History

Life

Pierpont McGinn was born to wealth. His family were some of the first non-francophones to settle in New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. His ancestors helped build the American Quarter (the future CBD) and the Garden District. The McGinn name is remembered by historians and genealogists to this day.

Much to Pierpont’s eternal lament, he was born too late to fight in the War Between the States. He was old enough to remember his mother crying upon reading The Daily Picayune’s list of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg: his father Waymond T. McGinn was among the soldiers who did not return from the Army of Northern Virginia’s ill-fated offensive. Pierpont remembers the war’s aftermath even more vividly. He remembers a life of affluence and boundless opportunity turned into one of hardship and bitterness. He remembers friends and family who were left broken, destitute, and dead before their times. He remembers seething with hatred at the Yankees, scallywags, and freedmen who destroyed the idealized world of his boyhood.

Contrary to what some neonates believe, McGinn was never a member of the Ku Klux Klan as a mortal: the KKK’s first iteration in the 19th century was primarily composed of lower-class whites whom families like the McGinns looked down upon. McGinn did, however, join the Knights of the White Camelia when he was barely old enough to grow facial hair. After the group’s dissolution, he joined the more aggressive White League. He proudly fought in the Battle of Liberty Place to overthrow New Orleans’ Reconstruction-era government, during which he shot and killed a policeman. McGinn was exhilarated. He felt like he’d fought in the war he’d missed. Although federal troops restored order within several days, no one in the White League was punished for their role in the insurrection that left 30-some people dead.

Concurrently with these activities, McGinn tirelessly worked to rebuild his family’s fortune. With his father dead in battle, he was the man of the house. His family retained their plantation, even if their former slaves were now sharecroppers, and that lucky turn of fate was probably all that saved them from destitution. McGinn went into business as a cotton merchant in New Orleans. He was one of the producers and traders who formed the New Orleans Cotton Exchange in 1871, which transformed postbellum marketing into a more efficient and profitable enterprise. It made him rich again. His friends and associates toasted him for rebuilding the McGinn name from near-ruin.

Embrace

McGinn’s business success impressed Troy Hansen, an American trader who’d moved to New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. Due to his American birth (and initial refusal to speak French), Hansen had long been snubbed by the city’s francophone elders. The end of the Civil War, though, heralded the decline of many old Creole families. Some Kindred speculate that Hansen Embraced McGinn—another American—to snub back his detractors as much as anything else. Hansen impressed upon his eager childe and protege that times were changing. New Orleans was an American city now.

Early Nights

Less than a decade later, Pearl Chastain sank into torpor. Accou, as her eldest childe and the eldest member of the Invictus after her, took up the reins of power. Hansen expected to be elevated to the Prima Invicta, now that it was one member smaller. Accou refused, seemingly snubbing him for his American blood. McGinn never forgot this slight against his bloodline.

He was patient, though. He could make Accou pay once he had power.

Pursuing Power

McGinn steadily climbed the ranks in his clan, city, and covenant. He joined the Guard de Ville in 1915, after Vidal opened up the coterie to non-Sanctified. He became an aedile during World War II. He Embraced his first childe, Austin Shepard, in the ’50s. He spent the ’60s fighting against the Civil Rights Movement with Randolph Cartwright, in whom he made a long-time ally. He remains proud of their actions to this night.

Pearl Chastain rose from her almost century-long torpor in the ‘70s, dashing Hansen’s hopes of joining the Prima Invicta—the odds were lower than ever with a “new” member on the council. To add insult to injury, Pearl proved just as disdainful of “Americans” as she’d been before her torpor, and mandated the use of French again at Invictus functions (a custom reversed by Accou concurrently with Vidal in 1969).

For Hansen, this was the final straw. While many of Pearl’s descendants jumped ship for the Anarchs, Hansen quit New Orleans altogether for Houston. It was a young and Invictus-held city with many opportunities, especially for an older Kindred. McGinn never said he was happy to see his sire go, but he’d learned all he could from the elder Ventrue. He was definitely happy to assume control over the assets that Hansen couldn’t take to Houston. Concurrently, McGinn resigned his position on the Guard de Ville—he’d “done his decades” as a hound—and happily recommended that it go to his childe Shepard. Pieces in place, McGinn turned his attention to climbing the Invictus’ highest rungs of power.

The next three decades went well enough. McGinn did his best to win Pearl’s good graces, who remained the axis around which the First Estate turned despite her decline. McGinn helped stem the bleeding of Invictus influence following the departures of Pearl’s descendants, which was largely to his benefit: that just made him more important. He struck an alliance with Pearl’s youngest childe, Adelais Seyrès, and took her as a lover. He let Adelais speak well of him to her sire, rather than try to woo the hidebound elder directly—he’d seen how well that worked out for Hansen. Pearl increasingly came to rely on McGinn as her hand in more “direct matters” than Accou.

It still wasn’t until Katrina that he caught his big break.

Hurricane Katrina

Following the mayor’s mandatory evacuation order on August 28, New Orleans’ vampires fled the city like rats off a sinking ship. The kine were all gone, and without their herds, the Kindred would starve.

The nearest two major cities were Houston and Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge was smaller but closer. Its prince was the Invicta Ventrue Marcel Guilbeau, who promised shelter to fellow members of the First Estate. The covenant’s members in New Orleans began a harrowing 80-mile journey north, hounded by Strix and Loup-Garoux who could not ignore the vulnerable convoy of vampires. Two of the Prima Invicta’s councilors, Dominique Toutain and Francesca Dumont, met final death. Pearl refused to leave New Orleans. Accou refused to leave his sire. The task of leading the bedraggled Invictus had to fall to someone.

It was during that dark hour that McGinn showed his quality. He rallied the Invictus against their attackers, personally killing a werewolf in single combat, and led the covenant on a fighting retreat to Baton Rouge. There, he faced another surprise: Marcel had been overthrown in a coup d’état by his Nosferatu seneschal, Lawrence Meeks, during the hurricane’s chaos.

Violence could have easily broken out, for the New Orleans Invictus had been good friends with Marcel. McGinn proved as able a negotiator as he was a fighter. Not only did he defuse immediate hostilities between Meeks and the New Orleans Invictus, he brokered a deal with the new prince. In return for shelter in Baton Rouge, McGinn’s covenant would recognize Meeks’ praxis as legitimate. They would support his claim in the probable conclave a justicar would call to deal with Katrina’s aftermath.

Rich Rewards

When the chaos subsided, McGinn was recognized as one of Katrina’s greatest heroes. He’d provided decisive leadership to the Invictus during their hour of need. Without his actions, the covenant’s losses would have been much worse. While this wasn’t a direct service to Clan Ventrue, Vidal elevated him to the Gerousia—he was the toast of the city and there were two vacant spots anyway following Dumont’s and Toutain’s final deaths. Pearl, to no one’s surprise, granted him a seat upon the Prima Invicta. He’d achieved what his sire never did.

McGinn’s ambitions burned even higher. Seats on his clan’s and covenant’s highest bodies were well and good, but he craved direct rule over other Kindred. He turned his attentions to Uptown. Dumont had long been the parish’s regent, and following her final death, tradition dictated that it should pass to her childe Rebecca DeMatthews. However, Rebecca was still but a neonate, and McGinn also had a blood claim—his sire was Dumont’s younger broodmate.

It was McGinn’s good fortune that Rebecca proved less than up to the task of managing her new empire. One of her new ghouls, a former servant of Dumont’s driven mad by the shattered blood bond, leaked his new domitor’s vampirism to reporters and attempted to kill her. Rebecca dealt with the rogue ghoul, but McGinn (who’d been watching her closely for any dirt) cleaned up the Masquerade breach first, then made sure everyone knew. Rebecca was greatly embarrassed. With her personal Masquerade possibly exposed to hunters, she left New Orleans for Houston. McGinn assumed regency over Uptown. Now one of the most influential vampires in the city, he proposed blood marriage to Adelais. Pearl gave the union her blessing. The two’s vermilion wedding was a city-wide event and became a powerful symbol of the local Camarilla’s rebuilding.

McGinn was only denied one further honor. Dumont had also been Clan Ventrue’s primogen and McGinn sought his aunt-in-blood’s seat on the Cabildo. Vidal, however, seemed to believe McGinn’s star had climbed high enough in so short a time. Nor was the prince eager to raise an Invictus clanmate so much higher than his peers Marcel (who’d fled to New Orleans) and George Smith. Dumont’s seat went to Gabriel Hurst, a Sanctified neonate nearly a century McGinn’s junior.

McGinn was the first to congratulate his younger clanmate.

Since the Storm

The 21st century finds McGinn one of the leading members of the regional Invictus, and one of the most politically powerful ancillae in New Orleans. His star has remained on the rise in rough conjunction with the arrest of Accou Poincaré’s: the Toreador’s continued devotion to his obviously past-her-prime sire has undermined (though not completely tarnished) his past reputation as an able leader. That suits McGinn just fine. His own past successes are hard to argue with, and younger members of the Invictus see McGinn as a rising and ambitious force with an eye towards the future.

McGinn has used his new influence to prosecute a feud against Accou. This has never spilled over into direct violence, but financial sabotage, social attacks to embarrass his fellow councilor, and schemes to chip away at Accou’s reputation are the order of the night. All of it is plausibly deniable, and thus far Pearl remains too apathetic to do anything. In McGinn’s eyes, once Accou falls, he’ll dominate the Invicts. After that, his ascent to the primogen is inevitable. And from there, who knows? For now, McGinn’s star is on the rise. Few doubt he will scheme to advance his cause regardless of which way the winds of chance blow the factional warfare of the Big Easy.

Personality

McGinn is the loudest and most bombastic voice on the Invictus. Though he is not the eldest Kindred within the First Estate, he holds a reputation as one of its most traditional members. That is, McGinn absolutely believes that the Invictus should rule every Kindred domain, that the Ventrue should rule the Invictus, and that the Gerousia should rule the Ventrue. Though McGinn sits on both that august body and the Prima Invicta, in addition to holding regency over Uptown, he is still not satisfied. He sees only the fact that a Cabildo seat is absent from his many titles and honors.

Race Wars

Pierpont McGinn is, in no uncertain terms, a racist of the highest order. While he shows the largest amount of hatred for blacks, he has nothing but disdain for anyone who’s not white and Christian—and even then, if they’re not Protestant, he views them with no small amount of suspicion.

In the many nights since McGinn began his Requiem, he has pigeonholed the various clans into similar niches, with the Ventrue at the top of the heap. However, even after so many years of unlife, McGinn considers “purity” of birth to be of far greater importance than Embrace. In his mind, a white Ventrue is superior to a white Gangrel, but a white Gangrel is superior to a black or Hispanic Ventrue. In fact, McGinn lost substantial respect for Vidal when the prince, over the course of the years, backed down from his positions on white supremacy and the institution of slavery.

It also galls McGinn to no end that the black Accou Poincaré is his senior on the Prima Invicta. Although McGinn would probably want him out of the way anyway, simple prejudice may well be the driving reason for their feud.

Influence

Domain

McGinn is the regent of Uptown, one of the city’s larger parishes. He has a number of Kindred vassals and greatly enjoys his status as a feudal overlord. (Domain ••••)

Mask

McGinn poses as his own descendant, Cedric B. McGinn, a ruthless real estate magnate with ties to neo-Confederate groups. He’s an Exalted Cyclops on the local Ku Klux Klan and a ranking member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Cedric is even married to Adelais’ mortal identity. McGinn finds his mask’s truthfulness amusing.

Pawns

McGinn controls Excelsior Real Estate, one of the city’s biggest real estate firms and the source of much of his wealth. As he likes to say, “Land is ma business.” He has ties to a number of civic and corporate boards, and is a campaign donor to many (white) politicians.

Because of his racist attitudes, McGinn maintains contacts in numerous white supremacist groups, from older organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and Sons of Confederate Veterans to modern anti-Islamic groups that have sprung up since 9/11. Since the mid-late 2010s, he’s also developed contacts among the alt-right. Through these organizations, McGinn gains surprising access to local businesses and pockets of criminal activity that have remained inaccessible to either Antoine Savoy or Reynaldo Gui. He’s the only Kindred in the city known to have made inroads with the Dixie Mafia.

Status

McGinn is one of the most influential members of the Invictus. Although he’s relatively new to the Prima Invicta, he’s far more active than the ennuic Pearl and the banished Matheson. His only real rival for influence among the covenant’s leadership is Accou. (Invictus Status ••••)

McGinn’s long service as a hound, heroism during Katrina, and regency over Uptown have also won him no small acclaim in the larger Camarilla. (Camarilla Status •••)

McGinn sits on Clan Ventrue’s Gerousia and is no less esteemed among his clan for many of the same deeds. He’s the most vocal advocate of Ventrue superiority in the city. (Ventrue Status •••)

Genealogy

• 3. Ventrue (e. prehistory, d. millennia BCE)
　• 4. Medon (e. millennia BCE, d. centuries BCE)
　　• 5. Etewoklewes (e. millennia BCE, d. 3rd century?)
　　　• 6. Decimus Titus Optatus (e. 3rd century, d. 15th century)
　　　　• 7. Alejandro Rojas y Batiz (e. 15th century, d. 1860s)
　　　　　• 8. Francesca Dumont (e. early 19th century, d. 2005)
　　　　　　• 9. Rebecca DeMatthews (e. late 20th century)
　　　　　• 8. Troy Hansen (e. mid 19th century)
　　　　　　• 9. Pierpont McGinn (e. late 19th century)
　　　　　　　• 10. Austin Shepard (e. mid 20th century, d. 2005)
　　　　　　　　• 11. Jethro Cyr (e. late 20th century, l. 2005)

Lineage

Pierpont McGinn is childe to Troy Hansen, an Antebellum trader and businessman who serves on the primogen of Houston. Hansen was childe to Alejandro Rojas y Batiz, a Spanish nobleman who served on New Orleans’ early primogen from the 18th century until the Civil War, when his haven was burned down by assailants unknown during the city’s capture by the Union. Alejandro was childe to Decimus Titus Optatus, a Roman elder and prince during the Middle Ages in Iberia. He met final death during the Anarch Revolt. Optatus was childe to Etewoklewes, a Mycenaean methuselah active in imperial Rome. He disappeared during the Crisis of the Third Century and is presumed deceased. Etewoklewes was childe to Medon, one of the clan founder’s first childer who set himself up as a god-king on an island in the Aegean. He ruled over its kine with an iron fist until they burned down his palace during the day. Medon was childe to Ventrue. The Kingship Clan holds their founder perished long ago, making them the only clan free of an Antediluvian’s machinations.

Broodmates

McGinn is Troy Hansen’s sole progeny. His lover Adelais has made quips about him having a temperament suited to an “only childe.”

Childer

McGinn’s only childe, Austin Shepard, was a former hound on the Guard de Ville who met final death during Hurricane Katrina.