Soren Russo
Former Sentinel of the Chantry of Thirteen Faiths, Member of Vigilum Nox
"We'd stared into the face of Death, and Death blinked first. You'd think that would make us feel brave and invincible. It didn't." ― Rick Yancey
"You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there." ― Edwin Louis Cole
Recent Known History
Prelude (Prior to June 2012): Soren used to be a part of a cabal called Histrionics that was quite Notorious in the NYC area for using their magic to trick, humble and sometimes harm other mages. His participation in this cabal over the six years of his residence in the city's mage community has earned him a small reputation as a mischief maker and general nuisance to Tradition mages and Technocracy agents alike.
Season One (June 2012 - January 2013): After he came into the area in June '12, Soren seemed to find trouble almost anywhere. He was targeted by a Creature of unknown origin that almost seemed to be entirely comprised of pain, and he assisted with an attempt to remove a hostile force at the Bloody Baron. He participated in the first chantry meeting in November 2012, which led to the formation of his cabal, Vigilum Nox, and his place on the Council as the social representative of that cabal.
Shortly after his arrival, he took on Henry Etlinger as an apprentice. However, it is known that Henry died in the beginning of December of 2012, though the details are fuzzy. He has since sworn off apprentices, refusing to even broach the idea of teaching someone else. Rumors have it that Henry is the second apprentice he has lost, the first having committed suicide some time prior to his arrival in Providence, but if asked if this is true Soren only gets angry with the person asking.
Slightly before then, Soren had taken in a Hollow One Marauder by the name of Maggie Magpie, who was a member of Histrionics and came with the warning that 'Big Daddy' was coming. This proved to be true in mid-January when a man with a white, red and rust-stained rabbit mask attacked Maggie and Merianda in Merianda's store. Maggie died in the incident, which left Soren in a dark pit of grief and rage. (Very few people actually know her to have been a Marauder, for she has always been addressed as his 'ward'.)
Season Two (July 2013 - August 2014): He threw everything he could into finding Clyde, the aforementioned 'Big Daddy' who the media had dubbed 'the White Rabbit'. He was still searching throughout the beginning of 2013, and he had steadily grown darker and angrier the longer his search proved unfruitful. He enlisted the help of his cabal, Vigilum Nox, which at the time consisted of the now-deceased Dr. Harley, the social leader Maeve O'Shea and most recently John Greyson.
He was chosen to replace Susan Conway as the Sentinel of the chantry, alongside Phoebe King, in October '13 and subsequently gave up his seat on the Council to Maeve though the cabal still seems to take points from him for the most part.
On August 31, 2014, Soren vanished during the assault on the chantry by the White Rabbit, only to appear at the end to drag the White Rabbit into a pit made in the floor. He did not reappear until a week later, colder than before, in more than one sense. To hear him talk of it, he claimed to have pulled the White Rabbit to the Underworld and ended the threat in that fashion, but it is hard to know for certain if it is true, and there is no explanation for why he was gone for seven to ten days after the fact.
Season Three (November 2014 - December 2015): What became apparent to at least the political figures within the chantry after the White Rabbit incident, though, was that Soren had been under the influence of an Entropic Quiet known as Jhor. His behavior had become increasingly questionable, with the rumor mill suggesting he had been torturing a chantrymate for fun and that he had killed two other chantrymates -Violet Donovan and Henry Etlinger- in the past, but for the most part it is speculation rather than concrete fact. What was known for certain at the time was that he outwardly seemed dangerous, unable to stop once he got started on the offensive.
In February of 2015, Soren became involved in a conflict at the Bloody Baron involving a Nephandus assaulting a chantry member, but after moving locations, he became aggressive toward other members of the chantry who were trying to help, physically harming one and threatening others. Not long after that, in March, he resigned from the position of Sentinel of the Chantry, though the reasons for doing so were not elaborated upon.
It might be speculated upon that there is some kind of relationship going on with Susan Conway. Regardless, there is something going on in his life since he left the post of Sentinel that has led to him keeping mostly to himself, instead of being as involved and engaged in chantry affairs as he had been previously.
This isn't to say he completely disengaged, though. As had been a recurring trend since his arrival, on Halloween of 2015 he took his fellow Hollow Ones to New York City for a party thrown by their shared Craft. Whatever happened there seemed to have created tension between Soren and his Craft overall, though this was most notable locally through some form of conflict or tension with Freddie.
Soren was a part of the ground team with Susan Conway during the investigation into a potential Nephandi stronghold in a suburb of town, and there he once more demonstrated adept martial capability with a frightening vicious streak. He lost his Familiar in the fighting, but he had annihilated almost a dozen fomori with his bare hands and a conjured shadow, as well as brutally murdered a Nephandus he claimed had been his former cabalmate-turned-barabbi Theo.
Season Four (January 2016 - May 2018): It was known that Soren was angry about the Hollow Ones being thrown out of chantry affairs by the 'invading' Tradition mages, as well as having the rest of the chantry thrown out of the building they had claimed. His stance on the current affairs of the time beyond that were largely unknown. However, he interfaced with visiting Hollow One cabal the Four Horsemen, and it was clear there was at least a little animosity on one or both ends of that dynamic.
In mid-2016, Soren served as a witness to Thomas Stacey's certamen for the chantry. On a personal level, the Hollow One later had a troubling experience with the Shadowlands. Near the turn of Fall, however, his relationship with Susan fell through, followed soon thereafter by the dissolution of his long-time cabal. Shortly after both of these social losses, Soren engaged the Four Horsemen in a Duel Arcane, either to the death or to submission, the terms were slightly unclear on that front.
He won the Duel Arcane, and by the terms of that Duel, the Horsemen had to back his stance at the '16 Hollow One gathering at Absolution. However, rather than backing his stance to work with the Traditions while maintaining a Disparate Alliance, several attempts on his life were made by the Horsemen, which resulted in a group-wide scuffle and his apparent death at the hands of Famine, when she shot his wolf-shadow out of vengeance for one of her spirit-friends Soren had killed during an earlier attempt on his life.
He drifted in and out of his own things, until he joined Thomas and Susan in an attempt to rescue Hayley from some unknown force at Grace Cemetery. This unknown force involved a woman they had never seen before putting Hayley and her mentor through a bloody ritual in the Underworld, and an otherworldly being that did not belong there. While Susan and Thomas dealt with the creature, Soren targeted the woman and freeing Hayley and her mentor Miguel.
When Hayley was consumed by blue fire after the ritual she tried to sustain got away from her, Soren threw caution to the wind and tore apart his own Pattern in an attempt to revive Hayley that, with help from Susan and Thomas, proved to be successful. He then summoned a pair of ghosts to get them all across the Shroud, only to collapse soon thereafter. He was marked by one of the ghosts for a debt that would be claimed later.
The first of those was by Violet, the ghost of his sadistic former mentor. It was difficult to tell what had been done to him, what had been exacted from him, save that he regressed sharply in his recovery during or shortly after the incident, which led to him destroying the ghost outright.
Despite the backslide in his recovery and healing, he maintained his work at Big Six, training Varick as a boxer, and at the Providence Police Department. He also managed to maintain a relationship with Susan, though at the beginning of autumn that too deteriorated until it dissolved, same as it had the year before around the same time. With the dissolution of his personal relationship, he reforged Vigilum Nox with Maeve and with newcomer Varick Saint, and he kept largely to himself, apart from adopting an apprentice in the form of Paige Anderson, pseudo-adopting her Dreamspeaker companion Silas by association as well.
That was, until Susan returned from a stint in the Underworld roughly two weeks later, saying that she had been held by a Nephandus. He accompanied Susan, Phoebe, and Benji to Susan's home, Halsey House, for the sake of attempting to ward the place while Susan obtained some needed articles, but the house was ultimately lost as the veil between the Underworld and the Material world shattered. Soren aided Thomas, Phoebe, and Joe with warding Susan's new house.
Season Five (June 2018 - Present):