Mercy

Despite her name, Mercy exhibits no such trait. She earned her moniker — her birth name is Allisandra — from the pleas of her victims, and she represents a new breed of vicious, young Sabbat coming to power. As Inquisitor, her authority is unquestioned within her sect. A native of Rio de Janeiro, Mercy currently resides in Montreal, where she investigates ongoing rumors of infernalism.

Were it merely a matter of righting the situation regardless of the consequences, Mercy would be a perfect candidate for the job. Unfortunately, Mercy’s solutions are invariably destructive; fellow Inquisitors refer to her tactics as carpet-bombing. In the city of Montreal, where three packs vie for power, Mercy could be the match that lights the already primed powder keg.

Before her Embrace, Allisandra was a mortal acolyte of La Regla Lucumí, a religion of strong ethics and responsibility stemming from the Yoruba of Africa. Following her Embrace into the Sabbat, however, she had difficulty reconciling her religion with her new status as eggun, a member of the dead.

Her worship degraded along with her humanity, forcing her to seek religious fulfillment from Santería fringe cults, then finally from thinly disguised Lasombra and Setite blood cults. With each slip, her compassion and kindness fell away as well, eventually leaving behind a woman capable of unthinkable atrocities.

In Rio, Camarilla Toreador shared influence with Sabbat Lasombra in an uneasy and unlikely truce that stemmed from a mutual interest in Rio’s mineral wealth. Allisandra, however, displayed a knack for destruction and mayhem that continually threatened to upset the precarious peace between the two sects. She relished her freedom and pursued her bloodlust with little care for convention.

Street children vanished in increasing numbers, and authorities regularly found body parts floating in Guanabara Bay. In one incident, police discovered 11 members of a Santería church who’d been tortured and strung up like sides of beef in a slaughterhouse. Although the public never heard the story, both the local Sabbat and Camarilla knew of the reports and suspected Allisandra of the deed.

The murdered Santería worshipers had been Allisandra’s friends during her mortal years. Strangely enough, it was the Lasombra who reacted to the situation and “encouraged” Allisandra to go to Mexico City. The Lasombra did not want to censure their Toreador antitribu sister, but they worried that her continued activities CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT 18 might threaten the tenuous peace.

Allisandra finally left after she found mortal members of her blood cult murdered and drained as a warning to her. In Mexico City, Allisandra became Mercy, a nickname she earned while hosting torture parties. However, her religious practices and the ritualistic manner in which she killed attracted the attention of then Knight Inquisitor Alfred Benezri, a member of the Shepherds pack of Montreal.

The Knight Inquisitor found Mercy innocent of any infernal dealings, and the two quickly formed a bizarre alliance. Alfred was curious about Santería, and Mercy, in turn, was interested in the Inquisition. With his help, she eventually joined the faction. For the last four years, Mercy has served the Sabbat Inquisition as Knight Inquisitor. Despite this responsibility, she remains brutal.

Her fellow Inquisitors have even accused her of destroying innocent Sabbat (if there is such a thing) and being sloppy. Her saving grace, however, is her efficiency in tracking and uncovering infernalists as well as her knowledge of La Regla Lucumí and Mesa Blanca, two religions practiced throughout the Americas.

These skills have led her to Montreal, domain of now-Bishop Alfred Benezri, her ally, and home to a whirlpool of heresy. Due to the strength of the region’s Sabbat and the recurring problem of infernalism, the Inquisition keeps Mercy and her pack in the area to prevent future heresies. Mercy, however, sees corruption everywhere.

She watches everyone from afar, allowing her presence to do her work for her, and regularly interrogates local Cainites.