Belinde Buch is the Nosferatu Prince of Copenhagen. Belinde was a beautiful young woman as Isold, and as a vampire… not so much. However, she does possess striking features in their uniform blandness, and this acts as an attractive curiosity to many. She feels the Nosferatu, as a rule, succumb to self-pity over their hideous appearances, and it’s incumbent on the clan to seize control of the narrative and make themselves figures of art and worth. To that end, she’s commenced hosting parties exclusively for Nosferatu, where appearances are everything. The ugliest participant becomes subject to ritual humiliation from the rest, while the most beautiful is applauded and granted favors by the others.
Biography[]
Mortal Days[]
Belinde was born Isold, to the family of wealthy fish traders in rural Denmark. While it may not sound like a life of grandeur and opulence, the catching, salting, pickling, and transportation of fish across Denmark and greater Scandinavia was a thriving business of the time, and Isold’s family had, as landlords, control over a valuable stretch of water.
Isold’s family paid for her to have a tutor, and she became among the first of her family to learn how to read and write. Isold wrote poetry and even found a small income from performing recitals at local taverns. She didn’t mind occasional responsibility over her younger siblings as her mother’s health ailed with every baby born to her. After the ninth child, however, her mother’s bones were so weak she shattered her hip upon tripping down a single step. Isold was now forced to abandon her personal progress in exchange for permanent care over her brothers and sisters.
Isold could have performed the role of dutiful daughter and mother figure, as the times demanded. Instead, her resentment for her siblings grew and grew. Her mother, who died soon after the incident, was her dearest friend. If these children hadn’t been born to her, she might have survived to an old age.
Isold wasn’t homicidal. She didn’t pursue a campaign of harm against her siblings. Instead, she arranged her marriage to a popular actor of the time, kept the dowry she was due to hand over to her unknowing father, and abandoned her family to whatever fate awaited them. She performed her poetry more widely, traveling throughout Denmark and escaping her familial obligations, all the while milking her husband’s coffers and enriching herself.
She was driven and determined to find more to existence than fish, family, and offspring. After reciting her poem, The Torture of Bloom, a longtime devotee of her work and vampire of Clan Nosferatu descended upon her outside the tavern entrance, her skin coated in tiny carapaces like that of a thousand beetles. The vampire explained to the terrified Isold that she’d have to perform only for her, from now on.
Kindred Nights[]
Isold didn’t accept the Embrace graciously. She fought, kicking, screaming, scratching at the Nosferatu’s scaled face. This only made the feeding and subsequent turning more brutal, and her sire, known only as Elline “the Husk,” promised more pain if she continued fighting as one of the undead. Isold’s face and body warped, smoothing over entirely, removing the sharpness of her nose, her lips, fingernails, hair, nipples, and all other protuberances. Her facial expression was almost perpetually locked into a slight smile, her mouth always just a fraction open, and her eyelids incapable of blinking.
When the Husk introduced her to the courts of the Camarilla, she found herself a source of fascination to some, and humor or mockery to others. The Toreador in particular found her recitals amazing, especially as her face barely betrayed the emotion in her voice. They convinced her that even with this deformity, she could still be an angel of beauty, independent of Clan Nosferatu’s horror. Belinde never considered herself ugly or monstrous from this point on. She beautified herself, through baubles as well as the flowing words of her verse, on every occasion.
Isold had decided as a teenager that she wasn’t going to be trapped in a prison of anyone’s making but her own, and she bided her time only a short while before forcing herself awake during the daytime, while havening in Hamburg with her sire, to deliver a stake to Elline’s heart. Isold then passed into daysleep once more. She awoke that night, finding herself draped over the Husk’s frozen body, and without hesitation went about setting the haven and her sire’s body ablaze. She watched, unblinking, as everything burned.
After this time, Isold returned to Denmark and adopted a new name — Belinde — later adding Buch as a family name. She kept the company of Toreador and Ventrue, who enjoyed her creativity, will, and dedication to courtly intrigue, and was quick to throw her support behind the Camarilla. She found herself with the position of Kommisær in Odense, later taking the role of Nosferatu Primogen in Copenhagen, before participating in the 17th-century coup that led to the Prince’s fall amid accusations of consorting with witches. She seized the reins of power, standing as one of very few Nosferatu Princes in Europe—a representative of the Cleopatran cult, which deemed the Nosferatu the highest clan of all. Every vampire respected her for her force of personality and commitment to the sect, while her unreadable expression mystified and intrigued the Kindred in her court.
Though Prince Belinde became a success story among others in her clan, her path over the past 300 years has seen many fractures. She’s clung onto Copenhagen but failed as a sire on many occasions. Each childe she sires inherits a form of her rebellious streak—or perhaps she targets prospective heirs for just that reason. They escape her and swiftly act against the domain or the Masquerade.
Additionally, she’s always considered herself closer to the Toreador than the Nosferatu and loathes members of her own clan in Copenhagen. She hates the reminder that she’s one of them and beautifies herself to an unnatural degree, adopting the masks, wigs, and costumes of the Cleopatran cult, persecuting any Nosferatu of Denmark who don’t conform to her beliefs and fashions.
Belinde tires of her role as Prince. For a long time, she viewed praxis as the best outcome for any vampire, but now she wonders why she’s been denied a position as Justicar or member of the Inner Circle when she’s served the Camarilla diligently since close to its foundation. She’s always been driven to escape when walls appear around her, and Belinde—who has grown increasingly cold and murderous in her long tenure as Prince—is aware that if she doesn’t run soon, she’s going to devolve into the kind of vampire in need of putting down.
Belinde is tempted to just leave Copenhagen without so much as a “thank you” note, perhaps settling in an Eastern European or Canadian domain, far away from Denmark. She’s even started writing poetry again, hoping to tap into some of what gave her life and meaning as a mortal. Her biggest issue is her distinctive appearance, which she’s hoping she can alter in a believable way.
Appearance[]
Prince Belinde is known as “the mannequin” by those with a modicum of respect and as “the sex doll” by those without, based on her perfectly smooth, almost unmoving features and locked-open lips. She prefers to wear stylish dark dresses, expensive jewelry, high-quality wigs, and muted makeup.
Given her lips don’t appear to move, Belinde speaks with surprising clarity. This is due to her slotting a small plate into her mouth each night—a device she found necessary after her inability to pronounce B’s, M’s, and P’s made her poetry recitals fall flat. However, it doesn’t take away from the blank expression on her face.
She finds new ways to cover her face in an elegant manner, such as by wearing facemasks over her nose and mouth, blending in with mortals during the time of COVID.
Belinde has multiple false identities, such as:
- Ingrid Guld, a 21st-century punk rock poet
- Lisa Green, a political advisor
- Maisie Klunder, a linguistics teacher
She interacts with most kine through calls, with prey being brought to her by her security team.
Sheet[]
Backgrounds Sheet[]
Buch Security
(Allies 3, Retainers 3)
Belinde is rarely without her entourage of security officers, whether she’s meeting guests in one of her many offices, walking along the river in Copenhagen, or attending Elysium. She only hires tall individuals and clads them each in black suits, with black shirts and ties. This affectation is to help conceal her, as she walks within a human perimeter unless she knows her location is secure and nobody unwanted can see her.
Kindred Copenhagen
(Influence 3, Status 5)
Belinde doesn’t consort much with the kine and hasn’t done so for many years. Her appearance is too bizarre to not draw notice. However, among the vampires of Copenhagen, she’s a well-known figure. Even the domain Anarchs have cause to respect her, as she divides the city into generous portions, allowing the Movement to go without interference in certain districts. When someone breaks a rule, she’s quick to deliver severe punishment, but when everyone plays her game, she allows significant freedom to her subjects. When someone breaks a rule, she’s quick to deliver severe punishment, but when everyone plays her game, she allows significant freedom to her subjects.
The Kommisærs
(Retainers 3)
Denmark has a form of vampire police, tasked with enforcing the Masquerade so any Princes don’t need to bother themselves with breaches. These Kommisærs all report to Belinde, whether they patrol Odense, Aalborg, Copenhagen, or any other Danish city.
Trivia[]
- Belinde Buch may be the oldest remaining Prince in Europe, since Mithras’ destruction and Villon’s disappearance.
- Nobody has ever encountered a Nosferatu resembling Belinde before, resulting in a rumor that she was Embraced by some Toreador-Nosferatu vitae cocktail.
- Belinde has a mixed view of offspring, dating all the way back to her mortal days. She was fond of one of her childer, however—her husband, aged and decrepit at the time she Embraced him. Jakob is busy fomenting a cult in the forests of Denmark, and the Prince is deeply concerned he may have fallen to his Beast. She wants him staked and returned to her, for reeducation or execution by her hand.
- When Molly MacDonald was appointed Nosferatu Justicar, Belinde descended into a frenzy, decimating her security personnel and paying off the remainder to ensure their silence. Belinde was sure the Inner Circle would recognize her, and they responded with nothing but silence.
- Thankfully, rumor has it Molly was in the Paris hotel bombed during the Ministry’s petition to join the Camarilla. That’s a pleasing coincidence. No Nosferatu have stepped up to the Justicarate since then, but Belinde is busy greasing palms.
- Belinde admires Rudi’s pluck but resents his making a haven in her domain (and she believes it’s not even far from her own). She worries that the reason her stock is falling amid the other Camarilla Princes is because of Rudi’s actions, and she seeks a reliable coterie to humiliate him or expose him in such a way that he might be brought down a peg or two—without martyring him.
- Rumor has it, Belinde is seeking a successor but refuses to acknowledge anyone from her clan as a potential replacement.
Gallery[]
References[]
- V5: Children of the Blood, p. 69-71
- VTM: Trails of Ash and Bone
- VTES: Fifth Edition
