Märchen

The clearest possible photograph of Albrecht.

Märchen is a Lasombra antitribu with a worryingly vague agenda.

## Mortal Life and Embrace

As Albrecht von Ludowing, he was born after the dissolution of the Ludowingian landgraviate and extinction of the Ludowing dynasty to Therese von Ludowing, herself a disgraced and exiled member of the former von Ludowing line. His mother raised him in a small cottage in the mountainous woodlands known as the Thuringian Forest near Eisenach, and he assisted her with small tasks while she saw to the business of midwifery.

At age 13 he struck up a friendship with a young noblewoman in Eisenach proper, Elisabeth von Wettin. Elisabeth was an unwitting candidate for eventual Embrace by her elder brother Johannes von Wettin, himself a Ventrue. Albrecht caught Johannes' attention as an unusually articulate and level-headed boy, and with this in mind Johannes began his consideration of Albrecht as a candidate for Embrace as well.

Johannes was embroiled in a bitter rivalry with Francesca de Acutis, a Lasombra. Upon learning Johannes had selected two potential candidates for the Embrace, she planned to dash his machinations and take one or both for her own childer.

As is the tradition of Lasombra, Francesca took it upon herself to systematically destroy Albrecht's life and gauge whether he sufficiently adapted to the circumstances, culminating with the death of his mother in 1365 following accusations of witchcraft. Albrecht correctly deduced his hardships were orchestrated by some outside influence, and after a long search uncovered Francesca herself, at which time she Embraced him.

## Early Unlife

Francesca was a cruel and controlling sire, and Albrecht chafed significantly under her tutelage. Her focus lay in expanding her power through political means; she expected the same of Albrecht, who instead found himself inexorably compelled by Obtenebration and the study of the Abyss. Young Albrecht quickly lost interest in much else, and resented his clanmates for their "obsession" with what he viewed as petty power-jockeying and meaningless Kindred politics.

However, the age of the Inquisition quickly changed his perspective. Resentful of his sire's control over his ambitions and the selfish motivations of other elders, Albrecht threw his lot in with the Anarchs and participated in the First Anarch Revolt. Finding the proposed terms of the Treaty of the Convention of Thorns lacking, he participated in the protest at Silchester that would set the stage for the later formation of the Sabbat.

In the early stages of the Sabbat, Albrecht was satisfied with his position as Priscus and the freedom it allowed him in pursuing the mysteries of the Abyss; as time wore on, he found both the Sabbat's rites and his own practice of Abyss mysticism had a deeply undesired effect on his humanity, and left the Sabbat without warning 1587. He went into voluntary torpor for nearly two centuries to evade his sectmates, hidden at the bottom of a sealed well.

## After the "Very Long Nap"

Albrecht awoke in 1769 and traveled to Paris, France, where he joined with the local Camarilla and masqueraded as a Toreador, operating under the name of "Baptiste Arnaud." He was well-liked for his musical prowess and delicate appearance within the clan, and enjoyed a brief romantic relationship with "another" Toreador before fleeing unannounced to the United States to evade the Sabbat once more in 1901.

In the United States, Albrecht made for New York. He changed his name once again to simply "Märchen," and employed the risky gambit of presenting himself semi-truthfully as a Lasombra antitribu. He was accepted into the New York City Camarilla, but only remained briefly; in 1949 he made the decision to establish himself anew in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in order to keep a lower profile.

## Current Activities

"Märchen" has established himself respectably well in the Milwaukee court as a Harpy. Some Kindred speculate he won the position mostly by appealing to the Prince with his appearance, but he himself is decidedly tight-lipped on the matter. It is generally assumed his central motivation is to leverage the local Camarilla for protection against the Sabbat, and he does much to support this assumption in public, being a somewhat detached and disinterested individual. Behind closed doors, however, his renewed probing into the mysteries of Abyss would certainly raise questions - should anyone live to witness it.

## Relationships

Lestat: "Adoptive childe," nominally, and romantic partner. Possibly the only Kindred he trusts to any degree.

## Trivia

Francesca's diablerie of a Cappadocian is to blame for Märchen's low Generation and corpselike appearance.

He has been adopting near-identical female white cats in succession and naming them Carmilla since 1799. Currently he is caring for Carmilla XIV.

He once met Amadeus Mozart, and found him irritating.

He is unable to retract his fangs, smells like grave dirt, and cannot Embrace.