Mitru the Hunter was the Gangrel Prince of Napoca (later called Klausenburg), during the Dark Ages in Transylvania. He was a childe of the legendary Arnulf, although they eventually became enemies.
Biography[]
Mitru began his unlife as an arrogant and overconfident "defender of the innocent". He once believed that the only weapons he needed to defend the village where he was born were his bow and a few hand-crafted arrows. Even in the Modern Nights, he trusted his instincts as a hunter more than his slowly developing skill at politics.
Mitru was chosen for the Embrace because of his fierce hatred for the overlords of Transylvania. Through his early life his family struggled, and the taxes imposed by a servant of Nova Árpád eventually drove them into poverty. As Vlach serfs, two-thirds of the goods they produced were sent to the estate of their Szekler overlord. By day, his family was bled dry. The local peasants spread monstrous stories detailing the fates of the Árpád's servants. At night, the commoners of Transylvania barred their doors and windows. Horrific sounds of battle by moonlight disturbed their sleep and fed their nightmares. Undaunted, Mitru began to explore the dark forests surrounding Napoca. When at last he came upon Nova's household, he discovered the truth behind the rumors. He unmasked her true nature: the undead vampyr enjoyed great wealth while exploiting the serfs of her domain. Thus, he stalked the beast that had preyed upon his people. He crafted 13 arrows to slay the vampyr Nova; three arrows in Nova's chest forced her into torpor.
When Arnulf heard of this legendary accomplishment, Mitru received an unholy reward: his baptism into darkness. As the prince of Napoca, Mitru was fanatic about guarding his domain from other supernatural threats. He trusted in himself, but he was already growing suspicious of the beliefs of the other members of his clan. Mitru became especially wary of his sire's ideas of culling the populace of the cities. The prince of Napoca often hunted prey in the woods outside the city, but occasionally, he found a mortal who seemed worthy of becoming a ghoul. Silently, Mitru would harry the prospective servant through his lands to test the mortal's abilities. Those who fought with great puissance were Embraced; those who ran were destroyed. In the same manner, he tested those who passed through his domain with fire and clothyard shafts. With the instincts of a predator, he maintained order in his violent domain. The growing legend of his campaign against Nova made him somewhat arrogant, but without his self-confidence he would perish.
He considered Napoca to be his, and would exact vengeance in his domain as he saw fit. In addition to the rights granted to him by the Six Traditions, he knew that his realm has always belonged to him and his people. Since the nights of peaceful Dacia and the Roman Empire, the Gangrel have roamed that land as they pleased. Mitru fought the oppressors of Transylvania in life, and the Embrace gave him the drive and idealism to redouble his effort in death.
As a defender of Transylvanian domains, Mitru maintained a fierce hatred of the Ottoman Assamites; thus, he allied with Dracula's Axes. He became the leader of a pack of Gypsies and violent Gangrel that frustrated the designs of Assamite elders who hoped to seize Transylvania and establish it as part of their sphere of influence. As part of this alliance, he pursued other tasks on behalf of his patron, Dracula.
By 1897, Mitru, as part of his alliance with the Son of the Dragon, agreed to lead a pack of independent Gangrel to the city of Vienna, where he hoped to retrieve the Incunabulum Kupalam. His pack also had a second, more covert objective in Vienna. Through koldunic rituals – the only type of magic the Tremere do not know how to counter – the Axes attempted to poison the soil beneath the Viennese Chantry. In this first task, Mitru failed, overcome by Transylvanian rivals. In the second, he achieved surprising results. Summoned by koldunic rites, spirits of Kupala slowly infested the soil beneath Tremere's haven. Barely escaping with his unlife, Mitru became the target of a worldwide blood hunt called by Clan Tremere. He would be eventually slain either by Etrius's Warlocks or a conspiracy of elders aware of the geomantic web.
Trivia[]
- TC I: Dark Tides Rising makes a few editorial mistakes regarding this character and his childe, the woodsman Wulfar. The book states that Wulfar was embraced by Mitru in 1179, which is impossible in light of the fact that Mitru himself was only embraced in 1190. Furthermore, the account on Wulfar's embrace give by the book tells us that Mitru had hunted down his future childe in wolf form. However, during the events of Dark Tides Rising Mitru did not yet possessed the necessary mastery of Protean to assume the shape of the Beast.
Character sheet[]
Dark Medieval[]
Modern Nights[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- VTDA: Transylvania by Night, p. 71-73
- VTDA: Transylvania Chronicles I: Dark Tides Rising, p. 78-79
- VTDA: Transylvania Chronicles II: Son of the Dragon, p. 16, 24
- VTDA: Transylvania Chronicles III: Ill Omens, p. 84-85
- VTDA: Transylvania Chronicles IV: The Dragon Ascendant, p. 86-87