Vincent Tyrel

Clan Tzimisce
Brother of the Shield of Skulls

Description


~Dr. Tyrel is an older gentleman waxing his mid to late 60s. The man's white hair thins back from his pale scalp, but he keeps his hair and all of himself meticulously groomed. Vincent appears quite professional, in fact, if a touch old-fashioned. He fancies older-styled suits of the 60s and 70s, preferring shades of brown, and sometimes complete with hat and walking cane. However, despite his age Vince walks spry enough that a cane would only be for show. Vince is not overweight nor thin, though his graying skin wrinkles with age. He is not an ugly man, just an elderly one. But his ice-blue eyes flash with high intelligence and shrewd caliber. Indeed, the sheen of his gaze seems too intent. People tend to give him a wide berth unless he chooses to smile and behave as pleasantly as he actually can.~

OOC: Appearance 1

"There must be compassion for there to be cruelty."

History


Youth

Seventy-five years ago, Vincent Tyrel was born in Boston, Massachusetts. The Great Depression was just beginning and fascists were creating military states throughout Europe and Asia. But Vince was one of the lucky ones. His parents were wealthy from stocks invested in the right companies. While other families collapsed into poverty, they preserved their decent way of life. Without worrying about whether he'd have dinner that night, Vince was able to think of other things. And he found himself with a morbid curiousity turned towards the world around him. He was always curious about what made things tick. He poked and prodded (so to speak) at people, animals, and things just to see their reactions. Vince set up a variety of experiments and ran them under people's noses. He was always an analytical youth. And quite the nerd, too: Vince spent most of his school life alone, too curious and contemplative for other youths' preference.

But that never bothered Vincent Tyrel. He was interested in people from a scientific viewpoint rather than a personal one. World War II loomed into his life, but it only cost him his only brother, who died in Normandy. He was too young to be drafted. In '47, Vincent headed off to university: Harvard, of course. He studied psychology -- big shock there. And Freud and other psychologists of the past were going out of fashion. Now it was the behaviorists. As curious as Vince was about people, he found that behaviorism answered no questions. It only posed new ones by manipulating people in ways science already understood. So despite its popularity, Vince's doctorate, achieved by age 28, was preceded by his thesis that questioned behaviorism at the core, pointing out its ineffectiveness versus degrees of self-awareness.

Of course, Dr. Tyrel didn't consider himself or anyone truly immune to behaviorism. But he was self-conscious of his place in society and its behavioristic effects. Self-actualization was his greatest goal: to be so fully self-aware that no outside stimulants directed his behavior. Indeed, Vincent's psychological theories were visionary preludes to cognitivism. The psychologist set up an office in Boston. Here he treated patients with a variety of disorders, from the neurotic to the psychotic, in private as well as a nearby mental institution. Despite its unethical nature, many of his patients were unwitting guinea pigs in his own psychological studies. Some of his advice to patients was purposely bad (though disguised in professional-sounding terms), in order to gauge their reactions and responses to a variety of stimulants in later sessions.

Great Work

As some of his work gained recognition, Vincent found himself on the "upper end" of popularity for the first time in his life. Cognitivists were paraphrasing his theses and methods of treatment included some of his postulations and suggestions. Vincent even got married in his mid-30s, to an intelligent and compassionate social worker named Josephine. They had two daughters, both of whom would grow to become intelligent and contributive workers in the fields of dentistry and aerodynamics. Vincent had little effect on their career choices.

And that was due to the fact that his work became all-consuming. He isolated from his family while penning his ideas and planning his experiments. The US Government found use for the psychologist, too. Vince helped fight the Cold War on the sidelines, particularly during the early 70s and the Vietnam conflict. Some soldiers were exposed to "brain-washing", particularly for certain "black ops". Vince was called in to break that indoctrination once it became undesireable. Since it was mainly advanced and extreme behaviorism, Vince countered with extreme cognitivism. Electric charges delivered pain to the subjects, not to mold their behavior but shock them from the cast the brainwashing put them in originally. As electric charges were delivered, they were required to answer questions about themselves until their original personalities were restored. This method worked with a 93.72% success rate and Vincent was heaped with financial laurels for his work.

Pleased by his work, Vince began to treat himself to the same applications. Impatient for results, Vincent was hungry to self-actualize. He began to mutilate himself physically, through vicious scarring and burning. He would deliver electric charges to himself, hold matches to his skin until he screamed, and sliced up his face while shaving. His wife and children were very worried about his constant injuries, but he seemed perfectly sane -- and he was, save this dangerous obsession. And just as his children headed off to college in the early 80s, Vincent decided physical pain wasn't enough. He had to strike himself off at the heart, too, to truly shock himself into full awareness. And so, he began to manipulate his dear wife. Slowly but surely, she came to despise him. Their arguments became constant. And never did she suspect that Vince was purposely orchaestrating the outcome. Divorce was inevitable. He wanted to draw it out to inflict more emotional wounds upon himself. The guilt he felt at the hurt he poured onto Josephine was more than enough, and her barbed words to him was only lemon juice poured on the wound. But he got what he wanted.

Vincent left Josephine the house and moved back into the city of Boston. He maintained his own apartment, growing more and more withdrawn and mean. He still saw his patients. But his manipulation grew crueler. And finally the board of physicians investigated. In the early 90s, Vincent was stripped of his practicing license. Suffering severe depression, the good doctor turned to alcohol. It probably would have been the end of him.

Metamorphosis

But the Sabbat saw potential in Vincent Tyrel. Gustav Kraken of Clan Tzimisce was instructed to Embrace the elderly man by Boston's Voivode. Gustav paid Vince a visit at his home and told him exactly what he was -- a vampire -- and that this would be Vincent's fate, like it or not. But Vince perked at the opportunity. An eternity to seek his goal? An immortal life by which he could seek self-actualization?! He bent his neck gladly to the Fiend. Vince was soon Embraced and buried in the nearest cemetery. The old man turned vampire barely dug his way out of the earth. Gustav then took Vince under his wing as his teacher. From his sire, Vince learned the life of the Sabbat, of the Fiends, and of Necronomists. Once these first few months passed, Gustav relayed to Vince his purpose -- why he was chosen for the Embrace.

It seemed that the Sabbat, especially the Lasombra and Tzimisce leaders, wanted modern and up-to-date systems on how to better direct the sect and manipulate those outside the sect (or was that the other way around?). While most of them were highly effective leaders, few were so megalomanic that they didn't believe they could improve even more. Modern psychology could provide the keys they wanted. Moreso, they felt psychological techniques could be effective in breaking down Blood Bonds. So Vince turned his studies and experiments on the nature of Blood Bonds with cognitive counter-techniques, similarly to how he approached the behavioristic brain-washing. Except he recognized the Bond as physiological rather than psychological. Many subjects died of blood loss while he experimented…but it was all in the name of science!

So for the next decade, Vincent served the diocese of Boston. He discovered that he could very well weaken the Blood Bond despite a variety of Bond-enforcing stimulants. His techniques were recorded. Vince also ran other experiments, extending cognitive theories to the undead mind. And he found little difference, save extremisms, between the human and vampiric mind. Indeed, he postulated and proved through scientific method that vampires were easier to manipulate due to the awakened instincts of the Beast Within. He even tested a few Toreador enemies in the midst of battle. While his sectmates rushed to the fight, Vincent stayed back and observed the enemy Kindred. His his cruel, barbed words soon sent them into mad frenzies, making them easy targets for his sectmates to deliver coup de grace. So he added them and his sectmates as eyewitness accounts to his work. Although the sect at large would have found this discovery despicable, the Cardinal and a few Prisci privy to his work found it quite entertaining.

By 2004, Vincent was told that his work in Boston was done. He was reassigned to the frontlines of the Jyhad and sent to Centropolis, Missouri. Here he was to study the Cainites on all sides of the war and develop his studies of the Beast Within. According to one Priscus, he wanted to see if Vincent could learn how to incite frenzies without a single vampiric power, with only the cruelty of his insightful speech. Vince was eager to discover if he had what it take even if he really didn't want to leave his home town. He moved to this small Midwestern city and leased a small home. The first floor became his expanded study area and the bedroom for the keeping of…guests. The basement became his haven, where rich earth, filtered of uncomfortable rocks, straight from under Boston's cobblestone streets was poured. Here he would pursue his truth with new environments, new factors, and new subjects to consider.

Significant Other


Vincent met this Assamite Templar, Jaeda Baha, while wandering the outskirts of Kansas City in late spring of 2006. Though Jaeda came across as a cold fish, her dusky skin afforded her proof of her age and experience. Vince was intrigued and brokered conversation for several hours. Mutual curiosity about one another became an exploration of one another's sensuality and drives. With separate dioceses providing separate Vinculum bonds, only their dual intrigue and forthcoming fascination brought this Fiend and Angel of Caine back together for further contact of all sorts. Though they are essentially lovers, love has nothing to do with their relationship and probably never shall.

Jaeda

Pack (Shield of Skulls)


Suzette is only rank-and-file in the pack, the Shield of Skulls. This pack specializes in management of the diocese's various resources, and its ruling membership offers it a measure of prestige above the other packs. Acting as pack leader is Chief Sidney Barnes. Mistress Lanesse Fil was selected as priestess. One of the newest members is Calin Martinek, also "rank-and-file", along with Suzette Exauria. Together they all oversee the sharing of communal havens, handle the sect's limited influence in mortal society, and keep an eye on the diocese's growing territory. Ignoblis ritae include rites like the "Beastmatch", "Brother's Keeper", "Offspring", "Nod to Noddism", "Offspring", "True Sabbat's Memory", and of course Vaulderie.

Weakness
The True Beast


Vincent wants to discover the nature of the Beast Within fully. And he wants to be able to control that dark psyche, at least in himself if not others. Unfortunately, despite his efforts -- despite the efforts of even the ancients -- the Beast Within can never be truly controlled. It is a futile endeavor that may one night result in his untimely end.

Likelihood of Corruption


Very high.

He's an unrepentant Sabbat vampire. What more needs to be said? He already is corrupted, and will likely get worse!

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