| “ | Your churches and monasteries teach that the eyes are the windows to the soul. And since vampire evolved without eyes, it is a soulless creature, to be eradicated. And I have seen the soul of the vampire, and let me tell you that it is far more pure than that of any man. Now you ask me what I am? I am the bringer of the tide. I am the wave that will wash clean this unclean world. And you, and your little pet, will help me do it. | „ |
| ~ Hector van Neck |
Hector Van Neck, formerly known as Akhenaten, was the first Lasombra to ever exist, along with being the founder and leader of the Scarlet Brood, and a high priest of Absalom. He was a major adversary of Hellsing and the Order of the Silver Cross as he was responsible for many events that led to their predecessors uniting against him.
Appearance[]
Hector appears as a well-endowed male standing well over 6 feet and 3 inches tall with pale skin like any vampire. He has long blackish brown hair that reach past his shoulders, and red irises with yellow pupils and black sclera which is a unique feature exclusive only to Lasombra.
History[]
Background[]
In life, Hector van Neck was a human living during the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt some 3,000 years ago. He was a slave under the pharaoh Amenhotep III who was actually his father and worked in the construction of temples. His transformation into a vampire began when he fell into a pit deep within the pyramid under the heavy weight of stone. Seeing that no one would hear him due to the depths, he decided to find his way out of the pyramid, hoping there was perhaps a secret compartment left behind in case any of the workers were lost. During his expedition, Akhenaten only ventured deeper until he realized he was only going below the pyramid instead of above it, and it was there that he discovered what looked to be burial grounds beneath the foundations of the pyramid.
Akhenaten awakening to become the first Lasombra.
Akhenaten managed to create a makeshift torch and inspected the walls of these grounds, showing what looked to be strange beasts following the command of a humanoid figure surrounded by what seems to be a vortex of blood. He haphazardly stepped on a sharp stone which drew blood on his foot and made him bump into one of the tombs that caused whatever was inside to stir. His lack of judgment and the scent of his blood elicited an attack by large monstrous beasts whom were revealed to be the Turok-Han, hibernating deep below the confines of civilization. His escape was futile as he was quickly intercepted by the Turok-Han before he could reach his exit and dragged him into the depths of the tomb.
They proceeded to brutally torture him, draining him of his blood, and upon the cusp of life and death, Akhenaten was met by what he perceived as the female figure he saw on the walls. This figure explained to him that what he saw in those tombs would be the steps of leading civilization into a glorious age that cannot be ignored nor questioned. A "god of blood" will arise from the "palm of the Adversary" and he, referring to Akhenaten, must use this god to bring about the glory of the dark. Instead of outright killing him, these ancient vampires bestowed him with a new life and purpose by feeding him their blood and in the process created the first ever vampire, a Lasombra. Akhenaten, now reborn and revitalized, was seen by the monsters as their king and with an enlightened insight upon the world and its inhabitants, sought to bring about this age into fruition.
Reign and Exile[]
Akhenaten made his way to the surface and almost immediately his people noticed the changes in him. He quickly made his way to the pharaoh, easily killing any resistance that tried to stop him, before finally meeting and killing the pharaoh himself, draining him of his blood; it was through Amenhotep III's blood he discovered that he was the illegitimate son of the pharaoh, but instead of anger he was elated as he would use his newfound power and authority to use the kingdom of Egypt as a means of bringing this age of dark. As a pharaoh, Akhenaten abandoned Egypt's traditional polytheism and introducing Atemism, or worship centered around Atem, the "god of blood" he was informed of, and began to rework their religion as a whole.
Such a blasphemous change did not go unnoticed by the gods of Egypt who seeing the immense unholy power that Akhenaten wielded sought to end his reign by bringing forth a great power of their own. Their answer came in the form of the Amenti, terrestrial avatars of the gods to combat the dark forces unleashed by their greatest foes. A great battle ensued between the Amenti and Akhenaten which eventually resulted in the victory of the former and the exile of the latter. Akhenaten's monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues were destroyed, and his name excluded from lists of rulers compiled by later pharaohs.
Rise of the Scarlet Brood[]
Akhenaten wandered the deserts for millennia, occasionally feeding on a passersby and travelers as well. He appeared during the reign of King Ahab where he was met by Athaliah, the daughter of either king Omri, or of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, and the queen consort of Judah, attempting to flee from her executioners after she ordered the deaths of all her relatives to secure her place on the throne. Feigning to be a servant, Akhenaten led her to the lower tunnels beneath the city where she was only met by one of the Turok-Han who promptly attacked and drained her of her blood. Akhenaten quickly stopped the beast and examined the woman closely, seeing her in the same position as he, he mused that he could stand in the place of his "gods" and bring forth more emissaries under him. He fed Athaliah the blood of the Turok-Han which revived and turned her into the second Lasombra.
With her newfound strength, Athaliah wanted to terrorize the kingdom that robbed her of her right as queen. She would also come to be known as the "Lady in Red" due to her disguising herself in a long cloak of dark red which according to some was washed with the blood of her victims and those that attempted to seize her from dethroning the current monarch. She eventually was approached by Akhenaten once again, who managed to calm her down, and instead offered her a different outlook on her new unlife where she would use her power and influence to instead build a larger and more powerful kingdom under her rule. She contemplated this suggestion for a while before finding herself agreeing with Akhenaten. However, in return for his aid Akhenaten asked that she joined his cause in where they would resurrect the Blood God to have a united world of vampires under his hand with Athaliah freely reigning over her own section in the world without any opposition. Athaliah agreed wholeheartedly.
Akhenaten would then go on to create more like himself and Athaliah but the methods required would take too much time and opted to find a more low-cost way. He would not appear until the subsequent arrest of Jesus Christ and was foreshadowed by God Himself as the "man born of dark blood" that will visit Judas Iscariot by inflicting him with a terrible curse for his role in betraying Jesus. And sure enough, he appears before Judas as his body hung from the tree. Akhenaten pitied the former apostle and was amused that he thought he could escape persecution through death, so Akhenaten decided to perform a little experiment. He took the body down, slit his wrist, and let his blood drip into Judas' mouth and in the process revived Judas while also turning him into an unholy creature of the undead.
Upon awakening, Judas was mortified and confused by his current predicament and initially mistook Akhenaten for Satan. Akhenaten informed him that he is no longer among the living but neither is he dead and further went on to say that he would fear the sun and the light of day and that he would roam the night. He continued by telling him that life is in the blood and that blood from living humans would be the only thing Judas would ever feed on again. Judas would eternally walk through the inverted law of God's kingdom by only drinking blood. Judas demanded an explanation of Akhenaten's motivations behind his actions only for the vampire to scoff at him and wonder why should God have all the entertainment. Judas asked if this too was a punishment from God only for Akhenaten to tell him that he could interpret this curse in whatever way he wants while quipping that he did the Almighty a favor. Akhenaten then left but not before telling Judas that they will see one another again all while using his newfound method to create vampires but the only downside is that since they are lesser they cannot withstand the sun like he can.
Age of Blood[]
Akhenaten finally found this god of blood who was aptly named Absalom and just as the female figure said, he was created by the Adversary who of course was none other than Satan himself. However, Absalom was defeated by a sect of priests by incapacitating him with a holy cross. This gave one of the soldiers the opportunity to decapitate him and ending his heinous reign once and for all. But the priests knew that Absalom would not be so easily bested and thus ordered his remains to be burned and his items to be buried. A minor setback, Akhenaten bided his time for the "Nosferatu" to appear all while his acolytes search and combat forces that aquise the items necessary to resurrect Absalom. One of his vampire followers managed to bring Absalom's skull with which Akhenaten used to communicate with the Blood God within the spiritual plane. It was from there that Absalom informed Akhenaten of the methods on how to resurrect him to bring about the Golden Age of Vampires.
The first and most crucial was the "Nosferatu" who emerged during the reign of the Ottoman Empire; Vlad the Impaler. After Vlad's death and subsequent rebirth as Dracula, the pieces would finally fall into play for Akhenaten who began to make their move though it was certainly a struggle due to the amount of territorial vampires in the region as well as powerful forces that oppose their reign. Reluctantly, Akhenaten had to wait until human civilization was at its peak from which they could infiltrate and use to their advantage knowing that humans would be too blinded by their own greed and lust for power to care. While the forces of Dracula retreated into the darkness in wait for the return of their master, the Scarlet Brood were making their move to resurrect the Blood God. Sometime during the 1800s, two of the more prominent members of the Brood, that being Athaliah, who now goes by the name of Carmilla, and Judas Iscariot himself, were preparing for the imminent resurrection of Absalom. In order to accomplish this, the Brood seized control over the United India Company.
They used the Company to covertly transport Nosferatu during their shipments, hiding them inside crates, with intent of preparing for the awakening of Absalom and the infection of the global population with the vampiric curse of Absalom under the united hand of Hector van Neck who intended to use the power of the Absalom for himself in to accomplish this life-long mission. The Company would have the Nosferatu infect those of high positions and later using their political influence to suppress and move about plans of attacks from America to Britain as a means to resurrect the Blood God. However, they discovered that their plans would continually be hampered due to the rapid rise of the lycanthropic plague which was spreading across Europe.
Fortunately, the Company was dismantled and defeated by the combined efforts of the Indian rebels alongside Abraham Van Helsing and Vitali Romanov with the aid of the lycanthropes that followed Vitali after defeating their pack leader. The Rebellion devastated most of their resources and thinned their manpower and were disestablished as a result. However, the Scarlet Brood which controlled the Company in the first place remained at large and already had their pieces in place, setting them up for Van Helsing and Romanov's future generations to combat.
Personality[]
Hector wants to protect the vampire race from what he views as the inherent evil of mankind. Through his own righteous nature, Hector is a passionate crusader of vampire rights, dispersing both to anyone, human and monster alike that may threaten his species and is willing to kill or sacrifice members of his own coven for the survival of vampires in general. Hector, through his rebirth as a vampire and epiphany in Limbo, firmly believes vampires to be superior and the next stage in evolution. He also saw that vampires and humans could not coexist as the Egyptians turned on him and the Turok-Han after he seized the pharaoh's throne. Having felt the prejudice and cruelty of humanity as a human and Egyptian slave and firmly believing that co-existence is unobtainable between the two species, Hector decreed that humanity must either evolve to match vampirekind's standards or be exterminated all together.
Hector can be perceived, and rightfully so, as a cold, heartless vampire who has no empathy towards the deaths of others. His only concern is to bring vampirekind to the top of the world by any means necessary. Hector was also an extremely persuasive and charismatic individual; many vampires who followed him were unquestioning of his power and authority, and his enemies recognised how dangerous he was. Van Neck was a skilled manipulator, often winning people over with his words rather than his fists, and resorting to violence when necessary. His ideals were so profound it is actually what led to vampires having hold over many human settlements and were even lorded as royals of such settlements with the humans barely fighting back against them due to their strengths.
When dealing with other people, Hector maintained a reserved, cool and sophisticated manner, dressing finely and somewhat regally at all times and speaking very plainly about what he wanted and what he believed. Remarking that he didn't ask for favors, he was very clear about his intentions towards those he confronted. Hector also never lost his temper, he was remarkably calm and patient even when in combat with someone and when his opponents hampered his plans in the past as he knows he can try again and learn from his mistakes, becoming even more dangerous in the years to come. To be fair, Hector's extremely arrogant nature led him to believe that no beast or man on earth could match him. Although he was willing to admit when an adversary impressed him, in the case of both Dracula and Leon Belmont.
Quotes[]
| “ | Tell me, I am genuinely curious. Why are you fighting against me? Why are you continuing to play the loyal pawn to these self-righteous hypocritical ants? Aluc-no, I won't call you that, I won't demean you by calling you the name that these livestock address you as. Tell me Dracula, why are you fighting to preserve this wretched world. You and I both know it is irredeemable. What has this world ever given us but pain and suffering. When has this God-forsaken LIFE given us anything besides MISERY and HEARTACHE!? You and I both attained power to finally make a change and control our fate. And above all, to return all the pain life gave us back to it, and to those that wronged us. Yet what happened? We are called monsters and devils for our troubles. Not just by these human filth, but by so called higher powers, the demons of Hell call us leeches, yet they themselves are parasites who feed on the souls of the living. The werebeasts, who attempt to hunt us down, and yet they have caused far greater destruction to the world than we ever have! And of course we most certainly cannot forget about Him. This almighty God who proclaims unconditional love yet is hardly ever there to show it. Did He or His angels ever once try to come to your aid when you needed it? Where was God when you needed Him? Where was He for your kingdom, your country, the family, you swore to protect? All you were given was nothing but deafening silence. And yet here you are serving as a weapon for those who serve this very same callous God. But Absalom...he is different. You know we vampires are not just the rightful rulers of this world, but are the only true path for this world to survive. We are not burdened with humanity's flaws and weaknesses. There is no religious beliefs that separate us nor political squabbling. We carry ageless wisdom and experiences that they can never have. Knowledge they will inevitably forget with the passage of time. Many of us have already infiltrated their society! We rule them from the shadows and guide society and yet they STILL fail! They are a lost cause whether by the hands of the divine or the demonic they are doomed. We will NOT be dragged down with them to the eternal fires. Our utopia is salvation. You can be there as the king you rightfully are. And so I leave you with this; the famous quote from Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost: "would you serve in heaven or rule in hell?", to that I say why not reject both and create something else? Something better. | „ |
| ~ Hector trying to convince Alucard to join his cause |
