Background
Like many other Rus warriors, Snorri the Sly came to Miklagarðr to serve the Emperor of the Greeks in his Varangian Guard. He settled in Constantinople, married and had a daughter he called Astrid. The Varangian and his small family led a mostly normal existence until teenage Astrid, by then a young maid in the service of the Empress, caught the eye of none other than the Emperor's physick.

'Romanus Monomachos' (or rather, the vampire that hid behind that identity) had fled Wallachia for the safer ground of the Roman Empire centuries ago. He healed Emperors or discreetly sent them to early graves - where they didn't always stay. He saw potential in Astrid, and not just for her ability to navigate Byzantine politics.

Shortly after her embrace, Astrid climbed high and fast to the position of lady-in-waiting of the Empress. As part of her education, Astrid was made to ghoulify Snorri, for Romanus needed eyes inside the Varangian Guard as much as he wanted ears in the Empress' bedchamber. Decade after decade, Romanus taught her the arts of flesh, bone and sinew - and she kept him apprised of the political comings and goings of half of the court he couldn't access directly.

Eventually, Romanus' exceeding curiosity would be his downfall. With every passing year he retreated more and more from courtly intrigue, leaving that to his minion Astrid, to focus obsessively on his surgical experiments. By the time the Crusaders camped under the walls of Constantinople in 1203, he was caught unaware - unlike Astrid. She was perhaps less gifted than her sire, but definitely more practical and attuned to the fast-changing world of mortals.

And while Monomachos found himself trapped inside the burning city, his childe vanished.

Astrid reappeared in Venice later that year. The time had come to change horses - Constantinople and her sire were old news, losing bets, decaying empires. The future of the Mediterranean was with the Serenissima - and her future was there too, free of blood bonds, working for her own benefit instead of being someone else's tool.

In Venice
For the last three decades, Astrid has carved a little niche for herself in Venice. Using what she had learned in Constantinople, she entered the service of a wealthy Scopatti family, as a lady-in-waiting of Pampinea, the youngest daugher of the great family patriarch Uberto degli Scopatti. Gently and almost tenderly, Astrid worked her way through the family, ghoulifying those she didn't kill. Just a few months later, Astrid was lady of the house in her own right, keeping a very compliant Uberto managing the family shipping business for her while she worked some additional modifications on her loyal Pampinea.

Comfortably installed in the luxurious Palazzo Scopatti, Astrid has made a point of attending scholarly salons and befriend the local Cainites. She divides her time and efforts between establishing her social status in Venice and her anatomical experiments - which she sees as a fitting leaisurely pursuit for a learned lady, without her sire's obsessive bent. Mostly she's in Venice to enjoy the ride - and ride the tide to greater status and influence.

Apperance
Her blond hair is all Astrid keeps from her mortal days and her original Norse traits - the rest has been done and redone over time, first by Monomachos and then by herself. By any standard she's a breathtaking beauty, sculpted to perfection, based on an optimal selection of Hellenistic statuary rather than any actual human ethnicity. Her eyes are an impossibly deep tone of emerald green. Her skin is a carefully engineered hue of pale, with perfectly human-looking blush.

Astrid has mostly adopted Latin clothing, but tends to favor purple silk and Greek-style tiaras as a throwback to her youth in Constantinople - not that she looks a day over nineteen.