Her first immortal memory is of waking up, hungry and groggy.  She was brought goblets of dark, red liquid and told to drink until her thirst was sated.  After that, she was introduced to a regal man who called himself Zeus.  Zeus told her that she was fortunate, that she had been chosen.  She was to play the part of the Trojan princess, Polyxena, in a grand restaging of the Trojan War.  She was also told that she was a vampire, a creature known as a Julii, and that she would have to feed off of human blood for the rest of her life.

Needless to say, Zoey was frightened and confused.  She could not remember who she really was and, thus, went by the name of Polyxena.  Over the next five years, however, she suffered a torment far worse than amnesia as she was subjected, on a nightly basis, to Zeus’ reenactments of the Trojan War.  At the conclusion of every performance, Zoey’s throat was cut on the stage, recreating the sacrifice of Polyxena.  The trauma of this continual torture built up, although it would be another five years before it reached a breaking point.  Over the course of her time in the circus, Zoey and her fellow prisoners learned more about the reasons of their captivity:

Around 500 CE, the Roman Empire was in shambles.  Both the mortal and vampiric societies were crumbling.  Depressed by the situation, five vampires decided that the world was falling apart because there were no heroes anymore.  To solve this problem, and hopefully inspire both mortals and Kindred to get up off their asses and fix things, they each took on the persona of one of the Greek gods; Zeus the Julii, Aphrodite the Daeva, Poseidon the Nosferatu, Athena the Mekhet, and Ares the Gangrel.

After some intense study of the works of Homer and the Greek tragedians, each of them went out into the wide world with a list of characters they were assigned.  Their purpose was to find mortals who, in some way, matched the descriptions of these characters and embrace them.  Zoey and her companions were the few chosen to recreate the Trojan War over and over again, to audiences of mortals and immortals alike, every single night.

Captivity, of course, did not sit well with the young vampires.  For five years, talks of rebellion bubbled and brewed until one not-so-special night, the young Kindred joined together to fight against their captivity.  Their fight was sparked by the arrival of a group of Kindred elders, who had finally caught wind of what was going on and wished to quash the Masquerade breach.  It was during the fray that Zoey’s personality finally splintered, after five years of torture.  Her normally mild and gentle mannerisms vanished, replaced by another part of her that she had never used before.  She fought against the older vampires and managed to escape, aware that many of the prisoners, and that at least four of the “gods,” were dead.

Free at last, Zoey took a new name for herself:  Melina, Egyptian for “honey.”  Zoey was completely baffled by the emergence of her other personality, who called herself Sheriti, the Egyptian word for “little girl.”  She could remember everything that Sheriti did, but was at a loss for how to control this warrior figure.  Finally, Zoey accepted Sheriti as her protector and used the name Sheriti as a first clue into finding her identity.

She traveled to Egypt and quickly found her way to Alexandria, stumbling upon the marketplace of her only mortal memory.  Much to her dismay, no further memories returned to her and it seemed that no one recognized her as someone who had disappeared.  What she did find was a world in turmoil, the new Christian religion fighting against the last vestiges of the old religion.  In truth, there were scarcely any of the old ways left, but Zoey fled the city center, hoping to find a place completely at peace.  She befriended a small group of peasants living outside of Alexandria who took her in as their own.  As she had no memory of her own family, Zoey was eager to create the caring and nurturing of a family environment.  She allowed the peasants to treat her as their child and, in exchange, she was able to feed off of them and stay alive under their protection during the day.

This arrangement worked well for Zoey.  It allowed her the chance to both hone her abilities and to reflect on the years of her captivity.  Additionally, it afforded Zoey the extended childhood she could not remember.  For many generations, she allowed herself to remain the eternal child.  Sheriti never had to resurface and Zoey was almost convinced that she no longer had need for her protector.

In 617, Zoey had befriended a teenage peasant girl named Nehebka.  The two of them were traditional best friends in every sense of the word and, as such, did everything together.  When Nehebka, who was very pretty, caught the eye of a local merchant named Abraham, it was a grand opportunity for her to marry above her station and have a better life.  She went to the city to live in the household of her new husband and Zoey went with her as a serving girl, in order to stay close.  For a year or so, there was complete tranquility.  It was, of course, the calm before the storm.

By 618, it was clear that the Persian Empire had intentions to conquer Egypt.  A very pregnant Nehebka, plagued by troublesome dreams, feared for the life of her child and turned to Zoey.  With very good intentions, Zoey turned to Cruac magic, hoping to find a ritual of some kind.  Unfortunately, due to a severe lack of contact with the rest of the vampiric population, Zoey had no idea what she was doing.  In attempting to cast a spell called Fire the Cauldron, Zoey accidentally caused Nehebka to miscarry.  She very nearly died, but Abraham, who loved his wife, begged Zoey to turn her, so she would survive.  Reluctantly, Zoey agreed and this time managed to get it right, Embracing Nehebka and Abraham so that they could be together forever.

The timing of this Embrace was fortuitous.  In 619, Alexandria was conquered by the Persians.  Abraham and Nehebka managed to escape the onslaught, but Zoey’s other personality, Sheriti, resurfaced when a Persian general reached for her neck.  Sheriti slaughtered a good many Persian soldiers before she was eventually overcome.  Zoey and hundreds of other Egyptians were taken as slaves by the conquering army.  They were brought back to the court of Khosrau II where Zoey and the other young girls were put into a shabestan with the king’s more than three thousand concubines. 

Despite being a prisoner, Zoey made a new family for herself among the concubines of the harem.  She decided she was finally ready to leave her childhood behind her and explore what it meant to be an adolescent girl.  This decision was heavily influenced by the handsome features of Barbad, Khosrau’s favorite court musician.  Zoey found him irresistibly handsome and he, in turn, was attracted to her.  Naturally, this meant that every time they encountered one another, they exchanged barbs and insults and the sexual tension between them grew and grew, finally culminating in a kiss.

The kiss led to other things, all of them considered treason in light of the fact that Zoey was Khosrau’s concubine.  The relationship itself was incredibly intimate.  Zoey shared all of her sordid past with Barbad, who did likewise.  They began to refer to each other by terms of endearment, in public.  Their displays of affection were incredibly brazen.  Soon, Zoey and Barbad were actually sharing a bed for entire nights, not just brief encounters.  Inevitably, the lovers were eventually caught, around 625.  More amused by the situation than a sane man might have been, Khosrau sentenced the two of them to death in “the Egyptian fashion.”  They were placed in a sealed tomb and buried alive.

Fearful that she would frenzy from hunger and eventually destroy Barbad, Zoey decided to go into torpor.  She intended to simply fake her own death to spare Barbad the agony of becoming her last meal.  Ever the romantic, Barbad swore to her that they would be reunited in a new life.  When asked how they would recognize one another, Barbad replied that he would always recognize “Zoey,” the Greek word for “life.”  With that tender sentiment, Zoey slipped into torpor and spent the next several hundred years dreaming of her single, mortal memory, over and over and over again.

Waking up from torpor was far more chaotic than Zoey anticipated.  For nights at a time, all she could perceive were colors and sounds and smells that made no sense.  With time, her senses began to return, however, and she found herself in the care of Abraham and Nehebka, her loyal friends who dedicated years of their time to finding her again.  They explained, in great detail, of their journey to recover Zoey, who they always knew was still alive.  When she asked about Barbad’s fate, they were puzzled, however, as hers was the only body found in the tomb.  As a second bombshell, they revealed that the year was now 1286 and they were living in Greece.

It took many years for Zoey to readjust.  She assumed the name “Zoey,” which would stay with her for the rest of her life.  Greece itself was in disarray, divided between the former Greek Byzantine Comnenos dynasty members and Palaiologos dynasty.  Abraham and Nehebka, however, had started a new business together.  In honor of the great favor bestowed upon them by Zoey, they now traveled the Mediterranean, Embracing any they encountered who experienced True Love, so that soul mates could be together forever.  Zoey found this admirable and decided she was ready to explore the idea of love and marriage.  She traveled with Abraham and Nehebka, as their “childe.”

For the first time, Zoey was exposed to vampiric politics.  She didn’t particularly care for it, though she developed an interest in the workings of the Circle of the Crone, joining their ranks in 1299.  She was mentored by an ambitious, English piper named Alan Scatheloke who journeyed east for the Crusades where he was Embraced by a Daeva and remained.  The two of them started up a romantic relationship.  Unlike with Barbad, their passion was more subdued.  Zoey soon came to view it as a lesson in married love more than anything else.  She found herself oddly jealous of the couples Embraced by Abraham and Nehebka, who still experienced passion.  Eventually, she realized that Alan simply was not her True Love and so, when Abraham and Nehebka decided to depart for Italy in 1350, Zoey joined them without regret.

Abraham and Nehebka continued their quest, Embracing those who shared True Love.  Zoey helped them along as much as she could until one evening in 1384.  At the time, Abraham and Nehebka were settled in the Republic of Genoa where Nehebka was serving as Seneschal.  The island of Lesbos had recently been granted to Genoa and Zoey decided to visit it.  Given the disappointment she had experienced while examining married life, Zoey had done a bit of a backslide into her adolescence and was starting to wonder about her own identity again.  She thought, perhaps, a trip to Lesbos might stir some memories.  Instead, it brought something else back from the past to haunt her.

Introducing herself to the Prince of Lesbos, Zoey was shocked to realize that one of her primogen was actually Zeus, going by an alias.  Zoey was horrified.  Zeus did, in fact, recognize her, although he said nothing in public.  In private, he met with her and, on the surface, seemed genuinely interested in what she had been doing with herself.  Zoey answered few questions, instead asking a variety of her own, mostly about who she was and where she came from.  Zeus finally promised her answers, promised to bring her to the very street in Alexandria where he first spotted her.  When Zoey believed him, and met him at the docks one evening a few weeks later, her trust was betrayed.  Zeus attacked her, but made the mistake of going straight for her throat.

Instantly, Sheriti took over, fighting back with such vigor that Zeus seemed to lose heart.  He retreated quickly and Sheriti decided that the safest place for Zoey would be elsewhere.  She boarded the boat and headed back to Alexandria.  The city was not the one she remembered.  Sad and depressed and now sentimental for her childhood, Zoey experienced another backslide, into her youth.  Over the next five years, she retraced the steps of her life, from the peasant village outside of Alexandria all the way back to the remains of the Persian tomb where Abraham and Nehebka found her.  There, she discovered several members of the Circle of the Crone performing a ritual, calling it a sacred spot.

Zoey integrated into their circle, once again playing the role of the child, to be protected by the adults.  With time, in a place saturated with memories, Zoey was able to recover from her heartache.  She stayed among the Kindred of the Byzantine and soon caught the attention of their Prince, a Gangrel warrior-king called Hamza.  It was during a fight against some rebel Kindred, in 1402.  Sheriti took over and performed magnificently in battle.  Hamza was seized by desire for her and immediately took her as his consort.  He was disappointed to learn, however, that Zoey herself was more diplomatic, preferring to talk rather than charge into battle.  Since Sheriti was more his style, Hamza learned the secret to forcing Sheriti to manifest herself.  He fashioned a collar of blades and had it put on Zoey, to keep Sheriti dominant at all times.

For awhile, the arrangement worked well.  Hamza and Sheriti were a fierce pair, respected and worshipped by all the vampires in the Byzantine Empire.  Stories of their love traveled far, so far that they eventually reached Abraham and Nehebka.  Eager to learn about this legendary pair of lovers, Abraham and Nehebka traveled to the Empire and were shocked to see their beloved Zoey on the arm of Hamza.  Nehebka was disgusted at this perversion of True Love, which she held to be sacred.  She conspired with some of Hamza’s enemies and, in 1492, arranged for Zoey to be released from the collar.  Sheriti yielded control back to Zoey.  Zoey, Abraham, and Nehebka attempted to flee in the night, but they were spotted and Hamza’s men came charging.  Although they got away, Hamza swore he would have his revenge.

Fearful, Zoey parted with Abraham and Nehebka, determined to run to a place so far away that no one from her past would ever go except for Barbad, since he promised he would find her again.  For years, she wandered blindly to the east, passing through increasingly strange worlds.  Eventually, she arrived in a kingdom she had never heard of before:  Japan.  For a few years, Zoey kept to herself, but contact with the Kindred world was inevitable, as was her constant, nagging desire to find family.  In 1543, Zoey met two of the Kindred who had been sired into the reenactment of the Trojan War with her, Mane who played the role of Odysseus, and Caligula who played Achilles.

The three of them took comfort in each other and all had experienced some true horrors.  Together, the three of them came into possession of the Imperial Regalia of Japan; Caligula possessing a sword of valor, Zoey possessing a mirror of wisdom, and Mane possessing a jewel of benevolence.  The people of Japan revered and feared the artifacts and when they saw the three of them together, it paved the way for the trio to establish a kingdom of their own.  They were worshipped as demi-gods, while a mortal emperor, Oda Nobunaga, was said to have all the real power.  The three vampires, however, collaboratively controlled the emperor, Mane and Caligula as his trusted advisors, Zoey as his princess.

Zoey had no real love for Oda Nobunaga, nor he for her.  He treated her with fatherly affection and Zoey was content with that.  She enjoyed ruling Japan, however, using opportunities to show the compassion that had never been shown to her by her previous masters.  She was often the voice of reason, balancing out the machinations of Mane and Caligula.  Over the course of the next 300 years, things went well.

It was in 1853 that the first signs of trouble emerged.  Japan was just beginning to open up to the wider world and with that, came new visitors from far away places.  The Kindred population was beginning to grow and Zoey, Mane, and Caligula were working hard to control it.  Unfortunately, a circumstance beyond their control took them completely by surprise.  Zeus arrived in their court one day.  Fear led to kneejerk reactions on both sides.  A fight broke out and Zoey, Mane, and Caligula fled.  In the battle, Caligula lost the sword of valor.  The trio agreed to leave Japan, but pledged to meet up every fifty years at the Coliseum.  They would recognize one another from the Japanese characters tattooed on their hands.

Zoey boarded the first ship she could find, which took her to England.  This was a whole new world for her, but help was on hand, as her old companion, Alan Scatheloke, was the Prince of London.  Although initially bitter over Zoey abandoning him all those years ago, eventually, Alan warmed up to her again and appointed her as primogen by the end of 1854.  She elected not to rule over her own covenant, instead leaving that honor to someone with greater experience in Cruac than she.  Instead, Zoey served as a spokesperson for their desires.  Additionally, she served as a mediator between the other primogen on the council.  All in all, she was a voice of reason.

Little of note took place during her time in England, other than when Zoey heard the music of Verdi’s Aida for the first time.  She fell in love with the opera instantly, haunted by its ending, so similar to her fate with Barbad, and took the surname of “Amneris” in 1873.  In 1903, Zoey left England for Italy, where she met with Mane and Caligula.  While in Rome, she received word that Alan had left England to deal with some sort of family business elsewhere in the world.  She therefore elected to remain in Italy, settling around the same village where she and Abraham and Nehebka had lived, in Genoa.  She spent the next hundred years or so honing her abilities, as ever, creating a makeshift family for herself among the Circle of the Crone. 

On the eve of the new millennium, something strange happened.  Zoey received a message:  “Hurry to America, to the western coast.  I am waiting for you, my love.”  Bored with Genoa and insatiably curious, Zoey decided to make her way to the States, even though she could not identify the author of the letter.  She arrived in Washington State in 2001.  Much to her surprise, the Prince of Seattle was none other than her beloved Nehebka.  On the surface, she was much the same as any other Prince, but Zoey was immediately taken into her confidence and shown a beautiful compound, hidden in the forest, where Nehebka and Abraham’s followers, all vampires sharing True Love, had settled.

Nehebka was troubled by terrible dreams, much the way she had been right before Alexandria was conquered by the Persians.  She feared for the future of the human race and felt that the only way it would survive was if men could be as powerful as Kindred.  To that end, she and Abraham implored Zoey to use her Cruac magic to help the women of the compound conceive dhampir children, who would be strong enough to begin a new age of man.  In Zoey’s mind, nothing was more important than family and cooperation and she viewed this as an opportunity to strengthen the bonds of Nehebka and Abraham’s followers.

Over the next eleven years, Zoey worked tirelessly on behalf of Nehebka, as her primogen in public and as her sorceress in private.  She only paused briefly, in 2003, to visit the Coliseum, where she soon received a second letter from the same mysterious author, urging her to return west.  Nehebka’s premonitions grew steadily worse and worse and it finally appeared, in 2012, that they were justified.  The world exploded around them and Nehebka, Abraham, and Zoey watched helplessly as everything they knew melted like wax.  Their Kindred followers, and their dhampir children, survived for the most part, but they were left in a desolate, nomadic state.

Desperately, they attempted to forge a life, but things were looking grim.  Finally, rumors reached them of a pocket of civilization.  Zoey volunteered to go forward and find out if the mythical “Greenhaven” was a real place.  Six of the oldest dhampir children, including Nehebka’s daughter Dove, agreed to go with her, in the hopes that at least some would return.  Although they weren’t entirely sure of it, it was likely 2016 when the group finally made it to Greenhaven.  The oldest dhampir child left to find the others, while Zoey and the remaining five stayed behind.