Name:  Victoria Vanderbilt

Shadow Name:  Pandora

Path:  Mastigos

Order: Guardian of the Veil

Pre-History:

It shouldn’t snow in March.  It especially shouldn’t snow on March 31^st.  It did that year though.  It was the year when Anne Vanderbilt was brought into the private ward of the hospital, resting in her private suite, preparing for the birth of a little baby girl.  The wife of multimillionaire Henry Vanderbilt, she was a southern debutante and old money of her own.  That same night, another woman showed up, begging for help as she was heavily pregnant with twins.  While the hospital was far outside her price range, the medical oaths did not allow the hospital to turn away someone for treatment.  At almost the same time that the woman was taken into the delivery room, Anne began experiencing contractions as well – violent ones that began to show signs of internal hemorrhaging.  Both women were taken into the delivery room.  After a bit of time, it became apparent that one woman was going to deliver twins, while the other woman was going to lose her child.  The doctor on duty made a fateful decision, realizing that if it was discovered, he would lose his job.

He switched out the dead child for one of the twin girls, instructing the nurse to tell the woman that one of the two twins had died in childbirth.  After Anne was taken to the operating room and the internal hemorrhaging was stopped, Anne was taken back to the room where her husband and little boy waited for her, and the nurse brought the baby girl to her.  It only took a brief moment for the doctor to realize he had made the right choice.  While the other woman would mourn the loss of one of her twins, she had a second one to help her though the grieving process.  This woman had a daughter now to love and cherish and make a princess.  She named her Victoria, but time later would find her named, Pandora.  The other child would be remembered as Scarlett Leigh, as her birth, and death certificate was signed.

1982 – Born in Louisiana, daughter of Anne and Henry Vanderbilt

1993 – Is sent to a private school (Ridley College – St. Catherines, Canada).  Victoria is taught several languages, including Latin and Greek.  (Age 11)

1995 – Victoria awakens while portraying Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.  She appears to faint during the play.  After coming to about five minutes later in real time, a shaken Victoria finishes the play as a brilliant and memorable Juliet.  In her mystery play, Victoria sees another girl standing beside her as she walks up and signs her name to a tower of thorns and roses.  The girl looks just like her, though signs on another tower.  She disappears as the vision ends and reality takes over.  Victoria is approached by local Mages who take her under their wing and begin to teach her the basics of Awakened Society.  They name her Pandora for her childlike curiosity she seems to display.  Her first lesson is that she has to hide her magic, and use her natural abilities to succeed in school and life.(age 13)

1998 – A talented young woman now, Victoria is introduced to several individuals in the Guardians of the Veil.  Though she is unaware of them at first, but begins to suspect their involvement.  Wisely she says nothing and instead continues to learn about Mage society, as well as focus her studies towards a more political bent, easily excelling at both school, as well as Mage school.

2000 – Pandora makes her way through the Grey Veil at age 18, and as she emerges, she is rewarded by learning to shape her soul into that of the Bearers of the Eternal Voice.  Her drive to perfection makes her a perfect candidate.  She joins the Guardians officially, taking up a place as a face of the Guardians.  She graduates at the top of her class and is offered a full-ride scholarship to Princeton.

2001- Victoria’s mother dies of surgery complications, leaving her daughter and son a rather large fortune each.  Victoria is also left with 49% of the shares in the family company, a multimillion dollar corporation specializing in plastic surgery treatments.  Victoria becomes the face of the Corporation, using her standing as a known figure to not only boost her visibility, but also to create smaller corporations to help hide the Guardian presence and activities.  With a subtle use of manipulating the hearts and minds of her listeners, Victoria creates the perfect political and corporate backing for the Guardians.  The implementation takes approximately 3 years.  During this time, Victoria starts publically dating a wealthy lawyer from Canada.  Mages know him as Darkwater, a prominent member of the Guardians of the Veil.  To the public however, they are a match made in money heaven.

2004 – A rival political opponent attempts to attack the standing of the company and defame Victoria and shows obvious signs of magic use.  After struggling through a fairly heavy attack, Victoria is able to gain support of several smaller corporations and use corporate and financial backing to attack his company and dismember the shareholders stakes in the company, eventually forcing the company to turn over it’s assets.  Her Guardians she has working with the company inform her that her rival needs to be taken out as he is a rogue Guardian.  Instead of killing him however, Victoria refuses, and instead uses her ties to have him incarcerated on embezzlement and forgery charges.  Later she learns that this was one of her veils that she passed with flying colors.  Although angry at the damage done to her company, she realizes the nature of the Guardians and decides to become more involved with the GotV as a whole.

2006 – After cleaning up the remnants of the attack on her company, Victoria/Pandora learns the second attainment of her legacy.