The Dark. Most sane, God-fearing people avoid it, are scared of it. Evil, horrible things lurk within the shadows, hiding just out of sight.
Vito Lintini was not one of those who were afraid of the dark. Just the opposite in fact. He looked to the darkness for answers, for power, for life. And he found them all.
Growing up in a decent sized village in England, Vito was always fascinated with learning things others shunned. He picked up herbalism and occultism with ease, leaning about all the things that go bump in the night. He even studied rudimentary alchemy.
When he was fourteen, his parents both died during a bandit raid. He had already been apprenticed to the town apothecary, and the old woman took him in officially.
A few years later, the young man stumbled upon an incredibly old book hidden deep in his mentor's basement. Much of what was in it were tales, recipes, and minor incantations. Several however, granted one mastery of the darkness and shadows. Day after day, night after night, Vito crept into the basement, studying and memorizing the spells contained within that mysterious tome. After a month and half, he had them all committed to memory, and burned the book.
Using his new found powers of Shadowcasting, Vito hunted down and exacted revenge on his parents murders. The fight, if you could call it that, was short, bloody and completely fatal for the six bandits.
Unfortunately, one of the men he killed was the son of nearby baron, and while the man turned a blind eye to his child's depredations, his death would not go unpunished. A group of soldiers, led by an Inquisitor, hunted Vito down, and after an intense battle, they arrested the young man. He was tried, convicted and scheduled to hang at dawn.
That night, he was rescued, by an unknown benefactor, and brought to the meeting place of a shadow coven. It wasn't long before he got the attention of one of the head priests, and eventually was given the embrace.
Now among the "life" that he was positive existed out in the shadows, Vito readily took his clan's ability to manipulate the darkness. However, like some among the Lasombra, he sensed that this inner darkness was much more, and soon took to the study of the Abyss. He is a follower of the very secretive and rather unknown Road of the Abyss, though he is a still more or less an initiate on its path. He has even mastered a few of minor rituals associated with his chosen field of specialization.
Sire: "Noctifer", he took me as apprentice noticing my uncanny affinity with darkness and at some point embraced me, though I never knew why he did it. I was his servant still, and I doubted anything would have ever changed. I grew bored and disillusioned with my sire when he stopped teaching me new things and just used me as a glorified errand boy. So I planned to leave him, and one night when he was gone, I left him for good, and headed towards York, a Barony I hoped could shelter me and my studies. I am in the process of reaching the city, and readying myself for Presentation.
Mentor: Maria Vittoria Giovanni, who has taken an interest in my studies and wishes to learn more upon my arrival to York.
Haven: Before leaving his home and sire behind, Vito stayed at the apothecary with the old lady who took him in after his parents were killed. Now, he has none, though he is hoping to set one up in York.
