It's all in the breeding.
Feb. 1st, 2006 06:46 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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zg_shadowsI am Yekaterina Tamara Yelena Vasilovna Nikitinevich, daughter of Vasily Afanasy Kirill Petrovich Nikitinevich, granddaughter of Pietr Nikitinevich, and niece to Kazimir Ziven Konstantin Petrovich Nikitinevich, Stands Between Worlds, bearer of the Klaive Stalwart Guardian.
I will explain what that means.
Almost 1,100 years ago, there was a Garou called Standing Stone. He held the bridge alone when all his pack were dead so that an important rite could be completed, and for that he became a Legend. He took the name Nikita, which means The Unconquerable, and his sons and grandsons were named after him, and so on, all the way down to me.
Nikita's eldest son was Garou. Boris Nikitinevich (we used the royal patronymic even then, though nobody's ever been able to find out anything about the family before Nikita) was almost as great a Theurge as his father had been Ahroun, though of course that was kind of expected of him. It was him who forged the Klaive Stalwart Guardian that Uncle Kazimir bears today, in honour of his father.
None of Boris's children were Garou. The next in the family was Bogdan Petrovich Nikitinevich prapravnuk, who was the grandson of Nikita's youngest son. None of Bogdan's descendants survive today - for some reason our family has never really branched the way the Ryders or Drakes have. There's always been the heirs, and sometimes a collateral line. But the last Nikitineviches who weren't part of the main branch died in the 1970s, so now there's just us.
I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Where was I? Bogdan Petrovich? He made Adren or Athro - the records aren't certain - and then Kira Vadimevicha reached the rank of Adren. There wasn't another Elder in the family until Kirill Yuri Tikhonovich in the early sixteenth century.
And then Tikhon Ivan Nikita Yurevich Kirillovich vnuk died in a hunting accident, of all things, before his First Change, and Tikhon his nephew died without even marrying, and the name hasn't been used since. Some people said our blood was in decline, some even said that Gaia had withdrawn her favour from us. We never believed it. We remembered Nikita on the bridge and held on, and Vadim Vasiliy Yevgeniy Fedor Konstantin Rurikovich's birth in 1675 showed those who had disbelieved that we really were unconquerable.
And then there was Tamara Bogdanova doch.
She was an Elder in her thirties, and family legend says she would have made it even earlier if she hadn't been so forthright. At the age of 39 she was caught by a pack of Black Spiral Dancers, who tortured her until she nearly died to find out where the rest of her pack were. She didn't tell them, of course. Instead she told them, 'You'll know where they are soon enough' and gave up her life to fuel a Lambent Flame so bright it blinded them, and brought every Garou in the area down on their position. None of those Spirals survived.
...
If everyone who heard her died, I wonder how we know what she said?
...
Anyway, that was Tamara. I don't know if we're descended from her or not. She wasn't in the direct line, but her granddaughter married an Arkhipov and we've intermarried with them a time or two. I like to think I have some of her blood.
I also have the blood of Tekla Masha Pavelovich, who married into the family. There are a lot of stories about her - not so many as about Tamara, since after all tales grow in the telling and Tekla died during the reign of Alexander III - oh, sorry. Near the end of the Victorian era. Tamara was a bit earlier; and a proper Nikitinevich, of course.
My favourite story about Tekla isn't one of the really epic ones anyway. It's something she did when she was a Fostern, and her pack was sent on a quest to retrieve the crown of her alpha's - let me think - great-uncle. They found the crown easily enough, but the great-uncle was a proud and haughty man, and refused to give it up unless they killed the dragon that was ravaging the land. Tekla's alpha thought he had a right to the crown and didn't need to earn it, so they stayed on as guests while he tried to change his great-uncle's mind. But he hadn't actually forbidden his pack to act, so Tekla sneaked out of the castle one night with a whole barrel of vodka and poured it into the well where the dragon came to drink. The arguments and recriminations the next morning ended when she returned with the dragon's horns burning her hands.
Tekla died with her husband in a wyrm attack on their home, long before the abdication of Czar Nicholas II. In some ways that made them lucky - they didn't have to live to see the fall of Russia.
Most of the family fled the country. Those who didn't died, we think. We certainly heard nothing from either Konstantin Roman or his daughter Alyona after 1936.
And then there was Pietr, and then Kazimir, and now us.
So out of a thousand years of history, it falls to me and Kira to uphold the family name.
No, I don't consider it a burden (I don't think Kira considers it at all). I mean, yes, sometimes it's a little intimidating to think of all that I have to live up to, but at the end of the day I'm a Nikitinevich, just like them. Of course I can do it. It's in the blood.
I will explain what that means.
Almost 1,100 years ago, there was a Garou called Standing Stone. He held the bridge alone when all his pack were dead so that an important rite could be completed, and for that he became a Legend. He took the name Nikita, which means The Unconquerable, and his sons and grandsons were named after him, and so on, all the way down to me.
Nikita's eldest son was Garou. Boris Nikitinevich (we used the royal patronymic even then, though nobody's ever been able to find out anything about the family before Nikita) was almost as great a Theurge as his father had been Ahroun, though of course that was kind of expected of him. It was him who forged the Klaive Stalwart Guardian that Uncle Kazimir bears today, in honour of his father.
None of Boris's children were Garou. The next in the family was Bogdan Petrovich Nikitinevich prapravnuk, who was the grandson of Nikita's youngest son. None of Bogdan's descendants survive today - for some reason our family has never really branched the way the Ryders or Drakes have. There's always been the heirs, and sometimes a collateral line. But the last Nikitineviches who weren't part of the main branch died in the 1970s, so now there's just us.
I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Where was I? Bogdan Petrovich? He made Adren or Athro - the records aren't certain - and then Kira Vadimevicha reached the rank of Adren. There wasn't another Elder in the family until Kirill Yuri Tikhonovich in the early sixteenth century.
And then Tikhon Ivan Nikita Yurevich Kirillovich vnuk died in a hunting accident, of all things, before his First Change, and Tikhon his nephew died without even marrying, and the name hasn't been used since. Some people said our blood was in decline, some even said that Gaia had withdrawn her favour from us. We never believed it. We remembered Nikita on the bridge and held on, and Vadim Vasiliy Yevgeniy Fedor Konstantin Rurikovich's birth in 1675 showed those who had disbelieved that we really were unconquerable.
And then there was Tamara Bogdanova doch.
She was an Elder in her thirties, and family legend says she would have made it even earlier if she hadn't been so forthright. At the age of 39 she was caught by a pack of Black Spiral Dancers, who tortured her until she nearly died to find out where the rest of her pack were. She didn't tell them, of course. Instead she told them, 'You'll know where they are soon enough' and gave up her life to fuel a Lambent Flame so bright it blinded them, and brought every Garou in the area down on their position. None of those Spirals survived.
...
If everyone who heard her died, I wonder how we know what she said?
...
Anyway, that was Tamara. I don't know if we're descended from her or not. She wasn't in the direct line, but her granddaughter married an Arkhipov and we've intermarried with them a time or two. I like to think I have some of her blood.
I also have the blood of Tekla Masha Pavelovich, who married into the family. There are a lot of stories about her - not so many as about Tamara, since after all tales grow in the telling and Tekla died during the reign of Alexander III - oh, sorry. Near the end of the Victorian era. Tamara was a bit earlier; and a proper Nikitinevich, of course.
My favourite story about Tekla isn't one of the really epic ones anyway. It's something she did when she was a Fostern, and her pack was sent on a quest to retrieve the crown of her alpha's - let me think - great-uncle. They found the crown easily enough, but the great-uncle was a proud and haughty man, and refused to give it up unless they killed the dragon that was ravaging the land. Tekla's alpha thought he had a right to the crown and didn't need to earn it, so they stayed on as guests while he tried to change his great-uncle's mind. But he hadn't actually forbidden his pack to act, so Tekla sneaked out of the castle one night with a whole barrel of vodka and poured it into the well where the dragon came to drink. The arguments and recriminations the next morning ended when she returned with the dragon's horns burning her hands.
Tekla died with her husband in a wyrm attack on their home, long before the abdication of Czar Nicholas II. In some ways that made them lucky - they didn't have to live to see the fall of Russia.
Most of the family fled the country. Those who didn't died, we think. We certainly heard nothing from either Konstantin Roman or his daughter Alyona after 1936.
And then there was Pietr, and then Kazimir, and now us.
So out of a thousand years of history, it falls to me and Kira to uphold the family name.
No, I don't consider it a burden (I don't think Kira considers it at all). I mean, yes, sometimes it's a little intimidating to think of all that I have to live up to, but at the end of the day I'm a Nikitinevich, just like them. Of course I can do it. It's in the blood.
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Date: 2006-02-02 10:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 11:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 12:22 pm (UTC)I did far too much work on this...
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Date: 2006-02-02 01:28 pm (UTC)