From SuspireWiki
|
Lili "Lily" Wu | |||
| |||
|
Statistics | |||
|
| |||
|
Known (Game's Start) | |||
|
| |||
Lili "Lily" Wu
AKA / Titles
To those she is close with, she accepts being called Lily (even in public); but otherwise requests more formal terms of respect from others (such as Lady Wu or Madam Wu).
To Kindred: Lady Lili Wu of Ecclesia, Mistress of the Elysium.
To Mekhet: Madam Wu, Whip of the Mekhet
To Carthians: Madam Wu, Auditor ond founder of the Tian Di Hui
The Merry Widow (after her casino)
Lily Wu, Li Chang, and various other aliases within the mortal world.
In Character Information
The mysterious owner of the “The Merry Widow” casino boat and caretaker of the domain of Ecclesia, Lili "Lily" Wu is soft spoken and quiet member of the city that was embraced here some fifty years ago, by Chan Chang, her long-missing Sire.
She is suspected to have a firm grasp on the underbelly of Carcosa, for even other major players on the streets offer polite referral to her from time to time. It is rumored that there is little that goes on within her part of the city that she does not catch wind of eventually. She seems often content to sit quietly, behind her fan, and watch... and listen...
Description
A petite woman of 5’ 2”, her movements are smooth and graceful. It is a little hard to pin down her true ethnicity and age, other than to say Asian and 20-something. She tends to wear her long black hair down, but for formal occasions wears it up in a shimada. Rarely seen, unless she chooses to, is a full and intricate backpiece of Chinese tattoo work, showing off her Triad roots. She is also missing most of the pinky finger on her left hand. Ever the business woman, Lily prefers expensive ‘power’ suits and elegant evening gowns, as well as ‘traditional’ oriental wear. One affection she is known for is for her oriental fans, and she is rarely without one. (Humanity 6, BP ?, SL 1)
Lineage
Gerald Grant, Mekhet, Invictus - alive (Richmond)
- Li Pang, Mekhet, Circle of the Crone - alive (Richmond)
- Cai Xing, Mekhet, Circle of the Crone - deceased (killed by draugr)
- Chan Chang, Mekhet (Lynx), Carthian - missing
- Lili Wu, Mekhet (Lynx), Carthian - alive
- Sunshine Adams, Mekhet (Lynx), Carthian - alive
- Alice Jones, Mekhet, Carthian - alive
- Dante Timeth, Mekhet, Ordo Dracul - alive
- Lili Wu, Mekhet (Lynx), Carthian - alive
Background
1942 - 1960: From Hong Kong to Carcosa
Born in Hong Kong, in the Fall of 1942, less than a year into the Japanese invasion of the city. Her father was a Japanese soldier who had taken liberties with her Chinese-American mother. Fleeing the island and the war, her mother brought her to America, Carcosa specifically. Sadly, she barely saw her daughter's 3rd birthday before succumbing to a rather virluent form of tubercleosis shortly after the birth of Lili's brother, An-Yan.
The orphaned children, Lili Wu and An-Yan, were taken in by an orphanage and she had her name "Americanized" to Lily before being passed around to a series of ‘white-bread’ foster-homes she was ill-suited for. Separated from her younger sibling, who was taken in by a Chinese family, she eventually ran away at the age of 10, to be closer with people of what she felt was her own heritage, deep into the heart of Chinatown.
As Carcosa grows in leaps and bounds around her, Lily begins her life as a street urchin in Chinatown, cutting her teeth in the dark underbelly of the city as a "Blue Lantern". Her small size and innate talent for living unseen, aiding her well in her new life, quickly moving her up to a "49" by the tender age of eighteen. Growing up hard and fast, Lily became fascinated in watching others, how they moved though the ranks of the underworld, and how all of the “big shots” always seemed to have a silent partner pulling the strings from the shadows. What Lily did not see as she watched the shadows was that the Shadows were watching her too.
Chan Chang , a Mehket with odd social powers, formerly of a 'middle-man' with the Invictus and now Carthian, began to groom the young orphan quietly from the shadows, showing her more and more of the underbelly of the city. Working as a messenger and a runner, Lily learned the fine art of blending into crowd and learning when and where not to tread. Year by year her benefactor would offer more and more opportunities, each she took to with an innate talent and sense of purpose.
1960 – 1965
Convinced of her talents and resourcefulness, Chang embraced Lily and began her ‘indoctrination’ into the Movement. Like her Sire, she learned to stay in the background watching others. Her Sire often spoke of his ‘legacy’ with her, but never went into further detail with her, other than to say “she would learn when the time came”. She immediately began to work on consolidating her street connections into a unified force.
Moving up through the ranks of her Triad, she quckly became a liason officer to the other Triads. While she may not have been the only reasons why the Asian gangs began to rise to the underworld power that they now are in Carcosa, she was definitely one of the major players getting things done.
1965 - 1970
By 1966, Chan Chang and Lili Wu attend Midnight Mass, as expected, and she is impressed by the spiritualty of the services. While not exactly a "True Believer", she undergoes the Creation Rites with her Sire and begins to look to attending the public services.
In 1968, Quang Wu was born to her brother, An-Yan, and his wife, Lien. Lily disapproves of An-Yan's heavy handed ways and disrespect for "family" but is forced to stay at arm's length due to her now unaging existance and other obligations. Still, she watched in disgust and waited.
It was also during these years that Lily and her sire, Chan Chang, began to lay down the initial foundations for a new Carthian ideal based upon the their experiences with the Triads. The Tian Di Hui faction found its birth in these early plans, however it was years later before it was formed to the point it is now. Sadly, Chan Chang was not around to his the mission blossom. Still, Lily takes some pride in her belief that he would be proud of the result so far.
1970 - 1975
Chan Chang and Lili Wu continue to work on the precepts of the Tian Di Hui. Unfortunately, the former Prefect of the Carthian Movement rebuffs the ideas and their Mission stagnates without the opportunity to put it into action. By the mid 70’s, the underworld was flourishing and Lily has begun to set her claws firmly entrenched in a few major players.
In 1975, she also met, and welcomed, an unaligned Haunt into the ranks of the Movement. Depleted by war and disease, Lily began to see the possible future of the Carthians within the new recruits, and in particular, a new Haunt named Alex Drake. While she found him raw and uncouth, he was what the Movement was looking for - a symbol - the 'every-man', the perfect example of the down-trodden, the cast-aside.
1975 – 1980
In 1976, Lili Wu first met the newly embraced Kien Zhao and is intrigued. Sharing a similar heritage, she and her Sire eye him for future recruitment after his release, but are never given the opportunity as he formally enters the Invictus three years later.
When the plague and riots struck in 1977, most of the city’s Kindred fled to Oceanfront, Ecclesia, and Hanover Wards; however Lily chose to stay put for the time being in Chinatown. Skillfully, she managed to use the power vacuum in the western parts of Carcosa to solidify her position within the underworld, becoming a 438, or Vanguard - a position of authority rarely ever, if ever, held by women. It was epected for her to vie for the vaunted title of "Mountain Master", however, taking a cue from her Sire, she stepped aside - into the shadows. It was far easier to quietly manipulate key players from the darkness. By now, they all knew who "Madam Lily" was and would refuse her little- from the lowliest "Blue Lantern" to the "Mountain Master" himself.
A small part of her desire not to move right away was to keeps tabs on An-Yan Wu and his family, but when Lien was brutally murdered, she felt nothing but digust for her brother and pity for her mortal nephew, Quang Wu. Still, she was begrudgingly obligated by the 36 Oaths, to protect her brother. As payback, however, she worked to limit his power within the Triads. Unfortunately, this only served to frustrate her brother, making him more violent and unpredictable.
It was during this time she also was on the lookout for other young Kindred in need of a hand, and as such, assisted a Ventrue in avoiding the ‘Iron Masks’. In return for temporary shelter offered by Lily and the few remaining Carthians, Adam Corvus pledged his support to the Movement, soon after becoming a member himself.
Using her stealthy skills and powers of the blood, she managed to stay under the wire and avoid the Infectors; at times, even acting as a point of contact in helping others escape. This lead to her own run-in with the ‘Iron Masks’, and while she was fortunate to have slipped away, she was left with a lasting aversion to being spotted again.
Lili Wu was "volun-told" into the ranks of Saint Jude's Light and used her powers of Obfuscate to work as a scout for the group. Partially successful, she assisted in the capture of more than one Morbus.
It was also during the late 70's that Lily's Traid connections started getting alot of heat from a black gang in the area encroaching on Chinatown. Instead of taking the heavy handed appraoch of going to war, she convinced her allies she had a much better proposal. Given a month, she tracked down the main lynch-pin in the gang and embraced him. As well as quelling the potential of a turf war, Lily managed to gain through inference, even greater control still upon the underbelly of Carcosa. Sunshine Adams was the link to the non-Asian street gangs that she was missing.
1980 – 1985
Lily’s Sire made “the List” due both to his abandoning the Invictus for the Movement years ago as well as to past associations with his two Lancea clanmates, Yosef and Yaris Stahl. Somehow, Lily is spared from having her name written down by an unknown benefactor within the First Estate itself. Within two weeks, Chan Chang is missing along with all of the others whose residences were listed. While devastated by his disappearance, Lily did not pubically swear any oaths of vengeance, as other did; but she did not forget, either. She saw the writing on the wall and knew that it one’s survival depended on not making waves, and as such, the mistake was her Sire’s. As such, she politely refused to publicly side with the Lancea Sanctum, unlike some of the other members of the Movement.
A couple of months after her sire went missing, in 1980, Josephine Blackwell-Finch had revealed to Lily that is was she who had used her influence to keep Lily's name of the "List", thus sparing her. In the years since, Lily has diligently worked to repay the blood-debt as Josephine has slowly extracted it one small favour at a time - a driver's licence renewal here, a greased palm there. Now it stands as but a small boon still left owing, and Lily is thankful the books will finally be leveled. After this next favour is taken care of, they will meet on a more level playing field.
Cai Xing, her Sire's sibling, came to Lili's aid after the disappearance to Chan Chang. It was more "spiritual" support than anything else, both being Daoists, but it was welcomed all the same. Since then, Lili has become a staunch supporter of Cai Xing's leadership of the clan, and in turn, her loyalty has been rewarded with her rise to Whip of the Mekhet.
With a large portion of the Movement cleared out in the purge, Lily found herself as now one of the oldest surviving members of the Carthian Movement in Carcosa. With no desire to be in the limelight herself, she turned to Alex Drake to strike a deal. Quietly, she backed his advancement in the Movement in return for his support of her endeavors. While sharing the same vision for the future, the two were (and still are) completely opposed on matters of protocol, tradition and structure. Still, she saw Drake as the firebrand needed to help resurrect the Movement. While not "Tian Di Hui material", she backs him regardless and uses her influence to make sure it stays that way. Afterall, it's far better that drake wears the bullseye, if Lily can still pull the odd string in the background with her considerable pull when needed.
In 1982, Lili Wu embraced a young and socially-conscious Alice Jones and raised her up within the [Carthian Movement]] much as she had been by her Sire. Unfortunately, much of her efforts in recruiting others were blunted severely by the Sanctified’s purge of fledging vampires. The young and disenfranchised were the bread and butter of the Movement, but also heavily targeted for their inability to properly defend themselves. Because of this she is wary of any dealings with the Lancea Sanctum and their allies to this day.
Lili, out of pity for her nephew, pulled a couple of strings behind the scenes, to get Quang a shot at an apprenticeship in a tattoo parlor, but never let on she was aiding him silently - a secret she has kept to this day.
1985 – 1990
When the demand from the Consilium came, Lily way not quite as upset as some, though more than others. While it meant leaving her home in Chinatown, she had by now begun consolidated her power among the various Asian gangs to the point where she could run her empire from half-way across the city. Besides, Ecclesia was really beginning to come into its own, and Lily wanted a peace of the action. The problem was how to get a foothold in Ecclesia, half a city away.
Serendipity came in the form of Kien Zhao, a young Chinese Invictus with connections to the Triads as well. When the "expulsion order" came from the Consilium, Zhao contacted Lily to help temporarily look after his Chinatown holdings and facilitate his shifting into influences into Hive Ward. She readily agreed to assist and used Kien's own move to Ecclesia to hide her own machinations, using him to dig her claws deep into the domain.
Using her various connections, she not only established her own casino (see The Merry Widow), with the cooperation of other members of the Movement, such as Xaviera Vallejo, Alex Drake, and her childer; but also greased the wheels for a few other casinos to open and flourish in the area. Her understanding was that is better to allow the competition to flourish as long as one can bury one fingers into their pies as well. It is possibly of no small coincidence that many casinos in the area have a distinct Asian theme.
These were the "boom years" for Lily, managing to funnel and launder the vast assets of her Triad connections though the casino and other venues - in effect going from illegitamately well-off to "legitamately" very wealthy. She has used these assets to aquire the abandoned Cathay House estate in Greendale on the islandand has slowly been rebuilding the mansion and its extensive grounds - work that is almost complete.
1990 – 1995
Lily's "empire" streadily continued to grow, shifting more towards "legitimate" investments, at least on the surface. By the coming of the turn of the new millenium, fuelled by gambling, drug money, escorts, stocks, investment income, and just about any other pie Lily could extend her shadowy fingers into, she had become one of the wealthiest woment in Carcosa. But 'new money' isn't 'old money', and while she has some ties to the society types, that still doesn't mean she gets invited to most of the elite affairs - not without pulling a few strings at least.
In 1994, more confident know of her place in the city, she takes the risk of embracing her third child, Dante Timeth, in fifteen years. Still, she keeps him in hiding for almost two years.
1995 – 2000
Almost three years after she embraced Dante Timeth, she reluctantly consents to him joining the Ordo Dracul against her own personal judgements. Out of her grasp, she still watches over him as best she can.
In 1998, Lily repaid Xara's assistance over the years by helping her Carnivale Luna del Sangre sideshow and circus troupe find places to preform in among the casino's of Ecclesia, including the Merry Widow.
When the fighting was renewed yet again, Lily stepped back from her recruitment duties and put her efforts into keeping the existing members, and her own childer, hidden from the bloodshed. As such, Movement losses were minimal, but already depleted, it was hard to tell.
2000 – 2005
Lily privately welcomed the Praxis of fellow Asian vampire, Kien Zhao to the throne, through slightly gritted teeth. Torn between her Carthian beliefs and the fact that she had known Zhao through various street connections and had always had good dealings with him and similar goals with regards to dealings with the underworld. There was a certain faith that he could get the rest of the city to toe the line. Although she was taken aback when [Kien Zhao]] embraced her mortal nephew, Quang Wu, in 2000, she and he agreed on a private blood-debt so both could save face under the 36 Oaths. When Kien Zhao was appointed Prince of Carcosa, she called in that debt and was appointed the role of Master of the Elysium.
It came as little suprise to anyone when Lily was later appointed Master of Elysium and Lady of Ecclesia when Zhao claimed Praxis in 2002. While she never is vocally pushy about her domain, every Kindred in the city knows what happens if proper due is not accorded by those who choose to live or hunt in the area. It is as if the very underbelly of Carcosa rises up against the offender until either they offer her proper due or are swallowed forever. Nomads do not last long in Ecclesia.
Lily seems to have an odd relationship with a rather disturbing Crone named Seraphina. Whatever deal they struck, neither speaks about it. However, shortly after their meeting, Lily was seen at Court missing most of the pinky finger on her left hand. Although she could easily have regrown it, she, for reasons that seem to be her own, refused too. That being said, Lily and Seraphina seem to treat each other with a wary respect for each other.
Perhaps coincidently, it was also during this time that she became acquainted with a Gangrel Crone by the name of Eric McMarrow. When his Chinese Sire , Hu Zhang Wong, was slain by Sanctified assassins, Lily helped to find him a safe haven in return for a little added muscle in quelling a small Latino gang incursion into Triad territory. On friendly terms, they have quietly helped each other out on small matters over the years.
When she began to awaken a rather unique latent discipline, she sought out her Grandsire, a rather eccentric Richmond Invictus elder with a passion for “all things Oriental”, in an effort to learn more about both herself and her Sire. It was her Grandsire’s opinion that Chan was a loose cannon and “misguided”, leaving the Invictus and hooking up with a strange line of Mekhet . However, he agreed to be her mentor as she had no other family close by anymore and for other reasons of his own. Along with the training came the typical Invictus recruitment chatter, however that has now shifted into lively philosophical debates the pair seem to look forward to – an agreement Lily is more than happy to meet.
A point of tension between Lili and several Crones seem to be her mysterious relationship with Damien Costello. Some rumours speculate that it is one of business, others claim that it is more 'physical' than that, and other still whisper that she is trying to recruit him into the Movement. All of those prospects are bothersome, the last even more so.
Lili Wu was very annoyed when her youngest childe, Dante Timeth, opened a Karaoke bar in Pepperdine. It was not the club that bothered Lili, but the manner in which Dante would brag and show-off about it - completely against the manner in she raised him. As an object lesson, she used her pull to ensure the business failed and watched silently at his public humiliation at the hands of others.
2005 – Present
While Lily Wu has worked hard to consolidate and maintain her extensive power within the underworld and within her domain of Ecclesia, as the boss of bosses, she eyes the Invictus and the power they wield with no small amount of envy. It’s possible she could have tried to “jump ship” over the years, except for the fact that at her age, she feels she has worked too hard to give up what she has earned so readily, just to have to start all over again. Still, those Invictus sure have style…
Picture Gallery
 Lily's Wheels (Cadillac 16) |
 Lily's Boat ("The Waterlily") |
 Social Court Mask |
 Formal Court Mask |
 Lily's Wax Seal |
 Sample of Lily's Graffiti |
 Tian Di Hui Graffiti |