By Care

ReVolutionary Theory is the magazine that’s all about you – whether you’re a chatter, a player, or even a character! For this issue, Care steps into the office of vampire master Claude Tredeau.

This quarter we’re going down to the supernatural section of the whochat. I’m going to be stepping into the mind of one of the oldest characters that a player has with Claude Tredeau, a vampire within the world created by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Let’s start with the mind behind the character: Yoko!

Hey! Welcome to my little corner of the world, Yoko. To begin, why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself – How did you start roleplaying?

Yoko: That’s a story and a half! I started roleplaying way back in high school. I did Vampire: The Masquerade with a LARP troupe, but as I got older, it started to become harder to actually go out and role-play. I hopped on MSN chat one night (yes, MSN used to have chat rooms!) and found an online V:tM room. I dropped in there, and before I knew it, I was playing there every night and involved in some big storylines. I ended up meeting some new people, one of whom became my current best friend and roommate. We started a Giovanni room on MSN that became very popular, but as MSN started shutting down its chat rooms we transitioned to HTML role-play, and the rest is kind of history.

That’s very cool and interesting. So, where do you play now on Roleplay Evolution?

Yoko: Most of mine are pretty old, but I did just recently make a character named Finn for Kansas City Sins, and since Fractured Reflections is so new, my two characters there are brand new as well. Finn is a hyena lycan and Valentina and Fiona are both members of the Arcanus family.

How old is Claude? And where did the concept for him come from?

Yoko: He was created – gosh, in 2003 I believe, so he’s been around about fourteen years. What’s funny about him being my main character is that he was created as a total joke. He was my first male character. I had been up late listening to music, and that sleep-deprived slap-happiness had set in. Guru and I were joking about making a Kid Rock vampire, and so I did. He started out just a regular average vamp in the city, but somehow got more and more popular. As I began to enjoy playing him more and more, I started to develop him more by working on an actual serious backstory for him. After a few years, he went from mid-level vamp to working for the Master of the City, to serving as her second, to eventually becoming Master of the City himself.

We all love characters that kind of just take on a life of their own. Would you say that Claude has done that for you?

Yoko: Oh, absolutely. I’ve even retired him more than once, but he just keeps on finding his way back and gaining new momentum and life.

Ok, so if you are ready and he is, the next part is for him.

Yoko: Sure!

Hello, Claude. I have to say thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us. So, tell me, what are you?

Claude: What am I? Sounds like a simple question, but it’s actually rather complex. The simple answer? I’m a Master Vampire, of course. A more complete answer? I’m a business owner, I’m a father, I’m a care giver, and a mediator over many moving pieces within my city. I’m many things all combined together to make me – me. I’d like to think I’m the only me in existance.

How did you become a father? Most of us that know vampires have heard that they can’t have children.

Claude: Well, I have four children all together and that would be four very complicated stories. But I will say this – be careful when you’re with those that control elements and temperatures, or even more so, magic. That’s all I’m going to say on that.

Well, maybe one day, we’ll get you to share the story. How do you handle business? Are you one of the vampires that can go out in the daylight?

Claude: You just want all my secrets, don’t you?. To an extent, yes, I can go out in the daylight. I can’t spend the day at the beach or work on my tan, but I can handle daylight for certain periods of time. Being able to be awake during the day if I need to is rather helpful when it comes to getting a lot done in a certain amount of time. I’m not bound to only being productive after it gets dark.

Of course we want your secrets – what reporter wouldn’t? Can you tell us, is there a difference between you and other vampires?

Claude: A difference? I would say absolutely there’s a difference. I think that once we gain strength – to the point that we’re not just one of the average everyday vampires bound to someone else’s court, but are part of our own, or even more so the master of our own court – it makes you stand out from the others. For example, I’m the master of the city. I’m the only one in the city – that makes me different. I have a specific animal to call, I come from a specific bloodline, I have a specific set of abilities. I’m the only one with that exact combination of features. So I would say, yes, there is absolutely a difference between myself and the others.

Care to share what a day/evening is like with you?

Claude: Now, that’s an interesting question. It can all depend on the day or evening. I have four children, one of which is only five years old, and two significant others, I’m Master of Kansas City and I own the most popular club there. So, there are a million combinations of what my days and evenings could look like. I do try to rise as early as possible, without putting myself in jeopardy, in order to spend time with my children, especially my youngest. Sometimes that means playing in the garden or at the playground. She loves to swim and we have a rather large indoor pool at the estate. She loves all the things that most five year old girls love. Until she’s in bed, I try to have my focus on her,just being her father. As I said, I currently have two significant others, so I do try to spend time with them as well. I take care of any court business that might need to be handled, and if there’s time left in my evening, I enjoy getting to spend time relaxing at Sins of the Flesh, the club I mentioned before. That’s a pretty typical day or evening – when I get the luxury of a typical day or evening.

Two significant others? How do you handle that? I mean are they both women or men? Yes, Claude, we are asking if you are a player?

Claude: A player? Moi? You flatter me. I don’t know if player is the word I would use, but I handle it pretty easily, actually. They both live in the estate with me. They know each other, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’re the best of friends, they’re at the very least civil and friendly with each other. They’re both equally important to me. They understand that monogamy is not something that fits my lifestyle and neither one of them expects it from me. I don’t hide things from them, and I don’t expect anything from them that I myself am not willing to give. It works out rather well for all three of us.

Has there been a time where you weren’t what seems to be on top of the world?

Claude: Of course. I’ve had to work very hard to achieve what I have now, building this life for myself. In my human life, I was nothing special – just an everyday insignificant man, and that really didn’t change upon starting my life as a vampire. I was still a nobody, insignificant. We all are in the beginning. It hasn’t been a smooth rise to where I am now, either. I have suffered great loss, lost more than a few people who were deeply important to me. Even my children have suffered. It’s not easy being a good father when you don’t rise until their bedtime and die for the day before they wake up. The last thirty or so years of my life have completely changed who and what I am.

How did it change your life? I mean, you’re a vampire. You rise and die and then drink blood, right? That’s all there is to it?

Claude: That’s like saying a person wakes up, eats a sandwich, and goes to bed, and that’s all there is to them. There is so much more. On top of the members of my family and the others under my care and protection, like my leopards, I’m responsible for every vampire in my city. As I grow in power it constantly changes me. The people who have come in and out of my life have changed me. And more than anything, my children have changed me in so many ways. They make me see the world differently, They’ve made me see myself differently. I’ve had flaws in myself pointed out that I’ve had to work on and change to be a better father and a better Master. It’s a very common strategy to rule by fear, and yes, sometimes, it’s necessary, but it’s not the only way. There can be positive change if you work hard enough at it.

You mentioned ruling by fear. How do you rule your own piece of the world?

Claude: Through respect, both given and earned, and through the message of co-existance. Having my children, and each of them being so very different from the others, has shown me that we don’t need to exist in these separate communities, where everyone take cares of themselves and nobody else. We can work together. Vampires, lycans, humans with abilities, humans with no abilities at all. I have seen so many wars break out between groups simply because nobody wanted to reach out to each other or have each other’s backs. Or even more so, because of fear; because everyone fears in some way what they don’t know and understand. And I am very proud of the fact that there has not been a single major war within my city while I’ve been Master of the City. Even Humans First is an almost insignificant speck in the city, and that’s not a small task, trust me.

Humans First – what exactly is that?

Claude: Simply put, Humans First is a group that believes that humans are the only ones that should exist. They hate everything non-human – Vampires, lycans, fae, even other humans with non-human abilities. But they don’t just hold rallies and picket – they take people, torture them, commit murder. They perform all sorts of horrible acts of violence in the hopes of a humans only world.

Interesting. Well, I have to say thank you again for taking time out of your busy day for this. Is there anything you would like to say to the readers?

Claude: I thank you for your time as well. Hopefully, I’ve helped paint the picture that not everybody is exactly what they seem.