Baldesar Rossellini

Giovanni -x- Rosaura Rossellini -x- Palazzo Rossi del Cagliari -x- Cagliari

Sobriquet: Count (polite), That $*#&(^@ Macaque! (but never to his face...)

Appearance: Baldesar is a large, handsome man in his mid-30s. He has luxurious brown hair that he usually wears in oiled ringlets. He also has a full beard and a slightly upturned mustache. His typical expression is that of a wolf regarding a rabbit.

Behavior: Count Rossellini despises those not of his race, culture or station. If a place is not Italy or at least European, then it is not worth the time to visit. Yet, as one of Ambrogino Giovanni's premiere agents, he is often called on to go to those places he hates most and deal those below his station. However, Baldesar often finds opportunities to make himself feel better about the situation by taking out his rage on the filthy, ignorant or unlucky local peoples.

Baldesar inspires fear in his underlings because it eases his growing concern that he is just a pawn in a larger game. He has seen the spirits of the Void howling to be loosed upon the Earth, and he secretly fears that Augustus Giovanni plans to unleash them upon an unsuspecting world. Baldesar enjoys the luxuries that his wealth brings and he knows that he would not play a great role in the kind of world that his clan plans to create. He also fears and distrusts his sister, who he believes harbors resentment for past abuses at his hands.

History: In life, Count Rossellini epitomized the characteristics of the Giovanni noble: a thin veneer of civilization over pure brutality. The count served the Giovanni family for many years and built its mercantile empire and cut out more than a few "human weeds" who sought to challenge Giovanni interests. Baldesar was a monster in his own family life as well, brutalizing and raping both his wife and sister.

Baldesar was finally granted the Embrace as reward for his role in the capture of a Cappadocian elder during the Giovanni Blood Hunt. Baldesar then brutally inducted his sister into Clan Giovanni, with the permission of his sire, Ambrogino. As a vampire, Baldesar was adept at amassing money and inspiring fear; his influence tainted a hundred port cities around the world. Unfortunately, he has proven less than adequate to the task of mastering necromancy.

The Last Decade: During the long winter nights of early 2029, Ambrogino contacted Baldesar and commanded him to make his way to the city of Seattle in the New World. He was also order to take his sister Rosaura, as her expertise in necromancy would aid in their objective. Ambrogino wanted them to aid in finding and recovering Francis Milliner from the tender mercies of the Setite agent provocateur Count Jocalo. Jocalo had bested Baldesar and his sister in Egypt in 1882 and so it was Baldesar's opportunity to turn the tables of the serpentine count. Destiny, however can make for strange bedfellows, as Baldesar and Rosaura were forced to work with the Ventrue Alastor Jeremy Sanderson.

A Month Ago: Baldesar's world imploded when the soul vault below his family's plazzo in Cagliari exploded, releasing over six million wraiths into the Underworld. That necromantic explosion released a large amount of Oblivion into the city and as the Shadowlands and the city of Cagliari began to overlap, millions of mortals died. Many died as they were exposed to the violent surges of raw Oblivion that periodically escaped the Underworld through the aperture of the necromantic nexus beneath the Rossellini manse. Yet ultimately, more were killed over the course of the night by evil ghosts called spectres.

The very fact that three million spectres are once again free to pursue their own dark ends and the errands of Oblivion isn't what terrifies Baldesar, rather it is that he has been granted a preview of what is to come if Augustus successfully completes the Ritual of the Long Night. Baldesar prays, yes prays, that those Giovanni sent to investigate the death of Cagliari will see the evidence of Augustus' folly and turn against him. That the death of an entire city is just the beginning and that the Giovanni founder cannot protect his clan or family from what is to come.

During the time it took Baldesar to escape the death-throws of his city, he came face to face with more than one of his former victims, he knows they are out there looking for him, all his sins remembered. The chance that he escapes the cataclysm to come is small, he knows this, but he isn't going down without a fight. Better than anyone else, Baldesar knows he is beyond redemption, but if he is going to die, then he plans to take as many of the Giovanni with him as possible. But, what if he did not have to die? There are other powers out there, older powers, darker powers than the Giovanni, who want to claim the world for their own. What if he sought them out and revealed all that he knows of the Giovanni and the Ritual of the Long Night? Would they kill him or would they let him live long enough to drive a stake through Augustus Giovanni's heart?

Tonight:

• -- Baldesar Rossellini's Statistics