Douglas Laird
- London -x- Sabbat -x- Tremere Antitribu
Sobriquet: Deacon-D (respectful neonate), High-Father (respectful ancilla), Your Excellency (respectful elder), Aaaaaahhhhaaaawwww!!!! (anyone disrespectful)
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History: Douglas Laird's beginnings were humble enough. He was born in 1621, the third year of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) to a family of Highland tenant farmers beholden to the local laird of Clan Douglas. His family was struck down by a local infestation of the Black Death, thought to have been brought back from central Europe by a recently returned local man turned mercenary. The mercenary hosted a large celebration upon his return and the whole village, including Douglas' father were drinking heavily in honor of the local celebrity when the mercenary keeled over dead from the plague. Naturally, but foolishly, all the attendees rushed home to avoid the fever, but only succeeded in tracking it back to their families, few of which survived.
The local laird of Clan Douglas, a very widespread and powerful Scottish clan, was obligated to see to the burial of all those upon his lands and so, he and the local Presbyterian elders made the rounds to all the small holdings. At the small farm of Douglas' family, the laird's men were throwing pitch upon the house in preparation for its burning, when the laird heard a babe's cry from within. Being a godly man and more than a little courageous, he forced his way into the plague-house while his retinue looked on in horror. The laird found a baby-boy recently born between the cooling thighs of his dead mother. The boy was pale in an unearthly way, scrawny and starving, despite this the laird wiped the boy off with a bit of his tartan soaked in his family liquor and wrapped the child in his cloak as he left the the building, which despite his heroism, was still set ablaze.
The Laird of Douglas was no fool, for he made camp within sight of the burning homestead and called for a single wet-nurse to feed the boy child. When a fortnight had past and neither the boy, the laird, nor the wet-nurse came down with the fever of death, the laird took the boy home to his own manse. The laird's wife, already beyond child bearing years, was pleased to have another child to raise as her own. As was the custom in that day and age, the laird named the foundling's given name after his clan, Douglas. He could not have known how apt that naming would come to be, for the name Douglas was an Anglicized form of the Scottish surname Dubhghlas, meaning "dark river" from the Scotch Gaelic.
Initially, the babe was weak and colicky, but with regular food, shelter and a pair of loving parents, he grew fairly quickly. The servants however, were ever wary of the boy's unnaturally pale complexion and pink eyes. To the ignorant and superstitious highland folk, the boy bore signs of evil parentage and thus was destined to become evil for that was the way of original sin. The servants attitudes were not unknown to the laird or his wife, but the boy was rarely out of their sight and thus, no unfortunate accidents befell him. The laird's wife taught him speak and eventually to read, while the laird taught the boy the manly arts and his place in the world as a son of the noble house of Douglas.
All was well within the household of the Douglas manse until the boy entered puberty, thereafter strange events plagued all who stayed at the manse, but the strangest things always occurred when young Douglas was present. The Douglas manse was plagued by strange voices and sounds, the unpredictable movement of objects and the eruption of spontaneous fires throughout the household. The laird and his wife were beside themselves with concern and uncertainty and the servants began to run away despite the laird's threats of retribution. So, a local preacher was called to drive out the evil spirits, but was in turn was driven mad, and had to be carted off to a house for the insane in Edinburgh. Shortly thereafter, two warlocks appeared at the manse gate and asked to be admitted. One was a corpse eating witch from further up the highlands and the other was a sorcerer come up from London; both claimed that they could quiet the spirits of the house, but both wanted the same thing as payment for their services, the youth Douglas.
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