He was born James Isaak Wagner in the winter of 1918. His father had been a soldier in the German army during the Great War, though he’d been discharged in 1916 due to being injured in the Battle of Verdun.
Jim grew up knowing Munich as a city of political unrest, and the birthplace of the Nazi party. Between the influence of Nazism and his father’s stories of a proud Germany, Jim enlisted into military service as soon as he was eligible. He’d made officer by the time the second world war broke out, and he was later assigned to work at Bergen-Belsen, when it was still just a prisoner of war camp. It wasn’t until 1943 that the camp partially became a concentration camp, but by then he was no longer a part of the camp.
This fact is what largely helped him when he was captured by allied soldiers and put on trial for war crimes. Found innocent of genocide, he was released, and permitted to go home to Munich, where he remained until his father’s death three years later. With the help of what monetary inheritance he and his mother had between them, he was able to emigrate to Canada. Upon arrival he worked diligently to overcome the hatred of Germans and worked hard.
As irony would have it, he married a jewish woman shortly before his mother’s death in 1956. Not long after, they settled into a typical life, and had a daughter. His past behind him, and only the future to look forward to, he devoted his time between work and being a devoted father and husband.
Due to a promotion at work, they moved in 1963, just a few short months prior to their daughter beginning school. Things recently unpacked and in neat order, they’d put their little girl to bed and were spending time together alone, when tragedy struck. Jim heard glass breaking, coming from the back of the house. Upon investigating, he found a window broken, and the back door wide open – but no one in sight.
Rushing back to where he had left his wife, he found a group of three degenerates surrounding his wife, pushing her back and forth between them as they laughed. Attempts to get to her were met with playful violence, though it was not until a fourth individual appeared, coming down from the second floor as he carried his terrified daughter that he himself turned to violence. Reaching for any implement he could find, he fought, yelling and swearing at them in German in a vain attempt to protect his family.
They put up with him, as he wasn’t hurting them very much, until he began to get overly annoying. He was warned once to stop, and when he refused, desperate to get his family to safety, he watched in horror as his wife was gutted before his eyes, his daughter’s screams stifled by a hand over her mouth. The ones not holding his daughter hostage toyed with him then, laughing at his anguish and desperate attempts to reach his daughter.
Once he began to grow weary, the adrenaline beginning to fade, one of them grabbed him. He was bitten and fed from, drained to the point of near death for the sheer amusement of it, it seemed. As he lay dying, he could hear his daughter crying for him, and then felt a thick liquid being forced down his throat. They let him go then, as the change took over, discussing the fun it would be to watch as he, starved of blood, would go for the nearest source – his daughter. In order to ensure this, they slit her throat so that the blood would flow, and he could scent that out.
It didn’t work.
True, when he came around he smelled the blood, but they made a mistake. The one who’d turned him made a comment, ridiculing him. in his current state, it was enough to cause Jim to frenzy. He lunged for the man, instinct taking over, fangs sinking deep into his flesh. the others tried to pull them off but he clung to the one who’d made him with a ferocity they weren’t used to. They decided then that, while he was preoccupied, they would make a break for it, getting on to some real fun.
Jim continues until the other vampire was nothing more than a husk, and he dropped him, standing slowly and looking around, feeling oddly nu, for a moment, before the intense desire to clean up the mess overcame him, and he set about to do just that. But it seemed no matter how much he cleaned, it did no good. Thus, he concluded that the best course would be set fire to the house, making it a pyrre. He watched from afar until the blaze was strong and hot, and walked away.
He was found later that night, as a heavy tiredness started to overcome him as the sunrise approached. He was directed by the city Abbott to the communal haven, where he stayed the day. By the time he awoke the following evening, there was mild curiosity as to who he was and where his pack was. It quickly became apparent that he was new, and with a bit of deduction (and statements from the remainder of the pack that had assaulted his family the previous evening), they figured out where he belonged.
For a time he learned from one of his clan, and was sent on his own when he had a good enough grasp on things. Ultimately, he found his way to a new Sabbat city, whereupon he managed to befriend one Luciano Androsini, who was rather impressed by hi post-embrace story, and properly taught him what it meant to be Cainite.
As a reward for friendship and loyalty, once appointed Bishop, Luciano appointed Jim as a Templar, feeling him fully capable of upholding the position.