Character Description

Renata de Pazzi was approximately 17 when she was Embraced 537 years ago.  She loves the trappings of the living, loves being a monster in sheep's clothing.  She tends toward designer clothes in black and white or purple, blue, and red, whether jeans or cocktail dresses, high heels and pristine makeup; sometimes she wears cut flowers in her hair (never fake flowers).  She's small, around 5 feet and a hundred pounds; there is nothing truly intimidating about her if her fangs are put away, though her left arm is ringed with raised scar tissue.  She is always accompanied by a ghoul called Gianni, currently a handsome Italian man with fine fingers and a charming smile.




Character Backstory

Step 1:  Character name/Clan/Covenant


Renata Maria de Pazzi di Firenze
aka Renata de Pazzi or Renata Pazzi

Daeva

Circle of the Crone, formerly Invictus



Step 2: Who you were.
The Pazzi family had a long history of insanity and bravado, starting with their progenitor, the first soldier over the walls in the Siege of Jerusalem:  "Il Pazzo", the Madman.  By Renata's time, the mid 1400s, the Pazzi were no longer a noble family, but they still had great power in the city of Florence.  The Pazzi were successful bankers and were known as visionaries, and she had gained some local fame as a religious ecstatic, able to recognize and speak with demons and communicate with Mother Mary herself. (Whether this was truth or insanity depends on who you ask.)  Her family was pushing to send her into a convent, which she did not want -- she wanted to marry a powerful politician -- but their plans were interrupted.  In 1478, her cousins and brothers conspired to kill Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici, in an attempt to secure a banking monopoly in Florence.  Their assassination failed, they were hanged, and the entirety of the Pazzi family were thrown out of Florence.  Their homes were taken from them, their crest was stricken from the record, everything about them was banned.

This upheaval threw Renata into a crisis of faith, and while her visions never stopped, she rebelled from her family and sought answers away from the church.  She reveled in looking for answers in dangerous places, first among the haunts of street musicians and eventually in places much darker.



Step 3: Why they took you.

This seeking brought her to Pembe, who offered answers she had never heard before, answers that seemed to make sense.  To Pembe and even to herself, she seemed to be a zealous student of the Mother.

Embrace brought on another of her visions, this time of Jesus on the cross at the moment the spear pierced his side. She felt a crown on her head, saw visions of what she could do amongst the Kindred if she had political and religious power.  With apologies to Pembe, she swore fealty to the Invictus, convicted that the Mother is Mary for those who see the light imperfectly.  She attended Lancea Mass regularly.  She did everything she could to increase the powers of the First and Second Estate in Italy.




Step 4:  How you survived.

Renata immediately allied herself with the Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum in Italy, and did her best to serve as her fealty chain wanted her to.  Eventually, she felt she had served the Invictus to the extent of her ability, and chose to leave the Invictus, with the intention of entering "religious life" and joining the Lancea et Sanctum.  The Mother had other plans, however, and when Pembe's first childe Marjani attacked her, new visions led Renata back to the Circle of the Crone.

Over the years, she has groomed several ghouls for Embrace -- whether Embrace by her own fangs or by Pembe's.  These were always ghouls with some autonomy, in contrast to her other ghoul--Gianni.

Renata always keeps a loyal, well-trained ghoul called Gianni around, to help her through the long nights and to do her bidding at any moment.  "Gianni" is a position more than a name -- many Giannis have perished and been replaced over the years.  For Gianni, the risks are great but the rewards are just as high.  Without this series of Giannis, Renata would have met final death centuries ago.

Tall, dark, handsome and adept with his fingers, tonight's Gianni is a decent player of stringed instruments who can play most music by ear, though his real talent lies in catering to and anticipating his regnant's whims.  2015 will mark his 100th year as a ghoul to a capricious and passionate Daeva.  He was once known as Antonio Piero, musician's apprentice; the day his mentor (the previous Gianni) disappeared, he found himself promoted both to his mentor's orchestra position and his position at the head of Renata Pazzi's entourage.  While Gianni's duties keep him away from playing professionally in recent nights, he plays for Renata every morning before she sleeps.  Gianni is responsible for co-ordinating Renata's herd, keeping her schedule and her correspondence, maintaining a collection of recorded music, closing the shutters in her sleeping chamber when dawn is approaching, and getting her to bed before sunrise.  He is expected to always be at her side during the night, always ready to follow his fickle regnant's orders.  During the day, Gianni is instructed to stay in Renata's sleeping chamber.  He can sleep, or play music, or read, but he must stay in the room.  When Renata is not grooming another ghoul for Embrace, Gianni's duties also include keeping up to date on pop culture, informing Renata of any new music genres as they are discovered, and keeping tabs on the live music scene in Detroit.

Renata's Mask is that of the Courtesan.  She has spent her life putting on the skin of an intriguing companion, and does it quite well.



Step 5:  Who you are now.

In recent nights, Renata enjoys working closely with her coterie and her covenant-mates to increase the Mother's influence in the world.  She was reticent about Detroit when she arrived a few years ago, but has come to enjoy the city and its people.  She spends much of her time, money, and thought in cultivating local musicians.  Whether she trusts them or not, she enjoys the company of other Kindred, because they are if nothing else /interesting/.

She believes she can see spirits, demons, ghosts and angels, and may have come into some conflict with others who can actually see spirits and ghosts.  She would be very interested in Phoebe's philosophy of mixing technology and ritual, though she may not understand it.


Renata's Dirge is Visionary.  She had visions all of her life, and these visions have continued to serve a a panacea during her Requiem, giving her a firm path to walk, with no room for doubt.


Step 6:  What you will become.

Who knows?  Only time will tell us how the garden grows.