Elayne Lansky

## Biography

**Vampire, Daeva, Invictus**

*"How fascinating, darling. Truly. Why don't you tell me all about it tomorrow night?"*

Born in 1880 to Polish parents in the state on Wisconsin, Elayne began working at whorehouse in 1905. She found herself tied to a police officer after a raid, the two fell in love after a few ‘business transactions.’ His police work lead him to investigate some vampire dealings. The kindred in question threatened to embrace Elayne if the cop did not back off. The cop did not back off. Elayne was embraced and forced to feed on her cop lover.

She fled the city after that, but, after 30 years, returned. No one knows her past. As far as they’re concerned, she was Embraced in Milwaukee and moved to Chicago when she was ready for the big leagues. She’s never told anyone about murdering the man who saved her, and she’s never told anyone about consuming the soul of the vampire who Damned her. Lansky possesses a stately beauty that is classical, austere, almost forbidding. All but the most rigidly confident feel a little shaken in her presence. She is not alluring or inviting, unless she wants to be — she can present a fraudulent accessibility that seems more welcoming than genuine openness, when it suits her purpose. But the real her has the beauty of a sculpted iceberg. There is pleasure in looking, but it does not invite approach. She’s become everything she ever wanted to be, wrapped up in everything she ever despised, and she’s okay with that. She’d like to believe in something bigger and better than sculpting the moods and opinions of the Kindred, but she’s far too wise to be tricked by anything that isn’t genuine. Hell, she may be too cynical to even take a genuine chance to make something meaningful and real.

## Elayne’s Elysium

The lovely Elayne Lansky is Mistress of two Elysiums. One is the Discarded Image, a tiny bar near the Water Tower that alienates all but the most clueless mortals by mixing obscenely high prices, watered-down drinks, rude service and the intangible air of menace that develops around a place frequented by vampires. The bar is open from noon to 2 A.M. and unlocked until sunup. All Kindred are welcome, and the bar’s value as neutral territory is such that many casual patrons pitch in to help quell any violence. (Elayne has her people for that, but she’s shown much gratitude to outsiders who help.)

The other Elysium is at the Shedd Aquarium, which is most important on the first Sunday of every month, when it’s rented and decorated by the Kindred court for their general open meeting. These Elysiums are relatively free of mortals (save for the occasional trusted ghoul), so the Kindred can theoretically relax and let their hair down. In practice, they’re tenser than ever because they’re surrounded by rival predators, and they’re trying to make an impression. Modes of dress vary wildly, almost surreally, from filthy parkas to corsets no living woman could wear to antique costumes to the sharpest edge of modern fashion.

As expediter of these meetings, and a Primogen to boot, Elayne is a central switching point for most information that isn’t secret and a great deal that supposedly is. Simply by deciding whom to tell a certain piece of data, and how, Elayne and her fellow Keepers shape the opinions and actions of their peers. The Keepers can do that without even lying.