Marcus Vitel
Clan: Lasombra
Age: Elder
Sire: Sybil
Childer: Cynthia Black, Monica Black
Status: Acknowledged, Exalted, Famous, Well-Known
Position: Prince of Washington DC

Marcus Vitel is among the oldest and most powerful Kindred active in the Camarilla in modern nights - which is no mean feat, since as a Lasombra he is a member of a clan with very few members in the Camarilla to begin with. Aged, potent, and apparently utterly without mercy or hesitation, Vitel is considered fair for an elder, but he is completely uncompromising in his rulings and his strange clan, along with his ancient blood and reputation as a man unafraid to destroy anyone who threatens his plans, make him feared and respected even among those Kindred who wish that they could loathe him. He is dour and aloof, seldom communicating with anyone outside of his childer and those dignitaries and lieutenants that keep his domain running smoothly.

Mortal Life

In life, over a thousand years ago, Vitel was a Spanish mercenary, recruited to fight in Julius Caesar's army and eventually appointed as overseer over the Roman Empire's Spanish domains, enabling Caesar to turn his attention to other territories. Vitel ruled firmly and well, consolidating Roman power over Spain and Morocco and ruthlessly removing all opposition to the empire, and gained a reputation as a powerful war leader - so powerful that Caesar eventually began to feel uneasy about his influence.

The emperor's suspicions grew until he decided to replace Vitel, installing a new lieutenant who might be slightly less ambitious and competent when it came to organizing armies and potentially seizing power. In an armed coup, Roman soldiers loyal to Caesar infiltrated Vitel's Spanish stronghold and overthrew him, conquering his own guards after a bloody battle. Vitel was eventually captured in spite of his own prowess as a warrior, and fatally wounded before being cast into a nearby river to float away with the rest of the dead.

Embrace

Vitel's story should have ended there, but a Lasombra elder known only as The Sybil was wandering on the banks of the same river and saw him floating downstream, still stubbornly clinging to life. She Embraced him and dragged him to the shore, where she granted him a cryptic prophecy, claiming that she had rescued him because she had seen a vision of a glorious destiny for him that he must survive to fulfill in the future. Then she abandoned him, leaving him to find his own way.

With no idea what this grand destiny was supposed to be but a newfound assurance that it must indeed be meant for him, Vitel retreated into obscurity, brooding upon everything he had lost and what he suspected might be in store for him.

Alignment with the Sabbat

Vitel spent the next few centuries in "retirement", avoiding the affairs of other Kindred entirely as he slowly built up his power and following and plotted his future expansion to reclaim power in the world. By the eleventh century, however, the depredations of the Inquisition and the fallout of the great schism between the Camarilla and newly-created Sabbat forced him to choose sides, and he turned his energies to battling the Camarilla with his clanmates.

He had initially chosen to side with the rest of Clan Lasombra against the Camarilla in order to achieve their goal of wiping out elder control of younger vampires; such a move would clear the playing field for him and allow him greater control over his own territories, and prevent any creatures like his sire from controlling any destiny he might or might not have. However, he quickly realized that this was a losing battle; the Camarilla was too old and too firmly entrenched, and he doubted that the Sabbat would ever be able to win their fruitless war. Ever the pragmatist, he decided to abandon the losing side, and sailed for the New World to begin gaining power there anew.

Once he arrived in the Americas, he founded a small homestead and laid himself down in torpor, remaining there for a few centuries. When he awoke in the 1950s, he found that his small homestead had been built upon and grown around until it was the great sprawling metropolis of Washington, DC, the nerve center of a new and great nation. Taking this as confirmation of the great destiny foretold for him, he began to consolidate power on his own once again.

Power in Washington DC

fell in love with previous tremere prince and therefore decided to pretend to be a ventrue for a while, eventually was too much of a misogynist to see her in power plus thought she was running the city poorly, outed her as having taken too much power and planning a schism so that she was executed by justicar and archons and he was given her job instead

Activity in Washington, DC

owner/operator of Purgatory, hates ventrue and hopes brujah can destroy them, frequent parties and rants, instrumental in city defense but not interested in being in charge of it

Official Renunciation of the Sabbat

as an elder now decided that camarilla is the place for him to be and have power, so worked as double agent allowing Sabbat to "overthrow" city; then held giant part at central grounds, gathered whole population, set it on fire and killed them, then declared officially camarilla and no sabbat ever to set foot in city again