Matteo Giovanni an adult sometime in the early 11 th century served in a company of knights

alongside then Baron Leon Nicasius. With Matteo’s brilliant military strategies and Nicasius’ skill with a
sword, their company was unstoppable. Little is known about Matteo’s early life or his family except that
they are of Giovanni stock and invested heavily into two major studies. The first, weapon craft and
smithing, a successful reputation of fine weaponry which bore few competitors and elevated the small
branch of the Giovanni family into a decent level of wealth. The second lesser known studies of the
family invested in alchemy and medicine. These secret studies were focused on the concept of
transubstantiation and mastery of scientific arts less than comforting to the holy see.

Matteo was very well educated and quite skilled in the families art, though he never confided in
Leon or any of his other compatriots on the subject of his studies, with the notable exception of Rinaldo
Gandolfi, a compatriot to both he and Leon who also studied alchemy in private. Between the varied
adventures the company of warriors had accomplished, Matteo would eventually meet a cousin of Leon
from distant lands. This woman would become his lover then bride, Elisa Lussuria, of whom he had
fallen deeply in love. Short weeks after their marriage Matteo and the company of knights would travel
far abroad in campaigns against the heathens of the east. During these conquests Elisa would take
severely ill and succumb to death. Upon learning of her death Matteo was overtaken with despair so
profound that he became bed ridden. With the loss of his leading commander and strategist Nicasius
became considerably concerned.

Despite the efforts of his comrades to raise Matteo’s lovelorn and broken spirits the only real
development was a fostering hatred for God. Fury over his loss while away serving a divine as Elisa was
left to die such a lonely and early death as Matteo fought in God’s name was an insult he could not bear.
He had felt that Elisa was a pure and blameless woman and grew enraged that he had given so much to
the God that he would dare take her from him. Matteo then resolved to despite the intentions of the
dispassionate God he formerly served and began searching for ways to become immortal in defiance of
God, to show that the God did not have final say in everything and that he could defy God’s decrees by
existing outside of them and scorning God in an eternal life. It was then he had learned about an old
family secret, that of undeath and necromancy.

With his new understanding of distant family secrets Matteo sought out those of his blood who
held these secrets close. He found that those of his brood who had gained the power of unlife were
loath to share it – despite family bonds. To which he sought other means to bribe or convince his
extended family that he was worthy of the dark gift. He set out to uncover the truth of the philosopher’s
stone, believing that undeath was little more than at type of alchemy or high scientific state of being.
Conducting himself in secret alongside his old friend Gandolfi the pair worked through years of labor
until they finally succeeded in developing a focus of power that together they called the Philosopher’s
stone. With this mighty arcane artifact Matteo planned to earn his immortality.

Through his acquisition of this artifact, the attentions of an ancient spirit of death took notice of
the pair, driven by a need to prevent such mighty power from falling into the hands of mortal men this
spirit of death took after the pair violently. Matteo was the only survivor of the onslaught of deadly
power the spirit leveraged against them. Using the power of the stone itself, Matteo managed to trap
the spirit within the vessel and avoid his own end. With the stone in hand Matteo found he could now
succeed in potent alchemical transubstantiation; he could control the efforts of the bound spirit within
and even consume the spirits of the slain.
 As an effect Matteo’s humanity slowly siphoned away, though he was also becoming
neigh unstoppable in his crusades against eastern invaders and religious zealots. The knight had
everything he needed to become neigh immortal serving his rage against God vibrantly. It was then that
from Constantinople Ambrogino Giovanni finally took notice of his erstwhile distant family member. The
pair eventually met and the opportunity for embrace finally fell into the hands of Matteo. Hungry for the
opportunity he listened as Ambrogino waxed poetic about the value of the embrace and how there
would be more for Matteo to accomplish before receiving the reward.

Matteo had different plans. Aware that this distant vampire would be unlikely to ever have his
appetites sated enough to embrace Matteo, he needed a plan. Learning that Ambrogino enjoyed playing
life and death games with mortals as a form of amusement and distraction from his perpetual ennui
Matteo propositioned Ambrogino. He suggested that in means to raise the stakes of his oft enjoyed
games, that Ambrogino ought to steal something most precious to the mortal target, to raise the
mortal’s interests. Matteo suggested Sara Trantoul to Ambrogino, the fiancée of Leon Nicasius his old
friend. He insisted the knight would make an interesting player in Ambrogino’s game, because according
to Matteo’s stories, his combat prowess was second to none. Ambrogino hadn’t realized he was being
tricked and ordered his forces to invade Leon’s domain in order to capture Sara.

All went according to Matteo’s plan; Leon went to Ambrogino’s castle in Constantinople to save
Sara and due to a series of planned events set out by Matteo was able to defeat – though not destroy
Ambrogino. As the elder lay in defeat, Matteo compelled the spirit of death contained in his stone to
reveal how Matteo may become immortal once and for all. The spirit agreed to this service and guided
Matteo through the embrace by consuming the blood of the elder while also serving to bleed his life into
the maw of the near torpid elder whose thirst drove him to feed on Matteo, killing him as quickly as his
own vitae was embracing him. This could have ended quite poorly for Matteo who hadn’t understood he
would be empowering Ambrogino during this event, but the elder remained amused by Matteo’s
combined ambition and intelligence. The elder chose to fulfill the needs of the embrace and brought
Matteo properly into the folds of the Giovanni vampire family.

Leon having escaped the events of Constantinople returned his forces to his domain in Iberia.
Shortly after Matteo, remaining for a time with his sire, drove towards deepening his understanding of
death and reincarnation. Becoming a student of necromancy under the tutelage of his sire Matteo
thought he was close to understanding a means by which he could reunite with his lost love. Using his
newfound capability to raise the dead, in combination with the power of the death spirit contained
within his mystical stone, he drove himself into incautious necromantic efforts. Sadly, his efforts were
incomplete, even with his Sire offering aid in an uncharacteristic show of interest the pair failed. This led
to the destruction of his artefact and the release of the death spirit, but to the chagrin of both he and his
sire. This failure drove the pair towards a period of discontent and disconnection. Shortly after
Ambrogino, admitting his childe’s power and virtue, released Matteo to return to his homestead likely to
be called upon in the future.