Kanbujian leader of the Heaven Promise Society
Background
Ever feel like you paid full price for the last ten minutes of the movie? That pretty much sums up Billy Wei’s entrance into San Francisco’s nights. Billy lived his entire life, all twenty-odd summers of it, in the Bay Area.
He went to Berkeley and earned a degree in Creative Writing; he became a full-time freelance writer, achieving some measure of success while publishing his first novel, titled Life on the Golden Mountain. The novel was a major success, hitting the New York Times bestseller list and allowing Billy an apartment not far from Chinatown with the royalties and the option for a film.
Unfortunately, success didn’t sit well with Billy Wei. He hit a creative slump working on ideas for his next book, feeling the pressure to match his first success. He looked for “inspiration” at the bottom of a shot glass or in handfuls of pills, and he walked the streets late at night in that oh-so-typical writer’s malaise.
He grew increasingly depressed, alienating friends with his attitude and temperamental outbursts. Eventually, while out late one night at a club in SoMa, Billy met up with an anarch passing through San Francisco after barely escaping Los Angeles. The hungry vampire drank Billy Wei dry and left him dying in an alley.
Billy Wei didn’t realize his respect for his cultural heritage had deeper implications. Yomi drew his soul down, where he ran through the streets of the Wicked City, devils at his heels. He tried denying any of it was real at first, but the pain that Yomi’s denizens inflicted and felt was all too lucid.
Overcome with all that he’d lost, Billy fought back and out of the Wicked City, finding his way back into his body. To him it seemed like weeks had passed, but he took the Second Breath in the alley the same night. Billy Wei’s first victim was another late-night club-goer who satisfied the burning hunger within him.
The shock of that terrible act, so similar to his own death, brought Billy into direct confrontation with his P’ o soul. He overcame the Demon by sheer will and fled back home to his apartment. He slept through the day and rose again at night, hoping it had all been a horrible nightmare but realizing it was all true.
That night he wrote again, and he alternated his nights between writing and exploring his newfound nature. He hunted to slake his thirst for Chi, though he was careful not to kill anyone or be seen. Still, it didn’t take long for word of his attacks to circulate.
Fortunately for Billy, events in San Francisco snowballed fast and neither the Camarilla nor the New Promise Mandarinate had much time to investigate what might be a single rogue vampire. Instead, Billy received a visit from Yulan-Tao, a Yulan-jin dwelling in San Francisco for some years. They talked for some time; Billy learned what he was and about vampire society.
He quickly decided he wanted nothing to do with either faction and he wanted to offer others that alternative as well. Together, Yulan-Tao and he conceived of the Heaven Promise Society, a kind of “support group” for vampires, both Kuei-jin and Kindred. Here they can offer each other mutual aid and avoid the political entanglements of the various sects.
Thus far, it attracts only a few kànbujiàn and Caitiff vampires and remains small enough that San Francisco’s nocturnal powers overlook it. The only outsiders really aware of the society are the dragon wizard Li T’ien (who silently approves) and Chan Te, the akuma master of the Hollow City wu who would like to recruit Heaven Promise’s vampires.
Still, it’s likely only a matter of time before the New Promise Mandarinate or the Camarilla discovers the group’s existence, at which point they’ ll likely try and turn it into a tool for their own purposes.
Their first big clue is likely to be Billy Wei’s new novel, Heaven’s Promise Forsaken, based on his experiences and marketed as fiction but containing some telling information about both the Kuei-jin and the Kindred. Mortals will dismiss it as somewhat lurid horror fiction, while vampires will either perceive a threat to their secrecy or a potential guru for those seeking enlightenment.
The view that eventually predominates may determine Billy Wei’s fate.
Character Description
Wei is a Chinese-American of average height and build, with a broad moon face and an easy smile when he’ s in a good mood. He cuts his dark hair short and wears narrow glasses with black plastic frames. He prefers dressing for comfort in chinos or cargo pants with polo shirts or sweatshirts, and he usually carries a cell phone. He also purchased a gun for protection shortly after encountering Yulan-Tao, though he doesn’t carry it unless he’s expecting trouble (he usually keeps it in his bedside table at home). Roleplaying Notes: While you can’t say you like being a vampire, it opens your eyes and forces you to see the world in a whole different way. This has its benefits. You’ re more than a little freaked by it all sometimes, but you give it a lot of thought. If you have eternity, you’d rather dedicate yourself to improving the lot of people like SAN FRANCISCO BY NIGHT 98 you (and, yes, you still consider yourself a “person” and not some “thing”). Vampires can exist without killing people and without involving themselves in every little power-struggle. You just hope they’ll leave you alone to pursue your work.