Alceste de Valence or Morethio Bocelli

Clan: Toreador

Generation: 6th 

Sire: Genvieve Orseau

Morethio Bocelli (later known as

Alceste) was Born to Antonio Bocelli and 

Eli Bocelli in the city-state of 

Florence on June 2nd, 1752. He was an 

only child.  His father Antonio was a 

successful member of the petit-

bourgeoisie, and engaged in the trade 

and manufacturing of clothing and 

foodstuffs. 

Eli was an unremarkable bitter woman 

with no notable family connections.  

Morethio was of 15 years at the time of 

her disappearance. Her disappearance is 

still unexplained. From an early age 

Morethio was groomed to take on the 

family business, which was of great 

importance to his father and the dignity 

of the family. Morethio did manage to 

learn the basics of commerce and trade, 

mostly through exposure, yet always his 

primary interest lay in buffoonery and 

mischief. As an early teen, rather than 

partake of the company which his 

father's money allowed, he preferred to 

spend his time with local petty thugs 

and troublemakers.  He would frequent 

brothels using his father's money, and 

engage in gambling and various other 

forms of debauchery. He discovered that 

his good looks and charm could land him 

most women he desired, and he nearly 

lost his life in duals as a result.  He 

learned to melee at great personal risk. 

He would often entice woman for the mere 

sport of enraging their spouses. In 

short order Morethio became a terrible 

embarrassment to the family, and Antonio 

sought to cover his shame by sending the 

insolent boy away from local eyes to a 

foreign school. 

Morethio was sent to Milano to receive a 

proper education at his father's 

expense. Uninterested in his studies, he 

was frequently truant, and at school 

managed to make friends with many bad 

seeds, though these bad seeds were from 

a far wealthier stock than his friends 

in Florence.  He learned French easily, 

but ignored the classics, Latin, and 

Mathematics.  Most of his time was spent 

wandering the streets of Milano. To his 

surprise, while in Milano, he began 

developing a taste for street theatre. 

He admired the vulgarity, the 

boastfulness, but was also secretly 

touched by the tragedy, tenderness and 

feeling he occasionally saw in the 

performances. Around this time he saw 

the great Actor Camelio Ravezzi, before 

he had risen to fame.   

In a back alley theatre, Morethio 

witnessed a performance of pure 

aesthetic perfection, a moment of 

artistic mastery, the likes of which he 

had never seen before: in utter awe, in 

a single moment, Morethio's life 

collapsed into one desire: to himself 

become such a virtuoso, to master the 

stage like none other. He sped home. The 

next day, he wrote to his father asking 

for more money, saying that he had been 

robbed.    He then went to the market 

and bought dozens of bizarre and varying 

costumes.   For the next month he forgot 

school entirely, and each day he would 

live as an imaginary character, dressing 

in suitable costumes, exploring the city 

as an aristocrat, as a clergyman, as a 

noble's servant, a hero, a villain, 

anything that would let him act. Soon 

enough he began auditioning for small 

theatres, and his talent became 

apparent. Morethio dropped out of school 

entirely, though he didn't tell his 

father, and spent all his time and 

energy in the pursuit of acting. He 

lived the life of an artist, without 

having to worry about making an income. 

A small troupe which he had been working 

with, which specialized in Italian 

tragedies, began a tour of the city 

states.   Morethio thus began his 

travels. The troupe was quite talented, 

yet only a meager living could be 

sustained from such a profession.   

Morethio shared some of his incoming 

wealth with the troupe to ease their 

lifestyle as they traveled, yet one day 

ill news came: his father had gone 

bankrupt. Large fires in the east end of 

Florence had entirely destroyed his 

father's buildings and manufacturing 

facilities, leaving the family in-debt 

and destitute. 

While Morethio wasn't used to this 

lowered standard of living, he was 

completely absorbed in the joys of 

acting. The troupe continued its 

travels, and began moving West, in hopes 

of touring France.  His acting steadily 

improved, and he became the central 

attraction in their plays.  When passing 

through the city of Torino, his voice 

and talents caught the attention of the 

Toreador Genevieve Orseau. That night 

Morethio was abducted and Embraced. For 

a few days she instructed Morethio on 

the basics of unlife and the Masquerade. 

Morethio sent word to his troupe to wait 

for him, which they did with much 

misgiving. Despite the severity and 

shock of his circumstances, he attempted 

to continue with his acting tour. He 

insisted on traveling alone, and only 

performing at night. The group began 

touring France, but nervousness in the 

troupe increased as Morethio's strange 

behavior and preferences persisted.  

Members started to leave the troupe. One 

night, in a small town outside of Paris, 

a Parish Priest saw the troupe's Act, 

and somehow knew Morethio to be Satan's 

child. A small mob of fanatics burned 

the troupe's cart, destroyed all of 

their props and drove their horses away. 

His unlife of acting seemed to be over. 

The troupe was disintegrated. Destitute 

and jobless, and in a foreign country, 

he slept in the basement of an abandoned 

farm, and at night turned to petty theft 

to sustain his now-meager lifestyle. 

Inspired by a character in an Italian 

drama, he slowly became attracted to the 

idea of the highway robber. 

With vampiric powers at his disposal, he 

found it fairly easy to startle the 

horses of approaching carriages and 

scatter the mortal inhabitants. He took 

care not to kill if it wasn't necessary, 

yet often it proved a part of the 

profession. As the months rolled by, he 

contemplated how to improve his 

situation, how he might succeed as a 

great actor despite his poverty and 

undeadness.

One night a strange and risky 

opportunity presented itself. He was 

prowling the roads outside of Paris, 

when he saw a particularly fancy ornate 

covered carriage approaching: a typical 

extravagance of the nobility. He leapt 

on the driver and guard from an 

overhanging tree, throwing them off. The 

guard was easily knocked out. The 

carriage driver had run off into the 

woods. Morethio then stopped the horses, 

and swung open the carriage door. Inside 

were a prim and proper lady, who had 

already feinted, and a young 

aristocratic man, who was terrified and 

cowering in his seat. He dragged the 

young man screaming into the moonlight, 

intending to feast on his tender flesh 

and empty his pockets. As the moon lit 

the man's features, Morethio saw the 

most startling sight: that this young 

man looked virtually identical to 

Morethio's physical self! What a perfect 

act this could be! To play this young 

aristocrat in the high salons of Paris!  

Could it be pulled off? Morethio tied up 

the young man, pilfered the carriage and 

the lady, and then carried the young man 

off to the abandoned farmhouse.  For two 

days Morethio teased and talked with the 

young aristocrat, who's name was Alceste 

de Valence, learning his speech 

patterns, the details of his life. 

Finally, Morethio drained him, took his 

clothes, and buried him behind the barn. 

The next day Morethio, now playing 

Alceste, traveled to Paris and found his 

new home, a splendid Mansion near the 

Louvre. The servants were alarmed and 

excited that Alceste had survived the 

horrible highway robbery. The servants 

had been temporarily fooled, but fooling 

the family would be much harder. 

Fortunately, something happened to ease 

this private Masquerade.

Alceste's mother, Nicolette de Valence, 

was a ghoul of a Paris Vampire. She 

was also a highly ambitious woman, who's 

only concern was family status. Through 

great conniving and scheming she had 

arranged for her son Alceste to marry 

into the highly renowned family of the 

Comte de Bougar. Alceste was to marry 

the Comte's daughter Christina. In the 

past, Alceste had refused, again and 

again.  He was a reclusive young man, 

who rather didn't like women, or people 

in general, and detested the idea of 

spending more time in petty social 

functions. In short order his mother 

Nicolette discerned that Morethio was 

impersonating her son, and that he was 

also a Vampire. After confronting 

Morethio, and learning most of the true 

story, she saw for herself a grand 

opportunity, and an alliance was struck: 

Morethio could remain Alceste with her 

blessing and assistance, as long as he 

married Christina de Bougar and helped 

his Mother with her political 

maneuvering. Morethio (now referred to 

as Alceste) managed to slide into his 

new persona and social life with minimal 

suspicion.

Most people were delighted with 

Alceste's change of demeanor, despite 

his new health problems. His new mother 

instructed him in Etiquette and the 

other niceties of noble life. In the 

following year Alceste was amazed by the 

style and decadence of aristocratic 

life. Never had he witnessed such 

refinement. What grabbed him most was 

the grandeur of the arts, and his new 

wife Christina, a patron of the arts, 

kept him in contact with the finest 

artists and exhibits. This eased his 

convergence with the Paris Toreadors.  

While previously Alceste had only really

appreciated the art of acting, now he

discovered in himself a tremendous eye

for beauty. Endless hours he spent

leering at sculptures and pawing at

tapestries. He went to every exhibit,

the most hideous to the most heavenly. 

He even began to dabble in sculpture and

painting, setting up a private studio

with the finest materials. He also

frequented the theatres, got to know the

directors of the theatre houses, and

some of the finest actors. This

debauchery was far superior to gambling

and womanizing!  And this was only the

beginning!

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