Camille Churnstone

The vampiric Darklady of Lilliend in the Wartorn Cluster, and a powerful Sorceress of the Maestro bloodline.

Background

Camille was born as part of a set of identical twins, but whereas her twin sister Amaranth was vivacious, sociable and had ambitions, Camille was born with sorcerous potential, but was content to laze around and do nothing but occasionally write morbid poetry. An extreme narcissist, Camille considered herself the center of her universe, and harboured an incestuous desire for her twin as the only reflection of her own perceived perfection.

Her world came crashing down when Amaranth's engagement was announced and all of her tantrums not only failed to stop preparations from going forth, but caused Amaranth to admonish her and announce the upcoming marriage was her wish.

Camille sought an answer in arcane magic, but her talents were untrained and not up to the task. Finally, she resorted to black magic, following instructions in a grimoire which would supposedly grant her eternal youth and the power to claim any lover she wished. To finalize the ritual, Camille committed suicide, expecting to rise in three days' time. She had reckoned without her family quickly burying her corpse in an airtight crypt to hide their shsme and prevent a stain of misfortune on the marriage - which otherwise went off without a hitch. By the time the family's declining fortunes caused workers to open up the tomb for relocation of the dead and Camille finslly awoke as a vampire, Amaranth was long dead.

Half mad over her 'loss', Camille haunted her sister's bloodline for generations, hoping to find a suitable replacement for Amaranth among its daughters. Her tendency to abduct and murder newborn sons outright, as well as husbands who had conceived daughters so they could not 'taint' the child's mindset growing uo, whittled the Churnstone family down until there was only one married couple left. Despite knowing that these people were her last chance, Camille flew into a rage and slaughtered them when they gave birth to a boy.

As she woke in the abattoir she had made of the home of her last living relatives, Camille was claimed by the Mists and installed as the dark heart of her own domain.

Recent history

Camille does not understand what happened when the Mists claimed her. All she cares about, is that there is still a Churnstone family in Lilliend, and that they have interbred with the other inhabitants of her domain, meaning she has a large pool of girls in which to seek her destined and ideal lover.

Rather than assume a direct leadership position in Lilliend, the vampire has infiltrated the boarding schools, the better to monitor their crop of young girls for a worthy mate. Using a combination of lies, intimidation, enchantment and actual hypnotism, she isolates her prey and molds it into what she thinks she wants. The vampire does exert some control over her domain from behind the scenes (albeit only to facilitate her own desires), and has on one occasion used her magic to cause a long-lasting drought in Lilliend as a way to extort the compliance of Lilliend's queen when people balked at sending their children to boarding schools, when they had become aware there was a good chance of them never returning. Camille's influence is keenly felt in the domain, even by those who are blissfully unaware of her existence. Every time a man conceives a daughter within the borders of Lilliend, Camille immediately dispatches one of her numerous vampiric spawn to assassinate him. Many of her spawn use the opportunity to gorge on male blood, committing suicide just so they can be free of their insane sire. Camille does not care and in fact hardly ever notices.

Camille's vile quest for the perfect mate is hampered by the fact that the personality of any girl she does claim for a vampire bride will inevitably shift due to the transformation into an undead creature of the night; she is known to turn such failures to stone with magic. Of greater concern to Camille is the fact that she is searching for a perfect reflection of herself, as she once believed Amaranth to be -- and Camille has long ago lost sight of that self due to casting spells that have permanently altered her appearance, in order to allow her to go unnoticed while she sifts through and grooms potential candidates. This is in fact her curse; Camille is forever chasing a reflection of an image she has forgotten and keeps reconstructing.

Combat

Camille prefers not to become involved in combat, as she is physically weak for a vampire and well-versed in neither melee nor ranged techniques. If she can prepare, she vastly prefers to send her spawn to do the fighting and bleeding for her. She has a sizeable army of them, girls she turned into vampires not out of a desire for a mate, but out of simple hunger. In fact, she has a much larger army on tap than she should, given that she uses magic to force the majority of them into a nightmare-filled hibernation until she needs them for one task or another. Predictably, Camille has forgotten where some of her spawn are awaiting her command. If battle is upon Camille and she cannot force her spawn to do the work for her, she prefers to rake enemies from a distance with spells, preferring Empowered castings for maximal damage. Should an opponent be able to weather her strongest attacks and approach Camille, then she flees without a moment of shame. If an opponent flees, she gleefully gives pursuit, convinced that she has the upper hand. If forced to run, Camille can get unpleasantly creative. She is capable of swapping appearances with random bystanders, using them as a decoy while she flees in another direction. She can seep into the earth in gaseous form. She can disguise herself. But whatever she does, she will sooner or later return for a counterattack. One of her favourite ploys is to impersonate a waitress wherever the ones who attacked her are eating, and to deliver to them food and drink laced with any number of unpleasant potions. Should all else fail, Camille can easily coerce the government of Lilliend to arrest people who have given her grief. Once they are safely locked up in a jail cell, it is only a matter of time before they get a visit from a vindictive Darklady...