Know Your Kindred – Paolo Sardenzo

Name:  Paolo Sardenzo
Clan: Giovanni
Generation:  8th
Embraced:  1867

Paolo Sardenzo is a Giovanni on his mother’s side.  Ghouled in 1821, Paolo proved to be a very good diplomat for the family, using his skills to negotiate power between the Sabbat and Camarilla for influence over the Italian peninsula.  Paolo’s reward for his extraordinary service was the Embrace in 1867.

Between 1866 and 1914, Paolo brokered many fruitful deals with other Kindred clans. He showed his aptitude for Necromancy was as great as his aptitude for politics.

During the first World War, Paolo was fascinated by modern warfare and was aggressively harvesting new shades from the dead in the battlefields.  His success gained him many followers until a shell landed too close to his haven and his crypt was exposed to sun light.  Paolo survived by burrowing into the ground, but his left arm and left side of his face were forever scarred.

A group of war-dead wraiths, calling themselves the Bloody Legion, rose up and rebelled against Paolo and the Giovanni.  Eventually the Bloody Legion was put to an end, but not before they dealt Paolo a series of defeats – humiliating him infront of the family.

Out of favor with the Giovanni, Paolo was now a family outcast and unable to find anyone willing to partner with him, so he skulked across Europe for many years.

Finally when World War II started, Paolo hoped to use this opportunity to regain his place in the family.  He traveled to eastern Germany, hoping to harvest the souls of the dead during the Russian campaign, but things ended poorly for Paolo and he was staked and dragged back to Italy.

Paolo remained staked until 1985, when he was finally given a second chance. He was blood bond to Diego Giovanni.  By 2000, Paolo had caught up with modern life and computers, urging his master to invest more in technology.  Although the blood bond is very strong, Diego finds it harder and harder to resist relying on Paolo’s advice.

Paolo started out as a tall, dark, handsome man, but the left side of his face is now hideously scarred.  He removed his left eye and replaced it with a corpse’s eye, which has festered in its socket.  Observers say his left hand festers too.

Paolo has created a new combination Discipline, using Thaumaturgy and Protean, so that when he is laying in soil soaked in blood, he can absorb the blood into himself, even in torpor. Of course, blood-soaked ground isn’t terribly common, except in wartime or at the sites of atrocities.

– Source:  Clanbook: Giovanni (Revised), pg 97-98