Pronunciation: Me-hi-eel [Mik-hail if you prefer] Jehr-ee-o-vich Moy-say. Featured in "Nights of White", "Small Prices to Pay", "A Journey to the Past".A father to Dimitri. Playfully called Mikky at times, is any girl's perfect guy: an artist, handsome, teasing, charming, an earthy sort of bohemianism...and a Russian Jew in a very Orthodox Society
Mikhail was born in 1878 in Moscow, the son of Russian-Jewish parents. He and his brother were both close in age and originally named Chai Nataniel Moisse and Hoshama Mikhail Moisse (as following the Ashkenazim Jewish tradition of having a private family Jewish name and a Russian middle name), but were forced to drop their Jewish names at the ages of 3 and 1 by Gerii and adopt the Russian patronymic "Geriiovich". His first language was Yiddish, but by the age of eight he'd been forced to switch completely to Russian. He inherited his mother's teasing disposition and flair for art; his brother, Nataniel, took after his much more prudish and mathmatical father. Subject to prejuidices during his childhood that bordered to outright cruelty, he lost all disillusions with life by his teen years despite being raised in a somewhat wealthy enviorenment. His father, determined to be a sucessful business man despite his ethnic background, planned to covert the family seamlessly to Russian Orthodoxy and change their last names -- something which his wife Carmania firmly objected too. Gerii slowly became obsessed with the thought of becoming Orthodox and the business oppertunities it provided, finding solice in alcholol and finally in the thoughts of divorce. When Carmania refused on grounds of religion and propriety, he became violent and eventually lost his life, Mikhail taking the blame to save the real (and quite justified) culprit -- his mother.
He traveled through several European Countries, including England, Sweden, France, Germany, and Italy, romancing and drawing his way from job to job, town to town, life to life. He finally returned to Russia after hearing of his brother Nataniel's soon to be ousting into Siberia for Radical Political Activities in hopes of rescuing his Mother from being forced to go into the harsh Russian wilderness as well. Along the way he met Lara Vasilovich, and his saga begins in "Nights of White".
The inspiration for Mikhail came from many sources, but mostly he presented himself to me almost completely fully formed. He has dark, intense eyes, dark brown hair, and a firm, strong body. He's definitely one of those people that was born with the right talents, the right place, the right looks, but the wrong time.
One of the original Inspirations for Mikhail's Looks:
Also see: Lara Marianna Vasilovich
