Damek Ruthven was the eldest childe of Lord Ruthven, and an honored member of the Tzimisce clan.
Biography[]
Damek had already been a Voivode when Dacia was ruled by King Decebalus and even centuries later would excert control over the ruins of the ancient Dacian capital - a prize that any medieval Tzimisce warlord would crave.
Around 1232 he was the Voivode of Sarmizegetusa, and owned the stronghold that one night would become Hunedoara Castle, where he secretly protected the torpid form of the Tzimisce Antediluvian. At this point, he was one of the most knowledgeable genealogists and scholars of the history of the clan, a skilled koldun in the Spirit Ways and a noted warlord in his own right.
The voivode maintained a number of settlements populated by an extensive herd and numerous revenants to carry his will while he rested inside his fortress-temple, sat on a throne carved entirely of fused and reshaped bones, draped in thick, dark furs. The skulls of his defeated enemies ringed the dais on which that throne stood, and only a few of them were other than Cainite.
As a habit, he was very fond of grooming young brides; he would have a virgin girl-child instructed in her wifely duties while growing into adulthood, before turning her into a ghoul and finally, on their wedding night, granting her the embrace. He would proceed to use those women as vassals and simply discard them, when another caught his eye.
Damek was eventually destroyed in the interminable internecine clan conflicts that plagued the Dark Medieval era, and much of Damek's lands were inherited by his most notable child-bride, Danika Ruthven, who quickly realized she would also be replaced as soon as Damek grew bored of her, and pledged her loyalty to her sire's rivals.
Appearance[]
Damek Ruthven was more than seven feet tall, clearly not the size he had been as a mortal man, but otherwise lacking any signs of obvious reshaping for he did not choose to present himself as entirely inhuman, either in beauty or repulsiveness. The man was not Embraced in his youth. His face was high cheeked and his pale eyes deep set, lined with care and toil. The long, brown beard and the curls spilling over his shoulders were both liberally streaked with white and iron gray. His enormous hands were scarred and rough, his limbs knotted with muscle. He wore antique garments, a cap of fur and felt, a long tunic that left his arms bare, baggy trousers and leather sandals, all without the slightest trace of ornamentation. He wore no jewelry or any other obvious signs of his status. The force of his personality filled his throne room with the awareness of his power more completely than any physical symbol could hope.
References[]
- Lair of the Hidden, p. 79
- Dark Ages Clan Novel 13: Tzimisce, p. 224, etc