Carl Merriweather

Gangrel, Unaligned

The first time Carl was in the paper was for being the first child born in the Cabrini-Green housing project. He grew up during the factory closings and deterioration of the neighborhood and was a founding member of the gangs that came in shortly thereafter. Carl spent a number of years as a ghoul in service to the Nosferatu Walid and worked to extend Walid's influence around the city, eventually gaining control of the city's housing projects.

Carl was embraced by a Gangrel travelling across the country who settled in Chicago for a time and became a rival of Walid's. The idea was that that Carl would be used as a pawn to bring down Walid and make the transition of resources and influence that much easier.

Although he wasn't introduced to Kindred society proper, Carl figured out what was going on quickly enough and realized that he didn't want to be anyone's Thrall. On the night that the Gangrel had planned to destroy Walid, Carl announced that he was no longer anybody's pawn and destroyed both the Gangrel and Walid.

Since then, Carl has tried to consolidate his power among the housing projects and other slum areas of the city while trying to keep free of other Kindred influence. For the most part successful, he has changed his goal to bringing economic and political progress to "his people." Remarkably, he has done this without relying on ghouls or Neonates of his own. It has taken some time, but the recent razings of housing projects and infrastructure/educational improvement in Englewood has been markers of his success.

While the Carthians have recognized his talent and tried to woo him to their cause, Carl has remained unaligned, vowing never again to be beholdent to anyone.