Sabine Fallensteller

Biography
Apparently of Fusangashi heritage, Sabine was found abandoned in the Teutonic port of Danzig as a toddler. When the Port Authority was unable to locate her parents, she was taken into the custody of the state and then adopted to the moderately-wealthy Fallensteller family of merchants, who proceeded to name her and give her a full Teutonic upbringing.

Growing up, Fallensteller was highly social and had many friends. She lived on an estate on the outskirts of Schwetz, where she was known for being fond of the outdoors. While exploring the wilderness near her family's land, she discovered several local caves and would explore them with her friends. She also attended high-end schools which trained her behavior, and was welcomed into certain exclusive social circles which led others to believe that she would remain a socialite into adulthood. At some point along the way, she was given the nickname die Rabenschwarz, or "the Raven-Black," after the color of her hair.

However, below her prim and proper demeanor, Fallensteller showed early signs of personality disorder as a teenager. She rejected religious teachings, instead becoming an atheist who saw no spiritual consequence to her actions. She spent many hours alone inside a certain cave which she considered a personal hideout. She also developed a fondness for bats, which she considered an audience to some of her dark secrets- including the killing of a family cat which had damaged her favorite dress. Her antisocial behavior would eventually transfer onto her contemporaries, driven mainly by ambition to climb the social ladder.

After several memorable visits to the oceanfront, Fallensteller discovered a passion for sailing and began to dream of a visit to Fusang, to better understand her heritage. She successfully convinced her guardians to allow her to attend the Royal Naval Academy, where she achieved average marks for her diligent work. There, she also met her eventual best friend, Silke Neustadt, an engineering student who would later accompany her on the Mannfred Expedition. After her graduation, Fallensteller began a meteoric rise which saw her become the youngest female captain of the Teutonic fleet.

Fallensteller's reputation began to degrade shortly after her emergence as an officer. She was suspected of using sex with superior officers to gain special privileges and promotions, rumors which were only partially true. In truth, things were much worse; Fallensteller's immense greed and ambition had led her to develop techniques to blackmail her partners after relations, and, on two occasions, became pregnant and used the threat of scandal and the mutual destruction of careers to force men to grant her promotions and even to pay large bribes. In both cases, she received an abortion to uphold her end of the arrangement, a crime punishable by death in Teutonia.

Shortly before the formation of the Mannfred Expedition in 1898, Fallensteller was assigned to captain the Zuflucht, a new type ship known as a service platform, meant to provide repairs to both ships of the line as well as Zeppelin-type airships. It was unlikely to see direct combat, and so the Admiralty saw an opportunity to promote the devilish young officer to a ship that was unlikely to suffer from her inexperience, as well as limit her opportunities to advance in the future. However, Fallensteller then surprised them by applying to take the ship into the Lost Sea under the guidance of experienced Admiral Viktor Mannfred of the Kingdom of Brunswick. In her pitch, Fallensteller expressed the likelihood of the expedition ending in some form of disaster, and the Zuflucht's capabilities as a rescue vessel which would boost the prestige of Teutonia upon its return with survivors. After weighing the risks, the Admiralty gave permission and Fallensteller set sail to meet with Mannfred's fleet.

On the Mannfred Expedition
After meeting with the fleet, Fallensteller was tested for the first time at Campo Diablo against a pirate flotilla. She immediately violated orders and placed the Zuflucht into the line of fire while trying to come to the aid of the Eisenstrasse, narrowly avoiding disaster and causing a turbine trip which briefly immobilized the ship. Before she could be reprimanded for this action, the leadership of the fleet was beset by a demonic visitation: invited to dine at the Governor's mansion on Campo Diablo, she and the other captains encountered The Messenger, an agent of Raum, whose very presence caused chaos and discord among the officers. While the other captains reeled from the revelation of Admiral Mannfred's deception and the true goal of the expedition, Fallensteller faced a far more personal dilemma.

Having never believed in gods or religion, Fallensteller was dismayed to realize that her life of sin had more than guaranteed her eternal damnation once it became clear that much of what others had tried to teach her was true. Now facing an offer to serve Raum for eternity rather than suffer his wrath, she inquired how she should begin. The Messenger responded by providing her a blade of volcanic glass and instructing her to slit her throat. Fallensteller was prevented from doing this by Captain Krantz of the Eisenstrasse, who held her at gunpoint. The knife was kicked away and later recovered by Captain Tobey.

Upon awakening, Fallensteller found herself under intense suspicion by the rest of the fleet. Mannfred's true goal, to destroy Raum once and for all, placed her at direct odds with the rest of the fleet's leadership if her treachery proved genuine. Suspending her duties in favor of her first officer, Sebastian Ackermann, she retreated to the Zuflucht for several days, supposedly to explore her spiritual weakness and ensure that she would not be compromised by the Messenger's temptation. In truth, however, she had already decided to devote herself fully to Raum and concluded that she would need to acquire the blade now held by Tobey and complete the ritual requested of her, as well as locate other possible devotees to surround herself with for safety. In theory, she could stop Mannfred if she turned enough of the fleet away from his side, as she surmised that if Mannfred could accomplish his goal alone, he would not have brought the fleet.

While positioned nearby Blackstone Keep, Fallensteller found herself once again in command of the Zuflucht in an unofficial way, as Ackermann had accompanied an away-team to shore in order to accompany Mannfred in a divination ritual. Fallensteller sent several technicians along with a recording device and cameras to capture as much of the outing as possible, so that she would not be fully out of the loop, even as Ackermann and several officers were attempting to isolate her. During this operation, a severe storm struck the island and a mysterious sailing ship appeared and began to sink. The Zuflucht accompanied the submarine Blixtvåg in a semi-successful rescue mission of the unknown crew, boosting Fallensteller's approval among her crew. The three survivors revealed themselves to be part of a venture which had begun several centuries earlier, and were shocked to learn that they had become lost in time. Fallensteller chose to bring the youngest of them, Braam DeLandte, under her wing as she felt a mysterious clarity while looking upon him.

Around this time, Fallensteller began to experience strange effects from her frequent prayer to Raum. Her eyes slowly began to change from brown to red, and would also receive bursts of divine inspiration, leading her to say and do things which she would not otherwise have done. Encouraged by this development, and inspired by messages given to her in her dreams, she began to reveal herself to certain members of her crew. Silke Neustadt, now her chief engineer aboard the Zuflucht, as well as Lieutenant Schuster, her chief technical officer, were among the first to know of her cult worship.

Upon the away team's return from Blackstone Keep, Fallensteller accurately predicted that Ackermann (enraged by his forced surrender of a technician's life to a demon as well as a terrifying vision of an apocalyptic future) would attempt to murder her at dinner, an attempt which failed due to Braam's presence at the table. That night, Fallensteller recovered the wire recording taken from the island by the remaining technician, Petty Officer Pletcher, who she then murdered in sacrifice to Raum. For this action she was gifted the ability to sense magical auras. She then used the wire, which contained recordings of demonic speech, to torture Ackermann in an attempt to break his will and force him to join the cult. Instead, Ackermann endured for several days and was eventually rescued by Vice Admiral Jonathan Dobbs.

The Zuflucht's next stop was Veranhal, in the Cattan Islands. There, Fallensteller led an expedition into the wilderness in search of signs of cult worship, and eventually followed a current of magic in the air to a secluded cave. Within, she was introduced to a village of batfolk and their witch doctor and matriarch, Mama Koli. She then took part in a ritual which both teased her with visions of a demonic transformation, as well as granting her the ability to see in the absence of light, as the bats do. Afterwards, Fallensteller recruited a number of the batfolk to join the Zuflucht, and named Mesahri their leader, as she was able to speak fluent Gren. Upon returning to the port, she spent the evening dining with Captain Tobey, who revealed himself as academically motivated to collaborate with her cult worship. Tobey returned the Messenger's blade to Fallensteller.

Neustadt, who was also present due to crossing paths with Tobey and his crew earlier in the day, was then tricked into sacrificing her blood in Raum's name, just before Fallensteller revealed her murder of Officer Pletcher and the true nature of servitude. As a result of this cruelty and due to a sudden demonic change to Neustadt's voice, the engineer stayed behind on Tobey's vessel, the Mariner's Boon. Fallensteller returned with the dagger that night and proceeded to slash her throat in the privacy of her personal quarters.

As a Servant of Raum
After slashing her throat, Fallensteller technically died in her quarters. Some time after the action, her soul, freely severed from her body, appeared in Raum's Cathedral in the Abyss, where she was greeted by the Messenger and taken to meet Raum. She discovered that Raum had been crippled during the great war between gods tens of thousands of years prior, and that continued sacrifice on a mass scale would be needed to bring him back from the brink of death. She also learned that Admiral Mannfred was, in truth, an ancient demon named Calcifer whose relationship to Raum was far more complicated than previously known. Fallensteller was advised not to underestimate Calcifer and to avoid direct confrontation.

As Raum's first proper servant in millennia, Fallensteller would serve new role as a bridge between the Abyss and Mannfred's fleet, which was heavily warded against Raum's influence. She was directed to strike against Mannfred by using a device known as the Sun Spear at the island of Kadesh to commit a mass murder. She was also given a book, known as the Necrolan, to begin practicing necromancy, aided by an ancient Ardeni executioner's log which contained the names of many supposed worshipers of Raum. Upon her return to the mortal realm, her soul was placed back within her dead body, now sustained by ethereal magic rather than lifeblood.