Crystal Rose Martin was born in Oakland, CA. She was the youngest of 3 children. Her two older brothers died in Vietnam, but the bodies were never found. She was in her first year at UC Berkeley when she heard the news. Crystal started getting into the drug and war protest scene because of this, but eventually ran away from it all. She met and eloped with James Marcus Timmons. Her parents never approved of their marriage because of him being bi-racial. Crystal and Jim have 6 kids - (1) (m: Jason, born '65) is a Major and a cryptographer for military intelligence, (1) (m: born '66) is an instructor at VMI, (1) (f: born '69) is an aide to Jesse Helms, (1) (f: Lisa Marie, born '70) plays classical harp, (2, fraternal twins) (m: Raney, f : Wyndi, born '76) both work for Luna Industries. Crystal's parents loved the first 4 kids because they looked white, but disassociated themselves from the twins. Raney has a light complexion, and Wyndi has a dark complexion like their father's.After Crystal and Jim eloped, they did some traveling. During that traveling, she found out that her brothers were not dead, they were 'undead'. Growing up she had wondered why being around certain people gave her a headache. When she saw and met with her brothers after they were supposed to be dead, she got the same type of headache and came to realize that it was telling her that the person was a vampire. Shortly thereafter The Arcanum contacted her. She did not know that Jim had been a member of the Arcanum when they met or that he had left it shortly before they got married. Crystal had always been interested in the supernatural while growing up. Because of that, and her brothers, when the Arcanum asked her to join, she did. She has since learned how to use her headache like a radar and find out who, in a crowded room, is a "Kindred". She also learned that the older a Kindred was, the stronger the headache was. The twins have inherited similar abilities. It was Crystal's friendships within San Francisco and the Arcanum that helped get the twins their jobs at Luna as well as their own intelligence. All 6 of Crystal and Jim's children graduated at the top of their classes. Four of them went to college and 2 of them went straight into the military. While the twins were still very young, Crystal went back to college and got her degrees in Business and Psychology (paid for by the Arcanum).
Crystal's father, Jason Martin, was very pro-military and a WWII veteran. While growing up, Crystal and Jim's first 4 children spent a lot of time at their grandparents while their parents were traveling for the Arcanum. Both of the grandparents are now deceased. Crystal's inheritance from them put her well off financially. A few years back, the son of an old friend of theirs asked for a loan to start a software company. Now Crystal and Jim own over 5000 shares of stock in Microsoft. Since they could, financially, do what they wanted, they moved to a co-op in Florida and opened an organic health food store a few years ago. They sometimes go traveling to acquire rare or unusual herbs and plants for the store or for special customers. Crystal is currently on 'inactive' status in the Arcanum.