Elizabeth Horsmanden, Marlena
Background
People like Marlena don’t become vampires. They live charmed lives, surrounded by comfort (but not too much), friends (but not too close) and happiness (but not too genuine). Fate sets aside a path for people like this the Kindred never enter their lives.
They are neither the top of the social structure nor the bottom; they are the forgettable chattel in between, the faceless masses Kindred refer to when they use the word “kine” in a derogatory fashion. Elizabeth was an athletic woman, healthy and strong, before becoming one of the Damned. She held numerous jobs, never really settling on anything she found as her calling.
She was a cheerleader for a professional football team, a fitness instructor at a gym, a physical education coordinator at a high school... the list goes on. Consider Elizabeth’s surprise, then, when a man she met at a nightclub professed to be a vampire. At first she thought it ridiculous, but over the months they saw each other, she felt herself falling more and more under his thrall.
When the truth revealed itself to her as the last of her blood flowed from her veins one fateful night, that incredulity turned to horror. As she struggled against him ever more feebly, her attacker suffered one of those strange fits of remorse that sometimes afflict the Kindred, and he Embraced her to prevent himself from taking her life.
To her surprise, Elizabeth was fascinated by the hidden world to which her sire introduced her. It was amazing: layer upon layer of intrigue and suspense, with ancient vendettas and fresh conspiracies arising each night. It was like being let in on a grand secret.
When she had finally learned enough of the Kindred’s ways to make it on her own (in her opinion), she bid her sire farewell, changed her name in order to “start over,” and left for New York, which she had heard was in the midst of a sectarian transition.
Since arriving in New York, Marlena (as Elizabeth renamed herself, in order to sever ties to her embarrassingly pedestrian past) has made the acquaintance of as many Kindred as she can. To her, Kindred society is a wellspring of potential, limited only by the ends to which one will go. Prince, primogen, rebel who knows? All of these are possible to a Lick with enough ambition.
And if there’s one thing Marlena’s learned since the Embrace, it’s that ambition is the Kindred’s stock in trade.
Character Description
The only thing preventing Marlena from being truly beautiful is the corneal infection that afflicted her right eye just before she became Kindred. Tonight, she covers that eye with a patch, but she sometimes goes without it if she’s feeling particularly belligerent. Embraced in her late 20s, Marlena had begun to show the world-weariness she felt, at it now remains with her for the entirety of her unlife. She has thick black hair that she wears in a short style that makes her athletic body look almost childlike. Marlena never wears makeup anymore, considering it a vanity in general and a hallmark of her own misspent past. Her clothing varies from the elegant to the functional, depending on what she needs to do that night she’s equally comfortable at a formal reception or an unruly rant.
Roleplaying Hints
You know you have what it takes to be a leader. Your difficulty just seems to be convincing other people of it. While the other Kindred accept you, many of them resent you because you’ve accomplished so much in such a short time. Becoming primogen isn’t outside the realm of possibility for you, and you’ve even considered the position of prince more than once. Beneath all the politics, however, you’re a realist, and you understand that few of the New York Kindred would want such a young prince. Instead of seizing power in this city, you know you have to convince others to let you have it. Limits exist to be tested, alliances to be strained and rules to be broken.