Character Name:

Carolina Tenebroso

The Tenebroso Clan

Hierarchy Position:
Queen of the Tenebroso Dynasty

Personal History:
Powerful. Demonic. Seductive. Ruthless. Witch.

Carolina is all of these things and more. The former wife and bonded of the powerful King Tenebroso - recently deceased - Caro has made a name for herself, feared and respected alike, for centuries. Stories tell of a beautiful young woman who bewitched a dark priest with her feminine wiles and molten kisses. The priest's dark magic was transferred into the woman, thus creating a powerful center of darkness in the beauty. That woman was Carolina, or so the tale would have you believe.

A Daughter of the Darkest Lord, a true Disciple of Evil and Chaos, a Soldier of Death. Carolina has been all of these things, and perhaps, she still is.

The truth is that Carolina, the epitome of vampiric grace, beauty, and feminine power, was never a human woman. The tales told of her rise to power hold some truth. During the time of her birth the years went unnamed and unheeded; her people were unorganized and spent their years hiding from the creatures that stalked their nights. There was not yet one powerful enough to unite her people, and nor would there be for many years. Carolina was birthed and grew to ripening fruition as a Gypsy, a Witch. Though her age in human years is lost to her, she knows she was quite young when she came upon her first humans, brutish creatures afraid of their own shadows and worshipful of pagan Gods. Amongst them were men they called priests and it was they that Carolina watched most voraciously, for they held sway over their brutal brethren. She watched their crude magic, which, even then was unmatched by her own but powerful in its own right.

So the tales were true, for the most part. Only Carolina was no innocent woman forced to harbor the dark magic transferred into her body by the human priest. She was a Gypsy, openly embracing the burn of power. The merging of both disciplines of power changed something in the woman. Shunned by her family, she was forced away, into the then developing towns and burgeoning human life, right alongside the demonic sects. Amongst them, she mingled flawlessly with the vampires and watched with growing interest as an Ancient vampire named Vasille sought war with seemingly everyone in order to bring about something no one had ever attempted - a Clan, an organization of demons under one ruler.

During these years, she also came to a most startling and delicious conclusion. They believed that she was human. None of the vampires, from their hours-old fledglings to their timeless elders, was able to sense her Gypsy roots, most believing her some disciple of early voodoo magic. But even as powerful as she was, her life was seeping away. Unlike the new brethren she moved amongst, Carolina was not Immortal. Calculating smile firmly in place, she set about changing that small flaw in her character.

Caro's Embrace is shrouded in a veil of mystery and power. No one has ever known her Sires name, and her bloodline was seemingly lost in the vampiric wars that dominated Vasille's rise to power. Avoiding the trappings of warfare and Clan for the time, Carolina opened her new nocturnal eyes to a world shrouded in darkness and found her true nature in the night as one of its creatures. There were, however, negative consequences. The Embrace had forced everything magical from her body, leaving her with a diluted strain of Gypsy blood that she was unable to pass on through her vitae to her childer. Carolina was forced to learn the dark arts of humans to compliment her diminished power, but even then she was not as powerful as she had once been. The new bestial cravings of her vampiric senses compensated for a time.

Considerable charms, a rare wit, and an indomitable confidence brought her the attention of the Tenebroso, namely the first man she would ever love. Damien Tenebroso. Caro is willing to admit that she was softer in those nights, the drive for power and possession lessened in the presence of the Tenebroso's then Lead Enforcer. Though battles and skirmishes took him frequently from her side, their love burned long and high enough for a time. It seemed that the war was finally settling down, that the vampires would find their time in power.

However, Europe was a melting pot of danger, pulling Damien from her side once more. Before his departure, Carolina was presented to the King of the Dynasty, Vasille Tenebroso...and his Bonded Wife, Jessamine. Though respectful, Caro wasn't docile in the least, and when Vasille boldly raked her face and form, something primitive surged within Caro to return the gesture, instantly capturing his attention. Damien left the continent and disappeared from her side.

Caro, discontent with the waiting, nursed the primal urge for power within her. She was unsurprised when Vasille appeared in her chambers not more than three nights after Damien's departure.

While Carolina had loved, and eventually felt the flame dim between her and Damien, she was drawn irrevocably to the power that Vasille seemed to emanate flawlessly. He commanded fear rather than respect and reveled in it. Carolina wanted to grasp such power in her fingers and she was willing to go through anyone to get it. Even Vasille's dear wife, the powerful but ultimately gentle Jessamine who was despising of confrontation, and mistakenly thought that her love for Vasille could ever be more powerful than the Kings attraction to Caro.

Systematically breaking down all of Jessamine's loyal children, she watched for a few years as Jessamine became more and more withdrawn, suspicious that her once loyal children and sisters had become spies for Carolina. And knowing that every night Vasille lay between Carolina's thighs and found his pleasure, his obsession, in her bed. Caro has no doubt that Vasille knew exactly what she planned in those early nights. He shared her waking and sleeping hours just as she shared his. He was, as much as Caro, a willing participant of his bonded's destruction, or so Caro believes.

When Jessamine was accused of infidelity and betrayal, Vasille was swift to punish and dismiss the woman for the crimes, though she had been as pure as the driven snow - as much as was possible for a vampire, and she had truly loved Vasille. Her screams fell on the deaf ears of her Clan, a Clan that had become a Family of Carolina's childer, sisters and brothers.

By the time Damien returned from the wars, Carolina was Queen of the Tenebroso Dynasty, a position she will never give up. Where the former Queen was willing to bow to the Kings rule, Carolina was outspoken and strong, and belligerent when she had to be in a world that was male-dominated. She sought respect first rather than terror, and then love through her children. And finally, fear of her power from those who still sought to go against her.

Closest to her inner nature, Carolina is both Gypsy and Vampire, though there are precious few who know this secret, most of whom are loyal to her. Though carefully dampened, her Gypsy nature reveals itself in her ethereal eyes and knowing smile. However, the inner demon she strokes most intimately is that of her vampiric nature. One needs only to look at the woman to know she lets her inner beast reign without qualm; she has never made a secret of that. It has gained her respect, and garnered fear from the rabble, some of which include the higher ranking members of her beloved Family.

It was this respect that, during the latter days of the Tenebroso Dynasty's glory, began to wane as Vasille took a more active stance in the internal politics of his Clan, typically Carolina's domain. For centuries he had contented himself with the fortunes of the Dynasty, leaving his childer, the internal workings of his Family, to be overseen by Carolina. Under her hand they grew strong, powerful, with her favored as her champions. Vasille's renewed interest pushed Carolina to the brink of her patience.

Centuries before the passion between them had grown cold so that when Vasille threatened her very throne in a fit of pique, her first thoughts were of his death. But she tempered herself. She may have felt no love for the man, but the King she had great passion for. His power was what had driven her to him in the first place and despite the thoughts of the Clan, her respect of the man who had brought demons together beneath his hand remained unparalleled.

She slowly began taking on more responsibilities, subtly breaking Vasille's centuries-long iron-clad control on his Dynasty, on his ruling council. Her methods were especially in evidence when several new Clans decided to make New Orleans their home. While Carolina urged crushing them beneath her boot heels, Vasille was more interested in peace in the city. While peace was a worthy cause, it was not to be borne at the expense of Tenebroso power. It was during the beginning of the Werewolves siege on New Orleans that Vasille's power began to fracture and that Carolina's pedestal became stronger. Once the Tenebroso Clan fled the overrun city for San Francisco, Carolina began to make plans.

Ever her most trusted companion, she first brought Bastianne into her thoughts. Then was, surprisingly, Cade Tenebroso. Together the three crafted a dangerous plan via tightly controlled telepathy to strengthen the Tenebroso Clan once and for all.

And that meant cutting off the dead skin, the weak links. It meant the highest atrocity any Vampire could commit: killing the King.

The surviving Council - Carolina, Cade, Bastianne, and Dante - all agreed to the proposal. They would drain the poison from the Dynasty by ridding themselves of Vasille. Once it was decided, Carolina took the decision of who was to do the deed from the Council's hands. Her reasons were personal, selfish even. The first: she wanted the thrill, the pleasure of being the one to order Vasille's death. The second, last, and most selfish reason: she refused to allow Bastianne's hands to be dirtied by personally seeing to the deed; she would rise to the throne one night and Caro would have her favored as unblemished as possible.

Instead she sent Genna, her childe, her daughter, a girl who had been closely trained by Carolina for years to kill, and kill well. What the Council knows is that Genna returned with Vasille's death-scent clinging to her soft dark hair. What they do not know is that Genna placed into Carolina's cool palm all that remained of Vasille, her husband and King: his fangs. She keeps them close to remind her of the power he had over her, that no one shall have over her again.

With Vasille's death, though it took more than 400 years, Carolina finally named herself Queen of the Tenebroso Dynasty, and it's sole ruler.

But there were still obstacles. Vasille had sons, daughters, brothers and sisters who had been envious of his power. His death created a vacuum of power and into that sucking black hole she sent one woman without the Council's knowledge. Shadow Conn. Using telepathy to seed herself into the shadow-wielders mind, she instructed the young woman to eliminate any and all possible threats to her Queenship. In return, Carolina gave the position of Regent to the woman. Protestations were graced with a deaf ear and a cool eye.

But her rule was not to last. 

Carolina was dethroned by the self-appointed European King Matteo de la Cruz.  Not content to rest, she plotted and schemed while the Clan churned with internal problems and Europe getting louder and louder about the imbalance in power.  When Matteo went mysteriously missing, Carolina remained silent.  As she did when Niklaus Tenebroso (RIP) entered the scene to claim the Kingship.  But by then the Clan was fracturing and Europe began making noises of war.  

Caro was approached by the Regent and Elder and the three made a devil's bargain.  A night later Niklaus was dead, they were going to war with their European cousins, and Carolina was once more Queen of the Dynasty.

Carolina is known for many things: Her iron grip on her title and position as Queen, and the sure knowledge that this position comes before all else. Her dual natures, maternal and nocturnal, her willingness to deliver swift and cruel punishment and often enjoying the process. Her inescapable attraction to beauty, in all of its forms. Her voraciously exquisite and much coveted daughters and most importantly, her discerning eye towards those she deems her favorites. They are few, but undeniably powerful.

Her political prowess remains unmatched, and she has never stood down for another soul. She is both vain and confident and makes neither secret nor shame of either. Her penchant for looking like a pre-Raphaelite angel, but acting more like a Hell's Angel. Her belief that the female face and form are the most powerful weapons that exist, but the feminine mind is wrathful danger in itself, a belief perpetuated mostly by the Queen herself and proved...time and again.

Her eternal, overwhelming love for her children and the Dynasty and their succession to their darkest potential.

Most of all, Carolina is a survivor. When all is said and done, she will have a hand in shaping the destiny of the Kindred.  

Face Representation:

Monica Bellucci