Updated: 03 January 1999
Charles
6th Generation Ventrue

	Sire:	Saviarre (1360)
	Nature:	Director
	Demeanor:	Caregiver
	Humanity:	3
	Secrets:	***
	Status:	****
	Esprit:	***
	Elder Status:	**
	Ventrue Prestige:	***

Background:

                    A Ghoul of Saviarre, Charles showed enough financial talent to her to ask Alexandre the right to Embrace him. Alexandre, already weakened (in a mental viewpoint), accepted, but soon became jealous of the Neonate. Soon, he gave him menial tasks, giving important matters to other Neonates, or even Ghouls. He even once mocked openly Charles' taste for prostitute's blood.

Charles didn't understand the King's reaction, and even less his own Sire's one. She supported her husband even when it was obvious the mad king was wrong. In the same time, the fires of Anarch Revolt were starting to rage across Europe. Charles soon found he was Blood Bonded to Saviarre, but not to Alexandre, which let him some freedom of thought about killing the one he considered to have enslaved the Clan Ventrue within the borders of his own madness.

Soon, word reached about the violence of the Anarchs. The Lasombra Clan founder had been killed in 1405, soon followed in 1413 by the death of the Tzimisce Clan founder. All killed by Anarchs.

Charles was approached in 1471 by François Villon and the Cour des Miracles, a french coterie of Anarch Kindred hidden within the mortal Cour des Miracles. Villon, L'Homme de Peu de Foi, Ivan and the other Anarchs had little difficulty convincing him Alexandre was to be destroyed for the common good. Charles, frightened by such events, accepted to the condition Saviarre would be spared. Villon accepted (but secretly deciding that if Saviarre was to be destroyed in the attack, it would be better), and the Anarch conspired for the last nights of Alexandre, the Kindred King of France.

The attack occured in 1481, and much to Charles delight (and Villon's anger), Saviarre wasn't in Alexander's palace. The Methuselah proved itself very hard to kill, and most Anarchs were destroyed, thus weakening the group.

Some believe it was the reason that made Villon join so fast (and so easily?) the new Camarilla after the Convention of Thorn signed in 1493. Charles searched for Saviarre, but never found her. As Paris had been the theater of conflagrations, the Anarchs thought more and more as the time passed that Saviarre had been destroyed, too.

As Villon became the Chambellan of the new Toreador Prince, Beatrix, Charles wondered if it hadn't been a colossal intrigue to put Toreador in the throne while weakening the Clan Ventrue. He wondered if the rising of the Republican branch of the Clan wasn't too much coincidental to be just a coincidence...

Charles entered Torpor, and only awakened after the crowing of Napoleon, in the 19th Century. The Legitimists were declining, and the Republicans were heavily engaged in politics, still losing most battles against the Prince. Charles reaction at learning Villon was prince was a mix a irony and disgust.

He decided, then, to take the power of money, as the power of nobility seemed to be as volatile as the people's tolerance to its excesses. The Giovanni, defeated by Napoleon's army, had removed their interests from France, and the financial tide of Charles won over. He decided to forget all this nonsenses about principles and to get the power over money, no matter the sacrifices.

He learned the contemporean usages and etiquette, learnt Esprit the hard way, and in the shadows, took over most infustries, forgotten by the Toreador (''money can be such a bore when you have to watch over your workers'') and by the Republican Ventrues. He founded, then, the third sub-Clan Ventrue of Paris, nicknamed decades after the Bourgeois.

Since, Charles, with his instinct and his financial talent, since succeeded in obtaining and keeping partial control of most french great industries and C.E.O., and even Sired Leonard to take over the control of the Maffia which was installing in France (controlled by the Brujah Don Caravelli, and soon after his death, by his rebellious Childe Dona Vanessa).

Destiny

                    Unknown.

Appearance:

Age:	774	Hair:	Gray-white	Height:	1m87
Apparent Age:	40	Eyes:	Grey	Weight:	95Kg
Date of Birth:	1223	Race:	Caucasian	Sex:	Male
RIP:	1360	Nationality:	French	Esprit:	**

                    While Charles was ghouled at the age of 30, his hair lost their dark color to became gray-white. He his a man of awing build, and with perfect style and manners. Controled, with an apparent gentleman's behaviour, he appears to be the perfect type of husband for most women, as he allies both the appearance of beautiful and young body and the mature side of some kind of caring father, commanding and just (Of course, he is neither!).

This man with high self-control and pride always wear expensive clothes, succeeding in appearing to be cool and rich in the same time. He normally wears grey suits, and his hair short worn backward (he have his shoulder-lentgh hair two-days beard cut and cared for each night).

Role Playing:

                    Self-control is the key word of Charles, and allied with his awing apparence, his style, his etiquette and his leadership of a very succesful faction of the Clan Ventrue, Charles has more than enough reasons to be full of pride.

Still, he doesn't wear the contemptuous expression he sees in the eyes of the Legitimists (He believes they they are a lost weight for the Clan) He is never disagreable to other Kindred, even the Bâtards. After all, you never know who could serve as a willing pawn...

Notes:

                    The Clan Weakness of Charles is in the choice of the Blood he drinks: He must drink from someone who accept his money to accept sexual intercourse. While Charles first drunk from any prostitute, a desease transmitted by his frequent feedings once depletted his Herd. He since changed his habits (drinking from only one chalice each night). He found that seducing women to make them willing sexual slaves (i.e.: Use of Dominate is right out. The woman must accept the money or the valuable gift without being Dominated) would increase the quality of his herd.

He is a personal friend of the Childer of Gustav, Wilhelm Waldburg, Prince of Western Berlin. The two Kindred share the vision of an unified Europe under the Camarilla's rule (i.e.: Ventrue's rule).

While his Humanity is very low, he makes massive uses of his awing Willpower to avoid Frenzy and Rötshrek.

He discovered the media after the war, and the television interested him very much. He prepared his own fame, and by his control about the financial places, and his own presence, he became a famous ''boss'', controlling an international holding, and living among the high society of the whole world. While this behaviour makes Ivan and Villon nervous, he assured them that just before the next century, Charles Devereaux, as he is known among the mortals, will disappear from sight, probably victim from some accident...

Charles bought the Fortitude level 6 power two times. Once for the Level 6 power described in the Dark Ages Companion, and once for the sixth Fortitude soaking dice.

Actual Aim:

                    To increase his own financial power, or even the power of the Bourgeois faction he leads. Increase the influence of the Clan Ventrue of France.

Rumours:

• Charles is under the influence of Theti-Sheri (False: This rumour spawned from Charles feeding habits).
• Charles is working to take the power over the french Ventrue. (True, but he knows patience.)
• Charles is secretly member of the Praxist League (True).

Fortitude ***** * : Armor of Vitality

                    Weapons used against the Kindred are smashed into bits if the Kindred succeed in a Fortitude roll.

                    System: See the Dark Ages Companion, p83

For more information about Wilhelm, as well as the Ventrue of Berlin, please read the Berlin by Night City Sourcebook.

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