Maeve Glaistig (formerly Mary O'Malley)
Clan: Toreador (formerly Ravnos)
Age: Neonate
Sire: Octavius Sage (formerly Dominic Vaughn)
Childer: None
Status: Acknowledged
Maeve (Mary only to her friends) is an enigma to much of the Camarilla court; diminutive and almost childlike because of her very short stature, physical fragility, and innocent demeanor, most Kindred can't decide if she's painfully naive or exceptionally good at pretending to be. Her humanity attracts or repulses many Kindred and makes her a topic of discussion and debate no matter where she goes, and her strange, checkered history only adds fuel to the fire. For her part, Maeve seems to be just as sweet and unconniving as any true mortal could be, but there's no denying that wherever she goes, broken hearts and death seem to inevitably follow.
Mortal Life
Mary O'Malley was born in Southend, Boston, in the early 1980s to a mother who died in childbirth and a father who rapidly descended into alcoholism as a result. Her childhood was mostly spent in poverty, and as she grew older and began to resemble her mother too much for her grieving father to handle, drunken abuse sometimes entered the equation. At the age of seventeen, mostly penniless but determined to at least see some more of the world than her home neighborhood, she ran away from home and traveled down the east coast, doing odd jobs as a church singer and childcare volunteer.
Eventually, she made her way to Raleigh, North Carolina, where she managed to impress the casting director for the local small opera house with her crystalline soprano voice and wide-eyed work ethic. She was cast in several small roles and chorus parts for a year before being given her big break as the lead in a small chamber opera, The Old Maid and the Thief, where she came to the owner of the opera house's attention.
Embrace
Dominic Vaughn, a local entertainment producer and owner of the opera house as well as happening to be a member of Clan Ravnos, overheard Mary rehearsing during one of his visits to inspect the place, and was enchanted by her sweet air and lovely voice. He began "courting" her, which she believed to be a romantic dream come true, and eventually revealed his nature to her after she accidentally stumbled over his corpse-like body by arriving too early in the evening for him to have awoken yet. She agreed to both marry him and become his ghoul shortly thereafter.
Unfortunately, several members of Clan Toreador, particularly the notorious elder Octavius Sage, disliked the arrangement, pointing out that an artistic talent such as Mary's rightfully belonged with their clan rather than the itinerant Ravnos. Octavius attempted to purchase Mary from Dominic in order to secure her a place in the clan, but was rebuffed, beginning a major feud between the two. Mary's Embrace was forbidden by Prince Cyro at Octavius' urging, with the justification that Dominic's previous childe, Pieter Van Reise, had proved to be disruptive and was potentially a traitor to the sect.
In spite of these obstacles, Mary was Embraced by Dominic shortly thereafter, and the slight to the Prince's Right of Creation was smoothed over with heavy use of Prestation and political maneuvering.
Acceptance into Clan Toreador
In retaliation for Dominic's "theft" of Mary, Octavius saw to it that he was placed on the front lines of the erupting conflict with the Sabbat forces besieging the city, and convinced the Prince to have him bloodhunted as a diablerist. Dominic was executed shortly thereafter; Mary, as an unreleased childe, was also scheduled to be destroyed, but Octavius used some boons of his own to instead convince the Prince to grant him custodianship over her. She was officially adopted as his childe and a member of Clan Toreador, and, too devastated by grief and confusion over the rules of the vampiric world, she could not object. Mary was officially renamed "Maeve Glaistig" by Octavius, who considered it a more appropriate name for a Toreador and a necessary step toward distancing her from her origins.
As Octavius' official and youngest childe, Maeve learned the finer points of Kindred politics, etiquette, and art forms, although she continued to subtly resist his control as much as she was able. In spite of his reputation as an elder with very little conscience or emotion left in him, she managed to enchant him so much that he released her after only a single year, and commenced to play a dangerous game of satisfying his whims and romantic notions while still attempting to aid those of her and Dominic's allies that were still left in the city. Octavius also bloodbound her without her knowledge, although not the full three steps, causing her to begin to feel that she was returning some of his feelings of love and devotion.
The Fall of Raleigh
The Sabbat threat to Raleigh did not abate, and eventually it became clear that it was likely that the city would soon fall. Octavius prepared to return to Milan to avoid the coming disaster, but Maeve refused to go with him, concerned for her remaining allies in the city, especially Johnny Dirnt, with whom she had a complex emotional relationship. After a great deal of emotional argument, Octavius agreed to leave her behind, but warned her that he would only let her out of his sight for a short time.
After his departure, Maeve assisted Johnny in creating fortifications against the Sabbat and in using the wealth she inherited after Dominic's death to purchase supplies and protective havens for the defense forces. She was briefly involved in a botched mission from the Prince to sabotage a Sabbat base in an electrical plant, but was rescued from being electrocuted to death by Davium and Stephen Rosengeld, both of whom had been associates of Dominic's.
Once it was unavoidable that the city was about to be lost, the Prince cut a deal with a local group of Followers of Set to provide safe passage and resources to him and his immediate court as they evacuated. Part of this deal was granting them Maeve, who was summarily kidnapped, bloodbound, and restrained to be sent with them as they relocated. Although she reached out to both Octavius and Johnny for rescue, neither agreed to help her, and Maeve was forced to confront this new reality alone.
Captivity with the Setites
Maeve then traveled west with the Setite cabal, which included Justine Barrett, to whom she was now bloodbound and in thrall; Genevieve D'Joie, Justine's lieutenant; Julian St. Cloud, a former associate of Dominic's; and Stephen Rosengeld, who in spite of being Gangrel was attempting to learn the secrets of Setite spiritualism. Maeve was hopelessly enthralled to Justine as a result of the bloodbond, which caused her to endure a wide range of abuse and experimentation, much of it sexual, at the hands of the group. She was eventually placed in a brothel Justine owned in Albuquerque, where she remained for several years.
During this time, she solidified her friendship with Stephen, who eventually fell in love with her and decided that he could not continue to see her abused regardless of his conflicting loyalties. Since she was bloodbound and attempted to fight him off to remain with her captors, he tied her up and kidnapped her the old-fashioned way, backpacking with her across the desert landscape of New Mexico and Arizona in an attempt to elude the Setites by avoiding any populated areas. Maeve eventually returned to her senses as the blood bond faded, and the two remained partners in escape.
Arrival in Chicago
Aware that the Setites were still pursuing them and that, even worse, a small group of Hunters seemed to also be on their trail, Maeve and Stephen agreed to split up when they arrived in Chicago, with Maeve remaining behind in the relative safety of a large city and Stephen leaving to draw off pursuit. Maeve set herself up as a recluse avoiding most mortal and Kindred affairs, and the general obscurity of Raleigh as a city, combined with the fact that most Kindred who had been there during the year of its fall were dead, prevented anyone in Chicago from knowing anything about her except that she was a Toreador and the daughter of the prestigious House of Sage.
While Maeve was not lucky enough for either the Hunters or the Setites to fail to search for her in
Chicago, she befriended Colin Thomas, the Hound, soon after arriving, and he took it upon himself to protect her from any and all dangerous powers. He in turn introduced her to his friend Ian Kross, who also aided in her defense, and the three moved in together. Maeve and Ian shortly fell in love with one another, although their relationship was fraught with constant discomfort and instability thanks to Maeve's recent trauma and the many dangerous forces attempting to kill one or both of them.
Arrival of the Black Rose
As a result of political intrigue happening in the courts of Europe far away and unbeknownst to Maeve, a small group of Toreador hatched a plan to investigate the recent deaths of several elders, and sent their representative Richard Montague to Chicago to impersonate Octavius and learn any pertinent information. Afraid that her adoptive sire would kill Ian and Colin out of jealousy, Maeve immediately left both of them and moved in with him, only to discover that he was an impostor. Since her presence was important to his charade, Richard threatened to call the real Octavius if she did not remain with him, so Maeve endured several weeks of physical abuse from Richard and emotional outbursts from Ian in order to protect her friends.
Richard's deception was eventually discovered when his brother Jean Claude Danut, another close friend of Maeve's, was drawn into the scheme and also abused until he managed to escape and ask his lover Chason Wells for assistance. Chason and Ian confronted and killed Richard very publicly for his crimes, but unfortunately not before Maeve had been reduced to torpor by her injuries. Colin rescued her, but he and Ian began feuding over who should take care of her, each accusing the other of being dangerous and likely to hurt her further.
The Fall of Chicago
With the assassination of Prince Capone, Chicago was massively destabilized and the Sabbat forces that had been attempting its overthrow gained momentum, especially when Claudia Danut, a disenfranchised Toreador of the same European descent as Jean Claude and Richard, intentionally targeted the city after hearing that Octavius Sage was there. Maeve became emotionally unstable as the increased hostilities reminded her of events in Raleigh, and Ian and Colin were both called into combat against invaders. She attempted to leave the city several times, but was always thwarted by either dangers that she could not slip past alone or the unbearable thought of abandoning her loved ones.
In a final climactic battle against the Sabbat, Ian, whose humanity had been severely damaged by continual trauma during the past several months, struck Maeve with the full force of his supernatural strength, nearly killing her. Colin retaliated by attacking his friend to protect her, knocking him into torpor, and, believing that Ian had been killed and unable to cope with the sudden death of her lover, Maeve fled the city in a panic.
Time Spent Abroad
Maeve encountered Jean Claude on her way out of Chicago, and he convinced her to accompany him to Milan after revealing that he knew about her Ravnos heritage and had killed Paige Black in order to prevent her from telling anyone else about it. Having bonded with her during their mutual captivity, he decided to keep her with him permanently, and Maeve was too exhausted and sick at heart to argue with him. The two of them spent time first in Milan, where Maeve encountered one of Octavius' ghouls who gave her information about his whereabouts, and then in Paris, where another ghoul led both Kindred down into Octavius' secret crypt.
There, Maeve discovered Octavius' body, waiting for her in torpor - and the body of Dominic, her original sire. Unable to handle the emotional overload of the idea of both of them alive in the same place, she went into torpor herself, and remained in the crypt for a year unaware of any events outside of it. She was awoken after this time by her previously missing brother Pieter, who told her he had arrived to rescue her from the Toreador; after realizing that Octavius was dead and Maeve might be suspected of his murder, the two fled Europe before anyone could discover her absence.
Arrival in Washington, DC
Realizing that there were very few places they could go to avoid notice, Maeve and Pieter journeyed to Washington DC, a stronghold that they hoped would be both welcoming to them and safe from Sabbat predation. Maeve was forced to vouch for Pieter in order for him to be allowed into the city, and as repayment to Prince Vitel for doing so, agreed to become a performer for the Kindred-only club Limbo under the stage name Songbird.