History: Bests years
as a mortal is wrapped in obscurity to most, even himself. He
rarely speaks of his mortal days since he doesn´t remember
anything himself exept what was told to him after the embrace.
That he was some kind of soldier is obvious, but not what kind
of soldier. Some rumors believe him to have been an assasin, others
a low rank infantry officer, others assumes him to have been a
knight or noble of some sort, one thing is for sure, noone can
tell for sure. It is not clear whether he was in the danish or
the swedish army but it is believed he is born in Wardberg. He
was discovered by the Gangrel leader Svartklo who embraced him.
That led to a skirmish between Svartklo and the Toreador Primogen
Johan Lyngert but it settled quickly because of the troublesome
times when Wardberg changed nationality several times due to constant
warfare between Sweden and Denmark, wich also masked the Camarilla/Sabbat
war at the time. The only oddity was that he looked younger than
the person he was claimed to have been which only Johan pointed
out.
He has since lived mostly around Wardberg but has moved around
in both Scandinavia and Europe, mostly Germany. He was also one
of the first kindred to try colonise New Sweden (Delaware today)but
moved back to Europe when it was sold to the dutches. He has helped
the garou population both in his own viscinity as well as travelled
all over Scandinavia to help out at several occasions. In the
late 17th century he and his sire, with the help of some other
gangrels and Princes who accepted to negotiate, hindered the lupines
to massacre the cities of Wardberg and Falkenberg. Now they have
raided the city a couple of times anyway without Best and Svartklo
being able to stop them but the Gangrels have always been able
to stand neutral in every kindred/lupine conflict in the conflicts
concerning Wardberg and Falkenberg. As from the beginning of this
century he has withdrawn somewhat from his role as gangrel soldier
and several reasons has been put up to explain this among the
other kindred of the city. Some say he got scared and realised
he has to fear the Prince after his Sire was killed some 50 years
ago after a bloodhunt called upon him. Against that theory stands
the ones who believes Best isn´t afraid of the new Prince,
but refrains from acting without solid proof to who the one are
that was behind the assasination of the former Prince. Best is
convinced his Sire was innocent and the garou attack that killed
the Prince was instigated by someone else. Especially since it
was not garou from the area that did it and the former Prince
respected and trusted Svartklo, otherwise he wouldn´t have
been one of his advisors. Some vague clues led Best to believe
the new Prince is responsible. Theese clues aren´t enough
to be used as evidence though. The few people that know of his
suspicions are the majority of those who believs he isn´t
afraid of the Prince but refrains from doing anything because
Varberg is one of the few Camarilla controled cities in Scandinavia.
He has since then become more secretive in what he lets other
know of him as individual. This doesn´t mean he has stopped
socialising with others, only that it is hard to draw any personal
information from him. He often takes the side of the neonates
in conflicts wich might indicate some kind of distrust towards
other elders. He also has made some radical expressions on Camarilla
and Sabbat ideology wich has led some, especially Ventrues and
Toreadors, to think him turned Autarkis after his Sires death.
This has led some Anarchs to him in search for his help. That
he has contacts with anarchs is no secret but noone knows if he
has actually joined them. Most however thinks this to be only
rumors since he has never tried to work against the Camarilla
openly. Sure, he isn´t the one that sits quiet if a discussion
on Camarilla politics doesn´t go his way. He lets all know
what he thinks of it, but that´s everyones right even if
only a few are bold enough to openly express a dislike of majority
politcs. (THIS IS WHAT IS COMMONLY KNOWN ABOUT BEST)
The whole story about Best as he know it: (Most of the above is
true)
1573 the gangrel leader in Varberg, Svartklo, began to catch interest
in the talented danish commendant of the fortress of Wardberg.
He was knight, Councillor and Admiral of state in the danish army.
He had been severly injured 1565 in the Nordic 7 year-war at the
battle of Axtorna. He was a close friend of Frederik II wich endowed
him commendant of the Wardberg castle and province with a task
to immediately start the rebuilding of the fortress 1572. He had
made great deeds during the war, among other things as messenger
between the king and the army. He made the king grant him to give
good beer to the peasants working on the fortress and tried all
possible things in his work to restore the warravaged province.
He married Anne Galt during great weddingfestivities at the Kopenhagen
castle. He didn´t do very well in his restoration work and
the king ordered him to use more and more of the peasants to help
build up the fortress. During the medieval time the castle had
been more or less impossible to conquer but with the invention
of cannons it needed to improve its defences after massive artillery
attacks during sieges. What noone knew or lived to tell if they
discovered was that Anders Bing was a spy for the swedes, that´s
why he had managed to do so good in his messenger service between
the army and king. He supported the tax peasants, and they were
many in northern Halland, more than anywhere else in Denmark.
They simply bought themselves free from daywork on the fortress
thus leading to the slow rearmament of the fortress. This didn´t
go unnoticed among the kindred who wanted to tie the man to their
"collection of powerpeople". He became a ghoul of Svartklo
late 1573, wich led to a little skirmish between him and the Toreador
primogen Johan Lyngert. It settled quickly since they at the time
had other things to worry about, the Sabbat amongst one of the
more major threats. 1589 his lack of aging started to show and
he faked his death the 16th of december the same year and Svartklo
embraced him. Svartklo had waited for years to embrace him because
of the low human population in Halland and the high kindred population
in respect of the Prince wishes, yes wishes when it came to Svartklo
who was a close friend. Best doesn´t remember anything from
his mortal years, why he can´t explain nor could his sire
he was told. What he knows is what has been told to him. The only
one that said something about the embrace was Johan who claimed
Anders looked much younger than he had been when he died. This
was explained with that it was some kind of embracement effect
that couldn´t be explained.
They left Wardberg for many years so that mortal people would
forget his face. They travelled over Europe and met a lot of other
gangrels so that Anders would become noticed and recognised outside
his home area. He got his name Best from his sire because of his
savage fightingstyle but this was several years later. Fights
were otherwise common and they didn´t hesitate to get involved
if threatened, and it happened they themselves were the provokative
ones. Thus the already powerful neonate became evermore powerful
fast, much as Svartklo had expected. Some said he gained his powers
incredibly fast and must have inherited all of Svartklos powers
and just needed the trigger to let them out and this of course
led to some jeolousy upon Svartklo being fortunate to find such
good stock to embrace. He already had the power and lacked only
the ability to access them it was said.
And he wasn´t slow on learning other skills either, he soon
had all the powerintrigues within kindred society figuerd out,
well, at least to the degree that he could smell when he was being
played as a card in someone elses game. They returned to Wardberg
1620 after decades of travelling around Europe. Wardberg was still
danish but became swedish 1645 by the peace at Brömsebro
in the religious war(protestantic swedes vs the catholic danes)
that became known as the 30 years-war wich ended with the Westfalic
peace 1648. Best himself had partaken in some warmongling, he
had participated in the battle of Lutzen 1632 where the swedes
won but lost their king Gustavus II Adolphus. He and Svartklo
had been involved thanks to a boone Svartklo owed a French Toreador.
France and Sweden had an Alliance during these years. This was
the prime time of Sweden when it, apart from Finland, wich had
long since been swedish, consisted of the Baltic states, Karelen
in west Russia, Trondheim in Norway and Bremen & Verden in
Hannover and Wismar & Vorpommern in Brandenburg. The states
around the Baltic sea fought for the trading advantages of controlling
the borders of the Baltic sea, thus ruling the tradings with Russia.
When Karl XII died 1718 he a few years earlier had lost almost
all continental landwinnings to a coaliton of states(Poland, Russia,
Brandenburg and Denmark)that opposed him. Best had expected that
to happen, the rather young king had no patience and had to much
hunger for power. However, he didn´t bother because of his
disinterest of the kindred & mortal politics. They cared little
for the Country, they just wanted to strengthen their own positions
and thus sent men to war to bring trouble for their enemies and
it would be to expensive to bring home the armies to Sweden. Out
in war they could pay themselves through plunder and tributes.
Now Best wasn´t the one to bother about the Country first
hand either, so that didn´t stop him from joining some raids.
He was however, not in it for power, he joined for the fun of
it. He liked war and reveled at the battlefields and looked out
for the toughest enemies he could find. He fell only once, underestimating
his chosen targets strength and ability. He survived by melding
with the earth. He found out his target, who he knew had been
a werewolf, had been a 5th rank ShadowLord Ahroun. After this
he returned to Wardberg where the Garou was stirring up trouble.
The Get of Fenris leader Rage of Glory had managed to gather the
Get and Silver Fangs for a raid on the citys leeches and had already
killed a few of the kindreds ghouls as well as the Brujah. This
meant that the city consisted of the Ventrue Prince, his two childer,
two Toreadors and a Nosferatu. There was one other Gangrel in
the area too, the current gangrel leader, who desperately tried
to convince the not listening Garous not to burn the city. Svartklo
who had better contact with the Garous, especially the Children
of Gaia, who was at the opposite side against the Get of Fenris
attack wich they believed, rather ackurately, would only bring
more leeches to the area and eventually destroying them all, managed
to bring them to a discussion of some kind, with the gangrels
as mediators. The forests was to be left alone, the city was allowed
only to take down as many trees they needed for warming up and
keeping the city maintenance. Svartklo became the gangrel leader
and a good friend of the Prince who thanks to Svartklo and Best
learned about Garou beliefs and if not accept them, learned to
respect them. This was not liked by all, especially the Princes
in the greater cities of Göteborg and Malmö who had
constant trouble with the Garous as well as being at constant
war with the Sabbats. They asked Svartklo and Best to help establishing
some agreement there as well. However, they were not honest about
their promises to the Garou and thus the war with the garou there
continued and Malmö fell to the Sabbat because of this wich
was a major setback to the Camarilla due to Malmös closeness
to the continental Europe. Best learned a lot about the value
of nature and the freedom it gave as well as the peace of spirit
it provided. For the first time in almost all his existence he
took time to listen to his own needs and feelings, wich he had
put aside both during his mortal life and then in his unlife as
well without thinking of it. Now that he did, he found he liked
peace too, maybe even more than battle. He had grown up with battle
and it was second nature to him so he did not see it as strange
or unnormal to be at war. Much of this new respect for both nature
and peace he got from spending a lot of time with the children
of gaia tribe.
1795 Best was asked by a Child of gaia he had become friend with
to help him fight against invading swedes in Lappland where they
moved in on primeval land and pushed the native population there,
the Lapplanders, away. This led to conflicts not only on the mortal
front but also between supernaturals. The invaders were supported
by Ventrues and Nosferatu mainly who wanted to found new cities
to control the ore-deposits there as well as trying to find new
homes as the Sabbat grew stronger in the southern parts. They
were aided by a few garou hating gangrels while the Garou was
a mixture of Get of Fenris, Red Talons and a few Children of Gaias
and Silver Fangs who faught desperately to defend their land assisted
by a few gangrels that also roamed the land and viwed the Garou
their cousins. Best agreed to help them as well he could and he
stayed there for 13 years before they judged the conflict lost
since the horde of mortals invaded the land in a never stopping
stream. It was here Best learned the basic Thoumaturgy and the
path Spirit thaumaturgy from a native Gangrel Theurge named Roukka[Ro-hokka].
Two years later a new King was elected, Jean Babtiste Bernadotte
who got Sweden from a poor agriculture state to a less poor agricultural
state and the beginning of industrialism. The Sabbat was strong
in Scandinavia and still is. The Scandinavian Sabbat are more
conservative than elsewhere and doesn´t have such a brutal
view on mortals as for example the american sabbat, who doesn´t
recognise any human values at all, has. This doesn´t mean
there isn´t troubles between the two sects but they aren´t
as fierce and numerous as in many other countries. They rather
live by the unwritten rule of "each mind theirs" wich
benefits both sides at the time being.
The Sabbats actually is somewhat responsible for the loosening
up off censour and greater measure of freedom of speech as the
liberalism won more and more ground in Sweden during the 19th
& 20th centuries. This led to some of the greater skirmishes
between kindreds, Sabbat vs Camarilla and Camarilla vs Camarilla
wich gained the Sabbat most advantages and thus strengthening
their position further. The Camarilla lost badly and lost almost
all control of cities in scandinavia, Varberg being one of the
few small cities where they still hold supreme power. Best left
for Germany feeling the wanderlust calling after he had started
with travelling to the north of sweden, wich is indeed as if he
would have travelled down to Italy if travelling south. He faught
at the side of the Blackforest gangrels against the Sabbat, mostly
Tzimisce and Gangrel AT. He met a lovely girl there whos name
is Kiki and also Gangrel. They had a short loveaffair but parted
as friends after less than a year. They still keep sporadic contact
and visits each other when in each others area.
As over 1 miljon swedes (1/3 of the swedish population) emigrated
to America between 1820 and 1910, Best followed them over and
settled down in Minnesota where he roamed the country side free
and without troubled mind. He was happier than he had been in
many years and came to hang with a pack of wolves that turned
out to be Uktena kin. He also held contact with the kindreds of
Minneapolis and StPaul, also known as the twin cities with Scandinavian
background in Minneapolis and Irish Catholic in StPaul. He stayed
until 1929, visiting Vancouver once and a while, before returning
to Europe again. He first went to Germany but didn´t like
the new national socialism that won more and more sympathies there
because of his friendship with many gypsies who has helped him
in the past and he still held and hold contact with. Surely there
must be a Sabbat or Setite behind that politic was, and still
is, his view on it. Of course, Hitler was deranged enough to fit
for Malkavian too, so that might also be a possibility that he
was a pawn of one of them even if it seems pretty far off. After
returning to Warberg he had to reestablish some of his garou contacts
and start almost from scratch again since many of his old contacts
had died or moved or just didn´t trust him after all these
years of absence. He didn´t get along with the Get of Fenris,
wich was expected since he never had before either, but managed
to get along decently with the Silver Fangs, Children of Gaias
and Glass walkers who had came to the area rather recently and
bit by bit reestablished a trustbond with them. These latter ones
turned out to be an interesting lot who seem to like the city
as much as other garou dislike it. It was actually the first time
he came in contact with them. When the World War 2 broke out Best
stayed in Warberg, not so eager anymore to search for fights all
the time. As a matter of fact he had begun value peace before
fighting. At the end of the war Prince Arvid was killed in a lupine
attack on the city. This was investigated and proof that Svartklo
was behind this was found in mystic sircumstances. A recently
arrived but powerful Ventrue by the name of Carl claimed the title
of new Prince and saw to that Svartklo was pronounced guilty for
the death of the Prince and called a bloodhunt upon him. Another
Ventrue claimed to have killed him and he had several witnesses
to the incident. Best believed this humbug, no one was powerful
enough to kill Svartklo that easy, knowing how powerful he himself
was, but when he didn´t show up Best realised he propably
had been slain. He was a bit concerned about this. How they had
managed to destroy him was an enigma to him and still is in some
degree. He was also convinced Svartklo was innocent to the charges
against him. This since Svartklo and the former Prince had been
friends and Svartklo was one of the Princes closest men. One of
Bests garou friends among the Glasswalkers found some secret notes
indicating Svartklo might have been a scapegoat in a hostile takeover,
making the current Prince the real villain. This wasn´t
strong enough to be used as evidence and no other evidence has
been found yet. The new Prince made clear that all opposition
upon his ruling would be harshly put down with all necessary power
by viping out the entire anarch group, kindred and mortal alike.
This has kept the kindred from pushing the issue further even
if the anarchs has since recovered and now are quite numerous.
Best has however openly said what he thinks of the thing and the
Prince has said he isn´t welcome in the city anymore. Best
doesn´t care since he has more right to the city than the
Prince who had moved to Varberg only short before the takeover.
Best also has his connections to the lupines behind him to be
able to stand up against the Prince. There are some kindred that
supports Best in secret, among others his own clanmates, but no
real opposition other than the anarchs openly works against the
Prince. In a trip to Stockholm a decade ago he learned a new discipline
from a Caitiff before returning to Varberg a month later.
In the Autumn of 1996 he was on a trip to the states and found
a place called the Vampire Court possitoned at the shore of the
ocean with both forests and mountains close by. He wandered there
silently observing the ground in the beginning, curious on what
could possibly draw the attention of so many kindred to one place
and even further, them assosiating with each other in that degree.
There was almost no mortals there and the few that were was mages
or otherwise bearer of extraordinary powers in some way. It was
usually crowded and one often had to stand in line for a very
long time to come in. At first he was not noticed at all and any
attempts of making contact was in vain so he left for some time
and returned later as the winter set in. Then he got to know some
people, mostly other Gangrels but others too of course. It wasn´t
exactly easy to get in contact with them but after a couple of
months he got the way to do it. One of the first he got in contact
with was one gangrel princess named Odessa. She was the child
of Marco whom he met short after. Sirra Nightshade a Toreador,
Marissa Dychoro and Troi, both gangrels and Sag Althene are other
kindreds he got to know during this first time there.
After this he got to know people a lot easier as he had become
recognised among the others. Soon the Court was expanded so that
more could come and the waitingtime shorter.
Unfortunately in the late summer of -97 the Sabbat invaded the
place and soon took control more or less since the Camarilla was
unorganised. Best decided not to interfere and instead wait until
someone else take a stand in the issue and try to organise the
Camarilla or simply stay out of any conflicts as long as the Sabbat
doesn´t bother him. Best doesn´t care enough for the
Camarilla to officialy take it upon himself to do something. In
fact he thinks maybe the ones who are pro a Gangrel withdrawal
from the Camarilla to become independent might have come with
a good idea at least worth thinking of. He lost some very good
friends, The mortal telepath Cat ConDoin and some kindreds, Perse
and Mordrid to the Sabbat troublemakers and officially said in
court and on the messageboard to the court that he would take
any further attacks upon his friends as an attack on himself and
that seems to have been enough for after that this kind of attacks
has been rare. Of course it is more propable that they simply
ended because the Sabbat considered themselves victorious and
in poition of control of the Court.
In the spring of -98 he met a Malkavian girl named Ramona with
whom he started a short relationship but it didn´t last
long. He was there when they tried to organise the Camarilla in
a desperate attemt to stop the Sabbat and save honor to the Camarilla
but all the names on the list that was made was given to the Sabbat
by one of the leaders of that very uprising attempt, her name
was Midnightdawn and was supposed to be the Toreador primogen.
Afterwards they claimed she had been caught and the list stolen.
That´s bull since Best and a mage friend of him named Jaime
von Darkmoor each independent of each other performed rituals
to locate her. Noone was interested in following the map that
was posted on the messageboard leading to her. Let´s say
Best doesn´t fully trust the Toreadors anymore, one never
knows who are actually Sabbat anymore, do one? And some even turned
Sabbat because of this failed attempt at reestablishing Camarilla
power. Better then to just see what happens and do what´s
best at the moment. And besides, it doesn´t matter who controls
the court, if one can say anyone controls it in the usual definition.
It is more like wich side is most numerous, neither side controls
nor can control the court that way since it isn´t like the
court is a powerbasde either, it´s just a meetingplace,
be it for extreemly powrful beings. He continued meeting old friends
as Ivan the Russian, Rahm Valor, Jaime, Marco, even if his appearances
has become rare, Ilan Munroe, Sag Althene and many more as life
passed by without to much changing. However he found out that
Mordrid had not died by the hands of Norna, a Tzimisce, he had
merely gone into hiding for some time after that meeting. He got
back and became Prince somewhere, Best hasn´t visited his
old friend there yet by some reason.
In the autumn of -98 he met Solrath Teferi, an old Archmage propably
as old as Caine, Islefox, a wyldling foxspirit, Richter Muelenchi
and Kith an astonishing gangrel whom he immediately got interested
with. She however was very careful and withdrawn by some reason
wich only added to his curiosity upon her. After some softening
up she finally showed signs of trust and after that he became
aware that he´d fallen in love with her even if he knew
nothing about her. He begun to fish for details and possibly returned
feelings but found it hard to begin with. But one day Solrath
spoke with him, apparently Kith had confined with him her feelings
for Best and why she was so reluctant at getting closely involved
with him. It was because of an old lover of the Assamite clan
who could get jeolous and try to kill Best wich she had kept from
showing her feelings. At the beginning of 1999 things have changed
though and he has found true love and never felt so happy before.
He has also met some new friends under the spring, Selena, Becky
and many more.
It is now summer of -99 and he comes to the court as usual to meet his old friends and occasionally new ones and spends most of the time he don´t spend with them or his loved Kith with studies of the time discipline and thaumaturgical paths, apart from working on his ever ongoing interest in developing Protean abilities, one of his favourite hobbies.
Vancouver aquaintances: Simon Lollen, Necross, Montgomery abercorn, Jason Long(12th gen gangrel)
The true early history(only in swedish)