Von Carstein
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he Von Carsteins are a Bloodline (type of vampires related by a lineage of being turned leading back to the very first vampires) of Vampires from Warhammer Fantasy. They are the posterboy Bloodline of the faction, best summarized as the Dracula Bloodline (or the Tremere for Vampire: The Masquerade fans).
History
Vashanesh
The original Von Carstein is not really named Von Carstein; Vlad Von Carstein is the made up name of Vashanesh, ex-husband of the first vampire Queen Neferata. Neferata's idiot brother ruled their kingdom of Lahmia, although due to his ineffectual rule the real power behind the throne was his sister. He along with the rest of her royal court in Lahmia shared her Elixer which she and Arkhan The Black perfected using the Books of Nagash. After an..."accident" (probably involving blood loss, maybe a bit of mutilation and castration) Neferata took the throne; despite being the Pharaoh of a kingdom described as highly sexist (contrast with Neferata's cousin's kingdom which was fine with a female monarch) Vashanesh is barely mentioned as even being important among the vampires themselves meaning he was most likely a relaxed political puppet for his wife. After some overly opulent living leading to some badly botched efforts to keep the secret of Vampirism under wraps the Vampires were attacked and defeated by other Nehekharans, forcing them to flee to the side of the guy who invented Necromancy, Nagash himself.
After the defeat of the Vampires and Nagash and during the death of Nehekhara/birth of the Tomb Kings, Vlad and all but two of the other Vampires who had stood with Nagash's forces fought and blamed each other for the loss (Neferata had left before the battle occurred, and Abhorash had fought until defeat before leaving without a word to the others). Nagash's EXTREMELY angry spirit cursed all Vampires with the assorted mythological weaknesses like inability to cross running water and not having reflections (the latter because by nature Vampires are extremely vain) causing the embittered Vampires to flee his wrath by making their own ways through the apparently quite passable "impassible" mountains separating Nehekhara from the Old World. Vlad avoided the entanglements of greenskins that hindered the others and found his own way to The Empire Of Sigmar. Vampires were still mostly an unknown to the humans of Warhammer Europe, despite Sigmar himself having fought them and there being a minor matter of the Empire marching to destroy Mourkain during the story of W'soran and Ushoran. Thanks to the status quo-enforcing policies of Neferata's web of international sexy spies the common folk knew little of Vampires and feared them only among the various other things that are probably lurking in the night.
Vlad and Isabella
After spending some time gathering information Vashanesh found that he had come to a land called Sylvania. Sylvania was poor and ruled primarily by corrupt leaders who were hated and feared by the populace. The magic Wind Of Death blew strongly through Sylvania, causing madness in much of its inbred nobility and giving the land a cursed and barren landscape. He also discovered that the leader of the region, the mad count Otto Von Drak, had an inheritance crisis due to having no son to inherit and an intense hatred of his brother Leopold Von Drak. Vashanesh invented the name Vlad Von Carstein, obtained some nice clothes, and presented himself as the handsome nobleman to the court of Castle Drakenhof interested in joining the family. Otto, on his deathbed, almost immediately gave "Vlad" his daughter Isabella as a wife and died soon after that. Leopold had an "accident" of falling off a tower (possibly involving blood loss, most likely due to Vlad literally tearing his heart out of his chest for Isabella) and the Sigmarite priest vanished (blood AND body loss!).
Vlad began a network operation of discovering who's who among Sylvanian nobility, greatly aided by Isabella. Although loyal in concept to the Von Drak line she had a great deal of hatred for her father and those of the court, and eagerly made herself more than just a pawn to her new husband. She accepted his Vampiric nature and fell in love, slowly creeping her way into his heart as well. With her guidance Vlad turned the most loyal (read: least batshit fucking insane) nobles into Vampires while making sure the rest met with various "accidents" (probably involving blood loss and the complete removal of their family name from all records and tombstones). While Vlad was prone to great bouts of rage at any sleight (like all Nehekharans) Isabella was of a calm temperament, able to calm her husband and lead him back to reason which ensured that only those who truly deserved his anger received it (cruelly, in front of an assembled gathering of the nobility). The common folk of Sylvania, always oppressed and downtrodden, fearing at any moment that a new burst of the local lord's madness would lead to a fresh purge of their friends and family, actually benefited from Vlad's rule; excessive cruelty was not tolerated, and Vlad GREATLY encouraged acting as if they were still mortal which necessitated living servants and workers on the Sylvanian estates. Taxes were more fair and suddenly being killed by a lord was due to their need for sustenance rather than just because "the voices". Vlad eliminated the bandits and corrupt mercenaries, as well as Chaos worship (Sigmar worship suddenly and inexplicably dropped as well after). Most nobles who were turned gladly renamed themselves Von Carstein in Vlad and Isabella's honor (most were related already anyway).
Isabella wanted to remain with Vlad forever, but knew that soon she would start to fall to age, but Vlad refused to make her a Vampire. While Vlad was away she became deathly ill (AKA poisoned herself) and he rushed home to save her. Upon arriving home he found that she was dead, but after sending away the healers and mortician he spent three days alone in her room after which she was suddenly perfectly okay (the doctors may have been confused due to sudden inexplicable blood loss).
Age Of The Three Emperors (First War of the Vampire Counts\FirstVampire War)
During the events of Mordheim in 1999 on the Imperial Calendar Vlad managed to woo one of his ex's servants, Baroness Katherina von Dernsbach, and sent her to the city to lead Vampire forces in stealing as much Warpstone as possible. Not long after and during the election crisis that resulted in a civil war in the Empire over who would become the next Emperor in 2010, on Geheimnisnacht (AKA Halloween, when Morrslieb is closest to Mallus the Warhammer World) he invited the nobility of Sylvania to a feast where the Vampire nobles fed on the remaining mortal nobility after which he consumed all of the gathered Warpstone and read an incantation of Nagash straight from one of the nine Books Of Nagash which caused the undead of Sylvania to rise and march.
Relations
Vampire encounters with Beastmen in lore are rare, since both tend to serve the purpose as "guys attacking the Empire" although in Total War: WARHAMMER Isabella remarks that "They would be beautiful if they weren't so disgusting."