Seren was an 9th generation Malkavian active during the Dark Ages and walker on the Road of Kings.
History[]
Seren was the wife of a Welsh king, to whom she bore several scrong sons. Proud, fierce and highly competent, she ran her husband's household, saw to the defense of their lands when her husband was at war, and advised him on political and domestic matters. But her husband and sons fell in battle with Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Gwynedd, who then claimed kingship over all of Wales. Bitter with loss and no longer young, Seren retired to an abbey, but sought several times to have the self-styled King of all Wales killed, while her grief and ill health twisted her mind. When a combination of assaults by English and Welsh enemies did at last bring her hated enemy down, she celebrated by calling for a horse and riding out into the winter snows to assume her rightful place again as Queen of Deheubarth.
She did not get far. A Malkavian harpist and poet, Rhys the Rhymer, came upon Seren as she lay dying on the side of the road. Recognizing her from his visits to her husband's court, he gifted her with unlife and the curse of Malkav. Suddenly her mind, once fogged with age and melancholy, grew clear; she knew it was her destiny to rule as her husband and son had done, with her faithful harpist at her side. Rhys did not attempt to argue or rule his new childe; he followed his newly risen lady and did whatever she bade.
A new threat soon appeared on the western horizon - the Norman Marcher barons, followers of William of Normandy. Even worse, on their heels came the three elders known as the Triumvirate, who soon came to dominate Cainite affairs not only in England, but in parts of Wales as well. Recognizing the invaders as a greater threat than even the British, Seren settled in a convent in Gloucester, playing at being the mad and melancholy Abbess while studying the habits and movements of Roald Snakeeyes, the elder supporting the Marcher lords. Drawing on decades of experience as the wife of a Welsh King, she began making contacts among other disaffected Welsh, British and Saxon Cainites. Her agents reported the movements of Triumvirate forces to Mithras, while she also made sure that any British or Saxon Cainites who might have been a threat to her rule fell prey to enemy fangs. When Roald Snakeeyes himself fell into her hands, with the help of Thomas de Cherbourg , she allowed her followers with the greatest grievances to share in his blood, and then presented his head to Mithras himself as a sign of her fealty.
When the fighting was done, Mithras himself appointed Seren Baroness of Gloucester, in return for her loyalty, and because by this time there were no other claimants of rank. Recognizing her madness, however, he also took the trouble to bind her in blood to ensure her continued allegiance.
Seren has proven to be a surprisingly capable administrator, and a charismatic prince. Her madness grips her in cycles that range from periods of frantic activity, where she is suspicious of everyone around her, to bouts of deep melancholy, when she may sleep for a week or more without rising- a weakness her ghouls and loyal sire do their utmost to conceal. In between extremes, however, she is a formidable presence indeed, who has never forgotten she is by rights a queen.
Character Sheet[]
References[]
- DAV: Players Guide to Low Clans, p. 208
- DAV: Dark Ages: Europe
- DA: Dark Ages: British Isles, p. 33, 90, 95