Erzulie is a 10th-generation Toreador resident of the Chicago area. She is the object of desire in Chicago. Not only is Erzulie beautiful, but she has also created a strong power base with the Blood Disco.
There are many who would like to drive a wedge between her and Adze. Annabelle, in particular, sees the Blood Disco as an opportunity to strengthen her power base and will attempt to use clan familiarity to bring Erzulie into the fold.
Biography[]
| “ | Blood is fluid in several ways. We are all the children of Lilith. | ” |
Born in 1888, Emmanuel Rolando was definitely not like the other boys who grew up in the Buena Vista barrio of Bayamón, Puerto Rico. On his 16th birthday, Emmanuel put on the pretty yellow dress he made for this very occasion, which complemented his caramel-dipped skin. He wore a yellow-flecked red maga flower in his usually wild mane of locks, now tamed in a fetching new hairstyle.
He stood in front of his family and said:
“Mami… Papi… You did not have a son. When I was born on this day, you had a daughter. I am a woman… and my name is Erzulie.”
This did not go over well with Erzulie’s Roman Catholic family. Humiliated, Erzulie spent the next two years living on the streets of Bayamón. Abandoned by family and friends alike, she survived by dancing in the streets for pesos to buy cuchifritos and slept in abandoned bohíos to avoid bandits and other predators.
In 1905, Erzulie stowed away on a freighter bound for New York. She made her home in East Harlem, where she found work as a seamstress. She made a satisfactory life for herself using her gifts, but she still had to hide her true self. New York, it seemed, was not the paradise of her dreams.
This was the beginning of the Gilded Age. The idle rich were discarding old mores. Wild jazz filled the air as young debutantes canoodled with dashing black musicians. Drag balls became the rage as men dressed in women’s clothes for the elite’s amusement.
Erzulie made her debut in 1919 at the annual Hamilton Club Lodge Ball at Rockland Palace Casino. The yellow dress from her youth became a jeweled golden gown. She remembered the last time she revealed herself. The memory of that moment almost stopped her from entering the soirée, but she would not let that stop her from being who she was meant to be.
The exotic beauty with the flower in her hair was the belle of the ball. Erzulie was envied and adored. She was the one to see, the one with whom to be seen.
Louis Detonas saw Erzulie as a work of art that must be preserved for all time, and the smitten Toreador Embraced Erzulie that very evening.
Kindred Nights[]
Vampirism gave Erzulie a freedom she thought she would never experience. Free to love whoever she wanted, Erzulie took many partners, both human and Kindred. Erzulie found acceptance; the Ball became her home, and the queens became her family.
Erzulie would also find her place among the creative and political minds of the Harlem Renaissance. To be among the likes of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and W. E. B. DuBois was intoxicating. Erzulie was living a Toreador dream…
But alas, all dreams must come to an end.
The McCarthy era took the fun and freedom out of being… different. Though the Masquerade requires Kindred to keep a low profile, Erzulie did not agree with those sentiments. Her community was persecuted and forced underground. The Kindred, many of them Caitiff, were not immune to the cruelty.
Erzulie would give them a home. She found them in New York and Philadelphia. She found them in Baltimore, Washington D.C., and other places. They could walk, they could vogue, they could give face… And they were certainly fierce.
In 1982, Erzulie found herself in Chicago. The burgeoning house music scene took root in a club called the Warehouse, which just happened to be owned, in part, by a vampire. The pulsing lights, the smell of sweat as the people around her jacked with wild abandon put Erzulie in a trance.
She barely noticed Adze, the Nosferatu watching her, until she bumped into him.
Erzulie could see the pain of his former life in Adze’s eyes. She shared Adze’s passion for freedom from this rigged game called the Masquerade. Erzulie, queen of the world beyond the Camarilla, had found her king.
Together, they would give voice to the voiceless and create a new clan from those cast aside. It would all be in service to the Dark Mother, but Adze didn’t have to know that.
Erzulie wishes to build a kingdom with Adze. She recognizes the Camarilla’s need for secrecy but believes a life in secret can be a whole hell of a lot more fun than conservative traditions and besuited vampires in boardrooms.
Erzulie’s Camarilla — or “Lilith’s Camarilla” as she calls it — is a Masquerade of raves, underground bacchanals, and drug-fueled ecstasy.
Appearence[]
Erzulie has a lithe build, small breasts, and big, brown eyes with flecks of gold that shimmer in the moonlight. She has full lips with a delicate nose, and her skin is the color of light bronze.
She has some Protean ability from ingesting the blood of a former Tzimisce lover, which she primarily uses to allow near-complete passage as a cisgender woman. Her slightly boyish frame is the only indication of her former, incorrectly assigned gender.
Erzulie has been known to wear elegant and elaborate beaded gowns, especially during the Blood Disco. Currently, she has taken to an elevated version of the avant-garde street style popularized by the Afropunk movement.
Her voice is tender and seductive, with a slight Puerto Rican accent as she constantly switches from Spanish to English, often within the same sentence.
Sheet[]
Blood Disco Cult[]
see coterie
Erzulie created the House of Lilith, the first of the Kindred Drag Houses. The community has given Erzulie the title of Mother-Above-All, the highest honor in drag.
She also founded the Blood Disco, an annual event that brings Caitiff together to celebrate Lilith, the true sire of the Kindred. This year, the Blood Disco will be hosted at Red Noº 5 or the House of Mamuwalde — she hasn’t decided which.
Trivia[]
- Adze is Erzulie’s man. Normally, Nosferatu are hard to look at. But, with his blue-black skin, exaggerated African features, and impeccable style, Erzulie finds him beautiful. Their mutual respect for each other keeps their bond indelible.
- Erzulie can also be found in the company of Adze at Red Noº 5. She prefers to feed there, on the blood of young African-American and Latinx girls in their late teens to early 20s, in deference to her belief in Lilith as the vampire goddess. Erzulie usually has two or three such thralls, giving blood freely to their idol.
- Erzulie is making a move to seize power as Toreador Primogen. Annabelle represents the old ways; Erzulie embraces the new.
- Erzulie’s Mask is a fashion designer named Isabel Rolando, in honor of her long-passed mother. The Rolando brand is currently on the rise, having recently designed gowns for several up-and-coming actresses for Hollywood red-carpet events.
- Erzulie is a fixture of the Chicago club scene, particularly in Boystown, the enclave of the LGBTQ+ community on the north side of Chicago. She can often be found dancing at the Backtrack on Halsted or performing at the Baton Show Lounge in Old Town.
References[]
- VTM: Chicago by Night 5th Edition, p. 194-196
