Anatole
Quote: "Endings and beginnings have a way of blending and twisting until it is difficult to separate one from the other."
Sobriquet: Father
Appearance:
Behavior:
History: Anatole was born under a Blue Moon in Paris as the eldest son of the city watch commander. Like it was required of the eldest son, he entered the city watch when he came of age. However, through all of his mortal life, Anatole felt like he had a higher calling. This way of carrying himself inspired a pious vampire, Pierre L'Imbecile, to believe that Anatole could see the workings of God in the world in ways other couldn't. Believing that he had found an ideal servant of God, he Embraced him.
As a fledgling, Pierre told Anatole the reason of his damnation: To prove that all earthly beings in existence, including those who were Damned, served God's will. After an incredibly short tutorship, Pierre released Anatole, who then turned to wander the world in search of his destiny.
During his travels, Anatole became a proficient Ashen Priest of the Road of Heaven. In 1196 on a trip through Hungary and Transylvania, Anatole first met the young Lasombra Lucita, who acted as an agent of her sire. The two quickly became traveling companions and friends, who stayed together even after their initial task was done. According to Anatole himself, it was Lucita that originally tutored him about the incatries of the curse. In 1198, Anatole reached the ruins of a castle at Tihuta Pass and began investigating, convinced that the place would have future significance. Within a hidden library, he, Lucita and a group of other Cainites found a set of thirteen clay tablets that held prophecies of the End Times.
During the Early 13th Century: Anatole had visions that foretold the fall of Constantinople and the diablerie of Michael. Together with Lucita, Anatole arrived in Adrianople in 1206, near a camp of vampiric refugees from fallen Constantinople. Rumors about the presence of Caine, a coming Gehenna, the Nosferatu doomsayer Kli Kodesh and a resurgence of the Chosen of Calomena were dismissed by him. Along with Lucita, he was granted an audience with Prince Basilio of Sofia, who had come southward to deal with the results of the Bitter Crusade. During the meeting, it was agreed that the pair would travel to Constantinople to deal with its current prince, the Lasombra Heretic Alfonzo.
When they arrived, they saw a group of men flee. Anatole pursued them without much explanation to Lucita. He secured a medaillon from them that showed their allegiance to the Chosen of Calomena, which the pair later used to gain entry to to Alfonzo. It was revealed that the men Anatole had pursued had recently killed Alfonzo's lover, the Roman Lasombra Isadora Genevieve Parantio. Using this information, Anatole and Lucita gained an audience with Alfonzo, cementing an alliance of mutual benefit. After capturing two other people with Calomena medaillons and venetian accents, Anatole began to suspect that the Chosen were not involved at all. Rather, the Calomena medaillons were used to frame the cult and undermine Alfonzo by orders of his sire, Narses. Anatole's main concern were the refugees, in order to excise any preachers of the Cainite Heresy that might draw in disoriented Cainites into their cult. He later joined the exodus of the refugees to France.
On his travels, Anatole was taken captive by members of the Red Order and held in a fortress near Castelnaudary around 1209. He himself stated that he visited the Inquisitors to test their faith and that they had passed. He was saved from the tortures and final death by the hand of the famed vampire hunter Gauthier deDampiere by the young Ravnos Zoe. In exchange, the two traveled together to Paris, with Anatole acting as her mentor and surrogate sire. The two were relegated to the refugee camp of other byzantine vampires, where Anatole and Zoe were taken in by the Obertus Tzimisce Gerasimos. During his stay, Anatole discovered Cainite Heretics under the guidance of the Toreador Folcaut. The two quickly became rivals, debating each other in their sermons, and showcasing "miracles", with Folcaut healing a burn wound on a vampire and Anatole withstanding a stoning unsullied. Using his contacts within the parisian clergy, Anatole also aided the search for the murderer of Zoe's original sire, a Theodosian by the name of Isidro. Together with Zoe, Anatole used his informations to lure deDampiere to one of the churches of the Cainite Heresy. In 1213, the Shadow Inquisition struck, during one of the holy feasts of the Heresy. Afterwards, he received a vision that sendt him into Torpor for a few years. When the Heresy later guided the Inquisitors against the refugee camp in retaliation, Anatole managed to steal the documents that implicated him. He later arrived to aid Zoe in taken her sire's murderer captive and used him as a sacrament for his followers. Isidro's True Faith was then used by him to humiliate Folcaut and showcase his heresy against God, which, together with the involvement of the heresy in the raid, lead to his death by his former flock.
When the refugees had to move due to the presence of Lupine packs in 1220, Anatole used a bonecrafted model to direct the attention of the Red Order against the werewolves. When Malachite returned to the refugees in 1222 and hid them in Nosferatu warrens near Paris' borders, Anatole and the Nosferatu discussed their different quests, Malachite's search for the Dracon and Anatole's quest for God. The next night, Anatole visited the abbot of the Red Order in St.Denis, with the two coming to an agreement despite their hostilities. Meeting up with his acquaintance Veronique d'Orleans, he tried to negotiate his reacceptance into Paris. During his stays in Paris, he heard of rumors claiming the arrival of Caine and had visions of a red comet in the sky. When learning of the arrival of the comet, Alexander admitted Anatole into the city, hoping that the Lunatic would channel the mania that surely would come when the comet would show itself into more constructive means. In the city, Anatole preached against any Caine-sightings and heretic doctrine, instead stressing the christian virtues of the Road of Heaven and the immanence of damnation. He soon clashed with the Heretic bishop of Paris, the Lasombra Antoine de St. Lys, with both debating their positions in a public forum. During the debate, the Heretic used his Disciplines to sway the minds of the spectators to his side. Members of the Heresy, like the Malkavian Takouhi, incited their congregats against him, causing violent clashes between followers of Anatole and those of the Heresy, until the Malkavian allowed the heretics to flee to avoid further bloodshed. In the following debate in 1223, the bishop again tried to incite the audience against Anatole and "unbelievers", causing a riot. For this, Anatole was banished from Paris and the Blood Hunt was called against Bishop St. Lys. The Malkavian instead pursued the bishop to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, where he confronted the bishop with his religious mania. In doing so, he managed to bring his clan mate Takouhi away from his sway, and witnessed St. Lys' destruction by the Holy Ground of the cathedral. Anatole then prepared the leave Paris behind again.
In the 15th Century: Anatole and Lucita later fled to Transylvania during the early Anarch Revolt, seeking shelter in the halls of allied Princes and similar high-ranking Cainites. Around 1472, the pair were guests at a convocation of Cainites in Herrmanstadt, who hoped to deal with the growing power of Vlad Dracul, possibly even by Embracing him. They left when Anarchs set the castle on fire, hoping to destroy the Elders gathered inside and were later traveling to spread news of the Convention of Thorns that was to be held in 1492 among the various Princes and Anarch leaders of the region.
In the 18th Century:' Both Anatole and Lucita were again present at a convocation of vampires in 1680 that dealt with the last Cappadocian, Maria Asuncion, and her possible fate. Anatole pleaded to spare her, reminding that the death of the last Cappadocian would be an ill omen. During this time, Anatole's belief that the symbols that he saw were signs of God was shaken, mainly through theological shifts and lay mysticism. Instead, he came to believe that what he saw were actually portents of the Jyhad and its players, although he maintained the belief that it was God who revealed them to him.
Anatole has committed diablerie on many occasions, seeking to gain the knowledge of others. His last victim, Octavio, was a willing one; he wished to pass on his burden of being the mouthpiece of the demon Kupala. Anatole diablerized him in the winter of 1710. The remnants of Octavio's soul persist within the Malkavian's mind, whispering secrets of Gehenna, and the demon now speaks through Anatole.
In 1789, Anatole, along with Lucita and his new ally Beckett, were visitors at the Court of Francois Villon. During most of the event, Anatole held to the fringes, eventually seeing the storming of the Bastille in a vision. He and his companions followed the vision, eventually discovering the cell of a young man who was part of the family line of the Ventrue Joachim von Neumann, who was sworn to protect the secrets of the Nosferatu Zelios. He spendt the years following the Revolution searching for him, believing that he held the key to a new fragment of the Ivory Tablets.
During the Victorian Age:' Aroud 1882, Anatole traveled to Egypt and was contacted by the ancient Cappadocian Constancia. Constancia hoped to direct Anatole to aid the Children of Isaac's recovery of the Sargon Fragment in Lazarus' tomb. Sending Anatole against Vykos', who also was in Egypt at the time seeking for the fragment, she gifted the Malkavian a ruby brooch with protective abilities against blood rituals and infernal forces. Anatole managed to reach the temple where Vykos conducted their studies over a pair of stone tablets and, along with the aid of the Setite Seren Sukardi, drove them away. After returning to Constancia, Anatole had a vision of an angel who told him that the knowledge of the tablets would be found in the New World
In 1888, Anatole took over Sante prison outside of Paris, blood-bonded the inmates and guards and created a cult-like compound. It wasn't until Victoria Ash appeared and overcame his influence (with the help of her then ghoul, later childe, Regina Blake) that his hold over his followers started to break, He fled just before the Sheriff arrived.
During this age, his long blond hair had the unkempt look of a traveler or a colonial and his simple frock looked like that of a Catholic monk. A long string of rosary beads weighted with a brass Egyptian cross hung at his neck, adding to his monastic appearance. His eyes, a deep blue, burned with the light of madness unimagined, a powerful enticement to creatures such as those assembled around him, who felt they could imagine it all.
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