Hermetic Lore: DeVille Library

History

Ashton Blackstone was born in Boston in 1832. His parents were immigrants to the United States and insisted on giving their son a better life than they had. He attended the Univeristy of Boston where he learned his trade as a scholar in the Occult. He assisted the police in several criminal investigations which appeared to be wrapped up in some sort of occult background. He soon became a renowned authority on the occult and eventually took his professor's job at the University when he retired.

As a respected pillar of the community, his fall from grace came as a complete surprise. Caught in the middle of some occult experiment by local Roman Catholics, they took the opportunity to discredit and ruin his name. To his horror, he was fired from the University and was grudgingly accepted by the Boston Police Department as a detective.

It was during one of his investigations that he first encountered the Kindred. He was invetigating the mysterious death of a series of children, assuming due to the total lack of blood in the children, that there was some kind of witch-cult involved in blood rituals. Since the children were street-urchins none of the townsfolk really cared about their fate, but as more and more bodies began to show up, they soon became fearful for their own children.

This attitude completely disgusted Ashton. Every body he found, he swore over them that he would avenge those who had so ruthlessly taken their lives from them before they truly had a chance to experience life. He was unfortunate enough to eventually catch up on his suspect, and walked in on one of his worst possible scenarios. A vampire had been feeding on all of the children and discarding the bodies in the gutter. It was a horrible creature, it's mouth pressed against the side of the child's neck, crimson stains around it's lips. Ashton snapped and ran forward to attack the monster. The creature backhanded him into a wall where he fell unconscious to the ground.

When he awoke, he saw the monster standing before him. Before anything else could happen a voice rippled through the rising mist. The monster whirled around and dove at the source of the voice; a dark silhouette against the mist. By the time Ashton got up and checked himself for any harm, the fight was over. He looked over into the mist at the figure which was standing exactly where and as it was. Slowly the figure walked through the mist toward him and instructed Ashton to follow him.

The individual turned out to be George Montrose, a member of the local Tremere Chantry, and another detective in the city. George, knowing who and what Ashton was, took him back to the chantry where the Tremere gained permission to embrace him. The Prince, also aware of who and what Ashton was, agreed on the principle that he could prove more useful than hinderance if he were to be on their side.

Given the current instability of the chantry in Boston at that time in history, Ashton was sent to Vienna for training. He was, in turn, redirected to Chateau DeVille lying just outside the city state. There he continued his learning and training in the occult and Thaumaturgy. It was only a short while later that the Boston Chantry was destroyed and the Kindred inside with it. Ashton was free to go where he wanted upon the completion of his training. He chose to return to Boston and try to pick up where the others left off.

He secretly began the institution of a new chantry, hidden and unknown to the Prince of Boston. Unfortunately he had to start from scratch. By then, he was only an Apprentice of the Fourth Circle of Mystery and so was not qualified to claim the Regency. A regent was appointed to the chantry and Ashton decided that it was time to move on.

He maintained his concept of an occult detective and traveled around the United States searching for something. It wasn't until the name Dorchadas began to ripple through the ranks of the Camarilla that he discovered what he was looking for.