Max Maurey

Biography
Vampire, Ventrue, Unaligned

King of the Undercity

"Puppets from the Prince come to beg for my warmth?"

In the depths of the Undercity beneath the South Side, there resides an old, repulsive and powerful Kindred some call the King of the Undercity. Max Maurey would argue against that title, but the fact remains he is one of the oldest (maybe the oldest) Kindred in Chicago. Maurey was the Ventrue Priscus under the Matriarch and some of her predecessors. Maurey’s politics and infrequent visits to the surface have seen him forgotten by Prince Maxwell (“that other Max”), who acknowledges another Ventrue Priscus for all intents and purposes.

Maurey is one of the eldest waking Kindred in Chicago and he knows the city like he knows his own flesh. He keeps a concise journal of his experiences and the historical events of the night, both Kindred and mortal, as he dreads the notion of entering torpor. Maurey is a powerful cultural force in the Undercity, though conspicuously not in any covenant. He has worked with the Carthians from time to time, and with the Circle of the Crone on occasion as well, but he doesn’t subscribe to the ideology of any faction enough to actually join (though not for lack of invitations).

Maurey is considered the quiet champion of the Undercity’s Kindred. Anything that would bring trouble to the underground or damage their standing in the city, Maurey weighs in on. More than once, he’s sent word to the court at Elysium via a filthy undead messenger long thought destroyed by surface society. Courtly Kindred often rumor that Prince Maxwell even went into the tunnels once to parley with Maurey, shortly after the Prince returned to power, but who knows if it’s true.

Few topsiders even know of Maurey’s existence beyond occasional rumors, as he goes for years without ever leaving his corner of the Undercity. Kindred of the underground don’t go out of their way to mention his existence to those who don’t already know him: he’s like their secret grandfather. Except for the most bestial vampires of the subterranean world, only Max Maurey truly resembles the romantic stereotype of the phantom that languishes among stolen finery and phonographs in the cracked concrete and vaulted chambers of the underground. Only Max Maurey really has no intention of ever returning to the surface.

Maurey is an old-fashioned, regal sort of lord. He is a relic, like everything else in his haven, warped and rotten by the damp, but still charming and fascinating in antiquity. Maurey comes across as patient and dignified but, less obviously, Maurey is also a creature of immense cunning. His considerable age has twisted his features in a way that leads many to believe he is a Nosferatu, but he is simply a wise and tired old man in a body worn out from fighting off the insatiable Beast.