Ash Rivers is a Toreador and former movie star, childe of the Anarch Baron, Isaac Abrams. He's the proprietor of the Asp Hole club, a gift from his sire.
Biography[]
Isaac refers to Ash having "the looks, the charisma, allure... that undefinable quality that makes a film legend." when they first met in about 1997, at a casting session for what would become Ash's breakout movie of Negative Zero. Ash starred in at least one other film, Playing Dead, but it's unknown if this came before or after his role in Negative Zero.
After Negative Zero's amazing success, Ash began to live recklessly. He began to do drugs, drink, and party in excess, all the while he ignored Isaac's worry for him. One night Isaac went to Ash's home to discuss his new role and found Ash OD'd from drugs. "I acted on impulse," Isaac tells the player. "I had seen so many others die before their time. But with Ash I had a chance to prevent that." He embraced Ash to save his life.
Abrams gave Ash the nightclub the "Asp Hole" and tried to make amends and facilitate Ash's embrace/lifestyle change as best he could; although he calls the club the "compressed essence of everything that's wrong with the film industry today."
Ash started acting reckless and suicidal, including crashing his car into the gate at Parasite Studios in late October 2004, a crash from which he walked away apparently unscathed. It was the second crash he escaped unharmed. His behavior earned him the attention of vampire hunters. He escaped the hunters twice with the help of the prince's representantive, and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Personality[]
Isaac compares Ash to "Clift and Dean" (presumably Montgomery Clift and James Dean) in terms of his charisma and on-stage prowess.
Ash is unhappy with becoming a vampire, as he had to leave everything of his former life behind. His friends, his career, and his ability to love. The only thing left for him is to "fade into obscurity.". Ash tells the player that Isaac thinks he gave Ash everything he has, but all he gave him was "this curse".
Ash is called by the player a "suicidal pretty boy" when you meet him. He wishes for death, and in a way, to "get back" at Isaac for Embracing him in the first place. "It would break Isaac's heart. It's good to know some good would come from my death." Though it seems he might have had suicidal tendencies, or at least thoughts, before being embraced. "I didn't ask Isaac to save my life. Maybe I wanted to die." - But this may be a bitter reaction to his embrace.
It also seems he romanticizes his own death, saying: "The biographers would eat it up; the studios would sell more copies of my movies; they'd probably put up a statue of me somewhere.... "Die young, live forever." I'd be one handsome pile of dust." However, he admits to the player he's trying understand why dying by Hunter doesn't bother him. It's the only reason why he hasn't done it already.
After freeing him from the Society of Leopold, it appears Ash gains a sense of self-preservation, and a will to continue living despite his "curse".
Quests[]
- Hunters Hunting
- Ash To Ashes
Trivia[]
- Early in the game, the newscaster will talk about Ash's recent car-crash into the Parasite Studio's gates, and the shock of onlookers when he walked away unharmed.
- He quotes his, supposed, famous line from Negative Zero when the player helps him escape the hunters in the sewers. "It was as far as I could fall; it was as low as I could go - way past oblivion to a point only described as 'negative zero.'"
- V.V. considers him to be her "step-brother". It's unknown what Ash thinks of this, or her, as he never mentions her.
- The song "Cain" by Tiamat plays in his club the Asp Hole, and it might a sly jab at his fellow Kindred, or at Isaac for his embrace. There are also Tiamat posters in the club, and Ash may be just a fan.
- Ash is a reference to actor young River Phoenix, who was found dead outside a Hollywood bar called The Viper Room. As a phoenix turns to ash, "River Phoenix" is "Ash Rivers." Malkavians see through the reference, calling Ash "dead phoenix." "The Viper Room" becomes another bar named after a snake, "The Asp Hole."