Thea Noel-MacCrain

Thea’s behavior as a human was already so erratic, her Embrace failed to cause suspicion among her friends and acquaintances. She’s still the same Thea they always knew, sleeping unusually late and partying until dawn. They assume she’ll grow out of it and marry or perhaps start a career in media, politics, or finance.

Thea shifts her hairstyle and makeup choices regularly, but always maintains the nose, ear, and medusa piercings she acquired during her last few mortal days. She does however change up the precious metals and jewels on display in these piercings.

Modern, cutting-edge designer fashion is Thea’s normal wardrobe. If a scarf didn’t cost more than a normal person’s monthly salary, it’s not worth wearing. The exception is when Thea is blending into a new social environment. She delights in researching how to dress appropriately to the scene, although not being stylish is beyond her abilities.

Thea’s mortal life was characterized by layer upon layer of overlapping privileges. Her family is Chicago old money, having originally made their fortune in real estate. Extreme wealth had its perks and she spent her childhood tagging along as her parents deliberated on what they should do with their lives on a yacht in the Bahamas, at the country estate of a family friend in Champagne, France, or in the Chicago Lincoln Park mansion.

Living in this environment, Thea learned to navigate the world of private planes, gated enclaves, top-floor hotel suites, and exclusive schools long before she ever set foot among ordinary people who were not servants of one type or another.

Growing up, Thea’s defining trait was a hunger for new experiences. Her mother inherited the family wealth while her father was a trophy husband and a for-mer Olympic-level swimmer. Unhappy with each other, they were grimly determined to drag Thea and her siblings along to their miserable little dramas of infidelity, alcoholism, drug abuse, spite, cruelty and pettiness.

The youngest of three kids, Thea watched her older brother and sister succumb to the family dysfunction but, somehow, she avoided getting dragged down by it. All it left her was a resolute conviction in the utter worthlessness of her parents.

By the time Thea made it to Yale, she knew her family’s connections and money meant she was freed from consequences. A trip to jail for drunk driving was a thrilling story to be shared with friends, not an event that actually meant anything. The more bad things Thea avoided, the more she felt she was invincible, forever free from any sort of backlash.

In a way, the Embrace proved her right. Others lose their money, health, friends, future. All dissolution and arrogance brought for Thea was immortality at the tender age of 20.

Embraced three years ago to serve the Ministry in an attempt to make inroads into the Chicago upper-class market for illegal narcotics, Thea took to undeath with glee. The Ministry’s Marcel botched her initiation rites when he assumed he could subvert her soul to his aims by asking her to make her parents into blood slaves. Thea did so of course, but seeing the craven desperation for blood twist the features of her mother and father didn’t create the hoped-for collapse of her personality so it could be moulded to serve the Ministry ideal. Instead, Thea learned to use the vitae the same way she had used power and connections all her life.

Despite her Embrace, Thea still maintains her mortal identity and social network, although this is becoming more difficult due to the unsettling mien created by her plunge into moral collapse. She wasn’t humane even as a human, and much less so now that she’s Kindred. Instead of liberation through corruption for all the people, she believes in liberation through corruption for herself.

From the Ministry’s perspective, Thea is out of control. She’s not interested in working to build up criminal connections with high-value clients or gathering blackmail material among the city’s elite. Instead, she revels in the risks she can now take with her new vampiric body.