Gustav von Holt

WRITER: Xa McCue

EMAIL: safeathome@mindspring.com

CHARACTER'S AGE: 108, died at 22

NATURE: Brand new Master

DESCRIPTION: He's 5'10, an average but well toned build and very Nordic looking, with nearly silver white blonde hair and dark blue eyes. As a mortal, he was very fair skinned, and as a vampire he has great difficulty passing for human before he has fed. His hair is short, just barely long enough to have a little curl to it, and his eyebrows are all but invisible except when they catch the light. Chosen by his Sire for his coloring and good looks, Gustav is as beautiful as a Greek statue come to life, and frequently just as cold. His clean lined face is usually expressionless or just a little bored looking, and all his smiles hold at least a little cruelty.

PERSONALITY: Bitter and wary a good deal of the time, Gustav has all but forgotten the meanings of trust and friendship, though he does remember how to fake them. He does his best to show the world a blend of charm and confidence, which frequently goes over the line into arrogance, but it's basically a front. He's been tossed into the world of Master's politics and plots with nothing to rely on but his wits and Alla's dubious protection.

Decades of being subjected to his Sire's cruelty have whetted his own appetite for doling it out to others, but he does attempt to keep it reined in with a personal regimine of rules and rationales.

ABILITIES: Flying, which he does very badly, especially the landings, and his animal to call is the rat, both the natural and were varieties. However, his control of them once he has Called them is pretty limited thus far, and for safety's sake, he has avoided the wererats, mostly.

WEAKNESSES: The standards: sunlight, silver, fire, etc., plus his mental maladjustments.

HISTORY: Born the third son of a Graf(roughly, a Baron) to an ancient Prussian family of minor nobility, Gustav was well loved and indulged, mostly by his mother. His father was more reserved, but saw to it that he was well educated and taught all his sons what he considered proper manly pursuits, such as riding, hunting and fencing. Gustav's career in the military was planned in his early childhood, part of a long family tradition, and he was sent to the cadet corp in Berlin. His career in the Kaiser's army was beginning quite well, and he was already a junior officer by early 1914. Everyone could see war on the horizion.

He was attending a formal dinner party held by the von Hindenburg family, along with a superior officer and a group of collegues, when he caught the eye of the Master Vampire Elsa, who was also attending. She found him attractive and decided to keep him, arranging things to make it appear he had deserted.

She was an extremely controlling Master. She prevented most of his powers from emerging, and manipulated him expertly by keeping him as ignorant and dependent on her as possible, isolating him from everyone except her and her household, and alternating affection and harsh punishment for any disobedience, not to mention psychic domination, but after a long, long time, he began to see that it might be possible to escape her, if he was very, very careful.

After suffering a series of losses and setbacks during the second World War, and undoubtedly aggravated by the rapid changes in the world and her reluctance to make accommodations with the new realities, Elsa began to mentally unravel. She made a hasty, poorly planned attempt to avenge an old slight, and was forced to flee after failing.

When Gustav came to realize that she had made a bitter enemy of a Council Enforcer and was in danger of getting wiped out and taking him with her, he decided betrayal was his best course of action.

He was quite surprised and pleased to discover that he was a Master after Elsa's death. He was less than pleased to wind up in Alla's service, but he does know that there is a good deal he needs to learn. He doesn't particularly like her, and he likes her mad little Servant still less, but they are an improvement over his previous situation, and he knows how to bide his time.

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