Dillon Connery

Appearance

Dillon Stands a stocky, but agile 6'2”, and around 225lbs. He has coppery brown hair with piercing hazel eyes, and a very expressive face. He tends to dress smartly for the occasion, and usually wears some form of vest. Standard adornments may include all manner of cross jewelry; usually a silver charm on a short chain from his left ear.

Personality

Likeable and informal when called for, Dillon usually appears to wear his heart on his sleeve. He holds a small smile by default, but animates his thoughts and speech with his whole face, sometimes his body as well. He likes to shoot the breeze, and loves to chat with ladies. On the opposite side, he has a sort of lust for combat. Whether it be a friendly sparring contest, or a vicious fight for survival, the Savage runs deeper than first impressions suggest.

History

Prelude

Dillon Connery has always been a faithful soldier to a cause, but it hasn't quite repaid him in the way he expected. During the American Civil War, he fought for the Union across all five Aprils, surviving where the vast majority of his friends did not. He returned home to South Carolina to find his small estate rampaged by Confederate criminals who learned of his side in the war. The house was a burned ruin, and his family was gone.

But like Job, he grieved with all of his heart, and continued down his particular interpretation of the 'straight and narrow'. Lieutenant Connery returned to the government as an agent, intending to root out those still loyal enough to the separatist movement to cause trouble. He convinced himself that his blood lust is neither revenge for his personal wrong, or a result of his jaded life desensitized to violence. Instead, he champions righteous indignation, justice, and God's wrath. There is a time and place for everything, a path for everyone to follow, and Dillon's will be paved with bodies of the wicked.

His path takes an unexpected turn on December of 1866, when he meets a gypsy woman in rural Pennsylvania. They are simply two people in a boarding house dining room with no one else to confide in, but they converse with chemistry that Dillon rarely finds in another person. There is an interest, he thinks, beyond two attractive people with time to kill. She seems intrigued by his steadfast nature, and inner strength that keeps him going beyond normal tolerance. She tells him that, unlike many others, his faith in his god is not blind, but open minded and thoughtful. She accepts him, and he her. Both are tenants of the lodge for an extended duration, and quickly begin sharing Connery's room at nights.

Unbeknownst to him, Dillon has become the subject of Gangrel elder Adonia Mercedes Cabeza de Vaca's Kiss. She uses him as a source of blood, one of several, for a few weeks before subtly broaching the subject of Embrace.

“Would you carry on your fight forever in this world, if God gave you the choice?”

“Of course.” Dillon answers without question.

“Even if it meant a doomed, perhaps damned existence?”

He thinks on it for a moment, before speaking from the heart. “The lord grants hardship only to make those who endure strong enough to carry out his will. Mine has forever been a live of bitter struggle. I will go on for as far and as long as he needs me to.”

Satisfied with his answer, she sires a new Childe to the Requiem on the night of Christmas Eve, a symbol she knows he will appreciate in the years to come.

Unlife, 1800s

Dillon maintains his government job for many years, until operating solely at night begins to threaten his Masquerade. With few personal needs, he is able to invest a decent portion of funds into other endeavors, following a pattern of liquidating his assets and then consolidating them again under different names over the course of many years. This is one of many valuable techniques Adonia instructs him in to make his Requiem more productive. But, true to their Gangrel nature, they rarely maintain a haven for more than a few years, and frequently travel, taking haven in the soil when necessary.

Dillon restricts his learning solely to martial matters, learning what he can from anyone he can. During an extended tenure in the New Mexico Territory in the late 1800s, he befriends a Chinese immigrant working as a laborer for the railroad expansion effort. The two become convenient allies, each having free time only at nights, for very different reasons. Dillon studies various styles of Kung-Fu, Japanese Jiu Jitsu, and Ninjitsu under the tutorship of the well-traveled Tseng Jun Shon. But their friendship is cut short when outlaws rob the railroad in broad daylight, killing Jun Shon in the crossfire. Dillon doesn't find out until the following evening upon his rise.

Vowing justice, he informs Adonia that he intends to thwart the gang himself; he will not leave it to the Kine and their legal system. She supports him, but admonishes that his judgment should be righteous if he wishes to avoid personal demons.

A posse of marshals was eventually dispatched to eliminate the growing threat of outlaws in what would soon become the Arizona badlands. They find dried corpses by long-dead campsites, with crosses carved into the chests and pennies in the eye sockets.

Heading back east, Dillon is blindsided by an unexpected encounter in Atlanta; his youngest daughter, Caitlyn. She is alive and well, living under the married name of her estranged husband. She had been saved from the fire at their home, the only survivor, raised by her aunt's family. Dillon has an emotional crisis upon learning that he is an undead grandfather of three. More accurately, he convinces himself that he ought to be in a crisis about it, but Adonia explains that his emotions are merely shadows in his spirit, anchored to an undead body incapable of truly feeling. He involves himself in her life for some months under an assumed name, pretending he is a private investigator following a string of serial murders in the area. Caitlyn matches the description of typical victims in the Jack-the-Ripper style killings, and Dillon wants her out of town and safe.

The killer is none other than a Malkovian Draugr, who is threatening the Masquerade with his brutality. Dillon pleads with the Prince of the realm to call a blood hunt, but is rebuked due to lack of adequate information, and is denied aid in protection for his daughter.

Dillon and Adonia begin guarding Caitlyn and her household in secret, but she is abducted late one evening nearly from under their noses. A spectacular chase into the night ensues, rousing whole neighborhoods and alerting the police. In the end, Adonia commits Diablerie on the monstrous Ventrue in a rage frenzy after he kills Caitlyn and renders Dillon Torpid.

As an apology for the Domain's inaction, the Prince allows Adonia to remain in hiding within the city until the black veins of Amaranth fade from her aura. Dillon is then awakened, and the two are formally banished for the breach of Masquerade their battle caused.

Unlife, 1900s

Dillon and Adonia do not settle for any length of time again until 1922, where Connery makes a valuable contact of a Chicago Primogen, fellow Savage Corbin Blackthorne. Dillon begins to perform odd jobs for the Court, soon serving the Primogen as one of their Hounds.

It is here that he begins to show interest in the Lancea Sanctum. Their presence is potent enough in Chicago at the time that the Inquisitor works very closely with the Hounds, and Dillon is persuaded to join the church.

After a string of conflicts allegedly involving the Kindred group “VII”, Adonia is ready to pull up stakes and move on, having had enough of the huge city and its secrets. Dillon has ties he dare not break, however, and they decide to go their separate ways. They part amiably promising to remain in contact.

Dillon takes a leave in 1941, crossing the Atlantic for the express purpose of involving himself in the second World War alongside his 'fellow Americans'. His decision is met largely with bitterness or outright mockery on the part of Chicago's political figures, but if he was determined to get himself blown to Final Death in the middle of a Kine war, so be it. Dillon is convinced that there is more than a human dispute happening in Europe. He is suspicious of reports that Hitler is seizing all manner of dark artifacts to acquire a supernatural edge in combat.

Blackthorne generously offers to maintain Connery's affairs until he returns, and with that, he is off; securing a dangerous ride in a cargo container aboard a plane flying through the daylight.

Upon returning from Europe in 1950, Dillon is met with resistance by local Kindred in Boston, who aren't accepting of outsiders who have been humping around Nazi Germany for almost a decade. After several meetings and fights over the course of a few months, he escapes with the aid of none other than a nearby pack of Lupine.

Manhattan also provides distraction Connery can't afford, but gets tangled in anyway. A blood hunt is called on the night of his arrival, and he is asked to participate, his reputation preceding him. A group of Kindred attempted to usurp the power in the domain, destroying the Seneschal and two Primogen in the process. Dillon raids a highrise penthouse alongside a team of the domain's most talented warriors, making short work not just of the group responsible, but the building itself as well.

Turning down an offer to remain in Manhattan, Dillon continues across the country, finally returning to Chicago in Autumn 1952. Blackthorne has maintained Dillon's affairs as deftly as only he could, and the transition back into Kindred society there is relatively painless.

Dillon doesn't stay in Chicago for long at a given time, however. The Primogen, taking great measure of his success, ask him to travel frequently to handle business ventures and interests out of town. Dillon is happy to agree, part of his wild heart just enjoys travel. The Chicago Primogen undergo restructuring in the early 90s, and Corbin Blackthorne leaves his seat, working with Dillon on several occasions.

New Millenium

Dillon Connery is truly on his own again for the first time since his Embrace. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, he maintains contact with many of his former allies, including his sire. The relationships are merely cordial, they no longer call on each other for physical assistance anymore; the distance in miles and minds are just too great.

Connery is deep in Baja California, dealing with a local offshoot gang of his Bruja cousins, when he hears belated whispers of Sacramento's Lost Nights. With the domain recovering from such upheaval, Dillon believes he may be of some assistance to the situation there, and heads out. He knows the path is lain before him, he is only to walk it, as he crosses the border and begins to slowly make his way upstate.

Upon finally arriving in Sacramento in June 2011, his general knowledge of and experience with Kindred social structure, not to mention very fortunate timing, sees him integrated quickly within the Domain. He is made Priscus of the Gangrel clan when Katrina Scherbotsky vacates both the city and her position. Pursuing matters among both Clan and Covenant, he begins studying Theban Sorcery under the guidance and direction of Sidor Grigoriev.

Shades of Cerberus

Shades of Cerberus

A Gangrel Coterie formed in Chicago during the 1920s consisting of Primogen Corbin Blackthorne, Elder Adonia de Vaca, and her Childe, Dillon Connery. The group performed powerful deeds for the domain, assisting in matters of of both law enforcement and politics. That a pack of 'Savages' would be interested in doing either put many of the realm's other citizens ill at ease, but their merit could not be undone. Much of the credit goes to the powerful pair of Adonia and Corbin, though Dillon made his contribution as well. However, he did not share much of the fame or recognition.

The name for the Coterie is a bit of an inside joke. Dillon perceives his Beast as a monstrously demonic dog with three heads, and three voices. Mirroring that ideal, the three Kindred adopted the moniker and a logo; Corbin and Adonia privately insist that Dillon's Beast is their mascot. Even later, when distance break the bonds of their responsibility to each other, Dillon still uses the symbol for his contact information cards. It's one bit of sentimentality he allows.

Adonia Mercedes Cabeza de Vaca

Kindred Elder Adonia de Vaca's origins can reportedly be traced back to the early 1400s, before Spain was even truly a country. What her birth name was, or if she even hailed from the Spanish Peninsula, has been lost to the sands of time. It is not something she herself mentions, so the details may have been lost forever to the fog of Torpor. Wild speculations about Lady de Vaca have been drawn; that she was power behind the throne of Isabella I, that she was Queen Isabella I herself, and that she saw personally to the funding of the voyage of Christopher Columbus, etc. The truth of the matter is that Adonia has led the life of a Gypsy for the better part of six centuries, but her interest and passion for America and it's development has been substantial.

The true depths of her Kindred and Occult knowledge are a closely guarded secret on her part, and though Adonia seems to practice blood magic, she holds no alliance to any Covenant. A master of Protean, one of her more popular animal forms is that of a large, black raven.

Corbin Blackthorne

Few, if any, Gangrel ever reach the level political influence and vast web of information enjoyed by Corbin Blackthorne. His carefully tended net of allies and contacts solidified his place among the Primogen of Chicago until he left the city in the 1990's to go freelance. A cruel, deceitful monster, only his Coterie could ever truly trust him. Though always true to his word when he gave it, violence and destruction seem to befall others on his whim.

One of Corbin's more notorious legends is known as the Seduction of the Crone. Throughout the late 1800s, he was an apparently devout Acolyte. He both attended and lead rituals with a religious fervor that inspired admiration in his fellows. Upon his near-mastery of the Dominate and Amphivena Blood Gifts from his Gorgon Avus, Corbin unceremoniously left the Circle of the Crone for the First Estate. It was an outrage among the Acolytes, but with the Blackthorne's power and influence, there was little they could do about it.