Name: Maximillian Achterberg
Race: Vampire (Kindred of Clan Mekhet)
Age: 114 (Appears younger than 40, his age of death. Even before the Embrace, he aged well.)
Height: 6 feet
Weight: Around 170 pounds
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Dirty Blonde
Appearance: Max is a handsome German man that appears to be around his early thirties. He usually wears a German army styled military looking uniform of dark colors, complete with a matching peaked cap without any symbol, black gloves, and a trench coat. When feeling less formal, he opts for a simple high collared jacket, a shirt, dark pants and boots or some manner of heavy weather footwear.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Scale: Mixed
Strength: C (Human)
Endurance: B (Human)
Agility: A (EX) (Human. See Celerity.)
Speed: B (Human)
Supernatural Tolerance: E+ (Servant. The thickness of his blood, more than the norm for his age as a vampire, offers him some resistance against all manner of supernatural powers)
Magic Ability: None.
Other Abilities:Innate Durability: Kindred are inhumanly resilient. Most mundane weapons are no more effective against him than an unaided punch, and even then he can take a greater amount of punishment than any regular human.
Healing: So long as he has life force from human or vampire blood in him, there are few injuries that he cannot heal. With time and effort, it is possible to even regrow limbs.
Kindred Senses: Maximillian possesses very keen senses, twice as accurate and capable as the average healthy human being. He can easily see in perfect darkness without even the slightest effort. His sense of taste for blood is incredible. He can see even the smallest traces of blood anywhere within line of sight, and smell blood clearly at up to 60 yards away. He can hear heartbeats at up to 9 yards away without issue. While his sensitivity to blood can prove incredibly useful, it can also be very distracting when hungry.
Physical Intensity: By expending the life force of his cursed blood, Kindred can briefly achieve great bursts of physical prowess. Maximillian can temporarily become sturdier, stronger or more agile, by empowering himself in this manner.
The Beast: As much a weakness as a strength, the Beast is the source of all vampiric power in Maximillian's world, the personification of all bestial instinct and desire that lurks within each and every Kindred. It provides them with the drive to continue surviving from night to night, pushing them to feed, flee from their banes, and destroy perceived insults.
It allows them to detect others like itself lurking within, making identification between vampires a simple matter barring certain powers, and can lash out to provoke people to wanton desire or primal fear. When allowed to be in the driver's seat it sends the body into a frenzy, its power pushing the vampire beyond its limitations. Thanks to one of the natural powers of his clan, Max can make himself impossible to sense as kin by other vampires.
The Kiss: Also known as 'orgasmic bite', if you're not using the popular slang. It's a hunting aid, and it does pretty much what you would expect.
The Blood: Vampire blood is addictive, and drinking it will bind your heart in love for the one who fed you. Drink three times and it will become almost unbreakable, deep and obsessive as it roots into your heart. It lasts a year without reinforcement. On the other hand, mortals who are fed like this can be gifted a portion of the power belonging to the vampire including a cessation of aging.
Auspex: Even more than other kindred, the Mekhet live in the shadows, and they feed on what is hidden. Letting loose the Beast on secrets, Maximillian can obtain visions and flashes of insight that reveal precious information that he can exploit. The Beast can pinpoint danger and weakness, perceiving things others cannot, and provide awareness of what is not apparent in people; and focus on a single person to peel back the shroud of misdirection over her mind and sniff out her secrets, exposing the truth she is hiding to Max. He can use these powers often and without cost, but employing them repeatedly takes effort.
Obfuscate: A series of psychic sensory tricks that allow Maximillian to perfectly blend into crowds our groups of people despite his appearance, going unnoticed by anyone as long as he does nothing attention-grabbing; he can extend this benefit to objects or other beings that he comes in contact with. He can also, with some effort, vanish completely to all five senses. If he does this no amount of activity will alert anyone but his direct victim to his presence... or the victim's peril.
Protean: Some vampires keep their Beast tightly leashed. Others indulge in it, allowing it to manifest in the increasingly more monstrous ways that are the domain of this power. Maximillian can use this power to make the earth itself open to receive him and merge with the ground, safe in its embrace where he can remain until he decides to emerge. He can sink into other materials apart from soil with additional effort. While submerged, Max's kindred senses continue to function and he can absorb blood that is spilled on the ground. Greatly damaging the ground where he is resting will cause him to emerge.
Celerity: Unholy speed achieved by channeling the power of the Beast, which gives Maximillian some ability to dodge bullets through increased reflexes; and by expending life force, allows for bursts of speed faster than the eye can perceive.
Military and Special Ops Training: Maximillian is a trained officer of the German army and a veteran of both World Wars. He is trained in gun-handling (particularly, he is very good with a pistol) and close-quarters combat, focusing on knife fighting, and has basic first aid and survival knowledge. During the era of World War II, he also received expert stealth and infiltration training, and became familiar with basic occult and scientific knowledge. Additionally, he is skilled at deception and manipulation, and retains all of his experience gained on the battlefield and his secret assignments.
Gear:- Combat Knife
- Heckler & Koch HK45 (.45 ACP) Pistol
- Compatible Suppressor
- 2 Magazine Reloads
- Stun Grenade
- Handcuffs
- Duct Tape
- Gold tooth set in a pendant
Origin: Spoiler for Hiden:
Maximillian was born in 1899 in Germany to a countryside middle class working family during the imperialistic era of Germany. As a youth, he lived the rise of tensions across Europe and was drafted to join the military once World War I broke out in June 1914. After receiving training in a regiment, he and his fellow soldiers joined an infantry division as part of a corps organized with a number of others, forming one of the newly established army-inspectorates.
Their division was first deployed on the western front at the beginning of 1915 and was a part of the reserves that countered the British Army's capture of the Aubers Ridge. Afterwards they served as a mobile offensive force and engaged in trench fighting across the western front. Maximillian and his division were some of the forces that stood witness to the most successful use of chemical attacks during World War I, the Second Battle of Ypres.
Maximillian continued to serve in the defense of the western front, and transferred divisions and positions multiple times due to the death of most of his original division. Eventually he attained the position of Lance Corporal (Gefreiter). He cooperated successfully with multiple operations despite being wounded several times in service, but the only other major battle in which he participated was the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 after taking part in the failed defense of the Messines Ridge. Afterwards what remained of his current division was recalled from the frontlines, and were to serve as some of the reinforcements during the Spring Offensive of 1918, but the German strategy fell apart and they were forced to retreat from all ground taken during the Spring Offensive as a result of the Allies' counter-offensive.
After the Hundred Days Offensive had begun, Maximillian's commanding officer and troops under his command surrendered in October, alongside the large number of other German troops that laid down their arms following the string of military defeats for Germany. Subsequent to the armistice, the Imperial German Army was dissolved and reorganized into the Reichswehr. And as the war ended, popular discontent and the situation of Germany brewed revolution. Max got to live through the death of the empire he served, as the Wiemar Republic was implemented and Germany was made to sign the Treaty Of Versailles, which he alongside many others viewed as a humiliating epilogue to the war. Max endured his feelings on the conditions imposed upon Germany and remained in the reorganized armed forces not for his own sake, but to support his family, who had suffered greatly from the "total war" commitment policy of the country during the war which gave priority to most supplies and produce being sent to support the military's operations.
With the disconnection of the new government from the people, especially the working classes, and recognizing the general instability of the country, Maximillian became a silent supporter of the German Worker's Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP). In 1919 he attended a few of Adolf Hitler's speeches for the DAP, and he was convinced to officially join it, becoming its 60th member with the number 560. He continued to support it through its change of name after which it was more commonly known by the Nazi Party. Although he did not directly participate in the Nazi Party's attempted coup d'état, he was among the individuals that unsuccessfully attempted to rally the aid of the local Reichswehr forces, and was only deposed of his rank for his guilt as co-conspirator, an even lighter punishment than the lenient prison sentences of Hitler and other key members of the party. Upon its reformation, his respect for Hitler was renewed, and despite his wish to join the SS after it was formed, he had to remain with the army to provide an income because he couldn't depend on the party to do so.
With its growing strength towards the late twenties and finally the crash of the Great Depression upon Germany, Maximillian left the army to fully dedicate himself to the Nazi Party and the opportunity it was offered, becoming a part of the SS. Max had full faith in Hitler's promises and goals for Germany, fueled by his resentment at the result of the war. They had lost so much, and now they were going to take it back, and more. After a series of political campaigns, the Nazi Party controlled the majority of parliament with the German Communist Party, and in succession to a series of unsuccessful cabinets, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 by President Paul Hindenburg.
Soon, Adolf Hitler, officially named the Fuhrer and made head of state and head of government, established a centralized totalitarian estate with completely control, focused the industry to remilitarization, and introduced strong anti-semitic policies and laws, as well as rapidly suppressed political opposition. Maximillian was given the rank of First Lieutenant at the time and participated in the annexing of Austria as Germany launched into a series of operations for the sake of regaining control of their own borders and the territory they lost from of World War I.
When plans were being made for the invasion of Poland in 1939, Maximillian had all intentions of participating on the front lines, anticipating a much larger confrontation exploding from it, but then he was recalled to the capital on an urgent note. He personally met the Fuhrer, who explained to Max he had been recruited for a 'special project' sponsored by him. His leader spoke to him of glory, of power to be used for Germany's sake if he would be willing to serve it from the shadows with the same unflinching resolve he had shown, and asked if he was ready to set down his life for the good of the country. Maximillian did not hesitate to accept his Fuhrer's command. That same day, he officially joined the Ouroboros Division. A week later, he had learned of the occult secrets it hid, researched and made use of, and of the existence of Kindred from his Major. Maximillian Achterberg died, and was Embraced, reborn as one of the Nazi regime's secret vampire agents.
He received intensive stealth and infiltration training, learned how to make use of his vampiric powers, and throughout World War II was deployed on an extensive number of missions. He successfully completed multiple nigh-impossible espionage and intelligence assignments across Europe, assassinations, and several special interest targets to consolidate power for the division.
However, in-between missions, he found his belief in Hitler's regime fading as the war escalated and the crusade against the ethnicities that threatened the power of Germany plummeted into what he realized were atrocities against humanity itself. He realized exactly what kind of creature he had become, the kind of monsters and dark knowledge his country were using as tools of war, and how wrongly he had invested his allegiance.
Even though Maximillian now contested the current ways of Germany, he could not act in rebellion due to his position and he still owed loyalty to the people of Germany if not to the mad designs of its leader. Indecision kept him from organizing a revolt or turning traitor, although he managed to help a few concentration camp prisoners escape, even while under his Major's scrutiny. Almost a year since his shift in views, in 1945, the Axis Powers decisively lost ground in the war and the offensive of the Allies intensified and finally reached Germany. During the ensuing chaos of the Soviet and Polish forces storming Berlin, the headquarters of the Ouroboros Division were caught up in the fighting and their libraries of stored occult and esoteric knowledge raided. Mac returned from amidst the skirmishes approaching the capital to that chaos, and it was then that he first met Kindred who were not of the secret Nazi force.
In the aftermath, most of his division and his superior were killed. Due to the secrecy of the matter, it was easy for him to slip away and disappear, as World War II officially ended. While he had no loyalty left for the fallen Nazi regime, he still had duties to the German people and patriots who he did not believe were to blame for the extremes their country had taken, so he helped many escape from becoming prisoners of war or ending up unfairly judged and convicted for their superiors' actions.
It was at that time that he first came into contact with the society of the Kindred behind the Masquerade, and learned of the disturbances the war had left in it as far as Germany was concerned. Max had interest in making sure that the unlawful vampires and loose cannons of the Kindred did not cause further grief to the German people than the war had already, and he made a strong impression on the vampires of Berlin by acting as an enforcer against these miscreants and undesirable sort that threatened the stability of vampire society and Germany.
Eventually, Maximillian cut off all of his remaining personal ties with the mortal world and joined the ranks of the Carthian Movement, which he remains dedicated to this day for their ideals of bettering Kindred society, while serving as an enforcer and aid of the Sheriff of Berlin, as well as a freelancer for miscellaneous jobs requested by the remaining covenants and the kindred in power.
Until the day he fell into a ditch after feeding from a drunk thug on the streets and woke up in Nexus City.
Burns him on contact every minute of exposure. Seeing it can provoke him to uncontrollable fear in some cases.
Fire: Burns badly, defying easy regeneration, and provokes the same fear as sunlight when seen. One of the few things that can leave scars on Kindred.
Staking: Does not destroy him outright, but it renders him completely paralyzed if his heart is penetrated with wood. On the other hand, the ribs at protecting the heart from threats like that to begin with; most humans can't manage enough force to pull it off without assistance even without his enhanced reflexes.
Running Water: Most kinds of running water such as rivers and rain water flowing downhill on a sidewalk strongly repel Maximillian and deny his unlife, searing existing wounds on contact. He can cross over bridges and such, but otherwise, he cannot draw closer than 4 yards from his bane without some difficulty. Much to his dismay, he also finds water taps and showers uncomfortable. And rain. Luckily, smaller volumes of vertical running water don't outright drive him away.
Likes: Animals, hiking, parties, jigsaw puzzles, jogging, democracy, driving
Dislikes: Discrimination, abuse of power, autocratic figures, unnecessary killing, families being torn apart
Notes: Although he still has no problems relating to humanity, Max is not as emphatic to people as he used to be. As a consequence of his waning ability to relate, he has acquired Banes and become completely emotionally disconnected from intentional murder, which bothers him greatly (to the point that he used to scorn it but simultaneously think it a relief). Due to his banes, running water repels him, and he is despised by animals, which go out of their way to avoid him or express their dislike by hissing, growling, or behaving defensively regardless of his actions.
