Updated: 29 July 2001

Catherine
13th Generation Gangrel (Black Widow)
The Black Widow
Djeser Neferu, Senselk Hatpneter (The Holy Beauty, Sister of Selkis Temple of the Gods)

	Sire:	None (1973)
	Nature:	Manipulator
	Demeanor:	Deviant
	Path of Ecstasy:	2
	Secrets:	****
	Status:	***
	Esprit:	*
	Elder Status:
	Anarch Prestige:	**
	Gangrel Prestige:

1997-1998 Background:

                    She came back to Paris soon after, visibly changed, even if no one know exactly why, and surprisingly, joined up with the ancient members of her cotterie: Juan, Dominique and Ron. They worked along with a Ventrue Legitimist called François Hubert. While their investigations officially caused the fall of the Ventrue Leonard (A Ventrue that already had tried to frame her, but failed), they unofficially discovered the presence the Lasombra intrigues within the Cour. They have yet to determine if they are looking for Sabbat or Antitribu, but the fact that Tania is now a Lasombra make the new-ex-members of the Cotterie uneasy...

Anyway, they were officially thanked by Villon in front of the whole Cour (including the Duchesses), which increased her permanent Status to 1. Not long after, she ''created'' the Crawling Death power, which changed her Bloodline, making her a True Black Widow. While she doesn't know it she instinctly knows something has changed.

Cath was also integrated back into the Veilleurs. She was ''forgiven for her past mistakes and accepted back as a full member of the Camarilla''. Still, she continued to nurture her relations with the Anarchs. While she couldn't anymore win Anarch Prestige beyond 1 (unless exception), she still believed deep in herself to be one of them.

But then, she knew too much, and she realized that: The ties between Laureen, Chad and Juan, the existence of the discreet Bloodline of Lasombra, the existence of Tania and the mysterious Obtenebration effects in Arnaud and Carla's mansion, and the fact that the Tremere Astor, Laurent protected a Salubri and thus betrayed his own Clan. While she didn't fear death, she didn't welcome it, so she worked hard to prepare such a bomb that any one of these Methuselah would regret bitterly trying to murder her, if Cath was to die...

Anyway, few know she was given a Prestation by 5 Tremere Elders for having awakened them, so most people were surprised when Cath became, almost overnight, considered as an Elder (Status ***) and a Chevalier (Status, Veilleur **).

Around may-june of the year 1997, her beauty had become a subject of interest within the Cour, but her relation with Alexis became too much cold for her to bear. While everyone concerned has his own opinion about it, the truth is that, without warning, Cath stopped answering any Veilleur's summon.

Her last mission for the Veilleurs included an investigation in the Mage milieu. She gunned the Ventrue François Hubert into Torpor because he had crossed her once too much. The Ventrue (and any other Kindred) has yet to react: Her mission was official, she was the leader of the Coterie, the Ventrue Ancilla was but an observer and by all records, he had acted at least thrice to the contrary of her orders (thus endangering the mission).

In the same time, she was discovered by a man who had contacts within the model and show-business milieu. Cath accepted his offer to guide her in his ''world'' and was introduced as a model-wannabe. She was chosen as a model for a fashion ''Défilé'' and had a great success: Photos were published in a famous magazine. The style was more sensual than erotic, and for the cover was chosen a photo of Cath seen from behind, walking and barely covered by a silk cloth, her Black Widow tattoo plainly visible.

Just before the photos were published, she was slowly introduced in the Toreador Soirées, finally accepting the invitation she had, before this date, always refused. Elle was probably behind the change in her behaviour.

The 16th day of May, she accidentally opened an Email sent to a Cainite friend. This Email's effect was surprising, what Cath and Christian would call ''magical''. Since then, Kine of the Nightclub's milieu started to recognize her wherever she went, which bothered her to no end: Someone must have taken an interest to her, as this change was too brutal to be natural, and Cath hated it when someone she didn't knew could influence her unlife in such a way. She decided to search for this creature...

Around June 1997, she finally discovered who was behind all the attacks her own possessions (that is, Herd, etc.) suffered in the past. At the center of the problem was Emilie, a yound woman studying Law and who happened (for some unknown reason) to be very very resistant. Some kind of demon, calling himself (among other names) Baron Samedi (in truth, Khorozon) wanted her for some kind of sacrifice, and had raised a whole cult with this purpose in mind. In the same time, Nicola, who had been enemy of Cath years ago, wanted samples of the blood of Emily to conduct some experiences for his new organization, the New World Order, which had recruted him after his diabolical mage sister, Nicole, had tried to kill him. After a confrontation with Cath, Nicola accepted her claim about Emilie, telling her that Emily was ''Immortal''. Whatever the truth, Emily was too interesting for others to not interest Cath, who (after destroying, with Juan, Paul and Dominique, the voodoo cult and the avatar of ''Baron Samedi'') asked Villon the right to ghoul her. Villon had some misgivings (Emily has some strange aura, with silver veins...) but accepted.

But Cath didn't escape the confrontation with ''Baron Samedi'' without harm: The demon corrupting power affected her and Juan. The demon even called Cath ''Juan's Blood Sister''. While Juan was victim of the corrupting effects of the demon's temptations, she was trying to keep control of the Dark Widow (the demon wrongly assumed she was, too, ripe for corruption by him, while she was only fighting her own evil ego!). She almost tried to kill Dominique (it was too tempting!), but in the end, the two ''Blood brother/sister'' fought and killed the avatar of the demon.

She was invited by the Marquis of Batz, a Toreador Prince of a little Bretagne island, to come to his Haven: The Marquis is a master sculptor, and found Cath would be a great muse, and the next model for his exquisite statues.

Her new ghoul changed her name into ''Marilyn'', and was hidden in Paul Dufresne's circus. When her ''identified Sire'', David, officially recognized her, this made her a full Gangrel (so similar to the very much social David!) which greatly eased her position in Paris' hierarchy.

Secretly, she accepted the offer of Sven, whom she had helped discover his retainer had betrayed him, and took over the retainer's work, that is: The managing of the Tea Restaurant ''Aux Saveurs de l'Orient'', which was hidding behind it a discret hotel where members of this club could taste forbidden pleasures.

Around june 1997, Cath was affected by a strange, impalpable aura that seemed to affect the mortals around her. At first, she was quite surprised, then outraged, as she suspected only a ''Golgoth'' (This is how she calls any powerful Elder, inspired by Goldorak's -- aka Great Mazinger-- evil robot enemies, the Golgoths...) could use Presence and Obfuscate powers potent enough to affect an entire crowd through her, without being detected. This enabled her to increase her previously unknown influence over the underground nightclubbing movement at a rave party including 5000 mortals and a few Kindred among them... this made her quite famous in the underground nightclubbing world of Paris (and beyond).

Then, she decided to act, and to shake the Elders she believed were after her (quite paranoid, isn't she?). Her first aims were Francesca and Theti-Sheri.

Having some contacts with Sven and Samson, she managed to ''seduce'' the Setite Courtisans into asking her to join them into their little private soirées. Cath was trapped in her own intrigue, and soon was impressed by the degree of spiritual freedom the Followers of Iaret were immersed into. Her conversion was only a question of time...

With Juan, she entered Arnaud and Carla's haven, where she believed she could find Francesca. She was partially right, as she discovered both the secret chambers of Francesca and Tania. She and Juan let a signature which would enable Francesca to understand who they were, that they had discovered her and that they wanted to talk.

Francesca clearly understood the two, and to their future surprise to this really bad. While she was Ok to discuss with Juan the ''Tanya problem'', she apparently was quite mad at Catherine. For all Cath knows, Francesca tried to kidnapp her, perhaps even kill her through the use of shadow minions. Cath succeeded to flee, but ended with aggravated damage and a need for vitae that made her kill a mortal. By this act, her Beast took even more control over her soul. This was the first time Catherine could clearly feel her own Beast constantly raging within her and fighting to take over. And she did not like it.

Francesca and Cath tried to reach a tentative peace, but they failed: Cath did not understand how a ''Elder'' could have been so unsubtle with her, was outraged by the fact Francesca had decided to talk to Juan and had decided Cath was only worth a brutal aggression, and in the end, found it ironic to have a centuries-old Elder coming from the Sabbat and using such means reproaching Cath her ties with the Setites. Cath simply went away.

Then, after ''killing'' her false identity, Carla, Francesca presented herself to Villon with her Childe, Tania, the next thursday, in front of all the Court. At that moment. Everyone knew there was a possible Jyhad between Juan and Francesca, and that it would probably be bloody. Surprisingly, the attack came from Cath. She did a speech in front of the Gangrel, then the Anarchs, to explain the situation, and then wrote the scenario of a theater piece where she used irony to demonstrate Juan was right, and that Villon's and Francesca's actions were a danger not only to this Neonates, but also to all the Neonates and Ancillae of Paris, perhaps even the Elders. The reaction to this ironic text was spectacular. Cath and Juan were invited by Villon to discuss a ''peace treaty''. In exchange of the Life Boons the Coterie owed to Villon, and the breaking of the Blood Bond (and other influences) of Juan and Tania, they would aknowledge all this affair was nothing so grave, and that everything was peaceful again. Juan and Tania were to ''marry'' as a symbol of this new peace.

Then Arnaud, which egoistically (to Cath's opinion, at least) felt betrayed by both Villon and Francesca (he had already betrayed!), started a speech in which he explained everything that had really happened, weakening officially both Villon and Francesca's position. Anyway, Cath's participation in this affair greatly impressed the Cour. Once again, she both appeared as a powerful Kindred with enough wits to frame two elders whose total age is 30 times greater than hers by writing a quite good and quite ironic text, and to back down at the right time to avoid further --possibly deadly-- complications. This put her Status to a definitive rating of 3, and gave her an Esprit of 1.

Hours after, Cath finally joined Theti-Sheri and the Followers of Set, and took her vows to serve her Dark God, Set, becoming Djeser Neferu, Senselk Hatpneter (The Holy Beauty, Sister of Selkis Temple of the Gods), Novice of Set.

Appearance:

Age:	46	Hair:	Black	Height:	1m71
Apparent Age:	17	Eyes:	Purple Blue	Weight:	54 Kg
Date of Birth:	12 February 1952	Race:	Caucasian	Sex:	Female
RIP:	4 August 1973	Nationality:	French	Esprit:	*

                    Thanks to Elle's help, and to the money she his now making, Cath has now access to the hottest fashion dresses, enabling her to appear as one of the jewels (in not the jewel) of most (if not any) Toreador soirées.

Role Playing:

                    After years of learning about the Kindred, Cath's illusion are no more. She simply lost every tiny shard of faith she had in Life, Justice, Goodness. Despite what one could believe, she isn't in depression. She is beyond that. She has no meaning, no aim, no hope. Every emotion she feels is a painful remainder of the failure of her principles.

While nothing more is enough to raise her interests, she keeps on with the motions, masquerading as a youthful Anarch to hide the deep ennui that should be symptoms of Elder Kindred, not of a Neonate. This doesn't mean she's not a concern anymore, quite the contrary. Nothing to lose, and everything to win with each slight, each threat, each attack: Destroying her opponent is a sweet victory, and dying is just a way to end the cold emptiness that is her soul.

Recently, by doing research in the Veilleur's library, she discovered two facts that could change her way of thinking: The existence of Wraiths and the existence of Paths of Illumination. Wraiths mean that even True Death isn't the end of all, which implies that by dying now, at the height of her power could be just loosing everything and starting everything from the bottom in an alien world. Another Path mean that where Humanity failed her, other principles could mean another chance for her psyche.

Deep inside her, she even don't care: Doesn't something so cold as her soul could give the birth to the so-called possionnated Wraiths? And perhaps loosing what remains of her conscience would the the solution to the cold, as the Beast would override her soul with basic and painless throughts.

Anyway, she believes there is one final solution: Her destruction by Diablerie would probably mean the real end of her pitiful existence...

Notes:

                   

Boons & Prestation: (After the 1st January 1997)


• She was given by Villon the right to create a Ghoul (at first, she thought about Vincent Daguerre, a Show-Business Agent, but just before going to Batz, she presented Emilie to François Villon, who accepted her as Cath's Ghoul).
  
• She helped hunt a Brujah who didn't present himself to the Prince. This service, with the addition of her past successes, probably was the cause of her Status increase to 1.
  
• She used the Prestations given by Alexis, Nathaniel, Elle and five Tremere Elders to increase her status. This phenomenal pooling of all her Prestations were more than surprising, and she was granted a surprising, if temporary, increase of Status. She reached Status *** until she resigned from her Veilleur apprenticeship, when her Status decreased to Status **).
• With Juan, and Jonathan, she accepted to buy the life of the Diabolist Paul with a life boon she now owes to François Villon. Of course, Paul owes the same to her and each of her friends (Player's Note: Don't ask me why...).

  Aux Saveurs de l'Orient
  Contacts: *
  Herd: **
  Influence: *
  Ressources: ***
  Retainers: **
  

  Nicola
  Nicola is a Mage which encountered Cath's coteries years ago, and was almost killed by his own twin sister, Nicole. He joinded then the New World Order, where he became a quite powerful Man in Black (Cath still wonders at the signification of Nicola's ''Men in Black'' bodyguards and Nicola's own white suit...). Nicola accepted to increase Cath's Ressource from 4 to 5 (By using his own knowledge of Technocracy's politics concerning new technologies, and a lot of money invested in the Nasdaq and other high tech investments) in exchange of her silence about some of his actions that would win him both the enmity of his superiors and from the Kindred of Paris (no one uses vampire's flesh for experiment without attracting dangerous attention!).

  Emilie
  Emilie is a strange girl. Cath discovered her among a few teenager of a private shool for girls which happened to have ties with a satanic cult. For strange reasons, they were quite headstrong girls, and saw themselves as violent anarchists and feminists. And while they were quite naive, they knew some dirty tricks. Cath Blood Bonded some of them, and added them to her Herd. Emilie among them. Then Cath discovered the satanic cult was quite interested in getting back Emilie, and used a huge amount of influence within the criminal milieu to get her. They even tried to kill her. Cath still wonders why they tried this since she learned from Nicola Emilie was kinda immortal. Since then, to protect Emilie, Cath used a prestation from Villon to make her a Ghoul (Villon accepted), and asked Ron to change her physical appearance. Emilie was explained why, and was given the choice. She choosed to become like Cath, and to call herself Marylyn. Cath accepted, and then put her in training in Paul's circus as an acrobat (and in some martial skills...). Cath still wonder if giving her Ghoul her own appearance is a good or bad thing...

  Empathic Aura
  In May 1997, Cath discovered somehow her emotions were amplified and flet by all mortals around her. At first she was quite surprised and search the methuselah (for it could only be a methuselah, couldn't it?) for being able to projetct this kind of power affecting a whole city and still remain hidden. This aura gave Cath a great deal of fame and influence in the milieu of the underground nightclubbers:
  Contacts (Nightclubs) : ****
  Fame (Nightclubs) : **
  Influence (Nightclubs) : *****
  

  
  
  

Actual Aim:

                    In 1997, her aim is unclear: She is now considered Elder (Status ***, which is surprising, even perhaps horrifying to other Elders, as she was granted the Status not by Age, but by power), and worked for a time for Alexis as a Chevalier Veilleur (Status, Veilleur **). Surprisingly, she quitted the Veilleurs, apparently unharmed, and now haunts both the select Toreador soirées and the Psaume 69. The Anarchs don't consider her an enemy...

Rumours:

                   

• She's crazy (True... er... More or less... Well... Read the Role Playing chapter...)
• She's working as a spy for the Anarchs (False: She is not a spy for them, she is openly Anarch).
• Cath sometimes works for free, but only for either the Anarchs or for Alexis. (True: For the Anarchs, no one knows why, through. For Alexis, she became a Veilleur in march 1997, but quitted soon after).
• Post-1997: She did something extraordinary, as her status outmatch the status of all Neonates (but exceptions!) of Paris. But what, no one knows... (True: She participated to the exploration of a magickally trapped Tremere Chantry, and to the awakening of five Tremere Elders. They owed to her --as well as to her friends-- Life Boons, and as she didn't want to have anything to do with Clan Tremere, she used it as soon as possible, asking them to secretly support her increase of Status).
• Her beauty isn't natural: Either she's now what she claims to be ( Note: Or, more accurately, what the Camarilla believe her to be), she has contracted some demonic pact, or she has access to powers no one knows (The third proposition is True).
• She was seen using Obtenebration and/or some strange powers involving spider-like powers (True and True).
• Her tattoo appeared after her Embrace. (True).
• Her beauty enables her to be excused for actions that would have killed any other Neonates (Perhaps...).

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