Gawth Poe-tree with Bertrand

oh my goodness, another vampire! D: ignore any weirdness to the facial features, for it is late and i am tired. i'm not fixing anything now!

firstly, this is a gift for ~sporkmcgee because she demanded i draw her a vampire, like, a decade ago. so i made up a vampire for the occasion, see.

everybody, i'd like you to meet bertrand. HE HAS A BACKSTORY (here i go again; run away!).

once upon a time in 17th century france, there was a young boy who was kept by a house of vampires. sort of a mini-coven deal going on. the young boy belonged to their leader, and filled in the role of pet-slash-son-slash-companion, spending nearly all of his time with the head of the mini-coven-thing. he was treated well; the leader did occasionally gnaw on the kid's wrist for a late-night snack, but it was never enough to harm or turn the boy. besides, the boy probably grew to enjoy it, since in this context it was a display of affection.

the boy was content with his life, and never resented not having a human family (it's unclear whether he had a family or not, and how he came to live with the vampires is very very vague). one day, when the boy was nearing his sixteenth year, he and his guardian were out somewhere in the woods for some random reason... and oh my god, the boy's guardian is attacked by vampires from a rival coven. it IS possible to kill a vampire, especially when you're a vampire yourself, so the guardian is left there dying in the snow. the boy went unnoticed, at first, and while the attackers take off he rushes back to his guardian's side, in a panic.

his guardian knows the attackers will be back soon, having heard stories about his pet boy, so he makes the decision to turn the boy on the spot; it will give the boy more of a fighting chance at survival. the boy isn't afraid of the idea, does not even resist, actually, having known about these sorts of things for quite some time, and VOILA, he is made a vampire just before his guardian dies. *awww sob*

BUT a funny thing happens. the boy was not born colourless; in fact, he had brown hair and green eyes before his change. when a vampire is made, pigments change and darken further, so that the majority of vampires have dark eyes and dark hair. the boy somehow experienced the reverse effect, and was left with white skin, silver eyes and greyish hair. vampire albinism, as it was sometimes referred to, is a thousand times rarer than human albinism, and only occurs during the initial change. it does not affect anything other than colour, unlike with forms of human albinism, and so the boy was not handicapped in any way.

the boy, name of bertrand, became known among his kind as 'that white one', or variations on that title. some still knew him as 'avernus's pet', a derogatory phrase. bertrand takes it all in stride, being a pretty easygoing fellow by nature. he's unafraid of the other vampires, despite their assumptions that he'll be easy to kick around, looking like such a young kid. he chooses not to fight back whenever possible; he's gotten rather quick, out of necessity.

and now, for the less important bits:

bertrand speaks english, but prefers french. he has a heavy accent otherwise (picture your quebecois relatives, or jean chretien).
he isn't really a big guy, and not just because of his physical age; he was obviously never going to be a big man when he reached adulthood, so he doesn't stew over his lost growth spurts. i'd say he's just over five and a half feet tall.
he's the friendliest little bugger around. growing up where he did, he came to assume that it shouldn't be difficult for humans and vampires to get along. he's not about to go seeking out human companionship, but he doesn't hide from them, either. the others think this is weird.
the name 'bertrand' means, in its original scandinavian/norse/something translation, "bright raven", which is ironic considering that vampires and ravens are usually darkly coloured. he's... well, brightly coloured. irony!*
'avernus' is an old name for the underworld. traditionally, if bertrand had gone back to his old coven after his guardian's death, he would have been renamed avernus to carry on the line, and hopefully lead the rest of his family. he chose not to lead them. he likes his name, anyway.

aaaaaaand the reason for that awful GAWTH POE-TREE up there is simply the fact that bertrand thinks goth kids are HILARIOUS. he really doesn't get why vampires and goths are so closely linked for the humans; to him, 'gothic' means tall cathedrals with gargoyles and stained glass windows, not a kid wearing bad makeup and fishnets. so he pokes fun as much as he can, frequenting goth clubs and getting made fun of, while secretly sniggering at the horrid goth-vampire kids. they call HIM a poser.

bertrand, bless him, is also a bit of a goof. i'll prove it sometime later.

everything mentioned above (except for sporkmcgee and the word avernus) is (c) ME. you steal, i swear to god, i shall HURT you. and please do full-view this; there's some lovely detail on his face :3

*EDIT: "Bertrand: Fr./Eng., Medieval form of Bertram--> Means "bright raven", derived from the Germanic element beraht "bright" combined with hramn "raven".'