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Victoria Ash

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Victoria Ash, born Victorine de Perpignan, is the signature character for the Toreador clan in Vampire: The Masquerade. A beautiful Toreador bon vivant and party-goer who to became what the Camarilla points her out as everything other Kindred should aspire to be.

Biography[]

An ale-wife's bastard daughter, the girl who would become Victoria Ash was born into poverty in France. He abandoned her. Hungry and with little other recourse, she became a camp follower.

Luckily for Victoria she possessed three talents which would hold her in good stead – an incredible beauty, a perfect singing voice, and a knack for pleasuring men. Wherever there are armies you will find women selling themselves, and by the time she was in her mid-teens Victoria had become a camp follower. Her skills in and out of the bedchamber brought her to the attention of Prince Louis II, and before long she became his personal concubine.

It was her singing voice that attracted the attention of Maximilian, a darkly handsome man publicly involved in the procurement of fine horses. Privately, Maximilian was known as a pimp. Secretly, he was undead as well. Unwittingly entrancing Maximilian with her peasant songs, Victoria fell in with him when she was eighteen. Victoria had no illusions about her status as “mistress.” Her function to Louis was clear, but she made the best of it and was amply rewarded for her diligent effort. As for Maximilian, his protégé continued to impress him. He took Victoria as a ghoul and they travelled for many years together.

Things went well until 1649, when rebellion hung thick in the air. While the English drove their own king out of the country to The Hague, Louis Condé led a group of angry nobles against King Louis XIV’s minister, Cardinal Mazarin. The rebellion was known as the Fronde, and it failed. Condé came out of it fairly well, as losers go, but Maximilian did not.

While in Paris, Maximillian supported a coup of the mortal government. Privately, this was a screen for Kindred revolutionaries to attack their enemies. When the gambit failed, Maximillian found himself endangered by the Kindred he had sought to destroy. Only Victoria's quick reactions and singing voice saved her beloved domitor from destruction. Victoria fled with her injured domitor into the Netherlands, keeping him sustained with her own vitae. When he recovered, he paid back the favor with his own blood, Embracing her in 1650.

The pair stayed in the Netherlands until 1660, when the English monarchy was restored. Maximilian decided that this time he was going to choose the right side and ally himself with a monarch. They traveled across the Channel and spent a decade insinuating themselves within the English nobility. Maximilian (on Victoria’s advice) mended his fences with the French Toreador, and both sides encouraged their friendly nobles to work together.

Unfortunately, Maximilian’s gambit to get the French Toreador to work with the English was a bit too successful. When the Catholic James II took the throne of England, Maximilian found that his onetime rivals and sometime friends had more influence than he — and that they were consequently more prone to remember rivalry than friendship.

This time Victoria couldn’t save her sire. Indeed, she saved herself only by taking a desperate risk and stowing away on a ship to the New World — to a savage town called New Amsterdam. As one of the first Kindred on the continent, Victoria had the luxuries of time and easy hunting. She’s now spent three centuries getting to know America. She enjoys its wealth, its selfishness, its hypocrisy, and its honesty in equal measures.

It is known that she spent some time in Georgia, and while there Embraced a young man named Evan and ghouled a slave named Cedric. Evan ended his own existence by walking into the sun, and Cedric was fated to die in Paris. She journeyed to London for unknown reasons, spending many years with Lady Merritt, a Toreador who was resident there. She returned to England in the late 1890s and ghouled the Lady Regina Blake and the two embarked on an adventure across Victorian Europe before Victoria finally Embraced her. Her appearance at a number of bourgeois salons of the time led her to meet Hilda MacAndrews, a young Kindred and renowned painter whose conviction and talent she admired. Victoria met Hilda's childe, Emem Louis, a few years later during an opulent soirée held to celebrate Emem's Embrace. Victoria was overcome with sympathy for the young woman, as her sunny disposition reminded her of the passion of her youth.

After a spat with her childe she returned to America where she resides to the present day. A woman of passion, and a Toreador above all, Ash expanded her influence in the 1990s by establishing herself as one of the greatest pop stars of her time. Her songs lit up the American billboards, and the masses came in droves to attend her concerts. In parallel with her affairs among mortals, Victoria opened a path for herself to the Primogen Council and later praxis of Atlanta, which she claimed. She had been in the city before the horrific Sabbat raid there, during the Firedance. In that raid she was captured by the Tzimisce. Even though she managed to kill her captor Elford and escape, she was able to heal all the deformations inflicted on her except for a mark left by Sascha Vykos which would mar her beauty until the end. She became the Prince of the city soon after.

The city grew and flourished under her reign. Ash was forced to leave the city in 1999 and returned to London, which she fled in 2012 after the purge of the Second Inquisition.

Singer, dancer, and one-woman spectacle, Victoria Ash managed to get a number-one hit (“The Unique Technique”) for a week in 1997. For that week, it seemed like her song was everywhere — radio stations, supermarkets, clubs. David Letterman even made a joke about it being stuck in his head. But the song vanished from the charts as quickly as it had risen. Nonetheless, for one week, everyone in the world listened to Victoria Ash.

It took Victoria over three centuries to come that far, and she’ll be damned if she’s going to let something minuscule like Madonna or a swing dance revival get in her way again. For one week, she laid a perfectly formed finger right on the pulse of American music. Next time, she’ll get an iron grasp.

Many Kindred underestimate Victoria Ash. They consider her a pillow-headed slattern or a bitchy nitwit, but she doesn’t mind. They’re all mired in the past, trapped by their own greed. In a world of global communication and overpopulation, Victoria has no fear of hunger or want.

Her acts of “foolish generosity” are nothing of the sort because she never gives away anything precious to her. Her greatest skill lies in giving people what they want until their desires run totally parallel to her own. Her masterpieces are imperceptible to anyone but herself.

Miss Ash is reticent about her past. Every now and then, she slips up and displays a mannerism more fitting for a 17th-century duchess than for an American pop performer. Some credulous neonates believe the rumor that she is, in fact, the famed beauty Anne of Austria, whose loveliness caused a war between France and England and inspired Dumas to write The Three Musketeers. She hears these rumors. She smiles. She says nothing.

Time of Judgment Timeline[]

In the novel Gehenna: The Final Night, she is slaughtered by the Nosferatu Okulos, one of Beckett's associates. He intended to frame the Gangrel for her destruction. Victoria's last thoughts were in hope that Beckett would gut Okulos to avenge her.

Fifth Edition[]

The resurgence of a Second Inquisition cast a veil of doubt and unease over the world of the night. While many Kindred chose to reject technology in the hopes of going undetected by their hunters, Victoria welcomed it. Ash went on many trips and made social appearances, resisting the Beckoning as the elders disappeared one by one, leaving behind an extremely fragile Camarilla. In order to fend off this loss of power, Victoria was chosen to seal an alliance between the Ivory Tower and the Ashirra, another vampiric sect.

Victoria Ash and Tegyrius participated in a blood wedding called the Vermilion Wedding in Tehran, becoming mutually bonded to each other. After, she departed to reclaim her throne in Atlanta and visits Boston during the Unification Party events. Like Prince Hazel Iversen, Victoria also sought to control the blood supply market and as such, she assigned Crawford to steal formulae from the Hartford Chantry.

As of 2019, she has started to feel the effects of the Beckoning but resists.

Description[]

Victoria's beauty is unsurpassed by mortals (and not a few Kindred). Her figure is neither waifishy thin or incredibly buxom. Instead she has the body and face that sculptors and artists have tried to immortalise time and again. Her hair color changes with fashions; she has appeared as blonde, brunette, and redhead in various books. Like most Toreador she is a dedicated follower of fashion and has an army of suitors that ply her with money, cars, clothes, and artwork, all in exchange for one favorable glance. In public Victoria exploits the stereotype that spring to most Kindred's mind when they think of the Toreador. Victoria does not mind that most think her airheaded and frivolous, as in reality she has a razor sharp mind and a keen grasp of politics. 

Victoria uses her beauty as her main weapon. She can bend any mortal to her will with her raw sexuality and allure. Kindred can fall under this spell too, even those old enough for sex to be a faded memory (although this might also have something to do with her mastery of the Presence Discipline). While no means a soldier, Victoria is a match for most mortals and has fended off the assault of younger Kindred that far outstrip her in skill. This is because of her rapid reflexes, her potent blood, and her skill with Celerity.

The kine bend over backwards to serve her every whim, her clan adores her for natural talents and wit, and the Camarilla points her out as everything other Kindred should aspire to be. One wonders if Tegyrius knows what is awaiting him. She is a master in the art and manipulation of romance, being in romantic relationships with many powerful vampires, including a Tzimisce Voivode. She had several Hecata lovers in recent years and found them the most boring lovers.

Loresheet[]

  • Ashen Kiss: At some point, you have danced, kissed, or even slept with Victoria Ash. This does not make you a rarity, but it does make you special. Victoria has a perfect memory for faces and intimate encounters going back centuries (some suspect it’s how she clings to her humanity). Difficulties of Social rolls involving Victoria Ash or someone connected to her are reduced by 1.
  • Vermilion Invitation: Maybe you were a guest at the Vermilion Wedding, or you just know one of the attendees well enough to describe what took place. This enables you to recognize those who attended the wedding, their function, and where they stood on the matter of union between the sects. Once per story, you can use this information to blackmail, spin tales, or relate to other attendees of this tense meeting in a familiar way, gaining a three-dice bonus to a Social test, provided you can come up with a plausible explanation.
  • What Makes Them Tick: Victoria Ash is an expert at reading people. She knows how to get to your most sensitive secrets and exploit them, and has taught you a few tricks. You gain two extra dice to Insight when scrutinizing a target for their vulnerabilities.
  • Celebrity Affectations: Emulating the stories of Victoria Ash, you too have access to a well-stocked tour bus to allow ease of transit between domains, and a small crew of roadies. Whether you masquerade as a singer, magician, actor, or any other form of entertainer, is up to you. This is equivalent to holding two dots in Haven (Mobile Home) and two dots in Herd or Retainers (Roadies).
  • Patron, Lover, Companion: You occupy an important place in Victoria’s heart. Once per chronicle, she will move heaven and earth to protect you, potentially cashing in the goodwill she carries with the Camarilla to do so if your crimes are egregious. For an entire session, she counts as a five-dot Mawla and provides you three dots of Status.

Character Sheet[]

Image: Victoria is an extraordinarily beautiful woman, though her version of beauty is more classical (and perhaps therefore more timeless) than the emaciated waifs adored in the waning years of the 20th century. She generally wears clothing that reveals a suggestive portion of her perfectly rounded body, though her choices are always tasteful, like red silk dresses and smoothly lined sportswear.

Her eyes are green, her hair short and (usually) brown, and her cheeks are typically flushed red — a look Victoria knows male Kindred often prefer. Victoria’s bearing is one of great confidence, though those with uncanny perception see slight hesitancies when she makes important decisions.

Roleplaying Hints: You are beautiful and you know it — so beautiful, in fact, that you even turn the heads of male Kindred who have long forgotten the passions of the flesh. You are haughty and dismissive of those beneath you — fans, sycophants, etc. — unless they might serve some purpose, in which case you simply turn on your charm.

Trivia[]

  • Victoria is pretty humane as far as vampires go, prefers not to kill innocents when she can help it and enjoys parties and social gatherings.
  • Plays the role of the social butterfly but is actually a Noddist scholar.
  • When she gets help from some good samaritans while hurt and blood-starved, she seduces and drains the wife, then the husband, then takes the rest from the sleeping children, though she leaves all of them alive.
  • Teetering on the lines of the Masquerade, Victoria Ash became a celebrity pop star in the modern mortal world. A phenomenal singer and dancer in life, she became an American sensation during the 90s when she released a number-one-hit called "The Unique Technique" in 1997. She even went as far as using the lyrics in another song called 4ever-I to ridicule another fellow Kindred named Laveaux. Another hit song that scored Billboard #8 (and an utter humiliation for Laveaux).[citation needed]
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade: L.A. By Night, Jessica Chobot portrays Victoria Ash to be a huge fan of the book series The Dark Tower by Stephen King.
  • In the first book of the Clan Novel Saga (Toreador), Victoria Ash claims to be of the 7th generation during an internal monologue (stating that she is 6 generations removed from Caine) but her character sheet lists her as 8th Generation, and the character sheet of her childe, Regina Blake, lists Regina's generation as 9th. While it is unlikely that this is simply a misconstrued phrase (due to the book very consistently referring to generation in the same wording, namely how many steps removed from a certain other generation an individual is), it is of course possible that Victoria is simply mistaken about her generation, as being oblivious about personal generation appears to be a persistent theme in the Clan Novel Saga, despite this being rare among player controlled vampires in the actual roleplaying game, due to it being a listed statistic on a the character sheet.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong Bonus DLC available as part of the Primogen edition, Victoria Ash appears as Emem's mawla. Jessica Chobot reprises her role as Victoria in the game.
  • Victoria makes many of her choices based purely on chance and yet is still a potent elder.

Gallery[]

References[]

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