Know Your Kindred - Lady Constancia

Name: Lady Constancia
Clan: Cappadocian
Generation: 5th

Lady Constancia was the Priestess of Bones and the Matron of the Erciyes Temple, the clan’s spiritual center and home to the Antidiluvian Cappadocius himself. When news came that a wealthy Venetian man named Giovanni had made new breakthroughs in the dark art of Necromancy, Constancia was excited and quickly told her sire while he lay in torpor. Cappadocius was also excited about the news and reached out through his dreams to Augustus Giovanni and invited him to Erciyes to be embraced.

Japheth, Constancia’s sire, objected to letting outsiders with untrustworthy reputations into their clan, but Cappadocius disagreed and Augustus was brought to their temple. Upon his arrival to the temple, Japheth and Constancia looking with Soulsight (Auspex), saw the rot that festered within Augustus. Augustus sought only power, his motives and means were as corrupt as any mortal despot’s. Though his necromantic breakthroughs were impressive, he did not seek enlightenment, knowledge or the answer to the eternal question. He merely wished to crush his opponents.

Servants drained Augustus of all his blood and Japheth entered the chamber with a vessel of Cappadocious’ blood. As Augustus drank, Constancia turned away, unable to watch.

In the end the warnings were correct and Augustus betrayed the clan and diablerized its founder. Lady Constancia went into seclusion in 1443, one year before the Giovanni purge.

Constancia is an ardent researcher and follower of the Road of the Bones, and has recently taken her studies of death in frightening new directions. If what she says is to be believed, she has discovered a ritual that allows her to utterly destroy the soul of a still-living mortal, leaving the body a mindless husk. Whether or not this works on vampires is unknown (as the condition of Cainite souls is a matter of much debate), but her enemies have universally expressed concern over the wanton abandon with which she exercises her experiments over Cainites and kine alike.

An unmarked tomb was found in 1936 near Giza, containing a desiccated corpse. Some suspect this was her, but there is no actual proof. The body disappeared before the Giovanni could investigate. Conveniently one of the Mortis powers is to reduce ones self into the form of a desiccated corpse. Some believe she is now known under the name Unre, one of the Harbigners of Skulls.

Lady Constancia kept some of Augustus Giovanni’s drained blood in a jar and sealed it with beeswax. Augustus is willing to do anything to get it; because with this blood a knowledgeable sorcerer could have considerable power over the Giovanni patron.

Sidenote: Ambroginio Giovanni was embraced by Lady Constancia in 1045 AD.

- Sources Clanbook Giovanni, Clanbook Cappadocian, Player’s Guide to the High Clans, WhiteWolf.com