Ivan St. Martin
Sobriquet: Ivan
History: Ivan St. Martin was the child of Gendarmes father, who taught him about the law, and it's enforcement. Ivan grew up watching his father and helping him, eventually becoming part of the law enforcement community in Paris. Ivan was researching a murder in Paris when he was observed first by Villon, then by Bernard. When they felt the time was right, Bernard embraced Ivan, telling him it was his duty as a policeman to help protect the city from supernatural danger. Ivan bought in and never looked back.
Ivan is the Kindred who has the most power in Paris and in France after the Prince François Villon. He controls the police, the intelligence services and the army. Most people in the French capital see him as the greatest nuisance that could be imagined.
They are right.
For Ivan, the Traditions are not only abstract concepts, or even a simple survival necessity. For Ivan, the Traditions are a reality of every second. His mission (his life?) is to protect the Masquerade and all the other Traditions and Edicts, to protect Paris, and France. Few people can enter Paris without being detected by Ivan. He knows he's doing the dirty job, but he knows someone has to do it.
The friendship he feel for Villon is sincere, born when the two where fighting Alexandre's hold of Paris with the other Anarchs. A soldier in mind, he lived to serve, and now he continues even in his unlife (He is Blood-Bonded to Villon, by his own choice).
Ivan made a lot of enemies. Most of them are exterior to Paris, and felt in some way the wrath of the Masques. Among them, the Giovanni Clan, the Brujah Clan, the Sabbat and, of course, the Assamite Clan. The Assamite are a very special case, as Gustav, Prince of Berlin, used their services to Kill Villon. Villon and Ivan were enemies of the Clan as they chased every attempt of use of the Assamite as assassin, and only tolerated their uses as Bodyguards. The number of Contracts in Paris were low, and the fact that the Masques always helped the victim to fight the Assassins was seen by the Clan as honorless. Furthermore, France was trying to keep its hold on Algeria, in spite of Assamite attempt to take its control via fundamentalism. The attempt happened in 1961, and failed. The answer was, as always, swift and merciless: More than 200 mortals of Algerian origin were killed. Among them, most of the Assamite mortal paws, and all the Assamite the Masques could discover.
In any US city, it would have been a potential Jyhad, but not in France: The Intelligence Services and Army were under the total control of the Toreador, and Ivan used them to track and destroy any potential Assamite threat. The Clan Assamite sent two of its warrior as ambassador to reach an agreement. Villon put them at the glass doors of the Pyramid of the Louvre... Under the guard of his ghouls. Then they were sent back to Alamut after the terrorist action of fall 1995.
For these reasons, Ivan and the Masques are forever the aims of Assamite attempt of destruction, for the Clan believe that if Ivan disappear, the security of Paris will drop and Villon will have to accept them back in the capital.
Among the interior's enemies, the Anarchs, who suffer from the intolerance of one who lived once among them. Ivan considers that any Kindred with non-Camarilla philosophy is a danger for Paris, and the anarchs are among them...
Alexis is seen as a dangerous rival, as he controls a rival sect, the Veilleurs. Ivan resent the fact that a part of the DST, the french internal security agency, was given to Alexis to use. Lazlo is seen as an lazy hedonist with no real power but the one Villon gives him.
Appearance:
| Apparent Age: 40's | Hair: Black | Eyes: Grey | Gender: Male |
| Height: 5' 11" | Weight: 190 pounds | Race: Caucasian | Nationality: French |
Ivan is a powerfully built man of medium height, around his 40th anniversary, with long black hair and grey eyes, always full will contempt. He is normally wearing black tight clothes and doc martens. His appearance is awing: When he enters a room, silence replaces discussions. Legs slightly appart, like a warrior ready to jump at the throat of his enemy, mirror shades hiding his emotion while reflecting those of his interlocutors: It's very unnerving to someone to talk to Ivan about some delicate subject, and see in the shades the sweat appearing on his brows...
And Ivan know it well... And he knows how to use his intimidating appearance. He only smiles in rare occasions, and it's always a predator's smile... Most Kindred feel somewhat nervous around him...
Behavior: He talks with a soft voice full of hidden messages and threats. He stares his interlocutor right in the eyes, without blinking. He is rarely seen in the society, but when he is in a soirée, he will usually keep by himself, far from everyone, more by contempt than by shyness. He is rarely invited, through, because of his pleasantries... And he knows it.
In front of Neonates, he shows himself as the great bastard the Anarchs think him to be. But he does it more to awe them and frighten them to prevent them form commiting mistakes than just for the fun of being hated by Anarchs.
Notes: One of the tricks he loves most is appearing by surprise in a reunion of intriguers, and walking in saying Messieurs, bonjour!... (When he talks like this, it means the next minutes will probably very hard for them...), laying his explosive-bullet desert eagle on the table, within arm reach of everyone there (Chimerstry ***) and talking while ignoring the growing nervousness of everyone... Another trick is used when he is talking to only one person: He lights a match, and start to admire the flame, putting the burning match between his mirrored eye and his interlocutor's... And then to light his cigarette, with an almost lazy gesture.
No one but Villon and some initiates know he mastered Vicissitude. He only uses it as a make-up, to avoid being recognized when spying possible suspects.
He is the master of the Masques (he choose the name alone). It is thought because of the Masquerade, but it's, in fact, a double meaning: After all, he can wear any mask he wants to...
His sect is composed of Toreador only, and is a frightening intervention force for most of the Neonates and Anarchs.
He is coordinated ambidextrous, and so, can use his twin Desert Eagle at the same time, without any minuses.
Recently, Ivan succeded in arousing the cold anger of Lazlo Guerin, by provoking the suicide of Daniel, a young Bâtard. The poweful Ivan discovered too late the relation between the two was much more than temporary passion.
Daniel reaction was, too, surprising: He sent a book of Villon's poems to the pope, with, as a signature, Daniel, XV as he was 15th Generation... Villon didn't like it at all when he received the letter of Daniel, two days after his suicide, describing how he had sent letters to different parisian Cainites, and how the Inquisition of Notre Dame knew now about the appearance of Ivan...
But to Ivan, Lazlo is now the real problem. Villon gave him resouces he could well use against him...
The new project of Ivan was chosen when he updated his Masques To today's technology: He had to use a mortal to enter false information in the computers to protect his sect. He resented doing this, because he had only indirect power over the machine. So he is trying to find or create new Disciplines that will have effects on computers and other automatic technological device. His first tries, called tentatively CyberPresence, CyberObfuscate and CyberDominate have some encouraging results, but nothing really stable, and can't be used without high expenditure of Willpower and Blood for sometimes random results. He works over it with one of his Childe, embraced for his familiarity with technology, and search for rumours about similar powers (And wonders how the Lupines succeed where superior Kindred failed...). He knows soon the technology will be a threat to the Masquerade, unless the Kindred learns to affect it the same way mortals are affected by normal Disciplines...
