Michel Robichaux, almost six feet tall, with black hair and dark eyes, imposing, well heeled, well groomed, with a bespoke suit that screams wealth. Michel was born as a human in Pulpodeva, Thrace. Today, Pulpodeva is known as the city of Plovdiv, in what is now Bulgaria. At the time he left to fight as a mercenary in the Peloponessian war, he was married to his childhood friend, Kaleena, and had two little girls: one older with light brown hair, named Katya, and a younger one with dark hair, Niómë. His sire Diotimus advised him after he was made Virehn that he should never see them again. It always weighed heavily on his heart. His marriage was of love, not convenience or necessity.

Later, he moved onward to Londinium, and then helped build the town of Vindolanda alongside his brother Howard and his friend David Lambert. Vindolanda was the town nearest Hadrian’s wall. Being in Vindolanda was one of the key moments in his life: it was where he met a human woman named Aibhilin (pronounced Ave-leen), turned her Virehn, and then married her. Aibhilin was brutally murdered by her own family. They were already angry that she’d taken up with the invaders; once they saw she’d become something…other…adding insult to perceived injury - they killed her. The loss of Aibhilin nearly broke Michel. If not for his brother Howard, and their friend, Davide, he might’ve ended himself from sheer grief.

It was also while he was at the town of Vindolanda where he first met the Roman Emperor Hadrian, along with his wife (and cousin) Vibia Sabina, who would later herself become a Virehn.

Michel traveled all over Europe, and by the Middle Ages, he very often found himself either an envoy at the behest of his good friend, Vibia, or as a courier for any who needed it - most particularly, Ari Cottrell, who was a powerful Virehn, and the head of Clan Casimir, based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Both Michel and Howard were hired as mercenaries to fight on the side of Athens and the Delian League, in what eventually became known as the Peloponnesian War. Both suffered grave injuries in battle, and both were made Virehnai by Diotimus Artimidorus on the battlefield following the Battle of Amphipolis. The Peloponessian war is known to the Virehnai as ‘The Second Virehnai War.’ He also fought in the Third Virehnai war during the “Crisis of the Third Century” where the Roman Empire was coming apart at the seams, and during the Fourth Virehnai War. The Fourth Virehnai War was played out against the backdrop of the Holy Roman Empire as it fought against the Ottoman Empire, while they tried to make headway into Europe. It was the Fourth Virehnai War that brought about the casting of “The Compact,” which now keeps Virehnai from killing one another in acts of brutal treachery. So blood-soaked and treacherous was the Fourth Virehnai War that it nearly revealed the existence of the Virehnai to the humans beyond what could be repaired. Even now, much of what the humans know of ‘vampires’ comes directly from this time period, and the areas of Romania, Hungary and the Balkans. It was during this war that Michel lost his brother Aleksandr Philippou, known to all as Sasho.

Michel also was in Paris during the French Revolution - which very nearly became the ‘Fifth Virehnai War.’ During the French Revolution, he lost many loved ones: his sire Diotimus, his good friend Vibia Sabina Augustus, and Howard’s son Edward Montcrief. All three of them met with the business end of a guillotine, and suddenly the world seemed a darker, harsher place. Every human war, for better or worse, always has a a Virehnai component to it.

Within a hundred years, losing all those people at once took their toll. Michel was Draz’kul (meaning ‘disciplined hunter’ in old Virehnai) for his whole existence, but came to appreciate the thought of keeping your family close by and having bonds. He changed faction to Sulehnai (meaning ‘Children of Sulana,’ and referring to a Virehnai woman two millenia earlier who found hunting the humans she knew, grew up around and loved distasteful. Instead, she chose to make bargains of protection with them in exchange for blood.

His brother, Howard, decided to follow Michel’s path. He felt the losses strongly himself. The decision wasn’t without consequence, however. Their friend, David Lambert, didn’t fancy changing factions, and so he didn’t. Instead, he was quite angry with all of them. “Trouble only comes from being friends with your food.” One of Michel’s sons also fell into this camp: his son, Marcus Fairchild distanced himself from his sire, Michel. Always he maintained a tenuous connection, and the required obeisance - but the closeness once felt between them was now gone. His son Marcus was the exception. Most of his family followed him, became Sulehnai as a clan, and moved to America, to the city of New York. Once here, he found the local Sulehnai, declared his intentions, and created an identity for himself.

He founded a law firm in New York city upon arrival, and befriended another lawyer - a man named Howard Pancioni, who had recently moved to New York from Italy. Pancioni’s son Howard later changed his last name to Jacoby as prejudice rose against Italian immigrants coming to Ellis Island in droves. Michel and Howard both took a great deal of flack from others who had problems with Michel being besties with a human. They disliked that Sulehnai were too close to their food; they despised Michel (and even counseled him) over his close, enduring friendship with Howard Jacoby. Despite being human, and being offered what amounted to immortality - Howard Jacoby (known as HJ, to keep him from being confused with Howard VanEtters), always answered ‘no.’ He told Michel one day to offer it to one of his descendants. He made good on that promise, and offered immortality to his ‘niece’ Elaina Jacoby, granddaughter of his good friend, HJ., in honor of his memory after the tragic accidental death of his son, Johannes.