Physical Description:
Laz is a lanky white man with mussed dark hair speckled with grey. He has deep set eyes and prominent, angular features. His physical manner is deeply relaxed and strange. In an unusual twist of fate or magic, his voice is gravelly, a lingering effect of the cause of his near-death.

He dresses well enough, now more accustomed to blending into muggle society than magical.


Personality Description:
For a being who’s existed so long and seen so much, he remembers little of his living life. He recalls the details of his near-death only as he remembers telling it the last time. Long years of solitude, lingering and wandering has made him appreciate the metaphor more than the literal - although he wouldn’t use the word himself, he’s a known poetic.

Still in him is a ken to help others, although now sparing the living from death seems futile. The alleviation of suffering, that’s another thing entirely. Always a worthy effort.

At his best, he’s happy to laugh and talk around a smoking censor. He can be rude, practiced at cutting at the knees. At his worse, he broods and allows his principles to fade to the fog.


History:
Lazarus was born to a working class family in Chicago in 1836. This was a booming time for the midwest American city; it was quickly becoming a major hub of industry and commerce. Illinois had joined the Union as a free state, but black citizens lived under oppressive laws. This was the Chicago where Lazarus was raised and educated. He was a clever boy, somewhat withdrawn, and lacking in lofty ambition.

Lazarus’s mother Maria was the witch of the family and taught her young son what magic she knew. In addition to his regular school, which he attended until he was fifteen, he was apprenticed to a local mage, a strange fellow from New Orleans.

His original trade was that of a dock worker, but the volunteer fire brigades successfully lobbied to establish permanent paid positions and he was more steadily employed. There were one or two other wizards on the brigade and together they surreptitiously contributed to their successes saving person and property from conflagrations.

Lazarus fell in and out of love in those days, but never married. He was a kindly partner, but too easily drawn into himself than invested in another person.

1871 brought the Great Chicago Fire. It was on October 9, the third day of the fire, that Lazarus was pulled from a collapsed burning warehouse by one of his magical comrades. The damage to his lungs was inevitably fatal, and Lazarus would have surely died if his magical friend hadn’t conspired with his old Cajun tutor to enlist the help of local vampires.

As Lazarus lay perishing and unaware, he was bitten, drained and turned. His life was saved but had ended as he knew it. The next few years were a traumatic transition. To all else who knew him, he’d disappeared and was presumed dead - there would be no other way to explain. He sank away into the inky black of a tortured despair. He was coaxed from emerging by another vampire companion, and found some comfort in reading and hearing tales of other vampires and their journeys.

He moved about the United States for a time, as well as one can, spending time in New Orleans and Boston. Cities, while risky, were the only places to find many others like him - and the only places where sustenance was easy to come by. No matter his travels he always seemed to end up back in Chicago. By then, the Chicago Public Library had been established: books of history and poetry became a welcome respite.

When all you have is time… Lazarus worked through all the material there of any substance by 1973.

Then, in 1982, he came to London on the heels of a lover and the promise of something different. Different writings, different music, different tastes. The romance didn’t last, but Laz found London to be an engaging enough place to lay his head.

In 1998, he paid his proper dues to the Camden Town Hookers coven. Such is his current alliance. As in his living life, his ambitions are few and so his place there is secure.


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Sum up your character in one paragraph:
Lazarus is a strange, solitary, and sensitive former wizard, cursed a vampire since 1871. Infrequent bouts of grief only occasionally tarnish a relatively peaceful existence in the darkness of nocturnal London. But the world turns, times change, and fires kindle. He may yet be tested.

Type of Creature: Vampire

How did they become a creature? Turned without his will in the autumn of 1871, to save his life.

Are they registered with the Ministry of Magic?: Yes

If yes, what does registry entail? Upon arrival in London from the United States, he was advised by local vampires of registration. His name is now in a book and is accountable to obtain blood from approved sources. There are other rules, helpful or not.

Are they considered a 'Dark' Creature?: No

If yes, are they currently under pursuit by the Ministry of Magic?: No

What crimes have they committed?  Were they convicted? Inevitably, his survival has at time depended on actions heinous to the living. Now he is fine to do his part to follow the law of the land. So other than the nocturnal breaches of decorum, nothing can really be held against him.