Victoria Astley
Player Emma Watts
Character Victoria Astley
City Durham
Clan Mekhet
Covenant Carthian Movement
Age upon Embrace 25
Occupation/Position Businesswoman, Master of Elysium
Hometown London
Status within the City Level 1
Humanity 6

Note: None of the information on this Wiki is IC knowledge, unless you have known about it in either in-game conversations or through the PMs or forum posts. Obviously :p If you have any queries, contact me by PM on the boards.

Background (None of this is currently IC knowledge unless you have been explicitly been told by my character.)

Victoria was born in the east of England in 1875, and as a result was raised in a time of great industrial and socio-economic change within the United Kingdom. She was raised in an upper-middle class household, with her parents aiming to marry her off to some aristocrat to elevate their social standing, despite the increasing divisions between the middle-class, nouveau riche and the gentry. Victoria seemed resigned to take this role in life, however things changed in the year of 1899.

In the twilight years of Queen Victoria’s reign, Miss Astley found herself enjoying a life of the debutant, attending social gatherings and learning to debate and play games, in particular card games. This was to be something she would carry with her into unlife. She found herself striving to debate philosophical and politics with those around her, which was often snorted at because women were not allowed to dictate matters of politics, let alone vote. She seemed destined to be silenced forever, unable to reach out to the infant suffragette movement that cried out for equality for women.

One night, Victoria found herself escaping the confines of her family, who had decided to act as chaperones whilst scouting for a potential suitor for her. Managing a few moments of quiet in the manor house they’d been invited to, she found she was not alone. A woman sat in a chair, reading a book. Uncertain that she should remain, Victoria made to leave, but before she could get to the door, she found that the woman had somehow left her chair, made her way to the door, and stood blocking it…all in a heartbeat.

This should have shocked the impressionable girl, even frightened her. Yet she was enthralled by the woman, whose intellectual looks somehow contained an aura of compassion.

‘I’ve been watching you for a while. And though my Prince has not been asked, I need a worthy student…’

Those words were the last Victoria heard in her mortal life.

The next few nights were a blur of lessons and gradual understanding. The woman, her sire, was an Elizabeth Bennett, one of the Mekhet clan, and a member of the new Carthian Movement. Empowered by her transformation, and grateful to her mentor, Victoria soaked up knowledge and devoted herself to study throughout the reign of Edward VII. In 1914, the year of World War I’s breakout, she left for Italy with the release from her sire, who left for London to resume duties. She stayed in Italy throughout the war until the end of the second world war, during which she learned skills in business and began to see the birth of a capitalist age.

One thing that returned to Britain with her from Italy was the knowledge of Mob links. Victoria may have been an innocent as a mortal, yet the Embrace had unleashed an individual with a devious mind and a fire for progress and improvement. For her, the Embrace was a step towards an eternal quest for improvement. Upon her return to London, she immediately began to seek links into business and the underworld, seeking a mainly legitimate business to maintain links with the mortal world, but keeping an open mind for other business opportunities.

Her social flair had not declined with her Embrace, rather she used it to her advantage in dealing with businesses. Whilst she was not able to do daytime work, her links with mortals meant she could accomplish tasks 24 hours a day, and this was something she wished to exploit to acquire money and power.

She enjoyed working with mortals…she seemed to them to be a socially adept but not brainless businesswoman, who could charm whilst projecting a highly detailed plan of a business strategy. Whilst the mortal world frowned on women having high level roles at the time, she managed to cultivate success by exploiting weaknesses…most of them in the male executives. What made it even easier was her links with the black market, who initially thought of her as a moll…but didn’t make that mistake twice.

She spent the time between 1945 and 1970 in this fashion, doing business deals with legit and mafia firms alike. With the feminist wave, her business deals were easier. She moved from city to city, not staying too long in one place to avoid suspicion amongst mortals, learning more business tricks and essentially enjoying life.

Two other things built up during her early unlife to develop her into the current Kindred she is today. The first is most important, her philosophical and political outlook, which was taught to her by Bennett and remains with her as the burning flame which keeps her as a loyal Carthian. Victoria is devoted to the ideas of Confucius, who spoke on many matters. Specifically towards Kindred leadership,

Victoria and Elizabeth believe that Rén (Humanity) also has a political dimension. If the ruler lacks rén, Confucianism holds, it will be difficult if not impossible for his subjects to behave humanely. Rén is the basis of Confucian political theory: it presupposes an autocratic ruler, exhorted to refrain from acting inhumanely towards his subjects. An inhumane ruler runs the risk of losing the "Mandate of Heaven", the right to rule. A ruler lacking such a mandate need not be obeyed. But a ruler who reigns humanely and takes care of the people is to be obeyed strictly, for the benevolence of his dominion shows that he has been mandated by heaven. Confucius himself had little to say on the will of the people, but his leading follower Mencius did state on one occasion that the people's opinion on certain weighty matters should be considered.

As a result, Victoria doesn’t consider a non Carthian prince to be a bad one. If a Prince is able to hold Praxis and rule unopposed and effectively (either by wisdom, which is her preferred version, or by simply having noone challenge them) then they are divinely mandated and thus this is the will of God. This explains why her mentor Elizabeth was loyal to Gaius, and she herself is now not opposed to Beogart, as his successful Praxis claim is in her eyes divinely mandated. Despite the obvious negative connotations of having an Invictus region, she is undeterred in her approach to the North East.

The second detail is her social life. Victoria loves to play cards. If she’s ever bored, and this is quite rare because one should always make their own amusement, she will crack open a deck. One of her links to the mob is that she has played backroom games for some mob bosses and won a lot of money for them. They think she’s just lucky. They couldn’t be further from the truth.

Her mentor discovered Victoria’s potential for high wits and perception tasks when discussing matters of reaction times during her neonate years. Victoria seemed to be faster at reacting than even most Mehket, whom the skill of Celerity proved useful. As a result, Elizabeth began to train her in developing a supernatural skill of perceiving things. They started with card tricks, to encourage Victoria to see certain cards in a deck when it was shuffled at high speed. When Victoria had mastered this, Elizabeth tested her with games of Russian roulette. Though bullets didn’t do much damage, it would still hurt if she wasn’t able to detect which chamber the bullet was in. After quite a few holes in the head, Victoria was able to develop the devotion known as Quicken Sight, as her mentor had done before her, to increase her supernatural perception of things faster than normal speed.

Victoria’s reasoning for coming to the North East is a result of the Praxis seizure but also the knowledge that the Carthians in the NE are an absolute joke. Whilst she does not advocate taking power for the sake of power, she feels the Carthian Movement needs to be stabilised and taught about its roots, specifically because rumour has reached her of a neonate leading it. She isn’t particularly fond of the overly democratic route as true democracy is a pile of tripe, but she’d like to assist in helping them form as a cohesive group rather than a rabble of piss poor babies.

Appearance

  • Victoria is approximately 1.6 metres tall, slim build, and tends to be sitting quietly in a corner, observing new places before barging in like a bull in a china shop. Her Mekhet lineage has taught her wisdom and caution in dealing with new courts.

Lineage (Unless you have been told IC, this is NOT IC KNOWLEDGE.)

  • Victoria was sired in 1899 by Elizabeth Bennett, a Westminster Carthian. She has not seen her sire in some time, though still practices the Confucianist beliefs passed down to her.

Childer

  • Victoria has not said if she has sired anyone (OOC: I am open to someone playing a childe in the future however, would be a Carthian Mekhet with Confucianist or Buddhist beliefs.)

Recent Events

  • Victoria has just been awarded the position of Master of Elysium by Boss Ito, the new Prince of Durham.

Rumours

  • Victoria sided with the Crone when her Prefect Felicity was caught trying to summon Luther to the Shadow Empire.

Allies

Enemies

Fallen or Missing Allies and Enemies

Quotes By or About Victoria

Soundtrack

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