Know Your Kindred – Petaniqua

Name:  Petaniqua
Clan:  Malkavian
Generation:  5th
Embrace:  323 AD

Petaniqua was originally known as Olympias – the mother of Alexander the Great.  Born into the royal family of the Macedonian Empire, she lived a spoiled and carefree life.  She delighted in the discovery of secret knowledge, which lead her to service in the cult of Cybele – a demonic Malkavian Methuselah.  The religion of Cybele had a hold over Petaniqua and she eventually became Cybele’s lover and began tasting her blood.

Using the powers she gained from Cybele, Olympias raised her son Alexander to be a proud, ruthless military leader.  For her success, Olympias was finally Embraced by Cybele.  After Alexander assumed the throne and conquered the Persian Empire, he was wounded and later died of fever.  Olympias wanted to be with her son, but Cybele refused to let Olympias go and make her son immortal.

With Alexander dead, the noble families of Greece pushed Olymias and Cybele out of the empire.  They fled to Delphia where they took resident among 13 members of the True Brujah clan.

These Brujah were masters of manipulating time and at predicting the future.  They claimed to have time itself imprisoned somewhere under their compound.  Olymias was fascinated with their powers and soon she studied their manipulations and became a priestess, gaining a remarkable ability to see the future.

In return for their hospitality, the True Brujah asked Olympias to help them break a curse that prevented them from crossing the borders of Asia.  She agreed to aid them and upon returning from her mission she found Cybele destroyed, burned to crisp by the sun and the group of True Brujah had mysteriously vanished.  Olympias spent the next few centuries puzzled by this event.  She wondered if the True Brujah were actually Malkavians who tricked her, but why did they kill her sire and not her?  And why could she not have foreseen their plot?  Olympias was afraid she was being hunted by the clan.

Olympias finally came out of the woods and joined the Sabbat.  The Sabbat accepted her because of her power, chief among them, her ability to command corrupted Garou, like the Black Spiral Dancers which she used as retainers.  They renamed her Petaniqua, the Black Eyes of the Wyrm.

As the Sabbat gained power and the Camarilla learned of Petaniqua and her involvement with the Lupines, the Malkavians decided to destroy her for the good of the clan.   They found Petaniqua and nearly destroyed her, but a group of Black Spiral Dancers came to her aid and chased away the Malkavian intruders.  Although she survived the attack, Petaniqua was so wounded she fell headlong into torpor.

It wasn’t until the mid-1960s that the Black Spiral Dancers were able to awaken her again.  Petaniqua quickly reestablished herself in the new modern world as a Malkavian antitribu, eventually becoming an Inquisitor in the Sabbat.  While the Path of Evil Revelations enticed her, Petaniqua found her Garou beliefs to be the real answers to her twisted spirituality.  She started worshipping the Wyrm in secret ceremonies while her pack traveled through Mexico City.  She is now enslaved by the Wyrm and has transferred her loyalty from Cybele to this unholy manifestation.

Petaniqua wanted to find a way to gain entry into the Camarilla and redeem herself with her own clan.  She discovered that there was a member of the Red List in her own Sabbat pack.  She quickly stacked him and brought him to the Camarilla to claim the Trophy.  But the Malkavians remembered Petaniqua and urged the other clans to destroy her.  Petaniqua managed to escaped into the wilderness with now both the Camarilla and the Sabbat chasing after her.

Now Petaniqua has forsaken vampire society and spends most of her time among the corrupted Lupines.  She hopes to one day prepare them as an army to march against the Camarilla.  But this is difficult as her followers are not entirely rational beings.  If they were more sane her plan might well come to fruition.  In the future, she hopes to assault the Masquerade.  Petaniqua unequivocally believes that Gehanna is a myth to give the Camarilla control and the Sabbat a cause.

The Malkavians want her more than any other clan, dead or alive.  The Gangrel fear her because of the hold she has over werewolves.  The Lupines are just now beginning to learn about her, although most do not consider her a great danger.

But Petaniqua is a convenient scapegoat for the crimes committed by Camarilla elders, when they need to shift blame to someone else.  Some quietly suggest the Justicars have been ordered to pull back from pursuing her in order to maintain this “safety net” of blame.  A few say there is an even more sinister purpose for slowing the pursuit.

Rumors persist that she is either a Black Spiral Dancer or a Follwer of Set.   Because of the taint she carries, Garou can detect her over great distances, but because she has only been awake for the last 30 years, the Garou don’t yet realize the threat she poses.

Her skills in Auspex allow her to peer into the spirit plane of the Umbra.  And she can use her Dementation to give targets derangements and turn them into cold blooded killers.

Petaniqua moves like a queen, as if she owns everything.  She cannot rest unless she controls her environment.  Not being able to do so causes her to go into a rage.  Lately, she has been having dreams of a world in flames – and saw herself fanning these flames.  She also saw ancient vampires rising from the graves she dug up.  Petaniqua has no idea what these visions mean, but she knows better than to dismiss them.

Petaniqua has black hair and lovely purple-hued eyes.  She dresses like a shaman, with rattlesnake skulls, rattles and bird bones attached to her clothing like ornaments.

– Source:  Kindred Most Wanted, pg 80-85.