born in the 1400s, during a time of severe religious upheaval between the magyars of hungary and those under the king and army’s oppression in transylvania, vladislav came to be under the service of that royal family and, by proxy, the orthodox church. as a member of the secretive and magical order of the dragon and the nephew of valerious the elder, he was immediately indoctrinated into an education of literature, history and wartime strategem.
he was part of the offended parties when it came to forced conversion into the belief systems of the church; this backfired however, as the more time vladislav spent among the magicians of the scholomance and learned of their ancient religion (and their ancient abilities, such as the call of storms) the more he became dissatisfied with the confines and rampant condemnation from the vatican. he began defending witches meant to be burned at the stake for their interest in science and bargaining with varcolac (were-wolves) to use them for his whims. he began research with stryzga in order to find rooted cures in esoteric magicks that would work for mankind’s ills - like those that had taken the immunity of his wife.
for this heresy, he and his entire family were imprisoned in budapest for the crime of treason, turned in by his uncle, valerious the elder, who believed wholly in the word of god. while his father and brother were brutally put to death, he was kept alive as a liability, and forced to re-convert back to orthodoxy while confined to a tiny, desolate labyrinth beneath the city. he wasn’t released for ten years, when upon being pardoned for his crimes, he was subsequently assassinated.
while proficient with the firearms of that era (different types of bladed and non-bladed handcanons) vladislav preferred to fight with two-handed weapons in combat, using his massive height (7′1, 7′2′′ in shoes) to his advantage while towering over his opponents. for this, he held preference for a round-pommeled bastard sword that had been fashioned in the byzantine style. it was nearly twice the length of his arms and very heavy, but well balanced at the center from a heavy, stone hilt. he did not use a shield.
attached to his waist both in and out of armor however, he preferred a polish saber. perfectly curved and made entirely of polished iron, this sword was embellished with old dacian enchantments in the blade and decorated with golden tassels and rubies in the hilt. while meant for flashy decor, it was incredibly sharp.
an expert at horseback archery and trained in the way of riding, training and husbandry of the magyar csikós, vladislav also possessed a quiver full of silver-tipped arrows for taking down werewolves and vampires in the 1400s. while he preferred a wholly iron sword for banshees and other iron-allergic creatures that would come from the hills, he was especially proficient with a bow. and no less bloodthirsty when killing humans on the battlefield as enchanted or demonic monsters.
perhaps one of the more proficient poets of his family, vladislav dearly loved to read. as a natural polyglot, he took to learning six languages before the age of thirty [see: rusyan dialect slavonic, daco-romanian, hungarian, russian, slovak, all within the ancient balkan cyrillic alphabet] and frequently read history books, almanacs and later, a year before his death, a printed bible.
he was also an accomplished musician, as i’ve spoken about before. he played the harpsichord beautifully and often composed music himself, getting his sister to sing for him when he found them in an agreeable mood.
interestingly, vladislav was extremely skilled at mathematics. he was a polymath from the age of seven, and could quickly calculate complex equations in his head. this made him especially interested in alchemy, which he picked up exceedingly quickly while studying magick. with alchemy under his belt, he began playing with electricity, divination and teleportation, and became fascinated with the idea of reanimation and forge mastery.
