Thaddius' Wicked and Unwanted [Mature Themes]

Physically:
Thaddius is a man who is surrounded by an aura of both nobility and power, both in matters mundane and magical. He stands tall, his back straight and head held high, towering at a respectable six feet, three inches in height. His face reflects his pure Germanic blood, with a thick, prominent chin, matched by a royal nose and a pair of beautifully deep, blue eyes. His hair is light blonde and thick, easily flowing down to his shoulders, but it's kept back in a conservative pony-tail. His body follows in suit, broad shouldered and strong, but not at all overly muscular. His arms and legs are naturally thick, lending to his often intimidating looks.

Psychologically:
Thaddius is a man of almost schizophrenic qualities. On one hand, he is a family man; he adores children, he's polite, level headed, always eager to help his friends ... a nice guy, in short, with few if any enemies. Thaddius however is also the former head of a Nazi concentration camp, is guilty of war crimes, has certain sociopathic tendancies and is, at times, blatantly both sexist and racist. He never speaks of his past or his wartime experiences and he still suffers from the horrid burdain of guilt from all the wrongs he's done and the pain he's brought. He has no hope for himself in any afterlife and has fallen from grace with his religion. Yet he still strives for redemption within the German research project.

He is, in short, a good man - unless he gets in a position he can take an advantage of, in which case most would label him clearly evil.

Style:
When seen he's usually sharply dressed in some manner of suit, with his trademark cane, black leather gloves and shoes, and the royal purple colored tie around his neck; the color of his former dynasty.

History:
Thaddius von Ostmarch was born in 1915, born to Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria. When barely one year old, during the height of the war, his father died - leaving the throne temporarily in the hands of his grand nephew, Charles I of Austria. Knowing that Thaddius was to take over when he'd come to age, Charles became nearly obsessed with the young child's safety, wanting to make sure that Franz's own blood would rule his kingdom. The terrors of war and the constant rebellions led to Thaddius leading a terribly sheltered life. Surrounded by his sisters and his aging mother, he had little contact with other males, learning to distrust - and as a child even fear - them; the only exception being Charles.

When the war ended, Germany suffered greatly from the Treaty of Versailles, while Austro-Hungary under the strong leadership of Charles did not. Even though shaky and unstable from it's many cultural differences and mini-rebellions, the army and their economy remained strong and Charles refused to accept any humiliating terms. However, he did agree to return Italian lands to Italy, and to pay a great deal of money to fund the first Red Cross missions, helping people throughout Europe deal with the aftermath of war and the surge of the Spanish Flu.

In the following years, Thaddius matured and grew, gradually getting more and more freedoms from his uncle. His mother died when he was eight, and one of his sisters fell victim to the Spanish Flu at 12 - she herself was 18 at the time and recently married. At 14, Charles allowed the young boy to begin 'military training', something Thaddius had been obsessed with as he grew up. The training was very light, but more than enough to bring Thaddius to the limit of his abilities; physical training, fire arms training, studies of military histories, tactics and great battles -- that and magic. He excelled in all fields, but showed the greatest potential as a mage. His skill surpassed all his teachers, but lack of actual magical energy within kept him him from actually casting any advanced magics for the time being.

At 18, he was a full member of the army forces. At this point, in 1933, Nazi Germany had been born and Thaddius found himself as an avid supporter of the fascists and Hitler himself. The two met on several occasions, with Hitler admitting to others that he was quite fond of the boy, and saw great promise in him. Thus it was Thaddius who brought the SS, and the "Death's Head" division, to Austro-Hungary. He quickly rose to the rank of Sturmbannführer(Major), and at 21 he had been given a division of his own; Österreichischer Totenkopf (Austrian Death's Head). This is where his history becomes the darkest.

Under the guidance of the Nazi Warlock Joseph Zee, Thaddius learned that he could increase his own magical energies through harvesting them from the late dead. In this universe, when anyone dies, their magical energies slowly convert into other energies, often at seemingly random. Instead of having them go to waste, Joseph gathered a small group of magicians who invented a spell that could transfer them into a subject -- Thaddius. In 1941 during the second World War, and after having fought with his Division in both Poland, France and Italy, Thaddius returned to Austria to take control of a concentration camp. The following years are a blur to him, but the death toll exacted upon the 'unwanted' reaches just under 34 thousand. His magical powers are unmatched by any, and he becomes feared throughout Europe. He becomes Der Metzger von Ostmarch (The Butcher of Ostmarch).

In 1945 the tables turned. The combined might of Soviet Russia and the western Allies, now with the fascinating German Vril-Technology in their hands, crushed the Axis armies in France, Spain, Africa, Italy, Russia and Norway. All around them the noose drew tighter. Then at its climax, three things happened that would shape Thaddius forever;

Charles I kills himself in his study, fearing the humiliation and tortures that would surely follow should the Soviets capture him.

Berlin is devastated as Hitler's first and only nuclear bomb is detonated by him. Empowered by massive magical energies, the entire city is reduced, literally, to a crater that in the coming years forms Lake Berlin.

With Hitler's and Charles' death, Thaddius finds himself realizing that the fight is lost -- and the horrors that he himself, by his own hands, unleashed upon thousands of innocents. In a fit of rage and desperation, he kills Joseph Zee and his magi, obliterates his death camp and sets the few remaining survivors free. Yet even then, he finds himself a monster. Taking the hand of a young girl, he leads her off into the forest - there, he rapes her brutally and leaves her for dead, abandoning the child in the snow.

After the end of the war, Thaddius fled and went into hiding, travelling through war-torn Italy, through the mech-graveyards of Sicily, through Egyptian held Lybia and from there to Spain and eventually to Argentina. There he was finally arrested by American special forces. He willingly surrendered and was brought discreetly to an American court. He was put to trial and found guilty of war crimes, but given the option to instead serve a sentance working with the American government on their magical studies and research program. He accepted.

He's spent the rest of his life in America, not having aged a day and living in luxury, owning his own mansion somewhere in Nevada, hidden from prying eyes with powerful magics. He's now the head of the Magical Studies and Research Project, leading a large number of American and German magi researchers. To this day, he is still unmarried and has no known children.

Foreword;
"Vampires are not real. They are fictional monsters made up by creative, if a bit dark-minded, parents to scare their children into obedience. A child that does not do as its told, may risk a vampire coming to take them away. The following is written as fiction, should be read as fiction, and not at all, at any time, be taken seriously by anyone, for any reason." - Joseph Zee, Untersturmführer der österreichischen Totenkopf; in service of Hitler as a Warlock of the Reich.



Vampiric Mythology;
To begin understanding vampires we must begin with the basics - the things that are most human about them, the things we can most easily relate to. In this, I've chosen their mythology as our first topic.

Vampires suffer as humans do in that none of us truly know where we come from, nor do we understand the true meaning of our existence. The why -- or the why not of it all. Just like the vast majority of us, the vampires have looked to religion as the answer to that burning question; and like us humans, they have not yet been able to agree on a single answer.

The religions of the vampires are many, but most of them I've found to be based on the same religious ideas as ours. There are those that believe themselves to be the children of the cursed Caine and Lilith, but just as we Christians can't agree on anything beyond that there is a god, and there is a bible, those that follow the word of Caine and/or Lilith, can't agree on more than that either. There are multiple sects and cults based on these teachings, most of them based in Europe and the Americas.

Other cultures have different ideas. For an example, in Japan the vampire is more commonly referred to how they perceive themselves; as demons and cursed souls. One story says that two men were lost in a deep mountain forest, one was old and the other was young. The two had been lost for days and were without both food or water. In a disparate attempt to save himself, the younger - valuing the life of the older less than his own youth - slew the man and drank his blood. The story then goes to say that the old mans spirit cursed the young man with eternal youth, and an undying thirst for blood to maintain it. Another is less fantastic - simply suggesting that all vampires are demons in human flesh.

These religious differences, just like our own, have often been the source of conflicts between the different broods, clans, sects and cults - some of which that can be seen in our history books, as it spilled into the world of mortals. A good example of this would be the 1882 Attsberg Massacre; written off as a rebellion that caved in on itself, rather than the truth - a conflict between two vampiric cults that simply did not know all the identities of their enemies, and both came to the conclusion that killing a few humans to be safe was perfectly acceptable.

In conclusion; we have no greater idea of where the vampire comes from than the vampires themselves - but hasn't stopped either us nor them of making up wild ideas on the theory.



Social Structure;
Here vampires begin differing from ourselves. They are by nature anti-social. Vampires are sterile and thus do not have the urge to procreate. They have no natural predators besides man, and they avoid mankind's detection and wrath much better on their own rather than in groups. Therefore, it is no surprise that a good deal of vampires spend the bulk of their unlives alone.

However, the majority does belong to some sort of social structure. Some belong to clans that trace their roots to a single vampire, often carrying their names in their honor. Others unite through shared religion. Others, known to some as 'lesser clans', gather into families, which are usually centered around a single master vampire and its children.

As far as I have been able to tell, my experience with these groups is that they're usually formed out of necessity - though smaller groups are sometimes formed for simpler pleasures and vices. The idea is that any vampire belonging to a social structure can call upon it for aid during certain situations. One example given to me was that any vampire belonging to the Hand of Caine cult could call upon any member of that cult to help defend it against any religious wronging, and that member would have to answer the call. Yet should that same member find himself hunted by humans, or for non-religious reasons, it would have no such right.

Beyond that, just like us, the vampires do have a strong hint of male domination in their societies. The majority of the master vampires are male; mistresses are few and far between. Females, for no obvious reasons to me, sire children far less often than males - though this may be due to the fact that most children are sired for sexual reasons. Fresh vampires are rarely sired for utilitarian purposes, though some cultures do practice the idea of 'blood dolls'.

This brings me onto the topic of classes within the social structure. Much like we have upper and lower classes, with nobility at the top and peasantry at the bottom, the vampires have a system of sorts of their own.

Here in Europe, the highest class of vampires is usually that of the Master (or, rarely, the Mistress). The Master is the oldest living member of a clan, and all or at least the majority of the children within that clan can trace their roots to him. Logic then dictates, accurately, that the second highest rank is that of his siblings, who act as a sort of a senate. Should the Master have no siblings, his own first generation make up that senate. The rest depends on individual clans, but amongst the largest clans in Europe the pecking order becomes a bit of a mess, much like our own politics. It becomes a game of influence, intrigue and betrayal, as the hopefuls try to gain the favour of the Master and his senate.

At the very bottom of this social ladder are the vampires that are sired for a single purpose; either for slave labor, sexual servants or blood dolls. Now I'll assume that you, gentle reader, are aware of mankind's own ventures into slavery. Slave labor built the pyramids, and women sold as sexual slaves - or women that sell themselves in Berlin's red light districts, both have few differences from their vampire counterparts. The blood doll however is unique, and brings us to our next topic.



Vampirism;
Vampires as best known for one unifying trait; their thirst for the blood of men. During my travels and interactions with the vampires of Europe, I've learntmuch about their addiction and physiology. Although I am not a doctor nor learned in any medicinal arts, I will do my very best to relay to you my findings with the greatest accuracy I have. So let's start at the beginning.

Vampires are, physically, largely human. Their main differences come in their sharp canines, their super-humanly strong musculature and impressively strong bones. Those, and the vampire does not require food for sustenance, nor does it require liquids beyond human blood. Their bodies are actually unable to digest human foods at all, and sometimes as little as a single bite of bread can give an otherwise healthy vampires extreme stomach cramps, until emesis occurs.

Vampires do not need air to breathe either, but since all vampires were once human, they do have lungs and many breathe simply from habit. Others have done away with it completely. This, ironically, made them invulnerable to the drowning chairs used to execute them in the early Dark Ages. But I digress.

The fact is though that if a vampire is to survive, it needs blood - human blood specifically. Its body cannot produce its own, but requires it as fuel. Every day the average vampire requires about half the amount of blood the average grown male has to offer; though draining a human of that much of his blood, will result in death. Once a vampire has swallowed the blood, it enters its stomach. Yet the vampire stomach is different from the human one, in that its connection to its intestines gets sealed, grown over by scar tissue.

Instead, multiple thick veins drain the blood from the stomach and, with the vampire's heart beat, pumps it through its system. As the blood's energy is used to fuel the vampire's body, it grows 'stale' by their terms. Once fully stale, the blood is then returned to the stomach where it gathers up at the bottom and usually, unless in the case of hematemesis, it dries up there.

This leads to what the vampires lovingly call 'blood balls'. If the stale blood in a vampire's stomach isn't gotten rid off before it dries up, it becomes thick and vile. This then starts causing severe stomach pains for the victim vampire, resulting in cramps and in severe cases, the inability to take in fresh blood. This is usually solved by way of hematemesis; where the vampire vomits out the blood ball.

Because blood becomes stale within a vampire over time, this means that vampires rarely attempt feeding on each other, except in extreme cases. Stale blood tastes bitter to them, unlike the supposed ambrosia of fresh, pure and virgin blood. That and stale blood simply doesn't last as long in their system, giving them less energy and only serving to build up in their stomachs.

Blood dolls however are vampiric slaves used by Masters who, for whatever reason, choose not to leave their homes. These blood dolls are instructed with going out and draining a human victim, then returning as quickly as possible back to their Master - who then feeds off the doll's fresh blood, leaving only enough for the doll to live until the next time she goes out to hunt. Blood dolls, to keep the bloods energy from being used up too fast, are taught to use as little effort as possible - wasting as little energy as possible. When not hunting, the majority of all blood dolls are kept locked to keep them from moving; often also forced into a sort of coma. These blood dolls are generally treated worse than mankind treats its cattle.

The life of a blood doll is made all the worse by one harsh fact; draining blood from the victim may be pleasurable for the vampire, but the victim feels intense pain throughout. I admit that my curiousity led me to volunteer to be fed from by a vampire, and the pain I felt from my bit wrist extended throughout my entire being. Never before, and never since, have I felt such pain. A pain the blood dolls feel every day.

Vampirism, in conclusion, is not at all glamorous. However, in the last section of my writing, I will try to detail my experience with the more fantastic side of vampires.



Vampiric Powers;
The science of magic has been studied since pre-history and it's a well known fact that many men are born with the ability to manipulate its energies to their own will. The difference between the human magi and the vampires is that all vampires have that ability, with their powers maturing as they age. This sadly dismisses the many myths of special vampiric powers all together; there are no things a vampire can do that a skilled mage couldn't do himself.

We've all read the story of Dracula, the Vampire Lord of the Ottoman Borderlands; a vampire who had the ability to shapeshift, to control its victims' minds and alter peoples' perceptions. These powers at large have been credited to the race of vampires itself, that the vampires simply evolved these 'natural' abilities. This couldn't be further from the truth. First of all, let's clear one thing up immediately - Lord Dracula was the fictional creation of Bram Stoker, a man who simply brought the old myths of vampires back into popular daylight and modernized it. The powers the gave him were simply there to make him frightening, a truly alien foe.

Yet that's not to say that vampires can't do this. As I've already stated, vampires have the ability to bend magical energies to their will, just like their human magi counterparts. Human magi have already proven that shapeshifting is possible, if extremely difficult and dangerous. Mind control is a proven fact. Modifying the way a person perceives its surroundings has already been done on several occasions. If a human being can do this, the much more attuned vampires can do this even more easily. But one should never forget that the powers of a vampire are simple magic. There's nothing out of the ordinary about them, nothing fantastical, nothing outlandish or bizarre.

This is a fact I came to learn while studying in Vienna, under the tutelage of a vampire who shall remain - as all others I have spoken with - anonymous. At great length, he told me how when he was human, he had all the magical abilities common to a cow, and not an ounce more than that. Yet after he was sired by his Master, the ability to see and manipulate magic came to him as a second nature. Clumsy and powerless at first, the older he grew, the more powerful and adept he became at this manipulation. Eventually it brought him here, a terrificly talented Warlock in service of Austro-Hungary, one that I'm proud to say tutored me and taught me most of my skills today.



In conclusion;
It's debatable who drew the short straw, the humans or the vampires. Their dependence on humanity to survive, their inability to live for more than a couple of days without fresh blood in their veins and the inevitable hate they bring upon themselves for the pain they cause. Yet us humans, though mortal, slower, weaker and in general far more frail, we have freedoms we take for granted. We have the ability to make love in a meaningful way, we can have children that we raise, teach our ways and watch grow up. Our task in life is to create life, and in that creating beauty - something denied to our vampire counterparts. Then, even in death, we can rest easy with our faith in our hearts and the knowledge that we lived.

I'd much rather remain as I am, than ever turn to the darkness that is vampirism.

Signed: Joseph Zee, Untersturmführer der österreichischen Totenkopf; in service of Hitler as a Warlock of the Reich.

Foreword;
"It's 1947, March 12th, somewhere in Ostmarch, Austro-Hungary. I never had intentions to write of this, the deepest and darkest secret of vampirism. Yet now that I am faced with my own mortality, I've realized that my place in history will forever be branded as a villain. Maybe, however unlikely it is, this addendum to the essay I wrote some years ago will let me be remembered for something else as well. At least you, whoever you are, will know that my life was not spent entirely finding new ways of making mass genocide faster and more efficient. God above have mercy on my soul." -Joseph Zee, former Warlock of the Reich.



Conversion;
The greatest secret that I learned during my stay in Vienna with the vampire Master Johan, was that of siring - the act of turning a human being into a vampire. During my studies under his tutelage, he taught me many great things - both of magic and his kin. One thing he always refused to share, however, was that how he became one himself. He told me it was something I could never understand from simple words; I would have to experience it.

My feelings for Johan were strong, I admit. There wasn't a thing in the world I wouldn't do for that man; except give up my humanity. So for the longest time, I could only try and imagine what it would be like. I imagined it would be painful - the one time I volunteered to let him feed from me was... scarring, and siring I presumed could only be worse. I was right in that regard, but my fears turned out to be underestimations. The pain of the conversion is far worse than I could ever have imagined.

Then one summer night, sometime in the early 30's, he brought back home with him a drunken girl. A young woman really, shapely and beautiful, but not quite an adult. He told me the time had come for me to witness it - he would sire her, as an example. He told me that she was to become a vampire simply for my own scientific studies, and after the conversion she would be disposed of. He asked me if I had objections. I had none. The girl had none either, she simply giggled and purred into his ear as if he were telling her sweet nothings. She was without a doubt under his spell.

He lead me down into the basement of his lair, leaving it to me to bring the girl along. I remember how I smelled alcohol on her breath, but only a hint. Her stupor wasn't from her drinking - or at least, so I assumed. Yet the fact didn't bother me as much as it impressed me; Johan's abilities to bend peoples' wills to his own was admirable. At the base of the stairs, the girl lost her footing and fell face first to the ground. I remember feeling no pity for her, leaving her there for the moment. I regret it now. The pain was undeserved, especially with what was to come.

In the basement, he had a small area that seemed almost like a shrine. A deep stone bowl was burried at the center and a meathook hung from the ceiling. On the meathook, a pair of shackles hung. He instructed me to hang her by the ankles using those. With some difficulty, not being as strong as I probably should be, I did so. This is however where I stop retelling the story of how I learned what I know. I've seen greater horrors since that night, many brought unto others by my own hand, yet this memory always causes me the greatest discomfort. So on to the facts.

To become a vampire, you first must die. The vampiric state is one of undeath after all, so logic dictates that to become one you must first stop living. However only a very specific death can actually lead to vampirism - a death from a lack of blood in the victim's system. This ideally happens from being drained completely during feeding - but Johan's preferred fashion was that of hanging, cutting and draining; letting gravity to the work. It is worth noting that the bleeding should always be external. Should death occur from intracerebral hemorrhage, or internal hemorrhaging in general, the victim's body may become useless. Especially with the former, as the brain is still required to function.

Once the victim has lost enough blood, it will fall into a coma. This is natural, a defense mechanism of our bodies, but one that can be denied to the victim by a skilled vampire. This is outrageously cruel however, as the pain of being drained completely through feeding is unimaginable. Johan, I remember, preferred this. She was awake the entire time. Once the victim has become dead, the vampire must then breathe life into its child. This is done by sharing enough of its own blood to bring the victim back to consciousness.

There are many ways of doing this. Some would bring the blood to the victims' lips and let it drain down the esophagus, which is supposedly enough to bring them back. Other ways include cutting both the master and the child, so that the first bleeds into the latter. There are other ways, but none are pleasant and all boil down to the same basic idea; blood from the Master given to the child.

Once the child awakes, it does so with a newfound clarity - but also with a hunger, a ravenous one that must be sated. A good master will have a victim prepared for the child to drain, but Johan was a cruel man. He offered me another lesson, telling me two things. First of all, that the blood drained from a human being just before its death makes it sweeter to the tongue. Death makes feeding much more pleasurable for the vampire. The second is that should that human be brought back, should it drink its own lifeblood, it will find it bitter and vile; but more than that.

The blood as it enters the vampire's system will be like any other at first, except for its awful taste. But once it enters the heart and is then pumped through the body, something changes - something that is a mistery to Johan as much as it is to me. He described it to me thusly; to imagine your blood suddenly turning both boiling hot and greatly acidic, but continuing its course through your body. It will not do damage to your systems and it will not kill you, but you'll wish it would just to end the pain. It can take anything from twelve to twentyfour hours for the blood to become inactive and gather up in the victim's stomach, ready for its first hematemesis.

Johan explained to me that using the victim's own blood was actually rather popular with some of the Masters, used as a tool for breaking their child in and making them easier to control. But he also shared with me that he found it to be a bit of a waste. As noted earlier, blood drained from a dying victim tastes the best to the vampire, making it especially sweet. Some would much rather drink it themselves, letting their child enjoy a proper first meal instead.

Thus ends my addendum.
-Joseph Zee