Methuselah of Chicago

'@Portia' (Helena), The Hidden Queen of Chicago

* Clan: @Toreador

* True Age: Ancient

* Apparent Status: Neonate Socialite

Character Summary

To the Kindred of @Chicago, Illinois, Portia is a clever, insightful, and surprisingly well-connected Toreador neonate with a sarcastic wit. She is a fixture in the city's art scene and Elysium, a beautiful face who listens more than she speaks. In truth, she is the Methuselah Helena, a survivor of Carthage and a master manipulator who has guided the fate of Chicago for over a century from the shadows. Her current guise is her most dangerous weapon: a mask of youth and insignificance that allows her to pull the strings of power without ever being seen as the puppeteer.

History: The Sleeper Beneath the City

Helena's story is the secret history of the Kindred. An architect of the glorious Toreador-led society of Carthage, her feud with the Brujah warrior Menele was born in the city's final, fiery days. Surviving its fall, she spent millennia playing the long game. She eventually came to Chicago, establishing a power base and sinking into torpor beneath the foundations of what would become the Succubus Club.

She awoke in 1990, manipulating her pawn, Prince Lodin, to secure her influence. But the War of Chicago and the fall of Lodin taught her a valuable lesson: direct control is fragile. After the dust settled, she adopted the identity of "@Portia" allowing the world to believe Helena was gone or sleeping once more. From this position of perceived weakness, she rebuilt her power, secretly reacquiring the Succubus Club and manipulating Kindred on all sides of the political spectrum.

The Modern Guise: The Art of Invisibility

As Portia, Helena plays the role of a gifted neonate perfectly. She uses her apparent innocence to get close to the city's rising stars, offering advice and patronage, all while subtly guiding them to serve her ancient ambitions. She gathers secrets not through intimidation, but through seemingly harmless gossip in Elysium. She is a diablerist of legendary skill, and many promising young Kindred who got too close to her have simply "disappeared," their power and knowledge quietly absorbed.

Views on the Damned

Prince @Kevin Jackson: "A fascinating tool. More refined than Lodin. He believes he is the architect, and I am content to let him believe that. His ambition provides an excellent shield for my own."

@Critias: "A beautiful, tragic statue. He is a memory of the failed Brujah dream I myself helped shatter. His stoicism is a quaint performance, a denial of the Beast that I find... amusing."

The @Hecata: "The undertakers are useful, but morbid. Their ability to speak with the dead is a vulgar and dangerous art. One must be careful what secrets the dead are allowed to keep."

Menele: "My oldest mistake. My eternal shadow. He is a raging fire that has forgotten its purpose. He seeks to burn down my world, but he is nothing more than a ghost, and I am a master of ghosts."

Menele, The Avenger of Carthage

* Clan: @Brujah

* True Age: Ancient

* Apparent Status: Myth, Ghost, Force of Nature

Character Summary:

Menele is not a resident of @Chicago, Illinois; he is its oldest wound. An ancient warrior and true believer in the Brujah dream of Carthage, he is the city's ghost of vengeance, forever bound to it by his hatred for Helena. He does not seek praxis or power. He is a force of righteous, ancient fury who moves through the city's forgotten spaces, emerging from the shadows only to stoke the fires of rebellion and chaos, seeking to burn down the corrupt world his rival has built.

History: The Echo of the Flame

A philosopher-warrior of Carthage, Menele was betrayed by Helena and the other Toreador who conspired with Rome. He watched his city—the pinnacle of Kindred civilization—burn. He survived, but his idealism was forged into an unbreakable vow of vengeance. For millennia, he has hunted Helena across continents, a relentless agent of justice.

His presence in Chicago is the other side of Helena's coin. He does not build networks or cultivate assets. He sinks into torpor for decades, his slumbering rage seeping into the city's foundations, only to rise when he senses his enemy's influence growing too strong. He is the source of the city's "Vengeful Fire," a myth whispered among the Anarchs and a dark legend to the Camarilla.

Modern Presence: The Unseen Fire:

Menele has no fixed haven or appearance. He is a ghost in the machine, a shadow in the undercity. He might appear to a desperate Anarch gang as a figure with embers for eyes, offering a cryptic prophecy that sparks a riot. He might cause a sudden, inexplicable frenzy in a Camarilla Elysium. His methods are chaos. He seeks to destabilize Helena's power base, to shatter the "peace" she has so carefully constructed, and to remind the Brujah of the rage they have forgotten. He is less a person and more a walking flashpoint.

Views on the Damned:

Helena (@Portia): "The Betrayer. The Serpent. She is the reason for my every breath. I will not rest until her final memory is of Carthage burning and the mistakes she has made."

@The Camarilla: "Her shield. A cage of Roman laws built to protect the decadent and the corrupt. I will tear it down stone by stone to get to her."

@Anarchs: "Sparks of the old fire. They lack direction, but their anger is pure. A whisper is all it takes to turn a spark into an inferno. They are my kindling."

@Critias : "A lost brother. A philosopher who chose to kneel to the descendants of those who burned our city. He guards the tomb of our ideals, having forgotten that our ideals were meant to live in the sun. He is the greatest tragedy of our clan."