Silvestre de Leon

*Emissary of House Dracula*

* Overview
* Sheet
* Background
* 'Ships
* Logs

 Please, at least conduct yourself in a civilized manner. Can we not leave unbecoming, beastly behavior
to the lunatic mongrels?

— Silvestre de Leon

Silvestre de Leon is a member of House Dracula. Sired in 1523 by Barnabas, a lieutenant of Vlad Dracula, de Leon has served his house and court in various capacities over the centuries, working his way from the rank-and-file up to a position as an emissary, sent to observe and report on various "areas of concern" for the court, protecting its interests.

## Personality

Silvestre de Leon is a vampire of the Old World in most senses of the term. In some ways, he is what is expected from such a vampire: cultured, well-mannered, courtly, and civilized. He observes many of the old customs, such as hospitality and generally honorable behavior--though, as a vampire of a somewhat political nature, his honor can be somewhat subjective, particularly where "the truth" is concerned. In other ways, he may come as something of a surprise. For example, he has an extreme distaste for killing. As an immortal, he has come to find death an offensive, repugnant concept. He never kills unless absolutely necessary, for even the death of a lesser being is wasteful and foolish. Naturally, killing to protect himself is something he will do if he must, but it is his way to embrace life, and unlife, rather than to seek to snuff it out. Existence fascinates him, and he does hold his own view of propriety in high regard. As a result of all these things, he does not always get along particularly well with more modern or reckless vampires.

## SIGNATURE ABILITY

### Die Another Day

To Silvestre, life is sacred. Even those he feeds upon are to be tended and cared for, thanked for their contribution to his unlife, and certainly never to be abused or done lasting harm. Such is his dedication to this path that, beyond even the limitations of sangromancy and necromancy, he is able to deny death, restoring another to life. So long as the soul is available, Silvestre can restore a broken body from even the most grievous of injuries, restoring it completely, returning the soul to the body, and fully restoring the fallen to life. Doing this takes a great deal of power, so after Silvestre performs such a miracle, he must then feed and rest before he is able to do it again.

## SKILLS

Thanks in large part to his body remaining in peak physical condition, Silvestre is an expert at all basic forms of athleticism. His expertise does not extend to most current, modern sports, but he can run, climb, jump, swim, and so forth with the best of them.

Silvestre is quite skilled at projecting whatever emotion or manner is require of him in any given situation. He can be charming or threatening, friendly or aloof, depending upon the situation. He is far from the best there is at this, but he is solidly skilled in this area. In many cases, he prefers to let his words and actions speak for themselves, rather than employing the elaborate social games that some vampires enjoy.

One does not survive centuries of danger without maintaining certain survival skills. Silvestre, as one who has often had to serve as one form of enforcer or another, maintains excellent combat skills, including unarmed fighting, the use of various ancient weapons, and even modern firearms.

Long-lived and intelligent, Silvestre has a remarkable, even expert-level knowledge of many fields, such as art, history, and culture. However, he is much less well-informed when it comes to matters of science and technology. He is not wholly ignorant, but he has not made it a priority to keep at the forefront of such fields. Thus, overall, he is competently educated.

From delivering a stirring speech at a social gathering to performing a piece of music, such as vocally or on a piano, guitar, or similar instruments, Silvestre is quite good at it. Once again, this is not his greatest area of expertise, but he is certainly able to hold his own in these areas.

Silvestre is fluent and fully literate in Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, and Spanish.

As an experienced blood sorcerer, Silvestre has an expert knowledge of magic and the supernatural. This includes information about various supernatural creatures, as well as the workings of various magics. As a vampire, of course, his expertise is skewed in that direction. He knows the most about creatures of the night and blood sorcery. When dealings with less familiar beings, such as the fae, he is still generally aware of how to keep out of trouble.

When one has played the game of vampire politics for centuries, one becomes quite adept at it. Mortal politics simply pale by comparison. From the ranks of House Dracula to the halls of parliaments across the world, Silvestre is an expert at political maneuvering.

Without the use of his powers, Silvestre would still be a reasonably stealthy individual. He would not pass as a ninja or anything of the kind, but he can sneak around quite effectively. Often, he augments this through the use of his various powers.

The thing about vampires is, they don't like it when one uses mental powers on them. As such, Silvestre has cultivated expertise in the art of subterfuge. While he may not prefer to play the social games of vampires, he is nonetheless very good at picking up on them, understanding them, and avoiding being caught up in them. As a result, he's also quite good at playing gambits of his own.

While Silvestre has never been a military commander in the conventional (or even traditional) sense, he has studied much of tactics and has been in many difficult tactical situations before. He is not one of the great tacticians, but he always keeps very aware of his surroundings and always has an escape plan in mind from any situation.

Mentalists always tend to have strong will, and Silvestre has been practicing his art for centuries. Even without his magic, he has a nigh-indomitable will and would not break even under the most strenuous of pressure, torture, or similar. Similarly, his mind is exceedingly difficult to violate or influence, and he is also extremely adept at controlling his more primal urges, so while he finds blood as appealing as any other vampire, especially when hungry, he has supreme self-control.

## CASTING

While Silvestre is fully capable of raising the odd zombie or flesh golem, he has more often used this ability to gain a greater degree of understanding and control over his various vampiric powers. His powers work more akin to enchantment, done by imbuing objects with magic, than like charms or other spells that must be "kept up."

Trained in ritual magic as a young vampire, Silvestre has been a competent practitioner for centuries. This power does not allow for any evocation or "spell-slinging," but with the proper time and equipment, he can cast nearly any form of ritual magic. His specialties are blood magic, necromancy, and transformation, though those abilities are listed as separate powers.

Silvestre's greatest magical talent lies, predictably enough, in blood magic. Blood is the best focus he can use, whether it be for a form of kinetomancy, moving blood by magic alone; thaumaturgical link, allowing him to track someone by their blood; or otherwise affecting blood itself. Notably, blood is hardest to control when inside a living being. So, he could much more easily manipulate blood that had gushed from a wound than he could within someone's veins. Those with moderate mystic defenses are able to fairly easily resist him controlling their blood directly, though more limited effects than overt control are likely. He might be able to slow someone down a bit, fog their perceptions somewhat, rather than controlling them like a puppet--that would be very difficult for him to do to anyone with magical defenses. Blood is also his best focus for magic in other respects, such as for a link via mentalism. If someone ingests Silvestre's blood, he has a much greater ability to track them, read their thoughts, and even control their minds.

## POWERS

As a vampire, Silvestre's fangs pierce as readily as swords, and his claws slash like daggers. They are very difficult to break, and his saliva also allows him to numb an area where he intends to bite someone. For many, there is even a sense of euphoria from the Bite, and with a simple swipe of his tongue he can seal a wound, so it will no longer bleed.

As a vampire, Silvestre does not age. He does not need to eat food, nor drink water. He does not need to breathe, nor sleep in the conventional sense. He cannot be harmed by extremes of temperature (save actually being frozen or set on fire), and he is immune to diseases, toxins, and other afflictions that may harm humans.

Within the realm of the mind, Silvestre is among the strongest mystic practitioners in the world. He is capable of telepathy across great distances and between up to a number of minds at once, whether sending thoughts or reading them. He can also extend mental influence across even large crowds. He can implant or modify thoughts and memories, though in general the more extensive the changes and the stronger the mind, the more difficult it is and, thus, the more effort and focus are required.

While Silvestre can extend direct mental influence via thought alone, various factors allow him to focus his powers even more easily. Close proximity, direct eye contact, and use of verbal commands all make it easier for him to extend his influence over others. Simpler, more direct commands are easier, especially across a crowd, and the less against someone's nature a command is, the easier it is to enforce.

His influence can be resisted, to a limited degree, with Expert-level willpower or Enhanced-level mental defenses. Only Supreme-level mental defenses, presumably, allow for full resistance to his powers. However, even partial resistance may be enough to allow one to fight off his influence, especially if he's not giving it his full attention or if factors for influence are not ideal.

So long as Silvestre has a steady blood supply, while resting he heals at a vastly increased rate. He can restore even severed limbs within a few days of rest, severe injuries within a few hours, and minor injuries within minutes. As long as a majority of his body exists and is fueled with blood, he can recover from any injury.

Silvestre has practiced greatly with transformation magics, such that he is able to convert his entire form into various other shapes. These shapes include commonly a cloud of mist, a pool of blood, or a swarm of bats. He can also transform into singular shapes, such as a wolf or giant bat, but in general these changes are mainly cosmetic. He might gain the mechanical advantage of flight, or be able to fit into different spaces, but he gains no special abilities or powers when in altered shapes, otherwise. One other benefit of this ability is that it may be combined with his sangromancy, allowing him to use it to resist having his body or being directly modified by magic.

As a vampire, Silvestre's agility is several times peak human ability, allowing him to catch arrows with moderate effort or dodge bullets with a bit of luck. His reflexes are easily ten times that of peak human ability, and he can run superhumanly fast. He can travel long distance at ground racing speeds, or he can move up to a few hundred feet faster than the human eye can follow.

As a vampire, Silvestre's senses are on the level of an animal, with the scenting ability of a bloodhound, the hearing of a wolf, the night vision of an owl, and so forth.

As a vampire, Silvestre possesses physical strength at the Enhanced level, sufficient to bend and twist metal bars, smash through most non-armored structures, and break through a brick wall with sustained moderate effort.

As a vampire, Silvestre is able to survive indefinitely by consuming blood. This powers all of his various mystic abilities. As a vampire of rather potent blood, he is also able to "turn" others. Generally, only humans can be turned. Other creatures may be turned in some cases, but in most cases mystic blood isn't easily disrupted. (OOC, this works by Rule of Plot and will be invoked as is appropriate per player consent and staff approval.) The process of turning involves bringing a subject to near the point of death, then feeding them a portion of his own blood. Other details on the nature of Silvestre's vampirism are contained in his other powers and weaknesses.

## ADVANTAGES

Silvestre has numerous safehouses, ranging from small bolt-holes to lavish mansions filled with servants and security guards. Each of these is heavily mystically warded, as well as offering the best mundane security that money can buy. When Silvestre sleeps, he literally sleeps inside vaults inside bomb shelters.

As a ranking member of House Dracula, Silvestre has quite a number of useful contacts and allies to rely upon. He also enjoys the backing of his house and court, so long as he continues to serve their purposes. At present, he is an emissary, which means he is sent to areas of importance to the court, where he acts to protect their interests and further their agenda.

Being centuries old has many perks. Among them is the ability to accrue lifetime after lifetime worth of wealth, then compound it with interest. Silvestre is at this point wealthy beyond the concept of avarice, and he has all the various accoutrements and advantages that come with it. Essentially, if money can buy it, he has access to it.

## WEAKNESSES

Holy symbols, in and of themselves, present no problem for Silvestre. However, displays of sincere faith can repel him. So, if a person who does not believe brandishes a cross or holy water, it means nothing to him. However, if such an object is used by someone who actually holds deep, sincere faith in a higher power, then they may be able to repel him with a symbol or scald him with holy water. Notably, infernal or "dark" aligned powers do not seem to affect him.

As a vampire, Silvestre must regularly feed to maintain his strength. If he does not feed each night, he will begin to tire quickly the next evening. If he does not feed for a week, his powers will be greatly reduced. If he does not feed for a month, he risks entering a state of deathlike sleep, where he would remain until fed blood again. To avoid this, he can enter into that extended sleep voluntarily, and while in it he will not need to feed, but upon waking he will be just as hungry as he was when he began sleeping.

Sunlight does not harm Silvestre. However, during the day his powers are greatly reduced, almost like a normal human suffering from intense sleep deprivation. His physical abilities work only in short bursts during the day, and his mind does not focus as easily. He is most comfortable spending daylight hours asleep. However, with great effort he can manage to get by during the day. His magical powers are not reduced during the day, but his focus is, so he still is not using them at his peak ability level.

An odd quirk of Silvestre's strain of vampirism is that he cannot be seen in mirrors or other simple reflective surfaces. Actual photoreceptors, such as eyes or digital cameras, are able to detect him normally, but film-based cameras and mirrors will fail to reflect or record him at all. This can be a clue as to his true nature if he is not careful.

As a vampire, Silvestre is affected by the ancient magic of home thresholds. Unless invited in, he cannot enter a private residence. Hotel rooms, offices, and other public buildings generally do not count unless someone has been actively making a home there for an extended period of time. This weakness follows the usual rules and limitations concerning home thresholds.

Being undead comes with certain drawbacks. While Silvestre does not carry the scent of death or other more overt signs, he is still technically a man who has died and been reanimated by vampirism. Magics that detect the undead will detect him, barriers attuned to the undead will affect him, and so forth.

The mortal man, Silvestre de Leon, was born to a blue-blooded family in 1474. Little remains known of his family, since they were all killed in the Spanish Inquisition. As a young nobleman who enjoyed the company of other men and was not particularly religious, he was easily targeted by the religious zealots, but his entire family paid the price. De Leon lived, however, thanks to Barnabas, a mysterious vampire of House Dracula--and one of the offspring of Vlad Dracula, himself. From that day forward, Silvestre left the mortal world behind and immersed himself in the life of a vampire. To start he carried out minor tasks for House Dracula, but as the years turned to decades, he became trusted with greater and greater duties, rising through the ranks. He attained his bloodline's disdain for vampires of demonic origins, as well as learning an abiding hatred for the coven of Cold Ones known as the Volturi, but he also learned to respect what these other sorts of vampires could do--to say nothing of how the ways of the New World would not vanish as the passing fancy many had assumed they would. After the turning of the Twenty-First Century, Silvestre was tasked with serving as an emissary of House Dracula. Of late, he has come to California, pursuing his own interests while always serving the ends of his masters.

Logs featuring Silvestre de Leon:

*Coming soon!*