Sin (WoD)

Vital Stats

• Birth Name: Didi Hadley
  
• Craft Name/Alias: Cinamon Teleute
  
• Status: Adept
  
• Essence: Primordial
  
• Paradigm: Creation is Innately Divine and Alive!
  
• Practice: Shamanism, Medicine Work, and Martial Arts
  
• Faction: The Nine Traditions
  
• Tradition/Convention/Craft: Euthanatos (Chakravanti)
  
• Sect: The Pomegranate Deme
  
• Place of Origin: London, England, United Kingdom
  
• Occupation: Chief Medical Examiner, Kern County Coroner
  
• Apparent Age: Early-20s
  
• Player/Type: NPC
  

Appearance

Cinamon "Sin" Teleute typically resembles an average-build, attractive, pale-skinned young goth girl dressed in casual clothes - usually a black top and stretch jeans/pants with black boots. On more formal occasions she favours a black mini-dress, often adorned with a black top hat or beret. During colder or rainy weather she wears a black leather jacket or trench coat. Sin is not actually adverse to wearing other colours on occasion (usually FOR occasions), and wouldn't even specifically identify herself as a goth if asked - it is simply that because of her affiliation to the Vidare Mortem she naturally gravitates towards this style (also, see Other: Legend). Although her style is quirky and may be considered sometimes inappropriate for the social situation, Sleepers never seem to notice. Some wonder if she deliberately does this as some form of test to quickly identified the Awakened and Night-Folk simply by seeing who comments on the appropriateness of her fashion sense.

Sin has grey eyes and her black hair is kept naturally long and often seems slightly unkempt but, on occasion, she styles it up to resemble classic 80s rock hairstyle or cuts it shorter. She has a tattoo marking around her right eye that slightly resembles and is commonly mistaken for (especially with the way she applies her make-up) the Eye of Horus, although she will correct those who point this out by saying it is "The Eye of Lady Fate". She always has dark make-up on - principally dark eye shadow/eye-liner and black lipstick, although she occasionally alternates with dark blue, purple or red lipstick.

When she speaks, she enunciates clearly as if each word is carefully thought out before being spoken (which, knowing her, they probably were) and has a notable classic British accent. Despite her goth-like appearance and in contrast to the typical reputation of Moros mages, Sin is often described as having a "comforting smile and warm voice" that sets people at ease.

No matter what she's wearing, Sin is always found wearing a silver ankh on a chain around her neck, The ankh is actually one of her magickal instruments an imbued item, and once belonged to her master - who gave his life to save her by giving her the Ankh. Therefore, it is her most valued possession.

Background

Didi Hadley was different from an early age - she never seemed to stop playing with "imaginary friends"and wanted to help them, as they were often so sad. As she got older she realised it was the dead she could perceive, and her desire to help others (living or dead) led to her coming across a Chakravanti of the Pomegranate Deme who recognised her as a child mage. Soon after, he performed the Disksha on her and took her as his apprentice, whereupon she took the craft name Cinamon Teleute, or "Sin" (a play on the shortened "Cin" meant as an insult by someone who disapproved of her goth-like appearance, which Cinamon found amusing and kept) . She learnt much from her master about Persephonism, the Old Gods, and became an Iatromantis and pankrationist. During her second year of nurse training, in the closing weeks of the Second World War, she undertook an Agama Sojourn with her master and they were caught in the Fifth Great Maelstrom (which mages know as the Avatar Storm). Although the storm should have killed her, her master gave her his Ankh Talisman, which absorbed the destructive effects of the Avatar Storm for long enough for Sin to get to shelter, at the cost of his own life. Whilst struggling to find a safe way to cross the Shroud with the deadly Avatar Storm blowing around her, she was offered both protection from the Maelstrom and her blessing by the Lady of Fate, in return for service helping the dead to Transcend as there would be a great need in the years to come, Lady of Fate's oracular sight foretelling an even greater calamity would befall the Underworld. This proved true in 1999 with the Sixth Great Maelstrom and Transcendence of Charon, Lord of Stygia, as well as the fall of Stygia and the Deathlords; flinging many Wraiths into the Skinlands or as Risen, and with the drive to Transcend greatly increased now that many Wraiths had seen Charon Transcend.

Since she made her agreement with the Lady of Fate, Cinamon has not perceptively aged - although typically only the Awakened (including Night Folk) seem to notice her lack of ageing. A few decades after her pact with the Lady of Fate, during a golden age of women more commonly entering the fields of medicine as doctors rather than nurses, she decided to enrol in the University College London School of Medicine and, eventually, got all the required training to become a Forensic Pathologist and medical examiner for the London Metropolitan Police Force (MET). Sin has survived plagues, injuries and outright fatal incidents, always seemingly coming back... eventually. It can take a while to return from death, depending on the amount of trauma to her body resulting in her death, which she heals at a normal rate for a mortal unless using magick to accelerate the healing. A particularly bad motorcycle accident right at the start of 2012, caused by partying too hard on New Year's Eve and the obviously monumentally-witless decision to drive inebriated, left her quite dead long enough that she eventually resurrected inside of a coffin, well after her own funeral. Having to break out of the coffin, crawl through six feet of earth to a world that had known her to be undeniably dead was not a good experience... Rather than try to somehow amend things to return to her life, and do a lot of explaining to her Chantry about how she came back - she instead saw it as a vagary of fate and a good impetus to start a new era of her life. Having loved movies and comics for a long time, she had always wanted to see California (but never actually getting around to it) and so Sin used much of her remaining connections to get a new legal identity (as Cinamon Teleute), then moved to America for a fresh start. Probably a good thing as she was 86 years old by this stage and, although the Lady of Fate's blessing meant that Sleepers did not notice her lack of aging (nor her "advanced age" as being an issue), the Awakened and Night-Folk (and, especially, agents of the Technocratic Union) did - so a fresh start (or "reboot" as she likes to think of it) was a positive thing overall. She had outlined most of her sleeper friends anyhow and, truthfully, her being more active in the Shadowlands than in the Chantry meant she hadn't really grown close to anyone that she wasn't just as happy to correspond with in the future over email and social media.

It took several years of examinations and further training to get the certification to practice in America - almost like having to go through medical school all over again... but she didn't mind as time had ceased to be a factor for her decades ago, and got there in the end, qualifying to practice Anatomic, Clinical and Forensic Pathology. As part of California's required Residency Match program for medical practitioners, she was assigned residency at and worked at the Medical Examiner's office for the Kern County Sheriff-Coroner in Ashford and found herself quite liking the growing city - especially as it had quite active ghostly activity and interesting (and often feuding) Night-Folk factions. On successfully completing her USMLE's, Sin decided to stay in Ashford and, coincidentally, her training finished just as an opening for a Deputy Medical Examiner for the Coroner's office opened up. She did well in her job and got along well with the Sheriff-Coroner and others in both the Coroner's office as well as the greater Kern County Sheriff's office as a whole. A few years later, Cinamon was also lucky to get appointed as the new Chief Medical Examiner when the present one retired. Although she was able and qualified for the post (especially as she had been a medical examiner for the MET for decades), there were various others competing for the position - either simply deputy medical examiners who had been in the department longer, or those being controlled by Night-Folk - the vampire clans known as the Ventrue and Giovanni were particularly aggressive in attempting to put a puppet in that position and/or exert their influence over the Sheriff-Coroner - but years of keeping the influence of the [generally much older and more powerful] vampires of London out of the MET's forensics department had made her quite capable at keeping these comparatively-younger and less-subtle vampires out of her playhouse, to their chagrin - but they're relentless in their attempts to exert their influence and she knows that, soon, they will attempt to influence or coerce her to do their bidding. She hasn't decided yet if she wants to fight them or try to cooperate with them, and guesses it'll probably be down to "how nicely they ask" - but she's ready for when they come knocking on the morgue's door.

Mundane Society

Sin is a people person and is aware of the risks of letting sleepers know of the existence of mages (not the least of which is the risk of Paradox) and, as such, tends to act with prudence regarding anything she does or say around sleepers (at least, to a degree). She generally hides her magickal abilities, unless it would benefit the dead - such as helping a ghost or risen transcend by settling its affairs with a loved one or using vulgar magick to send an uncooperative Risen back to the Shadowlands. In these cases, she often pretends to be a psychic/medium or neopagan shaman/priestess (which, truthfully, she is) and carefully and empathically approach her targets. She downplays even this "ability" and asks those she helps not to tell others her "secret" so as to keep a low profile. She typically only uses vulgar magic if there is no other choice.

Kern Country Coroner

Publicly, Cinamon works as the recently-appointed Chief Medical Examiner for the Sheriff-Coroner. This means that she is responsible for all the autopsies carried out by the Kern County Coroner's office both in Ashford as well as other areas in Kern County. Whilst she does not have direct control over the pathology departments of every hospital - many of which she's realised are controlled or influenced by vampires who cause pathology reports to be falsified to hide their existence - all unusual deaths come through her and she has the influence to choose to overrule the local hospitals and carry out her own investigations if she so chooses. She typically doesn't do this all the time - no need provoking the vampires needlessly - but when a death has caused a ghost to linger and been covered up by the vampires, she will often cause it to be investigated further to help the dead get resolution and be able to "move on" (transcend). This, she thinks, keeps the vampires on their toes as, from their perspective, they never know when Sin will call them out on a falsified report and when they won't. The vampires know she is a highly skilled pathologist, but they don't (to her knowledge) know she is a mage. Not unless her one vampire ally has spilt the proverbial beans, anyhow. For the autopsies carried out by her Coroner's office, many are done directly by Sin herself, though at least as many are carried out by her deputy medical examiners. But, ultimately, all the reports have to get her signature on them and she is getting good at spotting whenever her deputies have been influenced by Night-Folk and either gets rid of them, breaks the influence or, sometimes, actively employs the influenced deputies as unwitting double-agents.

Persephonism

Out of work, Cinamon is a known priestess in the Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC), a neopagan and formally-registered Wiccan religion that seeks to bring back the worship of the Old Gods in a modern context. To those she trusts, she admits she finds the ATC to be "misguided and simplistic" - like children playing at being adults, but respects their aims. As she is a Persephonist, their interests align and it is easy for her to use the ATC as a means to make friends and contacts, practice her faith openly. Although she participates in all the local Temple of Persephone's activities and seems a loyal supporter of the Temple's leaders, she secretly runs a small cult of seven women (seven is a symbolic number for mages) who, although still sleepers, are hedge witches and more serious devotees to Sin's version of the faith - a cult within a cult, you might say. With this group, Sin is more open about her beliefs and is known as an Iatromantis (a form of shaman-healer). She leads them on rituals and prayers - which allows her to use ritual high magick with their assistance, making certain types of magic both more likely to succeed as well as being coincidental. Whilst Cinamon touching a sleeper and causing an illness to disappear would be considered vulgar or fake by most sleepers, within this circle none would consider it strange if a ritual calling on Hecate to cure a person's illness, with appropriate ritual chanting and offerings, results in that person recovering soon after. Faith is a powerful thing for belief. Nonetheless, Sin is careful how far she pushes them - she cannot use them to simply perform a quick ritual to simply heal a gunshot wound before their eyes without them innately denying the reality of it... at least, not YET... <abr />

Personality

Sin is not what most people would expect - at least those who fall for stereotypes. To those capable of actually perceiving the truth of her age and fashion style, she looks like a goth in her late-teens/early twenties, and thus is typically expected to be detached, grim and "dark" - but this couldn't be further from the truth. She says that dealing with and understanding death isn't a reason to be grim and, in fact, NOT fearing death is the only way to truly appreciate life. She believes that the soul is eternal and that "life" is just one stage of its journey, much like death is simply the next stage. She believes that when you die, the soul eventually returns in a new reincarnation and will continue its journey until it achieves true Transcendence (though she will admit to not knowing what exactly that is or how to achieve it - if she did, well, she'd have Transcended wouldn't she?). When pointed out that ghosts are lost souls most often not aware of their existence or state, she simply states that just the living are often also lost, unsure what to do with themselves or the state of existence as the whole. Just as the living need guidance, so do the dead. She knows well the difference between ghosts, shades, wraiths, spectres, ferrymen and other types of spiritual dead (and, to a lesser degree, the physically undead such as vampires, mummies, and the Risen) and knows which require help, and which require a quintessence blast to the face to be sent back to the Labyrinth from which they came.

As such, Sin usually surprises people with her warm and caring personality, friendly nature and (often morbid) sense of humour. She enjoys life, friendship and the pursuit of knowledge. She seeks to understand existence and be a Psychopomp - a spirit guide that can help others transition between their stages of existence; whether whilst alive and going through existential changes - such as that when a loved one is lost - or the transition between life and death, or help those trapped beyond the shroud to transcend and move on to the next stage of their journey, or final destination. Whilst capable of lying, she is notoriously honest and, whilst she has a strong presence that inspires others to trust and believe her, her honesty and forthrightness don't lead to her being good at manipulating others (or try to). She believes others should make their own choices, and endeavours only to provide the guidance for an enlightened decision.

2012 Norton Commando 961 Café Racer

In her free time Sin enjoys reading books, tomes, and comics; having conversations with the living, or the dead; as well as watching movies or documentaries - especially anything that discusses death or mortality. Ever since reading The Sandman vol. 2, #8 (August 1989) Sin has loved the character of Death of the Endless who she relates to in a conceptual kind of way and thinks is really cool (plus, they both have an Ankh, although Sin only likes to take an umbrella with her when it's raining). As such, she has chosen to style herself after this pop-culture icon. This isn't simply a fashion choice - in mage terms, she has created a Legend around herself and her association to this character that has subconscious effects and associations not only with those around her who recognise it but with reality itself. This association allows her to be able to occasionally use the passive, communal belief in this legend to absorb Quintessence or instil items what relate to this legend (such as an umbrella) with Quintessence, turning them into Tass.

Since the early 1950s, Sin has also been a fan of motorcycles. She has nothing against cars - they're useful and can be cool and all - but motorcycles have a special place in her heart. Especially British motorcycles, of which she has been a fan of Norton for many years (she was sorry they have had hard times, and is glad they're back again) and drives a Norton Commando 961 Café Racer which she bought shortly after moving to the United States in 2012. Whilst she isn't into racing, she enjoys using this bike for her daily commute to work (possibly a reason why didn't find a place to reside closer to work) as well as going for journeys on the country roads when the weather's nice.

Other Notes

Wonder: Silver Ankh

Sin wears a silver ankh necklace. The ankh, known in egyptian lore as "the key to the nile" and a symbol for eternal life, is her dedicated magickal tool which she uses to assist her spellcasting. Additionally, it is an imbued object that she obtained during her awakening and whilst she wears or carries it, Sin is able to see, hear and converse with ghosts in Twilight without the need to cast a known rote. She believes that receiving this item during her awakening was a sign as to what her purpose and destiny were to be, and that the dead whisper guidance to her whilst she sleeps.

Familiar: Kerby

Kerby in usual disguise as a Pharoah Dog

Kerby's true appearance

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Spheres

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Combat Style

Sin is not a combat mage. She has only recently began doing any kind of regular exercise and so is only as physically capable as a typical person who leads a fairly active but physically unremarkable lifestyle. She's never been in fights (she became good at hiding from bullies in her youth, or was liked enough not to get bullied) and so has no combat skills whatsoever. Even magically she is only really capable of using the Entropic Guard "Mage Armour" spell for protection. Therefore in combat her main tactics are inevitably relying on her Entropic Guard and manipulation of shadows to avoid getting hit, and calling on the dead to help protect her.

Social Style

Sin is cheerful, kind and well-meaning so it is difficult not to get along with her. She dislikes prejudice, close-mindedness and arrogance and these traits in people are likely to rub her the wrong way, and her mannerism will make her displeasure very apparent. As she values prudence, she always tries to think things through and decide the best course of action - and as such she prefers "thinkers" and others who gauge their actions and thoughts over those who act on impulse or take risks in the hope of a pay-off.

Signature Equipment

• Silver Ankh (imbued item & dedicated magickal tool)
• Black tank top and jeans

Signature Quotes

• "Death isn't just a word to me - it's Genesis."
• "One thing I've learned: you can know anything, it's all there, you just have to find it."
• "For some folks death is release, and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, it's there for all of them."

Gallery

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  "Sin"

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  "Sin"

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  "Sin"

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  Kerby (natural)

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  Kerby (disguised)