A devout Catholic hairdresser before the Setites entered her life, Jacques Paris saw a potential in her that was not expressed in her relatively humble life. His instincts proved true, however, after he married her and introduced her to voodoo and the addictions of the blood offered by his sire. Within a decade, she had become an active mambo. Within another, she came to dominate the others, becoming the Gran Mambo, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Fusing the imagery of her former Catholic faith with her new beliefs, she proved to have more imagination, charisma, and talent than even her husband suspected.
Paris continued to live as her mate even after his Embrace, taking the name of Louis Christophe Glapion and overseeing her ascent to power, guiding her so as to use her position better for his sire. He also took over providing her blood, leading to a strong bond between them that lasted to the end of the century and her Embrace. Throughout this period, she learned the art of manipulation and seduction such that she was the match of her tutors. When she was asked to destroy her mentor John Bayou, she did so without hesitation and in a manner suitably impressive to both Setites.
The onset of the Civil War broke her power, removing much of the impetus behind voodoo's adoption by slaves and disrupting the social structure which made her various intrigues possible. Struggling to remain relevant, she attempted to pick up the pieces of what was left and search for new angles to pursue. Her scheme for Storyville was the first of many and earned her the Embrace, finally. A side effect of this, however, was that the totality of the Blood Bond was weakened and over the course of the century, her feelings for Paris would lessen ever so slightly until Vaulderie shattered it entirely.
Storyville was a short-lived success, but enough to get her started. She soon expanded her intelligence network and blackmail schemes to use vectors other than voodoo and prostitution, keeping mostly to criminal and high society sectors (particularly where they overlap, bringing her into frequent conflict with Ange Poncelet). As the wars with the Brujah raged on, her task was to maintain the Setites' influence in city politics, taking advantage of the corruption of the Long Dynasty. Her role was so vital that, during the period of Legba's absence, her sire began to worry about her ambitions. His distance from her only helped to dilute their Bond and give her the room to humor such schemes until, with Legba's return and the defection of the sect to the Sabbat, the rites removed them entirely.
For the last two decades, she has begun to plot to take control of the pack from her sire, whom she now resents with a passion bordering on hatred. She has been quietly encouraged in this by Malena, who has also swayed her to the Path of Cathari, much to the irritation of her sire and grandsire (this being part of the incentive). To this end, she has been drawing those of her pack receptive to her new path and or personally loyal to her in an attempt to build a power base with which to challenge Paris. She is hoping to wait until Legba returns again to Haiti, but any opportunity will suffice.
Marie retained her humanity until only very recently and, with it, a measure of compassion and empathy. She was known to be kind to convicted criminals and those facing execution, and her concern often helped her other schemes by securing the loyalty of the disenfranchised she was prone to manipulate. Despite the efforts of Paris to bring her over to his own ethical standpoint and what seemed like a natural inclination, she resisted until the Priscus Malena began to be more active in the city and convinced her of the truth of her own vision.
Under the careful guidance of the Priscus, her voodoo and former Catholic beliefs have been recast in Catharist terms, with the loa acting as archons, agents of the Rex Mundi, the evil god, creator of the material world who is called Damballah by the voodoos. Her new understanding teaches her that it is easy to control those whose souls are tethered to the material, be they alive or dead, and that her place is as one of the blessed of Damballah, set to rule the earth. These beliefs set well with the snake-worshippers and they have been accepting this interpretation, under Marie's guidance.
This view of her place in the grand scheme has allowed her to keep her distance from the corruption she is sowing, allowing her to escape the fate of her former competition, Ange. If anything, her instruction by Malena has made her more effective, even if her sire and grandsire see her new perspective as a sort of weakness. She has lost what humanity she still had, though, now seeing people as little more than sad puppets led by carnal desires and material lust.
Vaulderie and ambition have spoiled the bond she once shared with her sire and turned it into a deep hatred that she has been very careful about hiding, though she suspects that he senses it (or is already so paranoid that he doesn't need to). Her feelings towards his sire are a bit more fearful. She would prefer to avoid a conflict with him because she is sure she'd lose, just due to the power of his elder blood. She's trying to find a means to undermine him through deceptive means, using his own paranoia to drive him back to Haiti.
Her reverence is reserved for Malena, her saint and mentor. The teachings of the Albigensian have served to put her two centuries of experience into a perspective that makes sense to her basically Catholic mindset and allowed her to break, finally, from her clan mates. She has a somewhat less impressive opinion of the other Lasombra, who are too close to her sire in motive to appeal to her.
Marie's influence is vested in two areas. First, there are her voodoo ties, which she lovingly maintains over the years despite protestations by some of the younger Serpents that it is well past its time. The reason for this is that the underground voodoo cults she keeps serve as herd and breeding ground for magically adept ghouls. They are her hidden power base and she hopes to leverage them in her bid for power. In the meantime, she tries to use them as Legba did with Papa Doc, but hasn't had nearly the same success.
On the other hand, the power she is able to weild through her control over prostitution in the city is considerable. Her girls, many of them ghouled, feed her the information they gather from their clients, which she, in turn, uses to her best advantage. The blackmail scheme she runs supplements the areas the other Serpents deal in, keeping the law from interfering too much in their operations. The recent investigations by the FBI and attempts to clean up the police and local government have been hurting things somewhat, but because of the subtlty of her network, many of her contacts have escaped detection.