Evander Ford

Evander James Ford was a Lasombra antitribu elder and the First and Last Prince of Los Angeles until his final death in 1948 in the Spectre chronicle. The philosophy of Fordism within the Camarilla is based upon his leadership and ideology and continues to be a topic that is simultaneously taboo and highly debated even after his death.
== Appearance ==
Evander Ford was a relatively tall, thin, and dour looking man. His raven-black hair and moustache complimented the dark clothes he so often wore. Evander Ford was everything a human expects a vampire to be in terms of his regal demeanor, intimidating presence even right down to the masterpieces of tailoring that made up his wardrobe. His facial expression had the curious quality of magnifying one's own perceptions of him. If someone felt like Evander Ford was angry with them, his face would seem to be the icy cold death glare of the devil himself. Whereas if another individual believed Evander Ford saw them in a positive light, he appeared to possess a mask of calm and respectful serenity.
== Personality ==
To his allies, Evander Ford was the most helpful friend anyone could ever ask for. Any enemies of Evander Ford surely did not last very long. Opinion on this man, over fifty years since his death, depends almost entirely on who you are asking. Accounts are often seasoned with grains of subjectivity and those that aren't are impossible to distinguish from the rest. One thing that is universally agreed upon is that Evander Ford was like no one else. As though selected by some greater power at his conception to become one of history's Greats. If you met him you knew as soon as he entered the room that this was a man who lived every bit up to his reputation and exceeded it handily. It should be no wonder that he is still one of the most famous kindred in Los Angeles. From the stories people tell it is difficult not to get the impression that had he ruled the city for much longer, he would have become one of the world's most influential and famous kindred.
== Biography ==
While not much is known about the long-term history of the first and last Prince of Los Angeles, you know that he had been Prince for as long as the city had been a city and that he certainly had been in a position of Camarilla power for a good while before even that. From early in his reign around 1860 there had been attempts at creation of some Anarch Free State, but he made sure such efforts were suppressed. To Ford, who was -- alongside Los Angeles -- becoming a member of the Camarilla only in name, service to one's domain was not only the greatest virtue, but the only virtue. He was critical of both the Anarchs, the mainstream Camarilla and their leaders as they "care not for the greater good". This critique ran contrary to his belief that an individual has no value beyond their utility to the state -- whether as an instrument of war, production, administration, or otherwise.
Based on his key beliefs, style of rule, and hope for a utopian future, the philosophy of Fordism was born. While still nominally operating as a city under the Camarilla's control Los Angeles effectively became the personal protectorate of Prince Evander Ford, who oversaw nearly every aspect of its management himself or directly delegated tasks to those whom he entrusted with his vision. To him it made perfect sense that kindred society should be directed by those with the wellbeing of all its people in their hearts, rather than the Anarchs and establishment Camarilla who extend the corruption of the human world into that of the undead and are doomed to repeat its mistakes. And to him the person to direct kindred society in such a direction, with the greater good and wellbeing of all kindred at the forefront of their mind, was none other than Evander Ford himself. So many utopian projects fail when the ideological head must pass the reigns to a successor, but the immortality of the vampiric condition ensures that such an ideological head need never pass the reigns at all and thus the city of Los Angeles became the first experiment in Fordist society.
Make no mistake about it, Evander Ford was a dictator. While he was extremely favorable to his supporters and even allowed kindred not to express their support for him, any organised support for the Anarchs, establishment Camarilla, or really any anti-Ford regime was immediately crushed with extreme violence. He also actively worked against clan organisation in Los Angeles, believing that such institutions decentralise power and weaken the state with greed and corruption resulting from oligarchical control of their members looking out for only their own interests.
In 1944, the Prince detained a Brujah named Jeremy MacNeil for publicly speaking out in favour of an Anarch Free State and recruiting others to the cause. Evander Ford was personally present at the capture of MacNeil and was alleged to have used the dominate discipline to force the Anarch into prostrating himself before the Prince and kissing his shoes. This humiliation of an individual seen as a hero by the local Anarch Movement is eventually what sparked the Second Anarch Revolt, where Woody Stockton, Saffron Letellier, and Salvador Garcia (along with some of their followers) stormed the Los Angeles City Hall and Garcia killed Evander Ford in single combat.
With all of this said, however, many people both inside and outside the Camarilla believe that at least in some capacity Evander Ford was right. After the establishment of the Free Baronies in 1948 and everything that has come of Los Angeles since then, it has not been uncommon to hear someone wronged by the current system to lament that the bureaucracy, corruption, and infighting that Ford spoke of eighty, ninety, or over a hundred years ago was absolutely true. Barons in the current age struggle for power between one another while neglecting or even downright endangering the safety of those in their care of protection. This is the legacy of Evander Ford and Fordism, and to this day his theories are discussed with equal reverence, revilement, and disappointment.
== Trivia ==
* Any definitive evidence of his death died along with Salvador Garcia. Because of this, he occupies the first spot on the Free Baronies Red List until conclusive proof of his demise is found.
Category:Characters created by Morgan
Category:Clan Lasombra
Category:Redlisted