MENU

character

LINKS
White Wolf Games
Steve Jackson Games

Back <-

"Do you know what nemesis means?
A righteous infliction of retribution
manifested by an appropriate agent."
Brick Top, "Snatch"

Alejandro Medina Vasquez

Clan: Lasombra, 7th generation
Nature: Judge - Demeanor: Architect

-ATTRIBUTES-

-ABILITIES-

-ADVANTAGES-

-BACKGROUND-

Alejandro Medina Vasquez was born on April 29, 1919 to a poor family of Mexican immigrants in the community of Pico Rivera of the eastern part of Los Angeles. His parents, barely able to speak English, were forced to work at very menial jobs for very little pay. His many siblings, most notably his brothers, found themselves among the Latino street crowd which would later become known as the "Zoot Suits". Alejandro found himself in a life of crime among the Latino scene. As a youth, he performed small odd jobs for his older peers. Upon graduating high school, he changed his ways, however, due to the pressure put on him by his father, and became a devout Catholic. He found himself getting a scholarship to the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.

During his stay at UCLA, Alejandro was able to make several friends, many of which were also originally from Mexico. Several of these friends were very distrustful of the U.S. Government, and some of them had even adopted philosophies which were almost anarchistic in attitude. Alejandro found himself enjoying himself in the company of these friends more and more as time went on, and he eventually found himself kicked out of school for assault on a history professor. It was after this that he gained the attention of the Glorious Sabbat.

After his expulsion, he managed to find himself among various self-proclaimed radicals and revoltionaries. He eventually found himself a supporter and member of the Communist party, and managed to get himself severly beaten by the L.A. police one night after a small demonstration at UCLA. This humiliating experience disillusioned him, and he decided to try his hand at writing. He became very much the "bon vivant", and also found himself an alcoholic and heroine addict. It was half a year after his expulsion from UCLA that he met the person who would change his life forever.

Alejandro met Maria Rodriguez in May the 25th of 1939 at a bar near the university where he had been planning to drink himself into a stupor and commit suicide. She introduced herself to him, and her beauty and charm were enough to perk Alejandro’s interest. They talked for the entire night. Somehow, Maria knew of Alejandro’s past at the university, and she seemed to be fascinated by his personality and his past. Maria was able to pierce through Alejandro’s depression, and they became fast friends over the course of a week. Over the span of a week, Alejandro also found himself intensely sexually attracted to Maria, and after he thought he was about to successfully bed her, she brutally beat him in his apartment and took him to a nearby cemetary where he was inducted into the Glorious Sabbat.

As a member of The Riders on the Storm, Alejandro became a devout Catharist. Maria’s sire, Ramirez De Leon, the priest and leader of the pack, was also a Catharist, as were the majority of the pack members. Ramirez had been planning on infiltrating L.A.’s Spanish community, and Maria had selected Alejandro to be a member of the pack because of his influence in various aspects of the Spanish underworld community. The pack remained in the city, and they assisted in the anarch revolt in 1944 and 1945, successfully posing as a group of anarchs on the run from the Mexican Sabbat. They managed to establish a presence in Los Angeles, but they left soon after doing so and enjoyed a nomadic existance for the next two decades, making names for themselves in many cities, most notably L.A., Miami, New York City, and Mexico City.

The pack found itself coming back to Los Angeles in 1962. A Holy Crusade had been called against Los Angeles, and the Riders on the Storm were the only pack that had managed to infiltrate the anarchs. The anarchs had managed to bring down one of the strongest cities of the Camarilla, so it would obviously be child’s play to bring in the War Parties and lead the City of Angels to the ways of the Glorious Sabbat.

At first, it looked like the Sabbat would succede. Gang wars and rivalries ravaged the anarchs of Los Angeles, and the "Revolutionary Council" seemed unable to stop them. Finally, in 1965, the Sabbat decided that waiting would no longer serve a purpose. Alejandro and his packmates were able to use their guise as "fellow anarchs" to tell that there was no internal structure in place to defend itself, and the gangs hated each other too much to combine forces to resist a takeover. Thus, the War Parties were readied, and Ramirez prepared to lead his forces to the victory in which he would be declared Archbishop of Los Angeles.

They city was deeply divided among racial and socio-ecomnomic lines. As in many cities, a vast number of the minorities, especially African-Americans, had been forced into a relatively small area by the overt racism of housing restrictions and the covert racism of economic deprivation. The L.A. police singled out the residents of these areas for exceptional brutality, and tensions were running extremely high. It took very little Sabbat effort to fan the flames to the point of explosion.

And explode it did. On the night of August 11, 1965, a particularly hot night in a particularly hot summer, the California Highway Patrol stopped two men just outside Watts. A small crowd gathered, a fight broke out. The CHP arrested the two men and a few others. That was all the Sabbat needed. Thus, the famous "Watts Riots" ensued. Chaos ensued, and Ramirez led the Sabbat as they ambushed the anarchs of the city. The first few nights went just as planned, and Alejandro prepared to take his place alongside Maria as the Paladins of Ramirez, the newly-crowned Archbishop of Los Angeles.

The anarchs had other ideas, however, and they managed to rally together and they eventually drove the Sabbat out of the city nights later. The anarchs fought more bravely than they did during the revolt of 1945. Ramirez was killed, and the Riders were forced to flee along with the rest of the Sabbat. Maria regretfully took her sire’s place as Priest and leader of the pack. Thus, the Riders became nomadic once again.

The Riders travelled across the continent, trying to forget the failure of L.A. These times were the wildest for Alejandro, as he delved deeply into the ways of Cathari. The Riders seemed to have no real purpose during the next decade or so, simply wandering and killing as they pleased.

In 1976, Maria began doubting her beliefs as a Catharist and her abilities as a Priest. She took her leave from the pack, thus Alejandro became Priest and leader. Maria journeyed to Montreal, where, in 1985, she eventually opened Sarnath, the Church of Starry Wisdom. She also abandoned the ways of Cathar and became a devout Noddist and managed to build a rather impressive occult library.

Alejandro continued to keep in touch with Maria over the next few years, and the Riders eventually settled in Miami where they battled the Camarilla, Anarchs, and Setites. It was in Miami that Alejandro gained the utter enmity of both the Brujah iconoclasts and the Setites. Alejandro started to examine his personal Catharist ways and noticed the entropical effects it had on his unlife. Maria would occasionally visit the pack, and thus Alejandro was introduced to the ways of the Noddists. In 1981, he took leave from the pack, and journeyed back to Los Angeles on a "spiritual quest" as he embraced the Path of Caine. There, he assisted the Sabbat in their attempt to place agents in the city again. He made the acquaintance of Carolina Valez and the Lost Angels. In 1983, he met the Sabbat neonate Gharston Roland, and the two became close friends. Alejandro eventually found himself being called back to Miami to lead his pack once again in 1985.

The Riders remained in Miami until July 3, 1992. The first major reason for the Rider’s relocation to Montreal was Alejandro’s learning of Maria’s suicide. A letter from Maria was delivered to him by a personal servant of Maria’s, and writing the letter was one of the last things she did before she arranged for her own final death. She had been residing in Montreal for several years as something of a reclusive scholar, and began investigating infernal activities with the assistance of Santiago DeSoto. She eventually was one of the first Sabbat to link Mount Royal to an infernalist presence in Montreal. She gathered the courage to journey to "the Mountain" alone, and actually survived the experience. She returned, wrote the letter to Alejandro, sired a childe, and killed herself, forcing the childe to diablerize her. This "childe" has never been seen since. Not long after Maria died, the Setites managed to gain an extreme amount of influence in Miami, and the Sabbat took great alarm at such a turn of events. When several prominent Setite elders who were previously uninvolved in the struggle arrived in the city, the Regent and her Prisci decided to have all non-Black Hand packs withdraw from Miami. When the Riders learned of the decision to have a limited withdrawal from the city, they agreed to move on. Alejandro suggested Montreal.

Alejendro and the Riders arrived in Montreal on the July 4th. They quickly became involved in the Sabbat politics of the city, fighting against both the minions of "Sangris" and the Camarilla. He quickly became a Bishop of the city after the apparent death of The Rose, priestess of the Widows. He furthered his studies of Noddist lore during this time, but deep down, his beast grew stronger. On August 1, 1994, Alejandro and the Riders attacked the Endron Oil complex which was serving as the headquarters for the Giovanni of the city. Alejandro contracted some sort of demonic disease during the fight, a disease which emulated various mortal diseases, primarily HIV, syphyllis, and cholera.

Despite the work of both Alejandro and Shandara, Alejandro could not find any sort of cure for his ailment, and he had managed to deduce that if he couldn't find a cure, he could die within the next few years. Becoming ever more sickly, Alejandro became very reclusive and handed leadership of the Riders on the Storm to Shandara. He finally journeyed to Mexico City on August 19. There he met with several Noddist allies, most notably Miguel Alvarez, another Lasombra Noddist. Together, they studied for several days, coming to no conclusion other than the fact that there is no mundane cure for his situation. Thus, Alejandro turned to the Black Hand.

Alejandro had never trusted the Black Hand. His experiences with their ultra-conservative ways during his early unlife had led him to believe that the Black Hand could NOT be trusted. However, Alejandro had found himself becoming more conservative during the past twenty years, and he had noone else to turn to. He met an Assamite Antitribu named Achmed al-Azan who was a member of the Black Hand. Achmed spent the next few nights humiliating Alejandro both physically and mentally, forcing himself to admit his weaknesses. Alejandro spent those nights as a wretched slave. Finally, Alejandro broke down and admitted his weakness. Thus, Achmed converted Alejandro to the ways of Power and Inner Voice.

Alejandro made excellent progress among the Black Hand. He journeyed with Achmed to Berlin, where Alejandro studied under him, increasing his magical abilities. Finally, on December 25, Alejandro and Achmed journeyed to the Umbra, where they were able to fight and destroy the Umbral manifestation of the bane that had possessed Alejandro. Thus, Alejandro was cured.

Alejandro continued his service to the Black Hand. Alejandro had managed to almost completely recover his abilities, and had managed to become a feared agent for the Black Hand in Europe. Eventually, he journeyed back to Montreal where he rejoined the Riders on the Storm as Priest and Bishop. A major item on his agenda is giving payback to the Camarilla for the recent events in Montreal. Having already led his pack to Chicago in the hunt for Kemintiri, Alejandro was VERY rejoiceful to witness Kemintiri's death at the hands of his pack.

Alejandro is a devout follower of the Path of Power and Inner Voice. He had previously gained reputation as being a Noddist, but since his conversion to the ways of Power and Inner Voice, it is rather obvious to any who know him that he no longer holds Caine in any sort of reverance. He doesn't, however, talk about his new beliefs and he has told noone that he actually follows the Path of Power and Inner Voice. He is very much the perfectionist, moreso than he ever was. He is more conservative than he used to be, and this has caused him to be criticized by several younger factions of Sabbat, accusing him of mirroring the ways of the Camarilla elders. He ignores these protests, however, as he utterly views himself now as "his brothers' keeper".  

Welcome to the City of Black Miracles......

The above graphic is a photo made by Timothy Bradstreet. By all means check out his site at http://www.timbradstreet.com/ for more of his works.