Vlad von Carstein
"Surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death." Vlad von Carstein
The first known Von Carstein Vampire. Whether he was the sire of that bloodline or not is unknown, leaning towards not. The series of books "Vampire Wars" has a few POV chapters for Vlad where he refers to his vampiric sire, and theirs for several generations back to Vashanesh, who is clearly not Vlad. However, see the spoiler below.
Appearance and Personality
He was described as a very tall, darkly handsome pale man, with "...a mane of black hair and piercing eyes." He was often well dressed, and went to war in some badass-looking armor, though what kept him alive was the Carstein Ring.
As described by "...those who met him and survived the encounter", Vlad was very intelligent (he manipulated his way into controlling Sylvania through a cunning series of events) with a "feral charm", but had an evil temper. He would get so mad if his plans were thwarted only his wife could calm him without blood being spilt. They went on to create a big vampire family (they had more offspring than Mannfred and Konrad, those two are just the most infamous).
Vlad was also able to single-handedly track down and understand one of the Books of Nagash. He accomplished this by tracking it to a temple where some humans were hiding from a Chaos army and, after the book was found, persuaded them to give it to him (just persuaded, he didn't kill them). This indicates he has some skill at persuasion and he's not a total murderer.
Aside from all this he was a devoted husband. He came to love his wife Isabella, and turned her into a vampire so she wouldn't die of illness. After the turning, Vlad gave her the standard talk he gave all his "gets" (people he turned into vampires). Yet he went even further had all reflective objects removed from the castle in case she was traumatized by no longer having a reflection. There was even a painting of her commissioned as a wedding gift so she'd always look the way she wanted.
Vlad is notable for actually giving a shit about the peasants under his banner. By protecting them from the dark things that lurk Sylvania's wastelands and putting bandits and invaders to the sword, Vlad ingratiated himself upon the people of his land. By sheparding the commoners, Vlad did more than simply guarantee a source of nourishment; his actions led to extensive loyalty from the populace, and his rulership is widely regarded as the best Sylvania ever had (which speaks volumes as to how badly the Sylvanians in general have it).
This, along with his actual giving a shit about the opinions of the other races in the End Times: Archaon, means that he is basically the one actually likeable creature in all of Warhammer fantasy battle. Period. And he's a badass.
History
Like the Joker, he has a multiple-choice past. Unlike the Joker, he's sane enough to remember it, but he never told anyone about it for a long time until he met Isabella. Spoiler (Vlad's past revealed);
As of the End Times fluff, he was from Nehekhara but he went by the name of Vashanesh. He was Neferata's husband but they grew apart. After the destruction of Lahmia he laid low for awhile. Nothing is known except he chased down necromantic artifacts, until he arrived at Drakenhof.
Sylvania was a dangerous place, with the majority of the land covered in dark and ominous forests. Its soil was poor and the land barely produced enough food to feed the people who lived there. Although it was an Imperial province, it was regarded as a barbaric place. It was already reputed as a place where the dead did not rest easily, as well as a place where evil necromancers and sorcerers persecuted in the rest of the Empire gathered to find refuge (probably because the rough terrain and large forests provided plenty of hiding spaces). Many of its great castles and towers were built in places where dark magic was most abundant. To make things even worse for the Sylvanians, they were ruled over by the evil von Drak family, the ruler at the time of Vlad's arrival being Otto von Drak, father of Vlad's future wife Isabella. He was a deranged man that would order the execution of peasants simply to prove a point, and demanded unbelievably high taxes when he remembered to have it done in between bouts of violent madness. Fortunately he had as much influence over his realm as one of the peasants he terrorized as the petty nobles ignored his authority. Unfortunately they were nearly as bad as he was.
In the year 1797 the Count died without a male heir. On his deathbed, Vlad arrived at Drakenhof, Otto's castle, and asked for Isabella's hand in marriage. Desperate to stop his rivals seizing his land on his death, Otto agreed, and Vlad and Isabella were married minutes before Otto died. Vlad thus seized the province; his first act was to rip out Leopold von Drak's heart and hurl him from Drakenhof's battlements (at Isabella's request). Most of the other noble families objected to the thought of having an outsider rule them, but they were either won over by his charm or silenced. Under Vlad's iron grip the province of Sylvania prospered. The other Counts of the Empire looked on with indifference at the changes, since Vlad was a far better ruler than the old von Drak family (though they'd set the bar so low a dog would've been better).
He had married Isabella for power, and used his charm to control her at times. To their mutual surprise, what had started between them as a marriage of convenience swiftly blossomed into unholy love, and the pair had become confidants in each other and all but inseparable. Isabella begged Vlad to give her the Blood Kiss so they could be together for eternity, but Vlad was aware to the downsides of vampirism and loved her too much to subject her to that. When she lay dying of wasting sickness (Consumption, which is rarely called by that name and is known today as tuberculosis), Vlad made her a vampire so he wouldn't lose her. For two hundred years, Vlad ruled over Sylvania with Isabella by his side, using different names to avoid suspicion. However, Drakenhof's oldest woman found out his real name and told everyone that her grandmother was a little girl when Vlad came into power, tipping the Sylvanians off that something was going on.
When Mordeheim was struck by a comet, Vlad sent some of his agents to collect Warpstone. Then, he used a recovered book of Nagash to start a ritual to summon the dead of Sylvania in a giant army to fight the Empire and appoint himself emperor. He kept getting killed by heroes, and in one case a lucky shot from a cannon, but he had a ring that allowed him to come back from wounds that would permanently kill even a vampire.
In 2051, Vlad laid siege to Altdorf, his armies swollen during the long years of fighting Imperial armies. The siege lasted for many months. Though the emperor at the time was a pussy, Grand Theogonist Wilhelm the Third refused to surrender, and spurred the soldiers on for one more battle. The second last night of the seige, Wilhelm dispatched Felix Mann, the greatest thief of the age, to steal Vlad's fabled ring and source of his immortality (he had been covertly tipped off about the ring by a traitor within Vlad's own camp - Mannfred). After slipping by the curiously inactive guards, Mann stole the ring, leaving Vlad vulnerable. When he woke the next day and found the ring gone, Vlad furiously ordered a final, full-scale assault on the walls. As the vampires swept aside all who stood against them, Wilhelm confronted the Vampire Lord atop the very walls of Altdorf. Vlad swiftly gained the upper hand, fatally wounding Wilhelm. The priest saw Sigmar's people beginning to waiver in the face of evil, and the Vampire before him howling with triumph. With a prayer to Sigmar on his lips, Wilhelm used the last of his strength to charge Von Carstein, resolving to destroy Von Carstein by sacrificing himself. Even as Wilhelm took Vlad's blade through his chest again, he seized Von Carstein and bore him over the ramparts. Man and vampire were impaled on the stakes placed below the battlements, Vlad landing first, Wilhelm landing on top, driving the vampire down further. With a terrible scream, the Count died, slain for the final time.
Vlad's Undead army crumbled without his power to guide them, and the few surviving vampires fled quickly to Sylvania. The casualties the vampires had inflicted were so horrific the Empire's forces couldn't pursue them. Vlad's camp was looted by the Imperials, and among the remains were found Vlad's copies of the Liber Mortis and the Book of Nagash that he had: these were taken by the Temple of Sigmar and locked away in the temple's deepest vaults. The last casualty of the Siege of Altdorf was a distraught Isabella, who chose to kill herself with a stake rather than carry on through eternity without her beloved husband. Vlad's remains were found and put through all the treatments believed to keep vampires dead to make sure he wouldn't come back; breaking his knees, tying him up with silver wire, garlic in the mouth, buried on sacred ground, the works...
During the epilogue of the book "The Return of Nagash", he is resurrected by Nagash himself shortly after his return (in a ritual involving Mannfred's blood; probably to punish the former for his attempted betrayal). Vlad's first act is kicking the ass out of Mannfred when the latter tried to Sindri him again, and only spares his life under orders of Nagash, stating that he still has use for him. He only agrees to work for Nagash on the condition that Nagash will bring back his wife Isabella.While the rest of Nagash's forces and his Mortarchs except for the Nameless march on Nehekhara, Vlad is charged with fighting the forces of Chaos. At first he tries to work with Balthazar, even making the latter his apprentice for a time. He allies with the forces of Altdorf when the Glottkin and their forces attack, even being made the legitimized elector count of Sylvania by Kurt Helborg during the latter's time as regent. He is killed again by Festus the Leechlord, but his ring does its thing and Vlad kills the near daemon prince Festus. He later fights Otto Glott but gets infected with a disease harmful even to Vampires after drinking some of Otto Glott's blood.
The Empire, in a fit of desperation, sent emissaries to Nagash (who had just conquered and enslaved the Tomb Kings) to seek his help. Nagash heard them out, went "FUCK THAT SHIT!", killed them and forbade any of the undead from helping. Vlad heard the message, having been the one to bring the emissaries to Nagash. When the latter was snoozing and Arkhan was buried in paperwork Vlad went to help the Empire in the battle for Averheim. He got there just in time to see the forces of Chaos overwhelm Ungrim and rushed to get back to Sylvania before Nagash finished his power nap. During this time, a combined force of undead led by the Nameless and nurgle daemons attacked Sylvania.
While being forced to fight then alongside Mannfred and Luthor Harkon at Arkhan's orders, he was reunited with Isabella, who had been brought back by the big 'N'. Unfortunately for him, then big 'N' wasn't Nagash, but Nurgle had instead. In revenge for how Vlad saved her from his diseases and out of his hatred for the sterility of the undead, she had been possessed by a daemon that convinced her that Vlad had never loved her in the first place and was given powers that were meant specifically to be used against Undead. She killed him but his ring did it's work, bringing him back now free of the Nurglite disease. Possibly inspired by this, during their last encounter at the battle of Middenheim, Vlad gave up his ring to her before killing them both, knowing that the resurrection process would free his beloved wife from the Plaguefather's clutches.
On The Tabletop
Vlad could be an effective special character if he was cheaper. His current incarnation gives him strength 6, 4+ ward, 4+ chance to heal a wound for every unsaved wound he deals and a chance to come back from being killed on a 2+.
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Vlad, you marvellous bastard.
