Name: Connall ("Conner") Iessan
Age [Appearance]: 20
Age [Actual]: 457
Gender:Male
Species:Vampire (Tremere)
Height: 5\'10"
Weight: 145 lbs
Usually Seen Wearing: Almost everything he owns is predominantly black, even a good portion of his jeans. His clothes are usually somewhat worn down, and come from any given decade since the late \'50s. The most frequent outfit he is seen wearing is a black tshirt or sweater, a black or brown leather belt, and a pair of bluejeans. If he\'s in a mood, the jeans will be black. Usually wears a pair of stained and battered brown hiking boots and, if he can get away with it at all, a black leather jacket.
His jackets are very expressive. His older, scuffed, faded, and slightly smelly jacket is somewhat baggy. It has six pockets on the outside; two breast pockets, two hip pockets, and a pair in the middle, with yet more pockets in the lining. It looks terrible, but for Conner, it\'s like a utility belt; he keeps everything he could possibly need in there.
Conner\'s new jacket is shiny and black, fits tightly and has only two pockets, which drives him to his wits end. It\'s stylish and was a major splurge on his part, considering his bought it from a designer store. He\'s extremely protective of it. He usually only wears it around
Scott Pierce.
Usually Seen: Smoking a cigarette, whenever he\'s emotional; wrestling with his cellphone, trying to make it do something he doesn\'t understand; staring off into space, contemplating something and oblivious to his surroundings.
Usual Posture: Standing upright, visibly tense. Rarely leans or sits if he can get away with standing. Tends to cross his arms over his chest and flick his classic Zippo lighter open and shut.
Languages Spoken: Gaelic, English, French, Spanish, German, Latin, Russian, Greek. He has a terrible Irish accent in Spanish, Latin, Russian, and Greek.
Hair: Light Brown/Dirty Blond, moderately shaggy length. His hair is generally worn lightly gelled in a very neutral, somewhat messy excuse for a hairstyle. It\'s just long enough to spike a bit, and he will frequently use it as a way to express himself when he\'s in an intense mood.
Eyes: Dark Blue, somewhat wide-set and deep. His habit of keeping them either extremely wide open or half-closed is part of the reason his expressions are so easy to read.
Frame: Heavy bone structure, moderately athletic build. By no means a talented athlete, Conner is in good physical condition by force of habit. He is trim and has some muscle, but for the most part he falls short of actually having "muscles".
Tattoos/Distinguishing Marks: 4" long tattoo of a broken broadsword on the inside of the bicep of his left arm, easily concealed by a long sleeve. It is drawn in black ink, artfully done, detailed down to the wrapping on the hilt. He unconsciously shields it from view against his body most of the time, keeping his arm nearly pressed against his torso.
Personality: Distant at first, but will generally warm quickly to an interesting person, mortal or supernatural. Conner has spent two centuries in exile, and is both eager to see how the world has changed, yet concerned by what he sees. He experiences bouts of paranoia, caused partially by his political fallout with his Camarilla and partially because of his lack of familiarity with the world around him. He is plagued by questions old and new as he walks the streets of the city. The old questions because they are a brew well steeped over time, and may once again bring about the displeasure of his masters among the Camarilla. The new questions burn with the fire of a stung pride, bordering on fear, chief among them the dread that the mortals may have surpassed the supernatural with technology.
Conner is an intense man, with intense goals. He has learned the hard way that questions should be kept to one\'s self until a glimmer of the answer is in sight. Thus, he tends to move in rapid, nonlinear patterns when he is discussing himself or his goals, unless he trusts the other party well.
Recent events in his life have thrown his personality into chaos, causing him to consciously modify his behavior based on his friends\' input. His impulses and habits are frequently at war with newly-learned ways of acting and modern etiquette. Frequently, the conflicts cause him to seem to act bipolar in situations that he\'s uncomfortable in.
History: Born in 1552 to a family of unfortunate merchants, he grew up in a childhood of mixed privilege and poverty. His father\'s business ventures would often be wildly successful, followed by catastrophic failures. The result was that they were forced to relocate often, pursued by creditors as often as not, and his life as a child and young adult caused his mind to begin to look deeper than others. From an early age, he wondered why his family\'s fortune varied so wildly from time to time. He learned as he grew the ways to decipher the patterns of business and life, and as a young man barely out of childhood became one of his father\'s advisers in business.
Following their ability to maintain their ventures, Connall\'s life improved. His father encouraged his education and development, heartened by his son\'s increasing ability to assist their family and community. They were divided, though, on the matters of faith. The Iessan family had learned during their hardships that the Church was the only way to make connections and gain trust in a new community. His two younger sisters and brother followed their parents dutifully to church, while Connall found mass to be boring and tedious. Finally, he asked the question that the authorities of the church hated above all else. Not the why of how things were. He asked them how the miracles could be performed. Fortunately, the priest was merciful and chastised him lightly, with orders to pray and perform good deeds to be forgiven of his sins. Connall was affronted by the Church\'s closedmouthed attitude, and began searching for other authorities on the arts of the supernatural.
Soon his questing led him to alchemy and hermetic arts, which he studied as secretly as he could. No credit was extended to a man so young, and so no answers were to be found in the mortal arts of mysticism. Frustrated beyond his means to control, he took his horse and a pack of supplies and rode out to study the ancient stoneworks of the Druids himself. While less successful with deciphering the ways of magic than the ways of business, he did stumble upon an individual who was able to unlock some of the answers he sought.
He was studying the shadows cast by the standing stones by the light of the full moon when a man\'s shadow crossed the lines of darkness cast by the stones. Surprised, he looked up to see a badly wounded man walking out of the forest, walking with a definite sense of purpose towards where he crouched. His clothing was torn, and as he drew closer, Connall shouted to him and ran to meet the badly injured man. He allowed Connall to assess his injuries, and when he realized that many of the wounds should have killed the man, asked what the source of his miraculous survival was.
The man said that his name was Hesiod, badly wounded from a fight with a being he would not describe, and that he would trade the information, if Connall was willing to make the bargain. Lost in his lust for mystical power, Connall agreed, but knew enough of lore to make the stipulation that he must be able to use the information, in an attempt to avoid death. The man agreed to his terms, and beckoned him close. Thus, Connall learned the arts of blood magic as being one with being one of the Kindred. Hesiod fed deeply on him, returning some of his own blood slowly. By the time of the next full moon, Connall had become a fledgling, and with the thirst came the awareness that he had traded his life for knowledge of the hidden power he had sought for so long.
He traveled with Hesiod, meeting other members of the Tremere clan and learning to control his abilities. He learned quickly, and as a vampire he found the same questions could get him in trouble with the Camarilla hierarchy he was bound to. His relationship with Hesiod faded as their paths grew apart, and he spent the majority of his younger years as a vampire traveling Europe. His encounters with other vampires often got him into trouble with his superiors as much as his relentless questioning. He found that he could gain allies among the other clans, with the addition of temporary praise from his superiors, for covering up small messes among the human population that threatened the Masquerade. His mixed political standing held out until he finally found the biggest question of them all. He began to explore what lore he could find on the Antediluvians, and the reasons for the war with the Sabbat and the Masquerade.
In the winter of 1802, his luck finally gave out. He was exiled by the leaders of the Tremere for his unruly behavior and uncontrollable search for deeper knowledge. Banished to the New World and branded with a tattoo to eternally mark his disgrace, he obeyed the command his superiors had given him and avoided mortals and the supernatural alike, except for necessary feeding. When the blood command suddenly ceased in 2004, he carefully ventured out into the world around him for the first time in two hundred years.
Drawn to the city by rumor from other vampires, he comes in search of a neutral territory where the Camarilla will be inclined to forget about him. He knows that in such a city, knowledge and answers are to be found, whatever politics drive him. The Tremere agenda lost to the passage of time, he is willing to lay aside old duties and stay apart from the churches and politics that disgraced him. Now is the time to dig, while the eyes of the master are elsewhere.
Since his arrival in the city, Conner has been embroiled in nearly every major conflict and political altercation that has arisen, despite his desire to avoid politics. Despite this, he has permanently moved into Dante\'s Inferno, paying his rent with work for the Vampire Oligarch, Jake McCloud.
Awareness of Supernaturals: Aware of nearly all types of supernaturals, but in an academic rather than practical way.
Occupation/Job: No conventional job as of yet, but found that some of his old trinkets fetched incredible prices at auction, and he has enough money to live comfortably, at least for a little while. He will sometimes contract work for the Oligarchy or various factions, but getting paid for this is rare.
Interesting Facts / Quirks: Conner is at once fascinated and horrified by human technology. While he may spend an entire night learning how to use a computer in perfect tranquility, a ringing cellphone might have him prepared to do battle in an instant.
Hobby/Hobbies: Collecting and evaluating information. Also collects unusual batteries.
Likes: Trustworthy people, valuable information, beautiful men, friendly fights, that "full and sloshy" feeling from feeding well, puzzles, reading, researching the supernatural, talking about said research, and things that never change.
Dislikes: The Sabbat, the Camarilla, the Tremere, vampires who obsess over clans, shallow minds, sudden changes, politics, misplaced authority, lies, cheating, being pushed around or watched, vampires that kill out of carelessness, and harming other supernaturals.
Strength: Powerfully intellectual, Conner has developed his blood magic and mental ability well over the years. He has also made a point of advancing his physical abilities, and can hold his own in a fight with another supernatural.
Weakness/Flaw: Conner lacks practical experience in physical conflicts, and lacks skill with weapons and hand-to-hand fighting. His temper can be quick, leading to precarious social and political situations that he doesn\'t have the experience to handle or escape. Also, his studies over the past two centuries have been in isolation. While he has the learning of a vampire of his age, he has the life experience and practical skill of a much younger Kindred. His idealistic views tend to get him in serious trouble with more structured, political personalities, and he has spent much of his undead life as an outcast. He is trouble waiting to happen, and he doesn\'t know how to fix or even avoid it.
Supernatural Abilities: Conner is a renegade, outcast member of the Tremere clan, a group of vampire blood-magi. He has the ability to alter the world around him psychically and physically, but it drains him of a significant portion of the energy he gains from feeding. The basic limitations of his abilities are that the longer the range, the greater the effect, or the larger the alteration, the more it will cost him and the faster it will drain.
He can, and has in the past, drained his reserves of energy to the point he falls into a stupor
wherever he happens to be at the moment. This presents a hazard due to daylight, enemy presences, environmental dangers (stairs, cliffs, balconies), and it takes time for him to saturate his body with energy again. He will come out of the stupor when presented with easy blood, as the thirst will overpower the exhaustion.
Blood Magic Abilities:His abilities fall into four categories -
Sensory & Telepathic
Direct Manifestation (Pyro-, Hydro-, & Telekinesis)
Projective
Transmutation & EnchantmentSensory & Telepathic His Psychic senses, the ability to see auras, sense presences, and detect details about them are extremely acute. In crowds, he often has more trouble picking out a specific being or focusing in spite of the “noise”. The characteristics of a being or item\'s energy field can tell him immense amounts about the subject in question, but this requires time and focus in a shielded environment in many cases. Conner can “sonar” a medium-size apartment complex without much effort, but only picks up rudimentary details about the presences he detects; species, projected emotions, and intensity. With vampires, he can sometimes guess their age from the power of their aura, but this is less accurate than he believes it to be.
His telepathy is slightly above average, but a skilled telepath can easily best him at mind control and range. Conner is a competent telepath, but he has tuned his mind to apply brute force rather than fine control. His mental barriers are profound, however, unless one can force him to become emotional; if this can be achieved, his focus will often waver and flaws will develop. These can be exploited with relative ease by skilled telepaths.
He also practices an aggressive form of the Domination technique that allows him to launch a psychic assault directly on the mind of an unguarded person. This is usually only enough to temporarily stun a supernatural. On a human, it would permanently traumatize or paralyze them due to the scarring of the brain tissue, producing something similar to cerebral palsy. The application of this psychic assault produces intense, agonizing pain throughout the victim\'s entire nervous system, blocking motor impulses in the nerves. In many cases, on weaker beings, it will produce a seizure.
Direct Manifestation These are easily the most draining of his techniques, but also the most frequently used. He can control three states of matter: liquids, solids, and plasma (fire, electricity). He can only maintain something large and flashy for a few minutes before being dangerously drained. The closer he keeps it to his body, the easier it is for him to use, so he usually only uses it for a moment, especially when fighting. His telekinesis is the exception, which he can use more easily, but with less control. He cannot create plasma or liquids, but he can control plasma and liquids. He will also generally limit his pyro- and hydrokinesis to within another arm\'s length of his torso, and then usually momentary bursts.
Telekinesis Conner can control solid objects within fifty feet of him, up to three times his own body weight (435 lbs). He can control up to two objects at once, but this is currently at the very edges of his ability; they are likely to waver, veer, or if they\'re heavy, drop completely. Given the option, he will never do this in a practical situation. Also, he has no fine motor control; he can push, pull, and lift objects, but pressing buttons is difficult and takes him time. Twisting or bending objects is impossible; he controls the entire object, so there is no way for him to create tension. Also, he can only control objects based on the count, not the mass. Controlling sand, for example, is impossible because of the particulate nature. A single grain of sand would be easy; a stream or ball of sand would be impossible.
Projective These abilities are his least favorite. He can project his awareness temporarily (an hour at most) into a willing supernatural target, or an unaware human. If the subject resists, he is immediately ejected. Of course, in the case of an unaware human, they would first have to become aware of his presence. He becomes aware of their internal narrative, and their senses of hearing, sight, and smell. The host may eject him from their consciousness at will.
This state is difficult for Conner to maintain, and he would have to feed the same night as using it to avoid falling into a stupor. Range can extend up to five miles, depending on psychic interference. His body is completely vulnerable and inert while he is in this state, though he may twitch or writhe if he experiences intense psychic energies.
Transmutation & Enchantment These abilities are his preferred use of his blood magic. He can create containers that forcibly draw blood if handled, locate people using a personal object, and a number of other useful things. He can also coax the hair of vampires to grow, but it is one of the more difficult tasks for him to accomplish. In general, he can grant objects the ability to perform a single semi-manifest task, use properties inherent in objects to enhance his own senses, or channel vampiric energy to unusual ends. The use of these skills requires time and the application of his blood, often repeatedly for powerful or complex projects. It is not unusual for a single project to take several weeks, sometimes months.
Transmutation involves altering the properties inherent in an object. The inertial force of an object can be altered to cause it to impact more or less forcibly; explosives can be enhanced; materials can be strengthened; glass can be sun-proofed. These alterations fade over time, depending on the amount of energy they are imbued with. Exposure to sunlight will rapidly erase these effects, and the blood of other supernaturals or vampires will contaminate the spell. Human blood, however, will lend them a small amount of energy. Given enough time to devise a method, these transmutations can theoretically alter nearly any one physical property of an item, but it takes extensive research to create new processes. Availability of information can also be a problem – he must understand exactly what he is working with.
Enchantment is wildly more complicated than transmutation, and much less predictable. Conner treads cautiously with research within this field. Enchantments create an aura around an item or individual, although enchanting an individual with an active effect is something Conner is reluctant to do. These auras create various effects, many of which are inexplicable when the applied process is compared to the result, and he refuses to explain the mechanics to anyone.
Using enchantment, Conner can cause items or, given enough time and blood, entire locations to be antagonistic or helpful to certain species. He can create auras that can recognize and process simple input or stimulus, although they are notoriously temperamental. The most controversial enchantment Conner has learned is a way to coax the hair and fingernails of vampires to slowly grow, though he doesn\'t frequently discuss it. This technique is considered the property of another clan, and thus forbidden to him. Enchantments wear off much more quickly than transmutation, usually within two weeks, unless connected to an energy source.
Given the extremely complex, and sometimes unpredictable, nature of the processes involved, Conner prefers to use the tried and true methods he\'s used for decades. It is rare that he ventures far from his own beaten path in enchantment and transmutation; as far as he will usually venture is to create variations on old techniques.
The key thing to remember is that no matter what kind of magic he\'s performing, it will cost him dearly in blood. He prefers to use magic as a last resort, except for small things. He is frequently engaged in manipulating the fire in a cigarette, flicking small objects across tables, or playing with a puddle of water.
Important Threads -
Old AcquaintancesCullingReflectionInvitationsOn The Road Again