Race: Vampire
Sex: Female
Real Name: Rosa Di Ricagnoli
Nick Name: Roxana Ricagni
Birth Date & Location: 12th May, 1912 - Firenze, Italy,
Position: Vampire
Group Affiliation: Loosely affiliated with The Brotherhood
DESCRIPTION:
Roxana has very fair skin, that makes an appalling contrast to her long black hair. The fact that she’s a vampire only accentuates her paleness. She has huge dark eyes and a full sensual mouth. She appears to be in her early thirties but is almost a hundred years old. She likes wearing black. She is sometimes flamboyant and likes luxury, maybe a trace of her artist’s origin. Her temperament is explosive and betrays her Italian upraising too.
(Roxana is played by Rachel Weisz)
BACKGROUND:
Rosa was born in Firenze, Italy at the beginning of the 20th century, the only child of a family of poor Italian nobility. It was understood from the moment she was born and showed signs of becoming a beauty, that she would be the means for the family to recover their lost position in society. Thus the girl was educated in all the “nice” arts, singing, playing, and painting, not giving much attention to her other studies, she wouldn’t really need more than that, it was believed, if she got to catch a good husband. However, even if she could never trace a single line nor read and write in Latin, it was soon evident that she had a talent for music. Her education centred then in piano and singing lessons, but only with the intention of amusing the social circles of Italian nobility and getting a rich and noble husband.
However, things changed when she fell in love with her young French music tutor. Young and shy, she allowed him to seduce her and became pregnant. Full of love and hope she went to tell him about her condition only to be turned down by him. Her lover just rejected her and left the city, afraid of her father’s reaction. They may have lost their fortune, but the Di Ricagnoli family was old enough to have power in the right circles.
Finding herself alone and desperate, she tried to hide her condition all the time she could but soon it became evident. Her father’s rage was terrible, and he threw her from home. Not only had she disgraced herself but had taken all the family’s future down with her. Her mother was a little more compassionate and even if she didn’t dare to stand against her husband she managed to give her daughter some money and a couple of pieces of jewelry to help her survive.
The money didn’t last long, neither did the jewels though, and soon Rosa found herself with nothing. Pregnant and alone, she lived on the streets and slept in churches, trying to steal or beg for food, until one day she stole from the wrong person. The man just ran after her and cornered her in a back alley, proceeding then to hit and rape her until she lost consciousness. When she came to she had miscarried her baby and was weak as a kitten, she would have died if the alley's resident prostitute hadn't discovered her and – taking pity on her - took her to the nearest convent. The nuns nursed her until she recovered her health and then sent her to the streets again, with a cross and a prayer.
Rosa was almost as bad as she had started, but the experience had hardened her, and she had a friend in the streets. Graziella, the prostitute who had found her, had visited her in the convent and taken her under her wing. Rosa decided then that she wouldn’t steal again for a living, nor she would be a corner prostitute like Graziella. Now that she wasn’t pregnant and had recovered her figure, she had a plan.
With the help of Graziella she visited the city’s taverns and performed for the owners. At first they didn’t like her music, she had been tutored in opera and classical music, but soon she discovered what was that was heard in those places and her melodic voice and obvious talent gained her a place in their circle. But Rosa had higher ambitions and in no time, she had become one of the most popular courtesans of Firenze, and had moved into the Opera Circles, becoming also a prima voice. She sang in the Firenze opera until her father paid her a visit and offered her money to move out of the country. She had become an embarrassment for him and her mother, he said. Rosa rejected the money but agreed to move for her mother’s sake.
In 1934 Rosa changed her name to Roxana Ricagni and moved to Paris, taking Graziella with her as her maid. In the following years she became Paris’ greatest courtesan and prima donna, living with the city the changes in Europe.
In 1940 when the city was occupied by the Germans, she became part of the Résistance, using her position as high-class courtesan to gather information that could help her adopted country to obtain its freedom again. This game lasted a couple of years, until she was discovered and taken to the Nazis by one of her lovers, a German government attaché. In prison Roxana was tortured to give the résistance cell she worked for; unable to stand more torture, she finally spoke, and was released. But she was broken, in body and mind, because of the ordeal she had gone through and the knowledge that she had caused the death of her entire résistance cell. She didn’t go back to the boards or even her house, submerging in alcohol and becoming what she despised most, a common whore.
It was Graziella again that saved her, she convinced one of her former lovers and admirers to help her. The man had been on and off in her life since she had come to Paris almost ten years ago. Graziella didn’t even know his real name, nor why he never appeared by day, but was one of her mistress' greatest admirers and a man of great power and refined culture. Of course he was a vampire.
When they finally found her, she was in a miserable state, ill in mind and body. The only way to save her was to turn her, and the vampire did just that. He was a great music lover and had never wanted to turn her before in fear of her losing her talent. He had seen it happen before and had never wanted to do it to her. The vampire, whose name was Challes, taught her the way of their kind and opened her eyes to a whole new world. After her turning, Roxana continued singing, but abandoned her courtesan life, becoming Challes’ lover only. Together they rampaged through Europe, and Roxana’s fame grew unobstructed, her artist’s life hiding the fact of her vampirism perfectly well. Among her first victims were the Nazi soldiers that had tortured her and the German politic that had turned her in to them. She kept Graziella with her as her maid until the woman died of old age, the woman never wanting to embrace the dark life of her mistress. Only gratitude made Roxana respect her decision.
Challes was an old vampire, having been turned by Krispin almost two hundred years before, and he introduced his “daughter” to his sire. Roxana didn’t like Krispin but never dared to say anything, and continued to stay in touch with him even after Challes was killed by a Slayer after some years together.
In 2006 she was called by her grand-sire to travel to LA to benefit from the Slayer’s Ritual. In the Hyperion she met Morris Giles, and they soon became lovers. She felt awed by his magical powers and he was mesmerised by her beauty and talent. Neither of them loved the other but they formed a bond nonetheless.
After Krispin’s cowardly retreat in the Hyperion and the battle that followed, Roxana found Morris in the hotel and has helped him recover forces and gather a little group of vampires of his own. He has convinced her to help him kill his former lover. She has plans of her own to propose him after his little vengeance is over.
POWERS/ABILITIES:
Vampiric powers, increased after the Slayer’s ritual.
ITEMS:
Nothing of interest.
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