Ophelia Schwartz

From Circle Of The Crone

Player - Hilde Heyvaert

Name - Ophelia Black (formerly Ophelia Schwartz)

picture by Pieter Vanhaecke You are born to lose and lose yourself,

to hope, to fear, to make yourself and others restless, fear death and look forward to it, and what is worse, never to know where you really stand.

Seneca

Quote: Eternity is but a theory, when push comes to shove we are still subjected to mortality. Memento Mori: remember you'll die. For some death may come easy. And for others it will creep up on them unsuspectedly while they sleep...

Contents 1 Information 2 Brief history 3 Rumours 4 Others about Ophelia Schwartz

Information

Clan - Mekhet (Status 2 - Relatively well known but she happily takes on the roll of the obligatory enfant terrible that wants little to do with her Clan. She does make the exeption for Clan meetings organised by Lord Randall Channing the priscus for London. He is also the only person she will accept as her Priscus. Much to the chagrin of Shadow Priscii in Belgium.)

Alucinor bloodline. She's out of touch with most of the bloodline for personal reasons. The only other Dream Walker she's known to speak to is Cricket.

Age - Unknown, she seems to be relatively young (appears to be about 16), but as she refuses to speak of her age and past, other than she originates from L.A. and is half-Irish, quarter American and quarter Rom gypsy, there is little known about her.

Location -Tottenham Hale (London), UK; Mechelen, Belgium or Antwerp, Belgium.

Factions - none. Former Ravens and former Free Congregation.

Specialties - Ghosts, Ghost hunting, oneiromancy, premonitions, psychology, dance, firearms, archery, violin, Uratha, geomancy.

Deity worshipped - Triad Gods of Sleep: Morpheus, Phobethor and Phantasos. But mainly Morpheus. Strong sympathies towards the path of the Morrigan and a keen interest in many principles of the "Left Hand Path".

Brief history

Ophelia is a young Mekhet of Irish-American origin who generally likes to keep most information about her known only to a select few. What is known however, is that she is highly intelligent, and at least slightly derranged and specialising in a dazzling aray of subjects. Most commonly known as a psychologist, oneiromancer and specialist in Ghosts, the Uratha and old world magic, and her like for the wrong type of men. She in fact a skilled geomancer, witch, dancer and musician (she plays the violin) Many mistake her for a Daeva because of her appearance (striking looks 4) which she swaps between beautiful in an eery way (with scars) or just beautiful (without scars).

She seems to have a special link with the Ordo Dracul, and she is mostly seen in the company of members of the Ordo Dracul (she was in a coterie with a Mekhet Dragon [the murdered Erik/Ericsson], and she was the girlfriend of the late Joachim Winter, Ordo leader of the Benelux) and is concequentially rumoured to be responsible for the good relation between Dragons and Crone in Antwerp. She was close to Jorgo Proclaytova-Mecha (former Prince of Antwerp, now living somewhere in the US) whom she regards as an older brother. And to the Gangrel Dragon known as Daniel, who is rumoured to be her brother. They do seem to show an actual family recemblance in both appearance and personality. Currently she is often seen in the company of Karel De Wulf of the Ordo.

Rebellious in nature, dangerous, stubborn and tempestous, always carrying at least one firearm or her trusty crossbow, possessing the ability to see and communicate with ghosts and suffering from hallucinations, visions, premonitions, flashes from past, present and future and nightmares; Ophelia is most likely to be the most troubled Crone in Belgium. On more than one occasion she has turned around and has (discretely) displayed an unknown and often downright frightening power she seems to be able to use for scouting, predicting the future, destruction of the mind and mental healing. Her true heritage is known to but a select few, and no one is aware of just how strong her powers of Insomnium are. Or whatever other powers she possesses. But most prefer not to know either, for she's quite often shown that she's capable of immense destruction with very little efford.

As a Raven she recognises no authority of other Crones (and often no authority full stop) and does her utmost to avoid the Circle's authority figures at all cost, lest she avoids conflicts. The only exeption to this are Dokisha and Sarus who have some authority over her. Lately she has allied herself with the Mechelen based Malinas coterie after having become involved with their Charger, a young Crone Gangrel called David Grange.

Together with the controversial Dermott Asa Arcane she started the Phantasma Society, a group of Kindred that studies ghosts and spirits, altho her involvement in that these nights is next to nonexistant.

She was one of the first to join her ex Elliott Grimm in the Free Congregation, becoming the groups Haruspex (seer).

She spends much of her time in Tottenham Hale, one of the London Burroughs which she has the right to call her own. Concequentially she is known in Greater London and London Within as the Keeper of Tottenham Hale.

She's very well aware that the vast majority of her Covenant (and several of other covenants too) would love to see her disappear permanently, but in fact she doesn't care one bit. She's quite content to live in her own world with a chosen few. In most cases she really does not care about what people think about her. Ophelia in fact has the luxery to continue this as she has friends in high places that are more than willing to protect her.

She has long kept her "membership" of the Alucinor bloodline a secret, but as recently it did leak, she openly admitted to be one of the Sandmen, altho she remains reluctant to discuss the matter further than on a need to know basis (and as far as she's concerned, people do not need to know).

Ophelia has been switching between membership of the Antwerp Coven, Elliott Grimm's Free Congregation and being a nomad. After having left Antwerp for a while because of the disagreements with the former ruling body Kathryn de Volange and her court of miscreants (who turned out to be mostly Brood) she returned to Antwerp after Prince Sébastien de Sénancourt de Valtran took over power and made her his Princely Harpy. The two are rumoured to be more than just friends, and have been sighted together on pretty much every Elysium or Gathering in Belgium since he took praxis. What her boyfriend [1] Elder Sarus Black thinks of this one can but guess.

Ophelia and David Grange, at the Imbolc Masked Ball in Antwerp.

Photo by Nele Falisse.

Rumours

• Ophelia is actually a member of the Ordo Dracul (Sworn of the Dying Light), infiltrating the Circle. The Dragons that she's seemingly close with are in fact her bodyguards.

• Ophelia is seriously considering to leave the Circle for the Ordo Dracul.

• She's never without the company of an ancient and increadibly powerful ghost, that will protect her from harm, and that is quite capable of destroying a Kindred within seconds.

• Ophelia has friends in extremely high places, hurting her will have concequences.

• If she ever starts quoting Poe or another equally angsty author then it's time to run and not look back.

• Ophelia didn't just get badly scarred in that poltergeist-attack, her sire decided to experiment during her embrace, which has caused her to be part ghost herself, possessing a range of numina (ghost powers).

• She only rejoined the Antwerp Coven because of her lover, David Grange, in an attempt to keep him safe.

• She's the best Geomancer in Belgium, surpassing even the Ordo geomancers in skill. Concequentially she can tap into leylines and use them as "batteries" for her magic.

• Ophelia is an Ordo experiment that got out of hand in such a way that the Ordo simply can't be bothered anymore, focussing on her brother instead.

• Some of Ophelia's best friends are werewolves. She can count on them to keep her safe when need arises.

Others about Ophelia Schwartz

• Marcel Vanerum of the Lancea Sanctum: "Mijn vader zaliger zei altijd da as ge niks goeds over iemand kunt zeggen, ge beter helemaal niks zegt." (Translation: "My late father always said that if you can't say anything good about someone, you better say nothing at all.")

• Alexandria Karuna High Priestess of the Circle of the Crone Limburg:"I guess we're more alike than we thought. Something which can be a good but also a bad thing. Only time will tell."

• Imanuel: "Zalige vouw. Praat te snel maar zalige vrouw.

• Dokisha of the Circle of the Crone : "She is underestimated by many. She has contacts in almost every nation. Her faith is unquestionable."

• Hendrik Buckinkx of the Carthian Movement: "Ophelia Schwartz as our Prince. The least I can say, is that this is unexpected. There's other candidates who I would've preferred, but as long as nobody better steps forward, Ophelia and Lady Kathryn-with-the-many-names have my support. After all, there are far worse alternatives."

• Staff. Dr. Gerhardt Thielemann of the Circle of the Crone Limburg:"She's a rare flower amongst our kind: most of us only tend to rot after we die again."

• Joshua St-Martin, skin rider. "Should harm befall on her, I will personally see that the culprit is turned inside out and the Lady Kathryn can have his guts for garters or whatever she would like to use him for. And while I'm complaining about harm, I do not approve of those Gangrel boys she shares her bed with. Especially not of that overgrown snob coward of a housecat and that arrogant overconfident lapdog. The former should occupy himself with arranging an appointment to get permanently nutered, the latter with fetching sticks and bringing the newspaper.

• David Grange : "She's got a tight body, need I say more!"

• Takeda Kyuzo : "She seems to possess some magical abilities. Whether it's wise to show them off at every possible opportunity however... But wisdom will come with age."

• Bert Stassen: "She needs a collar and a litterbox. And then we should housebreak her."

• Some times silence is better. She should have learned this by now. This is the prove that some persons will not learn what good is for there un-life’s. I hope that she will be silent in the near future.