Name: Eleanor Fife-Stanpoth (formerly Eleanor Arderne)
Age: 802 (appears to be in her twenties)
Race: Vampire
Appearance:Eleanor has smooth, milky skin and a heart-shaped face. She has high cheekbones-a trait that has been in her family line for generations-and rather average lips that she has been painting with rogue and lipstick for centuries. Her eyes are a warm brown color and her hair currently falls about halfway down her back in carefully cultivated chocolate-colored waves. She is about five feet and seven inches tall and on the slimmer side, weighing approximately one hundred and thirty-five pounds, although nobody would describe her as supermodel-thin.
Through the ages, Eleanor has always favored a very feminine, "girly" style. During her earlier years, she was frequently seen in elaborate ball gowns laden with lace and jewels and intricate embroidery. As the medieval gown fell out of fashion, Eleanor adopted the wide hoop skirts and lacy sleeves of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and she was all for the corset and layers of petticoats and the bustle come the nineteenth century. Like the fashion trends themselves, Eleanor's style changed many times during the twentieth century, from delicate silk dresses weighed down by lace and jewels in the first half to the frilly ruffles and bows in the mid-twentieth century. She's always been the type of person to wear flowers in her hair and high heels and skirts, no matter what the occasion. Many people have described her manner of dressing as "doll-like" or "girlish". Eleanor considers her clothing as vital of a part of her arsenal as bladed lace fans or spiky high heels.
Eleanor has taken a similar approach to cosmetics as they evolved through the ages, always going for what was made her appear innocent and doe-eyed. She is currently a fan of pale pink or cherry red lipsticks and soft, smoky eye shadows and the barest hint of blush brushed over her cheeks.
Combat Knowledge: Eleanor is more of a politician than a fighter, but she has nevertheless obtained a fair amount of combat knowledge during her years. She knows intermediate-level martial arts and is well-practiced with small, concealable handguns and all manners of daggers and small bladed weapons. Against one or two opponents, Eleanor would have the upper hand due to the element of surprise and her enhanced speed, senses, and strength, but if she was ever up against a large group of other vampires or mages, she would have a harder time getting out of the situation. As for humans, Eleanor would be in quite a dilemma if she was surrounded by professionally trained soldiers or hitmen, though the average human does not pose much of a threat to her.
Magical knowledge: Eleanor is familiar with, though not well-versed in, the magic that mages are capable of using. Eleanor is able to read thoughts and manipulate emotions. She has honed her natural telepathy over the years and knows the ins and outs of her own abilities.
Personality: If one were to sum up Eleanor's personality in the most succinct way possible, the first words that come to mind are "back-stabbing bitch". Indeed, Eleanor is almost ruthlessly amoral, doing only what she believes will benefit her and whoever she cares about at the moment. She is also exceedingly petty and takes every little slight as an insult. She may not act on her feelings if she deems it unnecessarily risky-but she never forgets. Eleanor can, and has, held a grudge for centuries at a time. Many people find Eleanor's temperment to be startling similar to that of a high school girl.
Eleanor appears as innocent and naive and somewhat prissy, which is aided by her choices of clothing and make-up. She is the epitome of a drama queen or a spoiled brat at times, and her voice is the most whiny and petulant sound that you will ever hear. However, behind her childish squeals and full, pouty lips and shy yet somehow sultry glances, Eleanor is calculating her every move, analyzing every possibility, and listening to everybody's thoughts. Eleanor possesses a cold cunning that is concealed by frilly lace dresses and soft pink lipstick. She can be unhealthily fixated on revenge, and never, ever,
ever lets things go. Oh, Eleanor will pretend to forgive and forget, but whether or not she actually does is another matter entirely.
The easiest way to anger Eleanor is to ruin her clothes or shoes or mess up her hair and make-up. She has never held back when exacting revenge against people who just can't seem to appreciate how much effort goes into looking good.
Biography: Eleanor Fife-Stanpoth, formerly Eleanor Arderne, was born to a penniless minor lord in thirteenth-century France. Like the rest of her family, Eleanor hid her true nature as a vampire from other humans, although she wasn't above using her natural telepathy and enhanced senses to gain an upper hand. Her father was, in the words of her mother, a weak, spineless fool, while Eleanor's mother was cold-hearted and ruthless. She was not above using every dirty trick to improve her station in life. Eleanor herself took after her mother, and she watched as her mother slowly but steadily regained the Arderne family fortune and rose up in power and influence.
Then, around 1400, a rival vampire lord-one who knew of the truth behind Lord and Lady Arderne's rapid rise to power-sent a group of assassins to dispose of the entire family. Eleanor, who was the only one gifted with telepathy, was the sole survivor. Strangely enough, she felt no sorrow at the death of her parents or siblings. She only felt furious that somebody would
dare to harm the people around her. Who did they think she was, some weak little girl that they could easily get rid of when they thought she was becoming too inconvenient?
Eleanor went into hiding for a few years, changing her last name to Fife and crossing the English Channel to England, just in time to witness the War of the Roses. She sided with the House of Lancaster, eventually becoming an influential spy in their network due to her ability to read thoughts, and after the War of the Roses concluded with the coronation of Henry VII, Eleanor stayed for about a decade, taking part in all the courtly intrigues that dominated the reign of the Tudors. Eleanor was forced to periodically fake her own death and come back a few years later as a daughter or cousin who looked strikingly similar to the late Lady Fife in order to keep the human lords and ladies from becoming suspicious.
During Queen Elizabeth I's reign, Eleanor married for the first time. The queen wanted to ease the tensions in between France and England, and Eleanor was still waiting for an opportunity to get her revenge, so she subtly began manipulating the queen's thoughts until Queen Elizabeth decided that marrying Eleanor off to a powerful French lord would bring them some semblance of peace. That particular French lord, however, happened to be the vampire lord who'd killed her parents.
Thanks to her vampire allies in England, Eleanor now knew how to block other vampires from reading her thoughts, although she knew that it would not take the other vampires very long to discern who she was. Eleanor killed the lord in their marriage bed before stealing away into the night with a small fortune of jewels sewn into the insides of her skirts.
After her escapades in France, Eleanor settled down in the remote Spanish countryside. She telepathically manipulated a human lord into marrying her, changing her name once again. When the lord died, Eleanor made sure that she laid claim to all his wealth-for they'd never had any children-and immersed herself in the court politics of Spain. She remained in Spain until the eighteenth century, when she returned to the English court to reap the rewards of colonization.
And so it went on-Eleanor would move from one royal court to another, always concealing her true identity and disappearing every so often in order to deter suspicion. She amassed a vast network of allies, human and vampire alike, and grew increasingly wealthy. In about eighteen ninety-one, Eleanor, who had been calling herself Elizabeth at the time, married a rich English businessman with the last name of Stanpoth. She remained with him until the nineteen-twenties, when he died and she stole away with his fortune. Once again, they had no children to inherit.
This time, she ran to America, and instead of taking part in the American political sphere, Eleanor opted to earn even more money through the speakeasies and gangs of New York City. She spent some time in New York and left for Asia right before the stock market crashed.
Eleanor was officially in Asia to invest in their economic future, but in reality, she was there to extend her reach to the eastern half of the world. Eleanor befriended vampires in the east before returning to America once World War II broke out. She married another rich businessman in the fifties and killed him within the same year, running off with his fortune.
In the nineteen-sixties, when it finally became faintly acceptable for a woman to own and run a business, Eleanor did just that-she ran a "business" that was really just a way for her to maintain some semblance of control over the politics of the United States. That was when she changed her last name to Fife-Stanpoth. Of course, Eleanor periodically faked her death and called upon vampire allies as needed, and she soon had a corporate empire under her fingertips. She sold the company for billions of dollars and retreated out of the public eye, increasing her earnings through the stock market and occasionally through real estate.
Then, the Pests came, and so did the cults. A group of cultists killed one of her most important allies for reasons unknown, and Eleanor pounced.
She posed as a businesswoman interested in what the cult had to offer with a potential interest in investing in it. She never gained their trust, but that was not her intention. At the dinner she hosted celebrating her commitment to invest in the cult, Eleanor and a few of her most powerful vampire allies had the cultists brutally murdered. Eleanor giggled and clapped her gloved hands in delight at the fearful looks on their faces, and it was said that she herself drank their blood and ended their lives under the ornate crystal chandelier of the lavish dining room.
Special equipment: a number of ornate hairpins with razor-sharp ends that Eleanor frequently wears, a two dozen or so bladed fans from all over the world, ranging from delicate lace fans of the Victorian era to hand-painted Japanese fans from the thirteenth century, bladed parasols that are mostly from the Victorian era, although she does possess a few that are from Asia as well, a collection of small daggers that she can easily hide under long skirts or in her boots, a small handgun that can be easily concealed under her clothing, and numerous pairs of spiky high heels. Sometimes her equipment includes needles as thin as a hair that inject a lethal poison into somebody's bloodstream and can be attached to her fingernails
