Know Your Kindred - Kemintiri

Name: Kemintiri
Generation: 4th
Clan: Follower of Set
Embraced: Circa 1300 BC

Kemintiri is the most wanted criminal sought by the Camarilla, holding the top spot on the Red List. The Ventrue have put a bounty on her for the crime of killing their Justicar Michaelis and impersonating him for over a year while stealing millions of the clan’s wealth.

Using a mix of magic, disciplines and other more common tools, Kemintiri can make herself look like anyone, of any gender. She is perhaps the greatest mistress of disguise. She also knows a magical ritual to steal memories from her target’s mind, making her impersonation almost impossible to discover. She can easily pass herself off as a Catiff pickpocket or the Prince of a city. The Archons and Justicars on her trail never discover the truth until she’s already moved on to her next identity.

In her “true” form she’s 4′6″ tall with dusky skin, long straight black hair and eyes that appear very serpent-like.  Even without her powers Kemintiri may possibly be the most beautiful woman in the world, as many men and women have dropped to their knees with instant love and devotion to serve her.

Kemintiri’s ultimate goal is to rediscover the secret to the Spell of Life - the magical ritual that gives immortality to the mummies.

In life Kemintiri was a loyal servant of the Cult of Isis and their immortal mummy leader Horus. She had first been sent to spy on the cult for Set, who wanted to learn the Spell of Life for himself. When Kemintiri met Horus she was enthralled with everything about him and switched her loyalties to him. Set was enraged and kidnapped Kemintiri. He tortured her night after night until she revealed the Spell of Life to him. When she still refused to reveal her secrets he Embraced her as a final punishment, polluting her body with Kindred blood and leaving her to suffer knowing she would never achieve immortality as a mummy. Kemintiri hates Set wtih all her heart and has vowed to get revenge against him.

Kemintiri s mind has been warped from the experience. She has now forgotten the Spell of Life and she has no idea who she really is, so to fill the void she pretends to be someone else. Under stress she can forget who she is and lash out in a deadly panic. When her rouse as the Ventrue Justicar was exposed by the Tremere, they unwittingly created a new identity for her which she uses to fill the void - the arch-Anathema, the invincible and incalculable master villain who seeks the Kindred’s doom.

The Followers of Set have a mixed opinion about her. On one hand her crimes against the Camarilla have made her a hero, but on the other hand her deep hatred of the clan has killed many Setites along her way. The clan elders wish she’d just go away and wouldn’t care if she was destroyed.

Piecing together statements she’s made over the centuries to other vampires and mortals, the Justicars believe Kemintiri is on a search to find a way to exchange her kindred immortality for the endless resurrection powers of the mummies. Along the way she hopes to amass enough power to destroy all Kindred, including Set.

- Sources Kindred Most Wanted, Clanbook: FoS

Know Your Kindred - Francisco Domingo de Polonia

Name: Francisco Domingo de Polonia
Clan: Lasombra
Generation: 7th
Embraced: 1600 AD

Francisco is legendary for his quick decision making and his prep work before going into a battle. Being able to organize and build networks has aided him greatly during his career as a Sabbat operative, completing one perilous assignment after another, finally enabling him to lead the Sabbat siege of New York City.

To his embarrassment, Francisco still has a red complection on his skin, due to being embraced while having a sun burn. Pointing it out to him or staring too long as his reddened countenance is a very bad idea.

Still religious, Francisco wears a silver crucifix at all times and has flown to Madrid at least three times for a coveted confession with the Lasombra Cardinal Moncado.

- Source A World of Darkness 2nd Ed.

Know Your Kindred - Madame Guil

Name: Madame Guil
Clan: Toreador
Generation: 6th
Embraced: 1579

Madame Guil is known for her lack of mercy, even amongst the other Justicars. Her skill at uncovering traitors and criminals in the halls of power is the subject of many dreadful tales.

Madame Guil has appeared to be many things over the centuries – anarch, traitor, judge and executioner. In truth she hasn’t known who she is since the night of her Embrace.

She started off as a 16 year old girl in a small French village, about to be married to a local boy named Luc.  But Gilles’ beauty caught the eye of the local vampire lord, Baron Philippe Vollgirre, and he summoned her to his castle and Embraced her to be his concubine. When he drained Gilles of her blood he also took her happiness. It wasn’t long before the Vollgirre had a stake in his chest and his castle in flames around him.

Gilles was able to use her natural grace and charm to fit in with Kindred society. After believing her past life was all but a distant memory, she was shocked when she saw the image of her old love, Luc. As it turned out he wandered the countryside in a deep depression thinking he lost her. But then a band of young anarchs found him along a dirt road and Embraced him.

The former lovers shared blood with each other as well as their deep dislike of Kindred society. The two made a vow to rid the world of the Damned and for a time she and Luc were the most monstrous diablerists in France. But their crimes came to an end when the pair botched an attempted diablerie of a childer of Fracois Villon. Luc took the rap for the incident and fled from the ensuing blood hunt.

Gilles disappeared into the underground world of anarchs. Consumed with rage for the murder of Luc she was in the thick of things during the French Revolution that sent France’s mortal and Kindred aristocracy to the guillotine.

The Revolution blossomed out of control and Gilles was in danger of being executed herself. She saved herself by latching onto the powerbase of the despised Francois Villon and hiding her identity, now calling herself Madame Guil. She proved to be valuable in rebuilding France and over the next two centuries manipulated her way up the institutions she hated, becoming the Toreador Justicar.

In this role she’s been effective sniffing out Camarilla’s traitors. Channeling her rage and hate destroying the sect’s elders and putting to death so called “untouchables.”

But a few years ago everything was turned upside down when on an investigation of a Sabbat assassin. She rediscovered her old flame Luc. As it turns out he escaped the blood hunt by joining the Sabbat Black Hand and was now a Templar. The two Cainites clasped each other and vowed never to be parted again. Their union is forbidden by both sects but so far they’ve found ways to meet in secret.

- Source Children of the Night

Know Your Kindred - Velya the Flayer

Name: Velya the Flayer and Elaine Cassidy
Clan: Tzimisce
Generation: 5th
Embraced: Unknown/1890s

Velya is a legend among the Tzimisce. Few have seen or spoken to him. His mastery of blood magic is rivaled only by the Tremere’s Inner Council. A founder of the Sabbat, Velya now severs as a Cardinal, overseeing the Tzimisce Old Country. He hopes to tap the spirits of the ancient lands into a mighty spell and use it against the hated Tremere in nearby Vienna.

Velya is in the grip of a terrible and self-inflicted predicament. A century ago Velya fell in love with and “wed” the beautiful 10-year old from Boston, Elaine Cassidy. But Velya was so detached from human cares that he unknowingly warped his 10-year old’s fragile mind. After a half-century of nightly unlife in the Sabbat, Elaine has spiraled out of control and lost her soul to the Beast.

Realizing this but unwilling to end her unlife, Velya used his mastery of Vicissitude to graft his beloved to his body until he can find a way to “fix” her. But in reality there is no fix for this problem and this arrangement has the two sharing the same veins and arteries with the same blood flowing between them both. Elaine’s rampant Beast is invading Velya’s body. Velya’s hold on Elaine and himself is beginning to slip.

Elaine is usually kept in a dreamy, semi-aware state thanks to Velya’s blood sorcery. But occasionally she breaks free and becomes an insane shrieking Cainite child. She loves her husband but only seeks to drag him down with her.

- Source Children of the Night

Know Your Kindred - Seterpenre

Name: Seterpenre
Clan: Followers of Set
Generation: 4th

Next behind Nakhthorheb in power and influence is Seterpenre, Lord of Tinnis. In his mortal days Seterpenre was a powerful sorcerer, serving the elders of Set’s tribe.

After the destruction of the Setite capital Tanis, Seterpenre guided the mortal population to build the new city of Tinnis on one of the Egypt isles.

Unlike Nakhthorheb, who believes all Kindred to be evil and all non-Egyptians as animals, Seterpenre is more tolerant of outsiders. He favors alliances with other Kindred when it suits the purposes of Set. Seterpenre was the architect of the early alliance with the Tremere - an act that cost him much in the eyes of Nakhthorheb.

- Source Libellus Sanguinis III - Wolves at the Door

Know Your Kindred - Tyler

Name: Tyler (Patricia Bollingbroke)
Clan: Brujah
Generation: 6th
Embraced: 1381

Perhaps no other Kindred personifies the struggle of the Brujah as Tyler. A rebel in her mortal life, Patricia marched with the masses in London against the Crown and aided in the assassination of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Awaiting execution she was rescued by the Brujah Robin Leeland, who watched her from a far and was enamored by her zeal.

Since then Patricia has taken a vital role in many Kindred uprisings, including the Anarch Revolt. One of the pre-Sabbat antitribu, she stood up to the Venture Hardestadt, an oppressive elder championing the formation of the Camarilla. Patricia and a small group of peasants stormed his castle and Patricia diablerized him, increasing her own power. On the run from Archons she fled to the New World.

Once in America, she was contacted telepathically by the Toreador Helena, who laid in torpor in Chicago. Helena was very attracted to the idea of a ruthless female assassin and over 30 years of manipulation Helena was able to blood bound Patricia.

After being an enemy of the Camarilla, Tyler, as she now calls herself, realized the merit of the new sect and with reservations joined them in the 16th century. After seeing anarch movements crumble, Tyler saw the Camarilla as the best vehicle to aid her agenda. She changed her name and hoped her past as a rebel and Sabbat ally will not be discovered.

Now living in Chicago, Tyler has engrossed herself in the local politics. With the hidden support of Helena, Tyler has a place among the elders, some of whom know of her past role in the Sabbat. Tyler still traffics a bit with the Black Hand during various skirmishes in the Chicago Jyhad. Something the other elders may find interesting to say the least.

Tyler makes her haven in O’Hare International Airport. She uses it to her advantage, controlling and knowing almost everything that happens in the airport. Tyler even trained the O’Hare SWAT team on the extermination of Vampires. Her contacts in the higher levels of the FAA give her control over the city’s two other airports as well. Any Kindred wishing to enter or the leave the city by plane must first get her permission.

- Sources Clanbook Brujah, Chicago By Night

Know Your Kindred - Tammy Walenski

Name:  Tammy Walenski
Clan:  Nosferatu
Generation: 7th
Embraced:  1950  (at age 12)

Tammy and her brother Peter lived in an abusive home.  The physical and emotional pain brought on my their alcoholic parents lead the children to set the house on fire as their parents slept.  The night they watched the house burn was the night they were made aware of the Nosferatu Khalid, who had been watching the house for five years and monitoring the children.

Khalid had reached the conclusion that the two kids must be Embraced to save them and to preserve their pain for eternity – for he would never change anyone who had the hope of a peaceful mortal life; only those who would be enriched by the gift of being a Nosferatu.  The night of the fire sealed his decision.  He brought them back to his haven and spoke softly to them.  Within a few hours they accepted his gift.

Tammy and Peter lived with Khalid and he taught them their new abilities.  Eventually they returned to sleep in the basement of their burned out home.  The ghosts of their dead parents also inhabit the structure and now act as Tammy and Peter’s retainers.  Tammy has learned to make the ghosts help them, and this has given her influence in the world of ghosts and increased Tammy’s knowledge of what goes on in the city.

Tammy and Peter have developed a powerful blood bond with each other.  They can read each other’s thoughts and auras.  They alternate between feeding on adults and animals.  They will never harm a child and if they see a child being hurt they will go into a frenzy and attack the abuser - be it vampire or human.

Recently they have stopped hiding from other Kindred in the hopes of being included in the community.  But they are too shy to ask.

- Source Chicago By Night

Know Your Kindred - Gengis

Name: Gengis
Clan: Brujah
Generation: 12th
Embraced: 1968

Gengis is one of the Anarch’s biggest supporters. He is solidly pro-Anarch and hates the elders. He was one of the first punks in the 1970s and to this day continues with that style since it fits him so well.

He was Embraced in the late 1960s by a Brujah only passing through on her way to the West Coast.  Gengis has had to learn to make his own way in Kindred society.

Gengis likes nothing better than a good fight. He hasn’t recognized his own immortality but isn’t concerned with his safety anyway. He is very much a conformist. If he sees someone he deems as “cool” he will emulate that person. If he comes across a powerful leader he will instantly fall into line.

Despite his punk lifestyle, Gengis has a very clean condo where he likes to watch Chicago Bulls games and cook meals for the Yuppie friends he’s made over the years. They don’t know he’s a vampire, but they do know he’s a little weird.

- Source Chicago By Night

Know Your Kindred - Muse

Name: Muse
Clan: Daughter of Calcophony
Generation: 13th
Embraced: Late 1790’s

Muse is a loner, softly wandering the sewer systems beneath Montreal humming the same melody over and over again. The Nosferatu Antitribu, Elias the Whale, found her wandering down there in the 1980s, after she had disappeared in 1918. He believes she’s been down there a good part of the 20th century and the harmony she sings is a lullaby to something that sleeps under the city and the song is keeping it from awakening. Elias is watching out for Muse when he can and has given her shelter under the city.

Muse’s eyelids are fused shut. No one knows how exactly, but she is in the service of the demon Metathiax, who sealed her eyes to keep her from seeing the evil nature of her demonic keeper. Metathiax kept Muse to soothe his heard of tortured creatures from becoming completely bestial.

She has disappeared and reappeared throughout the 1800s, always around the time of a cholera or typhus outbreak. Muse may have been responsible for the spreading of various diseases across Montreal on behalf of her demon lord.

Muse is a beautiful woman with honey blond hair under a mat of filth. Her clothing is tattered and torn and Elias has covered her eyes with a red bandanna. She wears a leather jacket made from the skin of the Setite Moise. The jacket once belonged to the former Archbishop of Montreal - Veronique La Cruelle. But Veronique is now one of Meththiax’s twisted bestial thralls and the demon gave Muse his jacket.

Muse never speaks and does not react to her environment, she just hums the same song repeatedly to keep Metathiax’s creatures in check. She is secretly guarded by Leperhead, the Black Spiral Dancer.

- Source Montreal By Night

Know Your Kindred - Al-Muntaquim, The Avenger

Name: Al-Muntaquim, The Avenger
Clan: True Brujah
Generation: 6th
Embraced: 640 AD

Al-Muntaquim already hated the “false” Brujah. But when word arrived that his sire, Agonistes, had been destroyed by the Brujah whore Troile, Al-Muntaquim was enraged and went into his first frenzy in centuries – ripping through a caravan of visiting merchants and tearing the head off a traveling Brujah staying inside the main tent. “The Avenger” left a message that he would be leaving Africa heading east, looking to bring justice next to Troile herself.

During his travels Al-Muntaquim has learned much. His quest for justice has also served as a spiritual pilgrimage. Before he had trouble staying on his original pacifist path, but after visiting with the Kindred of the East and a new mentor named Ona-Zhir; The Avenger has found a new path that fulfills him. Upon leaving Asia Ona-Zhir gave him a parting gift – a mighty spell that would allow Al-Muntaquim to draw upon the desultory power of clanless vampires, briefly giving him the strength needed to take on Troile and win.

Al-Muntaquim returned to Cairo and with the help of the Prince set up a “safe haven” for all the clanless on the Nile Island of Gezira. In reality this entire residential district comprises the border of Ona-Zhir’s ritual. When Gehenna comes and the Antediluvians return, all Caitiff inside the area will be subjected to the spell’s effects and give the power of their souls to Al-Muntaquim and leaving their bodies and blood to the hunger of the Antediluvians.

- Source Cairo by Night