Zarathustra

Zarathustra is a Lasombra Methuselah who remains unaffiliated with sect politics and acts as the power behind every prince who claimed to rule the city of Antioch, who is his domain since the time before the birth of Christ. He is one of the prime examples for vampiric independence

Biography
A native Antiochian, Zarathustra was Embraced by a veteran of the post-Thera dispersal while in central Asia with Alexander the Great's army. After a mortal lifetime's worth of wandering, he settled in his home town and set about protecting and improving it. He continues to do so in the new millennium, when not in torpor. Zarathustra survived the early Sabbat efforts to wipe out all Methuselahs through a combination of prudence and good luck. He allowed his lineage to take part in some Sabbat efforts, if they wanted to, and resorted to bribery as well as intimidation to direct war parties at other targets. He owes much of his success to a single-minded focus: Only events that affect Antioch concern him. When the Crusades brought invading armies through his city, he learned enough about mortal politics and religion to effectively direct his childer to route marauding hordes elsewhere. When Ottoman forces overwhelmed Turkey's western shores, Zarathustra and his childer studied Islam and learned how to help their  favored mortal families adjust. When Attaturk's nationalism brought Turkey into contact with the Western powers, Zarathustra learned the language of imperialism and oversaw a combination of diplomacy and covert manipulation that protected Antioch, albeit at the cost of leaving other parts of Turkey vulnerable to exploitation. From Antioch, his childer have connections to other great port cities all around the world, even in the Middle Kingdom and other hostile regions of the world.

Once or twice a century, Zarathustra agrees to serve on a Court of Blood. He's adjudicated matters for both the Sabbat and the antitribu. No younger vampire quite understands how he chooses cases, but the other judging Friends agree that each time Zarathustra serves, he acts within the code of conduct accepted by the participants rather than imposing his own views. He also meets with promising neonates.

He can trace his offspring all the way down to 14th generation neonates created since the Gulf War. At various times, his lineage has included more than a hundred active members. Thanks to unsuccessful crusades and a wave of successful vampire hunting by Sunni Muslim nationalists, only forty or so members of the lineage walk the modern nights.