Damian

Amara (sister/vampiric broodmate)

Marcus Antonius/Mark Antony (vampiric progeny)

*"I have defeated gods, slain demons, and gorged on the blood of angels. You were a fool to challenge me, but you have my word that you will have a noble death. Prepare yourself."*

Damian, or Damianos as he was originally named, is an ancient vampire from the city of Troy. A veteran of the Trojan War, Damian is a legendary warrior, though many of his greatest kills, such as that of Achilles, have been washed away by history. He is among the oldest and most potent vampires of the modern nights, having fought nearly every manner of supernatural foe throughout his three millennia of life.

## Biography

### Early Life

Damianos was born in Troy at the end of the thirteenth century BC, to a family of aristocrats. He was the oldest of three siblings, having both a younger sister and a younger brother. The pair were twins, three years younger than Damianos himself, named Amara and Lysander. Though their mother died giving birth to them, Damianos was close to them both, looking out for them as they looked up to him with awe. Lysander especially worshipped him, for Damianos was bold, clever, and adventurous, often getting into trouble as a child, trouble which Lysander often followed him into.

Damianos, as was custom for sons of aristocratic houses at the time, was instructed in the arts of war. Even as a child, he stood above the other boys in training, so much so that his father Antinous managed to secure him a position as an attendant to the legendarily skilled Prince Hector. He struck up a great friendship with Hector's younger brother, Troilus, who he competed against during their training in a friendly rivalry.

### Trojan War

The Trojan War broke out in 1194 BC, when Damianos was ten years old, when Prince Paris, Hector's brother, returned from Sparta, with Helen, the wife of the Spartan King Meneleus, in tow. The King of Sparta was not willing to allow such a slight to stand, and he called on his brother Agamemnon and all those who had sworn to defend Helen's marriage to lay siege to Troy to take Helen back. As such, Damianos's home city went to war.

During the early years of the decade long conflict, Damianos was deemed to young to fight, both by his father and by Hector, his mentor. During the fourth year of the war, however, Damianos's friend and Hector's younger brother, Troilus, was slain in battle by Achilles, as the eidolon goddess Athena had informed the Achaean hero that were Troilus to reach twenty years of age, Troy would never fall. When Damianos was informed of how Achilles had driven his friend into the Temple of Apollo in the nearby town of Thymbra, beheading him at the altar and mutilating his body, he swore a bloody oath of vengeance against the Achaeans and Achilles, and demanded to fight alongside Hector. The prince agreed, allowing Damianos into battle for the first time at the age of fourteen. Despite his youth, the young Damianos became a terror upon the battlefield, slaying countless invaders in his fury. Unbeknownst to him, a creature that had gone into slumber under Troy some two centuries before had been rousing thanks to the war raging above him, and had begun watching the young warrior with great interest.

#### Duel against Ajax

One of Damianos's most legendary foes was attributed to his prince, Hector. During the seventh year of the war, lots were drawn to facilitate a duel between champions of the two sides, at the behest of the Olympian eidolons. Damianos was chosen to fight for Troy, whilst Ajax was selected as champion of the Achaeans. The two fought a brutal duel which lasted most of the day. Ajax had the better of the encounter, wounding Damianos with his spear, but the Trojan fought on, until the eidolon Zeus interceded, ending the duel via a pair of heralds. Damianos and Ajax exchanged gifts, with Damianos receiving a purple sash whilst he gifted his opponent a magnificent sword.

#### Meeting the Firstborn

During the final year of the war, the Firstborn vampire who had been slumbering beneath the city for the previous century and a half, and had since been observing the conflict raging above him, final roused himself from his torpor. Damianos had caught his eye. Not only for his prowess in battle, as there were others that matched him, but for another reason. The young Trojan had attracted the eye of one of the Olympian Eidolons: Apollo, the God of the Sun. For the last few years, Damianos been receiving visits from the god, in the guise of one of the physicians of Troy. Apollo had become enamored of the young Trojan, but he was still to recover fully from the death of his previous mortal lover, Hyacinthus, and was therefore reluctant to reveal himself. Unfortunately, the Firstborn Jager had observed the interaction, and resolved to Embrace Damianos, and see how the eidolon, who wielded power over the sun, reacted. He initially approached the Trojan through a possessed thrall, and offered the warrior power that would enhance his prowess on the battlefield. Thinking one of the gods came before him, Damianos politely refused, stating that although the offer was generous, he thought himself unworthy of receiving such blessing from the gods. In reality, he simply wished to battle solely on his own skill. His mind was open to the Firstborn, and Jager was intrigued by the youth's thirst for challenge, and withheld the gift of his blood for the time being, stating if Damianos changed his mind, the offer still stood.

#### The Death of Lysander and Embrace

The final days of the war were marked with some of the greatest amounts of tragedy in the war. Achilles's friend and lover Patroclus met his death at the hands of Hector. In revenge, Achilles sought him out on the battlefield, and they came together in an epic clash of arms. Damianos and Lysander fought to reach the prince, seeing him pressed hard by the ferocity of the greatest Achaean hero. They were too late, however, and Achilles struck Hector down, scornfully refusing to allow his body to be interred in Troy. Fresh from his kill, Achilles was engaged by Damianos and his brother, but with his greatest deed of the war done, the empowerment granted to him by his eidolization was such that Damianos's sword broke when it struck him. The Trojan warrior was dealt a devastating wound, stabbed right through his armor, and there he would have met his end, had not Lysander come between him and Achilles. He was no match for the Achaean, however, and as some Trojan men dragged Damianos away to the gates, he witnessed his brother's decapitation at Achilles's hands.

When Damianos returned to Troy, the physicians expected him to die. At his bedside all the while was his sister Amara, Lysander's twin, praying desperately for the gods to heal him. Her prayers were answered, but not by any god of Olympus. Jager returned, and offered Damianos his blood, and the power to defeat Achilles. Burning for vengeance against his brother's killer, Damianos accepted without hesitation.

#### Following Nights

When Damianos awoke from the earth outside Troy alongside his sire the following night, Apollo was standing over him, his radiant form revealed. Burning with rage at Damianos's transformation, he attacked the Firstborn, unleashing the power of the sun against him. The master of Tenebrae contemptuously snuffed out the light sent against him with the power of the Umbra, but Damianos was not so protected. The indirect rays Apollo had unleashed badly burned him, sending him into his first frenzy and almost into torpor. This stopped the fight immediately, as Jager brought his newborn progeny to heel and undid his injuries with his mastery of Ardor. Apollo apologized profusely, and confessed his feelings for Damianos on the spot. Stunned at the revelation, Damianos was rendered speechless. After a moment of thought, however, he collected himself, and asked for a single boon, as proof of Apollo's affection for him. He wondered if he would be struck down for the hubris of the request, but Apollo agreed. So Damianos asked for him, as god of the sun, to give him the chance to walk in the day, so that he might fight to avenge his brother. Exactly as Jager had planned.

#### Duel with Achilles

The next day, Damianos strode out into the sun for the final time without it harming him. Immediately, he sought Achilles out. Though a night old, and not having mastered the powers of his blood, he had access to some powers inherited from his sire. He fought with speed and strength beyond men, carving his way through the Achaeans until he came face to face with his brother's killer. The duel was vicious. Even with his new powers, Damianos only just could match the might of Agamemnon's most powerful warrior. Damianos took several wounds, but his undead resilience enabled him to fight on when he should have been incapacitated. He landed several hits on Achilles, but even with the sword strengthened by his sire's Ardor so as not to shatter, he could not scratch him. Jager did not want the fight to be that easy. At last, as his desire for vengeance blazed as hot as the sun, Damianos opted to put his new resilience to the test. He allowed Achilles to impale him, drawing in close. As Achilles drove his blade through armor and abdomen, Damianos sank his fangs into the throat of his foe. The magic of his bite enabled him to pierce through the aura of invulnerability that surrounded the Achaean, and he drained him dry, there on the battlefield, letting out a scream of fury as Lysander was avenged.

#### Departure

The battle of the day ended after Damianos brutally killed Achilles, with the invaders fleeing back to their camps. Damianos came back into the city, surrounded by wariness, for many men had witnessed him tear out Achilles's throat with his teeth. Damianos, feeling empty now that his bloodlust had been sated, returned to his home, to speak with his father and sister. Amara was gone, but Antinous was present, and the word of Damianos's monstrous killing of Achilles had reached him. When he saw the blood on his son's lips, he knew that Damianos had become a monster. He cursed his son, and cast him out of his house, bidding him never to return, and proclaiming that his mother would be horrified at what he had become. Enraged and on the verge of a frenzy, Damianos pinned his father to the wall, lifting him by the throat, but stopped himself from committing patricide. Horrified, he fled his father's house, searching the city for his sister, but he found no sign of her, and was greeted with suspicion wherever he went by the people he had fought to defend for years. As the sun began to set, he exited Troy, journeying to where he had last been with his sire. He was shocked to find that when Jager rose from the earth, Amara rose with him. The Firstborn, seeing in Amara the same steel he saw in Damianos, had Embraced her as well. Glad to have his sister, the only family remaining to him by his side, Damianos walked with his sire into the nearest shadow, and off into the night.

### First Century BC

In 66 BC, Damianos first encountered a young patrician named Marcus Antonius, (or Mark Antony as he would be better known) in a brothel where the ancient vampire had stopped to feed. Antonius had drunkenly wandered into the room where Damianos and the whore he had seduced to feed upon were, interrupting the Trojan's feeding. After probing the youth's mind, Damianos became convinced of his potential, and engaged in conversation with the young man, slipping some of his own blood into a cup of wine, which Antonius consumed, thereby forging a connection to him. The conversation planted seeds within the youth's mind, prompting him to pursue a military career a few years later, as he was fleeing debt.

#### Second Battle With the Gaul

In 58 BC, Damianos was placed under the command of the mortal general, Gaius Julius Caesar, by the Triumvirate of Rome. He lent his considerable power to the Roman army, and was unleashed at the Battle of Bibracte, the second battle of the Gallic Wars, against the Celtic Helvetii Tribe. There, he faced the then elder Edenian, Antiorix of the Alps. Antiorix had been leading the Helvetii, serving as an insurmountable champion in battle, and was one of the contributing factors for the fact that the engagement lasted well into the night, allowing Damianos to intervene. The two engaged in a brief but vicious duel, which ended when Antiorix stated that he would finish what Achilles could not, and slay the vampire. Damianos was driven into a frenzy at the mention of his old foe, and brutally descended on Antiorix, ripping him apart and incapacitating him. The battle concluded shortly thereafter, and Caesar decided that Antiorix would be sent to Rome to serve as a gladiator. Damianos advised Caesar on the necessary precautions his men should take when handling the Edenian, and Antiorix was sent off, allowing the vampire and mortal general to continue their campaign.

#### Embrace of Mark Antony

Damianos had his eye on Marcus Antonius for several decades. When he sensed the danger Antonius was in through the connection of the blood he had placed into the mortal, he travelled to Egypt. He arrived shortly after Marcus Antonius committed suicide in response to the death of Cleopatra, his wife. Unwilling to let him go to waste, Damianos gifted Marcus Antonius with his Embrace, raising him as a vampire. When Antony learned that the rumor of his wife's death was false, Damianos allowed his new progeny to meet her and say his goodbyes. Then, Damianos Mesmerized Cleopatra and all the residents of the palace to believe that Antonius was dead, and the two made their departure. After Cleopatra committed suicide, Antonius was devastated, but Damianos calmed him by making arrangements for his children by her to be spared by the soon to be emperor, Octavian, and ensured that they were raised by Antonius's Roman wife, Octavia, alongside his other children.

### First Century AD

During the first century AD, Damianos and his sister, Amara, both ventured to the Britainnia at the behest of the Roman Triumvirate in 43 AD, in order to prevent the local supernaturals from impeding the mortal soldiers of Rome in conquering the region. They were accompanied by a retinue of younger vampires, including Damianos's most recent progeny, Marcus Antonius. There Damianos and his subordinates made war on the local alliance of fae, werecreatures, and the vampire coven of the Tuatha De Morrigan. Meanwhile, Amara and some of their other servants managed the Roman affairs further south, founding the settlement of Londinium. Damianos's own tremendous power was key to their success, and many local supernaturals bent the knee to the Triumvirate to forestall their destruction at the hands of the ancient vampire.

Damianos nearly Embraced another progeny in 60 AD. Impressed by the tenacity of the queen of the local Iceni Tribe, Boudica, as she rallied her people and ravaged Amara's settlement of Londinium (with his sister's fury greatly amusing the old vampire), Damianos sought her out to give her the Embrace. After his progeny, Marcus Antonius, aided the local Roman legions in turning the tide against Boudica and her werewolf allies, Damianos went to retrieve and Embrace her, only to find that she had poisoned herself. Not only that, but her body had disappeared, making it impossible for the ancient to gift her with his blood. Damianos then resumed in aiding the conquest.

#### Battle of the Red Twilight

Twelve years later, in 72 AD, Damianos learned from a werewolf that Boudica had been kin to the werewolves of the Karrovil Clan, and that her body had been spirited away by them. Furious, the Trojan rallied some of his troops, against the advice of Amara and his progeny, and travelled to Ireland, the Karrovil homeland, to ravage it in vengeance for the potential progeny he had been robbed of. He was met by an allied force of changelings, werewolves, vampires, and their faerie allies, lead by Morrigan and the legendary Ard Ri of the Irish werewolves, Emeric Karrovil. The battle centered around Damianos, who fought brutally against Morrigan and her sorcery, while the Ard Ri, empowered by channeling the Faerie Lord Balor, fought him with tooth and claw. Damianos managed to grievously wound Morrigan, and slew Emeric Karrovil, but was so injured himself that he fell into torpor, forcing his troops to retreat and carry him away. The legendary battle would go on to be remembered by the Tuatha De Morrigan and Clan Karrovil as the Battle of the Red Twilight.

### Fourth Century AD

During the late fourth century, Damianos began going by the name Damian.

### Ninth Century AD

During the ninth century, Damian returned to the British Isles. In 866 AD, his sister Amara embraced a young Northumbrian by the name of Nicolas Mason, whose brother had been murdered by Danish werewolves. Of greater import to the two ancient vampires was the fact that the fledgling vampire had been invested with the power of Balor, the same Faerie Lord who had empowered the Ard Ri of the Irish werewolves who Damian had fought and slain nearly eight centuries ago. Intrigued, Damian took personal interest in his sister's new scion, lending his twenty centuries of combat experience to train the fledgling in the arts of war, in particular, how to fight werewolves, who Nicolas had a ferocious vendetta against.

## Physical Appearance

Damian appears as a stunningly handsome youth of around twenty years. He is of average height, but a powerful and graceful build, possessed of an athletic physique honed by years of combat training. He has pale olive skin, green eyes, and dark brown hair that is usually long enough to reach his ears.

## Personality

Damian is a competitive thrill seeker, always searching for exciting stimulus to keep unlife lively. After three thousand years, he has grown to be very sure of himself, and is known to charge into danger without any fear for his survival. The fact that few beings exist with the power to challenge him does little to curb his tremendous self confidence.

Damian loves to fight, and even more loves to be challenged when he fights. The thrill of taking a wound, narrowly escaping death, and striking down a foe is one of his greatest pleasures.

When it comes to his social nature, Damian is possessed of fierce charisma. He is glib of tongue and confidant in his speech, and enjoys verbal sparring almost as much as he does with swords. He relishes battles of banter, enjoying being able to pit himself against foes in duels of words. He is also an excellent leader, capable of the rousing speeches necessary to make men follow him to battle, and his unflinching fear and willingness to wade into the thick of combat make him an inspiration to any troops under his command.

Damian is disdainful towards those he views as weak, and loves openly deriding and mocking any who cannot match his wits. He views most beings, aside from those who are of an age and power with him, as beneath him, though the rare few who spark his interest find themselves under intense scrutiny from him. He admires bravery, and believes that any with the courage to fight him are worthy of noble deaths. Memorable enemies often find themselves recounted in tales of his adventures, which he loves to tell.

For one of his greatest flaws is his ego, along with his brashness. He can be easily coerced into boasting and recounting tales of his exploits, though after having been tricked several times in battle, he is somewhat wary of the tactic.

## Relationships

### Lysander

Lysander was Damian's younger brother, slain during the final days of the Trojan War. Early in his life, Damian found Lysander and his brother's twin, Amara, constantly following him around to be annoying. Lysander was even more irritating, as the younger boy worshipped his older brother, and tried to do everything Damian did. Eventually, he developed a powerful bond with Lysander, sharing many interests and coming to trust him implicitly due to their shared experience on the battlefields of the Trojan War. As the two fought and failed to save Prince Hector from being slain by the Achaean hero Achilles, Damian attempted to avenge his fallen friend. However, though his fame had resulted in Damian becoming eidolized, Achilles was still too much for him, and Damian would have died if Lysander had not come between them. Lysander gave the Trojan soldiers the chance to drag the wounded Damian away, at the cost of his own life. Lysander's death is one of Damian's greatest regrets, and the image of his brother's decapitated head spinning through the air haunts him to the modern nights. He wishes very much that he could have died in his place. Damian is even more bitter that Lysander was left out of the sagas of the war than at the fact that Damian himself was.

### Amara

Amara is Damian's sister and broodmate, embraced by his sire, the Firstborn Jager, shortly after he was. Amara had always looked up to him, and he in turn had looked out for her, but their bond was never as strong as the one Damian had with her twin, Lysander, for she had never fought alongside him as he had. Their bond deepened however as they both entered unlife as progeny of the Veismar Clan Founder, and they spent their first few centuries together before eventually parting ways. However, throughout the centuries, the two would always find their way back to one another, and are always willing to fly to one another's aid if ever the need arises.

### Achilles

Achilles is a contradiction within Damian's mind. On the one hand, Damian utterly hates him, for killing three of the men closest to him: his friend and rival, Prince Troilus, his friend and mentor, Prince Hector, and his friend and brother, Lysander. The fear which Achilles inspired in Damian was tremendous, equal to the rage the thought of the hero invoked. To this night, the ancient vampire still feels his blood roil whenever Achilles is mentioned. At the same time though, he respected Achilles greatly for his prowess as a warrior. In his mind, defeating Achilles was Damian's greatest victory.

### Akros

The ancient Edenian Akros is one of Damian's fiercest and oldest foes.

## Powers

Damian is among the most powerful vampires active within the modern nights. With his mastery of Virtus, a power common among his clan, he possesses strength that is utterly godlike. He also has vast command over the other gifts common to his clan, Tenebrae and Glamour, though not to the same extent. However, he has reached similar heights in his mastery of Legerity, and is so astoundingly quick that most battles he enters end before his foes even know they have begun. As a result, Damian's brood inherit Virtus, Tenebrae, and Legerity, rather than the more common set of Glamour, Tenebrae, and Virtus common to the clan. Damian has also mastered Ardor to a degree any ancient vampire would be proud of, and wields Augury with skill that is just a shade lower. His skill in Mesmer is also very potent, more so than the common elder, and his mastery of Permutation is at a stage common to most elders who specialize in it. Damian's poorest skill is in Fera, although his mastery of it would be considered respectable for any alumnus vampire.

## Skills

Damian is one of the most legendarily skilled warriors on earth, in both hand to hand and melee combat, with over three millennia of experience fighting duels against the most legendary fighters in history and single handedly devastating armies. His skill on the battlefield does not stop in direct combat, as he is also an excellent strategist and an even more brilliant tactician, two skills which he combines with his vampiric Blood Gifts to coordinate and marshal armies under his command to devastating effectiveness. However, he is not reliant solely on his powers to keep followers in mind, as Damian is an adept leader, skilled in the art of oration and able to inspire his troops to battle with naught but his words and personal charisma. Like his sire, Damian is also a skilled hunter, tracker, and survivalist as a result of centuries of travel through the vast wild places between civilizations. Lastly, Damian has acquired some skill in politics, and while he is no master of navigating the byzantine schemes of vampiric court, he is familiar enough with them to know the risks and refrain from committing overtly foolish deeds.

## Stats

**Name:** Damian

**Race:** Vampire

**Date of Birth:** 1204 BC

**Date of Embrace:** 1184 BC

**Sire:** Jager

**Clan:** Veismar (Damaiic Bloodline)

**Generation:** 2nd

**Blood Potency:** 9

**Power Class:** Ancient Blood

**Blood Gifts:**

Ardor 8

Augury 7

Fera 4

Glamour 8

Legerity 9

Mesmer 6

Permutation 5

Tenebrae 8

Virtus 9