Klaus Dietrich

Concept:  Ex-Nazi Bank president

AKA: Klaus has had some experience with having to create new identities for himself. At present, he is going by the name “Radcliffe Barrington”

Desc: Stocky framed and only middling tall. Wavy iron gray hair that never really gets very long at all. Normally clean shaven. No ink. Saggy cheekbones that make him look as if he never gets any sleep. The silky purr of his Austrian accent only ever comes out during lovemaking or if he’s really pissed. He’s fairly hirsute. Still wears his original wedding band.  He is missing two fingers on his left hand. He’s got good muscle tone and decent wind. He runs most mornings and is a decent polo player.

History: It is a well known historical fact that the Thule Society, an occult group made up of mergers of small occult and racialist groups in Germany and Austria after the collapse of the Weimar Republic, was the backbone of the Nazi party.  And it is similarly known, that the S.S. was essentially an Occult group and an offshoot of the original Teutonic Knights.  It was modeled that way because Heinrich Himmler was an avid occultist. It is known that he created a “Round Table” of S.S. members that met regularly at Wewelsburg castle until the end of the war.

    Klaus Dietrich was one of those knights.

At the time of his induction, right around the age of 35, He had become the leading expert on Antigeria magic within the inner circle of the S.S. He had been on the track of some kind of ritual magic, far beyond the power of the limited hedge magics that he and his brethren practiced routinely. Far beyond the power of Blood Bathing and similar distractions. He had been, with Himmler’s consent ordering operations to scour the libraries of Europe for these rituals. Even operations into the heart of Moscow had been approved.  And to his credit, he succeeded in locating a codex in Denmark that outlined the steps of the ritual. But by the time he’d translated it, and saw that it could be accomplished, Hitler had already committed suicide and the power of the Axis had been broken.

        Naturally, Klaus couldn’t exactly go home. And the project he’d been working on most of life had come to naught...Except, well maybe the Dream of the 1000 year Reich wasn’t dead...Maybe it could live on through him.   So, he tried it on himself.

      And it worked.  To this day, he’s not sure exactly how.  It hasn’t worked on anyone else since.  He suspects that it may have something to do with the ephemera, but the conditions he was operating under haven’t repeated themselves yet. Maybe in the next decade or so, he’ll be able to replicate the experiment, but there is still the question as to whether he can find a good site for the experiment here in America or whether he’ll have to return to Denmark.  For the moment, the question is somewhat academic.

     It’s not all beer and skittles of course. The loss of two fingers in a knife fight in Argentina taught Klaus that while his body will regenerate a lot of damage, there ARE limits. Also, he has noted over the years that he HAS aged some, but at a greatly decreased rate. He has the body of a fairly hale 50-year-old man.  As far as, disease and infirmity go, he seems to be proof against the smaller problems of life.  It may be that the only way he actually CAN die is by violence.   When you come to THAT conclusion, you start avoiding violence as much as you can. Right?

    Which is not to say that Klaus is a coward exactly. He’s spent a lot of time becoming quite practiced in the martial arts, in case trouble comes looking for him.  At his core, he still thinks like a professional soldier.  And a professional soldier is nothing if he’s not prepared.

    When Klaus left the Fatherland, he went on a journey of self-discovery. He traveled the world, with a small cache of Nazi gold that he’d liberated for himself and could have stayed and lived like a sun king in obscurity in South America. But he’d become very very good at investing and decided to look for a place to hang his hat that was more congenial to his ideas and attitudes.

       That road lead him here. It also lead to The Vermillion House. He runs the investment group/slush fund that funds so many of the group's activities and has accumulated a truly startling base of influence and power, like most of his brethren on the inner council.

   Klaus likes to keep busy. He is the president of a bank. (Yes, one you’ve likely heard of) and sits on the board of about a dozen companies, and is on the board of about a dozen more charities and non-profits. He’s not a big fan of large amounts of unstructured time.  When he’s not attending to his many many little projects or grooming others to handle those projects, He still finds time to keep his occult studies razor keen. and when he’s not doing that?   Well, it’s a fairly well know fact Klaus has the sexual stamina of a brick silo. he keeps about 6 “Concubines” in his home, much like Hugh Hefner. They’re all lily white, and blonde, and tall.  They want for nothing, and can leave anytime they like...But some women get really used to having anything they desire brought to them after a simple phone call to the downstairs staff. So...

Attitude: “Philosophically, Nazism and racism is something of a dead end. It took a long time for me to come to that realization. But it is true. However, the underlying idea that some people are simply BORN better and are the natural rulers of this world...Well, that’s an idea that will never ever die. You can find this basic idea in EVERY culture and in every race extant on this planet. Some can be given every advantage in their birth, and still squander their opportunities or their potential, and others can rise from lowly beginnings and make themselves into a force to be reckoned with.  I will always have more in common with them than with some churlish fool born into luxury. Such a person doesn’t have the faintest notion of the work that needs to be done to keep this world spinning the way that it should. Nor will they ever...”

Skills: Academics and Occult out the yang, plus multiple specialties in both. He speaks a dozen languages, Is very conversant in Investigation techniques (Also has a spec in Financial investigation)  Intellectually, he’s a fucking beast. He will drink your milk shake.

Socially, he’s also pretty strong, having honed his understanding of human beings over many years. He’s quite good at interrogating people without them realizing that they are being interrogated.  He’s persuasive in a similarly subtle fashion.  Many times, he gets the feeling that his social acumen is very much like a game of connect the dots and he likes the odd occasions when someone confounds his expectations and upsets his apple cart.   He is very good with animals. Not because of some supernatural affinity, it’s just that he’s always been good with animals.

   Physically, He’s fit and has some modicum of combat training. but normally he prefers to employ much more interested individuals to do the actual dirty work.  He reasons that it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.  He tends to heal faster than normal humans do. (Like a Bashing once per turn, and a Lethal once per 15 minutes) But anything that comes away from the main body won’t heal back completely.  As long as his torso and head are intact, he’ll likely live through it.

He’ll also have a hedge magic template. He’ll have essentially a “Nazi Inflected” form of Apostle of the Dark One template, but he has also done a lot of work and traveled to a lot of places and picked up the elements of a dozen different forms of Praxis. In other words any non-exclusive practice of magic that a human could have, he could have some dots in, if you choose.  He is very active in helping to shore up the defenses of the Vermillion House

Gear: Most of Klaus’ every day carry fits neatly into his attache case. He has a top of the line smartphone, and a large Ipad (It is not particularly secure, but his emails ARE encrypted and most of his personal files are in Japanese) He also possesses a couple of Passport outboard solid state drives stuffed with hard to find occult books. He also carries some paperwork, a Desert Eagle with a laser sight, some ritual tools in a false bottom of the case.  His wallet is a forest of plastic and he can do quite a bit damage with this alone.  He keeps a duplicate case in his home, a bolt hole, and the trunk of his car with the added bonus of new identity documents and a money belt loaded with Krugerrands.  He can disappear in 6 minutes time. Not that he necessarily needs to...He just likes to know that he still can. Getting out of Denmark was pretty harrowing.

Home: A rolling multi-floored estate in a neo-Grecian style. The staff works downstairs. “Mr. Barrington and his Secretaries” live upstairs. There is a large pool and on the back end of the property a proper barn which is home to 4 horses.  The house is also home to 8 Rottweilers that have been extensively trained.  They won’t accept food from any other hand than Klaus’s and they only accept commands in German.  The sub-basement of the property hosts an armory of steam cleaned long arms and assault weapons, a krugerrand cache, and an escape tunnel that can be used to vacate the house and then flooded with old school mustard gas. Anyone attempting to remove the sewer grate on the far end of the tunnel is going to catch 50,000 volts and set off an alarm at the house. Good luck locating the keypad.

Circle: Klaus’s business interests put him into many many different companies in financial and industrial sectors. That is some pretty big swinging social dick right there.  Not to mention he’s got crazy statuses from being a business leader and pillar of the community. Not only that but he’s gotten himself into the Masonic end of the pool too.  Additionally, he uses a set of cutouts to put money into the hands of white supremacists groups in exchange for specific services. Such men have their uses. He employs an in-house security company to make certain that his household and his person are properly protected and these guys are pros. He even has a group of diviners and hedge magicians who create an aggregated forecast for market fluctuations and runs their profit sharing fund himself. As you can imagine, they are highly motivated.  The Vermillion House has reaped fat benefits from this group more than once.

Story Uses:

“What makes you think I had anything to do with that?”

Klaus is a spider. He’s careful. He’s smart. and worst of all, he’s patient. He’ll be one of the main voices on the inner council that preaches caution and incremental change. If you’re trying to jack up the Vermillion House, He is likely to be the hardest one to get... and if he manages to crawl away from the field of battle, you might never see him again...Or, you might see him again about 30 years down the line. He’ll have brought friends. They will be armed.  They will have done their homework on you.

“Look, you shouldn’t misunderstand me. Evil is FUN, but it doesn’t always make money. And I’d rather have the Money...”

Klaus is, perhaps more than most of the member of the inner council, of a more reflective bent. He’s philosophical about his motives and attitudes. He takes the long view. He doesn’t necessarily do things unless he’s got a reason, and if he’s got one, odds are good that he’s got six.

He likes money and power and the things that they buy. But he isn’t really interested in being a mustache twirling evil-doer its own sake.  In fact, it’s entirely possible that Klaus, might look at some scheme from another member of the Inner council and find it stupid or distasteful, and in such cases, he might just quietly drop a file folder into the hands of interested parties. It’s happened a time or two.

Connections:

* He pays a staffer to go around to The Grimoire once a month and see if there is anything interesting. He doesn't go himself. The older woman is unusually sensitive.

* Has Aldous Church in his Rolodex. Because, if you KNEW about a guy like him, wouldn't you want him on retainer?

* Occasionally, it's necessary to adopt a new name. it turns out that Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean has extensive experience with this sort of thing.

* Lillian Penobscot "Ah. My dearest one. You know, she can put her ankles behind her head. And for an Occult Dilletante, she's quite sharp. I might take her under my wing if she ever gets over her vampire infatuation. I already know a dozen spells that can keep her taut and tan for another couple of decades."

* Lorna Crane "She likes being slapped around some. Not exactly my kink. But I'll try anything once. Fairly sure she tried to poison me afterward. She gets the funniest look on her face whenever I come around and then normally has to excuse herself. I find it hilarious.

* Reverend Mike Plumber "Mike's always game. Good for a favor or two. He's a good soldier."

* Schuyler Lavey "Young Mr. Nesbitt reminds me of myself in my youth. Which is likely why I haven't killed him and can barely stand to be around him. I'll keep an eye on him. If he manages to make something of himself, then I'll see if he wants a mentor."

* Meredith Shaw "Also, not my kink. I have seen that there is a marked difference in the way that she speaks to me and the way she speaks to men who have been conquered by her. I think it's better to be on this side of that divide."

* Robert Nathan Herbert  "Hasn't failed me yet. But then again, I don't ask much of him."

* "Dr. Coulton Bennett" "Oh Coulton...You really don't have any sort of clue of who you are screwing with. I can't wait to see the look on your face when you realize."

* Selma Collins "I'd hire her again. She's quite good."

* Ralston Van Doren "Not as dumb and as reckless as he'd have you believe. He's like his grandfather in that respect."