Full Name: Elke von Metternich
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Height: 5’9”
Occupation: Masseuse, Housekeeper
Affiliation: Di Inferi by birth
Origin: Swiss Alps, now living in Moscow
Appearance: Tall, slender to the point of appearing malnourished, with a striking, doll-like appearance. Elke has large saucer eyes and full lips, which lend her a disarming look. Despite being 20 years old, she is often mistaken for someone much younger due to her youthful appearance. She has long, husky blonde hair, often left flowing freely. Her voice is high-pitched with cut-glass vowels, enhancing her unsettling presence.

Biography

Elke was raised in a remote sanatorium located in the Alps, a place steeped in dark history and bizarre rituals. She lived there with her twin sister, Elkeen, under the watchful eye of their father, identified only as the Director, who conducted secret experiments in search of immortality. Elke’s life was a mix of isolation, mystery, and the occasional companionship of elderly patients who came to the sanatorium for treatment. As a child, she often comforted her sister with fantastical stories during scary nights, a bond that would be both protective and tragic.

At a young age, Elke stumbled upon a secret chamber beneath the sanatorium, witnessing something that was never meant to be seen. This event, combined with her father’s reaction, marked the beginning of her understanding that the place she called home was a site of horrors.

As she grew older, Elke learned the art of massage, a skill that became more than just a profession. She discovered she had a unique power she called “The Trance,” which allowed her to refresh or drain the life force of those she touched. This power, however, was morally ambiguous, as Elke used it to keep her elderly friends alive, comfort their last days, or, when necessary, to prevent them from leaving her. The same power became a weapon when she was forced to kill her father in self-defense, preventing him from using her as part of his twisted experiments.

Personality

Elke is a complex character, shaped by a life of isolation, secrecy, manipulation, and love for her twin. She is morally ambiguous, often acting out of self-preservation rather than a clear sense of right or wrong. Her experiences have left her detached and wary, yet she retains a certain naivety about the world outside the sanatorium. Despite her upbringing, Elke can be surprisingly friendly and approachable, though there is always an undercurrent of something unsettling in her demeanor. She struggles with feelings of guilt, confusion, and a deep-seated need for belonging, which drives her to seek answers about her past and the mysterious symbols connected to her family.

Background

Elke’s family has been associated with the Di Inferi for centuries, an organization involved in various twisted rituals and experiments aimed at uncovering the secrets of immortality. The sanatorium where she was raised served as a front for these activities. Her father, the Director, believed that by manipulating bloodlines and creating hybrids, he could unlock the secrets of everlasting life. Elke’s twin sister, Elkeen, was intended to be part of this experiment, forced into an arranged marriage with a boy named Leon who was chosen for his latent powers for the purposes of creating offspring.

Leon, a wilder also suffering from ALS, was promised to be cured by the von Metternichs if he went through with an arranged marriage to one of them. As soon as he realized the promise was a hoax to gain access to his seed, he threatened to leave the sanatorium. A caretaker explained that his otherwise prominent and proud family traded him, and he was to return cured or not at all. The Director’s experiment ended in tragedy when Leon, driven by his own despair and power, killed Elkeen to save her from the worser fate of being burned alive, and allowed the one power to consume him to death. This event set off a chain of events that led to Elke killing her father and fleeing the only home she had ever known.

With Elkeen’s murder, Elke took her revenge on the vulnerable Leon himself, only to be caught by her father. Without another pair to attempt to create a demigod, an individual born with the immortality of a god but lacking the threat of their magical powers, the Director decided to take matters into his own hands.

He forced Elke into a marriage with himself, but before it could be consummated, Elke offered her father a massage to help him relax. She used the magic of the Trance to suffocate him in self-defense. Afterward, she stole a variety of papers from his office, a large amount of money, and whatever she thought she needed to escape.

Current Activities

After leaving the sanatorium, Elke wandered Europe, using her skills as a masseuse to support herself. She is in search of answers about her family’s past, the symbol that haunts her, and the true nature of her powers. Her journey led her to Moscow, where she has uncovered a clue related to her last name, leading her deeper into the mystery of her origins.

About

• Elke’s twin sister, Elkeen, was her closest confidante and the person she loved most in the world. Her death has left a lasting impact on Elke, driving many of her actions.
• The necklace she now wears, taken from her father after he died, bears the inscription “Memento Mori,” a reminder that all things must die—including her father, whom she told as much just as she killed him.
• Elke’s striking appearance and youthful demeanor often cause others to underestimate her, a mistake that has proven fatal for some.

Past lives

Elke is in fact connected to another strand in the pattern that is her twin sister. She is always born one of an identical twin, such that it is likely their existence are the result of a splitting of the same thread, like one that frayed in the end but remains entangled and probably should have been woven out of the pattern completely for being flawed. There is something unnatural about their thread, and as such, one of the twins usually dies young. It’s almost as if their life is a mistake in the pattern. She is always a wilder while her twin could learn, she never does to maintain balance.

In the 3rd Age, she was a student of the White Tower, Elsae while her twin sister, Elseen, died at the hands of the Seanchan. Also in this this life, Elsae and Elseen were raised by another abusive man whom they believed to be their blood father.