Manfred von Richthofen

Manfred von Richthofen is a Centurion of the 19th century, a German aristocrat and soldier, and the mentor of Else Rommel. He has been left somewhat obscure in the world at large due to his greatest feats in defense of the Fatherland and mankind happening in the shadows; nonetheless, he is a highly accomplished member of the Century Club and greatly esteemed and valued among those in the know within the German military. Eventually, during the Great War, this status coupled with his uncannily youthful appearance enabled him to impersonate one of his younger relatives and become the Red Baron. Despite not knowing anything about planes, he adjusted quickly thanks to his brilliant tactical mind and became Germany's most famous ace.

The Red Baron's personality is defined above all by his unusually high degree of honour. His word is known to be his bond even among his enemies, though he does not give it lightly. He is a tactical mastermind and natural-born leader as well as soldier, highly proficient at thinking on his feet. While normally courteous, refined, amiable and polite, he does on some special occasions exhibit a more bloodthirsty side; he appears wholly able to control it, but he definitely finds some modicum of joy and release in combat. Capable with both sabre and pistol.

His past is reasonably obscure even to his pupil. Manfred has mentioned fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, despite his extreme youth for most of them; among other events he had fought side by side with James Burke at the Battle of Waterloo, where he and the Shadow Centurion had saved each others' lives, only to end up clashing with each other when Burke tried to get the fighting going again by killing British and Prussian soldiers and blaming it on the French. Manfred stopped him but failed to kill him. His other long-term enemies included Masque and Madam Czarna. He crossed paths with Juan Juarez at least once in his later career, and was not impressed. At some point he also trained with the legendary wizard Merlin; though he does not evince any magical ability in the present, it is possible he might have in the past (perhaps becoming the subject for Lord Byron's poem, "Manfred", though if so it surely presented a heavily distorted story) and he does appear to be well-aware of the occult. His principal mentor, however, was an 18th century Centurion and soldier called Gustav Knolle. That one might have given him the idea of joining the Great War under an assumed frontline identity, as well as instilled in him the strong sense of honour for which he is famous.

While Manfred had worked with Centurions and Century Club agents and associates all over the world over his over a century long lifetime, there have been some he had been particularly attached to. At some point in the late 19th century he led a semi-permanent team of Centurions including Rose Hayes, John Spencer, Kim Kwon-sung, and, though often against his own preference and sometimes without his knowledge, Jacob London. The team largely fell apart after the Zanzibar Incident of 1901. His other major group of allies is the Order of the Dragon, publicly known as the Research and Development Division of the German Imperial Army, though his history with them appears to be more ambiguous; in 1890 he and Oskar von Luttwitz, the Head of the Operations Branch of the Division, had carried out a purge of certain disloyal and overambitious elements in the organisation and ever since then Manfred had made sure to keep an eye on it, becoming the liaison between it and the Century Club, which was how he came across Else in the first place.

In 1914 he reluctantly joined Jacob's conspiracy to bring down the Shadow Federation, despite remaining wary of the spymaster's true secret agenda. He brought in Kim as well, being one of the few people that could hope to be heard out by him for any length of time. As part of this plan, he was captured (by none other than his old nemesis Burke), but not before sending away Else. Taken to the Citadel in Saint Haven along with Kim, Herschel Babbage and Armando Estebán Corroto, he refused to cooperate with Masque (despite some part of him wishing that the secret of immortality may be unlocked for real) and waited patiently for the younger Centurions to arrive. Once they did, however, he immediately swung into action, taking charge of both the adults and those of the children that have reached him and going on the offensive against Masque, making sure that both he and Oromassi were dead. After the Battle of Saint Haven was over he oversaw occupation and restoration efforts together with the British First Sea Lord Winston Churchill. He tried and failed to pacify a hysterical Sarah Hayes, getting punched in the gut for his troubles. Eventually he passed on through Captain Richard Kessler that he would accept her apology, still holding out hope that she might come back to the Century Club.

Afterwards he delivered Else back to the Order of the Dragon and left her to train while attending to some secret and no doubt important business. They did not meet again until 1916, when he took part in the Battle of Verdun and the concurrent operations against Schwarzmeer cultists. He found the time to fill Else in on the developing shadow crisis elsewhere in Europe and charge her with overseeing the Order of the Dragon after his death. After assisting Else with her mission to take out the French radio towers he had to leave on yet another secret mission.