Vibia Sabina
- Salubri -x- Sofia-Grad -x- The Cabal
Appearance: Vibia is an aging Roman beauty with dark brown eyes, hair gone silver and light olive complected skin. Though the first signs of old age are present, her countenance is remarkably free of wrinkles and crows feet. Her skin shows the flush of life and is without blemish, giving a good impression of her former youthful vitality. She has her father's prominent Roman nose, but in a womanly proportion to her face. She has a petite frame and the soft appearing body of a woman who doesn't engage is regular physical activity. In the modern nights, her appearance giver her the air of a well heeled cougar on the prowl, which isn't so far from the truth. She dresses to fit the occasion and has no problems adopting modern fashions, but in private she prefers the loose simple clothing of her youth.
Background: Vibia Sabina was born in 83 C.E.; she was the second cousin, once removed, to Roman Emperor Hadrian. She was the daughter to Salonina Matidia (niece of Roman Emperor Trajan), and suffect consul Lucius Vibius Sabinus. After her father’s death in 84 C.E., Sabina along with her half-sisters lived with their grandmother, mother and were raised in the household of Trajan, his wife Pompeia Plotina and her stepfather.
She married Hadrian in 100 C.E., at the Roman Empress Pompeia Plotina's request, for Hadrian to succeed her great uncle, in 117 C.E. Sabina's mother Matidia (Hadrian's second cousin) was also fond of Hadrian and allowed him to marry her daughter.
They had no children and had an unhappy marriage. Sabina was said to have remarked that she had taken steps to see she never had children by Hadrian because they would "harm the human race". It seems that she once aborted a child of theirs. Sabina was strong and independent and her beliefs in marriage didn't sit well with the Emperor.
Sabina had an affair with Suetonius, a historian (and Hadrian's secretary), in the year 119 C.E. In 128 C.E., she was awarded the title of Augusta. Vibia Sabina died before her husband, some time in 136 or early 137 C.E. Hadrian's stone elegy for his wife depicts the apotheosis, or divine ascent of Sabina in accordance with her posthumous deification on the order of Hadrian.
Personality: In first encounters Vibia gives the impression of cool distance while she appraises the individual with whom she will spend her precious, stolen time. She is well spoken in all major modern languages and enjoys a good debate or just pleasant conversation. She likes to prowl the modern world and for the most part enjoys mankind's innovations. The impression she likes to give is of a well educated, wealthy, bisexual cougar on the prowl for an elegant tryst. If she finds a particularly intelligent or talented individual, she may take on the position of both dominant elder lover and worldly wise mentor at the same time. This arrangement has been her habit since time out of mind and though she prefers medical students, she isn't shy about adopting a gifted student of the humanities. She often maintains an extensive list of local lovers to feed from and often maintains contact with these individuals long after the affair has ended. While generous and attentive to those for which she holds affection, she can be quite stubborn and set in her ways. Her willfulness sets her apart from those around her and adds a spark of fire to her otherwise cool demeanor. On occasion she has been known to meddle and coddle her charges, but she seems happy in the dual role of mother and lover. The one thing that all who encounter her realize very quickly is that her true love is humanity as a whole and though she may grace an individual with her attentions for a time, ultimately she will move on with the tide of humanity's ebb and flow.
Current Events: While Vibia is happy to finally be returning to a province of the 'Empire' as she sees Bulgaria, she isn't certain where she will actually reside. Though the 'Esparta Fortress' is a tolerable haven, it isn't what she regards as a home. Almost immediately she will search out an urban area that suits her and establish a home (palace) where she feels comfortable. Unfortunately, Sabina has never lost the love of luxury that she knew as a mortal and as a result, lives a life of conspicuous consumption and excess. While this trait is something that she should be worried about, it pales compared to her current spiritual conflict.
Vibia has been in Golconda now for over a thousand years; one of the reasons that she wasn't directly involved in a retaliatory strike against the Tremere bloodline during the medieval period or a target of their exhaustive purge of the Salubri Clan.
Now however, for the first time in over a millennium she feels the first uncontrolled stirrings of the Beast; she has recently lost her sure footing on the Road of Humanity. The cause is her eldest childe, Adonai, who was something of a sorcerous experiment gone wrong. The Sabbat would laugh itself into collective torpor if they knew that the so called 'Furies' were a failed experiment on the part of Vibia to recreate the Salubri warriors of old. Adonai is to Vibia what the monster was to Doctor Frankenstein, though a success in thaumaturgic engineering, he is her greatest moral regret. His violent lifestyle and destructive nature is completely counter to Vibia's pursuit of Golconda and her inability to sever the relationship is threatening her humanity.
The crux of the problem lies in the fact that for the first time in recent history, a Salubri bloodline is making reasonable headway towards removing the threat of the Tremere Clan. That the architect of that campaign is the vampiric equivalent of a mad terrorist instead of a knight in shining armor is what distresses Vibia so much. She feels responsibility for the carnage and death that he inspires or sets in motion. If he were not bringing well deserved destruction down on the Camarilla and Tremere, she could not allow his violent life to continue; for ultimately, it is the mortals who suffer for his actions and her mistake. But, with a successful campaign in full swing and the Tremere reeling, what can or should she do?
