"So you now know that I've been alive for over 750 years plus and that amounts to seeing many, many things change. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse." -Edward Richtofen
During my unlifetime I witnessed the Renaissance, and it was very enjoyable, the advances in reason over mysticism really excited me. The art I could care less, but the science that resulted was pure delight I took every opprotunity to learn what I could from the new information. Of course after a couple decades of looking the same does get a little suspicious I had to keep my appearances on the down low, not to mention I only appeared at conventions that took place during the night. Just because reason was making an appearance didn't mean that superstition had truly left the spotlight. I had a couple run-ins with some rather suspicious fellows, but I took care of them quickly and quietly, and got a hell of a feeding out of them too.
I had to move around a bit from time to time, seeing that sometimes a hunter of the supernatural would get a little too hot on my trail and start searching for answers. Of course after things died down I would return to the village that eventually joined the whole of Heidelburg and after my third return to the now town I met one of Maxis's ancestors for the first time. Otto Dietrich Maxis was a curious man, as was I, but I kept my distance from him, I didn't want to get too involved with the family just yet. That would be for a later time, after all being twenty-five forever did give some benefits.
I was alive when Colombus found the Carribean and South America, and the Pilgrims sailed to Plymouth. The Americas were all the rage, but I knew I would never survive the voyage there especially since I could only travel at night. When many of the European revolutions hit I mostly went into a long slumber and slept off the days and nights until one of my ghouls woke me up to tell me that it was over. The results were sometimes good for me and sometimes bad, but I digress.
Clothing changed, fashions changed, the buildings around me changed, even the people changed. The new young adults that roamed Heidelburg, I knew their great, great, great, great grandparents and yet they didn't really recognize me. When the Industrial Revolution hit that's when my time to really shine came to be. Reason and science were becoming more and more of a factor in life, towns were growing and that meant more humans to feed on, but that also meant more competition. Luckily the Prince of the area kept things in check.
The unification of Germany was an amazing feat for my nation, and I was very happy that I no longer had to refer to myself as a Bavarian or a Berliner. As time accumulated I started to feel the tug of the numerous years on my vampire mind. Even though I was happy to see reason triumph over superstition I was also somewhat remorseful of not being able to truly see what the world had become. My sister, Angelica, had died a very long time ago and Wilhelm had been killed by his own villagers after they caught him feeding off of one of them. The two daughters were later found and killed for their father having been a vampire.
Still I wouldn't be satisfied until the age of real innovation came around, and when the nineteenth century hit it was truly my time to shine. I came out of my long isolation and began my return to the world, picking up the new technological advances and fashions along with the new forms of media. The knowledge of mathematics and science were a great boon to me and I could even learn from the men who wrote the books, but I usually didn't since booking meetings only at night was still a bit dodgy. It was also during this time that I did start to take an interest in the Maxis family.
Ludvig Maxis in particular, I watched as he grew up into a formidable mind akin to my own. I began to use my unnatural powers to create a host body in the form of my teenage self (according to the standards of the nineteenth century). For years I played a great scherade of a young mind rife with the struggle of orphan-hood, but still willing to learn of the academic paths of life. The host body was thankfully able to withstand sunlight and I made it age accordingly, until it looked exactly as I was then. I was able to attend the university that I had watched been built years ago and always wanted to attend.
That's when the worst happened, a world war broke out and my host was no longer viable to use. "I" a vampire of then nearly seven centuries old had to fight in a war involving humans and their own petty squables. I had fought in a war before, but at least this one wasn't on the basis like the Crusades were, this one had partial non-religious reasons which gave me bit of lee-way. Before I had joined Group 935 and set up a network of friends that I found could help me find a way to very great power.
"Little did I know then that my past would soon catch up with me when 935 found the one thing I had protected centuries ago." -Edward Richtofen