Silas von Eckehart
Lord Silas von Eckehart
Great minds can make the greatest mistakes.Lord Silas von Eckehart is the owner of the Eckehart Mansion, a haunting mansion that looms ominously over its surrounds. Until the intervention of the Lost Ones in late 5626, he was the sole member of the von Eckehart family that had survived the mysterious tragedies plaguing the family. Silas is a powerful arcane spellcaster with significant talent in necromancy and conjuration magic. Prior to the disasters sweeping his home and family, he was known through the magical world as an expert in magic item creation and crafting, and as one of the foremost collectors of magical artifacts through Valathe. The death of his wife and subsequent deaths of his children forced a permanent change in Silas. He fell into the depths of despair, and swore to find a way, any way, to save his family... leading him to ever-darker paths and ever-more-terrifying powers. Though his intent was originally noble, none can deny what he has become: a monster, trapping the souls of hundreds to steal their knowledge and power for himself.
Family
Mental characteristics
Personal history
My father.. he was a good man, once. I don't fault him for this, you know. In his shoes, I can't say I wouldn't have done the same.
Relationships
Alignment
NE
Current Location
Species
Ethnicity
Date of Death
5228
Year of Birth
5068 EA
558 Years old
Circumstances of Death
Turned into a vampire
Spouses
Sarah von Eckehart
(spouse)
Siblings
Current Residence
Pronouns
He/him
Gender
Male
Eyes
Blue
Hair
Blonde
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale as death
Height
6'2
Aligned Organization
Ruled Locations
As the sole heir to the von Eckehart family lands and fortune, Silas was treated to a rich upbringing by his parents. His father, Lüthold von Eckehart, was a dhampir noble, long descended from one of Gothadrun's vampiric nobility; his mother, Agnise, was of a comparable human line. Despite his mother's humanity, Silas inherited the bulk of his features and abilities from his father. His mother passed away before ever seeing him reach adulthood - the curse of humanity was to age, and she rejected the idea of becoming undead to avoid it.
He trained in both noble arts of diplomacy and the more arcane arts as he grew up, always preferring to spend time with his books over running about with his cohort. He had some friends, but none close - the difference in age was often too steep, as most of his companions were human and aged far faster than he. It was only when he neared dhampiric adulthood at the age of 110, much like an elf's, that he met someone who entirely changed things. Sarah von Hebenstreitin, the human daughter of a wealthy doctor and her bureacrat husband, vacationed close by, and immediately took a liking to him - allegedly because his hair was like hers, especially in the sun.
They became fast friends, each bringing out the best of the other. Sarah continued her parents' medical work whilst attending to Silas in her free time, and he crafted her countless tools and magical aids to make her work easier. They were quite the sight as a pair, and soon married - much to the disapproval of Sarah's family, who lived too far to stop their wayward daughter. Sarah's parents did not attend the wedding, nor did they agree to meet the couple's children, of whom they had three: Ulfric, Adelmar, and Viktoria.
The children, with Ulfric now well into his twenties and Adelmar not far behind him, found their ways to flourish. In particular, Viktoria fell in love with the mansion's grounds and the forest that lay behind it. The men often found themselves chasing after her as she disappeared beyond the trees, discovering local ponds and caves, all the while putting herself in danger from the very beasts Ulfric had trained himself to protect her from.
Yet it was not the monsters that proved Viktoria's doom. On one particularly sunny summer's day, she went into the woods with her brothers and happened upon a circle of mushrooms. Before either man could stop her, she let out a laugh of glee and danced into the faerie ring, knowing only that the fey were a fun, delightful folk. Panicking, Ulfric followed her in, and Adelmar fled back to his father in urgent despair. Silas was furious, terror evident in his eyes, and yet Adelmar refused to stay behind. Together, they went into the First World to locate the others of their family in that twisted playground of eternity.
Silas grieved his children most deeply. The expedition to retrieve Adelmar had ended in mixed failure and success; though he had only been able to retrieve the still-warm body of his son, his eldest child had been easy to steal away as well. The night that Adelmar had stolen away was the night of his Change - of his descent into vampirism, much like his family's ancestor had. Full of undead vigor, he had little trouble in dragging both of his sons back to their home. He imprisoned Ulfric in his bedroom temporarily, and made his way to his basement study with Adelmar's body.
It was only with the arrival of the Lost Ones that the status quo changed; after their hellish experience in the Mansion, Ulfric was cured of his wild rage and set free as mortal once more, and some of the souls trapped with Silas were freed. However, the Mansion remains in its horrible state; even the Champion of the Divine were not able to save its inhabitants from their doom.
And Silas? Silas continues to reach out for help, any help, to fix his broken family. Perhaps he will find success or peace now, with Ulfric by his side - or perhaps Ulfric will join him in undeath, and their struggle will continue. Silas has spent the past four hundred years reaching out to every entity possible in the hope that someone will help, from the lich Ludrissiel Geltharieth to the ever-holy High Priestess Aetha Tinuval, and it is not likely that this will stop him. If anything - it will encourage him to do far, far more.
Family Life
I think the townsfolk will be happier to see you now, father - they definitely cheered for the amount of wolf hides I brought in.For a time, the family were happy in their mansion, even as Silas's father passed away shortly before Viktoria's birth; victim of a sudden riot in Gothadrun's capital. They stayed largely secluded from the world on their mansion's grounds, with only Sarah, Ulfric, and Adelmar taking trips out. Ulfric took up a role as the family's protector and worked with travelling adventurers and weapons tutors to grow stronger and more able, and saw Adelmar pick up a number of similar skills. Adelmar preferred, however, to stay closer to the shadows and to plan ahead, his head often in strategies and tactics over combat. Viktoria, meanwhile, stayed relatively sheltered from weapon arts; she had inherited Silas's prowess for magic on a nigh unprecedented scale, and nearly burnt down the mansion when she was just a child. After that, her parents decided to be very gentle with their strong-willed daughter.
Tragedy
Witchcraft and villainy, Sarah? I'd thought better of you than to sink to the level of that depraved maniac.Their happiness was an impossible ask. One day, in the year 5210, Sarah's family invited their daughter - and only their daughter, not her husband nor her children - to visit them in her home town. It was to be a short visit, and one she made a few times each year without incident. Yet this year was different. Days slipped into weeks with no word - finally, a solemn procession gathered at the mansion gates and called Silas forth to present him with Sarah's ashes. Her mother was there, face streaked with bitter tears, and the story came out of the depths of misery.
Statue of Sarah by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Sarah had been taken prisoner by their town's burgomeister upon her arrival, held up on charges of diabolism and witchcraft; despite her family's frantic intervention, the burgomeister soon forced her to speak, and burnt her at the stake in front of the town.
In a rage, Silas forbade Sarah's mother from setting foot on his property, and indeed made it nigh-impossible to do so. Whilst his children struggled with their grief over their mother's passing, with Adelmar desperately trying to distract Viktoria as he himself broke and Ulfric trying to remain strong for all three, Silas withdrew to his study and began to make plans to protect their home in a way that would never be undone.
As he explored the concepts of demiplanes and planar fissures, he neglected to give his children the attention they needed. He was present, yes, but more as a shadow than as a father.
Less than a year after his wife's death, he succeeded in his mission. His mansion and the lands around it withdrew into a demiplane, leaving their place barren on the Material Plane. Allegedly coincidentally, the towns nearby - and particularly the town that his beloved Sarah had been killed in - went up in flames, condemning them to ruin.
Sarah's Death by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
The First World
Ulfric, look! There are so many colours! Can I make colours like that? I want my magic to work like this.There, the situation grew worse. Silas was a blazing storm of vengeance, one that even the First World's rulers, the Eldest, could not ignore. And nor had they ignored his childen. One of the more powerful Eldest, the Green Mother herself, had apparently happened upon the pair enjoying their time in her woods, and had taken a liking to them both. Ulfric had offered himself up in protection for Viktoria and been stolen away, twisted to the fey's liking as one of her guards. Viktoria, by contrast, was there - and yet not. The girl was woven into the Mother's playground as one of her children, to be a plaything and playmate for as long as she held the Green Mother's interest.
Faerie Rings by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
From there, events blurred. They retrieved Viktoria from her prison, angering the Green Mother in the process - and drawing the ire of her bodyguards upon them. In the conflict, Adelmar took a heavy injury and faltered at the worst moment. Unprotected, Viktoria tried to cast a spell on her brother to cheer him up... and drew the attention of a particular bodyguard. A mortal touched by darkness, corrupted by fey.
Mind clouded by the fey's enchantments, Ulfric struck out at his sister, falling on her with the impenetrable rage of the shadow fey ankou. Silas could not act in time to prevent it; he could only force Ulfric off his daughter and flee with his injured son, Viktoria's body clutched close to him, her blood staining his robes forever crimson.
This was not the end of Adelmar's tale. He recovered well enough this first time, but the sights haunted him. Whilst Silas worked tirelessly at finding a way to revive Viktoria, Adelmar slipped out to attempt a rescue for his brother. Yet, injured and weak, he didn't make it far.
He struggled through no small amount of conflict against the realm's darker beasts, and when he eventually sought rest, a nereid saw easy prey. He nearly drowned in the depths of her pool. Oddly, it was his brother who saved him: still a horrifying beast of shadow, but intelligent enough to stalk the prey that had gotten away.
The last sight Adelmar saw was the whirl of his father's cloak on the edge of his vision as his life finally slipped away.
Fall into Necromancy
It won't be the same for her and I, can tell you that for certain. She.. I know what happened to us was different, I remember the damn silence.The signs were there and blossomed into grim reality. Adelmar's soul could not be drawn back through resurrection; Silas did not have the divine power needed for it, and there were none in Gothadrun who would make the attempt. Yet he had found experimental methods in an ancient book within the mansion's deepest depths. Necromancy could not give him back his children the same as they were, but bound to undeath, they would at least live a half-life until he could save them properly. It wasn't clear what went wrong. Adelmar returned not as a vampire, but as a spirit, anguished by the attempt. Frustrated and refusing to listen to his son, Silas tried again months later with Viktoria, having altered the ritual to suit her unique magics. This time, it went far worse. Some odd incompatibility of magics between the dangerous artifacts Silas had collected and the ritual he had devised caused the mansion's dimensional magics to slip; the family home turned into the family prison, and though Viktoria's spirit awoke, she was fractured and dangerous.
1 - Mansion Main Floor - Fey
1.1 - Mansion Main Floor - Haunted
1.2 - Mansion Main Floor - Shadow
2 - Mansion First Floor - Fey
2.1 - Mansion First Floor - Haunted
2.2 - Mansion First Floor - Shadow
3 - Mansion Basement - Silas's Rooms
3.1 - Mansion Basement - Vault Protections
3.2 - Mansion Basement - Sarah's Illusory Prison
4 - Mansion Vault - Artifact Storage
4.1 - Mansion Vault - Library
5 - Mansion Exterior Gardens
Worse, her mind had been shattered enough by the fey, and undeath had not granted it any repair. She remembered Ulfric, too; remembered his horrid form tearing her to shreds. The first time they met within the shattered mansion, the conflict nearly destroyed it. Silas quickly kept them separated, setting up mirrors to travel between the various dimensional versions of the mansion as he did. Adelmar could do naught but watch.
Centuries passed without cure for the mansion's state. Adventurers heard tell of the vault of arcane secrets held beneath it and invaded with glee - to never return. Fey built up a forest around its position in both reality and in its demiplane, flooding through the first of the demiplanes and claiming it as their home. Viktoria, with her broken mind, was enchanted by their colours, and always seemed happiest there.
Adelmar settled on a different reflection to Viktoria - on a realm that seemed far closer to reality than any of the others. As the years passed, the ghosts and bodies of the dead began to haunt it, and Adelmar took up the task of chronicling those who passed through and their adventures, often warning them or offering help.
Ulfric was locked to the darkest of the demiplanes bleeding through the mansion, the one influenced heaviest by the Shadow Plane. He stalked the hallways, ever-violent, and attacked all who approached.
Another great character. A vampire dad who is trying his best in a multidimensional mansion with great and detailed battlemaps. Reaching for his children in more than one way and speaking with beings, much more powerful then him. Well, who wouldn't try everthing to get the loved ones back? Nice work.
Thank you! And yes - no matter the road he takes, every step will be to fix his broken family, even if the situation only grows worse. Such is his curse, his fate.
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