Akka Karhu

Maderakka "Akka" Karhu"When the dearest strands have been left behind, A wanderer in foreign places finds solace, When listening to the wistful music: The Säkkijärvi Polka!" - Säkkijärven Polkka, famous Finnish folk song

Pronouns	She/her
Clan	Caitiff
Sect	Anarch
Social Class	Ancilla
Coterie	Sunset Syndicate

Further Information

Description

During her time in the Sabbat she favored a tall, muscular, androgynous form built for the battlefield and largely dressed in the looted uniforms of her dead enemies, but would frequently assume different faces, bodies and identities for her grim work. Any who knew her then would be surprised to see her usual mortal form now: while still tall, she presents as an athletic but relatively delicate and feminine young businesswoman dressed in smart modern clothes and wearing glasses and makeup. When amongst other Kindred she frequently still wears her old military garb over her modern professional looks like an old veteran wearing their medals at the VFW hall.

Timeline

• February 10th, 1899: Born in Viipuri Province, Duchy of Finland as Jaako Aikio, second oldest of five siblings born to a farming family.

• 1899: Establishment of Finnish Social Democratic Party, which her father and eldest brother both join in the early 1900's.

• 1905: General strike in Finland against the Russian Empire, a six year old Jaako Aikio’s parents and eldest brother, all agricultural workers, take part. The first Finnish Red Guard begin operations. Jaako’s eldest brother is killed in the clashes against the White Guard at the age of 17. Jaako’s father goes underground as part of Red Guard continuation organizations, fleeing the family.

• 1906: Estate-system abolished in Finland and modern parliament established. Women granted right to vote.

• 1908: Jaako’s father arrested and sentenced to hard labor in a Tsarist prison for mutiny for role in the Red Guards. He is sentenced to hard labor, leaving Jaako’s mother to care for them, two older sisters, and a younger brother. He dies of disease in a Tsarist prison in 1916.

• 1908-1917: “Second Period of Oppression” begins in Finland, Tsar returns to power and “dissolved the assembly, ordered parliamentary elections almost annually, and determined the composition of the Finnish Senate, which did not correlate with the Parliament.” Jaako grows up into a strong young "man" from a life of farm work, and dedicates themself to protecting their family in their father and elder brother's place.

• 1914-1918: World War 1

• February 1917: February Revolution in Russia spreads to Finland, leading to election of socialist prime minister and return of power to the Finnish Parliament. Jaako gets involved in labor organizing against the landowners.

• March 15th, 1917: Autonomous status and parliamentary rule return to Finland, giving Parliament defacto political power. The police are also dismantled.

• July 13th, 1917: Strikes by agricultural workers in response to food shortages lead to right-wing farmers and landowners forming Protection Corps. Rioting spreads across Western Finland. Jaako and their mother and siblings all join general strikes of agricultural workers in response to food shortages.

• July, 1917: “Law of Supreme Power” passes, giving Finnish Parliament increased power over Senate and revoking Russian control of Finland other than diplomatic and military affairs.More Russian troops sent to Finland, Left forces quietly gain the backing of the Petrograd Soviet, and the Law of Supreme Power temporarily overturned as Parliament dissolved. Eight hour workweek and universal suffrage in local elections implemented. Jaako joins demonstrations in the countryside.

• August 9, 1917: Political violence in Finland as an agricultural worker shot during a strike demonstration. Workers Order Guards begin forming to protect the working class against the Protection Corps. Jaako considers joining.

• September 1917: a Civil Guard member is shot in Malmi in Finland in a political dispute.

• November 7th, 1917: October Revolution, as Lenin and the Petrograd Soviet take control of Russia.

• November 14th-20th, 1917: General strike in Finland for return to status quo before dissolution of parliament. Demonstrators call for creation of constituent assembly, and dismantling of White Guards.

• November 27th, 1917: non-socialist national government takes control in Finland and begins training and establishing White Guards with support from Germany.

• December 4th, 1917: Finnish Declaration of Independence put forward and ratified in Finnish Senate.

• December 6th, 1917: Finland granted independence from Soviet union.

• December 8th-31st, 1917: Demonstrations spread across Finland as Jaako goes to Vyborg and joins the demonstrators surrounding the town hall for two days. Jaako joins the street fights against the Protection Corps and bourgeoisie, killing their first man when they beat right-wing cadet who pointed a pistol at their sister to death in a streetfight with their fists and bites off their nose. The bloody results of this confrontation earn them the nickname “Nalkoinen Karhu:” The Hungry Bear. Jaako and their younger brother Ilmo join the Workers Protection Corps the next day.

• 1918: Finnish Civil War

• January 6th, 1918: Helsinki Workers' Order Guard becomes the Helsinki Red Guard and occupies the palace of the governor general.

• January 19th-23rd, 1918: Increased violent clashes between Workers Order Guards and Protection Corps over the city of Vyborg. Jaako and their brother join the fighting.

• January 25th, 1918: White Guard appointed as army of the Finnish Senate and a general is appointed to lead the Civil Guard.

• January 26th, 1918: The Red Guards, led by Ali Aaltonen refuse to recognize the Whites' hegemony and established a military authority of their own. Aaltonen installed his headquarters in Helsinki and nicknamed it Smolna echoing the Smolny Institute, the Bolsheviks' headquarters in Petrograd. The Red Order of Revolution was issued on 26 January, and a red lantern, a symbolic indicator of the uprising, was lit in the tower of the Helsinki Workers' House.
• January 27th, 1918: Battle of Kamara at Vyborg, the first battle of the Finnish Civil War. The White Guard attack a heavily guarded rail shipment of weapons to the Reds from the Bolsheviks. 20-30 Finns die, both Red and White. Jaako’s first true combat and the only Red victory they would see.

• January 28th, 1918: Red Guards sizes Helsinki and Finnish Peoples Delegation established in Helsinki, “The delegation sought democratic socialism based on the Finnish Social Democratic Party's ethos; their visions differed from Lenin's dictatorship of the proletariat. Otto Ville Kuusinen formulated a proposal for a new constitution, influenced by those of Switzerland and the United States. With it, political power was to be concentrated to Parliament, with a lesser role for a government. The proposal included a multi-party system; freedom of assembly, speech and press; and the use of referendums in political decision-making. In order to ensure the authority of the labour movement, the common people would have a right to permanent revolution. The socialists planned to transfer a substantial part of property rights to the state and local administrations”

• February 1918: German empire attacks Russia, leading to rapid Russia withdraw from direct involvement in Finnish civil war.

• March 1918: German intervention in Finnish civil war as tide turns decisively against the Reds.

• 15 March-April 6th: Battle of Tampere, bloodiest battle of the Finnish Civil War. Jaako’s younger brother Ilmo serves with the local Red Guards, surrenders when ordered, and is executed by The White Guard at the age of 15. Jaako swears revenge.

• April 11th-13th, 1918: Battle of Helsinki. Jaako fights with the local revolutionary battalions in Helsinki wanting revenge for their brother and fights viciously, but sees the defeat by the White Guard and German forces and watches as numerous friends and comrades are slaughtered.

• April 14th-20th, 1918: Jaako flees east with the rest of the Red Guard to Viipuri to regroup with the People’s Delegation.

• April 24th-27th, 1918: Battle of Viipuri Jaako fights again, fleeing back to the city where the revolution started and again sees their friends and loved ones killed and captured by superior German firepower. Jaako’s eldest sister fights with the Red Guard and is immediately summarily executed upon her capture like all women Red Guard members at Vyborg. Jaako only finds out after from other survivors, and swears that they will either protect their surviving siblings or die alongside them. Jaako and their surviving sister Katja flee to Lahti with the remaining Red Guard and their families.

• April 28th-29th: Battle of Syrjäntaka, the last Red victory in the war as 3,000 Red refugees violently break through a German line blocking their path. Jaako and their sister Katja both take part in the fighting, killing several German soldiers, including some who surrender.

• April 25th, 1918: The Peoples Delegation flees to Petrograd

• April 29th-April 31st, 1918: Viipuri Massacres as the White Guard kills uninvolved civilians, nonsocialists, and Reds alike following their victory in the battle of Viipuri.Jaako’s mother is arrested and executed despite being a noncombatant.

• May 1st, 1918: Red’s start surrendering in the Battle of Lahti, the last major battle of the war as the refugees of previous battles gathered in Lahti surrender to the Whites and Germans. Majority of fleeing Red refugees are captured and sent to brutal prisoner of war camps. Jaako and their surviving sister Katja only survive by hiding amongst the dead, eventually joining a caravan of survivors bound for Petrograd.

• May 16th: General Mannerheim and the Whites declare victory in the Civil War. Died in battle: White Guard 3,414, Red Guard 5,199; Missing: whites 46, reds 1,767; Executed: whites 1,424, reds 7,370; Died in prison camps: whites 4, reds 11,652 – total deaths 36,640.

• November 11th, 1918: With The German Empire’s dissolution, Finland becomes an independent republic instead of a German protectorate. Jaako and Katja do not return for fear of the prison camps.

• June 1918: Jaako and Katja arrive in Petrograd. Jaako and Katja both begin working the docks, with Jaako focusing on survival but Katja immediately getting involved in the SR-led factions of labor unions.

• August 11th, 1918: Red Terror begins as Lenin orders liquidation of other leftist factions, starting with Anarchists.

• August 1918-December 1920: Jaako and Katja try to survive as the Russian Civil War resolves around them, Katja increasingly aligned with SR-aligned radical labor and Jaako focused on survival but still part of their union.

• January 1921-February 1921: An announcement of reduced bread rations and factory closures due to fuel shortages lead to rioting and unrest in Petrograd. Katja organizes a strike at her factory, and Jaako joins her in the streets to protect her when Bolshevik troops enter the city to suppress the riots.

• Late February 1921: The Kronstadt sailors release the Petropavlovsk resolution, supporting the revolting workers in Petrograd. Jaako and Katja join with the volunteers supporting the sailor’s revolt and go to Kronstadt to join the defense. Jaako only goes when Katja says she will go with or without Jaako.

• March 1st-18th, 1921: Kronstadt rebellion

• March 7th, 1921: First Bolshevik military operation against the Kronstadt garrison

• Night March 16th, 1921: Embrace. Embraced when her sire, Boroslav Bratovich "The Houndmaster" and his Pack "The War Dogs" used the cover of a Bolshevik offensive on the island’s defenders to massacre and mass embrace with impunity. Karhu stayed fighting with the women and men by their side to the last, not even fleeing when the fangs of the sabbat pack came out. Their sire grabs them and watches their brothers and sisters in arms be killed before embracing them and burying them in a mass grave of shovelheads to rise again the next night. Katja last sees Jaako when told to flee as the sabbat pack begins their attack.

• Sundown March 17-Sunrise March 18th, 1921: Jaako and the other victims of the mass embrace rise from the dead and turn on both the bolsheviks and their former rebel comrades, quenching their new thirst in an orgy of blood. Katja believes she sees Jaako on the battlefield turning on their comrades, lays down her weapon, and flees.

• March 18th, 1921: The Bolsheviks seize Kronstadt Katja Aikio flees back to Finland and is placed in a refugee camp. She is released from the camp in 1924 and emigrates to America with her husband and children at the age of 27, moving to New York City.

• March 19th, 1921: The survivors of the preceding night’s massacres and mass embraces are subject to their first Games of Instinct and forced to fight each other to show their worth. Karhu refuses to kill a former comrade who was also Embraced until being Dominated to do so by their sire, who claims them and forcefully brings them into his pack as his “pet bear,” having been told the meaning of their “Nalkoinen Karhu” nickname after the former comrade they killed said it upon recognizing them. From this point forward, Jaako is called Karhu.

• April 1921-October 1922: Karhu and their sire’s pack travel in the wake of the Bolshevik armies, draining Bolshevik officers for revenge and feeding and mass embracing in the battles while battling with Anarchs among the Bolsheviks and Camarilla among the White armies.

• October 1922: End of Russian civil war.

• November 1922-1935: Karhu’s sire’s pack rages across Europe, using political violence as cover to war against The Camarilla and other supposed servants of The Ancients and slaughter mortals with impunity.

• 1936-1939: Spanish Civil War Karhu’s sire’s pack coordinates with local Lasombra to assassinate Camarilla members on both sides.

• 1939-1945: 2nd world war

• 1969: Karhu takes advantage of the chaos during a battle and flees her sire, departing to the US and staying at the edges of the Sabbat as a wandering enforcer, known for her brutal reputation but seemingly no longer enjoying the bloodshed.

• 1976: Karhu deserts the sword of Caine, wandering the United States and presenting herself as variously a tzimisce, a gangrel, or a caitiff depending on what seems safer when forced to interact with other Kindred.

• Late 1980's: Akka seeks refuge with her old "war buddy" and packmate the Lasombra Victor Cruz in Springfield, Mass, knowing he is doing quite well for himself among the Anarchs. While there, she is taught the fleshcrafting skills her sire denied her by the tzimisce doctor V.

• Early 1990's: Arrives in Brooklyn and settles in the relatively forgotten by Kindred neighborhood of Sunset Park. She hides at the margins, but develops a working relationship with Increase "Ink" Burroughs, a local Ventrue, when he becomes aware of her facechanging services. He teaches her the trade of "Cobbling" new mortal Masks for her clients and is (barely) tolerated by the Camarilla if she doesn't poke her head out of the gutter because of her services as a fleshcrafter being invaluable for those who don't want to or can't deal with Sabbat tzimisce or who have been injured by their fleshcrafting.

• Late 1990's-early 2010's: The Sect War hits New York. Akka quietly acts as a fixer for any who are fighting the Sabbat, supplying them with fleshcrafting and materiel in an outright betrayal of The Sword. While fighting her former allies, she does offer other Sabbat defectors new faces and identities and helps them find a place among the Camarilla and Anarchs. While not recognized by the Court, those who appreciate her utility keep her protected enough that she can quietly subsist in Sunset Park.

• 2014: Supplies materiel, fleshcrafting, and her skills as a combatant in the revolt against the Camarilla's puppet Baron, winning her the recognition of her fellow Caitiff and new Baron, Tracy Vassulluzo.

• 2015: Convinced that her sire has finally likely met The Final Death between the Final Crusade, The Night of Ash and Fire, and the subsequent Beckoning, Karhu cautiously begins to make her presence in New York City known, going by the name “Akka Karhu” and establishing her mortal identity as the Finnish-American medical assistant Kaarina Aikio.

Bio

Akka Karhu is a caitiff fixer/counterfeiter/discipline-broker/fleshcrafter for hire and sauna owner fleeing decades of war as a brutal Sabbat soldier and trying to carve out a place for herself and her Syndicate defending and supplying the new Free City. Akka was born outside Viipuri (now Vyborg) in Karelia, Finland (now Russia), she was embraced in the Kronstadt Rebellion in Russia, spent over 50 years as a Sabbat soldier in Europe, another decade wandering the US at the periphery of the Sabbat before going awol and fleeing her old allies while eating rats and feeding from vagabonds and trying to recover her lost Humanity, and then settling in Brooklyn in the early 90's. Since then, she has increasingly legitimized herself, and now largely presents herself to the Anarchs as the kindly old "auntie" who is savvy, but helpful and primarily interested in the stability of the new NYC Free City.

Playlist: "Bear Meridian: A Finnish Caitiff In Brooklyn"

Rumors

Quotes

OOC Information

Player	Charlie K.
Pronouns	She/Her
MES #	US2022060019
Domain	NY-004-D
Storyteller	Vincent G.

Other PCs: Neith Ward, Amanita Zantosa, Danika "Dani" Astor