Upton Rowlands, born Benton Rowlands, is the Ventrue Prince of New Haven, Connecticut, who holds domain over Hartford.
Biography[]
Benton Rowlands was born into a family of political high rollers. In 1800, he became Mayor of New Haven and a member of Yale's prestigious Board of Trustees. Rowlands now poses as his own descendant, having taken the name "Upton" instead of his birth name "Benton," and is a member of some of the town's most influential political groups.
On the eve of his 57th birthday, his long-lost Aunt Georgia returned and Embraced him. Rowlands rapidly adapted to his new life. Some said he had become a recluse in his later years; others said he had turned eccentric like his old aunt. Nevertheless, Rowlands still attended nighttime meetings of Yale's Board of Trustees and other political groups. After a few years, he realized that he could not maintain his charade forever, and he began to find Retainers who would be his arms and legs in the mortal world. Georgia, still keeping Rowlands under her tutelage, had retired to Hartford, where she had created progeny and built a princedom. Throughout the 1800s, Rowlands increased his political influence among mortals, and, being the only Cainite in New Haven at the time, he met little resistance. By 1895, he had sired a small brood and had assumed the princedom of New Haven. It was in the first decade of the 1900s that the news of Georgia's disappearance reached Rowlands. Worse yet, he discovered that her other progeny had also disappeared.
He was suspicious of Reiss' chantry in Hartford, but could prove nothing. He knew Georgia's disappearance left a void in Hartford that Reiss and his apprentices would quickly fill. Acting preemptively, he moved in and took over the princedom of Hartford before word of his aunt's disappearance reached the Tremere. When he heard of the Triad's invasion, he incorrectly concluded that the Giovanni had invaded southern New England, killed his sire, and formed an intricate spy network called the Web. Afraid that the Giovanni would next attempt to seize control of New Haven and Hartford, he founded the Gemini League, a Ventrue resistance group opposed to the use of the Web in any capacity.
For three years, the Gemini League staved off the incomprehensibly successful agents of what Rowlands thought was Clan Giovanni, but the agents ultimately got the upper hand by purchasing prime waterfront property near New Haven Harbor. During the following months, it seemed as if the purchasing power that the "Giovanni" exhibited would never flounder. In a desperate bid for control of the state, Rowlands sank millions of dollars into poor real-estate investments that ruined the state's economy -precisely as the mastermind Warwick had planned. Rowlands did not yet realize that, as his part in the English invasion, Warwick had engineered these subtle schemes to weaken the state's entrenched Ventrue nor did he realize that the Web was entirely Warwick's creation, and that it had nothing to do with the Giovanni. Indeed, the Web had manufactured the misinformation that implicated the Giovanni.
When Rowlands discovered that the "Giovanni" had forced his hand, he realized that he had to turn to an unwelcome source of aid-the Tremere. John Reiss, eager to procure such a large debt of prestation from Rowlands, willingly offered assistance. With support from the Tremere, the Gemini League was reborn into its present form: Rowlands as President; John Reiss as Vice-President; and, beneath them, the Council, which controls the operations of a relatively small-time spy ring (comparable to the Web). Rowlands is now aware of Warwick and his Nosferatu Web, albeit vaguely. He feels certain that the British killed his sire almost 100 years ago, but he has no hard evidence. He is also uncomfortably familiar with the fact that the British have taken over northern and middle New England. Nevertheless, his Gemini League still fights the Web, and the League's numbers have grown since the invasion.
Character Sheet[]
Image: A fastidiously dressed and carefully groomed man in his late 50s, Rowlands could not be mistaken for anything but a politician. He has silver hair and ice-blue eyes, and wears impeccably tailored suits.
Roleplaying Hints: You perceive yourself as old, wise and dignified, when in reality you are only old and dignified. Relax in your chair, steeple your fingers and look at the characters through hooded eyes, making sure they see up your nostrils in the process. Use your Presence freely. You only feed on young men. Haven: Mansion near Yale's campus, not far from New Haven Green Regional.
Secrets: B
Influence: As Prince of New Haven and Hartford and president of the Gemini League, Upton Rowlands' influence is, unfortunately for anyone affected by his financial decisions, extensive. He is also on Yale University's Board of Trustees and is President of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, having donated a number of his own possessions purchased as antiques when he was yet mortal.
References[]
- VTM: Dark Colony, p. 59-60
- VTM: Anarchs, p. 173