Conrad Kurtz

*"Our greatest enemies are those who are without certainty. The ones with questions, the ones who regard our tidy answers with unquenchable skepticism. Those questions assail us, undermine us. They... agitate. Understand, these dangerous citizens understand that nothing is simple; their stance is the very opposite of naivety. They are humbled by the ambivalence to which they are witness, and they defy our simple, comforting assertions of clarity, of a black and white world.”*

-Conrad Kurtz

## History

*“Do not seek to find hope among your leaders. They are the repositories of poison. Their interest in you extends only so far as their ability to control you. From you, they seek duty and obedience, and they will ply you with the language of stirring faith. They seek followers, and woe to those who question, or voice challenge. Civilization after civilization, it is the same. The world falls to tyranny with a whisper. The frightened are ever keen to bow to a perceived necessity, in the belief that necessity forces conformity, and conformity a certain stability. In a world shaped into conformity, dissidents stand out, are easily branded and dealt with. There is no multitude of perspectives, no dialogue. The victim assumes the face of the tyrant, self-righteous and intransigent, and wars breed like vermin. And people die.”*

-Conrad Kurtz

Typically known as C. Kurtz. The C is believed to stand for Colonel, his title, but it is in fact his first name, Conrad. A Hexenjäger of high standing who undertook scientific training at the Hauptstadt Academy of the Sciences in preparation for his posting at the Northern Administration Zone Outpost, where he rose to the rank of Colonel and became the deputy to the Gauleiter. Kurtz was originally responsible for fighting against the monsters from the Plateau of Leng, but as time passed, the Gauleiter began to consider his methods unsound. Before action could be taken, the Gauleiter died in chaotic circumstances, and Colonel Kurtz took command of the Zone.

## Personality

*"When frozen between life and death, in the glacial in-between, what can exist of mortal feeling? Not even an echo. Only memories of ice, of ice and no more than that.”*

-Conrad Kurtz

In his capacity as Acting Gauleiter, Colonel Kurtz also oversaw scientific projects, but his personality became increasingly unhinged. He has become obsessed with seizing the Northern Dome, and is increasingly seen as a "cold, psychopathic, maniacal and above all manipulative individual." His men, as well as the civilians who work as the Zone, have begun to venerate him and perpetuate his cult of personality.

Colonel Kurtz sees himself as the heir to Special Agent Shorden Hiem and the man to finish his work. He keeps a portrait of the Special Agent prominently displayed in the Outpost, next to his own.

## The Great Awakening

*"Horror... Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies! I remember when I joined the Hexenjägers... seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a former Nadezhdan concentration camp where some children had been cured of the pox by the magic of the slave mages. We spoke to survivors of the War, and this old man began crying. Franz Forrawyn and his Hexenjägers had come and subjected every child to the blood eagle. They had been left in a pile, their little lungs torn out. I didn't know what I wanted to do! And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it... I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... and I thought, by the gods... the genius of that! The genius! The will to do that! Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized that Franz Forrawyn's Hexenjägers were stronger than we, because he could stand that his Hexenjägers were not monsters, these were men... trained witch hunters. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had a single company of Franz Forrawyn's Hexenjägers, the North would be at peace. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment! Because it's judgment that defeats us."*

-Conrad Kurtz