Iain MacLaren

Iain MacLaren
Clan
Ventrue
Generation
9th generation
Role
Prince of Kingston / pipeline operator
City
Kingston, Ontario

Born in Edinburgh, 1849. Banking career in London. Embraced by a Ventrue elder in 1874 who saw in him the perfect colonial administrator — smart, ruthless, and convinced that order was its own justification. Plucked from London and landed in Kingston. As there was no one there more capable, he became Prince. Never left.

Short, wiry, black hair, aquifer-blue eyes. Easygoing and a little cynical in most matters. But his domain is non-negotiable.

The Keystone

Kingston sits at the northeast end of Lake Ontario by the St. Lawrence River. This positioning makes it critical for two reasons: whoever controls Kingston can block the importing of Kindred through the Great Lakes, and the city roughly straddles the Camarilla-Sabbat border.

Kingston also crouches by the 401 Highway, which runs from Montreal to Detroit. Its four resident vampires know that a precisely timed accident blocking all westbound lanes can destroy a Kindred’s night driving schedule. They have used this tactic.

MacLaren controls both axes — water and road. He is the gatekeeper for every vampire moving between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes, and for every Kindred traveling the 401 between Sabbat Montreal and Sabbat Toronto.

The Pipeline

Built the Great Lakes pipeline in the early 1900s as European Kindred sought passage to the New World. The route runs from the Atlantic up the St. Lawrence, through Kingston, across Lake Ontario, through the Welland Canal into Lake Erie, and ultimately to Gary and Chicago. Lucian controls the western terminus. MacLaren controls the eastern one. Between them, they have moved more vampires than any other operation in North America.

The proceeds from this odd cargo allow MacLaren to maintain his position — that, and the occasional Kindred he diverts when desperately in need of reinforcements against periodic Sabbat assaults. The pipeline funds everything.

MacLaren already knows who Darius is. Lucian’s operation means he has files on every Kindred who touches the Gary waterfront. His attitude depends on what Darius did to the pipeline.

Kingston’s Four Vampires

  • MacLaren (Ventrue 9th, Prince) — the smuggling money
  • Angelique Cormier (Brujah 10th) — Quebecois expatriate, lobbies for Camarilla invasion of Quebec
  • Merill Olsen (Gangrel, great age) — refuses politics, still bitter about losing capital status
  • Reg Driscoll (Samedi) — janitor at Kingston Penitentiary. Controls prison access. Has moved vampires through the prison system when the St. Lawrence route was compromised. The fallback pipeline.

CullodenCorp is named for the battle, not the place. MacLaren’s mortal family were Jacobites. The name is a reminder of what happens when you fight the wrong war at the wrong time.