The Pierce Family

According to the story the Pierces pass from one generation to the next, their family was 'founded' in the mid 1600s when a vampire named Pierce took a human girl of a well-to-do pureblood family as a lover. This girl was the second child and only daughter of her parents, so when she told them she was pregnant it was the child, not the mother, that was spurned from the family's inheritance and wealth. She could hardly be faulted for falling victim to a monster.

The child, of course, was tainted and not entirely human. As the family wanted nothing to do with him, he was named for his father and given the surname 'Pierce'. To the Pierces' knowledge, the original Pierce never knew that he had a progeny. The mother raised the child alone until he was fourteen then sent him out on his own.

Despite being of half-vampire heritage, the boy had been raised as a proper pureblood to the best of his mother's ability. Once on his own, he did everything in his power to uphold the traditions and morals instilled during his childhood. He married a pure, if poor, witch and continued the line with all the dignity and honor of any other impoverished pureblood family.

In 1699, his grandson, Hamlet Pierce, moved the family across the Atlantic into Virginia, bringing his wife along with him, in hopes of riches and acceptance. Hamlet, sadly, was killed not two months after landing, leaving his pregnant wife as the last living Pierce. Hamlet stuck around as a ghost, however, so she was not entirely alone. Since then, Hamlet has followed the Pierce family, helping to raise each successive heir.

In 1827, Derwent Pierce the First was born to Gerald and Veronica Pierce in small town in Vermont. The next year, his sister, Berta, was born. Together, these two children would alter the family forever. Gerald and Veronica were standard for Pierces up until this time. Proud, pure (aside from the Vampire blood, which was no longer showing any physical manifestations), traditional, but aware that their poverty made them second-class.

In 1838, Derwent began at Salem, and was quite proud to acheive the honor of joining the Aether House despite the Vampire in his family tree (not that they were advertising that there was one, especially after the Vampire Wars that had occurred only thirty years before).

His sister also joined him in both Salem and Aether the next year, which was quite the accomplishment for a girl in that age. Berta, however, had a true gift for Divination which was how she had convinced both her father and the headmaster of the school to allow her admission.

During Derwent's seventh year, 1846, she had a vision. If he were to go out to California, he would become unimaginably wealthy and return the family to the high status they had enjoyed before the Vampire made them outcaste.

So he went to California.