Interest Check: Ancient Vampires in the Byzantine Empire (Old World of Darkness)

Started by Kolbrandr, February 10, 2015, 08:37:35 PM

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Meliai

Hello hello!

I am one of those elusive dorks who actually finished their character the last time Mr Kolbrandr attempted this game, back with my Salubri Healer in hiding.

I am currently trying to claw my way out of a creative black hole so I might not be jumping in right at the very start of the game (depending on how quickly I'm back to fighting shape and how soon the game starts) but she'll pop up sooner or later.
    {{A/As updated 5/8}}           

Kolbrandr

As other people refine theirs, if everyone who has had a backstory approved wants to post it up publically to the thread, or as publically as you want if it otherwise contains things you want to keep secret, feel free.

Elven Sex Goddess

Mei Shou  (Mary of Constantinople) 6th Toreador  769-789   Progeny of Petronius, grand childe of Beshtar/Michael.   



A dancer within a troupe from the empire of the Tang dynasty.    The Tang dynasty open the borders of the Chinese empire and allowed uninhibited trade with the world during the dynasty.  Turning the Chinese court into a center of worldly cosmopolitan.    Likewise on the flip side Chinese ambassadors would be dispatched to the other countries beyond the Tang dynasty to promote the new flowering trade of the empire.    The ambassador to impress the Byzantine empire and leaders of the city of Constantinople would hire the troupe to bring along for a three months of daily shows.   

Mei the troupes center piece for her exotic beauty and graceful dance.  Catches the eye of many of the artisans of the Michaelite Toreadors of the city.    The way she moved in such a fluid grace, one with the world is how she is described.     Even Michael himself would attend the performances of the foreign troupe of dancers.   It is through during this time one of his own sired  Petronius.   A Roman satirist who heads the Michaelite Toreadors in Constantinople.    Known for his well known hedonistic forays as both when he was of mortal kline and of Caine's blood.   

Mei through is no ordinary young woman.   She is from the magistrate caste within the Tang dynasty.    Her father a regional magistrate.   She is well schooled and her dance is truly of the heavens.   However, it is not her lone artistic skill,  she is quite talented with a masterful stroke in calligraphy.  The pieces she puts forth are of extraordinary beauty.



Her first couple of hundred years are spent as a center piece of great show for her sire.   She would sit for the many artist of both painters,  sculptors and likes.   It at one point over shadowed her love of calligraphy.  The demand for her time to pose was great.    It was during this time that she would fall into place along the her path.   A path that is close to her own sire hedonistic pursuits.    Via Voluptarius is the path that Mei finds herself drawn to.   It is what sustains the beast that burns within her.   Sinners who travel along the Path of Pleasure actually use these sensual things to control their Beast by giving the it what it wants, and using the finest things in life to do so as a way to secure this sacrament. Feelings such as shame, modesty, moderation, or morality are surefire ways to rouse the Beast to anger, and thus those who follow the Path of Pleasure tend to seclude themselves from the real world as much as possible. In spite of their reclusive natures, most Voluptuaries have a role in Cainite society as procurers of the rare, taboo, and pleasurable.






It is in the 10th century that Mei  almost goes the way of Gallasyn, childer of Enasius,  or more commonly known as Gallasyn the fallen.   Who fell to the wiles of the Setites.  For Michael would not forgive him for abandoning the dream.   As he was one of the original Roman cainites that had come with Michael.    Mei could not leave her grand sire and sire.   Not as Gallasyn had done.    However,  she becomes increasingly reclusive.   An then she finds the perfect place for seclusion.   As she is baptist in the year of 969 on the 4th day of the June.  To become a Eastern Orthodox Christian.    She would in 989 take the vows of becoming a Nun within the church to serve god.    In her thought she believed in her grand sire,  believed he truly is the arch angel of God.     With zeal she went about building influence and control within the church.    While feeding her appetites in search of rare and taboo pleasures.   Weeding out those within the church hierarchy that blasphemy refuted her grand sire claims as grandeur of delusion.   

However, a deeper secret is rumor about the one know as Mary of Constantinople.   A secret that could shake the very foundations of both the eastern and western churches of Christianity.   Even more then the claim of hubris of declaring oneself an angel of god.   A secret agenda that she has long been working towards.   That has attracted a cult of followers.   

Meliai

Amélie des Fleurs

Background
In the early tenth century, a cainite monk from a Parisian abby found himself growing increasingly obsessed with a small flower shop near by. The monk, a Salubri healer, wandered inside one day and was shocked to find a rare herb, not native to the surrounding area, sitting on a shelf. He purchased it immediately, and enquired of the shopkeeper how he had grown such an exotic plant so far from its native soil. The shopkeeper evaded the monks questions, citing trade secrets, but the monk would not be dissuaded. He placed an order for several more medicinal herbs from far-flung corners of the continent, and he watched.

It took months of observation, but eventually the monk (Well, his mortal servants mostly. Little gardening takes place at night.) discovered that it was not the shopkeeper but the young bride of the owner who was nurturing the rarer flowers and herbs for sale in the shop.
The girl was quiet and shy, darting out of sight any time the monk tried to approach her, but again his allies among the local kine proved to be the key that would unlock the door to the fascinating young woman. Her name was Amélie, the middle child of a minor noble family. Though much beloved by her mother, she’d been scorned by her father when her appearance - much unlike her siblings’ - drew rumors that her mother had been defiled (or worse, unfaithful!) during one of the many barbarian raids Paris suffered through. When she was 15 she’d been unceremoniously married off to a wealthy merchant, the unpleasant rumors of her true parentage making her unapealing to even the most humble of noble families.

Her husband paid her little mind; it seemed the prestige of marrying a high-born girl was his only real interest, his numerous mistresses keeping him more than satisfied in other areas. Amélie, finding her days rather empty, took to a scholarly life and soon discovered a remarkable green thumb after perusing a number of volumes on botany, as well as a deep yearning to see the people and place she could only read about. She’d spent many of the days since her marriage in a sort of self-imposed isolation, gardening, reading, and attempting to draw the exotic lands she’d only seen in her mind. Though the strange robed man’s approach always spooked her, she was far more receptive when he sent young female thralls to her.

The monk worked slowly through his agents, learning about the girl and sewing the seeds of trust. Eventually, some time during Amélie’s 17th year, the monk approached her (his friends among the mortals having mentioned him and his trustworthiness with increasing frequency over the past year) and convinced her to run away with him. The pair left Paris and spent many of the following months on the road, where the monk observed and tested the gardener outside the safe but stifling walls she’d lived all of her brief life inside. She proved to be as nurturing and kind as the monk had hoped, and she was embraced shortly after her 18th birthday.

Amélie spent several years traveling with her sire, acquiescing to her new existence and learning the path of the healer. For nearly two hundred and fifty years afterward, she lived a remarkably peaceful life. She of course had to endure the same struggles every cainite does, but her quiet, helpful nature found her many friends and eased many of her burdens. She traveled as far and wide as she could, spending a few years in one region before moving on to the next, learning and teaching all she could as she went.

The wake of Saulot’s diablerization in 1133 was a terrible blow to Amélie. The good she’d been doing and the support, at times even adoration, of her fellow cainites was what made the harsh realities of undeath bearable. As her brothers and sisters were slaughtered and their reputation systematically destroyed, Amélie’s entire life fell apart. For fifty years she ran. At first, she tried to continue her mission of healing and care, but it seemed any time she revealed what she was, her trust was misplaced. Gradually she withdrew, isolating herself as much as possible. She shunned her duties as a healer as much as she could bare to, sequestering herself away in whatever gardens she could secure for herself. She reforged herself as a cloistered scholar and returned to the artistic skills she’d pursued in her mortal life, recording everything she’d learned in beautifully illuminated manuscripts, and when she’d penned all she knew she threw herself into newfound artistic passions, moving from ink on paper to oils on canvas and wood.

After nearly fifty years she found herself in Constantinople. She’d visited the city decades earlier and found herself drawn to its fading beauty like a moth to a flame, perhaps seeing its slow decline as a sort of mirror of her clan’s destruction.

Personality
Amélie has a gentle and empathic nature, the soul of a true healer, but she has not weathered the last few decades well. The deaths of so many loved ones, the betrayal of old friends, and the constant fear have led her to erect a shield of bitter cynicism around herself. Isolation does not suit her however, and as the years pass by she finds herself drawn more and more into the fold of Constantinople and its people, cainite and otherwise.

Amélie is patient and kind, traits she developed as a gardener that served her well during her years as a wandering healer. A natural caretaker, she often finds herself drawn to those in need of aid, be it physical or of a more ephemeral nature. In recent years she has fought this compulsion, as she found herself barely escaping from numerous traps in the years following Saulot’s death, but the longer she stays in Constantinople the harder she finds it to ignore the needs of the city and its people.

Recent History
Though the presence of another of her clan in the city was reassuring, when Amélie first arrived in Constantinople and presented herself to the patriarch she brought a gift in hopes of earning herself a place in his good graces, a finely bound and skillfully illuminated bible, transcribed by her own hand. The ploy worked better than she could have hoped. A number of the illustrations depicting the archangel Michael bore a striking resemblance to the cainite himself. Michael took this as a sign to bring the newcomer under his protection, and with his blessing she has been masquerading as a member of clan Toreador, keeping her forehead covered by a scarf and carefully avoiding anything that would reveal her third eye.

Despite her sire’s christian devotion, Amélie never quite took to the faith herself and finds the patriarch’s belief that he truly is the archangel quite troubling. Though deeply appreciative of Michael’s protection, the strange coincidence that he took as a sign from god instilled a deep unease in the girl and she prefers not to think about it too much, assuring herself that it must have been distant memories of seeing Michael on her earlier visit to Constantinople that resulted in the uncanny resemblance in her artwork.. Michael himself makes Amélie rather nervous, and she prefers to deal with Petronius instead, even when Michael is not in torpor.

Amélie’s haven is a (relatively) small but architecturally lovely villa within the Great Palace. Though the manor itself is not particularly large, it had a much more spacious atrium than others available with a large pool and carefully maintained garden. A handful of servants and three female “apprentices” of a sort, two painters and a botanist, form Amélie’s herd and reside at the villa.
    {{A/As updated 5/8}}           

Sahariel

Aetios/Gnaeus


Background:

Gnaeus was born in AD 430, the eldest son of a scion of the patrician Scipione branch of the Cornelii family and a mother of Visigoth abstraction. At eighteen, Gnaeus joined the imperial legions of Flavius Aetius. Gnaeus fought in the battle of the Catalaunian Plains in the Roman and Visigoth force that halted Attila’s advance into Italy. His valor was such that Flavius Aetius awarded him a rich prize of plunder and slaves. Clan Ventrue took an early interest in Gnaeus, when he was naught but a centurion. The Scipioness were integral to clan Ventrue’s success during Punic Wars. Tales of Gnaeus’s martial exploits reached the remnants of the Eternal Senate, and a veteran of the Punic Wars, the Ventrue Methuselah Gaius Marcellus.

Ultimately, the Eternal Senate chose to ghoul, rather than embrace, the young Gnaeus. For five years, Gnaeus served as a mouthpiece for his shadow regent Gaius Marcellus and the Eternal Senate. The Senate sought to stave off the dismemberment of the Western Empire via their mouthpiece Gnaeus and Flavius Aetius, the last great Roman General. Flavius Aetius named Gnaeus Primus Pilus of his First Legion, Reliable Flavian. Gnaeus was awarded honors in several campaigns. Notably, Gnaeus harassed Attila’s vast host with outriders during their rape of the Italian peninsula. After Flavius’s murder at that hands of Valentinian, Gnaeus lost his post as primus pilus, but continued to serve as a centurion under Flavius Petronius Maximus and fought the Vandals in the streets of Rome during their sack of the Imperial City in 455. The young Gnaeus became disgusted and disillusioned with the Eternal Senate’s ineffectiveness and indecisiveness, but continued to serve them as their mouthpiece and pawn; he was irrevocably addicted to Cainite vitae. Some months after his defense of the Imperial City, with naught but a handful of legionnaires, the Roman Ventrue decided to embrace young Gnaeus and begin his tutelage in the agoge. In 456, while Gnaeus was serving in Gaul, the Lasombra Sybil preempted the Roman Ventrue. 

After embracing the young centurion, Sybil enjoined Gnaeus to slay those who had brought about the atrophy and dismemberment of his beloved Rome. Lacking the vast resources of the Roman Ventrue and Toreador, Gnaeus fought them from the shadows. He orchestrated the deaths of two promising neonates, children of Ventrue and Toreador elders. Gnaeus also gained some measure of influence over Aegidius’s Army in Northern Gaul, but his machinations did little to forestall the inevitable fall of the Western Empire or damage the nascent Inconnu. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Gnaeus travelled into the wilds of Germany; indeed, he became somewhat mad. Half Cainite, half beast, he spent nearly a century stalking Gangrel, Tzmisce, and worse in Germania and Dacia. Sometime during the sixth century, Gnaeus entered into a struggle with a Gangrel elder. He chased and hunted the beast for weeks and, at the end of a long battle, gorged upon the beast’s blood and soul. His hunger sated, Gnaeus sank into the earth of a Dacian meadow. He slept for many years until he awoke to hear singing in his mother tongue.

Gnaeus rose from the earth and saw a great encampment of soldiers. He surreptitiously inserted himself within their army and travelled south with the crusader host of Godfrey of Bouillon. Gnaeus assumed the manners and language of the Frankish knights. He assumed the name Guillaume, the Frankish equivalent of William, the given name of the 11th century’s greatest soldier. After the resultant slaughter of the Weeks of Blood, Gnaeus lingered in the Holy Land and attached himself to an embryonic Christian Military Order, the Knights of Saint John, or the Knights Hospitaller. He forged an, at times, uneasy alliance with the French Toreador Alphonse des Rosiers. The alliance endured, in part, because neither Alphonse de Rosiers, nor any of his fellows, ever discovered “Guillaume’s” Latin name, nor his deeds during the twilight of the Western Empire.

The Inconnu were not forgotten, but in the centuries since Gnaeus’s departure from Italy, they had become all the more powerful and inscruitable. He searched and plotted, but, ultimately, their sect proved impenetrable. Gnaeus sought to preserve the Crusader states in the selfsame manner he sought to stave off the destruction of the Western Empire. He ghouled two promising knights and extended his influence to Italy, France and Spain. In 1158, Gnaeus changed his tabard and became the shadow regent of the Knights of Calatrava. He ruled, and on more than one occasion, fought beside the Iberian Knights. In time, reports of his prowess in battle against an Assamite Ancilla reached the Courts of Love and, in short order, he was denounced by the Grandmaster of the order and. Gnaeus fled Iberia with with a good deal of plunder, and two faithful ghouls.

Gnaeus longed for the Rome of his youth. Thus, he fled to Constantinople, and, to the elder’s amaze, Michael offered him sanctuary within the city. Indeed, the Methuselah displayed a saintliness that Cainites should not possess.  In 1195, Gnaeus received word of the Order of Calatrava’s disastrous defeat at Alarcos, and the elder entered a brief, dark rage. He adopted yet another language and set of customs; he took the name Aetios, a Hellenized version of his onetime General’s name. Aetios was also the name of a scheming eunuch and the irony was too acute to resist. Undeath makes a eunuch and a schemer of all men. During his short time in Constantinople, the tale of the Triumvirate’s Dream and the slow death of the same has made Gnaeus recall his years as a neonate, when he sought to save the Western Empire via Flavius Aetius. Michael and Dracon, and Caius’s treachery evoke memories of the treachery of Valentinus and his cronies, Petronius Maximus and Heraclius.

Gnaeus regards many of his Lasombra peers with distaste. He considers Magnus an ineffectual martinet and Peter an incompetent dullard. Sarah and Gabriella are both competent and capable. He shares a vision evocative of Gabriella’s vision of Constantinople. A strong city with connections to the Genoese Lasombra. Gnaeus reserves a profound contempt for Alfonzo and the Ventrue Caius. Alfonzo of Venice is no better than the rapacious Vandals who sacked the Imperial city, during Gnaeus’s mortal lifetime. Whereas Caius is guilty of a sin that recalls Valentinus’s treachery toward Flavius Aetius. Gnaeus’s attitude toward Constantine’s onetime lieutenant and the Venetian merchant is, at least outwardly, cordial. Although, Gnaeus would happily fillet the Patrician and the rapacious merchants if ever there were an opportune moment.

Image:

Gnaeus possesses his Visigoth mother’s dark hair and swarthy skin tone and his Latin father’s aquiline nose and patrician brow. During his mortal lifetime, he walked with a deadly martial grace. In the course of seven centuries, Gnaeus has refined his gait to a predatory, almost lupine bearing. The shadows about his eyes and face possess an unsettling and preternatural depth, a testament to his skill in Obtenebration. He is every inch the patrician and soldier.




Orange Marmalade

Here's the abbreviated/easily public knowledge version of what I've got worked out and approved - keeping it a bit short here so good info can be found out in character, or after connections are established :) Feel free to PM if you want to work out some shared background.


Name: Jordanes ibn Ziyad
Clan: Lasombra
Sire: Marcellus Rufus / Grandsire: Boukephos

Basic Info and Background:
Jordanes appears to be of mixed mortal blood, his parents being from two very disparate nations resulting in a swarthy look that could not be at all uncommonly found in later years from the region that would eventually become southern Spain.

He has traveled extensively across much of the known world and spent many of his younger Cainite years exploring the world through his new eyes. He remained mostly off the radar without making many waves for his younger life, biding his time as he looked for his true calling. He came to prominence around the same time that Antonius was removed and Caius took power. Almost immediately afterwards Jordanes became a fixture in Constantinople with Caius bestowing upon him the approval to begin his own Scion family in service to the Ventrue of the city.

Since that time he has worked closely as an ally of Caius, some saying he wants to siege control from him and others that he had hoped to become Caius's lover even as Caius had hoped to take Antonius's place with Michael. Either way, he proved effective at the tasks handed to him and over the last several centuries he has worked hard overseeing many of the city's trade contracts with the neighboring nations - a difficult task considering the number of enemies the city has throughout the region.

In the current nights, he works ruthlessly to help maintain the city, having bought into the Trinity's dream for the city and wanting to make a true name for himself across the Cainite world by being one of the movers and shakers in the perfect city they will one day achieve.

Personality:
Jordanes has the drive of a second son forever trying to prove himself. Far from desperate, however, he is a truly determined individual intent on making a name for himself and perfecting his skills. He often seems somewhat laid back, and at times soft spoken, though under it all lies his determination and a ferocity he keeps tightly restrained until called for.

Kolbrandr

Welp, that's four of you, which hits my minimum to work out a full game for, so, creation rules! (granted some of you already did this part last time, but still)

character creation guidelines:

Do not bother spending points on generation considering you are all 6th generation. Remember that you can't buy any background higher than 7 dots otherwise.

Do not buy the age background, it doesn't exist.

Otherwise, guidelines:

Your basic template works like this:

Attributes: 10 primary, 8 secondary, 6 tertiary, all start at 1 dot

Abilities: primary 13, secondary 9, tertiary 5, use the ones from Dark Ages: Vampire as much as possible, they start at 0 dots.

Disiciplines: 5

Backgrounds: 7

Virtues: 9 dots, they start at 1 dot.

And then spend 525 freebie/bonus points.

Kolbrandr

Also while we're here, what rating are you guys looking for with this? It seems like NC-Human or NC-Exotic would cover out to the furthest end of what anyone might want to truck in? Something scaled back from that? Other? I am more or less easygoing about ultimately preferred rating as far as that kind of thing.

Orange Marmalade

Awesome!

My vote would be NC-Exotic considering some of the various disciplines could technically move some things past 'normal' base humans.

Also for character generation - is there anything inherently off limits or limitations we should be aware of? Rare disciplines? Barred Path/Road choices or anything like that?

Kolbrandr

No daimonion/dark thaumaturgy/be prepared to justify to me anything particularly standing out as weirdballs and that I otherwise might say no to a thing. Other than that, not really.

Amarlo

As I am not as familiar with the Vampire WoD setting as I'd like to be, would I be able to play as perhaps... Someone's blood doll? Or Someone's somewhat newly sired childe?

Perhaps some other supernatural of some kind in the setting? I would love to participate in one way or another.

Seduce my mind and my body will follow.
Amarlo's O&Os
Absences and Apologies

RubySlippers

I'm working on my character a HIGHLY PLACED Muslim Kindred diplomat on orders to represent the many Kindred courts among the Islamic Kindred and the cities Western Kindred.

Kolbrandr

Quote from: Amarlo on March 01, 2015, 06:22:39 AM
As I am not as familiar with the Vampire WoD setting as I'd like to be, would I be able to play as perhaps... Someone's blood doll? Or Someone's somewhat newly sired childe?

Perhaps some other supernatural of some kind in the setting? I would love to participate in one way or another.

I very much appreciate the interest, but when the primary characters are centuries old vampires and I am making use of the vampire system and will be running plots thereby, a blood doll or newly sired vampire wouldn't really be capable of a lot on that scale.

Amarlo

Alright. Well I suppose I'll just have to watch then. :) Although I honestly didn't expect her to be able to do much anyways xD

Seduce my mind and my body will follow.
Amarlo's O&Os
Absences and Apologies

RubySlippers

Okay I have an important question that is which Islamic Kindred Courts really matter, the major players, including strong warrior factions of a nomadic nature? As in the ones most likely to make the city Kindred nervous.

Kolbrandr


Orange Marmalade

I'm almost done with mine! :) The last bits are the hardest trying to round things out.

AndyZ

I haven't given up on this game, but I haven't been able to get any decent inspiration :-/ I'm sorry.
It's all good, and it's all in fun.  Now get in the pit and try to love someone.

Ons/Offs   -  My schedule and A/As   -    My Avatars

If I've owed you a post for at least a week, poke me.

RubySlippers

Quote from: Kolbrandr on March 04, 2015, 08:57:22 PM
just checking in with people working on stats, how is that goin?

My character should be done by tomorrow.

Elven Sex Goddess

Quote from: Kolbrandr on February 27, 2015, 07:19:30 PM
Also while we're here, what rating are you guys looking for with this? It seems like NC-Human or NC-Exotic would cover out to the furthest end of what anyone might want to truck in? Something scaled back from that? Other? I am more or less easygoing about ultimately preferred rating as far as that kind of thing.

I second the NC-Exotic.   Especially if we get a Tscimze player that is quite inventive.   It's the safe pick.     

Kolbrandr

Quote from: Elven Sex Goddess on March 04, 2015, 10:45:13 PM
I second the NC-Exotic.   Especially if we get a Tscimze player that is quite inventive.   It's the safe pick.   

Well that's two for NC-Exotic, and the reasoning is fair enough certainly, if everyone else is cool by that, that's what we'll go with.

Kolbrandr

Quote from: AndyZ on March 04, 2015, 08:59:18 PM
I haven't given up on this game, but I haven't been able to get any decent inspiration :-/ I'm sorry.

That's alright, it happens. If you happen have a character notion while the game starts going, just let me know and we'll see what we can do. You still have a bit of time in the meantime otherwise.

RubySlippers

Salamah Al-Majidah
Ashirra Diplomat




Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
SALAMAH AL-MAJIDAH
Ashirra Diplomat
Merchant Lord

Clan: El Hajazi Ventrue
Generation: 6th
Nature: Caretaker & Defender
Demeanor: Caregiver

ATTRIBUTES
PHYSICAL
Strength  5   -stronger than she looks-
Dexterity  5  -catlike reflexes-
Stamina  7  -rugged-
SOCIAL
Charisma  6  -natural leader-
Manipulation  7  -cunning-
Appearance  4  -classic beauty-
MENTAL
Perception 6  -discerning-
Intelligence  7  -brilliant-
Wits  5  -quick thinking-

ABILITIES
TALENTS 
Alertness  5  -sense danger-
Athletics 3
Brawl 4  -claws-
Dodge 4  -evade-
Empathy  4  -sense emotions-
Expression  4  -written works-
Intimidation  5  -formidable-
Leadership  5  -forceful-
Subterfuge  5  -hide motives-
SKILLS
Animal Ken  3
Archery 3
Commerce  6  -Islamic trade-
Crafts  4  -optics-
Etiquette  3
Melee  3
Performance  3
Ride  3
Stealth  4  -quiet footed-
Strategy  5  -urban-
Survival  3
KNOWLEDGES
Academics  7  -astronomy-
Geography  3
Investigation  3
Law  4  -trade-
Linguistics  3
Medicine  3
Occult  5  -vampire lore-
Politics  5  -Cainite-
Seneschal  4  -estate management-
Theology  7  -Islam-

ADVANTAGES
BACKGROUNDS
Allies (Childer) 7
Domain (Couple City Blocks)  5
Domain Security  2   
Influence (Constantinople Poor)  5
Influence (Trade Routes)  7
Resources  - Clan Merit PARAGON - Farm Land (share cropping), Salt Mine, Shares of Many Businesses, Caravans, etc. 8
Retainers  7
Status (The Ashirra)  7

DISCIPLINES
Animalism  1
Auspex  1
Celerity  3
Dominate  -Fealty-  6
Fortitude  7
Obfuscate 2
Potence  5
Presence  -Passion-  6
Protean  3
VIRTUES
Conscience  4
Self-Control  5
Courage  5

TARIQ EL-SAMA'  9
WILLPOWER  9
BLOOD POOL

CLAN WEAKNESS: Can only feed on the blood of female mortals, properly consecrated.

MERITS
Blush of Health  [2-pt. Merit]
Dual-Nature  [2-pt. Merit]
Eidetic Memory  [2-pt. Merit]
Open Road  [2-pt. Merit]
Paragon - Resources  [6-pt.  Merit, Clanbook Ventrue]

FLAWS
None

FREEBIE POINTS
Disciplines 29 Dots  -133FP
Virtues 2 Dots  -4FP
Willpower  +4 Dots  -4FP
Attributes +18 Dots  -90FP
Backgrounds +64 Dots  -70FP
Abilities +100 Dots  -200FP
Merits 14 Pts.  -14FP


Background:

Born in the early years of the rise of Islam honoring Allah the Just and Merciful adopted by a powerful leader of men, schooled in war and in the kindness adopted by the most honorable Hajji Jenaab Gilgamesh Khorram-Din defender of the faith and scholar of Sharia Law. (second is a title of roughly Sir or honored person) She showed an early aptitude for learning and was given a mans education save in the arts of war including the sciences although not at a school but still benefitted from the best education coin could buy and her adoptive father at nights lovingly schooled her in Islamic Law she never knew why he was gone every day and asked mostly he was working at important work for the King. She went on the Hajj with relatives when she was eighteen fortunatly not to far for her over others of the faith with longer distances to travel and did the rituals and while there acquired many books for her fathers library.

When she was in her twenties after a marriage that failed when she didn't have children she returned home and took up her work in sciences and writing books for women on the Koran mostly ones teaching the virtues including education noting the Prophet never said women should be ignorant in life. She also invested her monies in various interests some ship trading, spices and silks and art from many Muslim lands that elevate the soul in ways approved by the Koran. She also gained a reputation in charity like her father tending to the poor usually with business set-up and learning trades getting  a share of their businesses but not interest which is forbidden.

Then she took ill and was dying of a wasting disease ,cancer but not known as that, and her father embraced her after she agreed joining the Undead as a vampire her existance changed somewhat but she just used the new connections to gain more wealth, focus on her work and worked in her way in the Asharra as a woman of learning and scholarship, diplomat between domains largely neutral and student of the ways of the West. That is what made her of value when Rome fell they needed centuries later a diplomat to Constantinople the great city and its Kindred choosing her was easy. Up to then she never made waves in society and is known for her charity, devotion to the faith and to her people as a group so is not as powerful as many or devoted to war but did learn to defend herself since being a mortal but is respected among her blood as a scholar.

She did Sire a few times her children all women of genius or talent, wealth didn't matter but rather improving her blood with more worthy ones and wealth was easy to provide some investments and talents good for earning a living. None are with her at this time one is in Persia, one in Egypt and two in Damascus but are well regarded and positioned for women of the faith she favors being hands off once embraced to not sully their genius once a training period is over.  In the community she provides help to the poor Christians out of favor in society, Jews and of course the Muslim minority with conversion to the faith even more help.

Quotes:

We are required by Allah to convert others to our faith and mercy can bring the poor to Allah the Merciful, if that fails there if fire and the sword.

Coin is of value only for what it can do for Allah, its useless unused.

Kolbrandr

As long as the ones in this thread. (well, not Jordanes, that one is more the "knowable if looked into" version) Longer is fine as well.

Kolbrandr

I know some of you are being slowed down by life as far as finishing a background, but could I get a general update as to where everyone who hasn't otherwise given me a character sheet is on things?