Follower of Set
Adriana is a handy “Flavor NPC” to have around. She could
also make for a fun long-term character, although she would require a lot of
work to keep her viable. She’s certainly reccomended for the more machinating
players out there.
Born: 1954
Embraced: 1988
Adriana was always told that there was not a single
challenge that she could not overcome – her mother was a feminist, and
determined that her daughter not be hobbled by her gender. Adriana took this
lesson to heart and, throughout her existence, she has attacked all of her
goals with zeal and energy.
While Adriana was a young woman she occupied herself with
the sort of causes that appeal to an adolescent passion – protesting U.S.
involvement practically everywhere, starving children, etc. She was eventually
drawn to the give and take of the political arena, particularly the power –
real and potential – in the hundreds of special interest groups that exist
solely to lobby elected politicians. This is where a person could make a
change, she realized.
It began easily enough, at first. Adriana enrolled as a
political science major at her local college and volunteered at her local state
Representative’s office to learn about the everyday dealings of an elected
politician. The summer of her junior year, she spent in Washington DC as a
volunteer at the U.S. Senate. Throughout her college career, she was busily
building a network of contacts, as she believed firmly in making as many
friends as possible. She avoided the usual sort of scandal that can plague a
pretty young intern, but that’s not to say that she wasn’t aware of what was
going on around her.
By the time she had finished college – graduating near the
top of her class – Adriana was a great deal wiser, and more cynical. Gone was
the childish zeal for crusades, replaced with a far more realistic opinion of
what could and could not be achieved in the arena of American politics.
Initally, Adriana joined the Sierra Club, intending to protect America’s open
spaces, but she quickly became disenchanted. She discovered that the best way
to convince a politician to see her point of view was to appeal to his vanity
first, and his sense of civic responsibility much later. Realizing that she
could hardly turn 200 years of democratic process on its head, Adriana buckled
down and started playing the game like everyone else.
As time passed, she grew more disillusioned and abandoned
the Sierra Club for less savory environmental lobbies. Big Oil has the money to
spend on Senators, she realized, she just hoped maybe she could ‘reinterpret’
the lobby line, just a tad. Fat chance. Instead, it was her own ethics that
were re-shaped, and Adriana hardly noticed it as she gradually changed from
being an idealist to a brutal pragmatist, far more interested in the victory of
persuasion rather than the cause itself. To the Settites who always kept an eye
on potential talent, this was just fine by them.
Adriana was Embraced in 1988 and, once acclimated to her
new state, she took the change rather philosophically. She had new tools by
which to achieve her goals – and a new set of goals, to boot.
Adriana still works as a lobbyist, but now she is a
high-end consultant to several controversial causes – Big Oil, the NRA, Dow
Chemical – and she positively delights in enabling hosts of policy-makers
justify a sudden reversal on their dearly-held platforms. Sometimes, Adriana
considers what she’s doing as a bit of a doddle. After all, most politicians
are raging egomaniacs with an almost pathological inability to commit to
anything – encouraging them to abuse their position to their own benefit –
rather than that of the electorate – is almost like shooting fish in a barrel.
But there are the occasional challenges, and they’re the ones that are worth
it.
Hers is the voice of convenient reason, of justification. “That
paint plant is going to have to somewhere, so why not your
district? It’ll provide hundreds of jobs and the owners assure you that
their waste-management procedures are more than adequate. This could really
help your re-election bid, too, you know… And, oh yes, the Vice President of
Business Development would love it if you could be his guest at his yacht off
Bimini, next weekend…” And from there, the slope rapidly becomes steep and
slippery.
Adriana is charismatic, intelligent, quick-witted and as
cold hearted as the snakes she is associated with. Much of her youthful fervor
has been rekindled in the form of dedication to the clan and its ongoing
purpose, and it shows. She is constantly on the move, and is happiest when she
is meeting people and making deals. Her contempt for humankind is well hidden
behind a thick veneer of professionalism.
She is always dressed in the very best business-garb –
none of that sneakers-on-the-subway tattiness for her. She drives a
current-year Lexus (leased through a dummy corporation owned by the clan) and
she is very rich in her own right. Lobbying can pay very well. She owns
a townhouse in Georgetown, as well as an apartment in Central Park West and a
pied-a-terre in Beverly Hills – politicians love meeting movie stars,
and her clan has lots of connections in Tinsletown.
Once a year, Adriana throws a party for the Washington
A-List and the event is known far and wide. Of course, those politicos who are
trying to make a point of seeming squeaky clean try to stay away but, sooner or
later, they’ll cross her threshold. Oh yes…
You always have time to make a deal – and deals can be
made with almost anyone. Just because the Primogen can’t be bothered to deal
with that scruffy neonate doesn’t mean you’re too busy. Today’s scruffy
neonate might be filling the shoes of that Primogen, a few years from now – and
your entire life is a testament to effective networking.
You have no moral compunction against lying as necessary,
but you’re smart enough to know to only tell lies that you’re certain you can
make the truth, if need be. Your charismatic and friendly nature ensures that
people want to believe the best of you, and you use that to your advantage. You
are educated and well-spoken but, honestly, if the matter doesn’t fall within
your sphere of interest, you don’t have much time for it. You’re certainly not
a regular visitor to the Settite temple, as you try to leave most of the
mystical aspect of the clan to the thelogians. This blind spot of yours is what
is probably going to stop you from advancing any further in the clan.
Being a vampire is a hell of a thing – you’ve learned to
love it – and you have that rather contemptuous attitude that most Settites
bear towards the Cainites. Fortunately, you’ve learned to hide it quite well.
Often, you have to pose as a Ventrue, and you’ve not been caught yet. Ensuring
that the local Tremere owe you a vast enough favor to gaurantee their lying
when they test your blood is always a reassurance.
You see your future being not terribly different from the
past. You have found your niche, and you like it.
Forthcoming.