Otto of Hermanstadt

Otto of Hermanstadt

Clan: Ventrue
Nature: Autocrat
Demeanor: Director
Apparent Age: early 40s

Otto appears as a well-attired Saxon gentleman with long dark hair and short mustache. He has intense eyes, a cheerful smile, and a pleasant, open manner of carrying himself. He carries a cane in his fingers, and leans on it rather more heavily than yesteryear. Thunderously indignant over the plebs, Otto believes that respect should be accorded to those of greater station. Of course, few can rival his exalted station. He uses bluster and his overpowering will to attain what he wants. He is a Germanic man in all respects. He speaks Hungarian badly and speaks it unwillingly.
Otto of Hermanstadt was born in the Year of Our Lord 1160, the only child of a modest landowner and his equally modest wife. He remembers them but little, for he lost them both to a house-fire when he was just two years of age. After the tragedy, he was raised by an uncle, who was among the Saxons who founded Hermanstadt in Transylvania. Due to his skill at estate management and a fine, sly eye for lending capital, Otto and his family had wealth and success and defined their status as a new Saxon nobility in Hermanstadt. Otto soon made a name for himself with his wise and godly political counsel to the burgrave and his noble faction. After years of lobbying and hard work, he was accepted onto the city council himself, where he worked for the prosperity of the city and his liege. His good eye for land served him well, and he asserted excellent and fertile land to grow his crops and rear his livestock.

Otto did not know, however, that his conquests had been made possible by agents of the Ventrue of the Holy Roman Empire, who accompanied the colonization of the Saxons in Transylvania, under the consent of the princess Nova. The Ventrue had carefully observed Otto´s rise to wealth and power in Hermanstadt. It was in the pacts that the Teutonic Ventrue would help the Magyar conquest of Transylvania on condition that a German member would be introduced as a vassal of one of the new founded cities. A Ventrue knight from Nuremberg named Karl Dressler von Lüneburg had long been waiting for an opportunity to have a childe in the East lands, and he wanted him to be already active in local politics. Karl traveled to the city and introduced himself to Otto. Otto accepted the embrace like a new progression, a new chapter of his personal story of constant growth in power and status. He assumed the role of vassal of Hermanstadt, exercising it with rigor and responsibility.

Although Nova Arpad is officially the main authority of Southern Transylvania, there is a balance of power between Otto and her. Otto is the watchful and scrutinizing eye of the Holy Roman Empire over the region. He shares with Nova the same arrogance, the same sense of superiority, the same hatred for the Tzimisce and the same contempt for the Vlachs. Although he and Nova have much in common, they come from different legacies. Otto is not Hungarian, and would not mind to see the German Empire conquering Transylvania along with Hungaria. Otto has good relations with the Tremere and does not hesitate to seek the favors of the clan when he needs. He has no lust for conquest, nor for power in terms of territorial extension of his domain. He considers far more important to stipulate key alliances in cities and countries throughout Western and Northern Europe.