I never got around to posting an Introduction story for either of my two characters. I will probably never try to write one for Nicky (been RPing on him here for way too long to know where to even start). But I finally got around to writing one for Vlad, which is more important in my opinion because it might explain a thing or two about this peculiar character. So here goes, and please don't hesitate to post criticism and opinions:
(P.S. Sorry it's long :P)

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It was a cold and stormy evening in winter... actually, not just any night but the 24th of December in the year 1979. The streets of Baia Mare in Tranyslvania would have been pitch black if not for all the Christmas decorations and lights spread across the city. Music could be heard from most houses in the city, mirth and celebrations for Christmas Eve. Few people were in the streets, hurrying in raincoats under the heavy rain in the strong winds towards their destinations avoiding as they could the traffic blockages across the streets which happen when everyone seems to leave their house at the same exact time.

The Ogrimund Manor wasn't decorated for the festivities. It was well-known that they were agnostic and hence it was with some sort of irony that on that evening they had to have their first and only child. The ancient grandfather clock in the bedroom struck seven hours past noon just as the cries of a newborn were heard for the first time in that antique residence.

Vladislav they named him, one of the most common names in their Family Tree, along with Vladimir and simply Vlad, going all the way back to about the year 1390 when their ancestor of the time, Vlad the 2nd, was born in region known in those times as Wallachia in Romania, later to become the ruler of this region. His mother Daciana held him in her arms for about a minute before passing him on to the woman who would be the one taking care of him for his early years, Diana, the newly employed nanny assigned to the child on twenty-four-seven duty. Marius, his father, wasn't even home at the time. At work was the excuse, having extra-marital fun with his secretary was the truth.

The Ogrimunds were well off, they lived in a large mansion with garden and the like. Descendants of ancient kings who still weren't entirely down-to-earth and thought of themselves as superior to everyone else - explaining the six or so members of staff at their house. The chef, the gardener, the butler, the maid, the driver and now the nanny. They weren't really needed, their mansion was large but it was not a castle after all. Still they kept all of them just to prove they could and to make the neighbours jealous. The man was an important and successful lawyer, always working on that big case or the other when he wasn't busy betraying his wife, who didn't work but was still way too busy to spend time at home with her newborn child and instead spent it shopping, going to the spa or to the theater or to wherever other wives could see her newest dress or set of jewellery and die of envy - or so she hoped.

Before he could even walk Vladislav was tested for Hereditary Coproporphyria shortened to HCP, a disease that ran in the family since anyone could remember, and resulted positive to it. Neither of his parents were affected by it, it had skipped a few generations. Hence after the mild shock they suffered and recovered from in their own way, namely a night out for the man and a new mink coat for the woman, they followed the doctor's orders and put the child on a diet high on carbohydrates and glucose... or rather, had his nanny put him on it. Poor Vlad grew up eating a whole lot of pasta and bread along with a bunch of glucose tablets, not to mention barely ever seeing his parents and always looked after by Diana who at least was nice and caring. But she was also poor so when she was caught stealing silver cutlery from the house to sell and pay her old mother's medical bills with she was fired and prosecuted by Mister Ogrimund, who didn't hesitate for a moment to use it as an example to the other members of staff. Vlad was five at the time and no new nanny was hired since the mother was so very picky that Marius gave up finding one after the twenty-fifth was sent off from her interview. So the child's care fell into the hands of the old butler, who was not the friendliest chap but at least feared the house owners enough to take care of him properly.

Vlad's childhood was lonely and wrapped in a shell since his parents used the excuse of his poor health to keep him inside and get a private tutor for him so as to keep the number of staff members at the nicely rounded figure of six. In reality they kept him home as much as possible since they were ashamed of having produced what they considered a defective son, even though the boy was completely normal and fit apart from the facts his urine was sometimes purple in colour and that he was slightly sensitive to light.

At the age of ten however the boy was tired of being practically locked inside. So after much insistence he started being let outdoors more often, always accompanied by the butler of course. On one such evening he was taken to a circus that used to tour the cities of Romania and used to stop at Baia Mare for a fortnight every four months. It was there that he saw Silviu perform his acrobatic and ventriloquism shows and these both captivated young Vlad from the first time he saw them. He insisted for the butler to take him to meet "the man that could fly like a bird and speak from anywhere" and he did in fact meet him. From that day on he would insist on being taken to the circus every night that it spent in town and having become a regular attendee Silviu grew fond of him and spent some time showing him how he did what he did.

By the age of sixteen Vlad was able to throw his voice and do all sorts of acrobatic tricks like riding a mono-cycle on a rope and climbing poles like a monkey. His parents weren't all too happy with his continued visits to the circus and his new skills, who in their opinion made him seem like "one of those circus freaks" to their neighbours and friends. But Vlad was stubborn and he kept going as frequently as ever until Silviu died when the net broke and failed to stop his fall while performing a risky sequence of acrobatic movements on a high wire. This tragedy hit Vlad badly, since Silviu was the only person in the world he considered his friend and he was so depressed by his death that he locked himself indoors for weeks on end, spending most of his times reading books and watching movies that involved a lot of death and gore. One of his favourites was Dracula.

This lead to his somewhat overprotected mind, which was in a fragile state at the moment after suffering such a loss to him, to get effected by it quite a lot. Especially after he learned the movie was inspired by the story of his ancestor Vlad the third Dracula, known as Vlad the Impaler. This together with the known side-effect of neurological symptoms that come with HCP made him actually start to believe that he was a sort of vampire. Seeing he didn't have the mythological super-human strength that Vampires were said to have, he tried making up for it by subscribing to a Gym and working out for long hours under extreme conditions. Two years of this saw him go to college, at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucuresti, a well built and strong man, intent on becoming a Doctor mainly due to his fascination with human blood, even though his father kept insisting he should get a Law Degree and work for him.

As extra-curricular activities he chose Drama and Martial Arts, advancing in the art of Katana wielding during the time he spent at UMF, since he always had a fascination for blades and the only thing he liked about his father was the collection of swords he kept at the mansion. It was in college, a stressful time for anybody that his weakened mind split into two. Another side of him started to make itself felt, the one conditioned heavily by the violence and repressed rage at his parents. While one side of him wanted to do good and help people by becoming a doctor, the other used this wish to becoming a doctor so as to have easier access to blood to play with. The first two years at college saw his good side as dominant and the nasty one was kept at bay, but never dormant.

It was then during his third year that the evil side took over, so to speak. It called itself Cruentus, which is Latin for "bloody", and it started not only experimenting with blood but even drinking it. He fell deeper into his darker side the harder things at university became, even going so far as to attack a few girls and literally biting their necks and suck out some of their blood. He enjoyed the feeling of terror his victims would display and the adrenaline rush it gave him, but he knew it was risky to drink blood like that so he refined his technique and started drugging his victims to make them dizzy and then extract their blood medically and only drink it after testing it and making sure it was not dangerous for his health, already tainted by the dreadful disease.

He graduated from the University as a Medical Doctor specialising in Emergency Medicine and found a job in a local hospital where he interned and practised for a total of five years. During those five years his Cruentus personality became all the more in control but learned to keep itself hidden by imitating Vlad. It called itself with Vlad's name when not in disguise and even when he was at work he acted like a professional doctor would, only to keep his cover. Eventually he left the hospital after the staff was getting suspicious of him, almost accusing him of being the one that was regularly raiding the bloodbank and steal blood from it.

He returned home to find his parents still in their same old way of life, absorbed in themselves and in showing the world how rich and royal they were. He was disgusted by them more than ever but had no choice but to live in their mansion for the time being. But having lived alone for five years, attacking people and stealing their blood in his free-time, he found he couldn't swallow their bossy natures. They still treated him as the sick and frail young kid they always thought he was. But unlike Vlad, Cruentus wouldn't take their bullshit and after a particularly nasty row with them he simply stopped shouting, turned away and walked out of the room. Their victorious and smug expressions soon turned to horror as they saw him walk back in the room, moments later holding two of his father's antique katanas. He slaughtered them mercilessly and without a word, then took the little money they kept hidden in the mansion and ran for it.

He bought a one way ticket to the United States and moved there, living as a bum even though he could have afforded some rent. He fell deeper into the abyss of violence and even started killing the victims of his blood thefts, having enjoyed murdering his parents. By this time Vlad's original personality was practically never in control and all it had were fuzzy memories of the inhuman and gorish murders committed by Cruentus.

Shortly after his twenty-ninth birthday he was arrested while he attacked a college girl as she was walking home. Luckily for him he had barely grabbed the girl when the two officers stopped him, so they thought it was a simple robbery attempt. Being it his first infraction of the Law, to the judge's knowledge at least he was just made to pay a reasonable fine and received only six months' worth of jail.

In jail he felt trapped, tied down and bossed around - three things Cruentus hated deeply. Not being able to consume blood, and believing he was a vampire, his brain was telling him that he was suffering and slowly dying. He was so convinced about that that he truly started to feel physical pain and the colic attacks that were a side-effect of his disease became more pronounced by the day. It was after the first month, when he was at rock bottom when the third and final personality made itself known. Unlike Cruentus, this personality was a passive one - in the sense that it didn't take control of Vlad's whole body like Cruentus' did. Rather it only controlled the parts of it that were needed to throw one's voice. It started using Vlad's ventriloquism skill to make Cruentus believe he was being talked to by a supernatural being.

During the rest of his remaining five months of containment, the passive personality that had named itself simply The Master, was in complete control not of Vlad's body but of Cruentus' personality. Cruentus had been brainwashed into realising he was not a vampire and convinced instead that he was the chosen servant of the Master. He believed what he was told about the Master being a Divinity - actually The Divinity that had created everything and was forgotten by the people of the world.

Cruentus made it his lifelong quest to obey the Master in what he thought was a way of getting him to become once again strong and powerful on the planet, having lost that power over the years. He did this through stealing blood and raping his female victims when he was released from jail. He developed rituals of adoration for the Master that lived only in his sick mind and spent his days follow the way of life he had shown him.

He was thirty when he stumbled upon the city of Hathian during his travelling and continious changing of places to call home. By this time his funds were running low and he could see how corrupt and pervers this city was. It was dark and secretive by nature, a perfect place to hide.

That's why he decided to stay there for longer than usual - taking a job as Intern at the Hathian General Hospital. That is how he stumbled on the Crack Den.