A piece for my character Barry Holder has just been finished, and I can’t be more happy with it! I can’t praise @diermina enough for her stunning attention to detail and her incredible ability to bring mood and atmosphere to such a palpable level. She was incredibly malleable during the entire process and she was a delight to work with. This picture is stunning and I would recommend her to anyone who wants a definitive piece of art for their character.
Barry Holder is a ghoul to Saliha bint Sadeegh al-Musta'simi, a Follower of Set, who has recently discovered his Uktena heritage and has manifested his nature as garou. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War, which he had earned a Medal of Distinguished Service for his service as a helicopter pilot.
Barry is a descendant of Marshal Holder from The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, and an Uktena kinfolk taken in by a Society of Leopold offshoot, the Adamantine Order of Gallant. He had his first change in Vietnam, freeing himself and others from a prisoner of war camp, though the trauma associated with it caused him to suppress his memory of it and rationalize the events away.
After the waning support from the American people upon his return faded entirely, Barry desperately tried to help his fellow veterans and keep them from wasting away. Though, soon enough he was pulled into that world and fell into heroin addiction. It was at his lowest that a beautiful woman named Saliha came to him with the medal he sold, and so he finally found a friend.
In 1981, Barry went to a diner to make good on a drug deal made between Saliha and anarch biker gang The Sons of Liberty, police tied to New York Prince Michaela swarmed the diner and managed to take Barry in. As the Sons of Liberty, some of whom felt a debt to Barry after recognizing him as the helicopter pilot who rescued some of them, fought to save him, Barry was able to unlock the memories he had once locked away (with the help of some very modified drugs…). It was after a flashback not unlike this did he realize that he didn’t pull The Sons of Liberty away in an evac mission all those years ago...
He became The Beast, and now control over it rests solely in his hands
Barry was originally a two-dot retainer bought by @regalswag, that I played as a guest NPC in @backtothestabbery’s VTM chronicle: Good Night, New York.
He was originally just a human who was ghouled by Saliha, and the ST decided to take advantage of two whole past chronicle’s worth of continuity and reveal that Barry was a werewolf. From the Adamantine Order’s protection given to the Pure Tribe’s kinfolk in 1767, to Marshal Holder’s life within the community in the mid 1800’s, Barry’s rather simple concept at first conception sprawled into this big backstory that spans across whole games.
I feel pretty privileged to play this character, as he’s the result of two very dedicated STs taking each other’s works and making their worlds feel as big as the stories are interconnected.