Friday 8 May 2020

The Carmelita Files - Victor Girard

Michael Tomassio, Baron of the North East of Los Angeles has many powerful allies accumulated over his year in the city. One of these is the noted Toreador Camarilla archivist and archaeologist, Carmelita Neillson. Carmelita unearths the past and interviews Kindred, chronicling a vast array of vampire history and conversations with vampires as old as two millennia.
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The Camarilla forbids her from archiving any of her findings electronically though she keeps detailed files. Michael has asked for any file she might have on the mysterious media Magnate, Victor Girard.
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Victor Girard, Camarilla File DoCh002/CN
Clan: Toreador
Sire: Don Sebastian Juan Dominguez (See Attached File)
Generation: 7th
Embrace: 1932
Apparent Age: 30s, Actual Age: 119

Appearance: Victor looks just like everyone's favourite uncle. He is a large, balding, roly-poly man who wears a goatee and a big smile. He dresses like a businessman of the fifties, and still wears a hat when he goes outside.

Carmelita's Notes - That isn't strictly true. I've heard that he's a bit more contemporary now in order to blend in better with the Anarchs.

Current Affiliation: Anarch (El Hermandad)
Previous Affiliations: Camarilla (Don Sebastian Juan Dominguez), Anarch (Jeremy MacNeil)

Known Derangement's: None, Megalomania (Suspected, but unconfirmed)

Influence: Victor has receded so far into the background that at the moment his presence is rarely noticed, but he is extremely influential. Jeremy kept an extremely close eye on him, afraid that he might run to the Camarilla at any time, so Victor has carefully avoided any contact with the sect. With Jeremy probably destroyed, he has seemingly modified his plan and been forced to take a more direct approach.

Haven: In a secluded house in Woodland Hills, though he certainly has others.

Biographical Information
Victor Girard, born Kleinberger, was quite a salesman. He began by selling Persian rugs as a young boy. He would knock on a person's front door and, as the door opened, would do several things at once, first unroll the carpet, then wedge his leg firmly in the doorway and begin to shake. His sales pitch, one P.T. Barnum would be proud of, involved gasping about illness and the priceless Persian carpet.

His skill at sales grew, but not his ability to manage his money. By the time he was in his early 20s, he was bankrupt following a series of quick-buck land schemes. But that didn't stop him. He wangled land deals despite his shortage of cash, and in February 1923 the township of Girard was opened to the public. His fortunes began to look up, as he helped open the Mulholland Highway in 1924 and the Girard County Club in 1925. But in 1929, it all fell apart. By 1932 there were only seventy-five families living in Girard and Victor Kleinberger Girard disappeared.

Jeremy MacNeil - Brujah
Defacto Anarch Prince of LA
By this time, it had become clear to Don Sebastian that he needed some help in caring for the business climate of Los Angeles. Victor Girard turned out to be just what he needed, and for the next twelve years, Victor watched over the growing industrial base of Los Angeles. He was in part responsible, along with Don Alonzo of the Glass Walkers, for making L.A. the 'Arsenal of Democracy' it became during World War II. During the Revolt, the Anarchs identified Victor as one of the first Kindred who needed to be dealt with, but somehow they were never able to catch him. He hid in Girard (which has since been renamed Woodland Hills) for several years, biding his time.

In 1952 he cautiously revealed himself to Jeremy by telephone and offered to go to work for the Free States. He pointed out that the Free States desperately needed someone to watch over the press, and that he was well-qualified to do it. Without the 'guidance' of Don Sebastian's agents, several of the local newspapers were beginning to become a little suspicious, and there was no one around to protect the Masquerade. Jeremy reluctantly agreed.

Since then Victor has been the Free States liaison with the many newspapers and radio and television stations that report on the Southland. This, of course, is not enough for Victor. He lusts after the power he had as Don Sebastian's right hand. He knows that he will never have enough backing among the Anarchs to become a prince himself, or even a baron, but he does have an idea.

Victor figures that if things become bad enough in the Free States, with too much chaos and too many wars, one of two things will happen. Either Jeremy, if he still exists, will have no choice but to declare himself prince, in which case Victor will once again be sitting on the right hand of the throne, or the whole stupid Free States structure will crumble and the Camarilla will return, in which case Victor has a pretty good chance of winding up on top again. To this end he uses his contacts in the press to set the various communities against each other. And the scary thing is, it's working.

He has recently developed a relationship with El Hermandad in Los Angeles, offering his services to them in preference to other groups in exchange for their protection. He has began to gradually and subtly, undermine Jesus Ramirez. This is not out of any desire for leadership of El Hermandad, but instead to weaken the forces loyal to Salvador Garcia to further his own schemes for personal advancement.
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Sebastian Juan Dominguez, Camarilla File HoCh003/CN
Clan: Toreador
Sire: Christopher Houghton
Known Childer: Victor Girard
Generation: 6th
Embrace: 1870, Final Death: 1944
Apparent Age: 30s, Actual Age: 119

Current Affiliation: None
Previous Affiliations: Camarilla: Prince of Los Angeles (c. 1870 CE - 1944)

Known Derangement's: Megalomania

Sebastian Juan Dominguez, commonly known as Don Sebastian, was the Camarilla-backed Toreador Prince of Los Angeles in the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. During his time as prince, he helped codify Los Angeles into what it is in the Modern Nights.

Biographical Information
In the early 1800s, Don Sebastian was a rancho owner near the San Pedro Bay. On December 25, 1828, an American brig, Danube became wrecked, and the twenty-eight survivors of the boat sought refuge from the locals. Don Sebastian took in an American named Jack Turpin, owner of a long, coffin-shaped box. The box contained the Don's soon-to-be sire, the Toreador Christopher Houghton, who had sought to flee to distant Cathay from his Boston peers who had forced him to flee the East Coast of the United States.

Awakened to find his plans ruined, Christopher Frenzied and killed his ghoul Jack Turpin and Don Sebastian's family as the Don fled the house. Once under control again, Christopher sought out Don Sebastian and found him hiding with the chickens. Christopher explained to the Don that he was a vampire, and consequently turned the Don into his newest ghoul. For the following thirty-five years, Don Sebastian's rancho had become his master's new home, and the once-pristine site had become a den to Christopher's debauchery.

Princedom
Christopher Houghton - Toreador
5th Generation
In 1870, Christopher realised a new plan he wished to set into motion, but he was not ready to be known as the master of Los Angeles. On Christmas Day of that year, exactly forty-two years after landing accidentally in California, Christopher took Don Sebastian and gave him the gift of the Embrace, and installed him as Prince of Los Angeles. Working with Christopher and using his still considerable power, Don Sebastian turned Los Angeles from the nation's most debauched town into the city that it is in the Modern Nights.

The Don was seen as a tough yet civil Prince, and as long as the Kindred obeyed his rules, they were welcome to stay. The Camarilla recognised the Don's princedom, and continued to let him run the city, until 1927. An eighth generation of Clan Tremere named Alonzo de Portola made a run for Don Sebastian's throne, and at first appeared mildly successful in his campaign. One night however, the Tremere and his supporters disappeared without a trace, and still have not been heard from since. Impressed and entirely flabbergasted, the elders supported the Don's continued rule.

The Don was blood bound to his sire before even his Embrace. As such, he deeply loved Christopher and found it hard when Christopher would develop crushes on the many men in his life. In 1943, the Brujah Jeremy MacNeil appeared in Los Angeles, and because of his reputation Don Sebastian wanted him gone as soon as possible. Fortunately for MacNeil, Christopher developed yet another crush, this time on MacNeil himself. Because of his admiration for MacNeil, Christopher would not let Don Sebastian remove him from his city.

At this point, Los Angeles had become known for the Kindred living in the city, particularly the rowdy Brujah and the debaucherous Toreador. Though most other Princes were not content to let deposed Kindred drift into their cities from others, Don Sebastian let them come freely to L.A., convinced it would solidify his power.

In June of 1943, the Don's leadership began to falter in the eyes of the L.A. Kindred. In an incident with the Mexican Sabbat that led to the Zoot Suit Riots, the Anarch resentment against Don Sebastian grew considerably. The following year, Don Sebastian had reached his critical point concerning Jeremy MacNeil; while Christopher was in Sacramento, the Don had MacNeil savagely beaten and told him to leave L.A. and never return. This only served to solidify the hatred for Don Sebastian and his leadership.

On December 21, 1944, the Anarchs began their revolution, seeking and destroying every Camarilla elder in Los Angeles and the surround cities. Don Sebastian was a practical but strict leader as the Prince of Los Angeles, but was more concerned with the power that came with being the boss, rather than the politicking that was needed to keep the city stable.

Final Death 
Salvador García - Brujah
9th Generation
He met his Final Death in the revolution, and his end is the most well known tale from that night. As legend goes, Salvador García (a ninth generation Brujah), engaged Don Sebastian in single combat and emerged victorious over the vampire that was three generations below him. However, these were not the actual events of that night.

García did face the Don leading an Anarch party on his rancho, but when they arrived they encountered a lone Malkavian muttering to himself about a golden-headed demon. García entered the rancho alone, but inside he found numerous vampires and ghouls who were already dead. He ventured forth, and in the Don's bathroom he found the remains of Dominguez.

The Don's body was the most mutilated one, and his head was found by García in the waste bin. Claiming the opportunity to solidify the victory for the Anarchs, García strode out of the rancho, claiming the Don's destruction as a feat of his own Beast while overwhelmed by a rampant Frenzy. García proceeded to set fire to the former prince's haven, effectively ending the Camarilla in Los Angeles and starting the rise of the Anarch Free State.

It is strongly implied that Don Sebastian's Final Death, and that of his coterie stationed on the rancho, were caused by the Don's sire, Christopher – presumably after finding out about Don Sebastian's plan for Jeremy MacNeil and the Anarchs of L.A.

Carmelita's Notes - I also have it from several reliable sources that Christopher has become active again. Something or someone in Los Angeles has attracted his attention.

Fiorenza's Notes - As someone who has proven to be a useful, if somewhat unorthodox operative I feel obliged to warn you that you are not the first to be interested in these particular kindred. Someone with the ear of the Inner Circle has also expressed an interest in the activities of the surviving members of this bloodline. Kindred with those kind of contacts usually have grand plans, I'd be careful you don't get in the way of them.

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Hope that helps,
Carmelita x
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