The Life and UnDeath of Perceval Cecil
Ventrue

I was born in the United Kingdom during the second half of the twentieth century to a family of aristocratic lineage, but less than considerable wealth. Alas, my family had fallen upon hard times since the days of my great ancestor, Lord Robert Cecil. Once, we were a family of rulers, set above all others. But by the time of my birth in this century, our wealth had drained away, and our social status was nonexistent.

This was an unhappy situation for myself, of course. I was born with an innate sense that I was meant for great things. How it chafed me to be forced to associate with my inferiors! Somehow, I struggled through early childhood, though it pained me to see how little respect the name of Cecil still held. At an early age, I made it my goal to recover my family's fortune and honor. But how was I to do this? My family had not the resources to send me to Eton and Oxford, so that I could receive the preparation I so desperately needed. Or so I believed...

One evening, slightly after I had reached my tenth year, a strange man came to our modest home. He was middle-aged, of slightly less than average height, well-built physically, but pale, and with piercing eyes. He introduced himself as "Uncle Robert,"a distant relative of ours who had some resources, and desired to use them to help the family. He wanted to take me to his home, to board me and send me to the finest schools, and offered to provide a supplement to my family's income. I saw this as a splendid opportunity to escape my proletarian life, and prevailed upon my father to allow me to leave. Always a weak man, my father agreed.

Uncle Robert provided everything I could have dreamed--education at the finest schools, material possessions, connections with people in positions of authority. When the time came, he helped me set myself up in business. But my uncle had even greater plans for me...

By the time I had reached the age of 30, my dreams were coming true. I was accumlating money at a prodigious rate, and acquiring influence in the world. I thought that I had everything which would make me happy, but one night, my uncle told me he had another gift for me...

My uncle revealed that he was, in fact, the original Lord Cecil, builder of our former glory. In life, he had fought wars to win glory-- so much glory, in fact, that he had attracted the attention of a Kindred. He revealed that he had awoken after a sleep of some hundreds of years, and been horrified at the state of the family. But, in me he had seen an equally ruthless, ambitious soul--a soul that need never die...

That night, I was transformed. My mind expanded tremendously--I could sense things no mortal could. I found that I could concentrate on someone else, and force my will upon him or her. And, I would never grow old or die. Of course, there is a price for such gifts. Never again will I see the sun. And I must Feed. I quickly discovered that I could only feed on the dregs of society. I suppose that my aristocratic nature translated into a physical inability to feed upon those like me. But this is, of course, just fine with me.

A few months after I was Embraced, I got a first-hand look at Kindred politics. It seems my beloved ancestor and sire tried to gain the same status in the Kindred world which he had in the human world. Of course, the only way to gain strength in a world of killers is to become a killer of killers. In short, the Prince of London declared a blood hunt on my sire for the crime of Diabolerie. This I only found out later. At the time, I knew only that I barely escaped from the mansion as it was being attacked by Kindred. The next evening I received a letter, seemingly from my sire, telling me that he was alive, but that I must escape London for the relative safety of the United States. So I packed my coffin, and left for the eastern seaboard of the American continent. Now I roam the United States, feeding on the abundant numbers of criminals and low-lifes, and preparing my revenge...