Work in Progress

Character History

1240 A.D. Outside Kyiv

"They destroyed cities and castles and killed men and Kyiv, which is the greatest Russian city they besieged; and when they had besieged it a long while they took it and killed the people of the city. So when we went through that country we found countless human skulls and bones from the dead scattered over the field. Indeed it had been a very great and populous city and now is reduced almost to nothing. There are hardly two hundred houses there now and the people are held in the strictest servitude."

Papal envoy Giovanni di Plano Carpini

In English Translation, the Garou who prowled the umbral valleys surrounding Kyiv would have been called, Of Claw and Blade. The minions of the air, the wretched Wyrm had come in droves. The city fell to madness. With fang and claw, the Garou had driven back the harbingers of darkness... The smell of rotting flesh was thick and pungent in her nostrils, as the dark-wolf moved among the fallen. Garou, Kinfolk, were still unaccounted for. Some had been taken. Some had fallen in the Umbral battle that had raged. She searched for the missing among the bodies, and for intelligence that would give the Garou an advantage over their enemy...

It was then she caught it, the faint whiff of something approaching on the wind that she had come to know well in recent battles.

The bane shrieked, and the clouds of the sky darkened. The mutilated corpses of the flesh-lands had translated into the umbra - the land itself had turned malignant and hostile. Of Claw and Blade Remembered well the sweet grasses and the hunting grounds that had been enjoyed by her and the others before the country was ravaged by war.

With cracking bone and sprouting fur, the Crinos stood to her hulking Warform... She howled a taunt-riddled challenge... In her hand, a long-bladed dagger meant for a Crinos’ massive hand appeared. It was hurled toward the bane, sinking into it as again, the Garou screamed a war-cry. Primordial ooze trailed from the beast in tendrils from where the Crinos’ dagger had landed... Thunder’s child bore her teeth. The victory would be hers...

The progeny of ˜Of Claw and Blades remained prevalent in Ukraine though some would scatter throughout Europe during times of great social unrest.

As the Mongol Lords descended upon the country, by rape and conquest some of the kinfolk became heavy with the children of the invaders. One of these children was a kinfolk known as “Alekaia the Gray.’ This kinfolk had early developed a penchant for herbalism and learned to best derive certain neurotoxin from a certain fish that was native to the sea waters not far from her coastal village. This kinfolk developed an early version of a truth-serum employing it on the Mongols captured to extricate the location of their secret camps and their intelligence.

Through her mate, Alekaia birthed three Garou children. All males. Defender of Legends, a Galliard whose tribal stories are still repeated in some version of the early days of the Mongol invasion... Cunning and Reason, a Philodox who was quite progressive in his theological and philosophical pursuits (and who made great strides in educating the kinfolk of the day) and Doesn’t-Ask-Twice an Ahroun known for his battle prowess and legendary short temper.

These virile Garou spilled their seed into several kinfolk, and their line was strong. Every few generations dark-haired women would be birthed to the tribe who would show an uncanny resemblance to ‘Of Claw and Blade’.. with an affinity with knives. Nearly as magick and genetics had intermingled these women would become champions of the Nation either as Garou of Legend or a kinfolk who birthed one of those noted in the Silver Record.

As the Iron Curtain Fell and the umral banes that had surrounded the Chernobyl disaster were quelled, the bloodline of this legendary Garou trickled from Europe into the superpower that was America.

Too many kin were being lost to the Vampire threat, and the village that had been home to Petrov and Takla Romanko fell. Across the frozen mountains in a covered wagon, (for no car could make such a trek) the family journeyed.

The Garou would pause to fight umbral threats, and the kinfolk would tend to the fire and hunt for the evening meals. Eventually, they would reach the border where they bartered by Gambling for passage into the New World.

Arriving in New York in the late 1980s, the family established themselves in the local Sept. The kinfolk daughters and sons were taken as mates, and the Romanko line continued to flourish. One of these children was a Ragabash who had attained the Rank of Adren shortly after the long and treacherous crossing before the family’s arrival in America. Velyo Romanko and his kinfolk mate, Yulya were a dynamic couple.

Their mating was the talk of the Sept long before the event occurred and their romance was always under speculation. Still, they birthed twin daughters, one Garou, one Kinfolk. , Stella and Seline were the first children of the Romako family to be born in the country.

As the trade wars met head-on with the technological era of free information, Yulya Romanko started a grass-roots corporation to protect local business assets from larger corporations that had begun to infringe upon their rights.

The dream expanded... and would later be taken up by Yulya’s daughter, whom the family affectionately called Seline. The Twin’s features were remarkable from birth, as was the early developed talent for blades.

A Garou who resembled that Ragabash ancestor had not been birthed in some time to the family. It was assumed that eventually, the line would again find favor.

A Theurge had predicted that these children would be... unique... early in the pregnancy. Though,cryptic the message had been - the joyous family took it to heart and indeed, Stella experienced her first change at the Age of Sixteen.

Stella joined the American Military… and Seline remained behind to further her education.

When Velyo fell in umbral battle shortly before the girl’s sixth birthday, her kinfolk mother and Garou Grandfather saw to her continued education. Both had ught in their formative years to revere the spirits, to value even the most obscure information and its future usefulness, and to not question a leader who was both strong and effective.

Seline received most of her education and training in Europe, graduating from finishing school with honors. She would then reconnect with her family in America due to their mother’s failing health.

Unlike her Garou twin, it was determined shortly after Seline’s tween years that the change would likely not occur. There was familial disappointment but it was soon forgotten as the girl’s skill-sets increased and her likelihood to produce a favorable mating made her an asset to both her family and tribe.

Years of gymnastics, training in firearms, the extraction of information, had been given to the girl born under a winking moon. The company would change under her leadership... and would prove successful.

Seline’s most trusted advisor apart from her sister is another Shadowlord kinfolk, Sophia Bodak. 25, blonde, and ever inquisitive this perky kinfolk always seems to know where to find exactly what she’s looking for - and who to buy it from. Some say that she’d familial relations with white-collar criminals - others that her family were all brilliant researchers with patents on warehouses full of gadgets and gizmos. Regardless of truth or myth - the girl serves as a translator and personal assistant for Seline.

With Seline on board as the CEO the company trended toward Risk Management. Doors opened into every sector of finance and government... and the war against Pentex began in earnest.

After her tour of duty ended Stella also rejoined the company and provided invaluable input during negotiations and dealings with the United States Military. The Ahroun continues to do fulfil her duties to both the Nation and Stratus Global.

New York seemed a capital place to expand. After all, every few years, the company headquarters relocated and the name changed to achieve both maximum profit and efficiency. New York was. the perfect locale. Choice real estate was purchased, staffed, and kinfolk sent to scout the area and determine the ‘lay of the land.'

Stella Romanko is a Shadow Lord, Ahroun, deeded Lightening Blades, Fostern, Stella and her twin, Seline were born in a stormy night. The pair grew up being very well educated with tutors and going to the best schools. Soon both sister showed an afinity with blades, Stella always thought that if one of them would ever change it would be Seline, herself being quieter and more serious than her sister. While Seline invested in her education and learning about the family business Stella went to West Point, and then the army, she was trainned and she was ambicous, she had plan to get to the high ranks, but when she reached 21 it happened.

I was again a stoemy night, she was driving the truck with her unity and they were ambushed, things would be so bad if they were attacked by normal enemy soldiers, but that was not the case, what attacked them were fomori, a group of 5 of them, disgusting, deformed and in seconds 2 of Stella’s men were down, that was the first time she witnessed something like that and it was all that took to force her through her first change, she lost control and when she was back to conscience there was not much left from the fomori, her clothes were ripped and her head was aching… her unity mates were hurt, Jason Denver couldn’t be saved, but the other three lived to see another day even if they couldn’t understand what happened that night. Stella got a medal, but she understood she couldn’t stay there anymore, everyone looked at her with what they could call respect, but that she knew deep inside was a terrible fear. After all that she started to devote her time and life to excell as an Ahroun and as a Garou. She practices every day, firearms, krav maga, her favorite are still the blades, but everything she thinks that could make her better, she does. Of course, she passed her Rite of Passage, it was an strategy game, she took the lead of the group of cubs and guide them to the sucess, it wasn’t a powerful enemy, it was a group of tained lupus kin, but they were fierce and feral. Since then she has been in several mission, never backing off, mission given is a mission accomplished, that was how she got the renown for her Fostern challenge, for that, she led a temporary pack in an assault to a pack of Spirals, they weren’t the most powerfull ones she had met, but definitly the bigger group, they were seven, and her pack counted with five Garou. But due her gathering of intel and use of the right tatics they defeated the enemies. Now she is fresh from her challenge and even more motivated to fight the enemies of Gaia with claws, fangs and blades.