WoD:Viscount Alexander Morgan Westmoreland Vandervort the Third

Back to the list of characters

Lord Alexander Morgan Westmoreland Vandervort the Third, Viscount of Morpeth
Eurasian male, 31 years old, 6'2" and 195 lbs

Overview

Alexander's public persona is that of a rich playboy, and in truth he is a rich playboy. He was born into incredible wealth, with his yearly stipend being a million Euros and his family having over 10 billion Euros in assets. To put it mildly, he is a disappointment to his family. While he will inherit the noble title upon his father's death, his younger sister and the pride of the family is due to inherit 9/10ths of the family's assets.

Both parents are still alive. His father, the Earl of Carlisle in England, is from one of the oldest noble families and owns about one third of the land in Cumbria and Northumberland counties. His mother is ethnically Chinese and was born in Hong Kong. She inherited her family's expansive shipping business there. They met and married while his father was in Hong Kong, partly because it was a good financial union.

Alexander was born in Hong Kong in 1994, before the handoff of Hong Kong back to China. As such, being also ethnically (part-)Chinese, he is both a Chinese citizen and a UK citizen. He is currently living in Seattle and is about to get his US citizenship courtesy of a green card via the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.

Alexander's Viscount of Morpeth title is a courtesy title, since he is the heir to the Earl title.

Kindred
Generation: 12th	Blood Potency: 1
Predator: Consensualist	Clan: Banu Haqim
Humanity: 8
Disciplines: Obfuscate (2), Blood Sorcery (1), Auspex (1)

Thrall
Discipline: Obfuscate	Humanity: 7

Family

Naworth Castle, the ancestral seat of the family since 1323, is still privately held by the family

While not overly amorous, Alexander's (Alistair?) parents staunchly support each other and the family, which means everything to them. They met in 1991 when his father stayed in Hong Kong for 8 years. The Sino-British Joint Declaration had already been signed, meaning that Hong Kong would return to China, and the Earl decided to take a hands-on approach during this tumultuous time. The marriage with Alexander's mother was based on it being a sound financial decision for both of them, rather than out of love, as she had just inherited her family's shipping business. In the next few years they conceived both Alexander and his sister there.

Wealth

The family's assets are mostly in leaseholds, which is a concept that dates back to feudal times. In England, among many other places, freehold is the most comprehensive form of land ownership, granting perpetual ownership of land and buildings, while leasehold involves owning the right to use a property for a limited period of time (such as 99 years), after which ownership of the land reverts to the freeholder. The Westmoreland Vandervort family owns about one third of the land in Cumbria and Northumberland counties.

The family had at one time owned a few companies in Hong Kong, most notably Dent Vandervort & Co. Major British mercantile companies known as "hongs" dominated Hong Kong during the 1800s, especially after the colony was ceded to Britain in 1842. Founded before Hong Kong's establishment, Dent Vandervort & Co. was known as the second largest British trading company in East Asia. The company bought one of the first plots of land at Hong Kong's initial land sale in 1841 and opened its headquarters there soon afterward. Like other "hongs", this company initially focused on the China trade and then from there expanded into finance, shipping, insurance, and real estate. Subsidiary firms were created to manage each of these areas of businesses.

In 1861 William Vandervort and his associates were pushed out of the main business, which was then renamed to Dent & Co or just Dent's, and instead spun off the real estate subsidiary into its own independent business. This later merged into Hongkong Land, with the Vandervort family owning a 20% stake in that business. Hongkong Land is still in operation today, being the single largest landlord in Central Hong Kong, with yearly revenue of 2.67 billion USD and assets worth over 38 billion. However, after living there for 8 years, the Earl decided to liquidate the family's holdings as well as sell off his family's stake in Hongkong Land.

The family also decided to sell off the mother's shipping business in 1996, which she had inherited only 6 years earlier. They correctly recognized that Hong Kong would not be able to compete with Shanghai as the main port of China. Afterwards the family moved to the family's estate in England, and have stayed there since. With the influx of cash from selling their stake in Hongkong Land as well as the sale of the shipping business they decided to invest in more real estate, in both England and the United States (where land is much cheaper). They also took some of that cash to start a new business.

Around this time organic farming was starting to become a serious business, and with the Organic Foods Production Act passed in 1990 there was now a national standard and a certification system for organic foods in the U.S. This helped to legitimize the industry, both in the US and abroad. The Vandervort family founded the Hain Celestial Group, focusing on natural foods and organic personal-care items, using their newly purchased agriculural lands to produce the needed goods. The Vandervort family has kept a 45% stake in that company, which has grown fast over the years. That stake in the company is now worth over 1 billion USD.

Occult Ties

... add info here...