Willum Timothy, also known as Doctor Timothy, was the Malkavian Primogen of London during the Victorian Age.
His Clan Curse manifested as paranoia, mainly against intellectual infiltration from the Sabbat, especially in the form of the Dementation Discipline.
Biography
Willum Timothy was baptized into darkness at the age of sixty. The Embrace was intended as a punishment for him, as he was a steadfast scientist with a skepticism of the supernatural, an obsession bordering on mania. At the height of the Renaissance, Timothy dabbled in a wide range of physical sciences, arrogantly asserting his mastery of many of them. His sire simply claimed him to prove a point: that the Kiss of a Malkavian would break him. It did, but Doctor Timothy has managed to meticulously piece himself together again. He fully expects other Kindred to display the same indomitable will. The doctor had found what he considered immortality, and resolved to employ it for the furtherance of scientific knowledge.
By the 19th century, the self-styled "Doctor" Timothy realized that he possessed an abundance of knowledge about the world around him, but little about the men and women who inhabited it. The burgeoning science of alienism fascinated him, for the human mind was a mystery he could not fully fathom. He resolved to do all he could to advance this new science, forsaking many of his studies in chemistry and physics to do so. Unfortunately, after centuries of stagnation, he lacked the imagination and creativity of a mortal genius. Much to the chagrin of the Kindred he helped, he desperately attempted to adapt the ideas of Freud and Jung to the world of vampires. He has since formed analogies that are, like his fajade of sanity, highly strained.
Dr. Timothy now claims the largest asylum in Londonas his domain. As part of his obligation, he personally tends to the mortals within the facility, both patients and doctors. Willum considers the Malkavians of London his wards as well. Whenever his sense of duty compels him, he summons a London Lunatic to the lowest level of his asylum, where he conducts a session of psychoanalysis to ensure the continued well-being of the poor soul. The defense of the Camarilla, he insists, depends on the eternal vigilance of all Kindred, especially Malkav's insightful childer.
The doctor is motivated not only by altruism, but also through paranoia and fear of the Sabbat. Doctor Timothy fervently believes that the greatest danger the Sabbat presents is not a physical threat — it is an unseen and intellectual one. Within the Camarilla, he posits, Malkavians have learned to turn their insight to the cause of science, furthering their studies of the human mind. Sabbat Malkavians, on the other hand, are relics of a bygone age, when insanity was viewed as a disease that could be passed from a vampiric host to any victim. He has seen the effects of the Dementation Discipline on victims firsthand, and knows of the time centuries ago when all Malkavians were capable of inflicting it. He is fanatical about looking for signs of its influence at work within the clan, largely because he feels that it is inevitable that a relapse should occur. Should the madness of the Sabbat infect his clan, he argues, the city's degeneration into chaos is assured.
After Dr. Timothy hosted a private demonstration of his ability to interrogate captured Sabbat spies, Valerius quickly extended his invitation. The seneschal has since come to think of Dr. Timothy's regular sessions with his wards as "keeping the Lunatics in line." The status and influence Dr. Timothy receives as primogen has other benefits as well. With growing frequency, the primogen has invited Kindred of other clans into his facility, usually under the guise of gathering information. The invitation is something of a veiled threat, for it is clear ' that some Kindred who enter the asylum do not leave.
Few would dare whisper that neonates who fail to make a proper introduction in London eventually receive Dr. Timothy's "aggressive hospitality." After all, it is not politic to make accusations against one of the primogen.
In the meantime, Dr. Timothy's asylum in northern London has prospered greatly under his influence. It has grown from a modest facility for the incarceration of criminals at the turn of the century to a progressive, modern and brutal facility for the incarceration of the insane. By day, Dr. Timothy sleeps in the Deep Ward, the lowest and most occulted level of the building. Through attunement and telepathy, he has trained his mind to wander through the diurnal thoughts of his patients, savoting their pleasures and pain. Conditioned patients and ghouls are the only mortals who may set foot within the Deep Ward. Ordinary humans would be scarred forever by what they saw.
The very thought of Sabbat infiltration fills Dr. Timothy with wrath, a violent emotion he takes out on some of his more recalcitrant patients. In moments of madness, he disciplines his patients with brutal (and sometimes fatal) results. His most dangerous patient is one he keeps hidden from everyone but his ghouls: a Malkavian antitribu he captured a decade ago. A pack of ghouls brings fresh blood to the captive and tends to his room. They must wear gloves, masks and protective gear as precautions against infection, and they undergo regular examination for signs of corruption from the patient's formidable mental Disciplines. Dr. Timothy conducts this patient's sessions personally, and each is followed by at least half an hour of physical cleansing as well. Dirt breeds sickness, after all, and sickness can fester into madness. When Dr. Timothy is frustrated, he has lengthier sessions with this Cainite, who has become the embodiment of all he hates and fears. A rigid mental block prevents him from ever recognizing that the creature he has tortured, blood bound, and imprisoned is indeed his sire.
Meticulous grooming is the hallmark of a meticulous mind. Dr. Timothy's spectacles are immaculate, and his clothes are freshly laundered each day. His pate is shorn by ghouls each night, so that it conforms to the standards a soldier in the Royal Guard might maintain. Each day, half an hour before dawn, his skin is scoured in a bath of hydrogen chloride by three pretty nurses. This procedure not only reflects his discipline, but also his resistance to mere physical temptation.
Character Sheet
Doctor Timothy, Vigilant Paranoid
Sire: Father Clarence
Nature: Sadist
Demeanor: Caregiver
Generation: 8th
Embrace: 1576
Apparent Age: 60
Physical: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 5, Appearance 3
Mental: Perception 4, Intelligence 5, Wits 4
Talents: Alertness 4, Dodge 3, Empathy 3, Expression 3, Intimidation 5, Subterfuge 4
Skills: Etiquette 3, Security 3
Knowledges: Academics 2, Investigation 2, Law 2, Linguistics 2, Medicine (Psychoanalysis) 5, Occult 3, Psychology 3, Science (Chemistry) 5
Disciplines: Auspex 4, Dominate 5, Fortitude 2, Obfuscate 4
Backgrounds: Herd 5, Resources 3, Retainers 5
Virtues: Conscience 5, Self-Control 4, Courage 2
Morality: Humanity 5
Willpower: 7
Derangements: Paranoia
Merits: Iron Will
References
- London by Night, p. 84