Lady Astor

Lasombra -x- London -x- Sabbat

Sobriquet: Cardinal, My Lady or Prioress.

Appearance

Lady Astor is refinement personified. She is a tall, regal woman in her mid-30s with chalk-white skin and glistening black lips. She converses in a reasoned tone, though there is an imperious gleam in her slate-grey eyes. Her shiny black hair is worn loose and seems to whip and writhe around her face like a nest of angry black snakes.

Background

Once named Katerina, she was born to Kievan nobility in the 10th century. She was a scholar and, by her mid-30s, a powerful matriarch of a family one step removed from the Kievan throne.

Supernatural conflict permeated the Russian capital Prince Vladimir Christianized the land. Katerina's wealth and power made her an ideal candidate for the Embrace by local Kindred. Her scholarly pursuits brought her to the attention of a foreign Lasombra, though; he wanted to expand his interests in the Rus. Following Russia's conversion, Katerina moved to Constantinople for a number of centuries.

After the fall of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, Katerina came to England with the intention of establishing her place permanently. She assumed her current identity before inculcating herself into the English aristocracy.

Lady Astor has spent the past few centuries accumulating power and laying plans for an eventual Sabbat takeover of London. Her designs are nearing fruition, though, and she resents any activity that might disrupt them. Astor is afraid that the Sabbat youth and their games will draw too much attention from the Camarilla. She hopes to utilize Dylan Bruce as a stalking-horse to draw Tremere and Ventrue attention away from the Sabbat's impending attack.

Lady Astor claims to follow the Path of Honorable Accord, while actually following the insidious Path of Revelations. Her interpretations of the Code of Milan allow her control the English Sabbat far more effectively that most archbishops or princes control their own cities. Astor has spent a millennium practicing for the upcoming Sabbat takeover of London and is the oldest and longest lived member of the Sabbat in London. When, not if, the Sabbat conquers London, she would presumably become the first archbishop of London.

Lady Astor has spent eight centuries watching and waiting for a key moment of inattention on the part of Mithras the Ancient. During the 19th century, she observed the mystical gambit of the London Tremere to incapacitate the ancient warrior. Since that time, she has observed the slow dissolution of Mithras's influence over London that seems to mirror his diminishing appearances to the Court of Avalon. She believes that he has finally slipped into torpor and is likely to remain there for the foreseeable future. But, she also knows that she faces the most dangerous opponent in Great Britain and can afford no missteps in bid for ultimate power.

During the late 20th century, she devised a strategy to determine if Mithras were simply lying low or if indeed he were truly asleep. She carefully pressed her Sabbat forces into those boroughs of London where the Lupines were known to reside. She orchestrated a series of attacks upon those seen in the company of the werewolves, designed to enrage the lycanthropes of London into following her trail of bread crumbs back to the likely resting place of Mithras.

The strategy worked perfectly, except for two things. The first was an irritatingly stubborn Assamite Antitribu who trailed the lupines to Mithras's haven and witnessed the subsequent battle. The other, was the vampire in residence, not Mithras but Valerius, the fallen childe of the ancient prince and the former seneschal of London. When the battle was done, Valerius was in torpor and the young assassin Monty Coven fell upon the former seneschal and diablerized him. Lady Astor witnessed all this from the shadows and seethed with rage, for somehow the Prince had sidestepped her trap and eliminated an untrustworthy childe in one move. Shortly thereafter, Lady Anne publicly declared herself queen of London, leaving Astor to wonder if Anne had beaten her to the punch and diablerized Mithras herself.

Personality

Current Events

Lady Astor has spent the last thirty years searching for signs of Mithras and preparing her next stratagem to subjugate London. During that time, she has discovered many useful things, including the survival of her most recent lover Dylan Bruce. Apparently, after Dylan's capture in Bulgaria, he became the prisoner of the oh-so-clever Tremere John Dee. Lady Astor understands what Dee hopes to accomplish, but she knows the futility of trying to gain Hell's lore without paying its price. It was she who arranged Dylan's release and launched him on his current endeavor. While she uses him as her stalking-horse in London, Katherine has trouble admitting to herself that she has become increasingly attached to the passionate blue-blood antitribu assassin.

Lady Astor's Statistics