Verity "Rapace" Breckenridge

Verity Maria Josephine Breckenridge (24-Nov-1988 &mdash; ) is a Templar elementalist and current Mother Superior of the the Sisters of Mercy, an order of nuns hospitaller (now secular) that has been at the Knights Templar's side since the twelfth century.

Childhood
Born to the financial mogul Joseph B. Breckenridge (1-Apr-1958 – 31-Aug-2012) and Maria Delage (6-Sep-1969 – 24-Nov-1997), the young Verity had what can be considered to be a normal, uneventful&mdash;if rich&mdash;childhood, at least, until her 9th birthday and the death of her mother. There followed a period of intense despair and withdrawal, and her father removed her from the private school she was attending (which school she attended is currently unknown), preferring a regimen of home tutoring and counselling to help his daughter through the grief. Over the following year, Verity gradually overcame her grief and was eventually returned to private school.

Bees
Verity came to the Temple's attention shortly after her tenth birthday (Jan-1999), when her father made use of a number of contacts and outstanding favours to see help from the Temple: his daughter, after what she described as a particularly bad nightmare, developed bright red irises. But that was only to be the first visible symptom, with deleterious effect on her newly-rebuild social life. Much worse, and cause for concern, were the fires that would start whenever she became in any way upset.

The Temple had no trouble identifying her as one of the growing legion of bee-stung immortals, and advised Breckenridge senior to have her put in the care of those best able to deal with the situation. Verity was thus enrolled in the Temple's school, under the auspices of the Sisters of Mercy.

Teens
During her teens, Verity learned to control and develop further her abilities with anima. Despite frequent mood instabilities, she was able to control her pyromaniacal outbursts, and developed into a personable, if somewhat sullen, teen. At age sixteen, she enrolled in the Temple's Novice programme, learning the basics of anima-based combat; a preparation which, eight years later, would stand her in good stead in the offensive against the Filth.

Current
Not much of note is on file for Novice Breckenridge in the intervening years, leading up to the present. She finished both her schooling and military training in the top percentile, and was promoted to Templar Elect as well as (the youngest ever) Prioress of the sisterhood. The most notable events following that period almost coincide:

First, there was the death on 19-Jun-2012 of old age of the then Mother Superior of the Sisters of Mercy, Catherine Le Hellard. Mother Catherine chose Verity as her successor, much to the consternation of the more senior Prioresses of the Order. Attempts to intercede with the Temple for a reversal of that decision were stonewalled with the simple explanation that the Temple would only intervene in the affairs of the Orders composing it in situations of dire emergency, which this was not deemed to be. So, amid much grumbling, Mother Verity took up her duties.

The other event of note was the death from a heart attack of Joseph B. Breckenridge, leaving Verity as sole heir and catapulting her to the head of a financial empire estimated to be worth several tens of billions of Pounds Sterling (an exact figure being almost impossible to arrive at, due to the fact that the Breckenridge Group is privately-owned). The media splash this caused, while initially large, died down rapidly: both the Temple and the Breckenridge Group used their not inconsiderable influence to ensure this would be so. This, added to Verity's natural tendency to keep a low profile, left the financial world in speculation and her in relative peace.

Mother Verity's handling of sisterhood affairs has been deemed by many to be unorthodox: requirement that all members adopt twenty-first century technology (every member was issued an extra smartphone, tablet, laptop computer and portable short-wave radio); abolition of the strict dress code (although the traditionalists, herself included, still favour long, black clothing); abolition of the use of titles and uniforms outside Temple Hall; and last but not least, the opening of the Order to male members, to much stir and protest from the incumbent cadre.