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Thousand Year Old Vampire: Guillaume d'Orléans
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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 8848300" data-attributes="member: 11760"><p><strong>Florence, 1472</strong></p><p></p><p>It was the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year. A time when vampires, even those who rule the greatest city in the world, tend to stay indoors and are wary of surprise visitors.</p><p></p><p>So the strange woman who greeted me when I woke in my quarters below my fencing school was an unwelcome shock.</p><p></p><p>"Do not worry," she said, in an accent unlike any I had ever heard, "Your servants are fine. I am quite practiced at slipping in and out of places without notice."</p><p></p><p>At first glace, she dressed like a wealthy foreign merchant, with unusual fabrics in her dress. But upon closer inspection, what appeared to be a dress like one could find for sale at shops around Florence turned out to be something more practical: flowing pants that mimicked a dress, but which was much more suitable for what I still thought of as more manly pursuits.</p><p></p><p>She sat at my table, where I both entertained my guests and conducted personal business. There was a stack of my papers near her elbow that did not appear to have been disturbed.</p><p></p><p>"If you want me to be impressed that you got in here without me waking, I am. Others have managed it over the years, but they were friends who had an idea of my preparations."</p><p></p><p>The woman shrugged.</p><p></p><p>"I have lived a long life. I have learned to do many things in that time."</p><p></p><p>I shrugged. </p><p></p><p>"And what is it you want of me?"</p><p></p><p>"You have something that belongs to me."</p><p></p><p>"I sincerely doubt that."</p><p></p><p>She sat up, pulling her thick black hair away from her bodice and pulled the fabric down, baring much of her left breast. A long scar marred her caramel colored skin.</p><p></p><p>"Originally, it would have been in an alabaster jar," she said, pulling the fabric back up, "although the jar appears to have been separated from the heart some time ago and sold separately. I do hope you are not just storing my heart in some burlap bag."</p><p></p><p>I pulled out a chair and sat down opposite her.</p><p></p><p>"No, it's not. It's in a secure vault -- not here -- hidden among other, more mundane treasures. It's not in an alabaster jar, but hidden even better. One wouldn't know it was there at all, unless one put their ear up to its container."</p><p></p><p>She relaxed at this, and smiled, dark lips parting to show white, white teeth.</p><p></p><p>"Good. When the trail ran cold after Cologne, I assumed you were skilled at shaking off pursuers. I did not know then that your century of hiding was not by choice. Still, it is good to learn you are one who knows the value of subterfuge."</p><p></p><p>"It's how I've lived as long as I have."</p><p></p><p>The woman laughed at this, sincerely and deeply, but stopped when she saw my expression.</p><p></p><p>"My apologies. You are, I'm guessing, perhaps 500 years old? Impossibly for a human, mature for a vampire but not 'long' in my terms. I am about 3,000 years old, sitting before you today."</p><p></p><p>"Are you a vampire as well?" I didn't think so. She smelled as alive as any human, moreso, in some ways, with blood that practically thundered in her veins and body heat I could feel from across the table.</p><p></p><p>"No, there were no vampires when I lived the first time or even when I escaped my tomb and began my second life. There were things like them, demons that lived in Sumeria and Manipur, but in this current form," she gestured casually at me with one hand, "that was something the Romans brought back from Judea about 1,500 years ago."</p><p></p><p>"You know a lot about me, but I don't even know your name."</p><p></p><p>"I am Meresankh."</p><p></p><p>"Are you a Moor?"</p><p></p><p>Her nostrils flared briefly in irritation.</p><p></p><p>"You would call me that, especially the Portuguese you lived with for a time. Yes, I know all about that, 'Guglielmo' who was 'Wilhelm' and who was once called ... 'Guillaume.'"</p><p></p><p>She sat back, studying my face.</p><p></p><p>"So little reaction to that name. So you are already losing your identity, the years unable to be contained in your brain. You think yourselves so powerful, so mighty, but you all end up the same. Barely human, ignorant of who and what you are, unconnected to your former humanity in any way. Pitiful monsters, spreading now like locusts across Europe."</p><p></p><p>"You're not the first to threaten me with this, Meresankh."</p><p></p><p>"It is no threat. I did not cause it. I wish you did not inevitably decay this way. It would be nice to have someone to share eternity with. In all my years, I have never encountered anyone who can understand my native tongue or knows the lullabies my mother once sang to me. I have traveled across this world, to continents undreamed of and learned 100 different languages. But as far as I can tell, I am the oldest living being in this world."</p><p></p><p>"And you predate the vampires? What can you tell me of our origins?"</p><p></p><p>She waved my questions away.</p><p></p><p>"I did not come here to be a school teacher. I came here for my heart. I was going to place it somewhere safer than it is, although it sound like it will be safe, for now, with you. Safer than it was with Julian, certainly. What a petty little creature he was."</p><p></p><p>"'Was?' Did you destroy him?" I knew, from my diary, that Julian had saved me once, or more, as a mortal, but I find that there's nothing in me that still feels a true emotion toward him.</p><p></p><p>"No, although he showed very bad manners. But I left him alive, once he told he what he had done with my heart. You, though, are much more civil."</p><p></p><p>"It's how I've lived as long as I have -- such that I have."</p><p></p><p>Meresankh smiled at that.</p><p></p><p>"You likely have a few centuries left in you, before you succumb to idiocy. Would you like to come with me and see the cougar-city of Qusqu, or the great statues of Rapa Nui, that look out onto an ocean larger than any you have ever dreamed of, or go south to the endless land of ice, where the night sky burns with green fire and where no humans have ever walked but me? You could be my most trusted servant."</p><p></p><p>"'Servant?' I am no servant."</p><p></p><p>Meresankh's eyes narrowed.</p><p></p><p>"In life, I was a queen, the wife of a living god. I know more things than you ever possibly could. Since my rebirth, I have sailed a ship I built myself across the great western ocean. I have turned lead into gold. I have been the lover of three different gods. I have ruled four different kingdoms on three continents. You are in on way my equal. But I would allow you to be my companion."</p><p></p><p>"And what happens if a vampire feeds upon you, oldest woman in the world?" I snarled. "What does your blood do for us?"</p><p></p><p>Her tone rankled me. I could not remember -- literally -- anyone ever treating me with anything other than the deference that comes with knowing I am a deadly predator.</p><p></p><p>Meresankh laughed.</p><p></p><p>"My blood is like hot sand in your mouth. It does nothing to nourish you, but burns your mouth and throat."</p><p></p><p>She rose from the table.</p><p></p><p>"I have your measure now. I do not think you will harm my heart. And if I want it back, I will be able to find you again now. You will regret not taking me up on my offer. Human lives are so brief and your relationship cannot be anything other than a wolf among the sheep. Perhaps I will offer you another chance some day. Farewell for now, Guglielmo-who-was-Guillaume."</p><p></p><p>I watched her leave, wanting to chase after her, ask her about the Romans and Judea, and what more she knew about the origins of vampires, about green fire in the southern skies and of what a "cougar city" was. But after centuries of establishing my own little empires of businesses and traders and ships sailing in my name, I could not fathom leaving that all behind and bending the knee even to someone who claimed to have known Sumeria.</p><p></p><p>I spent decades wondering if I had made the right decision.</p><p>[spoiler="Character sheet"]Prompt 39 + 3 - 2 = Prompt 40</p><p></p><p><em>You are approached by a supernatural Character unknown to you. They take you on a bizarre journey, then offer you spiritual solace in exchange for a terrible pledge. What do they demand? Will you accept? If you accept, gain a Skill.</em></p><p><strong>Guglielmo Nero</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Skills</strong>: </p><p>Bloodthirsty (checked); </p><p>Knows the secrets of killing vampires (checked);</p><p>I control the beast; </p><p>Skilled merchant (checked); </p><p>Cook Portuguese seafood dishes;</p><p>Knowledgeable of medieval medicine; </p><p>Knowledge of vampire anatomy; </p><p>I can draw the shadows in around myself, creating supernatural hiding spaces (checked);</p><p></p><p><strong>Resources</strong>:</p><p>The Spear of Aeolius, an ancient Roman spear capable of killing vampires</p><p>Diary: A leather-bound German-made ledger book</p><p>An ever-beating heart, which magically will not die</p><p>Florentine fencing school</p><p></p><p><strong>Characters</strong>:</p><p>Juião/Julian Black: a Portuguese orphan turned my servant turned vampire (Immortal); </p><p>Filippo Vadi: a Florentine fencing master with the fingers of his right hand cut off (mortal); </p><p>Catherina Marchand: a descendant of Cateline and Anouilh, who works for my Florentine investment company (mortal);</p><p>Meresankh, an ancient Egyptian queen who has lived 3,000 years as of 1472, and whose still-living heart I have in my possession (immortal); </p><p></p><p><strong>Marks</strong>: My eyes cannot stand bright light and I have to remain in shadows at all times; my touch is fatal to plants; </p><p></p><p><strong>Memories (five, up to three Experiences each)</strong>:</p><p>1: I am Guilliame d'Orléans: I rescue a dark-haired girl from attack and Constansia pledges herself to me, believing me to be a servant of Satan, and we soon wed; Constansia conducts her Satanic rituals and summons a demon, Raum, to serve me in the form of a raven;</p><p>2: I am Wilhelm Black: Brought into the society of the Nachtvolk of Cologne, I watched their leader slowly dismember a vampire, leaving him alive for hours, just in agony; with the help of the mortal Itzig family, I become a rich merchant, with investments across Europe.</p><p>3. I am Wilhelm Black: Julian, now a violent enforcer of the Nachtvolk, gifts me an ever-beating heart; Meresankh, the immortal woman whose heart that is, confronts me in Florence, but allows me to keep it in my safe-keeping for now; </p><p>4. I am Guglielmo Nero: After Florentine banks collapse during the 100 Years War, I move my banking operations from Cologne to Florence; poisoned by Averardo de' Medici, I wake up in Florence 100 years later, the Itzigs dead, my banking empire dismantled in my absence; setting myself up in Florence, I come to own and operate out of a fencing school.</p><p>5.</p><p></p><p><strong>Diary (four memories, up to three Experiences each)</strong></p><p>1: I am Guilliame d'Orléans: The night the other (DAMAGED) were burned alive, Carnutes fed upon me as I screamed in pitch black darkness; I confront Carnutes about him making me a vampire and he confesses he did it out of loneliness and tells me I will suffer in the same way some day; Carnutes possessed Raum and led the Archbishop of Tours' men to try and killed me -- but I used the Spear of Aeolius and killed Raum and Carnutes instead.</p><p>2: I am le Passeur or "the Frenchman": The Portuguese (DAMAGED) Juião helps me after I am burned by sunlight, unafraid of my supernatural nature, and I take him in as my servant; Juião teaches me to cook with the seafood I catch underwater; at his urging, I prey on (DAMAGED) as I tend to them.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 8848300, member: 11760"] [B]Florence, 1472[/B] It was the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year. A time when vampires, even those who rule the greatest city in the world, tend to stay indoors and are wary of surprise visitors. So the strange woman who greeted me when I woke in my quarters below my fencing school was an unwelcome shock. "Do not worry," she said, in an accent unlike any I had ever heard, "Your servants are fine. I am quite practiced at slipping in and out of places without notice." At first glace, she dressed like a wealthy foreign merchant, with unusual fabrics in her dress. But upon closer inspection, what appeared to be a dress like one could find for sale at shops around Florence turned out to be something more practical: flowing pants that mimicked a dress, but which was much more suitable for what I still thought of as more manly pursuits. She sat at my table, where I both entertained my guests and conducted personal business. There was a stack of my papers near her elbow that did not appear to have been disturbed. "If you want me to be impressed that you got in here without me waking, I am. Others have managed it over the years, but they were friends who had an idea of my preparations." The woman shrugged. "I have lived a long life. I have learned to do many things in that time." I shrugged. "And what is it you want of me?" "You have something that belongs to me." "I sincerely doubt that." She sat up, pulling her thick black hair away from her bodice and pulled the fabric down, baring much of her left breast. A long scar marred her caramel colored skin. "Originally, it would have been in an alabaster jar," she said, pulling the fabric back up, "although the jar appears to have been separated from the heart some time ago and sold separately. I do hope you are not just storing my heart in some burlap bag." I pulled out a chair and sat down opposite her. "No, it's not. It's in a secure vault -- not here -- hidden among other, more mundane treasures. It's not in an alabaster jar, but hidden even better. One wouldn't know it was there at all, unless one put their ear up to its container." She relaxed at this, and smiled, dark lips parting to show white, white teeth. "Good. When the trail ran cold after Cologne, I assumed you were skilled at shaking off pursuers. I did not know then that your century of hiding was not by choice. Still, it is good to learn you are one who knows the value of subterfuge." "It's how I've lived as long as I have." The woman laughed at this, sincerely and deeply, but stopped when she saw my expression. "My apologies. You are, I'm guessing, perhaps 500 years old? Impossibly for a human, mature for a vampire but not 'long' in my terms. I am about 3,000 years old, sitting before you today." "Are you a vampire as well?" I didn't think so. She smelled as alive as any human, moreso, in some ways, with blood that practically thundered in her veins and body heat I could feel from across the table. "No, there were no vampires when I lived the first time or even when I escaped my tomb and began my second life. There were things like them, demons that lived in Sumeria and Manipur, but in this current form," she gestured casually at me with one hand, "that was something the Romans brought back from Judea about 1,500 years ago." "You know a lot about me, but I don't even know your name." "I am Meresankh." "Are you a Moor?" Her nostrils flared briefly in irritation. "You would call me that, especially the Portuguese you lived with for a time. Yes, I know all about that, 'Guglielmo' who was 'Wilhelm' and who was once called ... 'Guillaume.'" She sat back, studying my face. "So little reaction to that name. So you are already losing your identity, the years unable to be contained in your brain. You think yourselves so powerful, so mighty, but you all end up the same. Barely human, ignorant of who and what you are, unconnected to your former humanity in any way. Pitiful monsters, spreading now like locusts across Europe." "You're not the first to threaten me with this, Meresankh." "It is no threat. I did not cause it. I wish you did not inevitably decay this way. It would be nice to have someone to share eternity with. In all my years, I have never encountered anyone who can understand my native tongue or knows the lullabies my mother once sang to me. I have traveled across this world, to continents undreamed of and learned 100 different languages. But as far as I can tell, I am the oldest living being in this world." "And you predate the vampires? What can you tell me of our origins?" She waved my questions away. "I did not come here to be a school teacher. I came here for my heart. I was going to place it somewhere safer than it is, although it sound like it will be safe, for now, with you. Safer than it was with Julian, certainly. What a petty little creature he was." "'Was?' Did you destroy him?" I knew, from my diary, that Julian had saved me once, or more, as a mortal, but I find that there's nothing in me that still feels a true emotion toward him. "No, although he showed very bad manners. But I left him alive, once he told he what he had done with my heart. You, though, are much more civil." "It's how I've lived as long as I have -- such that I have." Meresankh smiled at that. "You likely have a few centuries left in you, before you succumb to idiocy. Would you like to come with me and see the cougar-city of Qusqu, or the great statues of Rapa Nui, that look out onto an ocean larger than any you have ever dreamed of, or go south to the endless land of ice, where the night sky burns with green fire and where no humans have ever walked but me? You could be my most trusted servant." "'Servant?' I am no servant." Meresankh's eyes narrowed. "In life, I was a queen, the wife of a living god. I know more things than you ever possibly could. Since my rebirth, I have sailed a ship I built myself across the great western ocean. I have turned lead into gold. I have been the lover of three different gods. I have ruled four different kingdoms on three continents. You are in on way my equal. But I would allow you to be my companion." "And what happens if a vampire feeds upon you, oldest woman in the world?" I snarled. "What does your blood do for us?" Her tone rankled me. I could not remember -- literally -- anyone ever treating me with anything other than the deference that comes with knowing I am a deadly predator. Meresankh laughed. "My blood is like hot sand in your mouth. It does nothing to nourish you, but burns your mouth and throat." She rose from the table. "I have your measure now. I do not think you will harm my heart. And if I want it back, I will be able to find you again now. You will regret not taking me up on my offer. Human lives are so brief and your relationship cannot be anything other than a wolf among the sheep. Perhaps I will offer you another chance some day. Farewell for now, Guglielmo-who-was-Guillaume." I watched her leave, wanting to chase after her, ask her about the Romans and Judea, and what more she knew about the origins of vampires, about green fire in the southern skies and of what a "cougar city" was. But after centuries of establishing my own little empires of businesses and traders and ships sailing in my name, I could not fathom leaving that all behind and bending the knee even to someone who claimed to have known Sumeria. I spent decades wondering if I had made the right decision. [spoiler="Character sheet"]Prompt 39 + 3 - 2 = Prompt 40 [I]You are approached by a supernatural Character unknown to you. They take you on a bizarre journey, then offer you spiritual solace in exchange for a terrible pledge. What do they demand? Will you accept? If you accept, gain a Skill.[/I] [B]Guglielmo Nero Skills[/B]: Bloodthirsty (checked); Knows the secrets of killing vampires (checked); I control the beast; Skilled merchant (checked); Cook Portuguese seafood dishes; Knowledgeable of medieval medicine; Knowledge of vampire anatomy; I can draw the shadows in around myself, creating supernatural hiding spaces (checked); [B]Resources[/B]: The Spear of Aeolius, an ancient Roman spear capable of killing vampires Diary: A leather-bound German-made ledger book An ever-beating heart, which magically will not die Florentine fencing school [B]Characters[/B]: Juião/Julian Black: a Portuguese orphan turned my servant turned vampire (Immortal); Filippo Vadi: a Florentine fencing master with the fingers of his right hand cut off (mortal); Catherina Marchand: a descendant of Cateline and Anouilh, who works for my Florentine investment company (mortal); Meresankh, an ancient Egyptian queen who has lived 3,000 years as of 1472, and whose still-living heart I have in my possession (immortal); [B]Marks[/B]: My eyes cannot stand bright light and I have to remain in shadows at all times; my touch is fatal to plants; [B]Memories (five, up to three Experiences each)[/B]: 1: I am Guilliame d'Orléans: I rescue a dark-haired girl from attack and Constansia pledges herself to me, believing me to be a servant of Satan, and we soon wed; Constansia conducts her Satanic rituals and summons a demon, Raum, to serve me in the form of a raven; 2: I am Wilhelm Black: Brought into the society of the Nachtvolk of Cologne, I watched their leader slowly dismember a vampire, leaving him alive for hours, just in agony; with the help of the mortal Itzig family, I become a rich merchant, with investments across Europe. 3. I am Wilhelm Black: Julian, now a violent enforcer of the Nachtvolk, gifts me an ever-beating heart; Meresankh, the immortal woman whose heart that is, confronts me in Florence, but allows me to keep it in my safe-keeping for now; 4. I am Guglielmo Nero: After Florentine banks collapse during the 100 Years War, I move my banking operations from Cologne to Florence; poisoned by Averardo de' Medici, I wake up in Florence 100 years later, the Itzigs dead, my banking empire dismantled in my absence; setting myself up in Florence, I come to own and operate out of a fencing school. 5. [B]Diary (four memories, up to three Experiences each)[/B] 1: I am Guilliame d'Orléans: The night the other (DAMAGED) were burned alive, Carnutes fed upon me as I screamed in pitch black darkness; I confront Carnutes about him making me a vampire and he confesses he did it out of loneliness and tells me I will suffer in the same way some day; Carnutes possessed Raum and led the Archbishop of Tours' men to try and killed me -- but I used the Spear of Aeolius and killed Raum and Carnutes instead. 2: I am le Passeur or "the Frenchman": The Portuguese (DAMAGED) Juião helps me after I am burned by sunlight, unafraid of my supernatural nature, and I take him in as my servant; Juião teaches me to cook with the seafood I catch underwater; at his urging, I prey on (DAMAGED) as I tend to them. [/spoiler] [/QUOTE]
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