László Kiss

==Spoiler-Free Summary==
===László Kiss, aka Laz===
Laszlo is a doctor and a gentleman of Hungarian ethnic heritage. He grew up and was sired in the old world by a prominant member of the Ordo Dracul. After becoming a vampire he travelled for a time in europe before coming to the new world. There he married a woman named Humility, whom he calls Mila. The couple has a very young child who is named Juli Weep-Not Kiss. Townsfolk know of Laszlo around the docks as being a barber and dentist, though he is also a physician. His home has a modest yard, and was of modest size until the disappearance of Sandre. 
Laszlo dresses and lives in humble fashion, as Sandre did not allow for him to show any signs of influence or power within the community. With the recent rash of late night violence (fires, murders, disappearances), Laszlo has kept his wife indoors as much as possible. He seems to genuinely care for and protect his wife. Recently he also took in an orphan who appeared on his doorstep as a courier from England's Ordo Dracul, as the child was used as a disposable method of communication.
Laszlo feeds very discretely and infrequently, usually from his wife carefully or secretly from the blood that he gains when bloodletting his patients during their visits. He has not killed anyone in town since his arrival, nor has he left any susipicious trail of carnage in his wake. He appears to be a genuinely good person as far as the community is concerned, as he often takes care of injured people who cannot pay for his services through trade or currency.
===Humility, aka Mila===
Mila is a young woman, unused to the freedoms her husband has allowed her in the past two years of their marriage. She has taught him spoken Dutch and English, which are languages common to her family through her mother Perseverance's parents. Mila is curious and adaptable, as well as a pacifist. Despite the weirdness of her husband's condition, she seems to genuinely care for him. Laszlo does not allow her to work outside the house, instead encouraging her interest in the modest (but impressive given the time and place) library of academic texts and literary classics which he was able to bring with him from the old world.
Her daily activities include a lot of reading to their daughter, and sewing things brought to her for mending by neighbors. She is able to earn a decent amount of income through working from within the house as a laundress for the sailors who inhabit the dock area where the Kiss family built their home. Any sailors who have become unruly or uncouth are beaten severely by Laszlo and his cane, and ejected from their home with a warning that next time he will not leave them without permanent injury. If they behave properly afterward the family acts normally to them, providing tailoring and barbering/dentistry as normal.
Mila has not been to the Meeting House with her aunt Remember since the rash of murders, fires and disappearances in town, and so she has not heard that a Chillingworth leads the congregation there. Instead Laszlo escorts her and the child to Mila's aunt's house on occasion so that they can safely visit without any incident.
===Baby Juli aka "Weep-Not" ===
 A little over two years old, Juli is Mila's daughter. She has moderate to severe scoliosis causing deformity in her torso. Despite that she is a lively child, spoiled endlessly by both parents. She is not frequently seen outside of the house but when she and her mother go to the meeting house, she is concealed within a blanket like a much younger infant would be, and carried.
She seems to have a lot of her parents' traits, including not only their reddish hair but also their intelligence and curiousity. She is currently at the developmental stage where she is learning how to speak in two to three word sentences, though she appears to be much younger and smaller than a normal two year old. She speaks a broken combination of Hungarian and Dutch words due to her parents speaking both languages in the home.
Her favorite toy is currently a wooden doll made by Laszlo, which her mother has sewn costumes for. She is seldom seen without it. Due to the deformity of her back she is unable to crawl and has not begun to try to walk, even though her legs function properly. She instead drags herself along the floor if a parent does not catch her and keep her from doing so. Laszlo has begun to try to fashion for her a wood and cloth aparatus (resembling an early form of a baby walker) that supports her torso comfortably so that her legs can still have movement.
==Full History==
===Mortal Life===
Laszlo was born in Hungary to an affluent protestant noble family, and lived the very strenuous life of primary heir until the day that his father died when Laszlo was about fifteen. Laszlo didn't lead a pampered life at all, as protestants were actively persecuted in Hungary at that time for their beliefs. This persecution along with other factors brought about massive civil unrest and a complete schism within the country when Prince Sigismud died. After that point there were two Hungarian rulers, and the region that Laszlo's family lived in was called Transylvania to distinguish it from the other Hungary ruled by the other King.
The protestant Bathory family had been ruling over Transylvania during that time but its position was constantly under threat due to religious persecution and rumors of Countess Bathory's abnormal beauty routine. Laszlo served as a retainer to the Bathory family, serving as viovode or warlord in their service until around the age of thirty. He was a terrifying fighter and tactician, completely brutal and ruthless. He led a group of mounted soldiers in a campaign of guerilla style warfare against their enemies, with his soldiers being known to be incredibly loyal and fearless in skirmishes. He came to be known by the monniker vöröslüdérc or the "Red Devil" in Hungarian. He purposefully spread disease and death among the enemies of his cause with a cruel and exacting precision. He also ordered his soldiers to rape the wives and daughters of his enemies, so that they would bear their sons and daughters instead of the children of the enemy. He also took part in this himself, in addition to bringing unspoiled young women and girls back to his Countess when she required. It was rumored that he might be one of many lovers that the Countess entertained, but that remains uncomfirmed.
In 1601 Transylvania came under direct Hapsburg rule, though the new ruler committed many crimes against the people and caused even more civil unrest and turbulence, leading to his being removed and former Prince Sigismund's grand nephew Gabriel taking his place. At this time, Laszlo was assumed to have been killed in the fighting, leading to his cousin taking leadership over their estate.
===Initial Post-Mortem===
In fact, he became a vampire. His sire and new master kept him at heel to learn how to best be useful to his causes, sensing in him a keen intellect and tactical mind which was at best ignorant and under-utilized. Laszlo was tutored and taught latin as well as tutored in other aspects which were in line with him serving as his Master's seneschal and effective right hand man. Laszlo had proven his martial prowess, but his Ordo Dracul master required him to now prove his mental accumen as well.
Laszlo's cousin was killed in fighting related to Prince Gabriel's assassination and replacement by a different Gabriel, who was the King of Hungary. Though there were still two kings in Hungary at the time, Gabriel and Ferdinand II (who in 1621 became the only King of Hungary, once Gabe gets the boot and ends up just being Prince of Transylvania). Laszlo's sire then sent him to Venice, Italy to study medicine, telling him that Hungary should have its own ghoul bloodline to facilitate their power in the war-torn country. Genocide and Religious persecution were the norm in the Hungarian region during the time, many nobles were killed, and a lot of religious upheaval occurred. Laszlo lept at the opportunity to leave the area in service to his Master, to whom he was absolutely loyal to.
===Research===
In Italy he learned the medicine of mortals, but he also had the opportunity to spy upon the ghoul bloodline of the Sangiovanni family. He was able to ingratiate himself with Rigarda Sangiovannni, in order to study their family tree and associated documents. This association was physical as well, as Rigarda considered it within her rights to require that of him. Laszlo didn't care either way about Rigarda or her requirements, and so he went along with them to pacify her and to continue his access to her libraries. The two of them became partly blood bonded due to their comingling of blood during these daliances. His guide while he was in the city was a ghoul named Benedetto, who was also with him to watch him and his progress for the family's own interests. Benedetto was not very applied to this goal, and Laszlo found it easy to distract him by offering him access to alcohol and other vices.
Benedetto was also allowed by Laszlo to entertain himself in the morgue of the office where Laszlo worked, as long as Laszlo was finished with whatever vivasection or post-mortem examination of the men and women that he acquired for his research from the unmentionables within Venice. Laszlo's research often left the pelvis and abdomen completely butchered, as he would disassemble the region to learn more about the reproductive process. This was likely the first detailed study to be conducted on the subject of conception and the many stages of pregnancy and fetal development. At any time his laboratory would have living and dead pregnant women kept for his reference. His subjects were picked from those who would not be missed in the city, typically prostitutes or foreigners such as himself.
In his research with the family, he learned of a ritual specific to the Lancaea Sanctum which was exceedingly rare but rumored to be the origin of the family's ghoul heritage, and then devoted all of his efforts to finding someone capable of performing it. The family didn't have much standing in the Lancaea Sanctum, only minimal ties to the organization, and so he found that he would have to look elsewhere for more information.
He left Italy in 1604 prior to the flood of Venice. This took him first to England, where he picked up the trail of John Darrell, an exorcist who was a sizar of Queens' College in Cambridge. The trail led him to the New World in the 1640's, and he submitted his last research journal to his sire by courier before he embarked on the voyage in case he met an untimely demise due to shipwreck or other unforeseen circumstances. This is the last research that the Ordo Dracul ever received a copy of from him, and it probably caused quite a stir that he was about to interact with a Lancaea Sanctum Ritual in order to continue his research. Nonetheless he retains status within the group due to both his Sire's prominance in the faction and also his own meticulous research into the ghoul condition while he was in Italy.
ghoul 
===New World===
Laszlo continued following the trail on his arrival to the New World, ending up in Salem only after considerable search. He met with and convinced Darrell of his intense desire to have a family of his own, to have his own child as he was unable to have children during his mortal life. Whether that was true at the time is difficult to say, however Darrell agreed conditionally to perform the ritual for Laszlo. First of all, Laszlo's wife was to be a specific girl of Darrell's choosing, and Darrell told Laszlo that having the child would destroy him.
Laszlo courted Humility, his bride to be, properly for several months prior to accepting the terms. He didn't do this out of any real kindness, as he was still quite a ruthless and uncaring man, but because he thought Darrell was trying to trick him in some way. While the two did not speak a common language initially, he began to learn both Dutch and English from then on with her mentoring. The ritual was consummated on their wedding night, after Darrell performed the public marriage ceremony. The ritual itself was quite taxing on Darrell, who left the town after performing it for reasons which were not important to Laszlo. Laszlo found himself growing to think of his wife as not just an experiment, as his exposure to her was introducing him to concepts which he was unaware of during life --namely compassion and love.
===Family Life ===
Laszlo spent the next seven months feeding Humility so much of his own blood that he was unable to rise from his bed on most days. This was due to the intensely abnormal pregnancy, as the fetus would otherwise have drained the blood from its mother completely. During this time he had his wife read to him, broadening her horizons to include new philosophy outside of the dogma that she was raised with and also introducing him to the idea of pacifism. He survived only through a constant supply of animal blood, from the animals on the farm that the couple were granted by the community upon their marriage. Their daughter was born and named Juli, after Laszlo's father's name Gyula. From the moment she was born, Laszlo was completely taken with her. He vowed to become a better man and a better father for her. Darrell's prediction had come to pass, and Laszlo was no longer the same man that he was before.
The child's obvious deformity, the death of all of their livestock, and Laszlo's bedridden 'illness' was enough to convince the other townspeople that Laszlo's wife was practicing witchcraft. The family was driven from the town in the night when they had to flee the wrath of the townspeople, and the home they had built there was lit on fire. Laszlo felt himself drawing connections to the way he lit homes on fire and drove away villagers who supported his enemies during his life, and further began to question his morality and humanity. Laszlo was able to protect his family from the townspeople and also in the wilderness from common animals, but they quickly found themselves lost as dawn was approaching.
A simple trapper who lived in the woods found them while checking the snares around the natural cave that was her home, and invited them in to rest for the day following their ordeal. She offered them what hospitality was available in her mean cave, asking for nothing in return but news of the nearby colony. She allowed them to stay there for a short time so that Mila and the child could rest, and also so that she could learn more about Laszlo's vampiric condition. The trapper was herself some kind of native vampire species, and so she was interested to know what she could of the curse that was put upon Laszlo. While Laszlo did not believe himself to be cursed, he told her about his mortal life as she requested in order to repay her for her kindness. The tracker clothed them and fed them for weeks before helping them to reach another town nearby, teaching Laszlo somwhat about the concept of charity. She told him that she didn't want anything in return, that helping them was its own reward to her, and this struck him as a profoundly beautiful but alien point of view.
Eventually they reached Nieu Amsterdam, penniless and exhausted but with Laszlo's research library and much food and leather clothing provided by the indian who rescued them. Mila had an aunt in the town that they would be able to stay with while Laszlo worked to build them a home. There they were oppressed by Sandre and made to live in the least favorable area of town. Laszlo was required to submit to Sandre on a regular basis so that Sandre could inspect properties and make note of any sign that the hungarian was acquiring power of any kind. Laszlo continued to write his research journals, but kept them and his other possessions hidden in a chest under the floorboards of his home. This continued for the next two years while Laszlo worked as a barber and a dentist, as Sandre forbade him from opening a proper medical office.
Category:Player Characters
Category:Ordo Dracul
Category:Mekhet
Category:Not Rich, Not Poor
Category:Hungarian