The Archbishop of DC is one of the eldest Sabbat in the United States, having been Embraced not long after the Sabbat was first formed. Despite this, his history is somewhat a mystery to most, even members of the Sect lower than his status. Here are the basics:

- He originated in England just after the formation of the Sabbat in 1493. Whether he was embraced into the Sect, or later changed, is unknown. After Embrace, he existed in a few different places throughout Europe and survived the war with the Black Spiral Dancers.

- In 1720, he joined the exodus of Sabbat to the New World, where he was involved in several struggles between Sabbat and Camarilla. 

- In 1808, he was part of the Sabbat that successfully took over Washington DC. He then entered a period of Torpor.

- In 1814, the Camarilla reclaimed DC and the Sabbat were routed. The monastery came under their control, which they set as Elysium. but they did not know that he was concealed in one of the crypts.

- In 1898, Warin's latest childe returned with a large pack and awoke the torpored vampire. They murdered all the Camarilla in Elysium and retook the city, along with Baltimore and other nearby cities.

- In 1972, Warin is officially ordained as the Archbishop of Washington DC and has held the post ever since.

In the waning days of the New Kingdom, under the merciless sun of Egypt, a child was born in the shadow of the great pyramids. His name was Baniti, a name that whispered of hidden meanings and concealed truths. Born to a family of scribes, his early years were steeped in the arcane knowledge of ancient texts and sacred scrolls. His lineage traced back to the priests of Set, the god of chaos and change, whose cult lingered in the dark corners of the land.

Baniti's striking appearance was matched only by his sharp intellect and insatiable curiosity. The temples and tombs of Egypt held no secrets from his keen eyes. He delved into forbidden lore, drawn to the power and mystery of Set. It was during one such clandestine exploration that Baniti's fate took a dark turn.

One night, under the cold light of a full moon, Baniti encountered a figure cloaked in shadow. This stranger, an ancient vampire of the Setite clan, saw in Baniti a worthy successor. With a hypnotic gaze and a voice like the rustle of ancient papyrus, the vampire spoke of immortality and power beyond mortal comprehension. In that moment, Baniti's mortal life ended, and he was reborn as one of the undead, an initiate into the mysteries of Set.

Baniti embraced his new existence with fervor, quickly rising through the ranks of the Setites. He mastered the disciplines of Serpentis, learning to bend his form and will to the dark desires of his clan. The once-curious scribe became a formidable predator, a manipulator of shadows and secrets.

Centuries passed, and Baniti's hunger for power and knowledge grew. The New World beckoned, a land ripe with opportunities for the ambitious and the cunning. In the late 17th century, Baniti embarked on a perilous journey across the seas, leaving behind the ancient sands of his homeland for the bustling shores of the American colonies.

Baniti found himself drawn to the burgeoning city of Baltimore, a place of commerce and intrigue. Here, he established a temple dedicated to Set, hidden beneath the veneer of a respectable merchant's establishment. The temple became a sanctuary for those who sought the dark gifts of the Setites, a place where forbidden rituals were conducted and secrets were bartered.

Baniti's influence spread through the city, and with it, the need for loyal followers. On three separate occasions, he selected mortals who displayed unique qualities deserving of the Embrace.

The first was a scholar named Matthias, whose quest for forbidden knowledge rivaled Baniti's own. Baniti found him in a dusty library, poring over ancient tomes. Recognizing a kindred spirit, Baniti bestowed upon him the gift of immortality, and Matthias became a devoted acolyte.

The second was a merchant named Atiq, whose cunning and ruthlessness in the world of trade caught Baniti's eye. He was seduced by the promise of eternal life and power, and Baniti embraced him, transforming him into a master manipulator.

The third was a soldier named Selene, a woman of strength and discipline. Baniti saw in her the potential for a formidable enforcer. After witnessing Selene’s prowess in battle, Baniti offered her the dark gift, and Selene became his loyal protector for a time.

For decades, Baniti ruled his domain with a blend of fear and fascination. His influence extended into the highest echelons of Baltimore society, and his temple thrived in the shadows. Yet, even the most powerful vampire cannot escape the inexorable pull of time. As the years turned to centuries, Baniti felt the weight of his immortality bearing down upon him.

In the year 1901, Baniti fell into torpor, a deep, death-like slumber that would preserve his essence for the future. He entrusted his temple to his most loyal followers, instructing them to guard his resting place until the time was right for his return.

Now, beneath the streets of modern Baltimore, in a crypt hidden from prying eyes, Baniti lies in torpor. His temple, though diminished, still stands as a testament to his enduring legacy. Whispers of his return circulate among the Setites, who await the day when their dark priest will awaken to lead them once more.

In recent nights, a stirring has been felt within the crypt. Baniti's ancient body, long still, shows signs of movement. His dreams, filled with visions of chaos and change, grow more vivid. The time of his awakening approaches, and when Baniti rises again, he will reclaim his throne in the shadows, bringing with him the darkness of ages past.

Blaze was born just outside of Philadelphia near then end of the American Revolution. His parents were farmers and he was the second oldest of seven children. He was not adverse to back-breaking work but as he grew older, Blaze longed for something more than rural life. He showed an aptitude for drawing at an early age, and spent most of his free time doodling and sketching on whatever and with whatever he could manage.

When he was around twenty, following the marriage of his older brother, Blaze left home, fearing that he would be next. He headed to Philadelphia looking for work. He did all manner of odd job to make ends meet for at least a year if not two until he ran into a local newspaper man - literally - scattering not just the man's things, but Blaze's sketchbook. The man saw Blaze's talent and offered him a trial making woodcuts for print.

Blaze was finally making money from his passion. But even though he saw his drawings throughout the city on hundred of printed pages, he was not entirely satisfied. One day he overheard a gang of sailors bragging about their exploits. The loudest of the bunch declared that he had conquered the most beautiful woman of all and promptly pulled down his shirt to show off a portrait inked into his skin.  

Blaze was riveted. Not by the story, but the tattoo. He asked the sailor where he had gotten the tattoo, but that only got his a round of laughter and the demand that he bugger off. Blaze was not deterred. He eventually tracked down a Norm Collins who gave sailors tattoos near the dock. He begged Norm to show him how it was done. The artist turned him down at first though Blaze was persistent, not giving up until Norm agreed to apprentice him.

Norm died when Blaze was in his late twenties. But by this time no one was asking the aged artist for tattoos, everyone was coming to Blaze. Norm had taught his everything about inking skin, but Blaze was a true artisan. It was his artistry that attracted the attentions of a Toreador named Philip Marks.

Philip became a lavish patron. He did not request ink for himself, but brought a never ending line of customers to the artist, paying for most commissions. He also bought Blaze the best inks and tools to perfect his trade. Blaze was suspicious of the man's attentions except he turned a blind eye as his passion took hold. 

Philip turned Blaze when he was thirty-two. At first the artist was pissed off and angry. His wrath settled down quickly however, tempered by more powerful needs and desires. Sire and Childe remained in Philadelphia for nearly ten years when Philip simply disappeared one night. Distraught, concerned, and more than a little annoyed, Blaze learned that Philip had been seen leaving the city and headed towards Chicago. The fledgling took off after him. Either the information Blaze got was wrong, or Philip had got wind of the chase and changes course, either was Blaze never did catch his Sire. 

He knew enough to ask permission to stay in Chicago - at least long enough to search for his Sire - and he ended up remaining there for more than seventy years. For all intents an purposes, Blaze 'grew' up as a vampire in Chicago. Perhaps that is why he has always been a little rough around the edges when compared to his more refined clanmates. 

Around this time, Blaze received word through another Toreador that Philip had been seen in New York City. As much as he wanted to pretend he had put his abandonment behind him, Blaze just couldn't let it go. He moved to New York and it was during his presentation to the Prince that he saw Philip for the first time in three-quarters of a century.

His reunion with Philip was not a joyous occasion. Passions ran high and words were exchanged. The only explanation that Philip could offer him was that he had been bored, and he had left in pursuit of new beautify, new talent. There was no remorse for what he had done and Blaze was left bitter. However, when the Prince of New York found out about Blaze's abandonment - to this day Blaze does not know who snitched - Philip was made to owe Blaze a boon in recompense.

Blaze set-up shop in New York. Thanks to his boon, he obtained a tiny bit of domain where he established a tattoo parlour, and most importantly a contact within the local Chantry. He was able to make an arrangement with his Tremere to offer a new service tot he night society: brilliant works of art inked into undead flesh that would not evaporate as the kindred slept.

New York by night was very much the same as Chicago, though also very different. He mostly stayed out of courtly-intrigues, preferring to spend his time on his craft. However given the nature of his work, he came into contact with the anarchs more than most kindred. During one such encounter, while inking a trio of Brujah hot-heads, he overhead them talking about taking out someone at court.

Not sure if what he had heard was real, Blaze approached a fellow Toreador, Lucrezia Amante di Lorenzo, who counselled that they take this matter to the Sheriff. The information they provided helped rout an assassination plot and for their help, Blaze and Lucrezia were both rewarded by the Prince: they were both given permission to Sire a Childe. Lucrezia was ecstatic, Blaze was... not exactly thrilled? Honestly he had never considered Siring a Childe.

Two nights after he was rewarded, a young man walked into Blaze's parlour looking for a tattoo to commemorate an important life event. Noah Silverwater was a young dancer. He wanted to celebrate his last performance with Cirque de Soleil. Blaze was entrance with the mortal's passion, his dedication, and the beauty of his near perfect body. A chance encounter let to planned ones. Dinners. Shows. Wine. Sex. A fire was ignited within the Toreador, one very much akin to working of a new work. And in a moment of sudden unbridled passion, he embraced Noah.

What Blaze did not know at the time, was that there was another kindred who had their sights set on Noah. Lucrezia had been a patron of Noah's for years. As a member of the founders board, she had arranged a scholarship to the dance school he had attended, she got him his job with Cirque de Soleil, and she hand been making plans for a lucrative choreographer's gig in New York... and was going to embrace him as her Childe.

When she found out that Blaze had embraced Noah, she was furious. She went to the Prince with accusations of theft. She complained to the Primogen about how unworthy Blaze was, what a pathetic Toreador he made, and how he would ruin her protégé. Lucrezia's complaints and accusations were turned aside. Blaze had done nothing wrong, particularly in light of the fact that he was unaware of Lucrezia's designs. And besides, he wouldn't have been the first Toreador to embrace a Childe in a fit of passion.

For their part, Blaze and Noah tried to move on. They both distracted themselves with their crafts, and Blaze taught his Childe everything he could think to teach him about being a vampire. He obviously still had some abandonment issues care-of Philip. Lucrezia however would not let things go. If somethin bad happened to Sire or Childe, you didn't have to look far to find the spurned Lucrezia.

In 2013, Blaze's Chantry friend informed him that he was relocating to the newly conquered city of Baltimore. He offered Blaze an introduction with the new Prince if he chose to move as well, seeking to gain favour by attracted more kindred to the city to bolster support for the new Prince. Growing tired to Lucrezia's antics, Blaze decided that a change of venue would be nice, moving he and his Childe to Baltimore.

Baltimore was... sparse in those early days. At least that is how Blaze describes it. Compared to New York, or even Chicago a hundred years before, the newly conquered city seemed desolate in terms of kindred society. Blaze was introduced to the Prince, he came bearing letters of introduction from his former Primogen and the personal vouchsafe of his Tremere 'partner'. But the Prince had already heard of him; he had received a letter himself from a certain concerned party in New York alleging that Blaze was a 'tradition-breaker'. Fortunately the letter did not carry as much weight as it could have, given Blaze's other backers, but it did prove to the Toreador that even moving to a new domain was not going to stop Lucrezia from getting her pound of flesh.

Blaze started a new tattoo parlour - The Dragon With The Girl Tattoo. He made a haven for himself a Noah in one of the apartments above the shop. Maybe one year later in petitioned the Prince for feeding rights in and about his shop, and was granted his request in return for providing court services as required. Shortly thereafter, Blaze was asked to play part of what he would learn was an annual tradition, the Sigil of Authority ceremony. The Toreador was required to carve symbols into court office holders, representing their offices, after which the Prince would perform a ritual affirming their authority.

He would be called to perform a number of other services, such as tattooing kindred to be branded in punishment, enough times that he earned the nickname, 'the Brand'.

In more recent event, Blaze was named Primogen of Clan Toreador when his predecessor fell into torpor. He also presented his Childe to the Prince, who released him, though Blaze still keeps Noah close.

 Hunter was born in the American Colonies right as the American Revolution was rising. He lived through the birth of the nation and it was in the aftermath he was moving down to Maryland to settle down. In a bar he got into a fight with some colonial loudmouths and managed to win against three of them in a brawl. A viking age gangrel nearby took a liking to his animalistic fighting and embraced him, teaching him the ways of the wilds. He roamed for some time but eventually decided he wanted to have companionship and joined a coterie of kindred of the Camarilla so he could ghoul and raise some fine Doberman breed dogs. Raising them from youth he made them his pack and sold their offspring for cash to wealthy owners who desired such. As the centuries turned things changed and he came into contact with sabbat and anarchs finding them repellent creatures with ideals inhuman in their base desires.

He has no love for the Tremere Prince of the city but when he heard what was planned in 2012 he organized a hunt of the sabbat pincering them from the south up into Baltimore, squeezing their forces on multiple fronts. When the dust cleared he and Prince William had tense negotiations where he ended up accepting Primogenship of the Gangrel in exchange for the domain of the Baltimore Zoo and to be left mostly to himself while guarding the southern borders. The Prince and him have clashed politically many times over the years but neither has moved against the other in any significant way. Still if weakness in the leadership is smelled who knows what the Gangrel Primogen might say about replacing the Prince with a better one...

 Jacob Wasn't pleased when he found out he had a daughter, but since the mother had died he decided it was just time for another member of the Giovanni family.....or maybe plans for something bigger. Not many people knew Klara Sauber was Jacob Koenig's daughter and he intended to keep it that way. Klara never really had a childhood, she was learning about family business and running business since she came under Jacob's care at the age of 12, this deadened her to normal life. Normal life now was Giovanni life. She never saw Jacob as a father, and knew he would dispose of her, like he disposed of so many messes, if she became a problem. Maybe it was better that she just did what was expected, maybe she could learn more from the Giovanni family than her father intended her to learn.

Thomas Broadbent-Lavalle - Embraced during The Inquisition - "My Eldest, sleeping peacefully and under the guard of great allies and the most loyal of retainers. One of the most refined Kindred you will ever know, and one of the most talented swordsmen. Tread lightly should you ever meet my Thomas. He is as fierce as he is brilliant."

Rebecca Beauchêne-Lavalle - The French Wars of Religion - "Joan of Arc has nothing on my Rebecca. She is an inspiration both on and off the battlefield. She currently rules the City-State of Andorra. Waking up in her care was a pleasant surprise, though she did explain the situation to me in Baltimore quite well."

Julien (Devereaux) Lavalle - The Haitian Revolution (1791) - "My beautiful, eclectic 'Black Sheep' of a son. My Julien was a flight of fancy. I fell in love with the romance of the Haitian fight for freedom and watched it bring out hope in the hopeless. He came to me a blank slate, unable to read, write, and without even a name. I made him everything he is."

Liam - The Great Hunger - *Coming Soon* (Claimed by Pooka)

Eugenia Davenport-Lavalle- Women's Sufferage (England) - 

 

Noah Waya SIlverwater was born in 1967 on the Wind River Reservation.

His mother was a hard woman. The sort of person who, when she realized she had a child who was gifted in the smallest of ways decided to use that bit of amazing to escape what she saw as a hopeless situation.

So Noah grew up off the Reservation and spent his early years as the only non-white kid in a small ranching town, though ranching isn't what he ended up doing in the long run. He was too graceful, far too mouthy, and far too pretty. Even as athletic as he was, there was a delicacy to Noah that just didn't adjust well to a hard life on that ranch. Add to that his mother telling him to follow his instincts, and he ended up traveling the world and performing for audiences of all sorts.
 
But the world he lived in was not one you could live in for long, and by twenty-five Noah was performing in his last show with Cirque du Soliel after traveling the world. His last show happened to be in New York, and to commemorate that last show--and to say goodbye to the friends and found family he'd made with the troupe--he decided to get a tattoo.

He hadn't expected the whirlwind romance that came with getting a little ink. While Noah had been wined and dined before, this was a wholly different and encompassing experience. He worked his new job by day--as a choreographer for a small dance troupe that fit his more eclectic and unique style--and by night he was wrapped up in this new, exciting relationship unlike anything he'd ever experienced before.

Life was good.

And then one night, in a post-coital haze of wine and sex, Noah relaxed into what he thought was Blaze's attempt at another round until he began to feel weak, and then the world fell away, and he woke up again with Blaze's wrist pressed to his mouth and an insatiable hunger.

The next nights were full of lessons and cutting ties and meeting people, and when he was introduced to a group of vampires he was told were family, he was faced with the fact that someone else had laid claim to him, which honestly just pissed him off. As if he were someone's property to be bought and sold, and he told her as much. Most chalked it up to the newness of his circumstances, but Noah had never had much talent for subterfuge or subtlety, and that seemed to have translated over into Unlife as the inability to lie. At all.

Not that he ever did in the first place.

He and Blaze managed to avoid Lucretia for the most part, though if anything went wrong with their various enterprises, it could usually be tracked back to her. He just remained in his sire's orbit, learning all he could about being a vampire. Even if he began to get frustrated about his lack of Release even after twenty years, when there were so many others Embraced after he was and able to move on with their Unlives. Freedom was something he craved more than anything in those early years, and it just didn't look like he'd ever had it.

When Blaze told him they were leaving New York and going to the newly conquered city of Baltimore, it was bittersweet. It was the opportunity for them both to start fresh, hopefully without the shadow of the past hanging over them. Still, living in New York had been his dream when he was alive, and now it was one more nail in the coffin of his humanity.

They went, and even after they arrived it was years before Blaze finally presented him to Prince William Good. He was pretty unceremoniously released--nearly thirty years was far too long to be Unreleased, apparently--but Blaze still kept him close, no matter how much the attention chaffed and smothered him.

Whether it was the looming, continuous threat of the Sabbat, the need for control, unrelenting love, or something else entirely that Blaze has not told him.