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.