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"The victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused."

Kostadin the Black

PLAYER

@Mountainhound

•AFFILIATIONS•
Super Group	None
Rank	Not Applicable
Current Affliations	Not Applicable
Former Affiliations	Kingdom of Bulgaria, Dracul Dynasty, Imperial Japanese Army

•IDENTITY•
Real Name	Kostadin Vankov
Known Aliases	Kostadin the Black
Gender	Male
Species	Vampire
Birthdate	Mid 15th Century
Place of Birth	Unknown (Possibly Elena, Bulgaria)
Current Location	Unknown
Relatives	Unknown

•PHYSICAL TRAITS•
Apparent Age	Unknown (At least five centuries)
Height	8'3
Weight	310 lbs
Eyes	Gold
Hair	None
Complexion	Sickly
Build	Abnormal
Notable Features	Significant Facial Scarring & Obvious Inhuman Qualities

•OTHER TRAITS•
Identity	Not Public Knowledge
Citizenship	Numerous Falsified Birth Records
Marital Status	Unknown (Theorized widower)
Occupation	Insurgent Leader, Necromancer
Education	Extensive education in both the arcane arts, medicine, and military strategy.
Fame	Confidential

•POWERS, SKILLS & ABILITIES•
Master Necromancer, Superhuman Strength, Superhuman Speed, Regeneration, Psionic Manipulation, Moderate Shapeshifting, Teleportation

•EQUIPMENT•
Oakshotte Type XVIIIb Longsword

•ATTRIBUTES•

Strength

Intellect

Combat

Durability

Speed

Agility

Dexterity

Charisma

Weaponry

Sorcery

Energy

Psionics

ProtectorsBox Template

Background

Time fades even legend, and thus have the earliest years of Kostadin the Black been all but lost to history. Testimony from those prior affiliated with the necromancer have given some evidence to his birthplace being in the region of Elena, Bulgaria, but the authenticity of such has yet to be verified. Indeed much the same can be said for much of the knowledge regarding Kostadin's background.

What is known from what historical record can be found, is that Kostadin first appeared sometime in the late fifteenth century in Ottoman controlled Bulgaria as an insurgent leader, identified at the time only by the surname “Vankov”.

According to written reports within the archives of the Catholic Church, and collaborated by historical record held in the archives of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Kostadin was the leader of a group known as the “Sinove na Bŭlgariya” or Sons of Bulgaria. Opinion differs as to the goal of the insurgency group. While Catholic record insists that they were intent on combating the abuses inflicted upon christian minorities by the Ottoman Empire, Islamic record insists they were little more than the latest in a long line of groups intent on attaining power for the old Bulgarian nobility.

Whatever the goal of the insurgency was, it became quickly apparent that under the leadership of Vankov they were anything but your typical bandit or rebel group. Existing dispatches from the region by the Ottoman's forces paint the picture of a nomadic group of numerous armed rebels who operated in cells of thirty to sixty. Their knowledge of the land, habit of coordinating in force only when necessity dictated it, and penchant for using game trails to always stay on the march throughout the Balkans made them notoriously hard to track by conventional Ottoman forces.

It was also within these dispatches that the earliest recordings of Kostadin's use of what was then described as “witchcraft” were found. According to the documents, the insurgency's ability to coordinate ambushes at night, and to predict troop movement within their region of influence seemed almost supernatural. What was even more troubling for the Ottomans was Kostadin's ability to uncover their own agents within the villages under the insurgency's area of influence. In that time frame no less than a dozen agents posing as civilians disappeared, with the iconography of the Sinove na Bŭlgariya painted upon a wall of their residence.

But it was this superstition that would become his undoing. Though little evidence exists that Kostadin ever went out of his way to intimidate or subjugate the civilian population of the region his insurgency operated in, rumors of his use of dark magic in time saw not only the locales turning against him, but his own forces as well. By the end of the fifteenth century, the Sinove na Bŭlgariya had all but broken apart, and Kostadin was finally apprehended by Ottoman forces within the wilderness somewhere south of what is today Elina, Bulgaria. With neither trial nor sentence, he was promptly prepared for execution.

Yet the Ottomans were not the only ones hunting Kostadin Vankov that day.

Like many of his ilk, remarkably little is known of the being history names “Enguerrand the Immortal”. A vampire, one which archaic journals and tomes identify as a member of the Dracul dynasty in the late middle ages, Enguerrand was a figure of some mystery even among the occult scholars of his day. A member of a group dubbed by a French text as “Les Trois Diables”, or “The Three Devils”, Enguerrand along with two of his monstrous brethren acted as militant agents of the recently risen Vlad Tepes.

The reason behind Enguerrand's presence within Bulgaria on that fateful day five centuries ago remains a topic of much debate among those aware of his existence. Whether he was acting under orders from his lord and master, or if the sadistic gendarme had simply found it fanciful to prey upon the downtrodden subjects of Ottoman oppression will likely forever remain a mystery. What is known that to a man, the vampire butchered Kostadin's would be executioners, leaving but a sole survivor to deliver the story to his own lords.