Gereon Ignatius was a rogue Tremere elder and a member of the coterie of elders known as the Southern Lords in Georgia and other parts of the South. He met his end in the American Civil War, during Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's scourging of the city. Ignatius was too powerful and too stubborn to die however and now acts as a wraithly servant of the Council of Seven.
Biography[]
The so-called Ur Kindred known simply as Ignatius has a long and powerful history. Centuries prior to Ignatius' Final Death and journey into the afterlife, only to then return from Oblivion as a powerful Wraith, before he joined the ranks of the Kindred, lived out his long mortal life as the elderly Gereon Ignatius of Cologne, in the Dark Ages of Germany. A Master Alchemist of some renown and a Hedge Mage of such repute that he caught the interest of Clan Tremere who sent an envoy to approach the old sorcerer. A shadowy and mysterious stranger calling himself Bonsanguinius[1] paid the elder Master Ignatius a visit. Forced out of propriety to offer more of an introduction of himself than Bonsanguinius, the Tremere entrusted Gereon Ignatius with his birth name Ernhardt[2]. With this bit of intimacy in place Bonsanguinius could engage in a strategic discussion about the topic that truly interested him their pursuit of Immortality.
The aged Master Alchemist had apparently long since given up on finding the key to immortality. Telling Bonsanguinius that in the span of his life in which the passing of his wife, and the reaching of adulthood by his three children had taken place, he had nonetheless failed in his pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone, the Flower of Quintessence, and that it may best be left to the fates of others, the True Adepts to find the answer. In contra response to Gereon's genteel goading, Bonsanguinius engaged in a bit of theatrics of his own inviting the rotund and aged sorcerer to return to his pursuit of old, leaving him with a sample of a Red Elixir upon his departure, so as to tempt him back into the quest for the Elixir Vitae of eternal life. A test, a test of will, resolve, purpose and ability that Ignatius had to pass to join the ranks of House Tremere.
Gereon subjected the mysterious sample to a series of ritualistic alchemical processes. Not knowing he was purifying the blood of a Tremere Elder[3], he succeeded in producing his own blind and ignorant variation upon the ritual of the vampiric Clans nescient Founders, the Ritual of Usurpation. Only to achieve that which had failed him for so many years prior. Gereon took it upon himself to experiment, imbibing the refined and purified glowing concoction. Liquid fire engulfed his body in debilitating overwhelming pain, causing him to transform physically, returning the old Alchemist to the body and vigor of his youth. Gone was his grey hair, pronounced waist, and the aches and pains of old age. When he awoke, he was reborn as one of Caine's chosen, as one among the select few who made up the Tremere House of the Undead, born again as Ignatius of Clan Tremere. Bonsanguinius congratulated and revealed in the achievement; "Congratulations, Ignatius. You have done what many immortals would give their eyeteeth for - you have returned to youth at the moment of your rebirth. Congratulation, I will say again."[4] Then welcomed him into Clan Tremere.
Ignatius long service to the clan notwithstanding, he eventually decided to strike out on his own from the clan in the New World. Ignatius had traveled to the American Southern Colonies, to the region later known as Georgia to live a peaceful unlife. His great plantation housed several slaves for an easy supply of blood, while he was left to his studies. He became a friend to the traveling Malkavian Bedelia, who even lived with him for a winter.
When the Camarilla became suspicious of the Southern Lords, they supported the North during the Civil War. Ignatius was driven from his plantation and had to seek asylum in Atlanta, which had become the princedom of Bedelia. His old friend took him in graciously, but Ignatius was furious at the betrayal of the Camarilla against him. Bedelia feared him and embraced the young soldier J. Benison Hodge to become her successor. Ignatius did not accept that and plotted against Hodge, but when Bedelia made her decision official, he turned against her. Calling in boons from the other Southern Lords, he weakened the defenses of the city enough for the North to take it captive. Justicar Baylor came to the city and offered Bedelia an amnesty if she helped them locate the rogue Tremere. Any trace of him vanished when the Unionists put the city to the torch.
After his Final Death, Ignatius became a wraith, fettered to a philter of blood within Vienna. The Tremere, upon seeing him, thought him a hostile spirit and imprisoned him. When he was released and it was revealed who he was, the Inner Council of Seven convened and allowed him to stay. Ignatius served faithfully for several decades, until he learned that the Giovanni ghoul Lorenzo Giovanni had come to Atlanta to loot his old artifacts, among them the Black Thorn Codex. He asked to be transferred to Atlanta to retake the artifacts for his Clan and was granted permission. In secret, he hoped to use this possibility to avenge himself on those he blamed for his death.
Character Sheet[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- WTO: Necropolis: Atlanta, p. 108-109, 122-123
- DAV: The Red Elixir, p. 223-235
- ↑ Speculation - The name Bonsanguinius may in fact be a play upon the name Bonisagus. Bonisagus a key figure in the founding of the Order of Hermes. An ArchMage whose record among the living comes to an end c. 1197 CE, coinciding with the presumed onset of a Wizard's Twilight.
- ↑ Possibly one in the same as Bonisagus of House Bonisagus
- ↑ Speculation: Likely the vitae of Cornelius
- ↑ DAV: The Red Elixir, p. 234