Thomas Carpenter

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Mortal Life

Thomas' early life was unremarkable. Born to a pair of wealthy New York socialites in the late 1839, his family had become quite wealthy during the Industrial Revolution, making money hand over fist as mechanized labor came to dominate the workplace. His remarkable memory and well-above-average intelligence got him sent not to one of the prestigious American universities, but to Cambridge, in England, as he went abroad to avoid the trouble caused by the American Civil War.

Thomas took well to university life - his hunger for knowledge was almost insatiable, although he was far from your traditional bookworm- the young American took particularly well to the developing sport of rugby, which suited his rough nature. He was something of an oddity socially - a somewhat quiet, gruff American who always seemed to stand just to the left of the center of attention, so to speak. He earned himself a reputation as someone who didn't suffer fools lightly, and was known for his ability to quiet the bragging sons of the new English aristocracy with a glance.

After he graduated and the Civil War ended, Thomas moved down to Richmond, Virginia, one of the many carpetbaggers moving south during Reconstruction. He was far more successful than the majority of his fellow northerners, and managed to accumulate a rather impressive amount of influence in the new local government.

The Embrace & Early Unlife

His relative success earned him the attention of an incredibly beautiful but equally brutal Daeva Unaligned, who Embraced him out of a spark of lust for the handsome and well-spoken northerner. She needed a face man, someone to hunt for her - so she could feed from him. Her blood had reached that point where no mortal blood could sustain her, and she thought a childe who owed his unlife to her might be as loyal to her as the blood bond might make her to him.

Yet his sire's hunger grew too great for him to sustain, and eventually she was forced to succumb to torpor, unable to find sufficient Kindred vitae to support her. Still a childe, Thomas was virtually alone in the Kindred world, with only the most basic knowledge of the Traditions. Thomas was at first derided as just another "useless neonate" by Kindred society at large, until the Lancea Sanctum took him in.

There was something oddly comforting about the beliefs the Lancea Sanctum held, and a covenant that told him he was a biblical plague sent to test humanity gave some semblance of meaning to a Requiem that had previously consisted of nothing but being a feeding mechanism for an rather dangerous elder, and later a verbal and physical punching bag for half a city's Kindred population. Granted, he joined up as much to make his unlife easier and save his own hide as for any belief in the Testament of Longinus, but he grew to accept and even embrace them. Although he was never one of particularly strong faith, he seemed to relish the opportunity to torment mortals, especially those who reminded him of the same idiotic, aristocratic fools he'd had to tolerate in college.

Yet Thomas became more than just another neonate, and quickly. He demonstrated a talent for Theban Sorcery that was nothing short of prodigious for a Kindred of his age - aided by his own natural intelligence and his remarkable memory, he was able to master rituals that befuddled older and stronger Kindred. He carved out something of a niche for himself in the local Lancea Sanctum, helping new members the Bishops deemed worthy of learning elementary Theban Sorcery and occasionally performing rituals for other, higher ranking members of the Lancea Sanctum when the covenant required it.

Later Unlife and Torpor

All worked out well enough for quite awhile, but in the 1970's, a series of circumstances- mainly local political maneuvering and a series of rather stupid decisions by local covenant leaders - forced Thomas out of Richmond. He headed south, to Atlanta, and was a quiet member of the Lancea Sanctum - Acknowledged by the Prince, but only really known as anything more than a pretty face to members his covenant at the same time, for whom he resumed his role as a Keeper of Theban Sorcery. But less than a year after he'd arrived in Atlanta, he found himself on the wrong end of a stake wielded by a Gangrel nomad - another Sanctified, actually, and one of strong faith. Buried in the earth, it wasn't until some modern construction dislodged the stake in his chest that he awoke to the modern nights.

Obviously, this page represents OOC knowledge.