Diana York – who would later become Diana Abel – was born in the year 1752 in Notting Hill, England, the second daughter of Adam York, a professor of ancient religions, and his wife Lilith York, a Parliament member's daughter.  The family was surprisingly well off, Adam being from new money.  Diana had a privileged childhood, she and her older sister, Selene, being given the best of everything.  At the age of seven, Diana too became an older sister when the third York daughter, Artemis, was born.

Unlike her sister, Diana did not have happy prospects for marriage.  At the age of fourteen, she was gangly and still boyish.  It was decided that she would be made the companion of the Countess of Sussex, a woman named Ruth.  Diana was reluctant to leave home, but the family all assured her it was what was best for her.  Ruth proved to be a very kind woman and took Diana under her wing beyond the call of duty.  She taught her poise, grace, and charm.  Diana learned to play the piano and to dance and she utterly blossomed under Ruth's care and grew to love her as much as her own mother, and perhaps more so.  She served her for ten years, years she considered some of the happiest of her life.

Diana was miserable back home, missing all of the excitement and glamour of her life with Ruth.  She made it very clear how much she resented her mother and sister for robbing her of the high life, constantly making snide remarks about how low brow their lifestyle was and never letting anyone ignore the fact that she was terribly bored without fancy balls and salons to attend.

The strange gifts continued to appear into 1777.  Spring came and with it, Diana felt a desperate longing to return to Ruth and the life she had enjoyed before Artemis' breakdown and Adam's death.  For a reason that she chalked up to desperation, Diana was driven to return to the church where her father had disappeared one evening.  Before she could cross the threshold, however, she felt a pair of arms grab her from behind, pulling her into the darkness of the nearest alleyway.  The last thing she seemed to hear before her life slipped away was the voice of her father, whispering, "Through the night, my children, you will go on."

When Diana awoke, she found herself in Northumberland, side by side with her sister Selene, in the midst of some sort of church ritual.  Leading the ceremony was an ancient Malkavian woman she had never seen before and, of all people, her father, Adam.  She learned that the old woman, referred to by most of the cultists as "Father" was the leader of a new movement of Kindred called the Children of Eden.  Her goal was to recreate paradise on earth by creating a world where Kindred and Kine lived together in unity and where all traces of evil were erased.  Adam was her chosen first, the new Adam of the new Garden of Eden.  Selene was baptized, becoming Caine, while Diana was named Abel.  Adam explained that in time, Artemis would become Seth.

Father, who insisted that Selene and Diana call her "Grandmother" since she was Adam's sire and Adam was their sire, began to prepare Diana for her role in the scheme.  Each of Adam's children was to be assigned to watch over a different Kindred sect.  Diana was assigned the Independents.  Grandmother and Adam carefully trained Diana to use her new, Malkavian abilities.  Meanwhile, Selene, who was to be placed among the Sabbat, began to show violent tendencies without their help, slaughtering most of her own family.  One night, Grandmother goaded Selene and Diana into a fight.  Selene's violent nature nearly led her to win, but they gradually became aware of the fact that the fight was being watched by Grandmother's entire congregation and had become a ritual.  Grandmother stopped their fight before Diana could be killed and declared that now, Caine and Abel had been reunited.

Selene's violent nature grew over the next year.  Diana, however, seemed to remain much the way she had always been; bratty and bored, longing for the delights of her life with Ruth.  While Grandmother was away, cleaning up Selene's mess, Adam confided in Diana that he was concerned about Grandmother, a massive megalomaniac who considered herself to be God.  Fearing for Diana's safety, he blood bonded with her, so they could always remain close.  He noted, however, that Grandmother would probably never harm Diana since Abel was always God's favorite child of Adam.

Grandmother had been attempting to spread the gospel of the Children of Eden to London in general.  Many were eager to join the movement, but a pair of Ventrue, Ursela and Liam, felt differently.  They found the entire notion to be incredibly stupid and decided to put an end to the nonsense by killing off Adam.  In 1779, Adam had left the Garden to return home and Embrace Artemis and the duo followed him, spreading rumors in his wake that he was siring his daughters for an incestuous agenda and generally lambasting his name.  By the end of the year, Diana felt a hollow aching in her chest and knew that her father was dead. 

Her sadness at this news surprised her greatly, as she took it far worse than losing him the first time.  At last, she understood what Artemis had gone through and felt a terrible guilt at the way she had treated her little sister and her mother.  She resolved to make herself a better person, to repent for her former self and rejected the material pleasures of Ruth's world.  This did not hamper Grandmother's resolve and, if anything, her intense desire to create her new Eden hardened.  To gain followers, she began assigning Embraces.  When Diana was called upon to make her first Embrace, however, she failed and accidentally killed her target.  The guilt overwhelmed her and she developed a new derangement, an intense paranoia that would follow her for the rest of her life.

Over the next few years, very much on her own as Adam was gone and Selene was shipped off to the Americas, Diana began to study Grandmother's plans.  She realized that the assigned Embraces were leading to thinner and thinner blood among Grandmother's followers.  This seemed completely insane, given the precarious position the Children of Eden inhabited, still under the scrutiny of many, including Ursela and Liam.  One night, Diana's curiosity overwhelmed her and she let herself into Grandmother's private study.  There, she found plans, detailing the intentions of the Children of Eden.  To her horror, she realized that Grandmother intended to thin the blood of her followers down to the point of creating Dhampir to use to devastate anyone who opposed the Children of Eden with sunlight and fire.  This did not sit well with Diana, but feeling very alone in the world, she kept her objections to herself.

In 1790, Grandmother sent Diana, along with a protégé named Jacob, to the Americas with the hopes that they would pick up the work Selene had failed at, which was to spread the gospel to the new world.  Diana intensely disliked Jacob, who was forever ogling her and even once attempted to have his way with her.  Shortly after they arrived, however, Jacob disappeared and for awhile, Diana wrote Grandmother letters of her progress in spreading the word, while actually warning any thin bloods she encountered to avoid Grandmother's schemes at all costs.  Two years later, however, she met up with Selene.  Her sister had changed very much in their time apart, but still showed enough affection that Diana agreed to go with her to France.  In 1793, when they arrived, the Reign of Terror was in full swing and Diana witnessed her sister's brutality firsthand.

While Selene was happily slaughtering, Diana decided to bury herself in studies, often sneaking into libraries in the middle of the night, searching for any information she could find about Dhampir in order to help protect them somehow.  Her knowledge of the Kindred world was severely limited, due to the fact that everything she was taught was taught to her by Grandmother, who was revising history to better suit her needs.  It was during one such library stint that Diana met a young man named Joseph Penn.  He was an Englishman who had been sent to live in France by his parents and was unable to return in light of the Terror.  He spotted Diana sneaking into a library and was fascinated, following her.  They did not speak on that first night, but Joseph was so intrigued that he continued to come back to the same, library, looking for her night after night until, on a Sunday in 1797, they two finally met face to face.

For a year, every Sunday the two of them bantered back and forth, playing a flirtatious game of cat and mouse with Joseph constantly threatening to tattle on Diana.  He learned quickly enough of her Kindred nature, but didn't give a damn and on a Sunday in 1798, he asked her to marry him.  Diana happily accepted, but not without some hesitation.  She knew that a marriage might cause trouble, especially if she kept it hidden, so she made the decision to simply make it public and avoid any unfortunate accidents.  All of the Children of Eden, including Grandmother and Selene, were invited to the wedding.  A few nights before, Grandmother offered to Embrace Joseph as a wedding present, but both Diana and Joseph adamantly refused to allow it.

As with all Kindred affairs, the Sunday wedding ended in utter disaster.  Liam and Ursela, who had followed the Children of Eden down to France, crashed the party.  A fight broke out with led to several important moments.  Selene let loose, fighting Grandmother.  Meanwhile, Liam trapped Joseph and Embraced him.  Diana caught sight of this and her primary derangement, regression, completely overwhelmed her.  With a horrified scream, she fled, unable to bear the sight of her True Love becoming a monster.  Liam happened to see Diana run out and made the mistake of chasing after her.  Grandmother, who had allowed Selene to escape, attacked Liam.  Furious at the way he treated Diana, her favorite grandchild, she cursed him and told him she would not free him until he had regained enough humanity to feel guilty for what he had done.  Ursela left the affair alone, robbed of her companion and hot for revenge.

For a good long while, the trio of Selene, Diana, and Milton traveled the country.  They were constantly hounded by Eve, but Diana did her best to keep out of the fighting.  Feeling very lost and very angry, she buried herself in the trivial delights she had once enjoyed as Ruth's companion, parties and dance and the finest of fashion.  None of it made her happy however, except when she took up the piano again, finding that she could let out much of her frustration with music.

Liam brought Diana to a large estate and there, she was surprised and happily reunited with her sister, Artemis, also a Malkavian who had been sired by Adam just before he was killed.  Diana learned that Liam and Artemis had been running a bit of a cult called the Order of the Silver Crescent, dedicated to protecting thin bloods and Dhampir and properly training them to use their own disciplines in self defense.  In return, many of their students stayed on to protect their teachers.  Diana renounced the Children of Eden and agreed to join Liam and Artemis in their quest.  The three of them carefully began to lay out a series of plans to thwart Grandmother's efforts to build a Dhampir army.  During this time, Liam began teaching Diana Presence.  The two of them would be together for long stretches of time and gradually, Liam started falling in love with Diana.  She could not return his love, however, because her heart still belonged to Joseph.

In 1855, Selene returned to California and met up with Diana, who kept Artemis and the Order of the Silver Crescent a secret.  Selene warned Diana that Milton had fallen in love with Eve and turned on her.  Afraid of leading trouble to Artemis' doorstep, Diana convinced Selene to join her and Liam as they traveled to set up a Camarilla court in the new town of Sunnyvale.  Liam established himself as Prince and merely warned Selene to keep her Sabbat activities outside of the city limits.  Unfortunately, the real problem was Ursela, who had arrived to reclaim Liam.  Seeing that Liam was now in love with Diana, Ursela attempted to kill Diana.  Selene defended her sister and after Ursela was driven off, blood bound her to keep better track of her.

When the Civil War began, Selene could not resist the chance to join in on the fun.  She left Sunnyvale.  Liam and Diana, working in tandem with Artemis, started to lay the foundations for a national underground railroad, dedicated to smuggling Dhampir to Artemis' compound in the west, protected by Artemis' Wiccan True Faith and her loyal student followers.  With a purpose in her life, Diana was happier than she had been since France and her sparkling personality reemerged.  She began to take up music again, finding utter delight in it as never before.  Soon, however, the time came for her to leave California and head back east where she would start building the other end of the railroad.  She met up with Selene and together, they traveled to New York in 1869.

Diana threw herself into her work, setting up the infrastructure for the railroad and completely ignoring Selene's savage behavior.  By 1884, however, it was impossible to avoid a confrontation when Selene and Milton, who had arrived with Eve, got into a brawl.  Diana saved her sister from being staked.  She began to realize that to survive in this world, she would need further protection than her own vampiric abilities and so Diana started writing songs.  Her talent was feeble at first, but she began to draw from her own experiences and her songs grew richer and more beautiful.  To keep a low profile, she started ghouling well known composers and selling them her work in exchange for money and blood.  She made many stars out of men claiming her work as their own.  Selene came and went, but by 1901, Diana had built up a sizable fortune and agreed to give Selene a stipend, provided that she started behaving herself.

In 1951, Selene awoke from torpor with a new personality that was completely dependent on Diana.  Diana kindly helped her adjust to the new world, hoping that perhaps her experience would temper her anger and fury a bit.  Luck was not on her side.  Not only did Selene resume her old ways, but the period of readjustment was harshly interrupted when Ursela returned to kill Diana.  Selene defended her sister, but the brawl caused so much noise that it brought witnesses, among them, Milton and Eve.  Scared out of her wits, Diana's regression derangement took over and she fled the scene, leaving the entire mess behind her.

As the freedom movement of the 1960s arose, Diana fell in love with the entire hippie lifestyle.  She fashioned a new persona for herself, joining in protests and rallies against war and for racial and gender equality, all the while using the vans and buses of her friends to smuggle thin bloods.  Her music grew richer and more passionate and she penned her first musical entirely by herself, Hair, in 1967, though she gave credit to a few bohemian friends of hers, James Rado, Gerome Ragni, and Galt MacDermot.  In 1969, Diana attended the Woodstock concert and was unhappy to discover Milton tailing her.  Fortune was on her side, however, because he fed off of a flowerchild and spent the next six hours watching his hand move.

For many years, Diana carried on, on her own.  She influenced many great musical theatre stars, including Mary Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein, Bob Fosse, and Stephen Sondheim.  By the beginning of the 1970s, she had a new favorite, a promising composer named Stephen Schwartz who she cultivated very carefully.  The time of the railroad had come and Diana, Artemis, and Liam agreed that the best way to spread the news of it, while evading detection, was through pop culture, which thin bloods and Dhampir would be closest to.  In 1971, Diana returned to Selene, a successful woman with more confidence and money than ever before.  Again, she established Selene's stipend, in exchange for good behavior.  That same year, Godspell opened on Broadway, written by Schwartz and Diana.  The playbill contained a carefully worded message to all thin bloods and Dhampir that there was sanctuary in California.

Two years later, during the premiere of another Schwartz/Diana collaboration, The Magic Show, Diana was waiting outside the theatre when she heard someone call her name.  Much to her shock, she discovered Grandmother.  Despite her years of truancy from the Children of Eden, Grandmother showed no hostility toward her.  Instead, she informed her that the Children of Eden awaited her return, the return of Abel, as a holy sign.  Diana is horrified at these words, wanting no part in being Grandmother's Messiah.  Grandmother did not act against her in any way, but did warn her the Children of Eden would begin seeking her out, hoping that with her return to the fold, their goals will finally be at hand.  She also informed Diana that the Garden of Eden has been relocated from Northumberland to somewhere in America due to the fact that Selene and Milton broke into and destroyed the old Garden.

Diana's determination was ignited, given the new presence of Grandmother in her domain.  She began to devise a means of using the touring companies of Broadway shows as transport for the Dhampir and thin bloods who came to her for help.  Unfortunately, Grandmother's prophecies proved true as fringe members of the Children of Eden began seeking Diana out, believing that she could perform miracles, heal permanent wounds, or bring back the dead.  It was all a bit overwhelming for her and Diana's regression would often kick in.  It was during such periods of regression that Diana wrote a new musical based on the Old Testament called Family Tree.

Though Diana never intended for this musical to see the light of day upon returning to her senses, Stephen Schwartz happened to get a glance at it one evening.  He was so enamored with it, he became determined to see it produced.  Selene strongly objected to the plans when she found out, but by then, it was too late.  In 1986, it was produced but with a new title, after the last song of act one:  Children of Eden.  Diana decided to use this bit of pop culture to her advantage and the lyrics of the song became a sort of code for the underground railroad in the style of "follow the drinking gourd."  Dhampir and thin bloods traveling to the safety of Artemis' compound in California learned the lyrics to the song in order to find clues about the next stop on the railroad.

In 1998, a small town just outside of where Diana and Selene were living was slaughtered.  Despite the fact that the massacre matched one of Selene's old MOs, Selene insisted that she had nothing to do with it.  The sisters went to investigate.  Also investigating were Milton and Eve.  The confusion was cleared up quickly when Ursela stepped forward, taking credit for the death and destruction.  Milton, Eve, and Selene got into a brawl, playing right into Ursela's hands.  With Diana's primary defender otherwise occupied, Ursela attempted to use the opportunity to kill Diana.  Diana managed to evade Ursela, although several taunts about Joseph managed to bring out the worst of Diana's nature.  In a most uncharacteristic gesture, Diana toppled a bookcase from the library where she was hiding onto Ursela.  Although it did no permanent damage, the surprise was enough of a distraction for Diana to escape with her life.