Thrace

The Thracian

"Be to her, Persephone,

All the things I might not be;

Take her head upon your knee.

She that was so proud and wild,

Flippant, arrogant and free,

She that had no need of me,

Is a little lonely child

Lost in Hell, - Persephone,

Take her head upon your knee;

Say to her, “My dear, my dear,

It is not so dreadful here.”

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Personal Information

Sire: Egeria

Bloodline: Mnemosyne

Titles: Cthonic Thrace, Ancient and Undying Mystagogue of the Egerian Rite at Eleusis.

Coteries: The Egeriae, The Ebon Tower.

Background: In the early days of Rome, a kindred named Egeria married the king and taught him and his people how to correctly worship the gods. She then embraced childer, whom she sent to the ends of what became the Roman empire. They took their knowledge of the gods with them, and passed it on to the kindred and mortals that they met.

One of these childer was sent to Thrace, in the heart of what would become the Eastern capital of Constantinople. He taught the people of Thrace what he knew, and was instrumental in the way that the empire grew. Despite all of the upheavals, from the conquest of Rome to the crusades and the fall of Constantinople, Thrace persevered.

In recent years, Thrace has traveled to Australia for his own reasons. He established himself in Adelaide and has been building his influence there, trading experiences and knowledge. Due in part to his knowledge and experience, in part due to his age, Thrace has become a fixture of the court as Primogen and Priscus.

Appearance

Of Turkish background, Thrace is dark of eyes and hair. His expression is often thoughtful or distant, but it is quick to light up with a mocking smile. He carries an air of history about him - quite literally, as he is usually bedecked with artefacts and jewellery of considerable provenance. These adornments jingle with the large gestures that Thrace often makes. Disturbingly, a tic he appears to have picked up somewhere in his long history is that of running his tongue hungrily along his canines.

His beast is not insignificant, though not as powerful as many of his age. It is a thing of elegance, that baits its prey before striking.

Personality

Beneath a facade of eccentricity, flamboyance and extravagance, Thrace carries a healthy disrespect for status quo and the smile of a trickster. He believes in challenging the preconceptions of those around him, so that they might better understand themselves. As a result, he often takes the role of fool or devil's advocate in conversations. He is provocative, while remaining polite. The gifts of his bloodline and his age have rendered him somewhat aloof from the passions of the younger kindred around him, but he tries to keep up as best he can.

Mortal World

Thrace has a very specialised profile within the mortal world, as the hierophant and leader of a modern-day mystery cult evolved from a fusion of the Eleusinian Mysteries and early modern European occultism. The cult is far underground, and recruits mostly from an exclusive cross-section of disaffected high society types. He rarely interacts with the mortal world outside of this.

Information Known by Kindred Society

Thrace is older than kindred society as it is known in modern nights. He can recount with vivid detail the fall of Carthage or Constantinople, or the peculiar way that light fell on the steps of the Parthenon or Senate in their full glory. Perhaps that can be attributed to the fact that he maintains a lively trade in memories (of just about anything one might imagine), but he claims to be more than two thousand years old.

He is a scholar and an expert in both mortal and kindred history, as well as an occultist of the first order.

Timeline

• 1970 - Details
• 1980 - Details
• 1990 - Thrace establishes a temple along the coast.
• 2000 - The temple is occupied by Livians.
• 2003 - Thrace's childe, Elizabeth, is revealed as a Livian and executed in the course of the crusade. He retreats from court life for several years.
• 2009 - Thrace embraces a new childe, who is renamed Rick.
• 2010 - Details
• 2011 - A member of Thrace's mortal cult, Jack Raven, betrays their organisation and is embraced as an exercise in punishment and enlightenment.
• 2013 - Thrace is Priscus of a clan with minor representation, but which is growing quickly, and he has the ear of the prince.

2013

• JUN - Became Priscus of Clan Mekhet, raised to Valued within the Court of Adelaide.
• DEC - Stripped of one point of status for suspected collusion in the burning blood incident and non-attendance at court.

2014

• Jan - Status is restored and an apology made by the Prince's Harpy.

Lineage

Known Sire

• Egeria - Divine consort and counselor of the Sabine second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius.

Known Siblings

• Britannia

Known Descendants

• Erânshahr - Embraced in 634AD. Presumed to have entered torpor circa 1700.
• Elizabeth - Embraced in 1967. Killed in the 2003 Livian Crusade.
• Rick - Embraced in 2009.
• Jack Raven - Embraced in 2011.
  • Celeste Stonyfell - Embraced by Jack Raven in 2014.
• Yusuf al-Rashid - Embraced in 2013.

Quotes

Quotes By

"My students have asked: 'Why do you no longer fight the Christians and their god-king?' I say to them: though servants of the Christ and his father grew strong on the blood of our people, the seasons started turning long before Jehovah walked the Earth and even they are bound to dread Persephone's promise." - To a militant acolyte, attempting to foment a war against the Sanctified.

Quotes About

"Will no-one answer me the riddle of the Thracian?"

- Batavia, 1726.

"He is old eyes made new and then left to grow old once more. He is the challenge to everything you know, and cannot be anything else. He is the centre of the swirling maelstrom who reaches out, promises safety, and then when you go to him, you realise there's no way out, that beyond his stillness, the world still rages, and there is nowhere to go. He is everything the world has forgotten, whether for convenience or safety or neglect. And he is the biggest pain in my ass this side of the Masjid al-Haram."

- Fatimah al-Mu'allima, with an exasperated smile.

"Look to him when I am gone. He will remember more of me than you will ever know, and I pray he will give the answers I would give you, made wiser by age I will never have. Look to him, and know I am still with you."

- Fatimah's advice to her friends and family, on the eve of her torpor

Conversations

"You would not wish to debate with me, Monsieur."

"Oh?"

"Even before the Embrace, my temper was notorious."

"Nothing wrong with having a temper, so long as one can back it up with wit." - fragment from a somewhat-more-relaxed-than-usual conversation between Thrace and the young, recently appointed Prince Clairesse Marguerite.

Rumours

• Does not suffer from the fog of ages.

Inspirations and Soundtrack

• “What the myth founds is a double existence between the upper world and the underworld: a dimension of death is introduced into life, and a dimension of life is introduced into death.” - Walter Burkert, Greek Religion.
• Pompeii - Bastille
• Website

OOC Information

Member Information
Player:	Andrew Watson
Number:	AU2007060003
Domain:	Adelaide