Know Your Kindred – Byzar

Name:  Byzar
Clan:  Cappadocian
Generation:  4th
Embraced:  Unknown

Note: It is probably true that Byzar is also known under the name Mahatma, a Cappadocian who studied the path to Golconda closely under the tutelage of Saulot.

Byzar founded the colony of Byzantium around 550 BC.  The colony grew to be the leading port and trading city between the Greek city-states and Asia.

A beautiful older woman named Alexia Theusa traveled through Byzantium while in search of her long lost lover, Andreas.  Byzar fell deeply in love with Alexia and was impressed with the woman’s knowledge of death.  On her final night in Byzantium, Byzar offered her the Embrace, telling her that with immortality she could wait for her lover until the end of time.  Byzar hoped that the Embrace would make Alexia fall in love with him and cause her to forget about Adreas. Unfortunately the Embrace had the opposite affect on Alexia and her love for Adreas was strengthened.

One night she had a vision of Byzantium in ashes and a new golden city being built in its place upon where Adreas would return.  Alexia interpreted her vision to mean Byzantium must be destroyed if her lover would ever find her.  So one night she incapacitated Byzar and his followers.  Using her powers she placed them in torpor and laid their bodies in a crypt in the deepest recesses of the city.

Byzar never shows his true appearance to others.  He often appears as a young man of great beauty, a physically perfect specimen almost akin to Michelangelo’s “David” come to life. He has alabaster skin and long, dark hair, which falls straight down his back.  When he feels penitent, he looks like a particularly hideous Nosferatu, with lice, ticks and other unsavory creatures crawling on him and dressed in the stinking rags of a leper.

– Sources:  Constantinople by Night, pg. 91-92.  Children of the Night, pg. 98-99.