Von Carstein - Mannfred

Mannfred

Mannfred Von Carstein was sired by Vlad himself and it is implied that Vlad sired him in the days before his arrival at Drakenhof and marriage to Isabella (it is also implied they may have shared a relationship before Vlad married Isabella). He held the greatest claim to his sire's throne but chose to remain in the shadows, letting the other contenders destroy themselves before assuming full control of Sylvania. After aiding the escape of Jon Skellan, a man who hunted his wives murderers who had been turned to vampirism by one of Vlad's undead minions, he and his unlikely companion travelled around feeding from maidens to spread terror and discord. After destroying the ruling family of Nuln in a single night's blood fest, Mannfred deemed his work finished. He sent Skellan to the east to return to Sylvania, where he would serve as Mannfred's agent in stoking the raging paranoia that was Mannfred's brother Konrad's constant companion. During this time Mannfred journeyed south to Khemri, where he procured much lore from a stolen Book of Nagash. When asked why he did not simply betray Konrad and seize power himself Mannfred was nonchalant, but reminded Skellan that should he attempt to do so, the next Von Carstein he would face would be Mannfred himself.

With the death of his 'brother' Konrad, Mannfred seized power and returned to Drakenhof aboard a 'Black Ship' that swiftly became infamous in the Empire. Mannfred set about rebuilding Drakenhof and Sylvania one corrupt piece at a time. When Skellan discovered a coven of Lahmian Vampires in Nuln, an intrigued Mannfred soon arrived to meet with 'The Eternal' and propose a truce between their bloodlines. Soon Mannfred marched his troops beneath the Empire in the ancient tunnels beneath the world, battling through Skaven forces to strike from below. His assaults upon the Empire were initially successful, and Mannfred conquered with ease: because he attacked in the middle of winter, the Empire's military was in no position to stop him; three hastily-assembled Imperial armies were destroyed with ease. Unlike Vlad, Mannfred never showed mercy to those he defeated, preferring to kill all his enemies then raise them up in his army. As the war continued, Mannfred made his advance on Altdorf itself: mere rumours of his advance were enough to send hordes of refugees fleeing before him, preferring to die in the winter cold than face the undead horde.

Mannfred arrived at Altdorf in the winter of 2132 to find the city battlements empty of defenders. But as he made ready to take the capital of the Empire itself, and succeed at what both Vlad and Konrad had failed to do, the Grand Theogonist, Kurt III, appeared on the battlements and read the Great Spell of Unbinding from the Liber Mortis. As his undead army crumbled to dust around him, Mannfred was forced to order a hasty retreat. He marched down the Reik to Marienburg, intending to capture the port, but his attack was thwarted by Marienburg's army and their allies- a company of High Elf mages whose magic turned the tide against Mannfred at the crucial point of the battle. Before he could launch a siege of Marienburg, Mannfred's spies revealed an army from Altdorf was coming up behind him fast. Mannfred abandoned the onslaught and fled back across the Empire. The various provinces of the Empire, united against Mannfred, put aside their differences and allied to put an end to the vampire menace for good.

What followed was several long years of Mannfred playing a cat-and-mouse game with the Empire and her allies: the various Imperial provinces would inflict serious casualties on Mannfred's army, but then the Vampire Count would replenish his forces after a great victory. However, by the year 2145, the Imperials finally drove him back into Sylvania...and to Hel Fenn. Here, cornered in the marshes of Hel Fenn, Mannfred and the remnants of his undead army made their last stand against an alliance of troops from the Empire and the Dwarfs. With the aid of the renegade vampire Jerek (the same Jerek who slew Vlad von Carstein at the Battle of Schwartzhafen), Prince Martin of Stirland cornered Mannfred as he tried to flee the field and slew him with his Runefang. Mannfred's body was lost in the swamps of Hel Fenn and never found. After centuries of terror, the last Vampire Count of Sylvania was no more.

Or so it seemed. Centuries later Mannfred was resurrected by a petty necromancer named Schtillmann, who did not survive to see the fruits of his terrible labour (Schtillman was killed by the infamous Dwarf Slayer, Gotrek Gurnisson, who cut him in two- the blood from his bifurcated body spilled on Mannfred's corpse, leading to his resurrection). By the time of the Storm of Chaos Mannfred was once again Lord of Sylvania, and remains a threat to the Empire at the present time.

Mannfred made his presence known again during the Storm of Chaos after the Battle of Sokh, where his army fell upon the survivors of both the Imperial attackers and Archaon's rearguard. Exhausted from their earlier fighting, the two armies were in no position to challenge the Vampire and his undead army, augmented as it was by the reanimated corpses of Imperial state troops and Chaos warriors, and both sides fled: the forces of Chaos retreated to Brass Keep (their base of operations in the Empire) while the armies of the Empire fled back to Middenheim. Mannfred pursued the Imperials back to Middenheim, surrounded the city and prepared to begin a siege. On the day of his planned attack, he spoke to Emperor Karl Franz "As my sire called out to your ancestor, so shall I call out to you. Surrender the city to me, and you will all be spared. Resist and you will all die".

There was silence, then a lone rider emerged from Middenheim's gates and to Mannfred. It was Volkmar the Grim, and he had not come to discuss terms of surrender. Riding up to Mannfred, he looked without fear into the vampire's eyes and said coldly "Nearly five hundred years ago, a man like me killed a monster like you. It can be done again".

At this, Mannfred was given pause, and his smug confidence vanished. He could remember all too well the sight of Grand Theogonist Wilhelm dragging Vlad von Carstein off the walls of Altdorf to his death, and was reminded of the threat Vardek Crom and his army posed to his holdings in Sylvania. With a snarl of fury at Volkmar, Mannfred turned his horse around and ordered his army to withdraw. Mannfred's retreat signalled the end of the battle for Middenheim: though fighting would continue to rage on for some months in the various provinces of the Empire, the war was officially over.

Mannfred wiped out the intruding Chaos forces of Vardek Crom, but with his presence revealed again, it surely can only be a matter of time before the armies of the Empire muster to destroy the threat of the Vampire Counts once and for all...