Name: Chag Ha Ander (The Pale Man)
Appearance:
Generation: 6th
Clan: Old Tzimisce
Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude
Personality: Chag Ha Ander is in some ways the typical Tzimisce, describing him as a sadist will only make him laugh and then proceed to show you just how inferior your understanding of true sadism is. He has sampled of the endless buffet of screams and agony, has devised countless ways to torture those who he judges to be his enemies and in that way is similar to what you might well expect. He is also old fashioned and a proud being still claiming for himself the title of Voivode that he once held in his heyday before his holdings in Eastern Europe fell. His identity as one of the old Fiends is one of the strongest elements that hold the old vampire’s sense of self together and as such things like the hospitality rituals are held in the highest regard.
However he does differ from many of his ilk as he is not so frozen into a single mindset that he cannot adjust at least to some extent. While most of his kind would be unable to conceive of the possibility of relocation he has done so several times. His mind is still somewhat fluid and he has been able to learn things and adjust to the modern era better than most of his kind. That is not to say that he accepts the modern era as that is far from the truth, his hatred for modernity and the restrictions that it puts on him burns hot and it is only self-preservation that keeps him from acting on the old desires.
Biography: Chag Ha Ander like most of the Tzimisce views what occurred in the years of his life prior to his embrace as rather insignificant, however there is still some pride to be had in the memories of the feats that allowed him to be chosen for immortality. In the 1200s the Mongol hordes swept into Eastern Europe bringing death and destruction on their drive to conquer. Chag Ha Ander was a man of power in the army, a commander of men and he was detached from the main forces to lead a raid into a portion of what is now known as Hungary.
It was ill fate for the invasion force, but ultimately good fortune for Chag Ha Ander when his men stumbled across the residence of what reports said was the lord of the region. With confidence born of his years of command he ordered the attack and fate was set in motion. He led the assault personally and was shocked when his men encountered terrifying creatures of twisted flesh and bone, monsters that seemed to have been shaped from human into something else entirely.
His forces were outmatched but he continued to fight, demonstrating ruthlessness and strategy learned in his years of life. He even sacrificed groups of his own men to gain temporary advantages. It even appeared that his strategies were working until the lord of the castle unleashed something more terrifying. A massive beast that simply shrugged off anything that came for it and that destroyed his men utterly. He prepared to meet death himself when the creature was stopped.
Instead the lord of the land impressed with the ruthlessness and battlefield skill of the man descended himself and after defeating Chag Ha Ander with the greatest of ease, embraced him to begin his long period of unlife. For many years he existed as a pawn of his sire, an ancient Tzimisce methuselah who sought to protect himself through the creation of loyal vassals who would surround his own holdings to serve as shields. Eventually with the bond established and confidence that his new servant would not betray him Chag Ha Ander’s sire granted him land.
He set up his own domain there and for a time things went according to plan. But things would change when the anarch revolt swept into the lands of the Tzimisce. His sire’s plan to surround himself with loyal vassals as a line of defense was not sufficient. First the anarchs had come for Chag Ha Ander and he fought them and lost. He was believed slain, suffering a wound that would have killed most and left for dead in the wreckage of his lands.
Then the anarchs went after his sire and successfully slew the ancient vampire in a great battle. But such was a hollow victory for when the old one died his vozhd was freed from all control and the beast rampaged through the anarch ranks, destroying most of the group before being slain itself.
Ultimately Chag Ha Ander awoke and free of the bond for the first time moved into the holdings that his sire had previously occupied and during the chaos that was the aftermath of the anarch revolt managed to establish himself and gain the recognition of the other remaining old Tzimisce who had weathered the storm. It was soon after he claimed his sire’s former territory that he embraced his first childe and in time he would choose others.
His rule over the land would endure for another four hundred years before the changing times brought him down along with many of the others who had managed to weather the earlier storms. It is a subject that is seldom discussed and that he does not mention save in moment of rage how his fall ultimately came at the hands of the pathetic kine who had long been his food and nothing more. Times had changed and industry had flourished, the veil of fear and superstition that had long kept his kind enthroned began to fade away.
Peasant revolts began, and while the first several were put down with bloody ease eventually there was one that forced him to retreat into his own fortress. Trusting in the strength of his walls and planning to destroy the revolting peasants when the next night fell he and his childer slumbered. But the rule of fear was not perfect and a servant that he believed firmly cowed betrayed him, opening a gate to allow the besiegers access. He was roused by the conflict and in an act of supreme will forcibly flesh crafted one of his childe into his likeness before dragging his consort along with him in a flight to the very bowels of his fortress.
There they escaped the rampage of the rebels but when night had fallen and they emerged the castle was in ruins and his forces had been mostly destroyed. With the rebels still at large and his own forces shattered there did not appear to be a good solution. The other Voivodes would not help and he was too proud to ask for their help. To move appeared to be the only option and as hated as it was this seemed to offer the best chance of survival.
Europe was hostile, with many ancients entrenched in various places and so he turned his eyes to the new world. With the last few servants and what wealth remained to him, he arranged passage to the Americas and attempted to establish a new domain for himself there. The first attempt was moderately successful at first as he managed to purchase a sizeable expanse of land in Texas and established himself there. While it was not so fine as his old land in Europe the aristocratic society of the pre civil war south was somewhat tolerable and the slave system provided a ready source of food as well as easy targets for his appetites. It was here that he embraced another of his few surviving childer, one of the overseers in his plantations attracted his attention through the clever cruelty and torture of various forms that the man inflicted upon the slaves.
Unfortunately for Chag Ha Ander his new domain would prove short lived as the Civil War broke out a mere 20 years after his arrival and the system that had proved so accommodating to his needs was obliterated. He would linger on in the south for almost another hundred years before it had changed to the point that very little of what had attracted him to the region still remained.
In the 1950s, following the outbreak of violence and the overthrowing of the Camarilla rulership of Los Angeles he relocated a final time to the town of Palm Springs, wiping out the previous anarch gang that had claimed the town and establishing it as his own domain. Since then he has ruled over the town with an iron if by necessity subtle fist.
In the chaos of the conflict that erupted two years prior Chag Ha Ander and his childer attempted to avoid becoming involved though several incidents forced the ancient vampire to take action himself to destroy those who sought to press into his territory. The very decisive way in which the incursions were smashed has reinforced the impression that the Palm Springs vampires were not easy pickings but has also made a delicate situation more volatile. While his appearances were brief some wonder at the power of this leader and question why so powerful a being leads what is supposedly an independent anarch splinter group. And there are rumors of things unleashed in those encounters that sound like the stuff of old stories from lands half a world away.