Qadir Al - Asmai
Sobriquet: Currently none, though in nights past he was both a sheriff and a primogen in New York.
Appearance: Qadir looks like he might easily be a Middle Eastern sultan, so striking is his appearance. His hair is wavy and black, just above his shoulders, and trimmed goatee adorns his face below his sharp nose. He has a wide, cruel mouth and looks at everyone with an air of suspicion the first time they meet. Qadir wears expensive suits and a fine Swiss watch, even while performing the more physical of his duties.
Behavior: Disorder will invite the Sabbat to topple the precarious Camarilla domain, and Qadir sees it as his duty to prevent that from happening. Qadir takes that duty very seriously. Instead of blustering and bullying, however, he tries to impress upon the Kindred the importance of the Camarilla social contract. Should all other devices fail, Qadir will use physical coercion or violence to achieve his ends, but never without ensuring that he has the upper hand. Granted, some of his duties are ugly, but it is just that level of commitment to fulfilling the aforesaid duties that proves he is entirely devoted and gives others an example to look towards.
History: As a loyal subject of the British Empire during his mortal life, Qadir was raised in Lucknow, India in a servant family that dwelt in relative comfort. The British Ventrue and Toreador had strong interests in the Empire, and more than a few of their emissaries Embraced locals to better serve the colonial efforts. Qadir's family served a lord with contacts to these Kindred, and the boy soon found a night-time mentor in one of the local Toreador.
Qadir served this Toreador and others in the province as a ghoul for decades before finally "earning" the Embrace after a successful diplomacy effort with nearby rebels. Not long after his Embrace, however, the Sepoy Rebellion began, and Qadir was put in a position where he had to fight his own people. Although the decision caused turmoil within him, the artificial sense of duty instilled by his Kindred nature won out over his ethnic heritage. Hindu, Brujah, mortal, Kindred -- none of these considerations mattered in light of the supremacy he had been intended to enforce.
After the rebellion died down, Qadir's sire granted him his freedom, encouraging him to travel to the home of the empire and giving him a letter of recommendation to Prince Mithras there. Unfortunately, Qadir found London not to his tastes and decided to leave after only a decade there. He did not want to return to India, however, as he had become aware of a painful sense of regret that holding down the rebellion had instilled in him. It was not so much that he sympathized with the rebels -- quite plainly, he did not -- but the fact that it had to come to bloodshed caused him grief that he was only then able to acknowledge. Before leaving London, he met with the Brujah Justicar Don Cerro. Cerro explained that he bore Qadir no ill will over the rebellion, that it did not matter that there was Brujah support behind the rebels. The problem was the rebellion itself, and that was what Qadir had acted against. This conversation proved quite insightful to Qadir, who realized the same things about the issues that had been bothering him. That it was fellow Indians was not the key to the situation -- after all, who else would have been there to rebel in Lucknow? Realizing this, he thanked Don Cerro, serving briefly as an archon to him before emigrating to the New World to "start anew."
Since that conversation, Qadir has been a paragon of duty. Recognizing this, the Camarilla has not hesitated to saddle him with distasteful duties in return for granting him status and title. These are not degrading so much as they are ethically problematic, involving "silencing" troublesome Kindred, warring with the Sabbat, and serving as scourge and sheriff on more than one occasion. When he heard about the war effort coming to New York, he volunteered, hoping to use it as one last tour of duty for the Camarilla before retiring his titles and establishing his own permanent domain. His humanitas had eroded over his years of service to the sect, and he wanted to finally procure some time for himself.
As the Battle of New York wound down, however, Qadir was once again approached by Camarilla luminaries, this time to help them keep the social order until the city had settled itself. Reluctantly, Qadir contacted Calebros to agree to the deal. He was as shocked as anyone else when he heard of Calebros' decision to step down from the princedom. In his mind, this was a prime example of what separated committed Kindred like himself from those of a weaker caliber. While he does not begrudge Calebros his decision, he thinks the Nosferatu walked away from his duties too early. If he had groomed a successor, the city would not be in such a tumultuous state.
By way of satisfying his duty, however, Qadir went on to uphold the responsibilities of the commission of Sheriff of New York. For two decades, he carried on a nightly vigil against all enemies of the Camarilla, as what was left of compassion and the man within him slowly crumbled away, leaving only the Beast.
It was his private, desperate hope that something would allow him to salvage what remained of himself before his successor would have to hunt him down. That opportunity came to him when one of the war heroes, Don Cerro's own progeny Theo Bell, suggested that Qadir turn his experienced attentions over to the office of the prince. It would have enabled him to still uphold the Camarilla but take him away from the dehumanizing aspects of being a sheriff. While Bell's enthusiasm for Qadir as prince eventually cooled, it was irrelevant, as Qadir had committed himself to that goal. While Qadir failed to become prince, he did manage to assume the position and title of primogen for his clan, though not before preparing a suitable successor in 2019.
Since his retirement from the position of sheriff to the comfortable position of primogen, Qadir has slowly begun to regain some small portion of his ragged humanity. As primogen his has taken the opportunity to create a childe and establish his influence over an extensive domain in northern Manhattan. But the position of primogen has its own thorns that Qadir had never expected and the fierce politics of the neonates has forced him on multiple occasions to spring into political action.
Recent Events: As the summer of 2022 has begun to wane into a beautiful New England autumn, Qadir has met with an archon for the Ventrue and the Camarilla's newest alastor on the issue of cleansing Quebec's Sabbat cities in light of their sudden and mysterious misfortune. Since that night, Qadir has felt a fierce desire to leap once more into the conflict; what he can no longer be sure of is whether he is doing so for bloodlust or to gain a princedom of his own. That uncertainty disturbs him more than he would like to admit, but only time will tell the outcome of the battle.
Ghoul/Retainer:
- -- Béatrice Fortier -- Police Dispatcher & Ghoul
