Nachtberg/secrets
- Longdead ancestor of the present baron was said to have been the Devil himself. When the baroness’ husband , manfred the Gentle, went to war with the saracens? Turks? She lay with the Prince of Darkness and sired a new line. The time of this seems vague. In one story he is fighting the saracens in the Holy Land in a chivalrous tale, in another riding in the defence of Vienna against the Turks hundreds of years later.
- unlike their idealistic ‘natural’ forebears the descendants thereafter were locally focused, against foreign adventure. Ruthless, successful in war.
- it seems to be a Robin Hood like legend created by 17c woodblock illustrators in Munich, who set the tale ‘somewhere’ in the Bavarian alps. There are also said to be Arabian arms in the baron’s blue tower , trophies of his victory. % these are Mameluke arms from napoleonic campaign in Egypt.
- this shows that Grandfather fought in a foreign adventure, quite idealistically for Nap’s Republic, giving the lie to their supposed selfishness .xxx secret is that this great grandfather was the cuckolded man, grandfather, father and son were children of the devil.
- mixed messages as to whether this is a confection. The coat of arms has a black dragon, said to be diabolical. There is a type of local beer called Devild Brew, ., and the clock in the local town hall has a devil chase a lady, then the lady chase the devil.
- monsters in the place have the asylum of Nachtberg. Invited by , it turns out, by the great-grandfather , said to be an ogre, perhaps a vampire who lives under the castle as vampire or other similar monster.
- xxx so gg was the D, gf his firstborn, f is present incumbent with two tearaway sons. One son is in England, two daughters married off elsewhere. His own sister was mad, obsessed with occult.
..............
Local stories tell of the local baron, in medieval times, becoming a turncoat to the Saracens. the local archbishop (pope himself in one account) curses him so he has no sons to carry his wicked and infamous seed. His wife, in spite, lays with the devil, or a 'fiend', producing three children -each a monster. One a wolfman, the second a daughter who is a vampire, the last, a son who practices the black arts (actually he is a Frankenstein-like monster-maker). In the story a brave woodcutter enters the castle and seeks out each monster and kills it.
The tale became famous when a story book , Phantasmagoria, allegedly for children but deemed too upsetting by most educators and the Imperial Ministry concerning its use in schools). Printed in Munich a generation ago, it has been a cult success in decent cities like Paris and Berlin. A small tourist trade after the book's reprinting, illustrated by a new illustrator .
Quite rapidly the locals adapted their local lore to match this-the old Baron did indeed claim to be descended from Knights Hospitallers though since these were monastic celibates it seems unlikely). The local clock is adapted to show a woman being pursuded by a devil, but then pursuing him the other way. A local wheat beer is called Devil's Brew (it was always called this-but the label is changed).
Really this refers to the local mayor, who worked for the Ottomans as an artillery trainer. Was cursed by the local priest (i.e allegorical and on smaller scale). The priest heard of a bashi-bazouk massacre which had used mobile artillery to flatten churches-cursed his parishioner. Wife, barren was indeed said to have laid with the Devil. The children were the mayor's children who still live as monsters.
New mayor is unrelated , like the mayor in Jaws, wants any talk of actual monsters to be curtailed to prevent damage to the tourist trade.
locals have an odd accent, say rrr very deeply. A shibboleth is the word 'Nachtberg'. 'Are you from Nachtberg, brother/sister?"
The wife is still alive as a very old woman. They live in a large house, not the castle.
Vampiress lives in the castle basement. Preys on climbers, gypsies, criminals who are forced to do the 'run'. left in castle ruins at dusk and to escape.
