Earl "Thorne" Bratovich

Secluded deep within an old forest that would be known in the modern nights as the Monongahela National Forest of the Appalachian Mountains, West Virginia, stood the Bratovich Homestead. The family had chosen to leave their ancestral homes in Europe due to prejudice and financial hardship, they’d crossed the Atlantic to the new world and settled there during the 1700s.

In 1782, during the tail end of the Revolutionary War, Earl’s birth was a cursed affair. Whether due to the Revenant family’s supernatural practices or inbreeding, the infant’s birth bore many complications as the baby was malformed and ghoulishly strong. To save his mother’s life the family had to use their Vicissitude arts to extract the child from his mother or they both would have perished. As he grew with his deformities, Earl’s childhood was marred with more than his fair share of hardships. The family refused to use their crafts to fix the boy’s body, whether out of cruelty or wanting to see the child strive to overcome their weaknesses, who can say. Although Earl’s body was twisted and misshapen, he bore a sharp mind and as he grew, he observed his environment and learnt all he could. By the age of twelve he had picked up the rudimentary understanding of Flesh Crafting, beginning his first steps upon a road that would do more than just fix his body.

Through his adolescence, the family witnessed Earl shift from a hapless, deformed wretch of a person to a young man of surprising stature. At 18 years old, the young man stood six foot, seven inches and was nearly 250 pounds, Earl had more than adapted, his body was like clay to his will. The young Bratovich was gaining favor within the family, and over time he joined the family’s hunting parties, not just to hunt game to feed them, but also to hunt and push back the werewolves that stalked the Appalachians. Since the family settled those mountains, the Bratovich and the local Garou packs had developed a deep bitter enmity. Likely due to the supernatural nature of both factions, the nearby Cherokee tribes thankfully stayed away from their conflicts. This did not help much as over the following years Earl ranged further afield from the homestead, hunting for more and more material for his foul Flesh Crafting experiments. He did not care where the flesh came from, it was all ‘Meat’ to him, animals, newly proclaimed Americans or natives, they were all the same in his eyes, but he did particularly prize Garou flesh.

The years went by and in 1846, at the age of 64, Earl had sculpted his physique to the hulking size of 7’ 7” and 350 lbs. and having now hunted the Garou for decades he had proven how much he was a thorn in their sides, earning the man his nickname. But during this time a shadow from the family’s past patiently observed him. In the Americas the Bratovich had the chance to reestablish themselves, and after a while they reconnected and renewed their ties with their supernatural origins, the Kindred of Clan Tzimisce. One if them had heard of Earl and his proclivities, particularly his new interest in causing terror, reveling at instilling fear in those he preys upon. In Thorne’s minds he never truly viewed himself as human, this piqued the interest of a visiting Tzimisce, who chose to gift Thorne with the Curse of Caine and Embraced him. Thorne only recalls encountering a pool of blood that moved before he passed out, rising hours later as Kindred. Left and abandoned by his Sire, Thorne was helped by his family, who praised him for receiving such an honor.

During the American Civil War, a number of Bratovich family members were conscripted into the Union Army, war offered Thorne new opportunities and although he didn’t enlist, he found nearby battlefields to be too tantalizing an occasion to test his menagerie of Flesh Crafted Abominations. A few camping stories arose from Thorne’s homemade horrors causing chaos or stalking troop encampments in the night. By the time the US introduced the Draft in the early 20^th century, most of the Bratovich family that still remained on their homestead didn’t appear on any census, so were never called up to fight in either world wars. But it was during this time that Thorne was actively recruited into the wider activities of the Sabbat. He was requested to help with Sabbat actions in Detroit where he not just helped but proved to be such a monster amongst both Kindred and Kine, that he was awarded the title of Templar by the Archbishop, then politely asked to leave.

With the advent of technology and the invention of films, during the mid to late 20^th century, Thorne found a genuine interest in Horror movies, in particular, Slasher, Gore and Body Horror genres. Seeing how these forms of media had worked their way into the zeitgeist, Thorne went as far as to fashion a mask he Bone Crafted to his own skull, and fanged mouths in his palms to still be able to feed, all to better incite fear.

Since the ‘40s, Thorne has served the Sabbat where needed, a tool to be used when conventional methods fail. Recently the Sabbat hierarchy of the East Coast have grown tired of the loss of Baltimore, some ten years prior. And with Archbishop Warin of DC not having done anything of worth in trying to retake Baltimore, the diocese has sent Thorne in to stir the proverbial pot.