Name: John Ernest
Gender: Male
Age: 445, born 1569 died 1599 (Appears 30)
Generation: 1st
Race: Vampire
Appearance:
Hight: 6'2
Weight: 223lbs
Path: Mystic
Bio:
John was born in 1569 to House Regenstein. The wealth of his house came from the nearby city Blakenburg in which they governed. House Regenstein was the political power house of the region due to their sizable army and seemingly endless wealth. His father urged him to take up arms and train as is tradition among the men in his family. Swordsmanship was the one thing he truly flourished in. At a young age John developed a vain personality. John was no ordinary child, he did not play in the gardens or enjoy the company of others. No, he liked hurting things.
You couldn't blame him of course, his father was not a caring man. One could almost say his father raised John to be the way he is. After all house Regenstein was notorious for committing atrocities. 'Fear is what controls men, savagery is what wins wars, and power comes from both'. The words of his father and his father before him since the rise of his house. When John became a young man his reputation as a bastard was well known by all. His own men despised him and feared him even more.
His father could not curb his sons urges and his mother could not sooth his savage soul. Something black had grown in John and corrupted his very soul, and nothing could bring him back. Instead his father used his power to cover up his sons crimes, a fact well known by the common folk of Blakenburg. His father did all that he could to restrain his son save for chains and a prison cell. They say God forgives, but there are some crimes that cannot be forgiven and John has committed them all and more.
Tragedy befell his house when John's father was suddenly taken by illness. A fever ravaged his body and that night he died. Some say it was John who poisoned his father but no one could prove it. John assumed his reign as count at the age of 23. Now there was no one in the region who could tell him no. Castle Regenstein became a house of the damned. Young women were his favorite targets, poor farm girls where stripped away from their families. They were invited to join the count at court, once this was an honor some peasants would dream about, now it was horror.
John would rape and torture these girls throughout the night, then dispose of them on the morrow. This was almost a nightly occurrence. His mother could no longer stand to look at the sight of her son and in her grief committed suicide, but not before trying to kill her own son. John was stricken, how could his own mother try to kill him? In an outrage he would not allow his mother a proper burial. Instead he allowed her corpse to rot upon the battlements of his castle.
Some years later John happened to come across an enchanting beauty while touring through his city, with armed guards of course. His subjects had learned years ago to never openly object to their lord, yet all of them would give their left arm to catch him alone. This woman was not from his Blackenburg he could tell, she had an air of nobility about her that made her stick out, like a ruby among pebbles. He had to have her, just for one night. And so at spear point she followed him to castle Regenstein without objections. John preferred to work in private and so dismissed his guards once they were safe behind stone walls. A mistake he would soon regret. John chained her to the stone wall in his room and began his lust filled ritual. Between moans she whispered, "You want power... immortality? I can give it to you." Foolishly he said yes thinking it was nothing. That morning he did not kill this strange woman and found it odd that she shown no signs of the abuse from last night. Even more striking that she was no longer chained across the room and lay beside him. The bite mark upon his neck burned and itched, he felt ill. His body convulsed and ached when he tried to stand, pain ravaged him and he crumpled out of bed onto the floor.
The strange woman only looked at him from bed and smiled, "power comes with a price" she mused. The pain would reside she promised but it did not. She left the room striding across the stone floor as bare as the day she was born. Screams and smoke began to flutter into the room as his home caught fire. Stone began to crumble around him as his castle burned. A sight the peasants would rejoice for he knew. John crawled through embers and stone to reach his armory. The only place that would save him from the fire and collapsing stone. The armory was reinforced with steel and stone, a place to hide himself and his sins away from prying eyes. This is where he remained, buried under tones of stone and earth.
