Pelops

This is a Vampire: The Masquerade character played by Pheidias in the Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle, Lords of the Undead.

Overview

PELOPS

“All around me darkness gathers, Fading is the sun that shone, We must speak of other matters, You can be me when I'm gone

Flowers gathered in the morning, Afternoon they blossom on, Still are withered in the evening, You can be me when I'm gone.”

- Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Kindly Ones

Clan: Malkavian

Generation: Fifth

Sire: Nissiku, the clever prince

Embrace: 1230 BC

Background

A legend hides a deeper truth Pelops was the son of King Tantalos. His father cut him up into little pieces and served him to the gods at a banquet. Although the plot was revealed very soon, the boy's shoulder had already been consumed, so when the gods put him back together again, they replaced the missing piece with an ivory replica.

The gods punished Tantalos for his crime by having him be eternally hungry and thirsty in Hades with food and drink just out of his reach. But Pelops was well-liked by the gods and became the lover of Poseidon, from whom he learned to become an accomplished charioteer.

Years later, Pelops had fallen in love with Hippodameia whose father was the jealous and paranoid king Oenomaos. The king always challenged all her suitors to a horse race and killed them if they didn't win. Pelops was the 19th would-be husband to try. So, after his friend Cillos had already been killed, he conspired with the king's man Myrtilos to sabotage the king's chariot. The king died a horrible death.

Myrtilos had set his eyes on Hippodameia himself and when he tried to rape her, Pelops threw him off a cliff into the sea. The dying man cursed Pelops and his line to know only betrayal, patricide/fratricide and madness.

Seeking to absolve himself of his crimes, Pelops held great sacrifices and races to appease the gods which later became an inspiration for the Olympic Games. But the curse was strong, his sons and wife betrayed him, which resulted in much kin-slaying, exiling and suicides. Each successive generation of descendants (among them Menelaos and Agamemnon of the legend of the Trojan War) suffered greatly by atrocious crimes and compounded the curse by committing more crimes. This cursed House, the Atreides, were of special interest to the Furies, the avengers of sins against one's blood.

After his death Pelops was worshipped as a cthonic deity of sacred sacrifices, appearing at night and drenched in blood. He was invoked to grant success in risky endeavors when the odds were against the supplicant.

So, that's as far as the myth goes, which I think really lends itself to turning Pelops into a vampire. I'd envision him as a Malkavian because of his childhood trauma, his adeptness to win by deception and the curse of madness and betrayal that haunts him and his line. The story of his death and resurrection could easily be an account of the embrace (especially with the 'came back wrong' part), with the gods being Kindred.

From god to shade In the first few years after his embrace Pelops was probably full of hubris. He had an arsenal of fantastic powers, he kept the company of beings the mortals around him perceived as their gods and he was worshipped as a demi-god himself. Considering the serious issues he had had even before his embrace, he would probably have openly basked in the glory of being worshipped and bought into his own kind's rhetoric about their identity.

Now, this happened two generations or roughly fifty years prior to the Trojan War, which - if we go with the classical dating of the fall of Troy in 1184 BC - would set the action around 1230 BC. According to legend the sacred shoulder blade of Pelops was taken to Troy by Agamemnon but the boat carrying the relic sunk in a terrible storm. Only through the intervention of Poseidon could it be recovered and returned to its temple many years later. Maybe we could translate that bit of myth into:

Pelops was an active and open player in the political arena until the Trojan War, become increasingly full of himself and mad for ever more power. He actively influenced his grandson's Agamemnon and Menelaos and accompanied them to Troy, whipping up the fury of the Greek warriors in a need to prove himself an equal of the other 'gods', where he ran into Kindred much stronger and older than himself (in WW canon both the Brujah Troile, sire of Menelaos, and the Toreador Minos, sire of Helena, were very active in the area). He was beaten into torpor and cast into the sea. He survived through the intervention of another Kindred (whom he perhaps owes to this day), but when he awoke from the sleep of death, the war had been waged and decades, perhaps a century had passed.

This near-death experience and the loss of control over his mortal family would have cured Pelops of his hubris and reduced him to relying on subtlety and intrigue. He would have rekindled his cult but would have only acted through the priesthood as intermediaries, relaying messages received in visions, never appearing himself, granting small favors the faithful prayed for to keep the cult active. He purposefully passed from history into myth, from myth into legend, subsisting in his underground temple on the blood sacrifices of the faithful and interacting with the outside world through his network of believers.

Perhaps he would have languished in the dark forever, wounded in body and soul, dreaming horrors and granting visions, a mere parasite catered to by a minor cult, destined to be forgotten. But the first Olympic Games in 776 BC revitalised him in a way unthought of. He was named one of the two patrons of the games, side by side with the divine father Zeus himself! The surge of belief and sheer excitement that gripped so many mortals all at once felt like an infusion of the most powerful vitae. He couldn't resist and heeded the call, ventured out again, disguised as the high priest of the cult of Pelops and attended those ceremonies that happened at night.

When the baker Koroibos of Elis became the first champion of the first Olympic Games, Pelops could not resist and embraced the man he saw as the epitome of perfection as he had once seen himself. But Koroibos was a humble man and scoffed at Pelops' intimations of godhood. Surely, he was something other than human now, but he who had been a devotee of blessed Helios in life missed the warm rays of the sun and felt himself outcast. While the elder desired to live again through his childe vicariously and to gain a true companion after his own heart after centuries of solitude, he did not see that the curse of Myrtilos still applied even to his undead progeny.

While Koroibos was always struggling with his existence and Pelops was pushing all the wrong buttons because he came from such a different place mentally (a little like Louis' botched upbringing by Lestat in 'Interview with the Vampire'), the two of them managed to get along fairly well until the next Olympic Games came around. Koroibos fell into a deep depression because he couldn't participate and Pelops was exasperated because he didn't understand why his childe was still so human and did not embrace his new nature. At the height of the games, Koroibos lost himself to a self-destructive urge and ran the full distance of the stadium once more.... in brought sunlight, a human torch crumbling to ash when crossing the finishing line with a smile of release.

Pelops tried to curse his childe's stupidity and forget about him, but he had been too deeply in love with Koroibos (or rather the idea of him that he kept on projecting on the poor soul) to let go. Everything reminded him of his monumental loss and even the blood started to taste of bitter ashes to him. Thus, in 770 BC he finally left his home of many centuries, his cult of worshippers and all his trappings of power without looking back and lost himself in the wilds of the barbarians.

to be continued

Character Sheet

VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE Name: Nature: Clan: Player: Demeanor: Generation: Chronicle: Concept: Sire: ATTRIBUTES Physical Social Mental Strength ●○○○○ ○○○○○ Charisma ●○○○○ ○○○○○ Perception ●○○○○ ○○○○○ Dexterity ●○○○○ ○○○○○ Manipulation ●○○○○ ○○○○○ Intelligence ●○○○○ ○○○○○ Stamina ●○○○○ ○○○○○ Appearance ●○○○○ ○○○○○ Wits ●○○○○ ○○○○○ ABILITIES Talents Skills Knowledges Alertness ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Animal Ken ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Academics ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Athletics ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Crafts ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Computer ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Awareness ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Drive ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Finance ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Brawl ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Etiquette ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Investigation ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Empathy ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Firearms ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Law ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Expression ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Larceny ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Medicine ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Intimidation ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Melee ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Occult ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Leadership ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Performance ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Politics ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Streetwise ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Stealth ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Science ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Subterfuge ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Survival ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Technology ○○○○○ ○○○○○ ADVANTAGES Disciplines Backgrounds Virtues __________ ○○○○○ ○○○○○ __________ ○○○○○ Conscience ●○○○○ __________ ○○○○○ ○○○○○ __________ ○○○○○ Self-Control ●○○○○ __________ ○○○○○ ○○○○○ __________ ○○○○○ Courage ●○○○○ Merits & Flaws Merit Cost __________ ___ __________ ___ __________ ___ Flaw Cost __________ ___ __________ ___ __________ ___ Humanity/Path ○○○○○ ○○○○○ Bearing: ________ ( ) Willpower ○○○○○ ○○○○○ □□□□□ □□□□□ Blood Pool □□□□□ □□□□□ □□□□□ □□□□□ Blood Per Turn: ■ Health Bruised □ Hurt -1 □ Injured -1 □ Wounded -2 □ Mauled -2 □ Crippled -5 □ Incapacitated □ Clan Weakness ...