Jedediah Holyoak

Jedediah Holyoak is a Mekhet in Chicago.

Overview

There was a time, long ago, when Jedediah Holyoak was a powerful elder vampire in the Cleveland area, easily the superior of Chicago's current Prince and possibly on par with the Unholy. For a very brief period, Holyoak imagined himself the vampire baron of America and dreamed of making the North American continent a haven for the Crone's children. And he was powerful enough that he might even have succeeded if his blood hadn't overwhelmed him. Holyoak's thirst was such that he needed to feed from his own kind, and after a few terrifying encounters in Cleveland stemming from that forbidden hunger, Holyoak moved to Chicago a few years before the Great Fire.

A fight with a local mage shortly after the Great Fire left Holyoak cursed and unable to use his (formerly quite potent) Disciplines. The idea of feeding from other Kindred didn't bother him (quite the contrary, actually), but it was not a tenable situation if he could count on the Disciplines he'd grown to rely on. He immediately opted to enter torpor.

Holyoak awoke two years ago, his memory remarkably sharp given that he'd slept away an entire century, but his blood was quite weak. Though he hasn't seen any hint of the old curse affecting him, he seems to have been stripped of much of the power his blood once held. Those Disciplines he had relearned, he seems to be able to use normally without any problem. His understanding of the principles of Crúac returned to him within a few nights (leading him to believe that he has slept off the mage's curse), but Holyoak's other Disciplines need to be learned all over again if her is ever to have access to them.

While Holyoak is a shrewd operator, he's not certain how to proceed with his Requiem. He hadn't been in Chicago long enough to meet many other Kindred before going into torpor. While this means he had no allies, it also means he has no enemies (like those he would have if he had stayed in Cleveland). Kindred have the luxury of ling-term thinking, and Holyoak still entertains great plans for the city (especially for that pretender, Maxwell) once Holyoak's power returns properly, but until that night (decades hence at the earliest), he's stuck biding his time and masquerading as a clueless neonate. Holyoak had made a conscious effort to learn and mimic the styles of younger Kindred and spends time in the presence of mortals when he can to help pick up current trends and lingo.

Buzzing around in the back of his mind is the suggestion that he might be able to expedite the return of his power through diablerie, but he's hesitant to take any risks while he remains so weak. His preferred approach is to join a coterie with a few ambitious neonates whom he can groom into a team worthy of ruling the city. In the meantime, Holyoak is making the most of the fact that he's an unknown. As far anyone is concerned, Jed's been Kindred for only a few years, and he has absolutely no connection to the Jedediah Holyoak, the notorious conspirator who was banished from Cleveland decades ago for conspiring against the Prince.

Holyoak realizes now that America will not have him as its great baron, not will the country be the Acolytes' homeland. But Chicago itself is a jewel of great promise with a large (if disorganized) population of Acolytes that he might eventually be able to wield like a weapon.

The political situation in the Circle of the Crone complicates matters a bit. Holyoak doesn't like the schism he sees between the political and the spiritual factions of Acolytes. He likes Rowen and finds her an inspired teacher but a wretched politician. On the other hand, he despises Bella Dravnzie on all accounts.

Holyoak attends every service Rowen presides over. He is impressed with her understanding of the Crone and of Crúac (which she appears to understand better than he), and he supports her completely, but her blindness to politics worries him, and he's been pondering how to nudge her in the right direction. Any night now he may offer her his services as an advisor, and if he had to, he may even give her in indication of who he is and what he can do. With Holyoak as her political advisor, Rowen and the Acolytes in general would likely see their fortunes improving rapidly. Bella, on the other hand, would likely lose much of the political clout she's worked for. If Bella ever learns who Holyoak is and what his aims are, she would doubtless organize against him, rather than be overshadowed by an ancient, lying man. Holyoak realizes this, of course, and he's proceeding accordingly - which is to say, with the abundance of secrecy and guile his clan is known for.

Another goal drives Holyoak through the Requiem as well: a fanatical hatred of mages. Having seen the danger they pose, both at the time of his sire's death and in his own "maiming," Holyoak considers them among the most dangerous foes the Kindred have, and he works to undermine the attempts of mages to influence vampire society.

Damnation Magic

Holyoak was the son of one of the first farmers to come west from the British colonies. He and his family lived in a risky world where his parents had to create a homestead out of unspoiled forest land with a minimum of tools. Furthermore, they had to pull off this feat in the presence of hostile Native Americans.

It was the Indians who prayed to their strange night god to destroy the Holyoak family, and that "god" who Embraced Jedediah after killing his father.

For years, Holyoak operated under a Vinculum to his sire. Holyoak served his Native American sire until that Kindred was gravely wounded by an itinerant shaman - at which point Holyoak diablerized his erstwhile mentor. Holyoak had no interest in staying among the Indians after his sire's destruction. Holyoak went east, to the nascent city of Cleveland, Ohio, to feed off the denser population of European immigrants. There he found that it was not just the Indians who had their night-dwelling monsters. As one of the first Kindred in the city, Holyoak often found himself with a great deal of influence in the running if that city.

At times in his past, Holyoak was a Mekhet Priscus, a Hierophant for the Circle of the Crone and a member of the Primogen Council in Cleveland. For a short while, he sought praxis, but he thought better of it when the sitting Prince made it clear that he would punish anyone who tried such a thing - as demonstrated by a conspiracy to destroy another rival for the seat.

Diplomacy between Holyoak and Cleveland's Invictus Prince was permanently strained thereafter. While Holyoak was more personally powerful, the Prince had the city's other elders well in hand, and Holyoak realized he would need to leave Cleveland or forfeit his Requiem. And so he tried going west again, this time father than his parents had ever gotten: to the city of Chicago.

Holyoak was just in the process of establishing himself in Chicago's pecking order when the Great Fire (and all the associated madness and chaos of that night) ensued. Not only did he survive the fire, he encountered a mage using powerful magic at the peak of the chaos, something Holyoak had been looking for since the death of his sire. Holyoak had long wanted to bond a mage to his blood and gain the benefits of his own pet wizard.

If Holyoak thought the mage would be easy target, he thought wrongly. The spellcaster was not interested in serving him or any other vampire. The mage attacked Holyoak with potent magic, burning him (as Holyoak phrases it) "to his soul." Holyoak's speed ultimately settled the conflict and the mage died, but Holyoak's Vitae ceased to fuel most of his Disciplines properly. The power of his Vitae had been muted by magic. Blood-sorcery was the only power he could stir from his veins; his other Disciplines stopped working altogether.

Holyoak immediately withdrew from the night-to-night struggles of the Kindred and went into voluntary torpor, hoping that his blood would purge the mage's curse over time. Holyoak is now active again, and while his blood is weak, he no longer feels the full chill of the mage's curse at work in his blood. Now Holyoak waits to see if the power of his Vitae comes back of its own accord, or if he needs to take action of some sort to rectify his situation.

Holyoak is handsome, albeit in gaunt sort of way. His hair is dark brown, and his eyes are a dull green. He pays less attention to his appearance than many vampires and forgets to hide his pallor. In his quest to pass as a neonate, Holyoak has made a careful study of 21st-century dress and manners, and he passes better in that regard than some Kindred who only entered the Requiem a decade or two ago.

Stats

Clan: Mekhet
Covenant: Circle of the Crone
Embrace: 1766
Apparent Age: Early 20s
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 5, Resolve 5
Physical Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 5
Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 5, Composure 4
Mental Skills: Academics 4, Crafts 2, Investigation (Research) 3, Medicine (First Aid) 1, Occult 5, Politics (Kindred) 1
Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Larceny 3, Stealth 4, Survival 3, Weaponry (Axe) 3
Social Skills: Animal Ken 3, Empathy 2, Expression 2, Intimidation 3, Persuasion 3, Socialize 4, Streetwise 1, Subterfuge (Disguise, Lie) 4
Merits: Common Sense, Covenant Status: Circle of the Crone 1, Haven: Security 4, Haven: Size 3, Herd 2, Resources 2
Willpower: 9
Humanity: 5
Virtue: Fortitude
Vice: Greed
Health: 10
Initiative: 8
Defense: 4
Speed: 14
Blood Potency: 3 (Vitae/turn: 12/1
Disciplines: Auspex 1, Celerity 2, Crúac 5
Crúac Rituals: Pangs of Proserpina (1), Rigor Mortis (1), Cheval (2), Hydra's Vitae (2), Deflection of Wooden Doom (3), Touch of the Morrigan (3), Willful Vitae (4), Feeding the Crone (5)

References

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