Vampire Counts

Originally the youngest of five strong brothers from Templehof, Ghorst was a farrier and groom just like his father. His love of danger and the open road meant he would make any excuse to deliver messages to Ulfheim or Vassel. One day, he returned from his adventures to find his brothers and father dead in their beds, taken by the ravaging Plague of Blue Roses. Fungus-bruises covered their bodies, and its spores were thick in the air. Ghorst could not accept their loss. At first he tried to embrace his lost brothers, but the plague would not take him - fate had other designs for Helman Ghorst! Eventually he plunged himself into the study of the black arts, hoping to return his brothers to life. From that moment on, Ghorst was far from the good-natured farrier’s son, instead being marked for a much darker destiny. In studying the black arts, he lost himself to forbidden lore and communed with dread things. Driven by far more than the lust for power, but a deep personal grief, he went further than many other Necromancer had previously dared. Such ambition, combined with a wilful lack of self-preservation for his own soul, drew the attention of Mannfred von Carstein, another driven by familial bonds, though ones far different in nature. In Ghorst, Mannfred found a willing puppet, a servant whose loyalty he could easily buy; in Mannfred, Ghorst saw a master of Necromantic lore, who could bring his brothers back to full Unlife, if he himself proved worthy.

Heinrich Kemmler, the cunning Lichemaster who has troubled the Old World on many occasions is once more abroad. Freed from the shackles and illusion of subservience to the von Carsteins, the Necromancer now prowls his old wanderings in the Grey Mountains, which straddle the border between the Empire and Bretonnia - sworn enemies who have moved against him in the past. But Kemmler has always coverted power beyond anything else, and this time the Forces of Order will not stop him - the dead will rise and the world will fall!

Before rising to his current power, Mannfred von Carstein avoided the infighting of his peers and instead travelled far and wide, seeking to deepen his knowledge of Necromantic lore. He made unholy pilgrimages to ancient tombs and cities, where he wrested forbidden secrets from bone-dry scrolls made from human skin, studied ancient spells in the first of the Books of the Dead and struck foul bargains with powerful long-dead beings. When Mannfred finally returned to Sylvania, he was more powerful than ever, and he took over the Undead legions in the wake of his insane predecessor’s destruction. Though previously he had travelled in the guise of an Imperial lord, now at the height of his power his appearance has become more horrifying – his face became contorted and corpse-like, and his scalp writhing with magical energy. Yet his new-found powers are not enough, and he thirsts for evermore as part of his designs for the Imperial throne.

Hurriedly married to the dark stranger Vlad by her father, ‘Mad Otto’, in order to avoid the ascent of her depraved Uncle Leopold, Isabella soon became a von Carstein far more than in name alone. Already narcissistic, prideful, and immoral in the extreme, the heir to Sylvania’s throne was, in so many ways, an ideal candidate for the Blood Kiss. To any other suitor, they would have been abhorrent, deal-breaking qualities, but not so Vlad von Carstein. For Isabella, the marriage was at first purely one of convenience, but as the months passed her natural resistance to his charms caused Vlad to fall deeply in love with his pale bride and she for him. Although he tried to resist her requests to taste the Blood Kiss, to be made Unliving, the terrible, wasting disease that threatened to kill his coldly-beautiful new wife forced his hand. Realising that he could not continue without her, Vlad gave the dying Isabella what she desired and inducted her into the Midnight Aristocracy’s nefarious ranks. Ever since then, the pair have been together – Isabella standing proudly by Vlad’s side, nourishing his lust for power and dominion over the Empire and beyond. On the field of battle, when fighting alongside her husband, she is strengthened by his presence and he by hers. Oft-times, Isabella von Carstein carries the Blood Chalice of Bathori before her, a goblet of gold that belonged to her bloodthirsty ancestor, brimming with fresh blood at all times. She sups it constantly, even in the cut and thrust of the fray – the blood healing her wounds almost instantly and confounding her opponents just long enough for the killing blow to be struck!

The first and greatest of the Vampire Counts was Vlad von Carstein. Some say before his appearance in Sylvania over 700 years ago, he was in the Lahmian court at the time of Neferata’s ascendancy to immortality. Others believe him to be a dispossessed Empire noble who stumbled into Undeath but refused the damnation fate had placed upon him. Instead of withering, he set in motion events that would see the Vampire Counts - and the von Carstein name - challenge the greatest nation of men in the world. Vlad was not the first Vampire encountered by the Empire, but before his rise to power these Undead creatures had been solitary predators. A few had perhaps amassed small forces and carved out far-flung domains, but it was Vlad’s usurpation of Sylvania and legitimate gaining of the title of Count that marked a new era of bloodshed. When he revealed his true intentions to the rest of the Empire, two hundred years after his arrival in that cursed region, he waged war in order to become Emperor - for he truly believed he had a legitimate claim to the throne. It has since become a burning desire of all his bloodline, who feel - righteously or not - that they should become Emperor, for is it not right that the farmer herds the cattle? Vlad has been thwarted in his quest on a few occasions, but has always managed to find a way back to Unlife. Now he has risen yet again – and his desire to conquer the mortal fools is as strong as ever!