Lords & Ladies

The Blooded Aristocracy
Vampires rule the B&B world in a very despotic, aristostratic manner. Colonization of the New World began in the early 1500s with ambitious "middle-aged" (100+) vampires called centurions securing charters from the vampiric Kings and Queens of Europe. Some of these charters were gifts but more typically they were paid for in boons and contracts. These Lords and Ladies then sent their own blooded sons or daughters (aka progeny) to serve as the first govenors of the colonies. By the 1500s, it was very hard for younger centurions to gain much social mobility and build for themselves the same kind of independent desmenes that older centurions had done in Post-Classical Europe. So they immigrated to the New World to their chartered colonies-- once their progeny and servitors had properly "civilized" them.

William Penn I was blooded by Richard de Lucy in 1224 at the behest of King Henry II. The Chief Justiciar of the Angevin Empire since 1179, Richard de Lucy had fallen out of favor with the King and was executed shortly thereafter. William Penn was groomed at court and when his reached his centum in 1324, given the title of "Admiral of the Royal Navy" as well as a seat in Parliament. Faithful service to King Henry over the next 350 years allowed for him to receive a coveted colonial charter in 1681. Admiral Penn had blooded William Penn II in 1644 with an eye on progeny who would be able to manage a colonial demesne for him. Young Lord William hastened to Sylvania right away, an eager idealist who belonged to Friends of the Truth, something Admiral Penn tolerated in his blooded son but did not intend to spread throughout Sylvania. But Admiral Penn's flagship was sank in its Atlantic crossing in 1690. King Henry, impressed by everything the younger Penn had accomplished as governor, declared him the Lord Proctor of Sylvania in 1691. This dramatic elevation of station to a non-Centurion caught much of the Imperial aristocracy off-guard.