History

Alexander Wright grew up hard in the Ninth Ward to an alcoholic mother and absent father. He was Embraced hard too when his gang caught the eye of the infamous bokor Doc Xola in the mid-1980s. Wright still has no idea what compelled the Baron’s enforcer to curse him with immortality, but he swiftly learned the drunken beatings he and his sisters endured at their mother’s hands were as nothing next to his sire’s twisted imaginations.

Wright would likely have met final death rebelling against his sire (submission did not come readily to him) if he hadn’t clashed with Vidal’s pawns in NOPD and had the sense to let them take him into custody rather than resist arrest. He came to the attentions of Rocco Agnello and Philip Maldonato before sunlight could burn him to ash in his jail cell, and the two older Kindred arranged his release and presented him with a chance to start his Requiem over again. Breaking the blood bond to his sire took an immense effort of will, and nearly as long as any jail sentence, but also won Wright his benefactors’ respect. The neonate Brujah was now fully his own Kindred and gladly threw in his lot with the Lancea et Sanctum. It wasn’t much later that Wright accepted a position as a hound on the Guard de Ville—in his own words, the position allowed him to “come down on sick fucks like my sire, an’ come down on ’em hard.” It was not without some irony that the gangbanger noted he had become a cop.

The Brujah’s street-level connections and knowledge of gang culture have proven a useful resource to his Sanctified masters, even if many Anarchs consider him a sellout (aren’t all Brujah supposed to be one of them?) and the Baron’s faction publicly disdain him as a traitor. Privately, most Acolytes well know what sort of monster Doc Xola is, and are either regretful or simply resigned to the fact that his childe doesn’t number among the Baron’s faithful. Wright pays his detractors little mind. To the city at large, the Brujah is a devoted hound who enforces Vidal’s laws with simultaneous gusto and grim resolve. In contrast to his stoic superior, Wright has a biting and often sarcastic sense of humor. Few of the Kindred on its receiving end would likely describe him as funny. Lawbreakers who try to be funny back, or anyone who calls him the prince’s lapdog, usually wind up on the receiving end of his trademark titanium baseball bat.

Unlike Micheal Kelly’s now-largely disbelieved World War II escapades, Wright’s deeds are much fresher in the minds of his peers. Even if he wasn’t all-too willing to take his bat to the skull of anyone who crosses the prince (or calls him the prince’s lapdog), it’s widely known how Wright was one of the Kindred volunteers who aided the Camarilla’s 1999 reconquest of New York City. Princes and opportunity-seekers across North America contributed soldiers to the ‘war effort’ and many believe Vidal was displeased, if not ashamed, that his ongoing feud with his rivals prevented him from sparing a larger force than his city’s youngest hound. Wright acquitted himself well in the battle, however, and he was recognized again for his valor during Hurricane Katrina. The hound risked his unlife to remain behind in the anarchic, depopulated city and maintain order after the levees broke, and talk began to circulate of whether he could be bound for greater things after the visiting archons left. His superior Donovan doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.

Wright seems comfortable where he is, however, and attached to his home city in his own, less than sentimental way. He has unfinished business in the Big Easy in any case. The hound has not forgotten his sire’s abuses, and the sound of Doc Xola’s rumbling laughter is one of the surest ways to provoke their clan’s legendary wrath from the younger Brujah. Time will tell whether he obtains the payback he so fervently desires.

Influence

Domain

When he isn’t on duty for the Guard de Ville, Wright makes his domain in Central City. The predominately black, lower-income and high-crime neighborhood would normally be fertile territory for Baron Cimitière’s influence, but it’s a ways off from the Samedi houngan’s center of power and lies past several parishes under Vidal’s control. Wright established himself in the area with the prince’s blessing and helps ensure none of its violent crime disturbs the much wealthier Garden Districts to the south. Vidal has not granted Wright full regency over the de facto parish, and for his part Wright doesn’t seem to want it. Most Kindred dismiss Central City as unlivable barrens and the now-destroyed Julien Derneville was the only vampire to have any interest in the neighborhood besides Wright. The Brujah and the Tremere, for their own parts, had different enough interests they rarely came into conflict. While Derneville was involved in legal advocacy and community outreach groups, Wright is known to have one or more of the area’s gangs under his thumb and to make a tidy income from their drug trafficking and related criminal activities.

Ghouls

Wright has turned at least several members of at least one Central City gang into his ghouls. The 2016 Battle of Mt. Carmel killed them all. He’s since replaced them with fresh blood: that happens often enough among gangs, although Wright remains sour to have lost people he’d known and relied on for years. He’s also mentioned, in passing, having a ghoul to handle legal and financial matters. That pays dividends when you run a criminal organization.

Mask

D’angelo Washington, Wright’s latest alias, is a high-ranking member of the Central City Killers, one of the eponymous neighborhood’s largest gangs. D’angelo and the Killers’ current leader since 2016, Rodney Booker, go way back. D’angelo is a behind the scenes man who helps more with planning and advice than direct action. He’s feared as a force of unstoppable violence when roused.

Wright doesn’t feel the need to be personally in charge of the Killers. It’d take more of his time and be difficult to pull off when he’s never around during the day. It’s good enough to set up the man on the throne and pull his strings. Besides, not aging since the ‘80s means that he’s had to go through multiple identities.

Pawns

The Central City Killers are one of the largest street gangs in New Orleans with 30-50 suspected members. They’re under Wright’s thumb, thanks to helping Rodney Booker work his way up from a lookout boy to where he now is. Wright has groomed several other members of the gang’s leadership in this way. Grooming further up-and-comers remains an ongoing project of his. It’s only a matter of time until the most senior Killers get killed, sent to Angola, or exit the life.

Wright is exceptionally experienced at cultivating pawns for a Kindred of his years. It’s a grim fact that turnover is high in gang life and that many criminals make their bones young. Wright being Embraced in the ’80s (and getting into gang life in the ’70s) makes him downright ancient for a gangster.

Resources

Wright derives much of his income from the drug trade and other criminal activities undertaken by the Central City Killers. He is conspicuous about his wealth: expensive jewelry, expensive cars, and expensive women are all mainstays of his lifestyle. To some extent, it’s keeping the Masquerade. It’s what people expect from a man of his background. Wright finds that he has increasingly little interest in luxury for its own sake as he’s gotten older.

Wright has expressed only limited interest in “going legit” and investing his wealth into legitimate business ventures. After all, he actually wants to stay close to gangs so that he can use them as muscle. His duties to the Guard de Ville occupy much of his time. And, at the end of the night, corners and drugs are what he knows.

Status

Since Coco Duquette’s final death, Wright has become one of the most prominent Brujah remaining in New Orleans. He might still be a neonate, but he’s one of the oldest and most capable asskickers left in the clan. His clanmates also respect his attitude: he’s not afraid to go against popular opinion, say why he thinks Vidal is the city’s best option, and lay a beatdown on anyone who calls him a sellout. At this point, there aren’t any Brujah left in the Big Easy who can trounce him as soundly as Coco could. (Brujah Status •••)

Wright has served as a hound on the Guard de Ville for decades, and was briefly acting sheriff following Donovan’s final death. (Guard de Ville Status ••)

These same traits win Wright fewer friends among the Camarilla. His service on the Guard de Ville is valued, his blunt attitude, high generation, and undistinguished pedigree are marks against him. (Camarilla Status •)

The Hardline Sanctified appreciate Wright more for his service. Since the 2016 Battle of Mt. Carmel, he’s one of the covenant’s most useful remaining assets. He has made more than one sour remark on finding little comfort in that fact. (Hardline Sanctified ••)

Recent Events

Genealogy

Lineage

Wright is the childe of Doc Xola, a bokor and back-alley surgeon who serves as Baron Cimitière’s chief enforcer and is renowned for his cruelty. Doc Xola’s sire is unknown but believed to have belonged to one of the marauding Sabbat packs that menace the city during Mardi Gras.

Childer

Wright’s elder childe Hezekiah Santana was a preacher and former boxer who was banished in 2011 for trying to sabotage the prince’s thin-blooded pogrom. He continued to hide out in the city and was destroyed during the 2016 Battle of Mid-City.

Wright’s younger childe Furnie Jacobs is a former hoodlum turned U.S. Marine who was Embraced during the 2016 Battle of Mt. Carmel. He serves as a hound alongside his sire on the Guard de Ville.