Know Your Kindred – Melinda Galbraith

Name:  Melinda Galbraith
Clan:  Toreador antitribu
Generation:  5th
Embraced:  1143 BC

Melinda Galraith is considered to be one of the most dangerous vampires in the world, notorious for her cruelty.  Melinda is a stunning woman with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.  She is always dressed in the finest clothes money can buy.  Once the Cardinal of Mexico City, she later became the Regent of the Sabbat.

Although Melinda was really a Toreador, she claims to be a Lasombra for purely political reasons, since traditionally the Regent comes from the Lasombra clan.  Only the Seraphim of the Black Hand know Melinda’s true lineage.

In life, Melinda was a slave girl in Europe working for the Toreador, Helena.  Melinda hated being a slave and promised herself that she wouldn’t let that happen to her again.  Later she was Embraced by Helena and forced into a Blood Bond – another form of slavery.

Melinda traveled to Mexico with Helena and the Conquistadors, where they waged war against the Aztecs.  Then without a word of warning Helena abandoned Melinda.  But Melinda’s memories may not be accurate, as she’s been under the influence of the demon Baali known as Hitzilopoctli.  He slumbers beneath her city and slowly twisted her mind.  She is under the belief that Helena betrayed her.  Hitzilopoctli prepared to make Melinda believe he was her sire and lover.  Melinda still has feelings of love for Helena, but also of hatred for what she did to her.

Melinda went missing for months after a major unexplained disaster in Mexico City that killed thousands. Hitzilopoctli was the force behind the disaster.  Melinda was trying to help him awaken from hundreds of years spent in torpor, but other vampires from the Camarilla interfered and a major earthquake and explosion erupted, devastating the Mexico City region.  Hitzilopoctli disappeared, having either been destroyed or returned to his unending sleep.  And Melinda vanished.

But before the Sabbat could replace her as Regent, Melinda returned and reaffirmed her position of power.  But it was not Melinda who reappeared after the disaster.  It was an entity known as the Red Death, a being who could make itself look like anyone it comes in contact with.  While the Red Death can copy appearances, it cannot capture memories and this false Melinda was exposed as an impostor and killed before the Seraphim.

*Note:  The Red Death Trilogy is now considered to be non-canon.  Here is another account of Melinda’s disappearance:

Since the 2001 Palla Grande, Melinda has kept a terrible secret – she is actually Zachary Sikorsky, a Tzimisce impostor.  Zachary was scheduled to meet Melinda and present her a “costume” for the big ball that night.  But upon entering the room he found her crumbling body on the floor and a strange sign painted in blood on the wall of her dressing room.

Fearing the elders would accuse him of her murder, or atleast make him the scapegoat, Zachary quickly changed his appearance and took her place inorder to save his own life.

He intended to only impersonate her until the festivities were over and he would simply slip away into the night.  But weeks and then months went by and Zachary never found a chance to escape from the Regent’s retinue of bodyguards, aides, supplicants and cronies.

– Source:  Chaos Factor, pg 54-55.  Unholy Allies, pg 131.  Unbeholden, pg 3-4, 80, 174, 335-339.  Mexico City by Night, pg. 95-96