she did not want from someone she did not want it from.
Feeling victimized and wanting to avoid further conflict, her status as a Lasombra was overlooked until she openly refused the branch of Lasombra antitribu working within the Camarilla. At that point it became clear to her she was on someone's hit list, and it was time to get out of town. At a movie premiere in Manhattan, distracted with paranoia and unable to enjoy herself, as much as she loved movies, Mandy ran into a tall exotic beauty that seemed to sparkle, and not just for the diamonds she wore. Faster than she'd ever expected, Mandy found herself telling this exotic woman all her problems. When the woman revealed herself to be in a position to help Mandy relocate to the Hollywood Hills, Mandy jumped at the opportunity for safety in a dream location as opposed to danger in New York City.
Name: Samantha Hart
Generation: Ghoul
Disciplines: Celerity, Auspex, Presence
Age: 22
Personality:
Samantha Hart is a humbled soul; having gone through some of the worst case, and humiliating, circumstances a Mid-Western country girl that left home to gamble on a career in Hollywood can go through. Such an experience has left Samantha infinitely wiser than she was when she first arrived to LA, and as such Samantha can sometimes be the infamous prototypical Los Angeles resident; shallow, jaded, and cynical.
Though Samantha would admit there was little of the heartfelt Midwestern humanity left to her after years of abuse, in the years following her 'freedom', Sam has found her humanity coming back to her a little bit at a time.
Holds an addictive personality that she has learned to get a grasp on the hard way; a painkillers addiction followed a cocaine addiction--all of which was overshadowed when a young vampire forced upon her an addiction to vampire blood. Though Samantha has managed to kick her past addictions, she sometimes gets into trouble with alcohol, to say nothing of her current addiction to the blood of the vampire that 'freed' her.
Vampires don't seem to scare her much, even if she admits they should.
Biography:
The daughter of a small town pastor and a small time model turned born again Christian, Samantha Hart grew up in Small Town, USA. She would call her childhood happy and fulfilling, and in recent years had admitted she acted entitled and naive when she declared she would not simply get a man, have a baby, and become just another girl working at Wal-Mart that never could escape the small town in which she raised. Her entire life people had told Samantha how pretty she was, and by her Senior year she had to drop cheerleading in order to meet all the modeling requirements she had.
Surely if she could get paid to model wedding dresses and summer fashions for local boutiques she could make it as a model or actress in Los Angeles? Today, Samantha admits it ironic her favorite film was Pretty Woman: a tale about a girl who'd gone to LA with dreams and ended up street walking. But Samantha had much more success than that; her first month in LA she'd gotten a job as a model. She felt as if she were on top of the world, the star of her very own reality TV show. That the modeling agency was in truth a high priced escort agency that took young girls new to LA looking to 'make it', got them addicted to free clothes, free high fashion living, and any drug the girl wanted to numb the pain--so long as she did what they told her to do, and with whom they told her to do it.
It was a mere few months in that hell that Samantha thought a kind, older, wealthy man she'd met at a charity function on the arm of some wealthy John would take her away from it all. And he did; but never could Sam imagine that she'd simply traded one sort of abusive dependence for blood bonded slavery. Samantha lost count of the days and the weeks and the months she spent under the vampire's control. Her sharpest memory is of the day the vampire woman came into her life, and did take away her away from all the abuse and pain.
This woman, Eva, offered to give Samantha's life back to her. According to Eva, the road would be painful and long, but eventually Samantha would be free of influences both narcotic or supernatural. In the end, with Sam unwilling to lose the incredible sensations of vampire blood, the two women agreed on a compromise: Samantha would serve Eva, not in the master-slave dynamic of the prior vampire, but in many ways like just another pretty assistant to a high powered executive. The opportunity represents Sam's first real 'job' in Los Angeles, one she is paid for. Though Sam spends all her time at the Chateau or in Eva's Malibu estate or the Hollywood Hills complex, she has her own little apartment to call home.
It's not the jet setting life of a model, or the glamour of a Hollywood actress, but it's real. Even if supernatural. Add into it the jet setting life of a model and glamour of a Hollywood starlet are all part of her job at the side of Hollywood's most powerful, and little known, figure. For once in her life, Samantha Hart may have just lucked out. Now all she has to do is avoid becoming the undead, or just another dead mortal pawn in the game played by all of LA's vampires.
As a means of creating stability in her life and a connection between them, Samantha requested Eva dub her 'off limits' to all other Kindred in the city. Though vampires don't seem to bother her, Samantha has been known to become possessive of Eva when it comes to other mortals. That most that see her walking down the street assume her to be a gold digging bimbo airhead no longer bothers her. If anything, these days, she's more likely to act the part to throw people off than be offended by it.
Allegiance: Unknown (Christopher Houghton)
Location: Malibu, Chateau Marmont
General Information:
For a group of immortal midnight runners, the Kindred in Los Angeles have always had short memories. Most vampires in the city have a history within LA that goes back a few decades. Maybe they were around for the riots mundane mortals blamed on racially charged conflict, likely they were around for the explosion of Camarilla and Anarch violence and mistrust. But the timeline of the City of Angels' history goes far past the recent conflicts, to the days when Los Angeles was no more than a far away outpost of the Spanish Empire. And for nearly as long as there's been a Los Angeles, there has been a shadowy group of Kindred in the shadows, using figureheads from the Anarch to the Camarilla to the Sabbat over it's long history to remain hidden from view.
'Led' by a mere child, this shadow group built Los Angeles, established the golden age of Hollywood, and built Los Angeles into a cultural epicenter for not just the New World, but the Old World as well, using beauty and art and careful planning to accomplish their goals. Recent events in Los Angeles have escalated to the point where the secret powers behind the city have lost direct control, leaving the group in a position to pick the next 'figurehead' to throw their immense and ancient power behind.
For so long as there is Los Angeles, those ancient few that crafted the city's growth and ensured the city's unusual balance of power will endure.
Name: Eva
Generation: 5th Generation (through Diablerie)
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality:
The woman known simply as 'Eva' is said to have more spirit and life than most of the living, let alone her fellow Kindred. Playful, charming, quick witted, yet typically reserved be it in public or private. Eva is a performer and storyteller, a founding figure in the behind-the-scenes power structure of Hollywood and the entertainment business based in the city.
If confronted, Eva is likely to work for compromise and mutual understanding, having what her sire calls "a diplomat's heart." If challenged or insulted, the response from the beautiful vampire is probably going to be swift and deadly. Though she seems ever certain of herself and in control of any situation she finds herself in, those close to Eva suspect the woman has finally begun to grow restless.
And none can say what she might do to sate her restless spirit.
Biography:
The early history of the woman now known simply as 'Eva' begun in the pre-history of the New World, when life revolved around the spirits of the seasons and tribal society. Exactly how and when has been lost to time, and Eva's memory, but it wasn't long after the Catholics began to spread in what they called the land of California, after a fictional paradise ruled by Amazons, that Eva began to have consistent interaction with the Europeans. Though Eva recalls the initial contact to be peaceful and explorative in nature, the Native admits it's hard to think back to first contact without thinking of the death that followed in the wake of the Europeans.
Eva lost her entire tribe to disease and fighting with other tribes, a great tragedy in her early mortal life that barely registers a pang in her heart anymore. Mostly due to her survival, Eva grew to learn much and more about the Europeans, their ways, and their languages. The pretty native girl became the explorer's go-to native for the area, both as guide and interpreter. It was in this role that the Ghoul of a powerful Old World vampire came across the native girl that would be perfect for the Ghoul's master.
Taken in the dead of night, the Native would awake on a ship bound for the Old World. Eva has said it would be improper to call the Old World vampire her sire, more "a donor of immortality and the blood of the undying." Her years in the Old World were lengthy, harsh, and desperate times during her captivity by her sire. Eva thinks of them little, and speaks of them even less. Her sire slain by an enemy, Eva was left to fend for herself, and would return to the New World after decades spent touring the great cities of the Old World, including Kindred society therein.
When Eva returned to her homeland, she found that the Europeans had been busy in chasing their imperial pursuits, a fledgling city named Los Angeles had been established by the Spanish Governor of the territory. It was there Eva would settle, beginning a long period of careful reconnaissance that would result in Eva knowing every face and name in the Valley, alive or undead. Or so she thought. Unknown to her, the Spanish leader of Los Angeles was under the influence of a vampire, a Toreador like her. A Toreador that Eva found herself connecting with quickly, both in terms of personality and their artistic visions.
Quickly, the two began to push Los Angeles from a backwater to a destination. Whereas the Spanish Missions forced Indians to labor without compensation, the self sustained farming economy of Los Angeles boomed--in large part because the city mandated Indians be paid for their labor, doubling and tripling Los Angeles' population and turning the city into the territory's largest. After the US military took the city after the Mexican American War, the new Military Governor was quickly taken in by the small secretive group of vampires.
When Los Angeles failed to live up to the grand ideas of that group, change followed. To drag Los Angeles into a greater class of city, the situation of clean water had to be fixed; resulting in one of the largest civic projects in North American History, the Los Angeles Aqueduct was Eva's first hands on project. She was seen speaking to organizers and engineers and labor leadership, though no recorded mention of the woman would survive. The success of the Aqueduct brought new kinds of industrial success to the city, and another spike of population.
With the success of their city, the secret group turned their attention to something that excited their Toreador artistic instincts: the new invention of moving pictures, of film movies. Through front companies and secret partnerships with mortals, the vampires would be behind the greatest early success of Hollywood, Eva herself said to have gotten a then unknown named Charlie Chaplin his opportunity to be a film star. From Silent Film Hollywood to the Golden Age of Big Studio Hollywood to the modern high-tech blockbuster driven Hollywood, Eva has had her finger on Hollywood's pressure points from it's inceptions. She has some measure of control over nearly every studio, agency, and Guild in town.
She even holds a vote with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
When the Camarilla lost their hold on Los Angeles, a hold they never truly had, Eva found her city entering a new, dangerous time. Though Eva refuses to make a drastic, overt, move she has begun making smaller moves--for the first time allowing herself to make waves in the open, despite the vulnerability in stepping away from the shadows.
Eva fears if she does not, their city will be lost to the cold authority of the Camarilla or the madness of the Anarch...or, worse, the invasion of LA by groups nearly as good as remaining a secret as Eva's own group.
Name: Etō Abe
Dharma Rank: 5
Dharma: The Dance of the Thrashing Dragon
Direction: East
Disciplines: Skin Shintai, Yang Prana, Cultivation
Personality:
Daring, bold, and utterly without fear--the exact opposite of the shy, timid, paranoid Abe that existed before he died and his spirit returned, with a new chance for Enlightenment that had escaped him during his life. Still as thoughtful as he ever was, and at base an introvert, the constant push and pull of his very nature is a fitting manifestation of the push and pull exerted upon his spirit by the forces of nature that go beyond mere nature to the supernatural. Though he is trying his best to drink and fuck his way through the unlife, in his current Coterie he has found an unlikely group of people with an aim for chaos and beauty that Abe finds himself drawn to, if not outright dedicated to.
Abe is cool enough to breeze into any Hollywood dance club or Malibu beach party, with charm and confidence in spades. A smooth operator, with the balls of a cat burglar.
Biography:
Born and raised in Tokyo, Eto was ever a kind, gentle, hearted boy. The kind of boy that was usually teased and bullied from the earliest grades to the completion of his education. Abe escaped into his studies and countless Mangas. After school he was hired as an accountant to a massive financial corporation based in Tokyo, where he had lived all his life in the shadow of it's crowds and towering skyscrapers. Even his co-workers mocked him for his push-over nature. Though even that was no match to the mocking he received from the few women in his life he ever dared to make a move on.
Abe's death was no more spectacular than his life: he died because a neighbor simply didn't notice him standing next to his car, and ran over him. But when Abe returned as a member of the undead, a Kuei-jin, he returned with an explosion of confidence and life. Instantly Abe knew what his path would be, and how he could achieve Enlightenment by exploring the passions of life that had always been denied to him, sometimes denied by his own then timid nature. Never again would that be the case.
The first thing that needed to happen, was a change in location. Abe would spend decades in Hong Kong before eventually leaving the city after watching the Matrix for the first time. All of a sudden Abe knew where he needed to be, where the stars never stopped shining and the sun never set on the glamorous life: he needed to go to Hollywood--the needed to go to Los Angeles!
It wasn't very long before Abe attached himself to a talent agency that specialized in Asian born actors and actresses. After fucking his way through the entire lineup of the agency's models and actresses, and some of the actors, Abe ran afoul when an actress he'd been with recently turned up dead; completely drained of chi. Though the local Camarilla Prince at the time was concerned of the event, it was the intervention of the prettiest woman Abe had ever seen that eventually kept his name from the Prince's inner circle.
In gratitude, and in large part in pursuit of the woman, Abe continued a pattern of getting into trouble with his hedonistic ways just so he might run into that woman, Eva, again. After the Camarilla Prince was taken down in murderous fashion, Abe leapt at the woman's suggestion that he might join her little band of undead. Mostly to get into her skirt, but also because he liked the live and let live attitude in which she approached the city of Los Angeles. An attitude he approved of much more for his new home, LA, than the attitudes held by the Camarilla or Sabbat.
Name: Ciel Leonie
Generation: 8th Generation
Clan: Caitiff
Disciplines: Temporis, Thaumaturgy, Auspex
Personality:
Ciel has the soul of a scientist. Her best personal assets are her abilities to wander at the natural (and later supernatural) world, to appreciate the cycles of nature and how everything and everyone has a part to play. Most of all, the width and breadth of her imagination. Outside of that, most consider Ciel to be a sociopath--even though she is not, even Ciel can understand why some people would think that. Little matters to her in the world outside her own personal fascinations and intellectual pursuits. She cares more of facts and logic than people and their (typically) flawed logic.
While this might normally make Ciel a perfect candidate for the ordered nature of the Camarilla, her Caitiff origins leaves her with a bitter distaste in her mouth over the Camarilla and their Princes. Nor does she have an overly favorable opinion of the Sabbat, and it's brutish mentalities. Ciel admires the Anarch movement in Los Angeles, but after meeting Christopher and Eva, Ciel sees just how Los Angeles has been able to execute Princes and primogens and keep on ticking without a hitch unlike any other city in the world's history.
Biography:
No one knows much about the Caitiff known as Ciel Leonie. Some believe she may have been a European aristocrat, others that she was once a Southern Belle at the height of the Antebellum period. No one can speak to the circumstances of her Embrace, and none have come forward claiming to be her sire. Ciel herself has always refused to comment on the matter of her origins, except for private wonderings that she has never shared with anyone. Trust has always been an issue for Ciel, not entirely surprising for someone who started her unlife abandoned and alone without an understanding.
Initially Ciel used her knowledge of popular culture and mythologies to guesstimate that she had been turned into a vampire. After all, the fangs seemed to be the final piece of evidence in which she simply could not dispute. After a fragile mental state that persisted throughout the traumatic events, Ciel eventually began to use her intuition and personal intelligence to gain stability and safety, including a move to Las Vegas during the boom of it's Mafioso golden age.
Eventually Ciel found her own lusts and desires distracting her from her studies and thinking, requiring her to go out and eventually run across other vampires--or Kindred, as she quickly learned from observation that they referred themselves. It was at a Rant that Ciel first encountered Kindred society, and at a Rant where she would meet a gorgeous Toreador with a connection to Frank Sinatra. For the first time in her unlife, Ciel felt safe around another Kindred, though her scientific soul kept her a distance from that Kindred for decades until an attack on her from minions of the Vegas Prince drove Ciel into the arms, and Coterie, of the Toreador she'd met so many decades before at an Anarch Rant in Las Vegas.
This is the first Coterie of her unlife, and Ciel believes she could not have picked a stranger one if God himself had intervened. But for someone driven by their curiosity and imagination, Ciel finds herself fascinated with her new Coterie, to say nothing of her Coterie's ability to sate every lust and desire she ever shares, keeping those distractions from interrupting her studies.
Name: Shaka Jonze
Generation: 9th Generation
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Dominate
Personality:
Shaka Jonze is, at his core, a chameleon that manages his various lives and multi-faceted personality with a desperate dexterity. He's made thuggery-as-resistance appealing, urging others to be loud and wild and reckless. He never tries "rise above" the way things are. He is not trying to "be better.", most comfortable when he knows people want to kill him, when he loves the thrill of not fearing anyone. He is free when he doesn't give a fuck about anything, including continuing his own life, when he feels like the world--for a change--is his.
There are few Shaka holds real loyalty to, only the loyalty of his thugs and the gang. Among the Kindred of LA there is only the loyalty of the Coterie to him.
Biography:
Born and raised in South Los Angeles, Compton, few know the streets of LA better than Shaka. His father and uncles were members of the Black Panthers, his cousins blood sworn members of the Crip massive street gang engaged in a bitter war with rival gang the Bloods. In a game, as Shaka has explained, "where you either dealt or used, I decided early on I'd be a dealer and not a user." By the time he was in high school Shaka was a well known rapper in the growing scene of LA's gangsta rap. When the King riots exploded in Los Angeles, Shaka was pulled into the Crip/Bloods conflict.
Though he would go on to become a leader in the Crip gang, his successful underground rap career turned Shaka into a figure that could talk to either side of the conflict. Seeing an opportunity, the gang of Kindred that secretly controlled many of the great street gangs of Los Angeles targetted Shaka for the unlife, assuming he would make an excellent mouth piece and pawn.
Instead within a few years of his unlife, Shaka was already beginning to win supporters from the older, more powerful Kindred in control of the vampiric gang. When he faced certain Final Death at the hands of powerful enemies, Shaka found his thug ass saved by a pretty woman that seemed to know way too much about way too many people. Hard to impress as Shaka has always been, the Kindred calling herself 'Eva' impressed him that day. Enough for Shaka to form an alliance with the woman; with her help, Shaka could take over the vampiric gang for once and for all. In return, Shaka would use the gangs (both Kindred and street types) as eyes and ears and foot soldiers for the woman's agenda. An agenda that focused on Los Angeles remaining the unique haven it had always been; the kind of shit Shaka Jonze could get behind.
Name: Miranda 'Mandy' West
Generation: 8th Generation
Clan: Lasombra
Disciplines: Dominate, Obtenebration, Potence
Personality:
Even tempered, intelligent, and measured: Mandy West is every bit the sweet Jewish girl in unlife as she was in life, although her warmth and girlish charms aren't always as genuine in the unlife as they had been in life. A melancholy persists deep within Mandy West, one never seen by anyone except for the very rare few that she lets that close. Despite this bittersweet mix, even those close to Mandy typically only see the positive attitude 'can-do' girl. Even inside the intimate, comfortable, protection of the Coterie Mandy can be shy; except with Eva, with whom she shares a connection so close even members of the Coterie joke they think Mandy and Eva share a blood bond and just don't tell anyone.
Outside her personal life, Mandy West is the Jewish girl that ran her father's company, heavily expanding it and turning it into a national force: she is cut throat, she is determined, and she is highly skilled in communications. Now she helps run several important corporate Boards in Hollywood. Like the rest of her Coterie, Mandy wants Los Angeles to remain as it is, and as it has always been: free. She genuinely considers Hollywood and it's movie industry to be so universally loved that Los Angeles should be left a neutral zone.
Biography:
Mandy likes to say not much of her life matters anymore, and generally speaking she means it quite a bit, although she still has a soft spot for the Jews of the world. She fondly recalls her parents and her life, but it's all become a happy dream that comes to her in clips and phrases. A memory born too long in the past to be fully remembered. Her only real tie to her life is her business portfolio, where she has managed to retained access to a presence in several industries she sees as key, maybe most important in Los Angeles being her Banks and her Import/Export buisness, with the most warehouse space on the entire west coast, and exclusive deals with the Port of Los Angeles--acquired only through Eva's help.
Though she is far from young, being Embraced at the end of the 18th century, Mandy is still new to the West Coast. She was able to avoid conflict in New York City, carving out a niche as an independent friendly to the Camarilla, and anyone else, for that matter--save for the Sabbat. Her sire has called Mandy's Embrace the best decision he ever made; admitting the girl is "a much finer quality person that I ever was or will be." Considering the difficulties and bad choices in her sire's life, this seems a sad but true statement. The only time Mandy has ever felt rage was after her Embrace, something she did not want from someone she did not want it from.
Feeling victimized and wanting to avoid further conflict, her status as a Lasombra was overlooked until she openly refused the branch of Lasombra antitribu working within the Camarilla. At that point it became clear to her she was on someone's hit list, and it was time to get out of town. At a movie premiere in Manhattan, distracted with paranoia and unable to enjoy herself, as much as she loved movies, Mandy ran into a tall exotic beauty that seemed to sparkle, and not just for the diamonds she wore. Faster than she'd ever expected, Mandy found herself telling this exotic woman all her problems. When the woman revealed herself to be in a position to help Mandy relocate to the Hollywood Hills, Mandy jumped at the opportunity for safety in a dream location as opposed to danger in New York City.
Name: Samantha Hart
Generation: Ghoul
Disciplines: Celerity, Auspex, Presence
Age: 22
Personality:
Samantha Hart is a humbled soul; having gone through some of the worst case, and humiliating, circumstances a Mid-Western country girl that left home to gamble on a career in Hollywood can go through. Such an experience has left Samantha infinitely wiser than she was when she first arrived to LA, and as such Samantha can sometimes be the infamous prototypical Los Angeles resident; shallow, jaded, and cynical.
Though Samantha would admit there was little of the heartfelt Midwestern humanity left to her after years of abuse, in the years following her 'freedom', Sam has found her humanity coming back to her a little bit at a time.
Holds an addictive personality that she has learned to get a grasp on the hard way; a painkillers addiction followed a cocaine addiction--all of which was overshadowed when a young vampire forced upon her an addiction to vampire blood. Though Samantha has managed to kick her past addictions, she sometimes gets into trouble with alcohol, to say nothing of her current addiction to the blood of the vampire that 'freed' her.
Vampires don't seem to scare her much, even if she admits they should.
Biography:
The daughter of a small town pastor and a small time model turned born again Christian, Samantha Hart grew up in Small Town, USA. She would call her childhood happy and fulfilling, and in recent years had admitted she acted entitled and naive when she declared she would not simply get a man, have a baby, and become just another girl working at Wal-Mart that never could escape the small town in which she raised. Her entire life people had told Samantha how pretty she was, and by her Senior year she had to drop cheerleading in order to meet all the modeling requirements she had.
Surely if she could get paid to model wedding dresses and summer fashions for local boutiques she could make it as a model or actress in Los Angeles? Today, Samantha admits it ironic her favorite film was Pretty Woman: a tale about a girl who'd gone to LA with dreams and ended up street walking. But Samantha had much more success than that; her first month in LA she'd gotten a job as a model. She felt as if she were on top of the world, the star of her very own reality TV show. That the modeling agency was in truth a high priced escort agency that took young girls new to LA looking to 'make it', got them addicted to free clothes, free high fashion living, and any drug the girl wanted to numb the pain--so long as she did what they told her to do, and with whom they told her to do it.
It was a mere few months in that hell that Samantha thought a kind, older, wealthy man she'd met at a charity function on the arm of some wealthy John would take her away from it all. And he did; but never could Sam imagine that she'd simply traded one sort of abusive dependence for blood bonded slavery. Samantha lost count of the days and the weeks and the months she spent under the vampire's control. Her sharpest memory is of the day the vampire woman came into her life, and did take away her away from all the abuse and pain.
This woman, Eva, offered to give Samantha's life back to her. According to Eva, the road would be painful and long, but eventually Samantha would be free of influences both narcotic or supernatural. In the end, with Sam unwilling to lose the incredible sensations of vampire blood, the two women agreed on a compromise: Samantha would serve Eva, not in the master-slave dynamic of the prior vampire, but in many ways like just another pretty assistant to a high powered executive. The opportunity represents Sam's first real 'job' in Los Angeles, one she is paid for. Though Sam spends all her time at the Chateau or in Eva's Malibu estate or the Hollywood Hills complex, she has her own little apartment to call home.
It's not the jet setting life of a model, or the glamour of a Hollywood actress, but it's real. Even if supernatural. Add into it the jet setting life of a model and glamour of a Hollywood starlet are all part of her job at the side of Hollywood's most powerful, and little known, figure. For once in her life, Samantha Hart may have just lucked out. Now all she has to do is avoid becoming the undead, or just another dead mortal pawn in the game played by all of LA's vampires.
As a means of creating stability in her life and a connection between them, Samantha requested Eva dub her 'off limits' to all other Kindred in the city. Though vampires don't seem to bother her, Samantha has been known to become possessive of Eva when it comes to other mortals. That most that see her walking down the street assume her to be a gold digging bimbo airhead no longer bothers her. If anything, these days, she's more likely to act the part to throw people off than be offended by it.
Faction Name: The Pyromancers
Allegiance: Anarch
Location: University of California, Los Angeles: West Hollywood, near Beverly Hills
General Information: Originally began in the early history of the University, it was originally a Tremere Chantry but after they decided to de-affiliate themselves with the Camarilla, it was nearly entirely destroyed by other Tremeres as to keep the Thaumaturgy safe within their ranks. As years went, rumors of an extremely secret society that had survived the purge grew. There had been one survivor but only barely and this survivor, Maximilian, had been a pariah even within the splitter group and for good reason. He had always had way too much interests in dark thaumaturgies and demonism for his own good. Today the Circle is extremely small and hides itself from the world, not needing another purge to wipe them out and finish the job started decades ago. Still, they realize that they can't go on alone and between the Camarilla, which would imply joining the official Tremere order and have all their dirty little secrets exposed, or the Sabat which was an option seen as equally suicidal, the cabal decided to join with the Anarch. They were young and had little experience dealing with Baali demonologist (Although obviously, they don't go around claiming to be such.).
Character Sheets:
Name: Maximilian DeSuza
Generation: 8th Generation (Diablerized from 11th)
Clan: Baali
Disciplines: Obfuscate, Presence, Daimoinon
Personality: One does not deal with demons without being tainted by them. He manages to hold off most sadistic urges he may have, but the more insidious effects of his dealings still show and he has become arrogant, borderline megalomaniac, jealous, paranoid and in general deprived of most positive emotions and virtues.
Biography: The bad apple of the bunch, like all baali he had been hiding his true nature from the world, hunted by all for his abominable nature. He managed to infiltrate the camarilla for a few decades in the early 20th century and even leech of a Tremere chantry. It had been surprisingly easy in fact, all the Camarilla wanted more power, to climb the hierarchy and Max's ways were easy and quick. A few years later he had gained a substantial following and while he was well established he used this to explore his dark arts some more. The Tremere however had doubt about the truth of the chantry and so Maximilian used his influence to convince the Californian Tremere that they had no need for the Camarilla, hiding the truth which would have resulted in a gigantic manhunt which would have caused his premature final death like it did to his Sire before under the veil of rebellion. The chantry was burnt down, but one does not kill a worshiper of hell with mere fire and so he survived. After that he went into hiding. perhaps he had lost a circle of helpers but at least it had burned his tracks with him and there was no pesky investigation about his nature. He and the sole other survivor, Claire, went underground and began to rebuild slowly, gaining influence in the university circles and forming a web of mortal thralls openly calling themselves satanists. "The Devil's greatest achievement was convincing people it didn't exist." is the motto of this operation as the human authorities do not do anything about this and the web of intrigue formed that way is too thick to for them to be found out as nobody know about anything.
Other:
-Visible Balefire Taint to his Aura
-Visible Dark Taint to his Aura
-Pair of demonic wings allow flight
-Immune to Fire
Name: Claire Lemay
Generation: 10th Generation (Diablerized from 11th)
Clan: Tremere
Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy
Personality: Ambitious and driven, she is ruthless and like Maximilian she tries to keep control of the urges her dark deeds tainted her with, although she does so with more success than him as she hasn't been dealing with demons for so long as him. Still, her idea of power and ambition isn't to hide in dark cellars and as such, she is ready to get involved and take command.
Biography: Fed up with the hierarchy of the camarilla where she could never change a thing because of her generation, she saw in Maximilian an opportunity and the only hesitation she had was how she could get caught. She became his right hand and managed thus to boost her powers and to stage the death of her superiors and pose herself as the obvious replacement. She wasn't aware and didn't approve of Maximilian convincing the chantry to leave the camarilla but the deed was done. She strongly resents Maximilian for breaking her away from the chain of command of the Camarilla but couldn't quite really leave him. Now she looks upon the Anarch as a new way to gain power and Status.
Name: Izak Redfield
Generation: 11th Generation
Clan: Ventrue
Disciplines: Fortitude, Presence, Dominate
Personality: Crude, rude and direct as well as extremely violent and a sadist, he embraced the demonic taint of his dabbling in Dark Thaumaturgy and although his Ventrue blood calls for him to gain always more power and authority, he cannot resist the urge to use said power to crush others.
Biography: Izak sees himself as a wiser man than most and he saw the rise of satanist sects in the mist of the mortals as someone being active. Many made this connection actually, but Izak was quite blunt in his desire to learn Dark Thaumaturgy which interested Maximilian. He was seen as an outside, but as a manipulable one due to his enormous lust for power and thus became one of Maximilian's disciples. He is now constantly at odds with Claire as both desire power and status, however Izak is ultimately a brute that can only rule by fear or pure strength, blinded by his own demonic rage.
Name: Patrick Marlow
Generation: Human Ghoul
Clan: Human Ghoul
Disciplines: N/A
Personality: Kind of a nice guy, smart in sciences and generally willing to experiment, go in the unknown and take risk, he is now of course entirely defined by his unconditional slave love to Claire.
Biography: Although his entire life now turns around his love for his master as he is now a ghoul, Patrick was, ultimately, a victim of circumstances as Claire generally doesn't put much thought in her choice of ghoul. Still however, he has proven himself to be more competent than most and, a rare thing, Claire as bothered to remember his name.
Name: Mania
Generation: Dominion
Clan: Demon
Disciplines: Dark Thaumaturgy, Daimoinon
Personality: As a representative of all there is evil, her personality is quite in accordance to that of the seven sins: Envious, gluttonous, prideful, slothful, wrathful, lustful and greedy. Although she was summoned to be of help to Maximilian and she is grateful he brought her from hell, she sees herself as someone superior to everyone else on earth and thus only works according to her whimsical desire. This somewhat makes her manipulable if you can manage to keep her attention for more than a minute. Otherwise, she cannot be killed permanently but yet she has no urge to go back to hell, far from it, which makes her all too willing to flee danger at all cost.
Biography: Hell is, well, hellish. God didn't sent Lucifer down there to party, but to suffer and indeed, hell is so bad that even the demons hate it, which is why they constantly want to escape it. When Maximilian decided to summon an entity from hell, she saw the opportunity and took it. Ultimately she finds the mortal world to be quite boring considering she cannot reveal her true nature to most people or use her considerable powers to enslave people and distract herself. She is somewhat grateful to Maximilian to have brought her here, but she doesn't see him as a master and both Izak and Claire hate her cuts as Mania constantly belittle and insult everyone she crosses, although the Pyromancers know that their usual little trick to defend themselves, setting everyone in hellish fire, is laughable to Mania. They thus endure her presence and repeated insults. Still, Mania has proven herself to be useful when she actually bothered to do anything and as a shape shifter that can brave the day light, she is more inconspicuous than a gargoyle while packing almost the same punch.
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Faction Name: The Sleepwalkers
Allegiance: Camarilla
Location: Downtown Los Angeles, the Sleepwalker bar
General Information: The Sleepwalkers are a group of kindred loosely aligned to the Camarilla, operating out of a downtown bar by the same name. Working under the command of a centuries old Vampress, the Sleepwalkers exist to try and move their way up the social ladder, intent on becoming more powerful and influential in vampire society. Comprised of both informants and shock troops, the Sleepwalkers are a relatively insignificant bunch, using their anonymity to their advantage, functioning under a shroud of obscurity.
Name: Zinaida Nzlodei/Zaylee Norrin
Generation: 8th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality: Zinaida is cunning and astute; adapt at collecting knowledge, and even better at utilising it to her advantage. She does not delight in causing others pain, or go out of her way to harm people for the sake of harming them, but will not think twice about utterly decimating those who would try to do her wrong. She can be charming and courteous, or callous and crude as it takes her fancy, possessing no one easily discernable set of traits.
Zinaida has grate ambitions, and an unquenchable lust for power.
Appearance: Zinaida stands slightly shorter than most teenaged girls, with deathly pale skin and unkempt shoulder length hair the colour of coal, streaked with red highlights. She has a thin angular face, with an ever-so-slightly pointed chin and narrow cheekbones. Her nose has a relatively faint gash running horizontally across its surface and two slender scars criss-cross her left cheek. Her teeth are sharper than the average persons, and her ears are rather jagged, possessing a slightly knife-like appearance. She has a reasonable amount of muscle, and curves generously out around her hips, yet manages to maintain an agile appearance, primarily possessing a slender yet curvaceous figure. She has sleek, black eyebrows and wide eyes, the colour of distorted Rosses. The flesh on around her cheeks has a slight purple hue to it, as opposed the pasty white that is native to most of her skin. She has a pierced lower-lip and a metal stud in her chin.
Biography: A household of lesser Russian Nobles, the Nzlodei family governed over the remote town of Utrezvezda, which prospered under their rule. Zinaida was afforded a good education and even a few luxuries, but always hungered for more, never quite being satisfied with what she received. She was given ample opportunity to make friends and socialize, but preferred to spend her time trying to improve upon her particular set of skills, and to expand upon her political and general knowledge. Her early upbringing was pleasant and uneventful, with little of note happening.
Whilst she was in her teens, the Mongol invasion bore down on Utrezvezda, obliterating the town, and resulting in Zinaida being taken as a slave by the invaders. The young girl spent the next few years living a life of servitude, a stark contrast to her life of moderate luxury, constantly longing for freedom, but never daring to try and escape, for fear of her new masters.
After spending a considerable amount of time as a slave, Zinaida came into contact with a surprisingly linguistic Persian captive, whom shared her role as a slave of the Mongol’s. Zinaida and the Persian quickly bonded, discovering that they were both of prominent backgrounds, and both shared a similar desire for power, as well as other interests.
Revealing himself to be a Toreador of the Ray'een al-Fen line, the Persian embraced Zinaida, before the pair of them vanished into the night, escaping their captors and fleeing to Persia, slaying several Huns in the process. The pair spent a long while in hiding within Persia, until positions of authority were restored to Persian people of importance, by the decree of Ghazan Khan, where Zinaida’s sire-masquerading as one of his decedents- was gifted back his old land, taking the seemingly teenaged girl with him.
Her sire tutored her in both mortal and immortal politics, and for a fair few years the young girl was truly happy, helping her Persian comrade to reside over far more land than the Nzlodei family had ever owned.
Zinaida and her sire remained within positions of power in Persia for several centuries, adopting various different aliases, up until the decline of the Safavid Empire, when the pair instead headed for Europe, utilising contacts that had created through co-dependant trade routes.
They eventually settled in England, steadily working their way into new positions of power, up until the point where-by the Victorian era-they were both prominent business people, and had great influence in culture and art, placating the Toreador’s thirst for the creative.
However, Zinaida’s sire grew too ambitious, and so fell prey to a more prominent Ventrue, whom he had tried to best, his network of industry sized control of, and a steak planted through his heart.
Zinaida stayed hidden for the next few centuries, remaining completely out of sight, lusting for power from her hiding place in the shadows.
In the final nights, now working under the name Zaylee Norrin, she has migrated to Los Angeles, and is the owner of the Sleepwalker bar. While-at first glance-she may not seem much of a threat, or even to possess any power worthy of mention, she has surrounded herself with a closely-knit group of informants and lackey’s, with her dead eyes set firmly on the position of Princess.
Name: Rotface
Generation: 11th
Clan: Nosferatu
Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
Personality: Rotface seems to have no purpose or motivation in life, whatever once fuelled him to go about his business long having fizzled away. He is bitter and spiteful, openly jealous of those not afflicted with same curse as he, yet seemingly loyal to the Sleepwalker’s, for some undiscernible reason.
Appearance: Warped and deformed in appearance, Rotface is a hunched, broken creature, his skin scaly and black, often coming loose. He has long, talon-like finger nails that are dark with dirt and grime, sharp needle-like fangs, and dead beady eyes. Even by Nosferatu standards his likeness is ugly, a mishmash of deep wounds running across the surface of his scarred visage, clusters of pustule growths sprouting all over his uneven face.
Biography: At first glance Rotface would seem to be simply a particularly ugly Nosferatu, but there is more than meets the eye concerning this particular sewer rat.
Born during the 60’s, Elijah Morgan was abandoned by his mother, dumped in a government-based orphanage, alongside his elder sister, Charity. From a young age it became evident that Elijah was extremely intelligent, exceeding all of the other children academically, which may be a partial contribution as to why his significantly dumber sister harboured such seething animosity for him. For as long as anyone could remember Charity would taunt, bully, and otherwise abuse her younger brother, hurting him physically and verbally, and humiliating him whenever she could. While Elijah possessed smarts, Charity was immensely popular-being pretty as picture, and (once she was the right age) filthier than raw sewerage-and she used this to aid in her seemingly random torment of her brother, coaxing all the larger kids into repeatedly beating the shit out of Elijah, and convincing all of the girls that he was an utter creep, to be avoided at all costs.
The boy grew up without friends and without love, living the life of a recluse, focusing solely on his school work. As the years went by, Charity’s abuse of her younger brother only worsened, and Elijah became more and more of a loner.
By the time they finished school, both of the Morgan siblings hated each other deeply, the pair of them going their separate ways as soon as they could.
Severing all contacts with his past life, Elijah was accepted into medical school, going to study to become a surgeon. Working amongst people of his own intelligence level, who did not mock or beat him, the young man finally begun to feel accepted for once, steadily easing into a life where he was not constantly looking over his own shoulder.
Whilst at medical school, Elijah became very intimate friends with a young woman named Lana Osworth, a mutual attraction forming almost instantly between the pair. By the time they had both graduated from medical school, Elijah and Lana were happily married, excitedly awaiting whatever the world had to offer them.
Moving into a small apartment in Santa Monica, the pair both got well-paying jobs at a private surgery, being able to live comfortably as soon as they entered employment. Elijah and Lana lived happily for several years, their joy only increasing when Mrs Morgan became pregnant. For many months it seemed as though everything was running perfectly, The Morgan’s living a happy and secure life. Soon Elijah would be a father, and could give his child the love and affection that his parents never afforded him.
However, soon this would all change.
Returning home one night, Elijah was confronted by two police officers, who informed him that there had been an incident in a local back alley. Two muggers had held a heavily pregnant Lana at gunpoint, demanding that she had over her diamond wedding ring. When she had refused, one of the men had short her at point blank range and taken it anyway.
Blind and man with grief, Elijah fell into a deep depression, resulting in a decline in the quality of his life, and the eventual loss of his job.
Broke and hungry, the former surgeon was attempting to sell some of his old stuff to a local pawn shop, when he came across something that would forever change the course of his life: His Wife’s wedding ring. Demanding to know where the shop keeper had got it from, Elijah set off on a journey that would take him to dark places, and drive him to do unspeakable things, but eventually led him to his wife’s killer.
Tracking him to the 5th floor of small apartment complex, Elijah burst inside, fully-loaded revolver in hand, ready to confront the man that had taken away the woman he loved. Inside the apartment he found a fairly unassuming looking crack-head with messy hair and a five-a-clock shadow, as well as someone whom he had prayed he would never see again: His sister Charity.
At that point in time something within him snapped, the kindly surgeon warping into something primordial, and vicious beyond reckoning. Elijah blew out the man’s knee caps, before knocking him out with a lamp. He then held down his sister, raped her, and then spent the next few hours cutting her up with surgical precision, making sure she remained conscious the whole time. When his late sisters lover awoke, Elijah force feed him pieces of Charity, before preceding to cut him up as well.
Whatever had been unlocked inside him that night only festered and grew stronger, never able to be placated. Elijah took to the streets, lurking in dark corners and back alleys, preying on young women who resembled his sister in any way.
However, one night Elijah slipped up, and one of his would be victims managed to retaliate, slicing him across the face with a kitchen knife, making several large gashes in his face. The broken man slunk away into the sewers, his faced bloodied and full of puss, where he lay down in the putrid water, expecting to die.
During the night Elijah was found by a lowly, spiteful Nosferatu, whom embraced the scarred man as he slept.
The creature that awake in those sewers was already so broken and full of pain, that when he stared down at his new reflection in the gushing sewer water his mind fragmented completely, forging a new identity, and casting out all of his old memories in place of fresh ones.
Rotface encountered a few other Nosferatu during his time in the sewers, some of whom took pity on him, and filled in the blanks in terms of his new Vampric state. He quickly managed to get to grips with the reclusive life of a sewer rat, preferring to stay out of the way people, anyhow.
For a long while he worked as a sort of free-lance informant, tied only loosely to the Camarilla, trading information to whomever would hire his services, up until recently, where he came under the permanent employment of Zaylee Norrin, working as the Sleepwalker’s main information broker, amongst other things.
Name: Madeline “Mad Maddie” Hollinghurst
Generation: 9th (Through Diablerie)
Clan: Malkavian
Disciplines: Auspex, Obfuscate, Dementation
Personality: :, In life Maddie was unhinged, maniacal, and otherwise sick in the head. In Death, Maddie’s madness has only increased in severity. A volatile young Vampress with an aptitude for violence, Miss Hollinghurst is an amoral individual, possessing a complete disregard for the rights and feelings of others. Impulsive and aggressive, Madeline has a long history of behavioural problems, vicious outbreaks, and sadistic tendencies.
Appearance: Maddie’s face is lean and slender, with a small cluster of freckles gathered around her slim nose. Her eyes are a yellowy green, and her eyebrows have been finely plucked. She has a sharp chin, broad forehead, and a wiry neck. Maddie has raven hair that flows down past her shoulders. She has a skinny build, with faint curves, and a surprising amount of muscle for someone with such delicate features. Her body is fairly toned, with a hint of softness.
Biography: : Maddie was born in Liverpool, England, initially being raised by a family that were troubled in both the psychological and financial sense. Madeline’s father was a dockworker who put in multiple shifts, before spending all of the day’s earnings on drugs and booze, and then going home and beating his mother and his baby girl. When he was particularly irate, daddy Hollinghurst would lock young Maddie in her room for days on end, accompanied by several fresh bruises and scars for good measure.
The young girl grew up without friends or siblings, and spent her leisurely time catching rats and birds in traps that she’d set up about the family’s home, before breaking their necks once she’d claimed her bloody prizes.
The start of the Second World War saw Madeline evacuated to Devon, where she was taken in by the eccentric Doctor and Mrs Blackwood. The radical change in lifestyle took some adjusting to, but Madeline quickly became very fond of the pair, liking them a great deal more than her birth parents. The Blackwood’s tutored young Maddie, and she soon fell in love with the vast expanse of books that were available in their homes library, after the Doctor had taught her how to read and write.
Despite finding life more enjoyable, Maddie continued her old hobby of capturing and torturing animals, up until one fateful evening where Doctor Blackwood caught the young girl in the act. Fearful of how he might react, Madeline was rather surprised to the find that her foster father was not so much horrified by what he found as he was fascinated, taking an even greater interest in young Madeline. The Doctor begun to develop a physiological profile of Madeline, based off of both behavioural observations and interview sessions he held with her, diagnosing her with several different personality disorders, as well a plethora of psychopathic tendencies. Rather than try putting her in therapy or giving her medication, Doctor Blackwood instead encouraged her to take her urges out animals, in an attempt to placate the “darkness” inside her, and make her less of a threat to other humans.
Taking a fondness to his adopted daughter, Doctor Blackwood begun to pay for Madeline to be tutored in several extra-curricular activities, buying her lessons in everything from art, literature, and ballet, to fencing, marksmanship, and martial arts. While she really took a shining to the combat based activities, Madeline still immensely enjoyed the less-aggressive classes.
Madeline spent the duration of the war under the Blackwood’s tutelage-growing especially close to the good Doctor, as they bonded over their butchering of woodland animals-and grew to become a rather intellectual and competent young woman, becoming somewhat forwards thinking for someone with such an arsenal of mental defects.
During the course of the war Madeline’s birth farther was conscripted into the army, ending up being killed by friendly fire, while her mother died during the Liverpool Blitz. With no parents to return to, Maddie remained with the Blackwood’s, living out her idealistic lifestyle within Devon.
Unfortunately, even in paradise the sunsets.
One of Doctor Blackwood’s former patients, Edgar Burgan, broke into the Blackwood estate in the dead of night, slipping into their mansion without being detected. Unhinged and completely unstable, Edgar butchered the Doctor and his wife in their sleep, only missing Maddie because she was in the basement fiddling with her rat traps.
Upon discovering the bodies of her dead foster parents, Maddie slipped into a state of complete physiological madness, breaking down to the point where she was no longer functional. With no one else to care for her, Madeline was dumped in the young person’s ward of the Arthur Derrington Private Clinic and Asylum, being confined to an enclosed cell, without access to the outside world, which only served to worsen her already damaged state.
Madeline spent many years within asylum, during which she attracted the attention of one Archibald Walden; a rather well composed Malkavian, masquerading as a doctor within the facility.
Felling drawn towards the young girl, Archibald embraced her one night, before whisking her away from the Asylum, taking her to live with him in his small cottage. While her sire had much love for her, this was not by any means requited. With the guidance of the whispering voices in her head, Madeline diablerized Archibald, catching him completely off guard, before fleeing out into the wide world.
After many years of awkwardly shambling from one place to another, Maddie eventually managed to end up in the “employment” Zaylee, working as a bruiser at the Sleepwalker.
Name: Manfred Daecher/ Owen Townley
Generation: 10th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality: A man of both art and lateral thinking, Manfred has little regard old-fashioned or outdated principles, such as religion, viewing science as the way forwards. While courteous and polite on the outside, Manfred is exceptionally cruel and twisted, even by Vampric standards, resembling someone more likely to be found in the Sabbat than Camarilla.
Nevertheless, Manfred is not without his own moral code, having immense distain for easy women and thuggish men.
Appearance: Manfred has a lean, athletic build, with a fair amount of muscle. He has dark hair, which is neatly combed back across his head, slender green eyes, and a narrow face with a square jaw.
Biography: Raised in a moderately upper-class family in Germany during the great depression, Manfred had a fairly easy upbringing, despite the horrendous economical state of the country. An expert in chemical sciences and phrenology, Manfred worked as a scientist in Auschwitz, under the employment of the Third Reich.
Whilst in the concentration camp, Manfred committed many horrendous atrocities, allegedly in the name of science, doing unspeakable things to his victims.
When the war ended, Manfred became employed by the United Sates government, granted a new identity-Owen Townley-, under Operative Paperclip.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip)
Whilst working in America, Owen began to develop an infatuation with art, constantly frequenting galleries and the like. It was at one such event that he met Marie-Claire Badeaux, a wealthy aesthete, who took an immediate liking to Mr Townley, which soon blossomed into a full-blown romance.
Marie-Claire was in fact a Toreador Vampress, who eventually embraced Owen, bidding him to come and live with her. However, Marie-Claire’s interest in the ex-Nazi soon fizzled away, as is often the case with Toreador’s, and it was not long before she cast him out, commanding him to go elsewhere.
In the Final nights, Owen works under Zaylee Norrin, employed as a sort of ambassador for the Sleepwalkers, the political front of the establishment, dealing with business dealings and such.
Allegiance: Camarilla
Location: Downtown Los Angeles, the Sleepwalker bar
General Information: The Sleepwalkers are a group of kindred loosely aligned to the Camarilla, operating out of a downtown bar by the same name. Working under the command of a centuries old Vampress, the Sleepwalkers exist to try and move their way up the social ladder, intent on becoming more powerful and influential in vampire society. Comprised of both informants and shock troops, the Sleepwalkers are a relatively insignificant bunch, using their anonymity to their advantage, functioning under a shroud of obscurity.
Name: Zinaida Nzlodei/Zaylee Norrin
Generation: 8th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality: Zinaida is cunning and astute; adapt at collecting knowledge, and even better at utilising it to her advantage. She does not delight in causing others pain, or go out of her way to harm people for the sake of harming them, but will not think twice about utterly decimating those who would try to do her wrong. She can be charming and courteous, or callous and crude as it takes her fancy, possessing no one easily discernable set of traits.
Zinaida has grate ambitions, and an unquenchable lust for power.
Appearance: Zinaida stands slightly shorter than most teenaged girls, with deathly pale skin and unkempt shoulder length hair the colour of coal, streaked with red highlights. She has a thin angular face, with an ever-so-slightly pointed chin and narrow cheekbones. Her nose has a relatively faint gash running horizontally across its surface and two slender scars criss-cross her left cheek. Her teeth are sharper than the average persons, and her ears are rather jagged, possessing a slightly knife-like appearance. She has a reasonable amount of muscle, and curves generously out around her hips, yet manages to maintain an agile appearance, primarily possessing a slender yet curvaceous figure. She has sleek, black eyebrows and wide eyes, the colour of distorted Rosses. The flesh on around her cheeks has a slight purple hue to it, as opposed the pasty white that is native to most of her skin. She has a pierced lower-lip and a metal stud in her chin.
Biography: A household of lesser Russian Nobles, the Nzlodei family governed over the remote town of Utrezvezda, which prospered under their rule. Zinaida was afforded a good education and even a few luxuries, but always hungered for more, never quite being satisfied with what she received. She was given ample opportunity to make friends and socialize, but preferred to spend her time trying to improve upon her particular set of skills, and to expand upon her political and general knowledge. Her early upbringing was pleasant and uneventful, with little of note happening.
Whilst she was in her teens, the Mongol invasion bore down on Utrezvezda, obliterating the town, and resulting in Zinaida being taken as a slave by the invaders. The young girl spent the next few years living a life of servitude, a stark contrast to her life of moderate luxury, constantly longing for freedom, but never daring to try and escape, for fear of her new masters.
After spending a considerable amount of time as a slave, Zinaida came into contact with a surprisingly linguistic Persian captive, whom shared her role as a slave of the Mongol’s. Zinaida and the Persian quickly bonded, discovering that they were both of prominent backgrounds, and both shared a similar desire for power, as well as other interests.
Revealing himself to be a Toreador of the Ray'een al-Fen line, the Persian embraced Zinaida, before the pair of them vanished into the night, escaping their captors and fleeing to Persia, slaying several Huns in the process. The pair spent a long while in hiding within Persia, until positions of authority were restored to Persian people of importance, by the decree of Ghazan Khan, where Zinaida’s sire-masquerading as one of his decedents- was gifted back his old land, taking the seemingly teenaged girl with him.
Her sire tutored her in both mortal and immortal politics, and for a fair few years the young girl was truly happy, helping her Persian comrade to reside over far more land than the Nzlodei family had ever owned.
Zinaida and her sire remained within positions of power in Persia for several centuries, adopting various different aliases, up until the decline of the Safavid Empire, when the pair instead headed for Europe, utilising contacts that had created through co-dependant trade routes.
They eventually settled in England, steadily working their way into new positions of power, up until the point where-by the Victorian era-they were both prominent business people, and had great influence in culture and art, placating the Toreador’s thirst for the creative.
However, Zinaida’s sire grew too ambitious, and so fell prey to a more prominent Ventrue, whom he had tried to best, his network of industry sized control of, and a steak planted through his heart.
Zinaida stayed hidden for the next few centuries, remaining completely out of sight, lusting for power from her hiding place in the shadows.
In the final nights, now working under the name Zaylee Norrin, she has migrated to Los Angeles, and is the owner of the Sleepwalker bar. While-at first glance-she may not seem much of a threat, or even to possess any power worthy of mention, she has surrounded herself with a closely-knit group of informants and lackey’s, with her dead eyes set firmly on the position of Princess.
Name: Rotface
Generation: 11th
Clan: Nosferatu
Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
Personality: Rotface seems to have no purpose or motivation in life, whatever once fuelled him to go about his business long having fizzled away. He is bitter and spiteful, openly jealous of those not afflicted with same curse as he, yet seemingly loyal to the Sleepwalker’s, for some undiscernible reason.
Appearance: Warped and deformed in appearance, Rotface is a hunched, broken creature, his skin scaly and black, often coming loose. He has long, talon-like finger nails that are dark with dirt and grime, sharp needle-like fangs, and dead beady eyes. Even by Nosferatu standards his likeness is ugly, a mishmash of deep wounds running across the surface of his scarred visage, clusters of pustule growths sprouting all over his uneven face.
Biography: At first glance Rotface would seem to be simply a particularly ugly Nosferatu, but there is more than meets the eye concerning this particular sewer rat.
Born during the 60’s, Elijah Morgan was abandoned by his mother, dumped in a government-based orphanage, alongside his elder sister, Charity. From a young age it became evident that Elijah was extremely intelligent, exceeding all of the other children academically, which may be a partial contribution as to why his significantly dumber sister harboured such seething animosity for him. For as long as anyone could remember Charity would taunt, bully, and otherwise abuse her younger brother, hurting him physically and verbally, and humiliating him whenever she could. While Elijah possessed smarts, Charity was immensely popular-being pretty as picture, and (once she was the right age) filthier than raw sewerage-and she used this to aid in her seemingly random torment of her brother, coaxing all the larger kids into repeatedly beating the shit out of Elijah, and convincing all of the girls that he was an utter creep, to be avoided at all costs.
The boy grew up without friends and without love, living the life of a recluse, focusing solely on his school work. As the years went by, Charity’s abuse of her younger brother only worsened, and Elijah became more and more of a loner.
By the time they finished school, both of the Morgan siblings hated each other deeply, the pair of them going their separate ways as soon as they could.
Severing all contacts with his past life, Elijah was accepted into medical school, going to study to become a surgeon. Working amongst people of his own intelligence level, who did not mock or beat him, the young man finally begun to feel accepted for once, steadily easing into a life where he was not constantly looking over his own shoulder.
Whilst at medical school, Elijah became very intimate friends with a young woman named Lana Osworth, a mutual attraction forming almost instantly between the pair. By the time they had both graduated from medical school, Elijah and Lana were happily married, excitedly awaiting whatever the world had to offer them.
Moving into a small apartment in Santa Monica, the pair both got well-paying jobs at a private surgery, being able to live comfortably as soon as they entered employment. Elijah and Lana lived happily for several years, their joy only increasing when Mrs Morgan became pregnant. For many months it seemed as though everything was running perfectly, The Morgan’s living a happy and secure life. Soon Elijah would be a father, and could give his child the love and affection that his parents never afforded him.
However, soon this would all change.
Returning home one night, Elijah was confronted by two police officers, who informed him that there had been an incident in a local back alley. Two muggers had held a heavily pregnant Lana at gunpoint, demanding that she had over her diamond wedding ring. When she had refused, one of the men had short her at point blank range and taken it anyway.
Blind and man with grief, Elijah fell into a deep depression, resulting in a decline in the quality of his life, and the eventual loss of his job.
Broke and hungry, the former surgeon was attempting to sell some of his old stuff to a local pawn shop, when he came across something that would forever change the course of his life: His Wife’s wedding ring. Demanding to know where the shop keeper had got it from, Elijah set off on a journey that would take him to dark places, and drive him to do unspeakable things, but eventually led him to his wife’s killer.
Tracking him to the 5th floor of small apartment complex, Elijah burst inside, fully-loaded revolver in hand, ready to confront the man that had taken away the woman he loved. Inside the apartment he found a fairly unassuming looking crack-head with messy hair and a five-a-clock shadow, as well as someone whom he had prayed he would never see again: His sister Charity.
At that point in time something within him snapped, the kindly surgeon warping into something primordial, and vicious beyond reckoning. Elijah blew out the man’s knee caps, before knocking him out with a lamp. He then held down his sister, raped her, and then spent the next few hours cutting her up with surgical precision, making sure she remained conscious the whole time. When his late sisters lover awoke, Elijah force feed him pieces of Charity, before preceding to cut him up as well.
Whatever had been unlocked inside him that night only festered and grew stronger, never able to be placated. Elijah took to the streets, lurking in dark corners and back alleys, preying on young women who resembled his sister in any way.
However, one night Elijah slipped up, and one of his would be victims managed to retaliate, slicing him across the face with a kitchen knife, making several large gashes in his face. The broken man slunk away into the sewers, his faced bloodied and full of puss, where he lay down in the putrid water, expecting to die.
During the night Elijah was found by a lowly, spiteful Nosferatu, whom embraced the scarred man as he slept.
The creature that awake in those sewers was already so broken and full of pain, that when he stared down at his new reflection in the gushing sewer water his mind fragmented completely, forging a new identity, and casting out all of his old memories in place of fresh ones.
Rotface encountered a few other Nosferatu during his time in the sewers, some of whom took pity on him, and filled in the blanks in terms of his new Vampric state. He quickly managed to get to grips with the reclusive life of a sewer rat, preferring to stay out of the way people, anyhow.
For a long while he worked as a sort of free-lance informant, tied only loosely to the Camarilla, trading information to whomever would hire his services, up until recently, where he came under the permanent employment of Zaylee Norrin, working as the Sleepwalker’s main information broker, amongst other things.
Name: Madeline “Mad Maddie” Hollinghurst
Generation: 9th (Through Diablerie)
Clan: Malkavian
Disciplines: Auspex, Obfuscate, Dementation
Personality: :, In life Maddie was unhinged, maniacal, and otherwise sick in the head. In Death, Maddie’s madness has only increased in severity. A volatile young Vampress with an aptitude for violence, Miss Hollinghurst is an amoral individual, possessing a complete disregard for the rights and feelings of others. Impulsive and aggressive, Madeline has a long history of behavioural problems, vicious outbreaks, and sadistic tendencies.
Appearance: Maddie’s face is lean and slender, with a small cluster of freckles gathered around her slim nose. Her eyes are a yellowy green, and her eyebrows have been finely plucked. She has a sharp chin, broad forehead, and a wiry neck. Maddie has raven hair that flows down past her shoulders. She has a skinny build, with faint curves, and a surprising amount of muscle for someone with such delicate features. Her body is fairly toned, with a hint of softness.
Biography: : Maddie was born in Liverpool, England, initially being raised by a family that were troubled in both the psychological and financial sense. Madeline’s father was a dockworker who put in multiple shifts, before spending all of the day’s earnings on drugs and booze, and then going home and beating his mother and his baby girl. When he was particularly irate, daddy Hollinghurst would lock young Maddie in her room for days on end, accompanied by several fresh bruises and scars for good measure.
The young girl grew up without friends or siblings, and spent her leisurely time catching rats and birds in traps that she’d set up about the family’s home, before breaking their necks once she’d claimed her bloody prizes.
The start of the Second World War saw Madeline evacuated to Devon, where she was taken in by the eccentric Doctor and Mrs Blackwood. The radical change in lifestyle took some adjusting to, but Madeline quickly became very fond of the pair, liking them a great deal more than her birth parents. The Blackwood’s tutored young Maddie, and she soon fell in love with the vast expanse of books that were available in their homes library, after the Doctor had taught her how to read and write.
Despite finding life more enjoyable, Maddie continued her old hobby of capturing and torturing animals, up until one fateful evening where Doctor Blackwood caught the young girl in the act. Fearful of how he might react, Madeline was rather surprised to the find that her foster father was not so much horrified by what he found as he was fascinated, taking an even greater interest in young Madeline. The Doctor begun to develop a physiological profile of Madeline, based off of both behavioural observations and interview sessions he held with her, diagnosing her with several different personality disorders, as well a plethora of psychopathic tendencies. Rather than try putting her in therapy or giving her medication, Doctor Blackwood instead encouraged her to take her urges out animals, in an attempt to placate the “darkness” inside her, and make her less of a threat to other humans.
Taking a fondness to his adopted daughter, Doctor Blackwood begun to pay for Madeline to be tutored in several extra-curricular activities, buying her lessons in everything from art, literature, and ballet, to fencing, marksmanship, and martial arts. While she really took a shining to the combat based activities, Madeline still immensely enjoyed the less-aggressive classes.
Madeline spent the duration of the war under the Blackwood’s tutelage-growing especially close to the good Doctor, as they bonded over their butchering of woodland animals-and grew to become a rather intellectual and competent young woman, becoming somewhat forwards thinking for someone with such an arsenal of mental defects.
During the course of the war Madeline’s birth farther was conscripted into the army, ending up being killed by friendly fire, while her mother died during the Liverpool Blitz. With no parents to return to, Maddie remained with the Blackwood’s, living out her idealistic lifestyle within Devon.
Unfortunately, even in paradise the sunsets.
One of Doctor Blackwood’s former patients, Edgar Burgan, broke into the Blackwood estate in the dead of night, slipping into their mansion without being detected. Unhinged and completely unstable, Edgar butchered the Doctor and his wife in their sleep, only missing Maddie because she was in the basement fiddling with her rat traps.
Upon discovering the bodies of her dead foster parents, Maddie slipped into a state of complete physiological madness, breaking down to the point where she was no longer functional. With no one else to care for her, Madeline was dumped in the young person’s ward of the Arthur Derrington Private Clinic and Asylum, being confined to an enclosed cell, without access to the outside world, which only served to worsen her already damaged state.
Madeline spent many years within asylum, during which she attracted the attention of one Archibald Walden; a rather well composed Malkavian, masquerading as a doctor within the facility.
Felling drawn towards the young girl, Archibald embraced her one night, before whisking her away from the Asylum, taking her to live with him in his small cottage. While her sire had much love for her, this was not by any means requited. With the guidance of the whispering voices in her head, Madeline diablerized Archibald, catching him completely off guard, before fleeing out into the wide world.
After many years of awkwardly shambling from one place to another, Maddie eventually managed to end up in the “employment” Zaylee, working as a bruiser at the Sleepwalker.
Name: Manfred Daecher/ Owen Townley
Generation: 10th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality: A man of both art and lateral thinking, Manfred has little regard old-fashioned or outdated principles, such as religion, viewing science as the way forwards. While courteous and polite on the outside, Manfred is exceptionally cruel and twisted, even by Vampric standards, resembling someone more likely to be found in the Sabbat than Camarilla.
Nevertheless, Manfred is not without his own moral code, having immense distain for easy women and thuggish men.
Appearance: Manfred has a lean, athletic build, with a fair amount of muscle. He has dark hair, which is neatly combed back across his head, slender green eyes, and a narrow face with a square jaw.
Biography: Raised in a moderately upper-class family in Germany during the great depression, Manfred had a fairly easy upbringing, despite the horrendous economical state of the country. An expert in chemical sciences and phrenology, Manfred worked as a scientist in Auschwitz, under the employment of the Third Reich.
Whilst in the concentration camp, Manfred committed many horrendous atrocities, allegedly in the name of science, doing unspeakable things to his victims.
When the war ended, Manfred became employed by the United Sates government, granted a new identity-Owen Townley-, under Operative Paperclip.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip)
Whilst working in America, Owen began to develop an infatuation with art, constantly frequenting galleries and the like. It was at one such event that he met Marie-Claire Badeaux, a wealthy aesthete, who took an immediate liking to Mr Townley, which soon blossomed into a full-blown romance.
Marie-Claire was in fact a Toreador Vampress, who eventually embraced Owen, bidding him to come and live with her. However, Marie-Claire’s interest in the ex-Nazi soon fizzled away, as is often the case with Toreador’s, and it was not long before she cast him out, commanding him to go elsewhere.
In the Final nights, Owen works under Zaylee Norrin, employed as a sort of ambassador for the Sleepwalkers, the political front of the establishment, dealing with business dealings and such.
Name: Juliette
Generation: 9th
Clan: Ventrue
Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
Personality: Juliette is very two-faced, able to project an outward appearance of innocence, submission and compliance, when inside she is cunning and secretive. She is a helpless lamb, until you turn your back on her. She uses the Discipline 'Presence' heavily, to make people want to protect her. She doesn't want to dominate, she wants to manipulate without people being aware of what she is doing. This works more on men then women and because of this she doesn't like being around women.
Biography: Juliette was born 'Jennifer Von Jordan', the daughter of a socialite and a Wall Street business-man. She was a spoiled child, Daddy's little princess. Imagine a modern Shirley Temple and you've got Jennifer. She has never known poverty, never known what it is to be hungry or cold or scared. She was a brat that grew into a proper young woman. Piano lessons, horseback riding, country club, private schools, ski trips to Aspen, summers Italy and Spain... she had every advantage, was given an impeccable education.
But this privileged life is what led to her death.
Her fate was sealed when her father entered into shady business dealings with Sebastian Lacroix. He ended up in debt to the Camerilla Prince and Lacroix accepted Jennifer as payment of the debt. Using his abilities as a Ventrue, he convinced both of her parents that their daughter was dead and made them move on, pushing her memory to the back of their minds.
He embraced Jennifer in secret, not wanting to give anyone a weakness to exploit. Lacroix broke her down using mental and emotional abuse in order to build her up and reshape her into what he desired. He renamed her 'Juliette', taking the last piece of her old life away, and started tutoring her in the history and culture of their clan, planning to reveal her as his childe at her induction ceremony.
Although she put on a very convincing act of loving Lacroix, Juliette harbored an intense hatred of him in her heart for all he has done to her. For taking her life, her home, her family, her very identity from her. So deep was her hatred that she secretly joined the Anarchs and became a spy for them, feeding them information about Lacroix and the inner workings of the Camerilla. Her greatest desire was to see Lacroix brought down to nothing, to see him grovel and plead for mercy, then squash him under her heel like the parasite he was. But that joy was robbed from her by an ancient sarcophogos and an explosion.
Once Lacroix was killed Juliette's connection to the Anarchs was exposed, causing her to have to run from her clan to avoid being killed as a traitor. She is now a refugee, seeking the protection of the Anarchs.
Name: Mina
Stage Name: Lillith
Generation: 11th
Clan: Malkavian
Disciplines: Auspex, Obfuscate, Domniate
Personality: Completely batshit. No really, she is. Mina is mostly serious and speaks in weird almost poetic language, but make her angry and she will go Hannibal Lector on your ass whether you be Kindred or Kine. She has been warned in the past about violating the Masquerade, but her fellow band members are good at keeping her under control.
As far as the whole Camarilla vs. Anarchs, she doesn't really give a shit. She plays with her band and that is really all she cares about.
Biography: Mina spent most of her teenage years in a mental home, claiming to hear voices. Her parents didn't know what to do with her. Their own daughter made them so uncomfortable that they barely came to see her, then stopped coming altogether. They moved across the state and told people they didn't have any children. Once they stopped paying for her treatment the doctors kept her there to study and test new treatments on. The various drugs and other forms of treatment, not all legal, only made her insanity worse.
She managed to escape the mental home after her door was left unlocked by a lazy orderly. She found her way to a rave when the voices told her to approach a man there, a man who ended up being a Malkavian. Because of their shared mental status he was drawn to her and embraced her, considering the lack of a Prince to ask permission from.
Unfortunately for Mina, Malkavians are not known for there loyalty and her sire dropped her fairly quickly after her embrace. She barely got a rudimentary knowledge of the world of the Kindred. Thankfully she was taken in by the band where she can pound on drums and feed on drugged up groupies all night.
She feels there is something brewing in the background of the recent upheavel in the city... something big... and very very bad...
The voices in her mind have been whispering a name...
"Ankou..."
Marra Mistborn Dancer In The Mists
Member
Seen
9 yrs ago
Faction Name: The Camarilla Prince of Los Angeles
Allegiance: Camarilla
Location: Millennium Biltmore Hotel
General Information: This is the official Camarilla faction in Los Angeles. The Prince came from another city to try and fix things after the city fell apart and she is a visionary who wants to improve things. She expects the loyal Camarilla to give her support.
Character Sheets:
Name: Melissa Crofter
Generation: 6th
Appearance:
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Presence, Celerity, Auspex
Personality: Melissa is an artist, a musician, and a connoisseur of both. She enjoys getting to use her creative impulses and seeing what others both kine and kindred have created. She is a dreamer and her head is firmly fixed in the clouds most of the time. She likes to style herself as a visionary instead and has all sorts of plans for beautification changes to the world and Los Angeles now.
Melissa is easy to get along with if she is not bored. But if she is bored she never has the patience for conversations. There are days when she goes about lost in her music and imagination for hours at a time. Even though she is a bit airy she has a strong presence and her beauty, vision, and artistic skill draw others to her.
Biography: Melissa was a young woman in Annapolis Maryland in the 1790s. She was a gifted musician and singer and her favorite instrument was the harp. She did not come from a wealthy family and so when a wealthy man offered to be her patron she accepted without thinking. He wooed her with praises and rewards that swept her off her feet and into his arms in a storm that she did not understand.
Then he embraced her and Melissa’s mortal life was over. Her sire was kind to her and his attraction had not faded when she became one of the kindred. He was her guide in navigating the world of the kindred. She loved the world of seductive shadows and inhuman beauty and she was happier with her new life than she ever was before.
Her sire was killed in a Sabbat attack on the city and she was left adrift. Melissa had not been on her own before but the city was full of contacts she had made through her sire’s influence. She did okay by herself until she left the city with some companions. She planned to tour the world but only toured part of it. Melissa spent time in Greece and Italy before coming back to the States.
She found Annapolis stale and moved looking for a place she could make fit her vision. She wanted a clean slate and she picked a city in central California named Burbank. Melissa ended up in charge because no one else wanted a territory so close to the Anarchs of Los Angeles.
When the Camarilla installed LaCroix in Los Angeles she knew it was going to end badly. When the situation exploded she patted herself on the back and waited for the dust to settle. Melissa has always longed to be in control of a cultural center and she sees this as her chance. She left behind a loyal follower to be regent in Burbank and has moved into Los Angeles as the new and official Camarilla Prince.
Name: Alaric Demetrious
Generation: 8th
Appearance:
Clan: Ventrue
Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
Personality: Alaric is honorable and loyal to a fault. He is devoted to Melissa and was entranced by her vision when he met her in Greece on her short lived world tour. He is not the smartest vampire but he thinks well on his feet and is very solid. Alaric is also very forceful and one of the people who can talk Melissa out of her fugue states of vision.
Biography: Alaric was embraced as a young man in Greece. His sire was a strange one for a Ventrue who did not want to deal with the duty of educating a new childe. He was given as a gift to a beautiful woman who took an interest in his knowledge of the ancient architecture and artwork. Though she never put any demands on him during her visit to Greece he came to see it as his duty to attend her. He accompanied her back to the Americas and has never looked back.
Allegiance: Camarilla
Location: Millennium Biltmore Hotel
General Information: This is the official Camarilla faction in Los Angeles. The Prince came from another city to try and fix things after the city fell apart and she is a visionary who wants to improve things. She expects the loyal Camarilla to give her support.
Character Sheets:
Name: Melissa Crofter
Generation: 6th
Appearance:
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Presence, Celerity, Auspex
Personality: Melissa is an artist, a musician, and a connoisseur of both. She enjoys getting to use her creative impulses and seeing what others both kine and kindred have created. She is a dreamer and her head is firmly fixed in the clouds most of the time. She likes to style herself as a visionary instead and has all sorts of plans for beautification changes to the world and Los Angeles now.
Melissa is easy to get along with if she is not bored. But if she is bored she never has the patience for conversations. There are days when she goes about lost in her music and imagination for hours at a time. Even though she is a bit airy she has a strong presence and her beauty, vision, and artistic skill draw others to her.
Biography: Melissa was a young woman in Annapolis Maryland in the 1790s. She was a gifted musician and singer and her favorite instrument was the harp. She did not come from a wealthy family and so when a wealthy man offered to be her patron she accepted without thinking. He wooed her with praises and rewards that swept her off her feet and into his arms in a storm that she did not understand.
Then he embraced her and Melissa’s mortal life was over. Her sire was kind to her and his attraction had not faded when she became one of the kindred. He was her guide in navigating the world of the kindred. She loved the world of seductive shadows and inhuman beauty and she was happier with her new life than she ever was before.
Her sire was killed in a Sabbat attack on the city and she was left adrift. Melissa had not been on her own before but the city was full of contacts she had made through her sire’s influence. She did okay by herself until she left the city with some companions. She planned to tour the world but only toured part of it. Melissa spent time in Greece and Italy before coming back to the States.
She found Annapolis stale and moved looking for a place she could make fit her vision. She wanted a clean slate and she picked a city in central California named Burbank. Melissa ended up in charge because no one else wanted a territory so close to the Anarchs of Los Angeles.
When the Camarilla installed LaCroix in Los Angeles she knew it was going to end badly. When the situation exploded she patted herself on the back and waited for the dust to settle. Melissa has always longed to be in control of a cultural center and she sees this as her chance. She left behind a loyal follower to be regent in Burbank and has moved into Los Angeles as the new and official Camarilla Prince.
Name: Alaric Demetrious
Generation: 8th
Appearance:
Clan: Ventrue
Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
Personality: Alaric is honorable and loyal to a fault. He is devoted to Melissa and was entranced by her vision when he met her in Greece on her short lived world tour. He is not the smartest vampire but he thinks well on his feet and is very solid. Alaric is also very forceful and one of the people who can talk Melissa out of her fugue states of vision.
Biography: Alaric was embraced as a young man in Greece. His sire was a strange one for a Ventrue who did not want to deal with the duty of educating a new childe. He was given as a gift to a beautiful woman who took an interest in his knowledge of the ancient architecture and artwork. Though she never put any demands on him during her visit to Greece he came to see it as his duty to attend her. He accompanied her back to the Americas and has never looked back.
Name: Meredith Atkins
Generation: 7th
Appearance:
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Presence, Celerity, Auspex
Personality: Meredith is a charming and witty person. She is fast to tell jokes and pleasant to be around. She is a music fan too. Meredith has a slightly sadistic side and she considers pain a spice that makes art more interesting. She studies behavior and thinks that bearing and mannerisms can be an art equal to any other. She is very down to earth for a Toreador.
Biography: Meredith also comes from Annapolis. She was an outcast artist who struggled to make ends meet. She was embraced by Melissa in the 1830s after Melissa’s sire had died. Meredith was enthralled by her sire and the early days of friendship and patronage never faded all the way. She was with Melissa on her tour of the ancient world and has stuck with her.
Meredith has been an advisor and friend to Melissa. She also is used when there is a problem that needs less pleasant methods to solve. Because she likes pain and studies it she is skilled at torture and extracting information.
Generation: 7th
Appearance:
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Presence, Celerity, Auspex
Personality: Meredith is a charming and witty person. She is fast to tell jokes and pleasant to be around. She is a music fan too. Meredith has a slightly sadistic side and she considers pain a spice that makes art more interesting. She studies behavior and thinks that bearing and mannerisms can be an art equal to any other. She is very down to earth for a Toreador.
Biography: Meredith also comes from Annapolis. She was an outcast artist who struggled to make ends meet. She was embraced by Melissa in the 1830s after Melissa’s sire had died. Meredith was enthralled by her sire and the early days of friendship and patronage never faded all the way. She was with Melissa on her tour of the ancient world and has stuck with her.
Meredith has been an advisor and friend to Melissa. She also is used when there is a problem that needs less pleasant methods to solve. Because she likes pain and studies it she is skilled at torture and extracting information.
Name: Martin Crane
Generation: 9th
Appearance:
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality: Martin is a scholar and a visionary as well as a fighter who yearns for the old days of Carthage. He is emotional and appreciative of the visions of others. Right now he is enthralled by his mistress and he believes that her visions will lead her to create a cultural center like Carthage once was. He is her favorite right now and this makes him confident.
Biography: Martin Crane was once an Anarch. He was embraced in the 1950s by a radical anarchist Brujah who convinced him that the life of an Anarch was the only way. He was trapped under his sire’s spell for years until his sire was killed by other Anarchs. Martin became disillusioned with anarchy and left the Free State to see what the rest of the world offered.
In Burbank he met Melissa and while he was captivated by her beauty and vision she found his fire equally intriguing. He was amazed that a Prince of the Camarilla that he had heard so many bad things about could be so wonderful. He eagerly leads her forces on the battlefield with the enthusiasm of a Brujah who has a cause again.
Generation: 9th
Appearance:
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality: Martin is a scholar and a visionary as well as a fighter who yearns for the old days of Carthage. He is emotional and appreciative of the visions of others. Right now he is enthralled by his mistress and he believes that her visions will lead her to create a cultural center like Carthage once was. He is her favorite right now and this makes him confident.
Biography: Martin Crane was once an Anarch. He was embraced in the 1950s by a radical anarchist Brujah who convinced him that the life of an Anarch was the only way. He was trapped under his sire’s spell for years until his sire was killed by other Anarchs. Martin became disillusioned with anarchy and left the Free State to see what the rest of the world offered.
In Burbank he met Melissa and while he was captivated by her beauty and vision she found his fire equally intriguing. He was amazed that a Prince of the Camarilla that he had heard so many bad things about could be so wonderful. He eagerly leads her forces on the battlefield with the enthusiasm of a Brujah who has a cause again.
Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.
So much he profits in divinity,
That shortly he was graced with Doctor's name,
Excelling all, and sweetly can dispute
In th'heavenly matters of theology.
Till swoll'n with cunning, of a self conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach
And melting, heavens conspired his overthrow,
For falling to a devilish exercise,
And glutted now with learning's golden gifts,
He surfeits upon cursed necromancy.
- Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Faction Name: The Los Angeles chapter of the Giovanni family
Allegiance: Independent
Location: Burbank
General information: The Giovanni clan is the youngest clan of Cain, and known for being the usurpers of the previously powerful Cappadocian clan. Practicers of necromancy, the Giovanni trace their history as far back as the Roman Empire, when they as humans were known as Jovians. The Cappadocians eventually embraced the family, and the Antediluvian known as Augustus Giovanni, the father of clan Giovanni, would come to defeat and usurp the Cappadocians from within. The expertise the Giovanni possess in necromancy is unmatched, and it was through this power Augustus Giovanni came to outline his goals for the clan and family.
The specific goal is to tear down the Shroud, potentially gaining Giovanni power beyond comprehension, but the necessary rituals require huge amounts of souls, making this a goal spanning many centuries. As the years went by, the Giovanni expanded. Families like the Pisanob, Milliners and Ghiberti were incorporated into the family, with others to follow, and thus the clan continually spreads across the globe. As the Final Nights came and ran out, the Giovanni began to wonder if maybe they'd made a mistake. Maybe Augustus Giovanni had underestimated the Antediluvians; maybe the dead would become more potent if the Shroud were pulled down; maybe Caine was real and in the end all of these petty plays and power moves had been nothing but a diversion until Gehenna.
Nothing about the goal was certain, but what is certain is the turmoil Los Angeles has been in for the past two years. Ever since the Prince of the Camarilla was killed, various factions has vied for control over the city. So far, none has succeeded, least of all the Giovanni. Following the Fledgling's crusade across the cityscape, the Los Angeles chapter of the Giovanni family was left weakened, nearly obliterated. Opting to stay out of the chaos that followed, the Giovanni elders chose not to send new members to reform the chapters during the initial years, leaving the remnants in decay. Now, however, as the chaos has slowly began to subceed, the Giovanni family have decided it is time to regain their turf in the City of Angels, thus sending their foremost expert in the rebuilding and establishment of organizations, Samuel Giovanni, to restore order to the Giovanni chapter and, subsequently, expand into the filthy mess that is Los Angeles.
Name: Ulisse Samuele Giovanni
Generation: 7th
Birth: 1418
Embrace: 1465
Clan: Giovanni
Disciplines: Potence, Dominate, Necromancy
Personality: Intelligent, calculating, ferocious and assertive, Samuel has evolved into one of the most influential members of the Giovanni clan. Throughout the latest centuries, he has established himself as the foremost diplomat of the Giovanni clan, forming a whole host of connections throughout the United States. He has specialized in rebuilding and/or reinforcing weak chapters of the family, and he excels at his job. His fame extends beyond the Giovannis, and many Kindred - especially the informed kind - has opinions about the old Venetian. Nevertheless, Samuel is far from the polished, gentle and warm figure he poses to the outside. He has delved deeper and deeper into the arts of necromancy as the years have gone by, wanting to reach the absolute bottom of the depths of knowledge. Partially neglecting his other disciplines, Samuel has become a master of his art, and his efforts continue to grow more vile and disturbing by the season. In truth, only the Tzimisce might accept Samuel for the despicable fuck that he truly is, behind the curtains.
Moreover, he maintains a very emotional and fiery relationship to his fiancé, Julie Giovanni. He values her above anything of this world, yet the two are always at odds with one another. Where Samuel is calm, patient, cunning and evil, Julie is passionate, wild, emotional and, well, less evil. As for the outside connections, Samuel holds a grudge against the Sabbath and, particularly, the Camarilla, and it is no secret amongst the Giovannis that Samyel has hurt, is hurting and continues to strive to hurt these factions.
Biography: Born a few decades before the Republic of Venice would truly become a power on the seas, Ulisse is indeed one of the oldest Giovannis still undead, and arguably one of the more influential ones as well. His first years on this earth would, however, prove little indication of this. While being of the Giovanni bloodline, Ulisse's father Micheletto had proved to be nothing but a drunken sot in his life, drinking or gambling away every coin he earned. Micheletto had married Lucilla, a miserable and mentally ill prostitute from the plentiful slums of Venice. The latter gave birth to Ulisse in a small town in Friuli in 1418, marking the start of little Ulisse's horrors.
His first years, as a baby, toddler and then little kid was plagued by abuse. His mother, sinking ever deeper into the dark abyss that was her twisted mind, would beat the boy for fun, sometimes performing milder versions of torture on him. Pinching, biting, hitting, twisting, bending and scratching were adjectives apt for describing her actions far too often. Lucilla hid her demented actions from her husband, as he had given her more than one beating when she had hurt the boy before. Even so, Micheletto often hurt ulisse himself while drunk, though this was out of anger rather than enjoyment. As the years went on, things would take a turn for the worse for Ulisse, and his father became the prime evil in the house instead.
Unbeknownst to him, Ulisse's father had for a longer time had sexual feelings for his son. This was something Micheletto stubbornly denied to himself, refusing to believe he could have such feelings for his own son. It caused Micheletto to seek further comfort in alcohol, and he gradually lost his sense over the years to the point he no longer felt obligated to repress these feelings. Instead, when Ulisse was around ten years old, Micheletto began sexually assaulting him. From monthly, it became a weekly and then daily routine as Ulisse slipped deeper into depression. In fact, if it wasn't for his uncle Domenico Belmonte, Lucilla's brother, Ulisse might have well ended up like his parents. Instead, when he turned fifteen, Ulisse was allowed apprenticeship at the medium-sized shipyard in Venice that Domenico operated. While quiet and introvert, Ulisse proved to be both intelligent and practical, much to the delight of his uncle. The two developed a close relationship, as Ulisse had never had anyone who cared for him in his life before. In less than a year, Ulisse moved permanently to Domenico's rather large home in the middle of Venice, It is safe to say that Domenico sense the trouble brewing at Ulisse's home, though he had no idea about just how far these troubles actually extended, and Ulisse wasn't the sort of person who would tell anyone about his problems.
Soon enough, Domenico made Ulisse his second hand, teaching the boy to read and calculate. At eighteen, Ulisse was already an adept shipbuilder, and a bit of a financial genius to boot. The close relationship between Domenico and Ulisse grew ever closer as the years went by, and eventually the two became lovers. Accordingly, it was heart-breaking news for Ulisse when his uncle passed away while at sea in 1439. As written in the testament of Domenico, Ulisse gained control of the shipyard. Despite his tender age and limited experience, the business flourished under Ulisse's hands. He became far more extrovert than ever before, self-confident and assertive. As his business associates in the following years guided Ulisse to out-compete specific factions, even to the point of burning up their warehouses and extorting them, little did Ulisse know his associates were ghouls of the Giovanni family, testing him as they performed the heinous act of diablerizing Cappadoccia.
The years went on, and soon enough Ulisse's shipyard was the grandest in all of Venice. Building ships for himself as well, Ulisse became an aggressive, intimidating and above all successful merchant. He earned a small fortune, and in 1463 when the Ottoman Empire declared war against Venice, he became even richer. The doge paid him ridiculous amounts of gold for warships, and Ulisse provided. It was at this time, at the height of his might, that Ulisse was introduced to the supernatural world.
His embrace was quick and uncelebratory as the turmoil amongst the Giovanni clan was far from over after the usurping of clan Cappadoccia. The elders saw great potential in their new Kindred, and while Ulisse was anything but comfortable in his new role as a creature of the night, he excelled. Growing more ferocious and cunning with every year that passed, it wasn't long before he was properly rewarded. One of the most powerful elders had one day brought Ulisse to a remote locations in the mountains north of Venice. There, the elder managed to summon the wraith of Ulisse's long dead father, Micheletto, binding him to a delicate, large vase.
"Protect this vase, and you'll be able to repay your father's crimes tenfold as time passes by", the elder had explained. While not much is known about what actually happened to the vase, the common belief amongst the Giovanni family is that Ulisse has kept the vase safe to the present day, tormenting his father in ways far removed from the physical world.
Time went on, and the Republic of Venice fell. Accordingly, the Giovanni family established itself in new places. In 1796, after establishing himself as one of the most powerful figures in Venice, Ulisse fled the country as it fell to Austrian and French troops. Along with a whole host of his family, Ulisse sailed to America. In the upcoming months, the newly arrived members of the Giovanni family established themselves on the east coast, where the first Giovanni settlers had already made their mark. Ulisse changed his first name to Samuel, after his second name, in order to better fit in to an English speaking society. As winter approached, it was decided by the elders that Samuel would sire a childe. Samuel was decidedly against the whole idea, but had little choice. Worse; he didn't get to choose his childe himself. Instead, the elders had decided that a wild but talented woman called Julie. While a bloodline member of the Giovanni, the woman had been abandoned by her parents, weak and unstable people who were never embraced nor informed about their bloodline. Having made a mark in recent years, Julie had now resurfaced on the clan's radar, and it had been decided she would be embraced by Samuel. As such, Samuel had little choice in doing other than preparing for the ritual.
Shared history with Julie: On that very fateful night, the 13th of December, Samuel and Julie met for the first time. Julie had left an impression on the Giovanni elders with her ruthlessness and efficiency as a hitman, and while her mental instability was a matter of some significance, it was hardly a rare trait among the Giovannis and the elders were intent on embracing her. After the ritual had concluded, Samuel was ordered to take his childe under his wings, despite his reluctance to do so.
The pair stayed in New York under the local elder, Paulo Giovanni. Samuel as Paulo’s right hand, and Julie as Samuel’s. The latter would soon take a liking for Julie, intrigued by the fact that she, much like him, had lived her life completely unknowing of the supernatural world – something common among most people and even among some of the minor Giovanni families, but definitely not the Giovanni’s themselves. As time passed, Samuel also slowly learned of Julie’s troubled childhood, something that caused further interest.
As years and, soon enough, decades past, Samuel very slowly but surely developed feelings for Julie who were as deep as they were unanswered. In contrast to Samuel’s reaction to learning Julie’s secrets, Julie felt more and more disgusted by Samuel the more he revealed himself to her. As cunning, patient and strong as he was, he was nevertheless as vile, filthy and degenerated as his childhood. More so, in fact. Samuel started including Julie in his necromantic experiments and rituals and had Julie been a sane individual, she would have merely hated the man. Instead, as time passed, she began to hate and admire the man in equal fashion for his daunting and merciless ways. More importantly, he was the first person since Mary Grey who actually cared for Julie, something she would often express resentment towards, but felt stronger and calmer by.
On Christmas Eve 1812, Julie was unexpectedly sent to Boston. She greatly disliked the idea of returning to the town of her childhood, but nevertheless followed Samuel’s orders. In them, Samuel had gave her an exact address to visit. Julie eventually found herself in a large empty warehouse, save for a young man tied to a chair. As she approached the gagged man, she had no idea who he was or what any of them were doing there, but when she removed the gag and he said her name, it took less than a second to recognize Richard Grey, despite the body clearly belonging to someone else. Samuel had then appeared out of nowhere, explaining that the man was her Christmas present. Julie had felt as two-faced as ever, wanting to leave and torture the man at the same time. Samuel made sure she chose the latter, and she never regretted it. That night sparked an uneven, dark romance between the two Giovanni’s that has lasted, albeit often hanging by a thread, to present day.
After that night, the two went back to New York. As strange as it seemed, killing Richard a second time made Julie feel more whole than she had ever felt. Years passed and after killing the Camarilla-controlled mayor of New York City in the 1850’s, Samuel was promoted to the new elder of the New York chapter, with Julie his right hand. The couple continued expanding Giovanni influence in the city, which like much of the rest of the United States would come to serve a much bigger role in the Giovanni clan as the 19th century went on.
They remained in charge of New York until 1923, when Samuel was sent to establish a new chapter in Chicago after the previous one had been wiped out by internal conflicts. Their reputation and prowess in Chicago had to be restored, and with Samuel in charge, it slowly but surely was. They would stay until the 1940’s before being sent to Seattle to do much the same thing they had done in Chicago. And so it would continue – Samuel and his childe being sent to various cities in America, sometimes abroad, to help re-establish chapters, conduct small operations or start entirely new chapters. Some assignments would last days, some decades. Most of the problems Samuel and Julie was sent to solve were being caused by friction with the Camarilla and Sabbath, causing Samuel, and Julie to a lesser extent, to develop an unusually strong resentment towards the organizations over the years, particularly the former. Prior to being sent to Los Angeles, the couple were assigned to Mexico, investigating a sudden disappearance of the Hidalgo family, a Mexican minor family of the Giovanni’s. What they found or didn’t find is as of yet unknown.
Name: Giuliana Liboria Giovanni
Generation: 8th
Birth: 1760
Embrace: 1796
Clan: Giovanni
Disciplines: Potence, Dominate, Necromancy
Personality: Julie is everything that Samuel is not. Sure, she is not an idiot, but she isn't a genius either. She is as passionate and wild as Samuel is distant and calm, and in the calmest of waters, she will be a storm. Sometimes, she appears happy and playful, often engaging in downright life-threatening games for fun, while other times being furious, sad or just absent. It is not a fair assumption that Julie's rather poor mental health as a human has carried over and worsened in her undead existence.
Tenacious and physically aggressive, Julie often serves as Samuel's brawn. She enjoys fighting, and is both experienced and good at it. While attracted and drawn to Samuel, Julie can't help but feel disgust towards the experiments and practices Samuel carries out. It's not that she is weak, but Samuel's tendencies are truly disturbing. Other than that, she, likes Samuel, holds a grudge against the Camarilla and Sabbath, but she mainly does so because her fiancé does so. Her only, truly, lasting feelings are those she holds for Samuel. Anything else gets lost in the hurricane that is Julie.
Biography: While Julie was born in 1760, she does not know where, nor does she care. Her memories of her parents are as faint as they are dull, and she can’t picture their faces nor remember their personalities. Julie was left at an orphanage in Boston when five years old. She quickly came to know that her peers were a nasty bunch, using physical violence and mental torment in order do ’discipline’ the children and ’keep them in line’. Julie was wild and frail by heart, and reacted accordingly – earning even more attention from the women in charge.
As the years went on, Julie seemed to adapt to the form the administrators were trying to steep her in, and when she was twelve she was deemed proper enough to be placed in a foster family. However, while solemn and quiet on the outside, rage and hate fuelled her. The foster family, the Greys, was made up of Mary, Richard and their daughter Rose. As the initial months came to pass, Julie actually started to like her new ‘family’, even though Rose was clearly jealous of her new little sister. It would all quickly change on Christmas Eve 1772, however, as a very drunk Richard stumbled into the sleeping Julie’s room and unceremoniously, as if by habit, climbed into her bed and tried to rape her. As Julie woke up and tried to fight the man, it became apparent that he thought Julie was Rose. Disgusted and devastated by the betrayal, Julie grabbed a pen by the nightstand and buried it deep in Richard’s neck. The drunken man was unable to defend himself as Julie in a fit of rage continued stabbing Richard to death.
That same night, she quickly gathered the most important of her belongings and did what she had dreamt of the entire time at the orphanage – escaped. Where she went the story does not tell, but she somehow managed to get to New York at one point or another, as this is when she turned up again. Apparently living on the streets, Julie had by her eighteenth birthday made herself a reputation as one of those willing to do damn near anything for money. Her fragile mind had broken long ago, leaving a very unstable, angry and depressed young woman feeling little else than hate towards everything and everyone – yet most of all herself. It was at this point that a man styling himself “Snake” took a notice in Julie. It was a silly name, but he certainly wasn’t a silly man. Well-known among the more exposed strata of New York, Snake was arguably the most successful of the homeless criminals in New York – though Snake obviously wasn’t homeless any longer. Often using homeless children to do his dirty work for minimal pay, he started using Julie for his, and it wasn’t long before he noticed that while she was fiery and full of powerful emotions, she was also completely un-hinged and placed no value in human life. As such, he simply used her to kill people, as she demanded the same pay as she would for fetching him groceries.
She kept working for Snake for a few more years. Her boss fell in love with her, and while the feelings were forever left unanswered, they became lovers. Julie had discovered she was quite a natural at killing, and while she took little joy in ending a man’s life, she slowly realized her hatred towards herself had slowly dissipated as she finally learned she was good for something – she had a talent.
Soon enough she murdered Snake and took his place as the head of his organization. While she was good at killing, she knew little of management however, and the little criminal empire Snake had built quickly disintegrated under Julie’s rule. Nevertheless, her name and talent had become known throughout New York, and she would come to gain plenty of money and dead bodies as a hired killer in New York and its surroundings. Of course, things would take a dramatical turn of events in 1796.
Shared history with Samuel: On that very fateful night, the 13th of December, Samuel and Julie met for the first time. Julie had left an impression on the Giovanni elders with her ruthlessness and efficiency as a hitman, and while her mental instability was a matter of some significance, it was hardly a rare trait among the Giovannis and the elders were intent on embracing her. After the ritual had concluded, Samuel was ordered to take his childe under his wings, despite his reluctance to do so.
The pair stayed in New York under the local elder, Paulo Giovanni. Samuel as Paulo’s right hand, and Julie as Samuel’s. The latter would soon take a liking for Julie, intrigued by the fact that she, much like him, had lived her life completely unknowing of the supernatural world – something common among most people and even among some of the minor Giovanni families, but definitely not the Giovanni’s themselves. As time passed, Samuel also slowly learned of Julie’s troubled childhood, something that caused further interest.
As years and, soon enough, decades past, Samuel very slowly but surely developed feelings for Julie who were as deep as they were unanswered. In contrast to Samuel’s reaction to learning Julie’s secrets, Julie felt more and more disgusted by Samuel the more he revealed himself to her. As cunning, patient and strong as he was, he was nevertheless as vile, filthy and degenerated as his childhood. More so, in fact. Samuel started including Julie in his necromantic experiments and rituals and had Julie been a sane individual, she would have merely hated the man. Instead, as time passed, she began to hate and admire the man in equal fashion for his daunting and merciless ways. More importantly, he was the first person since Mary Grey who actually cared for Julie, something she would often express resentment towards, but felt stronger and calmer by.
On Christmas Eve 1812, Julie was unexpectedly sent to Boston. She greatly disliked the idea of returning to the town of her childhood, but nevertheless followed Samuel’s orders. In them, Samuel had gave her an exact address to visit. Julie eventually found herself in a large empty warehouse, save for a young man tied to a chair. As she approached the gagged man, she had no idea who he was or what any of them were doing there, but when she removed the gag and he said her name, it took less than a second to recognize Richard Grey, despite the body clearly belonging to someone else. Samuel had then appeared out of nowhere, explaining that the man was her Christmas present. Julie had felt as two-faced as ever, wanting to leave and torture the man at the same time. Samuel made sure she chose the latter, and she never regretted it. That night sparked an uneven, dark romance between the two Giovanni’s that has lasted, albeit often hanging by a thread, to present day.
After that night, the two went back to New York. As strange as it seemed, killing Richard a second time made Julie feel more whole than she had ever felt. Years passed and after killing the Camarilla-controlled mayor of New York City in the 1850’s, Samuel was promoted to the new elder of the New York chapter, with Julie his right hand. The couple continued expanding Giovanni influence in the city, which like much of the rest of the United States would come to serve a much bigger role in the Giovanni clan as the 19th century went on.
They remained in charge of New York until 1923, when Samuel was sent to establish a new chapter in Chicago after the previous one had been wiped out by internal conflicts. Their reputation and prowess in Chicago had to be restored, and with Samuel in charge, it slowly but surely was. They would stay until the 1940’s before being sent to Seattle to do much the same thing they had done in Chicago. And so it would continue – Samuel and his childe being sent to various cities in America, sometimes abroad, to help re-establish chapters, conduct small operations or start entirely new chapters. Some assignments would last days, some decades. Most of the problems Samuel and Julie was sent to solve were being caused by friction with the Camarilla and Sabbath, causing Samuel, and Julie to a lesser extent, to develop an unusually strong resentment towards the organizations over the years, particularly the former. Prior to being sent to Los Angeles, the couple were assigned to Mexico, investigating a sudden disappearance of the Hidalgo family, a Mexican minor family of the Giovanni’s. What they found or didn’t find is as of yet unknown.
Name: James Jonah Milliner
Generation: 10th
Birth: 1925
Embrace: 1958
Clan: Giovanni
Disciplines: Potence, Dominate, Necromancy
Personality: Disgusted with being a creature of the night, James is not like most vampires. He actively and stubbornly seeks a way to rid himself of immortality and become a human again, and even though - to James' knowledge - no one has ever done so before, this is not deterring him. He has tried countless of fruitless solutions, and his desperate tries' wickedness are not even matched by Samuel's experiments. James most recent discovery is cannibalizing on humans - surely this makes him feel more alive. Doesn't it? James isn't sure, but he knows whatever he is doing is not enough. Perhaps supernatural creatuers might be more potent...
In (un)life, James carries himself as he did when he was human. He is charismatic and flirty, always bringing the ladies home. This fact, that he has entered more lady vampires than James Deen has the human equal, makes him unexpectedly influential in Los Angeles, and is why Samuel has chosen him for the new chapter of the LA based Giovanni family.
Biography: James Milliner was born a fortunate man. His father, John, was a successful politician and businessman, and his mother, Sharon, the sole child of a dead, rich oil man, and James inherited not only their means and influence but their looks as well. He was popular among the majority of the kids at schools while growing up, and hated by a minority. He was a bully and a show-off, but he also excelled in studies, sports and social life. As he graduated from high school, he easily made his way into Harvard University and Harvard Law, eventually graduating with a J.D. degree. He was given a top position in his father’s corporation, and quickly adapted to his new role while at the same time making a name for himself in the newspapers as the prime rich playboy of LA, frequenting all of the most exclusive night clubs, bedding everything from waitresses to movie stars, as long as they had a body and face to match his.
Judge then his surprise when at a mere 33 being embraced by the paternal grandfather James thought dead (something he wasn’t entirely wrong in…), ending his career in the spotlight just like that. His father had been omitted from the darker parts of the Milliner family due to the grandfather, Henry Milliner, not believing John to be up to the task. In order to avoid exposing the rest of the family to the secret, Henry had avoided cluing in James on his plans, especially since the Milliners do not practice ghouling to the same extent the Giovanni family does.
James did not react well to his embracing, however. While still to this day living the playboy life, appearing perfectly happy with his lot in death, he has ever since being turned desperately strived to return to the living. He wants both the sun- and the spotlight, and as the years passes his measures grow more desperate and horrifying.
Name: Alexander Vereshchagin
Generation: 9th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Appearance:
Personality: Alexander is a driven and determined man, known for his loyalty and explosive personality. A rebel at heart, even before he became a Kindred, Alex was always loud and outspoken - if he disagrees with something, he’ll be sure to let everyone know about it.
He’s loyal - to the point of stupidity - and will never betray those that he considers to be his comrades: one of the few remaining parts of the mortal who was committed to communism before he was turned. On the other hand, he holds grudges, and is quick to anger - a combination of his Russian heritage and the blood he now shares with the Brujah Clan.
Charismatic and friendly, with quick wit and a silver tongue, Alex is easily able to win over the loyalty of mortal men; and even some of the weaker-willed immortals who he encounters. Alex is an idealist, and always has to have something to fight for: even if it’s just an idea in his head. He doesn’t have much of a moral code, and will do whatever he has to in order to achieve his goals and the goals of those above him.
Biography: Born in 1897, in Petrograd, one of the largest cities of the Russian Imperial Empire, Alexander had a tough childhood. He was the fifth child of nine children, and two of his older siblings had died before he reached his fifth birthday. His father was a senior worker in one of the cities’ many factories, and despite working a sixty-hour week, struggled to provide for his family, in a country that was oppressed by the aristocracy.
Alexander’s older siblings - and, later, the boy himself, at the tender age of seven - were forced out of necessity to work from a young age, simply so that his family could earn enough money to get by. He grew up in a very small house in one of the poorer parts of the city, and was exposed to Bolshevism from a young age - a Political ideology which his father supported with an almost religious fervor.
He was eight years old when a wave of protests and military mutinies swept through the Russian Empire - a result of dissent towards the Tsar, his family, and the aristocracy who ruled over the Empire alongside him, when they had shot down a large crowd of protesters demanding a constitutional monarchy on a day that became known as Bloody Sunday. This resulted in a limited constitutional monarchy and the multi-party system being created in 1905, and proved - for the first time - the power of the people to the Russians, and made those who had been oppressed and struggled to survive for years finally realise their true potential: they were the People, and they held the power in their hands - they only had to reach out and take it.
As the Bolsheviks were now a legally recognised political party, Alexander’s father quickly joined them, and became a member of Petrograd Worker’s Council, alongside Lenin himself. Alexander’s quality of life improved significantly and rapidly as a result of his father’s new position, and he was finally able to attend school, and to learn how to read and write.
In 1914, World War I broke out, and the Russian Empire leapt to the aid of their fellow Slavs in Serbia, in a wave of patriotic enthusiasm. The Russian People supported the war effort for the first few years, but, as the war progressed and Russia’s position began to worsen, dissent against the Tsarist Regime began to ferment, spearheaded by the Soviet Committee of Petrograd - a result of the lack of food in Russian Cities.
This feeling of discontentment against the government came to a head in the February Revolution of 1917, in which symbols of Tsarist Authority were torn down all around Petrograd, and Tsar Nicholas was forced to abdicate. A Provisional Government was set up, which the Bolsheviks tolerated for a time - but, Alexander was told by his father, these men were not much better than the Tsarists, and Capitalists themselves.
In October 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provincial Government in Petrograd, led by Lenin and the Workers’ Unions - who had been transformed into the Red Army - as the Provincial Government refused to stop fighting Germany, even though the conflict was causing Russian suffering. This sparked the start of the Russian Civil War, with the “Red” Bolsheviks fighting against the “White” Russians - supporters of the Provincial Government, anti-Communists and the remnants of the Tsarist Regime.
Alexander was 20 at this stage, and a fervent communist. He believed in the rights of the Working Class, and had a deep-seated loathing for capitalists and the aristocracy. With his father’s permission, he joined the Red Army, and fought in the Russian Civil War against the White Russians. It was during this conflict that Alexander saw the brutality of war for the first time, and the darker side of human nature: he was changed from an innocent boy to a hardened man, and committed a number of atrocities in the name of ‘socialism’.
By 1919, the Red Army had all but won the war against the White Russians, and they had grown overconfident. During a skirmish with a few of the remaining White Forces, Alexander and a number of the young men in his unit grew overconfident: charging from the safety of cover, with a great shout; almost immediately cut down by the White Russian’s guns.
It was later that day, in the dark of night, as Alexander lay dying - forgotten by his comrades, who had ran past his head, thinking him dead, as they pursued their enemies - that he was visited by a creature who he could only describe at that time as an Angel of Death. He discovered later that the dark being was in fact a Brujah - a Kindred - and was one of those responsible for the Russian Civil War and the rise of the Bolsheviks. The Kindred asked Alexander if he wanted to live, and if he wanted to have the power to fight his people’s enemies and champion their cause: of course, he said yes, and was turned by the vampire.
Alexander never learned the name of his sire, but he came to respect the man: over a period of 20 years, which went extremely quickly as he was always busy, the newly-born undead was taught, alongside several over Brujah-turned Russians, what it meant to be a Kindred, and how they could serve their Clan - and the country to which they had belonged when they had been mortals.
During these 20 years, Alexander was taught all manner of things - from advanced mathematics to hand-to-hand fighting. He was also taught how to master his Brujah-inherited disciplines, and it was found that he had a gift for manipulating mortals - a result of his Presence Discipline. Once he was considered ready, Alexander was placed in charge of a number of the Red Army’s generals, and was responsible for manipulating and controlling them - and the men beneath them - during World War II.
Once the Russians had defeated the Third Reich and had Berlin within their grasp, Alexander was visited again by his sire; and congratulated for his success - in the year of 1956. He was then told that he would be sent to America with a group of KGB sleeper agents, and would be responsible for overseeing them. Ever the loyal soldier, Alexander agreed, and taught himself to be fluent in English before heading to America with a group of some of the KGB’s most gifted young agents - who he easily controlled through mental manipulation.
Alexander spent the next few years in America, occasionally checking back in on the KBG for whom he was responsible, but found himself spending more and more time in LA: attracted by the lights, glamour and, above all, the sheer amount of other Kindred who were there. When the Soviet Union fell, Alexander was in LA, and fell into a deep rage upon hearing the news: going on a violent spree throughout the city over the course of two weeks, making little effort to conceal his actions and to uphold the Masquerade.
An order was put out by the Prince of the city to bring this apparently unknown and violent young Brujah to heel, but before the powerful man’s agents could get to Alexander, he was reached by a beautiful woman named Eva, who soon revealed herself as a fellow Kindred: offering Alexander a place to belong, and a cause to fight for: that the Kindred may be free in LA. The pro-Russian Undead, having lost everything he had spent his life and undeath fighting for, was broken and confused; but near immediately felt a connection with this kind and unreasonably attractive woman. He accepted her offer, and has been a member of her coterie ever since.
Name: Anastasia Gibazov
Generation: 10th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality: Anastasia has only recently been turned to a Kindred - in fact, she’s only been undead for about twenty years. Unlike her sire, she was not rigorously trained to control her new abilities, but rather loosely mentored and allowed to discover them on her own and realise her new potential without Alexander’s input: and, as such, she is quite an independent woman, but has an undying respect and loyalty for her sire - who is, in her eyes, her Master; even if it is quite an archaic term to be using in the twenty-first century.
As a woman who had served in the KGB from a very young age, Anastasia is about as hardened and emotionless as they come. She’s been taught to wear many faces - one to please every sort of person on the planet - and knows how to mask what emotions she’s truly feeling. She’s a hardcore soldier, trained from birth, and knows how to handle herself.
At a personal level, Anastasia is extremely loyal, and really quite a sweet woman. She has a love of the fine arts, and admires the beauty around her whenever she has the chance.
Biography: Anastasia was born in the USSR, during the mid 60s. Her father was a retired Soviet soldier, and a veteran of the Second World War. Her mother died during childbirth, and her father did not really have the means to provide for her - so she was given over to the ‘State Social Service’, who in turn gave the child to the KGB: the Russian Secret Service.
Anastasia was raised to be a child soldier, essentially, from the day she could walk. Everything she knew - or rather, was allowed to know - was propaganda, from the day she knew how to speak: she was taught of the evils of capitalism and the selfishness of those who lived in the West, and the power and freedom that comes with Communism, and how the Americans would do anything to destroy her ‘Mother Russia’.
When she was fifteen, she was already fluent in four languages - including English, which she spoke with a flawlessly accurate American accent - and equipped with a lot of knowledge, both to do with fighting and politics, for someone so young. She was provided with a new identity, and shipped off to America with a number of other young KGB Agents and told that she was no longer Russian: she was American to everyone else, but a Russian Sleeper Agent at heart.
The rest of the woman’s life went fairly uneventfully. She grew up in one of the quieter parts of LA, went to university and eventually settled down and got married. Occasionally, a man she remembered from her youth - “Mister Vereshchagin” - would organise to meet with her in remote locations at night to check up on how she was doing. Strangely, the man never aged - no matter how many years passed.
However, when she heard of the fall of the USSR and the failure of Communism in Europe, Anastasia was devastated: everything she had known as a child had turned out to be a lie, and everything she had lived for was now lost. Not two weeks later, she was visited in the night by Mister Vereshchagin again - awoken by his hand over her mouth, surprisingly strong: and cold. She was asked if she was still loyal to Russia, and answered with a nod and a muffled yes; recieving a smile in response. ‘Good’ was the only answer she was given, before she felt a blinding pain in the side of her neck.
And, from that day forth, she’d been a Kindred: leaving her mortal life and her family behind her, accompanying Alexander to LA City proper, where she has resided ever since - carrying out work for him, and helping to control the Russian Mob on his behalf.
OP
Faction Name: Saxon Investigations
Allegiance: Anarch
Location: Officer/House in Santa Monica, House in Little Armenia.
General Information: Saxon Investigations is a genuine business, generally known among the Kine as a pair of particularly effective private investigators working for a mysterious 'Saxon' who is very rarely seen, but is hardly an enigma, personally meeting a few clients if their cases grab his particular attention. In reality, Saxon Investigations is an operation of four individuals, Frederick Saxon, two ghouls and a mysterious Eastern Kindred, and stems far beyond the world of the Kine. Only the most informed of the Nosferatu can claim to rival the network of informers and genuine spy work that Saxon has put together. Trading favors for favors, the small coterie has built and broken plans with whispered words. Treading a fine line between being too useful to remove and too much of a threat to permit, the general feeling towards Saxon is mixed among the kindred, to say the least. Having existed in LA for the last century, the coterie is loosely linked to the Anarchs, simply as they have been the main force in the city for the longest time, but that hasn't protected some Anachs from being 'outed' and not guaranteed allegiance against the Camarilla.
Recent History:
Despite the chaos that has gripped the city of LA being wholly contrary to Saxon's more idealistic goals, Saxon Investigations (SI) has only become increasingly prominent during such a time. With plans and schemes unleashed into as close to open war as the Kindred of LA could risk, the value of a detective and spymaster short up, particularly one that didn't require sacrificing some boon to the Nosferatu. Early on, Saxon decided to work in such a way as to both ensure his own place in the future nights of LA, but also to bring the fighting to a close in a sustainable manner, without sacrificing the city to those he did not wish to see in power. His vision was not always perfect, nor did he always work for his view of the greater good, but with the conflict coming to a close within two years, a blink of an eye for a Kindred, it is suggested his initial plans worked out. The Assamite Kindred, Peleni, both ally and occasional rival to Saxon, has taken up residence among the kine of her cultural heritage, putting a more violent edge to the shadow tactics of SI.
Name: Frederick Saxon
Generation: 9th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence.
Personality: Frederick is both disgusted and intrigued by Kindred soceity and despite his relatively short time within it, there are few who understand the particular 'strain' found in LA than he. Saxon is a name of renown if not acceptance. His contempt for clan politics puts him at odds with the elders who benefit the most from clan factionalism. Most of all, the Toreador elders who feel they can demand his services on nature of blood. Instead Frederick comes across as mercenary and at worst subversive, working alongside members of any clan, so long as they remain in his good graces. An investigator (LAPD) in life, Saxon has not forsaken this skill set as a Kindred. He enjoys his work and often takes 'jobs' in exchange for favors although those who don't answer when the call to collect is sounded will soon have their darkest schemes and plans revealed for all, or for the worst, to see. While many consider him entirely self serving, or fickle, there is a general design to his actions, working towards a more stable LA, the city, his coterie often joke, that is his one true love.
Biography:
The grandson of German immigrants, following the migrant trails to the American West after the defeat of the Mexican Empire. As some of the first settlers in the previous sparsely populated colonial region, life for Frederick’s forebears was tough, but eventually paid off when their children were born to developing middle class of an increasingly populous California.
Born just prior to the turn of the century, Frederick grew up in relative comfort, with access to the beginning of the modern American school system. With moderate success in both academics and sport, he was popular more for his wit than any jock status. As a young man, he fought, not particularly outstandingly, but well enough to survive, in the First World War. Feeling some amount of regret for warring against the homeland of his family, this feeling was only compounded after the peace treaties left the central powers devastated. When Frederick returned home, he joined the LAPD, having the desire to put his mind to police work since before the war and, like many, feeling the pull of the increasing number of cities on the Western Coast. While his intellect had only been deemed as slightly over average previously, he took to his work with great enthusiasm, a mind better suited to deduction than school work. By the time the roaring twenties were approaching their mid point, Saxon was an Investigator. It was his role in the case of the Venice Murders that would bring him into the Kindred fold.
A string of violent murder along the beachfront had earned the attention of the media and public. After the failure of the original investigator to turn up any leads, Frederick was assigned to the ever demanding case. Returning to the scene of the original murder, Saxon was surprised to find another figure already there. A woman, he presumed, hidden within the confines of a trench coat. She disappeared before he could act, securing a spot as he first genuine suspect. Over the next few months, Frederick would continue to work the case, two further murders occurring, but Frederick was closing in, piecing together enough evidence with his own thoughts to catch the next attack by himself. What he saw defied all his previous beliefs. The hunched figure of a human, twisted beyond all recognition, draining the victim of blood before mauling the corpse. It turned on him, but a well placed bullet to the skull caused the man-creature to collapse into dust. Frederick reported the escape of the murdered, but suggested that the individual would be too injured to survive the night, let alone kill again. His story was met with skepticism, but there were no more killings. Frederick took his first ever leave on the job to contemplate what he had encountered. One night, the women paid him a visit, this time deliberate. The coat had fallen away to reveal nothing underneath. His mind bent to her will, over the course of the night she took much from him, but in the end, embraced him. Never a hugely impulsive person, Frederick took poorly to being a Toreador, at least to begin with, and beyond sexual attraction and the use of his gifts, his sire soon tired of him, spending fleeting days instead of the usual period of education, together. Saxon wasn’t particularly bitter over it, as he proved a fine enough teacher for himself.
When the Second World War came around, Saxon once more dived into the fight, the moral issues of the previous war lost with the rise of Fascism, a trend Saxon saw as a terrible threat to the stability of the world. Fighting in the Middle Eastern theatre, he encountered Peleni for the first time. Hiding among the shattered remains of Armenian settlements, along with the kine who had lived there, Saxon found a kindred far more isolated than he. Embraced centuries previously by an Ottoman Assamite, the Armenian female had spent most of her unlife separated from any kind of Kindred culture, except for eventually among the numbers of similarly abandoned individuals, embraced as a form of punishment. When the fighting was done, Shyla would return with Saxon to LA, with the promise of long-term company with those similarly afflicted and not being rejected for not following the creed of Assamite Islam. Upon returning to the city, Saxon founded Saxon Investigations, turning his mind to the twists and turns of Kindred society. His first major clash would be with his own sire, jealous of the time he spent with the Assamite foreigner, despite her own previous disinterest. The feud between them only ended with her final death in the 70s and from then, SI flourished.
Name: Peleni Tumanyan
Generation: 8th
Clan: Assamite
Disciplines: Celerity, Obfuscate, Quietus
Personality: Light hearted for a vampire, Peleni has sunk to great lows, but returned from them and her current life in LA, whatever its difficulties, seems an Elysium dream in comparison. This to such a point that she often finds the trials of the LA kindred to be laughable, trivial conflicts, almost a game to her, if there wasn't a possibility of the game being fatal.
Biography:
Name: Hans Achen
Generation: Ghoul
Disciplines:
Personality:
Biography:
Name: Larry Smith
Generation: Ghoul
Disciplines: (Pick Three, from This
Personality:
Biography:
Allegiance: Anarch
Location: Officer/House in Santa Monica, House in Little Armenia.
General Information: Saxon Investigations is a genuine business, generally known among the Kine as a pair of particularly effective private investigators working for a mysterious 'Saxon' who is very rarely seen, but is hardly an enigma, personally meeting a few clients if their cases grab his particular attention. In reality, Saxon Investigations is an operation of four individuals, Frederick Saxon, two ghouls and a mysterious Eastern Kindred, and stems far beyond the world of the Kine. Only the most informed of the Nosferatu can claim to rival the network of informers and genuine spy work that Saxon has put together. Trading favors for favors, the small coterie has built and broken plans with whispered words. Treading a fine line between being too useful to remove and too much of a threat to permit, the general feeling towards Saxon is mixed among the kindred, to say the least. Having existed in LA for the last century, the coterie is loosely linked to the Anarchs, simply as they have been the main force in the city for the longest time, but that hasn't protected some Anachs from being 'outed' and not guaranteed allegiance against the Camarilla.
Recent History:
Despite the chaos that has gripped the city of LA being wholly contrary to Saxon's more idealistic goals, Saxon Investigations (SI) has only become increasingly prominent during such a time. With plans and schemes unleashed into as close to open war as the Kindred of LA could risk, the value of a detective and spymaster short up, particularly one that didn't require sacrificing some boon to the Nosferatu. Early on, Saxon decided to work in such a way as to both ensure his own place in the future nights of LA, but also to bring the fighting to a close in a sustainable manner, without sacrificing the city to those he did not wish to see in power. His vision was not always perfect, nor did he always work for his view of the greater good, but with the conflict coming to a close within two years, a blink of an eye for a Kindred, it is suggested his initial plans worked out. The Assamite Kindred, Peleni, both ally and occasional rival to Saxon, has taken up residence among the kine of her cultural heritage, putting a more violent edge to the shadow tactics of SI.
Name: Frederick Saxon
Generation: 9th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence.
Personality: Frederick is both disgusted and intrigued by Kindred soceity and despite his relatively short time within it, there are few who understand the particular 'strain' found in LA than he. Saxon is a name of renown if not acceptance. His contempt for clan politics puts him at odds with the elders who benefit the most from clan factionalism. Most of all, the Toreador elders who feel they can demand his services on nature of blood. Instead Frederick comes across as mercenary and at worst subversive, working alongside members of any clan, so long as they remain in his good graces. An investigator (LAPD) in life, Saxon has not forsaken this skill set as a Kindred. He enjoys his work and often takes 'jobs' in exchange for favors although those who don't answer when the call to collect is sounded will soon have their darkest schemes and plans revealed for all, or for the worst, to see. While many consider him entirely self serving, or fickle, there is a general design to his actions, working towards a more stable LA, the city, his coterie often joke, that is his one true love.
Biography:
The grandson of German immigrants, following the migrant trails to the American West after the defeat of the Mexican Empire. As some of the first settlers in the previous sparsely populated colonial region, life for Frederick’s forebears was tough, but eventually paid off when their children were born to developing middle class of an increasingly populous California.
Born just prior to the turn of the century, Frederick grew up in relative comfort, with access to the beginning of the modern American school system. With moderate success in both academics and sport, he was popular more for his wit than any jock status. As a young man, he fought, not particularly outstandingly, but well enough to survive, in the First World War. Feeling some amount of regret for warring against the homeland of his family, this feeling was only compounded after the peace treaties left the central powers devastated. When Frederick returned home, he joined the LAPD, having the desire to put his mind to police work since before the war and, like many, feeling the pull of the increasing number of cities on the Western Coast. While his intellect had only been deemed as slightly over average previously, he took to his work with great enthusiasm, a mind better suited to deduction than school work. By the time the roaring twenties were approaching their mid point, Saxon was an Investigator. It was his role in the case of the Venice Murders that would bring him into the Kindred fold.
A string of violent murder along the beachfront had earned the attention of the media and public. After the failure of the original investigator to turn up any leads, Frederick was assigned to the ever demanding case. Returning to the scene of the original murder, Saxon was surprised to find another figure already there. A woman, he presumed, hidden within the confines of a trench coat. She disappeared before he could act, securing a spot as he first genuine suspect. Over the next few months, Frederick would continue to work the case, two further murders occurring, but Frederick was closing in, piecing together enough evidence with his own thoughts to catch the next attack by himself. What he saw defied all his previous beliefs. The hunched figure of a human, twisted beyond all recognition, draining the victim of blood before mauling the corpse. It turned on him, but a well placed bullet to the skull caused the man-creature to collapse into dust. Frederick reported the escape of the murdered, but suggested that the individual would be too injured to survive the night, let alone kill again. His story was met with skepticism, but there were no more killings. Frederick took his first ever leave on the job to contemplate what he had encountered. One night, the women paid him a visit, this time deliberate. The coat had fallen away to reveal nothing underneath. His mind bent to her will, over the course of the night she took much from him, but in the end, embraced him. Never a hugely impulsive person, Frederick took poorly to being a Toreador, at least to begin with, and beyond sexual attraction and the use of his gifts, his sire soon tired of him, spending fleeting days instead of the usual period of education, together. Saxon wasn’t particularly bitter over it, as he proved a fine enough teacher for himself.
When the Second World War came around, Saxon once more dived into the fight, the moral issues of the previous war lost with the rise of Fascism, a trend Saxon saw as a terrible threat to the stability of the world. Fighting in the Middle Eastern theatre, he encountered Peleni for the first time. Hiding among the shattered remains of Armenian settlements, along with the kine who had lived there, Saxon found a kindred far more isolated than he. Embraced centuries previously by an Ottoman Assamite, the Armenian female had spent most of her unlife separated from any kind of Kindred culture, except for eventually among the numbers of similarly abandoned individuals, embraced as a form of punishment. When the fighting was done, Shyla would return with Saxon to LA, with the promise of long-term company with those similarly afflicted and not being rejected for not following the creed of Assamite Islam. Upon returning to the city, Saxon founded Saxon Investigations, turning his mind to the twists and turns of Kindred society. His first major clash would be with his own sire, jealous of the time he spent with the Assamite foreigner, despite her own previous disinterest. The feud between them only ended with her final death in the 70s and from then, SI flourished.
Name: Peleni Tumanyan
Generation: 8th
Clan: Assamite
Disciplines: Celerity, Obfuscate, Quietus
Personality: Light hearted for a vampire, Peleni has sunk to great lows, but returned from them and her current life in LA, whatever its difficulties, seems an Elysium dream in comparison. This to such a point that she often finds the trials of the LA kindred to be laughable, trivial conflicts, almost a game to her, if there wasn't a possibility of the game being fatal.
Biography:
Name: Hans Achen
Generation: Ghoul
Disciplines:
Personality:
Biography:
Name: Larry Smith
Generation: Ghoul
Disciplines: (Pick Three, from This
Personality:
Biography:
Vanq The Chaos Ladder
Member
Seen
1 day ago
Faction Name: The Plebes
Allegiance: Anarch
Location: Watts is a roughly 2 sq mile neighborhood of LA. It's a severely low income area and incredibly densely populated. The Crips and the Bloods are the most influential gangs in the area, but certainly not the only.
The Plebes make their home and headquarters on a street between Wilmington and Compton Ave, near the tracks, not quite central to the area, but close enough.
Through the use of members of the smaller gangs, they keep the area patrolled loosely. They warily allow others of their kind into their territory, as long as the Masquerade is upheld. The invitation is based on the third tenet of the Status Perfectus, and is held up about as well as the actual document. But, it sure does sound good.
Now containing three central members, the Plebes have existed in some form for about 150 years, although their location in LA is much more recent, having arrived and set up base in 1987.
In 1859, Vadim became the founding member of the Plebes, the name a play on the social unrest that had scattered throughout the world of the Kine. He pulled together a small and tightly knit group of other Brujah. While not the eldest of the bunch, Vadim was a powerhouse nonetheless and won his right to lead in a particularly raucous Rant. Based in Saint Petersburg, he lead his group to a position of influence within the Brujah and Anarch hierarchies. Ivan would join, sired by one from Vadim's inner-circle, in 1894, and though he would remain on the lower rungs of the coterie, his presence and ambition were impossible to ignore.
When the Russian Revolution began, the Plebes, although not front and center, were a heavy presence in the happenings. Vadim and his right-hand were brought in to the plot to see Lenin dead and Trotsky installed. That the plot was initially successful yet ultimately failed due to Ventrue interference, was only the beginning of hard-times for Vadim and his Plebes. When the Brujah reluctantly stepped up to support Staln, Vadim pulled back, whether voluntarily or forced depends on who is asked. Regardless, the next few decades saw their influence wane, their members killed or scattered, and relocation necessary for survival. Vadim, with his his right-hand Boris, and Ivan were all that remained of the mighty Plebes by the 1960s, Ivan's sire having met his final death at the claws of a garou.
By the late 80s, Vadim faced increasing pressure from both Boris and Ivan to leave Russia. Multiple attempts at reintegrating themselves into Brujah and Anarch affairs failed or ended in near disaster. After some deliberation, the decision was reached to relocate to the Anarch Free State, half a world away, but with enough promise to move the increasingly idealist Vadim towards it. In leaving Russia behind, the trio became a foursome, with the addition of Betty, a lone Gangrel they stumbled upon. The decision to take her in was Vadim's, though responsibility for her ultimately went to Ivan once it became apparent she could not control herself.
It was a very right decision in the end, to leave Russia. Their arrival in LA saw them rise in influence quickly, their coterie grew to a size comparable to what Vadim had managed during their golden days in Russia. They were good times for the group, Vadim's leadership again cemented.
It was a short lived revival. Beginning in 1998, petty infighting began to grow and become more heated. Anger, resentment, rumors abounded, and the Plebes were embroiled in it from the start. Looking back, it is hard to gauge just what set it all off, little differences became insurmountable odds. The Plebes took out two smaller coteries that had been at their borders. Slights and rumors fueling their vengeance and blood thirst.
Information came in that set their eyes on the Pyromancers. They had been complacent too long, peaceful too long, the beast within was woken and there was little any of them, particularly Vadim, could do to quell it. Taking on the Pyromancers was not something they would do alone, they allied with another faction, slightly smaller and less powerful, lead by a fellow Brujah. They built their battle plans together, an all out assault on their headquarters. Vadim could taste the victory and ignored the feeling that something was off about it all. He had listened to that voice before and was paid with expulsion. He pressed the Plebes on.
The night of the attack, the Plebes lead the main assault, relying on their allies to swoop in afterwards for support.
They never arrived.
The Plebes met huge resistance, their information horribly wrong, their allies no where to be seen. Boris met a gruesome final death. Vadim and Ivan barely escaped with their own lives in tact. Their small army of ghouls and kindred was decimated. Those that survived quickly took refuge with other stronger coteries or disappeared from LA all together.
Vadim nearly left the city himself. Embarrassed, ruined yet again, he wouldn't fully recover from the events of that night. Ivan convinced him otherwise, the Plebes stayed together. But Vadim's leadership was at an end. Ivan didn't need to fight hard for it, and it is Ivan who currently leads the coterie in the current nights. Vadim has accepted his role as Ivan's righthand, though the coterie is still barely a glimmer of what it once was. A burning hatred of the Pyromancers remains, a desire to exact revenge once they rebuild.
Ivan has been a temperamental, brash leader, kept in check by Vadim's increasingly conservative advice. Mina joined the Plebes similarly to Betty, Vadim found her in one of the alleys of their territory. Mad, as all Malkavians are, she told of her abandonment by her sire, and it was clear how new to the Kindred world she was. Vadim had a choice, for the mess she had made would certainly draw attention, even in their neighborhood. The Brujah cleaned up what was needed and had a ghoul take the fall for what the kine would see as gruesome murders. It would be hard to say just what role Mina has in the Plebes. They try to keep her happy, as a slighted and angry Malkavian would be an unfavorable thing to have, but neither is she present when making plans for the coterie. For now, that has seemed to sate her, while the two Brujah present themselves as brothers in a punk band to the kine world, Mina has become their drummer. Known as the Damnation of the Saved, they play underground gigs throughout the city, and receive a steady supply of groupies for the nights.
Lillian, the newest addition to the coterie, appeared in the aftermath of the Attacks that saw the Prince and Baron killed. She sought refuge, and at Vadim's insistence, Ivan accepted her into the Plebes. The Toreador has proven to be an asset even with her past, and she quickly set herself on near equal ground with Vadim in Ivan's eyes. Her own machinations may not always put the Plebes first, but they usually benefit the coterie in some manner. Between Betty, Mina, and Lillian, castaways and unwanteds, the Plebes have earned a reputation that has given them a nickname best not used in their presence, the Orphanage.
For now though, the Plebes are biding their time. They've rebuilt in Watts, control of their territory is sound, and their network is being rebuilt one night at a time. Perhaps the Plebes are not knocked out of the game as Vadim believed.
Vadim on the left, Ivan on the right
Name: Vadim "Abaddon" Durov
Generation: 7th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality:
Vadim is a softer sort of Brujah, if such a thing were to exist, but he has become less brash, less brawn over brains, perhaps only because of the depression he battles following the losses during the Kuei-jin incursion. That he was not always this way is stranger still. He considers himself to be an idealist, with a renewed interest in the philosophies that lead him to create the Plebes, that lead him to the idea of the Free State. If only he were an Elois, able to disentangle himself from the rage that builds within him, he could focus on these things that truly matter.
Vadim truly believed in the Free State and the Status Perfectus, and though he cannot always follow its tenets, they were a guiding influence in his creation of their new territory in Watts. More and more these days, he is to be found in the small library he built into the slum house they call their headquarters. The walls are covered in bookcases, the shelves filled with philosophical treatises, political histories, memoirs and biographies of activists-both kine and kindred, and on and on. He has instead tried to fuel the rage, the beast within, to the music of the band. Something that had been a cover, and provided access to easy meals, has become something much more to him, though he is uncomfortable at anyone else knowing that truth about him.
Biography: See General Information
Name: Ivan "Sammael" Durov
Generation: 9th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality:
Everything your sire warned you about regarding the Brujah. Wild, unruly, and rough, Ivan's anger and passion that were once kept under control by Vadim's leadership, is now only tempered by his peer's advice. Ivan is much the same as he always was from the time he was embraced. Ambitious, if not the brightest, he has a hunger for power that is not easily sated or diluted even with failure. He has seen what happened to Vadim after their loss of power in Russia, and now in LA, but where Vadim has become introspective, Ivan has ignored it, seeing the way forward as needing to do something big. Something bold. He wouldn't risk taking on the Pyromancers so soon, but he knows the longer they hide and bide their time, the more irrelevant they will become. Irrelevance, tossed aside to become little more than targets for others, is not something his ego can stand the thought of, is not something the rage that boils within him can allow.
Biography: See general Information
Name: Lillian Dolan, "Lily Ellis"
Generation: 8th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality:
She is a typical Toreador in many ways, always publicly displaying an air of beauty, grace, and seduction. It is a facade, but a well maintained one. Anger, resentment, and a need for revenge are what fuels her, what drives her ambition. Her years of exile though, have made her cautious to act. She knows she will not have a second chance.
Biography:
Lillian was born into lucky circumstances, though it was the midst of the Great Depression, her father was a banker who had managed to keep his job, food on the table, and a roof over his family's head. She was the youngest of three children, her parent's only daughter, and duly spoiled. From childhood to adolescence she bloomed into a beautiful young woman, and with some help from friends of her father, she entered the modeling world. She wanted to be a star, to move to LA and be an actress. This world was much harsher than the one she was raised in though, and she was quite unprepared for dealing with it once she left behind the small roles gotten for her through nepotism.
At 18 she got herself an agent and moved, against her parent's wishes, to LA as she had wanted. The next few years were dark and she quickly wanted to return home to her parents only to find that she couldn't. The agent she had hired was a shady man, the contract she had not read but signed stipulated the payment she owed him for finding her work. With few options to take work elsewhere, or return home, Lillian, did the work gotten for her. Bit pieces if she was lucky, photo sessions that she was ashamed of. Her career, if she had ever had one, was spiraling down quickly.
On the precipice of giving up, on everything, Lillian met Jean-Marc Fais. She had heard his name whispered, a god of sorts of aspiring models and actresses. If he took an interest in you, your success was nigh guaranteed. With the jobs she had, and her dire straights,she doubted that he would ever have any cause to even hear her name, much less see her work. And yet, one day, she received an invitation. The next night, she dined in an exquisite penthouse suite as she received the best news of her life. He had seen her work, a careful and meticulous man such as himself had to look everywhere to find the real talent, he explained. So close to wanting it all to end, Lillian ate it up with no questions asked. She didn't care what he would ask of her, she would do it.
He only asked for her life.
Waking as a kindred was overwhelming. She hadn't really believed the story he spun in explaining what he wished to do, what was done was done though. Her Embrace, in 1955, provided a short-lived high point to her existence. Jean-Marc held a comfortable position in the Camarilla hierarchy, and Lillian, now going by Lily Ellis, would reap the benefits of it. Actual jobs came in and it seemed like any day would be her big break, any day her position with the Toreador as Jean-Marc's childe would be solidified. She just needed to prove herself worthy.
It never came, Lily may have had a pretty face and body, but even with the benefits of her kindred nature, unless her sire pulled strings, the job offers dried up just as before. She was given one role as the leading lady in the booming movie industry, and the film died during testing. The reviews of her acting were deplorable, and just two years into her new life, her sire abandoned her, too ashamed and angry at what a mistake she had been.
Too young to be on her own, Lillian drifted from one coterie to the next. There was too much she didn't understand, but what she quickly learned, was that Jean-Marc was out to ruin her. Any time she did find a home, someone to take her in and teach her, a rumor would come out, whispers into her "adoptive" sire's ear, and she was sent packing. It all came to a head in the 70s, when fed up with being black-listed from Camarilla society, that she found Jean-Marc in Elysium and publicly charged him with abandonment, with blacklisting her, with spreading lies so vicious that none would touch her.
It didn't end well in any sense. She was forced to leave LA, though there was little that Jean-Marc could "legally" do to her, she was sure there was to be no safety left at all in the city. The coming decades proved to be trying. Lillian knew few people outside of the area, and fewer still who were not connected in some way to her sire. Still so very young, and without a teacher or surrogate sire, she needed something to replace the gaping emptiness she felt night after night.
Ignoring the kindred for a time, she latched on to wealthy old kine. If she could not be famous, then she could at least see to it that she lived well. Staying mostly on the east coast, back to NYC, to Miami, even a brief stint in DC, but always teetering on the edge of Camarilla society. And always, always watching the ever rising star of Jean-Marc. And as the years passed, a new art form was discovered within her. Revenge, "justice," she had heard a few others call it, burned white hot within. Lillian began to make a name for herself within the kindred world along the east coast. There was no coterie, just herself and whatever ghouls she could support at that time, but she was effective and it finally seemed like she might have overcome the shadow of her sire after all.
The rumors, dark and nasty, returned and brought death to her fledgling hopes. She had become too successful, and though she couldn't find anyway to point the blame directly at him, there was no doubt in Lillian's mind that Jean-Marc was to blame. Business dried up nearly over night, kindred walked away without a word, her kine lovers or beneficiaries turned their backs. It was the final straw.
News of the disaster in LA reached her ears before she was halfway across the country, headed back to seek her own revenge. With a mix of disappointment and relief, there was a brief moment where she thought that she had been too late. That Jean-Marc had already been ruined. It was not to be; instead, in the aftermath of the chaos, he had been raised to Primogen of the Toreador. There was only one position hire than his, and she doubted he would stop before he achieved it.
Certain that none would touch her, especially now, especially with the prominent role and power her sire held, she balked outside of LA. Revenge was necessary, but it wasn't a road she could travel alone, not this time. Just how she came to find the Plebes and their HQ in Watts, she has never fully disclosed. She simply showed up on their stoop one night and explained who she was. She offered a subtlety and tact that they had been without, and they offered apathy for her past. It was an uneasy alliance to begin with, but she has become somewhat fond of the philosophical Vadim, and there are times that she is fascinated by the fire within Ivan. Betty and Mina are anomalies to her, but tools to be used in her eventual crusade against the Toreador Primogen.
Name: Betty
Generation: 11th
Clan: Gangrel
Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
Personality:
Biography:
Just where exactly Betty came from, what her actual name is, and anything at all about her past are largely unknown. Found by the two Brujah in Russia, and that she could speak Russian, lead to the belief that she had been Russian in her life. That she was of Clan Gangrel was also immediately clear, though how long her un-life had been was also unknown. She had already developed the feather's on her arms, the predatory eyes, and the skin on her legs toughening to resemble that of a bird when they had found her. She had frenzied too many times, and it was taking a toll on her body. That she had been alone, barely able to speak, seemed to point to the fact that she had not been brought up properly. Either no other Gangrel had found her, or the one that had had not done well in raising their pup.
Betty isn't sure either. Memories of her life are dulled to oblivion. The passage of time from when she entered this new life to the present at times seems like forever, and at other times all too recent. Vadim and Ivan explained as much as they could to her, some of which she understands. The Masquerade, the need for her to remain largely unseen, that does not overly bother her, especially since they are in a city. She also knows that she would leave, if she could. There are times where hates Vadim and Ivan, particularly Ivan, more than anything else. Yet she finds herself incapable of leaving or even lashing out. Ivan had explained that as well, the blood bond between them.
NPCs of Possible Importance:
Allegiance: Anarch
Location: Watts is a roughly 2 sq mile neighborhood of LA. It's a severely low income area and incredibly densely populated. The Crips and the Bloods are the most influential gangs in the area, but certainly not the only.
The Plebes make their home and headquarters on a street between Wilmington and Compton Ave, near the tracks, not quite central to the area, but close enough.
Through the use of members of the smaller gangs, they keep the area patrolled loosely. They warily allow others of their kind into their territory, as long as the Masquerade is upheld. The invitation is based on the third tenet of the Status Perfectus, and is held up about as well as the actual document. But, it sure does sound good.
Now containing three central members, the Plebes have existed in some form for about 150 years, although their location in LA is much more recent, having arrived and set up base in 1987.
In 1859, Vadim became the founding member of the Plebes, the name a play on the social unrest that had scattered throughout the world of the Kine. He pulled together a small and tightly knit group of other Brujah. While not the eldest of the bunch, Vadim was a powerhouse nonetheless and won his right to lead in a particularly raucous Rant. Based in Saint Petersburg, he lead his group to a position of influence within the Brujah and Anarch hierarchies. Ivan would join, sired by one from Vadim's inner-circle, in 1894, and though he would remain on the lower rungs of the coterie, his presence and ambition were impossible to ignore.
When the Russian Revolution began, the Plebes, although not front and center, were a heavy presence in the happenings. Vadim and his right-hand were brought in to the plot to see Lenin dead and Trotsky installed. That the plot was initially successful yet ultimately failed due to Ventrue interference, was only the beginning of hard-times for Vadim and his Plebes. When the Brujah reluctantly stepped up to support Staln, Vadim pulled back, whether voluntarily or forced depends on who is asked. Regardless, the next few decades saw their influence wane, their members killed or scattered, and relocation necessary for survival. Vadim, with his his right-hand Boris, and Ivan were all that remained of the mighty Plebes by the 1960s, Ivan's sire having met his final death at the claws of a garou.
By the late 80s, Vadim faced increasing pressure from both Boris and Ivan to leave Russia. Multiple attempts at reintegrating themselves into Brujah and Anarch affairs failed or ended in near disaster. After some deliberation, the decision was reached to relocate to the Anarch Free State, half a world away, but with enough promise to move the increasingly idealist Vadim towards it. In leaving Russia behind, the trio became a foursome, with the addition of Betty, a lone Gangrel they stumbled upon. The decision to take her in was Vadim's, though responsibility for her ultimately went to Ivan once it became apparent she could not control herself.
It was a very right decision in the end, to leave Russia. Their arrival in LA saw them rise in influence quickly, their coterie grew to a size comparable to what Vadim had managed during their golden days in Russia. They were good times for the group, Vadim's leadership again cemented.
It was a short lived revival. Beginning in 1998, petty infighting began to grow and become more heated. Anger, resentment, rumors abounded, and the Plebes were embroiled in it from the start. Looking back, it is hard to gauge just what set it all off, little differences became insurmountable odds. The Plebes took out two smaller coteries that had been at their borders. Slights and rumors fueling their vengeance and blood thirst.
Information came in that set their eyes on the Pyromancers. They had been complacent too long, peaceful too long, the beast within was woken and there was little any of them, particularly Vadim, could do to quell it. Taking on the Pyromancers was not something they would do alone, they allied with another faction, slightly smaller and less powerful, lead by a fellow Brujah. They built their battle plans together, an all out assault on their headquarters. Vadim could taste the victory and ignored the feeling that something was off about it all. He had listened to that voice before and was paid with expulsion. He pressed the Plebes on.
The night of the attack, the Plebes lead the main assault, relying on their allies to swoop in afterwards for support.
They never arrived.
The Plebes met huge resistance, their information horribly wrong, their allies no where to be seen. Boris met a gruesome final death. Vadim and Ivan barely escaped with their own lives in tact. Their small army of ghouls and kindred was decimated. Those that survived quickly took refuge with other stronger coteries or disappeared from LA all together.
Vadim nearly left the city himself. Embarrassed, ruined yet again, he wouldn't fully recover from the events of that night. Ivan convinced him otherwise, the Plebes stayed together. But Vadim's leadership was at an end. Ivan didn't need to fight hard for it, and it is Ivan who currently leads the coterie in the current nights. Vadim has accepted his role as Ivan's righthand, though the coterie is still barely a glimmer of what it once was. A burning hatred of the Pyromancers remains, a desire to exact revenge once they rebuild.
Ivan has been a temperamental, brash leader, kept in check by Vadim's increasingly conservative advice. Mina joined the Plebes similarly to Betty, Vadim found her in one of the alleys of their territory. Mad, as all Malkavians are, she told of her abandonment by her sire, and it was clear how new to the Kindred world she was. Vadim had a choice, for the mess she had made would certainly draw attention, even in their neighborhood. The Brujah cleaned up what was needed and had a ghoul take the fall for what the kine would see as gruesome murders. It would be hard to say just what role Mina has in the Plebes. They try to keep her happy, as a slighted and angry Malkavian would be an unfavorable thing to have, but neither is she present when making plans for the coterie. For now, that has seemed to sate her, while the two Brujah present themselves as brothers in a punk band to the kine world, Mina has become their drummer. Known as the Damnation of the Saved, they play underground gigs throughout the city, and receive a steady supply of groupies for the nights.
Lillian, the newest addition to the coterie, appeared in the aftermath of the Attacks that saw the Prince and Baron killed. She sought refuge, and at Vadim's insistence, Ivan accepted her into the Plebes. The Toreador has proven to be an asset even with her past, and she quickly set herself on near equal ground with Vadim in Ivan's eyes. Her own machinations may not always put the Plebes first, but they usually benefit the coterie in some manner. Between Betty, Mina, and Lillian, castaways and unwanteds, the Plebes have earned a reputation that has given them a nickname best not used in their presence, the Orphanage.
For now though, the Plebes are biding their time. They've rebuilt in Watts, control of their territory is sound, and their network is being rebuilt one night at a time. Perhaps the Plebes are not knocked out of the game as Vadim believed.
Vadim on the left, Ivan on the right
Name: Vadim "Abaddon" Durov
Generation: 7th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality:
Vadim is a softer sort of Brujah, if such a thing were to exist, but he has become less brash, less brawn over brains, perhaps only because of the depression he battles following the losses during the Kuei-jin incursion. That he was not always this way is stranger still. He considers himself to be an idealist, with a renewed interest in the philosophies that lead him to create the Plebes, that lead him to the idea of the Free State. If only he were an Elois, able to disentangle himself from the rage that builds within him, he could focus on these things that truly matter.
Vadim truly believed in the Free State and the Status Perfectus, and though he cannot always follow its tenets, they were a guiding influence in his creation of their new territory in Watts. More and more these days, he is to be found in the small library he built into the slum house they call their headquarters. The walls are covered in bookcases, the shelves filled with philosophical treatises, political histories, memoirs and biographies of activists-both kine and kindred, and on and on. He has instead tried to fuel the rage, the beast within, to the music of the band. Something that had been a cover, and provided access to easy meals, has become something much more to him, though he is uncomfortable at anyone else knowing that truth about him.
Biography: See General Information
Name: Ivan "Sammael" Durov
Generation: 9th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality:
Everything your sire warned you about regarding the Brujah. Wild, unruly, and rough, Ivan's anger and passion that were once kept under control by Vadim's leadership, is now only tempered by his peer's advice. Ivan is much the same as he always was from the time he was embraced. Ambitious, if not the brightest, he has a hunger for power that is not easily sated or diluted even with failure. He has seen what happened to Vadim after their loss of power in Russia, and now in LA, but where Vadim has become introspective, Ivan has ignored it, seeing the way forward as needing to do something big. Something bold. He wouldn't risk taking on the Pyromancers so soon, but he knows the longer they hide and bide their time, the more irrelevant they will become. Irrelevance, tossed aside to become little more than targets for others, is not something his ego can stand the thought of, is not something the rage that boils within him can allow.
Biography: See general Information
Name: Lillian Dolan, "Lily Ellis"
Generation: 8th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality:
She is a typical Toreador in many ways, always publicly displaying an air of beauty, grace, and seduction. It is a facade, but a well maintained one. Anger, resentment, and a need for revenge are what fuels her, what drives her ambition. Her years of exile though, have made her cautious to act. She knows she will not have a second chance.
Biography:
Lillian was born into lucky circumstances, though it was the midst of the Great Depression, her father was a banker who had managed to keep his job, food on the table, and a roof over his family's head. She was the youngest of three children, her parent's only daughter, and duly spoiled. From childhood to adolescence she bloomed into a beautiful young woman, and with some help from friends of her father, she entered the modeling world. She wanted to be a star, to move to LA and be an actress. This world was much harsher than the one she was raised in though, and she was quite unprepared for dealing with it once she left behind the small roles gotten for her through nepotism.
At 18 she got herself an agent and moved, against her parent's wishes, to LA as she had wanted. The next few years were dark and she quickly wanted to return home to her parents only to find that she couldn't. The agent she had hired was a shady man, the contract she had not read but signed stipulated the payment she owed him for finding her work. With few options to take work elsewhere, or return home, Lillian, did the work gotten for her. Bit pieces if she was lucky, photo sessions that she was ashamed of. Her career, if she had ever had one, was spiraling down quickly.
On the precipice of giving up, on everything, Lillian met Jean-Marc Fais. She had heard his name whispered, a god of sorts of aspiring models and actresses. If he took an interest in you, your success was nigh guaranteed. With the jobs she had, and her dire straights,she doubted that he would ever have any cause to even hear her name, much less see her work. And yet, one day, she received an invitation. The next night, she dined in an exquisite penthouse suite as she received the best news of her life. He had seen her work, a careful and meticulous man such as himself had to look everywhere to find the real talent, he explained. So close to wanting it all to end, Lillian ate it up with no questions asked. She didn't care what he would ask of her, she would do it.
He only asked for her life.
Waking as a kindred was overwhelming. She hadn't really believed the story he spun in explaining what he wished to do, what was done was done though. Her Embrace, in 1955, provided a short-lived high point to her existence. Jean-Marc held a comfortable position in the Camarilla hierarchy, and Lillian, now going by Lily Ellis, would reap the benefits of it. Actual jobs came in and it seemed like any day would be her big break, any day her position with the Toreador as Jean-Marc's childe would be solidified. She just needed to prove herself worthy.
It never came, Lily may have had a pretty face and body, but even with the benefits of her kindred nature, unless her sire pulled strings, the job offers dried up just as before. She was given one role as the leading lady in the booming movie industry, and the film died during testing. The reviews of her acting were deplorable, and just two years into her new life, her sire abandoned her, too ashamed and angry at what a mistake she had been.
Too young to be on her own, Lillian drifted from one coterie to the next. There was too much she didn't understand, but what she quickly learned, was that Jean-Marc was out to ruin her. Any time she did find a home, someone to take her in and teach her, a rumor would come out, whispers into her "adoptive" sire's ear, and she was sent packing. It all came to a head in the 70s, when fed up with being black-listed from Camarilla society, that she found Jean-Marc in Elysium and publicly charged him with abandonment, with blacklisting her, with spreading lies so vicious that none would touch her.
It didn't end well in any sense. She was forced to leave LA, though there was little that Jean-Marc could "legally" do to her, she was sure there was to be no safety left at all in the city. The coming decades proved to be trying. Lillian knew few people outside of the area, and fewer still who were not connected in some way to her sire. Still so very young, and without a teacher or surrogate sire, she needed something to replace the gaping emptiness she felt night after night.
Ignoring the kindred for a time, she latched on to wealthy old kine. If she could not be famous, then she could at least see to it that she lived well. Staying mostly on the east coast, back to NYC, to Miami, even a brief stint in DC, but always teetering on the edge of Camarilla society. And always, always watching the ever rising star of Jean-Marc. And as the years passed, a new art form was discovered within her. Revenge, "justice," she had heard a few others call it, burned white hot within. Lillian began to make a name for herself within the kindred world along the east coast. There was no coterie, just herself and whatever ghouls she could support at that time, but she was effective and it finally seemed like she might have overcome the shadow of her sire after all.
The rumors, dark and nasty, returned and brought death to her fledgling hopes. She had become too successful, and though she couldn't find anyway to point the blame directly at him, there was no doubt in Lillian's mind that Jean-Marc was to blame. Business dried up nearly over night, kindred walked away without a word, her kine lovers or beneficiaries turned their backs. It was the final straw.
News of the disaster in LA reached her ears before she was halfway across the country, headed back to seek her own revenge. With a mix of disappointment and relief, there was a brief moment where she thought that she had been too late. That Jean-Marc had already been ruined. It was not to be; instead, in the aftermath of the chaos, he had been raised to Primogen of the Toreador. There was only one position hire than his, and she doubted he would stop before he achieved it.
Certain that none would touch her, especially now, especially with the prominent role and power her sire held, she balked outside of LA. Revenge was necessary, but it wasn't a road she could travel alone, not this time. Just how she came to find the Plebes and their HQ in Watts, she has never fully disclosed. She simply showed up on their stoop one night and explained who she was. She offered a subtlety and tact that they had been without, and they offered apathy for her past. It was an uneasy alliance to begin with, but she has become somewhat fond of the philosophical Vadim, and there are times that she is fascinated by the fire within Ivan. Betty and Mina are anomalies to her, but tools to be used in her eventual crusade against the Toreador Primogen.
Name: Betty
Generation: 11th
Clan: Gangrel
Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
Personality:
Biography:
Just where exactly Betty came from, what her actual name is, and anything at all about her past are largely unknown. Found by the two Brujah in Russia, and that she could speak Russian, lead to the belief that she had been Russian in her life. That she was of Clan Gangrel was also immediately clear, though how long her un-life had been was also unknown. She had already developed the feather's on her arms, the predatory eyes, and the skin on her legs toughening to resemble that of a bird when they had found her. She had frenzied too many times, and it was taking a toll on her body. That she had been alone, barely able to speak, seemed to point to the fact that she had not been brought up properly. Either no other Gangrel had found her, or the one that had had not done well in raising their pup.
Betty isn't sure either. Memories of her life are dulled to oblivion. The passage of time from when she entered this new life to the present at times seems like forever, and at other times all too recent. Vadim and Ivan explained as much as they could to her, some of which she understands. The Masquerade, the need for her to remain largely unseen, that does not overly bother her, especially since they are in a city. She also knows that she would leave, if she could. There are times where hates Vadim and Ivan, particularly Ivan, more than anything else. Yet she finds herself incapable of leaving or even lashing out. Ivan had explained that as well, the blood bond between them.
NPCs of Possible Importance:
Faction Name: The Palm Springs Crew
Allegiance: Independent
Location: Palm Springs
General Information: The Palm Springs Crew is a faction that has been around for a considerable length of time and it is a faction that has been forced to hide its nature in almost all interactions. As one of the few if not the only old Tzimisce domain in the new world the vampires who run the town have long been incredibly secretive and cautious. Most dealings with outsiders are done through ghoul emissaries or through the member of the crew known as the Emissary who is of unknown bloodline. The leaders of the crew were never seen by outsiders for nearly 60 years since they first took up dominion over the small resort town.
However in the last two years things have changed slightly. During the chaos that followed the assassination of many anarch and camarilla leaders several groups attempted to seize the town, viewing it as a sign of weakness that the vampires in charge had hidden behind ghouls. This belief was mistaken and the incursions were smashed but the force and means used to suppress the incursions have led to the rumor mills churning and some of the veil of secrecy was damaged.
Character Sheets:
Name: Chag Ha Ander (The Pale Man)
Appearance:
Generation: 6th
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude
Personality: Chag Ha Ander is in some ways the typical Tzimisce, describing him as a sadist will only make him laugh and then proceed to show you just how inferior your understanding of true sadism is. He has sampled of the endless buffet of screams and agony, has devised countless ways to torture those who he judges to be his enemies and in that way is similar to what you might well expect. He is also old fashioned and a proud being still claiming for himself the title of Voivode that he once held in his heyday before his holdings in Eastern Europe fell. His identity as one of the old Fiends is one of the strongest elements that hold the old vampire’s sense of self together and as such things like the hospitality rituals are held in the highest regard.
However he does differ from many of his ilk as he is not so frozen into a single mindset that he cannot adjust at least to some extent. While most of his kind would be unable to conceive of the possibility of relocation he has done so several times. His mind is still somewhat fluid and he has been able to learn things and adjust to the modern era better than most of his kind. That is not to say that he accepts the modern era as that is far from the truth, his hatred for modernity and the restrictions that it puts on him burns hot and it is only self-preservation that keeps him from acting on the old desires.
Biography: Chag Ha Ander like most of the Tzimisce views what occurred in the years of his life prior to his embrace as rather insignificant, however there is still some pride to be had in the memories of the feats that allowed him to be chosen for immortality. In the 1200s the Mongol hordes swept into Eastern Europe bringing death and destruction on their drive to conquer. Chag Ha Ander was a man of power in the army, a commander of men and he was detached from the main forces to lead a raid into a portion of what is now known as Hungary.
It was ill fate for the invasion force, but ultimately good fortune for Chag Ha Ander when his men stumbled across the residence of what reports said was the lord of the region. With confidence born of his years of command he ordered the attack and fate was set in motion. He led the assault personally and was shocked when his men encountered terrifying creatures of twisted flesh and bone, monsters that seemed to have been shaped from human into something else entirely.
His forces were outmatched but he continued to fight, demonstrating ruthlessness and strategy learned in his years of life. He even sacrificed groups of his own men to gain temporary advantages. It even appeared that his strategies were working until the lord of the castle unleashed something more terrifying. A massive beast that simply shrugged off anything that came for it and that destroyed his men utterly. He prepared to meet death himself when the creature was stopped.
Instead the lord of the land impressed with the ruthlessness and battlefield skill of the man descended himself and after defeating Chag Ha Ander with the greatest of ease, embraced him to begin his long period of unlife. For many years he existed as a pawn of his sire, an ancient Tzimisce methuselah who sought to protect himself through the creation of loyal vassals who would surround his own holdings to serve as shields. Eventually with the bond established and confidence that his new servant would not betray him Chag Ha Ander’s sire granted him land.
He set up his own domain there and for a time things went according to plan. But things would change when the anarch revolt swept into the lands of the Tzimisce. His sire’s plan to surround himself with loyal vassals as a line of defense was not sufficient. First the anarchs had come for Chag Ha Ander and he fought them and lost. He was believed slain, suffering a wound that would have killed most and left for dead in the wreckage of his lands.
Then the anarchs went after his sire and successfully slew the ancient vampire in a great battle. But such was a hollow victory for when the old one died his vozhd was freed from all control and the beast rampaged through the anarch ranks, destroying most of the group before being slain itself.
Ultimately Chag Ha Ander awoke and free of the bond for the first time moved into the holdings that his sire had previously occupied and during the chaos that was the aftermath of the anarch revolt managed to establish himself and gain the recognition of the other remaining old Tzimisce who had weathered the storm. It was soon after he claimed his sire’s former territory that he embraced his first childe and in time he would choose others.
His rule over the land would endure for another four hundred years before the changing times brought him down along with many of the others who had managed to weather the earlier storms. It is a subject that is seldom discussed and that he does not mention save in moment of rage how his fall ultimately came at the hands of the pathetic kine who had long been his food and nothing more. Times had changed and industry had flourished, the veil of fear and superstition that had long kept his kind enthroned began to fade away.
Peasant revolts began, and while the first several were put down with bloody ease eventually there was one that forced him to retreat into his own fortress. Trusting in the strength of his walls and planning to destroy the revolting peasants when the next night fell he and his childer slumbered. But the rule of fear was not perfect and a servant that he believed firmly cowed betrayed him, opening a gate to allow the besiegers access. He was roused by the conflict and in an act of supreme will forcibly flesh crafted one of his childe into his likeness before dragging his consort along with him in a flight to the very bowels of his fortress.
There they escaped the rampage of the rebels but when night had fallen and they emerged the castle was in ruins and his forces had been mostly destroyed. With the rebels still at large and his own forces shattered there did not appear to be a good solution. The other Voivodes would not help and he was too proud to ask for their help. To move appeared to be the only option and as hated as it was this seemed to offer the best chance of survival.
Europe was hostile, with many ancients entrenched in various places and so he turned his eyes to the new world. With the last few servants and what wealth remained to him, he arranged passage to the Americas and attempted to establish a new domain for himself there. The first attempt was moderately successful at first as he managed to purchase a sizeable expanse of land in Texas and established himself there. While it was not so fine as his old land in Europe the aristocratic society of the pre civil war south was somewhat tolerable and the slave system provided a ready source of food as well as easy targets for his appetites. It was here that he embraced another of his few surviving childer, one of the overseers in his plantations attracted his attention through the clever cruelty and torture of various forms that the man inflicted upon the slaves.
Unfortunately for Chag Ha Ander his new domain would prove short lived as the Civil War broke out a mere 20 years after his arrival and the system that had proved so accommodating to his needs was obliterated. He would linger on in the south for almost another hundred years before it had changed to the point that very little of what had attracted him to the region still remained.
In the 1950s, following the outbreak of violence and the overthrowing of the Camarilla rulership of Los Angeles he relocated a final time to the town of Palm Springs, wiping out the previous anarch gang that had claimed the town and establishing it as his own domain. Since then he has ruled over the town with an iron if by necessity subtle fist.
In the chaos of the conflict that erupted two years prior Chag Ha Ander and his childer attempted to avoid becoming involved though several incidents forced the ancient vampire to take action himself to destroy those who sought to press into his territory. The very decisive way in which the incursions were smashed has reinforced the impression that the Palm Springs vampires were not easy pickings but has also made a delicate situation more volatile. While his appearances were brief some wonder at the power of this leader and question why so powerful a being leads what is supposedly an independent anarch splinter group. And there are rumors of things unleashed in those encounters that sound like the stuff of old stories from lands half a world away.
Name: Svetlana Ference
Generation: 7th
Appearance:
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude
Personality: Svetlana was embraced almost 600 years ago and for 600 years Chag Ha Ander has had the opportunity to mold her mind and body, sculpting her like clay to suite his own desires. Her emotions towards him are those of extreme devotion and she simply cannot conceive of acting against him, even subtly. To others on the other hand she is casually cruel and manipulative specializing in twisting the feelings of others to suit her own desires and the desires of her Sire which she equates or even holds superior to her own goals. She is a creature who has been crafted by her master rather than her own will and is twisted to the point that she cannot truly see the difference between the two anymore. Despite this much of her original personality still remains intact as Chag Ha Ander approved of it, her grace and naturally refined nature have been kept and tempered with cruelty and spite.
Biography: A child of nobility in one of the many families of human nobles who served beneath the Tzimisce at the height of their dark power Svetlana was expected to grow up and be married off to secure political ties to another family. It was something of a fluke that the girl caught the eye of the family's overlord instead and his demands were granted without hesitation, the family knowing well the power of the ire of one of the elder fiends. Chag Ha Ander tested her, first to see if she was worthy of the embrace, which she was found to be and then with the test of his own devising to ensure that all his childer would possess his own gift for survival.
Her first experience after embrace was one that would have killed most kindred and kine alike as the ancient vampire thrust the blade of a sword through her head and then removed it, critically damaging her brain. When it became apparent that she unlike his previous attempts was not expiring her sire went to work and began the process of shaping her into what he desired her to be. She next awakened changed and with a devotion to her sire that pushed all other desires to the sidelines. For nearly 600 years she has served him, playing the role that he designed and shaped her for.
Name: Randall Bishop
Generation: 7th
Appearance:
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Vicissitude, Auspex, Dominate
Personality: A vain, cruel, and innovative man in life Randall Bishop has retained these qualities in his undeath. The man is cruel, fond of inflicting tortures upon the mortals merely for the sake of his twisted pleasures, he takes special pleasure in torturing people of particular ethnicity and his tendencies in that direction survived the transfer from mortal to vampire. His creative genius for cruelty however appears to be at the cost of his overall intellect as while the man is quite capable he seems to lack independence in many areas. While this makes him ideal in some respects as he is easy to keep in line by virtue of the blood bond and he would never go against his sire the fact that his genius is so limited makes him an irritation at times.
Biography: Randall Bishop was an overseer of slaves, a man known for his brutality and cruelty to the point where he had actually been fired for being overly brutal several times by former employers. He could not understand why the people he worked for continued to reprimand him for actions that were wholly justified and reasonable and this led to his repeated firings. He was surprised when a man who was starting up a new plantation contacted him and said he was the perfect choice to run roughshod over the slave population there, surprised but pleased.
With his job prospects seeming poor he accepted and for a few years looked the other way at the strange ways of the master, the fact that the man and his 'wife' never seemed to be around during the day, or how they would summon slaves to the mansion who would never leave again, simply doing his job and enjoying the freedom allowed to him. After those few years though he was called before Chag Ha Ander and forcibly embraced. He became more than human and things changed. His mind was molded by the will of his new sire and his loyalty was cemented through the application of a blood bond to the point where he cannot even think about betraying the master.
He proved difficult to reconcile after the civil war ended in a defeat for the south and with the approval of Chag Ha Ander, who also wished for the servile population of free meals to be kept in their place he was involved in certain evening activities designed with that express purpose of spreading fear to keep the ex-slaves in what he considered the proper mindset. Since the move to Palm Springs the former overseer has proven to still be useful, and his genius for torture has continued to amuse his sire but the man's rage means that the ancient vampire has to keep a tight grip that even he normally does on this particular childe.
Name: Roger Wilson
Generation: 7th
Appearance:
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Vicissitude, Animalism, Auspex
Personality: Roger Wilson is relatively new to his unlife and his psyche has not yet had time to recover from the the process by which he has been molded and then cast as seen appropriate by his sire. He is largely uncertain of his own actions, frequently guided more by the detailed commands given to him by the other more experienced members of Chag Ha Ander's 'family' that by his own insights. Still he was clever in life and his intelligence still exists in death further his knowledge of modern day criminal enterprise has proven useful in combating the kine servants of other influential kindred in the LA region.
Biography:Roger was a man who tried and ultimately was somewhat successful in organized criminal enterprises. Like most Tzimisce his life prior to the embrace is dismissed as rather unimportant though he was chosen specifically for the more modern skill set that he possessed. He would be able to deal with problems in ways that the others had a more difficult time grasping as they were more rooted in the past while his criminal skills were from the present. As he was only embraced approximately 8 years ago there is not much to tell of his story so far.
Allegiance: Independent
Location: Palm Springs
General Information: The Palm Springs Crew is a faction that has been around for a considerable length of time and it is a faction that has been forced to hide its nature in almost all interactions. As one of the few if not the only old Tzimisce domain in the new world the vampires who run the town have long been incredibly secretive and cautious. Most dealings with outsiders are done through ghoul emissaries or through the member of the crew known as the Emissary who is of unknown bloodline. The leaders of the crew were never seen by outsiders for nearly 60 years since they first took up dominion over the small resort town.
However in the last two years things have changed slightly. During the chaos that followed the assassination of many anarch and camarilla leaders several groups attempted to seize the town, viewing it as a sign of weakness that the vampires in charge had hidden behind ghouls. This belief was mistaken and the incursions were smashed but the force and means used to suppress the incursions have led to the rumor mills churning and some of the veil of secrecy was damaged.
Character Sheets:
Name: Chag Ha Ander (The Pale Man)
Appearance:
Generation: 6th
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude
Personality: Chag Ha Ander is in some ways the typical Tzimisce, describing him as a sadist will only make him laugh and then proceed to show you just how inferior your understanding of true sadism is. He has sampled of the endless buffet of screams and agony, has devised countless ways to torture those who he judges to be his enemies and in that way is similar to what you might well expect. He is also old fashioned and a proud being still claiming for himself the title of Voivode that he once held in his heyday before his holdings in Eastern Europe fell. His identity as one of the old Fiends is one of the strongest elements that hold the old vampire’s sense of self together and as such things like the hospitality rituals are held in the highest regard.
However he does differ from many of his ilk as he is not so frozen into a single mindset that he cannot adjust at least to some extent. While most of his kind would be unable to conceive of the possibility of relocation he has done so several times. His mind is still somewhat fluid and he has been able to learn things and adjust to the modern era better than most of his kind. That is not to say that he accepts the modern era as that is far from the truth, his hatred for modernity and the restrictions that it puts on him burns hot and it is only self-preservation that keeps him from acting on the old desires.
Biography: Chag Ha Ander like most of the Tzimisce views what occurred in the years of his life prior to his embrace as rather insignificant, however there is still some pride to be had in the memories of the feats that allowed him to be chosen for immortality. In the 1200s the Mongol hordes swept into Eastern Europe bringing death and destruction on their drive to conquer. Chag Ha Ander was a man of power in the army, a commander of men and he was detached from the main forces to lead a raid into a portion of what is now known as Hungary.
It was ill fate for the invasion force, but ultimately good fortune for Chag Ha Ander when his men stumbled across the residence of what reports said was the lord of the region. With confidence born of his years of command he ordered the attack and fate was set in motion. He led the assault personally and was shocked when his men encountered terrifying creatures of twisted flesh and bone, monsters that seemed to have been shaped from human into something else entirely.
His forces were outmatched but he continued to fight, demonstrating ruthlessness and strategy learned in his years of life. He even sacrificed groups of his own men to gain temporary advantages. It even appeared that his strategies were working until the lord of the castle unleashed something more terrifying. A massive beast that simply shrugged off anything that came for it and that destroyed his men utterly. He prepared to meet death himself when the creature was stopped.
Instead the lord of the land impressed with the ruthlessness and battlefield skill of the man descended himself and after defeating Chag Ha Ander with the greatest of ease, embraced him to begin his long period of unlife. For many years he existed as a pawn of his sire, an ancient Tzimisce methuselah who sought to protect himself through the creation of loyal vassals who would surround his own holdings to serve as shields. Eventually with the bond established and confidence that his new servant would not betray him Chag Ha Ander’s sire granted him land.
He set up his own domain there and for a time things went according to plan. But things would change when the anarch revolt swept into the lands of the Tzimisce. His sire’s plan to surround himself with loyal vassals as a line of defense was not sufficient. First the anarchs had come for Chag Ha Ander and he fought them and lost. He was believed slain, suffering a wound that would have killed most and left for dead in the wreckage of his lands.
Then the anarchs went after his sire and successfully slew the ancient vampire in a great battle. But such was a hollow victory for when the old one died his vozhd was freed from all control and the beast rampaged through the anarch ranks, destroying most of the group before being slain itself.
Ultimately Chag Ha Ander awoke and free of the bond for the first time moved into the holdings that his sire had previously occupied and during the chaos that was the aftermath of the anarch revolt managed to establish himself and gain the recognition of the other remaining old Tzimisce who had weathered the storm. It was soon after he claimed his sire’s former territory that he embraced his first childe and in time he would choose others.
His rule over the land would endure for another four hundred years before the changing times brought him down along with many of the others who had managed to weather the earlier storms. It is a subject that is seldom discussed and that he does not mention save in moment of rage how his fall ultimately came at the hands of the pathetic kine who had long been his food and nothing more. Times had changed and industry had flourished, the veil of fear and superstition that had long kept his kind enthroned began to fade away.
Peasant revolts began, and while the first several were put down with bloody ease eventually there was one that forced him to retreat into his own fortress. Trusting in the strength of his walls and planning to destroy the revolting peasants when the next night fell he and his childer slumbered. But the rule of fear was not perfect and a servant that he believed firmly cowed betrayed him, opening a gate to allow the besiegers access. He was roused by the conflict and in an act of supreme will forcibly flesh crafted one of his childe into his likeness before dragging his consort along with him in a flight to the very bowels of his fortress.
There they escaped the rampage of the rebels but when night had fallen and they emerged the castle was in ruins and his forces had been mostly destroyed. With the rebels still at large and his own forces shattered there did not appear to be a good solution. The other Voivodes would not help and he was too proud to ask for their help. To move appeared to be the only option and as hated as it was this seemed to offer the best chance of survival.
Europe was hostile, with many ancients entrenched in various places and so he turned his eyes to the new world. With the last few servants and what wealth remained to him, he arranged passage to the Americas and attempted to establish a new domain for himself there. The first attempt was moderately successful at first as he managed to purchase a sizeable expanse of land in Texas and established himself there. While it was not so fine as his old land in Europe the aristocratic society of the pre civil war south was somewhat tolerable and the slave system provided a ready source of food as well as easy targets for his appetites. It was here that he embraced another of his few surviving childer, one of the overseers in his plantations attracted his attention through the clever cruelty and torture of various forms that the man inflicted upon the slaves.
Unfortunately for Chag Ha Ander his new domain would prove short lived as the Civil War broke out a mere 20 years after his arrival and the system that had proved so accommodating to his needs was obliterated. He would linger on in the south for almost another hundred years before it had changed to the point that very little of what had attracted him to the region still remained.
In the 1950s, following the outbreak of violence and the overthrowing of the Camarilla rulership of Los Angeles he relocated a final time to the town of Palm Springs, wiping out the previous anarch gang that had claimed the town and establishing it as his own domain. Since then he has ruled over the town with an iron if by necessity subtle fist.
In the chaos of the conflict that erupted two years prior Chag Ha Ander and his childer attempted to avoid becoming involved though several incidents forced the ancient vampire to take action himself to destroy those who sought to press into his territory. The very decisive way in which the incursions were smashed has reinforced the impression that the Palm Springs vampires were not easy pickings but has also made a delicate situation more volatile. While his appearances were brief some wonder at the power of this leader and question why so powerful a being leads what is supposedly an independent anarch splinter group. And there are rumors of things unleashed in those encounters that sound like the stuff of old stories from lands half a world away.
Name: Svetlana Ference
Generation: 7th
Appearance:
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude
Personality: Svetlana was embraced almost 600 years ago and for 600 years Chag Ha Ander has had the opportunity to mold her mind and body, sculpting her like clay to suite his own desires. Her emotions towards him are those of extreme devotion and she simply cannot conceive of acting against him, even subtly. To others on the other hand she is casually cruel and manipulative specializing in twisting the feelings of others to suit her own desires and the desires of her Sire which she equates or even holds superior to her own goals. She is a creature who has been crafted by her master rather than her own will and is twisted to the point that she cannot truly see the difference between the two anymore. Despite this much of her original personality still remains intact as Chag Ha Ander approved of it, her grace and naturally refined nature have been kept and tempered with cruelty and spite.
Biography: A child of nobility in one of the many families of human nobles who served beneath the Tzimisce at the height of their dark power Svetlana was expected to grow up and be married off to secure political ties to another family. It was something of a fluke that the girl caught the eye of the family's overlord instead and his demands were granted without hesitation, the family knowing well the power of the ire of one of the elder fiends. Chag Ha Ander tested her, first to see if she was worthy of the embrace, which she was found to be and then with the test of his own devising to ensure that all his childer would possess his own gift for survival.
Her first experience after embrace was one that would have killed most kindred and kine alike as the ancient vampire thrust the blade of a sword through her head and then removed it, critically damaging her brain. When it became apparent that she unlike his previous attempts was not expiring her sire went to work and began the process of shaping her into what he desired her to be. She next awakened changed and with a devotion to her sire that pushed all other desires to the sidelines. For nearly 600 years she has served him, playing the role that he designed and shaped her for.
Name: Randall Bishop
Generation: 7th
Appearance:
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Vicissitude, Auspex, Dominate
Personality: A vain, cruel, and innovative man in life Randall Bishop has retained these qualities in his undeath. The man is cruel, fond of inflicting tortures upon the mortals merely for the sake of his twisted pleasures, he takes special pleasure in torturing people of particular ethnicity and his tendencies in that direction survived the transfer from mortal to vampire. His creative genius for cruelty however appears to be at the cost of his overall intellect as while the man is quite capable he seems to lack independence in many areas. While this makes him ideal in some respects as he is easy to keep in line by virtue of the blood bond and he would never go against his sire the fact that his genius is so limited makes him an irritation at times.
Biography: Randall Bishop was an overseer of slaves, a man known for his brutality and cruelty to the point where he had actually been fired for being overly brutal several times by former employers. He could not understand why the people he worked for continued to reprimand him for actions that were wholly justified and reasonable and this led to his repeated firings. He was surprised when a man who was starting up a new plantation contacted him and said he was the perfect choice to run roughshod over the slave population there, surprised but pleased.
With his job prospects seeming poor he accepted and for a few years looked the other way at the strange ways of the master, the fact that the man and his 'wife' never seemed to be around during the day, or how they would summon slaves to the mansion who would never leave again, simply doing his job and enjoying the freedom allowed to him. After those few years though he was called before Chag Ha Ander and forcibly embraced. He became more than human and things changed. His mind was molded by the will of his new sire and his loyalty was cemented through the application of a blood bond to the point where he cannot even think about betraying the master.
He proved difficult to reconcile after the civil war ended in a defeat for the south and with the approval of Chag Ha Ander, who also wished for the servile population of free meals to be kept in their place he was involved in certain evening activities designed with that express purpose of spreading fear to keep the ex-slaves in what he considered the proper mindset. Since the move to Palm Springs the former overseer has proven to still be useful, and his genius for torture has continued to amuse his sire but the man's rage means that the ancient vampire has to keep a tight grip that even he normally does on this particular childe.
Name: Roger Wilson
Generation: 7th
Appearance:
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Vicissitude, Animalism, Auspex
Personality: Roger Wilson is relatively new to his unlife and his psyche has not yet had time to recover from the the process by which he has been molded and then cast as seen appropriate by his sire. He is largely uncertain of his own actions, frequently guided more by the detailed commands given to him by the other more experienced members of Chag Ha Ander's 'family' that by his own insights. Still he was clever in life and his intelligence still exists in death further his knowledge of modern day criminal enterprise has proven useful in combating the kine servants of other influential kindred in the LA region.
Biography:Roger was a man who tried and ultimately was somewhat successful in organized criminal enterprises. Like most Tzimisce his life prior to the embrace is dismissed as rather unimportant though he was chosen specifically for the more modern skill set that he possessed. He would be able to deal with problems in ways that the others had a more difficult time grasping as they were more rooted in the past while his criminal skills were from the present. As he was only embraced approximately 8 years ago there is not much to tell of his story so far.
Faction Name: Camarilla Investment Group - Los Angeles Division (CIG LA)
Allegiance: Camarilla
Location: Downtown L.A., principally the 54th and 55th floor of the 777 Tower
General Information: Although the Camarilla has little central organisation as such, save for the mysterious Inner Circle, the international world of global finance and its vast potential demanded Camarilla Princes coordinate their efforts to ensure the transition of banking into the modern era remained heavily influenced by, and guided towards, Camarilla interests and needs. Those who held prominent positions in European and American Banking firms formed their own secret council, the Camarilla Investment Group, to ensure that all forms of banking and related financial activities (investment banking, venture capitalism, hedge fund management etc) benefited Camarilla assets and maintained a steady flow of wealth with which to combat the Sabbat and other forces opposed to the Camarilla.
Secondarily, the CIG also takes a more direct influence in growing the assets into which it invests, and pulling strings of both private and public companies to organise and cement Camarilla power in certain areas. Coordinating with political assets amongst the Camarilla, vampires are often placed on boards of companies and local government organisations to influence key decisions; the motives for these vary - to reassert lost power when force is a less desirable or valid option, strengthen power and influence in particular areas or make life difficult for Sabbat or even Anarch operations opposed to Camarilla interests.
Character Sheets:
Name: Vernon Grant-Bell
Generation: 8th
Clan: Ventrue
Disciplines: Fortitude, Dominate, Presence
Personality: Calm, measured and exuding a captivating gravitas, Vernon is a benchmark of Ventrue leadership, even without his mastery of the 'presence' and 'dominate' disciplines. Every sentence he speaks is carefully weighed, every stroke of his pen fore-planned to work in his favour, every action pre-aligned like a chess grandmaster. Coming from traditional Scottish aristocracy, Vernon is a highly cultured man with interests in classical music, poetry and many other rich artistic pursuits. He is engaging and prefers diplomatic solutions wherever possible, but such is his self confidence (many would say arrogance) that 'no' is something Vernon struggles to readily accept; thus "non-diplomatic" solutions are not unfamiliar to him, and he is prepared to use whatever resources he can muster, including his own prowess if necessary, to ensure things are done to benefit the Camarilla and his own interests.
Biography: Born in Edinburgh during the year 1773, Vernon was the son of a prominent Scottish Earl - the Earl of Sterling, and as such was Born to his official title: Lord Vernon Grant-Bell, The Viscount of Sterling. His upbringing was privileged, cultured and secure; his education was first rate and he possessed a particularly keen mind for mathematics, although philosophy, literature and languages both contemporary and classical were well received upon his studious mind. Following several years of study at Cambridge, Vernon returned to his inherited home to an array of options: he could join the army or navy, enjoying the fast track that a landed title brought; he could become a doctor or lawyer, although neither of these truly appealed; or he could travel to London and expose himself to a life a court, living off his family's financial wealth at least temporarily. Guided by his father's steady hand, he chose to join the army in December 1796 as a Lieutenant, taking a commission in the 71st Regiment of Foot, before quickly transferring to the 74th Highlanders in 1797 once a position to become Captain had presented itself.
For several years Vernon took posts across varying positions in the British Empire, being cited several times by officers for his intelligent, quick thinking mind and calm, assertive leadership that struck the right balance with the men he led. He was firm but fair, and when the opportunity presented itself, he demonstrated his bravery too. By 1801 he became a Major, and by 1803 he was to lead a company of men into one of the most famous battles in his regiment's history: the battle of Assaye in Western India. The battle that made the highlanders and Sir Arthur Wellesley famous also brought Major, The Lord Viscount Grant-Bell praise worthy of his grand name; stepping forward when the line was in peril, Vernon demonstrated great courage and leadership in steadying his troops and leading them on the field. Back home in England, this acclaim brought other noble eyes upon him: the country's Ventrue clan.
During the Peninsula War, fought against Napoleonic France's grand army in Portugal and Spain, Vernon transferred to be an intelligence officer although he kept his official title as an officer of the 74th Highlanders. Sharp witted, with a keen tactical mind and a flair for languages, Vernon excelled in this role and was bumped up to Colonel by Arthur Wellesley himself following a string of well executed assignments that led to significant tactical advantages over the French. On his return to England in December 1808 on brief leave, Vernon was invited to a masquerade ball held in London by an Earl well known at court for his lavish parties. It was at this party that the Ventrue took their mark; sired by the Marquess of Bath, himself a prominent member of the clan. Following this night, the world of the rich and entitled developed a whole new light: the kine didn't really rule - the Kindred did, as he was soon to learn.
Using their significant power and influence, Vernon was excused his duties in the war, only returning there for two months so as not to draw undue attention, although he maintained his official post as an intelligence Colonel in the British Army; as of now his new training and demands lay with his clan. Vernon thrived as a member of the world's elite kindred stock, taking apprenticeships under Princes of cities littered throughout the Empire. It soon became apparent, however, that his leadership and intelligence has destined him for greater things; specifically, this mathematical mind was seen to be useful in wealth creation and 1865, after many years of training, he became a founding member of HSBC, although his role was one played out in the shadows, scheming behind human figureheads. For a century and a half, Vernon has innovated and crafted modern banking and wealth creation, investing in key assets and linking them inextricably to the Ventrue and Camarilla. Although his life as a soldier and intelligence officer facilitated his interest in other roles, particularly when he was bored of desk work and number crunching, the Inner Circle always prompted his return to what he did best.
In the modern nights, the year 2006, Vernon has been sent to L.A. to sure up the Camarilla's influence within the city following the failure of the former Prince. Vernon is subtle but astute, even direct when called for, and his knowledge of intelligence operations betrays a darker purpose to his presence in the city. He only knows he cannot fail... because he cannot remember the last time he did so.
Name: Aurelia Núñez
Generation: 9th
Clan: Ventrue
Disciplines: Fortitude, Dominate, Presence
Personality: Aurelia is Vernon's childe, closest aide and one of the few people he entrusts to carry out is business in absolute faith. Whereas Vernon oozes cool confidence, Aurelia's charisma is far more gregarious and passionate. If new clients need taking for dinner and drinks to seal a contract then Aurelia will take the lead, ensuring the matter is sealed as expected whilst, in all likelihood, leaving such an impression that repeat business and recommendation is all but certain. Exerting a confident, intelligent femininity, Aurelia is a fast riser in Camarilla circles and her ambition is masked thinly behind her loyalty to Vernon.
Biography: Born in A Coruña, Spain in 1790, Aurelia Núñez was daughter to a dairy farmer and his young wife; her mother died giving birth to her and she was raised solely by her father - a kind, hard working man with a gentle spirit. Aurelia helped on the farm her whole life, and whilst her father taught her to read and write a little, not being a well educated man himself she grew up destined to work the land - milking the cattle, tending to their needs and selling their produce in A Coruña. Her life was happy enough in many ways, although as a teenager she found it rather dull.
In May 1808 events conspired to shatter her world; the uprising in Madrid against the French occupiers set off a chain of events that would lead to a full military conflict between Napoleon's France and the allied forces of Spain, Portugal and Great Britain. The flush of fresh and experienced French troops into Spain in late 1808 crushed the Spanish and by January they had pushed the British forces in Spain into a corner: that corner just so happened to be at A Coruña. The night before the battle, several French scouts entered their farm looking to steal cattle to feed their amassing forces. With a noble spirit, her father resisted but was quickly overwhelmed and murdered by a single musket ball to the skull. Aurelia remembered the screams she uttered that night; at barely over eighteen she saw her father killed, was savagely raped and left beaten within an inch of her life.
The same night, a British patrol was scouting the area when it came across the same French forces that had stolen the cattle; a brief fire fight followed in which the French were driven back, but having got their prizes, were happy to withdraw. The leader of the patrol, a young captain, saw the barn ablaze and diverted to take a brief look when he heard Aurelia's screams. Her wounds were severe, but upon his honour as a gentleman he took her back to the camp surgeon to make an attempt at saving her life. The situation looked doubtful, such was her loss of blood. It was after the captain had reported the sighting of the French patrol to his superior officer, who in turn passed it on to Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, commander of the British forces, and his intelligence aide - Colonel Vernon Grant-Bell. Vernon wished to question the surviving girl, but upon seeing the surgeon he understood she was likely to die within the hour. He asked to see her alone. She was unable to speak, savaged with wounds yet still striking; her raven hair was matted with blood, her eyes were fierce and defiant and her lips pursed with the effort of trying to talk. He saw something in her that spoke to him - this girl had passion and fortitude - it was a miracle she was not dead already; and so Vernon decided, that although she was not a candidate of ideal bloodlines, he would not let her meet a true death, but rather an undeath. That night, privately, he sired her.
The battle itself was fought in the day, but as an intelligence officer no-one expected Vernon to be leading the line, and so his absence there was not really accounted for; neither was that of a lowly Spanish girl. In the town itself, he sheltered her whilst both sides fought themselves to a draw. Soon afterwards he led her into Portugal, before the Ventrue arranged for his transfer back to England.
When he returned to London, the presence of a new childe with him shocked the established Ventrue; although Vernon was a promising new vampire, to turn another so quickly was highly frowned upon, not to mention her low birth. A presentation was made of Vernon and Aurelia to the Prince of London, where their fate and punishment would be presided over. Death for both was strongly considered, having broken a sacred code of the Ventrue and the Camarilla. However, Vernon's promise allied with the argument that he had not yet been adequately taught by his own sire deflected much of the punishment onto the Maquess of Bath. Vernon was warned, whilst Aurelia was given an effective death sentence - sent to fight as a front-line soldier in the street wars against the Sabbat: if she died, so be it, if she survived it would prove she would be a useful addition to the clan.
It took fifteen years of fighting and scrapping, killing and nearly being killed; in all this time she was forbidden from seeing Vernon, but her uncanny survival instinct and remarkable resilience was noted. She was taken off the front lines, and as a Ventrue, was given tasks far more in line with a vampire of such a noble clan. The only issues were her struggles in reading and writing; as of yet, she was a Ventrue by blood only, lacking the intelligence, sophistication and grace to be a true member of the clan. In truth, she was more like a savage Brujah than a Ventrue, and so she was given back to Vernon to culture and educate. This year was 1825, and from this point forward Vernon never let her go. He relished in teaching his only Childe; he was firm but caring. In many ways it was a paternal love that guided him. She had never aged beyond her eighteen year old body, and her youthful beauty charmed him into protecting her in a way he would do for no other. She wasn't coddled - how could one coddle a vampire so exposed to terror and violence? But little by little, the care and attention, as well as the education, allowed her to flourish. She became his closest aide and most trusted advisor, travelling with him to many places in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
In the modern nights this relationship still holds true. Fierce, feisty and yet richly sophisticated - Aurelia Núñez is like a well aged bottle of Spanish Rioja; whilst she does not have Vernon's raw intelligence and methodical mind, she offers a passionate counterbalance which has proven equally useful in securing desirable contracts for the Camarilla's growing portfolio of wealth.
Name: Gregor McCrone
Generation: 10th
Clan: Gangrel
Disciplines: Fortitude, Protean, Animalism
Personality: Ruthless and aggressive, the beast stalks in Gregor with great potency; as a Cainite his servitude to Vernon has been reinforced by a blood bond that the Ventrue sees is well maintained. It is only this, and the occasional tutelage of his master, that enables Gregor to seamlessly fit into human society: rarely leaving Vernon's side unless by his direct instruction, he is able to stay in better control of his base urges and even pass as having at least competent social etiquette.. As both bodyguard and enforcer, however, Gregor is an extremely apt individual - violence releases the predator which lies within - something he finds highly gratifying.
Biography: Gregor was wild even as a kine; born to a small village settlement off Loch Rannoch in the highlands of Scotland in 1894, his father fished the Loch and his mother made clothing from wool to sell. Their life was simple and wild, lost amongst the sublime landscape that both cradled them and kept them in awe. Gregor was 20 when the first world war broke out and he volunteered straight away. He wasn't to know what horrors the war would bring and it all seemed like it would be a good laugh at the time. He fought bravely throughout the war, being cited for his rather fearless actions on several occasions. Eventually he became accustomed to it; the violence became normative, became expected even, so that the moments of peace were welcomed only briefly. Many soldiers beside him thought Gregor too wild to follow into battle - somehow reckless, but admirable nonetheless. During the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, this reckless luck would run out. The bullet from a sniper missed his heart but smashed a hole that nearly killed him nonetheless.
The war was over for Gregor, and as he recovered back in England, he decided he could not stay in the oppressive setting of a city such as London and that he needed to go back to his home in Scotland. He recovered there amongst the highlands' beautiful landscapes, soothed by the mountains and the loch itself. But such a peaceful life after the everyday grind of war was difficult; although the war itself contained long periods of boredom, Gregor could always volunteer for a patrol or forward posting. His friends thought him crazy, but something ineffable and violent lurked within him - where it came from he could not say, but the war, dreadful at first, had appeased it, and now it stirred restless.
Recovered, Gregor wandered the lands with a unquenchable need for something greater, and yet the call of his homelands somehow rooted him there. It was an evening spent running in the vast wilderness of the Rannoch Moor that showed him the answer he had subliminally longed for. Running amongst a patch of pine woods, he tripped in the darkness and fell. Before he could arise he was set upon by a powerful man who slammed his head into the ground and hit him with such force that his lung collapsed on first impact. Gregor wheezed and coughed, but the bloodlust in him stirred again; previously lost with the absence of war, he had found it now. Although his opponent was freakishly strong, Gregor threw as many punches as the strange man, scrapping for his life. The fight was bloody but brief; Gregor had given a good account of himself, but there was no way he could win. Even his strongest blows did little but raise a smile from the villain who attacked him, but unbeknown to him, the immortal foe was impressed with the spirit of his victim. That night he was turned, the Gangrel who fought him pleased with the outcome of his test.
Joining the Gangrel was a liberating experience for Gregor; his rage was fuelled and celebrated, but subject to control and guidance from experienced members of the clan. The highland Gangrel were equally pleased with their latest recruit, and Gregor became an experienced hunter. He quickly learned his limitations, however; the lands of the Garou were to be respected at all times - a lesson painfully learned by many new recruits.
In 1962, the Highland Gangrel joined the Camarilla as increasing urbanisation forced them into a decision between them or the Sabbat. In the early 1970s, a Ventrue vampire called Vernon Grant-Bell returned to his native Scotland to oversee the bank of Scotland's expansion into North Sea Oil and the energy sector. In actuality, he had tied portions of the Camarilla's wealth into the quickly growing industry and bought a great deal of shares on behalf of the organisation. Aware that the Sabbat would want to sabotage this process to prevent the Camarilla securing a firmer power base in Scotland, Vernon orchestrated a pre-emptive offensive to cripple certain Sabbat power structures throughout Scotland. Vernon oversaw the offensive directly and kept a close eye on individual reports fed back from commanders on the ground. Several cited one name in a ferocious assault on a Sabbat industrial complex in Glasgow - Gregor McCrone. Reports that Gregor had rallied against the Sabbat counter attack where others fell away reminded Vernon of his own role in the battle of Assaye; the more he dug into the background of Gregor and his previous career as a soldier, the more Vernon saw of the same spirit he recognised in the very best soldiers that he had worked with. He asked for him immediately.
By now Gregor had grown almost too wild to integrate well within human cities. Technology was lost upon him and he had forgotten much of civilised manners; Vernon however, saw the warrior underneath and trusted his ability to mould the clay he saw. The Gangrel did not want to let their best go, but Vernon's influence in the Camarilla made sure he batted down the objections. Gregor was assigned to Vernon's personal coterie as an enforcer. He didn't like this at first - learning culture and etiquette wasn't an interest. Vernon knew that Gregor would only respect strength, so he showed it. Vernon was an older, more experienced vampire and whilst he lacked Gregor's prowess with the Protean discipline, Vernon's knowledge of fortitude was greater, and his extra experience allowed him to beat Gregor frequently in their sparring matches. Gregor, begrudgingly, showed deference to his better and the assignments he was given appealed to his violent side - he was appeased. Still, he was unaware that Vernon had reinforced these 'normal' means of gaining respect with supplying Gregor with his own blood. Thus over time, a strong blood bond was created between Gregor and Vernon, so that now Gregor almost always seeks to please the man he works for. It is an arrangement that suits both well: Vernon leads, and Gregor sees how far he can push people's noses towards the back of their heads...
Allegiance: Camarilla
Location: Downtown L.A., principally the 54th and 55th floor of the 777 Tower
General Information: Although the Camarilla has little central organisation as such, save for the mysterious Inner Circle, the international world of global finance and its vast potential demanded Camarilla Princes coordinate their efforts to ensure the transition of banking into the modern era remained heavily influenced by, and guided towards, Camarilla interests and needs. Those who held prominent positions in European and American Banking firms formed their own secret council, the Camarilla Investment Group, to ensure that all forms of banking and related financial activities (investment banking, venture capitalism, hedge fund management etc) benefited Camarilla assets and maintained a steady flow of wealth with which to combat the Sabbat and other forces opposed to the Camarilla.
Secondarily, the CIG also takes a more direct influence in growing the assets into which it invests, and pulling strings of both private and public companies to organise and cement Camarilla power in certain areas. Coordinating with political assets amongst the Camarilla, vampires are often placed on boards of companies and local government organisations to influence key decisions; the motives for these vary - to reassert lost power when force is a less desirable or valid option, strengthen power and influence in particular areas or make life difficult for Sabbat or even Anarch operations opposed to Camarilla interests.
Character Sheets:
Name: Vernon Grant-Bell
Generation: 8th
Clan: Ventrue
Disciplines: Fortitude, Dominate, Presence
Personality: Calm, measured and exuding a captivating gravitas, Vernon is a benchmark of Ventrue leadership, even without his mastery of the 'presence' and 'dominate' disciplines. Every sentence he speaks is carefully weighed, every stroke of his pen fore-planned to work in his favour, every action pre-aligned like a chess grandmaster. Coming from traditional Scottish aristocracy, Vernon is a highly cultured man with interests in classical music, poetry and many other rich artistic pursuits. He is engaging and prefers diplomatic solutions wherever possible, but such is his self confidence (many would say arrogance) that 'no' is something Vernon struggles to readily accept; thus "non-diplomatic" solutions are not unfamiliar to him, and he is prepared to use whatever resources he can muster, including his own prowess if necessary, to ensure things are done to benefit the Camarilla and his own interests.
Biography: Born in Edinburgh during the year 1773, Vernon was the son of a prominent Scottish Earl - the Earl of Sterling, and as such was Born to his official title: Lord Vernon Grant-Bell, The Viscount of Sterling. His upbringing was privileged, cultured and secure; his education was first rate and he possessed a particularly keen mind for mathematics, although philosophy, literature and languages both contemporary and classical were well received upon his studious mind. Following several years of study at Cambridge, Vernon returned to his inherited home to an array of options: he could join the army or navy, enjoying the fast track that a landed title brought; he could become a doctor or lawyer, although neither of these truly appealed; or he could travel to London and expose himself to a life a court, living off his family's financial wealth at least temporarily. Guided by his father's steady hand, he chose to join the army in December 1796 as a Lieutenant, taking a commission in the 71st Regiment of Foot, before quickly transferring to the 74th Highlanders in 1797 once a position to become Captain had presented itself.
For several years Vernon took posts across varying positions in the British Empire, being cited several times by officers for his intelligent, quick thinking mind and calm, assertive leadership that struck the right balance with the men he led. He was firm but fair, and when the opportunity presented itself, he demonstrated his bravery too. By 1801 he became a Major, and by 1803 he was to lead a company of men into one of the most famous battles in his regiment's history: the battle of Assaye in Western India. The battle that made the highlanders and Sir Arthur Wellesley famous also brought Major, The Lord Viscount Grant-Bell praise worthy of his grand name; stepping forward when the line was in peril, Vernon demonstrated great courage and leadership in steadying his troops and leading them on the field. Back home in England, this acclaim brought other noble eyes upon him: the country's Ventrue clan.
During the Peninsula War, fought against Napoleonic France's grand army in Portugal and Spain, Vernon transferred to be an intelligence officer although he kept his official title as an officer of the 74th Highlanders. Sharp witted, with a keen tactical mind and a flair for languages, Vernon excelled in this role and was bumped up to Colonel by Arthur Wellesley himself following a string of well executed assignments that led to significant tactical advantages over the French. On his return to England in December 1808 on brief leave, Vernon was invited to a masquerade ball held in London by an Earl well known at court for his lavish parties. It was at this party that the Ventrue took their mark; sired by the Marquess of Bath, himself a prominent member of the clan. Following this night, the world of the rich and entitled developed a whole new light: the kine didn't really rule - the Kindred did, as he was soon to learn.
Using their significant power and influence, Vernon was excused his duties in the war, only returning there for two months so as not to draw undue attention, although he maintained his official post as an intelligence Colonel in the British Army; as of now his new training and demands lay with his clan. Vernon thrived as a member of the world's elite kindred stock, taking apprenticeships under Princes of cities littered throughout the Empire. It soon became apparent, however, that his leadership and intelligence has destined him for greater things; specifically, this mathematical mind was seen to be useful in wealth creation and 1865, after many years of training, he became a founding member of HSBC, although his role was one played out in the shadows, scheming behind human figureheads. For a century and a half, Vernon has innovated and crafted modern banking and wealth creation, investing in key assets and linking them inextricably to the Ventrue and Camarilla. Although his life as a soldier and intelligence officer facilitated his interest in other roles, particularly when he was bored of desk work and number crunching, the Inner Circle always prompted his return to what he did best.
In the modern nights, the year 2006, Vernon has been sent to L.A. to sure up the Camarilla's influence within the city following the failure of the former Prince. Vernon is subtle but astute, even direct when called for, and his knowledge of intelligence operations betrays a darker purpose to his presence in the city. He only knows he cannot fail... because he cannot remember the last time he did so.
Name: Aurelia Núñez
Generation: 9th
Clan: Ventrue
Disciplines: Fortitude, Dominate, Presence
Personality: Aurelia is Vernon's childe, closest aide and one of the few people he entrusts to carry out is business in absolute faith. Whereas Vernon oozes cool confidence, Aurelia's charisma is far more gregarious and passionate. If new clients need taking for dinner and drinks to seal a contract then Aurelia will take the lead, ensuring the matter is sealed as expected whilst, in all likelihood, leaving such an impression that repeat business and recommendation is all but certain. Exerting a confident, intelligent femininity, Aurelia is a fast riser in Camarilla circles and her ambition is masked thinly behind her loyalty to Vernon.
Biography: Born in A Coruña, Spain in 1790, Aurelia Núñez was daughter to a dairy farmer and his young wife; her mother died giving birth to her and she was raised solely by her father - a kind, hard working man with a gentle spirit. Aurelia helped on the farm her whole life, and whilst her father taught her to read and write a little, not being a well educated man himself she grew up destined to work the land - milking the cattle, tending to their needs and selling their produce in A Coruña. Her life was happy enough in many ways, although as a teenager she found it rather dull.
In May 1808 events conspired to shatter her world; the uprising in Madrid against the French occupiers set off a chain of events that would lead to a full military conflict between Napoleon's France and the allied forces of Spain, Portugal and Great Britain. The flush of fresh and experienced French troops into Spain in late 1808 crushed the Spanish and by January they had pushed the British forces in Spain into a corner: that corner just so happened to be at A Coruña. The night before the battle, several French scouts entered their farm looking to steal cattle to feed their amassing forces. With a noble spirit, her father resisted but was quickly overwhelmed and murdered by a single musket ball to the skull. Aurelia remembered the screams she uttered that night; at barely over eighteen she saw her father killed, was savagely raped and left beaten within an inch of her life.
The same night, a British patrol was scouting the area when it came across the same French forces that had stolen the cattle; a brief fire fight followed in which the French were driven back, but having got their prizes, were happy to withdraw. The leader of the patrol, a young captain, saw the barn ablaze and diverted to take a brief look when he heard Aurelia's screams. Her wounds were severe, but upon his honour as a gentleman he took her back to the camp surgeon to make an attempt at saving her life. The situation looked doubtful, such was her loss of blood. It was after the captain had reported the sighting of the French patrol to his superior officer, who in turn passed it on to Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, commander of the British forces, and his intelligence aide - Colonel Vernon Grant-Bell. Vernon wished to question the surviving girl, but upon seeing the surgeon he understood she was likely to die within the hour. He asked to see her alone. She was unable to speak, savaged with wounds yet still striking; her raven hair was matted with blood, her eyes were fierce and defiant and her lips pursed with the effort of trying to talk. He saw something in her that spoke to him - this girl had passion and fortitude - it was a miracle she was not dead already; and so Vernon decided, that although she was not a candidate of ideal bloodlines, he would not let her meet a true death, but rather an undeath. That night, privately, he sired her.
The battle itself was fought in the day, but as an intelligence officer no-one expected Vernon to be leading the line, and so his absence there was not really accounted for; neither was that of a lowly Spanish girl. In the town itself, he sheltered her whilst both sides fought themselves to a draw. Soon afterwards he led her into Portugal, before the Ventrue arranged for his transfer back to England.
When he returned to London, the presence of a new childe with him shocked the established Ventrue; although Vernon was a promising new vampire, to turn another so quickly was highly frowned upon, not to mention her low birth. A presentation was made of Vernon and Aurelia to the Prince of London, where their fate and punishment would be presided over. Death for both was strongly considered, having broken a sacred code of the Ventrue and the Camarilla. However, Vernon's promise allied with the argument that he had not yet been adequately taught by his own sire deflected much of the punishment onto the Maquess of Bath. Vernon was warned, whilst Aurelia was given an effective death sentence - sent to fight as a front-line soldier in the street wars against the Sabbat: if she died, so be it, if she survived it would prove she would be a useful addition to the clan.
It took fifteen years of fighting and scrapping, killing and nearly being killed; in all this time she was forbidden from seeing Vernon, but her uncanny survival instinct and remarkable resilience was noted. She was taken off the front lines, and as a Ventrue, was given tasks far more in line with a vampire of such a noble clan. The only issues were her struggles in reading and writing; as of yet, she was a Ventrue by blood only, lacking the intelligence, sophistication and grace to be a true member of the clan. In truth, she was more like a savage Brujah than a Ventrue, and so she was given back to Vernon to culture and educate. This year was 1825, and from this point forward Vernon never let her go. He relished in teaching his only Childe; he was firm but caring. In many ways it was a paternal love that guided him. She had never aged beyond her eighteen year old body, and her youthful beauty charmed him into protecting her in a way he would do for no other. She wasn't coddled - how could one coddle a vampire so exposed to terror and violence? But little by little, the care and attention, as well as the education, allowed her to flourish. She became his closest aide and most trusted advisor, travelling with him to many places in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
In the modern nights this relationship still holds true. Fierce, feisty and yet richly sophisticated - Aurelia Núñez is like a well aged bottle of Spanish Rioja; whilst she does not have Vernon's raw intelligence and methodical mind, she offers a passionate counterbalance which has proven equally useful in securing desirable contracts for the Camarilla's growing portfolio of wealth.
Name: Gregor McCrone
Generation: 10th
Clan: Gangrel
Disciplines: Fortitude, Protean, Animalism
Personality: Ruthless and aggressive, the beast stalks in Gregor with great potency; as a Cainite his servitude to Vernon has been reinforced by a blood bond that the Ventrue sees is well maintained. It is only this, and the occasional tutelage of his master, that enables Gregor to seamlessly fit into human society: rarely leaving Vernon's side unless by his direct instruction, he is able to stay in better control of his base urges and even pass as having at least competent social etiquette.. As both bodyguard and enforcer, however, Gregor is an extremely apt individual - violence releases the predator which lies within - something he finds highly gratifying.
Biography: Gregor was wild even as a kine; born to a small village settlement off Loch Rannoch in the highlands of Scotland in 1894, his father fished the Loch and his mother made clothing from wool to sell. Their life was simple and wild, lost amongst the sublime landscape that both cradled them and kept them in awe. Gregor was 20 when the first world war broke out and he volunteered straight away. He wasn't to know what horrors the war would bring and it all seemed like it would be a good laugh at the time. He fought bravely throughout the war, being cited for his rather fearless actions on several occasions. Eventually he became accustomed to it; the violence became normative, became expected even, so that the moments of peace were welcomed only briefly. Many soldiers beside him thought Gregor too wild to follow into battle - somehow reckless, but admirable nonetheless. During the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, this reckless luck would run out. The bullet from a sniper missed his heart but smashed a hole that nearly killed him nonetheless.
The war was over for Gregor, and as he recovered back in England, he decided he could not stay in the oppressive setting of a city such as London and that he needed to go back to his home in Scotland. He recovered there amongst the highlands' beautiful landscapes, soothed by the mountains and the loch itself. But such a peaceful life after the everyday grind of war was difficult; although the war itself contained long periods of boredom, Gregor could always volunteer for a patrol or forward posting. His friends thought him crazy, but something ineffable and violent lurked within him - where it came from he could not say, but the war, dreadful at first, had appeased it, and now it stirred restless.
Recovered, Gregor wandered the lands with a unquenchable need for something greater, and yet the call of his homelands somehow rooted him there. It was an evening spent running in the vast wilderness of the Rannoch Moor that showed him the answer he had subliminally longed for. Running amongst a patch of pine woods, he tripped in the darkness and fell. Before he could arise he was set upon by a powerful man who slammed his head into the ground and hit him with such force that his lung collapsed on first impact. Gregor wheezed and coughed, but the bloodlust in him stirred again; previously lost with the absence of war, he had found it now. Although his opponent was freakishly strong, Gregor threw as many punches as the strange man, scrapping for his life. The fight was bloody but brief; Gregor had given a good account of himself, but there was no way he could win. Even his strongest blows did little but raise a smile from the villain who attacked him, but unbeknown to him, the immortal foe was impressed with the spirit of his victim. That night he was turned, the Gangrel who fought him pleased with the outcome of his test.
Joining the Gangrel was a liberating experience for Gregor; his rage was fuelled and celebrated, but subject to control and guidance from experienced members of the clan. The highland Gangrel were equally pleased with their latest recruit, and Gregor became an experienced hunter. He quickly learned his limitations, however; the lands of the Garou were to be respected at all times - a lesson painfully learned by many new recruits.
In 1962, the Highland Gangrel joined the Camarilla as increasing urbanisation forced them into a decision between them or the Sabbat. In the early 1970s, a Ventrue vampire called Vernon Grant-Bell returned to his native Scotland to oversee the bank of Scotland's expansion into North Sea Oil and the energy sector. In actuality, he had tied portions of the Camarilla's wealth into the quickly growing industry and bought a great deal of shares on behalf of the organisation. Aware that the Sabbat would want to sabotage this process to prevent the Camarilla securing a firmer power base in Scotland, Vernon orchestrated a pre-emptive offensive to cripple certain Sabbat power structures throughout Scotland. Vernon oversaw the offensive directly and kept a close eye on individual reports fed back from commanders on the ground. Several cited one name in a ferocious assault on a Sabbat industrial complex in Glasgow - Gregor McCrone. Reports that Gregor had rallied against the Sabbat counter attack where others fell away reminded Vernon of his own role in the battle of Assaye; the more he dug into the background of Gregor and his previous career as a soldier, the more Vernon saw of the same spirit he recognised in the very best soldiers that he had worked with. He asked for him immediately.
By now Gregor had grown almost too wild to integrate well within human cities. Technology was lost upon him and he had forgotten much of civilised manners; Vernon however, saw the warrior underneath and trusted his ability to mould the clay he saw. The Gangrel did not want to let their best go, but Vernon's influence in the Camarilla made sure he batted down the objections. Gregor was assigned to Vernon's personal coterie as an enforcer. He didn't like this at first - learning culture and etiquette wasn't an interest. Vernon knew that Gregor would only respect strength, so he showed it. Vernon was an older, more experienced vampire and whilst he lacked Gregor's prowess with the Protean discipline, Vernon's knowledge of fortitude was greater, and his extra experience allowed him to beat Gregor frequently in their sparring matches. Gregor, begrudgingly, showed deference to his better and the assignments he was given appealed to his violent side - he was appeased. Still, he was unaware that Vernon had reinforced these 'normal' means of gaining respect with supplying Gregor with his own blood. Thus over time, a strong blood bond was created between Gregor and Vernon, so that now Gregor almost always seeks to please the man he works for. It is an arrangement that suits both well: Vernon leads, and Gregor sees how far he can push people's noses towards the back of their heads...
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Name: Tanith Kosmar
Generation: 7th (Through Diablerie)
Clan: Tzimisce
Disciplines: Animalism, Thaumaturgy , Vicissitude
Personality: Inhumane and sadistic, as almost all Tzimisce are, Tanith is right at home amongst the vicious ranks of the Sabbat. A powerful fiend of moderate influence, Tanith wields her dark powers with reckless abandon, often intimidating shovelheads into subjugation, having amassed a small cohort of fledglings. Despite her overbearing brutality, Tanith is extremely good at thinking on her feet, being a capable manipulator, who can turn the tide of a deteriorating situation to her favour with effortless ease.
Admittedly forwards thinking for a member of the Sabbat, Tanith will not charge blindly into a fight, and acts more out of her own accord than anyone else’s, only loosely aligning herself with the Sword of Caine.
Unlike most Sabbat, Tanith operates-to an extent-within the Masquerade, not because she is worried of being discovered by Kindred or Kine, but because it grants her the element of surprise, which she can then use to gain the upper hand against her unsuspecting opponents/victims, as she strikes from the shadows.
Tanith has two bloodhounds that she has extensively modified via the use of Vicissitude, her “suka’s”, and she uses them to aid in the sadistic games she plays with her captives.
Appearance: Tanith has no fixed appearance; often using vicissitude to flicker back and forth between forms of extreme beauty or immense grotesquery, depending on what mood she’s in, however she prefers to frequent a look that bares a vague resemblance to how she appeared in life, albeit with a thoroughly enhanced splendour, and often with a few weaponized bone fragments, or pieces of skeletal armour thrown in for good measure.
A partially shaven head of shoulder length blonde hair cascades loosely to the right, the left side of her scalp completely shaven, exposing a glistening pale scalp. Striking emerald eyes that adopt a bold assertiveness adorn her slightly mouse-like face, elegantly slender lips form a vicious grin-that promises dark and mortifying things-, a slightly stout nose runs gracefully down her likeness, and sleek eyebrows of a darker brown run neatly above her eyes.
She stands at about five foot six, and has a body that most would consider gorgeously curvaceous, filling out in all the right places.
(Somwhere between theese two)
Biography:
Born to a life of wealth and privilege, Tanith was raised by a family of well-off businesspersons, and from a young age was afforded every luxury that she so desired, being pampered and spoilt. Of liverpudlian descent, whilst Tanith was still extremely young her parents migrated to Hammersmith-in London-where the young girl was privately educated by a mixture of tutors and some of the leading schools in the country.
A clear sufferer of both antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder, Tanith was subject to the treatment of several different psychiatrists and therapists over the years, with none of the professional intervention ever seeming to bear much fruit.
Her domineering arrogance and expectancy of special treatment often left her at odds with both her educators and peers, leaving her with a serious lack of friends during her time at school.
Being home schooled until the age of twelve, Tanith’s transition into private education was awkward, to say the least.
Despite her grandiose opinions of her own academic skill, Tanith quickly became confronted with the realisation that she was not perhaps as intelligent as she had previously believed, being towards the lower bracket of the student body, in the majority of her classes.
Just about managing to leave school with the grades required to get her into a decent college, it was one seemingly insignificant trip to the Poiana Brasov skiing resort in Romania, that would eventually seal her fate.
After bidding her parents farewell, Tanith boarded the plane to Romania, along with several of her classmates and teachers, expecting to be in Eastern Europe within three to four hours.
Nearing the end of the flight, the plane experience what was allegedly an “engine malfunction”, before plummeting down into the Făgăraș Mountains, crashing into the Southern Carpathians.
It was during this period of time, scrambling across rocky cliff faces and stony peeks, that Tanith finally found that she had a true knack form something in life: Survival.
Accompanied by a small group of terrified teenagers, the young girl led the expedition through the inhospitable mountainous ridge, helping her peers to survive, for once feeling like she was being appreciated for the magnificent being she really was.
It was when supplies begun to run low, that she showed her true colours.
Efficiently killing her comrades as they slept at night, Tanith cut off all the meat that she could with her Swiss army knife, before stuffing the human chunks into her backpack, and set off into the mountain range.
Several days later, running dangerously low on cannibalistic rations, Tanith stumbled upon a lone castle, erected amongst the peeks of the Southern Carpathians.
Near exhaustion, the young girl ventured further towards the fort, being greeted by an authentic construction of ornate stone, gigantic turrets, and stained glass windows.
Knocking on the buildings large wooden doors, Tanith was immediately set upon by creatures that were more horrifying and twisted than anything even her darkest nightmares could have conjured, the beasts bashing her to the ground, and pinning her down.
Seemingly moments from death at the hands of these outlandish monsters, the disembodied remains of her classmates fell from Tanith’s backpack, spilling out onto the floor. Suddenly, the nightmare creatures fell back, allowing a rather perplexed young girl to stand to her feet.
Emerging from inside the castle, there came an elegant figure that carried himself proudly, and-despite being a man-possessed more effeminate beauty then any women that Tanith had ever laid eyes upon.
Referring to himself simply as Aldrez, the graceful gentleman praised Tanith on her “ingenuity” and “resourcefulness”, before courtly inviting the young girl to join him within his humble estate.
Whilst inside the castle, Tanith became subject to many terrifying and malicious sights, getting a look into the twisted subconscious of the immensely powerful Tzimisce vampire.
Whereas most would have fled screaming from the fortresses’ cobblestone walls, Tanith firmly grasped hold of the opportunity that presented itself, complementing Aldrez on his fine work, and inquiring as to how he had managed to craft the twisted creations that littered his home.
Entranced with the young girl, Aldrez promptly embraced her, inviting Tanith to stay with him within his dread castle of nightmares.
Spending the next few years under Aldrez’s dark tutelage, the Tzimisce educated Tanith in the ways of the night, imparting upon her his immense knowledge of Vicissitude, and his aptitude for blood magic.
When news reached the pair of the death of the Archbishop of Los Angeles, they migrated to the city of Angels, Aldrez taking charge of that particular sector of the Sabbat, with his childe working closely under him.
Taking a much more aggressive attitude then his predecessor, Aldrez spent the next few weeks hounding the Camarilla like never before, orchestrating surprise attacks on the Vampric community, foiling them at every turn. However, the Tzimisce created a lot of noise in doing so, which eventually drew unwanted attention to the Archbishop, in the form of the remnants of the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Leopold.
An elite squad of hunters tearing down upon Aldrez’s temporary place of residence, a frantic conflict ensued, with the Tzimisce sending his personal retina of Szlachta against the attackers. Using the frantic situation to her advantage, Tanith sprung her trap; Diablerising her sire, before using her newfound powers to thwart the hunters.
Without a definite leader, the LA Sabbat fell back into disarray, with Tanith vanishing into the night.
A few of Aldrez’s old goons still remain loyal to the young Tzimisce, and she utilizes them to her advantage, using them to help bolster her position in the Final Nights.
Name: Mr Grudge
Clan: Szlachta Ghoul
Abilities: Possessing rock hard bone armour, lethal sinew blades, and multiple mouths, Mr Grudge is a formidable opponent, even able to hold his own against some Kindred in a fight
Biography: Of unknown origin, Tanith picked up Mr Grudge somewhere along her unlife, and he has served her loyally ever since, operating as her own personal bodyguard and private enforcer.
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