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Name: Alessandro de Rossi
Age: 24
Occupation: Priest
Special Abilities/Skills: Empathy, Melee, Linguistics
Nationality/Ethnicity: Italian
Homeland: Venice, Italy
Religion: Roman Catholic
Brief Physical Description: Alessandro has a youthful face but his eyes have the look of someone older. He's physically fit, able to fight with various weapons. Think Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli) from Heroes in a cossack.
Brief History: Alessandro was an orphan, adopted by the Church of Rome. As a child, he served as a sacristan under Cardinal Valeri. Inspired by his mentor, he chose to become a priest but with a different purpose. Cardinal Valeri had selected him to be part of a cadre with a special mission: finding and disposing of threats to the Church and those under it's care. He was singled out because of his ability to "read" people; Alessandro's mind was as sharp as a blade, able to find out other people's secret sins.
Alessandro was meant to be the deus ex machina. I needed a character that could come in and save the group when push came to shove. There were a lot of brains in the group, but not enough brawn. So I decided to add Alessandro into the group. But I also wanted someone who embodied the complication of being vampire with humanity, a mirror to reflect the others' questions.
Name: Shri Yantra
Age: 35
Occupation: Astronomer/Mathematician
Special Abilities/Skills: Expert in Astronomy, Problem Solving and is very much qualified to conduct the Soma ritual for healing purposes.
Nationality/Ethnicity: Indian
Homeland: Kerala, India
Religion: Hindu
Brief Physical Description: Shri Yantra is a man in his 30's. He's got a thin, pale face that sits upon his frail-looking shoulders. He has Auburn hair, falling just past his shoulder and large, bright blue eyes. He's fairly tall, with long legs and arms. A few muscles adorn his arm, built up from various exercises.
Brief History: Shri Yantra was born into a Namputiri Brahmin family which came from South Malabar in Kerala. Since he was young, he studied astronomy and Vedanta, one of the six orthodox systems of Indian Hindu philosophy. He apprenticed under his father and learned all sort of things including the Soma Ritual. He also studied the theories of Paramesvara a great mathematician in his country. Halfway through his thirtieth turn, though, he grew bored. He wanted to travel, to explore, to have an adventure. He was then sent on a mission by his father to find the tablets that contains religious inscriptions that memorialize the acts and rites of the Atiedian Brethren, a group of 12 priests of Jupiter. It is said that the tablet shed light on an ancient dead language, and also on the religious practices of classical paganism.
Marie's character was supposed to be the 6th member of the coterie. Unfortunately, she couldn't join the game regularly with her schedule. I managed to run 1 scene for her but that was all. Her character was...strange and very difficult to craft a back story for. Not only was she geographically distant, she was also culturally incompatible with the other characters. I thought to have her connected to the Rom (gypsies) but that would still make her difficult to mesh with the others. I guess I should have asked a more "playable" character. Not just to make it easier for me but also to make it easier for her to join the coterie. In the end, fate decided for me.
Name: Lucy Sommers
Age: 21
Occupation: n/a
Special Abilities/Skills: communicates with entities
Nationality/Ethnicity: English
Homeland: England
Religion: Catholic
Brief Physical Description: Piercing eyes, delicate features, waist length raven hair, pale skin, slight of build
Brief History:
Do you have any family? Parents, a sister, and an uncle.
What is your goal in life? To immerse myself in knowledge.
What have you done recently? Devoured some books my uncle has sent me. That is, whenever I could get away from Linda's wedding preparations. Which, I did as often as I could.
What prejudices do you have? none
Have you ever encountered anything of the supernatural? I can hear people's thoughts clear as the spoken word. Thus, I've grown to hate being surrounded by people because their thoughts stifle me. I despise being helpless amidst the roar of their voiceless chatter. I loath them for threatenning my self control.
Who/What would you die for? I will die for nothing and no one.
Who/What would you kill for? I would kill to survive.
Joan was a late entry into the game. She hadn't had any experience playing RPG but she showed a lot of enthusiasm. She wanted to play a medium, able to speak with ghosts and other denizens of the unknown - while she was still human. To reflect this, I gave her an imaginary best friend, Mina. This character knew things no one else did. Or seemed to know things; with Mina, you couldn't really tell. She was only visible Lucy and only during times of stress. Mina's origins would be revealed in due time.
Name: Blyss/Raven
Age: 25
Occupation: Atilliator
Special Abilities/Skills: Linguist (3 Languages including English, Latin, and some German), crossbow-making,
Nationality/Ethnicity: English
Homeland: England
Religion: Roman Catholic
Brief Physical Description: Blyss has a long black hair tied neatly in a braid that is wound around her head during daytime and a lithe, swordsman's body. She usually wears baggy clothes to hide the curves that will reveal her true identity by accident and is usually taciturn in nature and only voices out her two-cents' worth when necessary. But underneath all the facade lies an inquisitive mind.
Brief History: Blyss is born in Paris, France. Under the house of the Duke of Richelieu. She is the royal atilliator of england. At the age of 13, Blyss wears her older brother's old clothes to escape her tutors' attention. Masquerading as a boy, Blyss was unwittingly "apprenticed" by their blacksmith, Otto. At 15, Blyss fled from her home to explore the world. While travelling around europe, she was taken under the wing of an old royal atilliator who now calls himself Raven.
I found this particular character intriguing. Of all the characters, Raven would have a lot to lose if she were discovered to be a woman. So I made sure to keep her on her toes, making her paranoid with any reference - real or imagined - that she was a woman. Why she chose the profession of an attiliator is beyond me. But I do know that this was historical inaccurate; it was the French who invented the crossbow.
Name: Wilfred Calvin Smithe (pronounced Smythe)
Age: 34
Occupation: Once court flunky turned wandering entertainer/thief/vagabond
Special Abilities/Skills: Thieving, Daggers from flying to hopping, and due to his need to find gainful employment while roaming - handy with mechanical contraptions. Not really renowned for his minstrelsy but for feats of juggling and sleight-of-hand.
Nationality/Ethnicity: Limey
Homeland: Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
Religion: Church of England, non-practicing.
Brief Physical Description: Wilfred, or Willy Woe as he is styled by his closer acquaintances, is lithe, disorderly in manner and appearance, but otherwise common-looking enough to fade into the background. He is called woeful by the way he looks when he juggles, especially with knives, cleavers, and other implements of the butcher's trade we call chivalry - almost as if he wishes on of them to fall deviant and decapitate him. He sports dark-blonde hair in a queue up to his waist, a D'artagnan goatee, and tatters that almost make him the image of Captain Jack Sparrow with none of the pizzazz.
Brief History: Having caught the eye of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester as a small boy, Wilfred eventually became one of his most loyal retainers. His propensity for finding himself in odd corners, in possession of bits and pieces of information, and the occassional parchment, had helped the then Regent Protector immensely against his enemies in the King's council. This was not to last however, and the Duke was eventually sent into exile in Ireland. After his fall from grace, the Duke had sent him to infiltrate William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk's coterie until an unfortunate incident with a blundering steward caused him to be sent to prison. Wilfred escaped, and has now been roaming England for three years, hiring himself out for odd jobs when the circus is not in town in order to eke out a living. He was last seen in Dover, fixing locks on chests for sailing ships. These jobs are few and far in between; eventually the three-headed monster of Starvation will claim his soul, like it did others before him.
Another social character that made my brain hurt thinking of stories. Still, Wilfred's player, Bennet, made it easier for me with all the details he provided. I focused heavily on his friendship with the Duke of Gloucester. The nobility were not always "noble" and were known to go to extremes to hold on to power. I wanted to know how far Wilfred would go for his lord.
Name: Faolan Macgowan
Age: 33
Occupation: Blacksmith/Armorer
Special Abilities/Skills: craftmanship in forging weapons and armor
Nationality/Ethnicity: Scottish
Homeland: Highlands of Scotland
Religion: Gaelic
Brief Physical Description: Faolan Macgowan is a middle-aged man. He has free-flowing black hair and beard. He also has a big scar near his left eye. Taller than the average man, he possess a body the has been built by years of forging steel. He is a cross of Viggo Mortensen in LOTR or Mel Gibson from Braveheart.
Brief History: Faolan Macgowan is a middle-aged man that has gone through a lot of trials in his life. Scarred from numerous battles against oppressors (mainly the English). Faolan lost his family when the English invaded. Raised by a Scottish lord, he served as his smithy and armorer. Nobles and peasants alike admire his fine craftsmanship. He has a special technique in forging armor that is half the weight of the conventional armor but is twice as strong.
Every good coterie needs muscle. I was relieved to see Dennis choose a character with more brawn than brains. If there is one sure way to survive in Medeival times, it's with a sword in your hand. But I didn't want him to be your stereotypical brute, so I decided to complicate his life.
Faolan was the only character who didn't have a religion based on Christianity. This was sure to put him into conflict with the other characters. My intention wasn't to have him fight the others but rather to provide an alternate perspective as well as opportunity for a role-playing his difference.
Name: Mordecai Di Firenze
Age: 35
Occupation: Scribe / Forger
Special Abilities/Skills: Language, Calligraphy, Stealth
Nationality/Ethnicity: unknown but raised in Florentine
Homeland: Florence, Italy
Religion: Catholic
Brief Physical Description: Pale skin, long dark hair, angular features, medium build.
Brief History: Raised by monks in a church at Santa Croce, he works as a scribe, translating books from one language to another and penning official documents for heads of church and state. Being privy to information and documents, he is not averse to securing and altering said documents in exchange for gold. There are no loyalties when the price is right. His forgeries are so remarkable that he could make you a lord or a pauper just with ink and parchment. He moves amongst the most opulent of circles, the rich and the powerful, the noble and corrupt, yet manages not to draw undue attention to himself. A keeper of secrets and lies, he is secure in that fact that he is needed and the secrets he keeps are feared.
When I first read the profile, I felt that this was the most challenging character to make a story for. Social characters scare me. The brief history denotes no small amount of intrigue. Which, I assumed, is what the player wants. Keeping track of the deals, relationships and agendas in the world of Vampire is daunting, to say the least. Simply because there are just too many.
Although the books give you a preview into their motivations and state of mind, as a ST, I want to able to stick to canon and not have the NPCs too far away from what the future books describe them to be. Still, Karl was more than helpful providing details for Mordecai. I appreciated that a lot.
Name: Alessandro de Rossi
