2d4chan - User contributions [en]

W'soran/Melkhior

2023-01-31T14:53:22Z

2600:387:9:9:0:0:0:8A:

[[Image:Master-of-Death.jpg|right|thumb|400px|W'soran on the cover of his own [[Black Library]] book.]]

The founder and usurper of the Necrarch Bloodline of the [[Vampire Counts]]. Both were huge fucking nerds with a penchant for [[/tg/|playing army men as adults]]. Note that there are two different versions of the end of the story of W'soran/Melkhior. It's more up to personal interpretation which is canon, although the former story is supported by the legend of Ushoran leading to it being taken as slightly more canon.

==The Legend==
===W'soran===
Originally the High Priest of [[Nehekhara|Lahmia]] during the days when the [[Tomb Kings]] had skin. W'soran was born to an ancient yet respectable bloodline from Mahrak (a place known for the founding of Nehekharan religion). Despite his heritage, he secretly adored Nagash's brilliance, even go as far as regretted that he was born too late to serve Nagash during the war. It was also mentioned that he was driven out of his homeland by his rival high priests, which is probably the reasons why he favors Nagash's dark arts more than Nehekharan religion.

He was invited by Lamashizzar to join his little cabal where they tried to attain immortality by studying Nagash's books and interrogating his servant [[Arkhan the Black]] for further knowledge. Like other members, he grew tired of Lamashizzar's incompetence and switched sides when Neferata showed her superior mastery of the dark arts over her brother. In fact, W'soran was the first to kneel before Neferata.

After Neferata became a vampire, W'soran was the first to be invited by Neffy to drink her new vampire elixir. Upon his transformation, he looked older to the point of looking more like a zombie than a human, but was satisfied with the result.

The founding of the cult of blood as well as the construction of its temple were W'soran's idea to harvest more blood and minions without drawing attention. However, like the other cabal members he did not approve of Neferata's sudden decision to raise the future king of Khemri herself. At that moment, W'soran considered Neffy a lost cause, driven batty by killing Khalida. He believed they (the vampries) should master the dark arts and use it to conquer and build a new empire over Nehekhara, rather than ruling a trading ground behind the mortals.

Still, he was able to persuade Neferata to give him the permission to study the book. He seized the opportunity to do what he had always wanted to do...seal himself up in the Great Library of Lahmia to read...and summon Nagash! Years passed, he used up a lot of slaves in his rituals but failed to summon the great necromancer's spirit. Then one day Ushoran barged into his place and offered assistance in exchange to unite against Neferata's rule. Under W'soran's instruction, Ushoran obtained Thutep's skull (because being Nagash's twin still allows him to form spiritual link to his evil brother despite being a decayed skull) after he secretly hired a bunch of tomb raiders to dug up Thutep's remain at Khetep's pyramid.

With the proper material acquired, all that's left is proper timing. Just so happens the book he has contained crucial information about Morrslieb's sighting, and they were all predicted by Nagash in life. With the green moon's power and Thutep's rotten skull, W'soran found Nagash! But to his surprise, Nagash was in fact alive/unlive, building an army capable of destroying Nehekhara and was living just north of Lahmia across the sour sea.

Unfortunately for W'soran, Neferata caught him right at this time, staked him in the heart and stuffed him in a barrel. Before being immobilized however, W'soran told Neferata that Nagash would come and destroy all and when that time comes, every vampire will bow to him like a maggot, even threaten Neffy that he would curse Lahmia to be destroyed and never rebuilt till the end of times.

W'soran was stuck in the barrel for 22 years until Alcadizaar laid siege to the city. He was freed by Ushoran under Neferata's order just so he could provide battle support for the Lahmian army. The entire times, W'soran stayed inside a tower with clear view of the battlefield. He use the books knowledge to summon a fuckload of zombies to fight their enemies. The zombies came from the catatomb, mostly belonging to poor or homeless people Neferata had torture and killed for food or info to find Alcadizzar. Although the Nehekharans do not fear the dead as they used to when fighting Nagash, the zombies served as a good distraction that [[Tarpit|blocked the enemy troops from moving forward]]. His part in the battle ended after a good catapult shot disrupted his ritual and thus instantly unbind all the zombies he had raised.

After Lahmia's fall, W'soran and his followers escaped and travel straight to Nagashizzar where they pledge themselves to Nagash after offered him his books. Nagash took in him and his followers and trained them until he was pretty much a level 4 wizard. For the 32 years (-1168 IC) of his time at Nagshizzar, he formed a bitter rivalry with [[Arkhan the Black]], whom was raised back to serve his master. [[Arkhan the Black|Arkhan]] proved to be quite an obstacle to W'soran becoming Nagash's number 1 (all just so he could obtain his knowledge, of course) due to being W'soran's equal in sorcery and having superior battlefield experience, still proving to be Nagash's most useful servant by far. W'soran tried to kill Arkhan many times with his minions, but failed to do so and was unable to while being watched by Nagash's baleful gaze.

Around this time, Ushoran had made to Nagashizzar and was bought before Nagash after he was captured by the undead sentinels. Cunningly, W'soran presented Ushoran to Nagash as a useful servant (or a monster, according to Arkhan) which led him to hunt down and enslave all his former cabal members.

He managed to track down Ankhat, who was the easiest to located and is now multiclassing as some sort of wizard pirate captain. Using his Terrogheist, W'soran located Ankhat's boat on the sea. Unfortunatly for W'soran, Ankhat already knew what the nerdy vampire wants for him and denied him even before W'soran bought up the topic. W'soran cannot forced Ankhat into servitude either due to his capabilties in using magic and fighting, which could ended both of them in a bloody stalemate. Still, Ankhat managed to convinced W'soran away by giving out the other members' whereabout... which W'soran will have to put the search on halt, for there are Nehekharans that needs to be conquored.

In order to control the massive undead army he had created, Nagash etched the sigil of binding into W'soran's face as well as his other 7 followers, making sure he could inflicting suffering on them while tasting their agony (because lore of darkness is all about feeding on negative emotions and feelings, further evidence on the dark elves and necromancers being edgelord wizard). Because of the additional vampires W'soran had bought, he was able to control a much larger army, a fact that irritated Arkhan since he doesn't trust nor liked W'soran, but he still needs his cooperation if he wanted the invasion to succeed. Nagash also granting W'soran his permission to use his book on the battlefield.

When the undead legion invaded, it first landed on Lahmia and took over its ruin, killing all the bandits and thugs hanging out there and making its first encampment at the former Lahmian palace in order to plan for further strategies. W'soran had to stay there for days, only to furiously found out Arkhan had abandoned him and head straight west to where Khemri located, thought the bastard lich was trying to steal his glory for taking Alcadizzar's head. After W'soran's army crossed the golden plain and raze its crops with blackness, Arkhan's army was already in a battle position against a coalition army of Lybaras and Rasetra. Arkhan blame W'soran for misinformed everyone and Nagash that the great cities are divided and were unable to muster a proper defence against them. W'soran rebuttled by saying it is but a fraction of the forces they had defeated back in the seige of Lahmia. As a result, Arkhan ended up making W'soran to clean up his messes since he already had prior knowledge on defeating them. W'soran was apparently surprised by the Nehekharan army's soldiers wielding new rune weaponry that were effective in killing the undeads and its new addition of wizard that can dispel magic. It was by sheer size and the udnead's tireless natural that W'soran won the battle. Still, the casualty inflicted on them would wiped out an average army and W'soran began to notice how long and painful this campaign is going to be with Arkhan being his bane while dealing with Nehekharan's new military technology.

Because of the nuisance Lybaras and Rasetra had posed, W'soran had to divide his army and sent his 4 vampires to seige their city (leaving only 3 by W'soran's side), prevents them from marching behind their army. Arkhan was also aware of W'soran's treachery that he make sure to stay away from him as far as possible.

A week after Arkhan razed Mahrak, the undead legion began trespassing the Valley of Kings, a gigantic linear valley path that leads straight towards Quatar then Khemri. Unfortunatly for them, Alcadizzar has prepared a strong defense along the valley path: Archers with fire arrows, catapult that sling flaming boulders, a tall wall made of granite and heavily armored soldiers from Ka-sabar that throws sandblocks and fire pots.

W'soran wasn't even called to help until they began the assault on the second wall, which it was even taller than the first one that their ladder cannot be reached and its walls are too thick to be blast open by spells and catapult. W'soran was persuade by Arkhan into sending his vampires to kill everyone within the walls (Note: the death of just one vampire could killed off several thousand undead soldiers that was bind to them). It was a great risk but they succeed nonetheless with W'soran casting a fog spell to conceal his vampires to sneak into the wall. The second wall finally falls after 5 days.

The final wall was even thicker, taller, leaving only a gate made of basalt. There, Arkhan leaving the rest to W'soran and his goon. W'soran and his 3 followers then began channeling their energy together and bought forth a dark cloud of tomb scarabs. The scarabs were then sent to the defenders ontop of the wall while 6 bone giants battered down the gate.

Unfortunately for W'soran, his rituals were disrupted when a newly reinforced archers arrived on the wall and starts to shoot flaming arrows rain upon them and shot one of his followers. Worst comes when Alcadizzar arrived just in time on his chariot with many horseman charging with him.

W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar and his queen off the chariot, but due to the sheer plot armor of the king, he not only survived but also slained all three of W'soran's followers (one of them was shot in the eye by his queen). Abandoned by Arkhan, W'soran raged quit from the battlefield by using his tomb scarabs magic. He was never seen again at this point, not even in Nagashizzar for sure since Nagash was busy raging his ass off on their failure for 7 days and 7 night and he '''definitely NOT''' going anywhere near there.

In his novel, the ''Master of Death'', it was revealed he had came back to Nagash's side after Alcadizzar was captured and the Nehekharan decimated by the plague. There, W'soran taunted Alcadizzar that his queen will never fired another shot at his eye (W'soran's eye never recovered from the war and had remained empty) and even go as far as to push the immobilized Alcadizzar to the ground. Being Nagash's important component for his ritual, Alcadizzar is important enough for the daddy lich to being protected of Alcadizzar, even go as far as to mock W'soran that Alcadizzar's blood worth thousands more than his Vampire kinds'.

Also, while observing Alcadizzar's mistreatment, W'soran's view on Nagash being a god has changed. Nagash may not be a god, a man, nor an invisible master, but he is certainly a very evil being, yet his behaviors and actions is deemed somewhat like an exceedingly petty and spiteful human (gloat over Alcadizzar, temper tantrum, hating anything) to W'soran. Regardless, W'soran was certainly having a wet dream about how the ritual which will gave birth to a whole new generations of undead in Nehekhara, which they will all serve Nagash and kill every living being in the world for him. Did I mentioned that W'soran thought it is a beautiful thing? What. the. fuck.

Here, the story of W'soran and Melkhior splits. The W'soran version follows.

After Nagash was killed W'soran turned more nerds into Vampires and crossed the impassible mountains to join [[Ushoran]], who had been kind of a bro to him. He aided Ushorsn in building up the power of Strigos, and helped Ushoran claim the Crown of Nagash.
An afterthought came that Nagash wouldn't have been to pleased about that and that maybe the Crown of Sorcery was better left in the hands of an actual sorcerer (himself). This inspired W'soran to began to experiment with imbuing one's own essence into physical objects, skirting along the magical theory of elf [[Soulstones]] but instead creating the process of [[Lich]] phylacteries. He eventually created a helmet of his own and placed part of his soul within it, then gave it to a tribe of humans called the Dresca and watched them tear themselves apart through his subtle mental influence.
He made a pact with the leader of a human tribe named Vorag Bloodytooth, who in exchange for helping make him powerful built W'soran a fantastic and secret laboratory fortress. Here W'soran conducted many EEEEEEEVIL experiments and perfected the Lore of Vampires.
During the fall of Strygos, W'soran and his followers ambushed the Strigoi while they were fighting greenskins. Eventually, W'soran faced Ushoran alone and lost due to the influence of Nagash through the Crown. His forces were crushed by the Strigoi, and he himself fled through the burning city causing as much damage as he could to slow down the pissed off Strigoi, Strygos, his own traitorous followers, and Orc pursuers. During his retreat he found a large vein of Warpstone and consumed it, using the boost in magic to collapse a mountain which killed many of those chasing him and cut off the rest.

He used his magic to hastily construct a mountain keep that could only be reached by a long mountain pass filled with traps and monsters, then awaited his enemies. The Lahmians and Strigoi made it to the pass, but most were slain between battling each other and falling into traps laid by the mad scientist Vampire. Melkhior, clever and knowledgeable about his master's preference for traps, reached the keep and pretended to warn his former master about the coming threat, and convinced him they would make a final stand inside W'soran's own vault. W'soran found himself fighting the enemy Vampires alone, and after slaying them to the last Melkhior attacked his master from behind. Melkhior taunted him as W'soran lay dying, and W'soran seemingly fought his own dying breath to make out a few last words to his traitorous pupil. As Melkhior leaned in closer with a grin to hear what the old Vampire had to say, W'soran seized him and growled with a wicked smile that he had discovered the secret of true immortality. W'soran bit his student in the neck, and his soul entered the body of Melkhior and consumed the younger Vampire's soul and knowledge.
When the Lahmian reinforcements finally arrived at the keep, they found the corpse of W'soran and the (un)living student claiming to have done the deed. He told them he wanted to join them, and would give them all the secrets of W'soran provided he had time to translate the many tomes and decipher the experiments and tablets within the vault. He fed them a steady stream of lesser magics and artifacts before returning to his wayward students, gathering them into enclaves dedicated to advancing different areas of necromantic and alchemical study. Each knows little of the other enclaves, and none know all but himself. He himself is the master of the large and isolated Necrarch Bloodline, and over time and wearing different guises has ingratiated himself one way or the other with all of the Vampire Bloodlines.

While each different Bloodline may claim to control an army, claim to control a nation, or claim to be invincible it is W'soran and the Necrarchs who's combined strength is represented by the application of Undead monsters, unbelievably powerful and previously unknown magic, and subtle manipulation to the combined might of the others. W'soran has fully mastered necromancy becoming a spiritual being of darkness and has taken many apprentices and identities in his unlife.

===Nourgul the Wamphyro===
At one point W'soran or a [[Necrarch|necrarch vampire]] possessed by his spirit assaulted the southern realms he was called Nourgul by Tileans, Arabyans and Estalians. Nourgul was defeated by [[Abhorash|a mysterious knight]] disguised as a [[Myrmidia|worshipper of myrmidia]] in Magritta.

===Melkhior===
The above story represents the basic interpretation of the story. The following is the original version of the fluff and is less detailed.

In this one, after the fall of Nagash the Necrarchs built their power and spread throughout the world without the parts involving Ushoran and the Strigoi. W'soran, being more trusting in this interpretation, took loyal students with him as they traveled in secret administrating to the Necrarch enclaves. At one point, Melkhior began to read the books of Nagash while W'soran meditated or conducted intensive research. During one of these meditations, Melkhior slew the body of his master, trapping the soul of W'soran in the spirit world where he gathers armies of Ethereal undead to prey upon the living and eventually his former student.

Melkhior built a magically hidden tower in the Great Forest which is found within the Empire, and studied magic alone.

===Zacharias The Everliving===
The following story goes along with the latter story where Melkhior defeats W'soran, but for the sake of unified canon (as in the current canon both W'soran aiding Ushoran built his empire and this story appear to both be true) one can assume that a different version of is happens in the former story as well.

At one point a thief named Zacharias attempted to breach the tower where Melkhior was dwelling and steal a book of Nagash and, impressed that the young man had foiled his magical defenses, Melkhior made Zacharias his pupil. As the years went on, Melkhior became more and more insane and would go on Strigoi-like rampages to drain whole cities of blood. Zacharias took advantage of these times to read the book. Of course, one of these times Melkhior returned and caught him at the act so a fight broke out with Melkhoir winning and Zacharias fled.

Wounded by the pursuing minions of Melkhior, he hid in a cave and fell into a restorative hibernation for ten years. When he awoke he found that a Black Dragon had begun to use the cave as a lair. He promptly drained the dragon's blood over a very long time until it died (since nothing can wake up if a vampire feeds on it while it's sleeping) which caused him to grow in strength and cured his Vampiric weaknesses and need to feed on blood. He promptly reanimated the Dragon's corpse as a mount, then gathered an army and returned to lay siege to the tower. The two battled, and from here the story splits once again.

In one version of the story, Melkhior only narrowly survived the confrontation and fled to plot revenge. In the other, he perished and Zacharias took over as head of the Necrarch Bloodline and organized them into an effective force preparing to attempt to conquer the Empire in a manner similar to the von Carsteins. Either way, Melkhior's treasures and book of Nagash wind up in the hands of Zacharias.

===[[The End Times]]===
When Nagash came back, Nagash contacted him for his service, but found that Zacharias thought he was his equal. For this insult, Nagash promptly set his brain on fire in his head and instantly killed him. Unfortunately, this and a complete lack of any mention of W'soran or Melkhior in End Times suggests he really was killed by Zacharias, although no mention of the other Necrarchs were made either. Unfortunately, End Times left out quite a few things and the lore answers that [[Josh Reynolds]] provided were rendered non-canon by usual [[Games Workshop]] douchebaggery so either the Necrarchs were all wiped out alongside Zacharias, completely offscreen or just joined Nagash/went into hiding equally offscreen, and either way were 100% destroyed with the old setting when [[Age of Sigmar]] came to be.

==Necrarchs==
[[File:Necrarch Notes.jpg|An example of the fucked up shit that Necrarchs get up to. Seriously, you thought the Umbrella Corporation and the Chaos Cultists of 40k were bad?|thumb|right|300px|Necrarchs are the mad scientists of the Vampire Count options. All are skilled in magic and/or science. Much of their time is spent in experimentation, in delving for the knowledge of other races (like elves), and creating new forms of magical artifacts and Undead monsters.]]

Like the other spellcasters of the game (Empire Mages, [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] [[Warriors of Chaos]], [[High Elves|Saphery Mages]], and the like) the Necrarchs are more likely to be found in the company of other Bloodlines than in an army of their own. Should have need to however, Necrarchs are very adaptable.

Any option you want to take can be handwaved as another Bloodline recruited to their service, although particularly "Necrarch" options include Zombies and Skeletons for Core raised in bulk as needed (failed test subjects in mass graves is another good explanation), Corpse Carts (as gatherers of new specimens) and Hexwraiths/Spirit Hosts (vengeful test subjects, experiments in soul-binding, or the minions of W'soran in the story where his soul is doomed to wander) as Special, Black Coaches (as a protective form of Chariot for the studious Necrarchs to direct battle from) and Mortis Engines (an arcane object created by Necrarchs powering their creations) for Rare. For Lords and Heroes, no named character is fitting (apart from possibly Mannfred the Acolyte. After all, he has studied everywhere, probably including under a Necrarch tutor at some point) unless one wants to use the stats of one of the Mannfreds to use as a Necrarch model. Necromancers are a possible option as an assistant, but really any options should be spellcasting Vampires and Master Vampires. Use of any other Lores other than Lore of Vampires is within theme if you choose to use them.

==On the Tabletop==
W'soran/Melkhior once had models and stats, but have long since been removed from the game and discontinued. If you can obtain the models, one can use W'soran or Melkhior (depending on which version of the fluff you consider canon) as a Master Vampire spellcaster in the Lore of Vampires riding an Abyssal Terror.

Necrarchs used to be one of the more popular Bloodlines until von Carsteins became the only Bloodline of any importance in the game in 7e, and as a result have a fair number of on foot and mounted models. All are out of production, so eBay is your only source.

As for how they used to be in their old rules, Melkhoir knocks in at 660 pts , he causes terror (with -1 to enemy leadership, but the modifier doesn't affect undead or daemons naturally), he is immune to all psychology, he is a lvl 4 wizard that gets one more spell than usual, has stupidity, has an abyssal terror and most importantly he can recast a spell on a 3+ (you still have to cast it as normal after passing the recast roll), though he cannot cast the same spell twice on the same unit.
Melkhoir also has three very special items that are awesome, he's got a magical sword that gives the models he hits -1 to their to hit rolls (he doesn't need to wound and the effects are not cumulative), he has a book he wrote that allows him to automatically cast a spell (it doesn't even use up any of your magic power either), and the spell that he casts can be recast as normal, but after using it, roll a die, on a 1-2 it can't be used again for the rest of the battle, and he has a black cloak that makes it impossible to shoot him. Literally, he cannot be shot at or hurt by shooting ever, not even by warmachines (he takes no damage if he gets hit) and not even by magical missiles (again he takes no damage) which is awesome combined with the sword so he doesn't get hit in combat, and combined with the book so he can keep shooting out spells. Statwise he's a Necrarch Vampire Lord, so also good in combat.

==Gallery==

<gallery>
Image:Melkior.jpg|The body of Melkhior, either inhabited by the soul of W'soran or as the traitorous pupil himself. Mounted on the "ever popular" only version of the Abyssal Terror that looks good.
Image:Necrarch 1.jpg|An old Necrarch model.
Image:Necrarch 2.jpg|A set of older Necrarch models.
Image:Necrarch 3.jpg|Yet more Necrarch models.
</gallery>

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Vampire Counts]]

Mannfred von Carstein

2023-01-31T14:35:25Z

2600:387:9:9:0:0:0:8A: /* Age of Sigmar */

[[Image:Mannfred.jpg|right|thumb|400px| Before his male pattern baldness.]]
{{topquote|Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.|David Mame}}
{{topquote|The dark is my realm! The grave, my throne!|Mannchild Von Cumstain}}

The only surviving major von Carstein in the fluff (barring Vlad's resurrection in the End Times) and thus the leader of the Bloodline. He is also a whiny traitorous asshole responsible for the death of the Warhammer world.

We all know the von Carsteins. Parodies of nobility, the Dracula Bloodline of the [[Vampire Counts]], with origins that aren't exactly clear as it goes back to the origins of all the [[Warhammer Fantasy]] vampires. During the time that [[Vlad von Carstein|Vlad]] was consolidating his power by turning the nobles of Sylvania into vampires and bringing them under his thumb, he and [[Isabella von Carstein|Isabella]] also took in a few older vampires 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 von Carstein|Konrad]] was the rambunctious son, always dissecting maids in the backyard and pulling the arms off elves in his room, Mannfred spent his time poring over books and compensating for his physical frailties (for a vampire that is, he can still tear armored knights to pieces with his bare hands). Basically evil [[Tyrion]] and [[Teclis]].

==The Legend==
There are two versions of Mannfred's origin story, but both agree that he was a man of noble descent turned into a vampire thousands of years go. The first is that he was the first vampire that Vlad sired and traveled with him for awhile. The second version is that Mannfred used to be Khaled al Muntasir, a former vampiric retainer of [[Neferata]]. Khaled was the eldest child of an [[Araby|Arabyan]] nobleman and had a younger sister called Anmar. When Neferata tried to take control of Araby, she was taken down by Abhorash and her staked body put under heavy guard. Despite being staked, Neferata didn't truly die and was able to sway Khaled and Anmar with her vampiric charm and promises of power and revenge. After they freed her, Neferata turned them into vampires and they became her retainers for a time. When Neferata rebelled against [[Ushoran]], Khaled tried to stage a coup of his own against Neferata but accidentally killed Anmar when she tried to stop him. Neferata defeated Khaled, who was inconsolable with grief, and as punishment forced him to watch Anmar decompose then imprisoned him after taking control of the Silver Pinnacle. Neferata proceeded to give the imprisoned vampire to [[Arkhan the Black|Arkhan]], and from there Khaled somehow escaped and found his way into the service of Vlad where he changed his name to Mannfred.

Wanting to overthrow Vlad, Mannfred covertly informed the Grand Theogonist, Wilhelm III, about the secret of the Count's immortality - The Carstein Ring. The priest then set out an elaborate trap to catch the best thief of this very age: Felix Mann. When they finally caught him robbing the Imperial Counting House, they gave Felix a simple choice: to rob Vlad von Carstein's signet ring, or to be hanged for his crimes. In reward for the theft, he would be paid enough to start a living elsewhere. Felix accepted the theft and, with Mannfred covertly helping Felix by shrouding him from the sentries' attention, robbed Vlad of The Carstein Ring. Mannfred later caught up with Felix, who was trying to abscond with the ring and Vlad's book of Nagash because there was no proof of the deal and he felt double-crossed and repaid Felix by cutting off his hands and stealing the ring and book for himself.

With poppa vamp killed by the [[the Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)| Empire's]] pope of the time and momma killing herself because she couldn't have unlife without him, Konrad took control of the 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. Leaving a young vampire ally named Jon Skellan with Konrad to stoke Konrad's paranoia and undermine his rule, Mannfred 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; wearing more clothes than a woman in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan to keep the sun off 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|Nagash's]] Black Pyramid 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 [[the Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|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]].

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. Mannfred von Carstein's Undead legions crossed the Sylvanian border in the depths of winter, as freezing cold means squat to the flesh of the dead. With the summer campaigning season over, the armies of the Elector Counts were already disbanded and wholly unprepared for the sudden assault. Mannfred's armies marched through the snow towards Altdorf, putting to the sword any living people they met and raising the corpses to swell the ranks of Mannfred's horde. 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 but it did frustrate the hell out of him. Eventually, Mannfred was finally pushed back into swamps of Sylvania, where he was defeated but not before he decimated the Empire and [[Dawi|Dwarf]] army sent after him.

Needless to say, this victory was a bittersweet one for the Empire and it would only continue to grow more bitter as it was soon discovered that the war had 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 re-consolidate his power and make new plans. The weakened Empire meanwhile would find itself ravaged by [[Warriors of Chaos|Kurgan]] in its aftermath and the [[High Elves (Warhammer)|High Elves]] and Dwarfs were forced to step in to save the Empire. Mannfred meanwhile 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, which led them to partially annex the Necrach bloodline, and those not interested defected to other Bloodlines or were killed. Mannfred enlisted [[Heinrich Kemmler]] and his servant [[Krell]] to aid him. When [[Everqueen|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, [[High Elves (Warhammer)|Phoenix King Finubar]] and [[Thorgrim Grudgebearer|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 peacekeeping, 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 the next time he tries to rescue Aliathra, the Dwarves won't be there to bail his ungrateful ass out and marches off with his army to retake Karak Eight-Peaks like a boss.

Mannfred later got new fluff in the new Sigmar's Blood book where a third reincarnation of [[Sigmar]] fights Mannfred's armies. Spoiler alert, that ends on a cliffhanger too; The current Empire Pope [[Volkmar the Grim]] thwarts Mannfred's plan, and the book ends with Mannfred lunging, fangs bared, at Volkmar's throat...only for him to stop and instead just knock Volkmar out before going home. See, he saw a guy named Boris Todbringer and remembered that a similar nobody killed papa Vlad. Then he reveals that he needed some powerful people to sacrifice to bring Nagash back, and Volkmar is the last one needed. As it turns out, new papa Nagash sent him a message saying it's time to make step-daddy proud!

==The End Times==
Mannfred returned once again in a second campaign revolving around Nagash. He made in-roads to resurrect Nagash, travelling across the world to get the necessary artifacts and sacrifices (except for the Faye Enchantress, who was given to him by [[Drycha]], who Mannfred only made a token attempt to kill in return, and Volkmar who was captured while he attempted to purge Sylvania). This continued until [[Balthazar Gelt]] turned Sylvania into a roach motel, but for undead, with the Wall of Faith (unknowingly due to the manipulation of Tzeentch, through [[the Changeling]]). This is a setback for Mannfred's plans, but help arrived from an unexpected quarter. Mannfred's plan meant his agenda overlapped with that of Nagash's right hand lich, [[Arkhan the Black]]. Arkhan came to Sylvania to help Mannfred or take over and spearhead the Nagash's Comeback project. Mannfred took exception and the two dueled, resulting in a stalemate before settling on a truce. After Arkhan found a way through the Wall of Faith, they divided the work to retrieve the remaining artifacts willingly. After interference from the Bretonnians, Elves, [[Beastmen]] and several bouts of treachery, they succeeded and Nagash walked the world again, stronger than ever before. Mannfred planned to use Nagash as a pawn but as soon as he saw Nagash [[not as planned|he realized just how fucked he is]] and submitted.

Having helped resurrect Nagash, Mannfred got rewarded with more power, the title of Mortarch and a new ride in the Dread Abyssal steed called Ashigorath. But for the thought crime of traitorous ideas against Nagash, he was punished with the resurrection of Vlad von Carstein. Vlad's return caused nearly all of Mannfred's supporters jump ship when they found out Vlad's back. Vlad is also made a Mortarch, and is dispatched by Nagash to keep [[Archaon]] [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|occupied]] while Nagash enacts his own plan to conquer the world, enter the Warp and become the only god in existence. When Nagash launched his invasion of Nehekhara, Mannfred joined forces with [[Luthor Harkon]], attacking Zandri. Mannfred leading the ground troops to attack Zandri's land army while Luthor attacked its navy. Mannfred dueled the Tomb King Behedesh and was nearly killed, but his vampire lieutenant saved him twice over, killing Behedesh before the latter killed Mannfred and ensuring he rather than Mannfred got struck down by the Tomb King's curse. Mannfred took a backseat for the rest of the war, but was horrified when Nagash practically reached godhood and conquered the Tomb Kings at Khemri; he mused that if he'd allied with [[Settra the Imperishable |Settra]], he could've stopped Nagash AND the [[Chaos Gods]] (as if Settra would ally with Mannfred).

Things kept going downhill for Mannfred as he chafed under Nagash's rule. When Vlad disobeyed Nagash to help Averheim and the forces of [[Nurgle]] invade Sylvania, he tried to steal Vlad's power behind his back. When Arkhan named Mannfred (acting) commander, he tried to fight the Nurglites but they proved too strong for him. Even when Vlad returned and they were forced to work together it was not enough and Mannfred fled, booting Luthor off when he tried to hitch a ride with Mannfred. As the forces of Nurgle approached the Black Pyramid, Mannfred was ordered/blackmailed by Arkhan to be his errand boy. He personally sent a message to Neferata from Arkhan and she accepted Arkhan's terms; help defend the Black Pyramid and you will get [[Khalida]]. He fought when the Black Pyramid itself was under attack, but deviates from Arkhan's battle plan and moved to the edge of the battle to ensure his own survival. After the Black Pyramid was destroyed and Nagash magic-nuked the forces of Nurgle, Mannfred got epic lulz and headed to ground zero. He hoped that Nagash was gone and that he'd get a chance to take full command of the Undead Legions, not factoring in Neferata had the same plan. Unfortunately for both of them, Nagash was still standing and calling the shots (to add insult to injury for Mannfred, Nagash resurrected Arkhan and Krell, who were slain defending the Black Pyramid).

At Nagash's command the undead marshalled their forces and headed to [[Athel Loren]] to ally with the surviving elves, humans and dwarves. Mannfred was demoted further as Sylvania was given to Neferata with Vlad's death because the Tomb Kings were less willing to serve Nagash than the vampires, outnumbered the vampires and practically everyone knew Mannfred would arse up trying to lead them. When they reached Athel Loren, Mannfred delivered Nagash's terms in lolspeak until [[Malekith]] glared him into submission. At the meeting to determine what to do about Nagash, Mannfred sat there laughing behind his sleeve at everyone. His mood only got better when he sees an outburst and deduced that the elven goddess [[Lileath]] has been turning [[Bretonnia]] into a nation of wanna be heroes for her own ends via her sockpuppet goddess, the Lady of the Lake. When Nagash offered the one responsible for Aliathra's death as a token of goodwill [[Just As Planned|Mannfred practically celebrated that Arkhan was getting thrown under the bus]]. Until Nagash handed Mannfred over to them instead, with Mannfred realizing too late [[Not As Planned|that he, not Arkhan, was going under the bus; few knew of Arkhan's involvement in the Everchild's death but everyone knew of his]]. He got locked away by the elves in a magical prison with his essence slowly vampirized (oh the irony) to feed Athel Loren. Vlad, once again back from the dead, visited him to troll him and give some parting words before leaving him to die.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end. [[Be'lakor]], fresh off his first defeat, sneaks around in Athel Loren to cause mischief. He encountered Mannfred, who says "fuck it" and took a level in jerkass by making a deal with the devil, selling out Lileath to Be'lakor in exchange for the daemon freeing him. After getting a bite to eat/killing his guards, he decided to join with someone he thought would appreciate him and to save his own skin - 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 Dread Abyssal, he flew to Middenheim and became one of Archaon's motley band of auxiliary turncoats.

However, even Archaon wouldn't take Mannfred's sass and Mannfred betrayed Archaon too, sitting on the fence when the Incarnates arrived, intending to join the winning side or step in and take charge after the dust settled. However, in his defense he had no idea of Archaon's plan to destroy the world. In the end, Mannfred continued a string of betrayal and arrogance that would disgust a [[Skaven]] and doomed the world by literally stabbing Balthazar in the back when the Incarnates were trying to stop the world-destroying rift. The magical backlash depowered the other Incarnates, and most importantly for Mannfred, killed Teclis. Importantly because Tyrion sees this; Tyrion, whose daughter Mannfred (supposedly) killed and who had now lost a brother due to Mannfred's actions.

Mannfred followed this up by touching the Vortex, either arrogantly trying to take control of the magic or being misled by the machinations of the Chaos Gods. Either way, the magical backlash drove Mannfred as batshit insane as Konrad had been. During this time, Tyrion slew Mannfred for all that he'd done - running Mannfred through with Sunfang and then using its fire to burn him from the inside out. Despite Warhammer-Starscream's death, the damage was done and the Incarnates lost control of the rift, which spiraled out of control, consuming the world and everyone in it.

Thus did Mannfred destroy the Warhammer world. He brought Nagash back which screwed over many people, the Tomb Kings most of all. He played a major role in Aliathra's death, which influenced Tyrion to draw the Sword of Khaine and exacerbated the elven civil war. He drove a wedge between the Incarnates' forces by telling the Bretonnians about Lileath. He indirectly caused the loss of Lileath's haven since telling Be'lakor about Lileath lead to the daemon overhearing Lileath mention the Haven which brought it to the attention of the Chaos Gods who destroyed it. He capped this off by stabbing Balthazar which stopped them from diffusing the magic that ended up destroying the world.

tl;dr: This whiny, selfish vampire is the one most responsible for the destruction of the Warhammer world in-universe. Damnit Mannfred!

==Age of Sigmar==
[[File:Afmcox5u6kl21.jpg|right|500px]]
Despite the above, Mannfred has been chosen by the plot armor gods as the winner of the Von Carsteins because GW loves rewarding their [[Big Bad Evil Guy| evil douchebag]] characters, he made it to Age of Sigmar but Vlad and most (if not all) of the other Von Carsteins did not (yet?).

He did not learn from nor mourn the world he helped destroy matter of fact like the other Mortarchs, Mannfred founded his own nation, Carstinia, in the Realm of Death, which is essentially a sad recreation of Sylvania. He filled it with undead simulacra of the other Von Carsteins, but as his slavering lapdogs instead of their original personalities. Although he created it to stroke his ego, he quickly grew to despise his realm due to it reminding him of his failures in the Old World, and thus he spends as little time as possible there.

Nagash, rightfully pissed over Mannfred backstabbing him (figuratively, by literally backstabbing Balthazar) and enabling the Chaos Gods to destroy the Warhammer world (revealed to have been called Mallus), exiled him to a land where everything decays including himself. Note: while Nagash may have gained godhood and a planet/realm of his own after the loss of Mallus, there are seven other realms. This means at least seven other Incarnates are there who can challenge him; with at least two, Tyrion and Alarielle, wanting to kick his skeletal ass. From there Mannfred engaged in a cycle of finding himself in and out of Nagash's good graces. Nagash is fully aware that Mannfred is treacherous but keeps him around partly because a treacherous minion helps keep him stay sharp and alert, acts as a motivator for loyal Arkhan, a stumbling block for conceited Neferata and partly because he takes pleasure in finding new ways to torture him whenever he fails him. So Mannfred pulls double-duty as lieutenant and whipping boy for Nagash.

So Mannfred languished in this magical version of super-Detroit until Chaos invaded. He led his forces of undead and some allied living against an army of Khornates. However they proved too much and at the battle for Helstone Mannfred fled with his tail between his legs, abandoning his allies to die. While searching for a gateway to Stygxx, he was captured and tortured by Taka Woebringer and his army of Bloodbound. He was found by the Bull-Hearts Warrior Chamber of Hallowed Knights under Tarsus Bull-Heart who rescued him and defeated Taka and his Bloodbound. In return Mannfred promised to guide them to the underworld of Stygxx to bring their message to Nagash. During this time it's revealed that their leader Tarsus was one of Mannfred's living allies, a man called Tarsem, and he eventually remembered who Mannfred was but made no moves against him.

The meeting with Nagash goes as well as one would expect. Mannfred fled a second time after some final words from Tarsus (who surprisingly didn't hold Mannfred's treachery against him), but after feeling guilty for the first time in his wretched life later appealed to Nagash to free Tarsus' soul, which he did since Nagash claimed to be done with him.

He currently serves as one of Nagash's Mortarchs again. In the leadup to the Necroquake, Nagash charged Mannfred with leading armies in campaigns of terror across the realms to keep them distracted from his plans. After the Necroquake and the emergence of the Nighthaunt, Mannfred's Legion became outdated at terror missions, so Mannfred repurposed them as [[Creed|strategic undead forces]] - especially since tactical undead armies fell under the purview of the [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]]. Mannfred took advantage of Arkhan culling the ranks of the Black Disciples to create Bonereaper Mortisans by taking the survivors into his own Legion of Night, both for their necromantic skills and dirt on Arkhan.

With Arkhan's and Nagash's defeats in Hysh, Mannfred was jubilant, having planned around his own mission to Ghyran failing. He currently believes Nagash to be blind and broken and - despite being certain Arkhan will return - looks forward to trolling Arkhan about his defeat. Mannfred took the time from his early defeat to annex some of Neferata's territory, a move that provoked countermoves from her and will set them at war with each other.

==On The Tabletop==
Mannfred comes in three variations: 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. Count Mannfred, in all his horrifying glory and his most current iteration pre-End Times as a Lords choice. The last iteration is Mannfred von Carstein, [[Mortarch]] of Night, which sees Count Mannfred mounted on an Abyssal Terror, sharing a kit with fellow Mortarchs [[Queen Neferata]] and [[Arkhan the Black]].

Of the first 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 consumes 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 [[Bretonnia|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 <strike>posterboy</strike> scrollboy.

==Total War: WARHAMMER==
As the leader of the main Vampire Counts faction, later renamed Sylvania, Mannfred got something of a buff. Like all Vampire Lords, he has access to Lore of Vampires, but also Lore of Death, thus making him a magic powerhouse if you give him the Loremaster traits for both schools. Also, unlike his canon self, he is awesome in this game.

Yet those are not the things you choose him for, the spells are worthless without the winds of magic to use them, and Mannfred with his sword has the most in the game. Not Mazdamundi, not Teclis nor anyone else can match Mannfred in raw spell output. Mannfred needs to be in melee to do this however and his very capable melee stats and, armor and lvl 25 zombie dragon will help him stay alive so he can spam those spells.

All this comes together to make Mannfred a highly capable hybrid melee/caster Lord, without any real special abilities but with raw casting power and two of the best lores of magic he is easily one of the strongest Lords in the game.

= Gallery =
<gallery>
Image:Manfred.jpg|Mannfred's old model, best represents him as Vlad's little boy back home.
Image:Mannfredd acolyte.png|Mannfred the Acolyte model. Somewhere between Mannfred leaving to explore the world, and his first defeat.
Image:Count mannfred.png|Count Mannfred. Somewhere between his first defeat and the current point in the fluff.
Image:Mannfred Mount.jpg|Mannfred, after Nagash hooked him up with a new model.
Image:Mannfred_von_Carstein_on Ashigaroth.png|Mannfred strutting in Nehekhara
Image:23-18.jpg|Mannfred in the Warhammer Trading Card Game.
Image:That_meddling_vampire.png|Mannfred's defining moment; the vampire who fucked the world.
File:Rsz 700px-mannfred poster.jpg|Mannfred goes digital.
Image:TWWH2_-_j1vgni48sv651.png|What happens when you combine the most hated Warhammer character with the most hated cartoon character? You get THIS abomination.
File:Mannfred Others Should Fail.png|Mannfred When Asked Why He Stabed Balthazar Gelt in the Back
File:Vlad_vs_Mannfred.png|Facts
</gallery>

{{Template:Soulblight Gravelords Characters}}
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Vampire Counts]]
[[Category:Undead Legion]]
[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]