Beatrice Carla Simi Michelena
| World of Darkness: Rock and Roll | |
|---|---|
 | |
| GM | |
| Karen | |
| Game Time | |
| Floating | |
| The Band | |
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Kirk Ryder Matt's Keyboarder | |
| The Crew | |
|
James Ulrich | |
| The Retainers | |
|
Norman Rockfellow | |
| Special Thanks To... | |
|
Richard Berkinson IV Ben's Changeling Kimura Tristain Hiroyuki Jim Tanaka |
This page is a WIP. Traits and stats are a WIP.
Vitals
| Name: Beatrice Carla Simi Michelena
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Description
There's a flash of light in those almond eyes that brightens up the smile in the determined square draw of Beatrice Carla Simi Michelena. With a graceful sloping nose and round face, Carla has a natural grace and beauty that worked very well for stage and early screen, however is fairly average, though shorter now, by today's "Hollywood standards" and wouldn't stand out from other actresses... one of her problems in the silent era. Carla, however, sees this as a strength, as her strength of personality makes a far greater impression and beats down standards for mortals and vampires alike, generally remembering her as charming and beautiful.
Like other Toreador, Carla keeps up with mainstream mortal fashions and trends. She usually flattens her hair, or goes through phases of cutting and bobbing or blowing it out per the whims of taste and the age and look of her current persona. Starting over she's favored a younger look with longer and straighter hair on most days, letting her curls show in a pile when she feigns feeling frazzled, or when dressing up stylishly.
Carla's counterpoint to the youthful look is a professional appearance for work attire. The black ensemble of the artistic theatre worker, now layered and textured with laces, pin-tucks, and even leathers that drape on her frame. Carla usually has a way of incorporating something from her history in her attire as well, an enameled art nouveau necklace, a mid-century hair clip, or a ring much older passed on from her sire as a gift. Fashion these days love the vintage touches when incorporated well, and the Toreador adore them. She sees the black as a textured canvas, like a blank stage, to showcase such pieces.
Background
Beatrice Carla Simi Michelena has a varied history in the dramatic arts over the last century. Starting with a background in opera and silent film, where she attracted the interest of her sire, she dabbled in creations that were at the forefront of the period she lived in, though sometimes by chance and well chosen friendships using her social graces than by prudent business or career decisions. She considers each new part of her existence spent in mortal careers playing a new role, and filmography or credits building. She has dabbled in radio, and different forms of theatre work, considering scenic design to be a stronger and more practiced suit than costuming. Although they are sorely out of practice, she still retains some skills in the stunts she would perform on stage and screen. She is happy to return home after the trials of New York.
History
As told to Lila Jasper, newly embraced childe, in Elysium in November of 2011(YEAR when are we?), when asked how the Toreador got into the music business with mortals and her working relationship with one of them in particular.
I’ve had almost as many names as I’ve had roles on stage and screen. It’s all just about the same. We play these different parts in life. I mean, what’s in a name? It’s chosen to define our character and give clues to the audience. Changing your name now and again isn’t without merit.
When you don’t age, and you stay in mortal society, you change your name quite a lot. But those in the know… your cover shots and production resume are guarded and trusted secrets. A first name, a stage name, that’s all you ever need know. Kine who do art, who really do their art well at longstanding production facilities and even new ones we’ve taken a shine to, well, they damn well know who’s underwritten the performance space for three decades, has taken out the best box for the last one hundred and fifty years, or has brought in new talent to the company since the Renaissance. You don’t question those things for long. You appreciate them, us, as the subtle art we are.
However, some of us like to be at the top of our game too, rather than merely experiencing life, passive. Artists, musicians, actors, et cetera. One either creates kindred only art, which is dark and beautiful but competitive and sometimes falls into a pit of grotesqueries and harking for the good old days, or one glories in modern innovation, which comes from living breathing bodies. Mortality, at it’s best and brightest!
If you choose that path, one must reinvent those personas. So, my history is a series of new names for mortal eyes and ears. For mortal hearts. You must play to their hearts!
My mother named me Beatrice. Not BEE-uh-triss, but Bay-uh-TREE-Chay, the Italian. My mother, was, as I gather, the younger daughter of some English family of some merit, with an Italian connection. She well for an opera singer, poor thing, and was hid away for several months with relations in Italy while I was gestating. In honor of this, I received an Italian name. Then, Carla, which was her mother’s. It’s also rather Italian, but there you go. While I was young, hidden there and in England, away from society, I was able to use my mother’s own surname.
I shall not mention that name to you. The memories in the blood of those families run as deep as those of our kind. She hoped she could adopt me, but it was not to be. After several years, which must have been full of struggle and pain for her, my mother took me to my father. We went to New York.
My Christian name was the wrong ethnicity, mixed English and Italian heritage from my mother, but unsuitable for opera and my Venezuelan born father. And as a bastard child, my last name was right out, impossible to connect back to her liaison. My father gave me his name and called me Beatriz Michelena.
Why was my father so accepting? Why take me, a bastard into his family? He saw me smile. I called him Papa. I sang for him. He melted. He knew I, like my elder sister, could melt the hearts of the people, too. He took it upon himself to train us in his art.
My half sister Vera sang contralto, I, six years younger, sang soprano. We both started in the Princess Chic touring company, performing English language versions of operas for Americans. She was seventeen and got a leading role. I was eleven. I started with chorus roles and worked my way up.
My opera name sufficed in California, playing the “fiery Latin” stereotype from the beginning. I was loved on stage. I was even loved in life, and I married. Then I was attracted to the siren call of silver nitrate, and was determined to make my way in the most cutting edge of studios. The glory of film in the hills around San Francisco!
It was wild, and I was free. One acted with one’s body and face, theatrically, and I learned my own stunts. I injured myself on my first film, Salomy Jane, based on a Bret Harte story. It was glorious!
I joined a company in Marin to film in the sunshine there, the California Motion Picture Company. All the elite of San Francisco summered up there in homes or the grand hotel, but we worked in the sun, busting our chops to build sets and greenhouses to put sets in. Back then, you couldn’t film inside- it was too dark. You could tell who filmed outside from the breezes on their hair and tablecloths. Everyone had it. Imagine seeing movement like that in every show you enjoyed while watching television, like Full House, or Friends, or Law and Order, all those studio sets outside, every bit of clothing and cloth waving in the breeze. But we didn’t. We built the first studios and let in the sun through greenhouse windows. I can still feel the sun on my back. We filmed with cameras with multiple reels. We shot multiple angles at the same time. We voiced our lines and filmed versions of operas. Cutting edge. The Bay Area has always been more cutting edge than the pit of Hollywood.
That pit. Something was wrong. Something was oh, so very wrong in our sunny valley.
Go to a screening, and the audiences adored the films. They loved me as a star, too, so we gave me billing, insisted on it and… nothing. No sells. No distribution. Top reviews of all the films. But no profit. What was going wrong?
It was all being undermined. But we were all being given grace. It was all revealed when we filmed Faust.
See, we had our own patron, who appeared on set on our rather rare nighttime shoot at Dominican University. Our producer, one of the other company owners, introduced us. He was charming, charismatic, and a passionate actor. A baritone. We spoke rapidly in Spanish and Italian together, switching in and out of languages and taking to one another like old friends. I believe my husband was a bit jealous. He was floating us through and wanted to see us succeed. He revealed himself, and eventually he revealed the duplicity of our scheming partners.
Traitors.
He offered me a new life, a new role, but I’d have to break with my old one. Could I do it? Could I practice it? Can you cast it all aside that easily? He was my Mephistopheles.
We pulled out of the company for a time for him to investigate how far up the corruption went, where the money was going and all of that. In the meantime I wrote an advice column for aspiring and star struck girls. My Mephistopheles courted me. He was, I believe, watching me long before, and I was why he was supporting the company’s efforts. When he finally had his answers, we went to work. He gave me that which I desired, and I gave him what he longed for most.
My first kiss, the sloppy, uncontrolled kiss of a childe, was mercy begged for on a dying starlet. Her body, plus a little pressure, and victory was ours. Poor thing who died for us, she was so sweet, but not at all innocent. She gave herself, and wanted to pass on to end the pain and ruptures in her body, too frequent from the medicine of the time. She was like us, beautiful, but rotten within. My first kiss.
The victory we gained from her was a departing gift for my husband. We returned to Marin and pressured our partners out of the company. I did a couple of films with him for old time’s sake but he knew my heart was elsewhere and we parted. He alone knew and kept my secrets, devoted to the end.
I went back to the stage, to my roots as it were, on tour around the world with my sire, like childhood all over again, but with new vision. Carmen, Madama Butterfly. He was invigorated by the experience and we travelled through till the War, learning the best of modern stagecraft and technique, my tutelage in more ways than one.
The War hurt everyone. We couldn’t stand for it either. We toured to uplift hopes and spirits… and occasionally get tapped for translation services. I hadn’t forgotten the languages of my youth. It was sometime during the War that I killed the name Beatriz officially.
Sorry, father. It was time for a new role to play. Mortals would’ve gotten suspicious.
And my sister. My sister was completely suspicious. The funny irony is that she had played a vampire in a film, and now I had become one, hiding the truth like we all do with more theatre. The cinema vampire is clean and fantastic. The viewer is allured by the predation, wanting to feel submissive, safe in fantasy. My sister, strong willed like me, saw through my attempts to smooth over her fears and disquiet about my unchanging nature. It was easier if Beatriz simply died while away to let her move on.
My husband already had. He knew from the beginning. He lied about my return from time to time and Beatriz died in a failed surgery in San Francisco.
I was, for a time, content, that my voice had lowered like my sister’s, and given a nice range from my sire’s strong blood and long hours of practice. (Even from my examples, you see, Carmen there is a passionate mezzo role, and Cio-Cio is a spinto, or pushed soprano, something between lyric and dramatic.) It made a good fit for the radio, the priceless companion of both World Wars. Something safe in those little boxes without sunlight and lovely “on air” signs. We told stories, sang, and reported through the night, taking those rough shifts, taking one “for the team.”
Then, for those Atlantic broadcasts, I was Mrs. Francis Keppel Albemarle, a name neither of us enjoyed, but laughed at inwardly for its stodginess. My given name was Carla Eveline. He was calling himself Francis. Let’s get that straight.
We parted after the war to pursue different interests. You spend so much intimate time together you need your space apart too. It’s how life goes. I felt the call back to film. It’s like a cycle, I suppose, depending on what seems innovative.
It took me back to the wild west, in a sort of way. There were directors ready to break away from established traditions, forget the codes and systems, critique society, and establish new tropes.
I took roles helping craft on set, pulling design and working night gigs to get things done before the actors and director and production staff arrived in the morning. Most kine try to shoehorn you into the costume department if they see you have a female name, so I used the masculine form of my own. It was a bit of a “britches” role. I was able to work wider design roles with that cover. I travelled to Italy and Spain with multinational productions trying to say… something about the West. I was curious what it would be. Perhaps they should go see La fanciula del West for inspiration. Puccini, you see, had the first Spaghetti Western, back in 1910. It’s still glorious.
Then Sergio Leone happened. I remember his parents, and their Italian films. He had that It factor, that vision. He wanted his actors lit like Renaissance painters. I was drawn to him, and his little band. His movie wasn’t supposed to make much money, but it was made with heart and it captured everyone, heart and soul. That was 1964.
Well not everyone. In America, his trilogy was released, in its entirety, in 1967. And then Leone wanted to retire!
I was fortunate. When it came to accepting awards, I had a kindly man step in for me.
Yes, he was a thrall. I’m glad you know the term now.
Yes, he did work on the films, too. He was proud to be associated with it. He was a liaison, a gaffer, and then got a bit part, too. He got his rewards. But he rarely worked in film after the Fistfull/Man With No Name trilogy. He was my proxy, a dummy, a puppet in an industry and culture that wouldn’t accept women. See the names in the credits? How they change them for American audiences, make them more Anglo? They masculinized a few ladies on productions, too.
I grew out of the Westerns, as you’ll see. I accepted my last film design request around 1990. By that time anyways he was ready to retire and I had moved on as well. I was tired of holing up in my studio doing designs and following my puppet to studio sets on evening outings as my own assistant. Although it was hard to give up the genre completely- it took decades- I retired both him and my masculinized name. I believe he took his share of our deal to live on the beach with his wife and set up a college fund for his grand babies.
I don’t think I’ll use another thrall for a while. It’s too hard to balance. He didn’t initially want to retire after tasting success. I thought I’d be done after the trilogy, like Sergio. But then he came back, too. I didn’t work on all of Sergio’s films, but he asked me back for Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America, which felt closer to him.
In 1969 I was visiting another Toreador, Artemesia, in London and was introduced to a young kine she had brought along. He needed patrons for his first decent UK tour, was rather provocative, and Elysium loved him to death. We rather hit it off. We shared a love of multiple arts, seeing the fusion of music and drama. He asked me about Italy, which he had never seen. Anyways, Clockwork Orange had just came out and we all went to see it. I can’t get peeled away, and it was just so fantastic, and we watched it two or three times in a row. We went to Artemesia’s flat and we all dug into her supplies to create inspired futuristic costume sketches and paintings depicting visions of a strange future. I let him keep all of mine, with my number and address in San Francisco, as I was going home. Little did I know it would spark a working friendship. The very friendship you asked me about.
Every so often we would write and he might send a sketch of how his vision was coming along, but then it went quiet for a while. I wasn’t too worried, with the passions of art going around, and had plenty of other work to do. I wasn’t quite in my slow downs from Westerns yet.
Then in 1972, I received a call. I hadn’t heard his voice in what felt like ages. He was planning a short US tour and was going to come to the West Coast. He asked me to produce costumes for SF, Seattle, and a short film, made in SF. I was only doing some small local work at the time, so it was perfect. I couldn't resist him, his own magnetism. He gave me his ideas over the phone, and let me run with it, trusting in the shared images we had had. It was ships passing in the night, but it was so wonderful. His is the kind of mind that makes one feel inspired or outclassed.
His last time onstage in the role he created that night was in 1980, right around the time Once Upon A Time in America came out. This was, more or less, a full decade. His role transitions give me a pang in my unseating heart. I feel like I should purposely flush it with blood when I think of his acting, his style, his transitions, for that is what we go through. But his is wholly public reinventions, and his time will end. This is our lot when working with mortal brilliance. Yet, they will wake up our progenitor from his languid ennui. They are not good enough!
It’s largely because of him that I got curious about music and staging for shows that were not opera or musicals. There are different demands, such as the equipment that is required to be out onstage at all, or most, times. The entrances for the band, however, are just as grand as something in opera. The lead singers looked like prima donnas to me. They were adored. But pop had yet to catch on. He was trying and was being limited by his producers. Rock, similar. Metal, however, offered opportunities. I poked my nose into the genre.
This is when I really stopped working on Westerns seriously. My attention and focus were elsewhere. I took commissions or requests because of connections or other kindred. I stayed in London and watched and listened. I signed on to a rising London band who hoped to have theatrical productions for their first big tour, a bit like wanting to do for the ’80s what Kiss did for the ‘70s. If they went on a World Tour, I would help them. It was a baited promise to do well. Then they released. They actually opened for Kiss, little devils. I was in. The band was Iron Maiden. The producer got a longer talk from me, but most of the band members and staff simply knew me as Beatrice, “like in Dante."
Not everything we did was successful. Some of it was campy and cheesy as hell. But it was fun. It was a trip. I got to be out and see the performances I helped create. There was a great freedom to it all. I stayed with them for a few years. They were highly literate and about to branch off on concepts and experimentation. They wanted to do albums based on Stranger in a Strange Land and already had work on "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Burns’ “Tam O’Shanter.” They didn’t need me, not if they found their own imagery.
Then he called! He had caught wind that I was working with them and asked me to come back and do what his heart always wanted but never was able to do back in the ‘70s, a big theatrical production for a show. I agreed, but only one terms that he actually stop in Italy this time. He said we’d go to Russia, even. He threw in so much energy and finances and effort; he was worn before the show started. We never did go to Russia, but I helped him achieve his vision, giant spider included. Technical folks ate up the achievements we achieved: changeable lighting in tubes for the spider’s legs, use of radio microphones on everyone, and we lowered him from the ceiling in a carnival swing chair, innovation everywhere! The critics hated it. Kindred loved it. And he loved it, of course. Precious. He’s too precious for any of us.
My name was passed around thanks to my work on the tour. It established those of us working on the show as being at the forefront of the technology involved, whether or not we were in the forefront of design. If I showed earlier work first, and folks generally assumed spider was wholly his vision anyway, it let some of the malcontents be appeased.
I took that resume back into the theatre, remembering both the smaller theatre productions I did in the early '70’s and missing the old opera productions of days gone by. Things come in cycles, you see. You’ll see this. Things come in cycles. That’s how I came to work in rock and roll, a music cycle. Now let me give you a lesson about cycles with theatre.
I lived in San Francisco at first, but the biggest productions-the ones with the most money- are always London and broadway. I hated giving up living here. I swore to return. I agonized over the need to leave, and I gave up some sweet things to do it- but here’s the other glorious thing about being one of the Damned: you can always rebuild. You are resilient. Not all of us feel that. Many clutch to what they had in life or live out pathetic unlives in the sewers when they have everything stripped from them. We especially, however, make up ourselves eternally.
So I left for New York. Everything there was networked, so I was introduced via Kindred connections. I was lucky that I got a chance right of the bat, working with other kindred on The Secret Garden, an interesting project as we watched the children on the set. The design lead insisted that kindred on the set must be at least as old as the source material, but actively engaged in mortal life at the time, in order to aid interpretation. It was both serious and a joke.
There is so much turnover in Broadway- and off Broadway New York- that you often feel like everything is doomed. Some of my favorite works are now only remaining in sketches and photographs, the actual productions failing. I fell low, and considered giving up. I had tasted such success before, but truth was, I had been betting low. Now I was betting high, and the losses were felt so much harder. I wondered at the throng and masses who tried over and over at the same futile efforts. But that allure was there, like Hollywood. If you get a break, it catapults you. My fortunate success, however, was towards the end of the decade, with a show transitioning from Houston: Jeckyl and Hyde.
I did a lot of research for that. I sat down with an artsy and talkative Malkavian for nearly a week getting ideas and inspiration on how they saw the world. And the costume design from those from the time period. The most important bit that stand out for them. You can do so much as one of us that you can’t do out there as one of them. Unless you are in the know. Then you are very lucky. My other good hit was Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. It’s a fabulous, controversial rock musical form an experimental company that can barely be performed anymore, and naturally not a blockbuster like Wicked. Meanwhile, if I stayed in the Bay Area, Berkeley Rep was doing a safely controversial musical, quite successful, called American Idiot with Green Day. Oh well!
Such are the whims of artistic fortune, and they don’t always involve people plotting behind the scene.
After that it was really time to move back. I had promised to return after all. Out here, home, land of innovation, exploration, and opportunity. I planned to take variety commissions. There are film studios, music venues and bands doing videos, and theatrical companies. I could do what I wanted.
But that hope only came after a dark, dark time. I crashed and burned. I spent out everything I had to feel something good. I should have seen it coming. I saw it in mortals, in other vampires, even my dear friend that you asked me about in the first place. We all crash and burn. We make bad decisions. The social scene in New York- for kindred and kine- is fabulous. I blew out my savings and investments. I arose from the ashes of my own destructive behavior to see the glimmer of hope: the setting sun in the West. I rode off into the sunset, so to speak.
So now I am starting this new cycle from nothing. Where it shall go, I don’t really know yet. Occasionally I consult here or there or do design sketches for this production or that. Nothing has nailed down yet. It’s entertaining, even if it is restricting to be on a more frugal artist’s lifestyle. Now I am Carla.
Learn from this lesson, young one. Emotions shall get you into trouble, but so shall success and failure. You may forget that you have those pesky things called feelings after all. The Daeva are so striving to feel again and are so shocked when we actually do. Perhaps a cooler head may recognize it when it comes to them. Cycles, little one. Cycles.
But I digress. I apologize. I shall end it simply for you: and that is how I got to work with David Bowie.
Attributes and Traits
Attributes
(5/4/3)
| Intelligence | ■■□□□ | Wits | ■■□□□ | Resolve | ■■□□□ | ||
| Strength | ■■□□□ | Dexterity | ■■■□□ | Stamina | ■■□□□ | ||
| Presence | ■■■■□ | Manipulation | ■■■□□ | Composure | ■■□□□ |
Discipline List
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Quick Traits
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Quick Merits
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Skills
(11/7/4 + 3 Specialties)
Mental
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Physical
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Social
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Trait Descriptions
Merits
- Status: Toreador 2
Carla's work and bon vivant attitude has brought her a good reputation among her Toreador kin. Her heritage (actually having some Latin and Italian blood) and language skills certainly helped give her an early edge, reminding elder Toreador kindred of the noble founder of their bloodline. By consistently adding to her resumé, but still being fairly young and dabbling, Carla is respected on the terms of a Sheriff or "accomplished individual," not quite on the who's who list like an Elysium Harpy, but Carla is clearly working her way up the social ladder within the Toreador.
- Status: Invictus 1
It takes a while to grow status in the "First Estate" or "Aristocracy." Among the political orders, this one's the slowest to change, but the most well respected and the one that has been keeping the backbone of society - and the Masquerade-straight since Rome, and the one Carla was born into. She has sympathies with the Carthians, and their democratic and socialist free-spiritedness, however she hasn't felt the need to change yet. She'd much rather strive to work "across the aisle" and incorporate their viewpoints, believing there are reasons why they left the fold, which is fairly modern and rare-but growing- among the Invictus. She could have put more effort into politics but doesn't bother. Being recognized as a legitimate voice is enough for her as she turns her first century. This status allows Carla to pull on her connections for some advantage. Post starting Herd, Mentor, Resources, and Retainer merits are at half-cost. In return, there are rituals and customs Carla is beholden to when dealing with fellow Invictus members.
- Haven: 2
Carla has invested in a secure location that is decently situated to rest during the daily courses of the sun. It's a beautiful drafting studio scattered with her sketches and bits of costume, with excellent views and an entertaining kitchen stocked with wine, appetizers, and music... and a second windowless room with her fashionable closet in the bedroom and lockable room- the original closet- for her rest.
- Resources: 1
Setting up a new life again is always a little tough. Carla has expended one gloriously and is building up another. She has access to about $500 a month in expendable income and $1000 of liquid assets.
- Fighting Finesse
Litheness and skill has always been a greater forte, a strength from the old days doing her own stunts on stage and screen. Carla can use dexterity instead of strength on weaponry rolls.
- Language: Italian: 3
A childhood with her mother in Italy, away from English relatives, led to some familiarity with the language. This certainly helped when her father taught Carla opera, and Carla has been using Italian ever since. She is fluent like a native speaker in Italian.
- Language: Spanish: 3
A Peruvian born father and work in California and Spain- and deciding to talk with the workers there- has helped Carla keep up her Spanish. Carla is fluent like a native speaker in Spanish.
Disciplines
Carla was blessed through her sire's Toreador blood with two Clan disciplines, which have grown stronger over the years, what are known as Dominate and Majesty. She also may learn celerity and vigor naturally. Out of clan disciplines would require learning from kindred of that clan.
Dominate
Dominate, overwhelming the mind with the force of will, requires a captured gaze, and only works on one subject at a time. It requires understanding, either in a similar language from verbal commands, or forceful expressions and gestures, even pictures may suffice. Victims may or may not realize what is happening to them, depending on the power and the successes and/or failures, and how it may have been hidden in the first place. Many do not realize until afterwards... or just question why in the world they did what they did. Most uses of Dominate have a roll for resistance. Dominate pg. 124
Carla has two dots in Dominate with these abilities:
- • Command
A little eye contact and it only takes one word. The order, clear and straightforward, even if concealed in a sentence, must be obeyed. We wouldn't be so silly as to ask another to make themselves come to harm, but when I say jump... you'll jump.
- •• Mesmerize
Legends abound over the hypnotic gaze of the vampire. A false thought or idea, planted in the mind, can allow for much more complex actions, as well as actions at a later time. It is a beautiful thing, and frightening to others.
Majesty
To balance out the influence of the mind, Majesty is influence over emotions, swaying the feelings of others to favor the wielder of this discipline. Eye contact is not required, simply a visual of the vampire. Subjects retain their free will, even, following suggestions but thus requiring more careful handling. It is, in the end, more careful from a long-term perspective than the short-term, albeit useful, fix of Dominate.
Carla has three dots in Majesty with these abilities:
- • Awe
A dash of awe makes the discipline user seem more charismatic and magnetic to others. Usually combined with Expression. This is, literally, turning on the charm.
- ••• Revelation
Vampires are so easy to talk to, like a best friend, or a counselor. People just open up to them, throwing away caution. Or maybe they are using Revelation to learn a few secrets in a upwelling of affection or release.
- ••• Entrancement
Affection may turn to feelings of admiration and devotion with a willingness to serve the vampire. Those feelings come entirely from their own volition, of course, however re-entrancing a former "lover" can be difficult,
Other Vampiric Traits
Basic Respect
As vampires sought to bring themselves up and establish order, they have a highly complex society with some basic but strict rules of respect that apply to everyone:
- The First Tradition: Masquerade - Do not reveal your nature to those not of the Blood. Doing so forfeits your claim to the Blood.
- The Second Tradition: Progeny - Sire another at your own peril. If you create a childe, the weight is your own to bear.
- The Third Tradition: Amaranth - You are forbidden from devouring the heatsblood of another of your kind. If you violate this commandment, the Beast calls to your own Blood.
- Domain: One must recognize both the domain of a Prince and the haven of an individual
- Deference: Every aspect of a domain must be respected for those entering a domain not theirs or visiting (ex: hunting rights, nights visiting, announcing self, etc).
- This may mean respecting the Rack, or feeding grounds, that the Prince as designated if he or she has done so, and the Barrens as chastisement. Or other dictates and laws for those who do inhabit a domain or are regular travelers.
- Tutelage: Respect the tutelage and protection of a Sire and their Childer, and the transition of responsibility.
- Lex Talionis: Only a Prince or city leader can call a blood hunt, but there are major crimes that can lead to one in Kindred laws of justice.
In the Vitae
- A vampire spends one Vitae per daily slumber (or for any nap). A vampire with no Vitae falls into Torpor.
- A vampire may spend a Vitae reflexively to regain the "Blush of Life" and force the organs and stimulate breathing (and more!) and all that.
- A vampire may spend a Vitae reflexively to consume food... however is messily bulimic about it at the end of the scene. Hope there's no one to see.
- Vitae may also spent to heal wounds. pg. 173
- Some Discipline powers require vitae expenditure
- And it is addictive. One may create Ghouls, or emotionally bond other vampires
Blood Family
On some occasions, Kindred may feel "relatives" when they or the relatives are under strong emotion or sensation, such as a grave wound, frenzy, or the pleasure of diablerie. Wits+Occult to perceive or extend. Auspex may add.
In addition, Kindred may be able to "taste" family and clan and relations in the blood. Intelligence+Occult+ Heightened Senses.
Clan: Daeva
Emotional, Sensual, and Desirable. These are the words that mark the Daeva, disparagingly called the Succubi for their nature. They would be the perfect vampire, if only they could enjoy it. They play with the elite, they play with their fancies, and they play with others' emotions mercilessly. Then again, they also strive to feel what it was like to be human, they love, they lust, they go through euphoric relationships and tragedies when they fail and prove false or fall to boredom. They are patrons and creators. They are the social wing of the Damned.
Most Kindred believe the Daeva to be one of the oldest clans of the Damned with a Persian mythological origin, reflected still in their name that links them with the "demons" of the area. Some incarnation of the Daeva as a clan certainly existed before the rise of Rome, but whether they had organization and structure is unknown. As Rome grew, the position of Daeva in the society of the Damned was cemented, and they were active in the Camarilla, the first social contracts between the undead clans and the formation of the formal Masquerade.
Whether or not they are in charge of an area, as Prince or some other position of power, or within a political covenant, Daeva are often still the social glue in undead society, smoothing things over or livening things up- metaphorically speaking of course.
Bloodline: Toreador
Some individual Kindred within clans have established their own bloodlines, showing particularly strong traits in the blood that they passed down to their childer. Bloodlines have their own advantages and weaknesses that separate them from the crowd of their clan. Many have become known recently through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, or in modern nights. As such, just as their are few Kindred, there are fewer of each Clan, there are yet fewer of a bloodline, akin to brothers and sisters and cousins, number depending on their sire's choices, much like mortal parents.
The original Toreador, Garcilaso de Castillejo, was the second son of a Spanish nobleman. Known for his charm, wit, and grace, he impressed with his bullfighting prowess, iron-will, and love of the arts. The reputation of the bullfighting stuck, and he attracted cultured and indolent Daeva from across Europe to his personality cult, El Toreros. When Castellejo finally decided to start embracing childer, and they showed the penchant for Dominate that Castellejo learned from a Ventrue in Venice, they took on the Torero moniker, which eventually became- through bad translations and popular culture for the word- Toreador.
While the Daeva generally embrace out of infatuation and truly do seek the beautiful, the Patrons look for wit and charm much more, including talents or great love and understanding for the arts. They feel this sets them above other Daeva, and it is near impossible as a Daeva to prove and be recognized as a Toreador, though they have adopted others and will do so with proof of lineage and other Toreadors who will vouch for the poor thing, accepting the lost or illegitimate Toreador with welcoming arms.
Weaknesses
Vitae: Blood is the vampire's source of Vitae. They must feed regularly or face sleeping in torpor, as well as not being capable of distinctive abilities. It takes Vitae to wake nightly
Toreador Weakness: Art ObsessionAll Clans have a weakness, and some are more interesting than others. Some are just...so...fascinating. Toreador are obsessed with a particular art form and this obsession override anything else the Toreador is doing when confronted with that particular art, like an odd Kindred ADHD. They share this with the progenitor of their bloodline. A Toreador vampire may be utterly fascinated, staring at beauty for hours... or they may be critiquing and analyzing it. They may be silent, or they may give others an earful! Because of her early work in the media, Carla is attracted to film, particularly to silent film.
Carla must either spend a Willpower point or succeed a reflexive Resolve roll to break the spell of the Silver Screen or do nothing but focus raptly on the projections and shadows for the rest of the scene, or until it or she is physically taken away (or the film is shut down, runs out, etc). Sufficiently disruptive events, like attacks, will also break her focus.
Daeva Weakness: ViceIn addition, Toreador are prone to the weakness that all Daeva have, a weakness to resisting their own hedonistic impulses. When Carla opts not to indulge in her Vice of Gluttony, she looses TWO Willpower points.
Lost Visage: For inexplicable reasons, a vampire's visage starts to fade from reflections and film and other recordings. Corresponding with blood potency, the reflection may be slower to fade, however it eventually still will. Those with strong wills may let themselves be shown, notably diablerie. It is not invoked lightly.
Phobia
At creation, she has yet to develop one, however fire phobia is pretty classic per the old system, followed by any other fitting other derangement.
Resources
For the older historical portions: Beatriz Michelena on Wikipedia [1] Silent Film History in Northern California [2] California Motion Picture Company [3]