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Ceran
Niall |
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Ceran is a dhampyr, the result of the union of a Brujah
vampire and a Sidhe Fae. Born into servitude, Ceran has known nothing but
pain and sadness his entire life. Traded by his parents for a step up in
the Camarilla to the eccentric and epicurean Toreador Primogen Maeder Ramsland,
he's learned all that it means to be a proper servant. Despite the blood
of the aggressive Brujah in his veins, he's almost impossible to anger,
preferring to submit rather than fight. Fae in temperament, he has an affinity
for music and pretty things just as much as the clan who raised him.
His master gave him both his first and last name, completely
distancing him from his birth parents. He also gave him the nickname of "Jackdaw"
after the European songbird. It fits, since Ceran favors all manners of
blackbirds. He likes all birds, though. In fact, he likes all animals, and
will talk to just about anything that's alive and non-humanoid, including
roses, his favorite flower (but he never expects an answer in return). He
has some difficulty with people, be it human or vampire, shying away from
their contact, usually out of fear. He gets on well with one of his master's
"employees", a Nosferatu called Scourge, though. It's an odd friendship,
this little beauty and the beast. Their friendship even lead the Nosferatu
to bring the Dhampyr a small pet rat, which lasted about as long as could
be expected in that household.
He lived a mostly sheltered life in his master's mansion,
surrounded by others of the Toreador clan, and the occasional Ventrue or
Tzimisce. He remained a simple servant until his beauty became more than
noticeable as he grew older. He never left the confines of the house off
a lead, and never during the light of day. By sixteen he was able to bear
tortures with apathy that would break a human in minutes, having seen, as
well as experienced far worse. Despite the extreme use of his slender body,
the Toreador Primogen did take meticulous care of him, never marring his
face or doing permanent damage. He was seen as a piece of art to be interacted
with. To touch him, have him, was to make his beauty their own. To further
enhance his attractiveness, Ceran was taught music and the arts, one of the
few pleasures he took in living with the Primogen. A combination of this
training and his fae affinity for beauty has caused him to develop a tendency
to just stare at things that catch his fancy that is almost identical to
the Toreador habit of Rapture.
Ceran has an extremely high level of humanity. Despite
his vampire's blood, he is a child of nature; more sensitive to changes to
Gaia than some werewolves. Most vampires regard him as an abomination, and
if not for his appearance and nature, the Toreador would have done him in
long ago. No doubt if they ever discovered his lineage, the Brujah would
make short, messy work of him. Unfortunately, other races tend to see him
only as a tainted threat to Gaia, marked for death. But to watch him talk
to the trees and the animals in them, one would be hard pressed to maintain
the view of him being a threat to anyone. He severely dislikes the taste
of blood, and is glad for the fact that he only really needs it to help heal
severe injuries. Injuries that his master would happily inflict on him, then
follow by forcing glasses of animal blood down his throat before returning
to torturing him. Ceran much prefers mundane foods, like strawberries and
cream, and chocolate-covered cherries.
Lacking in the offensive department, Ceran will never
attack someone first. In fact, he will never attack at all. His main defense
is to either run or try and beg his way out of trouble. When extremely
frightened, he tends to either freeze or faint. He poses little threat to
those who might challenge him, and what little information he has on the
Toreador is either "public" knowledge or too depraved to be useful, so he
makes a poor informant as well. However, if you want a birdsong played on
a flute, or can't remember the lyrics to various Celtic songs, he might be
able to help you there.
Since somehow escaping his master, the details aren't
exactly clear, he's discovered some of the advantages to being of very thin
blood. The sun doesn't affect him, so spending a few hours in gardens is
a pleasant experience, and favorite pastime. He favors violet, deep red,
and magenta roses above all flowers, although he will sometimes wear a violet
orchid in his hair when he's feeling very happy. Rapturing like a true Toreador,
he'll stand stone still and watch butterflies or hummingbirds flit around
the roses with the awe of a child.
Ceran is still learning how to get about in the world
since leaving his master. He goes from here to there, playing his horn flute
when the mood strikes him, and trying to find out more about what exactly
he is. That, and doing his best to not get killed by one of the changing
breeds, Hunters, Mages or other Kindred. It's a hard life.
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Fergal Perrin |
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Picture not Available |
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Ceran's father. This ferocious but low ranking Brujah made an
offer to a local Toreador of some reputation a new, pretty treasure for his
collection of stone and flesh in exchange for power for himself and his beloved
ghoul who bore the child. Fergal had nothing that made him stand out among
his clan, except maybe his fierce passion for his ghoul, Keira. It's possible
that his blood was so thin that he was human enough to impregnate her, but
it could just have likely been some strange sort of magic. Little is known
about either Fergal nor Keira aside from what was observed and recounted
by Ramsland during their short dealings.
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Keira Martinique |
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Picture not Available |
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Ceran's mother. A beautiful Sidhe woman, who fell in
love with and allowed herself to be ghouled by Fergal. It is unknown if the
child they bore was with intention of gaining leverage, or just to see if
it could be done. No one is even quite sure how it came about since the pair
vanished, assumedly under their own volition, a short time after the birth
and surrender of their child to Lord Ramsland. It is from her alone that
Ceran takes almost his entire appearance and demeanor. There are also signs
that he's inherited her magic. Little is known about Keira and her love when
they were together, and virtually nothing is known about her Changeling path,
except for the fact that she had gone through Chrysalis and was, in fact,
fully realized Fae
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Lord Maeder Ramsland |
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Ceran's Master. Maeder Ramsland is as pretentious as he is powerful.
A Toreador Primogen in a city where the Toreador flourish, as far as he's
concerned, everything and everyone is potential entertainment to him.
A vampire of indeterminate age and lineage, when he was
Embraced, he already had old money and a taste for the perverse. He's rumored
to have traded stories with the Marquis de Sade, and some who have dealt
with him closely claim he might BE the Marquis de Sade. This is impossible,
though, since he's built far too sturdy, and has none of the effeminate features
of Donatien-Alphonse-Françoise de Sade.
Normally the lord would not be interested in a child,
but such an unusually bred newborn could not escape his interest. He could
see, even at only a few days old, what the boy would grow into, and had him
raised as an obedient servant. As the boy's Fae nature and beauty began to
show through, Ramsland decided to make him a different kind of servant.
Ramsland is a cruel man, with perverse tastes. He sometimes
adds the often still-living art of the Tzimisce to his collections. He has
audio collections of the screams of past victims, and enjoys feeding by bleeding
his victims into a grand silver punchbowl and dipping from it into a chalice.
He's even been known to break and bend his victims into his own sort of living
art and tapping their necks with a spigot in order to keep them alive for
a time. Nothing like a cup of hot blood fresh from the tap.
This Primogen has visited every possible torture he could
on his young pet, enjoying feeding off of him as well. He's described the
taste of the dhampyr's blood as being "as euphoric as a second Embrace".
Despite all he's done to the boy, he is always careful to leave no permanent
marks, especially on his face. Even more perverse is the fact that he seems
to have a twisted love of Ceran, although this may not be apparent when he's
lending the boy out to others of his rank and higher. It's even harder to
tell if it's the love of a master for his beloved, obedient pet, or of a
collector of strange and exotic objects for one of the jewels in his
collection.
It is unclear what occurred to separate Ramsland from
Ceran, or of the Primogen is still active, in torpor, or destroyed. It
is fully possible he is still looking for his for his lost pet, or
perhaps Ceran is completely free of him. That is
yet to be seen.
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Corbin Grant (Scourge) |
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Corbin Grant works under Lord Maeder Ramsland as a gopher,
spy, and occasionally, an assassin. He's a particularly potent Nosferatu,
and if the Toreador Primogen didn't have such uses for him, he would probably
never tolerate him anywhere near him. As is a selection of fanciful masks
are kept on hand for him; the Toreador demanding he wear them while under
his roof, despite having Mask of a Thousand Faces.
He's oddly personable for a Nosferatu, although he rarely
speaks when he doesn't have to. For some reason that makes no sense to anyone,
he befriended the Toreador's pet dhampyr, and has even occasionally brought
him odd trinkets made of bits of bone and braided hair, no doubt from the
Nosferatu's kills. The most elaborate of these gifts was an Egyptian-style
collar made from human finger bones. Another time he brought Ceran a rat
he caught in the sewers, a small, friendly calico creature. The only reason
that Ramsland allowed the animal to be kept was because it was presented
in an exquisitely crafted cage made from the bones of a 12 year old boy.
Ceran was thrilled by the rat.
Despite his quiet, social personality, most Kindred know
him as Scourge. If Ramsland wants someone removed, they are, and in many,
many pieces (not that any of those pieces are ever seen again, except as
sculpture and jewelry). Scourge is as businesslike as the Ventrue, as fierce
as the Brujah, and some argue as mad as the Malkavians. There's speculation
that he may be so effective because he's actually a Primogen or Seneschal
but this is neither confirmed nor denied by Scourge when he's asked. He's
also not saying anything about his past. No one is even sure if Corbin Grant
is his real name...
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