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profile | max cleghorn

m a x b a s i c s name: Lindsay Maximillian Cleghorn age / dob: January 6, 1916; age 93. Physically, he's 24. ethnicity: Caucasian (vampire) occupation: Clan Regent of Boston, MA clan: Tremere sexual orientation: Asexual status: Single best friends: --- a p p e a r a n c e height: 6'1" weight: 174 lbs. eye color: Blue hair color: Blonde demeanor: Max carries himself with a quiet confidence. He has a presence, which often gets him noticed, even when he'd rather not be. He is eloquent, but doesn't typically speak a lot - at least not to strangers. People often find him condescending when he does speak, mostly because he often is. manner of speech: Calm and authoritative, and despite all his travels, he's managed to hang onto his British accent. His vocabulary and expressions sometimes raise eyebrows among those who don't know his true age. distinguishing features: Several tattoos, souvenirs from his time in the Navy. wardrobe: Very neat. He usually wears a suit when he's working or out and about (so he can pass off as a young professional), though he dresses down on campus (so he can pass for a student). He usually wears trousers and a button-up shirt, and has never really understood the appeal of blue jeans, though he's owned a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars since the forties, and is inordinately pleased that they are a fashion that's withstood the test of time.s. played-by: Ryan Gosling p e r s o n a l i t y intelligence: Above average introvert/extravert: Introvert optimist/pessimist: Realist in detail: Max is, in a word, a snob. He's always appreciated intelligence, or maybe it's that he's always abhorred stupidity. It's only gotten worse as he's grown older - or rather, hasn't. Where he might've been able to pass as a "man of the people" at some point during his human life, immortality has only served to make him more cynical and elitist. He believes that nothing is worth doing if it's not going to be done right - that is to say, perfect. This has afforded him a good reputation in Clan Tremere; he's experienced and dedicated to learning magic, and good at getting things done. He can be charming when he wants to be, and is a good, level-headed leader. He rarely feels the urge to associate with people outside of the Clan, though, both because of his low opinion of them in general, and because he doesn't care to deal with the stigma they've already tended to attach to him. Even in the Clan itself, Max would prefer to continue with his studies in peace, without having to deal with other people. It took him a good fifty years to get around to caring enough to put himself in for a regency position, and many wonder why he waited so long to do it, as he's proven himself capable many times over. Honestly, Max just has little patience for others; he is ultimately manipulative and self-serving, but has a deeply-rooted sense of duty and responsibility, especially to the Clan. In his eyes, becoming a vampire afforded him the education and experience that he'd always wanted but been unable to achieve because of his circumstances as a human. In other words, vampirism has been good to him. Though it's made him more secretive and withdrawn, he has a confidence that only a near-century of immortality - and if you ask some people, his soul - could buy. He is explicitly aware of his abilities and limitations; he believes delusion, even inadvertent self-delusion, is a waste of time. Max has a subtle, ironic sense of humor, and likes to play mind games. He is sometimes archaic in his mannerisms, and has the tendency to refer to places or people by old names. Though he is sharp and observant where it matters, he pays little attention to contemporary social customs. He comes across as broody - until he flashes a smile, in which case he probably wants something. Max does genuinely like some people. Very few people, but some of them are even still alive; they're mostly colleagues or intellectual contacts. He visits his sire in India once every decade or so, and harbors a deep loyalty and protectiveness over her, as he does to everyone who proves themselves worthy of his time. Hey, they're precious few in number. Might as well hang onto them. mental health: Max is surprisingly sane. Sure, he's got antisocial and paranoid tendencies, but what Tremere doesn't? In fact, he is almost so sane it's crazy. b i o g r a p h y Max was the third child of six born into the respectable Cleghorn family, at the beginning of the twentieth century. They were perfectly respectable socio-economically, native to rural Hampshire, and followed the social norms of their class. The respectable eldest son, William, grew up to take over his father's estate. The three daughters married respectable gentlemen at a respectable age. Lindsay, the second son, was left to fulfill his duty to his country and family by becoming a respectable officer in the British military in the years after World War I, though in retrospect he would have much rather followed the path of his younger brother Bartholomew, who joined the clergy, married a nice girl and had four children before dying at home in his parish cottage. The military was alright, he supposed. He enlisted in the Queen's Royal Navy at eighteen, and was sent to India soon after, in the last years of the British Raj, where he remained stationed even with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Though his feelings about military service itself were lukewarm, he enjoyed India - their women, their drugs, their food, their culture. In early 1940, a message was sent home to the Cleghorns in England, expressing regret to inform them that Captain Lindsay Maximillian Cleghorn had taken ill with cholera in a village outside of Calcutta, and died at the age of twenty-four. That was the official story. It was half-true. He had taken with cholera in a tiny village outside of Calcutta. However, the village's "medicine woman" pulled him back from death - she was to be his sire, called Nisha. She saved him because she found him handsome and intelligent, and because he was European, like her sire had been, a few decades before. Nisha was young, both physically and for a vampire, and though she knew quite a bit about blood magic, her experience was limited, as she was rather isolated for a Tremere. She taught her fledgling what she could before he left her side in search of those who could teach him more, though it wouldn't be the last time he travelled to India. He made friends with and travelled with a band of opiate traders, who would continue to facilitate his travels back and forth from the British colonies in Asia for many years. It was finally feasible for him to learn all he wanted, and he did so quite a bit in China and India before finally heading back to Europe. It was around this time that his given name fell out of fashion (at least for males) and he started going simply by Max. The latter half of the twentieth century Max spent mostly in England, America, and Vienna, as they have excellent centers of higher learning. He likes Oxford University, and the Ivies in New England, where he routinely hangs around, pretending to be a graduate student or a teaching assistant. Most of his time is devoted to study, especially study of the supernatural. He finally settled down enough to be assigned a title - first in Hammersmith, in London, though he put in for transfer to America within the past couple of years, and is now the Regent of Boston, though he escapes as often as possible to pursue his own interests and studies, nowadays mostly in central and eastern Europe. m i s c e l l a n e o u s birthplace: Hampshire, England blood family: William Cleghorn; father. (d. 1948 - natural causes) Mary Lindsay Cleghorn; mother. (d. 1951 - influenza) William Cleghorn, Jr; older brother. (d. 1976 - heart attack) Clara Cleghorn Black; older sister. (d. 1982 - cancer) Beverly Cleghorn Dewey; younger sister. (d. 1940 - Southampton Blitz) Bartholomew Cleghorn; younger brother. (d. 1984 - natural causes) Eloise Cleghorn Bailey; younger sister. (d. 1986 - cancer) disciplines: »Auspex - heightened senses, lie detection, aura reading, telepathy, astral projection, clairvoyance. »Dominate - persuasion, hypnosis, mind control, possession. »Thaumaturgy - magic through blood ritual. There are numerous paths - Max tends to favor Alchemy, Biothaumaturgy and The Path of Blood in his studies, swapping between them according to his moods. l i n k s JOURNAL | TAG | GAME