Báthory Erzsébet (Elizabeth Báthory)
From Handbook of the Union Universe
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| Countess Elizabeth Báthory (2007) | |
| Countess Elizabeth Báthory | |
| Player: @Elizabeth Báthory | |
| Origin: | Magic |
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| Archetype: | Mastermind / Defender |
| Level: | 50 / 32+ |
| Primary Set: | Necromancy / Dark Miasma |
| Secondary Set: | Dark Miasma / Dark Blast |
| Epic Set: | Soul Mastery / Dark Mastery |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Báthory Erzsébet |
| Identity: | The General populace of the world thinks Erzsébet Báthory died in her castle on August 21, 1614 |
| Aliases: | The Blood Countess, Bloody Lady of Čachtice, Comtessa Elizabeth 'Eliza' Thábyro |
| Species: | Vampire |
| Date of Birth: | August 7, 1560 |
| Age: | 447 |
| Height: | 5'6" |
| Weight: | Undisclosed |
| Build: | Athletic |
| Eye Colour: | Red |
| Hair Colour: | Red (often dies it black)) |
| Skin Complexion: | 'Dead' Pale |
| Distinguishment: | Vampiric fangs, and highly developed nails like claws |
| Medical Status: | Deceased |
| Financial Status: | Wealthy |
| Religion: | Demonology |
| Sexuality: | Bi-sexual |
| Marital Status: | Widowed |
| Known Relatives: | George Báthory (father, deceased), Anna Báthory (mother, deceased), Ferenc Nádasdy (husband, deceased) |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Former midevil Hungary (present-day Slovakia) |
| Ethnicity: | Count Vlad Tepesh (Dracula) |
| Legal Status: | Convicted criminal, Stateless person |
| Place of Birth: | Family estate in Nyírbátor, Hungary (present-day Slovakia) |
| Education: | High society education, Witchcraft, Necromancy, Mystical lore, Several European languages |
| Occupation: | Vampire, Caretaker of a large number of misfits she call her 'Court' |
| Group Affiliations: | Court of the Blood Countess, Vanguard |
| Base of Operations: | Castle Báthory |
| Residency: | Cap Au Diable, Etoile Isles |
| Known Powers | |
| Vampiric powers (immortality, shape shift to bat, phase shift, shadow melting, acute senses, night sight, slight mind control, high Resistance to impact, flight, slight regeneration), Necromancy (bring dead to life to fight for her, empower these same animated dead), Witchcraft (able to manipulate the forces of magic in a diversity of ways often by invoking 'dark' deities) | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Horseback riding, archery, dagger, a dangerous charm | |
| Equipment | |
| Number of stolen/gathered magic weapons or by Court scientist created weapons like a freeze ray | |
| Awards and Collections | |
| Confidential | |
| Licenses and Certificates | |
| None | |
| IC Accessibility of Article | |
| Elizabeth is a hard to reach woman, but she has ears and eyes all around the Rogue Isles and Paragon City. If you ask around there is a good chance she will hear about it... and get in touch with you! | |
Imagine a cruel aristocratic woman. One who tortures the people around her, draining their blood and causing incredible agony. Imagine her drinking the blood of her victims... Now see that same person become a vampire and gain immortality and even more power. And see her loose upon the unexpected world.
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[edit] Affiliations
Elizabeth was connected to the Hungarian throne while alive. As such she made a large network of insiders when she traveled the world after she became a vampire. She was at one time connected to several secret orders. As one of the vampire elders she is part of the vampiric world council too. Going by the name of the Council of X. The organization of Arachnos and even lord Recluse himself still think she is a controllable part, even though she is not... and follows her own agenda. Her own agenda involving her own court and servants called 'the Court of the Blood Countess'. After the 2nd Rikti war started she became a member of the Vanguard too.
[edit] Personality
Elizabeth is a very aristocratic person. While she was alive she was used to having her way all the time. Crossing her or forcing her hand.. why.. even betray her might make her outrage beyond words. At the same time she is incredibly vain. Her looks fainted while she was alive... making her use magic and her blood baths to try and regain her youth. Finally becoming a vampire made her look like a woman somewhere between 25-30 again, but that didn't take away her fear of aging.
She is also very cruel and masochistic, having invented some of the most horrible torturing ways personally during her lifetime and beyond... and having used them often before draining her victim for the blood she needed for the baths. There are few people she could remember ever loving... and even those she would be able to sacrifice if it meant saving herself. Even thus... she needs someone around to share her own beauty with. To make her feel beautiful. As such she always searching for a lover or companion. And if that one is within his or her right mind he/she would never trust her.
[edit] Motivation
Elizabeth sees the whole world as her personal hunting grounds. And most people she keeps alive as nothing more then servants. but being hunted and needing to relocate constantly annoys her immensely. As such she is now trying to make a network of familiars across the mayor players on the isles and Paragon City. To become the power behind the power and to make sure she has free game moving around without the chance of being attacked.
[edit] Powers
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[edit] Necromancy
While alive Elizabeth learned witchcraft and necromancy from the witches among her servants. The necromancy enabled her to make incredibly strong zombies that does whatever she commands in an instance. She also found out ways to enhance them even beyond their original powers. She was even able to bring back the dead themselves with their soul 'almost' intact.
[edit] Witchcraft
The witchcraft she originally dabbled in was an extension of the necromancy. She used her enormous amount of bloodshed not only to fill her baths but also to retrieve favors from dark gods who left Earth before men came on it. The practice of magic made it possible for her to manipulate a lot of mystical energies... but her black soul only allowed the most foul invocations. Most of them drain life, will or power. The rituals however gave her another edge. Upon her death while walled in in her castle her body transformed and was reborn a vampire.
[edit] Vampiric
As a vampire Elizabeth gained all the powers these mystical beings have. Her body was dead, but regained it's youthful appearance. Meaning it would be immortal and could even be restored. She could change into the shape of a wolf or a bat. She could command the lower beings like rats and snakes. Her claws could slice through doors and she became strong enough to break a man in two. Her body became lighter then air and she could float, even fly. Her senses became so strong she can hear a mouse and see in the dark. Her body can be made untouchable and she is able to melt into the shadows making her almost impossible to detect. Her mind is able to hypnotize or induce fear unheard of.
[edit] Abilities
While alive Elizabeth was educated as a young noble woman should. At early youth she learned horseback riding, archery, to work the dagger and a little swordplay. Aside from that she learned to cook and to weave too. But the person to make her actually do that hasn't survived yet.
She is highly intelligent and is known to war strategics and can speak (and write) about a dozen European languages. She also knows how to handle herself between royalty and while traveling the world. She was at the courts of Venice and and Paris. And was never caught.
[edit] Vulnerabilities
Being a vampire made her dependent off human blood. She must have fresh living blood every day. She also must rest within the soil of her native land once every month for at least 8 hours. Her tomb (placed in her bedchamber's) is filled with earth from the grounds of her family castle to do just that. The blood drained will bring her back to full youth and strength though.
Against popular believe... Elizabeth is not vulnerable to sunlight. While the years pass the vampire grows stronger and Elizabeth learned to withstand the light... but it's not her natural surroundings and she will be much weaker then. Even going so far as to casually wear sunglasses to protect her eyes.
Aside of that she hates the smell of garlic, and her flesh will burn upon touching any hallowed or holy symbol from what is considered a 'good' god.
[edit] Equipment
Elizabeth doesn't really need any equipment. But the past 400+ years she has gathered a large library of mystic texts she calls upon often while using her witchcraft. She also posses a number of mystical artifact and potions to help her out... but doesn't always carry those on her person.
The court (mad) scientists often come up with new weapons to use and once in a while she can't resist trying one out in case it turns out to be a new way to torture her victims. In the past she had hold of Rikti weapons, Freeze-rays and the likes.
[edit] Character History
In order to improve my complexion and also to maintain my failing grasp on my youth and vitality, I slaughtered six hundred innocent young women from my tiny mountain principality...
Truly, I was evil enough to be recognized as one of the original "vampires" who later inspired Bram Stoker to write the legend of Dracula -- but unlike Stoker's story, I was real.
Unusual for one of my social status, I was a fit and active child. Raised as Magyar royalty, as a young maid I was quite beautiful; delicate in my features, slender of build, tall for the time, but my personality did not attain the same measure of fortuitous development. In my opinion my most outstanding feature was my often commented upon gloriously creamy complexion. Although others were not really so equally impressed with the quality of my rather ordinary skin, they offered copious praise if they knew what was good for them, as I did not accept unenthusiastic half-measures of adulation; and I was vindictive.
I was only 15 when I was 'married off' for political gain and position to a rough soldier of (nevertheless) aristocratic stock and manner.
By reason of the marriage, I became the lady of the Castle of Csejthe, his home, situated deep in the Carpathian mountains of what is now central Romania, but which then was known only as Transylvania. Located near no exciting urban center, the castle was surrounded by a village of simple peasants and rolling agricultural lands, interspersed with the jagged outcroppings of the frozen Carpathians.
While the picturesque setting embraced a bucolic tapestry of ideal small fields, meandering stone walls, quaint cottages, a few satisfied brown cows, and goats with tinkling bells about their necks scampering among st the chickens, life here was uneventful. The castle was typical for its day and place: cold, dun, gloomy, damp, dark; unlike the cozy thatched houses of the peasants below.
While my husband was pursuing his passion, the soldier business, and off on various campaigns, for me -- who did not wish to amuse myself in the out-of-doors where those loutish peons were grubbing in the mud -- life became pounding boring in very short order. Being an energetic teenager, although one with a view and experience of life which was 'special,' I set about finding novel amusements to occupy my days.
My tastes were of a certain slant, and consequently I began to gather about myself (as my ample financial resources readily accommodated) persons of peculiar and sinister arts. These I welcomed into my presence, affording them commodious lodging and lavish attention to each of their most singular needs and interests. Among them were those who claimed to be witches, sorcerers, seers, wizards, alchemists, and others who practiced the most depraved deeds in league with the Devil and too painful to mention even in a story such as this. They taught me their crafts in intimate detail and I was enthralled. But learning such unspeakable things was not enough.
War in the 16th century was a brutal affair. While fashionably fighting the Turks and attempting to gain information from prisoners captured, my husband employed a horrid device of torture: clever articulated claw-like pincers, fashioned of hardened silver; which, when fastened to a stout whip would tear and rip the flesh to such an obscene degree that even he, a cruel man, abandoned the apparatus in disgust and left it at the castle as he departed on yet another heroic foray.
I was not alone in my 'unusual' interests. Aware of my complex preoccupations, and amused by them, my aunt had introduced me also to the pleasures of flagellation (enacted upon desolate others of course), a taste I quickly acquired. Equipped with my husband's heinous silver claws, I generously indulged myself, whiling away many lonely hours at the expense of forlorn Slav debtors from my own dungeons. The more shrill their screams and the more copious the blood, the more exquisite and orgasmic my amusement. I preferred to whip my 'subjects' on the front of their nude bodies rather than their backs, not only for the increased damage potential, but so that I could gleefully watch their faces contort in horror at their most grim and burning fate.
My husband died in 1604 (some say 1602) of stab wounds imposed on him by a harlot in Bucharest whom he had not paid, and I immediately dreamed of a lover to replace him, since I never cared for him in the first place -- so much for my mourning. However, the mirror showed me that my prurient indulgences, as well as time, had taken their toll on my appearance. My 'angelic' complexion had long since faded to something less than perfection; I had reached 43. My desire for a lover did not fade; I raged deep within, cursing time.
Such a simple interest as a new husband was not to rule the day, it was merely a detail. With the demise of my husband, prowling highly placed men began to smell a ripe opportunity to seize the power and influence encapsulated in my name; likely by acquiring me and then eliminating me. As well, I was next in line to become King of Poland, and I wanted the job. This seeming anomaly was possible within the governing constructs of the time, and the office of queen held no political weight. At the same time, I was educated beyond all those around me, reading and writing four languages while the prince of Transylvania was an illiterate boor (who bathed regularly -- every year on his birthday).
Maintaining my youth and vitality became central to this developing plot; the absolute divine right to power I understood was mine to keep and protect would be essential to the attainment of all that I sought. Vanity, sexual desire, drive for political power all were seamlessly blended into a central primordial passion. If I lost my youth, I could forfeit all.
My mood deteriorated markedly and one day, as I viciously struck a servant girl for a minor oversight, I drew blood when my pointed nails raked the girl's cheek. The wound was serious enough that some of the blood got onto my skin. Later, I was quite sure that that part of my own body - where the girl's blood had dropped - looked fresher somehow; younger, brighter and more pliant.
Immediately I consulted my alchemists for their opinion on the phenomenon. They, of course, were enjoying my hospitality and did not wish to disappoint, so, fortunately, they did recall a case many many years before and in a distant place where the blood of a young virgin had caused a similar effect on an aged (but generous) personage of nobility and good grace.
With such clear evidence at hand, I was convinced that here was a brilliant discovery; a method to restore and preserve my youthful glow forever, or at least until I got what I wanted. The advice of my 'beauty consultant,' a woman named Katarina, concurred that my clever realization was most surely sound.
I reasoned that if a little was good, then a lot would be better: I firmly believed that if I bathed in the blood of young virgins -- and in the case of especially pretty ones, drank it -- I would be gloriously beautiful and strong once again.
For years, I trusted helper in my various secret pleasures had been Dorotta Szentes. Now with her, and other 'witches' to help carry the load, I roamed the countryside by night, hunting for suitable virginal girls as raw material for my difficult quest.
When back in the castle, each batch of young girls would be hung, alive and naked, upside-down by chains wrapped around their ankles. Their throats would be slit and all of their blood drained for my bath, to be taken while the heat of their young bodies still remained in the thickening and sticky crimson pool.
And every now and then, a really lovely young girl would be obtained. As a special treat, I would drink the child's blood: at first from a golden flask, but later, as her taste for it increased, directly from the stream, as the writhing and whimpering body hung from the rafters, turning pale.
Although I had held off her political foes, after five years of this enterprise I at last began to realize that the blood of peasant girls was having little effect on the quality of her skin. Obviously such blood was defective and better blood was required.
In early 17th century Transylvania, parents of substantial position wished their daughters to be educated in the appropriate social graces and etiquettes, so that they might gain the 'right' connections when ripe. Here was an opportunity.
In 1609, I established an academy in the castle, offering to take 25 girls at a time from proper families, and to correctly finish their educations. Indeed, their educations were finished.
Assisted by Dorotta Szentes (known also by the graceful diminutive "Dorka") these poor students were consumed in exactly the same beastly fashion as the anguished peasant girls who preceded them. This was too easy, and I became careless in my actions for the first time in my dreadful career. During a frenzy of lust, four drained bodies were thrown off the walls of the castle.
The error was realized too late, for villagers had already seen, collected, and begun to identify the girls. The disappearance of all those young women began to be solved; the secret was finished.
Word of this horror spread rapidly and soon reached the Hungarian Emperor, Matthias II, who immediately ordered that I be placed on public trial. But, my aristocratic status did not allow that I be arrested. Parliament at once passed a new Act to reverse this privilege of station (lest I slip from their hands) and I was brought before a formal hearing in 1610. Interestingly, no authority seemed inclined to offer any form of attention to these matters when merely peasant girls had been the subject of my blood-letting for five years previous.
By the final count, 600 girls had vanished; I admitted nothing. Dorka and her witches were burned alive, but the I, by reason of my noble birth, could not be executed. Katarina was somehow seen as another victim, and was set free.
So, I was damned to a death while alive. Sealed into a tiny closet of my castle -- and never let out -- I died four years later.
I did not ever utter even a single word of regret, or remorse.
Still.. there was something nobody could really count upon. The years of witchcraft I practiced along the way... and the massive amounts of blood shed within my castle walls had drew attention of the dark lords. They gave me power and youth for eternity, they would make me reborn as a creature of blood and night... as a vampire.
And powerful I had become indeed... knowing how to combine my vampiric powers with my witchcraft and necromancy. I started to travel the world. Over the decades my name was almost forgotten and I traveled along side the aristocracy as I was used too... feeding on young women (and men) as often as I could.
I traveled from the court of Venice to the Royal City of Paris. There I met the king Louis XVI and befriended Marie Antionette. During the revolution (in which both lost their heads) I was contacted by a secret organization of vampires who were, like me, never been turned or born from another vampire. They were the blood sources of the vampiric race, and I was to be one of them. Their name... the Council of X! Every year we would gather and decide the future of the vampire.
I spend some time in London after that... at one point seducing a learned man in such a way he went on a murder spree for me. He called himself 'Jack the Ripper'. But the idiot drew too much attention and in the heat of the search I had to leave London. I traveled to wards New England, the name attracted me as I had rather a good time in England itself. The people there, in particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut, were soon extremely afraid of dead coming to life, even though none dare to mention even the word 'vampire'. Off course I was behind that, but nobody could catch me.
But then my records where released in my homeland, now the country named Slovakia. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that my name would become worldwide known. That there would be modern men both horrified and admiring of the Báthory.
Craving servants and blood, I came in contact with the likes of Arachnos and Recluse himself. I guess it was only a few months after he gained his fabulous powers. I even shared the bed with Recluse. But he wanted me to obey his every wish and I'm used to answering to no-one but myself. Betrayed by Ghost Widow who I had a love/hate relation with as she also loved Recluse, I eventually was taken by surprise and placed in the maximum security wing for special powered criminals in the Brickstown's 'Ziggurat'.
During the great breakout the seals holding me in place broke and I found myself on the Rogue Isles. Here I found the chaos I longed for the past 300 plus years. This is where my base of operations will come... I will paint the streets red with blood while building up an empire of my own. Let the world tremble.
[edit] Recent History
Elizabeth started building her court up using a huge mansion in Cap Au Diable. Among her first members where the scientist Ice Cry (who later was reborn, after his demise during a mission) and the demon Incantator Draconis. Shortly after she had an alliance with the demon lord Azarath. The alliance became a relationship and they had a daughter. But the daughter died and Elizabeth was blamed for that, they parted and all that is left now is sheer hatred between the two.
Elizabeth threw herself back into her 'work'. She formed a huge amount of solid alliances. Making sure the court has tentacles everywhere across the Rogue Isles. Recruited many new members into her 'Court'.
Recently she started to indulge herself again in high society. Something she was used to from her days in Europe. For this she created the guise of Comtessa Elizabeth Thábyro, a wealthy French party animal. And a real favorite to Paragon's gossip writer.
[edit] Trivia
- Like some other characters of mine... Elizabeth is based upon a real historic person. Read more about the real-life Elizabeth 'Erzsébet' Báthory or at this Historians View. She is also mentioned in the guinness book of world records...
- Read more info on Elizabeth 'Erzsébet' Báthory at Crime Library...
- Jack the Ripper is an alias given to an unidentified serial killer (or killers) active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of London, England in the latter half of 1888.
- Both Louis XVI and Marie Antionette died during the French Revolution in 1793, for the crime of treason.
