White Wolf Wiki
Advertisement


Mascha Blumenfeld is a Tenth Generation Toreador who, in life, was a Jew in Nazi occupied Europe. She is one of several Ready-Made Player Characters found in V20 Ready Made Characters.

History[]

Mascha spent her youth as a Dadaist. A flighty poet and actress, she practiced her skills under an increasingly oppressive regime. Mascha worked tirelessly to make the plight of the Jewish people apparent, and never ceased to orchestrate inflammatory works targeting the Nazis. She would have become a fast target for the Gestapo and a prominent figure in the Resistance, had she not been Embraced.

Her eventual sire repeatedly requested Mascha’s permission before gifting the Embrace. She firmly rebuked every offer, unwilling to be chained to the Kindred curse. As war commenced and persecution became genocide, her sire stopped asking and forced the issue. Mascha refused to leave Europe and her family, desperately seeking to protect her people in their time of peril. Her abilities were of great assistance to those she aided, her skill with words as dangerous as that with a blade, but she was only to assist for a short time. Somehow — she believes a bomb the likely cause — she rested one dawn and did not wake again until several decades had passed. She was in another country, and everything was different.

Mascha’s immediate reaction upon waking has been to research the fates of her relatives and friends, but the devastating truth makes her stop whenever she starts. Her sire brought her to this new place, and acted as Primogen and Keeper of Elysium while she slept. Why he never woke her, she doesn’t know, as he’s since departed the city and left the deeds to Elysium in her name. Mascha’s appeared in Elysium on a handful of occasions and presented some of her poetry — which finds a rapt audience — but she fears being out of touch with current culture. She’s torn between returning home and picking through the wreckage of the past, and doing right by her sire, who saved her from the fate suffered by the rest of her family.

These nights see Mascha depressed and tormented. She feels talentless. She is far from being so, as the Toreador of the city are swift to assure her. She’s alarmed to hear several among her Clan are promoting her as a potential Primogen council representative. She desires no titles, but has already found herself foisted into the role of Keeper of Elysium. The Toreador cluck around Mascha as if she’s the new flavor, and mother her relentlessly. She cynically and accurately suspects that once enough time has passed she’ll join the rest of the jaundiced Degenerates.

Mascha reluctantly hosts galas and events, always with an unceremonious air. Where she struggles to invest in the pomp and pageantry other Elysiums display, her peers see her as avant-garde. The more she attempts to hide from the gaze of the city’s Kindred, the more others find themselves interested in this naturally-gifted artist.

Character Sheet[]


Image[]

Pale, with tangled hair and waif-like features, Mascha is unpretentious and makes no attempt to look otherwise. She rarely wears impressive clothes, preferring simple smocks and dresses. Her lips are a striking natural ruby color, and seldom form a smile.

Mascha speaks with a heavy accent, as she’s still becoming fluent in the English language. Much of the attention she draws makes her recoil, partly in embarrassment, partly with distaste for the audience.

Roleplaying Hints[]

Mascha is diffident and quick to self-deprecate. She’s also critical of others, playing the role of gadfly when among trusted associates or when performing poetry. Deeply frustrated by her lack of cultural awareness, she tends to sting others with harsh words and ripostes rather than being drawn on a subject about which she knows little. Mascha’s sensitivity regarding her deficiencies means she’d rather be prickly than anyone’s student.

When engaged about Dadaism, her family, or what she calls her “first life,” Mascha becomes effusive and friendly. Once someone earns her trust, she becomes the witty critic she resembled in the early 20th century. On stage she’s the consummate performer, filling her acting and poetry with emotion she then criticizes as too hamfisted. She only believes reviews by others when they’re condemnatory, or by someone she respects as a peer.


Combination Disciplines:[]

  • Doubletalk (LotC, p. 203)
  • Scalpel Tongue (LotC, p. 204)

References[]

Advertisement