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Paolo watched the gathering below with an uninterested stare. It had begun with the women blushing, their faces, necks and chest turning a rosy shade as the men who brought them whispered sweet things in their ears. Lambs, that was all they were, and they were seduced to the slaughter by pretty faces, nice clothes and the natural spell vampires bathed their victims in.
A look passed through the male and few female vampires in the room much like a wave did over sand. It was a confirmation to go and, as swiftly as the doors were blocked, a dozen hisses rose from the murmur of conversation and harmonized over it. A flash of dull white here and there and the quiet gathering turned into a bloody revel. The disguises were thrown off and those poor, stupid people learned in one horrifying moment that they hadn’t been led to a well decorated hollow, but a pit infested with serpents.
Background[]
Paolo was born in Venice, Italy to Annetta and Drago Anasetti. He was born during the Renaissance era and grew up listening to his father singing Monteverdi madrigals and later also performing Baroque style music. At a young age, Drago nurtured Paolo’s musical talent. By the time he was 15, Paolo was a skilled violinist and played for various officials around Venice. When he was 18, Paolo married Giovanna, the girl he’d been betrothed to when he was three and she five. Together, Paolo and Giovanna had three children born. When Giovanna was nine months pregnant with their fourth child, the family was attacked in their Italy home. Despite Paolo’s best efforts to ward off the three vampires (and not draw attention from non-magic folk) his wife, unborn child and three children were killed. While it was their intent to also kill Paolo, the three vampires fled the scene due to sunrise and left Paolo for dead. Instead of dying, Paolo turned into one of the monsters responsible for the destruction of his family.
For the next four years, Paolo roamed the country roads, dwelling in dirt during the day and submitting to his more violent instincts by nightfall. He would feed on passing by people and, when necessary, on cattle as well. Finally in late 1651 Paolo’s urges were more in his grasp and his violent acts dwindled down to necessary feedings. He spent the next twenty years hunting the trio of vampires that massacred his family in Italy and saw his revenge on the three of them by bounding them with thumb and toe screws and stringing them up for the sun.
With his urges under control, his family gone and those responsible for it all punished, Paolo began living and socializing with his fellow vampires in Paris, France. While he didn’t participate in the bloody revels that his kinfolk held, Paolo did feed and eventually began taking part in mostly physical relationships. When the classical period came about, which Paolo was introduced to via Beethoven in a French salon, his attention turned from self loathing to this less ornamental style of composing and Paolo lost himself in it. Learning from and immolating Beethoven, Paolo spent his days by candle light reacquainting himself with music. While this new love allowed Paolo to turn his attention away from self-loathing, Paolo still wasn’t a card carrying member of the vampire elite. Eventually the division between himself and his comrades became too wide and Paolo once again returned to roaming on his own.
For several years, Paolo played piano and violin for multiple secular institutions, often times on a needs-by-need basis. This existence was a happy one for Paolo as he had the freedom to move about from city to city when it inevitably became unsafe for him to remain in one location. Often times he would make himself a home by causing single upscale individuals, usually men, to suddenly decide that they had to move far away. Paolo would take over their home and estate until it became necessary for him to leave.
In 2000, this existence was interrupted by the arrival of Sarah, a vampire and the only surviving member of the former Council of Ages. With her arrival came an offer that Paolo couldn’t resist. There were few ancients left in the vampire world. Rothai’s lust for blood and destruction left only a small handful of older vampires and even smaller number of ones that qualified to rule with authority over the whole race. Sarah’s offer to include Paolo as a junior member of this authority was irresistible and Paolo accepted.
Now in 2001, Paolo has become privy to all the secrets of the former Council, including the records of sanctioned vampire turnings and ones that were not sanctioned, however recorded after the fact. Paolo discovered that the three vampires responsible for his condition and the murder of his family were sired by Rurik Voronkov, puppet to the former council and the vampire who failed to destroy his three turned ‘children’ when they could not be leashed.
Paolo currently teaches Potions
Personality[]
Paolo is a very introverted person who rarely trusts anyone enough to allow them to see all sides of him and fully appreciate the kind of person he is. It took him a long time to get comfortable with the idea of being a vampire, though Paolo still has periods of self loathing because of what he is. He is deeply loyal, though often times moody and shifts between moments of happiness and utter despair. Despite this, Paolo usually appears calm, quiet and collected. This mask hides Paolo’s shifty moods as well as his generally patient and scheming personality.
Relationships[]
Romantic[]
When Paolo was mortal, he had a wife named Giovanna. Other than her, he hasn’t gotten seriously involved with any women and only uses them for sex.
Children[]
With Giovanna, Paolo had three children born and one unborn child. His first two born were Annetta (b. 1639) and Drago (b. 1642) and were named after his parents. Bertoldo was born in 1644 and was named after Giovanna’s father. Their unborn child, had it been a girl, would’ve been named Enrica, after her mother.
Family[]
Paolo’s mother was Annetta, born in 1600, and his father was Drago, born in 1589. He had four siblings: Celso, (b. 1617, d. 1681), Serafina (b. 1623, d. 1626), Geltrude (b. 1628, d. 1674), and Roberto (b. 1632, d.1701)
Played By[]
This character is played by Lilly.