Mannfred von Carstein
The only surviving major von Carstein in the fluff (barring Vlad's resurrection in the End Times) and thus the leader of the Bloodline.
The Legend
We all know the von Carsteins. Parodies of nobility, the Dracula Bloodline of the Vampire Counts, origins that aren't exactly clear as it goes back to the origins of all the Warhammer Fantasy vampires (making them the nouveau riche Bloodline). During the time that Vlad was consolidating his power by turning the nobles of Sylvania into vampires and bringing them under his thumb, he and Isabella took a few in as an adopted "family". Konrad and Mannfred were their two "sons" and mostly stayed at home during the first vampire campaign against the Empire. While Konrad was the rambunctious son, always dissecting maids in the backyard and pulling the arms off elves in his room, Mannfred spent his time pouring over books and compensating for his physical frailties (for a vampire). Basically evil Tyrion and Teclis.
After poppa vamp was killed by the Empire pope of the time and momma couldn't have unlife without him so she killed herself, Konrad took control of then armies of the von Carsteins and raged about causing a shitload of civil wars within the Bloodline that usually ended with Konrad pulling a Strigoi and drinking the blood of another vamp's lifeless body. Mannfred on the other hand saw this as a good time to get the fuck out of Dodge and become a wizard. He explored the world, mainly seeking haunted places and necromantic circles. He visited Nehekhara and studied the Tomb Kings as they slumbered, and was able to do this mainly because he was smart enough to not steal their stuff and fled when they did notice him. He managed to find the Books of the Dead that Queen Neferata had studied long ago, and became her equal as a necromancer. He entered Nagash's Black Pryramid and communed with Nagash's spirit. After Konrad died like a jackass, Mannfred returned and took command of all the roaming undead in Sylvania, returning stability to the region once again and allowing the Empire to think they'd won peace. He manipulated the new nobles into being under his power, as well as vampires from all Bloodlines everywhere in the Old World he could find them.
Once Mannfred had gained a large enough army by nabbing all the undead beasties he could, he shed his handsome teenager disguise and revealed his true face: that of a corpse mummified partially from exposure to the elements with a huge jaw and fangs to match, and bathed at all times in magical currents. He surprised the Empire at a time when it was unprepared for invasion, and set out to succeed where Vlad had failed by becoming the Emperor. He got his ass kicked by priests, and from that point on he kept sending his army against every city in the Empire only to lose, badly, and retreat. Since his army was fairly self-replenishing this didn't mean much to him however, except to frustrate him. Mannfred was finally pushed back into swamps of Sylvania, where he decimated the Empire and Dwarf army sent after him but was defeated none the less.
The war managed to spread vampirism to most of the Old World, from man to Dwarf, and the various Bloodlines saw a huge surge in young vampire recruits. Mannfred, who had survived his defeat, began to reconsolidate his power and make new plans. The Empire was ravaged by Kurgan and the High Elves and Dwarfs saved them. Mannfred took his time hiding and studying the battles, learning about the three armies, and decided his next invasion would require the three to be at war with each other.
Once again Mannfred traveled the world and learned more magic, this time outright swearing himself to Nagash to bring him back into the world. This became the main goal of the von Carstein Bloodline, and those not interested defected to other Bloodlines or were killed. Mannfred enlisted Heinrich Kemmler and his servant Krell to aid him. When Aliathra, the princess of the High Elves, went on a diplomatic trip to increase relations between Dwarfs and High Elves Kemmler manipulated Orcs & Goblins into attacking the fortress. When the Elves and Dwarfs defeated the greenskins, Kemmler raised the corpses of the fallen and sent his own army after them. The two armies were decimated, with the Dwarf King slain and the bodies of the defenders shambling after Kemmler as his new servants. The lover of Aliathra was badly injured by Mannfred himself during the battle, and Aliathra was knocked out and taken in the claws of a Terrorgheist. Mannfred took her far from the lands of the Dwarfs into the heart of Sylvania where she was locked away while Mannfred prepared a resurrection ritual.
He expected the Dwarfs and High Elves to go to war, thinking they'd blame each other. Indeed, nobles in Ulthuan and Dwarf whitebeards called for war to redeem their honor. However, Phoenix King Finubar and High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer were decidedly less fucking retarded than those around them. Finubar was a diplomat at heart and knew that the Dwarfs were badasses who'd fight for a lady to their last breath, and as the keeper of the Book of Grudges Thorgrim knew when a grudge was warranted and when it wasn't. Alarielle the Radiant of the High Elves sensed that Aliathra was still alive (not a vampire, vampires magically detect as "dead") and thus she called upon her past and present lovers, Finubar and Tyrion respectively, to get her baby back!
Finubar immediately went to the Dwarfs to secure an alliance against the vampires (see the eventual Dwarf army book update for a continuation on that plot), and Tyrion gathered a fucking glorious all-cavalry army to ride against Mannfred. Mannfred himself was preparing a Frank Frazetta style place to sacrifice Aliathra to complete a resurrection ritual (to bring back Nagash. Sure, the sacrifice is one elf, but that one elf IS the future Everqueen. And the fluff clearly says it's to bring back Nagash). Tyrion broke into his castle, found the unresponsive Aliathra, and rode out with her. As his men were leaving they witnessed a fucking enormous Undead army popping up out of the ground from all directions as far as the eye could see around them. Tyrion leads the elves as they try and fight their way out before some unexpected help comes.
According to the new Dwarves codex, High King Thorgrim didn't really care about elves (which is weird since he gave Aliathra a whole Dwarf honor guard in the Vampire Counts version of the story), but since it was a matter of honor he gathered an army and followed Mannfred all the way to Nagashizzar (though the story neglects to mention how they were able to track him since he was flying away on a zombie dragon after the battle). The Dwarves hit the rear of Mannfred's army just as the elves hit the front. They killed the necromancers that keep bringing back the undead but Mannfred recaptured Aliathra when Tyrion was distracted and used his magic to flee with her. Tyrion met Thorgrim and insulted him like crazy, blaming the Dwarves for the loss of Aliathra. In a surprising show of tolerance and peackeeping, Thorgrim doesn't get grudge-happy and tells the other Dwarves who are itching to restart the War of Vengance to chill the fuck out, knowing that the Dwarves have the moral high ground and that fighting the elves would create more grudges. He then tells Tyrion that next time he tries to rescue Aliathra, the Dwarves won't be there to bail his ungreatful ass out and marches off with his army to retake Karak Eight-Peaks like a boss.
Mannfred gets new fluff in the new Sigmar's Blood book where a third reincarnation of Sigmar will fight Mannfred's armies. Spoiler alert, that ends on a cliffhanger too; The current Empire Pope Volkmar thwarts Mannfred's plan, and the book ends with Mannfred lunging, fangs bared, at Volkmar's throat. Then...he goes home. See, he saw a guy named Boris Todbringer and remembered that a similar nobody killed papa Vlad. But that's okay! Because new papa Nagash sent him a message saying it's time to make step-daddy proud!
The End Times
Mannfred returns once again in a second campaign revolving around Nagash. He makes in-roads to resurrect Nagash, but is pissed Balthazar turns Sylvania in a roach motel, but for undead. Mannfred's quest however, means he crosses paths with Nagash's right hand lich, Arkhan, who has the same goal. Mannfred allies with Arkhan because Arkhan can free him from the wall of faith (and because Arkhan is about as powerful as Mannfred but much more cunning, making backstabbing him difficult). Having helped resurrect Nagash (three guesses what happened to the Everqueen's daughter; High Elf players don't worry she's a bastard not the true Everqueen successor) Mannfred get rewarded with more power and a new ride in the Dread Abyssal steed called Ashigorath and punished with the resurrection of Vlad von Carstein for the thoughtcrime of considering betraying Nagash. Vlad's return causes' nearly all of Mannfred's servants jump ship when they find out Vlad's back due to his reputation and skill. Vlad is dispatched by Nagash to keep Archaon occupied, ensuring Nagash can conquer the realm of mortals and be the one to usher in the Endtimes, then enter the Warp and become a Chaos God. This still leaves Mannfred bitter, as When Nagash launches his invasion of Nehekhara, Mannfred joins forces with Luthor Harkon, attacking Zandri's land army while Luthor attacks its navy. Mannfred duels the Tomb King Behedesh and is nearly killed but his lieutenant saves him twice over, stabbing the Tomb King in the back which leads to him rather than Mannfred getting struck down by the Tomb King's curse. Mannfred takes a backseat for the rest of the invasion. Despite working for Nagash, he's horrified when Nagash practically reaches godhood and conquers the Tomb Kings, thinking if he'd allied with Settra he could've stopped Nagash AND the Chaos Gods (as if Settra would ally with Mannfred).
Things keeping going downhill for Mannfred as he chafes under Nagash's rule. When the forces of Nurgle invade Sylvania he tries to assume command of Vlad's forces when Vlad leaves Sylvania to help Averheim. Once successful he tries to fight the Nurglites. But they prove too strong and even when Vlad returns and they're forced to work together it's not enough, forcing Mannfred to flee, abandoning Vlad and Luthor Harkon. As the forces of Nurgle approach the Black Pyramid, he's ordered/blackmailed by Arkhan into being the latter's errand boy. He sends a message to Neferata from Arkhan to help defend the Black Pyramid and she agrees to Arkhan's terms. He fights in the battle, but only to ensure his own survival. The matter is resolved when a massive explosion occurs, wiping out the Black Pyramid and the forces of Nurgle. Seeing the explosion, Mannfred gets epic lulz and heads to the ruins, hoping for an opportunity to take command of the Undead Legions. Unfortunately for him Neferata has the same plan. Things go from bad to worse when they find out that Nagash survived and is still calling the shots.
At Nagash's command the undead marshal their forces and head to Athel Loren to ally with the surviving elves, humans and dwarves. Mannfred (still seething over Sylvania being taken from him and given to Neferata with Vlad's death) delivers Nagash's terms, trolling the living all the while until Malekith glares him into submission. At the meeting to determine what to do about Nagash, Mannfred sits at the meeting laughing behind his sleeve at everyone. Things only get better when he sees an outburst and deduces that the elven goddess Lileath has been turning the Bretonnians into an hero with her sockpuppet goddess the Lady of the Lake. When Nagash offers recompense for Aliathra's death Mannfred pulls out a martini to toast Arkhan getting thrown under the bus. Then Mannfred loses it upon learning he, not Arkhan, is going under the bus since few know of Arkhan's involvement but everyone knows his. He gets locked away by the elves and slowly vampirized (oh the irony) to feed Athel Loren. Vlad, once again back from the dead, visits him to to troll him and/or give some parting words before leaving him to die.
Unfortunately that's not the end. Bea'lakor, fresh of his defeat at Gotrek's hands, sneaks into Athel Loren to cause mischief. He encounters Mannfred, who says "fuck it" and takes a level in jerkass by making a deal with the devil, exchanging his freedom for selling out Lileath to Bea'lakor. After getting a bite to eat/killing his guards, he imagines himself as a lost little puppy with nowhere to go, so he decides to serves Archaon. But not before trolling the forces of order as revenge for imprisoning him by telling the Bretonnians the truth about the Lady/Lileath. Somehow retaking his skeleton dragon-bat-horse he flies to Middenheim and becomes one of Archaon's motley band of auxiliary turncoats.
However, even Archaon won't take Mannfred's sass and Mannfred betrays Archaon too, sitting on the fence when the Incarnates arrive and trying to figure out the winning side. In the end, Mannfred continues a string of betrayal and arrogance that would disgust a Skaven and fucks the world by stabbing Balthazar in the back. The magical backlash depowers the other Incarnates drives Mannfred insane with incomprehensible knowledge and, most importantly for Mannfred, kills Teclis, . This is because Teclis' death pisses off his brother Tyrion, who let's Mannfred know how he feels about it by turning him into a vampire-kebab; impaling Mannfred on Sunfang and using it to burn him from the inside out, killing Warhammer-Starscream. But the damage is done and the Incarnates can no longer control the rift, which spirals out of control, consumes the world and everyone in it.
tl;dr: This whiny, selfish vampire is the one responsible for the destruction of the Warhammer world in-universe.
Damnit Mannfred!
On The Tabletop
Mannfred comes in three variations: young Mannfred=Mannfred the Accolyte, who is a Hero level option and represents the version of him when he wasn't the last fucking von Carstein who gets a name in the fluff. Current Mannfred=Count Mannfred, in all his horrifying glory. Nagash campaign Mannfred has the Count Mannfred model mounted on an Abyssal Terror, sharing a kit with Queen Neferata and Arkhan the Black. Of the two, Mannfred the Acolyte is better to field crunch-wise. He provides Loremaster, which is what you mainly take him for. You want him fighting chaff and nothing but chaff since he needs to actually kill things in CC in order to be used to his full potential, the weaker the enemy the better. You don't really want to bring him to fight Warriors of Chaos. The older version is a MUCH more badass spellcaster, but he sucks up a Lord slot and consumed a lot of points. That being said, in an edition dominated by horde armies this is the guy to bring to cleave his way through half a unit, then in the magic phase use the power he gets from that carnage to blow apart enemy spellcasters and similar easy targets in the distance.
As far as armies go, Mannfred has the distinct honor of being the most von Carstein of the von Carsteins. It's literally in the fluff that he takes every option in the entire Vampire Counts army. He has defectors from all different Bloodlines serving under him, he employs all manner of undead, and he pulls his armies from the ENTIRE WORLD. A Tomb King skeleton draped in animal hide alongside a Bretonnian Man At Arms zombie alongside a Dwarf zombie alongside a WoC zombie works fucking gloriously. Any character in any army other than the named leaders of the other Bloodlines can be found with him, from Vlad to Krell. It's no wonder he's the new Vampire Count posterboy scrollboy.
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Mannfred's old model, best represents him as Vlad's little boy back home.
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Mannfred the Acolyte model. Somewhere between Mannfred leaving to explore the world, and his first defeat.
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Count Mannfred. Somewhere between his first defeat and the current point in the fluff.
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Mannfred, after Nagash hopked him up with a new model.
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Mannfred in the Warhammer Trading Card Game.
