THURSDAY, JULY 22 Clan: Nosferatu Perhaps the most enigmatic figure in New Orleans, Baron Cimitiere is a savior to some, a threat to others and a mystery to all. This strange Kindred arrived in the city in 1799, having left Haiti during the revolt against French colonial occupation. Of his time before, he speaks little, even to his most trusted followers. He says only that he faced Final Death in Haiti and was restored to his current incarnation through the aid of the great loa Baron Samedi. Whether he speaks metaphorically or literally is another detail of which he does not speak, but he attributes his devotion to vodoun to that event. For many years after arriving in New Orleans, he was content to be left alone to participate in the growth of vodoun culture. It was at this time that he gained his small but devoted group of Kindred followers in the city, as well as his far more substantial mortal congregations. Slowly, he began to realize that both New Orleans’ Kindred authorities posed a threat to his people – Prince Vidal because of his intolerant religious beliefs and Antoine Savoy through his manipulation of vodoun and its practitioners for purely political ends. Baron Cimitiere uses his considerable influence among the kine and his small but influential group of Kindred supporters in order to oppose both threats. Baron Cimitiere has occasionally alluded to the existence of other groups of Kindred vodouisants beyond his followers in New Orleans (in Haiti, Central and South America, the Caribbean islands and across the United States). His followers believe that one of his objectives is to eventually unite them formally in a covenant to rival the primary five. |
