tw// suicide, mentions of child abuse
"All children must begin somewhere, after all, they are biologically wired to crave the love of their parents; so what a pity for those who strayed, some still hear the breaking hearts"
It's hostile, to say the least, Karl is no exception or outlier to the generational trauma that is instinctively bound within the Sakamaki family..
The environment he grows up in is also a lot different, it’s very censored and elitist on what information you are fed, his family house is this traditional design of roman architecture, that inspired the Romans to build the Domus Flavia.
During his childhood the more tame parts are spent in droning lessons, listening to his sisters talk about balls and people and male nature, and his mother and father fighting. His older sister would read poetry with him as they discussed the fragmented society they lived in before he called her stupid and she called him a moron and another one of their squabbles began till his other sister twisted both their ears, and he would sneak away from balls with his sisters to bring out his paint palettes to try and re-create the stunning exotic scenes smearing the colours over each other official clothes, and on the toughest of nights, they’d all fuddle in his oldest sisters room listening to the shrieks of his parents as his sister muttered it’ll be fine if we look after each other over and over and over… Till the sunrise.
Karl got bored easily as a child, it’s been a habit since young to pick up as many things as possible so he doesn’t feel the gut-wrenching knots that coil within him making him feel oh so empty.
He takes up classes upon classes feeling no fatigue as he absorbs information like a sponge, from medicinal herbs to the current cabaret fashion, the art of warfare to painting scenes that beauty encompasses far more than the eye, if there is one thing he truly and wholly enjoys is the pursuit of knowledge. He’s a massive nerd.
His father is far worse than he is but at the same time Karl did go mental along the line, he officially has 9 wives and countless concubines; not for any political or moral reasons like he plunged his country into war and sent off the young male heirs of several families whilst he stayed cooped up in the capital thus he decided to marry the widowed women with no protection, or perhaps the young ladies unable to keep their families afloat in the destitute war. No, he did start several battles, and animosities with the surrounding countries but he turned a blind eye to his responsibilities to chase skirts all over Makai. He even went further with his heavily misogynistic views to shun the women whose husbands, fathers, and brothers went off to war and unfortunately died as used and made it taboo to help them without being ridiculed. Moreover, he was the first person to put in statute laws that women would not be able to inherit their fortunes or family titles but rather they'd be donated to the crown for the war effort.
Karl was born in a stalemate between the countries, the actual troops on grounds had been retracted but now it was time for post-war diplomacy, he grew up amidst assassinations and plots from both outside and in, and he watched as hyperinflation took over the empires and ministers and warlords broke into squabbles like children, he watched refugees enter looking for any income possible, Karlheinz was raised amidst intense paranoia and a bleak future.
However, he was part of the royal family, so as chaos descended upon the people, he and his family were stuck in a competition for the throne. See with a father who had sired so many, tensions were due to be high especially due to the fact everyone hated the incompetent man and wanted him off the throne as fast as possible, especially before the frenzied public got their wits together and started attacking the government and organizing coups.
This was of course hidden under lavish balls, and mock fights between brothers to map out allies and enemies, with everyone but yourself against you the mind games started getting to everyone fairly quick, those who wanted no parted either willingly left the capital in fear or those who were not adaptable enough had the luckier fate of death or the unluckier one of ostracization and exile with humiliation attached to their family.
Everyone would attempt to display wealth, constantly rebuilding their manors, hunting houses, or sending out dinner invites of 16 courses with the unmentionable amount of money spent to show off and prove (bribe) to the nobility whose side they should take when it finally came for the showdown of who would take the crown.
His mother was no better, his mother was already a calculative and cutthroat figure before she entered the Sakamaki household, well she only got worse from there.
To her, Karl and his two older sisters were no more than extended parts of her; she would goad her magnificent children and practically glow as she received praise for birthing such talented prodigies.
His oldest sister was a talented dancer, music flowed through her limbs as she twirled in golden ballrooms, her bejewelled plum gown trailing behind her as the nobles looked on in awe and envy.
His other sister was a talented linguist, who had not only mastered the demon world’s languages with all its dialects but even learnt more than a dozen of human tongues.
Of course, Karlheinz being one of the obvious choices was pretty much perfect, but his talents in awakening his powers came especially young, everyone in a state of terrified wonder at his mind control and other magical enhancing abilities.
But behind closed doors, she would obsess manically trying to keep her children pure from the outside filth, telling them they were the best of the best and how all their other siblings should've been culled because with them here there was no need for them.
Sometimes she’d sob in her second daughter’s arms nearly every day telling her what her father did to her and how much she despised him ( crooning at the attention and comfort she was bestowed, clutching onto the child’s arms nails carving crescent-shaped scars as she wailed, and she was especially attentive to her eldest daughter, a perfect lookalike of herself, she would monitor precisely what clothes she would wear as she sent her out on meetings with eligible men ( sometimes thrice her age as she lived through her, marvelling at how much the men would’ve adored her if she hadn’t been the queen), marvelling over a younger version of herself that only became prettier as the days went by stroking her soft cheeks, and silver hair, she even apologised for the bruises that she left on her in fits of jealousy. It wasn't her fault that their father held her captive within this estate. If all her kids had freedom, why couldn't she? It just wasn't fair.
Oh and her precious baby boy Karl, he would never leave his mother’s side would he? She loved dolling him up, always spoiling him with whatever he wanted. All he had to do was listen to mommy right and if he didn't listen she would have to discipline him. He didn't want that right?
After all, the pale circular scars on his shoulders spoke for themselves, every time she thought her son might be getting too full of himself, she bought him back to earth like a good mother; pressing the sharp point of her heel into his back, his face held down on the floor as she made repeat what he had done wrong and apologise.
Karl considered himself rather lucky, some of his other stepmothers were far too adventurous in their methods of seeking entertainment through their children.
His most complicated relationships are actually with his siblings; as he’s part of the middle generation in between the 40-year-old mid-life crisis children his father had when he was still young and the 10-year-old children that still ran around the manor in innocent joy, he’s almost come to grow fond of them. Of course not as real people he has never had the emotional range for that but as storybook characters, whose lives he watches develop, he looks at their frivolous adventures, their strenuous turmoils, and mundane domestic life.
This is why when they die so easily even as great vampires it wounds him so, he hates it he does. It’s a tragic thing. It starts with his sister, some foolhardy man who let her rejection of his proposal become a matter of his pride and he accused her of treason with the other demon clans under the cover of seeking linguistic enrichment, his father already senile and paranoid didn’t even look twice at the blotchy evidence before sentencing her to death.
That's where it starts for Karl he always knew he was one among the three of his fathers who were most likely to be crowned whilst he frolicked around with his many occupations but now he supposes he had to finally step into power.
But it didn't stop no matter how hard he tried, he wasn't even the one killing them at this point. It was fate, how unfair was that?
His older brother who taught him to horse ride killed himself in the grief of watching his family get ripped apart. He was always too sensitive.
His other sister was assaulted by her womaniser husband, forced to give birth to two stillborn babies and hired a hunter to shoot her through the head. He found her body clutching onto the small baby shoes she ordered their old nurse to make.
Another sister one of the infamous lanky twins passed away in a political assassination that ended up a mistake. He sent the body to her family and received the letter saying her mother killed herself in grief orphaning one of his brothers.
One of the twins couldn’t bear his brother’s assasination and lay in front of the new flying machines, it ripped him into pieces that not even vampire regeneration could fix.
He watched one of his brothers poison his entire family to get revenge on his abusive mother. By the time Karl arrives with the knights he sees his brother on the floor after committing suicide holding hands with one of his sisters, his daughter his two older brothers slumped on the dining table as well as his wife.
A couple went insane, some became hollow shells of nothing but grief, some even more vindictive, the halls no longer filled with the laughter of mischievous children.
Karlheinz Sakamaki was formed in the bleakest of misfortunes.
So he brought the great purging disappearing for months till he came back down from the highest northern terrains in between the vampire and Adler border, an eerie sense of death surrounding him piercing gold eyes instead of his honey brown orbs, then he wiped out nearly his entire bloodline. Establishing himself as the tyrant king; he re-started the entire vampire clan, started wars with him on the front lines, and brought back diplomacy and riches. Not a single living citizen could deny their standard of living had skyrocketed.
Now the actual logistics of the purging is something I'll have to get into another day.
