Janus
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Author: Shannon Carl
Homepage: http://thevoivode.acsage.com/
System: World Of Darkness
Type: NPC
Category: Horror
Requirements:

Background:

Born low in Rome prior to the Punic Wars, Janus existed a thief until finally apprehended by the Roman Guard while attempting to break into the Royal Treasury. His sentence sent him to die in the gladiatorial ring… except he did not die. Janus rose to the challenge, and his gladiatorial career was marked with moderate success. Success caught the eye of a young Ventrue, who scooped up Janus, despite warnings from his sire, and ghouled the young gladiator. Janus lived as the ghoul of this Ventrue until the onset of the Punic Wars, when we became a Legionnaire sent to destroy Carthage.

Returning from the successful campaign, Janus manipulated his Ventrue patron to Embrace him as reward… then diablerized the poor Cainite in the throes of the Hunger. Knowing this act meant death, Janus prostrated himself and pleaded ignorance to his grandsire. His groveling succeeded in convincing the old Kindred to forgive the destruction of his childe, as well as accepting Janus as his own. On the eve of his Prestation, Janus attacked the Methuselah and diablerized him as well, then booked passage to Egypt.

The Betrayer spent several hundred years as the Prince of Thieves in Cairo, and his dealings with the Setites left him even wealthier than his thieving, despite their affect on his demeanor. Jaded and lulled, Janus was not prepared when his Setites “comrades” sold his whereabouts to several Roman Ventrue with revenge on their minds. With the might of the Roman Forum on his heels, Janus was forced to abandon his haven and holdings in Cairo and enter torpor under the Saharan sands, where he slept until close to 1000 AD.

Upon awakening, Janus immediately booked passage back to Europe, where he became the scourge of southern trade routes until around 1150 AD. Seeing the signs of the impending Inquisition, Janus fortified himself in a monastery in northern Italy as the Crusades came to an end. Dealing in money, spice, vice, and information, Janus used his connections to locate several of the Roman Kindred that now resided elsewhere in Italy. Having waited nearly a millennia for his revenge, Janus delivered the locations of these Kindred to the monks in his monastery, who diligently sent them to the Pope… who ordered the destruction of these “witches,” enemies of Janus from his years in Rome.

With his safety assured, Janus returned to torpor in 1438 AD. He awoke in 1750 to a new world on the brink of revolution, both political and industrial. Seeing opportunity in the New World, Janus booked passage to New York in 1762. Heading west, Janus thieved from all he could, using the near-completed French & Indian War and the subsequent Revolutionary War as cover for his illegal activities. This accidentally led to his becoming a hero as a reputed smuggler and saboteur against the British. Enjoying his new-found legitimacy, Janus decided to keep his illegal activities quieter, taking several low Camarilla positions over the course of the centuries throughout the eastern Camarilla cities.

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