From Know Your Kindred
Know Your Kindred – Alejandro Aguirre
Name: Alejandro Aguirre
Clan: Tremere antitribu
Generation: 10th
Embrace: Late 19th Century
Alejandro was a snake oil sales man, traveling through Mexico, Texas and California selling a miracle tonic that could cure any aliment imaginable. The tonic killed far more than it cured, but luckily for Alejandro he met a man who promised he could teach him real magic. Alejandro agreed and was attacked by the man and turned into a vampire. Alejandro was now a Tremere and over a great deal of time has learned to master several of his clan’s powerful spells. Some of his clanmates would debate if Alejandro’s spells are really that powerful, but he can create one hell of a lightening storm.
Alejandro is vain and cocky to a fault. He dresses in Mexico’s finest clothing and moves with the grace of a dancer. He is seldom without a smile on his face and a woman on his arm. His mustache is normally slightly hidden behind a fat cigar.
– Source: Tales of the Trail: Mexico, pg. 88-89
Know Your Kindred – Las Hermanas Hambrientas
Name: Las Hermanas Hambrientas (The Hungry Sisters)
Clan: Blood Brothers
Generation: Between 10th and 14th
Embraced: 1997
After the Tremere antitribu disappeared in the late 1990s, many of their experiments and thaumaturgical workings were left behind. The Hungry Sisters are one of these experiments.
Blood Brothers were shock troops the Tremere antitribu and a few Tzimisce sorcerers had developed. These “Frankensteins” were sometimes used to undermine the stability of a targeted city. A few of Goratrix’s followers hoped to improve upon their design. One such antitribu named Elena Mendoza Vasquez created a female Blood Brother capable of reproducing itself.
This female Frankenstein locks herself in a mutual feeding with her victim. Their blood flows between them for 3 to 10 nights. If all goes well the feeding ends and the sire and childer rise. This artificial Embrace transforms the child into a physical duplicate of its sire and plugged into the hive mind of the circle. The process leaves both vampires starved for blood. Their vampiric metabolisms are so charged that they burn blood at a phenomenal rate. It is not uncommon for the freshly risen sisters to consume the blood of 12 mortals before feeling sated.
Elena Vasquez never intended to let the three “sisters” she created loose in Mexico. They were locked up in her Chantry until November of 2000, when the Harbinger of Skull known as La Viuda Blanca broke in to exhume Vasquez’s research. One of the sisters escaped and fled into the night.
In her two years of freedom, she spawned again and again. Whole neighborhoods were destroyed to feed their ravenous hunger of first one, then two, then 10 and now 20 Hungry Sisters. They make their haven in the basement of a disused hacienda surrounded by a few shantytowns. The large basement crawls with the Sisters and is littered with the bones of their victims. The locals believe the Sisters are ghosts or saints out for vengeance. A small cadre of men act as the Sisters’ eyes during the day and select victims to feed the brood.
The Sisters share thoughts as well as blood. They know with each new Embrace their hunger grows stronger. Soon the shantytowns will not be enough for them. The Sisters have a dozen or so ghouls, who help them keep the shantytown paralyzed with fear.
The Sisters are all identical, with long luxurious black hair and swarthy skin. Much of the time the Sisters are beautiful, glowing with vitality. But when their hunger sets in, they become horrific shrews, all pretense of humanity is lost to long fangs and animalistic rage.
– Source: Mexico City by Night, pg. 69-70.
Know Your Kindred – Xeper, Sultan of Lepers
Name: Xeper, Sultan of Lepers
Clan: Baali
Generation: 7th
Embrace: 790 AD
Xeper was originally an Egyptian trader traveling through Damascus. He entered Baali servitude as a ghoul messenger to help keep the infernalists linked across the scattered regions.
When the Assamites destroyed numerous Baali strongholds, Xeper escaped and returned to Damascus to warn his masters. For his actions they gave him the Embrace.
Since that time Xeper has remained in the shadows, watching Damascus grow. He has also watched Annazir grow careless and make numerous mistakes that have compromised the clan’s safety. Xeper believes he must act before Annazir’s foolishness jeopardizes the entire sect.
Xeper has convinced a number of younger Baali to take action against their elder. The only matter stopping them is Annazir’s control over the organ pit. Once Xeper understands its secrets, he will rise up against Annazir. Until that time, he waits, trying to find a way to use the Assamites to destroy Annazir without it threatening the other Baali.
– Source: Veil of Night, pg. 206.
Know Your Kindred – Annazir
Name: Annazir
Clan: Baali
Generation: 5th
Embrace: 12th Century BC
Annazir was the most powerful Cainite in ancient Damascus. He has resided there since he was a young infernal recruit during its years as a Greek outpost over 2000 years ago. The Baali of Damascus held a great deal of power thanks to Annazir’s maintenance over the great organ pit known as the Ibill al-Akbar.
Unlike too many of his brethren, who proved too eager to release Hell’s minions, Annazir possessed a disciplined patience. Hell was inevitable he believed, so why unleash it now? He remained quiet and subtle in his actions.
After the Children of Haqim struck blow after blow to several Baali strongholds, Annazir and five of the strongest Baali joined together and cursed the Assamites with a terrible blood thrust (“As you thrust for our blood, so you shall hunger for all blood all the time.”).
Besides the Baali, the Toreador were the second faction of power in Damascus. A Toreador named Darshuf controlled the city’s ruling family. But Annazir slipped in with the Toreador and slowly corrupted Darshuf and his kin. By the time they found out who Annazir really was, it was too late to do anything about it. Exposing Annazir’s existence would destroy their own reputations. So Darshuf agreed to protect Annazir and keep him on as a high ranking advisor in return Annazir would not corrupt the rest of Darshuf’s childer.
Unfortunately, centuries of this power filled Annazir with delusions of grandeur and he has forgotten the lessons in subtly that allowed him to become an elder. Now he is no longer satisfied with resting in the shadows and influencing events from afar. Now he was too visible to outsiders and openly relished his own corruption. The other Baali worry he will endanger them and are looking for a means to dispose of him, even if it means betraying him to the Assamites.
Annazir passes himself off as a humble Toreador who advises the cities elders, in truth he influences them. Although he has grown bold, he keeps a safe distance from the visiting Assamite delegation. If he becomes endangered, he is ready to pass off Darshuf or his advisor Barqat as scapegoats.
– Source: Veil of Night, pg. 192-195, 205-206.
Know Your Kindred – Baroque
Name: Baroque
Clan: Samedi
Generation: 7th
Embrace: 1725
Baroque looks like a tall, handsome black man wearing a dapper white suit. He is completely bald and speaks with a Jamaican accent. He is friendly to everyone and laughs in a booming, good-natured way. But this image is false. Baroque’s physical appearance is really an illusion covering the wizened old Tibetan vampire named Shih Hsu
Shih Hsu was a bully, sadist and rapist. He was a predator from birth. A minor death-mage, he terrorized his village and then his entire province. By the time he was 60, he was considered to be the most evil man in Tibet. With his wealth from banditry, he built a fortress for himself in the Himalayas where his deeds brought him to the attention of the Samedi named Morlock. Morlock admired Shih Hsu for his wickedness and offered him the Embrace.
After Morlock Embraced him and taught him all he knew, Shih Hsu flayed Morlock right down to his bones. What Shih Hsu didn’t know was that Morlock was a member of the Eastern Black Hand and soon they came after Shih Hsu.
Barely able to escape their attack, Shih Hsu ran for safety and sold his soul to Anastagio’s Olde Time Lunar Carnival in exchangefor immediate escape and a new identity, thus “Baroque the Fortuneteller” was born.
Baroque possess a small jade artifact known as the Hand of the Yama Kings. The Hand is powerful, allowing Baroque to control wraiths and granting him temporary entrance into the Shadowlands.
Source: Midnight Circus, pg 58-59.
Know Your Kindred – Rusticus
Name: Rusticus
Clan: Gargoyle
Generation: 10th
Embrace: Unknown
Rusticus is a former Tzimisce turned Gargoyle. He has little memory of his life before the Embrace. He remembers gardening and at one time being a professional soldier, but that is all. He spends most of his time staying in the Chantry providing security and manual labor.
Outside of his job, Rusticus is a gentle creature. This doesn’t make him any less dangerous when he is performing his duties; uninvited visitors are likely to have their heads twisted backwards and their body buried in a compost heap.
Rusticus is quite happy with himself. He is wistful about what his previous life was like, but doesn’t think about it that much. It isn’t that important to him. He does occasionally keep a diary, writing stories about his past. The diary is his only real personal possession. He has learned the basics of Thaumaturgy in exchange for giving a few Tremere fencing and pankration lessons.
Rusticus is a large, stony, bipedal figure, not blocky at all. He has smooth curves and a sharp spine. His skin is naturally covered in a Baroque intaglio of design. He is a work of art in his own right.
The Spanish Inquisition destroyed Rusticus in 1561, while he was helping several Tremere elders escape from Spain.
– Source: Jerusalem by Night, pg. 108-109
Know Your Kindred – La Viuda Blanca
Name: La Viuda Blanca
Clan: Harbingers of Skulls
Generation: 8th
Embrace: Unknown
La Viuda Blanca (or the White Widow) has spent an eternity trying to understand the secrets of the universe hidden from man. Not long after her Embrace she came to the Shadowlands and saw first hand the terrible storm at its center. Innumerable years later the storm swept her back to the lands of the living.
The White Widow feeds only from the blood of infants, as they taste the sweetest to her. She has now teamed up with a Tzmisce scholar named Esteban del Agua y Tierra. He found her wandering Mexico City delirious. He gave her shelter and blood, helped her piece together the realities of the modern life and unlife and told her of the approaching Gehenna. This belief and the circumstances of her discovery helped baptize her bloodline as the Harbingers of Skulls.
The Widow and Esteban have grown close together and bonded through Vaulderie. They broke into the Chantry of the vanished Tremere antitribu to study their libraries and laboratories. The Widow has opened a vast array of Thaumaturgical research and clan secrets. She believes the Tremere were working to forestall Gehenna, but suspects they may have played a role in the lead up to the Final Nights.
As a prominent Harbinger in the Sabbat’s epicenter, the White Widow has significant influence over the sect’s occult circles. Unknown to the sect’s elders, she is recruiting a variety of neonates she believes will play a role in the coming apocalypse. She now spends her nights preparing for when the end truly does come. She hopes by then to have the unique insight to be ready.
Like all Harbingers, La Viuda Blanca is a horror to behold. She is 70 pounds of dried leather hanging off an ancient skeleton. She wears long white robes and a hood over her face. Her eyes are pitch black and her mouth is full of needle-pointed fangs.
– Source: Mexico City By Night, pg. 75-77.
Know Your Kindred – Qawiyya el-Ghaduba
Name: Qawiyya el-Ghaduba
Clan: Salubri
Generation: 5th
Embrace: 636 AD
Although few of Saulot’s line remain, those who still remember know that his favorite childe was Samiel, who single-handedly launched the warrior’s path from within the clan of healers; who founded the Code that bears his name, and who was killed by the same monstrosities he swore to destroy.
Before leaving to face the Baali in their unholy sepulcher, the infernal acropolis at Chorazin, Samiel called those of his line together and warned them of dark times to come, and urged them each to remember the Code as he had instructed it. It would be his last known appearance.
What few know is that Samiel made a single stop on his way to Chorazin – a stop that would change the warrior caste for all time. Samiel found himself drawn by a vision to a small village. The townspeople had fallen under a terrible plague. Those who remained had lost all hope and abandoned their homes and their unburied love ones. – All but a single soul, that is.
Samiel found a lone Arab woman single-handedly moving the corpses of her infant son, her two brothers and her dead husband out to a pyre and watched those closest to her vanish in flame.
Enthralled, the warrior asked the woman why she alone chose to stay, when everyone else moved on. She simply replied it was her duty that the dead be buried. She knew the source of the plague was the Devil, but so long as a single soul stayed and tended to the dead with the same unshakable faith she tended to the living, then the Devil could never truly claim the town as his own. Lucifer would be foiled by one woman of faith.
Now Samiel, the greatest warrior of the Salubri, was shaken. He recognized God’s work before him. He had been guided to this woman and knew his journey to Chorazin would be his last. Knowing this, Samiel entrusted the woman with two great responsibilities: First, he Embraced her into the warrior line, making her the heir of his legacy. Second, he gave her his first-hand copy of the Code of Samiel, penned by himself centuries ago. This was hers to protect… and to remember.
Six hundred years later, the last chide of Samiel returned to Jerusalem after she had seen both her sire and her sire’s sire destroyed. She launched a campaign of brutal justice against the Tremere, raging through the Holy City like the wrath of God, laying waste to the Tremere. Before the year’s end, she had removed them from the city and put a plan into action to keep them out of Palestine forever.
She set up shop in the old Tremere chantry, where she invited all the neighboring princes. After a week of deliberations, an accord uniting the region. A new era of peace and determination began in Palestine. Although Qawiyya holds no title, there is no doubt among its residents who holds the reins of power and righteousness in the Holy City. This Muslim warrior Salubri is now known as the “Lioness of Jerusalem.”
An aged Salubri healer named Nahum ben Enosh assisted her early efforts before passing the torch and slipping into torpor. He was laid to rest in a crypt he designed and Qawiyya watched over him as vigilantly as she protected her copy of the Code of Samiel.
– Source: Road of Heaven, pg. 46, 92-93.
Know Your Kindred – Nahum Ben Enosh
Name: Nahum Ben Enosh
Clan: Salubri
Generation: 4th
Embrace: 216 CE
Nahum was a Talmudic scholar, studying and arguing all the fine points of Jewish Law. One evening, while heading home, he said he regretted the fact he was getting older and approaching closer to death. He mourned the fact that he would not have enough time to acquire all the knowledge he wanted to. Saulot overheard Nahum’s comments and so he Embraced him.
Nahum spent the following centuries learning and passing on his knowledge to others. He gained the reputation as a scholar of considerable repute. He didn’t much care for the blood feeding requirement to be a Cainite, but he reconciled that it must be God’s plan for his life. Unable to imagine his life as a Salubri warrior, Nahum followed the healing path instead.
With his inquisitive nature, Nahum turned his attention to studying demon pacts. What are demons exactly? Why does God allow them to exist? What purpose do they serve? Is it possible for a mortal or Cainite to control one?
Nahum appears as a harmless old man in his sixties, dressed in traveler’s robes and carrying a walking staff. His hair and beard are quite white.
Since Saulot’s destruction Nahum lost most of his enthusiasm. Tired with the world and unhappy at the direction his clan had taken, Nahum retreated to torpor, where he vanished from the pages of history.
– Source: Jerusalem by Night, pg. 98-99
Know Your Kindred – White Lily
Name: White Lily
Clan: Malkavian antitribu
Generation: 6th
Embrace: 1776
Almost nothing is known about White Lily’s past. The story is that she was Embraced by a powerful Black Hand assassin, who trained her. She is one of the Hand’s best, most reliable agents, and has also maintained an identity within the Camarilla. She travels the world, destroying anyone who is a danger to the sect.
Lily looks like a woman in her mid-twenties with blonde hair in a blunt-cut bob and has a beauty mark near her mouth. She wears a padded black leather jumpsuit with high-laced combat boots. She has many pockets sewn into her leather jacket to accommodate her many weapons – sniper rifle, pistol with silencer, silver bullets. She wears round sunglasses and moves like a panther.
Source: Midnight Circus, pg 116.