Tomasz Draus

 1811 - 1893

Born in a Polish village on the outskirts of Warsaw, Tomasz Draus was an intelligent, precocious, and combative young child. Perhaps it was his father, soldier who had fought in the uprisings against the Prussian army that partitioned their region of Poland, or his French mother, who had been part of the revolution that ended in the beheading of Louis and Marie Antoinette. They raised him to be an independent thinker, but soon found that he enjoyed it a little too much. Debates with him often devolved into fist fights, and his father, who was a boxer after his time as a soldier, had taught him to use his fists well.

As he developed, he had a natural athletic ability and he was an attractive young man, his appearance something he learned to use to his benefit when trying to get his way. He was easily admitted into the new University of Warsaw in 1828, where he began studies in Linguistics. He learned Latin there, adding to his already fluent speaking of Polish from his father, French from his mother, and Deutsch as the official language of Prussia. He also gained a very healthy dislike for the Kingdom of Prussia and joined a coterie of students intent on fostering revolution to win back Poland's sovereignty. 

As a young revolutionary, notice was taken by his eventual sire, Gretchen Keller. One of Tomasz's professors was the 10th generation Brujah's ghoul. Gretchen was a key part in fostering a sense of revolution in the university, and so when the November Uprising began in 1830, Tomasz was a willing participant, as well as most of the university. The uprising was crushed the next year and the university forced to shut down, believed to be central to the uprising. The ghouled professor was executed, and the loss of the ghoul inspired Gretchen to Embrace Tomasz without much forethought. They fled to the Austrian partition of Poland and took up residence near the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where they would ghoul a new student every few years in order to learn from their studies and spread the same sense of rebellion that they had done in Warsaw.

In 1893, however, they attracted the notice of a hunters. The city's Camarilla court was decimated and those who didn't flee at the time didn't survive. Gretchen and Tomasz didn't stay, obviously.

1894 - 1946

They traveled across Europe, going to from France, to Italy, to Spain, but nowhere stuck. Tomasz wasn't just rebellious, he could be violent, enjoying the challenge of a good fight, and it was only Gretchen's protection that stopped him from being killed a few times. They wore out their welcome in most cities as soon as the local Prince began to suspect their presence was beginning to stir thoughts of revolution or reform of the Tradtions. They went to London next, where he became enamored with the combat artform of Bartitsu (call baritsu at the time due to a misspelling from a Sherlock Holmes story). Their time there was less contentious than other places as there was a decent sized population of other Brujah for Tomasz to bang knuckles with.

In the 1930s, Gretchen was killed by Sabbat, who had infiltrated the London court, and there was a massive struggle for power. At some point during all this, Tomasz committed diablerie on a Lasombra of lower generation in order to help gain the upper hand in the struggle. Only two other Kindred know of it, and one of them is currently in torpor. The strategy worked, however, and Tomasz fought and won against the Sabbat elder leading the charge to cast the Camarilla out. It was a stunning feat, and he enjoyed praise and glory while he resided in London. They called him Elder Slayer, enjoying praise and glory as the Brujah that saved London. Over time, less vampires know about it, others have won similar glories, but many elders still remember his name or know of the incident. Eventually, the Ventrue got too strong of a hold on London, and without Gretchen, he began to crave something completely different than what Europe had afforded him, finding inspiration in the new superpower that rose up after the end of WWII: America.

1947 - present

His time in America has been his favorite so far. With a healthy love of revolution, a tendency toward sex and violence, and a culture that mostly values the individual, he found it easy to assimilate. The Civil Rights movement, the 60s and the Summer of Love, gay rights, etc. There is always a movement to join, a protest to inspire, a status-quo to be broken. San Francisco and LA were great places to hang out with the Anarchs, get a taste of what it was like in places not run by the Camarilla or the Sabbat.

He even sired his own childe, an activist in San Francisco working on the Harvey Milk campaign. They didn't last very long, and he was turned off Embracing after, preferring to ghoul. Especially middle-aged gay men, and sometimes women, who were usually first turned on by the young, hot man, and then bound to him by his blood. It's the best way to keep a source of income and fund political pursuits in modern nights. In the 1990s, the MMA cage fighting became his new obsession for combat, and then the popularity of Fight Club created the perfect opportunity for underground fights.

The rise of social media has been insanely fun to him. He has presence on all the major platforms under the moniker "gofawkesurself" where he generally posts provocative content, calls to activism, and has used it for coordinating with other activists, sometimes hacktivists, to create statements or infiltrate and sabotage corrupt businesses. All the content is anonymous, accessed using a VPN, 

And that brings us to Baltimore... close to the capital of the country, but far enough to not be overrun by mortal security. The West Coast had become... redundant. He hungers for something more visceral. Somewhere full of corruption, a tinder box on the verge of lighting up where it just takes one person to light a match. His latest ghoul is a middle-aged man that made a fortune in the tech industry, and he's just bought an old Brownstone rowhouse in Riverside. One with a small, windowless basement that will serve as the perfect haven until Tommy can find something better.