The Pillars of the Tower

Name: Carlak Clan: Brujah Embrace Date: 1730 Apparent Age: late twenties Position: Former Prince of Prague, missing since the war.

Background: Youngest son of a once-brilliant Bohemian noble, and former student of history and philosophy at Charles University, Carlak was shaped first by classrooms and then by Dmitra Ilyanova's blood, which carried him across Europe to witness his clan's greatness and misery firsthand. For decades he served as Archon and later Brujah Justicar, watching revolutions, councils, and utopias rot from within until they became indistinguishable from what they swore to destroy. When he returned to Prague, he came weary of speeches and blind loyalties: he found former Prince Vassily clinging to the throne through paranoia and pride, and ultimately sent him to torpor with his own hands before claiming the city through will and forced agreements with a wary Primogen.

In Prague, Carlak ruled as an enlightened, pragmatic despot, more interested in outcomes than appearances, convinced the right to command belongs only to those who can defend it night after night. Under his reign, certain habits became unwritten law: Primogen learned not to threaten unless willing to kill, Anarchs measured carefully which bridges they burned, and local Brujah learned to weigh words before raising their voices. His traces remain in the city: havens no one dares reclaim because they were his, contacts obeying nameless shadows, oaths spoken in his hall still honored though the throne stands empty. Since the Nights of White Ash, the former Prince vanished without trace. Some whisper he fled, others insist he was destroyed, yet many speak of whispered advice, orders carried through intermediaries, and movements too calculated to be chance. Like a hand still moving pieces from outside the board, Carlak's shadow seems one step ahead of those trying to replace him, and in Prague few doubt that if he returns, he will return to reclaim what he deems his by right and blood.

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Name: Henry Hudson III Clan: Brujah Embrace Date: 1861 Apparent Age: twenty-five years. Position: currently none.

Background: Embraced during the Civil War by the Scourge of Boston at the request of the city's Firstborn Brujah. During the war he participated in the administration and illegal forwarding of weapons to clan members in different parts of New England.

Between 1930 and 1950, he served a Ventrue in Hartford, Connecticut. He advised members of Clan Ventrue and other Kindred alike. After conflicts with Hartford's Ventrue, he spent several years in the courts of Paris and Spain, where he found Brujah with philosophies close to his own.

He sired a childe, Nannette, in France in 1980, and maintained a ghoul, Mathew, from his early years in Europe. In 2001, after hearing New York had been reclaimed by the Camarilla, he spent several months there before returning to Europe.

He has never seen himself as a monster, yet he knows the Beast within him well and tries to keep it in check whenever it pushes to surface. His temperament is closer to Ventrue or Toreador than to many of his own clan, and he has an innate ability to relate to Kindred of any lineage.

Quote: "While others plot, our clan will prevail. It is time we act together again, not like a gang of drifters without direction. Organized, we are one of the most powerful clans of the Camarilla."

Name: Elke Fassbinder Clan: Tremere Embrace Date: mid 16th century Apparent Age: no more than twenty Position: currently none

Background: She was born in Germany during the Renaissance. From an upper-bourgeois family, she was married at a very young age to a man more than thirty years her senior. She rebelled against that imposed fate by ending her husband's life through slow poisoning.

Before his death, she found a key among his belongings that opened a hidden entrance. It led to an underground laboratory and library, where she learned the man had been an alchemist. By studying letters and private notes, she found names and followed the trail to an occult society. That investigation sparked a lasting obsession, and she resolved to enter that circle at any cost.

That same society was being investigated by the one who would become her sire. Her relentless curiosity, disciplined mind, social skill, and willingness to do what was necessary to achieve an objective drew attention, traits not always common among members of her clan.

Quote: "Knowledge is a sweet poison: drink it in sips, or you will discover too late what it was that killed you."

Name: Klaus von St. Polten Clan: Ventrue Embrace Date: 1875 Apparent Age: certain conservative appearance, probably close to the sixties. Position: currently none.

Background: Decorated as one of the great generals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under Francis Joseph I, his military and civil life was influential and highly regarded. He often dominated the battlefield, and his understanding of cavalry deployment was rarely matched. Much of that legacy faded from mortal memory after his disappearance. Clan Ventrue selected him to strengthen its position near Vienna, though fate shattered the empire's future after World War I.

Since then, no longer essential to his clan, he has carved his own path. Anachronistic and never fully adapted to modern social customs, he sought a new war to commit to and joined the only one available, the Sect War. Known as a formidable student of the Sabbat, he has fought them ever since. His position in the Czech Republic consolidated years ago through strong influence that drew both Camarilla allies and enemies. Yet his failure and dark past in Vienna left many older Kindred wary of him, especially certain Tremere.

Quote: "The cavalry charges once; the weight of your decisions, every night. Choose well who you follow... and who you betray."

Name: Sofia Moretti Clan: Lasombra Antitribu Embrace Date: early 20th century Apparent Age: little more than twenty. Position: currently none.

Background: Embraced under Sabbat influence, then formally rejected by it almost from the beginning of her existence, her ethics developed along Camarilla lines. She is known as a skilled negotiator and politician, though traces of the Sword still surface in her methods when words are no longer enough.

After exploits and hard lessons across the world, and one final trip through Australia that decided her future, she settled in Milan, where she maintains a cordial relationship with the new Prince. She has now moved to Prague for reasons still unknown...

Only a matter of time.

Quote: "You have to go crazy and act: no one is going to forgive you for failing to do what is both your right and your duty."

Name: Lion Montreaux Clan: Tremere Embrace Date: late 19th century Apparent Age: probably close to forty. Position: Acting Regent.

Background: He was born in a suburb that would later become part of Bonn. Mute from birth, son of a priest and a prostitute, he was raised in an orphanage run by the Monks of Saint Michael. From adolescence, Kindred with interest in his fate watched him closely. Catholic to the core, Lion saw himself as an instrument granted by God to a world in need of redemption.

After disputes among those interested in his fate, Vienna did not receive him warmly. He was separated from his master upon arrival, made a ghoul, and put in service to local neonates as part of his training. Lion was educated in clan culture and thaumaturgy, and Vienna decided his voice would be restored just after his Embrace, so the Clan Oath became the first words he ever spoke.

After proving highly effective and sufficiently bound to Vienna, he was sent to Prague to handle problems involving ancients of the Oradea League. After the recent death of Conrad Jvarok, last regent of the Chapel of the Northern Cross, Lion's position was strengthened as a sole survivor of the Nights of White Ash, making him, for now, a necessary evil for the clan.

Quote: "This world doesn't need heroes. Come with me if you want me to prove it..."

Name: Marcus Konietzko Clan: Toreador Embrace Date: Second half of the 20th century Apparent Age: Mid-thirties Position: Member of the Camarilla, chess player, and chronicler of the fall of Prague.

Background: Before the Embrace, Marcus was an academic obsessed with game theory and military history, a man who saw patterns where others saw isolated events. His mortal nights passed between lecture halls, libraries, and chessboards, until someone of the Rose decided that a mind capable of reducing wars to discrete moves deserved to witness the Jyhad from within. Bewitched by the cold beauty of perfect strategy, Marcus accepted the Embrace as one accepts an invitation to an endless game.

Prague took hold of him at once. Under Toreador Prince Vassily, Marcus held discreet advisory posts, always halfway between chronicler and unofficial counselor. From Elysium's shadows, he watched the Camarilla dismiss the board's "gray pieces" - Giovanni, Ravnos, Setites - and confine them to the old Jewish ghetto, convinced they were controlled. Marcus was one of the few who saw the error: the Independents were not clumsy pawns, but sacrificed pieces waiting for their moment to change color.

Quote: "Jihad is not a war, it is a rigged game. If you're still alive it's because they haven't used you yet. as a pawn."

Name: Lubomír Král Clan: Nosferatu Embrace Date: 1910 Apparent Age: Mid-thirties, unrecognizable Position: Camarilla Intermediary with the Burrows of Prague

Background: Lubomir Kral was born in the late 19th century into a humble Jewish family in Prague's ghetto, a district where stories of rabbis, golems, and deformed princes were almost as common as daily news. From youth he showed a pathological memory for detail and a curiosity bordering on reckless: he crossed courtyards, synagogues, and back alleys searching for cracks, service tunnels, and forgotten doors, convinced the city kept a "second face" beneath tourist postcards.

That obsession turned him into a district guide: he knew shortcuts, shelters, and corners police seldom watched. This familiarity with Josefov's maze drew the attention of Josef Zvi, Nosferatu Prince of Prague since 1199, who had protected - and ruled - the ghetto from the shadows for centuries. Zvi saw in him more than a clever mortal: someone who loved the city enough to keep crossing it even deformed. The Embrace came around 1910, in a forgotten crypt beneath a side synagogue, equal parts reward and sentence. Lubomir awoke with a shattered face, and privileged access to the secrets he had always sought.

Quote: "I do not care who sits on the throne, only who knows which door he will use to escape."