From SuspireWiki

Known Facts (at game start)

• Quentin is considered one of the leaders of the Invictus.
• Quentin has embraced two childer in his time in Carcosa.
• After Josephine Blackwell-Finch's sire died, Quentin seemed to adopt her to a degree despite the fact that she was already released.

Background

Born in 1908, in Manchester, Quentin was the son of a wealthy family. The city was expanding rapidly, and his father, a doctor was in the front line, his clientele included a great number of luminaries and prominent citizens. Quentin was brought through childhood and puberty, home tutored, protected from the world. He enjoyed every luxury one could enjoy. Yet, he had to exist in this protected environment. With not much else to do, his favorite past time were books. Stories, literature. He didn't really enjoy the medicinal books, and the anatomy that his father had him read, yet even from that age he understood that his future was, for many reasons, set in stone, and quite prosperous. A fact he was okay with.

After college, he was lead to a fixed marriage with a woman from another prominent family. It was mostly a matter of convenience and politics, his father's new hobby. Not much changed, he started taking on clients, and made a name of himself as a skilled surgeon. His marriage was a stalled, dull thing. They were basically coexisting. A medical condition on the part of her wive, blocked his father's dream to see his line continue. There was no enjoyment, or comfort, there was only a faint hint of dismissal from his father. He still kept Quentin under his wing, but the reason was painfully obvious now. He was a money maker, a cash machine, not much more.

His only escape, and source of joy remained his books. He consumed works of literature like a hungry hog. Eventually, he ran across a book that would change his life forever. The book was about medicine as practiced in the ancient world, specifically by the Greek and Egyptians. It contained a whole array of odd techniques for the preservation of organs and bodies, a long list of medicinal uses of poison. His interest sparked, he delved deeper. Deep in the rumors of the preservation of life, the soul, reincarnation. Could it be possible? He didn't know. But his life was dull enough for him to try and find out.

Rumor lead the rumor, from one book to another, from one archaeologist and medieval doctor to another. The average day to day medicinal uses were slowly slipping out of his sphere of interest. Many people called it magic, but wasn't science magic way back? Maybe it was a distinction based on mainstream acceptance, rather than actual truth. Fascinated with the mysteries of death, it wasn't long before he shed Christianity, to look for answers that that God could not offer. He got inducted into a weird death cult called the Hierochtonoi. They we worshiping the deities of the underworld. But he was never true to that cause, it was just a matter of learning, then leaving.

Algernon Winthrop was in a peculiar spot. Being dead for sixty years, and with not much to display in the way of actual accomplishments can be painful, especially to a terribly narcissistic creature like him. A Ventrue, belonging to a peculiar bloodline called the Disciples of the Nekromanteion, and an Invictus. He found himself lost, and aim-less, in a covenant packed with individuals. Well, not aim-less, rather, his aim, his grand scheme, could not come to pass. His progress in the covenant was blocked, his turn to shine was skipped.

He needed confidants, and allies. He was only the patient sort, so he chose the safe solution. He would make an ally, and bound him to his will. And together, they might stand a better chance at climbing up the food pyramid. Washington was a crowded city, not too much wheat to go around. It had strict feeding laws and severe punishments. It took Algernon two years work of worth in building trust and favors, enough to bring him in a position to request embrace rights.

Naturally, he had certain standards and expectations. His goals would not be exactly easily accepted and undertaken by just any mind out there. So he set out to track individuals who would fit his criteria.

Quentin felt his life was slipping away, his marriage almost non-existent. His job taxing, and static. His income was dwindling slowly, as the building rush in Manchester died down, as his father's favor slipped away. Facing a slow decline, he decided to make a gamble, pack up and leave. Go to the States, there were many cities there who were doing now, what Manchester did a few years ago. A new work field, a challenge. Right in the middle of these thoughts, disaster struck. His wife passed away. It was not that it was the terrible blow, but it was one more tie severed with his homeland. After so long. So he did, and just like that, unexpectedly, he liquidated his assets and migrated to Washington.

It was not long before he had made a name for himself, he was experienced, punctual. He thought he was winning, he had a sizable income, enough to allow him to take on patients selectively, and focus on his hobby, which remained alive and burning through all these years.

And so, it was not long before Algernon noticed him. The details of their starting approach are hazy. Was it a business deal? A meeting at a social club? A violent encounter? Quentin cant really recall. There's a period in his life that he just remembers seeing this man. Just with the corner of his eyes, talking to him, feeling compelled to please him. But its rendered blurry and vague, by a single fact. Soon after Quentin died.

He was released five years later. Algernon was a man with expectations. He was also a man who expected most of these expectations to be fulfilled by his childe. He inducted Quentin into the Nekromanteion soon, there was no ground work needed, Quentin had the interest and persistence to succeed, he only needed to shed some of his moral values in order to do so. And so he did. Algernon's training rendered the line between moral and immoral, dead and alive, into a faint blurry thing. One to be crossed, by those who knew how.

After he was released, Quentin's progress skyrocketed. Soon, he was already respected within his line, and the Invictus. Yet, the environment was once again, stifling. He would never progress as long as his sire remained in his vicinity. In his mind, there were two solutions to this. Either for the old to move on, for the young to grow, or to leave again. Most people who really know Quentin never understood why he just didn't make his sire disappear. They certainly had no fond feelings for each other. The truth though, was that Quentin did feel a sense of obligation for the man who opened his eyes. And it was enough to tip the scale in favor of leaving again. Algernon never protested, never commented on Quentin's departure. Odds are, he had foreseen this, and it was a fact he had come to terms with. Maybe Quentin would be strong enough to help the line grow, somewhere else.

1966

And so Quentin arrived in Carcosa. It was the year 1966, and the city was under the rule of the Lancea Sanctum. It was an oppressive regime but that was to be expected. Quentin made a conscious effort to follow protocol, and present himself to the regime. It was a half appreciated gesture, as the city was suffering for people who avoided any contact with the Sanctified. Quentin was willing to bid his time, it was a new beginning, and he had no reason to rush. He established himself a haven, and a small "lab". He tried, again and again, to get his fingers in the research sector, he wanted a constant supply of specimens to keep up with his experiments. He was not so eager to overextend, nobody could tell what the sanctified would do if they knew.

1977

Years passed, Quentin was now settled, just another average Ventrue out there. He was recognized by the kindred of the city. His ascend in the Invictus was near-meteoric, for a kindred who had been in the city for less than a decade old. Having two functions, as a Senator and Interpreter keeps his hands quite busy, but he doesn't seem to mind. The disease outbreak is regarded with morbid interest at first, but when the situation escalates, the interest turned into concern. He makes a conscious effort to subtly nudge the Sanctified to look into the matter, all for naught. He turned to the Crone, and assisted them in getting healthy wheat.

1978

It is clear to him now that the situation has escalated beyond measure, and that no sort of action is going to end this the easy way. With the Sanctified regime under intense fire, the growing panic, the Elysium fires. He decides to slip into seclusion, and watch from afar. A few favors traded, and he had secured a sizable herd. He kept that under intense control, that in addition to his medical ties could keep his blood supply steady. Once he heard about the Morbus, he participates in the Light team to track him town, but to no avail. He wasn't exactly enthusiastic about working along with the same people who brought this to pass. When Josephine's sire died, and in one of his rare moments of generosity, he offered her safe haven and a constant blood supply. Some claimed that he got an Oath of Service for it, but in truth, he actually sympathized. In his mind, it was important to keep good Invictus kindred safe.

1979

With the research to track down the Morbus being constant yet fruitless, and the recent disappearances, Quentin decides to withdraw. He spends a sizable amount of money to secure a number of fall back locations, for him and his covenant mates. Partly out of altruism, partly because more favors were always welcome. In private, he's nudging for the voices against the Sanctified to raise.

1980

The situation had reached to a boiling point. He was approached by Valerie Desmond-Arquette, and they agreed to organize a meeting to see the end of this situation. He participated in this meeting with the Circle of the Crone, as a representative and voice for the Invictus. Little did he know of the consequences of that pact. With the Lancea Sanctum and allies still numerically superior, he is clearly overcome with dread when they start swearing revenge. He advices those allies that he had cultivated to track Sanctified movement, because a backlash was clearly not belonging to the sphere of fantasy anymore.

1981

The appointment of the new prince finds Quentin having mixed feelings, mostly because it fueled the already existing fire in the Sanctified. It was no secret that he would prefer to see an Invictus being the prince. The old ties with the Sanctified could have been used to tone down their aggression. Yet, there was piece, if brief, and with new found optimism, he sought out to embrace. And so he did, Anabelle Lee was a mortician in life, cold, calculating, and beautiful. She was his own little monster...

1983

...Only to lose her two years later. He was a supporter of the regime, even if not the most verbal one. If you ask him now, he will say that back then, it was only revenge. And revenge was a game for two. He lured one of the younger sanctified into one of his secure havens, and killed him. He had him delivered to a known sanctified hang out, in a box, his body blackened and rotten. During the next 19 years he makes a conscious effort to respond to any personal attack to him or his holdings in kind. Its eye for an eye. In the meantime, he amasses an army of retainers, which he often lends to secure other younger Invictus too.

1986

He is attacked again, one of his havens catches fire in mid-day. He calls on the Oath of Defense Kien Zhao has sworn to him, and he asks for the transgressor's head on a platter. Zhao is remarkably effective, and does so swiftly, and without much ceremony. It was then that Quentin really noticed the man's abilities. In the future, he subtly backed many of his plays, yet he never revealed that he was the one to lend the assistance.

1987-89

The new mandate from the Consilium hits him harder than most. He had to liquidate many of his prized havens. He takes the time and effort to secure new locations, not luxurious, but remote and small. Josephine moves on to offer him a safe haven, and enough cash to make his relocation fast, secure, and silent. It was a move that touched an old man, and further solidified his views of Josephine. The guerrilla war is still on, and for all his flaws, he's always considered himself a survivor. He has made it clear that the Sanctified are his enemies. People say he never forgot of the murder of his childe.

1999

The guerrilla war keeps raging, and another childe is killed. This time it was Josephine's. Quentin approaches her, and plainly says to her that it is time for reckoning. Yet, the murderer's identity was not known. Quentin made his intentions clear, he wanted to see the guy's head on a platter and he would pay for the gruesome skull on a plate, or at the very least a name so he could do it himself. He had seen enough Invictus childer die.

2002

In an Invictus meeting, he openly states to Josephine that Kien Zhao should be the one the Invictus propose for Prince. His move is regarded with suspicion, even by other invictus. Josephine agrees, and with them being the two members of the inner circle, it is decided. Younger Invictus say that it is a practical move, and one of convenience. But in reality, Quentin never had interests to the throne, and he never forgot the man who murdered the Sanctified who burned his haven.

2003

No complaint comes out of his mouth, when the four kindred die. In his eyes it was justice, and sometimes it requires acceptable losses. He does question Zhao about the Invictus who met final death, but given a valid excuse, he lets the matter drop and looks forward.