San Francisco by Night
Raven Moonchilde
She was born in the year 1078 in a small village just outside of what is now Devonshire, England. Little is known of her mortal life. She was born to peasant farmers, their only daughter. She was headstrong and adventurous from the start. She was gifted in healing arts, but there were darker tales told of people who crossed her meeting unfortunate "accidents". Her parents were murdered in a Saxon raid sometime in her 11th year. She was forced to watch as the barbarians raped and then slit the throat of her mother. She was left, the sole survivor of the village, severely tortured and beaten. After traveling the countryside for almost a year, living by her wits alone, she was taken in by a group of people calling themselves the Bahari. They told her that she had experienced what was known as "sa", and she was introduced to the world of Lilith, the "Dark Mother". In her 17th year, she left the Bahari compound, convinced that these masochists were all insane. She had an appreciation for pain, but thought their embracing of suffering and blood drinking to be too strange for her tastes. She continued her journeys, unknowingly followed still by the Bahari, who silently observed her...one of them in particular, a Lamia vampire by the name of Gaolen Kieylan, had taken a particular interest in her.
She travelled throughout Britannia, observing and learning as much as possible. She had a hunger for knowledge, and by the time she reached her 20th year, she could read and write 5 different languages fluently. Her beauty also brought her recognition, and tales were told of the raven haired beauty whose voice had the power to make the angels themselves weep. She turned down several suitors and even escaped enslavement by various nobles, who tried to domesticate her and make her into a possession under the new Christian Law.
Shortly after her 21st year had begun, she was kidnapped by a group of infernalists known as the Avatars of the Swarm, a subsection of the Baali. She was bound and prepared for infestation by the horde of insects that they harbored. Shortly before the ritual was to begin, Gaolen and a group of Bahari stormed the Avatars' haven. A bloody fight ensued. Once the dust had settled, Gaolen carried Raven out of the haven, and they travelled back to the Bahari compound. Raven was then offered the chance to live forever...to never grow old...to be given the chance to amass the knowledge of centuries. But she would have to be willing to accept the Mother and live solely for Her will. It would be a painful process, but she was told that through Pain came Enlightenment. She would later come to believe this as Gospel.
She was embraced a Lamia, and soon developed a loyalty to Lilith that was unsurpassed by even the most accomplished Bahari. She was told the Old Stories, about Lilith's creation, defiling, ascension, and her inevitable fall from Grace. She learned of Caine's betrayal of Lilith at D'hainu, and came to despise the Kindred wholeheartedly. She also came to love her Gaolen, and they shared a bond forged in blood and suffering.
In the 13th century, she met a man named Molachi. The music they made together was darkly beautiful. Although extremely devoted to her sire, she fell in love with this mortal, and one stormy night, after passioned bloody lovemaking, she brought him into eternal darkness.
There were many foes for a child of Lilith in those days, but none so dangerous as the Giovanni. The Lamia had been spawned from the Cappadocians, and they remained loyal, at least on the surface, to their parent bloodline. However, when the Giovanni, another of the Cappadocian offshoots, began the systematic annihilation of the original bloodline, the Lamia saw that it was a losing battle. Raven watched as she fought to defend her brothers and sisters, and watched countless numbers of them fall. It was finally decided by the elders that the surviving Lamia should go underground, thus escaping the murderous Giovanni. The stories of Lilith were written and sealed in a deep underground vault, far from the eyes of anyone, Cainite or otherwise, that would betray the Mother's secrets. The Lamia then vanished entirely, causing most to think that they in turn had fallen along with their Cappadocian counterparts.
Somewhere amidst this madness, Raven took her leave of Molachi, never giving him reason as to why she was leaving him. She felt that this was for the best. She had not told him the entire story of his lineage, instead deciding to call the clan "Daughters of Cacophony" as a way of further protecting the Lamia's secret. She was not given time to inform him of the truth, and when she finally had time to look for him, sometime in the 18th century, Molachi was nowhere to be found. She assumed him either destroyed or dead by his own manipulations.
She and the surviving Lamia laid low until the beginning of the 20th century, when they finally decided to resurface, thinking the Lamia long forgotten by most Kindred. They came out under the name Daughters of Cacophony, the name invented by Raven centuries before in an effort to mislead her childer. The men went by the title "Sons of Discord" and they sang songs of Lilith's return, and Her revenge. A new discipline was forged in this way, the discipline of the Siren's Song...Melpominee. It was whispered that certain of the Daughters heard the same Song, Lilith's Song....but the men in the clan were immune to this gift.
The clan grew strong, although they vowed never to make the same mistake as they did before. They remained a mystery to other Kindred, most thought them too weak to be of much harm or use, so the clan was left alone for the most part. But they were growing ever-stronger, and they watched, and they waited for word from the Mother.
In the 1980's, the females of the clan rose up and slew their male counterparts. They had heard the same message in the Song...if they were strong enough to kill their own, they would be strong enough to endure the slaughter of Cainites as a whole. So the men were culled from the ranks. Raven was given the task of hunting down her beloved Gaolen and sending him to face the dawn. She staked her love, and sat with him, weeping tears of blood, until minutes before the sun rose. Then, with a final kiss and a passioned cry, she turned her back on him. Even in facing Final Death, Gaolen remained true to the Mother. His final words to her were..."I will love you forever Raven...and I know why this must be...Ahi Hay Lilitu"...All Hail Lilith.
She did not tell her clanmates of Molachi's existence, partly out of shame for leaving him, partly because she had the hope that maybe somewhere, he was still alive. She could not bear to send her only other Love to his death...so she remained silent, veiling his face from her thoughts, lest a more attuned Daughter pry into her mind.
She remained strongly allied with the Bahari, and in 1998, left England for San Francisco, California, in America. The New World was exciting and new to her, and she was very optimistic about her mission in America. She kept close contact with the Bahari in Britain, and because of her status among the Baham, holds a revered place among the Bahari of New Orleans, Louisiana. They are now seeking to use Raven as a bridge to forge an expansion westward.
Once in San Francisco, she set up an abandoned building in the Tenderloin district for her "Anarch Lair". The Bahari in Devonshire had told her that blending in with the anarchs would give her valuable allies, as well as possibilities for new Bahari and Lhaka recruits. She was also reunified with none other than her beloved Molachi. He had indeed survived, and she was now able to tell him the full story of Lilith and his lineage. Their relationship is stronger than ever, and he has become her pillar of strength through the turmoil of these stormy days.
Today, Raven lies in the shadows, watching...planning....waiting. Lilith's Song grows stronger by the day, and Raven knows that the Final Nights are here...Lilith is coming soon to usher in the End Times, and God help Caine's bastards when She comes for Her final retribution.
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