Marcel -Alt-1920s
Sobriquet: My Prince...
Appearance: A tall attractive man with dark brown hair and blue eyes, at 6ft - 2inches, he cuts a very impressive figure. He usually dresses in tailored suits or whatever is presently fashionable.
Background: Many New Orleans Kindred wonder who actually rules the city. Though none dispute that Marcel is the prince, many suspect a shadow behind the throne. The shadow, some believe, belongs to Marcel's rarely mentioned and unseen brother, Jereaux.
Many doubt that Jereaux exists at all. Some believe the prince is but a figurehead controlled by his older brother. Others feel that the two brothers rule the city jointly, with neither exercising absolute power. Few know the whole story of the two brothers.
Marcel and his older brother Jereaux lived on their family's plantation south of Baton Rouge. As he grew older, Marcel came to idolize Jereaux. When the Civil War broke out, Marcel enlisted along with his brother, hoping they would serve in the same unit. Unfortunately, illness kept Marcel from joining Jereaux when he was sent to Tennessee. When he recovered, Marcel was sent east, where he eventually joined Jeb Stuart's cavalry.
Though Marcel tried to remain in contact with his brother, they lost touch several months before the war ended. When he returned home, hoping to find his brother, he was instead told by his parents that they had heard nothing from Jereaux for several months.
For nearly a year, while Marcel worked to rebuild his family's plantation, he also spent a great deal of time seeking his brother's whereabouts. Army records told him little, however, and as his search yielded less and less useful information, Marcel's hopes began to fade. Finally, exactly one year after he had returned home, Marcel was awakened by the excited cries of his parents. Two men were riding up to the house, and one of the men was his brother Jereaux.
In his excitement, Marcel failed to notice anything different about his brother or anything strange about his older traveling companion. He did not question when the two retired for the day to a room they requested be completely shielded from the sunlight, claiming fatigue from their journey. Both remained in their room for the entire day, coming out only after the sun had set. The routine continued for the next three days and might have continued much longer had Jereaux, impatient to get on with his plans, not intervened. On the third night, Jereaux went to his brother and told him what had happened to him during the war. Shortly before the war ended, he had been mortally wounded in a skirmish in eastern Georgia. He had managed to pull himself away from the fighting and find safety in a small grove of trees. When he awoke that night, he found that the battle, and his unit, had moved on. He staggered after them, only to fall unconscious after traveling a few miles.
When he next awakened, he found himself in the home of an old man calling himself Lothar Constantine. Constantine explained that he was a vampire, a member of the Ventrue Clan, who had been watching the young man the night before as he struggled to save his own life. Only in the last moments, when it became clear to him that the young man would not survive if something was not done, and Constantine intervened.
The changes caused by the Embrace shocked Jereaux, who struggled to adapt to the demands of his vampiric nature. Returning home seemed impossible at first, but the ever-growing need to know his brother's fate soon brought him to the plantation.
Jereaux told his brother that he had feared him dead, and that he never again wanted to fear such a thing. During the trip to the plantation, Jereaux had already broached the idea of Embracing Marcel, and Constantine had agreed to it. Marcel's initial horror at the suggestion crumbled as Jereaux used what influence he had over his brother, finally coaxing Marcel into allowing Constantine to Embrace him.
The very next night Jereaux watched as his sire Embraced his younger brother. After the change, Jereaux's attitude toward the old man darkened. He separated himself and his brother from their sire as much as possible, giving Constantine a room in a different part of the house. He allowed Constantine as little time as he could with Marcel, taking it upon himself to train his younger brother in the ways of the Kindred and their clan. Jereaux did all he could to make Constantine's existence on the plantation as unpleasant as possible. On the rare occasions that he did talk, Jereaux would refer to his sire as an old fool and abuse him as much as possible.
When Constantine announced his departure, however, Jereaux appeared apologetic, and the two rode out into the night. When Jereaux returned the next night, he had changed clothes and announced that Constantine would not be returning. Their sire has never been seen again.
Jereaux and Marcel then moved to New Orleans. There Jereaux posed as Marcel's sire and began making political connections with other prominent Kindred. Meanwhile, Marcel earned a position in Prince Doran's spy network, where he utilized many of the talents he had learned during the war. Jereaux, who dealt regularly with Lawrence Meeks, the city's leading Nosferatu, saw that Marcel was appointed head of the network.
When Doran was murdered, Jereaux convinced Marcel that he could sway enough of the elders to support Marcel for the princedom. Those who did not support Marcel could be persuaded through blackmail, using the various bits of information Marcel had accumulated in his years in the spy network. Mere nights after the death of New Orleans' old prince, Marcel became her new one.
Shortly thereafter, Jereaux all but disappeared from Kindred society, soon becoming but a distant memory. Marcel himself almost never speaks his brother's name. To those more aware of the subtle changes in the city, however, Jereaux's influence never left New Orleans. Marcel rarely takes advice from the city's elders; indeed, he occasionally acts in opposition to their suggestions. He often puts off problems for several nights and spends that time at the family plantation before returning with a decision.
Jereaux exists contentedly on the family plantation. He still helps his brother rule the city, while keeping himself at arm's length from the dangers such a position brings with it. But Jereaux has not abandoned his brother. He is, in fact, his brother's shield. Should Marcel become suspicious of anyone, or should his spy network inform him of a plot against him, Marcel reports the information to Jereaux. If Jereaux feels that the threat is legitimate, he deals with it, leaving Marcel's hands clean of any ensuing incidents.
Personality: Despite all the pressure you are under, you do not allow it to show. You smile a great deal and alsways speak in an even, refined tone. You tend to treat those who cross you as though they were disobedient children, trying to coax them to see you point of view.
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