Post by Melisse Ghiberti on Mar 21, 2018 20:35:12 GMT
Character Name: Melisse Ghiberti
Player Screen Name: Xaos
Character Type: Primary
Supernatural Type: Vampire
Concept: Slave-ring Heiress
Nature: Rogue
Demeanor: Traditionalist
Morality: Humanity 6
Clan: Giovanni
Sect: Independent Alliance
Titles: Mystic
Physical Appearance:
Personality:
Biography:
Attributes:
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Stamina 2
Charisma 3
Manipulation (Play on personal attachments) 4
Appearance (Elegant) 4
Perception 3
Intelligence 3
Wits 3
Abilities:
Academics 3 (Anthropology)
Awareness 3
Empathy 1
Etiquette 2
Expression 1
Finance 1
Grace 3
Herbalism 1
Investigation 1
Intimidation 1
Law 1
Leadership 1
Linguistics 3 (English, Afrikaans, Italian, Xhosa)
Medicine 1
Meditation 1
Occult 3
Performance 1
Persuasion 1
Politics 1
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 1
Style 1
Backgrounds:
Resources 5
The flesh trade has been good to her family for centuries and it provides Melisse with a living those of honest, moral professions can only envy. Apart from the profit her human trafficking rings produce, her necromantic contributions to the Ghiberti family are such that she can always count on financial assistance when needed.
Wraith Slaves 1
Memento de Morte 2
Low Influence 1 (Human Traffickers)
Melisse was given, and has expanded, a network that moves captives from Africa and South America to be sold in North America and Europe through Oddhaven. Most of their operations are located in the Old Docks where payments to the local crime bosses insure no interference.
Domain 2
Generous donations to a non-profit dedicated to preserving Western Horizon Cemetery gave Melisse the leeway to privately purchase the cemetery’s chapel.
Haven 2 (Luxury, Occult, Staff)
Herd 3
Part of the appeal to a vampire of being a slaver is the ability to dip into one’s own stock when feeding.
Retainer 1
Status 1
Melisse is known as an up-and-coming young Giovanni.
Lore 1 (Vampire, Wraith)
Melisse has been soaking up the secrets of ghosts her entire existence.
Allies 2 (Greek mob crew, "the Cook")
Disciplines:
Necromancy (Sepulcher Path): 4
Necromancy (Cenotaph Path): 1
Blood Magic Rituals:
Death’s Communion (Level 1)
Minestra de Morte (Level 1)
Virtues: Conscience 1, Self-Control 5, Courage 4
Willpower: 5
Maximum Blood Points/Blood per turn: 10/1
Current Experience: 5
Merit: Former Ghoul (1 point)
Flaw: Intolerance (Sabbat vampires; 1 point)
Player Screen Name: Xaos
Character Type: Primary
Supernatural Type: Vampire
Concept: Slave-ring Heiress
Nature: Rogue
Demeanor: Traditionalist
Morality: Humanity 6
Clan: Giovanni
Sect: Independent Alliance
Titles: Mystic
Physical Appearance:
Long, dark hair frames a fair-skinned, sculpted face with high-cheekbones. This countenance lies atop a tall and slight frame. Melisse clothes herself in an elegant but idiosyncratic manner. Modern dresses with baroque embroidery meant as reinterpretations of Venetian carnival costume alternate with ones of a subtly funerary bent and outfits that seem to take the phrase “corporate pirate” a little too literally. She usually has nearby a large purse in which she keeps necromantic components, artifacts and talismans.
Personality:
Soft-spoken with a noticeable South African accent; Melisse Ghiberti perpetually wears a friendly smile on her face that does not fade, nor does her eternally civil demeanor drop, even in the face of insult or aggression. She holds herself in as graceful and refined a posture as can be managed, with legs together and back in an uncompressed, subtle arch. No one has ever heard Melisse swear more severely than, “damn,” or, “hell,” and even then only but rarely.
These outward affectations, however, are but a genteel veneer over a profoundly and malignantly selfish individual. Callous to human suffering in the face of profit in the way only a slaver can be, the only thing that matters to Melisse is the furthering of her own ambitions. Her demure, modest demeanor also belies the raging egotism, hypocrisy and arrogance that shape (or, perhaps more properly, warp) Melisse’s worldview. Having spent her whole existence as the favored daughter of a degenerate and powerful dynasty, there’s little hope that Melisse Ghiberti will ever be anything more than a parasite and exploiter. Sadly, too few see past the persona she carefully projects.
These outward affectations, however, are but a genteel veneer over a profoundly and malignantly selfish individual. Callous to human suffering in the face of profit in the way only a slaver can be, the only thing that matters to Melisse is the furthering of her own ambitions. Her demure, modest demeanor also belies the raging egotism, hypocrisy and arrogance that shape (or, perhaps more properly, warp) Melisse’s worldview. Having spent her whole existence as the favored daughter of a degenerate and powerful dynasty, there’s little hope that Melisse Ghiberti will ever be anything more than a parasite and exploiter. Sadly, too few see past the persona she carefully projects.
Biography:
Melisse Elizabeth Ghiberti was born in 1971 to Beaunard Aurelio Ghiberti and Robin Cydney Ghiberti, nee Sprigg, of Johannesburg. She was baptized and later received confirmation under the name Monica at the Rosebank Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception. Melisse received her primary and secondary education at St Andrew’s School for Girls and her tertiary education at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where she graduated with a Master’s Degree in religious anthropology. As is typical of many members of the profoundly influential yet also highly private Ghiberti family, little more information is available through mortal sources. Though her name can be found in benefactor lists maintained by many major charities she is otherwise entirely out of the public eye.
As a child, Melisse heard the same native African folktales all Ghiberti children are told to covertly gauge their potential for understanding the arcane principles of their family’s unique form of necromancy. Melisse showed an exceptional talent for this, teasing out the hidden meanings and formulas at a rate that vastly outshone her siblings and local cousins. Thus singled out for favor, her father ensured that her university education would focus on subjects which would further deepen her potential to learn magics the Ghiberti had developed by synthesizing Giovanni necromancy with ancient African death mysticism.
With the extent mortal knowledge could benefit her intended role completed, and having physically matured to an optimal point for aging to cease, she was sent into the depths of the South African wilderness. There she received the Proxy Kiss from one of the oldest and most potent Ghiberti necromancers, known only as yoKhakhayi uMama (the Skull Mother). As had been expected her whole life, during this apprenticeship Melisse’s grasp of necromancy developed to an unusual level of proficiency for a ghoul. Her brother Henrico was likewise sent with her to receive the Proxy Kiss but was instead given instruction in Dominate, as better fit his particular talents. After inadvertently trespassing on the domain of an African vampire, the siblings were faced with a dangerous retreat, which claimed Henrico’s life as he defended his sister. Upon returning to her domitor’s haven, Melisse’s grief fueled a working which returned the slain Henrico as a wraith and fettered him to her. Upon observing this, the Skull Mother, suitably impressed, declared Melisse’s apprenticeship to be completed.
Melisse’s path to the Embrace was shaped by a dialectic between Clan Giovanni’s greed for necromantic power and their internal political tensions. Though the Anziani could not deny that her proficiency at necromancy surpassed even many individuals who’d been Embraced a significant time ago, her mortal lineage created resistance. To have a doppio sanguee with the potential to surpass a wide swath of the main Giovanni family line in matters necromantic unsettled some of the more conservative Anziani. The fact that the Ghiberti historically showed a propensity for breeding outside the approved mortal lineages far beyond that of even other Giovanni cadet families deepened this resistance. While the Ghiberti viewed their intermarriage with old colonial governors and modern elites, along with ancient native lines of royalty, warriors and sorcerers, as a source of strength, to many in Venice this was viewed as an insulting further watering down of the Giovanni blood. Those conservatives on the issue were counterbalanced by a sense among the Giovanni in the early ‘90s that the Clan’s ultimate goal could be achieved by the turn of the millennium if the rate of wraith acquisition were to be kept in constant acceleration.
The eventual compromise saw Melisse arriving in Venice to be Embraced into the furthest generations of Claudius Giovanni’s line during 1997’s April 4th celebrations. She spent a year in Venice after, ostensibly being given instruction in her new duties to the Giovanni family but truthfully being tested for loyalty. After satisfying those Anziani who were willing to allow themselves to be satisfied, she was allowed to depart.
Rather than immediately return home, she spent time in Milan after its reclamation from the Sabbat. It was there that her earliest impressions of the other vampire sects were formed; her involvement in the Milanese court leading her to regard mixing with Camarilla society as, “my hobby,” and the Sabbat as, “filthy, shrieking barbarians.”
With the onset of the Sixth Great Maelstrom, Melisse was summoned home to use her talents in helping the Ghiberti weather the storm. There Melisse began to serve the role for which she had been groomed through her whole existence. She proved to be one of the most efficient in this task and played a key part in ensuring that the Ghiberti wraith stables actually expanded during the disaster. The African necromancers suddenly saw their stock in the Clan rise because they had profited richly when every other branch, even the main Giovanni family, had suffered historic and devastating set backs.
As the years passed, wraith society slowly recovered from the Maelstrom, and the Ghiberti’s necromantic enterprises settled back into a normal pace. Now having the luxury of split focus, Melisse was given control of some of the local Ghiberti human trafficking operations to introduce her to the other half of the family trade. Proving herself a capable overseer, she was rewarded with stewardship over one of the family’s oldest ventures: the Oddhaven slave trade.
Lineage:
Given the Proxy Kiss by yoKhakhayi uMama of the Ghiberti
Sired by Umberto Giovanni,
Childe of Jarthis the Slaver,
Childe of Despina Giovanni,
Childe of Flavio Giovanni,
Childe of Markus Musa Giovanni,
Childe of Giuseppe Giovanni,
Childe of Claudius Giovanni,
Childe of Augustus Giovanni
As a child, Melisse heard the same native African folktales all Ghiberti children are told to covertly gauge their potential for understanding the arcane principles of their family’s unique form of necromancy. Melisse showed an exceptional talent for this, teasing out the hidden meanings and formulas at a rate that vastly outshone her siblings and local cousins. Thus singled out for favor, her father ensured that her university education would focus on subjects which would further deepen her potential to learn magics the Ghiberti had developed by synthesizing Giovanni necromancy with ancient African death mysticism.
With the extent mortal knowledge could benefit her intended role completed, and having physically matured to an optimal point for aging to cease, she was sent into the depths of the South African wilderness. There she received the Proxy Kiss from one of the oldest and most potent Ghiberti necromancers, known only as yoKhakhayi uMama (the Skull Mother). As had been expected her whole life, during this apprenticeship Melisse’s grasp of necromancy developed to an unusual level of proficiency for a ghoul. Her brother Henrico was likewise sent with her to receive the Proxy Kiss but was instead given instruction in Dominate, as better fit his particular talents. After inadvertently trespassing on the domain of an African vampire, the siblings were faced with a dangerous retreat, which claimed Henrico’s life as he defended his sister. Upon returning to her domitor’s haven, Melisse’s grief fueled a working which returned the slain Henrico as a wraith and fettered him to her. Upon observing this, the Skull Mother, suitably impressed, declared Melisse’s apprenticeship to be completed.
Melisse’s path to the Embrace was shaped by a dialectic between Clan Giovanni’s greed for necromantic power and their internal political tensions. Though the Anziani could not deny that her proficiency at necromancy surpassed even many individuals who’d been Embraced a significant time ago, her mortal lineage created resistance. To have a doppio sanguee with the potential to surpass a wide swath of the main Giovanni family line in matters necromantic unsettled some of the more conservative Anziani. The fact that the Ghiberti historically showed a propensity for breeding outside the approved mortal lineages far beyond that of even other Giovanni cadet families deepened this resistance. While the Ghiberti viewed their intermarriage with old colonial governors and modern elites, along with ancient native lines of royalty, warriors and sorcerers, as a source of strength, to many in Venice this was viewed as an insulting further watering down of the Giovanni blood. Those conservatives on the issue were counterbalanced by a sense among the Giovanni in the early ‘90s that the Clan’s ultimate goal could be achieved by the turn of the millennium if the rate of wraith acquisition were to be kept in constant acceleration.
The eventual compromise saw Melisse arriving in Venice to be Embraced into the furthest generations of Claudius Giovanni’s line during 1997’s April 4th celebrations. She spent a year in Venice after, ostensibly being given instruction in her new duties to the Giovanni family but truthfully being tested for loyalty. After satisfying those Anziani who were willing to allow themselves to be satisfied, she was allowed to depart.
Rather than immediately return home, she spent time in Milan after its reclamation from the Sabbat. It was there that her earliest impressions of the other vampire sects were formed; her involvement in the Milanese court leading her to regard mixing with Camarilla society as, “my hobby,” and the Sabbat as, “filthy, shrieking barbarians.”
With the onset of the Sixth Great Maelstrom, Melisse was summoned home to use her talents in helping the Ghiberti weather the storm. There Melisse began to serve the role for which she had been groomed through her whole existence. She proved to be one of the most efficient in this task and played a key part in ensuring that the Ghiberti wraith stables actually expanded during the disaster. The African necromancers suddenly saw their stock in the Clan rise because they had profited richly when every other branch, even the main Giovanni family, had suffered historic and devastating set backs.
As the years passed, wraith society slowly recovered from the Maelstrom, and the Ghiberti’s necromantic enterprises settled back into a normal pace. Now having the luxury of split focus, Melisse was given control of some of the local Ghiberti human trafficking operations to introduce her to the other half of the family trade. Proving herself a capable overseer, she was rewarded with stewardship over one of the family’s oldest ventures: the Oddhaven slave trade.
Lineage:
Given the Proxy Kiss by yoKhakhayi uMama of the Ghiberti
Sired by Umberto Giovanni,
Childe of Jarthis the Slaver,
Childe of Despina Giovanni,
Childe of Flavio Giovanni,
Childe of Markus Musa Giovanni,
Childe of Giuseppe Giovanni,
Childe of Claudius Giovanni,
Childe of Augustus Giovanni
Attributes:
Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Stamina 2
Charisma 3
Manipulation (Play on personal attachments) 4
Appearance (Elegant) 4
Perception 3
Intelligence 3
Wits 3
Abilities:
Academics 3 (Anthropology)
Awareness 3
Empathy 1
Etiquette 2
Expression 1
Finance 1
Grace 3
Herbalism 1
Investigation 1
Intimidation 1
Law 1
Leadership 1
Linguistics 3 (English, Afrikaans, Italian, Xhosa)
Medicine 1
Meditation 1
Occult 3
Performance 1
Persuasion 1
Politics 1
Streetwise 1
Subterfuge 1
Style 1
Backgrounds:
Resources 5
The flesh trade has been good to her family for centuries and it provides Melisse with a living those of honest, moral professions can only envy. Apart from the profit her human trafficking rings produce, her necromantic contributions to the Ghiberti family are such that she can always count on financial assistance when needed.
Wraith Slaves 1
Melisse’s brother Henrico, who died saving Melisse’s life and was brought back as a wraith by her necromancy. In death as in life, Henrico is athletic with short, sweptback blonde hair. Melisse is his primary Fetter and his Passions revolve around protecting her and continuing to serve the family. As a family spirit, Henrico is generally shown more respect by Giovanni vampires than are other wraiths.
Memento de Morte 2
This skull, covered in obscure necromantic sigils, was a gift to Melisse from her teacher, the Skull Mother. It houses a spirit that calls itself Murrifikas the Great and Powerful. Once a mortal necromancer of exceptional power and evil, the Skull Mother defeated him and trapped his spirit. Now the death mage’s soul seethes perpetually with indignant anger at its fate: to be used like an occult battery. Much of Murrifikas’ former power has been used up in the centuries since his defeat and he has long foreseen the oblivion that awaits him when his last mote of magic is spent. Whenever an opportunity arises, he uses the last power under his command, the ability to make his voice heard in the living world, to mock others. This provides some small means of releasing the constant, overwhelming hatred and depression that are Murrifikas’ entire existence.
Low Influence 1 (Human Traffickers)
Melisse was given, and has expanded, a network that moves captives from Africa and South America to be sold in North America and Europe through Oddhaven. Most of their operations are located in the Old Docks where payments to the local crime bosses insure no interference.
Domain 2
Generous donations to a non-profit dedicated to preserving Western Horizon Cemetery gave Melisse the leeway to privately purchase the cemetery’s chapel.
Haven 2 (Luxury, Occult, Staff)
The main floor of the chapel remains in normal function, though it now plays host to Melisse’s necromantic rites at night. The haven proper consists of a small network of crypts that have been converted into rooms beneath the chapel proper. In homage to her Clan’s dual identity as lords of commerce and the dead, the crypts are luxuriously appointed but do not disguise their original function. The staff consists of slaves Melisse has kept for herself and her personal confessor, Father Reginald Laurent.
Herd 3
Part of the appeal to a vampire of being a slaver is the ability to dip into one’s own stock when feeding.
Retainer 1
Charle is Melisse’s loyal manservant and chauffer. The elderly man has served the Ghiberti family since his youth, as did his father, and his father before him. His white hair is present nowhere on his liver-spotted head except his eyebrows and mustache; there it is present in amazingly bushy abundance. Behind small spectacles his grey eyes look on the world dimly and unfocused. Specialization: Drive
Status 1
Melisse is known as an up-and-coming young Giovanni.
Lore 1 (Vampire, Wraith)
Melisse has been soaking up the secrets of ghosts her entire existence.
Allies 2 (Greek mob crew, "the Cook")
Melisse often employs a local crew of the Greek mafia to do her dirty work. This particular crew is led by one Andreas Castellanos, a broad, tall, dark-haired man in his thrities with a short ponytail. Andreas has a taste for expensive suits, shoes, watches and cars but always buys gaudy pieces which reveal his inability to separate quality from expense. Andreas' first and only response to a problem is the application of blunt force. His crew is highly sycophantic (it's dangerous to be anything else in Andreas' employ) and ape his sartorial tendencies.
Joesph Hanley, better known on the streets as 'the Cook' because, "when the bosses send him and his boys after you, your goose is cooked!" A chance encounter with Melisse in an Oddhaven club both saw Hanley forcibly indebted to her and his crew thinned out to the point that he is now dependent on her patronage.
Joesph Hanley, better known on the streets as 'the Cook' because, "when the bosses send him and his boys after you, your goose is cooked!" A chance encounter with Melisse in an Oddhaven club both saw Hanley forcibly indebted to her and his crew thinned out to the point that he is now dependent on her patronage.
Disciplines:
Necromancy (Sepulcher Path): 4
Necromancy (Cenotaph Path): 1
Blood Magic Rituals:
Death’s Communion (Level 1)
Minestra de Morte (Level 1)
Virtues: Conscience 1, Self-Control 5, Courage 4
Willpower: 5
Maximum Blood Points/Blood per turn: 10/1
Current Experience: 5
Merit: Former Ghoul (1 point)
Flaw: Intolerance (Sabbat vampires; 1 point)
