Steth Albarado

The Anarchs have their few enduring figures...though the turnover in the Rebels is high, one quietly enduring face of that faction is Steth, the Valkyrie of Warsaw, now often just referred to as The General. A very old and very odd Brujah, Steth is a quixotic, tentative ally of the Cue, mostly through her strangely affectionate connection with Luke McNeil.

Background
Steth was born as Taheyyâtt, the illegimate daughter of a minor Berber nobleman, Ibn Ahmar, to a Spanish woman in 1472 in Granada. Her entry into the world took place in turbulent times: the Moors had lost their former grandeur, confined to the southern Iberian peninsula, and the caliphate was stagnant and in grave danger. Distantly related to royalty, but not permitted to interact with society at large, Taheyyâtt was raised by her mother in seclusion and secrecy for the first fourteen years of her life before being married to a much older merchant under a false surname. An unusual girl in a number of ways, she demonstrated a love of art and a fiery spirit, and her husband, fortunately, was a fairly soft and effeminate man who she learnt to manipulate and dominate fairly early on in their relationship. She convinced him to teach her how to read, and became involved in the anonymous poetry and polemics which were popular at the time. He took other wives, more attractive and less temperamental than Taheyyâtt, and she was largely left to her own devices. A snappy and strong-willed woman, she was not that close to her sisters, who found her overbearing and mannish.

When Taheyyâtt was twenty, Granada was besieged and then fell to the invading Spaniards who had come to reclaim Iberia for themselves, and she found herself in a very precarious situation indeed – the Moors were told to leave or convert to Catholicism and serve their conquerers, neither of which sat well with her. Her husband intended to leave, but Taheyyâtt herself found herself unable to part with her country. She was deeply involved with her home, committed to Muslim enlightenment in the face of what she believed was barbaric reclamation of a country better served under Moorish rule, and quite scandalously ran away from her family to join a pocket of resistance who were working to undermine the Catholics. Unbeknownst to her, the Kindred were involved in the matter – she was spurned for being female by most, but her angry determination to fight for the dying cause of Moorish Granada caught the eye of a Berber Brujah, Abu Yaqub al-Mustansir Yusuf, a young prince who had been disgraced before his own embrace not all that long ago. He was quite taken by Taheyyâtt's attitude and her love of poetry and writing, and cultivated a platonic mentor-student relationship with her. At that time, she never thought to question why he was only available at night-time: the situation for them all was dire, more than she actually knew considering the Sabbat influence in the Reconquista.

The Spaniards under King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile eventually triumphed, and the remaining rebels in the ruined city scattered or were killed. Abu Yaqub, fearing that Taheyyâtt would be too weak to survive by herself, fed her his blood in a fit of passion and she became his ghoul unwittingly. Furious and scared, she initially wanted to leave him, but he convinced her to stay by his side – she complied mostly because of the danger they faced, but she considered it a grave betrayal. He continued to love her, but Taheyyâtt's affection for him was never quite as intense in the aftermath. She did become addicted to his vitae – another blow that she never really forgave him for.

Taheyyâtt, along with Abu Yaqub, other mortals and other Brujah, fled to Algeria. The journey was unpleasant, and she took a male name and appearance to avoid attention. Her mentor offered her the Embrace after a short time there, and she initially refused. Intrigued, he wooed her over time with poetry and song, and eventually, after a near miss where she came close to death, she agreed...and initially, instantly regretted her decision. It took a long time for her to adjust, and the period was not a happy one for her. In the process, she drifted away from her sire, manifesting a profound individualism that grieved him terribly. Eventually, she left him completely, much to his dismay. Further attempts to get her back failed.

The young Brujah developed a distinct lone-wolf attitude to life following her Embrace, and wandered around Europe, making temporary alleigances and attempting to stay out of vampiric politics as much as she was able to. Her revolutionary and rebellious ties had mostly been to her homeland – a rebel with a cause, she now had none. Her gender and her role blurred through the years, but she developed a minor reputation over time, that of catalyst. Steth – a name that she picked up in Poland during the Warsaw Uprising – became less overtly a firebrand and more a participant in and harbinger of change. Born on the cusp of a fall and Embraced on the cusp of the 8th and 9th generations, she seems cursed or blessed to ride a continually falling wave of change beginning with Granada and perhaps ending with the world as a whole. Usually, she is drawn to the losing side, surviving on with or past them: a reflection of her mortal life. Her travels eventually lead her through many major and minor conflicts to the US, where she had not intended to remain.

Current Activities
Steth is currently head of the Oakland Anarchs, which she runs with her two childer, Rory and Jade. They are fighting a guerilla war against the invading Cathayans, and more aggressive Camarilla vampires who are not involved in the fight against the Cathayans themselves. Fanatically dedicated to their own freedom, they wear green and white as their primary gang colours, and have a verbally sealed alliance with the Cue, as well as connections to some of the mortal gangs of the area. The Anarchs bring in income by fixing up and transforming stolen cars, as Steth and her crew are all competant mechanics.

Her specialty is armouring otherwise normal cars, but Steth has an affection for all machines, their repair and improvement, and is handy with most vehicles and military ordinance.

Other than vehicle mechanics, Steth has an interest in robots and robot movies and TV shows, especially mecha anime and cartoons. She has a soft spot for Transformers and Gundam Wing, and movies with large rubber monsters. She hangs around the Anarch bunkers, and the clinic at Emmett's Eatery.