Abraham Van Helsing

The Great Vampire Slayer

## Names and Epithets

### Aliases

Abraham Van Hellsing, Abe Helsing, Abe, Van Helsing, Max Windshoeffel (Alternate Alias), Grayson Bulwer, Matthias Vordenburg, Professor Jens Bulwer

### Titles

Great Van Helsing, Slayer of Dracula, Slayer of the False Dragon, Great Vampire Hunter, Master of the Monster, Founder of the Hellsing Organization

## Profile

### Occupation

Supernatural Hunter, Professor at the University of Amsterdam, Founder of the Hellsing Organization, Master of Alucard, Knight

### Affiliations

Hellsing Organization (Founder), Van Helsing Clan, Silver Lantern Club, Order of the Silver Cross (Allies), the Church (Allies), Knights of the Round Table (Ancestors)

## Relationships

### Consorts

Johanna Constantine, Anne-Marije van Helsing, nee Zwier (Deceased Wife)

### Offspring

Lucius Constantine, Unnamed Deceased Son, Lawrence Van Helsing, Laurens Van Helsing

### Other Relationships

Leo Helsing (Ancestor), Rachel Van Helsing (Descendant), Arthur Hellsing (Descendant), Trevor Constantine (Descendant), Integra Hellsing (Descendant), Alucard (Servant), Vitali Romanov (Close Friend), Count Dracula (Enemy), John Seward (Student/Partner), Arthur Holmwood (Partner), Quincey Morris (Partner), Jonathan Harker (Partner), Mina Harker (Partner)

## Other

### Status

Deceased (Passed on through Age)

Professor **Abraham Van Helsing** was an aged Dutch polymath physician, lawyer, preacher and hunter who has much knowledge of vampires and many other creatures. Van Helsing is most famously known for having taken down the Romanian vampire Count Dracula along with many other dangerous creatures of the night and monsters.

## Overview

Abraham Van Helsing is a renowned vampire hunter with an extensive knowledge about the existence of vampires, other creatures of the night, and the occult in general, as well as how to fight them. However, he now lacks the physical prowess to take action by himself due to his age, and instead acts as a mentor to others to stop the evil at hand.

He is revealed to be a descendant of one of the knights belonging to the Knights of the Round Table of whom Van Helsing decided to revive by continuing their legacy of extinguishing the forces of darkness. He was born a catholic, but later became a protestant and founded the Hellsing Organization, who continue to fight vampires and other monsters to this day, and would later be apart of the Dark Knight Initiative along with the Van Helsing Clan who would continue the work of his ancestor Leo Helsing's duty to defend against thedark forces from the supernatural.

## History

### Background

Abraham was born into a Catholic Dutch family in the early 1700s in Amsterdam, Netherlands. As he came into adulthood he married and settled down to start a family as he studied several fields of science, medicine, physics, and psychology. His family was wracked with tragedy when Van Helsing's only son passed away. The passing drove his wife mad to the point that she became dead to Abraham, yet his status as a devout Catholic prevented him from divorcing her. Abraham continued his academic studies to receive degrees and doctorates in several fields including medicine, philosophy, and scientific study.

In the course of his career, Van Helsing became a professor and took on students. Among these students is a John Seward who would one day become a doctor himself. During an incident involving a knife that had come into contact with gangrene, Van Helsing was cut and poisoned by it. Thinking quick, Seward sucked the poison out and saved Abraham, a favor he would not soon forget.

### Saving an Empire

At some point, he crossed paths with Johanna Constantine as he was investigating the strange events concerning amalgamations between vampires and clockwork machinery. The two worked together for a time only to find out the root of the cause behind the Industrial Revolution was a cult known as the Church of the Broken God that worshipped an ancient deity known as Mekhane. With that discovery they also found that Delilah Copperspoon, the leader of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, was using the power of the Broken Church in order to take the throne of the British Empire. Delilah herself was the illegitimate daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who felt cheated from her rightful place as the heir to the throne.

Copperspoon would use a device known as the Oraculum to harness the primordial power that lay within the otherworldly metal that made up Mekhane's body in a bid to perhaps use this energy to open a temporal gateway, and allowing her to alter reality where she becomes the ruler of the United Kingdom. Johanna and Abraham were soon joined by Haytham Kenway, a Ghost Rider, and after much trials and tribulations, they succeeded in defeating Delilah and dismantled the Church of the Broken God alongside the Golden Dawn.

### The Last Romanov

Abraham was also said to have aided Vitali Romanov, a survivor of the House of Romanov whom were brutally murdered to bring down the imperial monarchy of Russia and end the Tsardom, in taking down the rising lycanthrope plague which was devastating most of Europe. However, this soon turned into a large web of conspiracy, threaded by vampires who infiltrated society, that both Abraham and Vitali would work together to solve and prevent the collapse of Western civilization alongside the aid of other confidants including Johanna Constantine, an ancestor of John Constantine. Abraham and Vitali's partnership also sparked the first technical collaboration of the Hellsing Organization and the Order of the Silver Cross before the two were ever established.

At some point, Abraham and Johanna consorted only to end up separating but unbeknownst to Abraham, Johanna was pregnant with his child.

### Bouts with Dracula

It wouldn't be long until Abraham would be soon drawn to the activities of the infamous Count Dracula. Long ago, one of his ancestors had faced a vampire also named Dracula and while he is unclear if that vampire is the same as this one, he does realize the threat that he can be if he is left alone. So the hunter seeks to stop this Dracula from causing any more harm though he began to realize that he was starting to grow much older (while he was still relatively fit and able due to his Hunter's training, his age was starting to get to him), which would have him call upon his compatriots from the Silver Lantern Club to assist him in facing the dreaded count. While their battle was still difficult as Dracula was perhaps the greatest opponent Abraham had faced, it felt too short and much easier than any of them expected. So while it seems that Dracula die by disintegrating, something felt very wrong for all of them.

So while they did separate once again, they promise to constantly keep in touch and Abraham made sure to always check for any information about Dracula. However, he found nothing that could prove that feeling was right (and anything that could give more information such as the legendary Belmont Hold were out of his reach) so he stop being so cautious even though that wary gut feeling didn't disappear. And with his age pushing him close to his natural death, he decided to choose an apprentice to teach all his hunter craft though that was harder than his thought as no one felt right for being his apprentice, even his greatest student John Seward didn't feel perfect for the role (and the fact he didn't really want to bring Seward into his line of work didn't help).

However, this would be pushed aside when he was summoned to London by Seward to investigate the case of a strange disease that is afflicting a friend of his, Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing would learn that she is afflicted with vampirism, which would lead him in realizing the author of this atrocity, Count Dracula, confirming that he lived their battle. While a tiny (guilty) part of him was excited that his gut feeling was right, the rest of him was feeling only righteous anger at what Dracula did to that poor girl which resulted in her death. While he planned to do this alone, he realized that his age would only result in his death and even though he called upon the Silver Lantern Club for their assistance, he realizes that they may not arrive in time to actively help him. So he had to resort in plan B and reluctantly ask for the services of the men beside him which included Seward, Lucy's bride-to-be Arthur Holmwood, Dracula's failed previous victim Jonathan Harker and his recently married partner Mina Harker.

Fortunately, this group also included the American hunter Quincey P. Morris who knew about the legendary Van Helsing (though in respect for him, was willing to hide his Hunter identity until the aged hunter felt it was needed) which actually made him more confident in their chances. What surprised him was Quincy didn't hide the fact he was a hunter and actually decided to train Mina Harker due to seeing potential in her (much to Abraham's protest as he didn't want to bring a newly wed into their line of work). Nonetheless, he hid the fact he was a hunter himself due to the misguided belief that it would be more trouble than it is worth. He would change this view when Mina herself was attacked by Dracula due to be unprepared to counter his own abilities, infecting her with vampirism as well.

Realizing what harm it caused to have Mina along with the others in the dark, Abraham decided to let loose everything about him, that being his hunter training, history and his previous encounter with Dracula (the latter being a surprised to everyone). While understandably upset on him hiding this fact, seeing that he was genuine in wanting to protect them even though it is misguided and the fact he was like a father to most of them if not simply a mentor, so they did quickly forgive him much to Abraham's unhidden relief as he truly cared for them and so didn't really want their relationship to be damaged. That relief was gone when they found out the infection inside Mina, much to all their horror.

Comforting the distressed Mina that all of them will stand with her even if she becomes a vampire, they all decided to initiate preparation for their final battle with Dracula, making sure to leave no chance for him to escape. Much to their surprise, they were stopped in leaving by Mina herself who wanted to join them in their grand battle against the vampire count, even making a makeshift hunter attire in short time. While still reluctant, Morris reminded them the fact that hiding this from her caused this situation in the first place and to put the trust in her which finally convinced them to let her join the group. Amusingly enough, it would Mina that would be biggest help for them, especially Abraham as she protected him from the Brides of Dracula as the two went out to Dracula's castle to remove his backup plans while the others chased Dracula, which Mina actually killing two of the brides while Van Helsing killed the final one.

At the very end, they would succeed in destroying all but one of Dracula's boxes and block out the entrance of his castle for good measure so he can't escape back inside his castle, all of this ending with all of them together facing Dracula with Abraham using a crossbow to strike the vampire from a distance. While powerful in his own way, Dracula was shocked to see the tenacity and strength of humans, the very same beings he regards as inferior and mindless animals, which made Dracula's view took a drastic shift and so now actively treating them as a threat, even fatally wounding Morris though he still laid defeated and weak. While Abraham took pity on the monster as he knew more of his history long ago, he still sees Dracula as a cruel and vile monster that revel in the suffering of anyone he choses. And so watched on as Mina did the final blow to Dracula in retribution for all he did to them and her.

While victory was achieved, the cost of Quincey's life weighed heavily on them with Abraham wondering that if he decided to tell the truth from the start, would Morris have lived this battle. He discarded that thought as he doesn't want to continently think on the past and what ifs, especially he seek to keep the promise he made with Quincy to finish Mina's training as a hunter. So after picking up their death friend, they leave the battlefield with both sorrow and hope.

### Foundation of Hellsing

With Dracula given a humiliating defeat at the hands of a group of humans, some remaining pieces of his broken body became covered by snow which made all but Van Helsing not notice them. A couple of days later, Van Helsing came back to the area and picked those pieces up. He then, with the assistance of a wizard and the Silver Lantern Club, molded them into his own vampire known as Alucard who had the memories of Dracula and Vlad III to be their warrior against the darkness.

This loyal yet still free vampire made a blood oath to be in eternal servitude to Van Helsing and his bloodline. He became the Helsing family's ultimate weapon against the forces of darkness under the service of the Hellsing Organization founded by Abraham Van Helsing himself.

### Legacy

When Van Helsing and Johanna separated she would end up raising their son Lucius Constantine on her own only to have another after she settled down and married another man. Lucius' descendants would be separate from the Constantine family, as the main family line ends with John Constantine and Lucius' line ends with Trevor Constantine who by birthright would come to inherit the Hellsing Organization after Integra Hellsing's death.

Integra initially wanted Shelby Penwood's grandson to lead the organization in her stead as she believed that hereditary leadership had run its course. It was only until she discovered the existence of Trevor Constantine that she gave the organization to him and with her blessing.

## Quotes

* *"There are many immortal monsters who roam this Earth. Ones that I have encountered and ones that I originally believed to have only existed through dreams. When I look at them I wonder, where they created out of the desire for immortality? Or to simply carve out the weakness that held them back? That is their humanity, even if it were a fraction of it. Their humanity is, to them, what reminded them of their frail and weakened former selves. They believe it is what truly limits them from creating the greatest of horrors across battlefields drowned in blood. And yet, there is this sense of longing. What this longing could be I cannot say for certain. Is it one of euphoria? Or death?"* - Abraham Van Helsing.

* *"He is a seemingly arbitrary man, this is because he knows what he is talking about better than anyone else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day, and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, and indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats, these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind, work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy."* - A letter From Dr. Seward to Arthur Holmwood.

## Trivia

* According to some rumors, Abraham Van Helsing is stated to be a descendant of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades.
	+ The family tree listed in the document states that Abraham Van Helsing comes from the line of Marry Belmont who married "Leo Hercing", later becoming the ancestors of the Van Helsing family.

## Image Sources

* (Van Helsing 89.png) Van Helsing by ???
* (Grayson Portrait.jpg) Grayson from The Order: 1886
* (Peter Cushing Abraham Van Helsing.jpg) Van Helsing by wjh3
* (Abraham van helsing by taneysha dc3nqo6-fullview.jpg) Abraham Van Helsing by Taneysha