Johann Reuchlinn

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**Johann Reuchlin** was a powerful German magician known in the magical world for researching and creating a life-stealing spell, later used by magicians throughout the world to prolong their lives. He would later go on to be one of the founding members of Zweihander, coming on as a Reverend, or one of the group's resident magicians. In 1912, he was assigned to take control of the Dark Spawn of Tsathoggua for the Silver Twilight.

## Appearance

Reuchlin is a thin man with protruding cheekbones. He has sensitive, intelligent eyes and medium-length, curly brown hair. He usually wears a black turtleneck and a brown coat along with a pair of brown shoes. He looks about 50 but is actually over 400 years old.

## History

### Early Life

Johann Reuchlin was born in Pforzheim, a city in southern Germany bordering The Black Forest, in 1455. His father was a magician, and taught him the basics of the craft, aside from giving him a basic classical education, but he learned far by reading the magical tomes in the monastery.

He continued his studies at the University of Freiburg, but learned little there, though he continued his study of magic. His talent in the field attracted the attention of Charles I, Margrave of Baden, who chose him to accompany Frederick von Zahringen, his third son, to the University of Paris. This connection proved a pivotal one, as Von Zahringen used his political acumen to eventually found Zweihander, functioning as its primary leader and learning a level of magical skill from Johann. It was here that he learned Greek, and where he was first introduced to the Necronomicon. Finding it both compelling and disturbing, Johann and Frederick would later use it as the basis for the foundation of Zweihander.

After this, Johann hopped from university to university, devouring what magical knowledge he could before leaving and taking teaching jobs to help pay for his magical research. He felt a strong need to protect himself should the prophecies foretold in the Necronomicon come true. During this time he studied magic from all over Europe, becoming one of the most well-rounded and powerful magicians ever to live on the continent.

### Life-Draining Spell

In 1503, Reuchlin began researching a spell to grant himself immortality. Much of his research came from ancient Hebrew magicians who had worked in the court of King Solomon. These ancient magicians had worked tirelessly for their king to find the words to an immortality spell but they were incomplete, and most of their tests left the users of the spell decrepit and aged. Reuchlin, however, was able to find a way to make these spells work.

Where the magicians of King Solomon's court had attempted to create life from nothing, Reuchlin used a shortcut. He made it so that the spell, instead of creating life, simply stole the life of others. The spell required the sacrifice of live humans, but kept the user in a permanent state of stasis age-wise. Essentially, the spell allowed the user to steal the life from others.

Reuchlin published this work in France in 1522 and then dropped off of the map as he grew more and more paranoid regarding the predictions made in the Necronomicon. Locking himself in a monastery in Utrecht and cutting ties with everyone he knew except von Zahringen, Reuchlin continued to hone his magical abilities, periodically taking in students and using them as sacrifices.

### Zweihander

In 1632, Reuchlin was visited by the Outer God Nyarlathotep in a dream. In this dream, Reuchlin was given knowledge of Transcendence, a process by which it was believed that he could transcend the bounds of space and time and join the Outer Gods in the court of Azathoth. In the dream he also met the other founding members of the Cult of Transcendence, and together they agreed to plunge the world into war so that they might achieve the Transcendence spoken of by Nyarlathotep. He would share this knowledge with Von Zahringen and the two would found Zweihander.

Von Zahringen worked tirelessly to establish a network of power within the German kingdoms. Soon Zweihander enjoyed a following in the hundreds and even the thousands, wielding considerable power within the German states. He also looked throughout Germany for the greatest magical talents in the land and hired them for Zweihander's Reverend division, a group of the most powerful magicians in Germany to be put under the tutelage of Reuchlin. Reuchlin produced a number of notable magicians who served Zweihander throughout Europe. Reuchlin used these magicians to help research the means to Transcendence.

### The Field Expedition and the Dark Spawn of Tsathoggua

In 1912, The Field Expedition found a number of ancient carving featuring detailed information on the True Rite of Transcendence, which was needed to complete his research on the topic. While he was beaten to the tablets brought back by Field by Anne de Chantraine of The Silver Twilight, he immediately organized Zweihander's Reverends to go to Greenland, beating The Silver Twilight be several months.

While there, he discovered that The Great Old One Tsathoggua's sleeping body had been taken over by the Mi-Go. The Mi-Go were mining the blood of The Great Old One to gain control of The Dark Spawn that formed from the blood. Reuchlin killed the Mi-Go running the operation and took control of The Dark Spawn for himself, using them to establish control over Greenland and to prepare for incursion by any of Zweihander's rivals.

## Abilities

### Spells

* Control Dark Spawn Of Tsathoggua
* Mindblast
* Power Drain
* Steal Life

### Skills

* Anthropology 30%
* Archaeology 30%
* Astronomy 80%
* Bargain 45%
* Cthulhu Mythos 60%
* History 90%
* Library Use 95%
* Listen 85%
* Medicine 60%
* Natural History 90%
* Occult 95%
* Navigate 50%
* Pharmacy 50%
* Psychology 60%
* Sneak 80%
* Spot Hidden 90%

### Languages

* Arabic 80%
* English 58%
* French 85%
* German 99%
* Greek 90%
* Hebrew 95%
* Latin 93%
* Russian 30%
* Spanish 70%