Mithras

[Black Philip]

Name: Mithras
Title: His Majesty, King Mithras of Sparta, Prince of London, From The House Of Ventrue.
Age [appearance]:28
Age [actual]: 2502
Gender: Male
Species: Vampire
Clan : Ventrue (Methuselah)
Generation: 4th
Sire: Ventru
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Sexuality: Gay
Sect: The Camarilla AKA The Ivory Tower
Status: Ancient, Camarilla Prince, Ventrue Methuselah
Quote: Only through submission can you seek to gain my favor.

WARNING: Mithras is an extremely powerful ancient who does not suffer fools and does not conform to 21st Century standards of morality. If you insult him or attack him, it will likely be your character's end. That being said, if you want to explore something specific let me know and we can work it out.

Hair: Mithras has long dark, shaggy, hair, that he wears combed or braided. His hair is considered quite beautiful and is thick and soft at the same time. His hair is constantly in his face, and he’s been known to tie it into a top knot when tired of it.

Eyes: Dark Brown, with a constant gold shimmer from thousands of years using Dominate and Serpentis. Locking eyes with him can send mortals into a trance. Vampires who are younger than him have difficulty maintaining eye contact.

Frame: Mithras is 6’2, and 210lbs. He is large and muscular and has the body of a warrior. His chest, arms, and back taper at his midsection, and his legs strong but slim compared to his upper body. He could be considered top heavy.

Primary Stance 1: Standing as tall as possible with his hands behind his back.
Primary Stance 2: Holding a sword and training with it.
Primary Stance 3: Sitting on his throne, a full court of followers attending him.

Usually Seen Wearing: No shirt, no shoes. A gold ring with black onyx cross. It is his papal ring, and the one his followers are expected to kiss.

Tattoos/Distinguishing Marks: Mithras’s skin is flawless and he has no tattoos. He does have one mark however, a branding from the Camarilla as a failure. The mark communicates that he should be shunned. It was gained after his failure to control for losing Jacob McCloud to the Anarchs.

Personality: Mithras has a few convictions that help guide and provide structure to his life.

1. Those with more power are obstacles to overcome.
2. War is the most superb form of violence.
3. What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine.

Mithras is a soldier first. He was trained to think with strategy in mind and that every exchange is a battle to win, This has caused him to become quite ruthless, cutthroat and violent when dealing with adversaries. He believes himself to be a king among vampires and a god to mortals, and in some capacity he is right about both. His largest asset is that he will play the long game to win, and sees mental torture as just as effective as physical torture.

Mithras worships Athena and Ares, preferring Greek gods to those of his homeland of Persia. He is a fan of strategy in battle and keeps abreast of current human military training and technique. He has also trained formally in China and Japan in non western combat forms and is considered a master of both the Katana and the Sia. Despite the skills Mithras brings to battle, he is also extremely rageful and often murders more people than he has to.

He respects power in others, and will defer to vampires who are older than him. That being said, he knows exactly who he is and has no problem name dropping himself. Mithras is highly manipulative and exploitative with perhaps his greatest achievement in this area being his founding of the Cult of Mithras. The vampire has several thousand mortal followers who believe he is a living god. They travel with him to support his needs and are based on blind faith and total devotion. Mithras has picked his favorite children from within his cult to ensure loyalty to him.

His base personality is calculated, intimidating and sexual. He is always flirting, and seems to radiate carnal feelings. He has had sex with all genders and sexes but prefers the company of men, preferably boyish and slightly feminine. He is known to treat his lovers and mentees like sexual property, taking what he wants and never apologizing. His avid political gifts led him to be a high ranking Camarilla leader until the sect’s recent culling at the hands of both the slayers and their recent defeat at the hands on the Anarchs.

Brief History:

Mithras was born in Persia in what is modern day Iran in about 515BCE. He was born a member of the upper merchant class, and quickly enlisted in the Persian Empire’s growing army. He was a natural soldier, and quickly rose through the ranks. Mithras was named for the ancient God Mithra, a being of happiness and joy. But Mithras was not like the God who shared his namesake. He was known as one of the cruelest men on the battlefield, often slaying enemies who’d surrendered or were unarmed.

In 490BCE, Mithras was chosen to lead a platoon of troops into battle against the Greek city state of Athens during the course of the Greco-Persian War. While Mithras’s forces reached the city, they were routed and slaughtered by the Athenians, and Mithras was captured and set for execution. The military general was approached by a Spartan man named Ventur who told Mithras he was impressed by his attack and leadership and wanted to see him fight another day. The antediluvian sired him, marking the last original child of the Ventrue bloodline.   

Ventru was an abusive but effective sire, and after a few hundred years together, the two split ways. Ventru went on to Rome, while Mithras stayed in Greece. During their time together, Ventru passed on the secrets of Dominate, Fortitude and Pressene as well as his curse of needing a high quality blood.

Mithras relocated to Sparta, wear he joined the military as a vampire commander and learned the Spartan way. They made him a much stronger warrior, both in honor, code and strategy, and he forever associated himself with his time there. He fought on the side of Sparta in the battle that halted Persia's advancement into Europe. It was In Greece he became obsessed with the older male, younger male relationship, and took on his first children within that framework. Combining the Greek philosophers with military discipline, Mirthas was known as a demanding sire. Most of his fledges were ashed by him out of displeasure, while the ones who survived were always made to be just as bitter and cruel. Mithras has only ever sired males. He think female Ventrue are weak.

He relocated to Rome to join his sire and it was there he started the infamous Cult of Mithras. Mithras used the religion of Mithraism from his homeland to convince Roman citizens he was a walking god, like Jesus of Nazareth had done. His vampire powers helped him to perform lots of “miracles” and he quickly became a rival to early Christianity. The cult grew all over Rome until it was outlawed by the Roman emperor and several of his mortal followers were killed as heretics. The cult went underground but stayed a prominent force even through the sacking of Rome.

Mithras traveled to Constantinople after Rome’s fall and let his cult grow both there and in Rome. He eventually grew bored with simply ruling and in the 15th Century departed his known life to travel the world. He ended up in Japan during the Era of Warring States, and trained to become a Samurai. He stayed in Japan until a new emperor was crowned, and then decided to go back to Europe. Mithras returned to discovered the Inquisition and Anarch revolt had destroyed many of his clan including his sire, who was now buried underground. He quickly joined the other clan elders in forming the Camarilla and was assigned to become Prince of London.

Mithras accepted and was placed there in the late 1500’s at the end of the rule of Elizabeth the first. Mithras was considered an unusually cruel Camarilla prince, and was known to kill or intimidate for even sniffing around his hunting grounds. He was always surrounded by a harem of beautiful men both mortal and vampire who existed only to pleasure him. He rewarded some with siring but others he merely toyed with and killed. He was removed from power twice during this period but always managed to use violence and favors to get his job back.

In the year 1735, a Ventrue named Sophie Dubeck was brought before him for siring without permission. Her lineage was impressive. She was the child of Mithras’s brother Alexander but after a trial she was found guilty and killed. The fledge was Scottish and named Jacob McCloud and Mithras punished him by making him his mentee. Mithras trained, educated, and instructed the young member of his clan. The boy was unruly and needed to be taught respect, so Mithras violently abused him for the next seventy  years. He also forced them to be lovers, and while Jacob ended up enjoying their physical relationship he never loved him.

Mithras however, became obsessed with Jacob, and tried to make him lead branches of the cult. He wanted Jacob to be his true heir and became more and more controlling and physically abusive. He trained Jake well in both the art of war and politics and his harshness pushed Jacob away from the Camarilla and into the arms of the Anarchs. Jacob betrayed Mithras around the year 1810, by defecting and burning down the local Camarilla Elysium destroying much of Mithra’s fortune and killing several of his bureaucrats. Jacob escaped to the new world, and while Mithras wanted to follow him, the leaders of the Camarilla asked him to stay in London. He vowed to one day find the boy and make him bow.

During the German blitz of World War 2, Mithras was forced into torpor (deep vampire sleep) under the city and stayed there until the 2nd Inquisition destroyed the London Camarilla and dug him up. He managed to kill them all, and drained their blood to heal himself. He searched the world for other Ventrue and found so many lost connections. Then he found out where Jacob had gone, or Jake as he now went by. Jake is Mithras’s last great connection to the Ventrue clan and has come to the city to settle their unfinished business.

(a more comprehensive history will be posted below)

Awareness of Supernaturals: Due to his advanced age and experience he has dealt with almost all kinds of supernaturals. This includes demons, angels, dark angels, fae, clanless vampires, clans of Cain, shifters, lycans, and magic users.

Occupation/Job: Mithras leads his cult, meaning he is a full time personality. He has no job to speak off, but must stay in constant communication and control of his following. He is also a trained soldier and scholar.

Domicile: Nowhere yet, but is looking for a place.

Interesting Facts/Quirks: He has low humanity but has some hard limits to keep himself sane and adjusted. For example, he limits his slaughter to people who are truly in his way, or he has a vendetta against. He spends a decent amount of time around humans so he wont forget how. He is obsessed with beautiful men, and often makes muscular studs flex for him. His own physique is of the Greek ideal, but in bed he tends to prefer slimmer men. He is one of three vampires directly worshiped by other vampires the other two being Set and Cain.

Hobby/Hobbies: Mithras is a master painter, believing hobbies and art keep back the beast. He is also trains his own combat skills daily, and is considered perhaps the deadliest living vampire with a short sword. He also loves classical music and opera, and his time in London has made him a fan of British Monarchy, as many Ventrue are. He also loves to have sex and often organizes large ritual orgies.

Likes: Men, Power, Money, Worship, Ceremony, The Camarilla, Ventrue, Ancients, Violence, Beauty, control.
Dislikes: The Anarchs, disobedience, youth, backtalk, Cattiff (clanless vampires), Humanists

Strength: Mithras’s age and level of training make him deadly and characters who play with him should know he does not value the lives of others very much. On a personality basis Mithras is a master manipulator and cult personality that relies on his beauty, prowess and cunning.
Weakness/Flaw: He is highly arrogant, narcissistic and when angry highly unstable. He can also be manipulated by his mentees. His reliance on being hard to destroy and mental powers has impacted his physical attributes making him weaker in areas like strength and speed. Subtract about 500 years from his age when dealing with contests of strength. Additionally, while he’s charismatic like most cult leaders he’s not very smart. His survival has come from other sources. His positive responses to flattery can make him easy to manipulate for the purposes of others.

Pictures:

[Black Philip]

Vampiric Disciplines:

Dominate - Dominate is the backbone of Clan Ventrue, and Mithras may be one of the most powerful users of this discipline to be living. Dominate is the subjugation of one's self by the self of another. It is a violent act, that at best is an intrusion and at it's worst a complete violation. Mithras has broken the will of many, and uses this power to get almost anything he wants. Below are the full list of what he can do with Dominate.

A. Compel - This power allows for the vampire to issue simple commands in the form of a sentence. This is the most basic form of Dominate and can be learned by even young ones. Mithras uses this power constantly.

B. Mesmerize - Mithras can hypnotize victims and put them in trances. While in a trance the subject will simply follow the vampire and do what they are told. This power also leads to the way to conditioning thralls or servants

C. The Forgetful Mind - The power of memory manipulation. Mithras can erase memories, implant them, view them without consent, and otherwise do with them what he wants. He uses this power constantly on mortals.

D. Submerged Directive - Can implant post hypnotic suggestions that the thrall must carry out when the trigger occurs. Mithras makes humans into assassins with this power. Only works if the victim is fully hypnotized.

E. Terminal Decree - While Dominate normally can not be used to make someone kill themselves, Mithras has achieved the ability to bypass the basic human instinct of survival. Mortals will kill themselves at Mithras's order.

F. Mass Manipulation - Mithras can control whole groups of humans at once, and can even control multiple vampires if they are young enough. He can give them group instructions and make them work together to complete tasks.

G. Chain the Psyche - Mithras can make it extremely painful to disobey him, causing horrid psychic pain at disobedience. This is his favorite way to break peoples' willpower. When they resist, hurt them.

H. Fealty - This ability was developed by Mithras personally and is known to only a few ancient vampires. The ability allows Mithras to control anyone who has ever sworn an oath to him. That means he is incapable of being betrayed by a follower.

Weakness: Dominate can be resisted by vampires who are older than Mithras. Younger vampires can have some resistance based on age. Witches, Dark Angels, and Fae are resistant but not immune. Too much Dominate rots the soul and destroys the user's ability to have empathy. Mithras never asks. He commands.

Fortitude - Fortitude is the vampire power of supernatural resistance. It has been said the secret to Mithras's long survival was his mastery of this discipline. It allows not only for him to have resistance to fire, sunlight, and other damage, but the power also prevents mental attack. He can resist powers like Dominate, witches magic, and keep his aura and thoughts hidden.

A. The Unswayable Mind - Mithras has the ability to push back against attempts to control his mind. Dominate, magic, intimidation are all stopped by this mental resistance to suggestion. It has it's limits however, as a being with much more powerful magic or a Dominate from a much older vampire will make the technique fail. Luckily for Mithras, there are few older or more power than he.

B. Resilience - Users of Fortitude develop a healthy and resilient frame that can take a serious beating. Mithras sometimes wins fights through attrition as his resilience means he never really goes down. This is considered the most basic form of Fortitude. At his level, Mithras can't be cut by non magic blades, however will still take damage from fangs, supernatural claws and Angel weapons.

C. Toughness - The vampires flesh becomes hard like stone, and therefore takes far less damage from combat and other forms of damage. Hitting a Kindred with this ability will feel like punching rock, and it makes the level of strength needed in opponents much higher. This is another basic form of fortitude, present in many vampires. Punching Mithras would hurt your hand. That being said, his skin is still soft to the touch.

D. Defy Bane - By focusing power the vampire can resist fire, sunlight, or any other supernatural damage that would result in final death. Mithras would take almost a full minute to destroy with sunlight, and he has a high resistance to sunlight. This power is draining even for an ancient, and often leaves Mithras vulnerable to attack.

E. Fortify The Inner Facade - This ability lets Mithras protect his thoughts, emotions, aura, and memories from intrusion. The vampires mind appears either false - false thoughts, feelings, etc. - or blank and empty. Either way, Mithras only lets those he wants see his thoughts.

F. Armor of Kings - Blades and clubs that strike Mithras may break on contact. Supernatural weapons are immune to this ability.

G. Repair The Flesh - This master level ability allows the Vampire to heal even burn and sunlight damage with ease. It requires a large amount of blood, so ritual feeding is needed to use the power properly.

Weakness: Fortitue gives its users a false sense of security. Being hard to kill doesn't mean you can't be killed, and Mithras is aware that one bad day could put him down for good. Also, older vampires can overcome mental defenses.

Presence - Mithras has what some vampires call, “The Lingering Kiss.” Presence allows Mithras to manipulate his aura in a variety of ways to create certain effects. Mithras can use this form of supernatural charisma to get information, food, or intimidate an attacker. Mithras has mastered Presence having an aura so powerful it is often overwhelming for younger vampires at first.

A. Awe - Mithras can make himself more physically attractive to onlookers. Those who are not sexually attracted to him would at least find his company pleasing and interesting. At his level, this ability is always on passively. Mortals in particular are strongly affected.

B. Daunt -Mithras can reverse his pleasing aura into an intimidating one. His stunning beauty becomes cold and menacing. This can deter attackers. At Mithras's power level he can make crowds bow to him with this ability. It can also inspire terror.

C. Dread Gaze - Mithras can for a brief time show his fangs and spark terror in mortals and and send an intimidating message to supernaturals. Mithras doesn't often use this ability, finding it a bit cheap.

D. Entrancement - This ability allows Mithras to cause a single person to become obsessed and infatuated with him. This more advanced ability is how  kings made peasants bow to them, and how Mata-Hari was a whore for espionage. People have died while under the effects of entrancement, making it a risky ability to use. 

E. Lingering Kiss - The bite of a vampire is already very addicting, but this horrible technique practically enslaves mortals who are affected by it. They become obsessed with receiving the bite of the vampire who uses it, often to their doom. Mithras often uses this technique to boost cult recruitment. It drives the mortal insane, a power trip Mithras get's off on.

F. Summon - Mithras can call forth a person who he has previously used Presence on before. The person simply stops what they are doing and in the quickest route possible makes their way to Mithras. Useful for setting up meetings secretly, or proving your power over someone, summon can be resisted by the mentally strong. Mithras loves to show off with the ability and makes sure to use it at the most inconvenient moments.

G. Irresistible Voice - (requires dominate) Mithras ability to mix Dominate and Presence is complete, and now commands never require contact and can be issues with just touch, or voice. It also makes Mithras voice intoxicating and inviting.

H. Majesty - At this pinnacle of the Discipline the vampire can amplify their countenance to supernatural levels. Whether they appear as heartrendingly beautiful, monstrously terrifying, or wielding absolute command, everyone who views them is struck by their image, unable to act or even speak against the vampire. To experience Majesty is to be in the presence of the divine - or the infernal.

Weakness: Presence further cuts off the vampire from humanity as it makes all interactions based on worship, love and fear. That is such a limited way to live in the world. The powers can be countered with magic, or by vampires who are older.

Serpentis - The clans of Cain are often limited to the rule of three great powers. However, a being of Mithras's power has mastered his in clan powers and so has moved on to mastering other areas of the blood. The only of Mithras out of clan powers, he learned Serpentis  from the 4th Generation Follower of Set Nefertiti before her attack on his master Ventru in Rome. Mithras still struggles with making it's use feel natural, and is placing all his current training there. Serpentis is a form of shape shifting that allows the vampire to take on snake like features in honor of the vampire god Set. Mithras is also mistaken for a Setite due to his complexion, time spent in Egypt and use of this power.

A. Gaze of the Serpent - (requires presence) Similar to snake charmers of old, Mithras’s eyes turn gold and slitted when using this power. Once this gaze hits it’s victim they cannot look away, unless they are of a strong will. Mithras uses this power so often that mortals often end up in a trance as a result of staring. He commonly combines this power with Dominate. This power can be resisted in the manners similar to Presence and Dominate.

B. Fangs of the Adler - Mithras can grow his vampire fangs to be six inches long, and uses them to fight or feed. His tongue can also grow longer to lap up the blood.

C. Earth Meld - Mithras can become one with the earth, sleeping within it during the day and being protected from the sun. This power is also present in Protean, leaving some to believe they are connected.

D. Shapechange - Mithras can transform into a large serpent with his same height and weight. The power doesn't come naturally to him, so snake form can only be maintained through feeding and is not easily shifted in and out off. Still, while in snake form he communicates telepathically, and is able to constrict, bite, and slither.

E. The Unfettered Heart - This ability allows Mithras to move his heart around within his body. It protects him from magic that would seek to destroy the heart. This power can also be used to mimic life, shift other organs around, or manipulate the hearts of victims. This power bestows the title of master.

Weakness: As this is an out of clan discipline, Serpentis does not come naturally to him and requires more blood, time and energy to use than his in clan disciplines. Also, Serpentis is similar to Protean, but has more specialized uses, leading some to see it as an inferior form of shapechange. Mithras does not know the Setite magic needed to truly understand and fuel this unique and dark power.