Nick Edenson

Nick Edenson is the Seneschal and husband of the current Camarilla prince of Los Angeles, Sebastian Lacroix. To everyone but his closest allies, he is an upstanding (if unambitious in matters of the clan) member of House Tremere. In truth, Nick is a 6th-generation Baali, hiding among the Tremere so as not to get his head chopped off by the nearest passing Archon.

## Biography

Nick was born in Russia in the depths of World War II to a 14-year old girl whose village had been sacked by passing German soldiers almost a year prior. Not long after, she fled Russia with her mother and newborn baby to America, eventually winding up in San Francisco. It was there that she fell in with a charismatic Christian cult far from the city limits, and it was there that Nick grew up.

The cult dominated Nick's entire life. Initially considered the prophet's potential heir, he chafed at the ironclad control the cult exerted on him and the things they forced him to do. It wasn't until they started sending him out into the godless city to "recruit" that he finally latched onto a means to escape. At 16, while the rest of the cult was asleep, Nick barred the doors to where they slept, and with the kerosene he had meticulously squirreled away burned the cult to the ground. He fled into the city with a new name, and a new purpose: to serve Satan, who had never once asked him to submit to the total degradation of the self that God had demanded.

He didn't exactly land on his feet. Nick lived on the streets for ten years after escaping the cult, lacking any practical life skills beyond wilderness survival, deception, and guile. Every opportunity for hedonism was taken; every chance to spit in God's eye indulged. By the time Nick's sire found him, he was a manipulative snake who would use anyone foolish enough to give him the time of day. As it turned out, this was part of the appeal.

In July 1970, the Baali Methuselah Mira snatched him off the streets, drained him dry, and threw him in the clan's traditional Embrace ritual - a pit of writhing, living viscera and body parts, with a heart at the center containing a few drops of her blood. Nick reached the heart, and survived certain death.

For the next 20-something years (who can keep track after you've died?), Mira put Nick through vampire boot camp, with designs on having him infiltrate the California Tremere. At the moment of his death, Nick was illiterate, vicious, angry, addicted to cocaine, and subconsciously looking for a way to die. By the time he arrived in Los Angeles, he was an urbane, sober, charismatic man of the people. Mira's short leash turned out to be exactly what he needed; much to his horror. Was he meant to be leashed to something, after all? Was he just drifting from prophet to prophet?

Then, Nick got ideas of his own. Wouldn't it be more practical to get control of the entire *city?* Why not do what came naturally, and use his "talents" on the man in charge of all of Los Angeles?

As it turned out, fate had other plans for him. Falling in love with the Prince changed everything.

## Current Activities

Nick spends all of his time on the thankless work of keeping his husband's city from crumbling into urban warfare. He takes an active role in the city's upkeep, vaguely terrified that if even one of his new coterie were to fall to the Sabbat or the hunters or the sun; he would see their face in his mind's eye before falling asleep every morning.

When he isn't putting out fires (metaphorically speaking) in the domain, Nick spends time with his husband and his husband's childe, or at Elysium. He rarely visits the chantry these days - it's better for everyone if people think that he's just a Tremere who was a poor fit for the clan, rather than risk encountering a Tremere who is a little too suspicious of the gaps in his story.

Nick is also a hopeless, incurable arsonist. His mastery of Lure of Flames drives him to distraction - it's not only his main weapon against other Kindred, but his obsession. Before Los Angeles, he had a bad habit of starting churches on fire. These days, he limits himself to abandoned buildings that aren't as likely to actually hurt people.

## Relationships

* Prince LaCroix: The love of his unlife. There is nothing Nick would not do for him.
* Anja: His (adopted) childe. Feels responsible for her, even though she's a fully grown adult.
* Erin: Bisexual besties. Frequent visitor to the Gardens (at least, when he remembers not to smoke beforehand).
* Lestat: Close friends. Another neonate he feels responsible for - except Lestat probably does need the support.
* Fina: If he had a role model, it would be Fina Motisi.
* Mira: [redacted]