Know Your Kindred - Monty Coven

Name: Monty Coven
Clan: Assamite Antitribu
Generation: 6th (formerly 11th)
Embraced: 1990 (Age 20)

Monty always wanted to be a leader. Even though he grew up poor with not much of a formal education Monty had a keen intellect and sharp wit. He rose above his peers and became the leader of his London gang. His mischievous activities gained the attention of the local Sabbat pack. They embraced Monty with the promise of freedom, but Monty soon felt the weight of the Sabbat smothering. Just another group of people telling him what he could and couldn’t do.

But everything changed when Monty discovered the Venture Prince of London, Mithras. The ancient Methuselah had just beaten a pack of Werewolves who attacked him at his Oxford haven. Though Mithras killed every Lupine on the street, he had suffered grievous wounds and was virtually in torpor by battle’s end. Monty could feel the waves of power radiating off Mithras and quickly sank his fangs into the Methuselah’s neck, seizing his opportunity to change his status.

Monty’s power increased a hundred times. His new blood broke the Vaulderie and soon he took control of the pack after defeating and diablerizing his sire in a duel.

But Monty is noticing that he is changing in more ways than one. His style of clothing has changed, as has his behavior and habits. He has cut all ties with his past. Monty stares into the mirror wondering if he is still in control of his own thoughts. It would appear that Mithras’s soul may soon walk in a new body.

The combination of Monty’s street smarts and Mithras’ power and genius has Monty ready to take on both the Camarilla and Sabbat and seize London for himself.

- Sources: Children of the Night, A World of Darkness, 2nd Ed.

Know Your Kindred - Elimelech the Twice Damned

Name: Elimelech the Twice Damned
Clan: Unknown
Generation: Anywhere between 2nd to 5th
Embraced: Ruth 1:3

Elimelech was the husband of Naomi, as told in the Bible in the book of Ruth. He was attacked and Embraced by an unknown assailant. Naomi found her husband wandering in the fields - a cold, undead empty shell. She placed him in a shallow unmarked grave. Three nights later he rose up insane and suffering from a thrust no fountain could quench.

He went out searching for his family, eventually finding them months later in another country. But his madness overtook him and Elimelech killed both his sons by ripping out their throats. When sanity returned Elimelech cursed himself and his abhorrent unlife. He sought solitude and hoped for a soul to come and end his existence. Time and again the Beast would overtake Elimelech and he would go on a killing rampage. He kept an eye on his wife and daughter, watching them live a terrible life working in the fields for meager sustenance. This only brought more pain into his unlife.

Elimelech sentenced himself to a life of solitude, living off cattle and sleeping travelers. Generations passed and Elimelech realized his curse would never be over and the elder vampire’s already fragile mind lost hold of reality. He lost himself to the Beast for a span of centuries, killing everything, man or monster, in his path. He has degenerated to the point where only Cainite blood, not human, quenches his thirst.

Elimelech’s travels eventually lead him to the Black Hand. He was too unpredictable to trust completely, but he was also too old and powerful for them to turn him away. Elimelech uses the Hand as a distraction to forget his past and his pain. The Seraphim accept him as a peer, let him in on their deliberations and hear his council when he is himself and send him to his cell in chains when he is not. All the elders of the Black Hand refuse to enter a room with Elimelech alone, for reason none will discuss.

- Source Children By Night, pg 14-15.

Know Your Kindred - Izhim abd Azrael

Name: Izhim abd Azrael
Clan: Assamite Antitribu
Generation: 5th
Embraced: 4800 B.C. (?)

Izhim was born the seventh son of a powerful Babylonian sorcerer-king, in a time when monsters still openly walked among men. He lived a life of exquisite luxury. But suddenly barbarian hordes swept through the lands and Izhim was forced to flee as his kingdom was turned to ashes.

It is unknown how or when, but Izhim came into the Embrace of the Assamites and after many lifetimes of wandering the world he returned to join them at the Alamunt where he learned and studied from the greatest of the clan over the centuries.

Now he presides over the Black Hand as the “skakari” - the First Seraph. He rarely speaks openly, but when he does all the other Seraphs stop to listen. Recently Izhim has begun to issue orders to the Hand without consent or discussion with the other Seraphim - something that has created a rift within the group.

Izhim is a small man with a stocky build. His skin is black as night and every square inch of his body is covered with tattoos (antiquated Arabic script, prehistoric Mesopotamian cuneiform, and numerous hieroglyphs and sigils unfamiliar to all but the most erudite scholars). When he moves, he makes no sound. Others who have witnessed his comings and goings over the centuries claim he sleeps only once every three days.

- Source Children of the Night, pg 12-13

Know Your Kindred - Calvin Cleaver

Name: Calvin Cleaver
Clan: Gangrel
Generation: 11th
Embraced: 1977

Calvin is a former LAPD dectective who was embraced by a roaming Gangrel while investigating the headquarters of a neo-nazi group. Calvin dislikes fighting and confrontations, preferring to just lay low and lead by example.

Though the Gangrel have left the Camarilla, Calvin remained because he believes strongly in the sect’s vision. He is now stationed in California as an envoy and enforcer, keeping an eye on the Anarchs and trying to make sure the Masquerade is not broken.

Calvin has long catlike whiskers and callused pads on the balls of his hands and feet from surcoming to the Beast too many times.

- Source Children of the Night, pg 73-74.

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