Tag: Inspiration Block
Sylum Inspiration: Keumalahayati
Shogun: Member
Malahayati was a daughter of Admiral Machmud Syah of the Aceh Empire. After graduating from Pesantren, an Islamic school, she continued her studies at the Aceh Royal Military Academy, known as Ma’had Baitul Maqdis.
Following the fall of Malacca to Portuguese invaders, Aceh became a stronger faction and ensured that merchant shipping routes in the Malacca Strait remained exclusively for Asian traders. The kingdom’s leader, Sultan Alauddin Mansur Syah strengthened his military power by building a powerful navy to which he decided to appoint Malahayati, a widowed Aceh warrior, as his First Admiral. Aceh soldiers and the other generals had always respected Malahayati. She had also proved herself a legendary commander during several battles with the Portuguese and Dutch.
In 1599, Dutch expedition commander Cornelis de Houtman arrived at the port of Aceh. The Sultan accepted him peacefully until de Houtman insulted him. The Dutchman, who had already clashed with the Banten Sultanate in northwest Java before his arrival in Aceh, decided to attack. Malahayati led her Inong Balee Army in response to the Dutch challenge and after several violent battles, finally killed de Houtman on September 11, 1599.
In 1600, the Dutch Navy, led by Paulus van Caerden, robbed an Aceh merchant ship of its pepper off the Aceh coast. After this incident, In June 1601, Malahayati ordered the arrest of Dutch Admiral Jacob van Neck. After many incidents which blocked Dutch Navy expeditions and the threat from the Spanish fleet, Maurits van Oranje sent emissaries with diplomatic letter of apology to the Empire of Aceh. The emissaries were Admiral Laurens Bicker and Gerard de Roy. In August 1601, Malahayati met Maurits’s emissaries for a treaty agreement. A ceasefire was agreed and the Dutch paid 50 thousand gulden as compensation for Paulus van Caerden actions, while Malahayati released Dutch prisoners. After the agreement, the Sultan sent three emissaries to the Netherlands.
In June 1602, Malahayati’s reputation as the guardian of the Aceh Kingdom led England to choose a peaceful, diplomatic method by which to enter the Malacca Strait. A letter from Queen Elizabeth I was brought by James Lancaster to the Sultan, and it was Malahayati who led the negotiation with Lancaster. The agreement opened the English route to Java, and they were soon afterwards able to build merchant offices in Banten. Elizabeth I rewarded Lancaster with a knighthood for his successful diplomacy in Aceh and Banten.
For More Information contact the Vampire Council Library
It was soon after she met Yu Shu Lien, who sat her down and told her everything about herself and Vampires. Giving her an option to be Turned.
She took the opportunity that was handed to her.
Sylum Inspiration: Houston Brooks
Oceania Clan: Member
Houston grew up in Texas, much to his dismay, was named after the city he was born in. He stayed mostly to himself as a kid, always more interested in books and school, then sports. His studies paid off, when he got a full scholarship to Yale University.
He settled into school quickly, studying Geology specializing in seismology. While taking courses in Biology he met San Lin, the two ended up being lab partners.
After class he asked her out for coffee.
Six weeks after they graduated they got married. They found a small apartment off campus, and both dived into getting their Masters.
The next summer, Houston was offered to do a geology study for six weeks in Australia. Houston liked the guide, James Conrad, instantly. Asked him tons of questions of the area, the history, the geology …
When the camp was hit with a sudden rainstorm, causing flash flooding – Houston ended up severely injured Conrad gave him a new opportunity.
Sylum Inspiration Maria Carmichael
Lealta: Member
Maria’s family has been Chosen Ones for as long as they can remember. Her parents, grandparents, and great grandparents took care of the Count of Monte Cristo’s home. They made sure it was always ready for John and Harold, and killed any rumors that may surface over the decades.
When Austin arrived at the home, she fell in love instantly with the goofy English Butler. She wooed him, and claimed him as hers. Her parents weren’t thrilled, but Austin grew on them, and all of them were upset when his parents rejected him.
Austin took to the news about the Count and Vampires easily, and when he proposed Maria didn’t hesitate. A few years after they were married, she went to Lucretia to request to be Turned.
Then Turned her husband … Mate.
Sylum Inspiration: Charles Evan
Sanctuary Clan: Member
Charles Evan grew up in Scotland and since he was a child had every intention of being a Veterinarian. He loved animals, and was known around his village to pick up strays and nurse them back to heath. It didn’t matter if it was a cat, dog, snake, or cow.
He lucked out when he found a room to rent from a business man, Paul Mallory, who was gone most of the time, letting him have run of the house for a fraction of the cost. Over the years of his education, he became friends with Paul. He always made sure the place was warm and welcome when Paul came home, as he ignored the menagerie of animals that was always around.
His life changed when he came home early to find that Reginald had escaped and was in Paul’s room, he quickly broke into the room, to get the snake out, when Paul and another man returned unexpectedly. Charles looked up to see a flash of gold in Paul’s eyes and before he could blink the man was on him.
Sylum Inspiration: Louise Massart
Passion: Member
Louise Massart was born into privilege, but she wasn’t happy in her life. She married the man her father picked for her, but then promptly divorced him. She ended up back home with her father, and while he worked on building the Eiffel Tower, she figured out what to do with her life.
She had no idea her life would drastically change.
While on a date her father set up, she met Henriette an assistant at the Magic Show. The two instantly connected, and Louise knew who she belonged with.
Unfortunately it wasn’t easy.
Louise was accused of murder, and the two of them had to work to figure out who actually was the murderer, and keep Louise safe.
Through their ordeal they ended up meeting Snow White and Briar Rose. Who had no problem helping the girls.
Once Louise was found not guilty, they girls were ready to spend their life together, despite the obstacles. Snow White and Briar Rose gave them another option.
Sylum Inspiration: Peter I of Portugal
Integridad: Member
In 1328, Peter’s father, Afonso IV arranged for the marriage of his eldest daughter, Maria, to Alfonso XI of Castile. In 1334, she bore him a son, who ultimately became Peter of Castile. However, Maria returned home to her father in Portugal in 1335 because her royal husband soon after their marriage had begun a long affair with the beautiful and newly widowed Leonor de Guzman, which the Castilian king refused to end. Alfonso’s cousin, Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, had been rebuffed by the Castilian king in 1327 when the two-year child marriage between his daughter Constanza (granddaughter of James II of Aragon) and Alfonso had been annulled to clear the way for the marriage to Maria. For two years Juan Manuel had waged war against the Castilians, who had kept Constanza hostage, until Bishop John del Campo of Oviedo mediated a peace in 1329.
Enraged by Alfonso’s infidelity and mistreatment of his lawful wife, her father made a new alliance with the powerful Castilian aristocrat. Afonso married his son and heir, Peter, to Constanza, thereby allying himself with Juan Manuel. When Constanza arrived in Portugal in 1340, Inês de Castro, the beautiful and aristocratic daughter of a prominent Galicianfamily (with links albeit through illegitimacy, to the Portuguese and Castilian royal families), accompanied her as her lady-in-waiting.
Peter soon fell in love with Inês, and the two conducted a long love affair that lasted until Inês’s murder in 1355. Constanza died in 1345, weeks after giving birth to Fernando, who eventually became the first of Peter’s sons to succeed him as king of Portugal. The scandal of Peter’s affair with Inês, and its political ramifications, caused Afonso to banish Inês from court after Constanza died. Peter refused to marry any of the princesses his father suggested as a second wife; and the king refused to allow his son to marry Inês as Peter wanted. The two aristocratic lovers began living together in secret. According to the chronicle of Fernão Lopes, during this period, Peter began giving Inês’s brothers, exiles from the Castilian court, important positions in Portugal and they became the heir-apparent’s closest advisors. This alarmed Afonso. He worried that upon his death, civil war could tear the country apart, or the Portuguese throne would fall into Castilian hands, either as Juan Manuel fought to avenge his daughter’s honor, or the de Castro brothers supported their sister. Peter claimed that he had married Inês against his father’s orders. In any event, in 1355, Afonso sent three men to find Inês at the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, where she was detained, and they decapitated her in front of one of her young children. Enraged, Peter revolted against his father. Afonso defeated his son within a year, but died shortly thereafter, and Peter succeeded to the throne in 1357. The love affair and father-son conflict inspired more than twenty operas and many writers, including: the Portuguese national epic Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões, the Spanish “Nise lastimosa” and “Nise laureada” (1577) by Jerónimo Bermúdez and ‘Reinar despues de morir’ by Luís Vélez de Guevara, as well as “Inez de Castro” by Mary Russell Mitford and Henry de Montherlant’s French drama La Reine morte.
It was after after the loss Inês he was approached by his grandmother Elizabeth, who told him about Vampires, and told him she was sure Inês was Peter’s Mate.
He agreed to be Turned.
Sylum Inspiration: Ching Shih
Shogun: Hunter
Madame Ching or Ching Shih also known as Cheng I Sao, was a prominent pirate in middle Qing China, who terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century. She personally commanded over 300 junks manned by 20,000 to 40,000 pirates —men, women, and even children. She entered into conflict with the existing empires of the time, such as the British Empire, the Portuguese Empire, and the Qing dynasty. She was one of the few pirate captains to retire from piracy and is considered to be the most successful pirate in history.
She married Cheng I who belonged to a family of successful pirates who traced their criminal origins back to the mid-seventeenth century. Following his marriage to Ching Shih, “who participated fully in her husband’s piracy”, Cheng I used military assertion and his reputation to consolidate a coalition of competing Cantonese pirate fleets into an alliance. By 1804, this coalition was a formidable force, and one of the most powerful pirate fleets in all of China; by this time they were known as the Red Flag Fleet.
On 16 November 1807, Cheng I died in Vietnam. Ching Shih immediately began maneuvering her way into his leadership position. She started to cultivate personal relationships to get rivals to recognize her status and solidify her authority. In order to stop her rivals before open conflict erupted, she sought the support of the most powerful members of her husband’s family: his nephew Cheng Pao-yang and his cousin’s son Cheng Ch’i. Then she drew on the coalition formed by her husband by building upon some of the fleet captains’ existing loyalties to her husband and making herself essential to the remaining captains.
Since Ching Shih would have such a large force at her command, she knew she needed someone to assist her in managing the Red Flag Fleet’s day-to-day operations, but remain loyal to her and be accepted by the low-level pirates. She believed there was only one man for the job, Cheung Po Tsai.
Finally, in late 1809 and early 1810, her fleet suffered a series of defeats inflicted by the Portuguese Navy at the Battle of the Tiger’s Mouth, upon which she accepted an amnesty offered by the Chinese government to all pirates who agreed to surrender, ending her career that same year. She kept her loot and opened a gambling house.
For more information contact the Vampire Council Library
In 1810 she ended up meeting Lady Blossom, who told her about a new chance at life. Like the pirate she was, she took it.
Sylum Inspiration: Bass Reeves
Tallikut: Hunter
Bass Reeves was born into slavery in Crawford County, Arkansas, in 1838. He was named after his grandfather, Basse Washington. Reeves and his family were slaves of Arkansas state legislator William Steele Reeves. When Bass was eight (about 1846), William Reeves moved to Grayson County, Texas, near Sherman in the Peters Colony. Bass Reeves may have served William Steele Reeves’ son, Colonel George R. Reeves, who was a sheriff and legislator in Texas, and a one-time Speaker of the Texas House of Representativesuntil his death from rabies in 1882.
During the American Civil War, Bass parted company with George Reeves, perhaps “because Bass beat up George after a dispute in a card game.” Bass fled north into the Indian Territory. There he lived with the Cherokee, Seminole, and Creek Indians, learning their languages, until he was freed by the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, in 1865.
As a freedman, Reeves moved to Arkansas and farmed near Van Buren. He married Nellie Jennie from Texas, with whom he had 11 children.
Reeves and his family farmed until 1875, when Isaac Parker was appointed federal judge for the Indian Territory. Parker appointed James F. Fagan as U.S. marshal, directing him to hire 200 deputy U.S. marshals. Fagan had heard about Reeves, who knew the Indian Territory and could speak several Indian languages. He recruited him as a deputy; Reeves was the first black deputy to serve west of the Mississippi River. Reeves was initially assigned as a deputy U.S. marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, which had responsibility also for the Indian Territory. He served there until 1893. That year he transferred to the Eastern District of Texas in Paris, Texas, for a short while. In 1897, he was transferred again, serving at the Muskogee Federal Court in the Indian Territory.
Reeves worked for 32 years as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, and became one of Judge Parker’s most valued deputies. Reeves brought in some of the most dangerous criminals of the time, but was never wounded, despite having his hat and belt shot off on separate occasions.
In addition to being a marksman with a rifle and pistol, Reeves developed superior detective skills during his long career. When he retired in 1907, Reeves claimed to have arrested over 3,000 felons. He is said to have shot and killed 14 outlaws to defend his own life.
One of his sons, Bennie Reeves, was charged with the murder of his wife. Deputy Marshal Reeves was disturbed and shaken by the incident, but allegedly demanded the responsibility of bringing Bennie to justice. Bennie was eventually tracked and captured, tried, and convicted. He served his time in Fort Leavenworth in Kansas before being released, and reportedly lived the rest of his life as a responsible and model citizen.
Reeves was himself once charged with murdering a posse cook. At his trial before Judge Parker, Reeves was represented by former United States Attorney W.H.H. Clayton, who was a colleague and friend. Reeves was acquitted.
For More Information Contact the Vampire Council Library
Over the years as a lawman Bass had met and worked with Noah Dixon and Jimmy Hickok. He and Noah talked over the years, he had always wondered about the two lawmen’s relationship. After a long night of talking, he finally asked.
Noah told him about Vampires and Mates, and that he was willing to offer Bass the opportunity. Especially as he had done a great many good things.
He took time to think about and the next time he saw Noah, he agreed.
Sylum Inspiration: Elizabeth of Aragon
Integridad: Member
Born in 1271 into the royal house of Aragon, Elizabeth was the daughter of Infante Peter (later King King Peter III) and his wife Constance of Sicily and the sister of three kings: Alfonso II and James II of Aragon and Frederick III of Sicily.
Elizabeth showed an early enthusiasm for her faith. She said the full Divine Office daily, fasted and did other penance, as well as attended twice-daily choral Masses. Religious fervor was common in her family, as she could count several members of her family who were already venerated as saints. The most notable example is her great-aunt, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, after whom she was named.
Her marriage to King Denis of Portugal was arranged in 1281 when she was 10 years old, receiving the towns of Óbidos, Abrantes and Porto de Mós as part of her dowry. It was only in 1288 that the wedding was celebrated, when Denis was 26 years old, while Elizabeth was 17. Denis, a poet and statesman, was known as the Rei Lavrador (English: Farmer King), because he planted a large pine forest near Leiria to prevent the soil degradation that threatened the region.
Elizabeth quietly pursued the regular religious practices of her youth and was devoted to the poor and sick. Naturally, such a life was a reproach to many around her and caused ill will in some quarters. Eventually, her prayer and patience succeeded in converting her husband, who had been leading a sinful life.
Elizabeth took an active interest in Portuguese politics and was a decisive conciliator during the negotiations concerning the Treaty of Alcañices, signed by Denis and Sancho IV of Castile in 1297 (which fixed the borders between the two countries). In 1304, the Queen and Denis returned to Spain to arbitrate between Fernando IV of Castile and James II of Aragon, brother of Elizabeth.[4]
She had two children: Constance, who married King Ferdinand IV of Castile and Afonso, who became King Alfoso IV of Portugal.
Elizabeth would serve as intermediary between her husband and Afonso, during the Civil War between 1322 and 1324. The Infante greatly resented the king, whom he accused of favoring the king’s illegitimate son, Afonso Sanches. Repulsed to Alenquer, which supported the Infante, Denis was prevented from killing his son through the intervention of the Queen. As legend holds, in 1323, Elizabeth, mounted on a mule, positioned herself between both opposing armies on the field of Alvalade in order to prevent the combat. Peace returned in 1324, once the illegitimate son was sent into exile, and the Infante swore loyalty to the king.
It was after her husband’s death, she discovered Wenceslaus’ secret, who had come to pay his respects. They had met a few times over the years, both enjoying their discussion on faith and devotion.
He told her about Vampires and what it was like to live the life of a ‘Saint’. She thought about his story, and adored his Mate Cinderella. She prayed and soon knew her answer.
Sylum Inspiration: Guido
Vampire Council: Member
There is little information on Guido or his life before he was Turned.
(Dilios Note: Very few people even know him or what he does)
Sylum Inspiration: Brandon Sullivan
Sanctuary: Member
Brandon doesn’t talk about his childhood. His parents had a volatile relationship and should’ve never had children.
He and his sister, Sissy, ended up pretty fucked up by the time they hit their adult years (Dilios Note: His words)
Brandon doesn’t remember exactly how it happened. Just that one minute he was making deal with some rich asshole to get his sister out of bad situation, the next he woke up chained in a shed in the middle of the jungle, with some Aussie next to him.
Sylum Inspiration: Paul Mallory
Camelot: Member
Paul’s family was originally from Poland. His grandmother, fled with her husband and children, to England in 1936. She talks about the regret she felt leaving behind her sister, her husband, and son, all who had perished at Auschwitz.
He was in college when he was recruited by James Bond into MI:6. His gifts in languages, and the ability to crack any safe gave him a skill set they could use. He rose up the ranks in MI:6 and is now a Double O Agent.
(Dilios Note: Not that I’m supposed to know that)
He became friends with Charles Evan, who at the time was a Veterinarian student, needing a place to stay. Paul always gone, offered his back bedroom, to the student and over time the two became friends, despite the arguments over the menagerie of animals in the house.
While on a Mission he was severely wounded and he still wasn’t sure if he gave consent to be Turned, but in the end he accepted his fate as one of M’s boys.
Sylum Inspiration: Aguilar de Nerha
Integridad: Hunter
Aguilar and his twin brother Callum were born October 21st in the year of our lord 1460 AD and was in Masyaf.
They’re parents were Assassins, the little they knew of them, was that their father, Sebastiano was from Spain and their mother, Brigit, who was from Ireland. Their father was trained at Masyaf, who on a mission, fell in love with Brigit, brought her back and trained her. The two had been killed during the Spanish Inquisition, a year after the boys had been born. They ended up raised by the Assassin Order, and trained to follow in their parents footsteps.
When they set out on their own missions, Aguilar went to Spain, while Callum went to Ireland.
Aguilar took over the missions their parents had been killed. Hunting down Templars that were using the Spanish Inquisition for their own goals.
He ended up meeting Maria, saving her from a local ‘Inquisitor’. She had made it clear that she wouldn’t bow to the the false church, and become their whore. Aguilar fell for her instantly, the two ended up married six months later – solidify his cover as a Silk Merchant.
She knew about his Assassin work, and patched him up when he would return home. Over the years she bore him three daughters – but refused to let him train any of them.
While working on a mission with Maximus, Aguilar was mortally wounded. There was no doubt in his mind, he would be Turned.
Sylum Inspiration: Marquis
Oceania: Member
So you’re probably wondering why there isn’t a link to a bio?
That would because he’ll be introduced during McFassy Fortnight, which will begin in 5 Days: September 1st.
Actually that would be the 16th.
Sorry forgot to edit!!