†Dolores

The vampire Dolores has drunk 335 pints of blood.
Powers: Second-sight Suction Surprise Perception Celerity(3) Stamina(3) Shadows(3) Thievery(3) Locate(2) Telepathy(3) Charisma(3)
Dolores is sire to no other vampires.
Dolores is a master vampire, with no sire.

Full name: Dolores d'Arc
Aliases: Libitina, Moriah, Agatha O'Duibhlin
DOT: 25th August 2008
Apparent age: early 20s
Gender: Female

Likes

• Ancient history
  
• Postmodern literature
  
• Lore & the occult
  
• Science
  
• Smoking
  

Dislikes

• Hollow religious references
  
• Brainless creatures
  
• Clergy
  
• Frailty
  
• Flaunting

Pretty much tailor-made to blend in, Dolores has no distinguishing characteristics but instead has the quality of being very forgettable. She has straight black hair, skin not-too-pale for a vampire, a girlish body which she usually hides behind large sweaters or conservative shirts and trousers, almond shaped eyes which are very dark, the only thing even remotely remarkable about her appearance, arched brows and high but soft cheekbones. She has a rich mouth that is usually sullen. Her heritage is eclectic, a salad of racial genes with Italian and Irish and French and Dutch in equal parts, and she grew up living in each of them at some point in her life.

Having spent the formation years of her unlife among the most dubious of characters, she has learnt to be circumspect, especially among other vampires. She hasn't abandoned a certain feminine dignity and decorum, although it's taken quite the secondary position after things like preservation. Dolores has a love of knowledge though, and somewhat of a hand for research which she puts to use, as there are few nobler occupations for an immortal to adopt. Indeed she's narcissistic and arrogant, even more so than she had been in life. She was brought into a Darwinian vampiric culture and believes that not only are vampires superior by default, but that some are made to lead and others to perish or, even worse, follow.
The central part of her around which the more complex aspects of her personality revolve is nevertheless infantile, and a little lost. She can't help but feel out of place or ashamed sometimes, almost randomly. That said, the girl doesn't convey humility, but awkwardness. Even more awkward are the instances when her consciousness creaks and cracks and the subconscious behind it makes a brief appearance, presenting more masculine aspects such as flamboyant mannerisms and a playful persona, underlined with arrogance and the conceit of a nature and purpose nobler than that of present company.

The only hint of a personal history she ever gave since becoming a vampire, tidbits and conversation-fillers notwithstanding, was destroyed almost as she wrote it: a sort of impromptu journal written on an ice-frozen window with the diamond edge of a ring she entitled the Eudaimonia, which means "happiness" in Greek but has the connotation of "good spirit" or more literally, "the good demon". The text, if the scrawly, tiny writing can be called that, melted away completely the next morning.

She wrote it on a whim and half-unaware, in the third person. It was at first review of her life before her turning, how she was a student of theology and social psychology at an unnamed university in an unnamed city; her parents or indeed any family were left anonymous. It then went on to chronicle her turning and subsequent unlife.

Although, the text having disappeared, it is unavailable now to anyone, a hypothetical reader would have done well to treat the history with skepticism (as hinted by the title quote of the first entry, which described history as "an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant"). All throughout there were hints of intense subjectivity and bias, Dolores making a highly unreliable narrator, especially since she wasn't aware of what influenced her narrating most of the time. Towards the end of the Eudaimonia Dolores wrote about how she diablerized her sire, out of necessity according to her. It must be true that she felt some guilt from it, as the sire she killed and whose soul she literally consumed started emerging again through her personality and mannerisms at her weakest moments, a sort of half-hearted possession that may yet grow in strength. During her writing she had flashes of impressions and attitudes (illustrated most starkly through "corrections" and slip ups such as "memory shakes her head", which immediately implies that the narrator participated in the events) that could have belonged to nobody but her former sire. In fact the very reason it was written in the 3rd person is because the text had two narrators, each commenting on the other from their perspective most of the time.

That said, it is dubious whether Emery St. Martin really was the name of her sire or just the one he let her reveal. It is in a sense peculiar that his name should be so similar to that of a priest Dolores was passionately fond of, named Ember. The two names could easily be confused and combined to form one image of a love-lust object. In light of that, the name of anyone within the piece, or at least anyone of importance, shouldn't be taken at face value. Dolores d'Arc in itself could be an alias, especially since she's become fond of using them since her turning.
As for the story itself, it consists mostly of vignettes of memory or imagination, with the hint that the most traumatic experiences - her turning, the arguments with her parents, the ritual in the cave where Emery had to make her bleed via penetration, the rituals she had to participate in at the monastery in Germany, and most of the diablerie itself - were omitted entirely.

So the story, as it was presented, described how Dolores was an ambitious but mostly imaginative and romantic student, slightly displeased with life and pathologically frustrated by the forbidden. Emery finds her because of an experiment she was conducting as part of her dissertation which involved using the names of ancient fallen gods and demons older than humanity itself; mentioning their names unsettled them and threatened to wake them up, and Emery and vampires like him had a duty as old as their clan to make sure the creatures stayed asleep and docile, which frequently involved performing atrocities so that, as if through a dream, the demons heard the lullaby of agony and stayed asleep and sated. Dolores didn't know exactly what she was using though; she thought they were just names of Sumerian gods (which indeed most of the names were). Emery is impressed by her resourcefulness and instinct for research and decides to sire her. He surreptitiously distracts her, ruins her chances at the paper even getting her a passing mark, twists her perception of good, evil, God and church, ruins her relationship with her family and subsequently her income, and eventually reveals to her the unbecoming passion of Ember, whom she looked up to as a paragon of control and virtue, leaving her with nobody to turn to but himself. When she accepts to live in an apartment of his, Emery more or less charms Dolores into becoming his childe, but what he actually said and did and whether or not it was coercive isn't revealed.

He then takes to educating her in all he considered she needed to know about vampires, but keeps her away from most of the people of the clan he pretended to belong to, whom he was actually infiltrating in the hope of destroying from the inside. He eventually tells her about their own clan and their perceived superiority over all others due to their higher purpose and heritage of forbidden knowledge that no other clan could suffer, let alone master.
It is implied that Emery was having arguments with a high priest of their clan about how to use power and clan knowledge; the master of ritual, described by Emery as "paranoid", arranged for a ritual at which he and his childe were to participate, and stalled them there until Emery's faux clan arrived to investigate the rumors of undesirable occupations and infernalists. Emery catches a spy hiding in the shadows, and the unnamed master of ritual more or less forces him to kill the youth, knowing that the fledgling's clan would punish Emery with death for it.
Dolores and her sire therefore have to leave the country and hide at an usurped monastery in Germany where they spend the better part of a year, isolated and with nothing to do other than study using the ancient and rich tomes of the library. There they also participate in several more rituals, far more bloody and horrible and frequently involving maddening chants, human remains, infants and other generally hopeless victims. Dolores herself is often used as a sort of sacrifice and is abused by Emery and friends of his who visited the monastery specifically for the rituals. While he is gleeful at how she is 'performing', Dolores begins to hate him for his abuses.

Eventually, they are found out by Christopher King, an agent of Emery's former clan, who still believes him to just be an infernalist instead of a saboteur. Nevertheless, he drains Emery of most of his blood and orders Dolores to diablerize him in exchange for her pardon, mostly to spite Emery for killing his childe in the cave a year prior.
King then takes Dolores back with him, even allowing her to take some important tomes with her. They travel by sea, and on the vessel - more or less a pirate ship crewed by vampires for others of their kind - she meets one of Emery's friends who had keenly tortured her during the monastery rituals. She is reluctant to even talk to him, but eventually relents and tells him about her sire's death, nevertheless omitting the process of it. He advises her to run off as soon as she can, suggesting a few fairly independent cities where she can hide. Accepting his sincere advice, Dolores disappears almost as soon as the ship docks, and within a few nights of wandering arrives in RavenBlack City.

Nature: Deviant/Bon Vivant
Demeanor: Traditionalist/Gallant
Concept: Jekyll & Hyde
Generation: 12th
Physical: Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2
Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Appearance 3
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 2
Talents: Alertness 1, Athletics 1, Dodge 2, Empathy 3, Expression 1, Intimidation 1, Leadership 1, Subterfuge 3
Skills: Etiquette 1, Melee 1, Stealth 2, Survival 1
Knowledges: Academics 3, Computer 1, Investigation 2, Linguistics 2 (Latin, Sumerian), Medicine 1, Occult 3, Science 1
Virtues: Treachery 2, Cruelty 3, Courage 4
Path of Death and the Soul: 3
Willpower: 5 (and dwindling)
Merits: Culture Knack (3pt), Higher Purpose (1pt), Loyalty (1pt), Occult Library (2pt)
Flaws: Dark Secret (1pt), Patricide (4pt), Slow Healing (3pt), Twisted Upbringing (1pt)