Nothing is True. Everything is Connected.
Tag: <span>Inspiration Block</span>

Tag: Inspiration Block

Character Introduction / Ehre/Weisheit Kin Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Wilhelm Grimm

Ehre/Weisheit: Head of Security

 

Wilhelm and Jacob were born exactly 2 years apart. Jacob still hates that he was the youngest. Their father ran a pub in the village, and their mother worked the bar. They grew up hearing tales of adventure and far distant lands.

They always knew when ‘Hansel and Gretel’ came through (Dilios Note: Later they discovered it was Wilhelm and Tamara), so it was a shock to see them come with two others. Especially one that looked like Wilhelm.

Wilhelm always good with dealing with the drunks and Jacob good with the gossip around town; they always provided good information.

Curious that the new guy had to be a family member, he followed them, ending up in the middle of a Rogue nest. Surprisingly Wilhelm and Jacob held their own in the fight, and it was only to the end that Wilhelm was badly injured.

As he died he found his look alike was a Vampire! He was pissed he would die not hearing the greatest story ….

 # #
Character Introduction / Medjai Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Tus

Medjai: Member

Tus was the oldest son of the Sharaman.  He had always been jealous of the kid, his father had picked up.  Dastan was able to focus on what he wanted to, hide from the politics and courts, while Tus who wanted to just be a scholar was forced into the role of heir.

After the attack again Alamut, his father disapproved of their taking the city, despite the fact he had taken the advice from their uncle Nizam.  He was happy he wouldn’t be stuck marrying the Tamina the princess, but felt as if he wasn’t being treated fairly.  After his father’s death and blame put on Dastan, everything was off.  Nothing made sense, and he his uncle’s behavior wasn’t sitting well with him.

When he brother came back, claiming his innocents, telling him about the Dagger of Time, then proceeded to prove how it worked by stabbing himself.   Tus believes him, and the two know they have to confront Nazim, only for the Hassassin to attack, giving Nazim time to kill Tus.

He doesn’t remember much afterwards, just that a man with bright eyes asked him if he wanted to stay with his brother.   He never regretted saying yes, well most days he didn’t.

 # #
Camelot Clan / Character Introduction1

Sylum Inspiration: William Marshal

Camelot: Member

 

William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, also called William the Marshal (Norman French: Williame li Mareschal,  French: Guillaume le Maréchal), was an Anglo-Norman soldier and statesman. He served five English kings—Henry II, his sons the “Young King” Henry, Richard I, and John, and finally John’s son Henry III.

Knighted in 1166, he spent his younger years as a knight errant and a successful tournament competitor; Stephen Langton eulogized him as the “best knight that ever lived.” In 1189, he became the de facto earl of Pembroke through his marriage to Isabel de Clare whose Mother was Aoife MacMurrough and father was Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, though the title of earl was not officially granted until 1199 during the second creation of the Pembroke earldom. In 1216, he was appointed protector for the nine-year-old Henry III, and regent of the kingdom.

Before him, his father’s family held a hereditary title of Marshal to the king, which by his father’s time had become recognized as a chief or master Marshalcy, involving management over other Marshals and functionaries. William became known as “the Marshal”, although by his time much of the function was delegated to more specialized representatives (as happened with other functions in the King’s household). Because he was an earl, and also known as the marshal, the term “earl marshal” was commonly used and this later became an established hereditary title in the English peerage.

For More Information: Vampire Council Library

 # #
Character Introduction / Medjai Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Beatriz de Navarrete

Medjai: Hunter

Beatriz was the middle daughter of a noble family in Barcelona, Spain.   She was more interested in horses, learning how to sword fight, running around the country side, then finding a husband.

When her family found her husband, she denounced her heritage and fled.

It was luck that she had heard rumors of those who would help people in need flee the area, and with the few coins she had left was able to book passage.

The moment she met Sayyid she knew the decision to leave was the right one.

 # #
Character Introduction / Medjai Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Sayyid al-Abbas

Medjai: Hunter

 

These were some of the characters that were introduced in stories from Advent.

 

Sayyid was raised in Morocco, whose family had been Chosen Ones for the Medjai and Integridad.   His family was influential in helping Jews and Moors flee persecution out of Spain.

In one of the raids into Spain, he was mortally wounded.  Only for his family to seek out help from Azeem asking him to save their only son.

Sayyid accepted the blessing, and knew Allah had a reason for him to live.

 # #
Character Introduction / Integridad Kin Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Constanza Ramos

Integridad: Member

(Note: Here are some of the characters mentioned in stories during Advent!)

 

Constanza was the only child, and loved dearly by her parents.  She lost her mother to illness when she was a young child, her father though devastated from the loss of his wife, made sure his girl was loved and raised well.

He encouraged her to try new things, let her be what she wanted to be.

Constanza loved the outdoors, testing her limits, and soon found her running parkour around the city.

She met Ysabel one of her more trickier runs, that ended up bring the police into the situation.   The two ended up becoming friends, and it upset her greatly when Ysabel disappeared for a few years.   During that time she lost her father, and with the money he left, she was able to open her own Parkour School.

Her life changed when Ysabel came back into her life.

 # #
Character Introduction / Sanguen Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Hippocrates

Sanguen Vitae: Doctor

 

Hippocrates was born around the year 460 BC.

Soranus of Ephesus, a 2nd-century Greek gynecologist, was Hippocrates’ first biographer and is the source of most personal information about him. Later biographies are in the Suda of the 10th century AD, and in the works of John Tzetzes, which date from the 12th century AD. Hippocrates is mentioned in passing in the writings of two contemporaries: Plato, in “Protagoras” and “Phaedrus”, and, Aristotle’s “Politics”, which date from the 4th century BC Soranus wrote that Hippocrates’ father was Heraclides, a physician, and his mother was Praxitela, daughter of Tizane. The two sons of Hippocrates, Thessalus and Draco, and his son-in-law, Polybus, were his students. According to Galen, a later physician, Polybus was Hippocrates’ true successor, while Thessalus and Draco each had a son named Hippocrates.

Soranus said that Hippocrates learned medicine from his father and grandfather, and studied other subjects with Democritus and Gorgias. Hippocrates was probably trained at the asklepieion of Kos, and took lessons from the Thracian physician Herodicus of Selymbria. Plato mentions Hippocrates in two of his dialogues: in Protagoras, Plato describes Hippocrates as “Hippocrates of Kos, the Asclepiad”; while in Phaedrus, Plato suggests that “Hippocrates the Asclepiad” thought that a complete knowledge of the nature of the body was necessary for medicine. Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine throughout his life, traveling at least as far as Thessaly, Thrace, and the Sea of Marmara. Several different accounts of his death exist. He died, probably in Larissa, at the age of 83, 85 or 90, though some say he lived to be well over 100.

Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition and gods. Hippocrates was credited by the disciples of Pythagoras of allying philosophy and medicine. He separated the discipline of medicine from religion, believing and arguing that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the gods but rather the product of environmental factors, diet, and living habits. Indeed there is not a single mention of a mystical illness in the entirety of the Hippocratic Corpus. However, Hippocrates did work with many convictions that were based on what is now known to be incorrect anatomy and physiology, such as Humorism.

Ancient Greek schools of medicine were split (into the Knidian and Koan) on how to deal with disease. The Knidian school of medicine focused on diagnosis. Medicine at the time of Hippocrates knew almost nothing of human anatomy and physiology because of the Greek taboo forbidding the dissection of humans. The Knidian school consequently failed to distinguish when one disease caused many possible series of symptoms. The Hippocratic school or Koan school achieved greater success by applying general diagnoses and passive treatments. Its focus was on patient care and prognosis, not diagnosis. It could effectively treat diseases and allowed for a great development in clinical practice.

Hippocratic medicine and its philosophy are far removed from that of modern medicine. Now, the physician focuses on specific diagnosis and specialized treatment, both of which were espoused by the Knidian school. This shift in medical thought since Hippocrates’ day has caused serious criticism over the past two millennia, with the passivity of Hippocratic treatment being the subject of particularly strong denunciations; for example, the French doctor M. S. Houdart called the Hippocratic treatment a “meditation upon death”.

For More Information Contact the Vampire Council Library

His research caught the attention Immutef, who traveled to Greece to visit him. Liking the man’s ideas and philosophies, he told him about Vampires. Hippocrates agreed instantly to be Turned.

 # #
Character Introduction0

Sylum Inspiration: Immutef

Medjai: Doctor

 

Imhotep also spelled Immutef, Im-hotep, or Ii-em-Hotep meaning “the one who comes in peace, is with peace”) was an Egyptian polymath who served under the Third Dynasty king Djoser as chancellor to the pharaoh and high priest of the sun god Ra (or Re) at Heliopolis. He is considered by some to be the earliest known architect and engineer and physician in early history, though two other physicians, Hesy-Ra and Merit-Ptah, lived around the same time.

Imhotep was one of the chief officials of the Pharaoh Djoser. Egyptologists ascribe to him the design of the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt in 2630 – 2611 BC. He may have been responsible for the first known use of columns to support a building. As an instigator of Egyptian culture, Imhotep’s idealized image lasted well into the Ptolemaic period. The Egyptian historian Manetho credited him with inventing the method of a stone-dressed building during Djoser’s reign, though he was not the first to actually build with stone. Stone walling, flooring, lintels, and jambs had appeared sporadically during the Archaic Period, though it is true that a building of the Step Pyramid’s size and made entirely out of stone had never before been constructed. Before Djoser, pharaohs were buried in mastaba tombs.

According to the encyclopedia Britannica, “The evidence afforded by Egyptian and Greek texts support the view that Imhotep’s reputation was very respected in early times … His prestige increased with the lapse of centuries and his temples in Greek times were the centers of medical teachings.”

It is Imhotep, says Sir William Osler, who was the real “Father of Medicine”, “the first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity.”

For More Information Contact the Vampire Council Library

Immutef or Imhotep depending on the mood, was well known in the Medjai as a healer. When Ardeth approached him about being Turned, he accepted it, finding true immortality where he could continue studying medicine.

 # #
Character Introduction / Tallikut Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: John Carter

Tallikut: Doctor

 

John Carter came from a wealthy family, never had to work a day in his life, and was content to live in his Chicago family home and attend social parties.

All that changed when his cousin died in his arms, from a drug overdose.

He decided to go to school, become a doctor and help people. His family was inspired by his new lease in life, but were dismayed when he started to work in city clinics and not private institutions.

When he joined the Army in World War One as a medic, his father had considered disowning him, but when returned a hero, his family showed him off in society.  They were disappointed again when he didn’t take a job at a prestige’s clinic.

He met Jessica Fletcher while working at the clinic, and they quickly became friends. He spent many hours with her and Amos, enjoying a simple family life. The day he called her mom without thought – he paused and looked at her, seeing a different time and different life.

She told him the truth about who she was, and whose soul he carried.

He came to her later and asked to be Turned, knowing how much good he could do over the next decades as medical science advanced.

 # #
Character Introduction / Lealta Kin Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Eowyn

Lealta: Doctor

 

Éowyn was a daughter of the House of Eorl and the niece of Chieftain Theoden; the daughter of Theodwyn (sister to Theoden) and Eomund, and the twin sister of Éomer. When she was only seven years old,when her father was killed in battle and her mother died of grief.

Éowyn and Éomer were raised in her uncle’s household as if they were his own children.

Morgana sent her spies to Theoden’s court, the most famous of them only known as Wormtongue, who tried to persuade Theoden not to send his famed Horsemen to Arthur’s aid. Éowyn exposed his lies and accused of him of inappropriate behavior. Éomer threw him off the castle battlements, killing him instantly.

When Chieftain Theoden discovered the deception, he sent the famed Riders of Rohan under the leadership of his nephew Éomer, to help Arthur Pendragon in his struggle with Mordred. Not be left behind, Éowyn disguised herself as a soldier and rode with her brother into the fight at the Battle of Camlann.

During the battle, she killed Morgana for crimes against her family. When Mordred saw his mother’s death he attacked Éowyn, only to be slain by Éomer in defense of his sister.

After the battle and the subsequent ‘Death of Arthur’, Éomer encourages Éowyn to go to the Queen’s side, to help her with the loss of the King, only to discover Severus attending Arthur’s wound. She was taken into Guinevere’s confidence and becomes one of her trusted servants.

A year later, she was Turned on the same day as her brother.

 # #
Character Introduction / Sylum Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Timothy Quinn

Advisor: Sylum

 

Born Timothy Quinn in 1312 AD, near Donegal, Eire, the youngest son of Callum and Lavena Quinn.

His two older brothers, Gregory and Aaron, followed their father into a living on the land and developing their farm. His older sister Lorain was betrothed to Fearghus O’Niel, eldest son of a neighboring family.

At a young age his curiosity and inquisitive nature got the best of him when he stole the local Priest’s Bible trying to understand what was being said in the pages. The Priest taught him to read, a rarity for someone of his social class during that time, and with a thirst for knowledge he learned quickly from local wisdoms, soon becoming the clan’s Healer.

At the age of sixteen, British soldiers attacked outlying farms near Donegal, killing Timothy’s entire family. Lord Sean, the Clan’s Leader took him into the O’Gairmledaig family, and for the next few years Timothy helped with the household, and repaid their kindness by teaching Lord Sean’s children, Aden and Collin, to read and write.

Timothy and Eleina – wife to Lord Sean – were attacked while traveling to another Clan. The subsequent chase caused her to go into early labor. The baby was born safely but at the cost of his mother’s life. Before her death, she named the child Quinn to make sure he had a strong start in life.

Six years later, Timothy found his place in the family when he became Sean’s lover. Tragically, Timothy and his Lord only had six months together before the O’Gairmledaig Clan was destroyed by a rival. Timothy escaped with Quinn, fleeing to Lord Caine’s Castle near Derry. The young Quinn was taken in, to be raised as a Caine.

Timothy rode away, prepared to die from the wounds he had sustained, and grief stricken at Lord Sean’s death, only to then be offered a new life by Nick Maoilriain.

 # #
Character Introduction / Lealta Kin Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Leonardo

Lealta: Advisor

 

Leonardo was youngest son of a small Patrician family. He was educated by the finest tutors, and had shown his gift in art and mathematics. His father encouraged his inventions and artistic endeavors.

He was apprenticed to an architect who worked for Caesar to build new buildings for the glory of Rome. He watched in horror as many of them burned in 64 AD. In the following years he started to work on rebuilding areas that were destroyed.

It wasn’t until he started working on the Colosseum that he felt for once he was helping something grand for Rome.

He met Archimedes during this time, who had come to see the new constructions. The two became friends easily, though Leonardo’s frantic work and inability to rest had the older Greek worried. When he found Leonardo collapsed on his workshop floor, he nursed him back to health then gave him an option to be Turned.

 # #
Character Introduction / сила Kin Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Jack Ryan

сила: Advisor

 

Jack is the son of Emmet William Ryan, a Baltimore Police Department homicide lieutenant, and World War II veteran. The elder Ryan had served with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division at the Battle of the Bulge. His mother, Catherine Burke Ryan, was a nurse.

After graduating from Loyola Blakefield prep school in Towson, Maryland, Ryan attended Boston College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a strong minor in history and a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps via NROTC. While waiting for the Corps to assign him, he passed the Certified Public Accountant exam.

After officer training at Marine Corps Base Quantico, he went on to serve as a platoon commander. However, his military career was cut short at the age of 23 when his platoon’s helicopter, a CH-46 Sea Knight, crashed during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercise over the Greek island of Crete. The crash badly injured Ryan’s back. U.S. Navy surgeons, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, inadequately repaired his back. This led to a lengthy recovery process, complete with a permanent disability and wearing a back brace, he left the Marines. He passed his stockbroker’s exam and took a position with Wall Street investment firm Merrill Lynch’s Baltimore office.

His parents died in a plane crash at Chicago Midway International Airport, 19 months after his crash in Crete. He developed a fear of flying that persisted for years.

While managing clients’ portfolios, he began to invest his own money, banking on a tip he had received from an uncle about the workers’ takeover of the Chicago and North Western Railway, making approximately $6 million off his $100,000 initial investment. He did so well that one of Merrill Lynch’s senior vice presidents, Joe Muller, came to Baltimore to have dinner with him, with the objective of inviting him to the firm’s New York City headquarters. Also present is Muller’s daughter Caroline, nicknamed Cathy, then a senior medical student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. They immediately fall in love and get engaged. One night, while having dinner with his fiancé, Ryan throws out his back. Cathy takes him directly to Doctor Stanley Rabinowitz, professor of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, to be evaluated. Rabinowitz later operates on Ryan’s back and cures his chronic pain in relatively short order. Ryan subsequently persuades the government to terminate his disability checks. Cathy later becomes an ophthalmic surgeon at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Professor of Surgery at Johns Hopkins.

After creating a net worth of $8 million, Ryan left the firm after four years and enrolled at Georgetown University for doctorate courses in history. He does a brief stint at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, then accepts a position at the U.S. Naval Academy as a civilian professor of history.

Following a recommendation from Father Tim O’Riley, a Jesuit priest and Georgetown University professor, to a Central Intelligence Agency contact, Ryan is asked to work as a consultant for the Agency, although officially employed by MITRE Corporation. He agrees and spends several months at Langley, Virginia, where he writes a paper entitled “Agents and Agencies”, in which he maintains that state-sponsored terrorism is an act of war. He also invents the canary trap, a method for exposing an information leak, which involves giving different versions of a sensitive document to each of a group of suspects and seeing which version is leaked. By ensuring that each copy of the document differs slightly in its wording, if any copy is leaked then it’s possible to determine the informant’s identity.

These accomplishments come to the attention of U.S. Navy Vice Admiral James Greer, the CIA’s Deputy Director for Intelligence. The expertise of Ryan’s report, plus the application, persuades Greer to offer him a permanent job in the CIA, but Ryan declines. They soon convince him to join and his first assignment is to London as a member of a liaison group to the British Secret Intelligence Service.

It’s there he gets the information about the Red October and realizes that the captain is going to defect. He works himself onto the ship.

Little did he know how much his life would change.

While dealing with a Soviet Intelligent Agent on board, Jack is shot in the back. He laughed and cursed as he lay dying in a Russian submarine. Only to be offered another opportunity.

 # #
Character Introduction / Knight Clan0

Sylum Inspiration: Carl Elias

Knight: Advisor

 

Carl Elias had a rough childhood.

His mother was murdered when he was eight years old, stabbed to death in their own home.  It was ordered by his father Mob Boss Don Gianni Moretti.

Elias was sent to a boy’s home where he met Anthony Marconi, the two became instant friends.  And as time went on partners, and then lovers.

Carl never forgot his mother, and even though he had gone straight he plotted.  It wasn’t until his number came up, and he ended up saved by John Reese, that his true identity and plans were revealed.

Carl was determined to destroy the Russian Mob and take back Brighton Beach as his own territory.  Over the next year, he kept running into John Reese.  He grew to admire the man, and his own persistence to help those in need.

He knew something was different when he watched Reese jump an impossible distance between buildings to get to Harold Finch, who was being held by a small criminal organization Elias wanted destroyed.  He knew if they touched Finch, Reese would finish them.

Elias was determined to figure out how Reese made that jump.  Anthony brought him the information about Vampires, and in time he was introduced to Lucien La Croix.

The only Vampire Clan that didn’t mind his side business.

He requested to be Turned.

 # #
Character Introduction / Sanctuary Clan1

Sylum Inspiration: Dean Devlin

Sanctuary: Hunter

 

Born Dean Devlin in 1961 AD, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the product of an affair between Siobhan Devlin and Henry Caine while she was married to William Devlin.

William, never accepting the bastard child, took his anger and frustrations out on the boy he never wanted, until Dean was old enough to start hitting back.

At age 18 Dean, choosing to be known as Dino, left home and joined the US Army. While in bootcamp, he met William Tecumseh Sherman who later recommended him for more specific additional training, his profile indicating he would be good in Special Ops. Consequently, Dino soon found himself moving up the ranks as part of Delta Force.

While on an operation in the Congo he ran into an Australian Army unit, and through what became the mother of all the FUBAR operations, he developed a close friendship with Terry Thorne.

Years later, both men chose to leave the military life behind and built their own K&R (Kidnap and Rescue) organization in London following strategic errors at the hands of private organizations with little or no understanding of operational needs on the ground.

When Terry went missing on a purely social visit to old friends in Brazil, Dino left the warm bed of his latest girlfriend in London, and went into the South American jungle searching for him – finding way more than he expected.

 # #