Arno (17th century)

Arno is the illegitimate son of a wealthy Italian merchant. His father had an affair with the daughter of one of his business partners while trading in India. Because she was pregnant out of wedlock, her father banished her. She managed to make a life for herself and her son despite the hardships, working as a seamstress. Without her father's wealth, however, her illnesses caught up to her with no way of easing them. On her deathbed, she told Arno the true identity of his father. At the time, Arno was in his early twenties and worked as a helper in a harbor, moving heavy things for the merchants employing him.

Arno decided to seek out his father. He found one of his ships in the harbor, and demanded to be hired. He got the job, and soon after he was sailing for Italy and learning the ropes on the ship. Through this voyage, he discovered his love for sailing.

At last, Arno was able to meet his father, who at first welcomed him, but soon after treated him as nothing but a worker, as Arno kept being a sailor. Arno also discovered that his father had married a young woman shortly after leaving Arno's mother, and that they had a son (Jacopo) about Arno's age together. Arno could not stand Jacopo. He was constantly mocked by him and could not speak up or he'd be banished by his father.

One day, Arno's father made Jacopo captain of his most prized ship, and made Arno his first mate. Arno's father confided to him that it was because Jacopo had no sailing experience and needed someone to either teach him the ropes or do his work for him. At this point, Arno decided to get his revenge on his wretched blood relatives.

Arno gathered a crew of disillusioned sailors and former pirates who missed the pursuit of treasure, ensuring they'd all be on his side to execute his plan. Once the ship was out of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, Arno and his crew abandoned Jacopo on an atoll with nothing but a lifeboat, a blunderbuss, and a bottle of rum before sailing off to a life of revelry, piracy, and a dangerous amount of freedom.

Between the ages of 23 and 26, Arno was the captain of a small pirate fleet. He was elected by his crew, as they trusted him from the get go. Though inexperienced, Arno found that the pirate life suited him. He enjoyed a variety of drugs and alcohol sacked from ships of various origins, always making sure to share with his crew. The home base for his small fleet was a cluster of atolls near the southernmost tip of Africa where many pirates had come together to set up their society.

There, Arno had the opportunity to learn various languages. In addition to Kashmiri (which he learned from his mother) and Italian (which he learned in Italy and from his mostly Italian crew), Arno learned French, some Dutch, some German, some Zulu, and a conversational amount of Arabic.

Through sheer luck and unexpected skill in naval combat, Arno and his crew were extremely prolific, ammassing enormous amounts of treasure and riches. His fleet expanded with every new captured ship, and shanties rung powerfully through the air his ships sailed through. Aged 26, Arno was a well known and well respected pirate.

One night, Arno's ship docked at one of the atolls in the archipelago. Arno wandered off to get drunk and indulge without his crew, and somehow ended up in a remote part of the island where he found nothing but a small shack. He entered, and found himself surrounded by all kinds of strange European artifacts. Strange statuettes of saints, crosses with tiny men crucified onto them, jars and vials of who-knows-what lining the walls and dusty old manuscripts, some wretched, some encrusted with jewels. An elderly shopkeep crawled out of the woodwork. She spoke French, which Arno also knew how to speak. He demanded her most expensive wine, and she delivered. Before the woman could explain its effects, Arno had already tossed a sack of gold coins onto her table and was already chugging the whole bottle.

In the following days, Arno felt fatigued. His eyes became sensitive to the scorching sunlight in a way they'd never been before. He felt growing pains in his jaw and in his upper teeth. His fingernails and toenails were hardening and darkening, and he felt an uncontrollable thirst no amount of water was able to satiate. Eventually, he crashed and slept for several days straight. After many days, Arno's symptoms leveled out.

In his first naval battle after the symptoms, Arno was overtaken by insatiable bloodlust, and staright up bit an enemy sailor, draining him completely of his blood. After the battle, Arno was confronted by his crew, who demanded to know what was going on. Arno confessed that he drank some mysterious wine, and now he was experiencing all these weird things! Despite the weirdness of it all, his crew trusted him, even after seeing him suck all the blood out of a guy.

Soon after, Arno realized he had dark vision and even superhuman strength and speed. He even learned how to shapeshift into a bat. After some months, Arno learned from various sources that he was most likely a vampire. He also became known by most merchants in the area, who were particularly wary of him specifically because of his bloodthirst, though by that point he'd learned how to control it.

• Arno is fluent in Kashmiri, Italian, and French, speaks pretty good Arabic, and can hold a basic conversation in Dutch, German, and Zulu.
• He got his scars after becoming a pirate but before becoming a vampire.
• Jacopo actually got rescued from the island, and Arno's father did try to get the ship back, but to no avail.
• Arno stopped aging physically after becoming a vampire.
• Over the years, Arno developed a seething hatred for his half-brother and his father.