England In 1516, the Ottomans defeated the Mamluks and gained control of Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant. But that's not important. More importantly, this was the year Philippa Sybil De Moreton was born in 16th century England, the only child of Philip De Moreton and Edith Gaunt. Both born noble, their marriage was political and loveless, although the pair easily matched in intellect, making trying for an heir an easy, enjoyable task. Unfortunately, before they could produce a son after their daughter, a ritual-gone-wrong left Edith barren. Contrary to what one might think, she was not particularly bothered by this development and bid Philip take on a mistress to continue his bloodline. This is because Edith's first love was always her work with the arcane, and Philip, coming from a long line of magicians himself, saw no issue with encouraging the practice. Likewise, she had a daughter whom she was intent on raising in her own image. She was not a kind mother, more of a teacher than anything else. Love was conditional on how well Philippa did in her studies, and her constant testing kept Philippa sharp, honing her intelligence and power as an arcanist, but the girl was starved for validation. Fortunately, she was able to find this with her father and his mistress. Philippa already adored her father, who was a genuinely kind man, and the woman who would eventually bear his children was happy to stand in for the mother Philippa barely had. As a result, when they started to produce children, Philippa was delighted to call them her siblings. In her teens, Philippa's focus turned towards necromancy, finding she had something of an affinity for death and the dead. She began with resurrecting rodents and other vermin, but she quickly grew more ambitious, creating things from livestock and eventually, from human corpses. After realizing what she could accomplish, Edith decided it was time to strike out across the world, to find a teacher for her daughter. It helped that around this time, Philip and his mistress started having their own children. This was how Edith and Philippa found their way to Egypt, so Philippa could study at the feet of masters who truly commanded death. Here, she thrived, and this was where she would die. For the first time. Egypt It was an ill-fated expedition into a freshly opened tomb. Talk of tomb curses and other such dangers were written off as rumor only. It was a small tomb. They would simply plunder the grave and be done with it. As it goes, that was not the case at all. As it turned out, it had a false entryway, a wall collapsing to reveal a temple to Apopis, the Egyptian god of chaos and enemy of Ra. Naturally, this was the find of the century. Naturally, they meant to plunder it for all it was worth. Every single member of the expedition died that night and Philippa was the first. Dropped into a pitfall, she died a slow death. Slow enough for her to cast one last ritual, reaching for the powers of death with the last of her lifeblood. To this day, she doesn't know if that's what brought her back or if it was the curse of Apopis. Both, she thinks, when she takes a moment to think on it. In her very last moments, as she slipped beyond the veil, she remembers seeing something too vast to comprehend. Slithering, hypnotic, and utterly focused on unraveling every fiber of her being. It wove her together again into something else. When Philippa woke again, she was nothing but hunger. She pulled herself from the pit, freshly reborn, and it was this new monster who hunted down her former companions. When the tomb, its curse, or Apopis, was satisfied with its gift of blood and death, the blackness left her. To her mute relief, her mother was not among the mangled bodies. It was small relief. She was different now. Instinct told her not to venture out of the tomb until the sun was well below the horizon. When she returned to town, she discovered how entrancing the sound of a heartbeat could be. What a pleasure it was to feel her snake-like fangs push from her gums. Even better to feel them pushing into flesh, feeling blood spill across her tongue. A New Unlife in England Philippa was no fool and no stranger to the supernatural. She knew what she was, but allowed herself only a moment to despair. Her mother had instilled in her a vicious sense of utility and determination. Perhaps she was no longer human, but she was not dead and it would continue that way. This would be twisted to her advantage in whatever way necessary. Philippa sought out others like her in Egypt first. For a few years, she ensured that she was comfortable with her new life. Regularly corresponding with her father, it was as if she never died, and when she was ready, she returned home. Back in England, Philippa settled into a nocturnal life. With her father's fortune and no expectations on her to marry, she carried on well in a solitary life. She found more vampires like herself, and although she could no longer practice rituals as she had before, she found new ventures. She was looking at eternal life, so she sought out ways to make herself comfortable long into the future. She thought of ways to do the same for her half-siblings and her father and his new wife, ensuring they would be comfortable in their old age. And for herself... Philippa learned to enjoy life. Without her mother around to leash her, Philippa found something carnal unlock in her. She easily and gleefully fell into debauchery, discovering that her new state of being opened a great many doors for her. A lustful creature, she charmed her way into the beds of noblemen and rogues alike. Greedy as she was, she thieved, she drank, and gorged herself, living the life of a new eternal, where even death was of no consequence. And she died quite a lot. Alcohol poisoning, disease, and murder at the hands of a lover, at least a few times. It became nothing more than an inconvenience. A Hasty Return to Egypt and a Newborn Vampire What was not an inconvenience was when smallpox took her living family, and most especially, her little sister Casiphia. While her other siblings recovered, it was clear her beloved sister was not going to see another year. So, Philippa decided to take matters into her own hands. She stole the girl away in the night and they boarded a boat for Egypt, no care for the consequences of spreading the disease. All she left was a note, informing their father that Casiphia's last wish was to see the world with her sister. And it was not untrue. It was a race against time and they arrived in the Egypt while Casiphia was in the final stages of her illness. It was then that Philippa revealed her true purpose for bringing her away. It was not a holiday in the lovely lands along the Nile. It was to return to the tomb of Apopis, to see if the snake god would grant his power once more. Returning to the place of her first death, Philippa placed Casi in the center of a ritual circle, the last Philippa ever dared to scribe. And with her own blood, the vampire activated the spell. It did not go as planned. It never did, with her blood, tainted as it was. At least, that's what she thought. Philippa held Casi as she died, begging for forgiveness, promising to bring her body home. As it turned out, it was not Apopis who answered the call, but the goddess Sekhmet, transforming Casi into something like Philippa. Not quite the same, but it did not matter. She was alive and that night, two vampires stole from the tomb, off to seize their new lives. Philippa rejoiced to not have to face the centuries in solitude. Although they had to bury their father and Casi's mother, and then their siblings one by one, they had each other. Traveling the World Together, they traveled, they saw the world, witnessed the Renaissance, discoveries in science and art, and the Revolutionary War. They did part, eventually, but remained close all the same. Philippa ranged far and wide between Europe and both North and South America. She has been to Easthaven more than once since its founding and traveled to the west while it was still being explored. She has gone to Asia, Africa, and more often than not, she visited the old tomb in Egypt, often seeking answers from the cold stone. It never answers her, or yields any of its secrets, but she finds it strangely comforting. Her second birth place. She has also searches for her mother time and time again. If she were human, she would be long dead, but Philippa never saw her after the night she died. She was too proud to go quietly into the night. Perhaps one day she will learn what happened. Barnabas Crowhurst Asphodel has been married too many times to count (and these unions very often ended in the mysterious death of her husband) but has only been in love once. It was early in the young vampire's life, in the time she went by Pippa and it was doomed from the start. He was a monster hunter from a family renowned for their prowess and she was precisely the kind of monster they hunted. They met at a ball on a sweltering mid-summer evening. He knew what she was the moment they joined hands during a dance and she recognized the family's crest on sight, the heraldry a terror to many creatures of the night. It might've ended there, but they danced. They talked. She told a joke and made him smile. Over the course of the next few years, in an extended game of cat and mouse, they somehow tumbled into a love that ran so deep and strong that eternity suddenly looked unbearable. She wondered at the universe that she had to wait a few centuries to meet the love of her life, and often said so. The occasions when they put the chase aside are the happiest times in her memory. However, they both knew he was duty-bound to end her. When that day finally came, he picked poison. It surprised her, but she found she wasn't angry so much as sad. She wondered if they'd meet again. If she even had an afterlife to go to. Would Apopis claim her soul? Where would he go after this? Would he have a family? Would he miss her? He held her as she died. Fifty Years Later She was surprised to wake up again, in a dusty crypt in the heart of London. When she emerged in the night, she slowly discovered that she'd been sleeping for half a century. He'd killed her, but he didn't finish the job. Instead, he sent her body into hibernation and hid her away. Tragically, she had nothing left of her first and last love--he died a few years before she was able to wake up and hid everything he could of their relationship to keep his family from finding her. However, he did have a family after her and although she did not dare get near them again, she at least kept her ear to the ground for news. In the wake of losing him, she considered death, true death, but eventually decided that would be an insult to his memory (an ironic one, considering). Likewise, she had her sister to look after. So, she gathered herself back together and soldiered on. Throughout the centuries, Philippa took on many names. Leah, Delilah, Pippa, and Sybil to name a few. Her latest is Asphodel, acquired in the Victorian era in a flight of fancy. She saw the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Erasmus Cross In the mid-1800s, after the Great Fire of London, Asphodel moved to Erasmus Cross, interested in the magical experiments conducted there. Here, she witnessed the rise of the Exchange and joined their ranks as an archivist. During the World Wars, she joined the effort on behalf of the Allied powers, serving first as a nurse and then allowing herself to be conscripted for shows and other entertainment. Unlike many of her ventures, this was somewhat altruistic. This vampire was loyal to king and country, and offering succor to their boys in the trenches was just one of many things she could do. It helped that the young soldiers were an easy meal, but when it came down to it, her powers eased the way for many who were beyond saving. America From here, she married an American soldier, and returned home with him. Eventually, he died, mysteriously, of a heart attack. The 60s may have been one of Asphodel's favorite decades. She remembers the era as the height of class, and widowed for the umpteenth time, Asphodel enjoyed the sparkling life of an entertainer. Eventually, she made her way to Easthaven, a colonial city she'd visited once or twice over her long life. She'd always liked it, and she was ready to see what had changed in the years she'd been gone. Easthaven A shoe-in with the Exchange, she has been with the cohort for several decades now, seeing it through a few Inquisitors before the current one. She's retained her title of archivist, but in comparison to Europe, there is relatively little to manage. Easthaven simply does not have the grandiosity of old Roman ruins and druid cults. But it was fine. It leaves Asphodel at ease to find new things to hold her attention. After all, the key to a healthy eternal life is taking up new hobbies.