Character Summery
Most of the entries to this journal are locked to friends only. However, here is a short summary about Catherine.
Now: Catherine de Volanges is a vampire belonging to the Tremere (mages) clan. She is a woman of many plots and a spy.
Face value: Fashionista, entrepreneur and part of the social elite, not many ever suspect her true nature or purpose. She owns elite members only social clubs in Paris (active), Los Angeles (now closed) and New York (under construction) among them, Amaranth and a club named Duvet (edit: got blown up in 2012). She is also the occasional muse to designers like John Galliano and provides input to favored fashion houses as a honorary creative director. These traits often get her mistaken as a Toreador by those Kindred that meet her. In France, she owns a haute-couture magazine.
Under the surface: Her social status gives her access to people, contacts and places that widen a network of informants that supply the Tremere with information, Amaranth and Duvet are places where secrets are overheard and the air is ripe for blackmail. Her social persona is a cover for everything else and have traits that would have others question her clan or clan alliances is useful in the constant battle for power against the Toreador. In Paris she has a small group of ghouled "models" who are actually act more like escorts, wooing powerful men out of their information [TN verse: this network has been made neutral since she left for LA]. The magazine with its spelled-upon perfume and makeup samples, and subliminal messages is being tested as an effective subversive Tremere tool against mortals and the Toreador in Paris and soon, New York.
Scratching the bone: Catherine is a budding infernalist with an innate ability and talent for corruption that was borne before she was made Kindred. That was the arcane talent that caught the Tremere's eyes despite her Sire's need for her political astuteness. Her power stems from a need to feed on desire (all forms), which she then manipulates like an opiate or pheromone on others. This has been her earliest path and she is often not certain of it despite her mentor's (a powerful infernalist) push in this direction.
Abilities: Auspex/Dominate/Thaumaturgy
Infernal: Corruption
Alignment: Baby did a bad, bad, thing?
Mentor: Aidan (Tremere, infernalist)
Mortal Coil: Catherine was borne to a nobleman and a prostitute in the 1700's, France. Early life in an convent did not suit her and she fled, fending for herself on the streets as a prostitute under the protection of a pimp whose entrepreneurial resourcefulness often ended in murder. Still, it was choice of lifestyle that she maintains that she freely accepted. Together they embarked on a series of scams stealing the money of rich men through the flesh trade while moving from town to town when the net of the law grew to tight--or greedy--to work within. However, a patron by (Marc) that Catherine had crossed found her again, but instead of courting his revenge, he praised her talents. Within a fortnight, the prostitute that all knew as Veronique DuChamps was again Catherine de Volanges, married off to a Comte-if only for title--and placed under the tutelage of Madame du Barry, a courtesan in order to become one herself. Years pass, student outgrows teacher, but the flames of revolution devour everything. However, unaware of her benefactors true nature, she is "saved" by Marc and made Tremere before the Toreador can get to her.
Her abilities and weaknesses can be found here.
Her character sheet can be found here.
Now: Catherine de Volanges is a vampire belonging to the Tremere (mages) clan. She is a woman of many plots and a spy.
Face value: Fashionista, entrepreneur and part of the social elite, not many ever suspect her true nature or purpose. She owns elite members only social clubs in Paris (active), Los Angeles (now closed) and New York (under construction) among them, Amaranth and a club named Duvet (edit: got blown up in 2012). She is also the occasional muse to designers like John Galliano and provides input to favored fashion houses as a honorary creative director. These traits often get her mistaken as a Toreador by those Kindred that meet her. In France, she owns a haute-couture magazine.
Under the surface: Her social status gives her access to people, contacts and places that widen a network of informants that supply the Tremere with information, Amaranth and Duvet are places where secrets are overheard and the air is ripe for blackmail. Her social persona is a cover for everything else and have traits that would have others question her clan or clan alliances is useful in the constant battle for power against the Toreador. In Paris she has a small group of ghouled "models" who are actually act more like escorts, wooing powerful men out of their information [TN verse: this network has been made neutral since she left for LA]. The magazine with its spelled-upon perfume and makeup samples, and subliminal messages is being tested as an effective subversive Tremere tool against mortals and the Toreador in Paris and soon, New York.
Scratching the bone: Catherine is a budding infernalist with an innate ability and talent for corruption that was borne before she was made Kindred. That was the arcane talent that caught the Tremere's eyes despite her Sire's need for her political astuteness. Her power stems from a need to feed on desire (all forms), which she then manipulates like an opiate or pheromone on others. This has been her earliest path and she is often not certain of it despite her mentor's (a powerful infernalist) push in this direction.
Abilities: Auspex/Dominate/Thaumaturgy
Infernal: Corruption
Alignment: Baby did a bad, bad, thing?
Mentor: Aidan (Tremere, infernalist)
Mortal Coil: Catherine was borne to a nobleman and a prostitute in the 1700's, France. Early life in an convent did not suit her and she fled, fending for herself on the streets as a prostitute under the protection of a pimp whose entrepreneurial resourcefulness often ended in murder. Still, it was choice of lifestyle that she maintains that she freely accepted. Together they embarked on a series of scams stealing the money of rich men through the flesh trade while moving from town to town when the net of the law grew to tight--or greedy--to work within. However, a patron by (Marc) that Catherine had crossed found her again, but instead of courting his revenge, he praised her talents. Within a fortnight, the prostitute that all knew as Veronique DuChamps was again Catherine de Volanges, married off to a Comte-if only for title--and placed under the tutelage of Madame du Barry, a courtesan in order to become one herself. Years pass, student outgrows teacher, but the flames of revolution devour everything. However, unaware of her benefactors true nature, she is "saved" by Marc and made Tremere before the Toreador can get to her.
Her abilities and weaknesses can be found here.
Her character sheet can be found here.