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THE URMEN

"We wanted to start a punk band, but none of us liked Heroine!"
- Columbine

The trio of supernatural Witches who work from within the CirKhaos have been given many names in their time. Furies, Erinyes, Bitches, the Muses of Mischief and the Gypsies themselves call them 'The Urmen' after the Romany belief in a group of three female spirits of fate who decide the destiny of humans. Two of the Urmen are supposedly good spirits, while the third is continuously trying to harm people, opinion is still split on which is which in this modern incarnation. Each person whom they cross sees them with different eyes and harbours different resentments for the girls. In recent years the trio have been using thier musical skills as a cover, posing as a band called Bitchkrieg. The path of broken hearts and shattered lives is never a conscious act, simply a side effect of their quests. All three members of the Urmen are engaged in an ongoing search for eschatological prophecies and warnings, from fragments of the Vampires 'Book of Nod' to the visions of the Mayan Calendar makers. Together they have built up a vast collection of knowledge and lore concerning the final extinguishments of creation and the forms it will take. This information then serves Durga Syn in her world spanning plans to thwart the true masters of Evil she believes lurk in the shadows of the world.

The Girl's themselves have provocation of their own. For Columbine it is the almost religious draw she feels for any destructive force, whether that be her Undead 'Husband' the infamous Harlequin or the promises of the Clan founders awakening whispered by the Gehenna cults. The Entropic dance of destruction fascinates this Vampire, its music calling to her Chaotic Shakti and granting her a unique understanding of its dark nature. For Nekhen, or 'Babe', the challenge is the deciphering and understanding of the scattered revelations and predictions into a single library of knowledge, the test of translating scraps of codex and then hunting down the clues to complete them. Her supernatural nature was thrust upon her as a quick fix and she has had to shape herself into something new for her own peace of mind. For Kisses-the-Moon-for-luck the driving goal is a consuming need to preserve the tortured magic's and mad ravings of those whose fractured imagination allowed them to glimpse mans destiny. Taking Nekhen's natural abilities and Columbines unnatural sympathy for chaos, Kiss crafts the information into a workable knowledge of the Final nights.

Whether they are posing as an all girl band, strippers, hookers or librarians, the Urmen continue to amass the secrets that Durga Syn and the CirKhaos need, guiding the travels and locations of that strange conglomerate of Carney folk and supernatural hucksters. Between them they have a vast network of dupes, pawns, allies and favours owed across the globe and their reputation as scholars of fate keeps them in high demand among the denizens of the World of Darkness.

Race	Vampire
Splat	Ravnos
Title	thief, trickster, songstress and exotic dancer

A renowned member of the Ravnos Vaishya Caste and an exotic performer, Columbine is most famous as the undead wife to the Harlequin. Although she is in truth his Sire, she is comfortable in his vast shadow. Her skills as a dancer and a singer mark her as one of the Zingaresche Romany and what Humanity she still has beneath her devotion to the path of Paradox is buoyed up by her performances at Club Harlequin or with the Urmen. Embraced in India over a thousand years ago by her own father, Katarinha spent many years with her herd in Constantinople before the crimes of her Childe forced them both to leave. From there the couple made their way slowly west, reaching France by the mid 12th century and then appearing in every land from Russia to Great Britain, finally travelling to America after the second World war. Columbine has twice fallen into Torpor, the first spell lasted for almost three centuries and the second ended only recently, leaving Columbine greatly weakened for her years. Nobody can accurately gauge her distance from Kaen (Caine) but it taken for granted that she shared her husband's thirst for Diablerie during their devastating career and rampages across Europe.

Columbine was taught the Arts of the Chovihani as a girl by her maternal Grandmother and still practices Augury, fortune telling and Hearth magic, but it is her skill as a barometer of entropy that makes her indispensable to the Urmen and to Cirkhaos. The Rawney is drawn to chaotic energies like a moth to a flame and often gains insight from her haunted dreams. The instincts and precognition of this slight girl lead the trio on hair-raising quests to find forbidden texts or rogue entities, and Columbine is both the leader and instigator of the Urmen. During her recent spell in Torpor her corpse was protected by CirKhaos and upon her awakening she discovered that the Harlequin had lapsed in his duties as the lead vampire of the Zingaresche. After taking control of the Circus once again, Columbine formed the Urmen by co-opting an old immortal friend and a Ronin Lupine who had taken refuge among the Circus Romany. She now juggles her responsibilities as the regent Vampire within the Circus and the Urmen ongoing search for chinks in the illusory fabric of the world with her self-destructive relationship with the Harlequin.

For the Full History of Columbine and her Undead Husband, See The Harlequin

NEKHEN 'Babe'

Race	Undying
Splat	Cult of Isis
Title	Reborn Heirodule, Cunning linguist, temptress and agent of the CirKhaos.

Nekhen was barely a woman when she was subjected to the Rite of Life by a Cult of Isis adrift and lost without strong leadership. The Magi of the Cult were undergoing its darkest time and Sutekh was close to discovering their hidden conclaves so in desperation they gave eternal life to an Urshu Hierodule (sacred temple prostitute) that the Setite ghouls lusted after. Nekhen was useful in misdirecting the Followers of Set and fed them swathes of misinformation before they discovered the ruse. She would have fallen into the hands of the Typhonists had it not been for the timely attack of a pack of Urshu werewolves (Silent Striders) and their mortal kinfolk led by her Brothers and father. Ever since then Nekhen has been on good terms with the Romany Werewolves descended from her mortal family and seeks out members of the Tribe in each incarnation.

Nekhen met Columbine when she was forming the Circe du Discordia in Europe and the two became friends. It was the Ravnos Dancer who first called Nekhen 'Babe' when she discovered that this was a literal translation of her birth Name. Never supportive of Horus or his blind quest for revenge, Babe sees her loyalties as laying fully with the Circus. She has friends among the Amenti, as well as the Fae and the Mages, but she is a free spirit.

Her coy, shy demeanour is no act, even though she was once a sacred harlot in the temples of ancient Egypt, outside of the sacred act Nekhen is still amazingly introverted for one of the Blood. The slow transition from tambourine banger to percussion in the Urmen allows her to hide behind the larger than life personalities of her friends. Babe is an expert researcher and linguist with a knack for speed-reading and speed translating texts and scrolls found by the other two. Her grasp of Hekau works best in cases of stealth and secrecy and has allowed the Urmen to continue with its own masquerade.

KISSES-THE-MOON-FOR-LUCK 'Kiss'

Race	Garou
Splat	Silent Strider - ('Eaters of the Dead' camp)
Title	Ronin

A Silent Strider from Irish Tinker stock, Kiss was trained and given the rite of passage by none other than the famous Strider Hero Damien Carter. Kiss was always a willfull girl and no matter how hard he tried to teach her patience, she wanted it all now. She found friends among the despicable 'eaters of the dead' and when Damien discovered her crimes, rather than drag her before the Elders for judgement, he allowed himself to be seduced and the two became lovers. This was the go on for many months until the pair finally fell out because Damien discovered that Kiss had lied about ending her foul practices. She was still conducting the 'rite of Dormant Wisdom' and it had cursed her. Kiss came down with a virulent disease called Kuru*, caught from eating the parasites in rotten human brain tissue. Damien sought to cure her by dragging her to Erubus but was defeated by Kiss and two other girls, Nekhen and Columbine.

Now Kiss helps Columbine and the Circus in secret, because the Circus has allies among the Urshu families and she still has a price on her Ronin pelt. Kiss is forever drawn to darker knowledge's and forbidden fruits that the litany would never sanction, and no threat or danger is enough to prevent her from following up on such leads. While Columbine is The passionate heart of the Urmen and Babe the sensitive soul, Kiss is the cold, unstoppable intellect. It is becoming almost impossible to cover her illness, even though her Garou nature causes it to advance far slower than it would in a human. She cannot stop her laughter even for a short time and she resembles a Disney Hyena more than any noble Jackal now. Each time the fits take her and she begins to scream and howl, Columbine and Babe fear it may be the last one and that she will never recover from it.

For the Story of Damien Carter, 'Belovved-of-Twilight', Click Here

* = Stolen from the Silent Striders Tribe book.