Niklas Engberg

Niklas Engberg is known for being a famous artist from Tamwull. His disappearance is still subject to debate, with many aspiring investigators claiming they will crack the case.

## Early Life

Engberg was born in the Tallian capital, Roufort. He was baptised into the De Vin religion by his mother and father, Wilma and Oliver.

Engberg's family was of a middle-class background. Oliver was an executive at the Labourers Guild. Dedicating most of his life to the job in order to improve the livelihood of his son and wife.

Engberg showed an early passion to different colours, drawings and paints, likely influenced from his mother taking him to the Canvas Walk every morning. When he reached the age of 10, his father paid for him to receive formal artistic training.

At age 16, Oliver managed to use his influence to get Niklas into a proper art school, the Hashin University in Iwakita. While his parents were sad to see him go to an international school, both them and Niklas knew that it was the chance of a lifetime.

## Career

In **533PR**, Engberg's life had taken a bit of a turn. Once he had finished his schooling, he was too focused on keeping a popular social life and began lacking in his art. It was only till his father tracked him down in **535PR**, did Engberg begin to practice art once again.

Life went on after that, as he continued perfecting his art and selling it to collectors within the city. Though he quickly grew bored with the current trend of art and decided for something different, doing linework and enhancing it with colours and randomness.

### Breakthrough

In **540PR**, at the age of 27, Engberg's piece called 'Whips' was created. It did not take long for this piece to become popular to the collectors and even the public, everyone wanted either a copy or the original piece. Here, Engberg had a decision to make. Choosing to sell to a private collection would gather him a lot of money, but less recognition, stopping people from appreciating his real art. Weeks went by as he struggled with this decision, asking for advice from both his parents. While his father wanted him to sell it for the money, allowing them to pay back some of the debt they had accumulated from his education, his mother wished for him to make his own decision.

Only one month later in Septim 11 **540PR**, Engberg decided to donate his original piece to the Roufort Art Gallery, instead making money off of royalities and selling copies.

Living off the money from his copies, he was able to focus more on his art, making a second popular piece called 'NHK' only 4 years later. Which he also donated to the Roufort Art Gallery, making money off copies and appearances by this stage.

### Later Years

After 'NHK', Engberg was set for life with money. Only working through the occassional piece that people wished to own the original copy of, just because it was Engberg's, or paid appearances at different schools. This let him build a comforting home for his family, which was everything he wanted.

Focused on his kids and wife, there was very little painting done up until **564PR** where he made the piece 'Surrounded Path'. He once again donated it to the Roufort Art Gallery, which held all of his most popular pieces and some of his lesser-known ones.

Then, he vanished.

## Death

On the night of Mak 23 **564PR**, Engberg took some of his belongings such as his coat and equipment and then disappeared into the night. Victoria, his wife, reported him missing the day after, stating that he had not even acted weird at the dinner before and has never been gone this long without a message.

With such a famous person missing, the Roufort Guard launched a full-scale investigation into how he vanished, even recruiting the Aliquam Guild to help. There was never a single clue found, simply that he took some of his belongings and vanished.

In Mak 24 **567PR**, the Roufort Guard and Aliquam officially declared him dead, ending the investigation.

Since then, many people have tried investigating his disappearance, believing that he couldn't just vanish in the middle of the night. It is classed as one of the great mysteries in the world, and is one of Tamwull's most high profile case.

## Artistic Legacy

Engberg inspired generations of artists to take up the profession. Many of them wished to reach his heights or even further. Some that were rich enough even followed his exact footsteps, causing Hashin University to swell with international students. Another side-effect was the Roufort Art Gallery, which had a significant increase in submissions. One downside was that the Roufort Art Gallery had many break-ins, with people trying to steal Engberg's original pieces. While none of note were taken, security at the gallery heightened.

## Personal Life

In **540PR** Engberg met Victoria Tegner, just before the finish of 'Whips'. The two quickly became a pair, falling in love and getting married in **542PR** with a private ceremony.

In **544PR** the couple welcomed their first child into the world, a son, who they kept private out of respect to him and fear for the fame that Engberg had accumulated.

By **549PR** the couple welcomed their second child, a girl. They kept the same private life again to protect their children from any harm.