Sebastien Dupré

Dupré International Incorporated (DII) is luxury cigarette brand that traces its roots all the way back to 1693 colonial America, when a Catholic family from Perpignan, France came to Maryland in search of opportunity in the New World. Tobacco took the world by storm and Frederic Dupré used slave labor and ties in France and Spain to build a small empire using the plant.

Which is perhaps why, in 1865, just three days after the American Civil War was declared over, the last living heir to survive the war was Embraced into the Lasombra clan.

Sebastien Dupré was only twenty-one years old. He was fourth son and seventh child of Fabian Dupré, the great-great grandson of Frederic. The family had grown with the empire, but the Civil War nearly wiped them out. Even though they owned slaves, when abolition came and Maryland joined the Union, they begrudgingly adhered to the new normal. His brothers were each conscripted to serve in the war while Sebastien finished his studies at the prestigious Georgetown Preparatory School, the oldest Catholic boarding school in the US. 

It was there he first caught the attention of his future Sire, Vincent Duarte, though it would be a few more years before he was Embraced.

One by one, his brothers died in the war. When he graduated from Georgetown, the war was still raging, and he enrolled in Mount Saint Mary's to begin his college education. He didn't get far. When he turned twenty, the age of conscription, he was called to join the fight. By that time, he had one older brother left. Sebastien was no fool, however, and knew that he might get called to serve. He had used the time in the school to study military strategy and after proving to be a capable soldier and adroit tactician on the battlefield, was given command of a platoon.

His last older brother was killed in battle, allegedly by his own men. His father died of a breathing illness (lung cancer, though not known at the time) soon after, and his mother's health was wrecked from the stress of looking after the plantation's affairs with his sisters, who were married off after the war. When Sebastien returned from the war, he was thin and strong, and strangely calm about what he had experienced. As it turned out, he had a predilection for operating in violent, ambiguous situations, and using strategy and cunning to get results.

Vincent had ingratiated himself as a mysterious family friend that helped with the estate by seducing his grieving mother. Now that Sebastien had returned, however, she was unnecessary. She died of a mysterious anemic illness, and Sebastien was Embraced. Together, he and Vincent weathered the various storms that hit Baltimore, maintaining the Dupré empire, while also furthering the goals of the Sabbat. 

Sometime during that, Sebastien outgrew his Sire. Their fallout was bloody, with Sebastien killing his Sire, and committing the act of Diablerie on him. It was bad timing, because the Camarilla took over the city. Luckily, the plantation sits just on the outside of the Baltimore domain, and Sebastien was able to form an allegiance with another pack in DC. His eyes have never quite left Baltimore, though, and he would relish the chance to help turn it back into a Sabbat-friendly domain once more.

Sebastien is known as a playboy and fashionable socialite, hosting lavish parties at Dupre Manor, and supporting causes that might hurt the Camarilla, though he has kept himself out of the Baltimore domain while they maintained power. Behind the scenes, he helps move money for the Sabbat, deals in human trafficking in order to maintain a small herd, and connives to affect both vampire and human politics. With the tobacco industry dying a slow death, they've also branched out into marijuana and illicit drugs.