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Tag: <span>Sanguen Vitae Clan</span>

Sylum INspiraiton: Gorgo

Sanguen: Council Member

Note: You might notice a change in how the bios look on the wiki.  We haven’t quite figured out what exactly happened, but when they updated wordpress, the tabs got screwed up and stopped working.  So we changed themes … will it worked slightly.  Tabs now only work on Pages, not Post.  Considering all our bios used tabs this is a problem.

The plugin we used for tabs hasn’t been updated in over a year, and come to find out webpage no longer exsists – so yeah we had to come up with something new.  None of the other programs worked the way we needed so we decided to showcase the bio differently.

As there are over a 1000 characters this is a slow process.  When we do Sylum Inspirations – the bios will get updated.  Meantime we’re first working through bios that already have new images – starting with Border and working our way forward.  When we uploaded a new image, we’ll update the bio.  The info is still there just doesn’t look as clean, as the new updates.


Gorgo was the daughter and the only known child of Cleomenes I, King of Sparta (r. 520–490 BC) during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. She was the wife of King Leonidas I, Cleomenes’ half-brother, who fought and died in the Battle of Thermopylae. Gorgo is noted as one of the few female historical figures actually named by Herodotus, and was known for her political judgement and wisdom. She is notable for being the daughter of a King of Sparta, the wife of another king of Sparta, and the mother of a third king of Sparta.

Her father Cleomenes was the eldest-born son of the previous Agiad king, Anaxandridas II, and succeeded his father at his death; however, he had three paternal half-brothers, of whom the second, Dorieus, would cause him some trouble. The other two half-brothers were Leonidas I and Cleombrotus. All four were sons of Anaxandridas II, one of the dual kings of Sparta of the Agiad house.

According to one version, Gorgo’s grandfather Anaxandridas II was long married without children, and was advised to remarry (i.e. take a second wife) which he did. His second wife gave birth to the future Cleomenes I who was thus his eldest son; however, his first wife subsequently became pregnant, and eventually gave birth to three sons, including Leonidas I. This version is however not supported by other sources, which imply that Cleomenes was either born by the king’s first marriage or by a non-marital alliance. In either case, there appears to have been some tension between the eldest son and his half-brothers, resolved only by the former’s death (or murder) and the accession of Leonidas I (at once his half-brother and his son-in-law).

Gorgo’s mother is unknown, but she was certainly Spartan since she was Leonidas’ Queen. Little about Gorgo’s childhood is known, although she was probably raised like other Spartan girls of noble family, well fed, encouraged in daily physical exercise, and educated, including literacy and numeracy. She would have learned to ride and drive chariots and have taken part in Sparta’s many festivals, dancing and singing in chorus.

According to Herodotus’s Histories, at about the age of eight to nine years old, she advised her father Cleomenes not to trust Aristagoras of Miletus, a foreign diplomat trying to induce Cleomenes to support an Ionian revolt against Persians. “Father, you had better have this man go away, or the stranger will corrupt you.” Cleomenes followed her advice. Scholars have suggested, however, that Herodotus intentionally reduced Gorgo’s age at the time of this incident to make her father look particularly foolish. More likely, Herodotus underestimated her age simply because in other Greek cities girls were married at age 12 or 13 and so rarely in their father’s household as teenagers or adults. It is more probable, that Gorgo was closer to 18 or 19 at the time of this incident.
Presumably, after Cleomenes’s death, his only surviving child Gorgo became his sole heiress. She was apparently already married by 490 (in her early teens) to her half-uncle Leonidas I.  Leonidas and Gorgo would have at least one child, a son, Pleistarchus, co-King of Sparta from 480 BC to his death in 459 BC/458 BC.

Arguably, Gorgo’s most significant role occurred prior to the Persian invasion of 480 BC. According to Herodotus’s Histories, Demaratus, then in exile at the Persian court, sent a warning to Sparta about Xerxes’s pending invasion. In order to prevent the message from being intercepted by the Persians or their vassal states, the message was written on a wooden tablet and then covered with wax. “The Spartans”, presumably the ephors, Gerousia or the kings, did not know what to do with the seemingly blank wax-tablet, until Queen Gorgo advised them to clear the wax off the tablet. She is described by David Kahn in his book The Codebreakers as one of the first female cryptanalysts whose name has been recorded.

There are also indications that Gorgo travelled outside of Sparta, specifically to Athens. Virtually all of Leonidas’ reign was dominated by his efforts to form a coalition of Greek states willing to resist the impending Persian invasion. This entailed close coordination with the other main opponent of Persia, Athens. It is likely, therefore, that Leonidas travelled to Athens more than once. That Gorgo accompanied can be inferred from two quotes attributed to her by Plutarch. First, he records that “a stranger in a finely embroidered robe” made advances to Gorgo earning the rebuke that “he couldn’t even play a female role”. While a stranger might have been in Sparta, it is not very likely that he would risk making advances to a Spartan Queen in the midst of her highly armed and notoriously proud subjects. More to the point, however, Gorgo could only make a reference to the theater (playing a female role), if she had experienced it. Sparta is not believed to have had theater at this time, whereas it was already very popular in Athens. Even more explicit is the fact that Gorgo’s most famous quip about only Spartan women giving birth to men was, according to Plutarch, made in answer to “a woman from Attica”. Since women from Attica were not supposed to leave the women’s quarters of their own homes, it is inconceivable that a woman from Attica would have travelled to Sparta. Spartan women, on the other hand, drove chariots and travelled around Lacedaemon on their own, making it perfectly plausible that Gorgo travelled with her husband (and his bodyguard) on one or more of his trips to other Greek cities.

According to Plutarch, before the Battle of Thermopylae, knowing that her husband’s death in battle was inevitable, she asked him what to do. Leonidas replied “marry a good man who will treat you well, bear him children, and live a good life”.

For More Information Contact Vampire Council Library

When Dilios returned to tell the story of what happened, he ended up ostracized from Sparta. Later he returned, finding Gorgo to tell her the story of her husband. She asked what was different about him, he told him the gods had given him a gift to continue the story of Sparta.

She requested the same gift.

Sylum Inspiration: Aristotle

Sanguen: Advisor

Note: You might notice a change in how the bios look on the wiki.  We haven’t quite figured out what exactly happened, but when they updated wordpress, the tabs got screwed up and stopped working.  So we changed themes … will it worked slightly.  Tabs now only work on Pages, not Post.  Considering all our bios used tabs this is a problem.

The plugin we used for tabs hasn’t been updated in over a year, and come to find out webpage no longer exsists – so yeah we had to come up with something new.  None of the other programs worked the way we needed so we decided to showcase the bio differently.

As there are over a 1000 characters this is a slow process.  When we do Sylum Inspirations – the bios will get updated.  Meantime we’re first working through bios that already have new images – starting with Border and working our way forward.  When we uploaded a new image, we’ll update the bio.  The info is still there just doesn’t look as clean, as the new updates.


Aristotle, whose name means “the best purpose”, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice, about 55 km (34 miles) east of modern-day Thessaloniki. His father Nicomachus was the personal physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Although there is little information on Aristotle’s childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy.

At about the age of eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Plato’s Academy. He remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. The traditional story about his departure records that he was disappointed with the Academy’s direction after control passed to Plato’s nephew Speusippus, although it is possible that he feared anti-Macedonian sentiments and left before Plato had died.

Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor. There, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermias’s adoptive daughter or niece. She bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias’ death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC.

Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave lessons not only to Alexander, but also to two other future kings: Ptolemy and Cassander. Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest and his attitude towards Persia was unabashedly ethnocentric. In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be “a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants”.

By 335 BC, Artistotle had returned to Athens, establishing his own school there known as the Lyceum. Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years. While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved with Herpyllis of Stagira, who bore him a son whom he named after his father, Nicomachus. According to the Suda, he also had an eromenos, Palaephatus of Abydus.

This period in Athens, between 335 and 323 BC, is when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works. He wrote many dialogues of which only fragments have survived. Those works that have survived are in treatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication; they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul) and Poetics.

Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time, but made significant contributions to most of them. In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, embryology, geography, geology, meteorology, physics and zoology. In philosophy, he wrote on aesthetics, ethics, government, metaphysics, politics, economics, psychology, rhetoric and theology. He also studied education, foreign customs, literature and poetry. His combined works constitute a virtual encyclopedia of Greek knowledge.

Near the end of his life, Alexander and Aristotle became estranged over Alexander’s relationship with Persia and Persians. A widespread tradition in antiquity suspected Aristotle of playing a role in Alexander’s death, but there is little evidence.

Following Alexander’s death, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens was rekindled. In 322 BC, Eurymedon the Hierophant denounced Aristotle for not holding the gods in honor, prompting him to flee to his mother’s family estate in Chalcis, explaining: “I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy” – a reference to Athens’s prior trial and execution of Socrates.

For More Information contact the Vampire Council Library

Aristotle was ready to leave this earth, when he was visited by an old friend. When he saw Alexander he first thought he had already gone to the afterlife. It took a few moments for Alexander to convince him he wasn’t insane or dead. When he was told about Vampires, Aristotle knew this is what his life had led up to.

Sylum Inspiration: Jayadeep Mir

Sanguan Vitae: Hunter (India)

(In honor of Irrfan Khan)

Jayadeep doesn’t know anything about his birth father, and has vague memories of his mother who was always sad.  And as far as Jayadeep is concerned his father is Arbaaz Mir, the man who saved him from a life of slavery.

Arbaaz raised him since he was eight years old, making sure he had an education and a future.  He knew from a young age, that his ‘father’ was a Vampire, and had been introduced to Alexander The Great and his Mate.   He would sit at their feet and listen to many of their stories, learning history from the men who forged it.

It wasn’t until he was a teenager he understood the physical training Arbaaz had put him through.  He was introduced to Dastan, and told about the Assassins.

He knew then this is what he was destined to be.

When he was in his mid-twenties he was introduced to Ashoka.  The two had looked at each other and laughed.  Ashoka, had claimed him as family, though knew Jayadeep’s loyalty was to his father.

Azbaar understood how hatred could fester in oneself if one don’t look beyond the pain and hurt.  Jayadeep wanted the English to pay for what they did to his people, so to teach him a lesson he was sent to London to train with the Frye siblings.

He stared at the two of them in shock.  Jake had slapped him on the shoulder, welcoming him to the Rooks, while Evie had rolled her eyes and dared him to keep up.

In the ten years he spent with them, he learned more about life than he thought he would have.

It was during the fourth year of being in England a mission went to hell, and he had been mortally wounded.

Evie didn’t hesitate.

 

Sylum Inspiration: Arbaaz Mir

Sanguen Vitae: Hunter (India)

Arbaaz Mir was born in Kashmir in northwestern India during the early 19th century to a Muslim family. His home region was conquered by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire in 1819, leading to the death of numerous Muslims in Kashmir, including some of Arbaaz’s kin.  This led Arbaaz to grow up with a resentment towards Singh, considering him a cold-blooded killer.

His revenge led him to go after Singh only to be thwarted by the Assassins. He was taken from India and handed over to Dastan and Altaïr. Both saw potential in him, but also his anger.  They worked to train him, and in time they watched him grow into a steady Assassin.

Dastan escorted him back to India, hearing rumors about his old enemy, the Hassassin. When they arrived he discovered that Templars were using the British Government to influence the Maharaja so they could control the land and wealth.

Arbaaz had to face his own emotions when he came face to face with Singh.

He realized they were trying to poison the Maharaja, and knocked the tea out of his hand, instead of watching him die – but it was already too late.  The Templar escaped but Arbaaz stayed with the Singh, and told him he forgave him.

Ranjit smiled and died peacefully.

Arbaaz barely had time to react when the Templar returned.  He defected the blow, but ended up with a mortal wound before he gave the killing blow.

Dastan found him and gave him a new chance.

Sylum Inspiration: Eames

Sanguen: Hunter

 

Eames is fourth generation Londoner though someone at some point in his family migrated from some part of Russia; but any papers related to that were destroyed before World War I. However, Russian is among the dozen languages that he speaks quite fluently.

He completed his A-Levels and one year of post-secondary before he joined the Army. With his knowledge of weapons (both large and small, but would take a Heckler & Koch P2000 any day), languages, arts, and his quick thinking he soon found himself as part of the Special Air Service. Where he honed his skills as a thief and forger.

Then he no longer technically existed. Pulled into an international team to among other things, fight terrorism. Too bad politics, blackmail, the death of two team members, and a loon left in charge –the entire team became compromised.

He made himself new papers since he no longer existed anyway, and then disappeared.

At the age of 32 he dies in Greece.

Sylum Inspiration: Arthur

Sanguen: Hunter

 

Arthur is from California. He can’t surf, hates wine, loves bacon, and adores coffee. He was raised Jewish –the bacon-thing was problematic. Though, thankfully not looked unkindly upon in Reform Judaism. He slowly stopped attending synagogue during college; and even less throughout his time in the Army. Though, he has still managed to keep his faith.

Throughout middle and high school, Arthur took varying martial arts from Tai Chi to Aikido to Escrima.

He started college before his seventeenth birthday on scholarships earned both by his grades and through JROTC. In college he stays with ROTC and graduates with honors and two Masters degrees –one in Mathematics and the other in Research and Data Analytics.

He specialized in hand to hand combat, information gathering and mission planning (he’s very good at organizing chaos), and field operations. He has excellent legal and illegal computer skills; and while he’s pretty good with a rifle, he prefers his Glock 17. He’s sent through Special Forces training and then straight into an international team charged with among other things, fighting terrorism. Somewhere along the way he developed a taste for well tailored suits –if it fit well he could move  and fight better and if the tailor knew he was going to carry a gun it hid it better while giving easy access.

His identity was scrubbed when he became part of the international team. He liked the work, he was good at it. Too bad politics, blackmail, the death of two team members, and a loon left in charge caused it crumbled. The team was compromised and they were left to fend for themselves.

Arthur took the excellently forged documents from the only team member he truly trusted and disappeared.

He dies in Geneva at the age of 28.

Sylum Inspiration: Sappho

Sanguen Vitae: Member

 

Sappho was a Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos. The Alexandrians included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, has been lost; however, her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.

Sylum Inspiration: Carl Cox

Sanguen Vitae: Member (India)

Carl was born in Ohio to a typical family. He was blessed to be able to attend school, and when the teacher realized how smart he was, encouraged the family to allow Carl to continue with his education and go to University.

It was his teacher’s influence that got him into MIT, receiving an Engineering degree. When the Second World War broke out, he found himself assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers. He was on a boat on his way to India to build bridges.

He fell in love with India the moment he set foot on her soil. He learned the language, the culture and religion. The years he was there he embraced it all. Carl was introduced to Masrani (Ashoka), an influential business man who wanted Carl to build more than bridges after the war.

When Carl came down with malaria, Masrani took matters into his own hands and Turned him.

Sylum Inspiration: Marcus Antonius

Sanguen Vitae: Co-Leader

 

A member of the Antonia clan, Antony was born on January 14, mostly likely in 83 BC. Plutarch gives Antony’s year of birth as either 86 or 83 BC. Antony was an infant at the time of Sulla’s landing at Brundisium in the spring of 83 BC and the subsequent proscriptions that had put the life of the teen-aged Julius Caesar at risk. He was the homonymous and thus presumably the eldest son of Marcus Antonius Creticus and grandson of the noted orator Marcus Antonius who had been murdered during the Marian Terror of the winter of 87–6 BC.

Antony’s father was incompetent and corrupt, and according to Cicero, he was only given power because he was incapable of using or abusing it effectively. In 74 BC he was given imperium infinitum to defeat the pirates of the Mediterranean, but he died in Crete in 71 BC without making any significant progress. Creticus had two other sons: Gaius and Lucius.

Antony’s mother, Julia, was a daughter of Lucius Caesar. Upon the death of her first husband, she married Publius Cornelius Lentulus, an eminent patrician. Lentulus, despite exploiting his political success for financial gain, was constantly in debt due to the extravagance of his lifestyle. He was a major figure in the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy and was extrajudicially killed on the orders of Cicero in 63 BC.

In 54 BC, Antony became a staff officer in Caesar’s armies in Gaul and Germany. He again proved to be a competent military leader in the Gallic Wars. Antony and Caesar were the best of friends, as well as being fairly close relatives. Antony made himself ever available to assist Caesar in carrying out his military campaigns. Raised by Caesar’s influence to the offices of quaestor, augur, and tribune of the plebeians (50 BC), he supported the cause of his patron with great energy. Caesar’s two proconsular commands, during a period of ten years, were expiring in 50 BC, and he wanted to return to Rome for the consular elections. But resistance from the conservative faction of the Roman Senate, led by Pompey, demanded that Caesar resign his proconsulship and the command of his armies before being allowed to seek re-election to the consulship.

This Caesar would not do, as such an act would at least temporarily render him a private citizen and thereby leave him open to prosecution for his acts while proconsul. It would also place him at the mercy of Pompey’s armies. To prevent this occurrence Caesar bribed the plebeian tribune Curio to use his veto to prevent a senatorial decree which would deprive Caesar of his armies and provincial command, and then made sure Antony was elected tribune for the next term of office.

Antony exercised his tribunician veto, with the aim of preventing a senatorial decree declaring martial law against the veto, and was violently expelled from the senate with another Caesar adherent, Cassius, who was also a tribune of the plebs. Caesar crossed the river Rubicon upon hearing of these affairs which began the Republican civil war. Antony left Rome and joined Caesar and his armies at Ariminium, where he was presented to Caesar’s soldiers still bloody and bruised as an example of the illegalities that his political opponents were perpetrating, and as a casus belli (incident of war).

When Caesar became dictator for a second time, Antony was made magister equitum, and in this capacity he remained in Italy as the peninsula’s administrator in 47 BC, while Caesar was fighting the last Pompeians, who had taken refuge in the province of Africa. But Antony’s skills as an administrator were a poor match for his generalship, and he seized the opportunity of indulging in the most extravagant excesses, depicted by Cicero in the Philippics. In 46 BC he seems to have taken offense because Caesar insisted on payment for the property of Pompey which Antony professedly had purchased, but had in fact simply appropriated.

Whatever conflicts existed between the two men, Antony remained faithful to Caesar but it is worth mentioning that according to Plutarch Trebonius, one of the conspirators, had “sounded him unobtrusively and cautiously… Antony had understood his drift… but had given him no encouragement: at the same time he had not reported the conversation to Caesar.” On February 15, 44 BC, during the Lupercalia festival, Antony publicly offered Caesar a diadem. This was an event fraught with meaning: a diadem was a symbol of a king, and in refusing it, Caesar demonstrated that he did not intend to assume the throne.

Casca, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus decided, in the night before the Assassination of Julius Caesar, that Mark Antony should stay alive. The following day, the Ides of March, he went down to warn the dictator but the Liberatores reached Caesar first and he was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC. In the turmoil that surrounded the event, Antony escaped Rome dressed as a slave; fearing that the dictator’s assassination would be the start of a bloodbath among his supporters. When this did not occur, he soon returned to Rome, discussing a truce with the assassins’ faction. For a while, Antony, as consul, seemed to pursue peace and an end to the political tension. Following a speech by Cicero in the Senate, an amnesty was agreed for the assassins.

Antony summoned Cleopatra to Tarsus in October 41 BC. There they formed an alliance and became lovers. Antony returned to Alexandria with her, where he spent the winter of 41 BC – 40 BC. In spring 40 BC he was forced to return to Rome following news of his wife Fulvia’s involvement in civil strife with Octavian on his behalf. Fulvia died while Antony was en route to Sicyon (where Fulvia was exiled). Antony made peace with Octavian in September 40 BC and married Octavian’s sister Octavia Minor.

Leaving Octavia pregnant with her second child Antonia in Rome, he sailed to Alexandria, where he expected funding from Cleopatra, the mother of his twins. The queen of Egypt lent him the money he needed for the army, and after capturing Jerusalem and surrounding areas in 37 BC, he installed Herod as puppet king of Judaea, replacing the Parthian appointee Antigonus.

Antony then invaded Parthian territory with an army of about 100,000 Roman and allied troops but the campaign proved a disaster. After defeats in battle, the desertion of his Armenian allies and his failure to capture Parthian strongholds convinced Antony to retreat, his army was further depleted by the hardships of its retreat through Armenia in the depths of winter, losing more than a quarter of its strength in the course of the campaign.

Meanwhile, in Rome, the triumvirate was no more. Octavian forced Lepidus to resign after the older triumvir attempted an ill-judged political move. Now in sole power, Octavian was occupied in wooing the traditional Republican aristocracy to his side. He married Livia and started to attack Antony in order to raise himself to power. He argued that Antony was a man of low morals to have left his faithful wife abandoned in Rome with the children to be with the promiscuous queen of Egypt. Antony was accused of everything, but most of all, of “going native”, an unforgivable crime to the proud Romans. Several times Antony was summoned to Rome, but remained in Alexandria with Cleopatra.

For more information contact the Vampire Council Library

Legend will continue to go on to tell you that Marcus committed suicide after his army was defeated because he thought Cleopatra had abandoned and betrayed him. While in Alexandria with Cleopatra he was introduced to the Medjai Clan. Cleo had informed him that if anyone was to have influence in Egypt, they needed to make sure the Medjai didn’t see them as a threat.

Marc was introduced to Netjerikhet. He was surprised by the lighter complexion of the Medjai Warrior, but the two soon became good friends. When Marc left Alexandria to face Octavian’s Armies, Rick went with him. When the battle turned against Marc, he knew he had to have been betrayed. Marc contemplated suicide, not wanting to be executed by his own men or worse dragged back to Rome. Rick saved him in time, telling him there were other ways. They soon got word that Cleopatra had committed suicide as word had reached her.

Marc was devastated, and Rick made sure he didn’t do anything stupid, and wasn’t surprised to see Neferitiri with Cleo weeks later as they traveled away from Egypt. Rick and Evy knew they couldn’t keep the famous couple in Egypt so took them to the Council. It was here that Marc discovered that Cleo wasn’t his Mate, but instead was dragged away from her and Claimed by none other than Alexander the Great.

Sylum Inspiration: Gorgo

Sanguen Vitae: Council Member

 

Gorgo was the daughter and the only known child of Cleomenes I, King of Sparta (r. 520–490 BC) during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. She was the wife of King Leonidas I, Cleomenes’ half-brother, who fought and died in the Battle of Thermopylae. Gorgo is noted as one of the few female historical figures actually named by Herodotus, and was known for her political judgement and wisdom. She is notable for being the daughter of a King of Sparta, the wife of another king of Sparta, and the mother of a third king of Sparta.

Her father Cleomenes was the eldest-born son of the previous Agiad king, Anaxandridas II, and succeeded his father at his death; however, he had three paternal half-brothers, of whom the second, Dorieus, would cause him some trouble. The other two half-brothers were Leonidas I and Cleombrotus. All four were sons of Anaxandridas II, one of the dual kings of Sparta of the Agiad house.

According to one version, Gorgo’s grandfather Anaxandridas II was long married without children, and was advised to remarry (i.e. take a second wife) which he did. His second wife gave birth to the future Cleomenes I who was thus his eldest son; however, his first wife subsequently became pregnant, and eventually gave birth to three sons, including Leonidas I. This version is however not supported by other sources, which imply that Cleomenes was either born by the king’s first marriage or by a non-marital alliance. In either case, there appears to have been some tension between the eldest son and his half-brothers, resolved only by the former’s death (or murder) and the accession of Leonidas I (at once his half-brother and his son-in-law).

Gorgo’s mother is unknown, but she was certainly Spartan since she was Leonidas’ Queen. Little about Gorgo’s childhood is known, although she was probably raised like other Spartan girls of noble family, well fed, encouraged in daily physical exercise, and educated, including literacy and numeracy. She would have learned to ride and drive chariots and have taken part in Sparta’s many festivals, dancing and singing in chorus.

According to Herodotus’s Histories, at about the age of eight to nine years old, she advised her father Cleomenes not to trust Aristagoras of Miletus, a foreign diplomat trying to induce Cleomenes to support an Ionian revolt against Persians. “Father, you had better have this man go away, or the stranger will corrupt you.” Cleomenes followed her advice. Scholars have suggested, however, that Herodotus intentionally reduced Gorgo’s age at the time of this incident to make her father look particularly foolish. More likely, Herodotus underestimated her age simply because in other Greek cities girls were married at age 12 or 13 and so rarely in their father’s household as teenagers or adults. It is more probable, that Gorgo was closer to 18 or 19 at the time of this incident.
Presumably, after Cleomenes’s death, his only surviving child Gorgo became his sole heiress. She was apparently already married by 490 (in her early teens) to her half-uncle Leonidas I.  Leonidas and Gorgo would have at least one child, a son, Pleistarchus, co-King of Sparta from 480 BC to his death in 459 BC/458 BC.

Arguably, Gorgo’s most significant role occurred prior to the Persian invasion of 480 BC. According to Herodotus’s Histories, Demaratus, then in exile at the Persian court, sent a warning to Sparta about Xerxes’s pending invasion. In order to prevent the message from being intercepted by the Persians or their vassal states, the message was written on a wooden tablet and then covered with wax. “The Spartans”, presumably the ephors, Gerousia or the kings, did not know what to do with the seemingly blank wax-tablet, until Queen Gorgo advised them to clear the wax off the tablet. She is described by David Kahn in his book The Codebreakers as one of the first female cryptanalysts whose name has been recorded.

There are also indications that Gorgo travelled outside of Sparta, specifically to Athens. Virtually all of Leonidas’ reign was dominated by his efforts to form a coalition of Greek states willing to resist the impending Persian invasion. This entailed close coordination with the other main opponent of Persia, Athens. It is likely, therefore, that Leonidas travelled to Athens more than once. That Gorgo accompanied can be inferred from two quotes attributed to her by Plutarch. First, he records that “a stranger in a finely embroidered robe” made advances to Gorgo earning the rebuke that “he couldn’t even play a female role”. While a stranger might have been in Sparta, it is not very likely that he would risk making advances to a Spartan Queen in the midst of her highly armed and notoriously proud subjects. More to the point, however, Gorgo could only make a reference to the theater (playing a female role), if she had experienced it. Sparta is not believed to have had theater at this time, whereas it was already very popular in Athens. Even more explicit is the fact that Gorgo’s most famous quip about only Spartan women giving birth to men was, according to Plutarch, made in answer to “a woman from Attica”. Since women from Attica were not supposed to leave the women’s quarters of their own homes, it is inconceivable that a woman from Attica would have travelled to Sparta. Spartan women, on the other hand, drove chariots and travelled around Lacedaemon on their own, making it perfectly plausible that Gorgo travelled with her husband (and his bodyguard) on one or more of his trips to other Greek cities.

According to Plutarch, before the Battle of Thermopylae, knowing that her husband’s death in battle was inevitable, she asked him what to do. Leonidas replied “marry a good man who will treat you well, bear him children, and live a good life”.

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When Dilios returned to tell the story of what happened, he ended up ostracized from Sparta. Later he returned, finding Gorgo to tell her the story of her husband. She asked what was different about him, he told him the gods had given him a gift to continue the story of Sparta.

She requested the same gift.

Sylum Inspiration: Alexander

Sanguen Vitae: Clan Leader

 

Alexander as a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history’s most successful commanders.

Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II of Macedon, to the throne in 336 BC after Philip was assassinated. Upon Philip’s death, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He had been awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father’s military expansion plans. In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid empire, ruled Asia Minor, and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.

Seeking to reach the “ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea”, he invaded India in 326 BC, but was eventually forced to turn back at the demand of his troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexander’s surviving generals and heirs.

Alexander’s legacy includes the cultural diffusion his conquests engendered. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt. Alexander’s settlement of Greek colonists and the resulting spread of Greek culture in the east resulted in a new Hellenistic civilization, aspects of which were still evident in the traditions of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-15th century. Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and myth of Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and military academies throughout the world still teach his tactics.

After Alexander traveled to Ecbatana to retrieve the bulk of the Persian treasure, his closest friend and possible lover, Hephaestion, died of illness or poisoning. Hephaestion’s death devastated Alexander, and he ordered the preparation of an expensive funeral pyre in Babylon, as well as a decree for public mourning. Back in Babylon, Alexander planned a series of new campaigns, beginning with an invasion of Arabia, but he would not have a chance to realize them, as he died shortly thereafter.

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Alexander had developed a fever and succumbed to his bed unable to even talk.

When he laid in bed he was visited by emissaries from Egypt, Ardeth Bey and Rick. It was Ardeth that told him he had too much to live for, and Turned him.

Sylum Inspiration: Siberius Vaako

Sanguen Vitae: Lead Hunter

Vaako was a dedicated Roman Soldier, who followed his General Marcus Antonius throughout his career, and even helped him get out of Rome and back to Egypt after Caesar was killed.  He stayed by his side, despite the need to smack the crap out of him.

When Marc was Turned and escorted out of Egypt.

He followed.

Once Marc was Mated.

He followed.

Until Marc finally got the idea and Turned him.

Sylum Inspiration: Arbaaz Mir

Sanguen Vitae: Hunter (India)

 

Arbaaz Mir was born in Kashmir in northwestern India during the early 19th century to a Muslim family. His home region was conquered by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire in 1819, leading to the death of numerous Muslims in Kashmir, including some of Arbaaz’s kin.  This led Arbaaz to grow up with a resentment towards Singh, considering him a cold-blooded killer.

His revenge led him to go after Singh only to be thwarted by Assassins. He was taken from India and handed over to Dastan and Altair. Both saw potential in him, but also his anger.  They worked to train him, and in time they watched him grow into a steady Assassin.

Dastan escorted him back to India, hearing rumors about his old enemy, the Hassassin. When they arrived he discovered that Templars were using the British Government to influence the Maharaja so they could control the land and wealth.

Arbaaz had to face his own emotions when coming face to face with Singh.

He realized they were trying to poison the Maharaja, and he focused on his duty knocking the tea out of his hand, instead of watching him die – but it was already too late.  The Templar escaped but Arbaaz stayed with the Singh, and told him he forgave him.

Ranjit smiled and died peacefully.

Arbaaz barely had time to react when the Templar returned.  He defected the blow, but ended up with a mortal wound before he gave the killing blow.

Dastan found him and gave him a new chance.

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