Arjun Shah

Mortal Days

As a British Indian growing up in London, Arjun’s parents instilled the importance of family in him. Even more important was the family religion. Arjun had friends of various faiths, but his was better. His was secret. “You must not tell,” said his parents to him again and again. They needn’t have worried. Arjun enjoyed keeping of the secret.

Every year, his parents told him a little bit more of their mystery religion, widening the circle of his understanding. They trained young Arjun’s mind, body, and social graces, for battlegrounds both physical and abstract. They found the cult as adults, but their son was born to it, groomed for it. He would surpass them in every way. He did not disappoint.

The day Arjun was officially inducted into the Mithraic Cult of London was the proudest day of his parents’ lives. “Mithras will return and smile upon you,” they told Arjun. In this, they did not disappoint, for they all witnessed the second coming of their god-emperor, enshrined in the body of Monty Coven.

Arjun rose in the ranks of both the cult and Syndexioi Ltd., the security firm run by Mithras-Coven. Arjun became the youngest of the firm’s top executives. When an old friend and follower of Mithras, a vampire of the Banu Haqim, came to London looking for a worthy candidate to gift the Embrace, Arjun was given that honor. His parents wept with joy.

Kindred Nights

Arjun blossomed as a Cainite under the tutelage of his sire and Mithras-Coven. He helped Syndexioi prosper and served his god-emperor from the shadows, as Mithras systematically eliminated the Sabbat packs of London while consolidating power.

One night, the Prince’s Seneschal, Roger de Camden, visited Arjun. The old Cappadocian said their master experienced a vision of a great war approaching, one that would wipe out all the Kindred of London. Mithras commanded each of his priests and followers to flee the city and spread the cult across the world. Mithras would stay to face the coming calamity alone.

Arjun did not fully understand his orders, but he obeyed. He took his parents; he took a portion of the cult and of Syndexioi, and he left London. By all accounts, Mithras fell in glorious carnage, taking many of his enemies with him. The Second Inquisition had truly begun.

With horrific stories of a blood god rousing in the Middle East and of Banu Haqim seeking shelter within the Camarilla, Arjun thought to find refuge in a city of that sect in the New World. At first, he considered Chicago, but Milwaukee fell within his notice. He studied Mark Decker and the Anubi, and in them he saw true kindred spirits to his god-emperor — warriors holding their ground in their city, fighting impossible odds, even as their allies abandon them.

Arjun established a branch of Syndexioi Ltd. in Milwaukee. He contacted Mark Decker, asking for formal admittance into his city, offering aid in the form of high tech surveillance equipment, weaponry, and a hoard of silver that only the wealthy can amass. The surprised Prince agreed. Now Arjun courts Decker and his warrior cadre, grooming them for induction into his mystery religion. The needs of the Anubi and the needs of the Mithraic cult fit together like the interlocking fingers of a secret handshake.