A Collection

[Vanq]

Faction Name: The Plebes

Allegiance: Anarch

Location: Watts is a roughly 2 sq mile neighborhood of LA. It's a severely low income area and incredibly densely populated. The Crips and the Bloods are the most influential gangs in the area, but certainly not the only.

Map

The Plebes make their home and headquarters on a street between Wilmington and Compton Ave, near the tracks, not quite central to the area, but close enough.
Through the use of members of the smaller gangs, they keep the area patrolled loosely. They warily allow others of their kind into their territory, as long as the Masquerade is upheld. The invitation is based on the third tenet of the Status Perfectus, and is held up about as well as the actual document. But, it sure does sound good.

General Information

Now containing three central members, the Plebes have existed in some form for about 150 years, although their location in LA is much more recent, having arrived and set up base in 1987.

In 1859, Vadim became the founding member of the Plebes, the name a play on the social unrest that had scattered throughout the world of the Kine. He pulled together a small and tightly knit group of other Brujah. While not the eldest of the bunch, Vadim was a powerhouse nonetheless and won his right to lead in a particularly raucous Rant. Based in Saint Petersburg, he lead his group to a position of influence within the Brujah and Anarch hierarchies. Ivan would join, sired by one from Vadim's inner-circle, in 1894, and though he would remain on the lower rungs of the coterie, his presence and ambition were impossible to ignore.

When the Russian Revolution began, the Plebes, although not front and center, were a heavy presence in the happenings. Vadim and his right-hand were brought in to the plot to see Lenin dead and Trotsky installed. That the plot was initially successful yet ultimately failed due to Ventrue interference, was only the beginning of hard-times for Vadim and his Plebes. When the Brujah reluctantly stepped up to support Staln, Vadim pulled back, whether voluntarily or forced depends on who is asked. Regardless, the next few decades saw their influence wane, their members killed or scattered, and relocation necessary for survival. Vadim, with his his right-hand Boris, and Ivan were all that remained of the mighty Plebes by the 1960s, Ivan's sire having met his final death at the claws of a garou.

By the late 80s, Vadim faced increasing pressure from both Boris and Ivan to leave Russia. Multiple attempts at reintegrating themselves into Brujah and Anarch affairs failed or ended in near disaster. After some deliberation, the decision was reached to relocate to the Anarch Free State, half a world away, but with enough promise to move the increasingly idealist Vadim towards it. In leaving Russia behind, the trio became a foursome, with the addition of Betty, a lone Gangrel they stumbled upon. The decision to take her in was Vadim's, though responsibility for her ultimately went to Ivan once it became apparent she could not control herself.

It was a very right decision in the end, to leave Russia. Their arrival in LA saw them rise in influence quickly, their coterie grew to a size comparable to what Vadim had managed during their golden days in Russia. They were good times for the group, Vadim's leadership again cemented.

It was a short lived revival. Beginning in 1998, petty infighting began to grow and become more heated. Anger, resentment, rumors abounded, and the Plebes were embroiled in it from the start. Looking back, it is hard to gauge just what set it all off, little differences became insurmountable odds. The Plebes took out two smaller coteries that had been at their borders. Slights and rumors fueling their vengeance and blood thirst.

Information came in that set their eyes on the Pyromancers. They had been complacent too long, peaceful too long, the beast within was woken and there was little any of them, particularly Vadim, could do to quell it. Taking on the Pyromancers was not something they would do alone, they allied with another faction, slightly smaller and less powerful, lead by a fellow Brujah. They built their battle plans together, an all out assault on their headquarters. Vadim could taste the victory and ignored the feeling that something was off about it all. He had listened to that voice before and was paid with expulsion. He pressed the Plebes on.

The night of the attack, the Plebes lead the main assault, relying on their allies to swoop in afterwards for support.

They never arrived.

The Plebes met huge resistance, their information horribly wrong, their allies no where to be seen. Boris met a gruesome final death. Vadim and Ivan barely escaped with their own lives in tact. Their small army of ghouls and kindred was decimated. Those that survived quickly took refuge with other stronger coteries or disappeared from LA all together.

Vadim nearly left the city himself. Embarrassed, ruined yet again, he wouldn't fully recover from the events of that night. Ivan convinced him otherwise, the Plebes stayed together. But Vadim's leadership was at an end. Ivan didn't need to fight hard for it, and it is Ivan who currently leads the coterie in the current nights. Vadim has accepted his role as Ivan's righthand, though the coterie is still barely a glimmer of what it once was. A burning hatred of the Pyromancers remains, a desire to exact revenge once they rebuild.

Ivan has been a temperamental, brash leader, kept in check by Vadim's increasingly conservative advice. Mina joined the Plebes similarly to Betty, Vadim found her in one of the alleys of their territory. Mad, as all Malkavians are, she told of her abandonment by her sire, and it was clear how new to the Kindred world she was. Vadim had a choice, for the mess she had made would certainly draw attention, even in their neighborhood. The Brujah cleaned up what was needed and had a ghoul take the fall for what the kine would see as gruesome murders. It would be hard to say just what role Mina has in the Plebes. They try to keep her happy, as a slighted and angry Malkavian would be an unfavorable thing to have, but neither is she present when making plans for the coterie. For now, that has seemed to sate her, while the two Brujah present themselves as brothers in a punk band to the kine world, Mina has become their drummer. Known as the Damnation of the Saved, they play underground gigs throughout the city, and receive a steady supply of groupies for the nights.

Lillian, the newest addition to the coterie, appeared in the aftermath of the Attacks that saw the Prince and Baron killed. She sought refuge, and at Vadim's insistence, Ivan accepted her into the Plebes. The Toreador has proven to be an asset even with her past, and she quickly set herself on near equal ground with Vadim in Ivan's eyes. Her own machinations may not always put the Plebes first, but they usually benefit the coterie in some manner. Between Betty, Mina, and Lillian, castaways and unwanteds, the Plebes have earned a reputation that has given them a nickname best not used in their presence, the Orphanage.

For now though, the Plebes are biding their time. They've rebuilt in Watts, control of their territory is sound, and their network is being rebuilt one night at a time. Perhaps the Plebes are not knocked out of the game as Vadim believed.

Vadim on the left, Ivan on the right

Name: Vadim "Abaddon" Durov
Generation: 7th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality:
Vadim is a softer sort of Brujah, if such a thing were to exist, but he has become less brash, less brawn over brains, perhaps only because of the depression he battles following the losses during the Kuei-jin incursion. That he was not always this way is stranger still. He considers himself to be an idealist, with a renewed interest in the philosophies that lead him to create the Plebes, that lead him to the idea of the Free State. If only he were an Elois, able to disentangle himself from the rage that builds within him, he could focus on these things that truly matter.

Vadim truly believed in the Free State and the Status Perfectus, and though he cannot always follow its tenets, they were a guiding influence in his creation of their new territory in Watts. More and more these days, he is to be found in the small library he built into the slum house they call their headquarters. The walls are covered in bookcases, the shelves filled with philosophical treatises, political histories, memoirs and biographies of activists-both kine and kindred, and on and on. He has instead tried to fuel the rage, the beast within, to the music of the band. Something that had been a cover, and provided access to easy meals, has become something much more to him, though he is uncomfortable at anyone else knowing that truth about him.

Biography: See General Information

Name: Ivan "Sammael" Durov
Generation: 9th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Personality:
Everything your sire warned you about regarding the Brujah. Wild, unruly, and rough, Ivan's anger and passion that were once kept under control by Vadim's leadership, is now only tempered by his peer's advice. Ivan is much the same as he always was from the time he was embraced. Ambitious, if not the brightest, he has a hunger for power that is not easily sated or diluted even with failure. He has seen what happened to Vadim after their loss of power in Russia, and now in LA, but where Vadim has become introspective, Ivan has ignored it, seeing the way forward as needing to do something big. Something bold. He wouldn't risk taking on the Pyromancers so soon, but he knows the longer they hide and bide their time, the more irrelevant they will become. Irrelevance, tossed aside to become little more than targets for others, is not something his ego can stand the thought of, is not something the rage that boils within him can allow.

Biography: See general Information

Name: Lillian Dolan, "Lily Ellis"

Generation: 8th
Clan: Toreador
Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Personality:
Biography:
Lillian was born into lucky circumstances, though it was the midst of the Great Depression, her father was a banker who had managed to keep his job, food on the table, and a roof over his family's head. She was the youngest of three children, her parent's only daughter, and duly spoiled. From childhood to adolescence she bloomed into a beautiful young woman, and with some help from friends of her father, she entered the modeling world. She wanted to be a star, to move to LA and be an actress. This world was much harsher than the one she was raised in though, and she was quite unprepared for dealing with it once she left behind the small roles gotten for her through nepotism.

At 18 she got herself an agent and moved, against her parent's wishes, to LA as she had wanted. The next few years were dark and she quickly wanted to return home to her parents only to find that she couldn't. The agent she had hired was a shady man, the contract she had not read but signed stipulated the payment she owed him for finding her work. With few options to take work elsewhere, or return home, Lillian, did the work gotten for her. Bit pieces if she was lucky, photo sessions that she was ashamed of. Her career, if she had ever had one, was spiraling down quickly.

On the precipice of giving up, on everything, Lillian met Jean-Marc Fais. She had heard his name whispered, a god of sorts of aspiring models and actresses. If he took an interest in you, your success was nigh guaranteed. With the jobs she had, and her dire straights,she doubted that he would ever have any cause to even hear her name, much less see her work. And yet, one day, she received an invitation. The next night, she dined in an exquisite penthouse suite as she received the best news of her life. He had seen her work, a careful and meticulous man such as himself had to look everywhere to find the real talent, he explained. So close to wanting it all to end, Lillian ate it up with no questions asked. She didn't care what he would ask of her, she would do it.

He only asked for her life.

Waking as a kindred was overwhelming. She hadn't really believed the story he spun in explaining what he wished to do, what was done was done though. Her Embrace, in 1955, provided a short-lived high point to her existence. Jean-Marc held a comfortable position in the Camarilla hierarchy, and Lillian, now going by Lily Ellis, would reap the benefits of it. Actual jobs came in and it seemed like any day would be her big break, any day her position with the Toreador as Jean-Marc's childe would be solidified. She just needed to prove herself worthy.

It never came, Lily may have had a pretty face and body, but even with the benefits of her kindred nature, unless her sire pulled strings, the job offers dried up just as before. She was given one role as the leading lady in the booming movie industry, and the film died during testing. The reviews of her acting were deplorable, and just two years into her new life, her sire abandoned her, too ashamed and angry at what a mistake she had been.

Too young to be on her own, Lillian drifted from one coterie to the next. There was too much she didn't understand, but what she quickly learned, was that Jean-Marc was out to ruin her. Any time she did find a home, someone to take her in and teach her, a rumor would come out, whispers into her "adoptive" sire's ear, and she was sent packing. It all came to a head in the 70s, when fed up with being black-listed from Camarilla society, that she found Jean-Marc in Elysium and publicly charged him with abandonment, with blacklisting her, with spreading lies so vicious that none would touch her.

Name: Betty

Generation: 11th
Clan: Gangrel
Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
Personality:
Biography:
Just where exactly Betty came from, what her actual name is, and anything at all about her past are largely unknown. Found by the two Brujah in Russia, and that she could speak Russian, lead to the belief that she had been Russian in her life. That she was of Clan Gangrel was also immediately clear, though how long her un-life had been was also unknown. She had already developed the feather's on her arms, the predatory eyes, and the skin on her legs toughening to resemble that of a bird when they had found her. She had frenzied too many times, and it was taking a toll on her body. That she had been alone, barely able to speak, seemed to point to the fact that she had not been brought up properly. Either no other Gangrel had found her, or the one that had had not done well in raising their pup.

Betty isn't sure either. Memories of her life are dulled to oblivion. The passage of time from when she entered this new life to the present at times seems like forever, and at other times all too recent. Vadim and Ivan explained as much as they could to her, some of which she understands. The Masquerade, the need for her to remain largely unseen, that does not overly bother her, especially since they are in a city. She also knows that she would leave, if she could. There are times where hates Vadim and Ivan, particularly Ivan, more than anything else. Yet she finds herself incapable of leaving or even lashing out. Ivan had explained that as well, the blood bond between them.

NPCs of Possible Importance: