Post by vonklempt on Apr 16, 2010 6:10:40 GMT -7
THE HANDLER
NAME: Professor Herman von Klempt
NICKNAME: Bald Nazi, Glasshole
CLASSIFICATION: Undead human head/ cyborg
GENDER: Male
AGE & BIRTHDAY: October 1885 (114)
APPEARANCE: Herman von Klempt was never a handsome man. Not the sort to be too concerned with looks (at least now his own) it never bothered him, especially since his exceptional intelligence and high status as a top level researcher for the Third Reich tended to get him through the few social situations he found himself involved in. It was how he won over his wife, after all, by flaunting his position and dazzling her with his intellect. His lack of good looks was just an occasionally unfortunate fact for Von Klempt.
However, that was before his accident, before he became little more than a head in a jar. Now, Von Klempt is an abomination of science and black magic. It hasn't helped much in the looks department.
Possessing a hard face graced by some of the bone structure common amongst the German aristocracy, Von Klempt has always had very intense eyes that occasionally hint at the depths of malevolent intelligence burning behind their jade gaze. Very often a lingering look from those malicious orbs are all that it takes to make one feel uneasy, as if he's preforming a mental dissection.
A sneer of contempt is almost always plastered across his features, only rarely interrupted by a vicious smile or sadistically satisfied grin - always because of a suitable accomplishment, whether it be a successful experiment or the defeat of an enemy. It's impossible to think that such a cruel, hard looking man could ever indulge in good natured smile or mirthful chuckle, and thus far, he has yet to. Von Klempt is a man who rarely derives pleasure from anything but his terrible works.
Always pale, Von Klempt has grown even more so ever since his accident and subsequent encapsulation. His skin having taken on a deathly parlor, it doesn't do much to make him look any less fearsome or grotesque. The swastika tattooed into his forehead - his own personal stamp of loyalty to the Nazi ideal - does even less to make him look anything but gruesome.
His personally designed mechanical bodies mirror the height and general physique of his old body; a small piece of sentimentality that he's chosen to afford himself.
Not especially stocky - more of a lean build really - he doesn't cut much of an intimidating figure, and although he is quite tall at about 6'2, Von Klempt would never appear to be much of a fighter or potential combatant. Before his accident, that may have been so - he rarely ever got his hands dirty back then - but now, his unimpressive form just obscures the deadly threat he encompasses.
ATTIRE: Before his accident, Von Klempt was very rarely ever out of uniform. On the few occasions that he was without his beloved SS attire, he favored suits mirroring the favored style of Gestapo agents everywhere; black and foreboding. It's unlikely that Von Klempt's fashion sense would allow him to ever really accept anything that wasn't suitably "orderly" looking. That is; anything that didn't look bleak.
Now, confined as he is to his bell jar, he doesn't have much choice when it comes to what to wear. However, his mechanical bodies are always donned in the outfit of an SS officer, his nostalgia for the old days being far too strong to opt for anything else. With the exception of when he's without a body altogether, he's never been seen without one of those fearsome looking stark black uniforms. They are, to him, as much a symbol of pride as they are a piece of nostalgia.
A word on the prosthetic body. While unobscured it wouldn't fool anyone for a second into believing it's real, clothed it looks exactly like Von Klempt before his accident, with the exceptions of the baldness, unusual glowing green eyes, and swastika marking on his forehead, of course.
"Piloting" the mechanical body from inside the chest, Von Klempt is completely hidden from sight, perfectly casting the illusion of normality to the world around him. However, the piloting compartment can be breached if the body receives enough damage in the correct areas, which would reveal the real Von Klempt, much to his chagrin.
PLAY BY: None
THE CREATION
NAME: None
POWER LIST:
- Superhuman Strength/Durability
- Electric Blasts
- Levitation
DETAILED POWER: Years of research has developed Herman von Klempt's natural talent in the fields of robotics to the point that he is capable of constructing some of the most advanced examples of mechanical prosthetics the world has ever seen. Being at a severe disadvantage in any sort of combat situation due to his unique handicap of being just a head, it stands to reason that he'd seek to utilize his talents by constructing a suitable tool to even the odds.
To that extent, he's developed a series of robotic bodies for himself. But - thanks to his engineering genius - they boast incredible strength, durability and even a capacity to utilize electricity as a directed weapon. Having updated the basic design over and over since the '30s, it stands to reason that his suit is something of a marvel.
Able to lift up to four tons and endowed with an extreme level of protection against his foes, von Klempt is a worthy opponent while piloting one of his mechanical bodies. While not invincible - to his eternal woe - he could stand up to quite a bit of punishment, and his ability to generate and project electric blasts at his enemies has proven to be very useful in the past.
Outside of his suit, von Klempt is not entirely defenseless, though he is severely restricted in terms of combat ability. Having long since rendered his jar capable of levitation to facilitate a speedy escape should one of his suits fail him, von Klempt is at least capable of proving himself a difficult target outside of his body. Though that doesn't say much.
THE POTENTIAL
ALIGNMENT/OCCUPATION: Unaffiliated/ Mad scientist & would be world conquerer, former high ranking researcher and head of various Nazi Doomsday projects, former member of the Thule Society
WEAPONS: Various gizmos and gadgets built into his false body and floating apparatus. These include a small but deadly laser built into his floating apparatus and the aforementioned electrokinetic weapon built into his mechanical body.
PERSONALITY: Largely unique for a member of one of the BPRD's rogues gallery, Herman von Klempt is actually quite rational. While he's prone to extreme narcissism, mood swings, sadism and megalomania, he is free of a desire to see the world either destroyed, the human race wiped out, or to usher in some cosmic horror from the great beyond to do either the first or second thing. Despite everything, he's one of the closest things to a practical man there is when it comes to his goals and desires - at least when compared to his peers.
Von Klempt is largely concerned with his work; furthering his understanding and mastery of his chosen fields of expertise and doing so without interference from would-be meddlers. However, while his work keeps him occupied, he is not a man without ambition. Still something of a dedicated Nazi, von Klempt never stopped believing in Hitler's dream of a world united under one perfect order. To that effect, he's launched several plans in the past to either enact vengeance on the Third Reich's enemies, or bring the world under his singular will and intellect.
Naturally, these haven't exactly gone according to plan. Von Klempt finds himself meeting defeat after defeat, but even after decades of trying and failing, he's still dedicated. But lately, he finds himself spending less and less time concocting new Doomsday schemes and more time tinkering with a new toy or experiment. In fact, it's been some years since he's even showed up on the BPRD's radar; so taken is he by his work and research.
But just because he's become less active in terms of a major threat level doesn't mean he's mellowed with age and time to reflect. Von Klempt is egotistical, vain, possessing a cold and calculating intellect and a ruthless drive to achieve his goals. While free from any more overt manias that would prevent him from using the full extent of his amazing intellect, he possesses a burning hubris toward the former Allies that saw his beloved Reich ground to the dust.
To this extent, it really is only a matter of time until he launches some scheme or another.
If Von Klempt sounds like some grandiose mad scientist with intricate machinations and a tendency to spout dialog right out of a B-Movie, it's because that's more or less what he is. Completely at peace with the idea of being a large ham, he even plays up this image, monologuing about how feeble his enemies are, or how totally out of their depth they've found themselves. He loves the sound of his own voice, and after so many decades, it makes sense that he'd slip into the role of over the top adversary so well.
However, despite his tendency to indulge in theatrics and such things, Von Klempt is a real threat with a cunning and vicious genius. Many have underestimated him because of his tendency to rant and rave, but the threat he embodies is all too real.
SKILLS:
- When one is as old as Herman Von Klempt, it's only natural to have picked up quite a few skills and talents along the way. First and foremost is his wide grasp of languages. Having been all over the world in his 114 years and hatched schemes from countless different countries, it stands to reason that he's learned and attained fluency in several tongues. Though he has yet to shake his distinctive accent in any of them, he's able to fluently speak in more than two dozen languages.
- Tinkering in the laboratory, building and improving upon any scrap of technology that he considers even slightly interesting, Von Klempt's grasp of all things mechanical is practically peerless. His understanding of just how machines of any kind work is truly remarkable, and his talents at improving them and utilizing their functions in new and often bizarre ways must be recognized.
- With a keen mind and cold reasoning, Von Klempt boasts excellent analytical abilities and a talent for deduction. Years of working out the kinks in numerous special projects - as well as his grandiose schemes - has left him with an ability for pragmatic and realistic thinking. Sometimes.
- Having been an important part of the Third Reich's R&D department and launching many personal attempts to either take over the world or somehow avenge the Nazi regime, Von Klempt has a good grasp for military planning and strategy. Though at first a man of science rather than a potential military conquerer, he eventually built up the skill and sense to fight battles and exploit foes. It's just a shame for him that he had to lose so many times to get that sense.
STRENGTHS:
- Herman Von Klempt possesses one of the most brilliant minds the world has ever seen. Twisted though he is, it's impossible to deny that he's extremely intelligent, and though his chosen field of work is gruesome in the extreme, he is a genius in what he does. And in general, really.
- Having been alive for more than a century, Von Klempt has a massive amount of experience and learning from which to draw from. Memorizing countless tomes over the years and possessing an almost Encyclopedic ability to call up facts and data, there's little he's forgotten in all that time.
- Making it on his own (more or less) after the collapse of the Third Reich has taught Von Klempt to be resourceful. Utilizing allies when he can get them and taking any aid he can appropriate, he's grown very good at starting whole operations and experiments from complete scratch with very little in the way of men or materiel.
- Detached and cold to the world, Von Klempt is, however, not ignorant when it comes to what makes others tick. A skilled user and manipulator, he's able to bend and twist others to serve his needs and goals. Though he's limited by his hubris at times, when he's thinking clearly and completely focused on achieving something, he's truly adept at making others do what he wants; whether they know it or not.
- Intelligence and learning only get one so far. Without a capacity for cunning and savvy, Von Klempt would never have made himself into the threat he's personified before. An avid and capable schemer, Von Klempt can be counted on to come up with largely practical plans that stand a genuinely good change at succeeding. Though he may tend to embellish them with a level of grandeur to appeal to his vanity at times, the foundations of his plans are almost always quite grounded.
WEAKNESSES:
- As learned as he is and as used to dealing with the paranormal as he's become, Von Klempt is still distrustful and generally quite ignorant when it comes to the out and out magical. Occasionally using a small measure of it in his experiments, he usually prefers to avoid it. This is partially because he fails to "understand" it as such, and he's simply incapable of conducting larger or more complex rituals due to this. When it comes to dealing with actual magical creatures, Von Klempt can seem downright xenophobic if he doesn't seek to use them for a scheme or some-such.
- Von Klempt is arrogant to the point of megalomania. Though he can be ruthlessly pragmatic and realistic at times, he often falls prey to vanity, underestimating his foes and overestimating his own abilities. This had led him into ruin time and time again, and though he does make some genuine attempts to avoid the trap, sometimes he just can't help it.
- Being an unrepentant Nazi means that Von Klempt rarely makes it on many Christmas card lists. His past associations and current views mean that quite a few people will outright refuse to work for or with him. Those and his designs on the world; his previous attempts at world domination or vengeance are known throughout the supernatural and intelligence communities.
- Deadly though he is with his devices and technologies, Von Klempt is completely helpless if all of that is taken away from him. Though brilliant and cunning, he is just a head in a jar at the end of the day. If stripped of his fearsome weaponry and the like, he's not a threat at all. He's just a very arrogant Nazi head in a jar.
- As superior as he believes himself to be, Von Klempt holds all other life in comparatively low regard, besides the possible exception of fellow Nazis and potentially useful allies. To that effect, he'll turn on almost anyone who affiliates themselves with him at some point. Stabbing someone in the back is second nature to him, and since he holds life in such apathetic regard, killing is nothing to fret over for him. He's practically a sociopath.
THE STORY
HISTORY: Herman von Klempt was born in 1885, in Frankfurt, Germany. His interest in cybernetics - the combination of organic and machine parts to create new, efficient beings - was first displayed when, at the age of ten years old, he killed the family cat and tried to improve its design by integrating clockwork parts into its body. His ghoulish experiments and apparent lack of concern for life frightened his family, and when he announced his intention to attend medical school in Berlin, they were relieved to be rid of him.
In Berlin, von Klempt's single-minded dedication to his experiments rapidly earned him a reputation as obsessive, and something of a loose cannon. Further steeping himself in his research and caring less and less about what he regarded as "pathetic concepts of morality", he performed a wide range of experiments during his years at medical school; most of these involving the creation of animal-machine hybrids.
In 1935, von Klempt was invited to join Heinrich Himmler's new Thule Society, also known as the German Occult Bureau, based in Berlin. Von Klempt made the most of his personal fortunes, developing his own private kriegaffe (war-ape) project, but now he hoped that the Thule would fund his dream project - a super army of half-man, half-machine soldiers. In the spring of 1936, the Thule Society established a lab for the development of the army in Hunte Castle in Austria.
Shortly after joining the Occult Bureau, von Klempt used his new status to court and marry a local girl - less out of affection than his desire to establish a social image as more than just a crazed and obsessed loner. However, the marriage was short-lived. In 1936, von Klempt was nearly killed in a laboratory explosion. Members of the Occult Bureau managed to keep von Klempt's severed head alive in a bell jar; how much of this achievement was science and how much magic remains unknown. Shortly after, von Klempt's wife went to live with family in Vienna, and the two never spoke again.
Von Klempt quickly adjusted to life as a disembodied head. He channeled his love of robotics into development of a wide range of mechanical prosthetics. Despite his relative handicap of being a head in a jar, this was one of the most fruitful periods of von Klempt's life.
On March 20, 1939, U.S. troops, accompanied by The Lobster, infiltrated Hunte Castle, which also housed the Nazi space program. The battle resulted in an explosion that sent fire sweeping through the castle. Von Klempt, protected by his jar, was the sole survivor, although his robotic body was badly damaged, and his prized experiments destroyed. He returned to Germany, where he was outfitted with a new body and continued to work on his research until the end of the war.
With the fall of the Third Reich imminent, von Klempt began planning for his own future and accumulating the means to continue his work. He secreted generators and other equipment in a hidden bunk, and, in the chaos following the fall of Berlin, he and his Kriegaffen 1# and 2# moved one hundred of the subjects of Project Vampir Strum - a failed doomsday project meant to create an army of vampires - to his new laboratory. There, he attempted to revive the failed rocket program in order to launch the vampires into the heart of the United States. The plan was foiled by Trevor Bruttenholm and a small company of American and Soviet troops, and von Klempt was forced to abandon his body to avoid capture.
Arranging for his head to be smuggled to South America, he was able to find enough funding from Nazi sympathizers and survivors of the Third Reich to establish a new laboratory from where he could continue his experiments. Along with his own work, von Klempt established several projects with which he believed could allow him to seize control of the world.
Through the years, his experiments and machinations brought him into conflict with BPRD agents, and while he escaped each encounter with his life, he found himself having to replace countless mechanical bodies and completely write off special projects because of their efforts. Despite his defeats though, he's maintained his status as a recurring menace to the world in general and frequent opponent of the Bureau and its agents.
