<strong>Name</strong>: Sabien Theunissen<br/><strong>Race</strong>: Vampire<br/><strong>Gender</strong>: Female<br/><strong>Age (apparent)</strong>: 26<br/><strong>Age (actual)</strong>: 453<br/><br/><strong>Appearance:</strong>Rather on the short side of the scale, though not to the degree of being particularly abnormal for such, being about 5'4".  Long, straight black hair flows back, hanging loose nearly to her rear, cut even just above the waist.  Pale grey eyes seem fairly blasé about the world about her with emotions only rarely putting in an appearance as they flicker past.  Her skin is pale, though not to a degree that would be especially noteworthy for someone that spends most of their time in a laboratory, with the smoothness and color of a soft cream touched with butter.  Usually found wearing a lab coat in a number of colors, though black makes up a slightly larger percentage of her wardrobe than others, paired with black slacks and matching shoes; loafers or sneakers on average, though a pair of pumps or heels have been known to put in an appearance for special guests.  Outside of the lab she tends towards silky blouses and dresses, favoring darker colors, white and silver.  (The image is not wholly accurate as her hair is longer than depicted)<br/><br/>(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d9/Sabien.jpg)<br/><br/><strong>Background:</strong><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Born several centuries ago, Sabien has seen many changes come to the world, and she has endeavored to change with it.  Always considered something of a precocious child, she was found by Willem Kloeter, the vampire who changed her.  Originally, he purchased her from her parents to be his apprentice cum servant, not unusual for the era or the area.  Under his care she was kept all but under guard within his remote house.  She was left to tend to his libraries and to care for the tomes and grounds of the house while periodically being fed upon and gradually brought around to the reality of vampirism.  By the time she reached maturity, there was little else to her world beyond Willem and the books of his home.  Eventually she was brought over to the other side, somewhat surprising him that she survived the transformation process, and was wed in blood to him that night.<br/><br/>It was perhaps some four decades thereafter that a small rabble of newly whelped vampires brought unbecoming attention to the area.  Their misdeeds and activities left no few number of mortal corpses in their wake, and while bodies were seldom found, their absences were oft noticed.  This brought the attention of a small number of fanatical hunters who felt they had something of a religious obligation to the deceased, thus sought out the creatures who had slain their mortal kin.<br/><br/>Though Willem was not involved in their deeds, nor had he even taken particular note of their repasts, he was observed by the hunters in the midst of obtaining a tender morsel to return to the house to share with his bloodwife.  The hunters struck, quickly and quietly in an alley, where Willem fought them, leaving several of their number injured, but did not escape unharmed himself.  He had thought his escape clean, alas, one of the hunters had with him a hound that was able to sniff out his faint trail of blood, leading out to the country side and to his remote estate.<br/><br/>In the wee hours of the night, shortly before dawn, the hunters came to the house, seeking the destruction of Willem.  Once more, he fought with them, and though he felled nearly half their number, half was not enough.  Sabien entered the room to see what was about when one hunter, an apparent knight errant and member of the faith, clove his head from his shoulders as Willem told her to run.  Stepping into the room she had just left, Sabien retrieved an old yet sturdy cavalry blade Willem had kept over the fireplace, returning to the prior room and intent on retrieving at least something of her lifetime lover.  Her predatory nature came to the fore and she nearly lost herself in a maddened frenzy with the hunters, even as her bloodgroom's body began rotting.  <br/><br/>She felled two of the three remaining hunters, as much through accident as design, leaving only the knight himself alive.  He managed a solid blow direct against her blade, shattering the weapon and staggering the vampire, then drew a harsh straight cut across the smoothness of her stomach.  With a twisted smile he kicked her down and set about torching the house, commenting that if she so loved her fellow monster, he would assure they at least shared the same pyre.<br/><br/>Just moments after dawn the knight set the house ablaze, assured that the monsters within would burn with nowhere to run.  Unfortunate for him, he was e'er so slightly wrong.  Drawing upon the blood of the fallen hunters, Sabien was able to fuel her body enough to seal the wound he had inflicted, if not completely then at least enough to no longer risk bleeding out entirely.  Taking the ring from Willem's finger, she slipped it into her bodice and dragged one of the hunters bodies with her to the kitchen.  There, she slowly, painfully pulled open a section of the floor, which covered an ancient though seldom used well.  Pulling the fallen hunter with her, she had only enough energy remaining to throw him into the well before her to soften the fall as the house burned around them.<br/><br/>It was nearly a week before she was in sufficient condition to claw her way back to the surface, under the perfect darkness of the new moon.  She hid in the wilderness, waylaid bandits who had, in turn, waylaid travelers, and garnished herself a small yet tidy purse from her deeds, as well as a collection of ill-kempt weapons.  Shortly after dusk, she turned to a nearby town, turning in the weapons she had gathered as well as every copper penny in the purse in order to purchase a weapon of higher standing.  She asked, then, that the smithy take the ring she had collected and to forge it about the pommel of the hilt.  After, she returned to the wilds, spending each night hunting in the dark, collecting the blood her body so desperately needed, and practiced what she could.  On the occasions that travelers passed through her wood she would oft sit with them, share tales, trade moves with any guards they kept and occasionally share their food or beds, only to disappear before dawn once more.<br/><br/>She carried on this way for nearly a decade before setting out once more.  She stopped in taverns and towns, at inns and hostels, quietly seeking the knight errant.  In a relatively short time (as such things are measured) she found tale of his passing by, and turned herself to follow.<br/><br/>She came upon him perhaps an hour after sunset, deep in a forest and far from her home, travelling with a band with three other knights.  Quietly she crept through the forest, watching and savoring the moment, then decided that such would gain her little in what was to come, so approached their camp openly, though hooded her face with her cloak.  As she neared she was invited by one to share their fire and what few, humble offerings they had.  She accepted the offer of fire, though politely declined the offering of food and hospitality.  As she neared the fire, she looked to the knight and removed her hood, her eyes flat and grey.  "You have wronged me and mine, my lord.  I see it as a point of personal honor to see such things righted and would demand satisfaction for the slaying of my husband these ten years past."<br/><br/>The knight initially did not recognize her, of course, having only seen her briefly, and then only in the dark.  With her words and the cloak back, he quickly staggered to his feet, drawing his steel blade quickly to hand.  "Fell beast!  What concept have you of honor?  You and your so-called husband who feed on the blood of men!  It is the solemn duty of those with the ability to do so to destroy such monsters whenever and wherever they may be found, whatever depraved and satirical appearance they may have to parroting mortal behavior!"  With his words, the other knights hands moved to their blades, beginning to draw.<br/><br/>Sabien spoke softly in turn, "my grievance is with thee, sir knight, not with your companions.  I will not touch them, though if steel is drawn, they will be acknowledging that your debt becomes theirs."  With that the blade she had spent these years with leapt to her hand, reaching out at arms length to almost touch the blade of the knight errant.  "Your hunt that night was concluded with the wrong game, and while you slew a man who may have fed of the blood of men, you and yours did fail to find those who were guilty of slaying your kin and kind.  You left the village to the fell depravities of the six and allowed them to move on to other lands, to torment the peoples of other lands.  And while you did manage to slay my husband, you left his wife to avenge his wrongful death."  With that, her control slipped and the fight was joined in earnest.<br/><br/>The knight held his own against her, having many more years of practice and still wearing some of his armor and in spite of her superior speed, strength and reflexes.  In a moment she was distracted as one of the younger knights felt the urge to draw steel to protect his mentor, only to have his sword-arm fall into the flames, dimming the light of the flame in the dousing of blood, though the distraction earned her a blow from the knight, drawing a bead of blood from her other arm.  For several long minutes the knight and Sabien circled one another, the ringing of steel against steel echoing through the forest.  Slowly, though, the mortality of the knight began to wear on him, his body wearying and wearing from the constant exertion and weight of gear.  It seemed to have lasted much longer than it was, perhaps only lasting 5 or seven minutes at most, before she disarmed him, his blade falling opposite him across the fire.  With a flicker of movement, the tip of her blade came to his throat, near enough to draw the barest line of red across his collarbone.<br/><br/>"Blood calls to blood, my knight.  And what manner of payment will you offer to balance the blood price for my husband?  Shall it be spilt upon the bare earth, to feed the green and growing things, or shall it be paid to the widow?"  The knight spent a long moment, glaring at her over the polished surface of her blade, and without a word lunged forward, impaling himself upon the steel and spilling his blood upon the ground.<br/><br/>"So be it," she said softly, and with a flicker of movement, withdrew the blade, flicking his blood across the small meadow as the blade arced back and struck his head from his shoulders, leaving it to fall to the earth.  With a practiced flick, she removed the blood from the blade, sheathing the steel before her hands went through the practiced movements of the act of contrition for the faith.  Looking to the other two knights, she nodded and stepped away from his body.  "Do with him as you will.  Hunt and find those of my kind who become too dangerous or too wild, who slay the sons and daughters of man without regard.  But know this, too...if you come for my kind, if you hunt the wrong prey, if you slay without regard yourselves, know that I will make it my purpose to find you and restore the balance."  With that, she turned into the dark of the woods, and left.<br/><br/>Since then several centuries have passed and Sabien has restored her collection of books, spending most of her evenings perusing ancient and mystical tomes, hoarding lore and knowledge like some ancient miser.  With the wonders of modern technologies, she has managed even to obtain legitimate documentation and even completed a small number of degrees from various major schools.  In a bit of an ironic turn, she has hired herself to the government, establishing a basement laboratory in one of the local government buildings and doing more eclectic research on their behalf.  Periodically, inquiries have come through her department regarding the possibilities described by rumors of vampire attacks, which are usually disproven, downplayed or discredited.<br/><br/>Of course, considering her studies and research, it is not unusual that she has some eccentricities of her own.  She always comes in early in the day and usually leaves late in the evening.  Her lab assistant is usually the one who is called upon to attend various meetings or to bring visitors down to the lab.  The usual explanation, of course, is that Sabien has more important things to do than to deal with various persons shuffling about in business suits.  By evenings, though, she departs into the city, on occasion wearing a long, black leather coat that makes an odd sort of chiming sound if she walks too quickly.  Usually, though, she and her lab assistant, Tiphanie, depart together to wine and dine in town.  Of course, Tiphanie is not simply a lab assistant, but it would not do to mention such in the government building.  Assistant, keeper, secretary, sparring partner, occasional dinner, oft-time lover, the young woman has made something of a deal with the devil in exchanging her services and her silence for the opportunity to study and, perhaps eventually, become, a vampire.</div></div><br/><strong>Personality:</strong>Left to her own devices, Sabien will spend all of her time in her lab/library, only poking her head out long enough to obtain the blood she needs to survive.  Generally she takes only the minimum amount she needs, though has also spent some time researching alternatives to human blood with no luck to date.  Her involvement in the local vampire society is almost exclusively as a moderator to some of the more extreme attitudes.  Generally, she leaves others of her kind as well as hunters alone.  Each have their place in the system.  However, if vampires begin to leave too many corpses or evidence of vampirism, or if a hunter begins becoming far too effective at hunting her kind, she will draw her sword once more to restore the balance.  With news of the Dhampir, her wish is to study the creature and, perhaps, to bring them quietly over to vampiric society, that they might act as even more of a moderator than she.<br/><br/><strong>Equipment:</strong>Library, modern computer equipment, newer model sedan, Desert Eagle handgun, leather coat w/ titanium under-weave, master crafted medieval rapier (now with titanium cladding), wide  banded choker (decorative ceramic plates with titanium wires), extensive clothing, small apartment.