Three ear piercings in each ear.

He has a pair of reading glasses that he likes to wear. He doesn't actually need them, he just thinks they make him look smart.

Born in the 12th century, Leo was a farmer of the Vyatichi tribe. Somewhat nomadic around the Oka region, he raised horses and cattle, and brought his family with him to the Republic to sell horses to the Novgorodian army. Enraptured by the big city, they decided to stay.

Any potential Novgorodian could be enlisted in the army, and Leo was no exception. He went to fight against the Suzdal, and those he fought with were enraptured by his strength, skill, and loyalty. On their return, he was elected as a tysyatskii by a boyar named Ingvar, who was impressed with the stories.

Leo lead troops to Rostov-Suzdal again, but when he was away, his wife, Yaroslava, and their son, Vitomir, had died, murdered for refusing to accept the Christian faith. Distraught over his loss, Leo accused Ingvar of murdering his family at the veche. He incited a pagan mob which burned Ingvar's house and killed the boyar's family, along with anyone else who proclaimed Christianity as their faith. Ingvar himself fled to another part of the Republic, but Leo tracked him down and killed the man himself.

Although many of the people supported Leo, the murder of a boyar with no proper trial heralded his fall to disgrace. With no other plans to go on without his family, Leo awaited his own trial, but it did not go the way he expected it to. Posing as a Knyaz, his sire, the one called "Svetovit", had shadowed the veche on that fateful night. He admired Leo's show of character and gave him the bite, whether he wanted it or not.

Having expected his own execution, Leo did not take his newfound unlife very well and wanted nothing to do with his sire. Svetovit willingly let him go- to get the wilderness out of him. He told Leo to come find him when he was ready.

For a long time, Leo refused. He continued to fight alongside Novgorodians as they expanded east and northwest, becoming well known as a victorious yet terrifying undead warrior who drank the blood of their enemies. Those who set out to war with him regarded him as a legend, and he became a bogatyr character of his own in the bylinas.

Despite the eventual fall of the Republic in the 15th century, Leo felt he had found a purpose for himself in fighting, and he truly believed in a united, independant people, free from the rule of the Golden Horde. He fought with the Muscovy against the Mongols, but eventually, he too had his fill of war. When Leo felt he was no longer needed, he decided to finally seek out his sire after all.

Leo settled in with his new "family". His sire, his father. An ancient thing, known amongst humankind as a spirit who ate flesh and drank blood. Svetovit was creating a clan of vampires made of his own lineage, tracking down his flesh and blood to find someone worthy of the unlife, and Leo just so happened to be that person in that point of time.

With them, he was taught how trivial human matters are in comparison to their own lives. Svetovit truly thought so little of humanity that his clan was apathetic to the human plight and chose not to interfere with history in the making. Leo spent decades in their company, and despite having Svetovit's favor as the youngest son, Leo remained apathetic towards the family- at least until Mila came along. The next upyr that their father sired and therefore the youngest of them all was sweet, young Mila, who reminded Leo of the daughter he once had. However, their relationship didn't last long.

The middle brother, Vadim, felt threatened by Leo's existence and saw him as competition in his mad dash for power. He murdered Mila in order to set a trap for Leo, knowing that it would be easy to overtake him while he was emotionally vulnerable. Vadim also knew he wouldn't be able to kill Leo while Svetovit was alive and well, especially not so soon after Mila.

Senseless and mad with grief, Leo fell into a pit of rage that allowed Vadim to get the best of him. He forced Leo into a torpor by killing him over and over, draining him of blood until he could no longer regenerate.

Of course, Vadim faced repercussions from their father for the murder of Mila, since Svetovit firmly believed in a strong sense of family and therefore did not condone siblicide. Despite this, Vadim's punishment was deceptively light since Mila was a woman, and therefore wasn't favored as much as the sons.

Leo, on the other hand, was showing signs of world-weariness, so it did not seem suspicious at all for him to sleep. And so, Leo slept for centuries more, out of sight and out of mind.

In the 20th century, Svetovit has started to age.

This has caused uncertainty and chaos among the family, a catalyst for change and struggle amongst the siblings. Vadim, who desires power above all else and has always obsessed over their father's throne, is taking advantage of the situation by any means necessary. He is focused on taking out the eldest brother, Mstislav, something he never dared to bring to fruition before out of fear of their father.

Their sister, Nadia, who was always a neutral party but finding her own life jeopordized within the power vacuum, took this opportunity to wake up Leo. After the death of Mila, she grudgingly accepted that her life seemed so useless in comparison to her brothers, but knew Leo to think differently. Except, upon waking up, Leo did not react in the way Nadia thought he would.

Leo decided then, that his life was more valuable than whatever plans that Vadim would surely have for it, and that he would not take part in this insanity. He had already lost too much time. Instictively, Leo knew that if another altercation were to happen between him and Vadim, he would die.

Leo immigrated to the U.S. in order to avoid his family's internal power struggle. Svetovit once again let him go with his blessings, forewarning that Leo would return to him again when he had nowhere else to go. He is desperate to prove his father wong this time.

Since his defection, Leo has managed to successfully build up his own clan in the U.S., mostly consisting of Russian Americans. He first started this by offering shelter to fellow Soviet exiles during the Red Scare, but the Belov clan has since grown into a distinct and influential part of vampiric society in the area.