Horatio Ballard, founder of Ballard Industries, use to command a fearsome reputation in Chicago. Lodin had given him almost complete control of the finance and banking within the city and as a result it was said he had a hand in every penny that moved into and out of the city. Then the 2008 financial collapse undermined a lot of his personal wealth, the War of Chicago caused numerous disruptions and finally Prince Lodin was overthrown eliminating one of his biggest allies.

Ballard has mostly recovered from these setbacks. He ended up being a key supporter of Kevin Jackson's bid for the throne however Jackson keeps his assets firmly independent of Ballard's touch. Additionally the losses he took from recent years have damaged his reputation as a wizard of wall street and his status has dropped a bit as he is no longer a critical decision maker in the city. He is still immensely powerful as befitting a Ventrue elder however his position is currently the weakest it has ever been in centuries.

A life of grotesque excess and unrestrained self-indulgence left its mark on Horatio Ballard even before undeath had its way with him. Tall but hugely corpulent in life, with multiple overlapping chins, fingers like sausages, and a total body mass that left spavined horses and broken coach springs in his wake, he now resembles nothing so much as a massive human figure carved entirely from frozen lard. His flesh is corpse white with an unhealthy, waxy sheen and none of his bulk seems to move like it should on an ordinary human, a fact that ordinary
humans notice rather quickly if they’re forced to spend any length of time in his presence.