The Masquerade

A tall, statuesque male Kindred with rich umber skin, regal bearing, and eyes rimmed with black eyeliner and thick lashes. He wears shifting wardrobes of feathers, rhinestones, velvet, and vintage fur, often with long flowing wigs in white or black. His scent is blood, rosewater, and incense, and he bears ceremonial tattoos and piercings from his rituals.

Francois is theatrical, cunning, and deeply spiritual, cloaking his pain in glamour and shade. He is a performer who channels archetypes of Witch, Martyr, Lover, and Monster, using his art as ritual and prayer. Despite his magnetic presence, he carries the wounds of rejection and hunger for love, living unapologetically for his goddess and community.

Born Clarence Wilks on Chicago's South Side, he was raised in a household of rigid gender norms that stifled his love for beauty and expression. Running away at seventeen, he became Baby Love, a diva in New York's queer cabaret scene. Embraced as a Caitiff vampire in the 1980s, he faced rejection and despair until a divine vision of Erzulie transformed him into Francois Mamuwalde, a priestess of pain and passion in her cult. Now a theatrical, cunning, and deeply spiritual vampire, Francois channels ancient archetypes through his performances, living for the Dance, the goddess, and the queer children of the night who find salvation in his songs.