The Bourbon Sanctified

Bourbon Sanctified

“The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.”
Jawaharlal Nehru
“There cannot be peaceful coexistence in the ideological realm. Peaceful coexistence corrupts.”
Jiang Qing
“More and more people care about religious tolerance as fewer and fewer care about religion.”
Alexander Chase

The Lancea et Sanctum in New Orleans are a house divided. Prince Vidal is infamous as an ultraconservative dogmatist, religious fanatic, and relentless persecutor of Vodoun. His followers are largely cut from the same mold. That’s why they’re nicknamed the Hardliners. So too does Antoine Savoy, who’s positioned himself as a more tolerant and easygoing alternative to Vidal, lead his own faction of Sanctified moderates. They’re nicknamed the Bourbon Sanctified, or simply “the Bourbons” due to how they’re based out of the French Quarter, Savoy’s own association with the mortal Bourbon dynasty, and not least of all, the fact that many of them chiefly seem after a good time. The parties they enjoy in the Quarter are legendary. The more theologically inclined Bourbons still hold that it is their duty to prey upon the kine and drive them from their sinful ways, but many Bourbons could care less about their covenant’s religious commandments. They simply want to enjoy themselves.

Besides this attitude, religious tolerance is the chief difference between the Bourbon Sanctified and their Hardliner counterparts. Antoine Savoy bears no grudge against Kindred who follow other religious faiths. He welcomes followers of any beliefs among the Bourbons, including those who ascribe to no religious beliefs at all. Someone who supports Savoy out of political convenience, or simply because they enjoy the Quarter’s “unlifestyle,” is just as useful to him as a sincere believer. The Toreador’s detractors say he’s split the covenant and that if it weren’t for him, the Lancea et Sanctum would be the most powerful faction in the city. Savoy’s supporters say he’s brought Kindred into the Church Eternal who would otherwise be turned off by Vidal’s intolerance and fanaticism.

Whether by accident or design, Antoine Savoy has positioned himself as the second-most politically powerful vampire in New Orleans. While he seems to have no desire to directly challenge Vidal for dominance, few have any doubt that such is his ultimate aim. Savoy acts like a campaigning politician, coaxing Kindred to his cause one at a time. For the time being, his greatest areas of influence do not greatly overlap Vidal’s. Where the prince focuses on the mortal politicians of the city, Savoy moves among socialite circles and charitable organizations. Vidal’s business contacts are mirrored by Savoy’s ties to organized crime. Both have substantial influence in the tourist industries, though Savoy’s tend to be localized to a few specific areas. Even the prince’s connections within the Catholic Church are somewhat reflected by Savoy’s ties to Vodoun, though Savoy really holds only a small amount of influence in that arena compared to Baron Cimitière.

Savoy seems content to wait and build his power base slowly. He holds his own court, which is attended by a small but growing number of Kindred to whom he has granted feeding rights and other consideration in exchange for loyalty. As Vidal is the true prince, Savoy has a much smaller number of Kindred supporters. In fact, those vampires who actively serve or support Savoy probably number barely more than a quarter the number of those who have sworn fealty to the prince. Still, considering that the French Quarter and other neighborhoods over which Savoy holds dominion represent but a tiny fraction of New Orleans, his support among the Kindred is far larger proportionately than would be expected. These numbers also do not include the Giovannini and Followers of Set, who are not members of the Camarilla but nevertheless stand allied with the French Quarter Lord. They also leave out the so-called “Quarter rats” who do not have a legitimate right to even exist in New Orleans.

Antoine Savoy: The Lord of the French Quarter

A few of Savoy’s vassals have taken to referring to him as the “prince of the French Quarter” in order to give him equal legitimacy to Vidal, but Savoy himself rejects the honorific. Until he is prince of all New Orleans, he maintains that he will take no such title. This general attitude is perfectly representative of Savoy’s demeanor and general tactics. Where Vidal is a powerful and forceful leader, emotional and yet dignified, Savoy is a slick politician—or, according to his detractors, a used car salesman. Everything hides behind a facade of humility and good humor that’s engaging enough to charm even many who claim it is a facade.

As might be expected, Savoy’s strength comes in making allies and acquiring debts. His greatest authority, and the single most brilliant political move he made in his early years, was his use of the French Quarter in the nights following his claim of dominion over the neighborhood. He almost immediately began offering feeding rights in the area and the surrounding neighborhoods without waiting for Vidal or anyone else to confirm that he had the authority to do so. He asked only a few moderate promises of favors returned in exchange, nothing so minor as to appear suspicious, but nothing outrageous either. By doing so, Savoy instantly built up a following of Kindred who would support his bid to remain in power. After all, if Vidal removed him and replaced him with someone else, they would lose their rights to the area as well. Savoy has since extended that same tactic to other neighborhoods, particularly those that are too impoverished for Vidal to pay much attention to, yet not so heavily Vodoun-dominated that they fall under Baron Cimitière’s influence.

Even tonight, Savoy relies on these tactics more than any other in his struggle against Vidal. His position is simple: Vidal has more power, so Savoy needs to coax allies from Vidal. He sends constant messengers, envoys and even offers of aid to members of the Cabildo and Vidal’s government, pointing out ways in which they might help each other, ways in which his rule would be preferable to Vidal’s. To date, few powerful Kindred in the city have heeded the messages, but a great number of neonates on the street listen. Savoy plays up his message of tolerance and faith without the level of oppression offered by Vidal, and he focuses on building power where the prince has neglected it. On multiple occasions Savoy has attempted to ally himself with Baron Cimitière, but the Samedi has invariably rebuffed him due to Savoy’s use of Vodoun as a political tool and marketing ploy.

The Camps

Savoy’s followers can be divided into roughly five camps: “legitimate” members of the Lancea et Sanctum who follow him (nicknamed the Top Shelf Bourbons), the Giovannini, Veronica Alsten-Pirrie’s faction of Anarchs (known as the New Guard), the Setites (allegedly) and the Quarter rats, a collection of illegal and unacknowledged vampires, many of them Caitiff and thin-bloods, who do not have Vidal’s permission to dwell in New Orleans.

While Savoy’s faction is smaller than Vidal’s, his allies are more dependable than the prince’s and have a greater vested interest in seeing him obtain power. He is also less prejudiced than the prince and is willing to cut deals and court friends whom Vidal would never even consider: in short, the true measure of his strength lies in alliances and coalition-building more than it does in the followers indicated below.

The Top Shelf Bourbons

The core of Antoine Savoy’s supporters are Kindred followers of the Lancea et Sanctum who’ve tied their fortunes to the French Quarter lord’s rather than Prince Vidal’s. They’re variously nicknamed “the Top Shelf Bourbons,” the “Top Shelves,” or simply “the Tops.” While the Quarter rats are also Bourbons, the Top Shelves say they’re higher quality. It’s doubtful even Savoy would say otherwise.

Most of the Top Shelves live in the French Quarter. Unlike the Quarter rats (see below), these Kindred are accepted members of the city. All of them have presented themselves to the prince at some point and received his permission to dwell in New Orleans, which he cannot publicly revoke without pretext. The Top Shelves can show their faces in Elysium and travel beyond the Quarter without fear for their safety… or at least no more than any other vampire.

Vidal, of course, would be insane to knowingly grant one of his rivals more followers. When Savoy first rose to power, he converted Kindred who were already accepted residents of New Orleans to his cause. For the most part, this has been the only means by which he can expand his core base of support (at least among “legitimate” Kindred). Vidal will never grant permission for one of Savoy’s people to Embrace, and if any newcomer to the city looks overly friendly with the French Quarter lord and his partisans, they typically find themselves denied permission to stay in New Orleans permanently.

Savoy has found a number of extremely creative ways over the years to get around these restrictions, but he cannot employ such methods en masse. For the most part, the French Quarter lord expands the Top Shelves by converting Kindred from other factions. The frequency of these converts is slow, but that it happens at all is intensely worrying to Vidal—and in light of the prince’s supposedly imminent torpor, it seems only likely to increase. Savoy looks more and more like a winning horse.

The Giovannini

Clan Giovannini is bound by the Promise of 1528. Ostensibly, they stay out of the Camarilla’s business and the Camarilla stays out of theirs. However, the actual nature of the Promise is unknown to virtually all Kindred but its long-ago signatories, who’ve passed down general directives over the years to their childer and grandchilder. In many cities, the Giovannini stay out of Camarilla business unless it benefits them to get involved… in which case they simply try to avoid looking involved.

Vidal has long found the necromancers distasteful and banned them from New Orleans. Savoy saw easy allies against the prince and welcomed them into the French Quarter, where they maintain an “embassy” along Esplanade Avenue in the northern part of the Quarter (far away from the bars, clubs, and more touristy areas).

Full article: The Hecata.

The New Guard Anarchs

Anarch support for Antoine Savoy is not new. The French Quarter lord has been courting Anarchs since his sire’s ashes cooled. Vidal’s grant of domain in Mid-City for the Anarchs to run largely as they see fit has been the primary factor keeping the Movement (grudgingly) aligned with the prince, but it has always been a square peg in a round hole. Younger Anarchs have always been more sympathetic to Savoy’s cause than Vidal’s and were even believed to orchestrate the 1967 Carnival Coup with Savoy’s assistance. Individual Anarchs tired of the prince’s draconian ways have always found a home in the French Quarter.

Savoy’s courting of the Movement paid off in 2015 when it came out that the Ventrue John Harley Matheosn was feeding on neonates (several of them Anarchs) and Vidal was complicit in covering it up. For many younger Anarchs, this was the last straw. Veronica Alsten-Pirrie walked out from Mid-City with roughly half the Movement and resettled in the French Quarter. Now known as the “New Guard,” these Anarchs were already some of the angriest and most discontent against Vidal, and are potent new allies against the prince. Veronica herself has become one of Savoy’s inner circle and seems assured of a high place at his side—if he can become prince.

Full article: The Anarch Movement.

The Setites

The Setites are technically Quarter rats, as they have even less “right” to be in New Orleans than the Giovannini do. However, they are not outcasts and vagabonds merely hoping to survive another night. The serpents are a threat Vidal takes extremely seriously. The prince points to Savoy’s alleged coziness with the Setites as an example of his degeneracy. For his part, Savoy publicly denies any association with the Snake Clan, and cites the problem they also posed to his sire Maria Pascual. The French Quarter seems irresistible to them.

The details of the Setite presence in New Orleans are a closely guarded secret. It’s anyone’s guess just how many there are, or where they operate—or how tightly they’ve wrapped the city around their coils…

Full article: The Setites.

The Quarter Rats

The French Quarter is the single most overcrowded piece of Kindred real estate in the Big Easy. In his bid for followers against Vidal, Savoy has thrown open the Vieux Carré’s gates to any vampire who wants to make a home there. His hospitality has attracted criminals, exiles, outcasts, degenerates, nomads, and other “vagrants and trash” who wore out their welcomes wherever they used to live. Many of these Kindred are Caitiff and thin-bloods. Virtually all of them are of high generation and negligible social standing. It’s anyone’s guess how many there are. Collectively, they’re known as the Quarter rats, or simply “the rats.”

The French Quarter lord’s hospitality does not come free, however. The rats are crammed into the poorest, highest-crime, and least desirable areas of the Quarter: primarily its borders along Tremé and the Seventh Ward, where competition with the Baron for territory is fierce. Savoy asks two things of the rats in return for getting to live in his domain: they must keep out Kindred who aren’t welcome in the Quarter and fight on Savoy’s behalf should he have need of them. Most Kindred believe Savoy intends to use the Quarter rats as cannon fodder against his rivals if open war breaks out, but the very presence of these vampires further aggravates tensions. Every one of the Quarter rats is illegal and has not presented themselves to Prince Vidal. They cannot show their faces in Elysium. They cannot leave the Quarter without risk to their unlives. They constitute a permanent underclass next to the Top Shelf Bourbons, who are at least accepted throughout the larger city.

The Quarter rats are not welcome in much of the Quarter, either. Savoy reserves Bourbon Street, Royal Street, and the Vieux Carré’s choicest hunting grounds for his personal use and those Kindred high in his favor. Hunting is poor in the rats’ overcrowded territories and competition for what’s left is fierce. This sort of situation makes poaching in the Quarter’s better areas extremely tempting, but Savoy has alleviated it with a simple system: any rat who catches another rat trying to poach in the Quarter and reports it to Savoy’s people is rewarded with blood taken from the poacher (usually the approximate amount stolen plus “interest”). Although Savoy still spends manpower policing the Quarter’s better neighborhoods, it’s less than he’d need to if he hadn’t gotten the rats to self-police and report on each other. Critics have compared it to the kapo system used in Nazi concentration camps. Virgil “Duffy” Gestard has also proven an invaluable asset in keeping the rats within their assigned territories.

Savoy rewards Quarter rats who earn his favor with hunting rights along Canal Street: the border between his and Vidal’s territories. Crime is much lower and feeding is much more plentiful there, as most tourists who pass into the Quarter from the Central Business District do so through Canal Street. Every rat forced to subsist along Rampart Street wants to some day make it to Canal Street. Savoy also encourages poaching in Vidal’s and the Baron’s territories to alleviate scarcity in his own. The results have been mixed: the Acolytes are zealous in defending “their” people (many of whom are their religious followers) and have no compunctions against destroying riffraff who don’t even have a legal right to be in the city. The prince’s agents have equally few.

Indeed, the Quarter rats’ existence flies in the face of Vidal’s laws. When Savoy started welcoming them into the Vieux Carré during the 1890s, an affronted Vidal sent Meadows and the Guard de Ville, led by his then-sheriff Robert Bastien, on raids into the Quarter to “deal with the vagrant problem.” These raids proved to be bloody affairs as the Quarter’s angry new residents, many of whom had been persecuted by princes in other cities, fought tooth and nail to defend what little was theirs: they had nowhere left to run. Savoy’s support only further encouraged them to dig in their heels. Meadows still tore apart numerous rats and Bastien delivered others staked to face Vidal’s judgment, but these efforts seemed futile. No matter how many rats Vidal’s agents destroyed, there were always more. Some Kindred joked that Savoy “yanked rats out by their tails” from a magician’s hat. More cynical Kindred speculated that Savoy was sanctioning mass Embraces, but no proof was ever discovered. Enforcement efforts seemed especially futile around Mardi Gras, when Savoy could replenish the Quarter rats seemingly overnight by simply inviting visiting Kindred to stay permanently.

There did seem to be an upper limit to how many vagrants Savoy was willing to tolerate at once, though, for even the Quarter cannot support an unlimited number of vampires without collapsing the Masquerade. Vidal reluctantly concluded that the effort expended in culling the Quarter rats was not worth the returns. Instead, he’s settled on a policy of containment and executing any unpresented vampire caught outside the Quarter who “smells like a rat.” Most of them know better than to venture outside of their patron’s territory.

Hurricane Katrina wiped out virtually all of the Quarter rats, but once the Vieux Carré’s mortal population rebounded, a new “nest of rats” was back like nothing had changed. However, the storm had one lasting consequence: Vidal started sending Meadows and the Guard de Ville on sweeps throughout the Quarter. These are infrequent affairs, and seem no more effective than they were a century ago, but they have only further inflamed Quarter residents’ hatred of the prince. Vidal’s patience for long-tolerated vices feels as if it is dwindling.

Savoy, for his part, publicly denies any responsibility for the “Quarter Rat problem” and frequently cites his sire Maria Pascual having had to deal with “the same sort of riffraff” ever since the Quarter gained its reputation as a playground for vice following the Civil War. Sometimes he takes rats he’s judged too problematic to keep (often when they’re caught poaching in the better parts of the Quarter too many times) and makes a public show of turning them over to face Vidal’s justice. The prince is in little position to refuse, and largely doesn’t even see the need to. Only the most naive vampires believe Savoy isn’t responsible for his own “rat problem,” though his partisans largely echo his party line at Elysium.

Bourbon Sanctified by Position

Bishop: None
Priests: None
Deacons: Antoine Savoy (•••••), Harlequin (••)
Laity: Natasha Preston (•••), Peter Lebeaux (•••), Rosa Bale (•••),
Julius B. Baudoin (••)
Arthur Duchamps (•), Jade Kalani (•), King Bolden (•), Ramon Korda (•), Roberto “Gamberro” Vaccaro (•), Roxandra “Roxy” Adrieux (•), Edward “Ed” Zuric (0), Laura Melton (0), Louis Maddox (0), Mary Allen (0)
Quarter Rats: Benjamin Moore (•), Emerson Newhouse Hearst (•), Marcio de la Cruz (•), Glenn Shaffer (0), Justine Chaudrier (0)
Thin-Bloods: Patricia Stratton (•), Virgil “Duffy” Gestard (•), Danielle “Dani” Garrison (0), Sean Peck (0)

Numerous further Quarter Rats and thin-bloods exist than those listed above.

Kindred by Bourbon Sanctified Status

Bourbon Sanctified Status •••••

Antoine Savoy

Lineage: 7th gen. childe of Maria Pascual
Embrace: 17th century
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •••••, Camarilla •••••
Coterie: Antoine Savoy’s inner circle
Antoine Savoy is the self-declared Lord of the French Quarter, a former courtier under Louis XIV, and Prince Vidal’s foremost political rival. The Toreador elder has positioned himself as a charming, laissez-faire, and religiously tolerant alternative to the tyrannical Ventrue for over a century. He’s happy to promise a less autocratic style of rule, quick to recognize and reward initiative among his younger followers, and is more than willing to court friends and allies among Kindred who the prince wouldn’t give the time of night to. His star has been steadily on the rise for years, and following the news of Vidal’s impending torpor and the 2016 Battle of Mt. Carmel (whose follow-on conflicts he won), more Kindred than ever think it’s only a matter of time until he becomes prince.

Mélissaire Larieux

Ghouled: 1846
Status: Ghouls ••••
Former quadroon courtesan and current herald to Antoine Savoy.

Fabian Desessard

Ghouled: 1973
Status: Ghouls •••
Antoine Savoy’s greeter and butler.

Julia Landsale

Ghouled: 2008
Status: Ghouls ••
Julia Lansdale is a prominent figure in several of New Orleans’ most popular and politically active charitable foundations. From the Association for a United New Orleans (a Catholic faith-based initiative that seeks an end to racism and religious persecution) to Save Our City (which boasts the slogan “Our buildings may be our past, but our children are our future”), Lansdale is a major mover and shaker in the field. She is also a ghoul, and so zealously devoted to Savoy that he jokes it makes even him nervous at times.
Lansdale, along with Savoy’s other contacts in the field, has proved to be a surprisingly painful thorn in Vidal’s side. Her organizations are supported by New Orleans’ rich and working class alike, but more importantly, they draw funds from major businesses and the city’s own government in the form of grants—essentially using Vidal’s own pawns’ money against them. Her charities have supported numerous grassroots political campaigns, all of which enjoy popular support, and all of which are aimed at booting Vidal’s municipal allies out of office. In fact, the prince lost three highly placed pawns in the city’s 2014 elections and stands to lose more in the next if Lansdale’s movements keep growing.
Those Kindred aware of Landsale’s service to Savoy believe it’s only a matter of time before Vidal moves directly against her interests—and indeed, she only barely survived a scandal manufactured by Vidal’s own interests in the media a few years back—so the Toreador is thought to be making as much use of her now as he can. He knows that should she fall he has other contacts in her circles.

Bourbon Sanctified Status ••••

Ther are currently no Kindred of this level of esteem among the Bourbon Sanctified. The last, Clarice Barabet, met final death during Hurricane Katrina.

Bourbon Sanctified Status •••

Harlequin

Lineage: 9th gen. childe of Clarice Barabet
Embrace: 1910
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •••, Camarilla •••, Hardline Sanctified •••, Malkavian ••••
Coteries: Harpies •••, Krewe of Janus ••••
No one knows Harlequin’s real name or face. Every night is Mardi Gras to this Malkavian, who is never seen wearing anything besides a face-concealing domino mask and changing rotation of ostentatious costumes. Harlequin is famous for leading the Krewe of Janus, a bogeyman-like coterie of anonymous Kindred that maintains the Masquerade (“that greatest of all masks”) by stalking, harassing, and eventually slaying violators. The Krewe is Big Brother to the city’s neonates and seems to have eyes everywhere, always watching for indiscretions. Elders are fond of the Krewe, which has secured Harlequin a place among the city’s harpies. Harlequin himself was a member of the Mistick Krewe of Comus in his mortal life and loves few things more than a good party—and no party more than Mardi Gras.

Harlequin’s “Masks”

Ghouled: Varies
Status: Ghouls ••
These four masked ghouls accompany Harlequin at all times, endlessly parroting their domitor’s speech and mannerisms. None of the ghouls have ever revealed their faces. It’s anyone’s guess whether they are the same four who first appeared at Harlequin’s side a century ago—he never refers to them by name and the masks they wear change constantly. There have always seemed to be two male and two female ones, judging by the shape of their bodies, but this could easily be faked. The ghouls appear to have no duties beyond mimicking their master, fawning over him, and serving as impromptu furniture. It is unclear what practical function, if any, they actually serve.

Natasha Preston

Lineage: 8th gen. childe of Constance Leyburne
Embrace: 1967
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •••, Camarilla ••, Invictus ••, Malkavian •••
Coterie: Antoine Savoy’s inner circle
Antoine Savoy’s right hand. A cutthroat corporate businesswoman from a wealthy New England family who came to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Preston runs the night-to-night affairs of Savoy’s many enterprises. In contrast to her patron’s easy charm and affability, she has a dry, humorless, and down-to-business personality, but can be quite disparaging towards individuals she considers unintelligent or naive. She appears relatively clear-headed for a member of her clan and has exhibited no identifiable form of madness.

Gemma Bernard

Ghouled: 2011
Status: Ghouls ••
Chief of security and personal bodyguard for Natasha Preston since 2011. Native of Opelousas, former inmate at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women where she won the 6th season of Mega Cage, and then security staff at Zodiac Productions. Skilled bare-knuckle boxer trained in Savate, Tang Soo Do, and Jailhouse Rock.

Peter Lebeaux

Lineage: 9th gen. childe of Erwin Bornemann
Embrace: 2003
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •••, Camarilla ••, Tremere •
Coterie: Antoine Savoy’s inner circle
Homicide detective on NOPD and warden of the French Quarter for Antoine Savoy. Despite being a vampire, Lebeaux has seen no reason to quit the force. He uses his thaumaturgy to solve crimes and his influence among the police to further Clan Tremere’s interests, though Vidal curtails many of his activitiesoutside the Quarter. He’s also been known to bail out Kindred who run afoul of the law, though never without a price: the lawman in him dislikes seeing criminals go unpunished, even as he acknowledges the Masquerade danger in keeping vampires beyond bars. If Antoine Savoy becomes prince, it’s probable he’ll become sheriff. His allegiance is a reminder to all Kindred that while his grandsire might be a long-time ally of Vidal’s, Clan Tremere will always serve its own interests first and foremost.

Eric Tantal

Ghouled: Mid 20th century
Status: Ghouls ••
Lebeaux’s chief source of muscle. Former football player for the Fighting Irish and still enjoys catching the game.

Rosa Bale

Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 1920
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •••, Camarilla ••, Circle of the Crone •••, Ventrue 0
Coterie: Antoine Savoy’s inner circle
Most Kindred are surprised to learn that the city’s most preeminent vampiric mambo not associated with Baron Cimitière is Ventrue. Rosa Bale considers the Samedi houngan unthinkably arrogant for his claims of being resurrected by Baron Samedi, and bitterly opposes him and the prince from Antoine Savoy’s side. She is also an accomplished spirit medium who sells her talents as an information broker.

Bourbon Sanctified Status ••

Julius B. Baudoin

Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 1979
Status: Bourbon Sanctified ••, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: Levee Hepcats •••, Numidians ••
Counterfeit ring mogul & master jazz trombonist.

Bourbon Sanctified Status •

Top Shelf Bourbons

Arthur Duchamps

Lineage: 13th gen. childe of Louis Ash
Embrace: 2013
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla 0, Toreador 0
Coterie: Levee Hepcats ••
Arthur spent his mortal life on the periphery of the music world, drifting between roles as an agent, manager, and talent scout, always on the search for a big break through someone else. He finally caught it and missed it forever with his Embrace: although now one of the immortal Kindred, his pitifully weak blood limits his worth in his elders’ eyes, and his fellow Toreador regard him as a poseur for his lack of artistic talent. He’s still a regular at clan gatherings, as his Embrace has made him better than ever at finding musicians, and he’s become a hidden patron to no small number. He remains bitter over his lot, though, and constantly plots ways to advance his fortunes in Kindred society. Doubtlessly related to those ambitions, Arthur maintains contact with his sire, a former Bourbon who relocated to Mobile and likely influenced Arthur’s decision to join Papa Juju’s post-Katrina krewe of Bourbon neonates.

Jade Kalani

Lineage: 9th gen. childe of Veronica Alsten-Pirrie
Embrace: 2010
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla •, Toreador •
Jade Kalani is Veronica’s elder childe. She was Embraced prior to the general moratorium lift (one of the few awarded that honor) and formally released in 2010 on the 5-year anniversary of Katrina. Her antics at her debut Elysium garnered the attention of many of the city’s younger ears, and it’s thought that this was the night that took her already-operating business (a spa formally owned by one of her pawns) from “unknown” to “rousing success.” Since that evening she has made friends all across the city through her skill with both blade and brush, and despite her sire’s rather cool relations with her grandsire and the rest of her line, Jade has been able to build her own bridge. Indeed, the young Toreador has forged her own path since her Embrace, falling in with the Bourbons despite her sire’s Anarch leanings. She’s known to be the prettiest lick in the city—though she would never be so gauche as to say it herself—a feat made all the more pronounced by her politesse. She has made friends in almost every covenant and can often be found flitting her way through Elysium with a smile on her lips like the social butterfly she is. She has happily resided in the French Quarter since her Embrace.

Alana Frederick

Ghouled: 2010
Status: Ghouls •
Alana has been with her mistress since early in the Toreador’s Requiem. Though not the first ghoul that Jade took she seems to be the favored, if the obsequious way she serves her mistress is any indication. It speaks to a loyalty beyond mere blood. Alana serves a variety of functions for Jade, including personal assistant and business manager. She is not considered Jade’s herald, but she is the person to speak to regarding meetings and other business to do with Jade. Day manager for her domitor at Flawless Spa.

Morgan “Haymaker” Hastings

Ghouled: 2007
Status: Ghouls •
UFC fighter turned poker prodigy.

King Bolden

Lineage: 9th gen. childe of Clarice Barabet
Embrace: 1927
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla 0, Malkavian •
This cornetist claims to be Buddy Bolden, a famous New Orleans jazz musician who was committed to an insane asylum upon being diagnosed with schizophrenia. No one is sure whether he’s telling the truth or not: the dates of his Embrace and Bolden’s committal appear to match up, and his savant-like jazz knowledge and skill with the cornet are beyond all question. On the other hand, he’s been known to confuse details of “his” life with ones that historians have long since debunked—a habit whose evidentiary usefulness is further muddled by the real-life Bolden’s admittedly poor ability to distinguish reality.
“King Bolden” appears to have few interests besides playing the cornet. His masterful skill and near-total lack of other social commitments, however, have won him the undying adoration of the city’s Toreador (he never refuses a chance to play at the clan’s balls), particularly Accou Poincaré, Antoine Savoy, and Veronica Alsten-Pirrie. He refused to leave the city during Hurricane Katrina and appeared oblivious as to the storm’s danger, and is only thought to have survived thanks to his patrons’ protection (his sire Clarice, whose skirts he’d previously hid behind, met final death during the storm). Most Kindred consider him an amusing curiosity and an idiot savant good for little besides his music. It’s a commonly circulated (if cruel) joke that it was a waste of the Blood for Clarice to even Embrace him: he’d have been just as useful as a ghoul, and at least be less of a vitae sponge. Another common joke is that it’d be pointless for Accou or Savoy to even claim boons for saving his unlife, since he’d be incapable of paying them back in any way besides what he already does: play, play, play, and play.

Ramon Korda

Lineage: 12th gen. childe of Louis Maddox,
Embrace: 2008
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla 0, Nosferatu ••
It’s unclear what, exactly, an IT specialist like Louis Maddox saw in Ramon to take the computer-illiterate general contractor and construction foreman as his childe. Embraced during the Katrina-displaced Maddox’s stay in Houston, Ramon remained a devout Catholic into undeath and found the evangelical regime of “First Minister” Hezekiah Rutledge (Houston’s closest equivalent to a prince) little to his taste. He saw greener pastures and much opportunity to ply his craft in New Orleans, where construction work was booming after the hurricane. He initially got a kick out of having a fellow Catholic Hispanic as prince and was granted permission to remain in the city on account of his skillset, but the discrimination suffered by his clan soon turned him against Vidal. Antoine Savoy proved an all-too sympathetic ear, and now the French Quarter lord has his support. Like most of the sewer rats, though, Ramon remains just as loyal to his own clan, and handles much of the construction work for their underground warren. He’s known to do similar work for other Kindred: adding secret rooms and passages to buildings, sunproofing rooms, constructing new buildings to a vampire’s often atypical specifications, and the like. He knows enough Celerity to do the work in a fraction of the normal time and charges payment in boons, blood, or cash (the latter at a substantial markup next to mortal contractors). He was close to Baptiste du Lac before the architect’s execution at Vidal’s hands.

Roxandra “Roxy” Adrieux

Lineage: 10th gen. childe of Jared Buckner
Embrace: 1956
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla •, Gangrel Status ••, Invictus •
Coterie: OXR •••
Roxy was brought into her Requiem by Jared Buckner when she caught his eye on her frequent trips outside the city, running from a home she didn’t feel welcome in. She was still a teenager when he Embraced her, but her quick wits and survival instincts lent well to unlife as a Gangrel, and she spent her formative years as her sire’s childe and lover at his side in the French Quarter where he served as warden to Antoine Savoy. When he was executed in 2006 under the allegation that he had slain Pakachilu, the clan’s former primogen, Roxy made the foray back into Kindred politics to dig up the truth. Friendly with a variety of animals, including the local Loup-Garoux packs, she’s made a name for herself as an investigator by frequently employing animal spies and her own beastly shape to overhear the choicest bits of gossip. Leader of the OXR krewe.

Quarter Rats

Benjamin Moore

Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 2013
Status: Anarch •, Bourbon Sanctified •, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: OXR ••
Benjamin was a disenfranchised youth that grew up thinking he’d eventually be somebody. His dreams were dashed when he realized after his Embrace that he had joined a whole community of people who would always look down at him for his clanless blood. Anarch leanings but stays in the Quarter, Benji spends most of his time writing songs about rebellion and how “the man” is trying to keep people down. He’s rumored to be lovers with a certain other Caitiff musician and krewed up with her in OXR.

Emerson Newhouse Hearst

Lineage: 13th gen. childe of Juana Sanchez
Embrace: 2012
Status: Anarch ••, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: Night Axels ••
Emerson was born rich, but ADHD and rebelliousness led him to drop out of college in favor of cross-country motorcycling. He spent the rest of his young life as a biker, drifter, and adrenaline junkie until his sire Embraced him. He continued his Requiem largely the same way, sticking it to princes who mistreated him for his clanless blood and surviving unlife on the road as a nomad. He came to New Orleans in 2016 for Mardi Gras and joined Shep Jennings’ krewe after deciding he was happy to stick it to this city’s prince too. Permanently staying in the Big Easy doesn’t agree with him and he’s often away on his motorbike. For the right price, he’s happy to ferry other licks between cities and help them survive the perils of the road.

Marcio de la Cruz

Lineage: 13th gen. childe of Alejandro Gálvez
Embrace: Late 20th century
Status: Anarch ••, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Coterie: Night Axels ••
Many Kindred assume the fire-eyed young Marcio is a Brujah from how passionate he is about his political views. Born in Nicaragua with relatives from Guatemala, Marcio lost family to no less than two separate U.S. foreign interventions: the Nicaraguan Revolution and the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’etat. He joined the Sandinista National Liberation Front. at a young age and was Embraced by an Anarch sire after being terminally wounded in a shootout against the Contras so he could continue the fight eternally. Marcio remained a rabble-rouser in death and fought against the Ventrue prince of Managua, Alicia Penobscott, for years until she destroyed his sire and coterie in the 2010s. Marcio fled on the next ship to New Orleans, as the city was a long-time trading partner with Central America. He never presented himself before Vidal and kept a low profile in Mid-City as part of Shep Jennings’ coterie until the 2015 Anarch split. Vidal has had amicable relationships with other Spanish-descended princes in Latin America and figures the staked Caitiff would make a useful gift or bargaining chip at some point, but hasn’t considered him important enough to hunt down.
Marcio was a zealous communist for decades, but has grown disillusioned with Marx in favor of anarcho-syndicalism. He believes all power structures are inherently unequal and that the only answer is to burn it all down, with no higher Kindred government than one’s own coterie. Unlike many Anarchs, he considers the Los Angeles Free State to be a rousing success and only tolerates Antoine Savoy as the lesser evil. He despises fascists and is involved with Antifa and several other far-left political groups.

Roberto “Gamberro” Vaccaro

Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 2016
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Lasombra •, Camarilla 0
Coterie: The Hetairoi ••
The Sicilian-Honduran neonate as the Gamberro acts as Antoine Savoy’s main liaison with New Orleans’ criminal underworld, particularly the Black Hand. A de facto soldato serving a mafioso capo allied with the international Vaccaro dynasty, the arrogant adolescent runs a French Quarter, racially diverse street gang, Reyes de Hielo, that has connections to Honduran-US drug smugglers, the Mexican Los Zetas cartel, and domestic cocaine dealers.

Corbin “Spook” MacCready

Ghouled: 1974
Status: Ghouls ••
Irish-American Mafia associate and “cleaner” who specializes in body disposal, breaking and entering, murder, and similar illicit activities. Originally from Miami, he’s survived the final deaths of at last two previous domitors, and likes to say he always knows how to pick the winning side. Former ghoul of Rocco Agnello’s who defected to the Bourbons after the 2016 Battle of Mt. Carmel.

Dionisio “T-Bang” Melgara

Ghouled: 2016
Status: Ghouls •
An original Miskitu member of Roberto’s cocaine ring who accompanied him during his stowaway international escape. Avid ‘sampler’ of the gang’s snowy product. Simultaneously paranoid about cops, ICE, gnomes, ghosts, and lobster aliens, although he enjoys outwitting the police with an almost religious fervor (gnomes are impossible to outwit). When not nigh-ODing on cocaine, he’s a remarkably good drive-by shooter and sniper, as he was one of the Contra’s child soldiers and killed more men than most Army Rangers before he grew his first pubic hair. He used to dream of using drug money to free his people, but he’s since settled for dreaming of snorting mountains of cocaine and having sex with a giant rabbit goddess–or at least crack whores he forces to dress up in abandoned mall Easter Bunny costumes.

JayPee “Manila Ice” Tupas

Ghouled: 2016
Status: Ghouls •
A Filipino wannabe b-boy and rapper descended from the city’s last Filipino consulate general. His more immediate ancestors abandoned drying shrimp in the lower French Quarter to build a chain of dry cleaners they manage from Bayou St. John. When not locking delinquent debtors in freezers, selling expired credit card numbers, or otherwise assisting the Ice Kings, JayPee spends his time posting crappy Spanglish rap and dance videos on his MeVid channel and/or lambasting Dougy Two-Toes’ social media posts (as the two used to be friends but had a bad falling out over something neither can right remember).

Thin-Bloods

Patricia Stratton

Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 2012
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla 0, Thin-Bloods -

Virgil “Duffy” Gestard

Lineage: Unknown
Embrace: 2006
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla 0, Thin-Bloods -
A Cajun exterminator-cum-electrician from Frisco, LA, who uses those professional skills (augmented with supernatural powers) to illicitly spy on and blackmail most, if not all, of the French Quarter’s thin-bloods, Caitiff, and other rats–whom in turn almost universally fear and despise him. Delusions (or long-shot but crafty stratagem?) of joining the Cabildo as ‘duskborn primogen’ under a Prince Savoy. Unrequited love affair with Natasha Preston, that may or may not have anything to do with him being under a partial blood bond her.

Bourbon Sanctified Status 0

Top Shelf Bourbons

Louis Maddox

Lineage: 11th gen. childe of Nathaniel Dubois
Embrace: 2004
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla •, Nosferatu •
Coterie: Armstrong Five ••
One of the Armstrong Five, a coterie of neonates collectively Embraced and abandoned in Louis Armstrong Park during 2004’s Mardi Gras.

Mary Allen

Lineage: 11th gen. childe of Mezzo Lombardi
Embrace: 1994
Status: Bourbon Sanctified •, Camarilla 0, Malkavian •

Shanice “Lapcat” Jeansonne

Ghouled: 2005
Status: Ghouls •
Post-Katrina orphan-prostitute who works Chartres Street around her domitor’s domain, which allows her easy access to customers, both mortal and otherwise, who wish to brush up against the color-class lines. Bad blood with the Shepards. Devout if quasi-heretical Sanctified Catholic.

Edward “Ed” Zuric

Lineage: 13th gen. childe of Andrea Oulette
Embrace: 2004
Status: Anarch •, Bourbon Sanctified 0, Camarilla •, Gangrel •
Coterie: Armstrong Five •
An itinerant guitarist and country/blues musician, Zuric made his living as a busker across the country before 2004’s Mardi Gras, where he was Embraced and abandoned alongside several other fledglings in Louis Armstrong Park for reasons unknown. Zuric and his fellows made a minor name for themselves tracking down their sires and bringing most to justice, and the bonds of friendship Zuric established with the coterie (who came to be known as the Armstrong Five) convinced him New Orleans was a good place to settle down—until Katrina. Already used to life as a drifter, he weathered the storm’s aftermath and was back by the 2010s. He’s largely content to spend his Requiem busking in the Quarter, picking up girls, and sometimes hitting the road to play in other cities as the mood strikes him.
Zuric was largely content to stay out of politics until the 2015 Anarch split. He sided with Antoine Savoy out of disgust after John Harley Matheson’s then-agent George Smith allegedly attempted to trick him into serving as one of the banished elder’s vessels. His feelings towards his former coterie-mate Becky Lynne remain unknown.

Laura Melton

Lineage: 12th gen. childe of unknown sire
Embrace: 1973
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Camarilla 0, Gangrel Status •
Coterie: Levee Hepcats ••
Driven from her native Canada by the Sabbat, Laura fled south to New Orleans and was given shelter by Pakachilu, who sponsored her acceptance into the city. After he was destroyed during Katrina and Jared Buckner was executed for his murder, Laura joined Roxandra Adrieux in speaking out that he was not responsible. This stance drove her into Savoy’s arms, though she and Roxandra have butted heads a few times, as Laura insists the Baron was to blame. She’s in and out of the city less often than other Gangrel, but disappeared for a notable stretch several months ago.

Quarter Rats

Ambroise “Dr. Voodoo” Aguillard

Lineage: 13th gen. childe of unknown sire
Embrace: 2013
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Camarilla 0, Ravnos •
Ambroise was born to an impoverished family on Port-au-prince’s mean streets and survived through petty theft. When he saw a chance to come to America after the 2010 earthquake, he seized it with both hands. Once he arrived in the U.S. however, he realized that he had no marketable skills besides his vibrant personality. Since then, he’s been a pool hustler, card counter, and conman, but where he truly struck gold was with Dr. Voodoo’s Mystic Emporium. His shop panders to tourists, selling them “genuine voodoo articles” and good luck charms at what he assures are very reasonable prices. He also offers to curse people for the right price and makes a grand spectacle out of the ceremonies he invites clients to. Of course, he holds no actual power, and actually knows very little about Vodoun. It’s all a show. Yet he knows how to draw crowds. “The Lonely Planet” even called him the best “voodoo doctor” in New Orleans, a title he has gladly taken as his moniker. It’s unclear at what point he was Embraced, and by whom, but it doesn’t seem to have significantly changed his modus operandi. The Baron’s followers are particularly disgusted by his commercialization of their religion.

Elias Tremaine

Lineage: 12th gen. childe of Tyrell Turner
Embrace: 2014
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Camarilla 0, Ravnos •
A street magician who performs around Jackson Square, Elias is always one of the tourists’ favorites, and considered something of a “rare treat” to watch given that he only appears after dark. He has a popular MeVid channel where he posts many of his performances: true to a magician’s spirit, he refuses to disclose the secrets behind his tricks even to fellow Kindred. His “lovely assistant” and faithful ghoul, Lindsay, is rarely far from his side. Something of a lady’s man, Elias is very popular with teenage and 20something female tourists and feeds primarily upon white girls he’s dazzled with his magic tricks. He jokes about preferring the taste of “the white meat.”

Glenn Shaffer

Lineage: 11th gen. childe of Douglas Keller
Embrace: 1996
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Caitiff -, Camarilla 0
Glenn was a skinhead and punk rock musician from Jackson, Mississippi who was deeply involved in the white power movement as a young man. A decade-long stint in prison, religious conversion, and interactions with people in the groups he hated led him to question and finally renounce his former views. He gave up a great deal of information on his gang’s activities to authorities, leading to his early release from prison. His sire, who’d been using the skinheads as tools in his own ambitions, was wroth at the sudden removal of his pawns and Embraced the former Neo-Nazi to show him he could never become something better.
Glenn responded terribly to his damnation. He slew his sire in a frenzy and fled Jackson before winding up in the French Quarter, one of many such illegitimates and castoffs from other cities. He’s one of Savoy’s more vocal followers and sees in Vidal many of the same fascist tendencies he so despises in mortal political movements. Though his preferred prey are members of hate groups, he remains deeply, deeply embittered over what he now is and has never come to terms with it. The Anarchs regard him as a seemingly natural fit for “having really gone through some shit,” but Glenn could never countenance to join the Movement before 2015 due to their “devil’s bargain” with Vidal. Pierpont McGinn has offered a reward to anyone who brings him the staked “race traitor.”

Justine Chaudrier

Lineage: 13th gen. childe of unknown sire
Embrace: 2014
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Camarilla 0, Toreador 0
Coterie: Levee Hepcats ••
Justine might well be just another rat within the Quarter, were it not for her atypical membership in an otherwise Top Shelf (if still neonate) Bourbon krewe alongside Julius Baudoin, Arthur Duchamps, and Laura Melton. That said, her absence from Elysia and other social functions means that this association (and Justine herself) is often overlooked, even amongst other Bourbons. Still, it does mean that Justine–unlike other rats trapped along Rampart Street–can be found near Rue de la Levee most nights, particularly as the Toreador charcoal painter practices her art within Bienville Place, Washington Artillery Park, Place de France, and Latrobe Park.

Frances Coulter Joor

Ghouled: 1956
Status: Ghouls 0
Passed-around potter & Rampart St. ghoul.

Yellow Sidra

Lineage: 12th gen. childe of unknown sire
Embrace: 2013
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Camarilla 0, Circle of the Crone 0, Ravnos 0
Yellow Sidra is all things to all people. She at least nominally belongs to the Circle of the Crone, but it’s unclear exactly what belief system she follows; she’ll variously claim to be a devotee of Erzulie, Papa Legba, Lilith, Kali Mata, Santa Muerte, or no god/dess at all, depending who she’s talking to. Sometimes she’s Roma, sometimes she’s Mexican, and sometimes she’s Indian (American Indian or East Indian). She’s variously claimed to be a Caitiff, Tremere, Ravnos (of the line of Durga Syn, a great seeress of the clan), and Malkavian (of the line of Tryphosa, a greet seeress of that clan). The only clearly established things about her is that she’s a fortune-teller active in Jackson Square, claims to have great prophetic gifts, and will exercise them in exchange for payments in cash, blood, and future favors. It’s unknown from where she gets her sobriquet of “Yellow”, but people who don’t want to use her “full name” just call her Sidra. It’s only been in recent months that other licks, tired of her various contradictory claims of lineage, have “definitively” lumped her in with the Ravnos.

Thin-Bloods

Sean Peck

Lineage: 14th gen. childe of Zachary Buenrostro
Embrace: 2014
Status: Bourbon Sanctified 0, Camarilla 0, Thin-Bloods -
Disgraced medical researcher turned meth-cooking alchemist.