Carlak
Usurper Prince of Prague

Background: In his mortal days, Carlak was the third son of a Bohemian count. Knowing he would never inherit the title, and with little interest in ecclesiastical life, he chose (against his father's will) to enter Charles University and study history, philosophy, and science. He would have been forced back to his father's lands if not for the intervention of Dmitra, a Ukrainian noblewoman who sponsored the university.

The woman saw potential in Carlak. She often invited him, along with other students, to her mansion to host meetings with foreign visitors and debate philosophy through the night. He usually returned to his apartment only after dawn had already brightened the horizon, though his enthusiasm never faltered. Those weekly gatherings sharpened his intellect and standing at the university, even as he fought the strange exhaustion that overtook him after each discussion.

Shortly after graduation, Dmitra invited him and his peers to a special celebration. The afternoon's high point, she said, would be a debate on the relativity of good and evil. She also announced that whoever argued their position most eloquently would be richly rewarded. They debated deep into the night with inspired ferocity, driven largely by Dmitra's relentless push to excel.

When the discussion ended, she declared Carlak the winner due to his razor wit, well-supported arguments, and apparent conviction in moral absolutism. His "reward" was the Embrace and his first meal: his own classmates.

In truth, Dmitra hoped the boy would prevail and had no particular plans for the others. After giving him time to "adjust" to his new state, she took him on a journey across Europe, introducing him to other ancient Brujah and indoctrinating him in their traditions. She taught him that from that moment on he had to think for himself: teachers, family, the Church, and the King no longer ruled him. He was to pay homage only to his intellect, his thirst for knowledge, and blood, now and forever. He also needed to satisfy Dmitra, who demanded that he sharpen his mind, broaden his experience, and know no limits. One night she took him to a Brujah gathering to debate the nature of God, and the next she taught him to hunt the Herd, bleeding them dry. He saw unlife as an adventure of epic proportions.

Over the next ten short years, Dmitra began spending time with other men, and the stretches she did not devote to Carlak, due to one relationship or another, ranged from a few nights to weeks to months. He spent several decades in Prague carving out his own path between his sire's infrequent visits.

He visited America during the 19th century, but found the Brujah there too careless and too illiterate for his taste. He returned a few years before the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Brujah Council, only to watch that body fall prey to the same pride as the tsars. He left, disgusted with his clan once again. During a brief stop in Prague, he received a letter from Dmitra inviting him to the Great Conclave, confessing that she had missed his conversation and wanted his company again. At the gathering, his sire was appointed Justicar and tasked with monitoring uprisings in Europe. She asked Carlak to serve as one of her archons.

She instructed him to observe the situation in the newly formed Soviet Union, specifically the Council's actions, since the Inner Circle feared its members might foolishly attempt to recreate Carthage and reveal themselves to mortals.

The Council was displeased by Carlak's return to Moscow given the circumstances of his last departure, yet even so he managed to find some among their ranks willing to speak with him. He followed those leads only to discover an organization divided by personal vendettas.

In 1946, Petrodon offered him a place among his archons, and the Brujah accepted. He spent the next two years in America, where he worked with the Nosferatu to bring the anarchists under the aegis of the Camarilla. He became an agent embedded among the rabble, burrowing his way into the confidence of a group of rebels. He learned everything he could, then reported to Petrodon on every planned attempt to break the Traditions, as well as breaches already carried out in some cases. His time in Russia served him well, and his role in the Revolution and the Council gave him a certain distinctive stamp.

In 1972, Petrodon recommended to the Inner Circle that Carlak be accepted as the next Brujah Justicar; Dmitra's withdrawal from office opened a rift between sire and childe that remains to this night.

He spent the next 26 years collaborating with Petrodon to cut down the anarch threat, but despite their efforts they made little progress.

In 1997, the Nosferatu asked for his help: he suspected the rebels were preparing a major strike against several domains of the sect. Carlak was traveling to America when his companion was murdered.

When the Inner Circle met in 1998, the Brujah yielded the matter. He returned to his old home to establish a permanent haven.

Vassily, Toreador Prince of Prague, harbored deep suspicions toward all agitators because of the repeated revolutions and uprisings of the past five centuries, and demanded that Carlak leave and never return, accusing him of coveting his position and, most likely, its destruction.

Carlak, still frustrated by the decision regarding Petrodon, flew into a rage and sent Vassily into torpor with his bare hands. Afterward he summoned the primogen to extract promises of support from them. Relations remained strained for a time because of the suddenness of that seizure of power, and they finally broke under the pressure of the events of the Nights of White Ash.

Before the war, Carlak's influence spread through Prague like a network of invisible lines: owed favors, debts sealed in blood, and pacts signed behind closed doors kept the city in a tense equilibrium. Some said he ruled like a merciless referee in a rigged game, cutting down the ambitions of fools and allowing only those capable of understanding the consequences of each move to prosper. For the local Brujah, he was at once an example and a warning: proof that the clan's fury could be channeled into iron laws rather than wasted violence.

After the Nights of White Ash, his absence did not erase his traces: many of the safe havens he had established remained sealed, inaccessible to those who did not know their codes, while old contacts in the mortal world kept moving documents, permits, and funds as though they were still awaiting instructions. There are agreements signed under his rule that still shape who may hunt in which district, which lineages may present themselves before the primogen, and which names must never be spoken in Prague's Elysia. To some newcomers, the city feels like a labyrinth designed by an absent architect, with every important door bearing the shadow of his signature.

Even so, not all of those dictates survive intact: some obey them out of habit or fear, while others violate them the moment they think no one is watching. Among the city's more conservative vampires, voices still remain that demand respect for the rules of Carlak's era, but each night they grow fewer, giving ground to ambitious neonates and ancillae weary of ruling beneath the shadow of a ghost.

Rumors about his fate contradict one another, yet all of them keep his presence alive: some claim to have received orders sealed with his old sigil, others swear an "anonymous patron" still pulls strings in local politics with the same cold, calculated style he displayed in life. Some compare him to an old machine buried beneath the city, its gears still turning slowly even though no one remembers who first set it in motion. If Carlak is still active, he does so as a hand tightening from behind the curtain; and if he is dead, Prague still has not learned how to stop obeying him.

Image: He is relatively short by 20th-century standards, standing barely a meter and a half tall, yet his lean frame radiates power and authority far beyond its size. He wears his blond hair long, tied back in a well-kept ponytail. He prefers impeccably cut clothing that recalls his mortal days while still appearing modern.

Interpretation Suggestions: You must show no sign of weakness that the primogen might exploit. You miss the lost Petrodon, who was a valuable teacher and companion. You tolerate neither insult nor threat to your position; a prince's right to rule lasts only as long as he has the power to defend it from challengers. In that sense, you proved yourself superior to the fool Vassily, and you take a distinctly anachronistic pleasure in being an enlightened modern despot.

Clan: Brujah
Faction: Clique
Sire: Dmitra Ilyanova
Nature: Competitor
Conduct: Director
Generation: 8th
Embrace: 1730
Apparent Age: late twenties

Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3
Social: Charisma 4, Manipulation 3, Appearance 3
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Cunning 5

Talents: Alertness 4, Athletics 2, Dodge 3, Style 2, Intimidation 4, Leadership 5, Brawl 3, Subterfuge 3.
Skills: Melee 4, Firearms 3, Drive 2, Debate 4, Etiquette 5, Perform 2, Stealth 3, Animal Ken 3.
Knowledge: Academics 4, Bureaucracy 3, Coterie Culture 4, Science 3, Investigation 5, Law 3, Linguistics 4, Occult 2, Politics 4.

Disciplines: Haste 3, Domination 3, Fortitude 2, Power 3, Presence 5.
Backgrounds: Contacts 5, Servants 2, Influence 4, Mentor 4, Position 4, Resources 5, Herd 3.
Virtues: Consciousness 2, Self-control 4, Courage 3.
Morality: Humanity 6
Mental Disorders: Paranoia.
Willpower: 7