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.

Know Your Kindred – Troglodytia

Name:  Troglodytia
Clan:  Cappadocian
Generation:  Possibly 5th
Embraced:  Unknown

There is little information available to prove it, but all logic would conclude the Samedi bloodline is somehow connected to the former Clan of Death – the Cappadocians.  The former clan’s weakness was that its members resembled corpses, a disfigurement that is more pronounced in the Samedi, as they resemble putrid, rotting corpses.

The Cappadocian discipline of Mortis and the Samedi discipline of Thanatosis are very similar to each other, dealing with the study and exploitation of death.  On top of that, many Samedi possess Necromancy.   If the Samedi truly did evolve from the Cappadocian line, from whom did they descend?  Were the Giovanni involved?

Upon her Embrace Troglodytia was cursed with a horrible appearance that seem to fall on many new Cappadocians of the time.  Her face showed advanced decomposition.  Her disgusting appearance made her unapproachable and drew mean-spirited insults from her peers.  But through it all Troglodytia wore her condition as a badge of matrydom and was determined to rise above it all.

She took up company with a group of Nosferatu, but her mastery of Obfuscate is not advanced enough to hide her appearance.  But true to her martyr self, she has made the best of her lot, becoming a mercenary, acting as a broker for the Cappadocians and Giovanni, procuring dead bodies for experimentation, odd herbs and alchemical ingredients, as well as strange artifacts that come to her attention.  She has become a veritable black market all by herself.

Trogldytia is content to work for any benefits and promises she can gather.  Who knows what will come of the favors she gains?

– Source:  Clanbook: Cappadocian, pg 64-68.