[WoD] Aperta Terra (Vampire: Dark Ages)

[Apocrypha]

Here's what I've got so far:

Application Isabella d’Agenais Clan: Lasombra Road: TBD Generation: TBD Demeanor: Conformist Description and Personality: Isabella d’Agenais is slender and shapely, with autumn-red tresses, sky-blue eyes, and skin that was porcelain-pale even before it lost the blush of life. Outwardly, Isabella's mien is as innocent as her face - demure, unsullied, and obedient, the very picture of a well-bred and well-reared nobleman's daughter. Her lively smile and wide, expressive eyes make her seem guileless and eager to please. Only at a closer look might one notice something uncanny in Isabella’s face - a vague emptiness in her gaze, a slightly forced quality to her smile, a manic edge to her laugh. There always seems to be something distracting her - a sound subtly drawing her attention from whatever is said to her, a subtle motion catching her eye in the corner of the room. For all her beauty, talking to Isabella too long leaves one with the same creeping feeling that makes one hurry indoors at night, or hesitate at the top of the cellar stairs... the feeling that there is something in the dark. Backstory: Isabella was one of several daughters of the Comte d’Agenais, a rebellious vassal of the English crown. When she was little more than a girl, she was sent from her homeland in the south of France to the city of Valladolid, there to wed Esteban de Silva, a man more than twice her age and the scion of a powerful Castilian noble family. The Comte d’Agenais meant to wrest his lands from the control of both England and France, and sought alliances with the nobility of Iberia to strengthen his position - and he had pretty daughters enough to secure several such alliances. Isabella and her two sisters were auctioned off like so many prize brood mares to whatever nobles in Castile, Aragon, or Navarre offered their father the best terms. Isabella’s sisters meekly accepted their marriages and submitted themselves to their new husbands. Isabella did not. By long tradition, Clan Lasombra follows a rigorous and exacting process for the Embrace of new Cainites into their shadowy fold. No one is deemed worthy to take their place among the Magisters until they have seen their old life destroyed - their fortunes ruined, their endeavors sabotaged, their loved ones turned against them or torn away by unseen and unsuspected hands from the shadows - and refused to go mad or give in to despair. Only when they have endured through the loss of their old life are new Lasombra judged ready to begin a new existence in the shadows. And this was to be the fate of Esteban de Silva, a Castilian nobleman whose political cunning and ruthless cruelty had turned the heads of the Lasombra who ruled Castile from the shadows. For months, de Silva’s retainers turned corrupt, his serfs rebellious, his allies among the nobility mistrustful and treacherous. With his fortunes crumbling, de Silva’s unseen tormentors had only one thing left to take from him - his beautiful young wife, and with her de Silva’s French alliance and his hope of an heir to continue his noble line. So it was that de Silva’s chief persecutor and would-be sire slithered through the shadows and into the nobleman’s bedchambers late in the night… and found him splayed out on a bed soaked in gore, his throat slashed and his bare chest hacked and stabbed, and his pretty young wife crouched over him with her nightclothes stained red, a bloodied knife in her hand and a look of wild despair in her eyes. De Silva, it seemed, had taken out his frustrations on his young wife once too often, and Isabella had finally refused to endure any more. Had he been alone that night, de Silva’s would-be sire, enraged at the waste of all his efforts, would surely have slaughtered Isabella and been done with it. But he was not alone, and the elder Lasombra who accompanied him to watch the consummation of this long-intended Embrace forbade her death. Perhaps he simply wanted to rub his subordinate’s nose in his failure, to saddle him with a pathetic childe as the penalty of his carelessness. Perhaps he was simply swayed by a pretty face, albeit one smeared in blood. Or perhaps he saw, in Isabella’s empty eyes, a ready vessel for the Abyss…

[PabloMuerte]

Thank you everyone for your interest. This is all so very exciting to read. I love the level of traction that his has gotten already. As Starship Tical said, this is not going to be an absolute must to post daily or you get booted. The quality of the player is what is most important here. Cooperation and feeding the story is what he, we, are looking for, for everyone's benefit. And unless we are in active combat or the character is in immediate danger, the rest of the coterie can keep posting while waiting for the person who has to take an extra day before doing so. I don't want to overstep so I will let ST answer all the concerns but I am actively reading this thread as well!

[1Skell]

@Starship Tical

Would it be fine for a complete newcomer to the system (me) to apply?

[Starship Tical]

@Ladytron: Unfortunately, I can see no secret message in your two posts in this thread. Sorry about that!
Please send me a another one and I will take a few minutes today to clean out my PM inbox that is full if you want to go that route as well.
I am all ears!

@Hotshot lasgun: Thank you for the post!
We will take this request under consideration. Feel free to submit a new character submission as well if you would like to try something new.

Apocrypha: Nice stuff so far! That was a great read!

I would first like to thank you for finding a useful reason to have your character directly plugged into the game! Clan Tremere (being new to the scene after all) more or less needs the good will of clan Lasombra to keep their small foothold in that region and the Lasombra can sometimes force themselves into some Tremere business in exchange for the shared living arrangement. Sending a neonate to oversee clan Lasombra's own interests in this matter makes a lot of sense to me. As you stated, if she can go the extra mile and acquire some extra to either impress her sire or keep it secretly for herself.

Lots of characters in fiction (even very popular characters in their own right) are inspired or based on other characters or true life historical figures, so, I wouldn't get too caught up on having something absolutely original for this game. Just as long as you make a few tweaks here and there to make this character their own thing, I am happy with that! Since you are starting with a neonate, she would be a scheming-wheeler-dealer-in-over-her-head type of person to being with... by default. The nights are filled with neonates who sometimes try to pull in a fish that are too big for their current situation. I think giving your character a specific road - path (philosophy) and going down the mystical - spiritual aspects of the Lasombra would be just what the doctored ordered to give this PC it's own specific signature.

[Starship Tical]

@1Skell: Thank you for the post!

Sure! Newbs are people too and you will be treated right with us! I have no issues with showing you the ropes--you just need to tell me what you want to do in the game and I will explain the mechanics - tell you what to roll.

Works for me!

[Hotshot lasgun]

im fine with the brujah muscle

[Hotshot lasgun]

fyi, if anyone wants in rome by torchlight, feel free to pm me

[Apocrypha]

Originally Posted by Starship Tical

Lots of characters in fiction (even very popular characters in their own right) are inspired or based on other characters or true life historical figures, so, I wouldn't get too caught up on having something absolutely original for this game.

I think I'm okay here - whatever Isabella's other merits, I think she's different enough from Lucita now that the similarities won't bug me. In look, personality, and gameplay, I don't think they'll resemble each other very much at all.

Thank you very much for your generous feedback! I'm excited about the game!

[1Skell]

Originally Posted by Starship Tical

@1Skell: Thank you for the post!

Sure! Newbs are people too and you will be treated right with us! I have no issues with showing you the ropes--you just need to tell me what you want to do in the game and I will explain the mechanics - tell you what to roll.

Works for me!

Thank you for the openness. I thought about having a character whose life was directly tied to the some of the relevant battles of the age and reading on the clans I noticed that the Tzimisce are heavily connected with the Carpathian Mountains and 10% of it is in Poland, a country that suffered its first Mongol invasion late 1240-1241. The core idea would be the survivor of a coterie in a land that was overrun by the Golden Horde. The "family" would have lost its dominion and ran for dear unlife, each getting into the first mean of transportation available. The character would have ended in a ship to Castilla y Leon and there would have gained permission to settle by the local ruler (I don't know if simply by being Tzimisce a Tzimisce would be allowed in the realm, if Vicissitude would be seen as valuable enough asset to get said permission or if said vampire ruler would think that by extending a hand to Tzimisce refugees he/she would take a step towards conecting with the clan/making them allies).

My immediate doubts regarding the concept comes from the background description of the clan: Traditionally, Tzimisce drew from among the most suitable members of their own nobility, prizing loyalty, fierceness, and strength above all other qualities. To this end, they prefer to Embrace ghouls, and they have established whole families of revenants to serve that purpose.

Does this means that the human who is turned into a Tzimisce does not need to hold a noble title during his mortal life but rather be one of their inner-circle ghouls?

[1Skell]

Originally Posted by Hotshot lasgun

fyi, if anyone wants in rome by torchlight, feel free to pm me

Taking up on that offer I have PMed you.

[Ladytron]

Originally Posted by Starship Tical

Please send me a another one and I will take a few minutes today to clean out my PM inbox that is full if you want to go that route as well.
I am all ears!

Tried to send, mailbox still full.

[Ladytron]

Originally Posted by 1Skell

My immediate doubts regarding the concept comes from the background description of the clan: Traditionally, Tzimisce drew from among the most suitable members of their own nobility, prizing loyalty, fierceness, and strength above all other qualities. To this end, they prefer to Embrace ghouls, and they have established whole families of revenants to serve that purpose.

Is the "nobility" mentioned not actual nobility (as in titles of nobility) but rather the inner circle amognst their ghouls?

Not trying to speak for the GM here, but as a Vamp GM for some time, the Tzimisce are very much the classic 'Nobility', as in the tend to own land, a Castle, surfs, that sort of thing. They're very 'Old School', which for Vampires is saying something. Tzimisce prefer their ghouls as they'll tailor a ghoul family around their likes and preferences, plus a Ghoul Family tends to be very loyal. For example, if you're trying to 'kill the Tzimisce in his/her Castle', and you see a village on the way (which will likely have said Ghouls in it), there's a good probability said Tzimisce knows you're coming...

Tzimisce and Ghouls relationship is purely Master and Servant. The Tzimisce is in charge, and the Ghouls do whatever the Tzimisce tells them to do else he makes finger puppets out of the Ghouls (not necessarily joking ).

Just my $0.02, and remember I'm not the GM, so take this with a grain of salt.

[1Skell]

@Ladytron

Your message was super helpful to me. First and most importantly, it made me notice that I didn't express my doubt properly. My question was more on the sense if the ghouls needed to have a noble title before being turned or "simply" ghouls and I didn't know the Tzimisce where so old for vampire standards. Thank you a lot for helping me see those points.

[Ladytron]

@1Skell

Personal thought: Excellent question, difficult and long-ish answer. This is more a question the GM should answer as you're looking for more specifics and the GM might do things differently.

[Aethera]

Originally Posted by Hotshot lasgun

fyi, if anyone wants in rome by torchlight, feel free to pm me

Is this a White Wolf product you're sharing, Hotshot? The books I'm aware of are all copyrighted and should not be shared illegally.