Vincenzo Bellegno

Vincenzo Bellegno lived the first five decades of his life as a devout Catholic, a dutiful husband, and a loving father. Born to a family of artisans in Verona, he displayed a natural talent for music from an early age, writing chants and compositions for the churches and noble courts of Sorento.

He married young, to a woman known for her gentle spirit, and they had a single daughter, Dolce. His wife died giving birth, leaving Vincenzo to raise his beloved child alone. For twelve years, Dolce was his muse and anchor, inspiring his finest sacred and secular compositions.

When Dolce fell ill to the plague at the age of thirteen, Vincenzo watched her waste away for a year, powerless to save her. Her death shattered him. In the months that followed, he abandoned his faith, spiraled into drink, and turned to self-destructive acts in his grief.

The Muse of Toledo

It was during this descent that Vincenzo was discovered by a Toreador elder known only as “The Muse of Toledo”—a legendary Kindred singer who traveled from court to court across Europe. She saw in Vincenzo not only raw musical talent but a deep, aching beauty born of tragedy.

The Muse took him under her wing, making him her ghoul. For two years, she fed him vitae, nurtured his broken soul, and sharpened his craft until he was capable of moving even the most jaded Kindred to tears with his compositions. With the approval of the Prince of Milan, whom she was visiting while performing, the Muse Embraced Vincenzo in 1367.

Two years later, in 1369, she released him from her side, instructing him to “carry the music of the heavens into every corner of the earth, for it is the only true beauty mortals and Kindred can still share.”

The Venice Years & Vittoria

Vincenzo roamed Italy as a composer and performer, creating devotional works, secular madrigals, and haunting Kindred laments. By the mid-1380s, he had made his way to Venice, where his melancholy music found fertile ground among the city’s Toreador and its ruling Prince-Doge.

It was in a journey away from Venice that Vincenzo met Vittoria, a mortal girl who bore an uncanny resemblance to Dolce. Her resemblance to his lost daughter was so striking it threatened to shatter what remained of his cold, undead heart. Unable to watch her mortal life fade as Dolce’s had, Vincenzo made the reckless decision to Embrace her without permission—an offense that could have cost both their unlives.

The Prince-Doge of Venice, however, found Vittoria’s talent too valuable to destroy. So when after some years he returned to Venice, instead, she decreed that Vincenzo would serve in his court indefinitely to atone, raising and training Vittoria as a prized jewel of the Venetian Toreador while fulfilling the Muse of Toledo’s distant requests.

Disappearance

Vincenzo’s final recorded appearance was in 1400 AD, when he departed Venice for Sardinia under direct orders from the Doge. His purpose and fate remain unknown; some believe he was dispatched on a secret mission for his mistress, others whisper that he met Final Death on the island. No reliable sightings have been reported since his departure.