Sizwe Ghiberti
- Giovanni -x- Shug Dunsirn -x- Venice -x- Beirut
Sobriquet: Sizwe (sez-Wa). The Tracker (respectful). Pepper, a reference to his partnership with Shug Dunsirn (rude).
Appearance: Sizwe stands six-foot, five inches tall and probably weights around three hundred pounds. The tracker has virtually no body-fat and ripples with muscle. His eyes and hair are dark, but over the last three centuries his skin has lightened from its original saddle brown complexion to a dark goldenrod color that looks unhealthy and jaundiced in a black man. He wears his hair in tight dark braids, not dreads, that reach just past well muscled shoulders. He is equally comfortable wearing tribal leathers and homespun weave as he is in wearing the latest Italian fashions. His jewelry is always grotesque, consisting of equal parts pure gold, semi-precious to rare gem stones, and human bones, teeth and the occasional bezoar. He usually dresses to fit the occasion and tends to play up the part of the aboriginal barbarian to please the clients. At the time of his Embrace, Sizwe was probably in his mid to late teens, a fact supported by the fact that he has all of his teeth. In dangerous situation he can become the very image of the blood covered African warrior and while he is perfectly familiar with modern firearms, he carries a black-powder pistol, a handmade machete and a chipped obsidian ritual dagger.
Behavior: On the surface, Sizwe is silent to the point of seeming mute and the epitome of the stoic African hunter. When there is need to speak he doesn't hesitate, but even then he is usually curt and succinct to a fault. When it is just he and Shug, he usually has quite a bit more to say and speaks in a cultured Franco-Arabic accent. When he is drunk, he can be positively verbose and can be frighteningly chummy, but most mortals and Kindred never see this side of Sizwe.
History: Sizwe is a Xhosa name meaning "a nation or a people". Sizwe was born from the rape of a Xhosa woman by a Dutch born Ghiberti slave trader named Adrianus in 1667. His mother, whose name he never learned, was a Xhosa princess sold into slavery by her ambitious younger sister who wished to reach the throne more quickly. He has no memory of her, but his Berber nanny spoke of her often and her stories are all that he has of the woman who gave birth to him, for shortly after his birth and naming, she was sold by Sizwe's father to a Turkish pirate.
Sizwe grew up in Marrakesh, a major city in the northwest African nation of Morocco. There he lived upon the Ghiberti estate, but not as a slave, rather he was the bastard son of Adrianus Ghiberti, a wealthy and respected trader is slaves. From his earliest recollections he spoke Dutch and Italian at home, and Arabic, Spanish and French in the streets. While still a child he remained in the care of a Berber wet-nurse named Tidir, but once he turned twelve, his father sold his nanny and turned the boy over to a priest, Father Erwin who taught him Latin, mathematics, philosophy and of course Christianity. When Sizwe turned sixteen his father took him on his first slave raid in South Africa, for his bravery and devotion in hunting down potential slaves, Sizwe was rewarded with his very first slave, a Xhosa woman who became his first lover.
In that same year, his father received a reward as well, the Embrace. Sizwe would become his father's first ghoul and was bound to him by the proxy-kiss until 1689. Over the intervening six years, Sizwe became one of the most notorious Ghiberti slavers in South Africa. So much so, that his father's sire Jarthis Giovanni chose him for his next progeny. After Sizwe's Embrace Jarthis took over Sizwe's education and began tutoring him in the fine art of nigrimancy; for Jarthis profited not only from the living slaves he sold, but also upon the many wraiths and spectres created in the process of procuring mortal slaves. What Sizwe couldn't realize was the depth of Adrianus' jealousy, for previous to Sizwe, it had been he who received the lion's share of his master's attention. Of course, the entire affair of pitting father and son against one another was just one of Jarthis' many perverse activities.
In Sizwe, Jarthis found an apt pupil and one who could mingle easily with the dark-skinned natives of South Africa. Despite the lucrative nature of the Triangle Trade, sizwe's sire was beginning to encounter problems with the native vampires of the region who called themselves Laibon. When Adrianus was dispatched to deal with the problem and failed, Jarthis sent Sizwe to South Africa to complete his father's mission. Though it took several years, Sizwe did finally stir the local tribes against the Laibon who ruled the area, but in a final confrontation he discovered Adrianus had betrayed their sire to the Laibon and set a trap for Sizwe who was taken captive. Adrianus returned to Jarthis with a contract for slaves and Sizwe became the slave of a Laibon sorcerer called Sithembile.
Sithembile broke the boy's blood-bond and substituted it with a blood-bond of his own, thus making Sizwe a slave to him in every conceivable way. This state of affairs lasted until 1705, when a neighboring Laibon warlord over-ran Sithembile's forces and slew him; in the moment of the shaman's death, Sizwe was freed and went mad. Several nights later he recovered to find the warlord, a Laibon called Xolani waiting for him. Xolani had been impressed with the carnage created by Sizwe's frenzy and offered to train the boy in a native discipline called Abombwe in return for knowledge of the foreign vampires of Europe and North Africa, Sizwe without either plans or other options agreed.
Sizwe would not return to Marrakesh for ten long years, but when he did, he found Jarthis still in power and his father Adrianus sent across the Atlantic to oversee the distribution of his slaves to clients in the New World. Jarthis welcomed Sizwe home like a prodigal son, but without warning Sizwe of his newest progeny, another scion of the Ghiberti family and once again Jarthis tried to trick Sizwe into another blood-bond. But this time, Sizwe saw through the deception and departed Marrakesh on poor terms with his sire. Later Sizwe would seek out other members of the Giovanni, but found few with whom he could work or socialize, that is until he reached England in 1718.
It was in London that the Camarilla called a blood-hunt against the last of the Lamia, a woman called Asra Batul who had travel from Egypt to England in the company of the Followers of Set at the turn of the century. The plague in the gorgon's blood and bite set the city of London ablaze with fear. When the Ventrue prince Mithras refused to call a blood-hunt against the gorgon, the Camarilla did so despite him. As the city's Kindred aligned with allies to hunt Asra down, Sizwe chose a Dunsirn named Shug as his partner for the hunt. Quite to the Camarilla's surprise, it was Sizwe and Shug who found the gorgon first and when it came time to decide which of the partners might drink her heart's blood, they flipped a coin for her soul and generation. Despite Sizwe's preternatural skills, the coin favored Shug and Sizwe honored their agreement and allowed Shug to diablerize the last Lamia. However, unexpectedly, Shug became violently ill and while the Camarilla honored the winners of the blood-hunt, Mithras did not. The ancient Ventrue prince granted the two Giovanni less than an hour's notice before calling his own blood-hunt, and by that time, Shug was already too sick to protect himself, so Sizwe made a fateful decision and took the Dunsirn with him, first to Ireland and then to the New World.
It wasn't until Sizwe and Shug crossed the Atlantic that they managed to throw off Mithras' assassins and another decade would pass before Shug could once again defend himself. At the time, the North American colonies were largely rural and they had only a few large cities like New York, Boston, and Charleston. The Giovanni moved from one port city to another, staying ahead of local sheriffs and the occasional Sabbat pack. It wasn't until 1730 that they reached the then French city of New Orleans and found reasonably warm welcome from Prince Doran. They decided to remain in New Orleans until the end of the American Revolution and by then it had been mutually agreed that theirs was a permanent partnership.
Recent Events: In late December of 2032, Sizwe and Shug were summoned from Marrakesh to Venice at the behest of Augustus Giovanni. Upon arrival they were shown directly into the old man's presence, and Sizwe could see that Shug was as afraid as himself. Augustus cut directly to the chase and placed upon Shug and Sizwe the mission of finding and capturing a group of individuals who had just fled Cagliari, Sardinia. According to the elder, the city of Cagliari was dead because an unidentified, but powerful necromancer had breached the necromantic security around the Rosselini soul vault and released millions of wraiths. Augustus veritably frothed at the mouth as he described the circumstances and it was clear to Sizwe the old man was barely in control. The bounty-hunters were charged with tracking a group of six vampires, including Baldesar Rosselini and an unknown woman of whom Augustus had a sketch. These two were critical and the mission would be considered a failure if they were not recovered, but a bonus would be offered for each of the others brought back, dead or alive, preferably alive. All those with whom they conversed on the topic of Cagliari were to be captured as well and transported directly to Venice. When Shug asked about what sort of payment they might expect to receive, Ausgustus replyed: "Anything".
