Alaster/Overview

My name is Alaster Armster. I was born in Egypt in the year 1796. My father was a rich English investor named Alexander Armster and my mother was an Egyptian archeologist named Daria Sisra. I spent the majority of my childhood traveling from country to country exploring dig sites until the year 1817. That year, I left my parents to study archeology on my own at a school in New York. It was the first time I left their side from their archeological investigations and it was also the last time I would see them. I spent my first 4 months in New York studying world history during which I met a beautiful woman named Michelle Deveraux. Our relationship developed over a matter of months and changed from platonic to romantic seemingly over night. However, because I worked during the days on my studies, I never realized that I only saw her during the night. Maybe I should have paid more attention to that fact, in hind sight.

One can imagine my surprise when a year into my archaeological studies, my presumably perfect life turned inside out. It was on my 23rd birthday, that my life changed forever. My eyes opened to a new world, one which even I could never dream about, even in my worse nightmares or greatest fantasies. Michelle told me to get ready for a big birthday surprise and it was the biggest one of my life. She embraced me that night, changing me into the man I am today. For years we traveled the United States as she showed me the true hidden history of the world and the part that the Sabbat and Camarilla played within it. I soaked up knowledge like a wet sponge. It was more than I could ever dream of.

Michelle was everything I could have ever wanted. We relished in our love for the finer things in un-life as we attended late night plays, balls, and even community events together. Everything was not perfect, however. Even through my studies and our intense vampiric relationship, not all was well as we started to drawn attention to ourselves from the other kindred. Whispers of contempt were sputtered under breath of our lack of commitment to either side of the vampiric jyhad.

In addition to this development other kindred's disdain for us, I learned of internal struggles within myself. I had developed a refined taste for vitae and I became very selective of who I would feed from. Fascinating enough, my sire prefers the vintage of male blood, while my stomach rolls at the mere thought of it. Female blood is my preferred selection; the vintage of woman is the most superb and the only vitae I can stomach. Unlike fine wines which become less bitter in age, it seems that I can not stomach the vitae that is more than 40 years of age due to the bitter taste of death that it leaves. Yet blood under the age of 14 has not had enough time to ferment.

In addition to my developing taste for blood, I also noticed that other effects held sway over my body. The weather was now one of those things. My moods seem to be closely tied with its current status; I assume it has something to do with my new existence.

I did tend to have difficulty with my powers at first, due to the general unknown nature of them. Not all of the experiences of exploring my newfound vampiric powers were a loss, I recall the anguish as well as the thrill. Discovering that, with concentration, I could switch my vision from normal to night vision was a fascinating experience. This intense feeling of total freedom in the darkest of nights, while others stumbled about like peasants in the dark, was intoxicating.

Michelle also taught me the dark secrets of my clan and the true power of the old ways of the discipline named Obtenbration and how it could be used to protect others and myself. She also taught me about the spirit world and the land of the dead as well as some of their customs and ways, as death and ghosts was more her passion than my own at the time.

I found as my supernatural life developed, my mortal ties began to weaken. I continued to write my parents, but kept putting off their visits, as I tried to downplay the fact that I was spending more time with my "girlfriend" then I was in my day classes. Their disapproval was easy to see.

Then it happened. The year was 1857 and my mother was dying. My parents were both old, and I knew it to be unwise to deny seeing them one last time. After much persuasion, I convinced my sire to agree. She would pick them up from the docks at night and I would meet them after finishing my last final for my master's degree. I still have nightmares of that night; the fiery explosion at the docks, still miles away. I could see it; bright as day, my night vision clouded by the dark flicker flames. They never made it; my parents, my sire, all gone from me. They say it was the Sabbat, but if they did it, I had the feeling that someone tipped them off. That day I swore that I would do everything in my power to stop them, so I joined the Camarilla officially. Taking my Arabic and English family wealth, I left the U.S. for a while and used it in Europe so I could assist the Camarilla growth and development in certain region that were having difficulty. Though my moodiness swing are almost famous, my loyalty is unquestionable.

Over the years, I spent my time researching and studying the ancient religions of the old world and collect various relics from their unique beliefs. This once form of income had, by 1927, became a obsession for me. My obsession blinded me into working for a man that many would see as the devil himself, Hitler. During the time, I worked for him in secret, uncovering ancient dig sites and dangerous dark tomes, many of which contained cryptic messages telling of the end of the world. I used to have endless fun debunking these false predictions of our dark future. This was sadly short lived. By the time of the war, I realized what kind of man he was and saw a monster greater than myself in him. So I disappeared and spent my time combing through the ruins of the world looking for mystic or historical items of importance. This little past time allowed me the funding to open my own business in the early 1950s named Armster Export and Import. I decided that the best location for this company would be in the United States do to the extreme amount of political unrest in Europe. Over the next 50 years, I spent my time building this company up and developing my connections over the U.S. While my main office of the company is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I tend to enjoy traveling and spending time at various branches across the U.S. or even scouting for new locations.

This amount of traveling also allowed me time to develop relationships with the leaders of the Camarilla and allowed me to know where I can travel safely hidden from the Sabbat. During my 50 year stay in North Carolina, I became the Seneschal of Winston-Salem for a while and was offered the position of prince after the former prince died in a Sabbat attack. I turned it down due to poor political footholds and extenuating stress on the already weakened Camarilla court. I felt that if I accepted the position, it would lead to a focusing of Sabbat forces toward the city which would ultimately lead to the destruction of the city. So I decided it would be best to support a Primogen named Victor Becket of the clan Ventrue to take the position and helped him develop his rule before I left the area. This brings us up to today; I am currently traveling the U.S. from city to city, setting up branches of my company and looking for a new home.