Bad Blood Between Angelo & Christopher
Summary
Angelo and Christopher were initially close allies. They were both underdogs in the vampire world, fighting to get ahead and achieve a position of power. Unfortunately, their relationship soured and now the only way out is for one of them to die. This has been a long time coming, a bitter feud that has its earliest roots buried in centuries past, a thousand cuts that have added over the years until there was a breaking point.
Historical Basis
Christopher came to the New World in the 1700s, once a sufficient city was established for him to hide in plain sight. He left behind a favorable position in London, with the hopes of climbing the ranks in a new land, where there were fewer vampires and far less competition. The Americas were said to be a land rich with gold, if only you'd suffer a century or two of a King's Tyranny until you'd built your fortunes. For a vampire, a century or two was chump-change. Time that would pass in no time. Time that would still be rich with pleasures, wonders, and an easy life by human standards.
Things were not so rosey in the new world.
In England, most of Europe, it was easy enough for a vampire to travel from city to city and family to family. The social order was well understood, there was little upset in the classes, and tradition dictated a measure of respect for those who'd gained power in any vampire family, regardless of where that was. There were centuries of established tradition, both with the humans and the vampires. It was simply the way of things and for creatures so old, it was impossible to remember a time when it was not the way of things. Civilization back to the Romans had upheld the same rules.
The vampires in the new world, the colonies, had no such respect for Christopher or any other outsiders. It had been centuries since such an open land were colonized. The first vampires in the americas were a mix of criminals and malcontents, incredibly brave men, and fools who far underestimated their ability to survive. They had all fought hard for what they scraped together. In those days, even a Vampire would have to work to earn their place in the colonies. Nothing that came before mattered any more. Once Christopher set foot in the new land, his reputation was gone. He was the bottom rung of vampire society.
It was a setback, but a setback Christopher would endure. He spent months angry about the hand life had dealt him, then settled in for the long road ahead. Long nights spent doing the bidding of his betters in the family, groveling and working to earn respect and his place in this new world. All the while, his reputation in Europe aged and decayed. Day by day, his prospects of returning home diminished, while he could only claw his way along at the bottom in the colonies. The months and years ticked by, slowly.
Time and time again over those years, humans were turned and quickly advanced above Christopher in the ranks of the Philadelphia Family. The message was simple: this is the land of the new and the brave. Even we vampires, will not allow an English Vampire to rule us here. They knew his history, he had been nothing more than a royal snob, given great power with relative ease in his homeland, nobility by blood and bite. His old life and riches had been handed to him on a silver platter. As the colonies became the states, sentiment towards him and the old world grew no better.
By the time of the Civil War, Christopher had grown close to another vampire outcast, Angelo. He was among the first Italian Immigrants to wash into the city. His life had been a struggle, climbing the ladder, but not so hard as Christopher. He was in better standing and able to make some headway. Christopher hoped he draft his way up the ranks, riding in Angelo's shadow. After these years at the bottom, he didn't care if he wasn't the ruler, he just wanted some semblance of his old life back. Opportunities came and went, neither daring risk what they had. There was the gold rush out west, and they stayed there. There were new cities and new families created, but they stayed there. It was better to be a middle-class citizen in a family of gold, than to be the king of a peasant town. At least, so they thought.
As the centuries turned, the 1900s roared in, and time continued to pass, Angelo and Christopher found themselves against an impass. The Master of their family remembered them both, from their first days in the city. Christopher's snobbish expectations that the American Vampires bow to his desires, and Angelo's wasteful, aristocratic flare. They had reached their peak. They could climb the ladder no farther.
In the 60s, Christopher organized a coup and backed Angelo as the new master. His reputation was still tainted and no one in the family would back him. He'd never stand a chance. Angelo however, his trusted friend, brother in blood and suffering, his only sin was a desire for a life of excess. In the booming post-war years, that was hardly a sin any more. Money was plentiful, the parties were wild, and the humans all too eager to offer themselves up in a drugged euphoria. They cast out the old vampire master.
Angelo reaped immediate success. The leader of the Family, he married the woman he considered a prize above them all. He'd been courting her for over a century, and this was the final thing he needed to woo her over for good. Those years were incredible and happy. At least, for him.
Christopher's fortunes never changed. For a decade or two, Angelo kept him close, he tasted power and an easy life as a Lietuenant on the inside of the family, if onlly for a little while. Until the wolves came.
The Family had never successfully subjugated the local pack. The Philadelphia Wolves were fierce and indepedent. There was a continuous string of wars, and a continuous need of the wolves. The vampires could never risk killing off any of their key soldier-population. The wolves fought in the Revolution. They fought in the Civil War. They fought in the World Wars. There was no way to wage a war against them during the depression. The riches of the 50s and 60s left the vampires blind to the thought of interfering in the pack. The opportunity passed them by.
In the 80s, Angelo kidnapped not just a group of wolves, but their families. He had seven of them caged in silver, while their families were locked away, just close enough to hear. He commanded the pack to surrender, or lose their brothers, sisters, human families, everything they had. He knew no wolf would allow harm to come to another in their pack. It should have been easy to suppress them. He had seen it done, centuries ago. Armies of wolves raised, just by holding a few key figures hostage. He didn't realize the scope of his mistake until it was too late.
Christopher warned Angelo about suppressing an underdog. He warned him about the consequences for trying to back someone into a corner. They had both lived it all their lives, fighting and clawing for scraps, until they were on top. The lesson never took. Angelo was a fool.
The pack struck back. They were swift and vicious. Werewolves have always been stronger and deadlier than Vampires. The vampires of the world are parasites, intended to serve as management. They were always meant to depend on an outside force. The wolves, they were meant to conquer. They were the army of the damned, intended to be the berserkers of the apocalypse. If Angelo were to subjugate them, it would take time, patience. In theory, patience is a vampire's greatest strength, but not that day.
Angelo's family had been bustling, booming up until that point. In one night the wolves eradicated a quarter of the population. That was their warning. Angelo didn't back down. The next day, they sent their demands, a letter stapled to the severed head of a vampire. The head of his wife. If Angelo didn't back down, there would be no Philadelphia Familiy. The wolves could, and would do it. They had fought through everything to get to the one person he thought he'd protected.
In one night, Angelo could lose it all. The risks were too great. He bowed to the wolves' demands. Their packmates were freed. The Family now owed the pack their allegiance, restitution. The opposite of what Angelo had wanted.
In a fit of paranoia, Angelo blamed Christopher for the whole affair. It was clearly, Christopher trying to start another coup, this time backed by the wolves, because no one in the family would dare support him against their beloved master. It was the beginning of a long spiral to the bottom. Christopher was cast out, betrayed, and he would never get a chance to return.
By 2020, Christopher was at rock bottom. He had followers, but none of them with any measure of power. He made one final proposal to Angelo: let me take my followers, we'll settle a new family in the North. We'll go somewhere you'll never hear of us. It'll be the next new, big city. Not that he had great odds of that, there were no new frontiers to explore. Instead of letting them free, Angelo killed Christopher's second in command, his companion, girlfriend, maybe future wife. She was a human, but brilliant in her foresight and mental capabilities.
Trapped at the bottom, and with nothing left to lose, Christopher's decided he would rather watch the world burn, than see Angelo comfortable for a day longer.
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