Octavius Sage

Contents

Biography • Abilities • Personal Life • Alternative Versions • See Also

Octavius Sage

Title	The Black Rose of Milan (390 - 2014) Scourge of Raleigh (2000 - 2006) Keeper of Elysium of Raleigh (2004 - 2006) Toreador Primogen of Raleigh (2002 - 2004) Scourge of Paris (1320 - 1589) Scourge of Milan (380 - 2014)
Character Information
Birth Name	Flavius Magnus Aquillius
Other Names	Flavius Priori; Mario Verdi; Octavian Sage; Sagacius
Species	Vampire
Clan	Toreador
Age	Elder
Gender	Male
Orientation	Heteroromantic Bisexual
Ethnicity	Roman
Birth	January 13, 313 Aquileia, the Roman Empire
Embrace	March 5, 332 Rome, the Roman Empire
Occupation	Executioner
Languages	Arabic, Aramaic, Basque, Cappadocian, Catalan, Coptic, Corsican, Danish, Dutch, English, Etruscan, Farsi, French, Galatian, Gaulish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Illyrian, Latin, Lombard, Milanese, Occitan, Old English, Old Norse, Phoenician, Phrygian, Russian, Sicilian, Spanish, Syriac, Turkish, Venetian
Powers and abilities	Auspex Celerity Dominate Fortitude Presence
Connection Information
Sect	Camarilla
House	House of Sage
Relatives	Agostino Caponetti (childe) Antonio Brunelleschi (childe) Constantino Allegri (childe) Felice Bassi (childe) Floria Nepotianus (spouse) Francesco Rasi (childe) Gaetano Majorano (childe) Giulio Crimi (childe) Isabella Sage (daughter) Maeve Glaistig (adopted childe) Maximus Priori (sire) Lucius Verginius (childe) Petronus Montefalco (childe) Salvatore Licitra (childe) Titus Marcius (childe)
Retainers	Isabella Sage (332 - 2006) Louise Gaulois (1755 - 2014) Martin Oliver (1946 - 2006) Rufus (583 - 2006) Vitus (420 - 2014)
Background Information
Player	Rob Fowler
Chronicles	Milan Chronicle Paris Chronicle Raleigh Chronicle
Character Sheet	Milan Sheet Raleigh Sheet Paris Sheet
Archetypes	Artisan & Ruler
Astrological Sign	Capricorn
MBTI Personality	INTJ

Octavius Sage is one of the powerhouse elders of Clan Toreador, intensely beloved and feared by his clanmates and most of the rest of the Camarilla besides. One of the eldest Toreador still active and part of an ancient alliance between other like-minded old Kindred, he is a staunch supporter of the Camarilla and carries a reputation as a source of great wisdom and insight and a deadly torturer and executioner with no sympathy whatsoever for anyone's mistakes. As the patriarch of the House of Sage, an enormous conglomerate family tree of his own childer, grandchilder, and great-grandchilder, he wields considerable global influence over Toreador politics in specific and Camarilla policies in general, and strikes immediate awe and fear in the hearts of pretty much all Kindred younger than himself wherever he goes.

Biography

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Mortal Life

Born in the fourth century as the eighth son of a prestigious Roman family, Octavius was bred to be a law-abiding and loyal supporter of the Constantinian dynasty of rulers, which is exactly what he was for the first decade and a half of his life, during which time he did very little of note as the youngest son of a family with a reputation for leisure. At the age of fifteen, he entered military service as did many other young men from noble families, and was trained in combat and command (although he did not see much direct battle, and largely spent his time policing the Empire's Gaulish territories on routine excursions).

By the time he was eighteen, Octavius had begun to be groomed for eventual political office, and was a well-known orator and lawyer for civil court disputes. In spite of his somewhat rigid upbringing, he turned out to be something of a romantic, however, and although his family had already betrothed him to the daughter of a respectable family with whom they were affiliated, he fell in love with a young woman named Floria Nepotianus, and after much dramatic argument and inter-family squabbling managed to convince his father to annul the previous betrothal and allow his marriage to Floria once he achieved the majority age of twenty-one.

Embrace

Unbeknownst to the mortal population of Rome, major machinations and political intrigue were also afoot in its Kindred population, culminating in the establishment of the Eternal Senate, a senate not unlike the mortal one in which representatives from each clan were allowed to present their cases and demands to the Ventrue Prince (a precursor the the establishment of the modern Primogen Council). Maximus Priori, as the most influential member of Clan Toreador at the time, immediately surveyed the mortal population in his holdings for appropriate candidates to aid him in attempting to shift the balance of power in his clan's favor, and settled on Octavius, among several other candidates, as a likely possibility.

Octavius was summarily informed of his grand destiny and given a few months' time to put his mortal affairs in order, which he did with surprising efficiency and success once the initial shock wore off. Although he was unable to marry Floria as promised without his father's permission, he impregnated her to ensure that he would have mortal offspring before his Embrace, and became one of Clan Toreador at the age of nineteen.

Death of the White Rose

Although his initial work with his sire in the Senate was promising, the Prince's death and usurpation by his childe and the accompanying unrest that signaled the approaching end of the Constantinian dynasty combined to cause too much unrest for Octavius' sire, and he relocated himself and his childer to Milan, where Toreador power had already been established. Octavius transformed Floria into a ghoul and took her and her young daughter, Bella, along with them, establishing them at his new Milanese estate. Floria was fondly nicknamed Alba Rosa, the White Rose, for her pale skin and Octavius' attachment to her, and the Milanese court remained comfortable for one short year.

However, enemies of the family - Ventrue agents from the Roman court seeking revenge on Maximus and his childer for abandoning the new Prince's power bloc there - targeted the estate for punishment, and Floria was kidnapped from it and brutally tortured before being left for dead. Octavius, upon finding her body, suffered a severe psychotic break and embarked on an immediate and very ugly revenge crusade, which eventually left seven Ventrue scions of Rome dead along with a large number of servants, related clans, and bystanders in the wrong place at the wrong time, and which effectively destroyed any connection to compassion or humanity he might have had left.

Instatement as the Black Rose of Milan

Left with nothing but a five-year-old daughter who turned out to have a severe developmental disorder and a sire whose aims he was no longer remotely interested in pursuing, Octavius turned to other pursuits. Having solidified his reputation as a daunting and dangerous killer, he capitalized on his skills by performing assassinations, torture, and general endangerment of others as per the request of the new Prince of Milan, Julian Augustine, with whom he formed a close, centuries-spanning friendship. Seeking to build something that could never be destroyed and which he could control with utter ruthlessness, he founded and began slowly curating and building the House of Sage, a direct bloodline of his childer and grandchilder who were utterly loyal to him and dedicated to his ideals.

Octavius was granted a formal position as the Black Rose of Milan in or around the eleventh century by Augustine, who created it in order to grant him additional prestige and powers. As the Black Rose, he was officially tasked with the "education" of Kindred in the city, a polite method of referring to the fact that any Kindred could call upon him to discipline a fractious childe or enemy of lesser status, forcing them to fall in line. A three-step system was put into place, in which Octavius would attempt to teach the wayward Kindred the appropriate behavior the first time he was called to attend them, subject them to extreme torture and brainwashing the second time, and execute them the third time, at which point it was considered clear that they were incapable of correcting their behavior.

When the fledgling Camarilla emerged in the fourteenth century, promising stability, order, and a framework in which elders could exert near-limitless power over lesser Kindred, Octavius saw it as an opportunity to extend his ideals to the world, and supported it along with Augustine, turning his talents for swift destruction against Sabbat and Anarch enemies and neonate malcontents within the new sect alike. Once the sect was established, he began to perform an increasing number of disciplinary missions around Europe and even in the New World, traveling to areas of unrest in order to ensure that any danger to the Camarilla was re-educated or destroyed without delay.

Raleigh, North Carolina

By the late twentieth century, Octavius was called for what was to be a brief stay in the small American city of Raleigh, North Carolina, where one of Augustine's childer, Cyro, was currently serving as Prince; although the area was one that he would usually have considered beneath him in size and prestige, Cyro's presence and its location as a staging ground between Camarilla and Sabbat forces convinced him to make an exception, and he moved to the city along with his current paramour Paige Black and a small cadre of servants and ghouls (including his biological daughter Bella, ghouled as a teenager and renamed Isabelle in modern nights).

As very large fish in a very small pond, Octavius and Cyro conducted the majority of affairs in the city for some years, including quelling a small Anarch rebellion and managing a large number of Independent clan members that had made the frontier city their home base. Octavius quietly executed several undesirable elements and rooted out the majority of the city's Giovanni presence over a few years, but was prevented from relocating by the continuing incursions of the Sabbat, led by the mysterious and powerful Walter Black. Various other supernatural threats in the area, including the interference of at least one Mage, also prevented him from wanting to leave without ensuring the city's continuing endurance.

Adoption of Maeve Glaistig

During his tenure in Raleigh, Octavius became aware of a young ghoul by the name of Mary O'Malley, recently retained by one of the local Ravnos, Dominic Vaughn, and in speaking with her at court became interested in her obvious artistic talent and beauty. Considering her Embrace into Clan Ravnos to be a waste, he attempted to convince Dominic to hand her over to the Toreador instead, even offering to take her on himself, but was rudely refused, even after offering considerable compensation. Affronted that a Ravnos would dare insult him and still interested in acquiring the ghoul, he prevailed upon Cyro to forbid Dominic from Embracing Mary, and began attempting to distract her attention away from her domitor.

Much to his surprise and fury, Dominic flouted Cyro's Right of Creation and Embraced the ghoul anyway, rendering her permanently a member of Clan Ravnos and beyond his reach. In retaliation, Octavius had Dominic charged with diablerie and executed, and convinced Cyro to hand Mary over to him as his new ward. Having succeeded in reasserting his control, he intended to use her as an experimental subject, attempting to see if her Ravnos nature or his Toreador upbringing would influence her more, and renamed her Maeve Glaistig in keeping with her new role.

In spite of her origins and his own reputation as a heartless torturer of innocents, Maeve's innocent charm eventually began to make an impression, and Octavius found himself not only falling in love with her but also rediscovering emotions and human impulses he had thought long since buried (including distinctly uncomfortable ones, such as guilt and regret). He bloodbound her, although not the full amount, to ensure that she would not leave him, and began to noticeably dote on her, much to the confusion and dislike of the rest of the House of Sage and the clan at large. Eventually, he released her into Camarilla society and requested that she marry him, although she refused out of loyalty to her deceased sire.

The Fall of Raleigh

Capable of reading the battlefield more easily than most and aware that the city was losing Kindred at an alarming rate, Octavius declared that Raleigh was going to fall a mere few days before it actually did, and made preparations to take his household and return to Milan. Maeve, however, refused to leave, demanding that he allow her to remain to help her friends, her previous clanmates, and to safeguard her sire's properties in the area. Having become almost incapable of hurting or upsetting her, Octavius did his utmost to convince her to leave, but in the end was forced to let her stay against his wishes, eliciting a promise from her to come to Milan as soon as possible to rejoin him. He departed, but not before leaving his ghouls behind to safeguard her.

On the eve of the city's fall, the local Sabbat unleashed a deadly bloodborne plague that afflicted all ghouls and thin-blooded Kindred in the area, causing them to inevitably sicken and die; among the rest of his ghoul staff, Isabelle was killed by the plague, and he received word of her death shortly before also learning that Maeve had been abducted by Sabbat forces and had vanished.

Torpor and Death

Depressed and unwilling to remain conscious if Maeve never returned, Octavius placed several ghouls with knowledge embedded in their minds in strategic locations throughout Europe to aid her in finding him, and then retired to a secret crypt beneath one of the Paris Elysia, where he entered voluntary torpor to wait out the intervening time. He remained unconscious for the next two decades, during which time Dominic, who turned out to have survived his execution, tracked him down but eventually elected not to kill him.

Maeve did eventually discover his resting place, along with Jean Claude Danut, one of his former students and a childe of Augustine, but she entered torpor herself at the revelation that Dominic was still alive and could not be woken. After learning from Jean Claude that Maeve had been tortured by someone impersonating him and would likely never mentally recover from it, Octavius laid Maeve to rest with Dominic and decided to remove himself from her life completely, committing suicide via sunrise.

The psychic shockwave caused by his death caused an enormous disruption in the members of the House of Sage, who were unable to discover what had happened to their patriarch and were extremely upset by his passing. Jean Claude later claimed credit for killing both Octavius and Maeve, and as a result suffered from a number of attempts at assassination and punishment from the vengeful members of the House.

Personal Life

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Abilities

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Skills

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Powers

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Alternative Versions