From SuspireWiki
Evan Iskander is a Gangrel and a member of the Circle of the Crone. He has been a resident of Atlanta since the 1960's. He is currently the Gangrel Priscus. Evan is a Recognized member of the city, his covenant, and his clan.
Background
Evan Iskander was born in rural Oklahoma in 1908. His early life was a fairly simple one, and common for a person born in one of the breadbasket states of America. Evan learned the skills he needed to work his father’s farm – how to care for animals, how to live off the land, and how to talk his way into fetching a good price for his family’s goods at the market. Evan was a smart child, and had something of a way with people that allowed him to make friends early on. He seemed to enjoy his solitude though, and would often work his parts of the field alone. Evan found it calming, being alone with nature, and thinking of what crossed his mind. He had some hobbies – he picked up whittling from his father, and learned how to sing at church, and honed what would become an excellent memory at the small schoolhouse that was located several miles from his farm.
As Evan grew up he worked harder and harder at the farm. It was his responsibility, and his father wasn’t getting any younger – besides, he had his brothers to help him out. Evan still went to church, and maintained as much of a social life as he could. He also grew hearty and strong, doing good, honest work. Evan’s farm produced a great deal of food, and he was always thankful for a good harvest. Still, as his father’s health deteriorated, he grew more and more pensive, but struggled on regardless. Evan was the bastion of calm that his family turned to, and he did his best to continue to deliver.
Evan’s father died in 1931, when the dust storms first truly began to ravage Oklahoma. Evan belied that his father died with the land, and with the dream of his family’s farm. The Iskander family split, each going where they could to find work. Evan traveled the southern half of the country, heading for California, promising to send what money he could home. He learned valuable skills on the road, too – how to drive, and how to punch a man’s lights out. He lost count of how many times he was turned away by signs that said “Okies go home, no jobs here!” Nonetheless, he was a relentless individual, driven to find a job to support his family.
Eventually, he found a farm in California that offered to give him work. He struggled hard there too, and was valued for his strong back and stoic nature – he never complained, and worked hard every day. He got along with his fellow migrant workers, and refined the skills he’d learned at his family farm. Evan came to the notice of a man by the name of Jeremiah Black one night while he was taking a small break in town. Unbeknownst to Evan, this was the man who would one night become his sire.
Jeremiah watched Evan from afar, picking up what information he could secondhand, and eventually decided that Evan was just the person he’d been looking for. Jeremiah turned Evan’s life upside down, and plunged him into the crucible. Hounded out of his sleeping quarters, Evan began a journey that would lead him halfway across the nation. He followed cryptic clues, ran from mobs that were prepared to tear his “Okie” hide apart, crossed deserts and mountain ranges, was stabbed, beaten, and chased a strange man that haunted his dreams until he finally cornered Jeremiah in Iowa. Each encounter with Jeremiah left Evan with more clues about what he might become, and dire warnings of just what that would entail.
Pleased with Evan’s progress, and with his surviving the brutal crucible (indeed, it was Evan’s incredible determination that made that possible), Jeremiah – a potent Gangrel of the Circle of the Crone, embraced Evan as a “reward.” His treasure was damnation, albeit with more potent blood that any other neonate thanks to Jeremiah’s invocation of the Crone’s renewal. Jeremiah taught Evan what it meant to be a vampire, filling in some of the gaps in his education and teaching him about politics and the secret world of darkness that existed just beneath the surface of the regular world. He honed Evan’s survival instinct, praised his indomitable will – that it might help to serve as a bulwark against the beast – and inducted him into the Circle of the Crone.
Evan stayed with his sire, learning about vampire society and learning as a member of the Chorus. He learned the ways of the Gangrel clan, and of the Circle of the Crone, but he realized that he still had to find his path. So, with his sire’s blessing, he began a pilgrimage, and walked the Path of the Inward Hunter. Evan’s journey took him from Iowa down the Mississippi, eventually leading him to Louisiana. There, he had a climactic encounter, deep in the bayous, with a swarm of mosquitoes that took the shape of a woman’s face. It told him that he had further to travel, but that one night he would find a place that was “moving too fast to tell the difference between night and dark.”
So Evan began his life as a nomad. Although he was no capable of sleeping within the earth, he was nonetheless a boon to his party, thanks to his survival skills and his ability to make sure they stayed fed. Evan traveled for many years, looking for the mythical city that the spirit he encountered in that swamp told him about. He made a lasting friendship with a Ventrue named Devon Winters, and the two were constant companions as they traveled the roads of America.
In the 1960s, Evan heard about Atlanta, the city that was “too busy to hate.” Reasoning that this was the place the spirit had told him about, he journeyed there and settled in with the Crones he’d found. When he learned some of the Cherokee legends from the Hierophant, he became firmly convinced that this was, indeed, the place the spirit had told him about. Evan continued his unlife as a Crone. His time on the road had worn away his humanity some, and he had moved on from being a Fool to a Hero. Evan continued to quest for knowledge and understanding as a Hero in Atlanta, and learned more about the Crone under the Hierophant’s guidance.
When she felt he was ready, the Hierophant initiated him fully into the Circle. Evan was hung from a tree by hooks inserted through his flesh, and swung in a crescent pattern for a night, staining the ground with his blood. He was then hunted by the local Crones, and managed to keep them at bay for a while thanks to his command of Animalism. Finally, they captured him, and began to inflict their torments on him. Once again, Evan’s sheer force of will carried him through this tribulation, and finally he was welcomed into the Circle as a full Acolyte.
Evan continues to quest for knowledge, and for the understanding that will someday allow him to fully settle into the Circle and become a Father. He has done his best to understand the Cherokee pantheon, and the faith espoused by the local Hierophant. Evan remains at peace with the land, and is firmly convinced that the Circle’s philosophy only strengthens his will and allows him to keep the Beast at bay.
Evan has been a constant fixture in Atlanta since the 1960s, but he only really came into his own in the 1980s when he finally became a full Acolyte. While he’s somewhat quiet, and doesn’t involve himself overmuch in politics, Evan does keep active in the Kindred social scene. He is likely still questing for understanding, looking for some pearl of wisdom before deciding to take the plunge.