Julia was a secretive, quiet woman who felt all her life that something was missing until she heard of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. At its height in England, she was forced to look hard to find adherents in the States, but find them she did. They took her in and realized her potential very quickly, informing their sponser, Martin LaSalle, newly arrived from New York and looking to found a chantry. For this endeavor, he needed apprentices and Julia was the best candidate he could find. So, one evening they slipped laudanum into her drink and took her to his plantation.
There, over the course of a week, he wooed her with promises of power and hitherto unknown secrets. He played upon both her repressed sexuality and her repressed intellect until she finally willingly submitted to the Embrace. He found her to be a voracious student who devoured whatever he offered her, driven both by her lack of access to such material prior and the need to justify to herself the terrible choice she'd made. Soon afterwards, Martin received the increase in rank he needed and Dark Water Chantry was born.
Julia was more a partner than a student by the time Martin Embraced other apprentices. More interested in magical study than she, Julia was left to teach the students and direct the day to day affairs of the chantry while Martin pursued his other ambitions. In time, however, he began to realize that he would be unable to gain more status within the clan without at least making a show of continuing his occult studies and he began to take more and more interest in chantry affairs. This began to chafe Julia, who was put off by his half-hearted approach and irritated at his ever more frequent interference.
The situation finally came to a head with the Embrace of the twins. Their status as favored apprentices as well as their clearly twisted personalities were the impetus Julia needed to began looking to leave. In preparation she asked for and received permission to take an apprentice of her own, choosing a solitary young man named James Koch. After a few years of establishing her competancy as a teacher formally, she asked permission to try and retake the city of Shreveport, which had been depleted of Camarilla forces for half a century and was considered key to isolating Dallas so that the Camarilla might finally conquer the last Sabbat stronghold in Texas.
While Martin procrastinated for a time, eventually he was forced to concede her request and was able to rationalize the decision by imagining that any success she might have would reflect well upon him. Julia, on the other hand, found herself stepping into a situation rather different from what she imagined. The mostly pacifist Sabbat pack was more subtle than she had been led to believe and the direct fight which she had hoped for, and which her magic would give her a distinct advantage at, was not an option. As she struggled to adapt to the odd form of psychological warfare Black employed, her childe was lulled out from under her. She watched as her dreams of establishing her own chantry crumbled as Kyle Anderson was sent to take command of the situation and she was pushed aside, disgraced in sect and clan by the defection of her childe.
Now, Julia finds herself again subordinated to the will of a man whom she considers her intellectual inferior and this fact has stoked a great hatred in her. She has vowed to destroy her childe, to repair the damage he has done to her, and to see the city taken, but by her hand, not Anderson's. To that end, she continually schemes against him in the most subtle way she can manage, so as not to further sully her image in the eyes of the Camarilla of Baton Rouge and her clan.
Julia has come far from the lonely, dispassionate dreamer she was as a young woman, blossoming into a self-confident (almost arrogant) and driven intellectual. She has not ceased her quest for self-improvement since she was Embraced, seeing her progress as justification for the path she's chosen, and the results have been remarkable. Her magical talent and dedication to the craft would have seen her go far, probably further than her sire, if not for her childe. Now, under the subtle guidance of Henry Black, her passion and frustration are being fanned into a dangerous obsession which could very well consume her.
Julia hates Kyle Anderson, her childe, and all of the Sabbat of Shreveport, which makes her a very lonely person. But she is used to being alone and her purpose sustains her through the long, dark nights. When she does need comfort, she enjoys the company of her Herd, a small group of mortal occultists and sycophants who pander to her ego and provide her some small bit of enjoyment with their lifeblood. Still, they remind her that her chances of establishing her own chantry have been shattered and even her lesser dream of holding the city as her own are gone. This inability to achieve what even her disreputable sire was able to is destroying her.
While she is not very well acquainted with the kindred of Baton Rouge, she does know them all. She has a small respect for Orlando and his dedication, though she thinks it is unlikely that he will see his dreams realized (a fact which actually makes her feel a close kinship to him, of late). She finds the presence of Esteve discomforting, possibly just because of the scrutiny the Sheriff represents. She has had several interesting conversations with Ben Chung, though she finds his appearance, when not concealed, to be very disconcerting.
Horace Macy has taken to harrassing her about magic such that she tends to avoid him now, whenever possible. She doesn't really care for either of the female vampires of the city, either, though not for such well-established reasons. She finds Annalisa to be shallow and the woman's popularity touchs on deep-seated jealousy that Julia isn't willing to acknowledge and something about Sheila reminds her too much of herself to be comfortable.
She doesn't dislike her sire, but she doesn't really like him either. The fact of the matter is, she wouldn't really have anything to do with him if it weren't for clan duties and the lingering blood bond. She quite firmly dislikes all of his current apprentices, though. The twins more than Delilah, whom she feels she could like if she'd just get over the jealousy and stop acting like a child.
Julia has acquired a modest amount of influence in Shreveport over the last thirty years, though it doesn't extend far beyond and isn't good for more than small favors. She has found, to her annoyance, that she has no natural knack for intrigue or politics, and so has been trying to compensate with magic wherever possible. Currently, she is attempting to establish a spy network of spirits to provide her with intelligence on the other vampires' activities, but has only been having moderate success.