♥ ||Karls Wifuu|| ♥

On Sunday evening I finally got to meet my online friends at a bar. One of them brought children's face paints, while the other — a wonderful artist — offered to paint something related either to Astarion or to Karl Heisenberg.

Vampire Claire… my neck is yours…

That one official art with Claire bloody got me thinking + extra hehe

Partygoers know better than to mess with Duke. If he wants cake, he gets cake.

Yep... Leon's training was really rough.

Reference:

*Rolling in the conspiracy-board* I’m back!

While I don’t think Karl Heisenberg is German, strictly speaking, I do believe he and possibly most of his family have German ancestry. Allow me to explain what I mean and what my headcanon is, based on real history and a German folktale.

Let’s go all the way back to the Middle Ages. The region of modern Transylvania has suffered a decline in population (lots of stabbing; let’s not get into that). How to fix that? Well, it started in the 12th century under Géza II of Hungary. He needed people who could work and defend his land/fight for him. Directly invited were knights from what I know, some receiving land grants directly from the king, but they weren’t the only ones coming. And throughout the following centuries there would be waves of settlers.

Among the first settlers were a group of Germanic people also known as Transylvanian Saxons. They included people from modern-day France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of Germany (including the region which is Lower Saxony today; keep that in mind). As you can already see: Germanic people ≠ Germans. And this was reflected in their language, which, while a Germanic language, became its own thing – Såksesch – developing separately from what would turn into modern German. Other waves also saw settlers from regions like southern Germany arrive, but let’s leave it at that.

As a side note, at least one wave of settlers was protected by the Teutonic Order/Knights, invited by Andrew II of Hungary (who would also later kick them out again). Just compare their coat of arms to the village's iconography; crosses of black and white:

Just them looking kind of similar is no proof, but a connection to the knights would explain why it exists. Look; I like it better than the village just having an “umbrella” for no other reason than to give the Umbrella-logo a backstory it didn’t need.

There is a lot more history that could be talked about, but it just isn’t relevant to my headcanon and would go too far. My point is: it isn’t difficult for me to imagine the Heisenbergs as one of many families that moved to Romania between the 12th and 19th centuries.

What we do know is: The factory was originally constructed in the late 19th century under the Heisenberg family, and appears to have originally been a coal mine. The factory was visited by Norshteyn, a craftsman who resided in the village, who made a model of it. This also implies they were a major employer in the region, perhaps prior they ran the coal mine as well.

Now about the folktale. Some of you may have heard or are even familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. A quick rundown of the basic story (as with all folktales there are variations):

A rat catcher comes to the town of Hameln (in most versions in 1284 aka in the 13th century) and is hired to deal with the rats plaguing the town. He does so with the help of his magic pipe, luring the rats into the river to drown them. However, the burgermeister refuses to pay the agreed upon sum; he even accuses the piper of having brought the rats in the first place to ensure he’d get a lucrative job. Reasonably unhappy, the piper returns to the town on a holy day and while the parents are attending church, used his pipe again. Only this time he lures the children away, disappearing with them into the wilderness, never to be seen again.

The thing is, some folktales are based on or inspired by real events. One theory says the Pied Piper represents a recruiter, a so-called lokator. After all, somehow the people had to learn about the land offered in Transylvania, and we know there were recruitment drives going from town to town. The idea is the Pied Piper represents the recruiter, who lured the young people away with promises of land and opportunities. Probably was quite tempting to people with lots of siblings and little chance of inheriting anything.

Let’s say this also happened in the RE-universe, how is this connected to the game? Well, have you taken a look at the pictures in Village? Most are just flowers or people doing everyday tasks in a rural setting, but there is one that is neither. Take a look.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin leading away the children. This is the only folktale reference I was able to find within the game (and I checked every picture I could find). Isn’t that kind of odd? Now, I have no idea if that is truly on purpose, if the developers or someone in the art team wanted to make a reference to this migration, but it seems too specific to be just a coincidence.

Hamelin is also in modern-day Lower Saxony, which has the Saxon Steed on its coat of arms in a familiar pose. Probably a coincidence, but I thought it was funny, especially as someone from Lower Saxony. But it all leads me to believe the Heisenbergs or their ancestors came from that region and either brought the story along, or once it reached them, preserved it as a reminder of their family's roots.

Now, looking at the Village, the Heisenbergs appear to be the only German-descended family around. We never meet or read about anyone else with a German-sounding name, first or last. This would probably mean they married into Romanian families.

Karl himself also doesn't really use German, aside from single-word designations. Depending on how young he was when the rest of his family died, not to mention on how much German was even spoken within the family, I wouldn’t be surprised if Karl only knew some very basic German. Maybe they spoke Såksesch instead, if they were Transylvanian Saxons. But even if Karl spoke German as a child, after decades of not using it, he would probably be pretty rusty.

What I am certain of is that Karl was born and spent his entire life in that village. His family was there long enough to become very influential, and the factory was built in the 19th century. Even Miranda, who started taking over in the 1920s, makes special mention of Alcina being an outsider, a unique addendum no one else got. And Karl himself wrote that if he doesn’t kill Miranda, his life will never be his own, indicating he’s never known anything else.

Additionally, Alcina calls him "child"; he may be younger than her or got his Cadou after her, which she won’t let him forget. Personally, I think it's both.

I could also see Miranda experimenting with the entire Heisenberg family to further secure her power – they were a political threat if not taken out or made subservient. It would explain why we find nothing about them. They were erased. Everyone died or turned into a Lycan, with only Karl showing affinity and surviving. Miranda decided to use this to her advantage. The only Heisenberg left was now part of her cult and under her ‘control’ – a former competitor had become an enforcer of her rule.

Since Alcina most likely got her Cadou in the late 40s or sometime in the 50s (we know the three daughters were created before 1958, due to a maid’s note), I believe Karl received his Cadou post-1960, which is when his family died as well. According to concept art, fashion is stuck in the 60s, so it might coincide with the Village going into complete isolation, perhaps because the last to oppose Miranda were gone.

As Karl is covered in scars, his mutation didn’t give him the same level of healing we see with Alcina. Thus I believe he probably aged, if at a slower rate than a normal human, until his death in 2021, ending the Heisenberg line.

So yeah, that is my theory about the history of the Heisenberg family.