Humble Beginnings
Ages ago, an Order was founded. The Order of Sancta Camisa was a clandestine group of esoteric warrior Monks and religious clerics devoted to a stringent code of honor who's formation pre-dating the birth of Christ. Living relatively humble lives the Order secretly amassed great wealth and religious power while striving to create a better World for their fellow man. Endowed with somewhat mystical abilities, the Order's carefully selected members were methodically trained from infancy in some of the deadliest and earliest known forms of hand to hand combat and swordsmanship. Even creating their own refined versions of what would later be known as the Martial Arts.
A Path Torn in Two
After the formation and prevalence of the original Order of Camisa, there was an attempted coup within the sect. A high ranking member by the name of Antonius Drago was not satisfied with the direction of things and attempted a takeover from within. His attempt was thwarted and he was banished from the Order as a warning to all others. He went underground and created a rival sect dubbed the Arcadians Due to his deep-seated and nearly all-encompassing hatred of the Order he refused to name his sect as assassins. They were thieves, instead, just as skilled in the art of stealing life as they were in anything else.
Establishing their foothold in the rural fields of Japan, these two groups walked side by side through the centuries, a tenuous peace between them. Every couple of decades, order would break down and wars would erupt. These wars were the epitome of secret wars. Politicians and monarchs were used as chess pieces as they maneuvered them across the world they had turned into their chess board.
After the Great Secret War of 1475 (indirectly resulting in the Spanish Inquisition), the numbers of the Arcadians were driven so low that they had no other choice but to retreat deeper underground than ever before. They spent nearly an era rebuilding and maintaining their population, all while hiding from the repression that was passing through Europe. Mikael Drago was the current leader at this time, his dominion over the sect having been passed down by blood. He made the decision to transfer them to the New World to give them a broader playing field and more sway room from the Order, while still maintaining a foothold in Japan, several high-ranking members continuing on there. In the year of 1785, they set sail.
Twist in the Vine
Upon the untimely demise of Mikael, his seventeen year old son Nicolas picked up the reigns of Arcadian leadership. Unlike his forefathers, who had lead with a brutal but just hand, there was something dark lingering inside of him. There were rumors that his mother had been a witch or a demoness or something,...other. Any who dared to speak such unfounded accusations was swiftly cut down with the young king's sword, a weapon that came to know the taste of blood well.
At the age of 27, in the Year of Our Lord 1801, five years into his Iron Reign, Nicolas had solidified the standings of the Arcadians in the uppercrust High Society of Virginia. They were affluent, wealthy and well thought of. But behind all of that, they were finagling, just as they had done throughout their entire history. Burying the lead of where they were from the Order, they were free to operate however they chose to.
Whispers of teenage girls going missing were covered up, but little did the town know they had fallen prey to the musings of what would some deem as a madman. Nicolas had spent his life studying death and practicing it on those around him. His first victim had been his father, Mikael and he had only honed his craft since his ascension.
During their travels, Nic had come across a woman who had whispered to him of the Craft. A voodoo priestess traveling through from the baou of New Orleans, she spoke to him of things that his mind had never conceived. Dark, black magicks that could do such unspeakable things such as restoring life to those who had passed over to the other side, or even prolonging the life of the already living.
The Final Dregs
From that moment forward, his life became a quest to prolonging Lady Death's visit. In the year of 1952, a man by the name of Jean Luc LeBeau Sr. came looking for Nicolas and the Arcadians. What he found was a guild of thieves who had for centuries been building their foundation in New Orleans and politically maneuvering things across the entirety of the United States.
It was to his astonishment that he found the Arcadians not only alive and well, but thriving in their own way. He vowed then and there to eradicate their existence and waged a systematic war on them. Nicolas was forced to hide out even further, utilizing every asset at his disposal, including agents brought in from Japan to handle the threat.
The Arcadians had been systematically demolished in the process. What was once a group of several hundred had dwindled to a mere 70 in the immediate vicinity with an additional 20 spread throughout the country and an estimated 10 stationed in Japan, still. Nicolas found a renewed fervor for increasing his life expectancy and the darkness inside of him rose and grew as he began imbibing in the Dark Arts and playing with forces beyond those of nature.
The Birth of an Unwanted Heir
In 1984, a daughter was born to Nicolas and the Mistress of Mystic Arts with whom he had taken up. But she was not the heir that he wanted, nor the heir that was needed for the Drago Dynasty and the rulership of the Arcadians, that heir would come later. Lea was raised in the depths of the darkness with the mentality that it took a village.
She was taught to thieve, to lie and the covert arts of subterfuge. Her mystical abilities were repressed by her repugnance for what her father had become. She was never happy, for she had the dire knowledge that she was not what he wanted, despite his attempts to mold her into the perfect Arcadian.
She forwent living with him to study in Japan with one of his former confidantes, the leader of the sect over there. They formed a tight-knit bond and she was no longer forced to witness the depths of her father's depravity. For all that was wrong with him, she still loved him and had a need to please him. So she crafted herself into the best that she could be.
Current Days
Lea has taken over much leadership of the clan, but in the last decade or so, books have been unrooted. Books, ledgers and diaries that were kept by the Senior LeBeau and had thought to have been lost in the decimation of France. Alas, they were found, hidden beneath a chateau in an ancient crypt, kept safe with numerous of his other belongings.
These books told of the basic history of the two orders, their wars and the fear that Jean Luc LeBeau Sr. had harbored of what may happen if Nicolas Drago ever truly did rise to power. Unfortunately, one of these journals has recently come into possession of none other than Gambler, the younger of the two LeBeau men. What he will do with them, nobody quite knows as of now.
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