Nathan | |
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Portrait of Nathan, 1604 | |
Duke of Saxe-Lochau | |
Reign | 1593-1608 |
Coronation | 16 September 1593 |
Predecessor | Edmund Alwin |
Successor | Louise |
Born | 6 June 1570 Lochau, Saxe-Lochau, Holy Roman Empire |
Died | 6 June 1616 Unknown |
House | House of La Marck |
Father | Edmund Alwin of Lochau |
Mother | Ottoline of the Palatinate |
Religion |
Jungism |
Nathan (6 June 1570 - 6 June 1616?) was a German serial killer and nobleman, who was Duke of Saxe-Lochau from 1593 until his death. He is considered one of history’s most notorious serial killers, who kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered at least 100 people, and perhaps as many as 1000 during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Prior to his crimes coming to light, Nathan was considered one of Saxony’s most chivalrous knights, commanders, and leaders, which shielded him from proper investigation for much of his career. He is believed to have become involved in the Meisid cult, which motivated him to commit greater acts of depravity, although the full extent of his crimes remain unknown. The most definitive account of Nathan’s crimes come from the posthumous book Geschichten vom Hexenherzog (Tales of the Witch Duke), published by an acquaintance Roger Stange from Nathan’s own memoirs. However, Stange’s work later came under scrutiny as potentially edited, as Stange sought to deflect blame from himself and other survivors, and may have embellished Nathan’s deeds.
Nathan was the great-grandson of the famous Edmund Alwin, Duke of Saxony, and grew up as a minor noble in the extensive House of La Marck. As a young child Nathan displayed tell-tale signs of a broken household, as his family’s financial and personal situation deteriorated. Despite this, he aspired to become a prominent knight in Saxony, earning the trust of his cousin Henry V and his son Engelbert III. Nathan became involved in crime during this time despite his outwardly magnanimous persona, forming a partnership with prominent bandit and murderer Martin Niers, and using his status to manipulate attention away from himself and his accomplices. As Duke of Saxe-Lochau Nathan bankrupted himself through extravagant building and theatrical projects, forcing him to turn to the occult as a means to reverse his fortunes.
Early Life[]
Nathan was born in 1570, the second son of Edmund Alwin, Duke of Saxe-Lochau. Nathan’s family life was troubled from a young age, as his father and his mother, Ottoline of the Palatinate, came to resent each other. Ottoline came from the prominent House of Palatinate-Simmern, a famously catholic family which later produced Frederick V, Holy Roman Emperor, the first of the schismatic Catholic emperors. However, tales of Edmund Alwin’s potentially large inheritance, a claim bolstered by his apparent numerous suitors, caused Ottoline to eagerly convert to Jungism and move to Saxony. She quickly discovered that Edmund Alwin was in fact not remarkably wealthy, attractive, or interesting, the tales of his numerous suitors having been carefully orchestrated by his uncle Wolfgang I to create allure. In actuality Wolfgang was creating numerous matches to prominent nobles to enrich the nation’s treasury.
Named for his famous grandfather, Edmund Alwin was raised in a life of luxury by his mother and was ill-prepared for rule. As a teenager he was a famous womanizer, spending most of his days gambling, feasting, and taking part in mischief. Upon ascending to the throne unexpectedly in 1567, he squandered his entire fortune and became an alcoholic. His marriage to Ottoline proved incredibly unhappy, with the pair often getting into violent altercations. The pair had two children, Jonathan and Nathan in 1567 and 1570 respectively, as well as numerous other miscarriages and stillborns. Fed up with the antics of her husband, Ottoline appeared to have a religious epiphany in the 1570s, returning to Catholicism after supposedly having been approached by angels. She took up sole guardianship over her children due to the absentee Edmund Alwin, isolating them in the family castle. She would school the boys herself, reading fiery passages from the bible to them daily, especially passages concerning murder and death. She preached against the evils of alcohol, and taught that all women (except for her) were servants of the devil.
During their upbringing both boys displayed strange tendencies, including random outbursts of laughter. Nathan took up experiments on wild animals that appeared around the castle, including birds, cats, dogs, but this behavior was brushed aside as it was thought he simply took after his uncle Louis of Saxe-Wolfen. His hobby grew and Nathan began keeping jars of dismembered animals in the castle, until his father discovered this and beat Nathan severely. Years later, Nathan began sneaking out of the family castle despite the watchful eye of his mother, exploring the surrounding area and causing trouble for local farmers. When both boys were teenagers, their uncle Edmund of Saxe-Jessen intervened and convinced Ottoline to allow them to tutor under his guardianship. As one of the only Catholics in Saxony, Edmund was trusted and Ottoline reluctantly allowed this.
Edmund gave both children training and education, with Nathan eventually becoming a squire for one of Saxony’s most famous knights, Roger "the Red Flag", who later became an imperial guard. Despite Nathan’s earlier strange antics as a child, he appeared to completely change as an adult, becoming a well respected, chivalrous, and kind individual. He fought for the Electorate of Saxony and became one of its commanders, and even began tutoring several young boys himself. On the surface Nathan appeared a charming and outgoing individual, able to earn the trust of all those he encountered. Despite this, he would often privately fly into fits of rage or depression, and according to his later confessions it was around this time that Nathan murdered his first victim. Late one evening after a banquet for himself and several other knights, he wandered outside Wittenberg until he came upon a prostitute. He reportedly hit her over the head with a stolen hammer before stabbing her in the stomach. After she began to scream Nathan fled and abandoned the victim, and she was discovered and cared for but died a day later.
After this first murder Nathan was quiet for some time. He continued to be a positive presence in Wittenberg, and was tutoring numerous young boys. His second victim would not come until nearly a year later, when he began frequenting the lower class districts of the city while in disguise. During a robbery gone wrong outside one of the city’s taverns, Nathan intervened and killed a guard. This earned him the respect of the would-be-robber, a Bavarian named Martin Niers, and the two formed a partnership. In 1591 the pair began leading attacks against travelers outside the city, robbing and killing several people over the course of a few months. This gang gained the attention of local authorities, and Nathan was approached to help investigate and stop these crimes, the authorities being unaware that Nathan was the perpetrator. Nathan tipped off Niers and instead Nathan systematically took out his competition, arresting several people over the next few months, earning him additional fame.
All the while Nathan began attending events of high society, mingling with the Saxon elite. He was considered an expert manipulator and studied human behavior, allowing him to trick, seduce, or influence many. It was during one such meeting that he met a wealthy heiress named Katharina Feyerabend, who became an unwitting accomplice to many of schemes. In 1592 a fire broke out in the city of Wittenberg, where Nathan was staying. Nathan’s brother Jonathan, who had been becoming increasingly at odds with his brother, died during the disaster, while Nathan seemingly coordinated a rescue operation. For his leadership in stopping the fire, Nathan was awarded several accolades by his cousin Henry V, Duke of Saxony. The following year Edmund Alwin of Saxe-Lochau died at the age of 59 after being of poor health for some time, and Nathan returned to Lochau to be crowned its duke. Before departing, Nathan betrayed the last members of his gang to the authorities, having apparently swore off crime, although he managed to persuade authorities to commute Niers’ sentence to life in prison.
Reign as Duke[]
As Duke of Saxe-Lochau, proved admirable, although by that time Lochau had pawned off almost all of its territory to other members of the family due to Edmund Alwin’s habits. This left Nathan with very little possessions or responsibilities, but he nonetheless attended to his small population of subjects. He commissioned the construction of a major chapel in Lochau based on his personal design, as well as additions to the family castle. All the while Ottoline remained, and the two had a very close relationship. During this period Nathan rarely ventured far from Lochau, except when he was chosen for the honor of transporting important family relics during a parade in Wittenberg. At home he began spending heavily on his many construction projects, which were often done haphazardly due to Nathan’s micromanaging. It soon became clear that his chapel was proving more and more ambitious, and began to sprout dozens of erratic hallways, secret rooms, passageways, as Nathan’s designs changed on a whim. Builders were often fired mid-project, leading to a mess of unfinished or disconnected areas underneath the main chapel.
At the same time Nathan also took interest in theatre, designing massive theatrical performances. His elaborate plays often involved hundreds of actors in carefully constructed costumes, which were worn once and constructed afresh after each performance. He began spending handsomely to reward townsfolk with unlimited food and beverage at theatre performances, which endeared him to the local population. However, all these spending habits began to bankrupt the duchy, and Nathan began hastily selling off the last of his properties and possessions – aside from his mother’s castle – to pay for each new performance. One of the few advisors in Lochau left, a nobleman named Peter Nilsus, petitioned Henry V to intervene in order to save the duchy and prevent the greedy partitioning of its neighbors, and Henry finally decreed that Nathan was barred from selling any more property. By this time he had begun selling family manuscripts, books, artwork, and other valuables to commonfolk of Saxony.
On a few occasions Nathan got into altercations with his creditors and other shadowy figures of Lochau. During one such incident he got into a fight and injured one of his arms, reportedly being unable to use it for the rest of his life, although this was actually a ruse. During this time he took up meetings with prostitutes once more using his perfected disguises, killing at least two others, again with a hammer. After seeing how much money he had gained from selling famous paintings, Nathan became convinced that the life of a painter would bring him a new fortune, and he began frequent training as an artist. Nathan also took up one of his most prolific hobbies: graverobbing. He frequently dug up recently deceased bodies and brought them back to his castle, although at first he apparently only used these corpses as studies for his unique brand of artwork.
Desperate for money to uphold his lifestyle, Nathan began looking into other means. He secretly sought out every individual in Saxony with knowledge of alchemy and demon summoning, buying numerous magical books and artifacts. On many occasions Nathan was scammed out of whatever money he had managed to save up by conmen, and on one occasion Nathan executed one such salesman out of frustration. Others appeared more genuine to him, and Nathan patronized these experts. Within a few years he had built up an elaborate collection of books and artifacts associated with black magic and the devil. He wrote out a contract to sell his soul away, and began actively trying to summon a demon, to no avail. Convinced that he needed to please the demon with a sacrifice, Nathan began seeking victims from the townsfolk of Lochau.
Over the next few years Nathan would kidnap dozens of people. After a simple murder failed to facilitate a response, Nathan was convinced that there was a special combination needed, and began cutting up his victim’s bodyparts and arrange them into symbols and shapes. Due to his position in the community, numerous families gladly gave up young boys to Nathan for tutoring, apprenticeship, and service, however, many of these children suddenly began disappearing. After showering these young boys in gifts, clothes, and special treatment, Nathan would strip these children naked, tie them from the ceiling, and sodomize them. Many were tortured and mutilated while alive, or sodomized after they had already died. After the attempted sacrifices, many body parts were burned, while others were fashioned into trophies. Nathan’s elaborate chapel became the home to many of these murders, as the disorienting architecture and many dungeons allowed him to easily torment his victims.
Townsfolk around Lochau began to notice the disappearances and became more cautious. He orchestrated a scheme to free his old friend Martin Niers from prison, using his on-again-off-again lover Feyerabend as a pawn in the operation. Niers managed to escape through the ceiling and flee out the window on a rope made of bedsheets. He was then smuggled by Feyerabend out of the city, and upon arriving in Lochau. Nathan then had his bride-to-be strangled to death to tie up loose ends and hopefully inherit her small fortune, planting evidence that Feyerabend had been the accomplice of Niers all along, before he betrayed her and killed her. With some resources from Lochau castle, Niers began organizing a new gang of bandits that terrorized the countryside. This gave Nathan a scapegoat for the disappearances, and began a sham investigation to track down Niers, while actually driving authorities in the other direction. Nathan’s list of victims grew, with him increasing his graverobbing. By this time he was often having sex with these corpses, using their body parts in sacrifices and spells, and furnishing artifacts out of their skin.
Although pamphlets circulated that linked Niers’ gang to all kinds of horrible deeds, they were actually relatively tame, capturing their victims alive and bringing them to a secret entrance of Lochau castle. Nathan revealed his true identity to Niers, who was now an indebted pawn of his. Niers revealed that while in prison he had befriended a mysterious alchemist who eventually was to be executed. The man identified himself as a powerful wizard of the Meisids, and gave Niers instructions on how to perform several acts of black magic. Elated, Nathan performed one of these Meisid rituals: sacrificing a child on a burning pyre in a specific field in Meissen during a full moon. Soon after Lochau castle was visited by a cloaked figure one night, and upon revealing his face Niers identified him as the man who had seemingly been executed, back to life. With his name unknown, Nathan would simply call him the Graf von Illusorisch (Count of Illusive).
Nathan took to the Meisid rituals with earnestness, and secretly began harboring several Meisid agents over the next few years. During these elaborate rituals, Nathan was secretly administered drugs which brought upon hallucinations guided by Illusorisch. Nathan became convinced that he had successfully sold his soul to the devil and was being rewarded. With Meisid assistance his fortunes changed significantly, as they delivered to him mysterious artifacts and gold.
At the outbreak of the Forty Years' War in 1596 he was named a marshall and was to take command over much of Saxony’s army, as he was considered one of the country’s most skilled fighters. He took up this task well and raised Saxon forces, taking part in the war in Hesse in late 1600. Accrediting his success to his pact with the devil, Nathan proved an exceptional fighter and commander in battle, and took great pleasure in war. He showed no quarter to captured prisoners, inflicting harsh torture and execution on many he came across. Despite these tactics being done, back in Saxony Nathan was praised highly for his success and chivalry. He took on numerous squires and attendants who had been orphaned, giving them a home in Lochau, but secretly intending to experiment upon them. After receiving word from his mother that she was not well, Nathan faked a serious injury to leave the front. For the rest of his life he would walk with a limp, not have use in one arm, and have a hunchback, although these were actually all fake to deter suspicion. It was also during this time that he suffered an actual injury: the loss of a finger on his left hand.
Nathan returned to Lochau as a war hero, bringing with him dozens of attendants and captured spoils. After his time in the war his bloodlust seemingly only intensified, causing him to increase kidnappings across Saxony. Engelbert III, Duke of Saxony took personal interest in the disturbing disappearances, and asked Nathan to lead the investigation, owing to his past success investigating similar crimes years earlier. With a stipend from the government, Nathan began leading soldiers to hunt after roving bandits, but again shielded Niers and his other accomplices. It is said that Nathan may have also had an influence on Engelbert III in devising the Grand Appanage, after the Meisids convinced Nathan of the idea.
In the early 1600s the Illusive Man began giving Nathan regular instructions, most often involving requests for him to target various people in the Holy Roman Empire. In March 1601 he orchestrated a plot to kill two minor assemblymen of the Rätian Union, who had spoken negatively of the Oldenburg Commune. In exchange for this, the Illusive Man revealed one of the most powerful Meisid spells: the ability to summon one’s doppelgänger. Nathan was instructed to construct two specially built coffins, separated by a pane of glass. Nathan was then told an incestuous sacrifice would be required. As part of his ongoing investigation into the gangs ravaging Saxony, he traveled to Wittenberg and spent time in Engelbert III’s court, before an opportunity presented itself to plant evidence on one of the Duke’s sisters, Clara de la Marck. Clara was subsequently arrested and brought to one of Saxony’s prisons, where Martin Niers had once been held.
Nathan traveled to this prison along with several of his men to interrogate the captured, taking with him one of Clara’s advocates, her brother Louis. However, once in the prison Nathan’s men orchestrated a breakout of Clara, while Nathan turned on Louis and killed him. Nathan would report that Louis and his allies had attacked him first, because Louis and Clara were actually secret agents of the League of Jessen, a secret Catholic Society in Saxony. Due to Nathan’s prestige as well as planted evidence, this lie was believed; Louis was buried as a traitor, while Clara was assumed an escaped fugitive. However, Clara had actually been kidnapped by Nathan’s men, unaware of this. Transporting her covertly to Lochau, Nathan explained to her that the Saxon dukes were launching a plot against her and her full-blood brothers, and that they had already assassinated Louis. Trusting that Nathan was rescuing her to safety, she accompanied him into the depths of Lochau castle. Instead, Nathan proceeded to torture and rape Clara until she was pregnant.
According to the Illusive Man, the ideal time for their ceremony came eight months later. Clara was forced into one of the coffins, and brutally stabbed to death along with her unborn child. Then Nathan entered the second coffin and was sealed inside for six hours, six minutes, and six seconds. When he emerged, to his astonishment a second Nathan emerged from the other coffin. He was an exact twin, even missing the exact same finger as him, perfectly mimicking his appearance and attire. Entranced by the power of the Illusive Man, Nathan swore to fulfill the mission of Peter Meise. With a doppelgänger at his disposal, Nathan would arrange several nefarious plots. He traveled across Saxony, and due to his high status was able to get close to many high ranking nobles and politicians. Nathan would proceed to assassinate those that had opposed the Meisids, while his doppelgänger was publicly sighted elsewhere, giving Nathan a perfect alibi.
One of his most famous targets was Jacob de la Marck, titular Prince of Finland, a prominent Finnish noble who had hunted the Meisids during their stay in the country. Although famously cautious and isolated, Jacob agreed to a meeting with Nathan. Nathan arrived alone with his doppelgänger stashed in a suitcase. Once inside, an elderly woman that was a Meisid agent was instructed to wield a magical wand and curse Jacob, causing a panic. Although the woman was hacked apart by guards, the panic allowed Jacob and Nathan to flee into a safe room, while the doppelgänger secretly emerged. Nathan then murdered Jacob in the safe room, before escaping into hiding, while his doppelgänger appeared before everyone as if he was the real Nathan. When the dust settled, Jacob was discovered dead, seemingly having been killed magically by the Meisids, while Nathan was unsuspected due to having been in plain sight all along.
A Meisid agent later publicly cursed Nathan for being an “ally” of Jacob, and claimed that a curse would follow him, killing all those he loved, as a cover. The curse seemingly came true, as everywhere Nathan went with his doppelgänger, people disappeared or died around him under mysterious circumstances.
In mid 1602 Nathan had a close call that nearly unraveled his plans. Martin Niers was spotted in public at a bathhouse in a small nearby town, after someone seemingly tipped off the local townsfolk it was him. The townsfolk investigated, and found a human finger in Niers’ bag, confirming the suspicions. They then proceeded to capture Niers and several of his men, brutally beating them as revenge for Niers’ many killings. After being brought to prison, Niers likely expected that Nathan would rescue him, but fearing that Niers’ carelessness may cost him, and knowing that such a high profile escape would be suspicious, Nathan instead condemned Niers to death and publicly announced this. During a supposed “interrogation”, one of Nathan’s agents whispered to Niers that he had a plan to rescue him and to go along with this, but these messages were actually intended to keep Niers quiet. He was subsequently tortured, broken on the wheel, quartered, and finally definitively killed when his remains were burned alive.
After the death of Niers there was a lapse in consistent sacrifices to Lochau Castle. Angered, the Illusive Man told Nathan that the sacrifices needed to continue to keep up Nathan’s magical aura and protect him and his family, but the Niers disaster left Nathan hesitant to continue at full capacity. The remnants of Niers’ gang, which by this time numbered in the thousands and included bandits, robbers, prison informants, spies, and more, had split off into numerous rogue factions which began to battle with each other and the authorities all the same. Fearing that one of Niers’ lieutenants may be captured and leak information, Nathan was forced to legitimately pursue these gang members for a time, beginning a bloody gang war. The destruction brought upon by the ongoing Forty Years’ War, in which mercenaries, bandits, and rogue armies often marauded in search of supplies, money, or simple revenge, only exacerbated this problem.
Nathan’s efforts were largely successful. He used his knowledge of Niers’ tactics to infiltrate their common hideouts, assassinating numerous high ranking gang members. In August the famed bandit Otto the Black was apprehended after being lured out of his hiding by Nathan, who recognized him, which became the second large arrest of the year. A replacement for Niers was considered, the first being former lieutenant Matthias Bückler, but it soon became clear that Bückler was an opportunist and not a “true enjoyer of murder”, who pressured Nathan for more money and power, so Bückler was murdered himself. The second opportunity came in October, when Red Ron the Butcher struck up a deal with Nathan, however, Red Ron turned on Nathan, having actually been seeking revenge for the death of Otto the Black. Nathan narrowly escaped with his life and had Red Ron hunted down, captured alive, and tortured, but the event scarred Nathan and made him hesitant to trust any bandit again. By the end of the year the largest contingent of former henchmen coalesced into the Brave Confederates, which soon gained work as a mercenary company, effectively removing them from Nathan’s purview for a time. However, that Christmas the prophecies of the Illusive Man came true, when Nathan’s mother Ottoline died.
Nathan became distraught and erratic after hearing the news, and as per the whisperings of the Illusive Man, he blamed himself for his mother’s death. Nathan proceeded to go on a rampage of his remaining torture chamber, desperately slaying several women and pulling their limbs apart and frantically bathing himself in blood. At the behest of the Meisids to earn back his evil blessing, Nathan embarked on a risky plot in Lochai itself. That night Nathan’s doppelgänger visited the home of Peter Reinhard, one of the wealthiest merchants in Lochau. After acting strangely, as the doppelgänger was not as accustomed to beginning such plots, he lured Reinhard’s wife Sarah out of the home, where the blood-soaked, naked Nathan proceeded to kill her by beating her to death and biting on her neck. The commotion caused Peter to be alerted, and several townsfolk ran into the street, only narrowly failing to capture Nathan. The duke managed to escape, but not before several people witnessed him. This would prove Nathan’s first brush with near capture, but for now he managed to escape, and the townsfolk did not suspect him, due to the presence of the doppelgänger.
A series of mobs would be formed over the next few months, as the townsfolk searched for the mysterious red man who had murdered the woman. Although Nathan would usually take part in such things to keep up appearances, he disappeared into self isolation to “grieve his mother’s passing”. Unbeknownst to townsfolk, Ottoline was never buried, but instead was kept in her bed and Nathan proceeded to have sex with and sleep with her corpse for some time. Convinced that he could reanimate his mother’s spirit, Nathan embarked on one of his greatest projects. Over the course of the next few years he would begin secretly digging up bodies from graveyards, as well as kidnapping women from Lochau, with greater intensity. He would proceed to skin these people alive, sowing pieces of skin together, and modifying them with dyes, paint, and other procedures to create a perfect “skin suit” of his mother. This suit would never truly be completed, as Nathan liked to modify it all his life, but within a year it was in a satisfactory state to begin wearing it. He would proceed to dress as his mother and wander the castle and surrounding town. On at least one occasion he forced a young boy to have sexual intercourse with his “mother” via the suit’s stitched together sexual organs.
However, these antics became riskier. People began to notice the disturbances occurring near graves, and citizens began to guard the graveyards against graverobbers. Nathan would be nearly caught once more during one such visit to a graveyard, and on another occasion one of his agents was captured and quickly executed. On occasion Nathan would be spotted while wearing his mother-suit and women’s clothing while sneaking through town, building the legend of the mysterious creature that plagued the town. Upon hearing of this, Engelbert III dispatched a small retinue of soldiers to Lochau and also placed a bounty on the capture of this man/creature, drawing unwanted attention to the surrounding area. Bounty hunters and fortune seekers soon flooded into the town from across Germany. Nathan satisfied his bloodlust for a time by using these soldiers. Some disappeared from their unit after being ordered into a secret room by Nathan, becoming easy prey. But soon a more substantial plot began, as Nathan began using these soldiers as a secret police force. Soldiers would be tasked with arrested “suspected culprits” and bringing them to Nathan for torture and interrogation, which soon became a lucrative way of acquiring new people for sacrifices.
Meanwhile, the Brave Confederates managed to gain a reputation as one of the fiercest but also most unscrupulous mercenary companies of the war, under the leadership of such captains as Viggo Hoot, Three-Eyed Weasel, Kurt the Biter, and Hannibal Hurst. They first were contracted by the Catholic League, and proceeded to pillage Saxony and beyond for some time. They became instrumental in the capture and holding of the city of Kassel. The city became home to one of the largest concentrations of prisoners, and after Joachim Benz and his army departed the garrison was largely left to its own devices, as long as the city was held. The Brave Confederates proceeded to torture many captured prisoners, seizing valuables, and recruiting new members, while their overlords largely turned a blind eye. That is, until the Brave Confederates suddenly defected to the Jungist alliance. This was puzzling, as the Brave Confederates seemingly defected from the richer faction to the poorer one.
However, in early 1604 the company made several consequential actions. Having gotten close to the Jungist alliance, they came into contact with several people associated with Nathan. Several of his relatives in the line of succession would die under mysterious circumstances, including Nathan’s nephew Alwin of Elster. Several of Nathan’s lead agents, former close friends of Martin Niers who escaped into the army, were found out and arrested or killed by the Brave Confederates. And finally, the company managed to get a hold of Louise of Saxe-Wolfen, after rescuing her from an apparent Catholic plot. For rescuing Louise and caring for her wounds, the Brave Confederates received praise and pardons from Engelbert III, although Nathan secretly believed they were manipulating the duke to get revenge against himself. The Brave Confederates also captured numerous former gang members not affiliated with them, and other troublemakers who had traveled to Lochau, earning them praise from the townsfolk, especially after Nathan’s actions were becoming more subdued. It was believed they may have captured the infamous murderer of Lochau and were expected to meet with Nathan, but fearing this was a trap to corner and kill him, he declined to meet with the company, raising suspicions.
Nathan’s inaction proved harmful, as members from the Brave Confederates were soon elected to prominent positions in and around Lochau, and became graced with fortunes and allies. Becoming increasingly paranoid, Nathan eliminated many of his former informants and allies, fearing they may be secretly working for his enemies. The Brave Confederates meanwhile captured the fortress of Merseburg after its lord supposedly rebelled, and they established the town as their stronghold. Nathan retaliated by having some of the Illusive Man’s “sons” – he possessed a mysterious retinue of young, mostly mute boys raised from birth as brainwashed Meisid servants – infiltrate the company’s ranks. One young boy, nicknamed Elb, entered circulation as a captured dissident of Merseburg, where he endured several months as a prisoner of war. Due to his skill in the town’s local workcamp, he was spotted by Viggo Hoot, who recruited him as a cupbearer. This made Elb the most successful of Nathan’s spies, as after almost a year of work he was now relaying messages to Nathan and had a close connection to company leadership.
At the suggestion of one of Nathan’s older advisor, Peter Nilsus, Nathan began to consider the matter of his succession, although according to one claim Nathan expected to live for centuries. It was feared that the Brave Confederates may try to claim Saxe-Lochau via Nathan’s niece Louise, who was one of his closest relatives. Without any children, brothers, or uncles of his own there was little Nathan could do to challenge such a claim if it were to arise. However, Nathan despised marriage and had no legitimate children, although it is believed he had plenty of illegitimate children from his depraved acts. Upon consulting Meisid texts, Nathan was informed of the dark magic associated with various marriages, and although he refused a public, Christian marriage, he considered a Meisid one. The Illusive Man recommended a prestigious pairing to a Sibyl of Morningstar Meise. The Sibyls were priestesses and oracles of the most powerful Meisids, who gave up their identities to pursue full devotion to dark magic.
Nathan traveled to a predetermined magical location, the Teufelsmauer or Devil’s Wall, located just north of Saxony. There under a full moon he performed a great sacrifice, summoning the Meisid delegation to his location. Nathan became soul-bound to Sibyl XXIV after a blood ceremony, and the pair consummated their marriage before the delegation. However, upon returning to Lochau he learned that the Brave Confederates had discovered evidence of wrongdoing under Nathan’s chapel, which infuriated him. Additionally his relationship with the Sibyl broke down, as he found himself unable to perform sexually with her on many occasions without the allure of power over her, and he detested that she was protected by the Meisids. Finding her too inhuman, Nathan had Sibyl XXIV locked in one of his towers. Nathan was forced to devise a plot to blame the discovered artifacts meanwhile on one of his companions, however, suspicion continued to build.
In late 1605 the Archbishop of Saxony, Alexander Breuer, took interest in the affair and traveled to Lochau unannounced. With the backing of the local church, the Duke of Saxony, and the Brave Confederates, Breuer began investigating the mysteries of Lochau. Nathan ordered Elb to plant evidence on Viggo Hoot, including a forged contract with the devil, but this was surprisingly intercepted and Elb narrowly escaped with his life. In his escape he would manage to steal several secret documents and deliver them to Nathan, although they lacked a cipher to decode many of them. To this end he recruited a mathematician named Gustav of Madgeburg, the son of Gustav der Unjungli, to help solve the code, while Elb was sent to spy on the Archbishop. Elb managed to assume the identity of a missing deacon, helping to keep an eye on the investigation.
Despite Nathan’s best efforts to dissuade investigation and destroy evidence, a handful of letters were discovered in a secret compartment of his chapel, which mentioned Niers and the old practice of kidnapping children. Nathan denied knowledge of the letters, but his attention was also distracted by the arrival of Johann of Zeitz-Grima, a famous detective and son of Dietrich II and Barbara Wolfgangia, Nathan’s first cousin once removed. Johann traveled with his widowed mother, his wife Clementia of Meissen, and several of his children. After meeting with Johann to keep up appearances, Nathan became infatuated with his family, including his nine year old daughter Josephine. Nathan secretly plotted to make this his second attempt at “marriage”, and he began to slowly earn the trust of Johann.
A feast was held in early 1606, in which several prominent nobles and relatives attended. Despite suggestions from the Illusive Man of who to target, Nathan instead distracted the guests with his doppelgänger and lured the young Josephine away from the party, had her knocked unconscious, and stuffed into a box to be brought back to his dungeon. Meanwhile, a letter was sent to Elb in a secret code they had made in person together, which Elb interpreted as a signal to plant evidence of a plot to kidnap the young girl. That day the authorities suddenly learned they had an infiltrator among them, but they did not discover Elb’s involvement. As such Nathan began to suspect someone was monitoring his communications with Elb, but that they did not know their secret code. The Archbishop encountered Elb’s evidence the day after the feast, concluding that Josephine had been kidnapped by the Brave Confederates, but their headquarters was thoroughly searched and nothing came up. Meanwhile, another dark marriage was performed, this time between Nathan and his underage cousin.
A manhunt began across Lochau for the missing girl, and Nathan feared even his fellow accomplices. He hid his “wife” at all times, keeping her locked up in a box in one of his towers when not with him. The Archbishop began collecting testimonials that many townsfolk had their children disappear after entering the care of Lochau Castle, and also learned of rumors of people going into the castle from a secret passage, which he searched for with the help of the found letters. Church men began questioning attendants of the castle, and when Nathan learned of this he took drastic action. One of Nathan’s trusted advisors, Roger Stange, was ordered to destroy some documents and seal several important passages in the castle, after Nathan claimed those areas were damaged. The castle itself was left in the care of Peter Nilsus, one of the few advisors Nathan trusted or tolerated due to his history of working with his mother. A few weeks later Nathan decided to venture from Lochau and travel to Leisnig in one of his first appearances outside the city in years, taking his concealed wives and several other trusted attendants, to stash Josephine far from Lochau. Nathan’s doppelgänger was sent in the opposite direction with instructions to hide many of Nathan’s prized possessions in Halle. Meanwhile, several of the Meisids dispersed from Lochau as well.
However, Nathan made a mistake during this trip, in that he let his bloodlust get the best of him. Two people would disappear while in Leisnig, and news of this made its way back to the Archbishop, leading him to suspect Nathan’s involvement. The Illusive Man traveled to Leisnig to report this, and gave Nathan a special “potion” to help him disappear if he was in trouble. The Illusive Man then vanished from Saxony himself. Nathan had Josepine stashed in a special jail ceil, having one of his men instruct the guards that a dangerous prisoner was inside who was never to be seen or let out of solitary confinement. After arranging this, Nathan prepared to head back to Lochau, but the Archbishop had written to local authorities in the city and had Nathan and his nine remaining companions put under house arrest until they could be questioned.
Fearing that he was being punished for his lack of sacrifices, Nathan began systematically killing each of his men one by one, as they were locked in a relatively confined space. After two days only four remained: Nathan, the Sibyl, and two soldiers named Roel Moors and Xaver Hohenleiter. The Sibyl whispered a prophecy to Nathan, and he decided to ingest the potion during this time. He was subsequently found dead in his bedroom, leading the remaining three to suspect each other. The guards caught on to these murders and began to investigate, and they were joined by Johann of Zeitz who came on the Archbishop’s behalf. Johann ordered the remaining three taken out of the house and put into jail cells, while Nathan’s body was recovered to be sent back to Lochau. However, the Sibyl convinced the two soldiers that the two men would be suspected of murder and killed, so they refused to give themselves up at first. The two began to fight each other, as the Sibyl was an unassuming woman, when Johann’s guards rushed into the house. Moors would be mortally wounded in the altercation, while Hohenleiter was captured in the act. The Sibyl surrendered and screamed that Hohenleiter was the murderer all along.
The following day Nathan awoke while inside a coffin. He discovered that the potion had caused his body to display signs of death, allowing him to appear dead for a time. The Sibyl, having adopted a fake identity as one of Nathan’s attendants, gave a detailed account of Hohenleiter’s supposed murderers, before joining Nathan’s casket in being escorted back to Lochau. That night Nathan was broken out and escaped into the night, leaving behind evidence to suggest his body had been robbed, matching the Sibyl’s description of how Hohenleiter’s accomplices would steal corpses. Word reached Nilsus of this, who carried out Nathan’s supposed last will and testament. Louise was declared Nathan’s chosen heir, and the Brave Confederates infiltrated Lochau Castle. Arriving back into town while in disguise, Nathan left a lit beacon in the chapel tower, a signal for an emergency meeting.
His call was answered by Elb, who revealed that Gustav had cracked the secret code while Nathan was away. The code revealed that Nilsus’ true name was Suslin, and that both himself and Viggo Hoot were members of the League of Jessen, the secret Catholic order of Saxony. Nilsus had been secretly leaking Nathan’s commands to Hoot, which is how the plot to frame Hoot had been discovered. Additionally Nathan learned that the castle was being searched and evidence was being discovered, as Stange had defected to the Archbishop due to fearing for his own life. Nathan began asking for ways to contact the Illusive Man, but Elb looked on in confusion, not sure who he was. Nathan described him and reminded Elb of all the interactions they had once had with him, to which Elb replied that there was no Illusive Man, Nathan had imagined him the whole time.
Nathan set about on a warpath of revenge, using one of his secret tunnels underneath the chapel to travel into Lochau Castle, and sending Elb to retrieve his doppelgänger from Halle. Over the next week people began to disappear from the castle. First there was the Three-Eyed Weasel, who had slept in Nathan’s bedchamber. Nathan emerged from a secret compartment in the closet and discovered him, as well as a young woman sleeping with him. He proceeded to strangle the young woman, before fiercely stabbing Weasel with a pillow over his face, stabbing him some 400 times before disappearing. The next morning the Archbishop panicked, believing that the killer was still out there, while Stange and others began to fear the castle was haunted. A few days later the elderly Barbara Wolfgangia was discovered raped and murdered, at the age of 77. She had refused to leave Lochau until her granddaughter was discovered, but after her death the remaining contingent from Zeitz-Grima fled. The captains of the Brave Confederates also left, aside from Hoot was to hold the castle. Two days later Hoot was attacked, having been stabbed through the throat from behind, however, the commotion caused guards to rush into the room.
Although Nathan had fled the scene before the guards arrived, they witnessed a retracting bookcase closing behind him, and they soon knew of the secret tunnels throughout the castle. Hoot was attended to for the next few days but subsequently died of his wounds after being in excruciating pain. Nilsus had the coronation of Louise moved from Lochau and placed additional guards surrounding her, and also ordered a mass manhunt through the tunnels. Meanwhile in Halle, the doppelgänger was spotted by guards while fleeing alongside Elb, causing mass confusion. The doppelgänger was imprisoned until the local authorities could figure out what was going on, unaware of the developments going on in Lochau. However, Engelbert III was traveling in the area en route to Lochau for the coronation of Louise and was shocked to hear the news. The doppelgänger claimed that he was Nathan, and that the League of Jessen had imprisoned him and faked his death to seize control over Lochau, and that he escaped from their torture chamber. Believing that Nathan was incapable of the evil acts being reported, and believing the Jessen story after Elb showed him the cipher, Engelbert ordered Nathan pardoned and released from prison. This later proved a major mistake that completely sabotaged the investigation.
The doppelgänger was escorted to Lochau by Saxon soldiers with orders to expel the Archbishop and the Brave Confederates. Despite discovering evidence of murder and secret documents in the tunnels, the Archbishop was forced to recall the searchers, although he would begin regularly petitioning Engelbert to investigate his kinsman. The Brave Confederates meanwhile refused to listen to these orders, as they had witnessed murders take place in the castle, and so kept investigating. After Hoot’s death many of their men deserted or fled back to Merseburg, although Nathan became paranoid that some may still be lurking inside his castle. Nilsus joined the Archbishop and continued the investigation alongside him, while Stange simply fled town. Nathan decided to move into the basement of the chapel where he felt more secure, and sent Elb to monitor his opponents discreetly. He also met often with the Sibyl, receiving more prophecies and riddles. Murders in the town began to steadily resume, and Nathan publicly revealed his evidence involving the League of Jessen. Nilsus was declared an outlaw, but as the Archbishop trusted him and thought Nilsus was being framed, he aided Nilsus in escaping. The Brave Confederates were likewise accused, although on shakier evidence, causing their numbers to suffer. The surviving leadership of the company made some token executions of select men to satisfy that they had investigated the matter and brought Jessen infiltrators to justice.
Over the course of the next year Nathan returned to his ways and continued murdering. Engelbert shielding him from scrutiny lasted for a time, until the death of Archbishop Alexander Breuer in July 1607. His successor, Paschal von Harz, joined by Johann of Zeitz, reinvigorated the case and presented their findings to Engelbert, at first to no avail. Johann instead began an investigation into Nathan’s whereabouts during the Leisnig fiasco, hoping to find clues. After retracing Nathan’s steps to the city prison, he discovered that Nathan had a hand in several criminal imprisonments. Each of these criminals were investigated secretly, until Johann discovered the mysterious cell with the prisoner that no one ever sees, but he was not allowed onto that floor by the guards. Unable to get closer, Johann impersonated a prisoner himself and infiltrated the prison. He would spend the next few months in the horrible conditions of the Leisnig prison, purposely causing problems to receive worse punishment. He would be beaten badly and placed in solitary confinement in a cell next to the one with the mysterious prisoner. After banging on the wall he heard a young woman reply that he recognized as his daughter.
After being brought out of solitary confinement, Johann became determined to stage a breakout. He made an alliance with several other prisoners, which ironically included a few former gang members that Johann had once investigated, and began creating a plot to escape. The group began secretly tunneling through one of the walls, reaching the surface after 37 days. The group staged a riot as a distraction, before fleeing into the tunnel and emerging outside Leisnig. Having earned the trust of the other prisoners, Johann escaped into the night, but in exchange he let several potentially dangerous men go to safety as well. Nonetheless, Johann made it back to the Archbishop and reported his findings. Not wanting to alarm Nathan, the pair instead waited until Nathan was outside his famous castle. Their opportunity came a few weeks later, as to renew his magical powers and summon the Illusive Man, Nathan traveled to the Teufelsmauer once more. The Archbishop had Nathan tailed after he left his tunnels, following him to the ritual site.
After witnessing an attempted sacrifice the Archbishop’s men descended on Nathan and his men, and a battle ensued. Nathan was ultimately arrested, although he immediately began an act claiming that he was a victim of the sacrifice not the perpetrator. Nathan was brought to a secure prison while authorities were sent to storm Leisnig prison and rescue Josephine. When news of this reached Engelbert III, he relented that Nathan was most likely guilty, but ordered him to a prison in Wittenberg for a proper interrogation and then trial. He was brought to the same maximum security prison near Wittenberg where he had once imprisoned Martin Niers in, and unbeknownst to the guards, Nathan had stashed keys hidden in the cells and had built a getaway tunnel during his time overseeing the prison over a decade a go. Nathan was easily able to escape and fled back toward Lochau.
A massive manhunt was called, while Saxon soldiers began searching Lochau Castle thoroughly. Picking up where the Brave Confederates had left off years prior, they discovered new tunnel systems. Roger Stange, unaware that Nathan had escaped from prison, came forward and revealed the tunnel entrances he had sealed as well. What the authorities found shocked them. They discovered a hidden dungeon in the depths of the tunnels, where numerous items of torture lay. Dozens of bodies were present in various levels of decomposition, some being relatively fresh, while others were months old. Body parts from unknown bodies were stacked up, some cooked and consumed. The room was completely furnished with items constructed from human body parts. The chairs were stuffed from human skin, and human heads were used as bowls. Also found were several of Nathan’s Meisid spell books, his contract with the devil, and other documents, which proved his guilt.
Nathan spent another few months as an outlaw, living in the forests around Saxony. He continued to murder, and sustained himself off stolen food and human consumption. Finally returning to Lochau he attempted to lay a signal once more in the tower of his chapel, but the building was stormed by Saxon agents. He escaped, but Elb and Nathan’s doppelgänger were captured. Thinking they had captured Nathan, the doppelgänger was brought to another prison, this time with constant surveillance and chained to the wall. A thorough investigation commenced, in which others were interviewed. Members of the House of La Marck testified that it was their kinsman before him, and Josephine was interviewed, and she testified as well that he was the guilty man. After a several month long investigation, in which Nathan was seen by Duke Engelbert, and other members of the population, the man gave a detailed confession of many of Nathan’s crimes. Elb meanwhile was identified by the Brave Confederates and executed.
Aftermath[]
A lengthy execution began in mid 1608. Each day the man had strips of his flesh torn off, and heated oil was poured into his wounds. He was repeatedly roasted over a fire and became incredibly disfigured from torture with boiling oil. Sensing that the man was growing weak, he was then broken on the wheel 42 times. Still barely alive, the man was then slowly dismembered, and finally burnt alive. Lochau Castle was thoroughly searched and systematically many of its tunnels were destroyed. After much negotiation with the church, Nathan’s chapel was demolished as well. Louise was again declared Duchess, and Nilsus emerged from hiding as her chancellor, although the pair was afraid of moving into Lochau Castle and instead stayed at Merseburg for a time. Louise would be crowned in Wittenberg, and then for the next several months reigned from a castle near Wolfen that she had inherited.
However, months later strange occurrences resumed around Lochau. Kurt the Biter was discovered flayed in his bed chamber, a message written in blood above his bed saying: “I have returned”. Rumors circulated among the townsfolk that Nathan had returned from the dead as a demon and was haunting the town, or that he was truly a magical being after all. Fearing for her life, Nilsus ordered Louise into hiding. Nilsus began governing in her stead, and spent massively to investigate the disturbances. The now elderly but influential Nilsus would marry his sons off, with one being wed to a distant La Marck, while another named Leonhard was wed to a wealthy heiress named Emalia von Neptun. Emalia was a mysterious young woman who had burst on to the Lochau scene, having aided in the search for Nathan after her parents were allegedly killed by him.
A wedding ceremony was held in Lochau Castle, over a year after Nathan’s supposed execution. The event would feature an extensive guard presence, with many of Nathan’s old tunnels even being garrisoned. That night, as Leonhard was being brought to bed however, a man was hiding under in his room. Nathan revealed himself and slashed Leonhard’s throat, revealing that Emalia had actually been one of his illegitimate children, who he had transformed into a wealthy heiress off the stolen fortune of his victims. Nathan had been smuggled into the castle in the luggage of Emalia. After Leonhard bled out, Emalia brought her father-in-law to the room and he screamed at the sight of his butchered son. A barrel of black powder that Emalia had smuggled into the castle was detonated, which mortally wounded Emalia, Nilsus, and several guards. Nathan apparently escaped in the confusion leaving his daughter for dead.
When Nilsus was pronounced dead two days later, a message was urgently sent to Louise, and when she received the news she apparently jumped from a window to her death. The chaos of the Forty Years’ War stalled attempts to search for Nathan, but the matter was spearheaded by Johann of Zeitz. Nathan fled to a secret castle in northern Germany, which the Illusive Man had once allegedly told him of. After being let inside he was greeted by an elderly man who identified himself as Peter Meise reincarnated. The man explained that for decades they had infiltrated the House of La Marck and carefully controlled their wet nurses and women in waiting, so that they could occasionally kidnap a child at birth and pass them off as having been stillborn. These children are then indoctrinated into the Meisid army, becoming the “sons” like Elb. Nathan had actually been born with an identical twin at birth, but this twin was kidnapped and raised by the Meisids. This twin had been taught to perfectly mirror Nathan’s appearance, demeanor, and knowledge, and had even had to cut off his own finger when Nathan lost his finger. This was the doppelgänger, which had also taken Nathan’s place and been assassinated instead of him. Furthermore, this had just been one part of the grand Meisid mission to eliminate the La Marcks from Saxony forever as revenge for Edmund Alwin’s war against them, and that because of Nathan they were close to completing their mission.
Nathan would spend the next several years in this “Meisid Monastery”, having given up his identity to live like a monk and servant for Peter Meise. During this time he wrote his memoirs, which supposedly included all these details, and sent a copy to Lochau Castle, where they were discovered by Roger Stange. Nathan would apparently commit suicide by hanging on his birthday, 6 June 1616, and donate his body to a Meisid experiment. Roger Stange would subsequently read this account and search for Nathan, but was unable to ever find this secret castle he described. In 1628 he published Geschichten vom Hexenherzog (Tales of the Witch Duke), which detailed the entire story of Nathan as retold by Stange, although later Stange would be criticized for potentially exaggerating certain details, and for making himself appear innocent.
By this time the legend of Nathan had already grown immeasurably, and he became a staple of German legend. It is said that Nathan is still out there and continues to prey on young children to this day, or that he will one day return to enact revenge. Lochau Castle would gain the reputation as a haunted house, and soon fell into disuse.
Footnotes[]
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