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Thousand Year Old Vampire: Guillaume d'Orléans
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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 8848304" data-attributes="member: 11760"><p><strong>Nicosia, 1578</strong></p><p></p><p>After leaving Florence, I realized my best course was to continue moving, to not get drawn into the politics of any local place, mortal or immortal.</p><p></p><p>As I had hoped, my business interests had survived my absence this time, and was able to freely travel with money that had grown over the decades. All it took was convincing one clerk in Pisa that I was Giulio Nero, the dissolute grandson of Guglielmo Nero and now an heir to his business -- one of a number of male heirs. Letters were then sent around Europe to help establish the existence of these other heirs. And as I traveled, these heirs corresponded with one another, from city to city, over decades, creating evidence that I would then use later on, when I changed names as time went on and my face was too young to be the heir I was claiming to be.</p><p></p><p>I was guided in my travels by a desire to untangle my family history. Like humans of a certain age, I became obsessed with piecing together what I knew of those who came before me. But in my case, I was interested in vampires. And, according to Meresankh, the family tree would not extend far into the past, although it was apparently spreading quickly now.</p><p></p><p>I now only know Carnutes from my diary and that he was a Gaul who was turned by Aeolius, a Roman soldier whose spear I still possess. And Meresankh made reference to true vampires first appearing in the Holy Land about 1,500 years ago. So to the Holy Land I went.</p><p></p><p>I was freely able to travel through the Ottoman Empire -- or at least as free as any living European could. The questions were limited to what any traveler would be asked, and any strangeness in my manner due to my nature was considered to be a European eccentricity.</p><p></p><p>I spent a year in Jerusalem, a modest and ancient city of about 10,000 people. In addition to Christians and Jews, it turned out to be a holy city to the Muslims as well, something I hadn't realized before traveling through the empire. It took me most of my time there to work through the various Quranic scholars who lived in the city to find one whose interests were more esoteric.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, I was able to gain audience with Aafiq Al-Nazzal, a Sufi scholar most considered to be a collector of ghost stories. He, too, had heard the stories that the first vampires had appeared in Judea 1,500 years ago.</p><p></p><p>"A date of great significance among Christians," he said, conspiratorially. "There are rumors, of course, that they were present at the planned crucifixion of the prophet Isa, whom you call 'Jesus.' But Allah saved him, with a miracle. Some say he was bodily raised into Heaven. Others say that another died in his place."</p><p></p><p>"Christians believe the blood of Jesus was spilled as he hung on the cross, that a Roman soldier stabbed him with his spear."</p><p></p><p>"Possible. The Romans were cruel and enjoyed torturing their enemies. Likely everyone who was crucified suffered wounds from nearby soldiers."</p><p></p><p>"Could his blood have somehow turned those soldiers into vampires?"</p><p></p><p>Aafiq was horrified at the notion.</p><p></p><p>"Isa was a great prophet, who performed many miracles, including feeding children and curing the blind. He was not some witch cursing his enemies. No, whatever caused the vampires to appear was not his doing."</p><p></p><p>According to Aafiq, most of the Roman soldiers in Judea at that time were Greeks, specifically Thessalians. And thus, I knew the next stop on my journey.</p><p></p><p>Thessaly was an uneasy province of the Ottomans at this time, with groups of rebels hiding in the rocky mountains, always eager to fall upon their occupiers in the vain hope of driving the pasha out. A scholar, coming from elsewhere in the empire, was the least of officials' problems.</p><p></p><p>In Larissa, known to the Ottomans as Yeni-şehir i-Fenari, I sat with an elderly woman, said to be the oldest person alive in Greece, although I was definitely much older. Sophia had been taught all the stories of the old days by her grandmother, who was said to have been the oldest woman in her day, and who had similarly been a link to ancient stories.</p><p></p><p>Sophia's grandmother had spoken of the vampires, whom she said were Roman soldiers, rather than the native-born lamia, who were beautiful Greek women who preyed on young men for their blood and flesh.</p><p></p><p>"And do you know any of these vampires' names, grandmother?"</p><p></p><p>Sophia turned her head toward me. She was blind, or nearly so, and had long ago lost all of her teeth and most of her hearing.</p><p></p><p>She pointed a wobbly finger at the wall of her dark room.</p><p></p><p>"One went north, into the mountains, to become a school master at a school for the dark arts by a black lake."</p><p></p><p>"Wait, who did? Which mountains?"</p><p></p><p>But I had exhausted Sophia and was unable to get more from her.</p><p></p><p>So I traveled further north through the Ottoman Empire, into Bulgaria. There, I found others who had heard the story, and referred to the headmaster as Solomonar. But other Bulgarians said the school was founded by the Devil himself. But they all agreed that the school was even further north, near Sibiu in Transylvania.</p><p></p><p>Sibiu was a charming town on the Cibin River. Many of the buildings had an unusual ventilation system in their roofs that made them look as though they were covered in eyes. Amusing, at first, but over time, the feeling grew and grew that I was being truly watched.</p><p></p><p>On my third night in town, I was assaulted in the early hours of the morning before dawn and taken by strong hands to a hidden location.</p><p></p><p>I awoke to find nine vampires, dressed in a variety of styles from around Europe and the Ottoman Empire, glaring at me. I was in a round stone room, chains binding me to a gray stone throne. Most worryingly, I was surrounded on all sides by tall wooden shutters, shut out against the night, but which I could easily imagine being thrown open, allowing the room to flood with sunlight come dawn.</p><p></p><p>"You are asking a lot of questions," one vampire said, with a thick Transylvanian accent and a long droopy mustache. "Why are you seeking a school?"</p><p></p><p>"I have questions about our kind's origins. I have been to Jerusalem, where we apparently were born, and traced the path back from there to Thessaly. I was told one of the first vampires came here, to found a school of dark arts."</p><p></p><p>The vampires glanced at each other. Something I had said resonated with past conversations between them.</p><p></p><p>"And who was this vampire?"</p><p></p><p>"He may have called himself Aeolus, or it might have been a companion of his. At some point, he created another vampire, who I knew as Carnutes and he in turn created me. I have come seeking more understanding of what it means to be a vampire."</p><p></p><p>They conferred among themselves, using a code or language I did not recognize. At long last, the one with the droopy mustache approached me and pulled something from his dark cloak. Before I could see what it was, I was in darkness once more.</p><p></p><p>When I awoke again, I was conscious that a great deal of time had passed.</p><p></p><p>I was in a mossy tomb somewhere warmer than when I had last been awake, I sat up on my slab and found my clothes had been sloppily buttoned up at some point in the past. As I redid them, I found new scars on my torso and knew that things had been removed from me and I had been stitched back up with black thread by someone who wanted me to know what happened. What, though, they had taken, or why, I did not know.</p><p></p><p>I emerged into twilight and what appeared to be a Greek island like those I had visited on my journey to Thessaly. But this one was far larger and beyond its shores, nothing but dark blue waters.</p><p></p><p>I found I had no more desire to learn about the origins of vampires, but was instead seized with the desire to create a new, great work of supernatural and artistic importance.</p><p></p><p>I discovered I was on the outskirts of Nicosia, in the Ottoman eyalet of Cyprus, six months after my arrival in Sibiu. In addition to ships going to and from the empire, there were regular trips to and from Venice. I set about my great project, sending for my things from their hidden caches around Italy and hired laborers both from Cyprus and elsewhere in the empire.</p><p></p><p>Finally, a year later, I had done it. Upon Cyprus' Mt. Olympus, I had erected a structure that combined broken statuary from the slopes of Mt. Olympus, death masks from Egypt and, most importantly, the Spear of Aeolus, which swung freely in the structure, pointing in response to unseen stimulus.</p><p></p><p>The locals were curious about the structure and insisted on approaching it repeatedly. It took killing all those foolish enough to stay near the summit at night, and tossing their bodies down the mountain, for it to stop.</p><p></p><p>I left Cyprus with a lightened heart and the whole world open to me.</p><p>[spoiler="Character sheet"]Prompt 48 + 10 - 2 = Prompt 56 ((Two more rolls like that and the game is over.))</p><p></p><p><em>You begin a fantastic construction that puzzles the mortals around you. Give just a hint of its purpose. Lose a Resource and gain the skill Visionary.</em></p><p></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>Visionary; </p><p></p><p><strong>Resources</strong>:</p><p>Diary: A leather-bound German-made ledger book</p><p>An ever-beating heart, which magically will not die</p><p></p><p><strong>Characters</strong>:</p><p>Juião/Julian Black: a Portuguese orphan turned my servant turned vampire (Immortal); </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. I am Guglielmo Nero: I awake in the rubble of my Florentine fencing school, war having destroyed the building; I traveled the Ottoman Empire, searching for the origins of vampires before being sent to Cyprus on a mysterious errand, and there I erected a magical structure atop Mt. Olympus; </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: 8848304, member: 11760"] [B]Nicosia, 1578[/B] After leaving Florence, I realized my best course was to continue moving, to not get drawn into the politics of any local place, mortal or immortal. As I had hoped, my business interests had survived my absence this time, and was able to freely travel with money that had grown over the decades. All it took was convincing one clerk in Pisa that I was Giulio Nero, the dissolute grandson of Guglielmo Nero and now an heir to his business -- one of a number of male heirs. Letters were then sent around Europe to help establish the existence of these other heirs. And as I traveled, these heirs corresponded with one another, from city to city, over decades, creating evidence that I would then use later on, when I changed names as time went on and my face was too young to be the heir I was claiming to be. I was guided in my travels by a desire to untangle my family history. Like humans of a certain age, I became obsessed with piecing together what I knew of those who came before me. But in my case, I was interested in vampires. And, according to Meresankh, the family tree would not extend far into the past, although it was apparently spreading quickly now. I now only know Carnutes from my diary and that he was a Gaul who was turned by Aeolius, a Roman soldier whose spear I still possess. And Meresankh made reference to true vampires first appearing in the Holy Land about 1,500 years ago. So to the Holy Land I went. I was freely able to travel through the Ottoman Empire -- or at least as free as any living European could. The questions were limited to what any traveler would be asked, and any strangeness in my manner due to my nature was considered to be a European eccentricity. I spent a year in Jerusalem, a modest and ancient city of about 10,000 people. In addition to Christians and Jews, it turned out to be a holy city to the Muslims as well, something I hadn't realized before traveling through the empire. It took me most of my time there to work through the various Quranic scholars who lived in the city to find one whose interests were more esoteric. Eventually, I was able to gain audience with Aafiq Al-Nazzal, a Sufi scholar most considered to be a collector of ghost stories. He, too, had heard the stories that the first vampires had appeared in Judea 1,500 years ago. "A date of great significance among Christians," he said, conspiratorially. "There are rumors, of course, that they were present at the planned crucifixion of the prophet Isa, whom you call 'Jesus.' But Allah saved him, with a miracle. Some say he was bodily raised into Heaven. Others say that another died in his place." "Christians believe the blood of Jesus was spilled as he hung on the cross, that a Roman soldier stabbed him with his spear." "Possible. The Romans were cruel and enjoyed torturing their enemies. Likely everyone who was crucified suffered wounds from nearby soldiers." "Could his blood have somehow turned those soldiers into vampires?" Aafiq was horrified at the notion. "Isa was a great prophet, who performed many miracles, including feeding children and curing the blind. He was not some witch cursing his enemies. No, whatever caused the vampires to appear was not his doing." According to Aafiq, most of the Roman soldiers in Judea at that time were Greeks, specifically Thessalians. And thus, I knew the next stop on my journey. Thessaly was an uneasy province of the Ottomans at this time, with groups of rebels hiding in the rocky mountains, always eager to fall upon their occupiers in the vain hope of driving the pasha out. A scholar, coming from elsewhere in the empire, was the least of officials' problems. In Larissa, known to the Ottomans as Yeni-şehir i-Fenari, I sat with an elderly woman, said to be the oldest person alive in Greece, although I was definitely much older. Sophia had been taught all the stories of the old days by her grandmother, who was said to have been the oldest woman in her day, and who had similarly been a link to ancient stories. Sophia's grandmother had spoken of the vampires, whom she said were Roman soldiers, rather than the native-born lamia, who were beautiful Greek women who preyed on young men for their blood and flesh. "And do you know any of these vampires' names, grandmother?" Sophia turned her head toward me. She was blind, or nearly so, and had long ago lost all of her teeth and most of her hearing. She pointed a wobbly finger at the wall of her dark room. "One went north, into the mountains, to become a school master at a school for the dark arts by a black lake." "Wait, who did? Which mountains?" But I had exhausted Sophia and was unable to get more from her. So I traveled further north through the Ottoman Empire, into Bulgaria. There, I found others who had heard the story, and referred to the headmaster as Solomonar. But other Bulgarians said the school was founded by the Devil himself. But they all agreed that the school was even further north, near Sibiu in Transylvania. Sibiu was a charming town on the Cibin River. Many of the buildings had an unusual ventilation system in their roofs that made them look as though they were covered in eyes. Amusing, at first, but over time, the feeling grew and grew that I was being truly watched. On my third night in town, I was assaulted in the early hours of the morning before dawn and taken by strong hands to a hidden location. I awoke to find nine vampires, dressed in a variety of styles from around Europe and the Ottoman Empire, glaring at me. I was in a round stone room, chains binding me to a gray stone throne. Most worryingly, I was surrounded on all sides by tall wooden shutters, shut out against the night, but which I could easily imagine being thrown open, allowing the room to flood with sunlight come dawn. "You are asking a lot of questions," one vampire said, with a thick Transylvanian accent and a long droopy mustache. "Why are you seeking a school?" "I have questions about our kind's origins. I have been to Jerusalem, where we apparently were born, and traced the path back from there to Thessaly. I was told one of the first vampires came here, to found a school of dark arts." The vampires glanced at each other. Something I had said resonated with past conversations between them. "And who was this vampire?" "He may have called himself Aeolus, or it might have been a companion of his. At some point, he created another vampire, who I knew as Carnutes and he in turn created me. I have come seeking more understanding of what it means to be a vampire." They conferred among themselves, using a code or language I did not recognize. At long last, the one with the droopy mustache approached me and pulled something from his dark cloak. Before I could see what it was, I was in darkness once more. When I awoke again, I was conscious that a great deal of time had passed. I was in a mossy tomb somewhere warmer than when I had last been awake, I sat up on my slab and found my clothes had been sloppily buttoned up at some point in the past. As I redid them, I found new scars on my torso and knew that things had been removed from me and I had been stitched back up with black thread by someone who wanted me to know what happened. What, though, they had taken, or why, I did not know. I emerged into twilight and what appeared to be a Greek island like those I had visited on my journey to Thessaly. But this one was far larger and beyond its shores, nothing but dark blue waters. I found I had no more desire to learn about the origins of vampires, but was instead seized with the desire to create a new, great work of supernatural and artistic importance. I discovered I was on the outskirts of Nicosia, in the Ottoman eyalet of Cyprus, six months after my arrival in Sibiu. In addition to ships going to and from the empire, there were regular trips to and from Venice. I set about my great project, sending for my things from their hidden caches around Italy and hired laborers both from Cyprus and elsewhere in the empire. Finally, a year later, I had done it. Upon Cyprus' Mt. Olympus, I had erected a structure that combined broken statuary from the slopes of Mt. Olympus, death masks from Egypt and, most importantly, the Spear of Aeolus, which swung freely in the structure, pointing in response to unseen stimulus. The locals were curious about the structure and insisted on approaching it repeatedly. It took killing all those foolish enough to stay near the summit at night, and tossing their bodies down the mountain, for it to stop. I left Cyprus with a lightened heart and the whole world open to me. [spoiler="Character sheet"]Prompt 48 + 10 - 2 = Prompt 56 ((Two more rolls like that and the game is over.)) [I]You begin a fantastic construction that puzzles the mortals around you. Give just a hint of its purpose. Lose a Resource and gain the skill Visionary.[/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); Visionary; [B]Resources[/B]: Diary: A leather-bound German-made ledger book An ever-beating heart, which magically will not die [B]Characters[/B]: Juião/Julian Black: a Portuguese orphan turned my servant turned vampire (Immortal); 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. I am Guglielmo Nero: I awake in the rubble of my Florentine fencing school, war having destroyed the building; I traveled the Ottoman Empire, searching for the origins of vampires before being sent to Cyprus on a mysterious errand, and there I erected a magical structure atop Mt. Olympus; [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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