Nothing is True. Everything is Connected.
Tag: <span>Inspiration Block</span>

Tag: Inspiration Block

Character Introduction / Lealta Kin Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Andrew Kiernan

Lealta: Archivist/Librarian 

 

Kiernan was barely ten years old when he first heard St. Patrick’s teachings.  It was then he decided this was his calling. He was educated by St. Patrick as they travelled through Ireland, spreading the Lord’s Word.

In a small town, the citizens weren’t interested in what St. Patrick was saying and had attacked them. Andrew had stepped into the battle to protect his mentor, only to be mortally wounded. St. Patrick had called upon a friend, Arthur Pendragon, who was nearby, for help. Andrew was told of the world of Vampires and agreed to be Turned, seeing it as a way to keep spreading God’s Word.

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Character Introduction / Sylum Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Timothy Quinn

Sylum: Clan Advisor

 

Born Timothy Quinn in 1312 AD, near Donegal, Eire, the youngest son of Callum and Lavena Quinn.

His two older brothers, Gregory and Aaron, followed their father into a living on the land and developing their farm. His older sister Lorain was betrothed to Fearghus O’Niel, eldest son of a neighboring family.

At a young age his curiosity and inquisitive nature got the best of him when he stole the local Priest’s Bible trying to understand what was being said in the pages. The Priest taught him to read, a rarity for someone of his social class during that time, and with a thirst for knowledge he learned quickly from local wisdoms, soon becoming the clan’s Healer.

At the age of sixteen, British soldiers attacked outlying farms near Donegal, killing Timothy’s entire family. Lord Sean, the Clan’s Leader took him into the O’Gairmledaig family, and for the next few years Timothy helped with the household, and repaid their kindness by teaching Lord Sean’s children, Aden and Collin, to read and write.

Timothy and Eleina – wife to Lord Sean – were attacked while traveling to another Clan. The subsequent chase caused her to go into early labor. The baby was born safely but at the cost of his mother’s life. Before her death, she named the child Quinn to make sure he had a strong start in life.

Six years later, Timothy found his place in the family when he became Sean’s lover. Tragically, Timothy and his Lord only had six months together before the O’Gairmledaig Clan was destroyed by a rival. Timothy escaped with Quinn, fleeing to Lord Caine’s Castle near Derry. The young Quinn was taken in, to be raised as a Caine.

Timothy rode away, prepared to die from the wounds he had sustained, and grief stricken at Lord Sean’s death, only to then be offered a new life by Nick Maoilriain.

 

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Camelot Clan / Character Introduction0

Sylum Inspiration: Noah MacManus

Camelot: Lead Hunter

Born in Ireland, Noah was the the son of Jacob MacManus, and apprenticed to him as a tanner.  He took over his father’s business as his skills grew, expanding it as his reputation as an expert leather worker spread even beyond Ireland, and across the water to England.

He married Meagan, the girl from next door, whom he had known since they were mere children, and they settled into a good life that promised great prospects, which were only enhanced when she bore him twin sons.  The boys were Baptized, Connor and Murphy.

Six months later, the newly installed Archbishop of their Diocese, stopped into the shop demanding work to be done for his new home.  He had heard of Noah’s reputation and wanted only the best work, offering a vast sum of money for the rapid completion of all requested items.

Unable to refuse, Noah crafted the leather work for chairs and other furniture, as well as for personal goods such as purses and bags, and when the Church refused to pay, claiming the work was shoddy and inadequate, Noah killed the Archbishop’s secretary in a fight.

Knowing he would bring harm to his young family, even if he tried to explain his actions, Noah fled for his life.

He wandered for many decades, angry at the world, and seeking justice that seemed utterly unobtainable given the power of the Church, he finally came to Rome, and meeting Father Kiernan changed more than just his outlook, but his purpose in life.

He would later attribute Kiernan to giving him the path he needed to follow. (Dilios Note: Kiernan stated later it wasn’t quite meant the way Noah took it, but as God does not make mistakes…)

That was when the name Noah MacManus disappeared and Il Duce was born.

For many centuries he was also known as Lachtna – which in Irish Gaelic means ‘milk-colored’ as reference to his hair, and was used for a certain degree of intimidation as the same name is said to have belonged to an ancestor of Brian Boru.

No one is quite sure about all that Noah actually accomplished in his human life, but the tales live on to this day.

Il Duce then met the real Brian Boru.

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Character Introduction / Mod Kin Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Thranduil

Mod: Member

 

 

Thranduil is not a Vampire, but as he’s been around for a long while, so he has some form of immortality.   At this moment he’s very secretive of where he’s from.

Rumors have it that he close friends with Thorin Durin, who knows more about his history, but also isn’t talking.

It is know that he’s tied to Sauron, who is a known enemy to Mod Clan.

(Dilios Note: I received a note that he has no ties to Sauron except a deep seated hatred and that I needed to update my books)

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Character Introduction / Mod Kin Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Dwalin

MOD: Hunter

 

Dwalin was the first born son of the King’s Advisor Balin.   His father raised him to learn the difference between a King of the people and greedy bastard.   When he was six years old, Thorin was born.  He took one look at the baby and knew what his father meant.   From that moment on he dedicated his life to his king.

He taught the kid to fight.

He got the kid out of trouble.

He cursed the day Thorin grew bigger and taller than him, and he was one of the biggest in Erebor.

He stood by and watched as Thorin made a deal with the dragon, then challenged Thror.   He smiled when the old bastard realized the dragon wasn’t coming to save him, and Thorin was going to kill him.

He smiled brightly when Thorin married, mourned with him when she died giving him two beautiful strong sons.

Thorin had laughed when Dori had yelled at him, ready to deny his offer of marriage to her youngest sister Ori.   Mainly because every one knew Nori the middle brother, and him were ‘close’.

He loved his wife, was deathly afraid of his sister in law and ignored Nori’s ability to get in and out of trouble.

His world shattered when some warlord showed up demanding tribute, and without hesitation killed Thorin in front of them.   He swore to Fili he would seek vegence, only to be shocked when the young new king told him Thorin was alive … in a way.

Before they could even figure out what was going on, the warlord was back and the village was destroyed.   There were thirteen of them, he was the lucky one that had his whole family.   Thorin held him as they buried Balin on the road.   When they met Bilbo Baggins he knew the look on his friends face, something he hadn’t seen in decades.

Once they got to Builwyf, and everything was explained about Vampires, he had contemplated getting Turned as Thorin would need him, but then the warlord showed up with his horde.   He still ended up Turned, but lost everyone in the process.

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Character Introduction / Shogun Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Mushu

 

Mushu is a different dragon that Draco or Tiny Terror.   He has the ability to talk like Draco, but not nearly as big.  Mushu is about 8ft long, and stands about 3 ft high on his four legs.  He can if concentrates sit up, balancing on his back legs which makes him about 6ft high.  He can wind himself around trees, and as the ability to camouflage.  He can also mimic statues, making him a good spy.

No one knows how old Mushu is, just one day he showed up to Katsumoto, and ended up art of the clan. When Nathan appeared, Mushu declared that Nathan was his human and he takes care of him.

There are running bets in Shogun on when Nathan will be able to walk across the large open field without tripping over Mushu, who slides in and around his feet while he does it.   There has only been one moment in history where it almost happened.  Nathan was recovering from the concentration camp and was stalking across the field – everyone watched holding their breath as he was only a few feet from the forest line – when he went down.

Katsumoto had found his Mate curled up with Mushu.

He helped Nathan deal with his ordeal.  It’s the only reason he keeps the snarky annoying dragon around.

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Border Clan / Character Introduction0

Sylum Inspiration: Brisco County Jr.

Border: Hunter

 

Brisco County Jr. is the son of the famed US Marshal, Brisco County, Sr.  Growing up, all he wanted to do was follow in his father’s footsteps.  After he was shot and almost killed on a mission his father sent him on, his family decided to send him to Harvard.

At Harvard, Brisco earned his law degree, but realized that being a lawyer wasn’t what he wanted to do.  While traveling back to his home, he learned that his father had been killed by the Blythe Gang.

He vowed to carry out his father’s last job and bring in John Blythe, so he teamed up with two of his father’s US Marshal friends, James Hickok and Noah Dixon.

During a standoff with Blythe, Brisco was injured and subsequently Turned.

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Character Introduction / Tallikut Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Stanley Raymond Kowalski

Tallikut: Member

 

Stanley Raymond Kowalski was born in Chicago, the youngest son of Damian and Barbara Kowalski, and was named after Marlon Brando’s character in A Streetcar Named Desire, but prefers ‘Ray’ to ‘Stanley’. Ray and his father were close when he was growing up,and restored old cars together including Ray’s black 1967 GTO. He became estranged from his father when he dropped out of college to become a police officer.

Ray met his wife, Stella, a Gold Coast girl who attended private school, when they were 13. They married in college, and were happy for many years before Ray’s undercover work, and Stella’s job at the State’s Attorneys office began to put pressure on the marriage. Of all the factors that led to the end of their marriage, their arguments over starting a family was the deal breaker. Ray wanted children, but Stella didn’t want to take time from her successful law career as a State’s Attorney.

Unable to deal with the failure of his marriage, Ray delved deeper into his undercover work wanting to live someone else’s live instead of his own. Beginning to suffer from burnout, he was assigned to the 18th precinct. He meets Benoit Franciscus in his guise of Benton Fraser, RCMP, in 1997 while canvassing the area around the Canadian Consulate. Benoit and Diefenbaker befriended Ray and began consulting on Ray’s cases.

When Ray is kidnapped by Rogue Vampire, Victoria Metcalf, looking for Benoit. He’s taken to the home of goth nightclub owner, Jeremiah Parks where Park’s convinces his Sire that he will hold on to Ray, and look for information on Benoit. They try to keep Ray ignorant about the existence of Vampires until Jeremiah saves Ray’s life. With no other Chosen Ones available, Ray is told about Vampires, and becomes a Chosen One for Tallikut Clan.

His kidnapping makes Ray realize he’s still living his life undercover. He retires from the police force, digs out his leather, jewelry and head kicker boots, goes to find Jeremiah at Lost Children of the Blood newest location in Chicago, and asks his new friend for a job. He becomes the General Manager, and though the two men don’t get to spend a lot of time together because Jeremiah is doing undercover jobs for Javier Esposito in New York City.

While working at the club, Benoit still comes to him asking he help people that come to Benoit with their problems. Ray, exhausted by working cases and at the club, directs Benoit to Lt. Walsh at the 27th precinct where Benoit meets his Mate, Ray Vecchio.<

After six years, Tallikut suffers through the latest round of Victoria trying to kill Ray (she still hasn’t realized Ray K is not Benoit’s Mate), Lying in a hospital bed after twice stepping between Ray and bullets, Jeremiah realizes Ray Kowalski is his Mate. Ray is Turned and Claimed before the new year.

 

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Character Introduction / Sylum Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Patrick Jane

Sylum: Member

 

Patrick Jane was raised by a swindler father who included his young son in his carnival psychic act, touting Jane as “the boy wonder”.

He married Angela Ruskin, who was from a similar background, her family being members of a traveling carnival and “carnival royalty”. The couple had a daughter, Charlotte. They left the Carnival, determined to have a better life. Jane himself became a celebrity, making a very comfortable living working as a psychic, and he lived in comfortable celebrity until he criticized and openly mocked the serial killer Red John in a televised interview.

In retribution Red John killed Jane’s wife and daughter, leaving Patrick Jane a changed man.

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Character Introduction / Vampire Council0

Sylum Inspiration: Storm

Vampire Council: Member

 

Storm hasn’t talked much about her life before she met Charles. Her family is from Africa, where Charles had found her, and she left them behind to come with him to the United States.

He helped her with her Mutant powers, and in turn she teaches at his school to help other children. She was exposed to the Vampire world when Charles introduced his ‘son’ Nicolaus to them and the fact they were there to help stand against Magneto.

It took her some time to figure out why Brisco County Jr, one of the Vampire Hunters, was staying at the school. She found him sweet, and when he told her about Mates and Vampires she sat down with Charles.

After many discussion and assurances she wouldn’t loose her Mutation, she agreed to be Turned.

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Character Introduction / Sylum Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Edgar Allen Poe

Sylum Clan: Member

 

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him. He attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer’s cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. His publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to “a Bostonian”.

Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his thirteen-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem, “The Raven”, to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced.

On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown. The story has yet to be told, but the few that have heard the tale, have kept it secret.

What is known is that Timothy Quinn and Diego León Montoya Sánchez had set out to find the legendary Poet, only to find him dying on a park bench. The only word spoken with his dying breath was that of Reynolds.

For more information contact Vampire Council Library

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Character Introduction / Mod Kin Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Thorn Durin

Mod Kin Clan: Hunter

 

Thorin was the son of Thrain who was the son of Thror.   The king of an established yet unknown village of Erebor up in the mountains of Norway.

His grandfather Thror was not a kind man, and ruled his people with an iron fist keeping all it’s wealth to himself.  In one of his campaigns he brought home a wife for his son, Thrain.   Not soon after she gave birth to Thorin.   Thror was happy for a strong heir, especially after the disappointment of his own son Thrain.

She raised her son to be strong, caring, and treat all with kindness.   It was soon obvious Thorin took after his mother, in all things.  He had her dark hair, strength, determination, and as he grew she would smile and tell everyone he took after his grandfather.  She gifted Thorin, her grandfather’s sword – Orcrist.  A weapon that had been passed down, and made of metal Thorin had never seen.

Thror soon realized that the woman he brought back was turning his people against him, and had her killed, along with his useless son.   He set out to raise his grandson to be a strong King, never seeing that by the age of twelve Thorin was already plotting his fall.

Thorin made a deal with Smaug, offering up a crystal that was a family heirloom from his mother’s side.   Smaug agreed to back Thorin, and at age sixteen he challenged Thror for the throne.   In the end, Thror was dead and Thorin was crowned king.

He married not soon after, but tragically lost his wife in childbirth.  She gave him two beautiful sons, Fili and Kili.

For the next twenty years Erebor prospered.  Thorin made good alliance with other villages, trading their minerals and weapons for food and grains.  It wasn’t until a warlord showed up demanding retributions that they lost everything.

Thorin ended up Turned, his family trying to figure out how to best handle this new situation.  Then days later the warlord’s horde ransacked the village destroying everything and everyone.

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Character Introduction / Mod Kin Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Bilbo Baggins

Mod Kin Clan: Member

 

Bilbo Baggins was the only child of Belladonna and Bungo Baggins.  He learned his adventuring skills from his mother and farming skills from his father.

He inherited Bags End when he was sixteen, after a horrible winter that had killed almost a third of the small village of the Shire.   Instead of selling it or worse marrying the neighbors daughter Lobelia, so they could get their hands on his farm, he made it prosper.

He knew he was the talk of the village as he decided not to marry, and had plans to give the land to his neighbors the Hamgees.

Then one day his world changed, when a group of refuges landed on his doorstep.   He heard them asking for help at the town center but no one wanted anything to do with them.  Bilbo refused to let them wander off without food and rest.   He would tell you he fell for Kili and Fili first, and then young Gimli.   When they stated their father couldn’t enter his home as he was to tall, he couldn’t believe it so made a plate of food and marched to the barn to give the inconsiderate bastard a piece of his mind on being a gracious guest!  Only to realize that yes Thorin couldn’t enter his house as he was huge!  Bilbo wasn’t small but he felt tiny compared to him.

They ended up staying a week, and Bilbo spent all the time with Thorin.  He hated the idea of them leaving, and contemplating running off with them, but new his duty was his farm.   Only for fate to step in, and they all had to flee as the Shire was destroyed.

It was on the trip he learned about Erebor, the dragon Smaug, and the fact Thorin was technically dead.    Once they arrived and met Builwyf so many of his questions were answered.   He knew he belonged to Thorin, so took Gran’s offer to be Turned.

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Character Introduction / Mod Kin Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Kili Durin

Mod Kin Clan: Hunter

 

Ho

Kili was the second born son of Thorin Durin.   He was born 15 mins after his brother, and is the reason his mother didn’t survive.   His father never held it against him, never made him feel anything but love.   But when some of the older lords didn’t like what Thorin was doing they made sure to hit home on Kili.  Though usually it didn’t end well for them.

As he wasn’t the first born, he had a tiny bit of leeway.  And used every inch he could get, including getting his brother into trouble and always out of it.  He took up archery, and became a hunter after a while, able to track reindeer for miles and drag it back home for the village.

He met Tauriel when he was sixteen, everyone considered it fate as Thorin had married their mother at the same age.   They had waited for a couple of years, before getting married.  It was a cause of celebration for the village, and one of the happiest days of his life.

Six months later his world was destroyed when a Warload came into Erebor demanding tribute.   Kili was sure he screamed when his father fell,  and hadn’t stopped until Gloin dragged him out of the throne room.   He pulled away from the warrior and ran down the corridors not wanting to believe his father was gone.

It was Fili who found him stating their dad was alive but something was different.  Kili was the one who had no doubts that the man in front of them was their father.  His eyes were warm and filled with love when he looked at his sons, it was their father and he would face off with anyone who didn’t believe him.

And just when he thought his world was righted, the warlord attacked the village.   One of the first to fall was Tauriel, she fought like the warrior she was, trying to save as many woman and children as she could.   Fili pulled Kili away when she fell, but it was Thorin who lifted him up and fled the village.

There were thirteen of them who survived.   Eleven by the time they met Bilbo.   Kili thought maybe they would finally find rest when got to Builwyf but they were followed.  In the end, there was five left.   He had thought to embrace death, but while lying there next to his brother, he realized he didn’t want to leave his family behind.   So when his father asked – he said yes.

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