Unre

For centuries, the Harbingers of Skulls seethed in impotent rage, trapped beyond the wall of death. Only the nigrimancies of the Capuchin and Unre, each working from opposite sides of the Shroud, managed to open a portal that allowed the Harbingers to once again join the realm of the living. And what a joining it was.

Enraged by her bloodline’s containment beyond the Shroud, Unre had nearly two centuries in which to sink into madness. When she returned, it was as if every ounce of hate and spite the Underworld possessed was visited upon the lands of the living. She had watched the Camarilla stand by in the early nights as a rogue necromancer drained her grandsire of his precious vitae.

She had endured three centuries of persecution at the hands of that necromancer’s family. She had suffered a final, painful banishment to the realm of the dead and the collapse of the bloodline she once held dear. But Unre was not one to wallow in the tragedies of the past.

Subsisting on the only vitae she could find in the Shadowlands — that of her fellow trapped Cainites — Unre learned the potent abilities of death-magic. So prodigious were her abilities that she was able to contact her sire across the veil of death and inform him of the plight of his childer.

At first, Japheth resisted, claiming that the events to which Fate had led the Brood of Ashur should not be reversed. As he dealt more and more with the Giovanni family, however, a great chancre grew in his soul and he began to see that their prominence was a debt the necromancers owed him.

Striking a tenuous agreement with Unre, Japheth agreed to help her perform the ritual that would free them from their unholy entrapment, but only if she agreed to play out the hand he had set. Unre agreed reluctantly, with the fervid hatred burning in her undead veins, and the Harbingers returned.

Since that time, Japheth (among his many guises) has influenced the bloodline to join the Sabbat — an unpopular decision among the 25 or so remaining Harbingers. To that end, however, they have led the Sword of Caine into believing that they wield immense power, and they have accumulated much clout within the sect.

minor influence in the Society of Leopold as a weapon against those vampires to whom he takes a dislike — with the Inquisition’s blessing. Indeed, Jayne wonders if the Society would even mind the fact that he is a vampire, as he is one of their greatest tools in destroying so many others of the Damned.

Jayne’s latest album, The Soul Menagerie, explores the themes of excess and the media, and several of the songs make blatant references to vampires and the society of the undead.

Needless to say, this cavalier openness has almost assured him a place on the Camarilla’s Red List, but the glam treatment of the new album leaves listeners knowing that the “vampire” angle is simply the star’s depiction of the music industry and press. Not that Jayne would care either way — he’s in this for the thrill.

That being the case, much of Jayne’s unlife consists of touring, doing the radio circuits (usually by phone), imbibing drug-laced blood, acting promiscuously (“for appearance’s sake”) and generally scaring the hell out of people he meets face-to-face.

Many young vampires from the Camarilla and Sabbat alike even consider themselves fans of Jayne’s music, seeing rebellion in it — however empty — against the established pillars of vampire society. Exactly how long the star will be able to balance on the razor’s edge between his vampiric condition, the perils of celebrity and the torches of the Inquisition remains to be seen.